iWhore

iHave a severe problem. iAdmit it. iM an iWhore. Anything with an Apple logo on it, iHave to have it. Unless iCan't afford it- in which case iWait.

At work we have a shitty "merit" program where you earn "points" if you do good deeds or exceed expectations or work extra hard, etc. iAm already expected to do 3 people's jobs (plus pick up slack for my employees when they aren't here) so its hard for me to "Exceed Expectations" and earn points. The minimum award given out is 100 points. That equates to something like 12 dollars.

iMean how great is it to work overtime on the weekends without pay, go above and beyond on some projects, do things that aren't in your job description and then you get awarded a whopping 12 dollars in "points".

At any time a person can use their accumulated points and go shopping at an online store. The store is a mish-mosh of crap: from kitchenwear to sporting goods. There are some electronics too (mostly of the 'sparkomatic' variety).
The really good stuff costs a minimum of 800 points. I got a digital camera 2 years ago for 1250 points. This past year, it took all I had to accumulate 600 points. Which, as it turns out, was just enough to purchase a new iPod shuffle.

Not that iNeeded another iPod. iHave two already. But this one is proving to be fun in random shuffle mode. Its the size of a postage stamp, yet it contains 700 or so songs from my personal library. It automatically picked all the music for me, and boy is it eccelectic. So far it includes selections from:

-veruca salt
-peter gabriel
-drum and bugle corps
-carmina burana
-the musical Wicked
-elastica
-pink floyd
-claude debussy
-the beatles
-bob conti's big band
-wind ensemble selections
and many more!

The dramatic gear-switching is half the fun.