As some of my friends on #lj_support will remember, I was having a bitch of a time making an MP3 off of a CD I bought last week. It took over 3 hours to rip one song– the very last on the album. It’s SOP for me to rip CDs before I listen to them now– I’ve had to replace a valuable import CD from backup once already; I’m not going to run the risk of losing my music.
Well, I can see now that I’m going to have to exchange the CD. The last few seconds of the next-to-last track and the very last song are unplayable. There’s popping and skipping noises when I try to play it– at the end of the next-to-last song, it’s not so bad. On the last song, however, it’s unbearable.
Hmph. And I am sure Borders will give me all kinds of shit about returning an opened CD. The CD is damaged dammit! It’s going back!
And for those of you wondering: If they don’t have an undamaged CD in the store, yes, I will delete the MP3s off of the hard drive. Not doing so would be wrong.
I’ve had the Prius since Thursday afternoon. Here are some things that I’ve found irritating:
The seatbelt still doesn’t fit:
The part next to my hip digs into my hip there, which is very uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure I can get this adjusted, though. In a related note, the gas pedal is just a little too far forward for my comfort. My legs are disproportionally short for the rest of my body size; I may need to have the pedals raised up an inch or two.
And that’s the thing about this “seat not quite fitting” thing. It’s a matter of an inch here and there, not an overall “it just doesn’t fit.” It’s close enough that most people would probably just figure there was something wrong with them. Well, car makers have to fit the smallest 5% of female drivers, which is not the same as the short-round-woman driver. Frankly, I’d rather change the car to fit me than continue to take one hand off the wheel to pull my seatbelt away from my neck. Do not get me started on how difficult it is to do that while talking on the cell phone– and don’t even start about how dangerous it is to drive while on the phone– cigarettes and small children are way more distracting to drivers than cell phones– phones are just more visible. So there.
The largest non-fixable irritation by far is demonstrated in this photo I took this morning:
Yes. The gear shifter (the one that puts the car into drive, or takes it out of drive) is right smack in the middle of the path between my hand and the volume knob for the radio. There are no steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, so I have to reach around this critical piece of automotive equipment to change the radio volume, or to press the “Seek” buttons (you know, to switch between stations or tracks on a CD?) The other controls that are hard to reach because of this shifter: A/C air recycling button, CD/Tape buttons, and the clock. Yep. I have to move my head 6 inches to the right to find out what time it is.
The in-dash energy panel (shown with the big green bars there) is placed just out of reach– I have to really focus to switch between different screens on it. Not that big a deal– when I get the map system in there, I just hope there are no touch-screen functions, but I know there will be (based on the fact the CD controls are touch-panel in that screen).
I just can’t tell if this gear shifter is going to be a deal breaker for me or not.
