Kaizokuj

Found my old MP3 player

A while back while tidying up my assorted tech junk drawer I found the last MP3 player I ever bought before smart phones took over that job. As I recently bought a new offline mp3 player for the first time since, I figured it would be interesting to take a look at what I was listening to back then, so I dusted it off (literally) and plugged it in for the first time in.. 17 years?! Shockingly, it's not showing any signs of a swollen battery, it starts up just fine and my PC could read the files, not bad for an mp3 player from 2007. The model in question is a Creative ZEN Stone which means I must have traveled to Sweden with it from Belgium. Last file update was in 2009, which should be right before my first smartphone (a Samsung Galaxy 3 Mini). By this point my ex and I had already split, I was seeing a new girl and I was in the middle of my education to be a consultant in IT. A lot was going on those years, love that broke my heart, making friends I have to this day, figuring out who I was outside of Belgium, away from my family.

I've always been someone who listens to music a lot of the time, as long as I could portably listen to music I've had walkman, Discman, MP3 players and then smartphones plugged into my ears almost everywhere. This wasn't just because I love music, it was even more so a coping mechanism for my anxiety. Checking the contents of the thing seems I was really into keygen chiptunes, Sabaton and anime soundtracks. List below:

I'm quite happy to have this snapshot of who I was 17 years ago, it just reinforces to me the value of physical forms of media and things that are purpose built like an MP3 player, I was always very insecure as a teen and as a result there's little to no proof of who I was then, it makes me a little sad.

Anyway, hopefully my new mp3 player will arrive before an upcoming event so I can have it with me.