Diary of a Gadget Freak

Today I decided to go back to Marche d'Aligres....I wanted to buy some really fresh tomatoes to make a pasta sauce....but this was only an excuse. I really wanted to try out the Belkin plug-in recording device on my iPod. Why? I wanted to record the sound of the vegetable merchants, hawking their wares. Would it work?

I plugged the device into the port at the bottom of my video iPod. The first thing I noticed was that it pulled out of the slot all too easily...it didn't snap into place. I had to be careful. I didn't read the instructions because I edit technical instructions for a living and I cannot stand to read them in my spare time. So off I went.

The key, for me, is to be surreptitious. This is true for recording audio in a crowd as well as it is for taking photos. I simply don't want to be obvious...I want the device to be small, and I don't want to stand around and fumble with it. I want to casually flick it on and either record pictures or sound without anyone noticing.

So I flicked on the recorder and held it in place on my iPod in one hand while I walked up and down the vegetable stalls at the market. The results: not bad.

Hear a sample here . I had more difficulties later in the day, when I hopped onto the metro with the iPod in my pocket. I recorded the metro as it pulled into the station, but the device got disconnected in my pocket and I lost the rest, including the woman who got on the metro and began a dramatic pitch for money. (For some reason, the beggars in the metro must be out-of-work actors, they're so dramatic! Always a speech.)

I also decided to go shopping today at Galleries Lafayette. The double-whammy of my current age and body weight was guaranteed to make me feel like a troll there, but it didn't stop me from shopping, conversing with helpful, friendly saleswomen in French, and ultimately, buying things.

Then I went to my favorite pharmacy, located in the Bastille: I'm fascinated by this place because it's both high-end healthcare products AND herbal remedies ..with a medical face on them. It's a wonderful place to buy lavender oil or many other oils and herbs....and it's practically across the street from Place des Vosges. Check out their window displays.

Tonight I came home and made pasta sauce with the amazingly great tomatoes that I bought at the market this morning. Also seen in the photo: the gluten-free Italian pasta that I bought at Naturalia. It was perfect, by the way...apparently the highest instances of gluten intolerance are in Italy...and even the ordinary supermarket products here alert you as to whether or not there's wheat in them. So while you probably associate France with baguettes and pastries, the first thing you see when you walk into a health food store is a giant section full of gluten-free food, and it's really good.

Finally, a note about bad user interfaces. I've been totally baffled, year after year, by the invention of the senseless 2-centime piece in Europe. Isn't it enough to have a 1-centime piece and a 5-centime piece to contend with? But no....as you'll see in the photo, there are three nearly identical coins with a fraction of a difference in value, which one must carry around and deal with when you pay for things at the cashier. And they WILL ask you for exact change, so good luck fishing through your pockets for 1, 2, and 5 centimes. Here are the coins....can you tell the difference between the 1 centime piece and the 2 centime? Me neither!