Technology occasionally blows my mind

Every once in while, it sinks in just how amazing the world is these days.

I checked my Google Reader this morning. This is a website (free!) that allows you to subscribe to almost whatever website you find interesting, and it lets you know when the content is updated.

So I was reading a post in my Google Reader... on my cell phone.

In the post were some links to Christmas music. When I got to work, I downloaded the two free songs, from the artist I had never heard of 5 minutes before. This took all of about 30 seconds. 3 seconds after that, I was listening to them.

Deciding I liked the album enough to buy it, I clicked on the link to Amazon. From there, with one mouse click, the power of the internet checked my bank account balance, authorized a purchase, downloaded an entire album, and set up the playlist for me.

About three clicks later, and I was listening to the entire album while attacking my morning task list. All of the above occurred in less time than it took me to just type that out.

Now how to get the songs home? Easy. Plug my phone in to my computer, and transfer all the songs to the little card inside the size of a fingernail that holds hours of music.

Later, I drove to a vendor's office. I was able to finish listening to the album by plugging my phone into my car. My phone. Plugged. Into. My. Car. Radio.

Go home that night, and in about 1 minute transfer all the songs to my home computer, and then to the little device the size of a pack of cards that can hold enough music, sermons, and video to listen for over 60 days straight without repeating.

And then repeat the process to download two more albums.

You let that sink in a little, and it truly is amazing. The year I was born, my parents were just switching from 8 tracks to cassettes. A cassette hold what, 90 minutes of audio? So my Ipod is the equivalent of about 1000 tapes. Indexed, searchable, and no rewinding.

Unbelievable.

So anyways, marvel at the convenience of modern technology, and check out these three Christmas albums (H/T Justin Taylor):

Bifrost Arts: Salvation is Created (Amazon link)

Sojourn Music: Advent Songs (Amazon link)

Red Mountain Music: Silent Night (Amazon link)