The greatest invention of the 21st century (even though it was technically invented in the 20th century) is the ipod or equivalent thereof. I can carry nearly my entire musical collection in my pocket. I can create playlists or just listen to everything in full shuffle mode if I can’t decide what in particular I want to hear.

That being said, my car doesn’t have an ipod jack. My car’s model year (2008) predates the standard ipod jack by one year. If I had bought a 2009 car, I could listen to my ipod to my heart’s content, but no. There will be no car ipodding for me. Sadly, I haven’t had the disposable income nor motivation to get one installed, so while everyone else is listening to digital libraries on wheels, I’m stuck with the antiquated Compact Disc.

I’m a die-hard audiophile. I always have been. One of my hobbies is discovering new music by bands that most people have never, nor never will ever hear. I root around, discovering new things. Back in the days before the internet, it was considerably more difficult than it is now. I had to actually do some work. Nowadays, everything is right at my fingertips. It still takes some work to track things down, but it’s a whole lot easier with the internet. I can, and have, listen to garage bands in Russia. I can track down demos and live versions of unrecorded songs in seconds.

My musical taste is incredibly diverse. I love everything from classical to country, from punk to metal, and everything in-between. It doesn’t matter what genre a song is; if it speaks to me, it speaks to me and that’s all there is to it.

When you ask what’s the best type of music to play while driving, well, that depends on circumstance. Because my musical taste is so vast, I have a hard time narrowing it down to one type of music for driving. If I feel like going really fast, zipping in and out of lanes like a speed racer, well, that calls for metal or punk. If I’m just enjoying the ride with my windows down and the sun on my face, that calls for something a little more sedate. Sometimes I feel like singing along with songs and sometimes I just want background music as I think of other things. It really all depends on my mood and whether I’m driving just to get somewhere or I’m enjoying the very act of driving. I don’t have any answers.

Every few weeks, I burn another CD for my listening pleasure, but I’m tired of all the CDs I have in my car. I get bored with listening to the same things over and over again. One of these days, I’ll get an auxiliary jack installed and then the entire world of music will be at my disposal. Until then, I have to pretend like it’s 1990 and keep burning CDs. It could be worse; I could have no stereo at all.