Music can be to the ears what a tender kiss is to the memory.

But usually it isn't. Music to me is all about an overall sound. Lyrics themselves do not add much to a song (but the voice can!). If you don't agree with me that's not my problem. One might think that I'd be a classical music fan, given my requirements for "good" tunes. Oddly, that tends not to be the case, although there are some classical selections in my collection.

I've got a portable MiniDisc (MD) player and a home MD deck for recording. I was utterly turned on by the size of available MD players. My mobile unit is about 3"x 3"x 1/2" square. It slips right into a pants or shorts pocket and will play all day long. The only drawback is that the way a CD worth of music fits onto a MiniDisc is by compressing the media. The compression method (using an algorithm called ATRAC) loses some of the sound quality when it records to MD. The algorithm is supposed to be smart and drop sounds that people normally don't hear anyhow, but unfortunately I can tell the difference between CD audio and MD audio. The size of the player still makes it all worthwhile though.

MPEG Audio Layer-3 , more commonly known as "MP3" has really taken off in popular culture. The MP3 audio format allows one to store near-CD quality sound into a file on a computer and can be played back through connected speakers. The benefits are many, one of which is that you can listen to your CD collection (which has been "ripped" from the CD and encoded into MP3s) from any computer. Unfortunately there is quite a controversy of late between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and MP3 fans because of the prevalence of illegally copied and distributed MP3 files. Generally, MP3 is considered to be of lower quality than MD and CD audio. MP3 recorded to MD is really not good.

• My opinion of Björk
• I like Madonna too

I am interested in the fact that on two separate occasions I used the word "magic" to describe the music of two different women. There is something to the associations I make with what I consider to be good music. Hmmm. Let's think about that for a bit.

I've made an attempt to catalog my CDs, which is a time-consuming and seemingly pointless project. But what the hell. Can't guarantee that it's up to date but it's a good start.