I love my MP3

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I could swear my MP3 has a little sentient creature living inside it. Not a scary Dalek-type creature, but rather more cute and friendly.

It started with the naming. Back when iPods started, Richard got himself a big old Creative Zen Touch (not as cool looking as an iPod, but rather more robust, with a massive memory and a lovely strokey-strokey control panel). Since it wasn't actually an iPod we christened it Pseudopod. Then he bought me a tiny Creative Zen V for my birthday (see picture) - aah, how cute is that! - so of course that became 'Diddypod'. And very happy we have been together ever since.

Now both Richard and I have noticed the tendency of our pods to 'bond' with us. This is particularly strong for Richard and his pseudopod, so much so that it started to play the only song in history (probably) that mentioned the name of the Irish town we were pulling into on a tour (and it wasn't Dublin or Belfast). That's spooky. It frequently selects tracks that are uncannily appropriate. Mine, too, seems to have a mind of its own, though it's rather less in tune with mine (although it seems to have my stubborn streak). For example, judging by how often it chooses them:

It likes Kirsty McColl, but not Suzanne Vega.

It likes Fiona Apple, but not Aimee Mann.

It really really hates '1234' by Feist, and will avoid it if it's in a playlist of 2.

It likes rather jolly and slightly novelty songs on the walk to work - Sparks, Ian Dury, Kaiser Chiefs (it really loves Kirsty McColl's 'There's a guy works down the chipshop swears he's Elvis', which obviously presses all of its buttons); and prefers more mellow stuff on the way home (suits me!)

It likes Prince when I'm in the gym.

Tell me I'm not going mad, that there is something other than coincidence to all this!