They had various “hold music devices” that were fairly expensive. If I remember correctly, the cheapest one they sold was over $250. I thought about it for a few minutes and said, “can’t we just use an MP3 player?”

Obviously the man on the phone didn’t care for my idea very much because they didn’t sell MP3 players for this function. But surprisingly he said he didn’t see it being a problem. We all questioned the reliability of a relatively inexpensive MP3 playing device, but now I can say that reliability has not been an issue at all.

I went to Best Buy in February of 2009 and saw a Sandisk Sansa Clip on sale for $34. I figured even if it only lasted a few months we would get our money’s worth. We purchased legal MP3 files to serve the function of hold music, which also includes overlays of words such as “please stay on the line, your call is important to us” that fades in over the music on occasion.

It is now August 18, 2010 and the MP3 player has never stopped playing. It has been running continuously for nearly 600 days straight. Just in case something happens to the device, we have 3 extra ones purchased during a special on Woot.com for $20 a piece.

Here is a photo taken today of the MP3 player in action. The battery inside even acts as a backup if we have power issues. Which reminds me to point out that the battery still keeps a charge.

Needless to say, flash storage based MP3 players can apparently last a very long time. I would not hesitate to purchase a Sandisk MP3 player if my need for one ever arises.  They are built great and can’t be beat for the price.

For those interested, here is a link to the updated Sansa Clip+. It is less than $50 for 8gb of storage and is expandable with a microSD slot.

I’ll try my best to update the blog soon. I got some new things that I can review or at least write about when I get some time.

Heidelberg and Carnegie both donated houses to the group completely free of charge with the stipulation that they would be gutted and repaired so that low income families have the opportunity to rent the houses. These areas were flooded from the storms that hit us a couple years ago from Hurricane Ivan.

Anyways, it was actually fun. I got to tear apart the inside of a house. We got the living room and the kitchen completely gutted down to the studs. It was a bitch carrying 2 hot water tanks up from the basement because the stairway had to be about 2 feet wide.

The only thing that was slightly annoying about the day was when I stepped on a rusty nail. But, whatever…

Those of you who talk to me know that I am currently remaking WilliamPennAssociation.org.  I didn’t make the original website, so now I am left with the task of totally recreating it from scratch.

This site is taking a very long time to do because it has a lot of content.  I didn’t think it was going to take even close to the amount of time it has taken so far, and I’m not even finished yet.

Here is a full preview of the design of the front page (sized down for various reasons).

 Well, I would love to see some comments…