If you did not know it, I do carpentry when I'm not typing up stuff for this newspaper.

For the largest part of my life, I've felt more comfortable with things that I can see and feel, modify with my own hands.

Though I can visualize and conceptualize enough to get by in business settings, especially with construction stuff, things that are made with computer chips, batteries and flash memory I tend to avoid.

But little by little, the luddite in me has been won over.

It started with the computer itself. Back in 1995, when a company called Ballard Computer was spreading, its gospel of personal computing across the entire Puget Sound region, I got caught up like many others.

We spent nearly 3000 dollars for a 486 mhz system with a tiny 15 inch monitor and black and white laser printer.

It was revelatory to say the least.

And when the internet came to town, there was no stopping the influx of technology. Since then, humans have seen the advent of many personal technological whizbang toys that have continued to change the way we live in ways that we could hardly have imagined.

My own Father, at 88 years young, sends me emails everyday with photos he's taken. I can't overstate the enjoyment that I get from this electronic touchstone and the way we are able to stay connected with one another, to know that things are ok, things are good.

Like many people, I resisted the first wave of newfangle.

Back in the early eighties, my brother had the "brick" phone and carried it everywhere like a, well, like a brick.

I made fun of him, but within a couple of years my soon-to-be-wife had a similar one in her car, complete with the permanent antenna.

It was a few years after that the next wave of miniaturized personal devices showed up, firstly in the form of pagers, then portable tape players with headsets and then even smaller cell phones without the cord that tied them to a big battery.

PDAs arrived, and though I still don't have one of those, I do have a number of amazing new toys.

My Sony H2 is a digital camera (Camera's West - Tukwila) that I use to take job shots and pictures for this paper.

It's my third one already.

A great deal at $265, these things just keep getting better and cheaper. I'm also on my forth computer, it's a Pentium 4 with 80 gigabytes of hard drive, and the first three machines I bought are still operable, but just not quite as fast or robust as this one.

All of my computers and peripherals are purchased at Infotech Systems here in Federal Way (under the new Sushi place on 324th), and I can't beat them for price or service.

And just last week I finally popped for an Mp3 player.

A Sansa E260 ($70 - Newegg.Com).

A friend of mine who is an old nail bender like me showed up at my house with his tiny little music player and I was smitten. And that's how it usually works; He has one, so now I have to have one.

It's almost a child's line of reasoning, but now that I have this thing, I am really enjoying the ability to hear my favorite music, audio books, spoken word poetry and radio shows at any place I desire in my often mobile lifestyle.

One thing that I did rail against was the headset.

When you see someone, usually a kid, with the ever-present white cord dangling from their ears, if you are like me you sometimes see that as anti-social behavior.

And even though the law now says that you cannot use your cell phone on the road in your car without a hands-free device, I still don't like this arrangement.

When my cell phone rings in my car, I let it take a message and I answer it when I'm parked.

So in order that I can listen to my music when I'm gardening, painting, or bending nails I purchased a tiny little speaker system the size of a bar of soap.

It's amazingly good sound quality and it frees my ears up from the annoyance of having something in my ear canal.

What's on the horizon for this former luddite?

I can't imagine what it would be, but then, if you asked me this question twenty years ago, my answer would have been the same.