In 1985, my parents gave me my first Walkman for my birthday. It was big and bulky and took two AA batteries. There was no "bass booster," not even a rewind; only fast forward (evidently I had received the cheap-ass version). Up until that point, music had never really been a big part of my life. But once the Walkman arrived and music became something I could keep private, away from my parents, I started listening to music incessantly.

One of the joys of a Walkman, I soon discovered, was the ability to listen to one song over and over again without driving others mad. I would stop the Walkman after a song was over, eject, flip the tape, and hit fast forward. During trips in the family car, this was all you would hear -- click, eject, click, eject, click -- until my parents would holler at me to stop before I broke it. Eventually, they were right. It broke.

Prisoners of war are often brainwashed through repetition. Seeing the same images, listening to the same sounds for days on end breaks a person down, makes their mind pliable.

Listening to a song over and over again has the same effect on me, only in a good way. Taking a walk, or sitting at my desk working, the same song repeating in my ears becomes a sort of soundtrack to my life. My mind becomes pliable and I'm usually at my most creative (my song of choice right now is Folk Implosion's "Serge" -- a catchy spy-tune-like instrumental off their new album).

Thanks to Sony, I can brainwash myself whenever I want -- one of the many small things that often makes life bearable.