I am in love with my iPod Shuffle. Is that sick?
I cannot say how cool the little Shuffle is, The experience of biking to work is like a brand new one, and I can even manage to get some joy out of running (which I hate doing).
Now I sm sporting the Apple sports case, something I need as the heat inches to the 100s and the sweat pours off me in buckets. I thiunk after a week, the white lanyard was starting to reek. The case is nicely done and adds a layer of protection. My major challenge is the annoyance of the headphone cables getting tangled when I stuff it in my backback after the ride.
Lately, I’ve just been busy digitizing my CDs, and loading them randomly into the Shuffle. Today’s commute included Caroline Aiken (awesome blues/acoustic guitarist we saw in a small coffee shop here), ACDC (Yes I admit it, one of my first rock concerts I do not remember due to self medication), Bob Dylan (I used to hate his voice, now I dig his poetic lyrics), INXS (one of few 1980s rock bands in my rotation), John Lee Hooker (under all rock music is the foundation of great bluesmen), The Beatles (our first LP in the house was “Abbey Road”), Steve Ray Vaughn (guitar virtuoso, rest in peace). I am not even through perhaps 25% of my first shuffled load.
What I am excited now is patently obvious to folks that have had these a long time, is that I am in control of my tunes; I have found the perfect radio station- it plays only the songs I like, there are no commercials, and no annoying DJs talking over the music.
And looking around while biking in, a vast majority of people are walking, bikiing, jogging with music- not just young hipsters, I saw a mid 70s lady walking along the canal banks with headphones on.
I am in love. Indeed.
ayup. once you throw iTunes into the mix (it’s not just about a portable player, people!) it’s an amazing system. Oh, and podcasts of course 🙂 Broadcast media just seems so, well, lame by comparison.
Be careful, Alan. I used to drive a VW New Beetle, and, like you, had it all paid off. For awhile it was enough to have the tape player conversion thingie that let me hook my iPod to the stereo system. But then I saw the Honda Element, which has an aux input jack built in. Bye bye Beetle! Traded it right in for the Element, and I hate admitting it but that aux jack was a huge selling point. The point being, people will do crazy things once they fall in love with an iPod.
By the way, do you need a tape player conversion thingie? I don’t need mine any more…
Maybe… I am wondering if the FM transmitter is any good. The last time I ised a tape player thang (for a portable CD player) I got lots of static.
I need something as my VW 5 disc player tends to not like the 3 or 4 out tracks on most discs. Have fun with the new wheels.
I have two modes of iPod use, normally I just stick it on shuffle, and with two thirds of my 60Gb iPod full of music I can listen endlessly; my second and more worrying mode is when I listen to one particular band on constant cycle, and recentlly this has been either Ozric Tentacles or Tangerine Dream, because I’ve been investing in their back catalogues. The problem is that after 8 solid hours of listening to their music (which I have now discovered is rather samey) you go completely mad.