In my never-ending quest to be exactly 4 years behind my peers, technologically, I finally got an iPod. For a long time I maintained that any music player was as good as another, and in fact convinced my wife a few years ago to buy me a little 256MB player that held 70 or 80 songs and was very small and compact and handy. It had some downsides, though: it used a single AAA battery, which it would burn through in about 45 minutes; it was nearly impossible to control the volume easily, which probably took a few hertz off of my audible range; and also it required a proprietary USB cable which I immediately lost, so the songs that were on it were gonna stay on it, which is unacceptable as long as Justin Timberlake keeps releasing albums.

So anyway, I put an iPod nano on my Amazon.com wishlist a while back, and managed to update it to the new video version long enough before Xmas that HW bought me one. It’s simply fantastic. It’s like a monolith, and it has changed me from a raving caveman into a hip Seattle-style intellectual. (Sorry, I just read 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time.)

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into some kind of indie band blog, ’cause let’s face it: 99.9% of indie bands are independent of the major labels because they suck Donkey Kong.

Anyway, a few thoughts on the iPod nano:

  • It is ridiculously small. Seriously, I look at it and marvel at what science can do. It’s about the size of 3 credit cards stuck together, and holds 8 freaking gigabytes of data, be it mp3s, videos, photos, or even games. Note: playing games on an iPod is kinda sucky.
  • I had never really gotten into the whole “podcast” thing, because without an actual iPod I could only listen to them on my computer, and if I’m sitting in front of my computer I’m undoubtedly reading something or playing a game, and can’t concentrate on the voices in my ear. Having an iPod changes everything; I download podcasts and listen to them in my car, which is fantastic because the average podcast is roughly 25-30 minutes, and it takes me 25-30 minutes to get from where I work to Sarah’s parents’ house to pick up Charles. So awesome.
  • Perhaps it’s just the shape of my lobes, but the earbuds just won’t stay in my ear very well. It’s not a problem if I’m just sitting at my desk listening to tunes, but I can’t imagine jogging with them. I think my ears are just too big. They make decent headphones that wrap around the ear (I have a pair I bought for my other mp3 player, although they’re kinda beat up now), but the iPod earbuds sound particularly good, and I don’t think a cheapy set would fit the bill. Some of my readers are enormous individuals who probably have iPods; how do you guys listen to your jams?

Also, since I’m always about 2 years behind on pop culture, HW and I are getting caught up on “Heroes,” which I think is the best network drama on TV. More about that later in the week.

Categories: dear diary, musings Tags:
  1. HeavyDluxe
    January 7th, 2008 at 16:27 | #1

    Some of my readers are enormous individuals who probably have iPods; how do you guys listen to your jams?

    I bought a decent set of closed-back headphones from somewhere…

    Comfort and audio quality. MMMMMmmmmm.

    Congrats on the iPod.

  2. Rob
    January 7th, 2008 at 18:06 | #2

    Yeah, never be afraid of good old traditional headphones. Or compacted versions thereof. Audio quality always trumps style.

  3. Matt
    January 7th, 2008 at 20:28 | #3

    Those headphones would be pimp for sitting around the house. In fact, I wanna get something like when I start building my recording setup; I used to have a $100 pair of Sony headphones, but a college roommate made off with ’em. Bastard.

    What I need is something that’ll stay on my head when I run.

  4. Meliss
    January 7th, 2008 at 23:18 | #4

    Mabbott and I will be joining you on the Heroes front as he just got it from my bro for Christmas. As Tim put it, “I can’t believe you guys haven’t been watching this!” Ouch. Looking to catch ourselves up in 2008. 🙂

  5. Stefan
    January 8th, 2008 at 04:31 | #5

    so the songs that were on it were gonna stay on it, which is unacceptable as long as Justin Timberlake keeps releasing albums

    Really, Matt? We need to get you away from this crappy music you inflict upon your ears. Go get some Tony Allen, Wrens, Sam Roberts (first album) or Django Reinhardt (sp?)

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