Well, I sure hope this was a good idea because it was a costly one.  I ordered myself an iPod today—an iPod photo 30 GB with charger and case.

Me, a guy who has a whole 6 songs on my computer and no digital camera.  I have been lugging around a Walkman and CDs for awhile now though.  Getting kind of tiresome.  Spent a little time thinking about this—yes, I know it was probably just a couple months ago I said I’d have no need—and did more research than I do on most things.   I looked all over Apple’s site, talked to a few people (thanks Garrett)  and used a few ‘primary’ resources as guides to my thoughts.

The 1st thing I used was this piece by Michael Stephens at Tame the Web: Picking Your Pod which I had saved in my aggregator since Mar 12th after reading the article at Playlist magazine that it points to, Pickin Your ‘Pod: Which iPod is right for you? by Christopher Breen.  Since Michael just presented a link and no commentary I am assuming he intended this as quality advice.

Next, and I forgot how I found this one, but there’s this wonderful post by Morgan Wilson at explodedlibrary.info called the iPod zombie trance.  I sympathize with Morgan’s thoughts and the Times of London article by Andrew Sullivan.  I had these concerns about losing touch with daily life as soon as I bought and started carrying my Walkman a few years ago.  I sometimes even feel rude, although that is never my intent.  But sometimes we just need a relief from the everyday noise around us. 

Wilson:

It’s possible that iPods and other mp3 players are creating a world
where people are unaccustomed to silence and where abundance of music
is taken for granted as just a background.

It doesn’t have to be like this. It’s also possible that the option
of having constant music will help us appreciate deliberate silence.

Sullivan:

Technology has given us a universe entirely
for ourselves — where the serendipity of meeting a new stranger,
hearing a piece of music we would never choose for ourselves or an
opinion that might force us to change our mind about something are all
effectively banished.

Atomisation by little white boxes and cell phones. Society
without the social. Others who are chosen — not met at random. Human
beings have never lived like this before. Yes, we have always had
homes, retreats or places where we went to relax, unwind or shut out
the world. But we didn’t walk around the world like hermit crabs with our isolation surgically attached.

I am well aware of the concern Mr. Sullivan has—hell, I’ve written sentences like these—but I am also very aware that "There’s a world out there. And it has a soundtrack all its own."  I often choose that soundtrack; but when I have no control over it, and I don’t like what I’m being forced to listen to (grocery store, bus…), I want to change it to something better than tolerable instead of intolerable. 

Well, I definitely hope I like it and can figure it out.  Honestly, I’m worried it’ll be too simple for me to learn easily—intutitive in a way that’s non-intuitive to me.  Got to love it or make it work because I got it engraved and there’s  no returning it.  Would love to  give the story on what I had engraved but that would defeat the small security of only me knowing.   

I’m pretty stoked about this too.  I’m just trying not to get too excited before I get to play with my new toy.

This is your 2nd chance Apple.  I hope you make better decisions this time.