yep. i'm still not sure about it. see, last week the ex-roommate gave/lent me the 15 GB/3G iPod she found, right? but i was just listening to it, not reformatting it and copying my songs to it right away because she wanted to have it back to play with it. she was just lending it to me so i could play with it for a few days while she was away. so i just listened to this girl's songs (i assumed the owner was a girl because the songs it had). by saturday i'd started growing a small guilt trip about it because i was kinda getting to know this girl who's iPod i had in my hands. anyway. i was looking up prices for accessories because this one had none. seeing as this was a 3G iPod and i only had a Firewire cable (given to me by my work friend), i had to get a few cables to make the whole thing work. but then sunday morning i decided i'd check it out on my computer and plugged it in. that's when i saw that my brand new Dell, equipped with about 8 USB ports, had no Firewire port ! fuck me. that's when i learned that this generation of iPod couldn't charge while connected to my computer through a USB cable so i'd have to charge separately everytime. anyway. the amount of accessories i'd have to get to make it all work (charger, earphones, usb cable, dock) would cost me, with taxes, around $200. add to that the fact that Apple had discontinued the 3G docks last fall. shit. that's when i saw the possibility of buying a brand new one. it had never entered my mind since last year. i mean, i could spend those $200 but then i knew i'd buy a new one before summer (i mean, how could i not be tempted? :) so what would be the point in spending $200 now? i must also admit that the idea of getting a brand new iPod, in its box, was very attractive to me. why not do it? so i looked it up. saw that the 20 GB iPod did not come with a dock. the 40 GB, which was $40 more, had one. i think Apple are selling the 4G docks for $40 on their website anyway, and i was gonna buy one at some point because of the Line Out feature. but i'd also get an additional 20 GB for free. so i got my ass over to Future Shop, hoping they had some 40 GB's in stock. lo and behold, they did. but i got their last one. so i paid (aren't credit cards useful? thankfully, i was able to put $200 on it right away) for it and walked out of there with a brand new 40 GB iPod under my arm. unbelievable.
i still can't believe it. mostly because it wasn't planned and i usually plan these big purchases way in advance. i did my homework, there's no doubt about that, but it's still a huge thing and i can't believe i finally bought an iPod. so this is a bit baffling for me. i think i'm still in shock. i'll appreciate it more when i play around with it. last night i loaded up a few tracks that i had on my computer and encoded The Decemberists' Castaways and Cutouts just to have an album on it.
so. i'll need pointers. right now i got iTunes, ehpPod, and CDex. which Windows programs would you recommend to rip cd's? CDex does the job perfectly but it doesn't arrange them, or put tracks in album order, for ephPod to load up in my iPod. let me know. also, i wanna know your iPod's name :) mine is the name i was about to give the 15 GB one -- Skip -- for Richard Widmark's Skip McCoy, a pickpocket, in Sam Fuller's beautiful Pickup on South Street :P i'm never good at finding names or titles but i thought that was an appropriate one given that i was developing a rather nasty case of guilt for having the first one :) also, any cool tips and pointers that might be useful to a newbie? i've been reading up on iPod's for the past week but i don't know it inside and out just yet. that comes from experience.
btw, i'm giving the first one to the ex-roommate. she's gonna love that. she doesn't know it yet, though (nor does she know i bought one for myself). i'm gonna give it to her, gift-wrapped, tomorrow, with the Firewire cable. hopefully her boyfriend's computer has a Firewire port (which it should; it's only stupidly optional on the new Dells) and she ain't gonna need anything else to make it work. she should be pleased :)
update, 3:55 pm
i took a walk with my iPod this afternoon and i must say that it started sinking in that i finally had one and i'm happy to report that it made the impulse-buy doubts dwindle considerably down :) walking outside in the warm sun, with snow slowly melting all around, i must say the experience was a joyous one :)
Posted by Anonymous | 10:34 AM
