BLOBBY'S BLOG

Don't Stop the Music

I've always been an 'early adopter'. When it comes to music. Not children. Never children. Not that there's anything wrong with them.

My first portable music device was the Sony Walkman II. It was so much more portable than the original - so maybe I'm not a first generation adopter, but I was the first one I knew who had one. ...well...except Lori Silverstein. But we hung together my freshman year of college, so we'd be at the main liberry trying to study while tunes pushed through those headphones. It turns out most everyone else could hear whatever we played too.

But after that I died, I got other cassette players - and then of course a few portable CD players, which really weren't that easily portable. And then finally graduated to .mp3 players.

Steve Jobs has enough of my money to pay for all his alternative therapy treatments that won't extend his life one hour - but if he thinks it will, more power to him. Keep positive Steve - the Apple shareholders need you.

I am embarrassed to say (well....kind of) that I have a new iPod. Another iPod.

This house now has four, not including the iPhones. FOUR!

To be fair, we only really paid for two. Denton got me the 30 gig one for my birthday years back. It was the 2nd generation version before there was video. Big as a house, it is. It now resides in his car hooked up to his mocked up iPod dock. Way too much Chicane and Coldplay for my liking. Don't get me started on Lime, Cher and Teena Marie. As far as I'm concerned, that iPod can stay in that car - and when we go out together, I drive!

About five years back I got the first generation Nano. It was so cute - it still is. And it's a workhorse. Holding about 900 songs and their cover art, it has seen me through hundreds of work trips, work outs, bike rides - you name it. When it's at home, we have it hooked up through a Bose radio in the kitchen. It really has outlasted it's prime, I'm sure.

The other two are Shuffles. I got the 2nd generation one for Denton from a rebate I got because of the first iPods shoddy battery. It never went bad, but Apple paid up 'just in case'. He got it for the holidays two years ago. I think I dolled out about $19 for it. But it was good for his workouts.

And now, I have the new Shuffle. I got a MicroCenter gift certificate from my parents this last holiday season that I could not find thing to use it on. I don't need any more blank disks or firewires. We went to the store about six times and left empty-handed.

I didn't need the Shuffle, but I could not bare to go back to that store one more time to look around and leave with nothing. And you know, it's new, it holds as much as my Nano and it works better at the gym - when it comes to size.

Look. Look how small it is.

Yeah - I suppose it is bound to be misplaced. Hell, on day one I had trouble finding it in my gym bag. But it clips easily on my shirt and makes it nicer to use the machines and weights.

The headphones take a bit of work - as that is where all the controls are. One click for forward, another to pause, two to go skip a track and three to go back a track. Oy.

I'm using the Shuffle specifically for workouts. While it probably would behoove me to have music that is conducive for warm-up and cool-down, I haven't loaded that stuff onto it. Right now it is just music to get the blood flowing and to keep my adrenaline flowing.

But I think that's it for my Apple music playing devices. I'm good for another year.


Song by: the Michael Stanley Band