28 July 2009

Is my iPod trying to tell me something?

I usually spend a lot of time getting into work in the morning.  That is to say, I could leave the house at 7:30, take the freeway and be at work by 8 with time to spare.   I don't do this.  Freeways make me crazy especially with traffic in California.  The last thing I need is to be all strung out and stressed before walking into work with a bunch of angry customers waiting for me.  To combat this, in the mornings I leave at 7:10 and take the side streets all the way from Costa Mesa to Irvine.   Sure, it's twenty minutes longer, but the scenery is nicer and I can leisurely drink my coffee, smoke cigarettes and listen to music on the way in.   It's not for everyone (especially those who enjoy extra sleep) but it works for me.

I used to listen to talk radio in the morning on the way in.  No, I take that back...my old truck didn't have an iPod connector so I was forced into listening to talk radio as apparently all the regular music stations feel as though commuters don't actually want to listen to music in the morning but would rather have us listen to them call up random people asking them to fart the theme song to Gilligan's Island.  

I love my iPod.   Besides DVR's and bacon, iPods are one of the world's best inventions.  I have approximately 13 gigs of music on it right now.  That isn't a lot by some standards.   (On a side note, I like that iTunes lets you know how many days you could continuously listen to music without ever hearing the same song.  It's a bit of a comfort to know that if I was trapped on a deserted island, I could listen to 9 straight days of music with no repeats.   Of course, this deserted island would have to have an electrical outlet as the iPod would surely run out of battery life before the 9 days and if that was the case, the deserted island probably wouldn't be all that deserted, but still).  Where was I?  Oh yes.  Anyhow, because I technically don't have all that much music, I rarely bother with playlists.  I have one that has some of my very favorite songs, but otherwise I listen to music by genre or just set the thing to shuffle.

Most mornings, I use the shuffle option.  Depending on my mood or the iPod's tendency to play a "rock block" of the same artist, I sometimes have to do a lot of song skipping.  I don't mind this.  It's a bit like legalized song gambling as I might get all pumped up listening to the Gorillaz and then the iPod thinks that a sad Patsy Cline song would best follow it up.   It's a mood gamble really, but that's part of the fun.   The iPod also, I think, has a little man inside it - I'll call him DJ Podmeister - who likes to play a themed set of shuffled songs.   I had a whole morning once where all the songs were about traveling.   Another morning I had a whole morning of songs about being dirty rotten liars.  This morning, every single song on shuffle was about getting dumped.  Was my iPod trying to tell me something?  Did DJ Podmeister know something I didn't? 

I started to get really concerned about the whole thing until DJ Podmeister put on Hellbound Hayride's "I Think You're Trying to Kill Me".    Getting murdered is so less concerning then getting dumped!

--
Casey a.k.a. Moe
http://badgerswithknives.blogspot.com

5 comments:

  1. I knew I'd forgotten to do something this morning. Can we meet in a busy restaurant after work?

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  2. Should I bring all the copies of my house keys with me then?

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  3. I just have to say that it is so cool to see you writing again, even if it is about your iPod. You have always been entertaining.

    Bethhead

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  4. Thanks Bethhead! Welcome back. I'll try to be as entertaining for you before you no longer have time to be entertained.

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  5. ah, this has been up for 4 weeks and I didn't see it!

    Fun stuff, thanks for the laugh! My considerably cheaper Sansa has a DJ in it that is convinced that "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" must be my favorite song, because he tries to play it at some point daily...

    Laters!
    Ed

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