Posts tagged ‘ipod’
Music Has Returned
The iPod Nano 16GB has arrived…and dear lord is it small. I knew it was going to be small, but seeing one and really holding it on your hand are two different things. I'm sorta afraid I'm going to stick a piece of paper over it and totally lose it.
First of all, I have to say I'm really impressed by Apple's refurbished products. The nano is in perfect condition. No scratches on the case or the screen, looks like new, works exactly like it should.
I'm really enjoying the updates to the iPod interface from my 4th gen standard iPod. Things like being able to turn the shuffle mode on and off from within the playlist are awesome. And it sounds like the sound quality is a little bit better than what I had before. Also, really liking the Cover Flow teacher more than I thought I would. Basically it lets you tilt the iPod to the side and it pops up a line of all of your album covers which you scroll through and can pick songs to listen to that way. It works way better on the iPod than it does on iTunes.
Overall, very happy with the purchase. Well, not that I had to make it, but now that I have it, things worked out pretty well. Just need to tweak my playlists a bit so I get the right subset of my 25GB library onto the 15GB of storage it has. I got it close, but it looks like I missed a few things when I was setting it up.
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Nano Update
Just posting a quick update to my iPod story from yesterday. I put in an order for a refurbished 16GB iPod Nano (in black) yesterday morning. It should be arriving tomorrow. And it can't come soon enough as I'm going a little crazy without being able to listen to some music over here.
I keep thinking things like "oh, I should go to the gym…ah crap" or "Man, it's quiet in here, I should put on my headphones and— daaaah!"
Soooooon…
In other news, the tour dates for ProgNation 09 have been announced and there's a show at a nice place in albany. Waiting on the ticket prices and such to finalize plans for that show. But it's such a nice venue (with fairly crappy parking near it, unfortunetly) and close enough where we wouldn't have to stay overnight or something. A definite option anyway. We shall see how things develop
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Stupid iPod
I was at work yesterday going to listen to some music on my iPod while I did some boring type stuff and, come to find out, it looks like the headphone jack is busted now 😦
I only get sound out of the left speaker of whatever I plug into it. The right speaker works if I push the jack it a certain way, but it doesn't keep working after I stop pushing. I don't recall dropping it recently so I'm not entirely sure what happened to it. This one's lasted me about 3 years which is 2 years longer than my previous iPods. So that works out pretty well
Needless to say, this is some pretty bad timing since my hours are getting cut next week. Thankfully May is also a 3 paycheck month, so I have that little bit of extra money floating around.
After doing some calculating, I'm thinking about picking up a refurbished 16GB iPod Nano just to toss my essential songs on it, along with a smaller random playlist so I can listen at work/at the gym/in bed to drown out the next door neighbor's subwoofer. Music is pretty important to me, so I'm willing to toss some other stuff to work this into the budget.
It's probably going to be my one big leisure expense coming up and I'll put the rest of the extra cash into savings to try to offset any unforseen varriations while I'm dealing with my reduced income.
Out To Syracuse And Back
Yesterday I went out to Syracuse with Wassy so that she could get her misbehaving iPod fixed. I also went out there with the intention of buying a new bathroom scale (something that was a little more accurate than my current scale) and some scissors. The iPod exchange ended up going pretty smoothly, however I couldn't find the scale I wanted anywhere. We gave up after a few hours of wandering around Carousel and went to Olive Garden for a late lunch/dinner.
After that we decided that we would try to find a independent music store because we were both looking for some hard to find CDs, but the GPS lead us to an empty lot. So we gave up on that and went back to her apartment with a pit stop over at my place so I could pick up the hard drive that used to be in my desktop. The plan was for my friend Jason to stick it in his computer so I could get some information off of it that I had been meaning to do since my desktop blew up last year.
Unfortunately, we both forgot that his power supply doesn't have the right cable to power the drive so we went out locally in search of something that would work. We didn't have any luck on that though…but I did pick up a new keyboard because mine was getting difficult. It was starting to become hard to push the tab and the q keys and it seemed to be spreading across the keyboard. So now I've got the new Apple keyboard. The really thin one. I'm really enjoying it. Good feel, very solid construction with the USB ports on the side so I don't have to make a dive for the hub to plug in my headset and such.
After that, we returned to their place and watched Sicko, the documentary by Michael Moore about health care in america. I must say that was fairly depressing. I just hope that with all of the public spotlight that's on the medical care system going into this election, americans will be able to figure this thing out. It's staggering what other countries have as far as universal health care that we haven't figured out yet.
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Attempted Relaxation
I started out yesterday (Sunday) with the intention of doing as little productive as possible. I sorta succeeded except for the afternoon, but it was a good effort regardless.
I spent a lot of time playing Parasite Eve for the playstation on loan from my friends. It's a really nice game, pretty good graphics for such an old game, especially the FMV cutscenes. I had been working on it for a few weeks on and off (due to time constraints and other games catching my attention) and I finally finished it yesterday morning. I'm currently going through the EX Game mode where you get to keep your uber powerful weapons and armor from your last play through. There's more enemies and such this time through, plus another dungeon thingy to explore.
My afternoon was taken up by errands and running around to various electronics stores trying to piece together the best way for me to hook my iPod up to my Rogue's stereo. Still no pictures! Sorry 😦 I was going to take some today at lunch but I got sidetracked by some insurance problems that I had to call to get straightened out. My VIN number was listed wrong on my insurance and I needed to get it fixed before the DMV started sending me nasty letters.
After that, I did a little work on my Buddhism paper for world religions in my effort to not have to write the whole thing at the last minute. And then I watched some more Invader Zim which is an awesome animated cartoon thingy that I found through Netflix. So very random, and so very good.
Today I'm going to have practically no free time again because I have to go meet with my partner to work on our Software Engineering homework which is probably going to take up a good portion of the night. Sigh. I can't wait until school is over.
Of iPods And Rock Shows
Two years ago, I went to my first Trans Siberian Orchestra concert and I was blown away by the amazing presentation and light show those guys put together. Unfortunetly, last year, I skipped the show because I didn't want to spend the money on tickets.
I couldn't skip two years in a row though. Yesterday was the fan club pre-sale for this years show. The plan was for my Dad to buy the tickets, since he was paying for them anyway. Not to mention he got us really good seats for two shows in a row. But unfortunately, this wasn't going to happen. The presale website was all messed up yesterday, and he got stuck waiting in line. I decided to take matters into my own hands and try for tickets myself.
The website said to wait patiently while in line, but I took a peak at the line page to see what was going on and figured I had a better chance refreshing the page every few minutes. A couple of cycles through this I scored… I managed to grab 8th row to start with, but it was off to the side and up near the wall, so I tried again. Instantly more tickets showed up. A bit further back, but more centered than the last time. I told my dad and we jumped on those. Last I heard he was still waiting in line…
I can't wait until the end of December now.
I also mentioned the other day that i was worried about the new Apple announcement with the iPod refresh. Thankfully, Steve Jobs didn't release anything that I absolutely wanted to have. There were some nice products and I'll probably end up with a iPod Touch somewhere down the line, but it doesn't store nearly as much as I'd like. I'll look into it if my current iPod dies I suppose.
Random Dump O’ Stuff
I'm still alive! Honest!
I just really haven't had much to talk about since the state fair. Or much that I'd like to throw up on the internet anyway. There have been a few things going on but nothing that I could make a full post out of, but now that there's enough collected random stuff…
- I got sunburned at the state fair, just below my eyes. That was annoying. I guess I forgot to put sunscreen there.
- I've determined my Dad should purchase all concert tickets for me from here on out. First 2nd row at the Porcupine Tree show, now we've got 4th row center seats to see the Blue Man Group in October, a week or two after seeing Porcupine Tree. Next up, Trans Siberian Orchestra tomorrow.
- Apple is going to be releasing new iPods today based on popular speculation. Several of my friends are on strict orders to knock me unconscious if I even imply that I'm putting my credit card into any web forms.
- My apartment has a new green screen door and will be receiving a brand new front door at some point in the future. Also green.
- My software engineering professor is really hard to understand, and he says "ummmm…ah….errrrrr…" every 2-5 words.
- I met up with a friend from my high school who was also taking software engineering. Which is handy because the course requires group work.
- I'm currently in the process of eBaying the more expensive cards in my Magic:The Gathering collection. I used to be big into it but they've sat in a closet for a couple years and I figure I should sell them before people stop playing the game. Looking back at my last 31 days of eBay history, I've sold $768.53 total worth of magic cards so far, bringing me to the realization that I spent wayyyy too much money on that hobby.
- My Belkin iPod car adapter (charger + line out) has been on it's last legs for a while after the casing got broken on the dock connector part, leaving just the bare connector and the wires. Yesterday wires started falling off, until finally, it killed the sound, so I need to get a replacement at some point.
- Another one of my Zebra Danio's vanished. This time it wasn't in the filter. I have no idea what happened to this one. Vanished like ol' one eye.
And there we go. Random facts related. Now to tag that mess…
Ok, Time to Stop Spending Money…
I'm now determined to force myself into conservative spending mode. After the iPod purchase, of course I had to pick up a couple of accessories…such as a case for it to protect it from scratches. My current case has some zippers inside closing off various compartments. However, those zippers can scratch the face of the player, so I figured with my new black iPod which will show scratches even more, I should get something that didn't have metal objects inside the case.
I also grabbed a Universal Dock. I'm a big fan of the iPod dock, since it's a place to just drop it in to charge and sync without having to fish the cable out of somewhere. Also lowers the chances of the device flying off the table. I've gotten used to having a dock anyway, since my first iPod came with one. My current dock works, but since the new iPod is smaller than my old 60GB one, it's very wobbly. Hopefully with the new universal dock thing they're doing now, I won't have to shell out again for another dock later down the line…
Anyway, I think that's quite enough spending for now…conservative spending mode on! Lets see how long my willpower will last this time…
And if you're getting tired of iPod posts, then…well…give me a few days. I'm on an iPod kick right now.
It’s So Thin!
My new 80GB iPod Video (Black) arrived yesterday! I had a chance to try it out a little bit. I'm coming from a 60GB iPod Photo thing and the size of this new one just amazes me. It's like .2 inches thinner than the last one and has a bigger hard drive, a brighter screen and more battery life…I have no idea how they cram that much in such a small space.
I really do like it so far. The screen is awesome and the extra size above that of the iPod Photo makes album art and long song names easier to read. I tried some video on it and it worked pretty well…but I bought it primarily for audio since I'm not a big video guy.
The new search feature works pretty well. It lets you start typing in the name of an album/song/artist and the iPod will find everything that has that phrase in it's name. I've found that after you type in enough to find what you're looking for, you can hold down the center button for a few seconds and it'll drop you into the results list.
My only thing (which I should have considered going in) is that the black iPod, while looking extremely cool, picks up fingerprints very visibily. Oh well. I just have to keep whiping it off. No big deal…
Impatience and Me
The new iPod has arrived. It's currently sitting on my desk in it's brown FedEx box and I can't open it to play around until I go home for lunch in an hour and a half. Boo!
As far as what happened this weekend, I got completely sucked into Seasons 2 and 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A friend is loaning me the first three seasons right now and after thinking the first one was kinda meh, the second season, epically the second half was amazing. And now moving into the third season, things are even better. I can see why this show was such a hit. I also re-watched Wag The Dog which my parents let me borrow. Good movie. I saw it on TV before. It's really very funny and does kinda make you think about the spin that gets placed on events, espically in the realm of politics.
Oh, and I forgot to do my history reading again until the last minute. I really need to figure out how to organize myself better.
Cultivated Nonsense 