I’ve had my ipod since May of 2005. It’s a drab little white 20Gb Gen3. It has no color, and no video. But despite being the single most heavily-used piece of electronic equipment I own (other than my computer), it gave me no real problems until November of last year. When I’d first gotten, we had the foresight to buy the three year protection plan that Best Buy offers, so when the harddrive finally decided it’d had enough, I was covered. Rather than wait the 2-3 weeks to have it — fondly referred to as Ishi, after the Ghost In the Shell character, Ishkikawa — fixed, I opted to have it replaced with a refurbished unit. Unfortunately, “refurbished” doesn’t necessarily equal “fixed,” and the new ipod (Ishi II) almost immediately began displaying quirks similar to the old one shortly before it had kicked the bucket.

I actually ended up not using it at all from Thanksgiving to New Year because local radio stations were playing Christmas music (and I loff eet! <3). But the first or second day I hooked it back up in the car, it gave me the sad little dead ipod face, and hasn't worked since. For various reasons, I haven't had a chance to go back and have it fixed/replaced again, but that's beside the point.

The actual point of this entry is that I’m trying to figure out what I want to do when my warantee expires. I’ve already checked to see if I’ll be allowed to renew it, and that’s a no-go, so I’ll pretty much be on my own if problems arise in the future. I’m halfway over the fence toward getting a newer model altogether, and donating my current one to some — shall we say, “charitable cause.”

I’m not really looking for anything fancy — just something I can fit my entire music library on (it has only breached the 20Gb mark in the last few months). Friends have an occasional chuckle over the fact that, from time to time, I’ll randomly discover music in my library that I didn’t know was there, or that I hadn’t actually listened to before. For me, though, that’s one of the best parts about having an ipod. I can set it to random and listen — literally — for days. Yeah, not all of it is fantastic, and some of it I’ve listened to until the notes ooze out my ears, but regardless of whether I’ve heard it a million times or never, it’s something different everytime I plug it in.

So what exactly does the current market have to offer me? I went in, wanting an upgrade compared what I have now, but nothing crazy. The iPhone is certainly a fine piece of hardware, but a) I’ve got a phone already (did, in fact, just recently get a new one), b) wouldn’t want to pay the fees every month just to be able to use an iphone, and c) have had enough experience with handheld electronics to know I don’t want my phone and my music player eating up the same battery. Plus, the largest capacity iphone available right now is only 8Gb. If I’m going to pay $400 for something like that, it would need a little more substantial storage space. I’m not saying it’s not an awesome bit of technology, and I’m not saying I’d never buy one. I’m just saying something like the iTouch (ipod Touch, whatever :p) is more attractive to me right now because the phone features aren’t. And even the Touch is sorely lacking in the hard drive arena. So it would appear that I’m stuck with the ipod “Classic” if I’m looking to upgrade, at least for the time being. With a minimum (these days) capacity of 80Gb, it’s hands-down teh winnar!, even if the price hasn’t come down any since the haydays of my little Ishi.

This all leaves me wondering, however, if it’s part of their marketing strategy to introduce new models of products into the market, and then phase out “older” ones so they don’t have to lower prices any. I could be perfectly happy with a 60Gb ipod. Hell, I don’t even really care all that much about the video feature that’s now standard. As far as the music is concerned — and really, wasn’t that the point of the ipod from the beginning? — my only real concern is storage space. I’ve begun my first forays into the Zune world to see what that’s all about. I’ve heard good things, but I think I’ll wait for the research to really get under way before I make any judgements of my own. I have really enjoyed Ishi while I’ve had it, but who knows? Maybe I’ll end up making the switch.

The last two weeks have been absolutely crazy. Apparently everyone in the world decided all at once that they needed to make up for lost time over the holidays, and we’ve been working almost non-stop. I don’t think we’ve been this busy in the year and a half that I’ve been here. I worked both days last weekend, more than making up for the two (unpaid) sick days I took recently, and worked til 10 Wednesday, and 7 last night. I am so ready for this week to just be over. Yay, Friday. I think our machines would probably agree.

I’ve been working on the site whenever I get a chance to sit down long enough. I’m really pleased with the way it’s coming along so far. I’ve been resisting the urge to post a million asides in lieu of actual entries. It’s so easy to just make quick little two or three line notes about interesting stuff I find or hear. I’ve got a few plans in the works, though to encourage myself to update more often.

Love-life has been full for months, and a little turbulent more recently. I can only hope it continues to settle. Life in general has been good though. Money is still a little crazy sometimes, but things finally seem to be evening out. I have no idea how taxes are going to end up this year. I’m crossing my fingers, but not holding out any great hope. I’ll probably up my witholdings this year to be on the safe side. Been getting out of the house a little more than I’ve been used to lately. Trying to find a happy medium between hanging out with people, and getting my “me” time so I don’t go nuts. (Heh, is there an opposite of “stir crazy,” where you feel like you don’t get to do nothing enough?) Even having Eddy playing video games, needing no entertainment from me whatsoever, is distracting. It’s funny to notice, though, that working out code for this place drowns out almost all outside influences though. If I could just make that happen with drawing or writing, I’d be golden :D

Speaking of drawing, I got a late Christmas present from the Hippie. He got me a Wacom Bamboo Fun, one of the line of tablets that’s replacing the Graphires. I haven’t gotten a chance to really just spend an evening messing with it, but as soon as I do, I’ll be posting about it. It’ll be so nice to have a working tablet again. And the best part? It’s Tachikoma-blue! XD See for yourself!

On the Converse website $60 bucks can net you a pair of customized All Stars. Want to own the single most hideous pair of shoes on the planet? Or maybe a pair to go with those orange and green suspenders? They could be yours! I’m seriously considering getting a pair of Tachikoma-blue ones for my birthday this year. <3!

Check it out. (The yellow “Converse One” button at the bottom. It’s a flash site, so load times may be slow depending on your connection.)

Went to a preview of Cloverfield last night. All I have to say is

Holy. shit.

I’m so glad I got to see it on the big screen. It will never be the same on a tv screen. And I will be seeing it again.

I’d like to say I have huge plans for this place, but honestly, I’m just trying to kick-start myself again, more than anything. I’ve been on Livejournal so long, that switching over to blogging on my website has been kind of a daunting prospect. It’s taken me a while to realize that if I didn’t just start writing, that I’d never make the change.

So here you go :)

One of the reasons I wanted to make the change is that I love messing with website design, and web-coding in general. But what good does that do me if I have no content and have to lorem ipsum-ize the site every time I want to try out a new look? Another, more prominent reason is that since Livejournal was bought out by SixApart, things just haven’t been the same. Sure, some things are better, but there’ve been enough issues and general weirdness that I can’t really justify paying an extra $25-30 a year to maintain paid features on a blog when I’m already paying a not-insignificant amount for webspace that comes with all the trimmin’s included.

Part of me is a little intimidated by the greater blogosphere. No more will there be a ready-built community for me to spew my thoughts into. Now I’ll be talking into the void. Maybe I’ll get an answer back, maybe I won’t, but it’ll be exactly what I make of it, and that’s kind of exciting. It’s nice to be trying something new again on the interweb after all these years.