Been Busy...New Toy...Addictive.

OK, so I broke down and bought an iPod. After waiting for the announcement from Steve Jobs at the recent Macworld Expo, where I thought I would be hearing about an inexpensive iPod, and didn't, I decided to see how much this would cost. To my surprise, I was able to pick up a brand new 10GB model (being "clearanced" at the Apple Store for $219 with my educational discount). Of course, nothing stays at the original investment cost for long... So now I've got a case (timbuk2...great stuff), a book (iPod Missing Manual), a handful of new and new-to-me used CD's, and more than a few songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, which is a VERY dangerous place.

This is a seriously cool little gadget. A bit expensive, even at the discount, for a toy, albeit a potentially useful one (you can put contact and calendar info on it, as well as record voice memos and use it to transfer files).

I have spent quite a bit of time "ripping" part of my music collection to my PowerBook. So far: 71 CD's, 1021 songs, for a total of 3.75 GB. Good Grief. I have more to upload, but this is definitely the heart of my collection. Although I can see my collection increasing now that I am spending more time working in front of the computer, alone and without outside distraction(the sabbatical thing). As I was uploading my collection, I found myself thinking a lot about the music I've listened to throughout the years, the "soundtrack" of my life if you will. A very mixed bag of tunes to be certain.

I have wandered through so many genres in the last 18 years (how long I've had CD's), and more before that if you count the cassette years (and all the CD's I now have of the cassettes I used to have). Classic rock, Motown, pop, hard rock, New Wave, punk, early hiphop/rap, arena rock, country, folk, "alternative", bluegrass... I have been thinking of compiling a "playlist" of my favorite songs throughout the years and seeing what it would look like. I need to go out and hit some of the used music stores looking for older stuff to do that...