Ipod 1. Nic 0

OK Apple. You win! I've fought long and hard but in the end you were just too wily. Too clever. Too sneaky. It's 1 AM, I'm sleepy, and I need to go to bed for a long day of work tomorrow. A long day of work that WILL NOT be accompanied by my immense library of over 4,000 MP3's. Yes, Apple Ipod, you have suceeded in your quest to make over 8 years of music downloading efforts obsolete. (4 years of college network free Napster!!) With your clever and slick ITunes interface and the annoyingly addictive album artwork downloading feature, and your insistence on arranging all my MP3 files in an unrecognizable maze of folders and folder extensions, you've left me no choice...but to take the high road and leave those ill-gotten MP3's behind. Time to progress into adulthood, with a mature Ipod full of respectable, well-arranged, complete albums, full with album cover artwork and all. (Haha Ipod -- you can't kill me off completely though -- remember I'm in ASIA and Thailand is just a quick flight away!) So tonight marks the end of an era, say goodbye to the college playlist of Dr. Dre leading into Color Me Badd segueing into Bon Jovi or whatever other random selection always seemed to pop up in my Winamp playlist -- Koo Koo Cal? I might have to save space on the Ipod for Koo Koo Cal. :)

Well, I'm excited about this step to adulthood, but also a little sad to leave the MP3 downloading era behind. Times have changed, you either adapt or you get left behind, listening to N'Sync.

If you hadn't already figured it out, I am now the proud new owner of a 30 GB black Video Ipod, courtesy of Miss Selin for Xmas/Bday gift! :) Not an easy thing to get in India...Thanks sweetie! And finally, after a long struggle, I got some songs loaded on it tonight, with the prospect of many more to come. It really is kind of cool how ITunes will download the album artwork for you and it displays when you select the songs -- really makes you want to appreciate and start listening to entire albums instead of just jumping randomly from one downloaded single to another. I'm looking forward to expanding my CD library...and when I get home, digitizing the CD library I already have to add to the Ipod! Pretty cool stuff I must say. I think Ralph agrees:

Last but not least, now that I've finally somewhat figured out this ITunes/Ipod thing, I can possibly get back to some more regular blog posts -- I know I still haven't even finished Thailand! But the Ipod has consumed me for the last week. Only now that I've come to peace with the retirement of my MP3 library can I rest at ease.

Goodnight!