Swimming in the iPOND

I've been avoiding the iPOND for a while. it's not that it's terribly crowded, I just don't like the neighbors The extend of my Mac knowledge and experience can be summed up in a recent 90 second walk through a mac store. The possibility of buying a mac was one of those things that just kind of sits in the back of your mind, and stands in front of other thoughts or notions. So you're trying to think of whether you'd prefer paper or plastic, and BAM you're pondering the merits of macs versus PCs...

Now, don't get me wrong... I'm no mac-hater. I just hate the people who use them. People with purple hair, no less than 5 piercings, eyeshadow, and a big neon sign strapped to their back blinking "TORTURED ARTIST" (or "EMO", whatever the fuck that is). Generally, they're the crowd who got a hardon when they read apple's logo/motto thing, Think Different If... If I buy that... then I'll be different too! Yeah, dipshit. buy it. Buy it all.

Of course I'm generalizing, and I'd do it less if generalizations weren't so damned accurate.

Ok, so attention freaks who take hours engineering their hair to appear messy aside, I don't have much against Macs. especially since OS X runs on a Unix kernel! god I'm a geek. So I was just a cup of tea away from seriously considering purchasing a mac laptop.

But change is not to be taken lightly, especially THIS change There was a mac store at south coast plaza, a mall my girlfriend and I frequent. I'd resolved to take a look around, and told my girlfriend. Who probably wondered why it was such a big deal. We went to the mac store, and I couldn't do it. I felt like I was betraying all those PCs whom I'd loved so much. As we walked around I re-resolved to go in on our way out.

I cautiously approached the store, and held my breath. I was in apple country now.

Before I could take a look at some laptop specs or prices I was suprised to see how many people were in the store, clammering to get this, or buy that, asking questions to salespeople with hair colors that probably matched the "flavors" of the iMAC. We walked on. I had a tough time seeing the merchansise through the people milling about, or asking idiotic questions. "I need to get on the internet, can this do that?" My head began to hurt. I spotted the iPOD display, and wanted to check it out, but alas, surrounded by people. We walked on. Then, suddenly, sales people jumped from nowhere, asking if we needed any help! A quick, deflective retort; "no thanks." prevented almost certain annoyance! that was needlessly dramatic. Kinda funny, but still needlessly dramatic We neared the exit and left. My girlfriend asked, "Well? Did you see anything?" I replied, "Yes, I saw all the people I talk to on the phone who need help clicking on the start button"

I can't get a mac. It would be like denying my heritage. It would be like selling out. It would be like admitting defeat. Plus, this is fuggin' hilarious: http://www.ancientspear.com/mac.wvx

I won't buy a Mac.

This does not mean I won't consider an iPOD... From everything I've read, it seems nothing can stack up to it. Every "iPOD Killer" has floundered and failed, and served only to underscore the reasons for the iPOD's impressive market share.

For the longest time I'd been hard-pressed to find a reason for adding the iPOD to my portable music player collection. CD players, Mp3 players, MiniDisc players, the list goes on. iPOD's 9 hours of battery life was a great deterrent compaired to my MiniDisc player's GODLIKE 52 hours of battery life. CD players for sitting an listening to, mp3 players for listening while actively moving (they never skip), MiniDisc for everything in-between. I didn't really see why one would want an iPOD. A little bit ago, it clicked. I grabbed my MiniDisc player and my "James Bond MiniDisc case" (discontinued, it carries four minidiscs as compactly as possible. It gets its name because if James Bond had a minidisc case, this is the one he would have!) Anyways, I was trying to make a selection of minidiscs to place in the case. I was limited to 4, so I had to choose carefully. It was at this point I realized that the reason the iPOD is so popular, is because you don't have to choose. You can put every cd and MP3 you own onto it, sort them, and listen to any one of them you want in seconds. Actually, I'm remembering using the xbox to listen to music, and thinking of how nice it was to have all the music at my fingertips. Listen to two songs from this cd, then skip over to this one, then that, whatever you want. At that moment, I was sold.

I appreciate my music, and very often I find myself remembering songs or humming songs and trying to remember to listen to them when I get home. This usually leads to me forgetting, and I get stuck humming them the next day too! As a side note, when I began looking into the iPODs again, I found that the price had been lowered, and the mini now came in a 6GB version. Additionally, they've upped the battery life to a tolerable 18 hours! Score. I will have to get one as soon as I can furthur justify the purchase to myself. I'm weak, it won't take long.