ipod story and poll
Whoa, there's a guy on the roof of the building next door. He's gesticulating and talking into a little recorder. Fridays in March appear to be good days for seeing people outside my window (which, remember, is on the FIFTH FLOOR).
Anyway, my ipod. Oh, I'm so excited. Well, you may remember I wrote over a month ago about how I wanted to buy an iRiver but they didn't make the 40GB one anymore and so I didn't know what to do. Basically, I just stewed in my indecision for all this time, but meanwhile I was ripping my cds to my computer and downloading a bunch of albums I had wanted, in preparation for the big day when I would eventually get an mp3 player. The fact that I'm going to London next week was the catalyst--I wanted to have music for the flights and for the trip in general, so I freakin' wanted to get one before the trip. I'd been thinking that maybe an ipod would work for me, so I went to the Apple store at the Galleria to see if somebody could answer my questions and talk me into it (I was going to call their tech support or something, going to the store was Molly's excellent idea). You all should learn from my experience: if you're considering spending several hundred dollars on something, don't go to the cute salesguy with the British accent. Man, once Robin started talking it was a lost cause; I would have bought anything he wanted to sell me, including mp3s of his voice so I could listen to him talking about ipods on my ipod. Honestly, though, he really did answer all my questions, even managing to convince me that iTunes is not the devil (although I still don't really like it yet). He showed me exactly how to turn off the autosync option, which was one thing that was worrying me, and once he showed me a little about how iTunes and ipods work, I felt a lot more confident that this was something I could like. I got the 60GB slick-ass video ipod, in white. He talked me into getting the AppleCare extended warranty thing, too, which I think was a pretty good idea. And when I checked out, I was able to pass my Harvard staff ID off as a student ID card, so I got a $30 discount on the ipod and another $12 off the AppleCare, so that made me feel a lot better, too (and I *am* a student, the Extension school even considers me to be a full-time student, so it was perfectly acceptable!). It was pretty tough to sign the credit card screen--damn, that's a lot of money, and I'm the kind of person who feels guilty about dropping $45 on a pair of shoes--but afterwards, I didn't feel guilty or sick or upset at all, just really excited. Which for me was a sign that I'd made a good decision.
After buying the ipod, I wandered aimlessly in a daze for a few minutes, then went to Godiva and used the last of my gift card on some truffles, and I sat down on a bench to eat them and collect myself. Then I went to RadioShack and picked up the outlet adapter I'll need to plug things in when I'm in England, and I got an extra memory card for my digital camera, too. And Suncoast Video was having a closing sale, so I got the Graduation Day Angel action figure for $9, and some Inuyasha pins for Jorn for $3. Nice. Then I went home and played with my ipod and watched Wednesday's two-hour Top Model premiere and played with my ipod some more. :) I put 5 GB of music on it. Jorn said that was cute. I'm so excited I have all this space to expand into! And I can put pictures on it, which will even be useful--I know Jorn downloaded a bunch of subway maps designed for mp3 players, so I can put a London underground map on there that will be good to have when I'm there next week.
So--here's what my ipod needs now: a funky case, a charger that plugs into the wall instead of my computer, and a name. The first two I'm going to have to get on my own, but you all can help me out with the name. I came up with a few ideas, which are in the poll below, but I don't think they're the best ideas ever. You all probably have much cleverer names to suggest. So suggest away!
Poll Name my iPod!
In other news, Costco's online photo center now has a new policy that you have to be a Costco member in order to order pictures from them. I think that blows. I've been using their photo center for several months now, and I liked it because I could upload my pictures and then my mom could order them and get prints too. So stupid. I don't want to pay for a Costco membership just so I can buy pictures, even if it does end up being cheaper than whatever else I would do. I have no idea where there's even a Costco store near me, so I doubt I would use it to buy food and stuff. I had a whole plan to use just my digital camera in England, not my 35mm camera at all, and now that's thrown into disarray. I'm so freakin' pissed off.
Anyway, my ipod. Oh, I'm so excited. Well, you may remember I wrote over a month ago about how I wanted to buy an iRiver but they didn't make the 40GB one anymore and so I didn't know what to do. Basically, I just stewed in my indecision for all this time, but meanwhile I was ripping my cds to my computer and downloading a bunch of albums I had wanted, in preparation for the big day when I would eventually get an mp3 player. The fact that I'm going to London next week was the catalyst--I wanted to have music for the flights and for the trip in general, so I freakin' wanted to get one before the trip. I'd been thinking that maybe an ipod would work for me, so I went to the Apple store at the Galleria to see if somebody could answer my questions and talk me into it (I was going to call their tech support or something, going to the store was Molly's excellent idea). You all should learn from my experience: if you're considering spending several hundred dollars on something, don't go to the cute salesguy with the British accent. Man, once Robin started talking it was a lost cause; I would have bought anything he wanted to sell me, including mp3s of his voice so I could listen to him talking about ipods on my ipod. Honestly, though, he really did answer all my questions, even managing to convince me that iTunes is not the devil (although I still don't really like it yet). He showed me exactly how to turn off the autosync option, which was one thing that was worrying me, and once he showed me a little about how iTunes and ipods work, I felt a lot more confident that this was something I could like. I got the 60GB slick-ass video ipod, in white. He talked me into getting the AppleCare extended warranty thing, too, which I think was a pretty good idea. And when I checked out, I was able to pass my Harvard staff ID off as a student ID card, so I got a $30 discount on the ipod and another $12 off the AppleCare, so that made me feel a lot better, too (and I *am* a student, the Extension school even considers me to be a full-time student, so it was perfectly acceptable!). It was pretty tough to sign the credit card screen--damn, that's a lot of money, and I'm the kind of person who feels guilty about dropping $45 on a pair of shoes--but afterwards, I didn't feel guilty or sick or upset at all, just really excited. Which for me was a sign that I'd made a good decision.
After buying the ipod, I wandered aimlessly in a daze for a few minutes, then went to Godiva and used the last of my gift card on some truffles, and I sat down on a bench to eat them and collect myself. Then I went to RadioShack and picked up the outlet adapter I'll need to plug things in when I'm in England, and I got an extra memory card for my digital camera, too. And Suncoast Video was having a closing sale, so I got the Graduation Day Angel action figure for $9, and some Inuyasha pins for Jorn for $3. Nice. Then I went home and played with my ipod and watched Wednesday's two-hour Top Model premiere and played with my ipod some more. :) I put 5 GB of music on it. Jorn said that was cute. I'm so excited I have all this space to expand into! And I can put pictures on it, which will even be useful--I know Jorn downloaded a bunch of subway maps designed for mp3 players, so I can put a London underground map on there that will be good to have when I'm there next week.
So--here's what my ipod needs now: a funky case, a charger that plugs into the wall instead of my computer, and a name. The first two I'm going to have to get on my own, but you all can help me out with the name. I came up with a few ideas, which are in the poll below, but I don't think they're the best ideas ever. You all probably have much cleverer names to suggest. So suggest away!
Poll Name my iPod!
In other news, Costco's online photo center now has a new policy that you have to be a Costco member in order to order pictures from them. I think that blows. I've been using their photo center for several months now, and I liked it because I could upload my pictures and then my mom could order them and get prints too. So stupid. I don't want to pay for a Costco membership just so I can buy pictures, even if it does end up being cheaper than whatever else I would do. I have no idea where there's even a Costco store near me, so I doubt I would use it to buy food and stuff. I had a whole plan to use just my digital camera in England, not my 35mm camera at all, and now that's thrown into disarray. I'm so freakin' pissed off.