12.31.2005

I believe in Santa Claus. He's called Amazon.com.

So I bought an iPod. A black video one. While it cost about four times more than my previous MP3 player, it is about three times smaller and holds about 60 times the audio. And it plays video! (a feature I find endlessly cool but may not ever actually use...).

So far, it has come as expected in its tinyness and ability to hold all of my music with room to spare (although I really need to prune the collection...how did some of this crap end up on my computer?). However, I've had some issues in my brief iPod ownership period.

Most notably...all of the accessories for my BLACK iPod are WHITE. The hell? Apple, you can make the expensive main unit black, but you can't be bothered to come up with black earphones? I don't WANT to look like one of your grooving commercial people. If I wanted that I would have bought the white one. And now what I will look like is a dork wearing white after Labor Day.

At least I will the whole three days until I go out and buy new headphones, because these things are uncomfortable and have ZILCH bass.

Also, about the headphones. I know the iPod came in a shockingly small box and that was kind of scary but also cool. But seriously, they could have made the box two microns larger and PUT THE FOAM ON THE EARPLUGS. Did they think I needed something to occupy myself the whole three hours while the iPod charged? Especially since the whole smallness of the box is ruined when Amazon.com puts it in their stock box with a bunch of plastic air bags where there is plenty of room to spare.

My only other issue with the iPod...why make the damn thing so small if it's still scratchable? Like, why not make it the old size (I was kind of shocked by how tiny it was) and cover it with some teflon or something? This morning I put it in a case that nearly doubles its size, where it will live permanently (or until I find a case I like better), and while it's still small, I kind of wonder why have this tiny pretty device just to put it in a big case. I mean, it doesn't even look like an iPod!

Oh wait, I get it. That's what the white headphones are for.

wish i was there

So it has occurred to me that the reason for my many-month absence from blogging here is that I had promised to post more vacation pics. But like the lazy slacker that I am, I had not formatted and cropped the second batch of vacation pics. And somehow, I couldn't return to blogging until the vacation pics were posted.

So finally I did. And here are vacation pics, so I can get to blogging about my shiny new iPod, which is what I really want to do. Plus, when are pictures of sunny locales better than in the middle of dreary Ohio winter? Yeah, that's what I thought.

The pool area of the ship.

One of the decks, and also where we would get on the lifeboats if the ship were to, say, hit an iceberg.

The other pool. This one was under a retractable roof. Some sun got through but I liked it much better than frying on the deck. It was also adults-only, which means no belly-flop contests and other such hijinks.


The observation tower-lounge thingy on the ship.

What would a bunch of pictures from a cruise be without one of FOOD? This was from the Grand Buffet.


Space shuttle replica at Cape Canaveral.


Back end of large rocket type thing.


From the rocket garden (I think it has a more official name but I can't remember).


Key West, you are so warm and pretty and full of shopping. Do you need any more online people? Do you?


The place is seriously so damn cute.


Doggy!


The famous La Concha hotel.


Sloppy Joe's. We stopped there for drinks after shopping. Along with every other tourist in Key West. Still, it was nice.


A worthy slogan.


The area we went shopping at Grand Bahama Island.


More of the shopping center. What you can't really get from the picture is that we were FRYING HOT at about this point.


From the boat we took to get to the shopping.


A very untropical picture. This was as we were leaving the port of Baltimore. It really looked like the top of the ship was going to hit the bridge. People were all ducking. It was fun and hilarious.