Welcome back to the future: My iPod and me

Was it just me or did you notice some of those 80s-early 90s songs used in the Super Bowl commercials? The one that sticks out with me was the Cyndi Lauper tune "True Colors" in the Dove ad.

Well, I perused my iPod lately, and boy, do I have a few 80s tunes. From Culture Club to the Bangles to the Eurythmics, I've got a large chunk of 80s music taking up space.

I'm a tech person, so when I'm not at work, I try not to do much techy stuff. Inevitably, though, I find some toy, like my iPod mini, and that credo goes straight out the window. I was a relatively late adopter, because I am just a tightwad. I hate dropping money on something that will quickly be a nice paperweight. I bought a cheap MP3 player, liked it, and thought an iPod mini would be perfect for me. One of my friends discussed buying one, so I told him, I'd get one and he could check it out.

Of course, after I made this decision, Apple decided to discontinue the mini in favor of the new Nano. After several stress-filled attempts to get a used mini on eBay, I finally bucked up, went to www.auctionsniper.com and bid on two minis to hedge my bets. Luckily, I only won one (a silver one). As soon as it arrived, I loaded iTunes and filled it up with every CD I could snatch from my husband's thousands in the basement. Hubby is a veteran of the pawn shop searches (he's on a first name basis at some), Goodwill and garage sales, so it was really hard picking out what I'd want to have among the 4GB of music I could put on my mini.

First, I had to pick out a lot of the tunes I've liked for a long time. My criteria: 1) will it sound good in the car at highway speed? and 2) will I have a nice mix of fast, slow, dance and instrumental.

So far, it's a nice mix. I really like the Playlist feature. The only problem I have is that I can't scroll fast enough and drive sometimes. To be safe while driving, don't change playlists while moving! You and your car will appreciate it. For car connection, I use a cheap adapter (through the cassette deck) and it works well. I did not get the wireless radio version because I didn't want to hassle with searching for some odd numbered FM station.

Finally, as recently mentioned in a few articles, don't crank your music too loud through your earbuds. You never know when you'll need that hearing to pick up the first two notes of your favorite song. Lunch break is now over, so "don't say I do, (I'm saying) bye bye bye". (from Kiss the Bride by Elton John) away in iPod land I go.