Do the Shuffle

I may have solved my problem of falling over and getting all tangled up in my ipod nano (previous generation -- the longer, narrow one) wires while working out. I bought a refurbished shuffle, which i can clip to my shirt or shorts, thus bypassing having to deal with wearing a device on my arm, from apple this week. It's a great little device -- it's tiny, about the size of my thumb -- but you can't see what song is playing since it has no screen and you can't really make playlists on it, since everything you put on it is part of one big playlist. 

Still, since i just needed something that i could wear unobtrusively and which i could just put workout-type music on, it does the job (so far, since i've only had it a few days) and is a good deal for what i paid for it. Since everything that i listen to for cardio kind of sounds the same anyway, it's not of great importance that everything is grouped together. (And i've discovered some great DJ podcasts, so i can drag a few hour-long mix podcasts onto it and get into a good workout trance.)

Now i can dedicate my nano to podcasts, which i prefer to listen to while riding on the CTA (as well as waiting for those trains and buses to arrive) and driving music. And i've got my eye on an ipod touch this summer, once i get my IRS rebate check and, according to the rumors i've heard, the price of the touch drops a bit. Yeah, i'm drinking the apple Kool-aid, but i love the devices, especially since i'm still astounded that you can carry something around that's smaller than your hand and have hundreds, or thousands, of songs on it. Now if only there was a more aesthetically pleasing way of viewing, keeping, organizing the mp3 files on my hard drive.