Toy
What pushed me over the edge was sleep deprivation.
I tried listening to white noise (or rather, "pink noise") the other night, using Noise, a freeware program for OS X; it was oddly soothing, but I half woke up after about an hour and a half because of a strange sound. I started to drift off again, and the sound repeated, and I woke up a little more, but I started to drift off again, and so on. When I finally came completely awake, I realized that the strange sound had been me, making a loud snore-like noise every time I started to fall asleep, because my nose was clogged. I blew my nose, but then the white noise started distracting me.
So I switched to soothing music, but it was awkward to keep the PowerBook close enough to the bed to make that work, and running the computer all night just to play soothing music seemed a little excessive.
So by the time I got up on Friday morning (after 5 or 6 hours' intermittent sleep—and it was more like 4 the night before), I'd pretty much decided it was time to buy an iPod.
Of course, I then read a Think Secret report that the "next-generation iPod [will be announced] in early 2004," and that "this iPod will boast a design and functionality radically different than current models." Which made me think I should hold off. But then I realized that would mean waiting probably 8-10 months for a product that I knew nothing about, rather than buying one that I know I like now.
It almost didn't happen. Traffic was heavy Friday evening, so Kam and I didn't get to dinner 'til a bit later than intended, and there wasn't much time before the movie (Winged Migration, a.k.a. Le Peuple migrateur, about which (perhaps) more anon). But it's traditional for us to go hang out in the Apple Store on Friday nights, and it wasn't far, and dinner went quickly, and my back (which had been in mysterious pain all day; my body ain't doing so well lately) was being manageable (thanks, I suspect, to Kam's suggestion of ibuprofen; somehow that hadn't occurred to me), so we popped over to the Apple Store and picked up a pair of matching iPods. Well, okay, hers is bigger than mine. But close to matching.
And then of course we stayed up way too late (after the movie) playing with them. I have some pretty big issues with the interface (primarily that you can't really see any info about the songs as you scroll through them; screen's just not big enough), but it's hard to beat having my entire music collection in a box smaller than a pack of cards. I won't use it as much as a lot of people would; I'm not sure I'd be comfortable walking down the street listening to it (I already have enough trouble paying attention to my surroundings as I walk), and iTunes is more powerful and flexible than the iPod when I have my computer around (which is most of the time). But I think where it'll really pay off is driving—soon as I get a new car stereo (waiting for me to get around to it for well over a year now, I think), I'll be able to plug this into it. And I might get one of those turn-your-iPod-into-a-mini-radio-transmitter thingies for use in rental cars.
Anyway. Overall, am quite pleased so far—even though listening to it while sleeping didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped. I think I may even go buy a couple of those ambient-sound CDs (waves-on-shore kind of thing); I always thought they were kinda goofy, but they might be just what I need for listening to while trying to sleep.
