Last night was glorious!

Seriously, I don't remember getting sleep feeling so wonderful! Of course, it was a cool night and I was sleeping in freshly laundered, thousand thread-count sheets...

Mmmm... I wish I was back there!

And it was cool enough this morning, it took some persuading to get me out of bed. Why couldn't I have had one of those dreams last night which feature car alarms or sirens or whatever it is that enables me to sleep through my alarm some mornings?

Well, tonight I'll have to get back to work. Plenty more work on two history projects remain... plus I haven't devoted enough time to learning my lines for class.

Hopefully I can finally figure out how to manage my time better. Everything went out the window over the weekend. I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, I didn't go to the gym. Kinda reminds me of the gal from Soul Man: I don't have to eat, I don't have to sleep, I just have to study.

Wow, that was a terrible movie... but I must confess that I did enjoy it. I'm working on compiling a series of lists. I'm interested in building Top-20 lists featuring favorite "good" movies and favorite "bad" movies.

I want to do the same with music as well. And television. Of course, the television shows are long since cancelled... most after a handful of episodes.

Which leads me to my initial thoughts on the new iPod. Overall, I really like it. The display is awesome, for album art and video... in fact, I've had to upgrade some of my album art, because the images gleaned from AllMusic revealed compression artifacts (acceptable) and flaws (unacceptable) that bothered me on the display. The cover flow is great fun to play with, and the wi-fi is everything I'd hoped it would be. I still haven't gotten used to the keyboard, though. You can add contacts on the fly as well.

Being able to check my email and surf YouTube before getting out of bed this morning was a treat! I get a huge kick out of this from last weekend's Saturday Night Live!

But, I don't like the volume control. It is too close to the song navigation, and you can't just touch the bar to "drop" the volume... you have to drag it. I also miss the song position indicator. It's still there, but you have to tap the screen to get it to appear. I'd be happy with merely a timer.

Also, I imagine the "24-hour" battery life that Apple was touting is if you allow the display to sleep and lock after a minute, which is the default setting. Unfortunately, when the display goes out, you have to hit either the home or wake button to wake it up, then slide the unlock before you can change tracks or adjust the volume or pause the track. Too many extra steps if the phone rings or someone approaches your desk.

Perhaps the backlight going out without the display going dark would be a potential solution?

I miss the "notes" feature. Also, while different navigation doesn't lend to the games my brick and nano have, I would think Brick Out would be viable! I don't understand why they don't allow you to add items to the calendar. From what I understand, you can on the iPhone.

All in all, I really enjoy my new toy. I wish I had the time to set it up proper... because of its size, I want it to trade music off to keep the playlists fresh based on ratings, skips and play counts, and to effectively manage that I'll need to have iTunes manage my music automatically. It's currently set on manual for the sake of having something to listen to today.

Over the weekend, I think I'll rip a couple of DVDs so I can put movies on it for whenever. I think Swingers, Flash Gordon and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane are on the short list, since those are a couple I can watch whenever. Hence my need for favorite movie lists.

If only I had time. I guess winter break isn't too far off. For now, I'll settle for what's on it and being able to drop songs onto it on a dime. It can wait, but the school work cannot.

What i'm listening to:

Objects in the Rearview Mirror...
Meat Loaf
Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell