![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Whoa, there's a guy on the roof of the building next door. He's gesticulating and talking into a little recorder. Fridays in March appear to be good days for seeing people outside my window (which, remember, is on the FIFTH FLOOR).
Anyway, my ipod. Oh, I'm so excited. Well, you may remember I wrote over a month ago about how I wanted to buy an iRiver but they didn't make the 40GB one anymore and so I didn't know what to do. Basically, I just stewed in my indecision for all this time, but meanwhile I was ripping my cds to my computer and downloading a bunch of albums I had wanted, in preparation for the big day when I would eventually get an mp3 player. The fact that I'm going to London next week was the catalyst--I wanted to have music for the flights and for the trip in general, so I freakin' wanted to get one before the trip. I'd been thinking that maybe an ipod would work for me, so I went to the Apple store at the Galleria to see if somebody could answer my questions and talk me into it (I was going to call their tech support or something, going to the store was Molly's excellent idea). You all should learn from my experience: if you're considering spending several hundred dollars on something, don't go to the cute salesguy with the British accent. Man, once Robin started talking it was a lost cause; I would have bought anything he wanted to sell me, including mp3s of his voice so I could listen to him talking about ipods on my ipod. Honestly, though, he really did answer all my questions, even managing to convince me that iTunes is not the devil (although I still don't really like it yet). He showed me exactly how to turn off the autosync option, which was one thing that was worrying me, and once he showed me a little about how iTunes and ipods work, I felt a lot more confident that this was something I could like. I got the 60GB slick-ass video ipod, in white. He talked me into getting the AppleCare extended warranty thing, too, which I think was a pretty good idea. And when I checked out, I was able to pass my Harvard staff ID off as a student ID card, so I got a $30 discount on the ipod and another $12 off the AppleCare, so that made me feel a lot better, too (and I *am* a student, the Extension school even considers me to be a full-time student, so it was perfectly acceptable!). It was pretty tough to sign the credit card screen--damn, that's a lot of money, and I'm the kind of person who feels guilty about dropping $45 on a pair of shoes--but afterwards, I didn't feel guilty or sick or upset at all, just really excited. Which for me was a sign that I'd made a good decision.
After buying the ipod, I wandered aimlessly in a daze for a few minutes, then went to Godiva and used the last of my gift card on some truffles, and I sat down on a bench to eat them and collect myself. Then I went to RadioShack and picked up the outlet adapter I'll need to plug things in when I'm in England, and I got an extra memory card for my digital camera, too. And Suncoast Video was having a closing sale, so I got the Graduation Day Angel action figure for $9, and some Inuyasha pins for Jorn for $3. Nice. Then I went home and played with my ipod and watched Wednesday's two-hour Top Model premiere and played with my ipod some more. :) I put 5 GB of music on it. Jorn said that was cute. I'm so excited I have all this space to expand into! And I can put pictures on it, which will even be useful--I know Jorn downloaded a bunch of subway maps designed for mp3 players, so I can put a London underground map on there that will be good to have when I'm there next week.
So--here's what my ipod needs now: a funky case, a charger that plugs into the wall instead of my computer, and a name. The first two I'm going to have to get on my own, but you all can help me out with the name. I came up with a few ideas, which are in the poll below, but I don't think they're the best ideas ever. You all probably have much cleverer names to suggest. So suggest away!
[Poll #688365]
In other news, Costco's online photo center now has a new policy that you have to be a Costco member in order to order pictures from them. I think that blows. I've been using their photo center for several months now, and I liked it because I could upload my pictures and then my mom could order them and get prints too. So stupid. I don't want to pay for a Costco membership just so I can buy pictures, even if it does end up being cheaper than whatever else I would do. I have no idea where there's even a Costco store near me, so I doubt I would use it to buy food and stuff. I had a whole plan to use just my digital camera in England, not my 35mm camera at all, and now that's thrown into disarray. I'm so freakin' pissed off.
Anyway, my ipod. Oh, I'm so excited. Well, you may remember I wrote over a month ago about how I wanted to buy an iRiver but they didn't make the 40GB one anymore and so I didn't know what to do. Basically, I just stewed in my indecision for all this time, but meanwhile I was ripping my cds to my computer and downloading a bunch of albums I had wanted, in preparation for the big day when I would eventually get an mp3 player. The fact that I'm going to London next week was the catalyst--I wanted to have music for the flights and for the trip in general, so I freakin' wanted to get one before the trip. I'd been thinking that maybe an ipod would work for me, so I went to the Apple store at the Galleria to see if somebody could answer my questions and talk me into it (I was going to call their tech support or something, going to the store was Molly's excellent idea). You all should learn from my experience: if you're considering spending several hundred dollars on something, don't go to the cute salesguy with the British accent. Man, once Robin started talking it was a lost cause; I would have bought anything he wanted to sell me, including mp3s of his voice so I could listen to him talking about ipods on my ipod. Honestly, though, he really did answer all my questions, even managing to convince me that iTunes is not the devil (although I still don't really like it yet). He showed me exactly how to turn off the autosync option, which was one thing that was worrying me, and once he showed me a little about how iTunes and ipods work, I felt a lot more confident that this was something I could like. I got the 60GB slick-ass video ipod, in white. He talked me into getting the AppleCare extended warranty thing, too, which I think was a pretty good idea. And when I checked out, I was able to pass my Harvard staff ID off as a student ID card, so I got a $30 discount on the ipod and another $12 off the AppleCare, so that made me feel a lot better, too (and I *am* a student, the Extension school even considers me to be a full-time student, so it was perfectly acceptable!). It was pretty tough to sign the credit card screen--damn, that's a lot of money, and I'm the kind of person who feels guilty about dropping $45 on a pair of shoes--but afterwards, I didn't feel guilty or sick or upset at all, just really excited. Which for me was a sign that I'd made a good decision.
After buying the ipod, I wandered aimlessly in a daze for a few minutes, then went to Godiva and used the last of my gift card on some truffles, and I sat down on a bench to eat them and collect myself. Then I went to RadioShack and picked up the outlet adapter I'll need to plug things in when I'm in England, and I got an extra memory card for my digital camera, too. And Suncoast Video was having a closing sale, so I got the Graduation Day Angel action figure for $9, and some Inuyasha pins for Jorn for $3. Nice. Then I went home and played with my ipod and watched Wednesday's two-hour Top Model premiere and played with my ipod some more. :) I put 5 GB of music on it. Jorn said that was cute. I'm so excited I have all this space to expand into! And I can put pictures on it, which will even be useful--I know Jorn downloaded a bunch of subway maps designed for mp3 players, so I can put a London underground map on there that will be good to have when I'm there next week.
So--here's what my ipod needs now: a funky case, a charger that plugs into the wall instead of my computer, and a name. The first two I'm going to have to get on my own, but you all can help me out with the name. I came up with a few ideas, which are in the poll below, but I don't think they're the best ideas ever. You all probably have much cleverer names to suggest. So suggest away!
[Poll #688365]
In other news, Costco's online photo center now has a new policy that you have to be a Costco member in order to order pictures from them. I think that blows. I've been using their photo center for several months now, and I liked it because I could upload my pictures and then my mom could order them and get prints too. So stupid. I don't want to pay for a Costco membership just so I can buy pictures, even if it does end up being cheaper than whatever else I would do. I have no idea where there's even a Costco store near me, so I doubt I would use it to buy food and stuff. I had a whole plan to use just my digital camera in England, not my 35mm camera at all, and now that's thrown into disarray. I'm so freakin' pissed off.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 04:26 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:21 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 04:37 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:00 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 07:00 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:01 pm (UTC)From:*ducks*
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:01 pm (UTC)From:I bet Costco implemented that policy because of IRS (or similar federal) regulations. Costco has this fiction that their members are buying stuff for resale and/or business use (and I’m sure lots of them are, just not all), and that probably affects how they’re taxed and regulated.
There are, however, lots of other sites that let you order prints from your digital photos. I’ve used Ofoto in the past (which has now become Kodak Gallery, linked above — they were always owned by Kodak) and been happy with them, and I know there are lots of other similar services. (Flickr also has a new printing service, and they have good network effects if you want to share your photos.)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:14 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:31 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:20 pm (UTC)From:I think I'm going to do Kodak. But I'm annoyed, I'll have to move all the pictures from one to the other, and I had a lot of pictures in my Costco gallery. Grr!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:09 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:14 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:26 pm (UTC)From:Cheapass bastards.
Did they tell you that when you bought it? I'm surprised he didn't try to make add-ons to the sale with it.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:31 pm (UTC)From:just makes an excellent excuse to go talk to the cute British boy againwill be annoying, you know, but I should really get that done.Do you know, are cases for them only available from apple, or can I get a cute and functional knock-off case for cheaper elsewhere?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:51 pm (UTC)From:But I got it on Amazon (cheaper), and you probably don't have time for it to ship. So go check out the options on Amazon or similar tech store online, figure which you want, and see if a local store has them for you.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:23 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:51 pm (UTC)From:ITunes is not the devil. I hear the devil is crafty, and ITunes is beneath him, believe me.
How can it possibly not have a wall charger? I'm almost positive Tisana's did, and it's a cheaper one!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 06:20 pm (UTC)From:She might have a cheaper one, but I bet it's an earlier version. I have the latest version, and apparently they decided to cut the wall charger out of the package for this version. Because it charges while it's connected to the computer, so theoretically there's no need for a wall charger. :/
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 08:22 pm (UTC)From:http://deadwinter.livejournal.com/739087.html?thread=2980623#t2980623
You can buy a powered USB hubfor $11 at Microcenter, and it would achieve the same effect of having your computer on the whole time just to charge the iPod.
Using a computer to charge a device seems insane to me.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 07:05 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 08:23 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 05:56 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 06:21 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 06:50 pm (UTC)From:i'll be at work tuesday, so if you haven't left yet i can bring it to harvard for you. i could swing by your work and see your swanky office.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 07:24 pm (UTC)From:I'm a costco member!
Date: 2006-03-10 06:11 pm (UTC)From:And if you ever needs 68 rolls or toilet paper in one swoop, let me know and i'd be pleased to take you for stuff.
Love you!
Re: I'm a costco member!
Date: 2006-03-10 06:24 pm (UTC)From:(And I might take you up on the shopping trip sometime!)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-10 07:03 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 03:18 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 06:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 01:47 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 01:47 am (UTC)From: