jrmehle.com

It was inevitable. That lovely little friend known as my iPod kicked the bucket last week. I was trying to sync it up so I could listen to some recent podcasts on the road and it was fighting me the whole way.

First it synced about 4 of the dozen or so that I wanted. After a few more attempts at getting it to sync the rest, I got fed up and decided do a full reset. It meant having to re-sync every song in my library (6500 songs takes about 3 – 4 hours), but in the past, it’s fixed my issues.

Well, I think the reset was about as much as it could take. Shortly after plugging it into AC power, it stopped responding entirely to button pushes. I plugged it into my PC, it recognized it, but still wouldn’t transfer. I’ve had drive problems since a few months after I got it. It would randomly freeze and the only fix was a hard smack against the palm of my hand. I’d also done a self-install of a new battery after the original stopped holding a charge and the warranty was up.

Yesterday, I stopped by the Apple store and picked up a 160GB Classic. I’d been planning on only getting an 80GB, but I remembered Apple’s recycling program. Bring in any iPod, working or not, and they’ll give you 10% off any iPod purchase the same day. Not only did I get rid of the old brick, but I got a nice little discount. When it was all said and done, I got double the space for only $40.

My biggest complaint is that they no longer include an AC adapter in the box. Something that’s not a problem for me because I still have my old one. The other minor annoyance is that the backlight now stays on the entire time the iPod is connected to a PC or in my car whereas the previous version turned off after a few seconds.

Update: Yesterday, I got a Griffin Reflect case for my iPod too. It’s shiny!

Growing up, I was always encouraged to read. Whether it participating in the local library’s summer reading program, earning pizzas in my school’s reading program, or just plan enjoying a book on my own, I loved to read as a child.

Somewhere along the way, I changed. Maybe it was my fascination with technology. They didn’t have books in Star Wars, they had holographic devices to get their information and entertainment on. Maybe I associated books with school and school with being forced into things I didn’t want to do. Those stories we were assigned in English class always seemed to drag on no matter how many pages they were. Maybe, my tastes simply changed and reading books no longer seemed like a fun thing to do.

Whatever the reason, books simply don’t interest me and they haven’t for a long time. That is not to say I don’t read. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I spend large chunks of my day reading online. I track over 60 feeds in my RSS reader and that number grows all the time. On my Facebook profile under “Favorite Books,” you’ll find one entry: The Internet. And I wasn’t trying to be funny or clever. I really do only read the Internet.

The bigger question is, “Do my habits make me dumb (or dumber than I would otherwise be)?” The benefits of reading are proven and well understood. Higher intelligence, better vocabulary, and a better understanding of others are all skills improved by reading. Am I missing out because I choose to stare at words on a screen rather than on a page?

The reading I do online is probably much more than I would ever read out of any single book in one day and it’s from a varied number of authors and sources. That logic would indicate that I am somewhat ahead of the game. Although, one might argue that the sources I’m reading from aren’t as high quality and therefore are less stimulating. Regardless, I think I’m fairly well versed in culture, above average in vocabulary, and intelligent for the most part. I’d be interested to hear what others think.

I opened up my email yesterday to find an invite to the Hellgate London beta test. I had signed up months ago and forgotten about it. And if you aren’t a hardcore video gamer, then you’re probably thinking, “Great! What is Hellgate London?” right about now.

Hellgate London is a new MMORPG coming out next week. The publisher, Flagship Studios, is comprised mostly of ex-Blizzard North employees. Blizzard North, of course, was the studio that put out both Diablo games. Hearing the words “Diablo” and “MMO” in the same sentence is enough to make most any gamer salivate. Myself included.

However, Hellgate London is not a Diablo sequel, nor is it set in the Diablo universe. With all the demons and medieval weaponry, the game does have a very Diablo-inspired feel to it. In terms of gameplay, it is first and foremost an RPG. You quest, gain experience, develop skills, and collect armor, weapons, and items. The cool thing is it also includes things you’d normally see in a first person shooter. You use the standard movement keys (W, A, S, and D) to move around, but the camera is locked to your mouse. One click is equivalent to one swing of the sword or one shot from your gun. At first the hybrid gameplay style is confusing; especially coming from a traditional MMO like WoW. After a few minutes, I was able to rid my mind of the typical MMO controls though.

Ever since I got bored with WoW and stopped playing (about a month ago), I’ve been looking for something to fill that empty feeling. Like the avid reader, I always have that game that I’m “playing.” I think Hellgate London is going to be it. I found another detail that made the game even more enticing. There is no required monthly fee.

Instead, there are two classes of accounts: paid and unpaid. For only the price of the game, you get access to the online component for the life of the game. Paid (“Elite”) accounts get access to exclusive content for $9.95/mo. I can tell you, after paying $12.99/mo (Blizzards 6 mo bulk deal), $9.95 looks like a bargain. It seems as though they have a pretty good idea of how upgrading or downgrading your account is going to work too.

Last weekend I agreed to take care of the Hadash’s pooches while they were out of town for a wedding. As I’ve said before, it’s always a good time.

The husky, Mishka stirs up trouble once in awhile. There was the surround system she destroyed by chewing through the power cable. Luckily, it wasn’t set up yet and thus, was unplugged. Then there was the time she swallowed a large rock, somehow passed it into her intestines, and then cost her owners $2000 to remove.  Sure enough, she couldn’t go three days with me there without some incident.

It was the last of three days that I was there. At 7AM, Mishka comes prancing into the room and starts howling and licking my face. This means she’s bored after being awake for probably over an hour and wants to go outside to play/release internal waste. I stupidly rolled over and fell asleep for another hour. I awoke at 8AM to both dogs wagging their tails (and the husky holwing of course). I walk into the kitchen (which is where the door to the backyard is) and find, all over the floor, pieces of my former toothbrush and my tube of toothpaste. I carelessly had left both sitting in a half-zipped pocket of my duffel bag. Silly me.

So, a trip to Target and $6 later, I now have a new toothbrush and a full tube of toothpaste. All is well.

Being the good Mac fanboy, I was anxiously awaiting Apple’s announcement today. With a title like “The beat goes on,” you knew it was going to be new iPods. Having just taken it all in, I have some reactions.

Well the word is out and so are the new iPods. New colors for Shuffles. Blah. New “fatty” nano. Don’t care. New iPod “Classic.” Interesting, nice price point. iPod Touch. I was hanging on every word until they got to the size, 8GB and 16GB. Wifi enabled. Sweet! Wifi iTunes Store. Also sweet! Starbucks partnership. *silence*

I was all ready to go to the Apple Store after work to buy me a new iPod Touch until I found out they were only going up to 16GB. I can’t live with 16GB. I’m the kind of person who likes to be able to hear a song on a whim. The only way to do that is to carry my whole collection around with me. I reached the point where I could no longer fit all my music on my 60GB iPod not long ago. I deal with it by only putting the stuff I listen to somewhat often on it. That reduced collection is somewhere between 25-30GB. Why couldn’t you have made a 32GB version, Apple? Charge me $499 for it. Everything else about it is sweet, but if you have a device that’s supposed to hold my music, video, and photos, it’s going to need to be larger than 16GB.

Over the weekend, I attended the annual Renaissance Festival with my family. Pictures have been uploaded to Flickr. I was reminded of one thing; My family can’t be together for more than 10 minutes without fighting about something. This past weekend, we all got together to celebrate my birthday and of course, words were flying.

These are just some of the observations I made on Saturday. I can’t stand the music that any of my family listens to (most notably, Nickelback) and they can’t see why. My mother is the most cautious person on the planet which causes her to be the worst back-seat driver ever. I wasn’t even driving and she was making me go nuts. She can also dish out as much criticism as she wants, but you can’t criticize her. My dad really is a fun guy to hang out with when his nagging wife isn’t around (sorry Mom, but it’s true). Hannah’s crocodile-like teenage angst is still alive and kicking. Any quick movements will set her off. Brenna will expect you to go along with any activity she plans, and will get angry when you don’t go along with the plans, but would rather spend time with her boyfriend than do any activity anyone else plans.

They’re family, so I have to love them, but it’s probably good that we don’t spend more time together.