Rediscovering Music: Lenny Williams

I just got a new stereo and haven't been able to connect my iPod to it yet, because it uses a different cable from the last one.

So, instead of having the luxury of listening to my favourite songs from my iPod, I have been forced to listen to entire albums. I don't do this anymore, except for in the car and when I buy a new album (but then I quickly transfer my favourite songs to my iPod).

The surprising thing is that I have been discovering songs on my albums that I somehow overlooked.

First case in point: I have had Lenny Williams' Spark of Love album for at least 6 years and somehow never managed to make it past 'Cause I Love You and Changes.

Now, I've gotten to really listen to and like Half Past Love, I Still Reach Out, Midnight Girl, Think What We Have, You Got Me Running, Freefall (Into Love) and Shoo Doo Fu Fu Ooh!

This I am embarrassed to say is almost the entire album. That is the thing about the best song being the first song. Sometimes you just don't get to the rest of the album.

When Technology Fails

Or perhaps that should be, when people with the technology fail.

I blogged about my dear iPod dying on me a few weeks ago. Well, I'm happy to report that is has been brought back to life by the wonderful people at Superior Equipment. I dropped it there, thinking that it would probably have to be replaced. I got a call a few hours after I had left that I could come and pick it up. What??? I thought. Okay, I had not tried to reset it or tried troubleshooting. I did that the first time around and this time, I just could not be bothered.

Well, I picked my iPod up on Saturday from their Civic Centre shop only to find it truly was working. I don't know what they did, but I'm very glad that I don't have to bother uploading all my songs and video to a new iPod.

Then, last week my phone slipped out of my bag into some water. The minute it hit the water it went off. I hurriedly fished it out and wiped it down. I tried to switch on the phone but it didn't come on, so I decided it was best to let ir dry. My sister managed to slide the back open to get our the battery and SIM. I let these dry before trying the SIM in my old phone. Luckily, the SIM worked in my old phone and I had lots of numbers stored on it. Unluckily for me, however, most of the numbers I had gotten over the last 7 or 8 months were stored on the phone itself and, yes, I don't have these backed up anywhere. On this realisation, I just about went into some kind of shock. I wondered how I would live without these very important numbers. Surprisingly though, barely a day later, I found myself surviving extremely well, thank you very much! We think we are so hooked onto certain things and will absolutely die when we don't have them (figuratively speaking, of course!) and we surprise ourselves by our ability to forget very easily.

Anyway, after months about entertaining fleeting thoughts of backing up my computer and then actually getting 'round to do it with CDs (of all things!!) and then running out of CDs, because I have just too many files to be effectively backed up by this system, I finally went out and bought an external hard drive. I decided that I had to do it on Saturday, by hook or by crook.
It has 300GB, far more than I probably need but it cost virtually the same as the 160GB so it didn't even make sense on any level to buy the smaller drive.

I spent the early hours of Sunday morning formatting the drive and backing up. Now I am a very happy (and secured) girly.

iPod Goes Kaput - Again!!

Some of you might remember that a while ago, I moaned about my iPod going kaput. Well, guess what this new one has gone and done? It's freaking died out on me. I'm hoping that if I leave it for a while, it will magically start to work again. However, I have to say that the prognosis is not too hopeful.

When I press the round button in the middle, the screen flickers to life for a split-second but then quickly goes gray. Half the screen is grey and the other half black. Doesn't look good, at all!

The good thing is that I have a warranty and so I should be able to get a free replacement. But what a pain in the you-know-where! I have to get to the Apple-licensed store, which is really out of my way and then I have to upload all my songs again. Then, there'll always be the thought somewhere in the recesses of my mind urging me not to get too attached to the new one just in case it also dies out on me. The first one barely lasted 3 months; this one has tried, I suppose - I've had it for about 6 months.

It's funny. While I'm tempted not to bother with iPods in the future if the new one also stops working, having an iPod has also changed the way I listen to music. Now I have access to all my albums at once. It has also changed the way I think about my music. Since iTunes alllows you to create playlists (well, a sophisticated and faster version of the mix-tapes we used to make back in the day), it has also changed the way I organise my music. Where I would normally group my music by artiste, now I tend to create playlists around moods or genres or what I plan on using the music for e.g. Work Out.

Okay, I will get a replacement (it's free, afterall), but if anything happens to that one I might have to seriously think about other brands.