adventures in Ipod Land...

and other random noise comments observations... so, last week we (mil and I) went over to Costco by ourselves & I purchased an iPod. (classic) 120 gb memory. black. :) Now keep in mind the last time i purchased music myself it came on cassette tapes. the first two hours out of the package I was very tempted to take it back, then Tim carved my name into the back of it... so that was a corker, had to learn how to use it... (not there all the way yet) but, getting there. can get music in no problems. ( have purchased hmmm 7 or 8 Cd's recently too...) today's was Beatles 1. ( so its playing now) :) the frustration begins when you try to load an CD audio book... the ones I'm currently listening to off and on are Harry Potter. the first few books have like 7 or 8 cd's to a book the books at the end have like 17 disc.'s. so, these books on CD are triple what it costs to buy the hardcovers but the good part is they are word for word and the person who reads them has an excellent voice, clear precise. I can listen to this without reaching for the books to decipher. One of the things that makes it harder is it doesn't come with an manual you have to go online and read it that way ( all 72 pages as an pdf file) which does not tell you how to load audio books and have them not listed as "music". finally i joined the iPod/apple "community" didn't have to make any posts to find someone else with the same problem and the answer she got was to go to this blog... http://aldoblog.com/2008/09/itunes-8-is-great-for-audiobook-lovers/ so, now at this point i can upload a book and have it show up as a book (with many many songs because an book with 7 cd's lists them as chapter 1 A ch 1 b ch 1 c etc etc... so the trouble starts when you load the second book you then get to hear book one ch 1 a then ch1a of book two...) so, fun thing we found an apple/mac store in Portland and now i have an geek squad (their term) ;) date in two weeks the morning after my next ear appointment. I'm too much of an overachiever to let it go in the mean time, will keep tinkering with it in my spare time but, it is very time consuming. I'm sure its one of those things that when you learn it, its not something you think about but, i am the only person i know who has one... so, today at best buy we picked up an cute iPod nano for J's Easter basket... kid picks up anything technology wise lickitey split... wants an ipod so bad, This is the sad part. I used to listen to music every day, for hours on end. played the stereo and do things around the music. and J's whole life, the only time he has heard music is driving around in his dad's truck. because, we don't have a stereo in the house and that was something that made me so very damned angry to lose when i went deaf, this was just as bad as losing family voices... sounds. which is where it gets even better, two ears hear this as music even more then just having one sound processor and even though i have only had the second sound processor for two weeks the clarity and the understanding are there Now, the programs this new one has are nearly identical to the the ones i have in the other ear now. in two weeks. i do not have the echo anymore. I never got dizzy. the rate the whole thing has healed and progressed is absolutely amazing. my Dr is very shocked by the whole thing, she had to fight tooth and nail to get me to accept the high definition sounds in the first ear, and the comprehension of spoken words took so very long this is really like having an utter miracle all over again. So, almost caved and told him we got him one when he was going on about them tonight... it was such a close thing. Think Tim really want to hand it over to him too... but, i am telling my self its only a week we can hang on to it for that long... I am the kind of person who buys an surprise and is so excited about it that when i was younger i would haha hand it over as soon as they came home, cool beans look what i found for you, which of course sends you out shopping again for a "surprise" closer to the occasion... if i had a smiley face for this blog that was rolling its eyes you'd have seen it a lot in here. there are other differences that are noticeable between having one sound processor on or both, and they do hear it differently at the moment, the new one has no "ignore" shocking eh? I would be the last person i would think who could take any noise for granted and yet i already do, take it for granted and tune it out... so, that part (lose the not as urgent/important noises) i think will come even more quickly for this second ear and in the meantime I'm enjoying the noise. (and the Beatles)