Shyzer.com

Is there any worse time for the new Harry Potter to come out than right before I go traveling for two weeks? I think not. I went and bought it tonight (no, I didn’t stand in line right at midnight. I was smart enough to wait until 0100 and then go to Wal-Mart, where they still had 100 - 150 left. I’m already to chapter 5, so I forced myself to put the book down and not start reading again until tomorrow. I don’t want to just fly though this one like I did the last five! In fact, earlier this week I went back and read the 5th one over again to freshen up in my memory what had happened.

However, I’m supposed to be leaving for Charleston in about three hours and I’ve yet to sleep. Something tells me I might not be leaving on time tomorrow morning. Just a hunch. Luckily for me, though, the three hour drive won’t be nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. Why? Because my new iPod arrived in the mail yesterday.

I hadn’t realized how much I relied on my iPod for entertainment until I no longer had it. While up in Minnesota, it somehow broke after being in Waynus’ hands for under 60 seconds. I don’t blame it on him….but come on, it can’t be coincidence. Either way, I tried in vein to fix it for a few days before giving up and sending it back to Apple for a replacement. I’ll admit that it only took six days from the time I sent it until the time I received my replacement, but I still was without an iPod for at least 10 days or so.

I probably listen to my pod anywhere from three to seven hours a day. Once I wake up and get dressed, I always slip my pod into my pocket and slide my headphone around my neck. Anytime I walk, say, to class or throughout a store, the headphones are over my ears. Any time I’m sitting at the computer talking or working on Shyzer, the headphones are over my ears. Hell, whenever I’m driving, the headphones are over my ears. It’s become a habit that I had no desire to break. In fact, the only times I’ve found that I can’t listen to music is when I’m reading or typing something.

Yet when my pod was gone form me, I was at a loss. My music was no longer right at my fingertips. If I wanted to hear some Blink or Coldplay or David Gray, I had to find a computer. And not just any computer, but a computer which I actually had the songs downloaded to. And then once I had found this mythical computer, I had to actually stay within hearing range of this computer. What kind of Neanderthal way of listening to music is that

I love music. It plays a central role in my life and better defines me than most people realize, which is half the reason I’m still working ever so diligently on Shlyrics. No, that section is not completed yet. I’ve only got one final part to complete, the one part which I had initially thought would be the easiest but have soon found to be the hardest. I’m now at the stage of actually trying to explain just what each song means to me and that is a far more difficult task than I thought it would be. But I’m getting it done, song by song.

When I listen to music, it of course mirrors my mood and state of mind. But it also does much more than that. You can learn a great deal about me by looking at the music on my pod. You can tell what generation I belong to by finding those hit songs that were popular when I was a kid. You can tell what artists I like most by finding those with the most songs on my pod, thereby deducing what type of music I like best. From there, you could guess at what kind of moods I like to be in best by listening to those artists and seeing what type of songs they sing. You could see the weird and random and sometimes foreign music that I have on my pod, which would reflect my love for learning and embracing new ideas and concepts. The list goes on and on.

But for me on an everyday level, I’m just happy to have my pod back. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some Australian music to listen to. Nothing like a dose of Art of Fighting, Thirsty Merc, and The Living End.

Oh, and hopefully they’ll have internet connection at the beach, because where I’m going is fairly secluded. If not, then I’m sure I’ll find some other way to post…