Shuffle

I'm not Obsessive-Compulsive by any stretch of the imagination. I'm pretty laid back and don't particularly obsess over anything. But I do have one small thing that I get fixed on sometimes. And that's what's happening with my iPod.

For the past four months or so I've been in the middle of an accidental experiment with it. When I turn on the iPod I put it on Shuffle. Even after I've put 10 new records on it, I'll still put it on Shuffle. I don't create playlists or anything like that. I just like being surprised and not knowing what the next song will be. And yes, I can listen to radio stations for that effect, but most radio stations annoy me. Although I will say that Raven Rock shocked the hell out of me when I was out this evening by playing "Birdhouse in your soul" by They Might Be Giants.

Anyway, normally I play the iPod on Shuffle for a week or so and then plug it back into the computer and update the songs, which resets. However, back in May I stopped plugging it into the computer for updates. Quite unintentionally, but there you go. At some point I just became curious if I could play the entire contents of the iPod on Shuffle, what the last song would be and what would happen. Yes, I could have done this on an iPod with a few songs as opposed to the 6,877 songs I happened to have on it during this period, but no one said this was a sane quest.

I didn't listen to every song, but I say I listened to about 95 per cent of them. I enjoyed the 6,666 song was "God, Part 2" by U2 for reasons I know are silly. Sadly, the last song was kind of anti-climatic. I've always thought there was a hidden intelligence buried deep inside the iPod given some of the song selection. So I was hoping the 6,877th song was going to be something cool. Alas, it passed up a nice song by Tom Waits, "San Diego Serenade", which played two songs before the end. Or "At Last" by Etta James, which was eight songs before the end. But instead it went with a perfectly pedestrian song by the Bloc Party.

Oh well. And then the iPod went back to the main menu. A very anti-climatic end to four months of silliness. But at least now I know.

And yes, I know this is a light weight post, but I spent part of the day working on the Moving to Iqaluit blog post, so this is the best I could throw together at the last minute. Tomorrow, something a touch more substantial.

Last Five
1. Gunshy - Liz Phair
2. Song for Myla Goldberg - The Decemberists
3. All the small things - Blink 182
4. Little girl blue - Diana Krall
5. Arizona - Kings of Leon*