Biked 9.30 miles... iPod musings

I biked 9.30 miles today. It's the first "real" ride (more than a couple miles) in a long time; at least since mid-to-late last year. I've been trying to get back into bike riding regularly, but haven't found the time or energy to do it. I think that energy is coming back. :)

I just wish there were a nice trail around here. The day I decide to move somewhere new, I want it to be next to a nice trail. A place you can ride for miles and miles and not have to constantly watch your back for traffic. Even though I'm careful, I know I could relax more if I could ride for a while without 2000 pound behemoths passing me at high speed. It would also mean I could turn my iPod up a bit more since I wouldn't have to constantly be listening for traffic.

Speaking of iPods, my friend Rieshal tried to sell me an 80GB video iPod for $300, brand new. It's a good deal, but when I weighed $300 versus the delta of what the new iPod gives me over my old 20GB 4G, I decided my old white iPod still has quite a bit of oomph in it. There's three things I like about mine in particular; A) it has firewire support, which the new models lack. I like being able to sync it without eating up yet another USB port, B) The screen is highly visible when the backlight is off... Sure, the color display is nice for watching movies and viewing photos, but when you're just listening to music, it's nice to be able to glance at it and see what song is playing without turning on the backlight, and C) the UI feels a lot faster. I can find a track faster on mine than on the new 80GB iPods, even using the search feature on the new ones! That says something about interface speed.

I will miss these three advantages when my iPod eventually dies, but having 80GB (or more) to play with will be nice. I only have about 5GB left. :)