Give me a spine to break, or give me death!

Ever since I got my iPod Touch, a little over three months ago, my habits have changed.

I'm not sure if the new habits are good or bad, but I am definitely missing books; actual books with spines to break and covers to judge. I am still trudging through an e-book I started at the beginning of March, and I must say that e-books take away entirely too much from the reading experience.

I know that not all e-reading devices are created equal, but what I experienced of e-books through the iPod Touch has been less than thrilling.

The e-book I downloaded from Apple's app store doesn't provide page numbers for me to measure how much I've read in one sitting. It also just scrolls down the page, sometimes on its own if I just tilt the device a teeny bit by accident. If you double tap the glass one thing happens, while if you just single tap the glass something else happens... I can't even remember what does what, but I know that I can never keep it straight, and end up either losing my place, or have what look like toolbars appear at the top and bottom parts of the screen. It is all so very frustrating and repellant.

I have really missed actual books in the process, and have started reading a new book, complete with a spine to break and cover to judge. Reading is fun again!

I turned 31, and my life changed!

For my birthday I received the gift that keeps on giving. Well, technologically anyway. I am now the proud owner of an iPod Touch. It has an immense amount of gigs ready for me to fill with endless hours of music and close-to-endless hours of movies. It's more than safe to say, then, that I now belong to the ever-growing population of people whose noses and index fingers are perpetually touching a touch screen.

Although this isn't my first MP3 player-- I've owned two iPod Nanos in my time, and I have no complaints about either one-- The IPod Touch is so much more than just an MP3 player. It is a portal one can use to expand horizons easily overlooked when on a regular computer.

I'm talking about the numerous apps available in iTunes's app store, a lot of which are absolutely free-- and so useful, I wonder how and why they're free. I've downloaded all kinds of apps, ranging from Pandora Internet Radio and Facebook, to BBCReader and all of Shakespeare's works in one place. I have yet to pay for an app and the pages to scroll across are multiplying at a rapid, scary pace. I've found a way to organize things I never thought about organizing to begin with, and some I've organized in less convenient ways than the swipe or touch of my index finger.

Thanks to the iPod Touch I started logging what I eat and how often I exercise using an app that keeps all that organized for you so that after you input the details, you see the big, simple picture, in turn, paving your path to fitness to make it easier. I've also organized my growing collection of knitting needles, which will make planning a project that much easier, though I'd already started organizing it using Excel and printing an updated copy of the chart each time I bought new needles... now I don't have to waste all that paper and don't have to worry about whether I have the updated copy or not.

Before: Using Excel to organize

After: Using the Needles application on the iPod Touch (isn't it purty?!?)

I could go on and on about how my iPod Touch has changed my life, albeit in small ways, in just a matter of days.

Finally, what fascinates me the most is that a device such as this is like one of those leatherbound, zippered planners that serious business people used to carry around to organize their hectically important lives. Add to that they had to get the refills, which cost a fortune and must be filled out by hand. Nowadays, even teenagers have their lives organized in a device that not even a CEO would've dreamed of owning less than a decade ago.

I don't believe anything makes you happy on its own, but I feel lucky in more ways than I can express for having a lot of things in my life, and the iPod Touch is one of those many things that make me smile.