It’s nice being able to watch videos on the bus too. It’s annoying to have to convert videos before they’re iPod-ready, but HandBrake makes it easy. I really wish it didn’t take so long to convert videos. If the touch could play DivX and XviD, I would be so happy.

I jailbroke my touch so that I could install applications on it, but haven’t really done much with that yet. Aside from a couple games, I don’t think there’s anything really compelling to install. Why would I want to install Apache on this thing?

I love being able to surf the Internet with it. I can check my email (and, ahem, Facebook) on the go and even watch YouTube videos. It’s amazing how far the iPod has come since I bought my monochrome fourth-generation iPod three years ago.

My only beef with the iPod touch is that there is no tactile feedback. Because all the controls (except the power and home buttons) are virtual, the screen can change to contain the controls you need for whatever you are currently doing, but the downside to this is that you never really know where things will be. Also, you can’t control your iPod without looking directly at all.

I usually keep my iPod in my pocket and when I get to a song I don’t like, I can usually find the forward button to skip ahead, without even looking. With the touch, I have to take it out, unlock it, look for the button and press it. It probably doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it feels like it has gone backwards a bit in this use case, which is a bit annoying.

I’ll live with it though. Overall, the iPod touch is freaking awesome. I’m excited to see the iPhone come to Canada … I am seriously considering getting one.

Now I need to replace my camera (which was really special because it had a crazy 8x optical zoom).I lost my trusty 20GB iPod which I liked since it could hold all my songs. I brought my iPod shuffle to work, but since they stole the charger, I can no longer charge my shuffle. They don’t sell standalone second-generation iPod shuffle chargers, since they are bundled. So basically, I went from having two iPods to having none.

I guess on the bright side, I am going shopping in the States tomorrow, so I can try to start replacing a few of them.

And yet, I’ve lost eight pounds.

This morning, I put on a pair of lululemon pants that used to be a bit tight at the waist, but today they were slipping off me. I kept having to pull them up to stop myself from walking all over it. I really should have worn a belt. It sucks because I already have enough trouble finding clothes small enough to fit me. Gah!

1. 4GB: Kingston DataTraveler USB key ($49)
2. 1GB: Orange iPod shuffle ($84)
3. 500GB: I/OMagic GigaBank external hard drive ($149)

At first, I thought the external drive wasn’t compatible with OS X because I just couldn’t mount the drive. It worked after I formatted it to HFS+ rather than the default FAT32, so I did a little digging to see what the problem was. It turns out that OS X can’t read FAT32 filesystems larger than 137GB, so the 500GB drive was obviously not going to work. I wouldn’t mind simply leaving the entire drive in HFS+, except it means that it wouldn’t work on Windows or Linux without extra software.

So, I decided to partition it up:

• 100GB FAT32: for Windows/Linux compatibility
• 80GB HFS+: for backups of my PowerBook
• 320GB HFS+: for general storage

I figure this is the best solution, as it still gives me lots of room for storage while maintaining full OS compatibility. I’ve got tons of room to store all my videos now! It kinda makes me wish I didn’t delete so much stuff though.

I was very happy to see that my teaching evaluations all came back so positive. The students all strongly agreed or agreed with everything in the forms and I got really encouraging comments all around.

I kinda want to teach a first year programming class in September so that I can teach the more basic concepts. I think it would be interesting to teach students who are learning their first language.

Last night, I downloaded a recording of the show and I’m trying to learn my parts. It looks like a fun show!

I went back today after work because I didn’t really have much else to do. I noticed that the treadmills have a “fit test” option, so I tried that out. It simulated a mostly flat area but with a bit of an incline half way through. While I was doing it, I felt good since I wasn’t getting exhausted. I am used to doing awful on any sort of test related to physical activity. Back in high school, I got zero on my tennis test because I could not, for the life of me, serve a tennis ball correctly. One of my attempts almost hit the teacher in the head, and he wasn’t even standing on the court. Anyways, after the five minute “fit test”, the computer thought a little while about my performance while I took a swig of water, thinking that maybe I wasn’t so out of shape after all. Then, I got back my results: Very Poor.

I guess I still have a ways to go.

If you have any suggestions, let me know. I haven’t had much luck finding a good, not-crazily-expensive one.

I had a huge headache just now, which really hurt. I was sitting at the dining table clutching my head because it hurt so much. But I have a midterm tomorrow, so I can’t just helplessly lie in bed right now, unfortunately.

My brother gave me some Tylenol, but I kinda stared at the bottle, dubiously. I tried swallowing a capsule, but I pretty much fumbled with it until it started dissolving in my mouth, then I had to spit it out. Luckily, I have Google.

I searched for help and came across all common suggestions that just don’t work for me. Water doesn’t help me! I kept looking … then I found my answer. I chewed up two crackers, then just before I was ready to swallow, I popped the pill in my mouth. When I swallowed, I couldn’t even feel it! Yay!

My head still kinda hurts, but at least now I know that I can swallow pills if I really need to!