It finally arrived. My iPod mini, which happens to be the same color as the current Halfass background color, was delivered yesterday morning by FedEx. A birthday gift from my sister, my iPod mini was a bit late in arriving due to overwhelming demand. I named it “Gasoline Rainbow,” plugged it in, and it “just worked.” I now have 700 songs to take with me anywhere I go in a device smaller than my first mobile phone.

There is no question that iPod Mini is the bling bling player of the age. Everywhere I go, people comment on it. They usually say one of three things: 1) what is that? 2) Oooh! You got the mini! I want one, or 3) Oooh! You got the mini! I’m still waiting for mine.

After some initial poo-pooing on my part due to the price tag, I have come around to Gruber’s way of thinking and believe the iPod Mini is a great product. I do not need a huge amount of storage on my portable player, because I have a huge music collection. While this may sound contradictory, I have nearly 120GB worth of music. I’m still in the process of ripping my CD music collection, and then I’ll move on to the records (over 2000 from which to choose). I have to purchase massive Firewire hard drives to supplement the 160GB internal drive inside my iMac. My point is that nobody makes a portable music player that can hold my entire collection (that I have seen), so I will always sync some smaller subset of my music files to my player. By that logic, and because dealing with the iPod through iTunes is so easy in terms of syncing specific playlists and smart playlists, why not use the bling-blingiest of bling bling players that so diminutive in stature that I hardly notice it in my pocket or attached to my belt?

Of course, since it was a very generous gift, and I have no intention of having to pay for repairs or replacement units should anything go wrong, I purchased AppleCare for the little thing. Turns out, that was probably a good idea.

As I write this, I’m rocking “The Red Headed Stranger” by both Willie Nelson (iTMS) and Carla Bozulich (iTMS) side-by-side.

“Red Headed Stranger” may be one of my all-time favorite albums. For those who don’t know, it’s Willie’s “concept” album. After a difficult time with his previous label, Willie signed to Columbia and was given complete artistic control over his first album. The result is a sparse, stunning and emotional record that consists primarily of guitar, vocals and piano (by his sister). Carla’s take on it manages to retain the emotion and tone, yet differs enough in instrumentation and character that it stands on its own as a great work. I highly recommend you pick up both.

Good times up here in the home office overlooking East Lake Drive.