From the Get a Life Files

We know we've discussed Facebook's "Family Feud" application, and we don't mean to start a trend or anything, but this morning we were playing ACOS's "Fast Money" round, and we got the question: "Name something you would dress up your iPod as for Halloween."


Has it come to this? Do people actually "dress up" their iPods? People who dress up their pets are pathetic enough.



But dressing up your iPod? What does that even mean?!?

Frankly, we had no idea. We typed in "pumpkin," which seemed reasonable enough, but found out that "pumpkin" was "already answered." Seems great minds and cousins think alike. Well, OK, we tried "skeleton." When the answers were revealed, we saw that ACOS's answer (pumpkin) received 0 points. So did "skeleton." The number one answer? "Ghost."

A napkin with eyeholes cut in it, maybe?

We hereby resolve in 2011 never to dress up our iPods. We do, however, think our cell phone would look adorable as Strawberry Shortcake.

Shuffle Befuddlement

One thing we like about the iPod is the "shuffle" feature: With hundreds of songs from dozens of bands, we never know what we're going to hear next. But since these songs all come from our own collection, we are pretty much guaranteed to hear a song we like.

The only drawback to shuffle is when it lands on a song that is part of a larger work. Think side two of "Abbey Road"--from "Here Comes the Sun" through "And in the end. . . ." is really all one big symphony. But the iPod doesn't know that. Nor does it know that the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" is SUPPOSED to be followed by "A Day in the Life." So instead of hearing familiar piano chords right after the cheering and guitars fade out, we might hear Guns n' Roses or Aimee Mann or Springsteen: Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but jarring nonetheless. Don't even get us started on what happens after "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" --better known to most people as that bit that comes right before the "We don't need no education. . . " part of "Another Brick in the Wall": The music crescendoes, but instead of a rock-and-blues marching anthem, we get. . . well God knows what we get.

Yes, we know, we could just take the iPod OFF shuffle when it's playing a song that is really just a single part of a larger whole. But then we worry that we're going to confuse the device, and it'll just start playing things that it was playing right before we took it off shuffle. . . . Maybe we're overthinking this.

Suggestions?