malkav11

The iPod is great. Durable, small, tons of storage space, and it remembers my position in spoken word material (!!!). Okay, the files do have to be set to do that, but that's pretty trivial to accomplish. I'm never going to use it for video because the screen's like a third of my PSP's screen size, but for audio, it's terrific. I just wish the headphones didn't have this tendency to tug themselves out of my ears as I move. I don't recall having this issue with the Sony earbuds I was using with my PSP (not the official PSP ones, but some I got in Germany while visiting Sony Europe HQ, long before any portable audio devices.). Not a huge deal, since I'm more listening on the bus or at work than while walking, but I do want to do it while walking in the future when it's not quite so hideously hot.

And the latest Civilization IV expansion just released, and sucked me right back in. Or rather, sucked me in for the first time....my original experience with Civ IV was fun, but somehow lacking something, and I never did finish my game of it. Warlords didn't sound like it added enough to worry about it. Beyond the Sword, though, makes for big changes that really flesh out and enhance the play experience, particularly religions. And there's a bunch of mods that, for perhaps the first time ever for me with a Civ game, actually sound like they are sufficiently far flung from the base game to be worth my time. Tonight I finished up my first full game, a Chieftain-level Epic game on a Huge map, as Shaka of the Zulus. Space Race victory in January, 1980. Theocratic Jewish Zulus for the win.