So, here I am typing away at a blog post using a miniature keyboard on board my return flight from Kentucky. And as I thumb-tap along to Death Cab for Cutie in my headphones, I remain impressed with this little device’s versatility and usability.

First, I was able to spend most of my time at the conference this week connected and in touch with emails and work from home. The Wi-fi capabilities of the iPod are excellent. Anywhere I went where I could get wireless, I was quickly able to sync up with email and calendars, along with Twitter and to-do lists. The only issue I’ve had in that department was trying to access “pay-to-use” networks at the airport, which was frustrating, blamed more on their inability to handle diverse mobile users rather than the device having issues itself.

I’ve also been impressed with how much use this thing has been able to handle with ‘ner a hiccup. I’ve been going strong for days now, simply charging up for a few minutes here and there. No overheating. No funky locking up. (I’m clearly a Windows user, as I’ve come to expect such things).

The applications included and available for free download are all pretty slick and really expand upon the versatility for me. Like I mentioned, Twitter got a lot of use this week. I’ve tested two apps, the free Twitteric and the $2.99 Tweetie. I’m going with Tweetie because of the better searching and no adds. I have my finances syncing through Mint.com, music tracking with last.fm, and much more.

Along with all the standard iPod music features, I’m also very impressed with the new Genuis features incorporated into the Touch. I’ve been really into this custom recommendation feature in iTunes and now it comes on the iPod. If you haven’t tried this yet at home, you really should. iTunes will build recommendation playlists from your music library and listening trends. I’ve found it great fir rediscovering music from my collection that hasn’t gotten much attention lately. A good reminder that I have too much music.

My iLife is now more completely integrated. I’m not sure if this is good or not, but at least my email response time has decreased significantly and I’m more organized. I’m still going to give the students who sit at the back of the INN with their iPhones going strong a hard time. But I think I get it a bit more now.

Here’s a picture of me, written by me, filtered by me, edited by me, about me.

1.    I’ve been blogging since just after I got married. I was 22 then. My blog was called Twenty-Two. Then I turned 23. I renamed it to Twenty-Three. Then I got lazy and never renamed it again. I’m now 26. It’s still called Twenty-Three.

2.    I was a part of the first Facebook generation, connected only to students at WWU.

3.    I’ve been happily IM’ing since the days of AOL dial-up. 24.4 baby.

4.    The first song I downloaded on iTunes was a Dashboard Confessional track.

5.    Twitter is my favorite way to blog these days.

6.    I can easily count at least 16 different email addresses I’ve had.

7.    While I was a late adopter, getting a cell phone in college, I quickly became a proficient texter. I do not have a land line.

8.    I cruised the original Napster back in the earliest days. My parents’ internet bills went through the roof.

9.    I own my own web design business during the summers and in my free time.

10. My parents do not have Facebook. I bet yours do.

11. Every job I’ve had since college has involved at least some sitting at a computer.

12. I’m an accomplished transcriptionist.

13. The first computer I ever had was a Macintosh SE.

14. I’m greatly impressed at the fact that we can email, chat, and even video chat with people around the world.

15. I had a PDA for about a year. It was too slow and boring.

16. I’ve been described as “gadgety”.

17. I’ve been connected to many of my ministry peers, locally and around the country, solely through email, Twitter, and blogs. I’ve never met most of them face to face.

18. I graduated Western with a certificate in Internet Studies.

19. I’ve said things to people over email or IM that I’ve regretted.

20. I’ve been broken up with over email.

21. I constantly battle pride with regards to my iLife.

22. I very often feel overwhelmed with the amount of time I waste on the computer.

23. I wish I had a Mac.

24. I believe that God can use me, even in the world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Google, to do good, loving work in humanity.

25. I believe that Christ would not have us shut off our computers all together, but does ask us to make him much more central in our iLives.

*Note: This style of post is very prevalent among current and former students these days. I’m doing a bit of creative imitating. Not mockery. Thought it would fit well with the talk.

I built it myself from scratch. I bought all of the components off of newegg.com, including the motherboard, processor, hard drive, etc. It was a pretty cool experience, putting it all together, making everything work right. I know it sounds nerdy, but it really is pretty fascinating to understand how everything is put together in there. (I’m comfortable enough to post about this, knowing that you will rib me with comments about being "techie" and a nerd. So be it.)

Specs:

• 250 GB hard drive
• 16X DVD Burner
• 52X CD-RW drive
• Athlon 64 Processor, running at 2 Ghz
• 19" Flat panel monitor
• and a decent video card

I’m very happy with it and I actually think I saved money compared to if I had purchased it at the store. Also, having built it, I didn’t have to clean off all the crap that HP or Compaq or whoever installs on your computer when you buy it, so that means more space for me.

Ok, my nerdy rant is over…for now.