should i be concerned?

i'm not a big user of mp3 players while i run, but on occasion, running with music is a nice diversion. i used to have a nice, tiny one but it died a couple months back due to the excessive perspiration that i experience. so, when the new ipod shuffle came out, i was excited at the prospect of something so tiny and able to clip virtually anywhere.

this past week, smsmh picked one up for my birthday. i was super excited to get music loaded over to it and give it a try out on the roads. i spent saturday night filling it with lots of up-tempo, loud and intense music; perfect for running hard.

the shuffle, if you're not familiar with it, is either in the order that you load the songs, or random. i like the random feature, since it seems like i'm listening to my favorite radio station. up early on sunday morning to head out for a long trail run, i decided to bring it along and give it a shot.

i loaded up the camelback, threw the ipod in it, put in the ear buds, turned it on and pressed play...and was greeted with, "you are an inspiration to me, you are an inspiration on how not to be, you are an inspiration to achieve a better way of life". woah. how RUDE! how DARE my ipod say something like that to me.

the music kicked in, and i headed off on the run. a little disturbed, but not concerned. but then i started paying attention to the songs that IT was playing for me. at one point it was yelling at me, "WAKE UP! WAKE UP!", and then later, it called me a 'loose canon'. i was beginning to think that there was something up with this tiny piece of technology.

and then it dropped the following bombs. in judaic references to God, most of the names used for Him translate to "one". well, the ipod began proclaiming, "i am one". and then with the next song, began shouting, "i am a robot". and the last straw, it said, "i want to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger".

people, my ipod thinks it is a robot god and it wants to kill me.

[edit: no, it wasn't speed metal or gangsta rap and the lyrics were completely taken out of context...well, with the exception of the "i am a robot". because that song is all about the writer being a robot. "the best thing is our lifespan, we live 900 years". at least i don't have to worry about replacing the ipod in my lifetime if that's the case!]