Live!

My personal site/portfolio, noellemanning.com, is now live! It's pretty much done, but I'm still tweaking some files and such before I post them, so there are still a ton of 404s. I was just anxious to get it up. The writing section is the most thorough so far. Go check it out! There will be more content (drawings, CAD, photos, videos, projects, etc.) REALLY soon. I'll post an update when it's done.

Early Christmas Present

So after all the stress that October brought (testing, apps, exams, school, work, life, ect.) I decided a while back that I would save up and treat myself to something nice after everything blew over.

A few weeks ago, my iPod decided that it didn't want to function anymore, though for the past year it has been randomly deleting all of its contents, faking deaths, and being problematic in general.  So for these last few weeks, all of my bus rides and walks have been silent (except for environmental noise, of course) and a bit peaceful at times. This was nice for a while, until I started to miss my music.

I had been eyeing the iPod Touch for a while now. It was cool when it came out, but it seemed like overkill since I thought I only needed my music and had no plans to play videos or use apps. In September when the new iPod lineup was released, the Nano caught my attention, and I was almost set on buying it had I had the money at the time. In the back of my mind I was also considering the Classic too, as the gb/price ratio was the greatest and the screen size was nice. By the end of September I had enough for whatever iPod I wanted, but I was completely undecided. Also, if I had purchased an iPod at that time, I would've almost completely depleted my account, which is no fun...I like having money.

In these last few weeks I fell in love with the iPod Touch. Not only the thin, sleek, multitouch, speaker-having, wifi capable, big, shiny screen goodness, but the apps! I don't know why I completely overlooked them when it first came out, but now I have a laundry list of apps I'd like to download or purchase as soon as I get my Touch. Speaking of getting my Touch, I'm getting an iPod Touch! I realized that the only reason I hadn't purchased it two weeks ago when I officially decided I was going with the Touch was that I was a cheapo. I wanted to hold on to my money for as long as possible. Why? I don't know. I think I was just a bit skeptical about making my first large purchase and parting with the money that I had labored (pfft!) for.

So tonight, I did it. I ordered my 16GB iPod Touch 2G. It went pretty smoothly until payment. "Authorization cannot be completed. Action Required!" WHAT?! I was more than sure that I had enough money and that I had certainly not surpassed my limit. Try again, same answer.  I call my bank and apparently they had put a block on my account for making too many Internet purchases, which flags my card for suspicious activitiy. I think the security measures are great (I went through a dozen questions to get to the point) but it might've been embarrasing had I been in a store or needed to do something quickly. I spoke to 3 robots and 2 different operators, but they were all pleasant and it was all cleared up within 15 minutes. I simply reprocessed my order and my iPod should be shipping soon, arriving between Nov. 7-12! I'm excited!

I still need a few accessories for it though **hint hint** stocking stuffers?