Today, my iPod expressed its undying love for me.

Has anyone ever made a mixtape for you as a way to circumvent an awkward admittance of their feelings for you?  For some reason, I attract that type of dude, and I've had more mixtape gifts than I care to expand upon.

But this morning, I rolled the dice with a Genius Playlist on a Neil Young song, and the mixtape that it made me has changed how I see my iPod, which I call my nPod, forever.

nPod loves me.

I personally have fallen in love with technology, but I never thought it could return the favor.  I nearly blushed as the quality, tone, and mix-up of songs that my lover, the Genius Playlist Maker, chose for me.

Yes, of course, I chose the set of songs to upload onto this device, and yes, I've heard all of them before, so it wasn't quite the same as a love interest attempting to connect with me through their favorite songs.   But I will say that the algorithm not only matched the weather, the time of day, and my mood, but also the progression of my commute as I walked from my Brooklyn apartment, rode the crowded train, and walked around cool, windy, newly sunny Manhattan into work.

Here were the songs that unlocked the key to my heart:

1. Neil Young - Old Man
2. David Bowie - Changes
3. Cat Stevens - The Wind
4. Wilco - Jesus, etc
5. Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
6. Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
7. Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
8. Wilco - California Stars
9. Neil Young - Harvest Moon
10. David Bowie - Heroes
11. My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday
12. Cat Power - The Greatest
13. David Bowie - Space Oddity
14. Neil Young - Unknown Legend
15. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

The Pretenders put me in the mood for a fine latte from Cafe Grumpy, then Cat Power congratulated that good decision and encouraged me to put on sunglasses.  New Order greeted me and a good-looking stranger in the elevator up to the office.

Comments

[Andrew Anker]

Don't take this wrong but how old are you? With the exception of New Order, every single one of these songs would be on my iPod too.

[Matt Jacobs]

I find it entertaining that a bunch of dudes favorited this. Apparently we are all mix-makers. Or technology-lovers. Probably both.

[dazeddez]

I love how the IPod has the opinion of doing this it used to only be available on iTunes. I love making Genius Playlists for trips, jogs and party's it is always a a good choice :) . If you like that you should get the Pandora app. for iPod or go to Pandora.com on your computer it is kind of like a genius mix, but it is internet radio. It lets you choose a musician and it takes that person and makes an entire list of other musicians similar to that one. :)