...Yes, I'm back on the subject of my iPod shuffle again. Last time I was convinced that it was trying to kill me. This time it's just trying to freak me out.

My iPod shuffle is possessed. I know I've talked about it before about how it's out to get me, but this time I'm convinced something otherworldly is happening here. Remember when it wouldn't play Chicago tunes for me? Well, I think it decided to make up for lost time.

The other day I was listening while I was working (I call it "going into the cocoon") and my iPod paused for about 5 seconds. I notice this because everything runs together so smoothly, and I figured I'd hit a button accidentally (it happens at the gym, and I don't like locking and unlocking the button functions so I live with it). I look down and it starts playing a song by Jason Scheff (one of the leads). I shrug it off, and keeping working happily. Then it plays a Chicago song. Then a Robert Lamm song (another founding member of the band). Over the course of the next half hour it plays every single Chicago, Scheff, Lamm and Champlin song I've got on it.

Then it pauses for 5 seconds. And resumes it's normal shuffling activities. Bizarre. It's possessed. I'm convinced. Why else would it do something like that? Be so averse to an entire band (who comprises the greatest segment of the music on the darn thing) and then all of a sudden play it all in a row?

A former co-worker says that hers does that to her too. She thinks it's a great conspiracy by Apple programmed into the algorithm. I hope that's all they've got programmed in there. I'm just waiting for the day that someone says that Microsoft has subliminal messages playing while you're listening to your Zune (their mp3 player). But I digress...

I went and loaded some more Chicago on it, removed some other things that I haven't been listening to lately or skipping a lot, and reset the skip and play counts to see what it decided to do. It didn't do the pause thing before playing a big block of Chicago or it's related band members - it just plays them now without the dramatic pausing.

I think its knows I'm onto it and that it won't be able to fool me for much longer unless it decides to go totally random which will probably throw me off the scent of a larger conspiracy...

...like maybe it has the ability to read this blog when I plug it in and sync it to iTunes.