My smiling mug showed up in the Pioneer Press this morning, and thankfully I didn’t look like a mad scientist. The story, “iPod Nation” (registration required) covers people and their interesting uses for the iPod. I use mine to record interviews which landed me a few quotes, a profile and a picture (the online version doesn’t include the photos, so I scanned mine).

I didn’t say anything stupid, but I didn’t say anything brilliant either. I was actually more impressed with the guy they quoted after me, the Georgia Institute of Technology professor who records bird calls. I was also hoping for some more funky iPod uses. One of my favorites is how the band Sanctus Real uses one during performances.

I was also a bit disapointed that the writer, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, didn’t include my rant about how cool 89.3 The Current is and how I’ve discovered a bunch of new bands from them, bought the songs on iTunes, and now listen to them on my iPod. That was in full effect this weekend when I heard two cool songs during my four hour drive in the snow and then bought the tracks the next day. 11 of my top 50 most played songs I first heard on the Current. Maybe next time, Julio, we’ll give The Current their due.

Seriously though, I think quoting a fellow writer made Julio a bit nervous, but he did the best he could with the material I gave him. Saying something quotable must be a skill that comes with a lot of practice.

For the most part though, I’m just happy the photo doesn’t make me look like a mad scientist. Every other photo has the person doing something crazy, which is what I had to do (poor Linda Cullen, her picture looks exactly like what they made me do). Thankfully they didn’t use my crazy photo. Though I do have the entire process recorded–and after listening to it again and comparing it with the picture, it looks like the one he used was a light test. Or so he said.

But my favorite photo is the 12-year-old girl dancing and her hair going everywhere. With the black background and people in color style of the photographs, it’s like a reverse iPod commercial. My hat goes off to photographer Ben Garvin for not making me look like a freak.