Wow. The way my day started, I never would have guessed I’d have ended it in such a giddy mood.

And the reason for my giddiness? Today I received my sparkling new 30-gig iPod with video, a few days earlier than the delivery estimate I got from Amazon, where I bought it.

Why did I splurge for this new toy? My trusty old 2nd generation 10-gig iPod was giving out on me. It still played songs and such, but it refused to play with iTunes; it would either freeze up the computer or else not sync up with the program. After a couple of firmware updates, restores and various other tweaks, I concluded that it just wasn’t going to work. I was a bit put off — I had actually gotten the thing repaired not that long ago — but I quickly decided that I should just cut my losses and finally get current with my portable media player.

So I gave the old one to my brother (not sure what he’s going to do with it; he may end up just giving it back to me), and ordered my new one. I went for the cheaper 30-gig one instead of the 60-gig model; I never came close to filling up the 10-gigger, so hard drive wasn’t an issue. But I was looking forward to all the other features, including the color screen, on-the-go playlists, extra games, and of course the video playback. And of course, I had to go with the classic, iconic white version.

I’ve spent about half the day playing it (luckily, it shipped with the battery just about fully charged). It’s going to take some getting used to the design of it; it’s ridiculously streamlined compared to the old model, and just lays differently in my hand. It’s hard to believe something so flat can hold so much stuff. Not that I’m going to max out those 30 gigs any time soon: The 800-odd songs and half-dozen videos I’ve got on there are taking up only 4 gigs.

I’ll definitely be getting a lot of use out of this baby. I am in New York now, after all; having an earbud-tethered iPod on you every walking moment is practically a prerequisite.