One thing my iPod is good for (besides making me look cool with it's stylish white "hey check out my iPod, aren't I awesome?" headphones) is exposing my absolutely shocking taste in music.

With a 60gb model, I didn't exactly have to be picky with which music I put on there. Instead, I went ahead and put all of my music on there - almost 4,000 tracks. Cool in the 'my entire music collection in my pocket' stakes - but awful in the 'but that includes all your cringe-worthy tracks too' stakes.

Case in point: the shuffle (random play) feature. It's awesome for discovering obscure tunes you may have forgotten about - but, in the process, even more tracks that you probably forgot about for a reason.

For a little experiment, I thought I'd chuck on shuffle now to see the first five tracks it throws up (and whether I'll be able to show my face in public again afterwards):

1. Planet Funk - Who Said
Y'know, "I've never been to the USA / I'm slave on a minimum wage / Detroit, New York and LA / But I'm stuck in the UK." Besdies marvelling at their exceptional use of geographic locations in lieu of rhyming lyrics, it's a bit of a nothing song. I can't imagine anyone runs around citing this as their 'OMG best track ever'.

2. The Shapeshifters - Lola's Theme
Isn't weird how songs can increase cheesiness over time? I thought this was quite stellar when it was released a few years back. It now appears to be some kind deluded homage to cheesy vocal house with pseudo-inspirational lyrics repeated ad naseum over top. "I'm a different person / yeah / turn my world around" x 50.

3. Run DMC - It's Tricky
Finally, some music to make me look funky! Though I always get the sinking feeling I'm not quite cool enough to be listening to it. Still has an awesome beat to it all these years later.

4. Alanis Morissette - Excuses
For me, Alanis is one of those artists whose albums you slavishly buy, only to you never really listen to them or you just plain can't gel with the contents. She's still doing her thing, I'm still doing mine; but we're never gonna really meet in the middle.

5. Garbage - Cup Of Coffee
The shuffle seems to be doing a bang up job today - Garbage is my absolute favourite band. 'Cup of Coffee' is one of their great slower tracks, though much more suited to Suicide Tuesday as it will totally play right into your dead and black little heart.

So the iPod seems to be performing today then. Good job, iJosh!

Bonus: iTunes actually keeps track of which songs you skip the most (during shuffle / album play etc). For the record, mine is: Hybrid - Choke from their album 'I Choose Noise'.