24-Hour iPod People

If you missed my iPod update yesterday afternoon, I decided to leave my iPod on until the battery had drained to see if it would kickstart it the next time I use it, then shut it off, then try to use it again (read the old entry if this doesn't make sense).

I'm going to bed now (at 6 a.m.) and my iPod has been playing nonstop since 2 p.m. yesterday -- 16 hours straight!

I'm more confused than ever. It loses its charge if it's turned off for an hour but can PLAY for 16 hours (or more -- I'll update this when I wake up in the afternoon).

:-)

One Bad Apple Don't Spoil the Bunch?

SEE UPDATE BELOW!
I know a lot of you are tired of hearing about my Apple/iPod problems, so if you're one of them please stop reading now.

Truth be told, though, this is really more of a question than an actual complaint. So remember how I took my iPod to Rome last month and didn't even turn it on until the flight home, only to discover the battery was dead (having been fully charged and then never used)? Today I was in the mood to listen to the new Peter Bjorn & John tracks I got on iTunes (see how hip I am?) so I took my fully charged iPod to work with me today. Listened to about two songs on the short ride to Times Square and then I turned it off. As I was leaving work tonight -- a mere seven hours later (thank you, Newspaper Guild of America!) -- my iPod was completely dead again.

Do other people have this same experience or is my iPod truly defective (again)? I can't believe you can't listen to it on the way to and from work in one day without the charge going dead. With the Rome thing it had been sitting in my bag for five days, so even though that seemed ridiculous given the fact that it wasn't turned on, I could almost accept that. But all in one day? More than anything, I'm in disbelief. Anyone? (In case it matters, mine is the Fifth Generation model.)

UPDATE: So I turned my iPod on at 2 p.m. and decided I would continue to let it play until the battery died. It's now nearly 10 p.m. and it's still playing -- and the green battery indicator says it's still fully charged. I have no idea what is going on. I'm guessing the problem may have to do with the unit's ability to turn back on after resting. The battery (obviously) is more than capable of working for hours on end. Sadly, my iPod is more than a year old now and Apple kind of blows you off at that point, or so I've heard.