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Ugh!  Why are they discontinuing the only Apple product I like!

Soooo, if you haven't heard, they are discontinuing the iPod Classic.  This is a disaster.  I have a ton of music, and I want to put all my music on my device, because I may not know what I want to listen to on any given day.  Some days it's classical - and some days it's a specific kind of classical.  Or it might be soundtracks, or new music, or music from high school and college, or oldies, or classic rock, or WHO KNOWS.  I NEED ALL THESE OPTIONS AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES.

I also like not having to charge my device every day/every other day.

I also like just being able to use a scroll wheel, instead of having to actually look at my device, unlock a screen, go through apps and programs, etc.

I JUST WANT A REGULAR IPOD THAT JUST PLAYS MUSIC AND DOES NOTHING ELSE.

I mean, I have an iPod Classic, but it's about six years old, and who knows.  Anything could happen.  I could drop it tomorrow.  It could freeze and I might not be able to reboot it.  I could spill coffee on it.  (That has the greatest likelihood.)  The little port for the plug-in might get a little bent thing in it or something.  ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN.

So I needed to buy another one.  But it's not available to just buy online because reasons, and my local stores don't have any available, so I just bought one to pick up in-store at a Target like an hour away and it says my order went through but I will not believe it until I get my confirmation "your item is ready to pick up!" email and even then I will need to have it in my hands.

Just.

I hate you, Apple.

ETA: UGH I JUST GOT AN EMAIL THAT IT'S NOT AVAILABLE AT THAT LOCATION.  CHANGING MY PICK-UP LOCATION.  SO HELP ME GOD.

ETA 2: Okay it's available and ready for pick up at the other location, which is even farther away.  Blessings on that Target's family, blessings on that Target's cow.

Dear parents who have chosen not to vaccinate your children:

Thank you. No, really. Thank you for choosing to believe one single study, that has since been discredited and its author stripped of his medical license, over every other medical professional's opinion. Thank you for watching a segment on the Today Show and basing your decisions on that eight-minute stretch. Thank you for reading Jenny McCarthy's book and thinking, "Yeah, she's onto something."

Thank you for dragging your sick children out into public, as well. That's a vital part of this whole equation.

Thank you for all of that, because I probably have whooping cough. WHOOPING COUGH. A disease that was practically non-existent in this country because enough people were vaccinated against it, keeping those who weren't (me, as a baby, because I had a horrific reaction to the shot) safe through herd immunity. Thank you for destroying the entire concept of herd immunity. Thank you for making idiotic decisions that not only threaten the life of your own children, but also the lives of all the people your children come into contact with.

XOXwlejiafo;eiji;eoa

Sorry.  Just had a coughing fit. At least this time I didn't run out of breath or start wheezing or get dizzy or vomit because of it.

Anyway, XOXO. Yeah.

I had a horrible night's sleep last night.  Hooooooorrible.  It began at dinner, when I came home from work and espied a brand new two-liter of Dr. Pepper.  I couldn't remember the last time I'd had any Dr. Pepper.  The two-liter saw me looking at it and started dancing, very slowly and seductively, the saucy little thing.  "Dr. Pepppppppperrrrr," it sang.  "I'm Dr. Peppppperrrrrr."  So I had a single glass, and while it was very delicious, when you really don't drink pop at all anymore, and it's too fucking hot for coffee, a single glass of anything with caffeine, especially at 6:30 pm, is maybe not the best.

But even that could have been overcome, if someone on my street hadn't decided to go out at midnight and turn on their car radio to KDCK, Loud and Thumpy FM.  And then, like, IDK, chill in their driveway with a Michelob or something.  What are you gonna do, it's Kansas.  So I'm lying in bed, doing that stubborn thing where you yell at your own brain in a stentorian Satan voice.  "GO TO SLEEP.  JUST IGNORE IT AND GO TO SLEEP.  YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP AT AN EARLY GROWN-UP TIME FOR WORK.  SLEEEEEEP!" 

After about half an hour of this, I decide to investigate.  I tiptoe down to the front door and look through the peephole.  The porch light is off, so I basically see nothing at all.  My thought process goes like this:  I can turn on the light, but all I'm doing is heralding my presence to anyone outside.  I can continue to stand here and look through a peephole into blackness.  If I turn on the light, though, the monsters will know I'm here.  But I can't see shit.

I decide to flip on the light, there are no monsters on my front step, so I open the door and listen, which means that I stare really hard into the night with a stupid look on my face.  At this precise moment, there is no thumpy.  I listen and listen, and I imagine whoever it is to be sitting in their car - or, more likely, crouched behind it, probably nefariously - taking a swig of Michelob, laughing and laughing, maybe pointing a little.  I lock back up and toddle off to bed.  A few seconds of triumph.  I showed them!  I turned on my porch light for 1.7 seconds!  They know I mean business.

Five minutes later, the thumpy has returned.  I just laid there and dealt with it, and eventually must have fallen asleep, though I do not remember it.  I only remember waking up with an audible "FNNNNNFFAAAAFFFRRR" and groping my way out of bed and running into shit as I walked down the hallway.  A glance in the mirror confirmed that yes, I will look like Momma from Throw Momma From the Train all day.  My hair is doing....something, my face is sort of pallid and eye-baggy and fuzzy and hazzled (I made that word up just now, it sounds right), and I'm definitely like eighteen inches shorter.  I'm sitting on the computer, peering at the monitor with squinched-up eyes because the thought of putting my contacts in is horrifying, I need to start getting ready now but I'm too tired to put on clothes, the thought of breakfast is making me urg, and a dog is requesting me to please provide him with sustenance, ma'am, oh please, am I not the best dog, do I not guard your every footfall, and I am now realizing that when I ran into aforementioned shit while wobbling down the hallway at top speed, I stubbed my toe and broke the absolute fuckery out of my nail. 

Yes.  An asspicious start.

I hate sewing!  I hate sewing!

Stupid sewing machine doesn't work!

I can never miter corners cleanly!

Stupid fucking bobbin I hate you!

Ripping stitches goddamnit!

I hate sewing!

Thursday - that's four days ago now - nhpw told me that Tron (1982) was up on YouTube.  Now, I have not seen Tron since I was a tiny little kid.  I don't actually remember anything about it.  I have been trying to watch Tron since June - right around the time I got obsessed really into Babylon 5 and wanted to see more of Bruce Boxleitner.  So, as you can imagine, I was pretty excited.

I was even more excited when I clicked the link and saw that it was a really, really high quality upload.  I decided to download the movie from YouTube.  First of all, I was afraid it would get yanked, and I didn't want to risk missing it now that it was so close.  Second, I didn't want to watch it on my crappy old computer monitor.  No, I would convert the mp4s to AVIs, merge them into one file, and watch the movie on my nice big actual TV.

Thursday I downloaded.  Friday I converted.  Friday night!  Tron night!  A night for which to watch Tron!  Except...I couldn't get the mp4s to convert.  And when I finally did, I couldn't get the files to merge.  It's now Saturday.  I'm still working on it.  Reading FAQs.  Downloading new programs.  Finally my sister asks why I don't just download the movie from megaupload or something.  That is a great idea!  Why I have never thought of this!

So I did.  A great big AVI file.  It was shiny.  Happy, beaming, maybe crying a little, I burned it onto a DVD and pranced to the TV.  I loaded the DVD.  It...did not play.  

Hmm.  So I downloaded another one.  This time I just put it on a flash drive - make sure it works first.  I was troubled when a prompt came up telling me that some file properties couldn't be transferred, but I was still hopeful at this point.  But no.  It didn't play, either.

Sunday morning...

( The third time's the charm. )

Caprica got canceled.  They're not showing the rest of the episodes until next year.

I am like legit depressed right now.

Why do the networks never understand that it's worth hanging onto really good shows that may not get the best ratings? Because they pay off in different ways? SyFy, you're not going to get critical acclaim for any of your other shows, sorry to say.

Also, maybe its audience didn't pick up because you took it off the air for seven months and never advertised it. I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE THAT'S IT. It reminds me of that rant David Cross did when Arrested Development's ratings dropped and FOX was talking shit about the show. Paraphrased, "If you've got a show that's making top ten lists, winning motherfucking Emmys, and you can't market that show? Maybe the fault doesn't lie in the show. Maybe the fault lies in marketing. Thank you."