journal for 2003-09-15
ipod
I don’t have an iPod. I have never, actually, owned an iPod. I’ve wanted one roughly since they came out. I have a lot of music, and I like to listen to music whenever I do just about anything. It’s a hassle to carry CDs around. About five years ago I got a minidisc recorder, and I really enjoyed it, but it’s gotten to be a real pain to record minidiscs when I have all my music already ripped to my hard drive. Most MP3 players only had a tiny capacity (256 MB is just not enough), and many of those didn’t have interchangeable media, which made them ridiculous. Most of the big ones weren’t just big storage, they were big devices that wouldn’t fit in my pocket. The only problem I had with the iPod was that it won’t play Ogg Vorbis. (Well, and it’s a little pricey.)
Owning a Mac helped convince me that the iPod was going to be the right way to go, though. Seeing Bryan’s iPod and Lorna’s iPod didn’t hurt, either. I was so convinced, in fact, that I started re-ripping my piles and piles of CDs into MP3 format. Sorry, Ogg, but pragmatism wins, here.
Last week, Apple unveilled two new sizes of iPod, the 20 and 40 gig models. I figured this would help drop prices, and it did. The old 15 and 30 gig models dropped by $50 each. The time was ripe to order! I agonized over which to get, and finally settled on the 15. Then my boss pointed me at the vast collections of “coupon codes” I could find through Google, and I found a pretty sweet one for the Apple Store. I ordered the 40! I will be carrying a lot of music on my hip!
Since I saved a pile of money, I decided to pay for the two-day shipping. I did so, and placed my order on the tenth. I’m really bad at waiting for things to ship, so I shuffled around and was really impatient while I waited for shipping confirmation. I got that on Thursday, and I was pretty stoked: a lot of stuff from Amazon ships from Delaware, and it only takes a day to arrive. I was hoping for the same. I might have my iPod by Friday!
Later that day, though, I saw that it was shipping from Shanghai, so I gave up all hope and just waited for the “scheduled” delivery, the 15th. Today, though, the parcel just kept on not showing up. The tracking information remained useless: the last event was “picked up in China.” Finally, I called Airborne, and they told me that “It’s not in the US. We don’t know anything else. Once it gets to the US, it’ll only be two days, though, since you have two-day shipping. Try calling tomorrow morning, maybe they’ll know more.”
Maybe I’m crazy, but I always thought that two-day shipping meant that two days from shipment, not two days from some point during shipping. Otherwise, why not define two-day shipping as the delivery of a parcel two days after two days before it arrives? If it doesn’t arrive tomorrow, I’m going to demand my money back for the shipping. Even the Apple Store says that this is “2-3 days from shipping,” not any other weird definition. I’m pretty irked.
work
That irk goes on top of the rest of my daily irk. I was sans coworkers for a good part of the morning, and it was pretty annoying. Then I learned Bad Things about how parts of a project were completed. Basically, they were done quickly, but in such a way that they will severely hamper my ability to perform much more critical work.
We went to lunch, but ended up going somewhere I dislike. This is especially bothersome because I almost never go out to lunch anymore, in my attempt to eat well. Next time, I’m just going to be plain about my desire to go where I like. I feel bad, though, because I’ll be the guy who’s rocking the boat. Still, I don’t want to eat hundreds of calories that I don’t want. Honestly, it was really depressing.
Other stuff went on, too. In brief, I wish I had a lot of time to work on the things that everyone thinks are important. My scheduling at work is depressing. I feel really disconnected from my goals; even calling them “my goals” doesn’t feel right. I’m running a Life::Story installation, there, now. I feel good about that. It helps me keep track of what I’m doing, and it makes it plain that I’m doing something. I think more people might find it useful. Maybe I’ll show it to a few potential users, soon.
home
Gloria picked me up a TastyKake pumpkin pie on Friday, and we’ve been enjoying one or two of them since then. They are pretty darn good. I’ve seen them now and then over the years, but I never had the courage to buy one. This was my loss! Having a tiny pumpkin pie tonight made me feel better about the cheesesteak this afternoon, which really doesn’t make sense.
I picked up Super Puzzle Fighter for the GBA, and I’ve been playing it at the gym. I need to play more of it on the PSX, especially now that I know about some of the secrets of the game. I need to really understand how defense works, though.
Mostly I’m playing Front Assault 3, which mdxi suggested, and which totally rules. It seems like it will take me forever to finish it, but I’m OK with that. In the meantime, I’d like to find more games that Gloria enjoys watching. It’s nice to have her sit around and spot for me or just watch and have fun. I have no idea what the next game that’ll fit that description will be! Pikmin 2 seems like the best guess, and that would be a long shot.