death of an ipod

Apple is a master at planned obsolescence. My iPod crashed two days ago, on my way home from work. It was hooked up via cassette adapter to the car radio.

Went to the Apple Store today to just get it checked out. The Mac Genius said the hard drive's dead. They'll give me 10% off a new one if I recycle through them, or see if I can Google a $50 repair job.

Funny thing is, the CD player in my car started to skip around the time I got this iPod at the end of July 2004. So the iPod kept me company and entertained all that time driving, also while working out, and walking to and from classes. And now that I have an iPhone, the iPod goes. I also just got Roomie the new iPod Touch for a birthday gift two weeks ago. We'll see how long that one lasts.

"Planned obsolescence is the enemy," as one of my classmates in a Design and Industry history class declared in her paper. So true, so true. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the like make billions off of this. The laptop I type this blog on started having major issues almost three years after the purchase date. Three years I guess is the magic number. Three quick years worth hundreds or thousands of dollars to people like me, and maybe you ;)

marion jones

Here's a good article about the Marion Jones mess.

I really like Marion, even though she's cocky and sorta bad-mouthed Inger Miller, I still felt she represented the US very well. She was superwoman, and she made me and so many others believe that "it" is possible. Her races were so exciting to watch, especially the ones where she ran people down! She inspired and allowed people to dream. USA! USA! USA!

Roomie bought into the whole BALCO scandal; read books and articles about it. Everytime I or we watched tapes with Marion in it, Roomie would point and say with an accusatory voice: "cheater" or "drugs." I shrugged it off, even though I was the first to say, wow, look how round her face got and how many pimples she has.

I watched her race at the 1999 World Championships and immediately watched her race in the 2000 Olympics. I showed Roomie both tapes, one after the other to compare her facial features. In 1999 she was so "gaunt," and in 2000, looked bloated. The two tell-tale signs I remember about people on steroids is that they have pimples and their face get puffy (Ben Johnson).

I think she took the stuff because Inger Miller was catching up, especially at the 1999 Worlds, and also because she got injured at that same meet. The article above also mentioned the Olympic schedule...a good point.

I knew she was on something, but I still wanted to believe that she wasn't. I still like her. I'm just sad about the whole thing. I wait for the interview, for someone to ask her "why?" She didn't need it, she's so naturally talented.