IPod Surgery, Super (British) Sunday

It was quite the unusual weekend, at least beyond the usual festivities in London, all beginning with a horrific Saturday morning when all of a sudden my iPod stopped working. When I tried to turn it on the hard drive would make this whirring sound and then click, and try and whir again, before clicking and stopping. To make matters even worse, after clicking a few times a picture would come up on my screen of an iPod with x'd out eyes, definitely not a good sign.

Scary image to see.

So I hurriedly tried all the iPod tricks I know, which is essentially just resetting it over and over again, to no avail. Two things I am truly grateful for: the internet, and that people really love their iPods so much they are willing to try anything to get it fixed (if the warranty's up). So I googled my way to the answer, which was to pry the thing open and shake it. Apparently something was stuck inside and was preventing the needle from reading the hard drive. I have no idea why shaking a closed iPod doesn't fix it, but you can't argue with the results: when I plugged it back into my computer it recognized the mp3 player instantly and I was able to exhale after holding my breath for 5 hours. Thankfully basketball practice was cancelled so I didn't have to make the tough decision between iPod surgery and running suicides.

Because I'm a huge dork and I also believe other people might be as dorky as me, I took a picture of the opened iPod:

On the surgery table

Meanwhile two football teams thousands of miles away were getting ready to battle for the ultimate prize. My dorm bar carries the Super channel, saving me from dropping 20 pounds to go to watch it at a bar. Add to that free food and 1 pound Beck's. Unfortunately the TV was on the small side and we had the British broadcast, meaning no American commercials, arguably the main reason to watch this annual event. A sluggish game, one amazing play (Randle El's pass to Hines Ward), and crappy British commercials made this a relatively pedestrian Sunday, but in the long run will make me appreciate couches and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advertising when I return for the 2006 season.

Haven't seen all the commericals yet, but the one with the phone with crime deterrent was probably my favorite so far. A lot of it is the atmosphere though, and how the commercials play off the action of the game at that particular time, so it's tough to judge.

Deep in the middle of term can only mean papers galore right now. The view of Greece and Rome in the distance is the main thing keeping me going...

Roger