My iPod, Nwanda

I have many loves in my life. One of them is my iPod, Nwanda. As many of you know, I had recently been seperated from Nwanda, and not by choice. One day she erased her hard drive without any living assistance, and I was devastated. (I did have my entire library backed up, btw. All 8,300+ songs. And if you're like the once non-believer, Helen, I can identify each song.) After much time on the phone with Apple and much time spent driving to Salt Lake to spend more time at the Apple Store, I am thrilled to announce that Nwanda has been replaced and life can resume it's normality.

On that note ♪, I was waiting for Rachel to come out of piano today and started reflecting on my week of torture, a.k.a. The Week I Had To Listen To CDs. I got to thinking - if I had to make ONE CD that had my top ten songs on it, (because I had no other option than to have ONE CD) what would those ten songs be? I like this twist on the whole deserted-on-an-island thing, not just because it's a new twist, but because it could be REAL. (That and I have an affinity for making lists and writing things down, thank you Jeff Earl.) Here are my songs, in no particular order, listed by title/artist.

Butterflies and Hurricanes - Muse
Lagan - Afro Celt Sound System
Memphis Skyline - Rufus Wainwright
Mike Mills - Air
Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27, Largo - Allegro moderato - Sergei Rachmaninoff
Fotzepolitic - Cocteau Twins
Now We Are Free - Kelly Sweet
Requiem, K. 626: Confutatis - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Land Of Might Have Been - as performed by Jeremy Northam
Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing - Incognito

I think I could be quite content with this playlist. I also made a list of my 10 CDs I'd carry around if I ever had to, but I'll save that for another day.

It's that time again!

That's right, it's time for another semester of college! This Wednesday marks the first day of my latest semester at UVSC. (That's right, I'm NOT calling it UVU, just like Rick's is Rick's, and not BYU-I.) I shudder at the amount of money I'm racking up in student loans, but am hopeful that the end of the world won't come before I'm done with school, that our country won't be that much closer in that handbasket on the way to hell by the time I finish school, that our health care system won't be screwed up so badly that I will have wasted my time with schooling, and that I'll be able to look at my family and not regret the time I've invested in our future.

Wow, they sure don't waste time...

Rachel was enlightening me on some of the things she learned in school today. (I'll note, today was the second day, and she's now in 5th grade. Depressing.) She said that her teacher talked about WWI and WWII today. Her teacher said that WWI was started because someone got killed. (True.) Rachel couldn't remember who got killed. (Archduke Franz Ferdinand.) Then she started on about Hitler. Wow. I was really surprised to hear of everything that Rachel retained from what I told her (thanks, Indiana Jones, for making me explain to my daughter about Hitler burning books) and what she also learned from today. She knew about the gas chambers, the concentration camps, the signs, propaganda, Hitler's funny mustache, and the approximate number of people that were killed. Then she started talking about the "evil Italian." I asked, "Mussolini?" She said, "Yes."

Holy cow. I'm not ready for my daughter to be educated about what an evil, evil world this is and has been.

On a side note, I was yelling at a woman who called in to the Sean Hannity radio show today. (This is what happens when one certain iPod goes kaput.) She was insisting that we need not fight evil because God created evil and He's the only one who can get rid of it. Hannity was saying that as human beings created by God, it's our responsibility to do what we can to fight and prevent evil from happening. Duh.

What happened?

I work up pretty early this morning in hopes of making it to the gym. I get ready, have my suit on, my bag packed, and what should happen? I get sick. Sorry, Ronna.

I have a dilemma. A pretty big one. My iPod has mysteriously wiped itself clean of everything I put on it, save Peggle. I plug it in, look on iTunes, and see that 34.28 of the memory has "other" on it. My iPod also lost part of its identity, what with it being named "Nwanda V 2.0" and all that's showing now is "Nwanda V." Strange. All podcasts are gone, too.

I started adding everything back, and hopefully the situation can be handled without the need of going to the Genius Bar or sending it in. I'm looking at the capacity bar and the blue (audio) seems to be overlapping the orange (other) so hopefully it's nothing.

Here's to hope.

(I also apologize for this being such a lame post. I've really had nothing to write about, and I'm feeling quite ill.)

I can't take it anymore!

I'm on the Twilight bandwagon. I waited with a bajillion teenaged girls at Barnes and Noble Friday night, anxiously awaiting the last book of the series, Breaking Dawn.

It's Sunday afternoon. 5:34, to be exact. I still haven't finished. I'm trying my hardest to finish. But I can't. I can barely tolerate this book. I am at my wit's end, trying to break through Stephenie Meyer's hideous writing. I am seriously thinking of starting a website totally devoted to her favorite words, "grimace," and "murmur," and to her favorite phrases, "I blushed," or "If I could blush, I would."

Good grief. The first section of the book was absolutely horrible. As I've mentioned to a few friends, I think it's possible that it was hard to keep my interest because I'm married. What happens at the end of that first section, however, is when Stephenie Meyer "jumps the shark." No spoilers, but for those of you who've read BD, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Then we get to Jacob's part of the book. Aah! For once, my interest is piqued! I'm racing through the pages, anxious to see what's going to happen, and then... *poof!* Uggh. Are you kidding me?! Stephenie Meyer "jumps the shark" again!

I'm now back into the Bella part (I'm hoping there are no more sections after this) and am reading just for the sake of finding out whether or not Stephenie Meyer can redeem herself. At this point, I'm just absolutely disgusted and appalled that I waited in line for this book. My opinion of the book, thus far? EXCREMENT.