Forget national disasters and government mismanagement, the most important issue facing me right now is the death of my iPod. Of course, it’s two weeks past its warranty. Earlier this week, I was listening away at work, charging it at the same time, when suddenly, the song skipped and then it just stopped and the disk was spinning and spinning. I pushed some buttons. Then the sad iPod icon came up. He/she looks really sad–x’s for eyes and a frowny face. It could be the battery just needs to be replaced or it could be something much, much worse. I’ll be making a trip to the Apple Store this weekend, but I’m not holding out much hope. Waaah!

Update for those looking for solutions: The nice people at the Apple Store gave me a refurbished iPod, which died after about six months, but I was able to revive it by banging it against the palm of my hand. I’ve since purchased a new iPod, but Mr. Geeky is still using the old one, almost a year later.