Naughty iPod? Give it a spanking!!

Still insanely frustrated by my iPod refusal to connect to my computer and the Apple store's confirmation that there was no fix other than restoring it and losing all of my music, I decided to poke around on my newfound love, LifeHacker.com.

Browsing all posts tagged with iPod, I came across a random one from 2007 that instructed you how to do your own surgery on your pod. However, this of course would erase all your music.

I thought I'd check the comments though and Voila!

• by kneemoe at 11:44 AM on 03/06/07

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  Sounds crazy, but this worked on my 4th G iPod when the HD started clicking after a drop. I'd read some articles about taking it apart, but as i started doing that i skipped to the end of the article... long story short, often the clicking is made by some little arm or spacer thats wiggled loose and is now somewhere it shouldn't be making the disk unreadable and creating the click every time the disk tries to spin
  here comes the crazy - smack your iPod hard against your hand. didn't work? try it again, and again, in differnet directions, different orientations. eventually that little spacer do-hicky will pop out of the spot it was in. i've been using my iPod for well over 6 months since i did this.
  and hey, if it didn't work before, what's the harm in trying this method when all else has failed?

Yup, that's right, just a little spanking. AND IT WORKED!!!

Woohoo!!!

back to the gym

As my friend Lisa's wedding in Portland is a little over a month away, and since Oregonians don't really appreciate the random pouches added on to one's body by 10 years of cheese and beer, I returned to the Wisconsin Athletic Club in earnest after work with a resolution to go everyday until I fly home on June 4.

I was doing really well with going to the WAC, but the false Spring enticed me to start biking through Southeastern Wisconsin instead. Unfortunately with the weather back to chilly and my bike getting tweaked at Cory's, I need to get back in my routine. I cancelled my trainer in mid-April, but that doesn't mean I can't push myself.

And I actually ran three laps today! (Don't laugh, I'm a biker, not a runner).

The only event of note was some jackass lurking while I finished my lat pull. Dude, I get that you need to use this machine but don't stand six fucking inches from me while I yank these weights toward my chest. And if you were standing that close because the exercise causes my chest to stick out, well then you're not just annoying me, but you're a perv as well.

iPod kaput

I meant to post this yesterday.

My iPod is officially non-connectible. I can still charge it on my dock, but it doesn't play well with computers.

Apparently Apple's only solution (I stopped into the Apple Store at Bayshore to confirm yesterday) is restoring.

That means you lose all your music.

Screw that.

I'll wait until prices drop and then just buy a new one AND keep my current tunes.

The whole thing SUCKS though.

when life gives you lemons...go bowling?

Tonight was an interesting one for sure.

After work I took the Route 31 out to Tosa and met the YNPN Book Club at Firefly for a discussion of Myla Goldberg's Bee Season. Our theme for the first quarter is Education, and this was our fiction book. It's pretty cool how it's set up. We pick a quarterly theme and then read three genres -- non-fiction, fiction and memoir/biography.

Discussion was good and food was excellent. Had a chicken sandwich topped with avocado, white cheddar and gorgonzola. MMM. Picked chive mashed potatoes and crispy bok salad as my sides. Delish! A glass of wine would have been more tasty than my Coca-Cola, but I'm still refraining.

Cut out a bit early as Brooke and I had plans to go see Post-Secret at Marquette. Craig decided to come along too, which was a nice surprise.

Now, when I went to Marquette I never took advantage of the plethora of speakers, etc. that they brought to campus. I think I went to a few things, but they were never crowded. Granted, the Internet was fledgling then. There were no blogs and no Internet celebrities. There was no Facebook or MySpace to meet other nerds who may be interested in attending an event with you.

No, I didn't go to campus events. I drank. But actually, my only true friends left from college ARE my fellow nerds. Hmm.

Well, apparently campus involvement is IN and we were extremely disappointed that when we reached the Weasler Auditorium there was a sign that the event was At Capacity.

Crap.

We were stuck on a college campus with me not drinking and my newlywed friends on a tight budget.

What to do?

The neon lights from across Wells beckoned.

"Let's go bowling!" I suggested.

Well, why not?

Luckily we were there an hour before League Night began. The student workers told us we could only have one game. Fine. Whatever.

They assigned us to Lane 7, which apparently didn't work. After waiting 10 minutes for them to reset the system, it still didn't work, so they agonized a bit and moved us to Lane 9. Keep in mind the Annex, with the exception of workers, was completely empty at this time. But apparently those leagues were about to fill the place!

My goal for bowling was to beat Barack Obama, which I barely did, with a 53. I did have a rally in the last frame and got a spare. That sure made up for all my gutterballs. Brooke handily won the game with like a 84,000 or something. I forgot she was in a bowling league in Law School, so we should've allowed for a handicap. Of course she had to go off-campus for the league there though, as apparently Notre Dame has no bowling alley on campus. Which, as Craig pointed out, makes it a second-rate Catholic school.

Go Gold!

tapas party

Unfortunately blogger's photo app is not cooperating with me at the moment, so I will refrain from posting more photos and describe my evening last night.

Jason and Larissa decided to co-host a Saturday night tapas party and it was delicious. I ended up going overboard with my dishes to pass and in addition to making humanitarian garlic shrimp (amazingly when you have to peel and devein shrimp yourself they cost MORE...but hey, at least getting wild Gulf of Mexico shrimp, I did not kill any Thai children), I made an egg bake, buffalo celery sticks, and goat cheese toasts with mango chutney.

There was loads of sangria at the fête courtesy of Jason and Adam, as well as an amazing chicken paella made by Jason, potatoes brava from Ben, green beans from Lars and a delicious strawberry cake that Bridgit found at Metro Market.

Jason's friends Sara(h) and Glen(n) also joined in on the fun.

It really was a fun party, and totally one of those "oh hey, I am a grown up" experiences. I drank a wee bit too much sangria and red wine though, and then thought it would be a good idea to go to Buckley's with Adam on the way home for some Trois Pistoles.

Too bad sangria doesn't magically wear off overnight though, as it was not a fun morning.

Random Photos from Last Week

Here's what I was up to last week:

4/23: Cool wall in Walker's Point on our trek to Transfer Pizzeria.

4/25: Christy and me at the Brewers Game Friday night, after the torrential downpour.


4/20: Fields in Grafton -- I've never ridden my bike to such a rural wilderness!


4/20: Pulling into home after the epic bike ride.

4/23: Terrible man crocs on our pizza pilgrimage.

pouring

Can't type too much as must crawl into bed with tea.

Got caught in torrential downpour along with 40,000 other sad Brewers fans today, only to rush into a stadium where we all witnessed 10 innings of crap.

Running in was like being in an action movie. Full tailgates abandoned to the elements, throngs of people screaming and pushing.

Leaving the game was a post-apocalyptic scene with trash scattering in the wind and rivers of beer cans flowing out of the lot.

The temperature also dropped 30 degrees and our clothes were not yet dry.

Hence the tea and bed on a Friday night.

play!

I guess it's "p" week, which is fine because it's a good enough letter.

After a fantastic day at work, in which I found out an article I wrote is going to be in a national trade magazine--with my byline, I briefly stopped home and then left for the last Marquee Club event of the season.

The Marquee Club is associated with the Milwaukee Rep and hold three events per year designed to get young professionals to the theatre. Heather and Ben are both on the board, so I couldn't escape going. It was good to see Heather and Sam tonight as well as the countdown to their nuptials is on. I successfully managed my way through a pre-reception at Rock Bottom Brewery without drinking (made it through the week, woohoo!), but indulged in too many chicken wings to count. MMMM.

The featured play tonight was "Armadale," which was a soap operaesque Victorian "thriller," which I found quite entertaining. I looked at it completely as a comedy, almost like "Passions" in its heydey. Murder, mayhem and melodrama. Worth the $17!

But it was long, and I'm REALLY sleepy.

Darn old age.

pizza!

tonight adam, kate and i walked to transfer pizzeria and met jason there for dinner.

it was a beautiful evening for a 2.6 mile stroll. i will post photos this weekend, but we saw a guy with horrible green crocs, a cool wall and a huge family riding their bikes during our adventures.

the pizza was delicious. we started with a spinach and artichoke dip and a bruschetta appetizer, both of which were only $5! then each of us got a small pie and shared with the group. all were delish, although kate's quattro formaggi took the cake (or pie, as it were).

jason was kind enough to drive us back to the 'hood and the gang all decided to stop at buckley's. i stuck to my "no drinking on weeknights" experiment and abstained. it was easy at dinner, but really difficult with the buckley boys giving me crap. but i held firm! woohoo!

pirates!

I saw two pirates walking down Wisconsin Ave around 5:15 PM smoking cigarettes.

Then I saw a hoodmamma midget chick talking smack on a cell phone.

Then I saw a police chase.

Sometimes waiting for the bus can be entertaining.

I just wish I had my camera!

google transit

Just a quick post tonight. Only just got home from my FUEL Milwaukee Creative Council meeting and a bite at Saz's (mmm...mozza sticks) after.

THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY TRANSIT SYSTEM JOINED GOOGLE TRANSIT TODAY!!!

Check out the trip planner on the homepage of www.RideMCTS.com.

It's beautiful.

And I got to announce it at FUEL. And now everyone has one less excuse on why they don't ride the bus.

Ride for Earth Day tomorrow!

death by bike ride

I just did a practice run for the Miller Lite Ride.

55 miles total.

I feel like my muscles are going to surge up and kill me in mutiny.

I will hopefully be alive to post more later.

I saw so much cool stuff. Wildlife and whatnot.

AND I saw a bunch of people playing cricket.

That was amazing.

saving wisconsinites from themselves

Happily I just found out that Crocs are in trouble.

THANK YOU FASHION GODS.

As the summer season looms, my eyes will be spared from the thousands of hideously colored feet I would have otherwise seen at Milwaukee's numerous festival.

evening stroll

I didn't think I could do it, but in the best interest of satisfying my grease craving for the least amount of money, I pulled myself off the couch, threw on a hoodie and shoes and walked to the grocery and the neighborhood Greek spot, Mykonos.

Glad I did, as the little stroll provided some entertaining anecdotes perfect for my attempt at foraying back into the blogosphere.

• I narrowly avoided a river of horse piss, as a carriage and riders pulled up to the corner of Van Buren & Kilbourn just as I'd finished crossing. Their equine chauffeur apparently decided the red light was as good a time as any to let out a river of pee. Thankfully I missed it, and thankfully if I hadn't, at least I wasn't wearing flip flops.
• My stop at Metro Market was pretty much instigated by my desire to pick up some ice cream, which the hangover of the day was craving. In the interest of the pocketbook I opted to get the teeny tiny Ben and Jerry's one cup. Of course the entire aisle of frozen desserts was empty, except for one girl who was digging through the 10 for $10 Dippin' Dots on sale. Seriously for like five minutes. Finally she sensed my presence and moved and apologized. There were only like four kinds of B&J, so I grabbed my Cookie Dough, just in time as I saw her circle back down the aisle. I don't know why someone needs ten non-ice creams, but whatever.
• Once I reached the checkout line, I plopped my mini-dessert, two vitamin waters and bottled waters down on the conveyor, allowing a reasonable amount of space between my stuff and the two-liter of coke in front of me. The cashier still felt the need to ask "Is this separate?" to which the douchey coke guy replied, "I dunno, are we separate?" Eew. I mustered up enough energy to give a resolute "Uh, YEAH." Gross. Sorry dude, if you buy my groceries, great, but I'm not sucking your ****.
• I made my way to Mykonos to order my chicken pita and fries and spotted Buckley's regular, "Judy," eating at a table. It's always weird to see eccentric individuals out of context. And it's also pretty judgmental of me to categorize someone as a boozer, when I am also in the bar ALL THE TIME. So, I guess maybe she also thought the same thing: "Wow, good to see her not drinking."
  

My little adventure succeeded in being reasonably economical in regards to satisfying my hangover cravings. I spent about $14 and now have $12.63 left until Monday at midnight. Considering I would have spent more than that for a less satisfying meal and no stories if I'd ordered in, I guess putting on shoes was well worth it.