So I've been meaning to write a longer post with my thoughts about the iPod. This is not that post. That's coming up soon but truthfully I'm still getting used to the whole concept. It seems straightforward but carrying around an entire music library carries a lot of implications. Especially for me, where my music and mood tend to have positive feedback loops and quick access to a large selection means I can metaprogram myself easily. And having space for everything means I can dig deeper in my CD collection than I usually do, back to stuff I haven't really listened to since college. Anyway, more on that later. However, I do have to say that my brand-new-but-already-treasured iPod died this weekend. Sorta. The iPod itself worked fine, but it stopped talking to my PC. It would charge from the Firewire cable, but not do any data transmissions. Tried a couple of different cables, two different PC's and a Mac but no joy. So Sunday I gloomily took it into the Apple store, prepared for them to tell me no iPod for 6 weeks or whatever. Now, the Apple store is slightly worrisome if you haven't drunk the Kool-Aid. It definitely has cult overtones writ large upon it. And there isn't "Customer Service" in the Apple store, oh no! Karin and I are heading for the "Genius Bar". This is of course all to be regarded with deep suspicion. And the guy at the "Genius Bar", in his T-shirt labelled 'iPod Genius" is just reinforcing all the stereotypes and making me feel cranky and old to boot. BUT! The story has a happy ending. He poked at it for a while, agreed that it was toast, and went and got a new iPod from stock. At this point it is revealed that his computer can't see my warranty registration. (And I did register it, it's part of the software install.) But he does some voodoo in their computer service database, forces it through and hands me a brand new iPod. Huzzah! I take it home, plug it up and let the PC spew at it for an hour or so and my 3300+ songs are all on it, and I've got my library ready to roll for work today! So I only have two (well now three) datapoints on iPod reliability. Karin's has worked fine since she got it in September, and I wasted one in about a month. :-) But damn, I'm impressed with the customer service if you do have a problem with your iPod. I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid yet, but there are some very impressive things about Apple these days. And I'm certainly going to be nice to the people behind the "Genius Bar" (but I'll still make fun of the name!)

So I hope all my illustrious readers had a good weekend. :-) Karin and I went into the city on Saturday, and much fun was had. We were primarily there to see the Lamplighters performance of HMS Pinafore, but we went in early so we could also spend some time at SF MOMA, and have dinner at Thirsty Bear. Karin and I really enjoyed Pinafore, the absurdism of Gilbert and Sullivan always appeals to me, and the theater at Yerba Buena is a nice venue, with good acoustics and seat layout. And Thirsty Bear had the 2002 barleywine in cask conditioned format! Woot! MOMA was cool, I was primarily interested in seeing Supernova which is an exhibit focussing on art from the 90's drawn from a private collection. While there were several pieces I liked, I was pleasantly suprised to find that I actually enjoyed the Pirkle Jones and the Changing California Landscape exhibit more. Pirkle Jones took some really nice pictures of SF, and the look at California over the last 40 years or so was pretty cool. I was disappointed that they didn't have prints of some of the pictures in the store, there were some really nice shots of the Bay I'd have liked to have in my cubicle at work. There was also a very interesting series about when the state flooded Berryessa Valley to create a lake. Supernova had some of the usual "Look it's a medicine cabinet - but with MEDICINE IN IT!" that I tend to dismiss, but there were some nice sculptures and several paintings I liked. My favorites were Gray Wave by Inka Essenhigh and the couple of pieces by Takashi Murakami. This weekend a show at Yerba Buena opens about art using computer games as a medium that sounds pretty interesting. Hopefully I'll go check that out in a few weeks and report back :-)

(Anybody else think they should have gone with "Round 2" instead of "Season 2"?) Anyway, the first episode is online. Go now! Why are you still here? Click it! I like the start for season 2. They set up some interesting stuff, and there were some good jokes. It's probably not a great "jumping in point" if you haven't seen Season 1, but heck that's still available online. Or if you know me in meatspace, you can borrow my DVD :-)

Mars Spirit is sending back a whole lotta pictures of rocks, in stereo, in panorama and so forth. If you ever wanted to be an astronaut as a kid - go take a look JPL Spirit Image Achives