iPod, we have a problem

In honor of my 200th blog, I'll not talk about sports. Today at work I managed to blow up my iPod. I think I would have been less traumatized by a blown tire in the middle of the interstate. I'm not a big gadget guy, but that little music machine is a critical part of my day. I am known at my company (not necessarily a good thing) as the guy with earbuds on all the time. A couple of weeks ago I tried to go an hour without the pod and found it to be torture. I had to listen to my co-workers talk, and the other random office noise.

I plugged in the iPod this morning, and when I pressed the eject button on the itunes screen, there was an error message. At the end of a download, you get that little "synching iPod" message. The iPod couldn't sync. I'm not sure exactly what this process is, but apparently it's critical. When I unplugged the machine, there were no songs, no podcasts, no nothing. Because I had gotten overobsessed with my Top 25 played list, I dumped everything off a couple of weeks ago and started from scratch. I was going to do it again.

The iPod and work have had an uneasy relationship. I found myself listening to podcasts (Adam Carolla most of the time) while doing less brain-intensive work. It doesn't matter how brain-unintensive manipulating a spreadsheet is, it's a less efficient process while chuckling at Bald Brian's Isaac Hayes drops. Over time, I realized that the podcasts were best listened to on the way to and back from work. I actually have too short of a commute for that. Now that fantasy and regular football podcasts are in full bloom, I'm in serious trouble.

I reloaded itunes onto the desktop at work. Sure, I was multitasking. I don't know why my boss let me have two computers, since all I use the desktop for is clocking out while the laptop takes five minutes to shut down. Sadly the reboot did nothing for my synching issue. I would have to restore the iPod. That would be an issue since I had a few tracks that were not saved elsewhere. I downloaded some Explosions in the Sky when I heard the raves from Friday Night Light fans. I still don't get it.

The worst part was trying to turn up the TVs in our office workout room since I had no music for my workout. I've been on a workout kick since April of 2002. I should remember the exact day since this was a critical turnaround point in my life just a few months from a near-death experience. I went to my friend Steve's small workout center in his apartment complex. There was no music. There was no iPod. I don't know how I did it.

Even after I put 869 tracks back on my restored machine tonight, I knew that my work was not complete. I had three workout mixes on there, not to mention the Blue Rodeo mix, the AUFL mix (intro music is critical for any well-run in-person draft), and other mixes now lost to history. I'm glad that I don't have an iPhone.