too much time, too few distractions

To be more verbal, my current iPod problem is a missing 6 pin (female) to 4 pin (male) Firewire Converted; my laptop takes 4 pin only. It came with the iPod, and I lost it for the first time about five minutes after I got it out of the box.

The big problem is (ironically!) the very very small size. It about 2.25 x .75 x .25 inches – smaller than my thumb, mostly white, very light. I try to put it some place I’ll be able to find it next time (typically sitting it on the charger), but it’s tiny enough to lose even when you do put it the right place. While I’ve stumbled upon in random places before, after tearing up my room last night, I’m getting a bad feeling it was accidentally vacuumed up.

I’d just leave it connected to my computer, but I’ve only got a laptop now (* thinking about getting a PC for evil DVD burning purposes, but it’d be completely illogical), and I do enough moving around with my laptop that’d it never stay connected or something even worse would happen – my wired ethernet plug is about 60% jiggered because I walked a too far when I had a cord plugged in, and the cord damaged some of the plug frame when it yanked out. (I figured out wireless soon after.)

The smaller problem is I can’t find this seemingly important and easy to lose piece easily. Not on apple.com ***, and I can’t easily walk into a store here and find what I’m needing. The nearest Apple Store is 50 minutes away (before I get lost), the nearest Best Buy is 40 minutes away (and I’m not sure if they’ll have one) and the nearest CompUSA is about the same distance (and the same chances.) I spent a half hour looking around hopelessly in an OfficeDepot today in hope/boredom. The same reasoning could lead me to making one of those 40 minute trips.

So a truckload of lovely donated music (as well as some inclination to buy some stuff off iMusic) sits on my laptop, while plenty of time to be sitting around and listening to some unlistened music to goes wasted.

I hate that iPod part. It’s tremendously more difficult to track down because you need the female 6 pin end.

While I’m remembering about spending money on silly uses: here’s a totally theoretically question:

You have some extra cash that’s just going to sit in your checking account; refund, not-Christmas bonus*, 20 you found on the street (and may have dropped there). You think about using part of that money to donate the nice people who entertain your wasted time on the Interweb days for free, figure you’ll eventually figure out how to decide who gets what and make sure you don’t do it when people are begging for money for a month because you don’t want to encourage the annoying begging.*

HOWever, some of these people/sites have places where I can donate money – and others I love equally and perhaps more do not. How do I handle this situation – especially when you’d like said donations to be as quiet and anonymous as possible. You’re not looking for a relationship or even an acknowledgement, and donating publicly seems to cause those things. Do you ask these others if they have some place to donate and make them aware of what you didn’t want to be a deal? Do you just cut them out and give more money to those who do have those Amazon boxes? Do you just set aside money to buy them a drink at the ROH show?

There’s about a billion ways to handle this and I’m sure at least 67% of them are right; it’s just the multitude of options and possibilities could cause a tinker-er like myself to be completely indecisive and not act on the idea for lack of a definite conclusion. (Good thing it isn’t me.)

* – not as though I’ve been paid extra for being in the middle of nowhere, I guess I really ought to check into that.

** – got in this week’s line. Anyone? Anyone? There’s a thread saying nice thing about me over in the OO Forum and I feel like ruining the goodwill with a “when you write about wrestling, and you’re not Dave or Wade or someone getting a billion some hits or offering a prize, the deal is you should be thankful to get any e-mail, and any e-mail that’s not from one of your homies ****. Just remember the amount of attention doesn’t always relate to the quality of work, and write what you want to write” post.

*** – OR, maybe if I just type in “4 pin firewire” instead of looking thru the iPod accessories, that might work. DUH. Still kinda far away and debating worth shipping charges when I don’t actually have an address. Though, if they’re expecting me to work a 50 hour week, the least thing they could do is sign for a freaking package…

**** – okay, I just want to write the post to said homies. Sorry.

If you’ve made it past all that, I congratulate you on your abundance of free time. Make further use of it with by listening to last week’s edition of WBEZ’s This American Life [RealAudio], and skip down to 48:33 for the Greatest Love Story Of The 20th Century (though I’m thinking a few people who read this may be familiar with the story.)