I usually feel quite comfortable with most technological issues, using them at least. I’m not a know it all by any means but I’m a quick study and I can pick things up the first time through, okay maybe twice for some things. I’m usually the one that helps others to figure out both their hardware and software. I’ve gone shopping with people before they decide on which computer to buy. They take me along to answer questions and help them figure out what they need and what they don’t need. I always add what they might need as well. I’ve helped people take the boxes home with them and have plugged in computers and peripherals and then helped them learn how to use everything.
I’ve always enjoyed it. It makes me feel competent (as opposed to incompetent which is such a horrible feeling).
When I gave my son a new iPod for Christmas a few years back, he gave me his original first generation 10 GB iPod when he got his 30 GB iPod loaded. I hadn’t had one before that. He showed me how to use iTunes as far as loading music to it and synching the iPod to iTunes. I learned how to update it, too. One day he came over and noticed that I didn’t have any playlists set up on iTunes and he showed me how to do that and how functional they were (I hadn’t realized until then how playlists would add to my iTunes and iPod experience). Then about a year later, I decided to treat myself to my own black 30 GB iPod. I loved it. And I used it all the time. At home I used it all the time. Then I got a new car that had an auxiliary input for an mp3 player so I began to use it all the time, for reals this time. I used it at home and in the car. In the car I loved that I could load audio books and listen to them on the long drives between the SF Bay Area and Portland or Los Angeles or even just the 90 minute drive from Santa Rosa to San Jose. I loved, loved, loved my iPod.
Then one night when I was getting ready for bed, I put on my iPod to listen to the end of an audio book I had started on my last trip from California. It was fine for about ten seconds. I realized it wasn’t in the same spot where I had left off so I fast forwarded to find the right spot. When I stopped it, I pushed play and it played but no sound came out. I checked the headphones to make sure they were plugged in right. They were. No sound. Strange. It had just been playing a few seconds before. I tried different headphones. No sound. I took it to the computer and tried it there. No sound. I went out to the car and tried it there. No sound. I plugged it back in to my desktop to restore it. Still no sound. Nothing worked. I took it to the Apple Store. They were unable to either get it to work or to figure out why it had no sound. They suggested I buy a new one ($249) or buy a refurbished one ($129). Although it isn’t that old, my iPod was out of warranty by about two months. Not good. There was absolutely no money allotted for such a purchase until after the first of the year, or with luck, maybe for Christmas.
I was so upset. I decided to send out a Tweet to see if any local Tweeps worked on iPods, thinking that maybe it was fixable for less than a new or refurbished unit. No luck however a friend, Lydia, said she had one, a new to her refurbished one that she was not using that she could send me. We went back and forth on it and in the end she sent it to me. When the box arrived I was ecstatic and when I opened it, it was like seeing my own iPod because the one she sent me was also black, like mine and was also 30 GB. I charged it up to get it synched. I waited. And waited. Then finally it was ready to synch. I thought I was going to burst of happiness!
It would not synch. It would begin to synch then freeze. It would stay on and I was unable to turn it off at all until the charge was completely depleted then I would have to recharge it completely before I could try again. Finally, after trying to diagnose the problem several times and going through the charge, deplete charge, charge, synch, freeze, deplete charge, charge thing about ten times, I gave up. My friend tweeted that it was probably because I was trying to synch multiple iPods from one set of playlists and sent a link that explained what I should do.
That was a week ago and the iPod has remained next to my bed waiting to be hooked up to the computer and filled with music. I just haven’t been able to tackle it. The whole ordeal left me feeling defeated. I look at the iPod dressed in a hot pink silicone glove to protect it from any scratches and I wish I could just cross arms-close eyes-wriggle nose-and nod my head to get it to work. I know what I have to do. I have to set up a whole set of separate playlists for this second iPod then drag and drop those to add to the new iPod and not try to synch. That’s supposed to work but I’m reluctant to do it because I’m afraid I will still not get it to work and I’ll feel defeated all over again. I know it’s not me. It’s the hardware. But it doesn’t help. I still feel useless and helpless.
I’ve actually gotten to the point where I’ve deleted all of my playlists and created new ones to add to the new iPod but I still can’t get myself to actually hook it up and try it.
I think that at this point the only thing that is going to get me to actually hook it up and see if this tactic works is the fact that I now also feel like a terrible friend. Lydia sent this to me wanting to do something wonderful for me. She did. She really did do something wonderful for me. However, in the process, we were both betrayed by the hardware and now not only do I feel defeeted, she feels bad about having sent me something that I had so much trouble with. It’s not her fault. Or mine. It just is.
But this too shall pass. I may feel defeated now but I’ll get over it. Like all those bumps in the road of life, I’ll get over this and be on my way to different things, different triumphs, and yes even different defeats!
Wish me luck. I think I may work up the courage to try it tonight. Or maybe tomorrow. Or maybe…
Wasted Days And Wasted Nights 