RyanHarne.com

I had no specific use for 8 ounces of Brasso other than my scheming, but I decided it might be worth the $3.90 I spent. Plus, the cotton rounds were only a dollar. If this experiment were to be a bust, then I wouldn’t cry over the financial damage.

My inspiration was this. I have a 20GB 3rd generation iPod just like Dailey, and I thought I would give the D.I.Y. fix a try. Granted, my iPod was nowhere near front lines wounding, as are other 3G iPods I’ve seen around. From its conception (aka the grande box opening), my iPod has been kept in pristine condition, even more so in its iSkin case. But, I’m not perfect 40something percent of the time, so there have been incidents when I’ve dropped the kid on concrete, asphalt, blacktop, tile, and the occasional padded surface. So, my iPod is in good shape, I would say, but not flawless.

Since I’ve begun to take my iPod around outside of its iSkin case, and recently entirely ditching that now-ghastly silicone coating, I’ve wanted to clean up the iconic digital music player for my aesthetic pleasures. Thus, came forward the Brasso into the spotlight. I was hoping it would remove the worse scratch/smearing on the screen and also would finish off the chrome back to a smooth gloss.

And how did it go? Mm.. well. I tried taking pictures of before and after, but as you can see from Dailey’s attempts with the 3G, it’s difficult to see any difference via camera angles. My iPod is definitely cleaner in my eyes, particularly shinier than ever, but I’m not sure if a passerby would catch an equal glint of old-school newness as I would. To be honest, scaling the success of this Brasso job from 0 (no success & satisfaction) to 10 (ultimate success & satisfaction) I would give it a 6. Maybe more due to the fact that I spent pennies, really, for the cleaner. The biggest triumph in this experiment would be the polished finish my iPod now has.

On old roommate stopped by last night and, knowing he equally being interested in maintenance for his iPod, I showed him my results. He took it from its perch where it had been relieving the fumes of a past Brasso bath. While he looked it over, I grabbed the Brasso container to show him the material and welcome him to his own iPod-Brasso experimentation. I said, “Really, it just seems incredibly polished and smooth. I don’t remember it being this smooth when I had it brand new.”

His response: “Yeah, I’ve almost dropped it two times already.” I may have the first iPod in history to be able to pass for an inverse-colored hockey puck.

As a quick hint for those wishing to try this fix out: remember Brasso is a metal polisher and that you should go easy on the actual application phase; pay more attention to the polishing than in putting lots of Brasso on. Ok. Enjoy.

Even though I am dealing with the first signs of semester stress, I have high hopes and expectations. After my shift tonight, I stopped by a spot on campus for some soup since I was in need of fuel. I had been craving soup all evening, just simply craving. I couldn’t wait for some theoretical, futuristic soup. Gosh, I love soup.

Walking into the tiny cafe, I saw the soup-of-the-day sign was still up (a good omen) and it hinted at Tomato Florentine with noodles. Mmm good. I waited in line, followed by more waiting in line. And then? Some soup, please? Oh, sorry, we ran out a while ago. I was ready to argue my case that fraudulent advertising is frowned upon in the sense that it ruins a customer’s tolerance for commercial incompetence, but she seemed tired and too, and I asked for a bagel instead.

Luckily, I had a remedy for my soup-satisfaction needs. Even though it didn’t fully free me of my desire for soup, I made a steamed chocolate milk tonight not going easy on the chocolate. If I was to be precise, I would say I discovered a new genre of chocolate - milked chocolate.

Let’s call this a good start to the week, and just forget about the soup ordeal.

There is this antsy, restless feeling continually agitating me. Some of it is due to the amount of course material I am working with this semester, a moderate quantity in comparison to my burdensome past, but the greater portion of my stirring is due to my lack of engaging extracurricular activities. The fall semester never provided this antsy feeling because my time was so swamped with the aforementioned course work that extracurriculars faded into the horizon. But now I’m on this hypothetical horizon and am wondering what to do.

If anyone has any ideas about absorbing activities to be tied up with (preferably, on a make-my-own-time-schedule-of-it basis) then please let me know. Otherwise, I’ll continue these long walks.

I am reading Dante’s The Paradiso from his Divine Comedy. In 2005, I went through Inferno and was amazed; not necessarily for the content, but rather due to the concepts. It was similar to how I reacted to Plato’s Republic - impressed and intrigued but no less ready to argue my own point.

The greatest part of my Divine Comedy trilogy is that it is translated and wrapped up by John Ciardi who appends clever commentary and subtle wit where most laymen expression would not tread. Not that I enjoy the elitism of the division, but rather the different manifestations of humor in areas that a great many people don’t usually hunt for it. This is also why I love reading my texts in their entirety in order to pick out the few (the proud!) quips that authors toss it at random. Dry humor kills me.

Where am I going with this? Nowhere; I was just considering what I’ve read so far in The Paradiso and smiling at ease. When I am swamped with educational material to educate myself with, it’s nice to look into a book not boiling over with formulae or standardized, tabulated charts. It’s a respite, a retreat, a real oasis.

Maybe I should wrap this up with a word of encouragement to the illiterate. Or I could just say I’m behind Google’s Book Search and hope that you watch this video to keep the rights of knowledge in the hands of the people. Watch out - I can become a one-man protest on a dime.

It’s become clear that the busiest portion of this semester will be the segment of Wednesday through Thursday. Thanks to the grace bestowed on me by a superior at the Emporium, I was able to choose a shift to add on to my initial and meager platter of hours, thus making my Wednesday more full, but closer to a level of random motion so as to allow me to enjoy the chaos. Before, I had this vacuum, of sorts, that I witnessed sucking the life from me as empty hours passed by. It was a trecherous first week of the Spring Semester 2006!, let me tell you.

Maybe it was the anticipation of my hectic Wednesday, or maybe it was the contemplation of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but I dreamt entirely in French last night (Tuesday night, mind you; despite it being past midnight, my day is not over). I woke up on three separate occasions murmuring off jibberish in an unmistakable French accent. Some of what I realized I was saying were phrases I know, but most of it was nonsense. It was an interesting assortment of disarrayed dreams as well, none of which I recall at this point; but, I lost a lot of sleep over that oddity. I may be on a French kick! lately but I’d rather not lose my precious hours of rest because of it - my pumpking fixes late last year were extravagant but I don’t remember losing sleep due to them. Ah, well. So it is.

If you ignore the homework and studying I did up to midnight, the last thing I did today was attend my first VTMUG meeting in over two semesters. What Poesy could describe the elation I feel to be around the most elite group of TOTAL geeks, of which I proudly hail? Even though I was fairly silent through most of our chatter, I learned, gleaned, and swept up so much information and hints about myriad things I had been considering. Us Apple geeks, yeah, we stick together.

My field correspondent, Armen, has informed me that not only is ryanharne.com fully operational on the new Intel Macs, but that the “site loads almost instantaneously with the native version of Safari”. This is fantastic news as 2006 looks to be a great leap into new computing and blogging for me. You’ll see.

Yesterday evening I chatted with a Bollo’s regular about Macs. With the help of the greater body of Apple knowledge (a.k.a. “Nik”), we were able to explain several of the advantages of Apple computers over those running Windows. Granted, Microsoft helped urge our friend over the edge as well; he mentioned, “I’m just getting so sick of Windows.” He said he plans on grabbing a new Intel Mac before he heads into grad school this fall. Fancy that.

I’d like to mention something other than Apple and technology in this entry, but it’s important I indulge occasionally. So to cap off my inner geek, I can announce that I am returning to the VTMUG (Mac Users Group) meetings this semester since my work does not overlap with the scheduled time.

But, there is stuff going on, meanwhile. However, a good comic strip focuses on one issue at a time. Enjoy your day.