Why I've Broken Up with iTunes

Ok, I admit it. I was sucked in. I liked the idea of being able to sample new music types and new artists for a mere 99 cents. I had an iPod. Everything is working fine. Just when I thought everything was going right in my love affair, I get this nagging feeling. I hear whispers. And now, I'm face-to-face with the hard facts. I've been duped. Betrayed. I was so blind.

It's this MP3, MP4, ACC, Digital Rights Management bullshit. Call me American, but I don't like the idea of being told by a company that I have to buy their products until the end of time if I don't want my purchases to have all been in vein. Vein? Vain? Vane? Well, shit. Wasted. Neither do I want to rip roughly 500 songs to an audio CD only to reload them into my computer in MP3 format.

It's Apple yanking me around by the short hairs. Plain. And. Simple.

Oh, they were smooth with their all-in-one package deals. Ok, they raised my eyebrows with their "exclusive to iTunes" business. I mean, what artist would limit themselves to one sales outlet? But when I realized that I cannot purchase any other portable music player other than iPod, it was over. I'm done with iTunes. When my iPod bites the dust, I'll be purchasing a replacement portable music player that is something other than iPod. And on that day, I hope that some brilliant software upstart has figured out a way for me to convert all my music without that burn-reload-reformat procedure. Because I will gladly pay the difference betweeen an off-brand music player and an iPod just to be done with that bastard lover. Oh yes, Daktari is pretty pissed about the whole deal.

Apple can bite me. And not in the way they already have.

And I'm knot the only one

...who gets my panties in a knot. Proof forthwith.

On Panty Bunching - A List of Lingerie Twisters

Ok, I've been giving J a lot of grief lately about his self-proclaimed Eeyorism. Actually, I don't think that Eeyore is the right literary character. He's more like Pigpen. He walks around and a dark cloud follows him. To the outsider, it seems that Obama's win only made J more introspective and melancholy. Glad to see that his attitude about the event seems to be improving. The man has been in a funk I tell ya. He's just plain glum. I promise not to point out (innocent angelic face, hehe) that happy is something you decide to be. He's getting something out of his boot dragging and I just have to learn to accept that.

Barbs aside, at some point in our ongoing discussions, I described J as having his "shorts in a knot", probably having something to do with 3rd party candidates and their inability to rock my socks off (which apparently is the catch phrase of the day). In any event, J misunderstood me in thinking that pantie bunching is a bad thing, so I thought I'd let loose on the list that is sure to increase my lingerie laundry.

1. New Coke (the fact that they sprung it on us one day without giving us proper time to create a cache of "old" Coke to get us through until they reached that "what the f**k were we thinking?" phase)
2. People who want to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us (Prop 8 anyone?)
3. George W Bush (the sight of him, the sound of him, the thought of him, you name it)
4. Assholes who rip religious symbols off other people's cars and laugh about it
5. People who want to be congratulated for doing the right thing (John McCain's campaign staff, my ex-husband who wanted applause for taking out the garbage)
6. People who damn everyone else when they should be examining their own behavior (*cough* John freakin' Aravosis*cough*)
7. People who discriminate against things they don't understand instead of taking the time to understand them.
8. Hand-me-down thinking in general (includes religion, politics, social beliefs, cultural biases, etc.)
9. People who do not obey Chicago driving rules (what part of 3 cars get to turn left after the light turns red don't you people understand?)
10. Drivers who think using blinkers are a sign of weakness
11. Lane defectors (those who mindlessly shift into whichever lane is moving in bumper-to-bumper traffic)
12. People who think if one of their low beams are out, you can remedy this by turning on the high beams (there seems to be an epidemic of this in Kentucky)
13. People who can't make up their minds in restaurants and ask the waiter/waitress for a laundry list of recommendations and then end up ordering what they always order anyway
14. Music/beer/wine snobs, but certainly not food snobs =)
15. Litter and the people who create it
16. The fact that despite my best efforts, there are still racist bigots in my family
17. People who give minimum-wage workers a hard time
18. People who think withholding a tip is making a statement. If you want to make a statement, make it prior to leaving when someone might actually be able to turn your experience around. Allowing your money or lack thereof to make your statement for you is an act of cowardice, plain and simple. Grow some balls and speak up.
    
19. People who refuse to stand up for themselves and want to complain about how the rest of the world doesn't treat them right.
20. People who think that just because I can do something better that I have an obligation to do it for them, for free.
21. The fact that I don't live in Chicago. Right now. That I am not sitting in Chicago watching a football game or doing something other than what I am doing. Right now. Life is so unfair.
22. White Republicans who can't understand that it is THEIR TURN to feel the pain of being out of power. I am sick, Sick, SICK to death of their whining about how the world is going to end because Obama is our new President. If the world didn't end because that fucktard Bush is President, nothing is going to end this world.
    
23. Poverty, hunger, and the price of prescription medicine.
24. Voters who found themselves disenfranchised because of party politics.
25. Lactose intolerance. Oh, the humanity!