Fly pens, MP3 players, and rotten routers

The extremes of new technology. On one hand, since I'm now having to do a lot of writing for my classes, I indulged in a Fly Fusion Pentop Computer - in other words, a digital pen. It was originally made for high schoolers but I'm not proud. All I need it to do is recognize my handwriting so I don't have to retype my notes. It works. Like a charm. Too kewl.
Rosie wanted an iPod for Christmas but as she's six years old and prone to either losing or breaking one, we got her a bright pink Creative Zen Stone instead. Of course I had to get one too, only mine is blue. As did Jennifer. Hers is white. I even got one for my brother. His is black. Then you get sucked into buying the accessories...you need a "skin" to protect the thing. And that's only the beginning.
I immediately signed up with audible.com (they just got taken over by Amazon) so I could listen to audio books while I drove to and from work. Love it love it love it. So far I've listened to M is for Magic and A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, about a quarter of some horribly dull alternate history about Atlantis, and Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin.
About two weeks ago the router I use to get on the internet suddenly fell off the window sill and hit my shoulder! Definitely poltergeist activity. Anyway, the router broke a few days later and had to be replaced. What a hassle. It took a few trips to Best Buy and two different routers to get back up and running. I used to be embarassed that Microsoft had such bad customer service. Not anymore. D-Link and Verizon are neck and neck in the "crappy attitude towards customers" hall of fame. The customer service rep at D-Link actually hung up on me after pumping me for address, serial number of unit, telephone number, etc. If it had been a bad connection and she had just gotten cut off she would have called back. Nope.
Well, off to write a bullsh*t paper on the theory of communication - rant on my Philosophy of Communication class to follow.