One thing I hate, really hate, is the way that iTunes has shaped the way I appreciate music. As you probably know, iTunes and the iPod count how many times you've played a song (that is, they count it if you play it to the very end, though oddly enough they only count a song as "skipped" if you move to the next song right away).

This is pretty great on its face, because otherwise how would I know that Spoon's "Revenge!" is my most-played song? Or what I haven't heard in a few months? Or what songs I'm skipping all the time, and should probably delete? This is valuable information.

What irks me is the fact that this information has become so valuable to me that I feel like I'm wasting my time if I listen to a CD, because, oh my, that data isn't getting tracked. Should I hook up my iPod for the five minute drive to work, so that We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank can get its due? I've seriously considered it.

I've also started avoiding "Revenge!", because Ugly Casanova's "Cat Faces" is only four plays behind and I feel like it should win. There's something unseemly afoot when you can't listen to music without thinking about the score. (No pun intended, music weirdos. But also that!)

I'm going back up to B-town this weekend, possibly as soon as tomorrow, and wow, does that sound wonderful. As relaxing and fun as I find being paid to find problems, other people have to fix those problems, and after being the calm center in a vortex of drama all week, I'm starting to be affected by the stress I think I'm causing.

(Well, it's not me, usually: it's the mistakes. But that's a dark road.)

Good things recently consumed: the movie Idiocracy, a satire about a future where everyone is an idiot, Century Rain, which isn't a fantastic book but wins major premise points for combining sci-fi, alt history, and the detective novel, and tonight's episode of Andy Barker, P.I., "Dial M for Laptop."

It was fast-paced and pretty funny: corner, turned?