Bad Technology Week

So, on Sunday, I installed a new programmable thermostat at the estate (which may soon be officially called Bancroft Down, as I'm loving Watership Down), and I was feeling pretty handy. Well, come Monday, apparently all of my technology chops completely disappeared. Here's what's happened this week...so far:

• Monday evening: I finally found some DVD ripping/converting to ipod format software I liked. I spent some time converting some Cavaliers DVDs so I could put them on my 80 gb ipod classic. As I was fiddling with the Movies settings for the ipod, I clicked the "Sync Movies" button, and promptly ignored the popup screen warning me that all media on my ipod would be erased if I followed through with that. Yeah, I ignored it, assuming it only applied to other movies I had on it, which were none. Nope, it wiped all 20 gb of music as well. The 20 gb of music that I don't keep on my hard drive. This was right before bedtime, and I really thought I might just throw the ipod through the window. Thankfully, I backed up my entire CD collection as I loaded it onto the ipod over a year ago. With some transferring of files and ripping of maybe only a dozen CDs, I'm back in operation. But, that moment of realizing everything is gone is not a good one.
• Tuesday afternoon: Ran with my ipod shuffle. Listened to a chapter or two of Twilight as I ran.
  
• Wednesday morning: Plugged in my ipod shuffle only to see that the remaining three discs of Twilight that I had loaded on it just this past weekend are now gone, along with a number of other songs I know I had on it at some point. Where did all of those tracks go? I have no earthly idea. Did I keep the Twilight tracks (that I ripped from a Nashville Public Library CD) on my hard drive? Of course not. When did I return the Twilight CDs to the library? Tuesday afternoon. I seriously have no earthly idea what happened there. I kind of wonder if I didn't do something in my sleep. Maybe the shuffle realizes when something has been removed from the hard drive.
• Wednesday evening: Remember how I said I installed a thermostat? Well, I had shut down all the power in the house so I didn't electrocute myself. When I walked in the door tonight at 8:40 pm, I noticed that the VCR was not, in fact, recording Lost so I could sit down with a cup of hot tea, a brownie, and enjoy the next chapter in the Lost universe. Nope, I never did reset my VCR. Brilliant, no?

So, there it is...my bad technology week.