my ipod is dead.

After traveling with me for 2 solid years all over Eastern Europe, my refurbished by hp 20GB Apple iPod has finally called it quits... It was at least considerate to wait until after I got back from Belarus to die!

Of course now if I want to buy an iPod, I pretty much can't get one WITHOUT video or over 80GB and lots of snazzy things that frankly I don't care about... and I certainly can't avoid paying over 100 or 200 dollars.... yikes! Sometimes it's frustrating when you don't actually *want* the newer technology but are forced to take it and *pay* for it.

Same business marketing conspiracy exists in the food world. I found myself eating at restaurants a lot this summer. And in America, each portion in every restaurant, whether it be a nice sit down place or the local KFC, gives you TONS of food... way more than my stomach can handle at a time. My realization was this: by giving bigger portions they can charge you more for them. So even if you don't *want* that much food, you are forced to pay for it anyway... and then by proxy, you either eat it all and buy into the American way of life of overeating and overabundance, or you waste it which is pretty normal also in the American way of thinking and life, or you try to take it as leftovers, which half the time doesn't work out well... (some things just *don't* reheat well.)

The best solutions I've come up with are either
1) Share a meal with someone else!
or
2) Stop eating out and start cooking more!

I hope to be doing more of #1 but mostly focus on #2.