I’m not sure how to take this. Maybe my occult powers are growing. I say this in jest, but there’s some other evidence for this which I might delve into in a later entry. Or perhaps I just subconsciously fulfilled my inner desires.

Well, last night, I was perusing eBay for batteries. I saw an 850mAh battery which was minutes away from closing. I’d forgotten how powerful my current battery was so I wasn’t sure just how 850 would compare. Instead of ordering, I decided to have a look. I brought out my mini screwdrivers and opened up the sucker like I did in April 2006. I popped out the board and saw that it was a 750mAh battery. Nice! The 850mAh would be an improvement. So, I was getting ready to place a $1 bid on the battery. Before I did so I started putting the iPod together again. As much as it was easy popping the board out, putting it back in proved to be a little bit more difficult. Something was getting caught, preventing the board and components from sliding back in easily. Damn. So I looked around my chair for something to stick in there to push the board down while I slid it in. I didn’t find anything too handy except for a nail clipper with a small knife attachment. I told myself that I was just going to be careful and use it. So, I stuck it in the case and pushed the board down.

Unfortunately for me, I saw a bright flash of light or two from the case. Oops.

I was able to slide it in. When I closed it up, I noticed that the only way I could turn it on was by squeezing the top and bottom of the unit. I probably don’t have to say this…but that’s not how to properly operate the unit. When I did get it to turn on I noticed that the click wheel was no longer responsive. After a few more squeezes, the iPod refused to stay on at all.

Dead. I murdered my iPod. So apparently I got my wish. In all seriousness, I wasn’t intending for it to go out this way. As my friend pointed out to me last night:

(10:45 PM) H.Z.: dude why’d you do that? You gotta stop pretending you love engineering.

Indeed.