New iPod

Well, the inevitable happened: My iPod, which I earlier reported as terminal, showed the sad face icon again this morning and this time persisted in displaying that when I went to the Apple Store. My Applecare protection plan was still active, so I was able to swap it for a new version of the same model for free.

My first iPod, which I still have even though its battery life has decayed to bubkes, is known as "Hoopak". In Dragonlance, a hoopak is the weapon of choice for kender (never leave home without it!), so it's quite an apt name for one of my iPods.

My second (just replaced) iPod is called "Chotchke". This refers to the Yiddish term for 'small item' (which is not a fully accurate translation). You'll often see it used as a synonym for "swag".

In naming my third iPod, I decided to simultaneously refer to the D & D weapon theme used for my first iPod and to construct a pun with respect to the second one. In Dark Sun, thri-kreen commonly use a weapon called a "chatkcha", which is pronounced in the same manner as chotchke. I thus decided to name my new iPod "Gythka", which is another weapon of choice among thri-kreen.

Ah, the subtleties of harddrive naming...