While one of my brothers was in town he gave me a fourth generation iPod with a severely cracked screen. He found it while going through some old stuff of his but couldn't remember where he got it from. After plugging it in and discovering that it could charge, I started going through the untagged songs and realized I knew exactly who gave it to him.

In 2006 I spent months listening to mopey, wallowing songs, or songs that otherwise brought back memories I wanted to dwell on (James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", Avril Lavigne's "My Happy Ending", and Phantom Planet's "California" were at the top of the booby-trapped playlist). I distinctly remember finding that playlist online and pointing a friend to it. Apparently he downloaded the songs, loaded them onto his iPod, then broke the screen and handed it to my brother. Now, after a half-decade of giddy waiting, they all jumped out of that cake and caused my heart to skip several beats in surprise.

To show those memories who's boss (me, yo!), I looked up replacement iPod screens and instructions. It's like a 30 minute procedure and costs about $25.

I'm the boss.

UPDATE : Done. I'll upload before-and-after photos this weekend with links to where I bought the screen and tools.