The Devil, You Say

'S been a minute, I know. This is what happens when you spend 16+ consecutive days at work. And no, I'm not done with that streak yet. Come on, December 10.

Anyway, because I promised (but now don't feel like going into a whole lot of detail, here's the long-and-short of the Zune. Bought it in February. Loved it. Four months later, in June, the hard drive in it takes a steaming dump and I have to send it back for a replacement. Love it again until October (another four months later), when the hard drive in it takes another steaming dump and I have to send it back for a replacement again.

One month after that, in November, I take it out of the case I have for it one morning to charge it only to find the LED screen in it is cracked and I can't see a thing. Call tech support for the severalth time since I've owned it and explained what happened and was told that cracked screen = voided warranty. All they can do is refer me to their Microsoft Live search site to find a 3rd-party repair vendor that will gladly fix the screen - for about as much as I paid for it. Finally losing what little pati4ence I had left, I gave the Tech Support guy at the other end about 30 minutes of vile, 8th-level hell, hung up, went back in the house, unplugged the Zune from the computer, and threw the damned thing in the trash.

Gone. Done. Get the bloody hell out of my house and my life.

I may get an iPod. Maybe another mp3 player of some sort. But I WILL NOT own another Zune player. As early Xbox 360 owners can attest to, Microsoft doesn't make the greatest hardware in the world. And they suck at taking care of those that chose them over Apple. And they wonder why Steve Jobs is kicking the crap out of them...

Anyway, back to some light reading - Grendel. I'm after the entire series. Piece by piece, if I have to. Not so much the Hunter Rose stuff; read a lot of that (though I wouldn't mind finally owning a copy of "Devil By The Deed"). Based one of my first online identities on that character, as old-schoolers that frequented the Data-Link and News Journal BBS boards can attest to. Right now, though, I'm especially interested in "Devil's Legacy" (the story right after Hunter Rose) and "God And The Devil", aka the rise of Orion Assante (the story right before "War Child").

I'm sure some of this may lose you; if that's the case, the Wikipedia link before can enlighten you more on the nut of the series, and Orion's Sword can fill you in on particulars. Vivat Grendel.

Before I take my leave...and speaking of the Devil...found something I'd been looking for a while and hadn't heard in a long time...

We all know that the Devil Came Down To Georgia and challenged a kid named Johnny. Soul versus Golden Fiddle. And we know that Johnny stomped a mudhole in ol' Satan and walked it dry, taking said Fiddle.

However, did you know that, ten years after that fateful meeting, that The Devil Came Back To Georgia?