First world jank

My Kindle is broken, in an annoyingly specific way. It won't recharge. Currently it has a sliver of juice left in the battery, and I can turn it on, read the e-books on it, connect to WiFi, all that. But when I plug it in, the battery indicator doesn't go any higher. It doesn't even show the little lightning bolt inside the battery icon. It's not the wall outlet, or the adapter/plug/cable, because I've used the same peripheral combo to charge other devices, including my wife's Kindle. I don't even know if there's any kind of Kindle repair options available, or if I just need to suck it up and get a new one and re-sync all the content.

My portable DVD player is dying. Sometimes it takes two or three or more openings and closings of the hatch, or toggles of the power switch, to get it to load a disc. Sometimes it freezes up while playing a movie and only unsticks if I jiggle or smack it, or apply pressure to the hatch near the hinge (NB: I concede this may be magical thinking on my part).

My smartphone is getting pretty antiquated, as these things go. At the very least I think the constant updates of the Facebook app has come very close to passing the point where the latest version is essentially incompatible with the hardware and/or remaining memory of my phone. The browser doesn't always perform optimally, either, and honestly the whole O/S feels slow.

The stereo in my car was intermittently turning itself off (which was irritating) and on (which was unnerving) last summer, and some kind of electrical short was causing it to drain the battery all the time, even when the engine was off, so finally I just had it disconnected, and I've been living without it for months.

So basically, my personal engagement with pop culture has suffered a few slings and arrows of technological failures and shortcomings of late. It's been balanced out quite a bit by some cool new toys on the home front, like finally getting DVR service and a keen new Fire TV stick. But there's the stuff I watch and read at home, and then there's the stuff I watch and read on the commute, and obviously the latter has taken a big hit. Not that I needed another reason to slack off on the blog, and not that I constantly feel the need to justify or at least explain the circumstance surrounding my various absences and silences around here (read: I totally feel the need), but at this point it's become such a recurring theme that I thought it at least bore mentioning.