Last night, when I arose from my computer to drive a few blocks to get to my bed, I unhappily discovered that my right knee sent a wave of exquisite pain whenever the joint made any movement. Apparently, the day of skiing had taken its toll in a way that could only be discovered many hours after the fact. I limped down to the car, drove home, and limped up the stairs to bed.

Periodically throughout the night, and when I awoke today, the pain continued. Moving the right knee... not fun. (I suspect it was caused by a fall I had which twisted it in a wierd way, but didn't register much pain at all until long after skiing was over.)

When I attempted to get up and walked around, I initially wondered whether I would be able to work, given that my job involves spending a lot of time on one's feet. I decided to tough it out, and proceeded, mostly limping around, but doing my best to assume a normal walk.

As the evening wore on, the pain subsided, to the point that I could walk normally without pain. Trying to bend down still hurts though, but it's getting better. If the current trend continues, all should be back to normal within the next 2 days. Whew!

In other news, tonight marks the first time I paid for a music download over the web. (With only a download, and no accompanying physical copy.)

Googling for an mp3 Madonna's upcoming single, American Life, turned up an official web release of the single, offering a genuine mp3 for download, at a price of $1.49.

After a few moments of contemplation, on an impulse, I decided to go for it. One might wonder why I would do such a thing, since I already downloaded the censored video from salon a few weeks ago. especially when it's a virtual certainty that I'll be buying the album when it comes out next week. Well... A few reasons.

• For ages, many of us have been saying that if "they" offered us a legit method to buy downloadable music online, we wouldn't be as likely to resort to piracy. (i.e. In a standard format, no DRM, at a somewhat reasonable price.) Well, here it is.
• The sound quality on salon's video download was crap. Actually, so was the picture resolution, for that matter. But anyway...
• The novelty of it. Generally speaking, I would consider $1.49 to be on the high side for one song, especially if it doesn't include any of the other niceties or packaging of a cd single. (So it isn't likely I'd be buying tons of music at this rate very often.) But I thought I'd try it with one song, just to see how their process worked.
• It's Madonna. Duh.
• It's less than the price I paid for the soda (ski resort priced) I had yesterday. And already, I think I've gotten more enjoyment out of it.

Anyway, it went about as smooth as a paypal transaction can go. A few clicks later, and I've got a 192kbps mp3 running on repeat through xmms.

The irony is too obvious.

Goodnight world.