In the immortal words of Mork from Ork, "Shazbot!"

There appears to be an issue with all Zune 30GB devices, including mine. At midnight 12/31, the devices froze up and are stuck on the startup screen.

Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on it. So I'll wait. But drat all Computer Gremlins anyway.

I'm keeping an eye on the official Zune Forums, because when a fix IS announced, it will be appearing there (among other places). And to be frank, I'm a little surprised at how addicted some people are to putting their own Wall of Sound between themselves and the rest of the world.

Understand, I like my music at least as much as the next person, if not more. I'd say that I self-identified as a musician long before I embraced just about any other label I can think of, except maybe "animal-lover". So I'm all about hearing music that I enjoy.

However, there are times when cutting oneself off from one's surrounding environment is inappropriate, at best. For example, there's the visit we made to Aunt Phyllis at the nursing home last Sunday; while we were on our way in, we crossed paths with a family on their way out. One of the members of said family was a preteen girl with her music player's earbuds firmly embedded in her ears, right there while she was with her family. And for all I know, those earbuds might have been in place while she was visiting whichever relative lives in said nursing home. I can't imagine my parents, when I was that girl's age, finding that acceptable. I believe they'd have termed it "rude" to be tuning out the people around me during a family outing. It's one thing to be listening to Your Own Music and creating Your Own Little World when you're by yourself. But when you're supposed to be interacting with other people, IMO the tunes need to be put away for the duration.

But either way, I hope that we Zune owners have the option of tuning in or out, as we please, ASAP. There was a theory that the issue was related to the leap year, and the problem was caused because 12/31/08 was the 366th day of the year. The theory held that the frozen Zunes might revive themselves on 01/01/09. Unfortunately, MY Zune remains frozen, so that theory can effectively be put to rest. Here's hoping that an effective correction for the problem makes a speedy appearance.

Happy New Year to all! Or, as Captain and Stanley would say, "Happy MEW Year!" :)