You will buy me these.

I think I may have just died and gone to heaven.

(P.S. Just kidding. Not about wanting them… but about the whole “buy these for me!” thing. Just so you know.)

This one is for all you mp3 player—iPod or otherwise—owners out there who have ever faced the dilemma I am about to describe.

Picture this: you’re listening to your music. Alone.

It’s a fun, groovy little time for you, right? But it’s—let’s face it—a little bit solitary. What happens when you suddenly think to yourself, “Gee. I would really like to share this rocking Decemberists song with three to five of my closest companions.”

Up till now, if you didn’t have a pair of speakers with the proper connector handy, you were out of luck. But NOT ANYMORE! Now, all you need is your iPod, your earbuds, and—are you ready?—your mouth.

That’s right, folks! Your God-given oracular cavity is a perfect sound chamber to transmit your tunes to those standing immediately around you. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Turn on your iPod-like device.
2. Choose a rocking song.
3. Crank the volume.
4. Rest your earbuds on your lips, and close lightly around them. (Adjustment may be required to produce fullest sound.)
5. Watch your friends ooh and ah in amazement!

I know, I know… only a Gutenberg student could discover something quite so awesomely revolutionary. And trust me—there’s more where this came from.

… but when over 173,000 people (which, I might mention, is more people than actually live in Eugene, OR) have seen you dressed up like Princess Leia, you can’t help but act a little bit like a star:

Sorry for the lack of updates on the “Send Teal (a.k.a. Princess Leia) to Cambridge fund” and other exciting tidbits, like the fact that our humble photo has traveled to the four corners of this world wide web-o-sphere, but life and schoolwork have to take first priority, even for two newly-minted internet celebrities.

Of course… who are we kidding? Our limelight has passed. The collective interweb has already moved on to watching more YouTube videos and laughing at more LOL Cats. But for our fifteen seconds of fame, it was kind of fun (and scary) to imagine hundreds of people crawling all over my website at the same time.

In any case, the whole thing has been a fun adventure. And hey—y’all are a generous bunch! All together, so far, you have given Teal almost $450! This is, admittedly, not going to cover her tuition any time soon, but it is still remarkable—we really owe you.

This will probably be my last post on this topic for a while, unless something else exciting and unexpected happens. Teal is exploring her educational options for the fall; I’ll post an update sometime in the coming months about her decision. In the meantime, thank you again for looking at our photo. I’m so glad you all like it.

And now *sigh * back to our regularly scheduled programming.