Problem SOLVED!

Never mind, you don't need to post comments to help me because my dad was smart and used a little slotted screwdriver to pry it open. I'm good now! :D

HELP!!!!!!!

Faithful followers, I have a challenge for you!  Come a little closer so you can hear properly.  That's it... little closer..... NO!! Too close! Back off a little... perfect. Okay, I have an Incase for my iPod.   I CAN"T REMOVE IT!!!!! My iPod is a Nano chromatic I got about three years ago.  (4th or 5th gen, I can't remember.)  The Incase is one of those hard shell ones that snaps onto the iPod and looks like this: 

The arrow is pointing to the slot where I seem to recall the little paper that came with this case said to pry it open using a coin.   I tried this but it was flexing weirdly and i was afraid it would break.  I couldn't find the paper it came with, and the internet was completely useless-- I NEED YOUR HELP!!!! HOW DO YOU OPEN A CASE LIKE THIS??? I need to get it off because my iPod is getting filthy under there and the screen is a bit hard to see now.  PLEASE help me!!!!  Post comments with ideas for opening or information!!!

East Coast Trip-- Sunshine, Beaches, and Driving Galore

About three days ago, I got back from a wonderful trip to the East Coast, upon which I visited Maryland, Delaware, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, and stayed in an AMAZING hotel (Big shout-out to Comfort Suites Maryland :D).  Below I've outlined each place by best part about it, worst part about it, and yummiest thing I ate there.
  Place:    Maryland
Best Part(s):     The NASA Goddard museum, Edgar Allen Poe's Grave, and the wonderful (and huge) Value Village thrift store
Worst part(s):   The market downtown was really sketchy and some of the cities were too (as well as a Sleep Inn that doesn't deserve mention)
Yummiest:      An amazing Margarita pizza I had at an Italian Restaurant the day I arrived

Place:     Delaware
Best Part(s):   How nice downtown was- you could walk around, and there were restaurants and little stores lining the streets, and people walking around.... it had a really good feel.  Also the beach-- it was big, nice, and really fun!
Worst Part(s):  There really weren't any-- I loved it!
Yummiest:         Rita's Ice Cream stands- they were scattered around, but the one downtown was my favorite- and their choco-vanilla swirl frozen custards weren't to be scoffed at either!

Place:      Philadelphia
Best Part(s):   The Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum- A nerd's dream come true
Worst Part(s):    Polish-American Museum: They suckered you in with these signs of delicious-looking Polish Water Ices, so I went in because I was hot and thirsty, and looked at the boring displays to be polite, and then there wasn't any water ice at all; just an old lady at a desk.  Also the Liberty Bell, which was way smaller than expected and crowded with tourists.
Yummiest:    A pretzel from the market that you could stand there and see them make-- Fresh, buttery..... Best pretzel EVER and possibly best food of the entire trip.

Place:      Washington DC
Best Part(s):   The science part of the Smithsonian History museum, as well as the Pop Culture section and the instrument room that had the ornate Stradivarius quartet, the Air & Space museum, and the modern portion of the National Gallery.  And yes, I saw the DaVinci.
Worst Part(s):   The amount of walking was insane (I took the metro), and my feet were so sore at the end of the day I could barely walk, and I had to take the next day off to just swim and sight see near the hotel to rest my poor feet.
Yummiest:   Ethiopian food.  I had never had it before, but U Street downtown had at least four of them;I guess it was the Ethiopian district.  I chose the restaurant that was busiest, and it was delicious, yet extremely filling and far more food than I could eat.

So, you've gotten a taste of the East Coast from me.  Please post comments with your own East Coast experiences, or if you have something to add......

Internet Connection Down.......

Hiya folks;
I'd like to give a big I'M SORRY for the fact that I haven't posted in weeks, but my internet router died, and I had to get a new router AND modem, and I had no internet.  However, now that that's all squared away, I'm back to my almost-daily posting.  I apologize for the inconvenience.....  

Apple and Why It's Taking Over the World

I have an iPod.  Who doesn't?  But Apple- and many other companies today- are in it for the money, not the quality.  Let's use me as an example.
You purchase a new iPod in 2008. (nano chromatic.)  It's the new thing, the best in nano technology.  You install the latest version of  iTunes on your computer to match your fancy new gadget.  You listen to your new iPod and play Solitaire on it.
Fast forward to 2011.  Your iPod still works- but barely.  You can only listen to a few songs before it dies, and Solitaire is out because it drains the battery.  Your iTunes isn't working anymore; it won't let you put any new music on your iPod or add pictures, videos, or updates.  Your scroll wheel is filthy and you can't get the cat hairs out of the case.
You really want a new iPod, but feel guilty throwing something that still works away.  You want to reinstall iTunes but you don't know how (your nerdy brother is out of town) and you have hundreds of songs in your old iTunes account.  All the other iPods are better than yours, even the tiny ones.  Why does Apple design a crappy product that will end up like this after only three years?  Because they want you to buy a new one.  And buy and buy and buy and buy and make Steve Jobs even richer than he already is.

Random Thought for the Day: Is there a perfect town? Where it's hot in summer and snows a lot in winter and the streets are tree-lined, all the houses look the same, and everyone knows all of their neighbors?

Invention of the day: Pocket T-shirt scanner:  Make your own T-shirts by bringing up an image on the computer you wish to make a T-shirt of, scanning it with this handheld scanner that resembles a radar gun in appearance, and then firing the scanner at a blank T-shirt so the image is cast onto the shirt.  Then spray the image on the shirt with Perma-spray (comes with) to make the image permanent!

I Think the Blog Clock is off

Dear sweet nonexistent readers of this blog,
Come with me to the bottom of this post, where it says "posted by grace at 10:45 AM".  That is NOT CORRECT!  It is an entire hour off; it's 11:45! I just discovered this!  ANYway, just a heads up, so you know that tine isn't right, not that it matters, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

Thoughts on Soccer

I'm excited because beginning on June 11 (next Saturday) and ending on July 11 is the Women's World Cup!  Now, last summer was the regular (men's) world cup, which was very exciting, but unfortunately Spain won and they are evil (they beat Germany in the semis).  The 2006 world cup (the only other world cup I remember every detail of, despite the fact that I have been alive for many World Cups) was also a good one, but once again Germany was beaten in the semis by the team that proceeded to win the world cup-- this time Italy. :P At any rate, the Germany women's team is even stronger and is a great contender for the cup (as you can tell, I like Germany, for unknown reasons- I'm not German.)

Random thought for the day: Solitaire is fun.

Invention(s) of the day: Card shuffler and Book Holder.  The card shuffler shuffles your cards for you to guarantee a good game every time.  The book holder holds your book up for you when you want to read but are doing something using your hands at the same time, such as eating.  The book holder also obeys spoken commands, such as "Turn page!" or "go to page 34" or "go to the last page so I can read the ending", etc.

Update-- Facebook iPad SCAM

Guys, after my little Facebook survey debacle (see last post), I decided to do a little research to see if this was a scam or not (I was fairly confident it was).  I discovered that this was NOT ACTUALLY FACEBOOK and it also has hit a few other people.  Apparently there was another free iPad Facebook scam, but mine was different, and I could only find one other person who appeared to have been hit by the same thing.  The link for this is :
http://getpaidtotakesurveyonline.info/survey-scams/facebook-survey-scam/.  I'm a bit worried considering I can't find any information about this other than that website.  However, I think I'm safe because I didn't actually complete the survey and I didn't reveal any personal information (it wanted my first name, last name, email, address, etc. to obtain the iPad).  Anyway, my fingers are crossed....

Viewing the World in Negative

It's six AM and I feel like BLOGGING!!!  I discovered something new today-- you know when you stare at something for a really long time, and you see a little floaty image of it?  Those floaty images are actually in NEGATIVE!! At first it was just a guess (I stared at a picture hanging on my wall), but I confirmed it by looking at the picture through the negative filter on my phone's camera- and guess what:  I saw exactly the same thing as before in the floaty images!  This was something of a breakthrough for me.

Random Thought for the Day: Earlier, when I was trying to access this site, I was trying to type the address into the browser at the top, and it kept doing random things like Googling "Toothpick Chick" and going to other people's blogs and things like that- and one time it took me to a Facebook survey.  This is very strange as I don't have a Facebook.... the survey was very weird.  It offered to give me prizes as a thanks for completeing the survey when I hadn't taken it.  It congradulated me "the Facebook user" for just going to this survey.  The questions were:
1.   Are you male or female?
2.  How many social networking sites are you currently signed up to? (0 wasn't an option)
3.  How old are you? (it had age groups)
4.  How many friends do you have on your favorite social networking site? (0!!  I don't have a favorite social networking site!)
When I finished looking at the survey, it offered me a free iPad, a $1000 Walmart gift card, or a $1000 Best Buy gift card.  When I first reached this page, it had quantities of 6 or higher, but later it only had 1 for all three items. 
I decided the smart option would be to not believe they were giving things away of such enormous value, so I closed the window and went back to my blog.  The whole thing was very odd, especially because it knew where I live, and I wasn't on Facebook when it popped up!
Invention of the Day: Contest Scanner: Whenever you get a "Chance to Win!" flier in the mail, or see it on TV, or get it in an email or it pops up on the internet, you just take this handy scanner and it can read different signs to determine whether or not your contest is a hoax.

It's JUNE now!!!

Guys, something just dawned on me....
IT"S JUNE!!!! We're in the midst of summer!!! YESSSS.....
And so, without further ado....... HAPPY JUNE!!!!!  HAPPY SUMMER!!! Yayyy!