gushue.net

Saturday was the first day of my holidays - I don’t go back to work until after Labour Day. Seventeen wonderful days off! I don’t really have much of anything planned, although a friend is having a bbq on the 26th. I’ll definitely have to go to that.

This morning I managed to make xenon unbootable. It kept cutting out a second or two after turning on, like the CPU was overheating. But unplugging some drives let it boot normally. I guess the power supply decided to not agree with all those drives and the new memory (if that made any difference). I’m sure the dust packed into the PSU fan wasn’t helping. So I went to bed (after managing to mess up my Firefox installation on my laptop) and switched cases tonight when I woke up. Everything is working fine, and this case has a 300W power supply, not a 250W. Of course, being a cheap computer case, I managed to slice my finger open and bleed everywhere. Halfway from the second knuckle on my right ring finger, to the third knuckle (towards the nail). About two centimetres long, I guess. I didn’t even know I did it until I felt something wet, thinking I had spilled coffee somewhere. Except coffee isn’t red. But liquid bandage saves the day! I still have a scar on my wrist from working on another cheap computer case a couple of years ago. But that didn’t bleed, I just ended up with a missing chunk of flesh.

I ordered a Moleskine pocket notebook on eBay this weekend. I’ve been thinking about starting some kind of paper journal for a while now. Something I was never interested in doing before, but trying new things is good. Google is a wonderful thing - while searching for sites talking about the Pilot G-2 pen (my favorite pen ever), I came across a thread on Metafilter about Moleskine notebooks. People seem to like using them, so I figured I’d get one to see for myself.

I think I changed my mind on the case to buy. The Antec Aria. It costs twice as much - but looks a lot nicer, has a 300W power supply, a big 120mm fan on the back, a built-in 8-in-1 card reader, and two blue LEDs :) Plus it’s more square, and just looks nicer in general.

I also now have 768 MB of PC2100 DDR RAM in xenon. When I upgrade, I’m going to have to buy more anyway, to support the higher bus speed (800 MHz). It won’t cost very much to get a gig of PC3200 DDR400, maybe $200 or so. So that’s what I’ll probably do as well.

I may have to put off buying the hard drive for now, depending on how much money I have saved at the time. I would like to have some to spend on family for Christmas again this year. More so than last year. Like my first year of working at Wal-Mart :)

I’ve had my current desktop system for a while now. That is, in its current state. Since I don’t generally buy whole computers, other than things like my Sun Ultra 5. I’ve upgraded my video card to a Radeon 9600XT recently, and will be getting 768MB of DDR RAM when I get paid, but it’s still just a Duron 1.2 GHz CPU.

I’ve put a lot of thought into my next major upgrade, and I think I’m going to go with a small setup. As in, Micro ATX (mATX). I thought about mini-ITX and random SFF systems like the ShuttleX or Qbic, but they are ultimately limited.

My current general plans are to get: * mATX desktop case * Asus P4P800-VM motherboard * Intel Pentium 4 C 3.0 GHz CPU (or 3.2 GHz, or whatever I consider to be reasonably priced at the time) * Western Digital Raptor 36GB SATA 10K RPM hard drive

Since everything else on the list is fairly fast, I might as well get a really fast drive as well. Which is another reason for going with mATX over the smaller alternatives - having SATA. Nothing is set in stone here, obviously, and subject to change. But this is pretty much what I’d like to have by the end of the year (I end up getting paid three times in December, so that’s “extra” money). Next year sometime I can get a LCD flat panel, maybe a 17″ if they are priced nicely. Probably with my tax refund.

Well, that was some short-lived excitement. I’m not going to be moving out, after all. At least not right now. I’m disappointed, but I’ll deal with it. Just like everything else. I don’t have much choice, so it’s no good to dwell on it.

In better news, I registered for school a few days ago. Luckily, the timeslot for the course I wanted was still available. Which is 5:30-6:45pm on Monday and Wednesday. The other choices were 3 classes in the mornings, or one long class at night. I’m determined to do well this time. With just one class, and paying for it with “real” money (not student loans), I think I’ll be a little more motivated to put effort into it. If all goes well, I’ll be taking just one course again next semester. And possibly two each semester next year. But for now, I’ll just take it one semester at a time, without planning too far ahead. I could change my mind on going to school again. You never know.

I still need new glasses. I had my eyes examined almost two years ago now, not long after I got my current job. Shortly after that, I got on fulltime, so I was going to wait until my benefits kicked in (6 months) before getting glasses. I never did get around to it. So now I’m going to have to get another eye exam before getting glasses. I’m considering getting both contacts and glasses, depending on what kind of prices there are, etc. I don’t mind wearing glasses, but I think it would be a nice change to not need them. Plus then I’d be able to wear sunglasses during the summer. I’ll think about it over the next couple of months, while I put aside some money for it. With my current health insurance, I only get 50% off up to $150 for vision, every 24 months. Which isn’t as much as I’m paying out of each cheque overall, but that’s also good for other things, if I ever need it.

I’m moving out this month, finally. A friend needed a roommate, and we found a place not far from here for a pretty good price. Heat/light/cable included, and furnished. With a deck. And a fireplace. I’ve been paying almost that much a month living at home, so this is a good thing. When I first started working, it was great living at home because I was able to save a lot. But not anymore. I get along fine with my family, but I’d just like to be out on my own again and have my own space. Well, shared with one person, but that’s just as good. Or better, since there will be someone to talk to and do things with.

I guess I’ll be moving there later this month, on my holidays (starting August 21, for two weeks). First thing on the list is definitely to get a phone and DSL hookup. Can’t be living somewhere without internet access!

I have some pictures up on my gallery now as well. We don’t have anything moved in yet, so it’s just whatever is already there. More pictures will be taken once we’re settled in, of course. But for now, apartment pictures!