gushue.net

Two entries in one week! Scandalous! I forgot to add a subject to the last entry, so I’ll have to put something random in for it now.

As I do a few times a week, I was checking on my bank account balances online. Not that I’m worried about things being taken out without my knowledge, but I do it anyway. It appears that my interest relief application was approved, because my next loan payment date is now March 2005 instead of November 2004. Awesome! I’ll have to do a little figuring out of when I’ll be paying what bills/debts I have, a couple of Christmas gifts (I won’t mention them here, since this is public and I’d rather have these gifts remain a surprise), and how much to save for school for next semester and beyond. And I’ll definitely have to get new glasses now, and probably contacts as well for the first time.

Things are starting to look better again. For a while lately, things have just plain sucked. And not in any remotely good way.

Oh, and Everquest II will be released on November 8 – my recent upgrades were partly in anticipation of this game. I can’t wait until I can go buy and play it.

My new CPU and motherboard finally arrived, and after a few minor troubles, everything is working fine. I just have to reinstall Windows properly and get things set up again. And I can’t use my old parts until I get a new case, because my spare ATX case seems to be broken.

But enough about computer stuff, which seems to have been most of what I’ve been posting about lately. I guess that’s just because there hasn’t been much else going on.

I’ve still been working lots, getting overtime when I can, even extra shifts. It’s been useful this month, because of our local poll tax being taken out of my cheques ($175/yr, I didn’t pay it by the deadline back in August, I’ll try to next year).

And school is still going well. I have another test on November 3, and I asked for the night before off, instead of whatever other night I’d have off then. I have to register for classes on November 25 for next semester. I was thinking about taking three, but I’ll stick with my original plan and take just two. Ease back into things. And take three courses a semester starting in September.

Hopefully things will work out well money-wise, too. I applied for interest relief on my student loan, since I should still qualify for it. That’ll let me save money for school more easily. And when I’m taking three courses, I’ll be a full-time student so I won’t have to make loan payments then anyway.

One last thing about computers: BitComet is a kickass bittorrent client! I was using BitTornado for a while, but when you have 15 windows open, it really eats up your available memory and CPU.

So, I decided to order a new motherboard and CPU before getting a new monitor. Whenever NCIX decides to ship it, I’ll be getting that Asus P4P800-VM, and an Intel Celeron 2.4 GHz. I’ll pick up a Pentium 4 C 3.2 GHz when I have the money to spare, but probably after upgrading the RAM to PC3200 (and a gig or two). Working out a longer term upgrade path now – still need to get a new monitor, SATA drive (mostly for the smaller cables), the Antec Aria case, new memory, a P4, and then either new speakers or a Kenwood stereo receiver and speakers. I haven’t decided yet what I’ll be doing with my current motherboard and CPU. I could either sell it, use it as a fileserver (I’ll need one when I get the Antec Aria, since I won’t want three hard drives in that tiny little case), or let my sister use some of the parts.

Getting lots of extra time at work lately, which is mostly a good thing. I could really use the money at the moment. Some people might get mad that I’m getting extra shifts, while they aren’t even getting five a week, but fuck them. I do lots of good work, unlike some of them, so that’s why.

School is going well, too. I got a 73% on my first test, and I never even had much time to study for it. Since I had to work the night before. I asked to have the night off before my next test though, so I can study. Shouldn’t be a problem. Have to go to class shortly, and I just realized I didn’t make quite enough coffee to take a mug with me. I guess I’ll have to make some more. Or just not bother.