gushue.net

Niv was telling me the other day I should update my weblog or die, or delete the whole thing, or something to that effect. So, here it is!

I basically just have very little free time at the moment. Still working full time on nights, and I’m at school for an extra four hours three days a week (only two hours of class, the rest is the time between work and class, and the bus ride home). The other few hours I have before going to bed is usually spent playing Everquest II.

Upgrades! Wonderful computer upgrades! Since my last update, so many months ago, I’ve bought more stuff. A nice set of Logitech Z3e speakers, upgraded to a full 2 GB of PC3200 DDR400 RAM, and a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPU. Fun stuff. I also finally have a decent headset mic, so I’m able to use voice chat while playing a game with Roger Wilco, or in general with Skype or something similar.

But for now, I’m off to get ready for work again. Can’t wait for my next weekend off (next weekend). I hope my half-assed entry was enjoyable :)

Posted to the right place, this time.

The last few months have gone by pretty quickly. I guess being really busy with work was part of that. It seems like just yesterday it was the beginning of October. And here it is now, the last day of 2004.

More computer updates! :) My sister gave me a Logitech MX1000 wireless laser mouse for Christmas. It’s a damn nice mouse. Wireless is great to have, and it’s just as smooth (or more) as my corded Intellimouse Optical. The battery life on this is supposed to be pretty good. It has its own internal battery, and has a charging base. Quick charging time too, I think. Now I just need to get myself a new keyboard. Maybe even a wireless Logitech one. I’m not too impressed with Microsoft’s current keyboard offerings.

And I bought a 17″ LCD monitor yesterday, I love it. Doesn’t have a brand name on it anywhere, and it’s just analog. But it was cheap - just $298 CAD at Wal-Mart for the Boxing Week sale. So I got my normal 10% discount, too :) The screen looks really nice, clear at various resolutions. And much larger than I’m used to. My old 17″ CRT was really only 16″ or so viewable, and I’ve been using a 15″ CRT for a few months. It’s a nice change.

To celebrate the new year… I’m working! Heheh. This past week has just been full of work for me. I worked on Christmas Day for something like 11 hours. Plus 4 other normal shifts. Plus the one tonight. So that’s a lot of overtime/doubeltime, as well as two days of holiday pay. Looking forward to that paycheque in two weeks. I’ll get to relax next weekend, I have five days off then.

See you next year!

…lots more to go! At the rate I’m taking courses, that is. Two or three a semester is going to go pretty slow towards getting something finished, but I think it’ll be worth it. I’m not going to get any more student loans, so I need to keep working fulltime to be able to pay for school.

Been pretty busy this month. Christmas in retail is just crazy. So much to do all the time. I’ve gotten plenty of extra shifts and hours, at least. I just finished working eight days straight. Then I had to study for an exam that I had yesterday. I think I did pretty well on it, just like the other tests. I’ll find out soon enough. It could have been 9 or 10 days of working, actually - except I decided to take a night off to finish up my ten page assignment. My manager called me that night to see if I wanted to work. I did want to, but I figured that school was slightly more important than getting an extra shift (most of which would go to taxes anyway, damn overtime).

Having lots of fun with Everquest II still. Well, except for last night, when they had massive problems and took all of the servers down. They’re still working on it, and are finally bringing one server up to get a few people on it to see if everything is stable and working. I guess the downtime is coming up on 24 hours by now, I’m not sure what time they went down, exactly. I don’t think they slept much, if at all. It gave me a chance and slight motivation to do some other things I’ve been putting off, at least.

Yesterday, I finally got my eyes checked again, and will have my new glasses by Tuesday or Wednesday. I need to send off the stuff for my insurance though, I’ll be getting half of that back. I had my eyes checked over two years ago, but got my fulltime job shortly after so I decided to wait for my benefits to start before getting the glasses. Except I never did get around to it. My eyes are slightly worse now than two years ago, but not by a lot. I didn’t really notice, because I was having slight problems seeing as it was. Can’t wait to get them, though. I’ve had these damn frames for long enough.

Now, one more night off before I have to go back to work. Then I get all of Christmas Eve off, and work a couple more nights (voluntarily working Christmas Day night). Off for two, work two more, and then I get New Year’s Eve off. I worked last New Year’s Eve, but I was extremely broke due to having to pay off an old credit card, and didn’t have any plans anyway. Not doing that this year. I don’t have plans, other than not going to work.

And speaking of Christmas, I think I’m going to pick up a 17″ LCD monitor on the 27th. Not going into much detail here, but they’ll be a good price during the Boxing Week Blowout sale. Not sure of the brand and it’s probably just analog, but it’s a good size and can do 1280×1024. It’ll do for now. I need a new monitor anyway, and that’s better than what I’m using at the moment.

I bought Everquest II on Nov 9th, and upgrading my computer was definitely worth it. It’s a great game so far, much better than the first Everquest. Quests are actually easy to keep track of (relatively - with a full quest journal [50] things can be hard to find, but at least your progress on them is there). Plus other changes that I think make it more enjoyable. The game is playable on my current system, but I’ll be upgrading the RAM and CPU pretty soon, to make it even better. And I’ll consider getting an even better video card. Something current, and not a model previous to the top of the line like I usually and currently have. Still need a new monitor, though.

I was considering picking up an Xbox this week, but ended up getting a 3.2 cubic foot mini fridge instead. I think that’s mostly Everquest related, heh. It’s not good to have to go downstairs to get a drink or something to eat, while you’re in the middle of doing quests/fighting with some other people. Until I build myself a new desk - yes, I know I’ve been saying I was going to do that for a while, but some people would call me King Procrastination - I’ll have to not use my plastic shelving I had in that spot. Not much of a problem, since I moved most of the things on it elsewhere for now, but I don’t really have anywhere to put the shelf itself. So for the moment I actually have it on top of the fridge… I should take a picture, heh. But yeah, I’ll design a space for the fridge in the desk area thing I want to build. Shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll have to keep in mind to have a space for a microwave and coffee pot, too. Yes, I don’t want to have to get up to use all of these things, what’s wrong with that? I’m being defensive because I can imagine what people reading this are thinking ;)

Next month - need to pick up some Christmas gifts for the family. I know what I’ll get my parents, but don’t know about my sister yet. I have to get her to make up a list of some things for me to choose from, and I think she wants me to do the same.

Now, to go play EQ2 for an hour or so before bed, since I was out most of the morning, or busy doing other things.

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.

I think it might finally be time to get an Xbox soon. The Xecuter 3 is out, or just about out. It’s solderless, works with the newer 1.6 versions of the Xbox, and has a nifty looking front control panel thing with a LCD and stuff. After taxes and discounts and stuff, it would end up costing me about $325 CAD for the system with a couple of games and the modchip. Not too bad. Later on I could always add a decent size hard drive.

I don’t really care about most of the games for the Xbox, except maybe Jade Empire. Mostly I just want to use it for emulation and watching DivX/XviD/etc stuff. I’m not even as concerned about playing copied games. If a game is good, I don’t mind buying it.

I’d probably have to rearrange things slightly on my home theatre system and television, so I could use the digital audio and S-video inputs for it. But that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Haven’t had much to update about lately. School is going well. Work is going well. Banks and bills are being annoying for various reasons. The weather is getting colder. Weblog comment spam is getting worse and sucks more than ever. And I want to redesign gushue.net but I’m just not in the mood to do it.

I finally got myself a proper wireless PCMCIA card for my laptop (which reminds me, I need to leave feedback for that on eBay), which works just fine in Linux without ndiswrapper fuckery. Which is nice and all, but I don’t want to have to deal with it. It’s much nicer to just enable a module in the kernel, and have it work. Now I just have to get the onboard network port fixed before my warranty is up.

I started using Google Adsense stuff on a forum site I run, and it seems to be going well so far. Hopefully it will help with hosting costs, so I don’t have to subtly mention donations every now and then :)

Assuming I have the money in December, I think I’m going to get a BenQ FP737 17″ LCD monitor (1280×1024). It’s about $500 CAD, and has analog/digital inputs - most LCDs around that price range lack the digital input. My video card has DVI, so I might as well make use of it. It might be a big chunk of money, but the monitor is something I have to look at every day, so getting something good makes a difference.

After that, I can think about upgrading at least my CPU, and probably increase my RAM to 1GB (768MB currently). And of course, lots more drive space. If I can find a XP2400+ to put in my current motherboard, I might just do that, instead of building a whole new system - as much as I’d like to.

My current EQ subscription expires in a few days, but I think I’ll go play something else instead. I’m looking forward to some of the things in EQ2, but EQ isn’t as fun when there aren’t as many random people to play with. A lot of what I see are level 65 (and now 70, I guess) characters, who have been playing for years. That’s what I get for trying it so late, I guess. Maybe EQ2 will be better if I start playing it earlier after release.

So many games, so little time to play them.

After I started my holidays, I started up my Everquest account again, since I knew I’d have lots of free time. I ended up getting into a (new) guild and starting a new character. It’s been fun. I was considering getting one of the expansions I don’t have but I think I’ll hold off on that, because I’ll probably get Everquest II when it’s out. My system is at the lower end of the requirements, but hopefully it’ll still run ok at lower settings. I want to upgrade soon anyway. Although, one of the first things I have to get is a new monitor, since my 17″ CRT died this week.

But instead of playing EQ tonight, I’ve been downloading the World of Warcraft Stress Test Beta. It’s pretty big, 2271mb. Right now I have about 1170mb download, just over half done :) I doubt I’d buy this game when it’s out, but it won’t hurt to play around with it while I can for free. EQ2 sounds more promising to me, especially with the 5+ years the EQ team has behind them already.

And then there are the number of games I have for computer and various consoles that I want to play. There just isn’t enough time, even if I could quit my job and play games 24 hours a day!

Oops, got distracted by crazy shit happening over in Russia shown live on CNN.