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!

I’ve had the current design on my site for almost a year now. Time for a change soon. I don’t really have anything in mind yet, but I’m sure it will be yet another clean and simple design. I like those :)

I’ve also decided to start using WordPress instead of Movable Type for my weblog here. Mostly because of the licensing changes I’ve mentioned here previously. MT 3.0 would be “free” for my usage, but it still wouldn’t really be free. WordPress is GPL, which is really free. Plus it uses PHP, which I’m more familiar with than Perl. So I’ll be playing around with the CVS version of 1.3, getting it working how I want, and then do a site redesign and weblog system change all at once. I’m thinking possibly by the end of August, since I’m off for two weeks then. But I’m not going to set any date for myself, because I don’t really like to plan ahead like that. Hopefully WordPress 1.3 will be out by the time I’m ready to switch over. And maybe MT-Blacklist might have a WP version. I hope so.

If/when I continue work on bplog with Niv, I don’t think I’ll use it as the main thing on this page. Maybe other pages, and sidebar stuff.

This week is finally over. I’m absolutely exhausted. Physically and mentally. So busy at work since last Wednesday. And with the normal people I work with being either off on their normal days, or on holidays… well, that doesn’t help things.

But now I’m off for five days! So much relaxing going to be done, among other things. And it’s such a beautiful morning, a great start to a long weekend. At some point this week - probably Friday - I need to drop off my application for SWGC (more on that in a bit), Saturday will probably involve going to see Spider-Man 2 with some friends, and I don’t really have anything else planned. Whatever comes up, I guess. I also ordered a DVD burner earlier this week, which should hopefully get here today. If not, I’ll end up having to wait until Friday, because of the holiday. But… nobody is going to be home while I’m sleeping today. That really sucks. It might arrive, and I could still have to wait! Damn. Oh well.

So yeah, I’m going back to school. Just one course this semester (Sep), and another the next semester (Jan). Depending on how things go, I may take two each semester next year. Or one. Or none. Who knows. I’m still going to be working full-time, of course. School part-time. It would be nice to actually finish a degree in school, considering the amount of time I’ve spent there so far.

I wasn’t really going to post this here, but LiveJournal has been sucking all week, and I couldn’t even load any pages this morning. Plus, it ended up being a longer entry anyway, which is what I try to post here.

The weather is finally starting to be somewhat nice here. Still not as nice as it was way back in April, but it’ll do. I just hope that it’s nice next weekend, when I have 5 days off (yay for my long weekend plus Canada Day!).

Computer upgrades… I recently bought a Sapphire Radeon 9600XT, to replace my aging GeForce2 GTS. Which was a nice card, but was suffering more and more with newer games. I’m quite happy with this Radeon, though. Much nicer for gaming :) There are other things I want to get, but I’m not sure how badly I want them. Another friend is going to be selling some DDR RAM soon, so I might get that. Cheap upgrade, and an easier upgrade path for the future. Since my current motherboard can use both SDRAM and DDR, but most new boards just use DDR. I could also use a new CPU, maybe an Athlon XP2400+ - the fastest this motherboard can handle - to replace my Duron 1.2 GHz. But I might wait on that a while longer, since it’s fine for the games I’m currently playing. I was thinking about ordering one this week, but I might as well wait.

Other nice things to have would be a DVD burner and LCD monitor. I should hold off on the DVD burner, since there is new stuff coming out that will either make it obsolete, or much cheaper. Even though they are already pretty cheap. Cheaper than what I paid for my 32×10x40 CD-RW. LCD monitors are still a little on the expensive side, although they are slowly dropping in price, it seems. I’m somewhat annoyed at the resolutions they use, though. Like a 19″ LCD limited to 1280×1024 or worse? Just seems wrong. I’d want to use 1600×1200 with a screen that big. Wouldn’t be so bad on a 17″, at least.

So other than those things, and more hard drive space, my computer is handling things just fine. And I use my laptop for a lot of other stuff, that doesn’t necessarily need super fast speeds. So it should be quite useful for a long time.

I’m coming up on two years working at Wal-Mart. Doesn’t seem like that long at all. So that also means I’ll be getting a raise in a few weeks. Nothing great, but it’s better than nothing at all. I’ll probably just dump whatever extra money I’ll be getting into my savings account. I’m used to the money I’m getting now, so it won’t hurt to just save the rest. After I get a new pair of glasses in the next month or so, at least.

So much to spend money on, but so little that I really need to spend that money on. Living at home does make things easier, since I have a student loan to pay back. I’d love to get my own place, but I can’t quite afford to do it on my own right now. Plus, it would be rather lonely. I really hate just sitting around when nobody else is around. It makes me not want to do anything at all. With a roommate or two it would be ok, though.

Still reading? :) Not that it matters too much, since I’m writing this more for me than whatever “audience” I have.

One of these days, I’m going to have to start working on bplog again with Niv. So far, we haven’t had free time to work on it at the same times. Soon, hopefully. Since I’d like to start using it for my weblog here instead of Movable Type. I definitely have no plans to upgrade to their newest version. Maybe we’ll get to do that sometime this summer. Things to (possibly) implement: trackback, some kind of comment blacklist thing since comment spam sucks, a nicer installation system, a better admin interface, maybe even an update client thing using one of the GTK UI things for Windows/Linux. Possibly an excuse to learn some Python.

Another rambling entry coming to an end. I tend to just talk about all sorts of stuff, since I don’t update this as often as I do on LJ. So whatever thoughts are bouncing around in my head end up on here in whatever order they come out.

I’ve made some minor little changes to my site lately, but didn’t really announce any of it. First, I changed the archive links for each month to be a dropdown box instead of individual links - much easier to deal with when you have a lot of older entries (thanks to Thomas for the help with that). Second, I added a RSS “friends page” of sorts. Works pretty much like the LiveJournal friends pages, except for RSS feeds. I thought about doing this quite a while ago, but didn’t want to sit down and start coding it myself. Then last week, I found out that mozillaZine feedHouse was doing exactly what I wanted, with the Planet feed aggregator. Nifty stuff. So, if you think I should add your feed to the list, just let me know. It would have to be something I’m interested in reading, though ;) But I’m always looking for something new.

And recently, I’ve been getting more emails than usual about software I’ve written. For my geekcode generator, bplog, and bpquotes. I always like to get feedback about that stuff, it makes you feel good when people use your software. It’s also a good motivation tool to fix or add things to it. I just never seem to have the time. The geekcode generator I don’t really want to do anything with anymore, since I never did like C. The bpquotes changes are something I wanted to do anyway, and would be useful to me, and bplog might start being active again with myself and Niv combining our efforts (he’s written his own entry posting stuff as well). That reminds me though, I need to reply to the person about the geekcode generator. I have no problems with the changes he’d like to make (translation). Not that I could stop him anyway, being under the GPL license and all. But I could put it on my page when he’s finished.

Lots of geek stuff in this entry. But there’s not much else new going on lately. Work has been going just fine, and summer still seems to be never coming. Maybe I’ll have something new to post about sometime.

Oh yeah, my sister recently got a kitten, so don’t be surprised to see the occasional picture :)

I seem to mostly write weblog posts on my weekends off - which are every three weeks. Not really a conscious decision, I just have more free time then. Mostly I tend to work, sleep, and laze around or play games.

Been talking a little about music with people on #lj_***** (on Lazynet), we seem to be mostly in agreement about music sucking or not. Personally, a lot of my favorite bands are from the 70’s, hardly anything from the 80’s was good except for earlier metal and punk, there was a hell of a lot of great music in the early 90’s that tapered off, and most of the last 5-10 years has been mediocre, with some good stuff (it’s not all bad). Maybe things will start to get better again in another 4 or 5 years.

Yet again, the current holiday falls on my long weekend. So I had Wednesday off, worked Thursday, and then Friday-Monday off, going back to work Tuesday night. A nice little break from things. Work’s been a little weird, with our Assistant Manager quitting, and actually getting 2 or 3 new people hired so far. Him quitting was quite unexpected, and we haven’t heard anything about why he did, and I’m not going to speculate. It could be anything at all. Coming up on two years working nights at Wal-Mart, in July. It sure doesn’t seem that long at all.

And finally, I’ve been playing EverQuest this week. Yes, the game has been out for like 5 years already, with something like 8 expansion packs. But, I picked up EverQuest: Evolution, which has the original game plus the first 5 expansions - for just $30 CAD. Not a bad price. I was going to buy Star Wars Galaxies, but EB didn’t have any left. Just as well, since my computer probably isn’t fast enough for that. It has enough problems with EverQuest. So I’ve been playing that for most of the time I’ve had off work this week. It’s fun so far, just trying out different character types and messing around. I think I’m going to start playing a Half Elf Ranger, though. I’m almost at the level where I can start using spells, and can do somewhat well solo. I wish I knew more people that played though, it’s more fun to play with friends than random strangers.