Oh, well, OBVIOUSLY

Turns out that I ordered the crap that comprises my current PC almost 2.5 years ago, so now I feel fully justified in coughing up a ridiculous amount (although, I suppose, not ridiculous compared to the cost of a whole PC) of cash for a new mobo/CPU/RAM...

Perhaps this time I should pay slightly more attention to upgrade path... anyone want to chime in on trends in CPU sockets, DIMM support, etc? Still stinging a bit from that decision to buy RamBus memory several years ago, yo...

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UPDATE: dammit, burned again! Of course my existing mobo is a Socket 478, which is pretty much completely obsolete at this point. So, I have to buy an LGA 775 board, which requires DDR2 RAM and an LGA775 CPU. Grr. Rationalization: the clamp on my existing CPU seems to be broken, which may actually account for the overall failure, and the DDR-333 I currently have is ass-slow, even with 2GB. And yet: bleah.

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UPDATED UPDATE: so, no sooner did I suck it up and take the AMD plunge (eat a dick, Intel, with your vastly overpriced mildly substandard CPUs!) then I realized I had rendered my swanky (yet AGP) video card obsolete. Dammit. Anyone in the market for a gently-used ATI All-In-Wonder AGP card?

Excellent

My home PC is still fried (one long beep on boot... hmm... that can't be good) so I am committing a brief faux pas to post this from work, because I just read about it, and it makes me happy.

For those of you who are lazy, the link goes to the Minnesota HR's bill to appoint a State Poet Laureate. The bill is written in rhyme. Awesome.

Whoops

So for the millionth time, my PC shut itself off (because the CPU was too hot) in the middle of a ripping game of Civilization IV, so I decided to investigate motherboard upgrades. Somehow, in the process of investigating, I did something bad which resulted in an unhelpful error beeping on startup.

Yeah, so, I'm on the Mac Mini. Dag.

Really Really Really Small Progress

This is essentially a mock-up; I need two more 4' lengths of this, and then I need to miter it around the corners (which I wouldn't've had to do if I'd planned ahead, but whatever), and I need to seal it, and mount it a bit more securely than by just resting it on a couple of cleats, but:



And again from an angle:



The crap against the wall in the first picture is the remains of the original countertop; a big weird-shaped plywood deck on top, and a bunch of really really ugly brown tiles on the counter part. So sad to see them go.

Oh yeah, and I need to wire the cooktop and decide what to do about skirting the bottom. And I need to put down a new floor, fix the ceiling around the skylight, finish the bathroom wall, etc... like I said: really really really small progress. Still, I think it's cool.

Unhealthy Obsessions

Just when I start to get my financial ship on course and have made some headway on the bailing, I find something like this...



This is the 10-light version, which I can't find online for less than about $2400; the 6-light version in the less-appealing (to me) amber model is thus:



That one (in chrome and crystal as in the 10-light model) is at best $700.

I usually don't go for this sort of thing, either; I tend to prefer architectural lighting and things that look more like bridges than trees, but good lord are these beautiful. They have a wall sconce I like, too, but these represent the pinnacle of my obsession with the Eurofase Astree collection...

Sigh.

Fuck Coke

When I was in high school, I used to drink a lot of Coke. I mean, a LOT of Coke; there was a Coke machine at work and every time it was slow, I'd get a Coke. One day, I had 14 12-ounce cans in a 12-hour shift (I was working a double). Then I found out that Coke had refused to pull out of South Africa during apartheid*, a move very similar to GM's refusal to pull out of Nazi Germany (although Coke didn't pretend their German affiliate was out of their hands like GM did, although that IS where Fanta came from; they did, however, employ a puppet company under apartheid).

So I stopped drinking it. I didn't have a Coke for several years, even though I still hated Pepsi and really kind of wanted a Coke. I drink a lot less soda now than I did then, so this became easier as time went on, and eventually I rationalized that the minimal amount of Coke I drink each year affects them even less than the much greater quantity did when I was 15 (and no, I didn't think I was bringing them to their knees then either), so I would occasionally have one. More recently, they generously offered to SELL their ad library to the Library of Congress, as if it were a National Fucking Treasure, and apparently saw nothing wrong with this (apparently they eventually did donate it, sort of, but I swear to FSM that they were originally trying to sell it; I just can't find an article to back that up). My boycott after that was fairly short, because apparently no one cared, but there it is.

But that was before I saw this. Oh, that's fucking IT. Why not just show Roots with only framing commercials, like Ford did with Schindler's List? Fuckers.

UPDATE: Further eat me.

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* Why is it that the only link I can find to this (after admittedly very little searching) is a fucking Communist paper? I mean, yeah, great, oppressed workers etc, but why hasn't anyone else felt the need to wank on about this? Christ, I wasn't remotely politically aware in the 80's; I was basically a Republican, and even I knew about this...

Mmm, Drunky

One of my coworkers gave me a good idea, possibly not intentionally (of course, she favored it because she is working on Saturday, whereas I liked the idea because I am a souse). And so I present to you, dinner:



Although I might need to partake of something absorbent if I decide to have another one, because I've been falling down on the job this last week or so. Ooops.

Yet More Miniscule House Progress

Tonight, spirits buoyed by the positively ridiculous tax refunds I am due from both the Federal and State tax agencies, I decided I might as well accomplish something.

So, this quasi-useful closet on the third floor (which would be more useful if it had a functional doorknob, goddamn you cats!):



...which is adjoined to the right by this completely useless closet (it's about 12" deep):



...is to be made into a slightly more useful (read: deeper) closet by blocking off the door of the useless one (hence the crappy framing), thusly:



...rendering this space:



...which will, Flying Spaghetti Monster Willing, then have a built-in bookcase/entertainment center constructed in it. And THEN we can have Movie Night at my house, provided everyone ignores the giant mess that is the remainder of the house, and that we haven't all died of old age.

Oh, and the ceiling up there is about 9' high, in case you were wondering. And all those little motes in the air? Plaster dust. There are a couple million of them in my lungs, too. Stage B of this project (inner wall demolition) is going to have to wait until I get a decent headlamp and respirator, and MAN is it going to suck. I may ignore it and just build the bookshelf thing instead; I am REALLY tired of watching movies on a crappy 20" set when the 34" widescreen HDTV (note to prospective burglars: it weighs 200 lbs.) languishes upstairs...

Random Goo

This morning, as I was waiting to cross the onramp en route to the Light Rail, a guy in the front car at the green light apparently fell asleep, and remained blissfully somnolent amidst a din of honking, people peeling out around him, and honking. He eventually roused himself and drove sheepishly off. While waiting for the light to change, the paper guy pointed out that my neighbor with the shiny new 350Z had earned himself a boot for having expired tags... this is the same guy that earns the award for Worst Parallel Parker in the Universe. Honestly, people like that have no right to have more money than me.