November 22, 2005

• Quotations of the Week
  If I were a sentimentalist, I’d be touched.
  The beatings will continue until morale improves.

  The fuck up of the b0x3n

  DISCLAIMER: For those of you who don’t like or care about computers, you might want to skip this section.

  Ok, so my b0x3n has been acting really weird lately. About a month or so ago, my keyboard bit the dust in a most interesting way. Every time I’d hit the CTR key, it would send the signal for the Homepage key (it’s a multifunction keyboard) as well. It was PS/2. A few tests indicated that PS/2 was shot…bad mobo? Maybe.

  After getting ripped off by CompUSA (the shelf price was $12something, I paid $21 in all and didn’t realize my fox pa until after I had gotten home), the problem was solved. I now type on a Viewsonic keyboard vs. a Turbo keyboard. I loved the Turbo’s sound, but I like the Viewsonic’s feel much better.

  Well, today I was working on a clients b0x3n, via a KVM switch. What do you think happened? To keep you from guessing, when I would switch to his computer, things would run great. (It should be noted that I had to boot his computer with KVM focus on his b0x3n because otherwise my Viewsonic monitor would complain that his computer was out of range. The funny thing is, his b0x3n is running at a much lower resolution and bit depth then mine is. I thought it was weird too, so…) But when I switched back to my b0x3n, blank screen…even the little green light was orange indicating no signal. Hook the monitor up directly to my b0x3n, still no signal. Direct to my client’s, signal. The only way I can restore signal is to turn the monitor off and do a hard restart on the box. Not a good solution.

  This evening, I took a friend out for dinner. While we were gone, the power went out. When I got back and booted up my b0x3n, the splash screen from the BIOS worked just fine as did GRUB. (I’m dual booting, though I need to just reclaim the space from Fedora Core 1 since I never use it.) But as soon as we get to the Windows XP loading screen, instead of the little bar that annoyingly crosses the screen, I get Nintendo garbled graphics on the side in the horizontal range of where the bar should be. Then the box freezes. NOT GOOD!!!

  I boot into Safe Mode. When the login prompt comes up, the entire screen is doing the whole Nintendo garbled graphics thing…weird! Even better is when booting into Linux. Similar issues. Booting XP normally as well as Linux result in system lockups. Safe Mode didn’t lock, but what good is a garbled screen?

  Call John to get a second opinion. We agree that it sounds like the video card is going. So I head out to CompUSA to get a card before taking my b0x3n apart…this occurred circa 1900. I arrived at CompUSA 1930. The idea was to have a card that I could swap with even if I didn’t need it so that if indeed it was the video card, I would at least have a test piece for the night. If it was the mobo, I would have been fucked anyway. It would have sucked to have to take the box apart and reassemble.

  Get back and set up a work area. Test the b0x3n one more time…still problematic. Pull the card out of the AGP slot and reseat it. Boots fine. Add an Ethernet cable, system craps out. On the reboot everything’s fine. Package the box. Add the external module of the Audigy2 Platinum EX. Still no problems. Add USB connectors, all systems green and go. Apparently my computer just wanted some attention.

  So here I sit with the unopened $162 PNY AGP 8X nVidia GeForce 6200 64 bit 256MB DDR card. I want the money back, but it’d be sweet to have this card. Not that I have a need for it now, but it does DVI out and is HD compatible. I think I’d rather take the card back and get 2GB of memory. Any thoughts on what to do?

  Reflection on my Romance Life
  Many of you were, I’m sure, flabbergasted by yesterday’s post. If you haven’t figured it out, the key is in the last paragraph. I’ll spare you the laborious details, but suffice it to say that after receiving much grief in the form of reciprocal advice that I gave a close friend about his girl problems, I too had to take my advice which wasn’t fun. Fortunately, I found out what I needed to know without doing anything stupid for a change. Don’t know why I hurt so yesterday, but by the time I went to bed yesterday, there was but a doubt. This morning confirmed it.

  Oh yeah, btw, Chris kidnapped me last night. Chris, you’re a good friend even if I do say “fuck you” all the time. Just ask Timon if that’s the norm. Oh yeah, you should really get a Xanga so you can comment on mine and publicly tell me to go to hell. Thanx for watching my back little buddy. You’re a great guy no matter what certain females say about you.

  So for those of you who remember the Butterfly post, if you know of any girl who’d fit that description who would put up with a looser like me even through my shiftiest moments, send her my way…—Uh, correction—send me a picture with her phone number and tell her to sit by the fone.

  For the Record
  Just so this is publicly know, I’m on good terms with the ‘rents now and will be spending Tuesday evening, Wednesday and Turkey Day with them. If you don’t like it, you can shove it. The old man’s a good man, even if he doesn’t give me the advice I want to hear. I mean, yeah I can cuss him out on my blog and call him a dirty rat bastard and a son-of-a-bitch if I choose, but if you so much as think it, I’ll kill you and tell God that you had a heart attack. He’ll believe me too.

  Also for the record: I know how to correctly spell phone, but since phone already has a ph and thus can’t be phreaked, it becomes fone ’cause it’s kewler that way. Biatch!

  Itenary
  Go to orientation for the new job @ 0900. Hopefully the memory for my client’s box will be delivered by the time I come back, and so I’ll install it and deliver the box. Spend a couple of hours with Jesse in Cullman, get in after 2200, wake up, do clothes, hang out with Timon and have a cigar, maybe get the folks to do a movie, at some point Wednesday or Turkey Day, sike Dad into a game or two of Shanghi Rummy, visit with the family, eat turkey, drive back, be at work Friday @ 1500. Work on Arete Friday. Gotta get that damned thing done.

  Random thoughts
  This Holiday season has already been extremely difficult to not have someone to intimately share it with. Depression started on October 1. They started playing Christmas music on the radio all day starting last Monday. Classic Collection closed. I could get together with an old flame (not that she’d have me nor would it go well)…I just want someone that I can love like crazy who’ll love me the same way back. Even film is secondary to this desire. Call me chauvinist, but I think that I need to successfully love a woman who will help me become successful by being there as my morale support. Maybe that’s the missing key in all of this. Richard and Stefani are so happy with each other and are making great parents. John and Beth are working out really well. Hell, even Timon has a girl. It seems like every one I know is happily involved with someone. Perhaps I graduated early only to come to the party late.

  God has bestowed me with great friends and a good family. If only I’d taken advantage of this four years ago.

  JFK

  What kind of a peace do we seek? I’m talking about genuine peace. The kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living. Not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time.

  Our problems are man made, therefore they can be solved by man. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.

  • 12:04 am
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