This week the power supply on my giant, server class, desktop died. It was a 680W supply, the board requires at least 650W, so it wasn’t going to be cheap to replace. Alas, after about 2 hours of testing I confirmed it was the power supply and had to hit MicroCenter Friday morning. Came home with a 950W supply – ok, maybe that’s over doing it, but it was on sale! And the sale made it be just as cheap as any of the decent 650-850W supplies on the shelf.. However, in the course of diagnosing the problem I realized one of my UPSs was reporting “Building Wiring Fault” and skipped out to Lowe’s to pick up an outlet tester. With it I discovered that only about half of the outlets in my apartment are grounded, including one of the ones I had computers plugged into. Sigh. This weekend I had to spend some time shuffling around my machines on healthy power outlets. I also dragged out my 1U to use for testing again, my desk is full of computers, and in the midst of this shuffling my living room looked like a computer warehouse exploded.
I hit Cabela’s on Saturday with a friend for fun and brought home a stuffed animal deer head for my wall. I can’t quite explain the impulse, but when I saw the silly thing it made me laugh a lot. I need to laugh more, so home it came.
So all attempts (ok, I didn’t try that hard) at making it look like an adult lives here failed. The Star Wars toys, Wallace and Gromit Toys, and Disney toys are now out of their storage boxes and decorating the tops of my bookcases in my living room. I linked giant resolution photos of each bookshelf so you can browse my expected, stereotypically nerdy library. Ooh fun.
And a picture of my TV. I pondered getting cable, but the $199 installation fee turned me off to that really quick – even if they offered to add the service itself to my business account for free otherwise. Instead I have a VCR, DVD player (pink!), PS2, and an Inspiron 7500 running Ubuntu w/ fluxbox as a media PC to keep me entertained… and so I get to do things like watch Star Trek TNG. Oh and I signed up for NetFlix.
Maybe I’ll get some ballpen balls.
I still have a bike in my living room though. Should do something about that at some point, I think one of my Christmas presents to myself will be an indoor trainer and set it up in my bedroom. Exercise AND having it not look so horrible sitting in my apartment (it’s got an indoor trainer, it’s supposed to be there!), hooray. Also considering getting a Wii (and Wii Fit, for exercise, I swear!)
I also saw Quantum of Solace on Friday evening, following dinner with my friend Mike at Rock Bottom in King of Prussia. Good dinner, good movie. Not enough gadgets, but I liked it a lot more than Casino Royale, which I thought was a bit slow and sometimes lame for a Bond film (really, the first car he drives in a movie can’t be a Ford).
And now the weekend is coming to an end, I’m sitting here on the couch with the cats snuggled up. Heading to bed soon.
Monday, Nov 17th, 2008 at 4:07
Wow, i notice David Eddings Elenium series of books on your shelves…..Good call, have you read the Tamuli and all his other books?
Monday, Nov 17th, 2008 at 7:36
$199 installation? yikes…Setup a paypal donate button..!
I suppose satellite TV or Digital Terrestrial is out of the question?
Monday, Nov 17th, 2008 at 8:32
@Paul I haven’t read Tamuli, but I did read The Malloreon and a couple of the ones he’s written with his wife.
@RoboNuggie Satellite also has an installation fee AND it would cost me a decent amount each month (at least $30/mo) which is way more than I’m prepared to spend for something I don’t actually use all that much. No digital terrestrial in this area yet (that’s the reason I went with cable internet), and that’d be the same deal as satellite anyway. The neat thing about cable is it wouldn’t be any more per month than I’m paying now :)
Friday, Dec 5th, 2008 at 8:34
How often does the bike get used. Mine sat there for 6 months – used once lol!
Sunday, Dec 21st, 2008 at 19:08
You read Orson Scott Card too? He’s pretty much my favorite author in my life. So you’re THE Princess Leia, eh? Awesome. Purely awesome. I would have so many questions for you, but I won’t ask them unless you want to hear some. If you actually even responded to this comment, that would be the coolest thing ever. :D Then I could say that Elizabeth Krumbach actually talked to me (at least online :D)! Happy Trails.
Sunday, Dec 21st, 2008 at 19:22
@Alex Johnson – Nice of you to drop by! Feel free to drop me an email at lyz@princessleia.com, I can’t promise to answer all your questions :) but you’re welcome to ask.