Frank Sinatra – As Time Goes By

We ordered my new motherboard, processor and ram last night from NewEgg.com! The total ended up being like, $451 … which isnt really bad considering what I got, the motherboard (asus p4s8x) was $139, the processor (2.0 ghz p4) was $159, and the ram (512 mb chip of pc2700 ddr) was $154. It’s crazy how the prices went up and down since I started looking a few weeks ago… at one point the ram and the processor were over $180! So we bought at a good time. I also could have probably gotten some stuff cheaper if I bought from more than just one site, but I think I’d rather get them all from one place… that way if something goes wrong they can’t blame another site for a faulty product %) And I bought Mushkin ram, which tends to be quite expensive, but I think it’s worth it.. Anyway, when I got the order together Myk was like “ok, how much is it?” I smiled and said “well the shipping is free!” Hehe, it really wasnt that bad tho, since this is my birthday/christmas present.

I got my books from bn.com yesterday %D! Finished Equal Rites yesterday evening, so they came just in time. And I have the equal rites review…

Equal Rites, By Terry Pratchett, 213 pages

This is the third book in the Discworld series. It tells of a girl who has been given wizard powers at her birth accidentally (they think she is a son), and as everyone knows… women cannot be wizards. I really enjoyed this book. As always with Pratchett the humor was clever and the characters were charming. Unfortunately I was disappointed with the end. While most of the book kepst a healthy pace, I couldn’t help but feel that the ending was a bit rushed, the resolution was a bit sloppy and I feel a bit cheated…

Yep, so I’m reading a new David Eddings book noew, as well as an old HG Wells book, The Outline Of History – Book 1. I must have picked it up at the book swap at the dump back in my old town (I got a lot of books from book swaps and flea markets because my mother had this strange hatred of reading that she tried to pass on to me… never liked it when I spent money on books, strange huh?). Anyway, it was originally written in about 1930.. the copy I have was revised and republished by Wells and a few of his colleagues in 1940. I guess I got it mostly because it was written by Wells, and at the time I was really into his books… but it wasnt until recently that I actually picked it up and started reading it.

See I find myself feeling very cheated by my education, and I am not entirely sure that is completely my educators fault. I honestly don’t *remember* being taught much of what I think I “should” know. But that could entirely be because I didn’t really care when I was learning it and so I didn’t bother to commit it to any sort of long term memory. So when I got into high school and finally did start caring about history, the teahers ASSUMED that we all knew the basics, so went straight into details, which without reference points on a mental timeline make it very difficult for me to remember. So I end up graduating high school with an A- average.. and not able to tell you when the Roman Empire began, what year the American Civil War ended or what CENTURY the Great Wall Of China was built. It’s very sad really… especially since I don’t generally thing of myself as uneducated. And then I realize that there are people who did much worse than I did in school that obviously don’t know any of this either and couldnt really care one way or another. I on the other hand, do care. So I picked up HG Wells Outline Of History and started reading. The first book (the only one I had at the time) begins at the dawn of time, of course from a 1940’s view, and progresses through evolution (again, must be taken with a grain of salt, as the book is 60 years old and we have learned much in that time), then into the rise of man, and through cultivation of civilization around the world… and I guess it ends with the rise of the Roman Empire. I’m about halfway through it, so in the last few centuries of BC. I’m reading it slowly so I can get a firm grasp on it all, trying to remember a lot of it so it’s not all just a waste of time, and it’s really paying off. I know so much more now, and I am already forming a quite solid timeline of events in the BC era, things I never even knew about.

So in light of this I decided to track down a copy of book 2. I didn’t expect it to be easy, but I started my search at bn.com, and found out that they actually released a one volume book of it all, a huge paperback, in July of this year… for $45. EAK! I love books, and this book is quite good, but I wasn’t exactly prepared to spend quite that much on a book… So my search continued. I went over to Amazon.com and found that they were selling a $250 two volume set… they were nice, new hardcover editions, but if I wasnt going to pay $45 I CERTAINLY was not going to spend $250! So I sighed and followed the link to look at the used books they had on sale. And I found one! Just volume 2, 1956 edition, for $3.70 plus shipping! It ended up being like $7! So I got it in the mail on wendesday, it’s in good condition for a book printed in 1956.. So I am happy %) I know the books are old, but history doesnt change THAT much in 60 years does it? ;) So someday in the near future I will not be ignorant about history, YAY!