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a bit random...
Dec. 12th, 2003 03:39 amWasn't going to cut it, but it got really long on me.
( Quiz Stuff and That Ubiquitous Meme Thing )
It is very late, it is, and I've stayed up to catch up on LJs, and I forgot to take out the trash and left the dog out until just a few minutes ago (that is, a little before 2 am CST...poor guy...it's frosty out there), and I never even finished doing what I was supposed to be doing because I was checking my email and got invited to a chat (which was fun...it has literally been years since I was in a multiperson chat and I had a ball), and my room is still a mess, and I didn't get anything done today...yesterday...whatever. I need to send Christmas cards to my friends, since I can't afford to send them presents, but I'm not sure I can find everything I need. Like addresses and stuff. And those cute little unicorn Christmas cards I was sure I had but can't find now.
Crud. I just dropped my stick-on Renderosity tattoo on the floor and got cat hair all over it; the protective plastic came off it, and it's wrecked. Bummer.
Have no money to pay bills. Not fun. Not looking forward to the phone calls when they start. Need to foist off last of old photo job things back on the owner. He's supposed to be in town tomorrow...today, so maybe I can just run by and dump it on him. Got editing work to do; two months I've been delaying that one, and they wants it, don't you know.
Need to do laundry, too. And finish cleaning my room. I just cleaned the litter box, why does it still stink? Got a bunch of stuff to try to sell off; gotta ask dad where he stuck the digital still camera so I can put them up on my website or on eBay or something. Could be a real trick, since he's out of town on business. He hates that, but it's more pleasant around here.
( the dad issue )
My computer is too slow. Only has 95MB of RAM; talked my mom into getting me a 256MB stick of RAM at the After-Thanksgiving madness (which is a story all by itself, since the stupid salespeople at the not-too-popular store were apparently more interested in serving the *men* and passed right over my mom...she was *not* pleased, and plans to write a very unhappy letter to their HQ) BUT apparently the thing isn't backward-compatible, so my computer refuses to recognize it as memory. Isn't that nice? My other computer is newer and uses PC2100DDR, so when I got a stick of memory for it, the salesmen explained that the stick would work fine, that the memory capable of more speed than the computer so it would run at the computer's speed. I figured, okay, so the older computer, which uses PC100SDRAM should be okay with PC133SDRAM. Wrong! So I have a 256MB stick of PC133SDRAM I can't use, and I don't think it'll work in any of our other computers, either. Dad's computer is older than my old one, Mom's old one is older than that, her new one is a VAIO with the scourge of MS: WinME, my other one is an XP VAIO with a Gig of RAM already, and the only other computer in the house is a laptop that we can't decide who it belongs to. My brother has a laptop and a desktop computer, but he's away at grad school, and as far as I know he built it himself, so I have no idea what type of memory it takes. It's probably newer than PC133, though. Frustrating. And this entire paragraph probably makes no sense to anyone who has never played around with the innards of their computer before...
Yes, we are a computer geek household; the above list only counts computers that will actually function. Not even I know how many dead towers are still down in the junkyard we call a basement. Dad refuses to get rid of anything; another of the things that drive me crazy with regard to him. I do know of at least three down there, though, one of which was my computer when I was in college; it stopped working (on the day I needed to finish writing and print out a ten page speech...it was a convenient excuse, too...gave me an extra two days to finish;) probably due to a virus, since I didn't know much about those yet and had freely installed the goofy games that were being fired around the email system. When my parents came for the graduation ceremonies, I asked my dad to look at it and try to figure out what was wrong. He didn't know, but said he'd take it home and try to find out; when loading it into the car, he dropped it three feet onto the asphalt. Bye-bye! Oh, and the dead Portable Commodore 64 is down there, too, I believe. My brother kept playing around with it up until about a year ago, when it finally gave up the ghost.
Reveling in my geekery: I pulled the modem out of the old machine, since I've got an ethernet card and router for the cable connection. 'Spose there's any sense in trying to see if anyone might want it for anything, or would it make more sense to use it for geek decor? (translation: is it just junk?) I want to upgrade the hardware, but the blasted opsys will be a problem. I got it about the time MS switched to "Restore Discs" instead of actual installation discs, so I don't know if I'd be able to reinstall the opsys if it conks out. It's 98SE, and yes, I like it. I don't want to upgrade, thank you; I have XP on the VAIO and I hate it with a passion. (besides, I have a lot of old programs that won't work on the newer versions...Lightwave 5.6, for example) I'm willing to consider Linux, but I have so many Win-only programs that I really need to be able to use. I'm debating the idea of backing everything up on CD and doing a system restore (the machine is nearly four years old and hasn't been restored before - have only had minor glitches with it in all that time) and then doing the hardware upgrade and hoping the installation lasts another three or four years without dying on me. Alternatively, I suppose I could pester MS for a way to reinstall 98SE on newer hardware - I have a legitimate copy, with Certificate of Authenticity and all that jazz. Just with a crippled install disc. It's a legitimate claim; probably couldn't actually make a legal battle out of it, but I sure could make a lot of noise;) If it came to it, I could try to find some minor computer retailer who still has a few copies of 98SE on a back shelf somewhere, but I don't think I should have to buy it *again*.
Even cut, this is long. Oh well. What's the sense in hiding more of it, though? I'm feeling strange and random, and, well, geeky. I like being a computer geek. I like changing out the guts of my computer. Oddly enough, I feel tired and not-tired at the same time. I should go to bed (it's almost half past 3 am...you can see how long it takes me to write all this stuff, huh;) but I don't really want to. I don't particularly want to meet mom when she gets up, either, but I feel like staying up through the whole night. Like I need to just stay up and do stuff, and worry about sleep later. Can't really explain that one.
Normal people are weird. Ergo, there is no such thing as normal. Unless you're talking geometry. ;}
( Quiz Stuff and That Ubiquitous Meme Thing )
It is very late, it is, and I've stayed up to catch up on LJs, and I forgot to take out the trash and left the dog out until just a few minutes ago (that is, a little before 2 am CST...poor guy...it's frosty out there), and I never even finished doing what I was supposed to be doing because I was checking my email and got invited to a chat (which was fun...it has literally been years since I was in a multiperson chat and I had a ball), and my room is still a mess, and I didn't get anything done today...yesterday...whatever. I need to send Christmas cards to my friends, since I can't afford to send them presents, but I'm not sure I can find everything I need. Like addresses and stuff. And those cute little unicorn Christmas cards I was sure I had but can't find now.
Crud. I just dropped my stick-on Renderosity tattoo on the floor and got cat hair all over it; the protective plastic came off it, and it's wrecked. Bummer.
Have no money to pay bills. Not fun. Not looking forward to the phone calls when they start. Need to foist off last of old photo job things back on the owner. He's supposed to be in town tomorrow...today, so maybe I can just run by and dump it on him. Got editing work to do; two months I've been delaying that one, and they wants it, don't you know.
Need to do laundry, too. And finish cleaning my room. I just cleaned the litter box, why does it still stink? Got a bunch of stuff to try to sell off; gotta ask dad where he stuck the digital still camera so I can put them up on my website or on eBay or something. Could be a real trick, since he's out of town on business. He hates that, but it's more pleasant around here.
( the dad issue )
My computer is too slow. Only has 95MB of RAM; talked my mom into getting me a 256MB stick of RAM at the After-Thanksgiving madness (which is a story all by itself, since the stupid salespeople at the not-too-popular store were apparently more interested in serving the *men* and passed right over my mom...she was *not* pleased, and plans to write a very unhappy letter to their HQ) BUT apparently the thing isn't backward-compatible, so my computer refuses to recognize it as memory. Isn't that nice? My other computer is newer and uses PC2100DDR, so when I got a stick of memory for it, the salesmen explained that the stick would work fine, that the memory capable of more speed than the computer so it would run at the computer's speed. I figured, okay, so the older computer, which uses PC100SDRAM should be okay with PC133SDRAM. Wrong! So I have a 256MB stick of PC133SDRAM I can't use, and I don't think it'll work in any of our other computers, either. Dad's computer is older than my old one, Mom's old one is older than that, her new one is a VAIO with the scourge of MS: WinME, my other one is an XP VAIO with a Gig of RAM already, and the only other computer in the house is a laptop that we can't decide who it belongs to. My brother has a laptop and a desktop computer, but he's away at grad school, and as far as I know he built it himself, so I have no idea what type of memory it takes. It's probably newer than PC133, though. Frustrating. And this entire paragraph probably makes no sense to anyone who has never played around with the innards of their computer before...
Yes, we are a computer geek household; the above list only counts computers that will actually function. Not even I know how many dead towers are still down in the junkyard we call a basement. Dad refuses to get rid of anything; another of the things that drive me crazy with regard to him. I do know of at least three down there, though, one of which was my computer when I was in college; it stopped working (on the day I needed to finish writing and print out a ten page speech...it was a convenient excuse, too...gave me an extra two days to finish;) probably due to a virus, since I didn't know much about those yet and had freely installed the goofy games that were being fired around the email system. When my parents came for the graduation ceremonies, I asked my dad to look at it and try to figure out what was wrong. He didn't know, but said he'd take it home and try to find out; when loading it into the car, he dropped it three feet onto the asphalt. Bye-bye! Oh, and the dead Portable Commodore 64 is down there, too, I believe. My brother kept playing around with it up until about a year ago, when it finally gave up the ghost.
Reveling in my geekery: I pulled the modem out of the old machine, since I've got an ethernet card and router for the cable connection. 'Spose there's any sense in trying to see if anyone might want it for anything, or would it make more sense to use it for geek decor? (translation: is it just junk?) I want to upgrade the hardware, but the blasted opsys will be a problem. I got it about the time MS switched to "Restore Discs" instead of actual installation discs, so I don't know if I'd be able to reinstall the opsys if it conks out. It's 98SE, and yes, I like it. I don't want to upgrade, thank you; I have XP on the VAIO and I hate it with a passion. (besides, I have a lot of old programs that won't work on the newer versions...Lightwave 5.6, for example) I'm willing to consider Linux, but I have so many Win-only programs that I really need to be able to use. I'm debating the idea of backing everything up on CD and doing a system restore (the machine is nearly four years old and hasn't been restored before - have only had minor glitches with it in all that time) and then doing the hardware upgrade and hoping the installation lasts another three or four years without dying on me. Alternatively, I suppose I could pester MS for a way to reinstall 98SE on newer hardware - I have a legitimate copy, with Certificate of Authenticity and all that jazz. Just with a crippled install disc. It's a legitimate claim; probably couldn't actually make a legal battle out of it, but I sure could make a lot of noise;) If it came to it, I could try to find some minor computer retailer who still has a few copies of 98SE on a back shelf somewhere, but I don't think I should have to buy it *again*.
Even cut, this is long. Oh well. What's the sense in hiding more of it, though? I'm feeling strange and random, and, well, geeky. I like being a computer geek. I like changing out the guts of my computer. Oddly enough, I feel tired and not-tired at the same time. I should go to bed (it's almost half past 3 am...you can see how long it takes me to write all this stuff, huh;) but I don't really want to. I don't particularly want to meet mom when she gets up, either, but I feel like staying up through the whole night. Like I need to just stay up and do stuff, and worry about sleep later. Can't really explain that one.
Normal people are weird. Ergo, there is no such thing as normal. Unless you're talking geometry. ;}
