Saddest part...

Steve Irwin's death was more to me than just a sad story.

Check it out at Pinball News.

A company other than stern finally starts making a pinball machine and look what happens. Maybe pinabll is fated to die or something...

quick update...

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I've got a post to do about the past weekend, a basement update, as well as a few other posts coming. So little time. Stay tuned.

And here it is....

Yeah, two posts in one day. The world may be ending....

I finally found this again. I was thinking about it today and I realized I never did a search on yahoo, just google. It's 17 minutes long, so make sure you have time to watch it. It's pretty darn hilarious. You know, in a sad, sick and twisted sort of a way.

Fair warning, it has a couple of bare breasts in it (on a computer screen). May not be safe for work.

Per usual, you will have to push play yourself.





Thanks to Fox Searchlight Pictures for keeping this around.

Coming soon?

Edit:

I got this back from the guy. DOH!

Hello,
I am meeting a guy from SLC in a little while to show him the machine.
I will let you know if he doesn't buy it.
Thanks.

Change

So, I admit it. I'm a boring blogger. Not much I want to post about, other than things that would require more than 10 minutes to post. So, like everything else, they don't get done. Go figure. If you're lucky that will change.

I've been struggling lately with what a friend termed "peter panning". You see, in some ways I'm barely holding life together. In others I'm doing very well. But really, what it all comes down to is that I'm mostly surviving right now instead of living.

Yes, there's a difference.

In the process of building a new computer I realized just how much fun I have doing that. And how much fun I have doing other things. The problem seems to be finding the time. It seems like I'm always trying to get the "important" stuff done and there's never enough time for leisure, with some exception in my computer gaming. (Note that while computer gaming is fun for me, it's not exactly a lasting experience -- once the game is over the fun is gone as well. There's a challenge there that I find satisfying but ultimately hollow. Probably one reason why my gaming is on a downward swing... but anyhow. That's a whole other post)

This is reflected in my job as well -- I'm frequently taking it in the shorts to get some of the necessary stuff done. Part of it I suppose is that I'm too dependable for that kind of thing. Part is that because I'm knowledgeable in certain areas that others aren't. And I'm starting to wonder if part of it isn't my own choices biting me.

So. Where do you draw the line between what you want to do and what needs doing? How do you even determine what really needs doing?

Yeah, I have some idea, but I'm not sure I could express it well at the moment. With a few "Aha" moments lately for me I think I am beginning to change. But I'm not sure where that change is taking me, or even if I fully understand that change myself.

What I can say is that I'm realizing I've been pidgeon-holed by my corner of society's expectations and rules and my standard has met those expectations. I haven't made my own for myself, or in some areas, even understood that there are different/further boundaries to press towards.

This is kind of a vague post, but I'm not really sure how to name what I'm experiencing. There's a lot to be said for naming something -- it makes it real for your own little slice of reality, touchable, explainable, understandable. But regardless. I want to understand. And I desire change.

Computer

So, some decisions have been made. The computer parts are purchased. I am using the monitor now. The CPU and RAM are all that are left to create a functional machine, and they are both on the truck for delivery. I'm going to have to find an excuse to go home from work early today! Ahh, who needs an excuse. I'll just take the time off. =)

Another time I'll go into how and why (fun and less $$) I build my own computer.

Today I'll jsut tell you all what components I'm putting into it.

As I stated in my post a while back, I was really thinking that having a core 2 duo would be fantastic. Once I saw how much they go for, I decided to build a computer around it. (check here for some general pricing)

I decided to get the mid-range 2.13 Ghz core 2 duo chip that (I think) I linked to in my previous post. I ended up getting this one, though I ordered it for a few bucks cheaper previously from another company. This was last thursday evening. On monday morning the CPU still hadn't shipped and wasn't going to until tuesday, so I called them and cancelled. ZipZoomFly had it for free shipping, so upgrading it to overnight (so it got here today, wednesday) was only $12. Worth it to have it a day or two early.

So, I had the processor, but which motherboard to choose? I looked around a bunch, but couldn;t find many straight answers until I came to a good article on AnandTech. They did the hard work of testing the viable options of motherboards and such. I believe it was in that article that helped me NOT make a couple mistakes buying a motherboard and at the end they suggested this motherboard for a reasonable price. I was sold.

The other tough choice was the video card. I selected a GeForce 7600 GT after everything else was ordered. Again Anandtech had a great article about current video cards. For the price, the 7600 can't be beat right now, at least in my price range. I just refuse to spend more than $300 on a video card.

Most of the components are easier to find and not as essential.

I wanted good RAM, so I picked up two gigabytes. This wasn't lowest or highest price and seemed to have very few bad reports. Two Gigabytes seem like a lot, but especially while playing games I've hit the wall with my current 1 gig, so I thought I'd push it to two. Last time I only bought half of what I wanted at first and regretted it -- eventually upgrading to the full amount. May as well start with the stuff I want since I'm spending money like I have too much of it.

The rest was pretty straightforward. I needed a new case and a power supply that was 400 watts or greaeter, so I chose this one. A blue neon tiger. Wooooooo! Kind of silly, but hey, I'm sure it impresses someone. The kids like it anyway. =)

I got a super duper all in one DVD/CDR burner that appears to do it all. I thought about getting 2 drives, but it was cheaper to get them all together. If I burned more CDs or DVD's I may have gotten two, but it'll mostly be for backups and such. I'm really not much of a pirate anymore.

My old computer had a 40 gigabyte hard drive that was in 3 partitions -- Two 10 gig partitions and a 20 gig one. Boy was that cramped. It'll be nice to have a 250 gig SATA drive and not worry so much about space.

The Mouse and Keyboard are pretty standard.

And the monitor. Just... WOW. I never realized how big a difference going from 1024x768 to 1680x1050 could be! Good stuff. I can't say enough good things about this monitor and it's one of my favorite parts of all of this.

I'll post more about the software side later, due to this post's length and me actually making another post this week. I'm too busy playing to do much else...

until then.

Tag?

I hate these things.

Due to pressure from a number of people I'll be doing this. BUT! I make no promises that it'll happen in the future.

4 jobs I've had:
1. Current -- Phone book publishing software programming. We make and sell software to help people get 2-3 phone books in an area instead of just one. That may be good or bad depending on your take.
2. Little Caesar's Pizza
3. Paper route
4. Computer tech support. (Anyone remember, Pionex, Cybermax or Inteva computers? Yeah, I did support for those)

4 movies I could watch over and over:
Kind of different than all time favorites, but good overlap I guess on that with these:
1. Ocean's 11 (and maybe 12)
2. The Negotiator
3. U.S. Marshall's
4. The Bourne Identity

4 Places I have lived:
1. Lots of places in Utah (7 different cities/towns)
2. Detroit Michigan. (Downtown Detroit, not suburbs, but only for 6 months)
3. Various other places in the Detroit Michigan area (8 I think including detroit, but only a few months at any given place)
4. Online

4 TV shows I love to watch:
This is a bit out of date, I rarely watch real TV anymore. Movies mostly, but even that not so much.
1. Law & Order
2. Everyone Loves Raymond
3. Firefly
4. Farscape

4 places I have been on vacation:
1. Disneyland
2. Bear Lake
3. Las Vegas
4. Midway, UT (Bed & breakfast for a getaway)

4 websites I visit daily:
Not sure if there are 4 that I visit daily, but here goes.
1. slashdot
2. WoW guild forum
3. My Yahoo Page, Mostly for mail (Mr. Pinabll Classifieds listing)
4. My blog links, and of course, this blog.

4 favorite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Bread
3. Popcorn
4. Pumpkin Pie & Gingerbread cookies (this was a tie)

4 places I'd like to be right now:
1. At home building my new computer
2. An uninhabited pacific island. With internet. And a laptop. And my wife.
3. On Vacation (with kids).
4. On Vacaion (without kids)

4 people I am tagging:
I'm such a rebel. (According to my wife I'm a tag loser, but I prefer rebel)
No tags 4 U! However, if you read this feel free to play and post about it here.

Edit:
Check this out! That'd be a fun toy to play with.