Daily Archives: June 22, 2003

Went to Fry’s to return the hard drive; was hoping that they could match the rebate, but they couldn’t. Afterwards, drove around looking for a Circuit City, finally found one in San Mateo. Unfortunately, my Visa got denied, which I expected, but was hoping it would go through anyway. So stopped by In-n-Out to get dinner and headed home.

Still haven’t read Harry Potter yet because I promised Kim and Barbara that I would watch Lilo and Stitch with them. Worried that if I start to read it tonight after the movie, I will be up all night long. So I might not read it until tomorrow night. Guess it’s a good thing that I’m staying off of Livejournal or Blurty right now.

So, in order to keep my mind off of Harry Potter, I have been playing the Bomberman game that I got. Nothing like the old school classics to keep you entertained for hours. It’s kinda of a drag playing with the keyboard, but I’m doing O.K. on all of them so far. Still, I might go ahead and dig out my MS Gamepad and hook that up to use.

So with the hard drive issue out of the way, I’m now trying to decide on which route to go. My computer is still in pretty decent shape for the most part. Here are the specs…

AMD Althon 1.2Ghz
ASUS A7A266 Motherboard
PC2100 DDR 512 RAM
20GB IBM Deskstar hard Drive
120GB 8MB cache Western Digital hard Drive
ATI Raedon 7200 VIVO video card
Samsung SyncMaster 955DF 19″ monitor
Creative SoundBlaster MP3+ sound card
Pioneer 16x slot loading DVD drive
PlexWriter 12/10/32 CD-RW drive
Microsoft USB Intellimouse Explorer
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite
HP Deskjet 812c Printer
HP 3400 ScanJet Scanner

Not the most recent system, but it stills holds up. There are only two things wrong with it right now. The first is that the floppy drive doesn’t work for some reason. Since I rarely if ever use floppies, that isn’t that big of a problem. The main problem with the system is the noise that it creates. I would give anything for a
quieter computer. And that leads to my dilemma. Do I want to keep this system and just upgrade it, or do I want to buy a new computer, like a nice and quiet Dell. If I upgrade, the only thing I would upgrade is the video card up to a Raedon 9000 All-In-Wonder so I could watch TV on my computer. The sound card is alright for my needs, so I don’t need to buy a new sound card or speakers. The monitor is big enough for me (and heavy enough.) I would need to by a new mouse an maybe a new keyboard. The mouse is a def. yes; I would get a gyromouse. The keyboard is an iffy; it is long enough to reach the bed, but a wireless one would be better. I rarely use my CD burner, and I don’t need a DVD burner for anything. A new processor would be nice but not necessary. And RAM; well always use more RAM. So let’s see…

AMD AthlonXP 2000 – $56
2 Sticks of PC2100 DDR 512MB RAM – $70 ea.
ATI All In Wonder Radeon 9000 – $145
Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse – $80
Wireless Keyboard – $25
Total – $306-$446 depending if I get the RAM or not

Other option is to just buy a new computer. However, my neck is killing me, so I think I rant more about the computer later…

After some careful thought, the hard drive is going back. It was a hard choice to make, but I think it was the right one….

esp. since Circuit City has the same hard drive for $80 after rebates.

later

Am thinking that I am just going to mainly post stuff here instead of the other two journals. It’s bothersome to make an entry and then have to cut/paste to two other journals. I could use one for my
quizzes/polls and another one just for pictures, I guess. Something to mull over.

Went out with Angie to her cousin’s birthday party. I swear, half if not all of SF is related to Angie somehow. And they are all hot. Anyway, we went to a Karaoke club; I say club instead of bar because there was no alcohol served there. I was more out of tune than usual; I sung A Whole New World, Welcome To The Jungle, and…..I thought I sung another song, but I can’t remember. I wanted to sing Color Me Badd I Wanna Sex You Up, but they didn’t have it. I totally shot my throat singing Guns n’ Roses though. It was good times, except it would have been better if there was alcohol to
loosen everybody up.

So yesterday, before being sucked into Fry’s I decided to just start driving. The Focus isn’t the Metro when it comes to gas, so I won’t be making any
spontaneous trips like I did with that car. So anyway, I drove down Hwy 1 to Half Moon Bay, turned on Hwy 92 back inland, and then onto Hwy 35. It was a great drive,
reminiscence of Hwy 121 & 128 at Berryessa, although not as winding. The drive reminded me why I love the Bay area so much. It’s the diversity of the place and it’s everywhere you look, from the people to the places to even the weather. No matter who or what you are, there is a place somewhere in the bay area just for you.

**sigh** I do have some work that I brought home that I could work on I guess. Inventory is this
upcoming Saturday. I am worried enough about it, but we are almost done labeling stuff. I really should start
planning my vacation. July 1-3 looks good. I would need Tim to come in for me on that Tuesday. Hmmm. I might just have to take the 2 and 3 off. And then take the last week in July off to go see the family for Eric’s birthday. Part of me doesn’t want to take time off, fearing that the warehouse will come crashing down without me. However, after the stress of the last couple of months, I know that I am long overdue for one. And I know that the last week of July will be stressful also. It will probably be a good idea to retreat up to Washington and be surrounded by my family.

Think that I will go through an make sure all the important stuff is backed up. The good thing about Fry’s is that they don’t have a credit card. I’ve been good about not getting any new ones, but yesterday I’m sure that I would have
applied for one and max the shit out of it that day.

Barbara is still sleeping outside. Which means that I can’t watch TV, I can’t get my Harry Potter book, and I can’t install the new hard drive. AAARRGGGHHH!!!!

I MUST HAVE MY PRECIOUSSSSSS…..YYYEEEESSSS, MYYYYY PRRRECCIOOUUUSSSS!!!