Monthly Archives: August 2003

.The Dream

I have a dream….and that dream is to have a new computer. A computer that can handle the games of tomorrow. A computer that is quiet. A computer that I can watch DVD’s. A computer with surround sound. A computer that I can burn CD’s/DVD’s. A computer that I watch TV. A computer that I can save TV programs with. A computer that has the ability to merge with a big screen TV. I think it is time to make that dream a reality….

Semi geeky stuff about the pieces of computer stuff that I want to buy…

Case – Have decided to get the Sonata case from Antec. Have read a number of good reviews about it, and it is a nice looking case. It has enough bays for the stuff that I have. And it is quiet. I’ve seen the case at Fry’s before (I think) and I remember having a good impression of it.

Motherboard – I’ve been eyeing the ABIT IC7-MAX3 since I saw a preview about it. I’ve been
fascinated with the Max series since they first came out. The plan was to create a legacy free board with no serial or
parallel port
. Only problem is that I haven’t seen any reviews on the board. Also worried about noise on the board and heat. I won’t be overclocking the chip or anything, so that should help

Memory – Looking at getting a single stick of 512MB and then later buying a 2nd stick to up it to 1GB of RAM. Will probably get it from
Corsair.

CPU – Thinking that I will get at the very least a P4 2.4 or 2.6 while silently drooling for a 3.0. Semi-wondering if I should just wait for the Althon64 or not…

Optical Drives – Torn between Samsung and Yamaha. I’ve read alot of sites that say that the Samsung CDRW is pretty quiet. However, I would love to use the Yamaha CDRW just to write on CD’s. Think I would def. use it more often

Sound Card – Would be happy with an Audigy 2 from Creative Arts, or I could live with the SB Live 5.1 that I have now.

Video Card – It would be an ATI All-In-Wonder, that’s for sure. But do I want to get the cheaper 9000 AIW, or just go all out and get the 9800 AIW. Choices, choices.

Keyboard/Mouse – Gyroscope wireless keyboard/mouse combo’s. The keyboard is small, but useable. And I use to have an old corded gyro mouse before (One of the greatest mice that I have used) so I should be good with the newest models.

Speakers. Klisph 4.1 or 5.1 system. nuff said.

Blah…all of this is going to cost money. Will play/dream about this at a later time.

.Sponsored By

I am a consumer that shops by brands besides shopping by price. There are several brands that I claim that I continually use.

Jeans: I have been shopping exclusively at Anchor Blue for the last 3-4 years now. I am particularly fond of their Beyond Baggy pants, however I am considering getting some relax fit or easy fit.

T-Shirts: I honestly don’t remember the last time I bought a T-shirt. I honestly suspect that it was my Livejournal
T-shirt. Anyway, if I did need a new shirt, for character prints I goto Hot Topic. I’ve also gotten some shirts at Anchor Blue and other places, but I suspect most of the shirts that I have bought have come from Hot Topic. Semi plan is to get rid of all of my white T-shirts since most of them are the oldest shirts I have. Most of them also have that yellow armpit stain going on. Most of my color shirts are either black or blue; want to get some more color in the mix

Socks: I know, socks who cares. However, in the process of converting all of my socks from Champion to Joe Boxer i.e. the only reason that I will goto K-Mart, since they are the only store that sells Joe Boxer stuff.

Underwear: Yep, Joe Boxers baby. Solid colors, boxer briefs. Boxer briefs are due to Marky Mark Calvin Kline advertising of the 90’s twisting my mind into thinking that a style of underwear would make me irresistible to women. Also have an extensive collection of Tiger print underwear. Could not leave a
Wal-Mart of Target without getting whatever Tigger boxer or Tiger underwear they had. Nowadays, it’s all Scooby Doo and Sponge Bob, which I can’t stand. O.K. I also have some Stafford underwear that I bought in an emergency. They do make my butt look nice though.

Hats: It used to be that the only requirement for hats is that they had a tiger on them. So I would have
Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Tigers, or some other sports team with a Tiger or cat mascot. Today, it’s just a mismatch of logos. Sometimes I wish I could wear visors, but I don’t think that I am a visor person.

Dress Clothes: Men’s Warehouse for all of my suit/tie needs.


**sigh** I wish that I had a job that I could dress up a little more for. One of the reasons that I wish I was at the store. I mean, it’s nice to roll out of be, put on a
t-shirt and jeans, and goto work. But sometimes, I wish that I could just get dressed up and go all out.

.Hello Caffeine

Decided to give up drinking only water. Basically, I figured that I will need the
caffeine to keep my spirits up.

I did finally put my gym clothes in the car. Maybe I’ll finally goto the gym tomorrow.

.Sunday Outing

So went to the Metreon to see Tomb Raider: Cradle Of Life. It was O.K. I mean Angelina Jolie looked good and all. But the movie itself was…flat. Lots of
gratuitous slo-mo’s and weird camera shots for me. I don’t know, the story didn’t click for me. Good thing it was only $7.50 instead of full price.

Afterwards, spent an hour wandering around the Sony tech haven that is the Metreon. It’s shocking that the Discovery Store has closed. It also looks like that they have closed or shrunk other sections of the place too. Still more than enough Sony products to drool over. Sony computers are the only computers that come close to matching the superb designs of Apple. Also went to the PS2 store to ask about the VGA
converter. Guy talking out of his ass didn’t know what I was talking about. If I am going to get the thing, I just need to go on EBay to find it.

Walked down to the AT&T store on Market, which was less crowded than the Colma one. Almost bought the Nokia 3650. Almost, like I was reaching for my wallet. For some reason, I hesitated and then walked out. It’s $300 with a $150 rebate, which wouldn’t be a problem. For some reason, I
hesitated. Went window shopping down Market, just looking and not buying. Ended up at Virgin planning on buying something. This time I had El Mariachi and Desperado in my hard, buy one/2nd one 50% off. Never made it to the cash register. **sigh** I think that I have lost my ability to shop. 🙁 That’s probably a good thing, so I can continue to save money. But it would have made me feel good if I would have bought something.

.Mobile horoscopes and Fortune Cookies

MSN Mobile Horoscope: Emotional outbursts will be the norm today, not the exception.

Fortune Cookie #1:
Happy events will take place shortly in your home.

Fortune Cookie#2:
n/a – Accidentally forgot to take it out while eating the cookie

Fortune Cookie#3:
You are a bundle of energy, always on the go.

Hmph…The only emotional outbursts that I have had today were in my head. And I’ve never trusted Fortune cookie fortunes. Although, I guess a happy event took place when I ate the Chinese Food that I got. Finally, a place in Pacifica that I can get good Chinese food. Now if I can only find an affordable Japanese or Korean place
I would be set.

.maybe they are right

Maybe my horoscope and Eva the Magic 8 ball are right, and that I should get out of the house. Think that I am going to go and wash up, and head into the city and catch a movie at the Metreon. I know it got mediocre reviews, but I think that I really want to see Tomb Raider II. Who know, maybe I will change my mind when I get there and watch something else. Maybe I’ll find some pie.

.my neighborhood

Can’t post this to Photo Friday, since I didn’t take it. But here is a picture of my new neighborhood. Wonder if I could
Photoshop myself into the picture where my house is at.

my neighborhood

Click to see full image (3008×1960 6.28 MB)

Taken from the California Coastal Records Project

.Trad’r Sam

So I came home, took a quick nap and then headed out to Trad’r Sam’s in the Richmond for Joe Petche’s going away party. This is a great Tiki/Tropical themed bar; kinda of dive-ish, but great personality. And talk about a girl drink bar; every drink is some kinda of fruity color and has a paper
umbrella in it (Didn’t the Kids In The Hall have a skit about a girly drink addict? Amber P. would know). So the menu has all of these drinks, but there is no description, so you have to ask the bartender what’s in them. Alot of them have rum in them. Let’s see, had a
Rastaman which has Midori, Rum, pineapple juice, and grenadine, I think. Also had two other drinks one was red, the other was purple. Then they had this Scorpion bowl, which is a bunch of alcohol dumped into a bowl. Good stuff, and def had a sting to it.

So it’s most of the GM crew and me and we are drinking and stuff. Paul and Brian go outside and the next thing I know is that Paul has
collapse out on the sidewalk. Got the bartender to call 911 on his phone (remembered that cell phone 911 calls get routed to
Vallejo; owe that one to Kurt W.) and then ran down a block to my car to get a blanket for Paul. That was not easy considering that I was drunk and was wearing my heavy Sketchers. The biggest break was that there was a fire station 1/2 block away, so we got help in no time. The firemen checked Paul out and he was o.k. His wife wasn’t very happy when she picked him up though. Have a feeling that Paul won’t be out playing with the other kids anytime soon.

**sigh** Paul is such an important part of the bookstore. He is like a father to all of us ‘kids“. If something happened to him, it would be just
devastating. After Paul left, the party sobered up pretty quick and we all left.

Then I came home and got hit with more bad news. When it rains, it pours eh?

[Listening to: Symphonie Concertante, K. 364; 1st Movement – Academy Of St. Martin-In-The-Fields – Amadeus [Fantasy Original Soundtrack 1984] Disc 1 (13:38)]

.in other weekend news

Went to the dealer to get my car serviced. Don’t really know what made me want to get reamed in the ass like that. I guess I felt guilty that I was a little late with the service. So $100 and 7 hours later….Still don’t understand how it could take so long, esp. when I made an appointment.

So while car was at the dealer, spent the day walking around the various shopping centers. Walked up the hill to Barnes & Noble and spent a couple of hours reading magazines and books. There was this med student that was suppose to be studying, at least that’s what she told the people that called her on the phone. However, she was like me and spent the whole time reading magazines. Then there was this old opinionated guy that was loud. Man, he had an opinion about EVERYTHING. He was entertaining although I felt kinda bad for the poor guy that was stuck talking to this guy. He totally had the cornered animal look on his face.

Afterwards went to Marshall’s and looked around, but nothing caught my fancy. Went to Magnolia Hi-Fi to look into the whole PS2/monitor problem. I can get a cable made that would do the job, but it would cost me $80. I might as well buy a cheap TV for that amount. I’m starting to think that that might be the solution.

Then I headed to Serramonte Mall and window shopped there for awhile. First time that I have walked around in a Macy*s for a long time. Still, nothing really caught my eye. Went into Gamestop to see what they had. Looking at the min. requirement for computer games, I know that my computer is on the way out. Just means more looking at reviews for Motherboards and computer pieces and saving up money. Nothing at the mall for me though.

Headed over to Starbucks for a drink and finally sat down and wrote in my journal. Had a vanilla Frapuchino and a slice of lemon cake. The only thing was this guy that kept hovering over me. Think he was following me or something. Anyway, he creeped me out enough that I left. Went over to Staples and Ross; still nothing for me to buy. Well, there was this thing. It’s cool, in a geeky sorta way I guess. However, the sales guy was wrong when he told me that it could read data off of the CD’s.
Basically it’s just a big glorified CD holder, not a 75 disc CD drive.

Also tried to goto the AT&T store to see about getting a camera phone. Once again, it was super busy and under staffed. Grrr. It’s starting to piss me off, that I can’t talk to a person and ask questions. Went to the dealer across the street, however, he is charging more for the phone than AT&T is, even with the rebate. Also went to Sprint, cause someone told me that their customer service has gotten better. However their prices haven’t. Costs alot more with less hours, not for me, sorry.

So it’s 2:30pm and I figure that is more than enough time for them to be done with my car (I had dropped it off at 9am). So I head over and they tell me that they need an extra 45 min. Great….So I head down to Cost Plus World Market, which head some really good stuff, but not good enough for me to buy. Also ventured into
Kmart again; I am a sucker for pain, I guess. And I also stopped in Toys R Us. That was kinda interesting. Surprising number of adults playing with the toys. And I guess the Care Bears are making
a comeback.

So around 4pm my car is finally ready. At least everything checked out O.K. Stopped at Target to get some
Scotch guard and carpet cleaner. Can’t believe how messy I got the car; this is after I spent two days washing and
vacuuming it. Oy Vey.

[Listening to: Kids – Robbie Williams – Sing When You’re Winning (04:47)]

.horoscope

Taurus
April 20 – May 20

Today, dear Taurus, you might find yourself so gloomy that you won’t even want to get up and go outside. It might not be a good idea to stay home, however. Try to find some tasks to distract you. At some point during the day, get out in the open air and take a walk, preferably through a park, near water if possible. This way you’ll get the endorphins going and lift your spirits considerably.

Have no idea where my cell phone is at. It was almost out of juice last night. I wonder if I left it at the bar.

Anyway, I thought my alcohol tolerance had gone down, but I feel fine right now. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.