Current mood:	geeky
Current music:	www.pandora.com

Huh, been a while
So, LJ is telling me it's been 28 weeks since my last post.  Strangely, no one's used the nudge feature on me.  But then again, only one of my friends actually posts.  So, onto the actual ramblings.

Well, first, because of a moron who thinks that just because he's anonymous he can be an arrogant prick (see the following:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 , note, salty language involved) I'm now going to filter all anon replies.  So, even "haha you can't log my IP" (even though it does anyways, which is mostly meaningless as even my IP is NAT filtered through my router) won't make it onto here.  I'd like to at least pretend that most of the people who I talk to have some degree of intelligence.  (Well, ROSC, you're an exception, but you're entertaining, at least.  And to me, entertaining is an important factor.)

So, as to what's going on, my laptop is always out of space and barely has enough of a video chipset to run World of Warcraft.  It's still running pretty well, but I still need to bring my ubertron of a desktop back online.  A new power supply is needed, as the old one decided it didn't like its fan to run.  On that note, never buy Sceptre brand monitors, especially the 22" widescreen model.  The DVI port went dead on it, which is apparently a common issue.  And in addition to that, NEVER buy computer equipment at the PX.  Even though the sole difference between the monitor and a similarly sized LCD HDTV is the lack of the things that make the latter a TV, the monitor has a 15 day return period, while the latter, 60.  So, rather than a quick replacement of something that wasn't working with one that was, it took them three months to get an RMA for a return.  And finally, rather than exchange it right there for the Samsung 225BW I'd been eyeing before grabbing the Sceptre because it was available when I wanted it, they did a full return, meaning it was a few days before the amount returned to my credit card.  And thus I had no monitor at that point.  And I left Germany a few days later.

So, I'm currently stuck with a laptop closing in on its third year.  Not the worst of situations, but when you compare the two:
Laptop: Toshiba Satellite M35X-S311
Pentium M 1.6 Ghz
2GB RAM (upgraded from 512 included)
Intel 855 integrated video
60GB hard drive
DVD-ROM/CD-R drive

Desktop: Home build
Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHZ dual core
eVGA nForce 680i mobo
2GB DDR2 800Mhz
BFG Geforce 7900 GT OC 512MB version (Would have been two if the one shipped hadn't been bent, and Tiger direct had another one to exchange it with)
3 320GB hard drives
Lightscribe DVD burner

You can tell why I'm anxious to have the cash to get the desktop up again.  I miss having access to that power, and especially newer games that the laptop just can't run.  That's a lot of power sitting idle.

On another note, my Xbox died a few weeks ago, succumbing to the Disc Read Error.  Of course, being out of warranty, it would cost me $80 to send it out to be fixed.  The exact amount to just go grab another one from Gamestop, used.  Obviously, without the same hard drive, but I'm a fully trained and qualified IT tech, so that's not as big a deal.  Being that no new games are coming out for it anyways, I might as well just wait and get a 360 with my tax returns instead.  That said, since I'm going downrange soon anyways, and PS3 has a new Ratchet & Clank, I might get that one instead.  Then again, I even accepted how Deadlocked fit in the universe, but R&C Future, having played the demo, is just plain full of win and cake.


The following are hilarious and should be included in most linking sessions:
The Escapist : Zero Punctuation  (Extremely Funny reviews of video games)
www.derrickcomedy.com (A modern, college-kid Monty Python.  True heirs to the funny.)
ZUG  (Anybody capable of pranking the television broadcast of the Superbowl gets big points)

Hopefully, I won't take as long for the next post.  But I'm sure I won't post as often as vampire_ninja