July 25, 2018

Note My Life

I'm still on mandatory overtime, and with Monday night spent at Best Buy bringing home Triela I'm running behind.  I was on the clock for 11 hours tonight, which leaves me with 5.5 hours of OT to do by 10pm Friday.


I've got a new gaming computer, and I haven't had a chance to actually DO anything with it yet!  I'm d/l'g Fallout 4 to the SSD, but that's a 25GB game... it's taking a while.

So... how's everybody over there?

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July 23, 2018

Step 3: See Step 1

The moment I expected, yet feared came Saturday.  In the afternoon I started my old computer, browsed around for a couple of hours, then watched Quals for the German Grand Prix, shutting it down as I did. I then took a nap.


Saturday night, I hit the power button on my computer and... nothing.  The hard drive just gave a rhythmic, constant, flashing light with no sign of life otherwise.  She had finally given up the ghost after doing her best for me.  Press F to pay respects.

So I spent the rest of Saturday night tearing down my computer setup, figuring out how to store the old computer until I can get around to beating the hard drive into a very small smear, the better to keep my info safe y'know?  Also accomplished was removing the old 19" 1440 x 900 monitor... over 12 years old would you believe... and putting the new 24" 1080p monitor in position.  And then I slept, ready to get the new computer in position and move up in the world.

This was duly accomplished around 4pm on Sunday.  Everything plugged in, everything ready, I hit the power button, and...

...nothing.  I tried another power cable.

...nothing.  My brand new computer was DOA out of the box.

A quick run to Best Buy got me an exchange for another, this time with free setup.  It only took an hour to accomplish this, an hour, two managers, two different salespeople, one customer service rep, and a sugar glider named Hugo.

I may be exaggerating part of that.

Monday rolls around, and after work I head back over to the BigBlueBox, getting there exactly on time for my appointment, and... I had to wait for a half-hour while two biddies who looked old enough to remember a time when the most complex computing device you could find was an abacus tried to understand what the tech was telling them... "power button is here on the side."

A quick demo of the new computer (it works!  it works!)  led to me loading it into the Duckmobile and driving home to Pond Central.  At which point, I was faced with some difficulty.  How do you get a 30 pound computer up a flight of stairs when you use a cane?  The answer is "slowly, step by step."  Carry the computer to the stairs, put it as many steps up as you can, go back to the car to get the cane, go up a couple of steps, lift the computer up another couple of steps, climb some more, repeat as many times as needed (five, in case you were wondering).

Just as an aside, at the time I returned to Pond Central, somewhere around 845pm or so, it was still in the mid-80s outside, with ridiculously high humidity, and no breeze whatsoever.  As a result, Your Hero was drenched in sweat when he got the computer inside.  Also exhausted: it had been a long day at work, and the whole "carrying things up stairs" gig was awkward.  And painful: a poorly placed foot as I was trying to maneuver the tower through the door to Pond Central resulted in rather a lot of ankle pain.  I'm hoping I didn't sprain it; we'll find that out tomorrow morning.

After taking a while to regenerate some action points, I found myself back where I had been Sunday evening: everything hooked up and just needing to hit the power button.  Filled with trepidation, this I did.

Everybody, say hello to Triela.  

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July 16, 2018

Step 2: Get New Monitor

COMPLETE!  


I love Amazon Prime.  After realizing that I was going to need a new monitor for my new computer, I immediately went to the Retail Giant and ordered one.  It arrived today.  Now, I have a great relationship with the not-receptionist at work.  I tell her I've got packages coming, and she usually brings them to me once they show up.

Not today.  Today, Amazon shipped the monitor in a HUGE box lined with, I dunno, sheets of lead disguised to look like crumpled paper.  The thing weighed a whole bunch... not as much as the computer, true, but still a whole bunch.  Too much, considering the monitor itself is allegedly only nine pounds.  

I'm terrified it's too big for the available space.  I know I've got the room... my measurements confirmed it... but it still feels too large.

Unfortunately, I don't know when I'm going to get to set up and go!  I've got 9.5 hours of OT to do in the next four days.  That means late nights at work and dear god the Windows setup process is... well, you know.

But it's here!  And who knows, maybe I'll get the flu or something.

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July 15, 2018

Step 1: Get New Computer

COMPLETE!


I'll admit the name "Inspiron 5676" does nothing to make the heart beat a little faster but that's okay, I take medicines to prevent that from happening anyway.  It's what's inside that counts, and the new 2nd Generation Ryzen 7 2700X is AMD's top-of-the-line processor.  It has a 1TB hard-drive, but it also has a 256GB SSD, which I'm told is important these days. That's all matched up with a Radeon RX580 graphics card, which is ATI AMD's best card that isn't in "ludicrous" territory.

So what I'm saying is that this girl should be quite the performer!  I'd have it hooked up already except for one little thing.  That is, it only has a HDMI port to hook up a monitor and my current monitor, which is 10 years old, only has DVI.  I knew this ahead of time though, and ordered a ViewSonic 24" monitor beforehand... it'll be delivered on Monday, and THEN I can get it all set up.

Darn thing weighs about 1573 pounds, though.

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July 09, 2018

Let Me Explain...

I'm tired.  I've been on a month of mandatory 50-hour weeks and it's been wearing on me.  Okay, I guess I didn't work 50 hours last week, but since I DID have to work on a national holiday, that makes up for it.  So I'm getting home from work late, I've been sleeping poorly, and quite honestly the atmosphere at work is... dark.


Of course, I've also got computer problems of late, but the thought of going to BigBlueBox to buy a new one is... exhausting.  It's always very loud there and it makes me sad to see what's happened to this company that I used to work for.

And to be blunt, I'm not enjoying Formula 1 very much.  Oh, this race at Silverstone was actually pretty decent, but even that felt more like a chore than an experience.  

You guys have any requests?  I'm willing if its something that'll kick-start my brain.  Gimme an idea!

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July 08, 2018

Computer Issues

Well, my computer, purchased in 2013, is showing signs that it'll be passing away soon.  Last night it refused to boot, in a manner that I've seen it do before, that indicates the hard drive is failing.  While I've managed to get on now, I may not be able to later.  So if there's no sign of me for a day or two, that's why.  F1Update! may be unavoidably delayed.


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July 07, 2018

Farming Seems Pretty Metal!

While you're waiting for me to get off my tucus and post the F1 Quals results, here's something for you to watch.


Ben, your thoughts?  Because to me, it looks like farming is straight out of Warhammer 40K.

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July 03, 2018

There Are Times...

Holiday!  I was really looking forward to having the day off tomorrow, relaxing a bit, setting up my photo studio, taking a few pictures of figures, eating hot dogs, watching baseball, and just generally being American on the 4th of July.  A good time!


So there I am today, hard at work, pushin' data through dem tubes, secure in the knowledge that while I had to put in 10 hours, it was going to be an easy 10 hours.  I'd already put in two with no hiccups, no worries, and a tasty ham samitch to boot.  Because a good ham samitch makes everything better, don'tchaknow?  All in all, a good plan for the day.  Better still, the last three or four hours would almost certainly be spent alone in the room I'm currently residing in.  It's the smallest of the three workspaces, I was moved there back at the end of May because a new training class was taking over the old office... 25 people, would you believe?  Anyway, I'd be alone in my office, and perhaps the entire building come to that... people want to leave early when there's a holiday involved, go figure.  Anyway, why does that matter to me?  Because it lets me sing!
I forgot just how dark "Shattered Dreams" was, really.  Although if you were a wrestling fan during the WWF's "Attitude" era, shattered dreams brings something else altogether to mind.  Anyway, yes, singing is fun to do at work when there's nobody around.
I don't sing that one though.  A little out of my vocal range, really.  I first heard this song as the backing music for a gameplay video and liked it a lot more than the game.  Yes, it's another entry in the "electropop + random female singer" genre, but it's better than most.  At least I like it.
Heavy rotation on the mp3 player.  Don't sing this one either... it tends to generate a lump in my throat and tears to form in my eyes.  I'm a soft-hearted sap of a duck, what can I say?  Also, hey look fireworks!  It's a July 4th reference!  *ahem*

So yeah, singing at work.  I was looking forward to that, maybe break out Straight Outta Hidamari.  Good times, good times.  And then the data... stopped.  The part that serves me claims fell over.  No biggie, that happens.  Except it stayed down.  A few minutes turned into 15, then 30, then a hour... and the boss sent out the e-mail: we don't know when it's coming back, clock out, you have to make up any time missed by the end of the week or you lose your holiday pay AND get two absence points.

I sat there feeling like I had been hit in the face with a lobster.  Make up the unfinished time?  Five hours for the incomplete regular day, plus two to cover part of the eight hours of OT we have to do... SEVEN HOURS???  All of a sudden, my midweek holiday had gone from a day of relaxation to... well, a normal work day.  Oh crepe.  By no fault of my own.  After waiting for another hour (off the clock) hoping the program would start working again, I went home... but not before stopping at the boss's office.  "I'm taking off... is anybody going to text us if the system is still down in the morning?"  Don't know, this is all happening fast.  "Great.  Well, if I don't see you here tomorrow, have a great 4th of July holiday off."  And I walked out.

For all my fellow Americans, enjoy your 4th of July holiday with grilled meat and explosives!  For everybody else, have a good Wednesday!

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