Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Computer is Dead, Long Live the Computer!

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The New and Improved Less Blown Up computer is at home, waiting to be tested out. I finished putting all the guts back in last night after the messy motherboarderectomy. I was too bleary eyed to be trusted to check it over before powering up.

Foolishly, I did not pay close attention when I ordered the motherboard to the types of sockets and plugs that were included… I failed to get one with a 20 pin power supply style (hopelessly antiquated! After three years!) or a AGPx16 socket for the display. So, a new power supply (24+4) and display card (PCI Express) needed to be purchased.

So, if anyone has need of an AGPx16 compatible display card or a 450W 20 pin computer power supply, I can help you out.

So, tonight, after steakums gets back from her business meeting with her clients1, I shall shut my eyes tight and flip the power button.

May the deity of ones and zeros have mercy; I need my computer back.

___________________
1 Translation: Hitting a bar with the Georgia Shakes folks.

Flowers for Athlon

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My basement computer died a couple nights ago.

First the printer port and serial ports stopped responding (yes, I still use the old non-universal type serial and parallel ports) . Then I rebooted, and it never did the boot part. The monitor never received a signal, which means the very early BIOS stuff doesn’t happen, or all the peripheral interfaces have gotten whacked.

So I ordered another motherboard/CPU combo from TigerDirect. Also, a surge protector/battery backup thingy. I’m pretty sure this is a result of power surges in the basement, because I often come downstairs to find it’s rebooted, and power outages/hiccups are no stranger to our house.

I’m pretty sure all the data is still on the hard drives but regardless, I had just done my weekly backup of critical files. Huzzah for preparedness!

Wickles… located!

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Whaddaya know… the mini-Publix on Shallowford had them Wickles in stock.

Mmmm…

Now. My next task is to find a guacamole ranch salad dressing. The cafeteria at work had it for a couple weeks, but it has since disappeared from the salad bar.

I suppose it wouldn’t be too terribly difficult to make it myself.

The Beach, Part III: Introducing the Wickles

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There was one thing I failed to mention about the beach: Wickles.

My Uncle Mike and his wife Betty joined us for the first day, and Mike brought 2 jars of Wickles… Wicked Pickles. They are a spectacularly well-seasoned pickles. He got them in the Publix out there in S.C., but steakums couldn’t find them in our local Publix.

I may resort to ordering them online. De-lish.

Setting priorities

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Where you fall in poll of U.S. reading habits
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/21/reading.ap/index.html

Pollyann Baird, 84, a retired school librarian in Loveland, Colorado,says J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter fantasy series is her favorite. But she has forced herself to not read the latest and final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” because she has yet to file her income taxes this year due to an illness and worries that once she started the book, “I know I’d have to finish it.”

Good dog, woman! You’re 84! Should the worst happen, are you going to want to have filed your taxes or read Harry Potter?

If you don’t file your taxes, they might take you to jail, in which case you’ll have even more time to read!

I mean, really. Priorities!

The Market, She Crazy

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I don’t often follow the daily ups and downs of the stock market, but it’s been more nuts than I can ever remember these past couple weeks… it’s like passing a traffic accident, and then a nude beach, then another train wreck.

Today, nude beach.

Where Fiction meets Fact

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I am currently reading The Dark Design, third in the Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer. (The First two were logged here and here)

In my log of the first book, I mentioned this:

I see from the bio that Philip Jose’ Farmer was born in 1918 in Terre Haute, IN, which is 5 years after and 20 miles from the time and place when my grandfather, Floyd Lucas, was born. I wonder if they met at a barn dance.

In these novels, there is a character named Peter J. Frigate, which is based upon the author.

I have just read a chapter where Peter J. Frigate recounts his past a bit (in Terre Haute), with great detail about his father (where he went to school, etc) and other family members. A little more than necessary in the context of the book, which leads me to believe he was spewing facts about his real history.

And then he mentioned his grandmother, Wilhelmina Kaiser. And I remembered that my grandmother, born in 1917 near Terre Haute, was a Kaiser.

So, now I’m wondering not so much whether my grandfather met Farmer at a barn dance, but rather whether my grandmother knew him from a family get together. Something to be put on a list of To Be Researched.

From Zero to Solar

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Solar Power makes tiny village beam

I was intrigued when I saw this article, but then I read it and got confused.

Basically, it talks about how solar powered lamps were brought to this small, rural Indian town. It lists all sorts of things people could now do after dark, because of this innovative artificial light. Villagers could play music after dark, children could study will past sundown.

The article talked about how there was no electricity available and little water.

But it didn’t talk about why they didn’t have candles or other non-electric lamps. Perhaps the raw materials aren’t available, plentiful and/or affordable?

I guess I really need to get back to reading Guns, Germs and Steel.