The occasional musings of Andy Scheffler
Current Status:
I’m cleaning out the box of stuff in my cube that’s been building up… it’s mostly old papers which are getting thrown out, and old notepads which have incomprehensible notes from some meeting that I don’t even remember with people who don’t work here anymore.
Nestled into one of these notepads is the following paragraph, copied down from a diatribe I wrote on the common whiteboard just over three years ago:
I have now determined that the term “Millennium” has become overused. Thenceforth, the word “Millennium” may not be used in any context as to imply that any item, concept or person is the most exemplary of the past one thousand years, for it is most decidedly impossible to compare all such things over such a large span of time. Furthermore, there has been a great deal of attention to the new millennium, most likely caused by the “turning over of the odometer” effect, but, in fact, the third millennium does not start until January 1st, 2001. From this day on, all media alluding to or making direct reference to something being the “Best of the Millennium” will be met with extreme prejudice and disdain. Thank you and enjoy the last (475) days of the second millennium.
(This concept also applies to “X of the Century” and “X 2000”.)
Current Status:
Current Status:
So, here’s where we are:
Linux machine died. It just decided to restart itself, then again. So I took this as a sign that it was time to upgrade.
But I don’t upgrade the Linux machine, I always upgrade my windows machine, and use the old components to upgrade the linux machine. So I go into Fry’s with the intention of buying a new processor and motherboard, and end up buying a new video card as well (why the heck not, right?)
Well, just like last time I was introduced to the concept of high density memory, this time I was introduced to the concept of the Pentium 4 extra power supply requirements.
Also, it turns out that the motherboard I bought doesn’t jibe with my SCSI card, it doesn’t look like it supports SCSI at all, so I have to return it.
The magnitude of a computer upgrade is measured in the number of trips to Fry’s. This one is already up to two, with a third one pending.
And to top it off, my Mac cube felt like it had to join in on the fun and decided to just stop booting as well. So now I have three non-functional computers on my desktop.
Back to the Linux machine (with the old guts from the PC inside)… have to reinstall Debian. Ugh.
I got a warm fuzzy feeling last night after reading the latest collection by Warren Ellis. It’s basically a print version of the last year and a half’s worth of the mailing list he sends out periodically (with illustrations, though). I paid money for what is basically the collected ramblings of an Englishman.
But, oh, is it ever worth it.
In that, he mentioned Nowhere Girl, which I had read at one point, and hasn’t updated since, but I urge everyone to read. It’s an ongoing online graphic novel, and quite well done.
In other news, the organization of my Magic: the Gathering cards is coming along. They’re mostly sorted into sets, now it’s just a matter of sorting within each set and putting them into their binders.
Because bigdumbthing is planning on moving back to Berkeley to become a “student” or something like that, I either need to find a roommate to replace him, or find another place to live (which would leave poor Leon with having to move back in with his parents). I’d really like to find a place to buy instead of rent. Not building equity is for chumps.
I have accepted the fact why my hair does that thing. I have more forehead than I used to. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but it provides less traction than other hair, so my bangs fall down. I should get a new hairstyle or something (well, I need a haircut in any case), but anything other than the way I’ve been combing it for the last 25 years looks weird.
I finally got caught up on online photos. One last album in 2002, and two more in 2003. Most recent one is from the Wagyu beef event on Saturday… which was a lot of fun, and a lot of meat.
I’ve been learning MySQL at work, and I don’t know how I managed to do some of the things I’ve done without a relational database. I had written the first part of this project the way I’ve been doing things (Perl tied hashes), and I was able to rewrite the whole thing in a fraction of the time, with half the code, using MySQL.
Of course, the fact that there was a MySQL server already set up and running on the server made things easier…
Yesterday… Super Bowl for most people… was “spend the day in and out of bed, trying to work, but having a migraine” day for me. I hate being hungry, but having an upset stomach and knowing that if you eat anything, it’ll tip over the edge.
Stuff’s happening.
I’m organizing my Magic: the Gathering collection.
I’m working.
I’m on decongestants.
I’m about to leave work.
I’m done.
So, I konked out at 5pm last night, and then woke up at 4am this morning, so I got in early yet again. It’s weird to be at work, and actually have lunchtime be a halfway point, instead of something you do right after you finish checking your email.
I finally got my GameCube keyboard controller. It only took… oh, let me check my email records… 9 weeks. That’s funny, it seems like longer. The company (which I won’t even link to) was so horrible in their customer service, that I thought I wasn’t going to get it at all. Now I can play PSO and keep up with the text-spamming 14 year olds.
I also got my Megatokyo volume 1 in the mail today. I was expecting something larger, but it’s a manga book, so it’s manga-sized. It looks really spiffy…
