Follow Up on my New Computer

One year after I really wanted to, I finally replaced my Laptop with the Glowy Blue Beast Box for my primary computer. Take a moment to stare at The Awesomeness:

Oooooh, pretty!

So, what did I do first? Well, let's go through the list chronologically:

1. Connect to the Internet
2. Got Microsoft.com to order my free upgrade to Windows 7
3. Installed Zone Alarm
4. Played a game of Pox Nora (a game that's not graphically intense, and STILL manages to send my laptop's CPU into overdrive, overheating, and forced shutdown)
5. Downloaded Microsoft's free anti-virus utility recommended by a coworker.
6. Attempted to install aforementioned tool, installer froze and the process had to be killed
7. Succeeded installation of tool, another freeze-up and kill episode on updating it
8. Curse Microsoft
9. Attempted to install one of them new-fangled MMORPG thingies that are all the rage with the kids these days. The installer freezes and locks up, much like the Anti-Virus tool.
10. Repeat previous step 4-5 times; curse Microsoft
11. Begin to suspect that the ZoneAlarm program mentioned in step 3 was having difficulty on a 64-bit system, being a 32-bit progam and all.
12. Uninstall ZoneAlarm, reboot, subsequent attempts to install MMORPG and run Anti-Virus are successful
13. Sheepishly recant curses directed at Microsoft
14. Played through the Eve-Online Tutorial. Remembers how it feels to be impressed by Good Graphics.

And so, the adventure continues. I'm going to have to hook up this laser printer too, and see how that action works.
So, between the myriad PC games that are now open to me, the next Wheel of Time book that came out two days ago, and the fact that I just got another coworker addicted to another old hobby of mine (he was an easy sell) My leisure time is booked until further notice. At least it's getting cold now, so I have a good excuse to stay indoors all day! :-)

Shipping and Receiving - The Follow Up

Ok, so, the previously mentioned package was sent out for delivery Friday, was returned to the UPS facility due to an unknown address, they checked with the post office, and sent it back out for delivery on Monday, returned it again demanding a signature, dropped it off on Tuesday after they picked up the slip with the signature on the back. So it's all good.

Other packages that have arrived since then: My new Computer. Yay! Sadly, the monitor that I purchased from another vendor is taking its sweet time. Woot takes longer than usual to ship their stuff.

SuperFreakonomics: The follow up to the best book I've ever bought at an airport has arrived. A few pages into the introduction and I learned (seriously) that Indian mens' penises are smaller than average so they have a condom failure rate of 15%, partially explaining the high population in that part of the world. Can't wait to see what's next!

Last week I ordered a case of the Boss Monster Wine from wine.woot.com, Mostly for the novelty of buying wine via the Internet, a convienience that the Liquor Control Gestapo would not allow back in Pennsylvania. Viva, Wyoming, land of True Men, and Strong Women! Oh, and yeah, the label was a selling point for me, too.

A package from my Parents containing...? Dunno yet. I'm going to have to send them my new physical address, because apparently I gave them the wrong one last month.

And now, because the'll never be a better segue into this clip, I present the Music Man!

Wow. I thought *I* lived in a podunk town. If someone in Mountain View burst into song when the Fed Ex guy showed up, I reckon he'd be shot.

A Different Sort of Biological Clock

For the last ten years or so, I always assumed that a latent desire to have children would bubble to the surface as I aged. Something about needing someone around to help you feel young or something.

But today, a coworker, her family, and I went out to Pizza Hut (Observing 2-years with our current employer) and the restaurant was also filling up with screechy 8-13 year old girls from the local Middle School (volleyball and soccer teams).

Between events like that, and encounters with other coworkers' children, I think that if I don't knock someone up by the time I'm 35, a vasectomy will seal off this genetic faucet for life.

As another friend once put it: "I love children, but I can never finish a whole one by myself."

Back in the Saddle again... and Wielding Knives!

Orange chicken on Thursday, Pepperoni Rolls on Saturday, Tuna Salad on Monday, and few things already planned for the rest of the week. It took me a long time to grow into my kitchen since I moved in, but I think we're there!

If anyone has attempted to cook in a strange kitchen, you know what I'm talking about.

Shipping and (hopefully) Receiving

I just placed an order with Barnes & Nobles, using up all but $1 and change of my gift card balance. What's really on my mind is will the UPS guy be able to find my new address? Apparently, it's in none of the Postal Databases, probably due to my building not existing until a few months ago. Living in friggin' nowhere probably doesn't help.

I have the option of shipping to my work address, a frill that my company cordially provides. But I figured that since these gift cards didn't represent an actual investment on my part (they were a Christmas gift from my workplace) that an order with them would be a good test.

By the way, having a gift card is the only reason to buy from Barnes and Nobles as opposed to, say, Amazon. B&N's books are about 10-20% more expensive, and even with the members discount (you have to pay for membership) and they charge sales tax. Both of these, I'm sure, are the results of being based in New York, which decided to start charging Sales Tax for online transactions. The high cost of doing business in that state causes them to raise prices, which causes me to go to a retailer than can provide the same stuff cheaper, which in turn (provided enough people do the same) causes B&N to go under or leave the state, cause the state of New York to lose the new taxes they are attempting to collect, plus the ones they had received before the Online Transaction Tax took effect.

NY needs to take a lesson from their comrades in California before they end up the same way. It might not happen for several years, but they can't afford to make the cost of business greater than it already is for New York Businesses.