 |
||
|
If you have a question, please email it to me so I can answer it. If it's a good question I'll add it to our Questions page! |
||
 |
This is the home of our less cohesive ramblings and thoughts, mixed with occasional stories and accounts of my times. Whether they're good or bad times, we'll try and accurately record them here for the internet to scrutinize and mock.
As you can probably tell, we're reusing the format we use for newsposts. Consistency is good, it helps people on both ends of the site (the staff and the readers). They are arranged like the newsposts as well, newest to oldest. Once we build up enough of them I'll start moving them to their own pages.
Hardware time! I'll go ahead and list the general specs of my laptop, and then go into more detail. It's an ASUS M51Sn Series, with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (2.40 GHz), 4Gb RAM, a GeForce 9500M GS (512 Mb video RAM), and a 250 GB HDD. It has a 15.4 inch screen (1280x800 res), 1.3M webcam, a Realtek audio card, SD card reader, DVD burner (Nero OEM comes with it), and Wireless N/Bluetooth.Let's talk about what seems to work well. Bluetooth works flawlessly, connected with my Wiimote first try. Wireless also seems to work well, and having an "off switch" is kinda handy for saving power. The webcam is alo pretty nice, I've had pretty good experiences with the face-recognition software (shaving has gotten it kinda confused). The keyboard is nice (yay for number pads), and the included mouse is nice and sensitive (I like them twitchy).
Now for some of the problems. Audio seems to have some trouble on Linux (still have to research that some more), and the case attracts fingerprints like mad. I was also very sad when I realized that there was no port for me to hook my ancient-ass WACOM up to. :(
Most worryingly, the battery life is abysmal. I think that the sheer power of the CPU, GPU, ad RAM eat up power much faster than the normal laptop, but nonetheless I can't get but around 2 hours of continuous use. But in general, the laptop has been very impressive.
Let's talk about my new laptop. I've recently purchased a new ASUS laptop from Newegg, and have been enjoying it greatly. However, like any computer, it has downs as well as ups.
First off, the operating system, because it's so visible. The laptop came with Vista preinstalled on it (yeah yeah, I know), and I've decided to give it a trial run. Now, don't get me wrong- I set up Ubuntu to dual boot within 24 hours of getting the box. But I feel like not having Vista could be a problem in the next few years, and the worst that can happen is that I gain some familiarity with the OS. It took me a few days to get used to Vista and get all the annoying crap turned off (still finding odd things to disable, actually), and installing SP1 took a pretty long time, but overall the experience has been pretty OK. I've installed a few things to help the OS out (like a little program that lets it read my ubuntu partition), but it came with some decent software.
Speaking of software, let's talk about a few things. The laptop came with some ASUS stuff, like face-recognition software for logging in (which is very cool, by the way). There are a bunch of Vista accessories that I haven't gotten into yet, but I suspect that I'll be cleaning them out as I find time. Conversely, installing stuff was no problem, I've put a pretty wide variet of stuff on here and it they all seem to run ok (Inkscape, Gimp, OpenOffice, etc) though I have had some troube with one specific program. Steam. I tried to install my nice, fresh copy of Portal and had to waste an entire afternoon and evening getting Steam installed. I suspect that it's mostly my ISPs fault, but they should say on the box "to install you must have an internet line with UDP lines ### open, blah blah blah."
oh well, I eventually got it working. Portal plays well, though I suspect that it has some redraw issues (maybe something wrong with the framebuffer?) because I frequently notice a sync line work its way down the screen. I also sometimes see this when I'm dualscreening VLC player to the TV, but that's probably the TV's fault. :P
Ok, I'll blog more about hardware and power later, this post is long enough already.
Alright, it's been almost a month and I still haven't updated. Guess I should be pretty thorough with this post, eh?
I've been doing a lot of web stuff recently. Little odds and ends for Kat, and also picking up some other things. I feel kinda bad, because it's been eating into my energy for this site. It doesn't help that my home computer is cut off from the net, making it semi-useless and rather unappealing to work at: it's generally cramped and uncomfortable now.
As usual, I have plenty of ideas and enthusiasm for my past projects (specifically, EITS) but I can't seem to get off my butt and actually work on them. Instead I find myself rolling a new idea I've had around, one which could hopefully turn out to be a good learning experience for me. But I'll talk more about that project later.
School has been crap recently. I feel like I'm just idling the engine, not actually learning much of anything. How can I justify the cost of this school when everything I'm walking away with was stuff I taught myself outside of class? Urgh. And some of the crap we have to do... we had an internship/job fair thing that all the people in my department were required to do. Worst possible timing (midterm week), and an utter waste of everybody's time. Grr.
Otherwise everything is much the same. I'm still hungry all the time, lonely, and frustrated with myself and my life. Fear my emo-ness...
Testing some new blog software right now. I've found that the old system I wrote was a bit redundant and difficult for people to follow: while this new system isn't much better, it is a bit less redundant.
Sure has been quiet in the blog recently, and I apologize. However, the reason is simple and valid: I don't want to just blag about bad stuff happening, which has pretty much been the trend of the past month. I had a few good days (Christmas day itself), but most of the days (New Years) sucked so bad I didn't want to blog about it.
Once I have good news I'll put it up.
Let's talk about things I irrationally hate. I've got a need to vent, and this is where I'm gonna do it.
I'll start by talking about lights. For some reason (sensitive eyes? dark personality quirk?) I really hate artificial lights. I'm fine with the sun, and I love moonlight, but lightbulbs and especially phlorescent lights really grate at me. I try and rationalize and say that I'm saving energy by turning off lights whenever I can, but I think it's really some weird quirk. It drives me nuts when I come home and the lights are all on.
Next is my irrational dislike for white fluffy foods. We honestly don't know why, but I greatly dislike cool whip, marshmellows, whip cream, mayonnaise... the list goes on and on. I even feel bad when I eat boiled eggs. There are some foods (cheese, cake icing, bread) that I'm fine with, but I think it's my love for those food groups overpowering my distaste for white fluffy foods. Anyone else like this?
One of my weirder hatreds is frilly clothing. Maybe I'm a nudist at heart (it would not surprise anyone who knows me), but the more elaborate and frilly the outfit, the more I dislike it. I'm all for a slinky dress, but a poofy one? Urgh.
Not everything I hate is irrational though. I have good reasons for a lot of my peeves. For example, I hate video drivers. They drive me nuts, because they never work like they should. I dislike Sony because their hardware always dies on me (and so I don't buy their products anymore). I hate hot muggy weather, because my body stops working right in it (sweating functions seems to be broken in my body).
But what I hate most is confusion, guilt, and indecision. I am plagued by all three, and suffer greatly under them. I am naturally disorganized, and it takes all my willpower to establish and maintain tenuous organizational systems. When something comes along and disrupts those systems, I get disproportionally upset. Bad times. This leads me to guilt... I feel bad because I got so upset, and then I feel bad for feeling bad, and before I know it I'm clamming up under the weight of my own guilt. I hate the feeling of guilt, and blame it for a lot of my un-shining moments.
Finally, indecision is a problem that lacerates me frequently. I spend all my willpower on other stuff, and then when something comes up that requires me to make a decision, I'm not up to making it. I hate it when people won't make a decision quickly, especially when it's me being indecisive. Life moves at a breakneck pace, and if you don't keep up with it, it'll overpower you and you'll end up drowning. I see friends all the time trying to make hard decisions, and I want to encourage them to just make one and run with, but I'd be a hypocrit if I did so, because of my own indecision.
Maybe later this week I should talk about stuff that I like, to balance this entry out.
Did my extemporaneous speech exam yesterday pretty smoothly. I felt I was pretty composed and was able to make some decent points in the 5 minutes I had.
I've got my history exam tonight. I'm not too worried, but I do need Sarah to return to the world of the living and collaborate with me. I'm short 4 of the 8 papers we need, I believe.
On an entirely unrelated subject, does anyone know how to make gedit ignore html tags? I guess I'll have to google it... (EDIT: there is no way, currently, I'll have to add all the HTML tags as I run across them. Poopy.)
Finished my physics exam without breaking down, check. The site I work on for pay is gonna go live in a few days, so that's exciting/stressful. Hmm... my cat slit my left palm open with his claws, little ****er. That's about all I have to blog about right now.
People type billions of words on Livejournal? How?
So I'm trying very hard to make sure that I have a better month than last month. I've gotten one of my exams out of the way, and now I have two days before my physics exam... after that, I'll be diving into a extemporaneous speech for Public Speaking, and my last exam will be to write 4 2-page papers for history. Good times.
Watched some Princess Tutu last night with 4drn and Sarah. An interesting series, I'm looking forward to it's conclusion (it better have swordfighting in it). I'm also almost done with Paper Mario and FFIII, but FFIII has me stuck... is there seriously no way to save after Xande? That stinks.
Still having a hard time, so rather than be a whiner, I'll be brief. Finishing up my classes right now... had my last physics lab yesterday. Start exams next week. Bleh.
I have had a headache since Sunday night, and it's been getting worse as it goes on. Making it hard to concentrate.
Having some trouble with myself right now. Aren't I supposed to upset? I get angry about stupid stuff all the time, I spend a huge amount of effort trying to keep my temper in check.
But when she told me, all I could feel was pity. No anger, no sadness... just an overwhelming sense of pity for her. I guess that as it sinks in I'm feeling more and more tired and lonely, but...
Why aren't I feeling sad for myself? Why do I feel her pain, and none of my own? What is wrong with me, what is wrong with my heart?
My media choice is very significant, please listen to it.
OMFG video drivers, WHY!?!?! I have spent all morning sorting the damn things out, and I still can't run Sauerbraten. X(
But, in good news, I have learned an awful lot about how to work in Linux. Frustratingly educational. I have also revamped the photo gallery to use photos that I'm hosting (excpt for the WT summer 07 pictures. Those are next).
In personal news, I have been assaulted by school... again. Next semester ought to be much better though, I have finally got a few classes I actually want.
Not much substantial news, but I figured I'd blog while I was thinking about it. I've got to figure out a class schedule this week- bleh. A whole lot of nastiness and stress. And five digit numbers.
Also bringing a lot of additional numbers into my life is Loki, my new Ubuntu Apache server. Loki is named after the norse giant Loki, a trickster who somehow ended up spending a lot of time with the gods. I'm guessing that I'll be cursing at this machine a lot, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a fitting name. It's my first time doing this, so there's a lot of shenanigans that have to happen before the server is ready to host the page. But it's educational, and exciting.
I really want to whine about how overworked I am right now, but it's my own fault, so I guess I should just suck it up. I just suck at time management.
As you can tell, I suck at making blog posts. Does anyone have any advice about keeping yourself blogging? I'm thinking that I should schedule my OS to open this document in a text editor every time I boot it up. Maybe that'd make me do it more.
Anyhow. Been spending a lot of time right now BETAing for a MMO called Space Hansters. It's quite fun. Eats up my homework time though.
Got the car, it is very exciting to be so mobile again.
Yesterday was crap, I had two papers due and they kept me real late. I would have done them earlier except I had a ton of physics homework due on monday :P
Finally getting around to turning this site in tsholden.com rather than tentusonline. It'll be a while fore it's all sorted out.
Well, I wanted to post this a few days ago but my memory sucks. Sorry. But...
I am officially a web designer for a real business! I will be doing the online inventory and possibly redesigning the frontend of a store called Art Walk! I am really, really excited!
So good times right now. Also, I am getting a car with 4drn.
Exciting things are in the works right now people. I can't say too much, but it may result in more site-time availabe. :)
Still kinda flu-ish, but I can sit through classes without dying, so that's good.
Blehhgg. I've got the flu and it sucks. I'm having to skip work today and I left early yesterday.
I'll tell you what, insomnia is the son of the devil. but it can help when you have to stay up till 6 in the morning to finish your public speaking homework.
In other news, new internet service, which may lead to new server!
Whew, yesterday was a mess. I get up, do some work on my computer, get a call from my mom telling me Nashaii's CC race is about to start, so I go wake up 4drn and we run out to the car. Naturally, the car is dead.
So I call my mom and tell here. Naturally, my cell dies halfway through the call.
So we run back to the apartment and wake up Sarah-san, and make her drive us to the race. We catch the end of Nashaii's race (which went quite well), and then stick around until 1:00 for our meg's race (meg is my sister, younger than me but older than Nashaii).
Once she runs, my mom and I head back to my apartment, and I call AAA on the way. They say a tow truck will come by 2:30, which is when I have to be *at* work. Naturally, the tow truck arrives at 3:31.
I then proceed to work (again thanks to the Sarah-san taxi service), which goes surprisingly slow, which is a welcome relief from the previous day (friday had me making fruti trays until 8:00 pm).
Now I'm watching 4drn play FFX and enjoying some much-needed down time.
Sorry about the silence... as I said, lots of work. I got somewehere around 20-30 work hours in over the weekend, and had several assignments that just refused to do themselves.
I'm currently sitting in my Electronic prepress class getting very frustrated with the lesson. It's one of those "follow the instructions in the book" lessons, so of course the book is deeply flawed. Grr.
So our internet is totally unnacceptable at the apartment. Justin and I are planning to buy DSL with one of the service providers around here, probably with Bellsouth. It sucks that we're gonna have to do that, but our connection just won't stay up here, and that's unnacceptable when some of us have online classes and such.
Anyhoo, unusually difficult amount of homework recently, which I dislike. Darn that physics.
Our kitten is so cute, he's a big fan of my computer desk. Particularly my keyboard when I'm trying to watch OGMs. It can be verra distracting.
So, yeah. I spent all Sunday being useless. I ate some leftovers, watched 2/3 of the Chobits series (Hideki!), and worked a bit on my Sauerbraten map. I shoulda read ahead for my Physics class, but I am too lazy.
We went and got a kitten today. His name is Onyx and it's adorable. Very loving. He weighs about 2 pounds and is already neutered and stuff, which is great.
Today I have to work, so my time to type is limited. 4drn is planning on getting a kitten tomorrow, we should figure out a way to protect our electronics.
Been playing some Metroid Prime recently, on Hard mode. I'm trying to get 100%, without using any guilds or anything, and it's hard as crap. I can only play an hour or so at a time.
This is the first test blog, being written as a visual test. I'm also testing the efficiency of a javascript to help make these things less work for me. Sort of a compromise between actually coding a blog and just writing more HTML.
In bloggy-type stuff, I've got to deliver a speech in two hours and I haven't started writing it yet. Bad times, my Public Speaking class is going to be hard.
