Time for a New PC.

Recently I purchased a Clavia Nord Lead 2 and I love it. The only snag is that I want to integrate it with Ableton Live and other synths, but I just don’t have a beefy enough PC. So it seems I need to build a new PC before I can really get any recording done.

Why don’t I just buy a prebuilt Dell or maybe switch to a Mac? Well first of all my hacker ethos won’t let me buy a pre-built PC. It’s a little like a gearhead leaving there car stock. I like to be in control of all the various aspects of my PC. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a mac. I could run all three OSes on it, but not only does it run in to the first problem of being a pre-built machine out of my control, its also very expensive.

The goals of my new PC are music production and gaming. Though I’m a Linux guy, I’m pretty sure I’ll be running Windows. The games I like (Warcraft, etc.) play best on Windows (though with a beefy machine and hardcore video card, WoW will probably play fine under Linux) and Ableton Live (my music production platform of choice) only works FULLY on Windows. Do I run Windows 7 or the evert faithful XP? Not sure. Probably Windows 7 if it’s as good as people are saying it is.

Since I’m laid off, I need to watch our spending. But I’m sure I have enough things laying around that could be sold I could probably raise the cash easily.

I need to plan a budget and pick out parts. Motherboard and chip technology has changed so much since I built my last machine it’s silly.

I do know that this time around, all my parts will be bought off the net. No more running up to Frys to get RAM.

Posted in Life, Tech | 2 Comments »

The News Ain’t All Bad.

Today I got my walking papers. Starting Wednesday of next week, I’ll be furloughed from my job. As usual, I’ll believe it when they are taking my ID card and waving goodbye. Too many times have I been informed that I’ll be furloughed only to stay on an additional month. So until Tuesday afternoon, it’s business as usual as I got other fish to fry.

I meant the take a look at that squealing wheel, but it I figured I’d rather do it tomorrow on the off chance that it takes more than the afternoon to fix. I’m sure it’s a broken spring or clip for the brake shoe. We shall see.

After work Corin and I went to the sporting goods store and bought a recumbent exercise bike. This thing is awesome. You get a great work out, raise your pulse rate, and all while reclining so you don’t put stress on your back. I’ve started walking again and I think I’ll add 30 minutes on the bike on top of that. Funny little side story: while we were emptying the box of all the bike parts we noticed a little red box at the bottom. It turned out to be a half-full pack of Xiong Shi cigarettes. From the other side of the world, some poor Chinese working stiff lost his smokes in our box. I can imagine him saying “Oh no! My smokes! What fuck!?!”

In preparation for DC’s Blackest Night event, I’m reading all the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps issues starting with Green Lantern: Rebirth and Green Lantern Corps: Recharge. I realized that the reason I love the Green Lantern mythos so much is that it’s a superhero take on the Jedi mythos. I haven’t read any GL from before Rebirth, but this post Rebirth stuff is fantastic. Really good.

Here comes the weekend. Time to clear out some of those To Do list items!

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Total Posting Failure.

I haven’t been posting to this blog and I’m really disappointed about that. But you know what? That’s cool. That’s the past. I need to get back in the habit (actually there are more than a few habits I need to cultivate) and I will try to post something everyday to baby step my way back to daily posting.

Today I got the van back. I dropped it off yesterday and picked it up this afternoon. Since last Friday the engine was overheating. On Monday I tried to fix a leak in the cooling system and broke a bolt off in the water heater in the process. In the end I sealed it up, and that didn’t stop the overheating. So I took it in to the shop (with a thermostat that I got on the cheap) and had them put the thermostat in and seal cooling system properly. It worked. Well, it worked after I discovered that the radiator cap was either left off or it was on loosely. Either way, after I put the cap on, the van is running cool. There is a scrape/whining/squeaking noise coming from the rear drivers side wheel. The brakes work, but I will look in to it. At the very worst I’ll have do a brake job.

Today at work, while I was out, they had the meeting to tell us who is getting furloughed and who is staying. I wasn’t there and I think they tell us one at a time. So tomorrow I get the big news. Either I stick around for a while longer (could be all year) or I get let go next Tuesday. I’m not that worried. If I stay, that means more money. If I get let go, that means more time. Either way, I’ll be fine. If I get laid off, that means that I can try some of my other income ideas. PC work, writing, activism, volunteer work, eBay, web work, etc. Also more time for music and working out. I’ll have to find a temp/part time job, but that’s later.

We’ll see what happens.

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The Job Scramble.

The time has come once again for employment musical chairs. Since I’m a seasonal employee, my employment lasts for the season. This would be a big problem if the season was the Christmas Season or the Summer Season; predefined stretches of time that result in swift lay offs as soon as the season is over. My season is the Tax Season and it’s much more flexible and elastic than the average employment season. As long as I do a good job, and there is work to do, I get to stick around. My last season lasted about 18 months. Before that I was let go for a month.

This tax season is a little different. We have an economic downturn the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades and no one (I mean no one) wants to pay their taxes. Some probably can’t afford it, others are simply filing extensions. It all adds up to the same: our peak month was cut short. My boss told me that though I am among the top of the seasonal workers, this year there isn’t enough work to keep people around. It probably means that I will have a series of recalls and releases as the tax payments ebb and flow. But I have a trick up my sleeve.

All employees are welcome to apply for “detail” work. This means I can transfer to another area that needs workers on a temporary basis. I’m guaranteed a certain amount of time on the detail (in this case 10 days) and they may extend it as they see fit. This means I could be there for the required 10 days or the rest of the year. There’s no telling. One of the other possibilities is that I could come off the detail and get snapped up again by my home unit. In any case, I feel better about my future than just a simple “see ya later”. Hopefully, I don’t get laid off but anything can happen. Hell, I could use the vacation time.

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I Should Buy Stock in the Comic Supply Industry.

Recently, I received a comic care package from my friend Shad. Every now and then he boxes up comics, books, and trades that he isn’t attached to and sends it to Corin and me. Bless the man, for he is doing the lord’s work. It’s especially cool because he tends to read different stuff than I do and I get to try out some series that I’ve never read before. This time my man came through with some 60 comics. Long runs of Black Panther and Captain America, some Supergirl and Legion of Superheroes, and a smattering of other random cool stuff. I love these mixed lots of comics. It makes waiting for the DCBS package much easier.

In honor of Corin passing a test at work and today being new comic day, we went out for dinner at Dimassi’s and then to Austin Books. I picked up the new Action Comics and X-Infernus, another short box, and a pack of backing boards. So once we got home, guess what I did? Yup, bagged all those mothers. Now I’m done with the bagging and watching Criminal Minds while flipping around online. I downloaded a torrent called Marvel Major Event Chronology and I’m thinking of starting on that. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a collection of all the issues in all the major Marvel events. I figure if I get through all that, I’ll be pretty well versed in Marvel history. But, oh man is that a lot of comics to read.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting here. Every time I log in to Wordpress, I face an empty post window and I try to think of some brainy and interesting thing to say and…I draw a blank. So instead, I’ll just post about my boring shit and maybe in the process something cool will come out of all this. Also I need to take more pictures, I have an awesome camera and its totally going to waste.

Posted in Comics, Life | 3 Comments »

Microsoft Songsmith

First, watch a bit of this:

Then watch this:

Repeat with any other Songsmith videos you can find. You’re welcome.

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Care for an Update?

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I last posted. I suppose all the holiday stuff got in the way, but the truth is that I simply haven’t been in the blogging mood lately. There have been a lot of changes and more than a few events so I suppose I owe you an update.

Health

At some point in the last month, Corin and I decided to return to a vegan lifestyle. Before I would have said it was for political and animal rights related reasons. However, now I’d have to say I’m doing it for my health. When I was in LA, I weighed in at about 180 pounds and was losing weight. I was vegan and pretty well adjusted to the routine. Once we moved to Texas, social circumstances and other issues led us off the vegan diet and into a pretty unregulated diet of fast food and junk food. Over the six years I’ve lived here, I’ve put on 100 pounds. There have been times in the last year where I tried to take up exercise and regulate my diet to leaner dinners and less fast food, but I could never get the balance right. This last month I had to finally admit that I have a problem. I cannot control my eating when I give myself free reign. It’s like being an alcoholic and trying to limit your drinking; it doesn’t work. But I can’t quit eating altogether. I have to eat something. Somehow the vegan way simplifies things for me. It makes the supermarket much smaller and forces me to be more creative. At least dinner is more interesting. So far so good, I’ve gone down a few pounds, but the biggest success has been that my digestion problems have all gone away. No more intestinal pain. I’m sure the weight will come off slowly and exercising will be necessary to get fit, but at least this is a healthy start.

Holidays

Christmas and New Years has come and gone. I have to say 2008 was a resounding success. I wish I’d prepared more financially for both the gift buying and the bills that would still have to be paid during December and January, but that should all be easier next year once we are out of credit card debt. Christmas consisted of us opening the presents my parents sent us in the morning and opening presents with Corin’s family at her sister’s house. The hightlight of my parent’s gifts was a custom ghost hunting kit that consisted of a matching pair of low electro-magnetic field detectors, flashlights (mag-light type and head mounted), a non contact digital thermometer (reads the temperature of surfaces and areas at a distance), a digital voice recorder (for electronic voice phenomena), a laser pointer, and a book on basic paranormal research. We are giddy with the possibilities. Later at Erin’s I got a cool Batman glass, a version 5 Tomagotchi (yup they’re back), a gift certificate to Austin Books, a SWEET Guy Gardner figure and some exotic foods from Australia and the UK. Josh sent us Wii games. Corin got the Lego Star Wars Complete Saga and I got No More Heroes. Thanks everyone!

Geek Tech

With some of the Christmas money I got an R4 Nintendo DS cart. It’s basically a homebrew/backup software mod cart that features a Micro SD port. I got a 2GB Mico SD card and since the NDS backups are around 20-40MB, you can fit tons of games on one card. I also tracked down SNES. NES, SMS and Geneis emulators. They don’t play ALL ROMs, but they play enough of the good ones. It’s a lot of fun. Now I can play multiplayer games without having to buy another copy of the game. I have to look into the stuff available for the Wii.

Comics

I’ve been reading all the usual stuff. Everything has been pretty good, but X-Men: Legacy has been a bit slow. I’ve set up a pull-list of DCBService and I get my first shipment at the end of the month. I end up saving $10-20 a month and I also don’t have to drive up north so many times a month. I’ll still go the Austin Books to check out mini series, one shots and comics I’ve never read before. At least now regular series don’t cost so much. I’m really looking forward to the conclusion of Final Crisis and the coming Blackest Night. It’s a great time to be a comic fan.

Films

I’ve watched a ton of movies (most of them the fun trashy kind). My latest favorite is Repo! The Genetic Opera. It’s a musical starring Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy), Paris Hilton, Paul Sorvino and several lesser known actors. The plot is that the human race was on the brink of extinction when a company called GeneCo comes out with cutom grown organs to replace the failing organs in sick people. The world rejoyces and humanity is pulled back from the cliff. However salvation comes with a price and those that are unable to keep up with their payments will eventually face the repo man. He’s a legalized assasin that reposseses the unpaid organs, killing the client in the process. Hey, they new the job was dangerous when they took it. The story unfolds around the owner of GeneCo, his heirs, a girl named Shilo and of course the repo man himself. Really good musical, with comic book style story telling and a sense of humor. Bill Mosley (of horror movie fame) plays one of the spoiled heirs and offers most of the comic relief. If you like sci-fi or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, give Repo! a try.

Posted in Comics, Film, Gaming, Life | 1 Comment »

They Fucking Stole My Mail.

Earlier this week, my father packaged up seven older laptops in two boxes and shipped them to me. In addition to other Christmas presents that I’m sending my parents, I planned on refurbishing the best laptop for my mother to check email and read my blog. Friday, the first package arrived with a few old laptops. This was the package my father said would probably be used for spare parts. The second package arrived the next day.

When we opened the locked package cabinet and pulled out the box, we saw that the bottom flap was open and the box was completely empty. My first reaction was that one of my neighbors stole the laptops. As I turned the box over in my hands I noticed two things. The first this was that the tape that my father had used to seal the box was undisturbed. Whoever opened the box actually ripped the cardboard seam of the bottom of the box. Obviously the tape job my father did held and the box was opened forcefully. The second thing was that the box was stamped “arrived unsealed” and “no contents”. This means that the contents of the box were removed sometime en route to the Austin post office. This redeemed my view of my neighbors, but did little make me less pissed. Sure these weren’t the cream of the crop laptops, but they were salvageable. I’m going to see what I can do with the laptops I got and my dad is going to start a claim with the USPS. We’ll see what happens. What gals me the most, is that the USPS haven’t called me or sent me a letter. That haven’t communicated with me in anyway about the stolen items nor have they advised me as to my options. As far as I can tell this is the extent to which they care about the incident. They delivered an empty box and that’s just fine. Well, I just hope whoever stole the laptops enjoys them. Merry Christmas, motherfucker.

Posted in Life, Tech | 7 Comments »

Store it at Jones’ Big Ass Truck Rentals and Storage.

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I Love Superman III.

Okay, so it’s not the best movie ever. Hell, it’s not even the best Superman movie. But I love Superman III. It has Richard Prior, hacking, a donkey ride through the Grand Canyon, a giant computer, the first usage of the “half penny computer scam”, and of course a big blue himself, Superman. The real Superman, Christopher Reeve. There are other Supermen, but in my book Christopher Reeve will always be the real deal. I also suppose George Reeves could be considered Earth-Two Superman.

One of my favorite parts of this film is when the synthetic kryptonite causes Superman to lose his confidence, doubt his own self-worth, and become selfish. He goes on a drunken bender and even trys to rape Lois! Okay, maybe he just  man handles her. Anyway, I love seeing superheroes dealing with human faults. I think Superman III kicked off this love.

If you haven’t seen it in a while, give it a go.

“Both keys…AT THE SAME TIME?!?” – Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) in Superman III

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