Anticipation

There is a certain sense of anticipation in the air for me this week. The snow finally melting at a rate that is making me itch like mad to get on my bike and pedal on all of my favourite trails again and through every mud puddle I can find. I really can’t wait. I’ve been cooped up all winter and I really need to run into a few trees to knock some sense into me.

On top of having that itch that I just can’t quite scratch yet, this week is also when my tax refund should come in as well as my first actual pay cheque from my new job. I’m really looking forward to both. It’ll be nice to actually have money again that isn’t all automatically earmarked for keeping the wolves from the door. While most of it will still be used to  pay off the debts that have accrued recently a fair chunk of it is going to be set aside for the sole purpose of rebuilding my computer. It won’t cost six million dollars but I will rebuild it and make it faster, stronger, smarter. I might even have it make the “Dah-nah-nah-nah” bionic man noise when it boots up because I’m a geek like that.

So here’s to sunny days and rebuilt computers and all that jazz.

The Quotable Ferris Bueller Post

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and awhile you might miss it”

Which is why I haven’t posted much recently folks. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks with a lot going on and while I’ve had stuff that I probably could blather on about, I just haven’t had the time nor the inclination. Forces are once again conspiring against me. Which I suppose should be a good thing because I’m not annoying you lot online.

Once things settle down again, or I somehow manage to get a better handle on my time (*snort* Yeah, we both know that ain’t gonna happen) I should be back to a semi-regular semblance of posting. As for when that’ll be… you’ll just have to check back and see.

Until then. G’night.

Obligatory Familial Gloating

I am now an uncle.

Yeah… I’m scared too. I thought Hell seemed overly chilly this morning when I got up, I guess I now know why.

My sister gave birth to a 6 lb. 3oz. baby boy about 20 minutes ago. The guilty party is going by the name Evan Sebastian _____ (spelling to be confirmed).

Pictures will follow at some point, including some with me most likely looking like a deer in the headlights.

Edit: There are now some pics under the cut

Continue reading “Obligatory Familial Gloating”

Yes, I Know…

I”m well aware that I didn’t do a music post on Sunday. Sheesh! I was busy and I didn’t have anything to say. I do three posts and all of a sudden I have people expecting me to do it every damn Sunday. It’s a lark folks. I do it when I feel like it so there’s no need to email me about it. I’m well aware that I didn’t do one.

As W.C. Fields said “Go away kid, ya bother me.”

And This Is Why I’m Not a Trek Fan…

Found this little gem of oddness over on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.

It’s safe to say that I’ve never been a Trek fan. I just have never really enjoyed the show(s) all that much, even when they were originally aired. Just something about it turned me off. I think it was the utopian ideals that did it. It just seemed too unrealistic. Too much of a pipe dream. I much preferred the nihilism and dystopian futures presented in such films as Bladerunner, Alien and more recently The Matrix and Firefly/Serenity. To me those were more real and plausible, and subsequently much more enjoyable. Yes, I’m well aware that I just said The Matrix was plausible. Shut it!

The other thing that really turns me off from the whole Trek phenomenon is the fans. Now I’m not talking about the regular people who like Trek, there are tons of those and for the most part they’re just normal people united in a common bond over a television show. It happens. We’re human. We do silly shit like that all the time. It’s genetic. The problem isn’t those few, the problem is THE FANS. Those people that go above and beyond. The ones that Trek is not just a show, it’s a fucking religion. The rabid, red shirt wearing, klingon speaking, “I’ve got my own moulded Vulcan ears”, Kirk vs Picard, “I know every bloody episode backwards”, “I hate Wesley”, “In episode three.one.seven of Next Gen, they couldn’t really do that because in episode one.zero.two they did…” idiots that just don’t get out enough. To me, Trek fans like the idiots that news reporters find when they do their “Live on the scene with an Eyewitness” reports. Those guys are always the most inbred, useless, shower cap wearing, idiots ever to flunk out of third grade. You all know the type. The stereotypical idiot that gives the rest of us a bad name. That’s what Trek fans are in my eyes. Just plain idiots. They give the rest of sci-fi fandom a bad name.

Maybe I’m just bitter and cynical and spent too many years behind the Warp/Outland counter listening to an endless parade of ‘Gavins’1 sour me to all things Trek.

The above link just proves that to me one more time. These guys really, really really need to find something more productive to do with their time. Guh. The mind boggles. I bet that prior to their little manifesto petition, the hardcore amongst them spent a good four months of forum trolling, emailing and newsgroup posting just to come up with the idea.

Bah! What the hell do I know or care. I’m a self confessed browncoat. (It’s not the same. Shut it!)

1 It’s a Kids in The Hall reference. If you know me, you know I’ve done the voice… “If my head were made of_____, how much do you think it’d be worth?”

New Job… New Gaming Rig

Heh, I wouldn’t be me if the first thing I did after working today, wasn’t immediately start pricing out gear for my new computer.

It may take me about 3 or 4 paycheques to accomplish the basic setup and another 2 or 3 to get it exactly where I want it but this is what I’ve come up with so far and now I have a goal. Muwhahahahahah!

The Basic Rig is as follows:

And the Advanced Rig will be as follows.

  • Upgrade the processor to an Intel Extreme Quad Core 3.0 Ghz Processor
  • Increase the Ram to 4 or 6 GB (or all the way to 8 if I can find it cheap enough)
  • Add another HD and put them in a RAID 0 Config. 2 TB of space!
  • And of course get another Video Card and Crossfire link them.

Beyond that. The next upgrade will be a 20″ widescreen HD monitor and eventually either a Blu-Ray or HD compatible DVD Rom (depending on whichever product wins that war – though I suspect it’ll be Blu-Ray). After that… it’ll be laptop time… and I’m seriously tempted to shell out the $ and get me an Alienware rig… either that or one of the World of Warcraft XPS ones from Dell.

I’m even tempted to pick up an OEM copy of Vista *shudder* when I grab the CPU just so as I have it.

And now, I’m off to dream of electric sheep…. So I guess that means the answer to Phillip K. Dick’s question would be yes.

Sunday Night Serenade

Okay, it’s time once again for the dulcet tones of me babbling endlessly about music… or at least you can pretend it’s me babbling until I finally gather up the cahones to actually record a podcast version and let’s be honest, that might take some time. At the very least it won’t be until I get my computer fixed (which, based on my current monetary prognostications, will hopefully happen by the end of March).

Anyways, on with the show… such as it is.

Continue reading “Sunday Night Serenade”