Archive for December 19th, 2006

Friggin power supplies

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

So, you may or may not have seen the awesomer case that I have for ol MastaG’s christmas computer.  Along with the case, I ordered a nice 24 Pin power supply to hook this bad boy up.

I also ordered an SATA hard drive, my first one.  It was cheaper.

So, I get the power supply, screw it in, mount the motherboard, install the processor, install the RAM, set the case dealies, and go to hook up the board with the power and BLAMMO…

Only 20 pins.  No slider connector to do.

I got the “shipped me the wrong damn power supply blues”.

Problem is, I’m on a deadline, and would like to get the computer installed tomorrow, while Dad and I are up there putting together the kids bunk beds (which is kinda Pigpen’s present, and kinda one for me, because it cleans out all sorts of space in their room).

Soooo, its out to Office Depot tonight to enter the world of premium power supplies.  Woot for not being able to buy the cheapest available merchandise!

I think its time for a beer.

Lets revisit the whole car thing, huh?

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

OK, when last we discussed cars, I was thinking that a VW would be nice.  You guys all pretty much turned me around with regards to that, so now I think they suck.  Woot for having malleable opinions!!

In a decision that would shock and anger the me of 6 months ago, I’m kinda thinking those Chargers make a bit of sense.  They’re somewhat roomy, they certainly have some sort of curb appeal, and they go fast.  In a hurry.  I mean, all cars go fast, but this seems to be one of those fast off the line things.

Problem is, the damn thing doesn’t fit any of my earlier criteria.

It only comes in manual.  I mean, it has that stickomatic thing, but what the hell good is that?  Its like drinking o’douls or something.

The gas mileage sucks.  The Hemi engine’d one is measured by gallons to the mile, as I understand, and the more conservative 6 cyl 3.7 engine gets something like 19 in the city.  Not too exciting there.

Dodge reliability sucks balls.  I’ve never heard anything good about Dodge transmissions.  On a related note, Bullet tells me that the resale value for Dodges is poor.

Its a hair expensive.  Used, I’d be putting about 20k into it, which isn’t outside the range of possibilities, but would get me back into a higher payment.  Again, not what I’m paying for the van here, and about what I figured the VW would cost, but still more than I’d like, which is if it were free.  Like, if somebody with a dealership told me that this one “fell off the truck”, and is mine for, say, 50 bucks and some web design.

Yes, that’d be wicked cool.

But in that world, waterfalls would flow with honey.  People would fall up.  Everybody would dance to where they’re going, instead of walk.  I would have rocket shoes, and, because of that, wouldn’t need a car.

Yep, all sorts of things would be different.

Hmm….

My enthusiasm for the car situation has dimmed somewhat, as it has for moving, and everything else.  The idea of change isn’t the balm that it was a week ago.  The tidal pulls of my emotions are massive and quick, and that takes some getting used to, for sure.

Perhaps next week I’ll be wanting to join a French mime college?  Who knows?  Its weird in here.

The idea of keeping doing things the way they are seems way too hard, tho.  Thats the problem.  Going to the same old job (although I was recently told about an opportunity for a higher paying job with the company, I turned it down because I don’t think I’d be able to apply myself worth a damn), driving the same old cars, taking the boys to the same old schools, it sounds really hard.

However, as I sat on the back porch, I was thinking about how much I like that weird little town, Oak Ridge, and how much I’d hate to lose what we’ve built in there.

Hell, who knows.  Where I was excited by the realm of possibilities open to me, now I just get discouraged and angry.  I’d love for BJ to be here to tell me what to do, because she was smarter than I.  Problem was, her answer was always “whatever you want to do”.

I can just pretend she’s saying that now, for all the good it was!

Pigpen hinked he was sick

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006

So he spent the night in bed with me.  Actually, I tried as hard as I could to keep him in his bed, but he kept popping up in my bed saying “Daddy, I love you”, so what are you going to do?

So, I had a crappy night sleep.

It started when I tucked him in down at Jen’s house here on the magnificent Blueberry Farm compound.  We had him sleeping on his air mattress in the floor of the kids room, and Haile was sick.  She had a little bit of a fever.

Thing is, with Pigpen, ever since BJ got sick and he saw that she completely disappeared, ol’ PP has used “I’m sick” as an excuse to get out of anything.  Its highly frustrating, on many levels, because I don’t want to come down on him, but at the same time I won’t tolerate hypochondriacal 4 year olds.  Bunch of goldbrickers.

Well, anyway, I was in the shop putting together MastaG’s Santa present when I got a call over the intercom that Jen was bringing the boy up after multiple complaints of being sick.

Pigpen: “I hink that I’m sick”

I was irritated, sure.  It was 10 PM, and I’m more into my 4 yr old being asleep by 9.  He was wanting to stay up and watch Dragonball Z with MastaG and KatyK (I was a bit irritated that G was up also, but he’s 10, and I need to start letting that go), but I wouldn’t let him.  So, I put his bed in my room.

He fussed.  I ended up going to bed.

So, I pulled up the laptop to start typing, and next thing I know I have a Pigpen beside me saying “Daddy, I love you”.  Can’t turn that down.

We looked at pictures of BJ on the laptop.  Pigpen had the biggest smile on.  He loved it.  We told stories about the pictures, and wondered what the people in the pictures were talking about.  We talked about Mom.

Finally, we turned off the light.  I figured I’d move him into his own bed once he was asleep, and move him I did, but after a period of time, he was right back in the bed with me, with a very sleepy “Daddy, I love you”.

He’s a good, good boy.

I awoke to the lightning quick rousing kicks of Pigpen as he woke up.  Then he got up and watched Ice Age 2.

Yawn.