The Gamer

3Willings

1) Beyonce - If I Were A Boy

2) Tomato and Parmesan Dip

3) F.E.A.R.

Its not the fastest beast on the planet, but I'm very happy with my new computer.

 My girlfriend is not impressed with my inches

The big reason why I'm happy is because I built it myself.  

The building process was stressful but it was very educational and quite rewarding.

Thank you to Tess for all your help.

 

I'm finally running games at decent resolutions and graphics details.

old laptop resolution (click)

New PC resolution (click)

Phully S3k.

 

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Back in high school, I did a lot of tinkering with computers.  

I played with RAM, 3DFx card, sound card. And toyed a fair bit with the IRQ on the 14.4kbps modem. 

 

And I spent quite a bit of time playing games.

 

Actually that would be a mean understatement. 

 

I spent pretty much most of my waking hours playing on the computer. 

If not on the computer, I'm thinking, dancing, eating and singing about computers.

 

The only thing that stopped me from infusing with the the computer chair was work twice or three times a week.  

Of course work pay I used to fund upgrades for the Cyrix 686 or buying games.

 

I loved my computer.  

It gave me the escape I needed from the craziness that was high school.

 

But Moore's law would have it that my computer wouldn't run the newer games.  8Megs of video RAM and 133MHz of pseudo-intel CPU power would not cut it.  

And very quickly, games started to look ugly and ran like slideshow on my beloved machine. 

Enter the Playstation.  The OTHER woman in my life.  Hehehe.   And PC was quickly forgotten.

********

 

A few weeks ago, when I slotted in the new PCI-e graphics card to the mobo, I got a rush I haven't felt in years.

Its like a jolt of energy traversing down my fingers into my spine.  A mix of anxiety and excitement of tinkering with computers came rushing back. 

 

Suddenly I want to play games again.  And I want to play them all now!

I want to see the worlds I've missed because of all those years I've missed. 

 

Its like discovering colour after living in grey for a long time.

 

But I'm also worried.  Worried that I'll get hooked again.

**************

Last sunday my girlfriend was subliminally trying to tell me she wanted to go to the beach.  

Yeah, I know, subliminal is how she communicates.

 

I knew she wanted to do something, so I ended my Guildwar quest and was quickly adjusting my skill attribute points for my next time playing.

 

'Quickly' turned out to be an hour.

 

I was so consumed by what spells and skills to use that what I perceived to have been 'quick', was an hour in real-people time.

 

Luckily, my charms, manly strength and quick thinking won my girlfriend back quickly.  But that was a close call.

 

This was a minor thing.  The real issue here is girls and their silly subliminal messaging.

But it's still noteworthy, and scary, how time slips away from me when I'm on the computer.

 

And not just me, there's group of girlfriends out there who have lost their boyfriends to computer gaming and MMORPGs.  

The gamer widows as they are called.

 

So I am a bit worried.  But hopefully I won't get addicted.  

Now what game do I play next.  

I heard World of Warcraft is good.

Swap Marting

3Willings
1) Shun Fung by the River
2) Gears of War
3) Ne-yo - So You Can Cry

A few weeks back my girlfriend and I decided to sell our old stuff in a swap mart (aka trash or treasure).

Nothing like a good spring-clean to make space for new things :P

It was really hard work because we had to gather all the stuff we wanted sold and then cram it into the car.

The most difficult part was waking up 5AM to claim a spot. Getting a spot is so intensely competitive, some of the sellers camp overnight!

Its crazy.

Thankfully we had McMuffins to lift our spirits.

It was a long day of dealing with all sorts of people . But thankfully we sold most of our stuff.

Our swap mart bay

Of course we were practically giving stuff away. We sold a PC, monitor, mouse, keyboard all for $2. We also sold a working 68cm Sony television for $15!

Actually, we gave a lot of stuff away!

We gave toys to kids and we donated a chunk of our profit back to Rotary.

The whole experience made me realise how far me and my family have come. We use to be the ones roaming the swap mart looking for bargains. It was such a great feeling finding the item you needed at a great price.

To the man who bought my Playstation 2. May it bring you hours and hours of happiness the way it brought me hours and hours of happiness..

..and eye bags.

The Dogs Who Have Shared Our Lives

The dogs who've shared our lives. 
In subtle ways they let us know 
their spirit still survives. 

Old habits still make us think we hear a barking at the door.
Or step back when we drop 
a tasty morsel on the floor.

Our feet still go around the place
the food dish used to be,
And, sometime, coming home at night,
we miss them terribly.
And although time may bring new friends
and a new food dish to fill,
That one place in our hearts
belongs to them...
and always will.
---Linda Barnes ---

Toffee, thank you for all wonderful happy memories.

The world is falling apart

3Willings
1) Hersheys Kisses
2) Ne-yo - Mad
3) Super Mario Galaxy

If you've been hiding under a rock the past few weeks, you should know that the world is in shambles. Financial institutions in the US has caused global financial stocks stumbling.

At first it didn't really bother me. I mean, how could something in Wall street affect me?

Then I found out that I'm losing lots of money in my superannuation.

Yikes.

Lucky for me I'm still (relatively) young. Pity for those close to retirement.

The market drop of 5% last monday could be a $30,000 loss to someone's retirement money.

That would hurt.

********

But what was really scary was the crash of September 28.

I was playing Guildwar with my friends.

My phone gave a warning chime saying it was running out of juice. So I plugged it in to my laptop to USB charge it. Nothing new here, I've done this thousands of times.

But then there was this 'tik' sound before my laptop went completely dead! I tried numerous times but I couldn't restart my lappy.

I removed the battery, shook the laptop. wiggled the power cords. Nothing!

I suspected the overheat controller stopped it from starting again because the laptop was pretty was hot.

And I was right!

After a few minutes cooling down it restarted again.... but I could smell burnt electronics!

Anyways, to cut a LONG LONG LONG story short, a faulty USB hub (which was giving me tingling sensations when I touch it) killed my laptop USB controllers. Now all my USB ports are dead.

The laptop gets hot very quickly now and it seems to crash more often. Its reached the end.

My laptop has become a fire hazard

*********

The same USB hub that killed my laptop also almost killed my phone.

Because the laptop USBs were dead, I charged my phone using the USB hub. This before I discovered the hub was the culprit.

The next day, my phone was blinking all funny and it didn't want to start up!!

NooooOOO I screamed!!!

Frustrated, I left the phone and did something else instead.

Lucky for me, that afternoon my phone started working again.

But it was a close call.

I already had ebay open looking for a new phone.

********

I bore holes on two jackets this week.

********

They also found some problems with the Hadron Collider.

Everything seems to be falling apart this week. Must be end of warranty season.