Two Hundred and Twelve, Wildfire

It's amazing how fast news can spread in today's day and age. If we go back simply two generations, news traveled as fast as the post did and even then not necessarily to everyone. First the immediate family would get notice and then they would inform close friends in their locations. Dire news such as deaths often had a travelling family member who would go around telling other family members of the death before everyone went to the town where the person used to live for the funeral and such. Friends of those folks would be brought in to take care of the farms/shops/plants while the family was gone.

Now, less then twenty-four hours after the fact, folks connected online have knowledge of deaths of people they might not have seen in years. Those folks tell their friends who are not online about it and then they end up calling others and so on and so forth. It amazes me the speed with which the news spreads, good or bad. Wildfire.

Two Hundred and Seven, Defeat...for Now!

So I admit, I do not have the patience or time right now to tinker on my cpu to figure out why the motherboard's built-in wireless card is on the fritz. So I went out and purchased a new Wireless USB device. I have now returned to the Interwebs not beaten down, but not holding my head high with knowledge of what's going on.

Two Hundred and Six, Scariness

So my computer sometimes decides to not see the wireless card. It's a little scary. The two computers that I have made have both been very special and worrisome. This is interesting only because all my friends' homemade machines work fairly well. Why both of mine would be messed up as they get, I have no idea. The worst part is that I'll just pray and keep using the machine as it throws up signs of machine dementia. No one really has any idea where to go or what to do. All of my friends--even the tech savvy ones--eventually throw in the towel on my machines. Makes me wonder if I should even mess with creating my own computers. It's sad because I get some joy out of creating my personal Frankensteins and that joy is being pulled away from me. As in baseball, the third strike you're out so I'll understand what it means if on my next machine (still some years in the future) I run into the same problem. Only time will tell.

Until then, I'll be bumming the Internet from the Roomie and school as I can. On the plus side, no reason to worry about Warcraft progress!

One Hundred and Ninety-two, Death of 'Ole Blue

Around eight years ago the four of them came into our lives as brothers of the same factory.  The gentle blue with a glowing insignia were soothing to our sense, the ergonomic shape eased into our palms.  We four had found our mice.  Lord Chaos, the Beatnik, the Engineer, and myself revelled in our gameplay for many years with these mice.  Switching to each other's computers was simple with the same peripherals.  Orcs, dwarves, trolls, gnomes, terrorists, scientists, Gordon Freemans, robots, Soviets, Allies, GDI, NOD, pyros, engineers, Psilons, Silicoids, roller coasters, trains, Civilization(s), Tribes vehicles, mutalisks, carriers, seige tanks, Jedi, Sith, smugglers, bounty hunters, augmented UNATCO operatives, Ylloj - my frost sorceress, a red Boba Fett-lokalike named Silencer, fantasy warriors, X-COM operatives, cities, evil minions and mistresses who you could slap, Kabuto, and Meccs are but a few of the creatures and races under the sway of our mice at one time or another.  

'Ole Blue has travelled a lot too between three different cities and almost 10 houses/apartments.  He provided my thumb a gentle gel-filled pad on which to rest.  He outlived two of his three brothers in regular usage.  One got lost to the annals of "old equipment" while another hemorrhaged out gel fluid.  One sibling remains who still feels the love of a human daily.  The Beatnik has just built himself a new computer and his mouse will hopefully get to experience it for many years to come.  Mine decided six months was what it could last on my new PC.  Today the years of rough use and the cord's weight to the ground finally pulled some connection loose inside the mouse.  I tried a splint with tape but it can't hold with the pressure needed.

Today I went out and found the great-great-great-great grandson of my Mouseman Wheel, the G5 Laser Mouse.  

It's been hard with it because it is unruly and different.  My thumb sits slightly differently, there are a few extra buttons, and the slide is smoother than I'm used to.  I'm sure I'll get used to it though.  Already today I've gotten to like the slide and messed around with the extra buttons.

But I'll still miss that blue glowing symbol on my first real mouse.

One Hundred and Ninety-one, The Lich King

Wrath of the Couch Potato

One Hundred and Fifty-eight,

Influence exists, there's no doubt about it. Up until now, however, its power over me has not been that powerful. My merits and personal traits have carried the day even in the face of influence at times. Going through medical school though, it's going to be tougher to fight influence. And I successfully made that fight tougher for myself by accidentally hitting "Reply All" to an innocent email. I'm clumsy, as my friends know. Apparently that conveys to mouse-clicking too at times.

I'm nervous, but I'll live. And whatever can't kill you, only makes you stronger. I heard that somewhere once.

One Hundred and Thirteen, Dark Jedi Infestation?

A printer is a wonderful piece of equipment until it doesn't work right. Then it becomes Sith spawn.

~fin~

One Hundred and Four, Portaling in the Future?

This weekend I'm taking a Road Trip. I'm going off to see the Kids and Chris. Reminded me that it had either been since Christmastime (the kids) or earlier (Chris) that I'd seen them. While the Kids are from the area where they go to school, Chris moved into a new place for his higher education and he's been feeling the lack of his groupies recently. Times like this are when the Engineer's idea of building a personal teleporter sounds great! Or even magick-ing oneself to wherever you need to be! *poof* Texas! *poof* Montreal! *poof* Edmonton! *poof* Brinstar! *poof* Sydney!

Eighty-nine, Wunderkind Johnny Lee

Today some of my friends and I perused Johnny Lee's website. Lord Chaos fell in love wished to conquer universes with him his Wii Remote usage. Additionally, he has some neat photography. I'll admit that even I really like a lot of the stuff he does. And he has an uncanny resemblance to Hiro Nakamura (no, I'm not saying that because he's Oriental but because they both have a similar facial build). I admit, if I didn't have school, I'd be somewhat interested in fooling around with his technologies.

Fourty, DroidCam

Gas to drive home - $25
Having to get up at 6:30 to get to Staples on time - 2 hours of sleep
One new Webcam with Face-following Technology - $29.99
Being able to hang out with a friend one thousand miles away while folding laundry and without leaving the picture frame? Priceless

Twenty-nine, Filth

Daaaaang this keyboard is filthy.

Twenty-eight, Webcam

Yeah, I'm a consumer whore sometimes. Most noticeably on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I can't help the summons for cheap prices on usually expensive and elaborate items. So this morning I crawled from bed to Staples to get some stuff. Oddly enough, one of those purchases was another webcam. Yes, I typed "another" because I realize I've been purchasing webcams for many years now. To date I've obtained my own webcam, one for a friend in Alaska, one for a friend in Texas, another for the Texan friend's local family, this one I nabbed today, and I've still got my eyes out for another good deal for my uncle. As inconvenient as they can be, I really love the fact that I can visualize the person I'm talking to, whether by phone or PC microphone. I've talked to second cousins in India and England before. And of course I've chatted with my Alaskan friend and gotten the chance to see my Texan friend's new puppy. But I have to admit, the best use of the webcam has come from sending my video to my baby cousin up at my uncle's and hearing her squeals of laughter as I make funny faces at the camera. Today I setup the new camera at home and sent the feed up to my uncle's. This time my grandmother, grandfather, and dad also got to hear her crazy laughter at seeing all of us there as I made funny faces. Hence I feel that my investment in these devices is worth it. One person is able to talk to her significant other over a huge distance, another can talk to his family from far away, and the last can spend time with his cousin whom he loves and misses.

It's worth trolling the newspapers for ads and standing in line for a few hours if it brings you that much closer to the people you love.