I had this particular computer, mostly un-upgraded with the exception of a new video card and some RAM for just shy of 5 years. I had assembled it from pieces I bought during my first co-op at Small Army way back in 2004. I could only afford to buy the motherboard, processor & ram at the time and those sat around till my next co-op where I could afford to buy the remaining pieces. It has since been my faithful companion. It got me through the remainder of college. I got me through a few freelance projects that I’ve done over the years.

The last couple of years, a few of the fans on the motherboard died as well as the fan on the video card. I’m honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did considering the circumstances. It would constantly run hot. Towards the end it’d run very hot. And finally one day the video card decided to not work anymore. In an attempt to see if I could get it functioning again I took it out and reseated it. The motherboard decided at that point that it had had enough and stopped turning on. It was tough coming to realization that it couldn’t be saved.

So, once I’ve got the new machine built, I’ll be taking my old one over to Earthworm and send it off to it’s final resting place.

R.I.P.  My Computer – 2005 – 2010

from spacesick

A series of illustrations of book covers for fictional novelizations of movies.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

If you have any suggestions for decent web -hosts, please drop me a line.

I bought Operation Doomsday by MF Doom yesterday while at Newbury Comics. I was taken aback seeing it in the store, because the album hadn’t been pressed in a few years because of legal problems. The album uses clips from the Fantastic 4 cartoon during the skits so Marvel had sent Doom a Cease & Desist (or they got an injunction) or something that prevented them from selling the album for quite a while.

So by finding the album, I was certain I had struck gold. I was debating playing the lottery while I was out.Though, after doing a bit more research it appears that they’re repressing the album again. So now I’ve got a $150 vinyl pressing of Operation Doomsday that I feel a whole lot less special about.

Whilst I’m sure you don’t really care what goes on in particularly in my life over the last month or so, I’ve just been doing the same old things. A little volunteering over at the Arlington St. Church. I’m going to Six Flags for a Scion event this coming Friday, and I’m currently taking swimming lessons again since I pretty much just flail and inhale a lot of water, but I can get across a pool.

Any who, I’m going to make an attempt to keep this thing updated with at a minimum of a post a week, I just need to find a topic to write about besides me.

In comparison, my current library is pretty poor. I haven’t even read everything that I own. The vast majority of the books that I own are textbooks that I kept from college. Of all the other books that I have, I think the coolest is the 1934 printing of Canterbury Tales. I’ll get around to reading it one of these days.

My friend 6th Sense, a Brooklyn based rapper, who I went to college with produced a song for the Obama Campaign. Check it out.

As we all know, it is traditional to present resolutions for the new year. A nice list of all the fun things that we want to do this year to better ourselves and so I give you mine.

What I’d Like to do in 2008:

• Bicycle 100 Miles
  The Problem: I don’t do nearly enough athletic things and it bothers me. A sedentary lifestyle is just begging for problems.
  Proposed Solution: Well, I have a bike so that’s a good start. I got it in September or October of last year and I’ve ridden in here and there. I think my longest trip was about 3 miles. I haven’t ridden it much lately due to the fact that it’s been rainy and snowy and what have you and I don’t have any interest in busting my ass out on the open road. However, once the weather breaks, I want to try and ride at least two times a week steadily increasing my ride length and by mid to late Summer I’d like to participate in some charitable rides like the Pan Mass Challenge.
• Learn to Sail and to achieve the Helmsman rating
  The Problem: See above
  Proposed Solution: I’m going to try my damnedest to learn to sail this year. It’s kind of hard because I work so far from the city so I can’t really do it during the week unless I leave work early, but I’m going to try and go at least every weekend once the sailing season starts. I learned to swim (somewhat) last year and definitely need to improve, but I hopefully shouldn’t be too far away from being good enough at it to pass the swimming test (though I don’t think they actually make you take a swimming test at Community Boating, though I’d like to be better at it for my own benefit regardless).
• Read 50 Books
  The Problem: I don’t feel that I read enough.
  Proposed Solution: I had given myself a similar but vaguer resolution in a previous January and I read a few books but I didn’t read all that many over the course of the year. This time I’m giving myself a definite measurable number.
• Deliver 6 Toastmasters Speeches
  The Problem: I’ve been in Toastmasters off and on for 18 or so months. I’ve yet to deliver my icebreaker speech. They say that this is the easiest speech that one writes, but for me that is extremely far from the truth.
  Proposed Solution: I’d been putting it off for as long as I can remember and in an effort to stop putting things off I signed myself to give my icebreaker next week. I still don’t have the speech conceived though. I’ll upload it to Youtube or something since the club president provides us with a recording of our presentation afterwards.

That’s everything that I could think of for the moment. I had a few that I wanted to write, but one important aspect of motivating oneself to accomplish goals is to set goals with measurable results. Being able to see your progress helps you to maintain your motivation. The other things, may or may not get done, but I would like to think that the ones outlined above definitely will.

And once again, Happy New Year.