Russ vs The PC: Part 1

10.18.2004

This weekend I was playing on the computer, something I haven't done in quite a while. No websites to work on (not that they're not there), no real work to catch up on, nothing with a deadline. I just surfed some, wandered around and found some old files I didn't know I had and don't know why I kept. While I was at it, I loaded a couple of video drivers to watch some avi files that weren't working right.

I never should have done that. The next time I rebooted the pc it froze at one of the start up screens. 5 tries later and the same thing happened. Even Windows Safe Mode was denied me. I got out the old 2000 install disk and tried the repair option. The pc then told me that the disk was corrupted and could not be repaired.

So I re-installed the OS. After that I had to reinstall drivers, files that needed an entry in the registry, and all of that good stuff. Last night everything was working fine. I had been rebooting most of the day (it seemed like) while installing stuff, and the last batch of reboots had gone off without a hitch.

Except that as I tried to turn the pc on this morning, it froze at the Windows start up screen. 3 times. It may be that there's a problem with the actual disk. So maybe it's time to replace the drive. There's a 120GB drive in it now (well, 2 120's and an 80, but the others are working fine) that's not even half full, but I'm not one to replace computer hardware with the same thing, it's got to be bigger and better and faster! Or at the very least cooler sounding. Right now Office Depot has a 200GB drive for just under $100. That's bigger and cooler sounding. Especially when I think back to my first pc, a 386SX-16 with the massive 20MB drive. Oddly enough, you can get a used 20MB drive for $30, which doesn't sound like that good of a deal when you figure out that the 200GB drive is a nickel/MB while the old drive is $1.50/MB. If you want to be more modern, you can even get a 16MB Flash Drive for $13 (but they're hard to find that small).

So, now that I've investigated the historical price structure for hard drives, I have to decide the next step.

Try to repair the existing installation (if possible)?

Get a new hard drive and install everything all over again?

Dig out an old hard drive and install everything again?

Some other option I haven't quite conjured up yet?

I guess I'll figure it out when I get home.

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Poor Mans Gil Gerard

10.14.2004

It is one of my primary jobs in life to make Jerry cock his head and wonder why I say the things I do. In an otherwise innocent email, he asked if I had brought my lunch to work, and in replying I said no, I had not brought my lunch today, also Greg Evigan's birthday. Not having his finger on the pulse of pop culture, he couldn't quite place where Greg Evigan fit into the big picture.

BJ and the Bear, My Two Dads, that Sci Fi series Shatner wrote. You know, he's the poor man's Gil Gerard.

So then he asks "Who's the rich man's Gil Gerard?"

Well everybody knows that. It's Robert Urich.

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Jer Ails

10.12.2004

My good close personal friend Jer is sick. Sniveling coughing sneezing sick. He is trying to recoup at home, which is good in a way as this won't spread whatever death begotten virus he has to his valued coworkers, me in particular.

I only hope he's taking this chance as he convalesces to play his Xbox. The interesting part here is that we had a company pizza party meeting Friday in which Jer managed to take home a couple of extra Xbox games along with a super cool Viewsonic projector. Co-inky-dink or just good timing on his part? Hmmmm, we may never know.

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My Feminine Side

10.11.2004

The weekend found Gina and myself taking a trip to Michaels to take advantage of a super dooper sale they're having to celebrate Columbus Day. I enjoy browsing stores like this since it gives me ideas that I end up drawing on for some home decorating project months later. Ginaq went off to pick up the things she came for while I wandered the aisles of frames, shadow boxes, and miscellaneous art supplies.

After looking at the scale models, I found Gina enamored in a small section of discounted goods, but alas, all was not well. She had been unable to find elastic. Elastic, her primary reason for coming. She looked to me pleadingly, somehow knowing that since I was raised by my mother in the fabric stores of the South, I would just know where the elastic was.

I'm a guy. A big, burly guy. A big, manly, burly guy. Sure, I don't drink beer, and I might watch 1 football game in a season, but just because of that is no reason... oh look, there's the elastic. It's right behind Gina, maybe 3 feet away. Damn my mutant, mother endowed abilities of finding things in the stores of women! Fabric, patterns, elastic, snaps and buttons, I can find them all regardless of whether I want to or not!

I'll just sulk off and get myself a nice hot chocolate... I mean, beer.

No, I really meant hot cholcolate. But a manly hot chocolate.

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Wrestling Games

10.08.2004

I was a little late coming in to work this morning as I was watching a show on g4techtv (I hate it when channels merge) that was counting down the top 10 wrestling games as voted on by their viewers. Seeing the games that made the top 10, I'm hoping that viewers were given a list of 10 games and asked to rank them, because at least 2 of them: Legends of Wrestling 2 and Backyard Wrestling, absolutely suck.

The top 2 came down to No Mercy on the N64, and the latest Smackdown title on the PS2. No Mercy has had a fan following since it came out in '99, while each iteration of Smackdown gets better story lines and an upgrade in the graphics engine. Smackdown came out on top, which only served to remind me that I have less than a month before the next incarnation is available.

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