the flying squirrel

Thursday, April 26, 2001

I bought a new VCR yesterday. I didn't mean to.

My computer's been making funny noises lately. It's one of the CPU fans. I disconnected the main box fan a couple months ago because it was driving me crazy with all the rattling. I went out and bought a replacement fan at Radio Shack, but it made more noise than the one it was meant to replace, so instead of hooking things back up, I just left the dangly wires. My computer's always left naked anyway so, until it gets really hot in the summer, air circulation shouldn't be a problem.

Then, a few weeks ago, one of my two CPU fans started rattling. A little at first, then more and more noticeably. This weekend, it started to drive me nuts outright, so I resolved to do something about it. I new this particular fan was crap anyway, so this was no surprise. The other day, though, I noted that the fan wasn't just making noise; it was slowing down as well. Ick. I didn't want to burn out my little overclocked CPU, so I set off yesterday in search of a new Socket 370 CPU fan.

This, incidentally, is one thing I really hate about PCs. After years of running a completely silent Amiga 500 (well, silent if you had a floppy disk in the drive), it was enough of a pain to go with the A1200 with the whirring HDD inside. Not that I minded having the harddrive... My current machine has the PSU fan, two CPU fans, and the box fan (now disconnected) all making noise, not to mention the noisier than normal HDD and the thunderous DVD drive. This is considered a sign of 1337/\/355 or something. To me, the really cool computer is still one that runs silently (without melting through the floor, mind). Hopefully I'll be able to put Linux (it's intended OS, hence the two CPUs) on this beast and stuff it in a climate controlled closet/server room sometime. But I digress.

Given the time of day and my transportation constraints, the only places I could go to were Radio Shack and Future Shop in the mall area. Radio Shack had a Socket 7 fan that might have worked, but that's where I got that crappy box fan, so I decided to keep my $20. I wandered over to Future Shop, but they only had slot-type PII and PIII fans. Bleah. I didn't like the idea that this would be a wasted expedition, so I wandered around the store for a bit. And lo, the JVC HR-S3800U SVHS VCR I've been thinking about this last month or so was on sale for $230. (Bet you were wondering when I'd get back to that). I had considered impulse-buying it at $250 (yes, I'm one of the few people who considers impulse buys) but thought better of it. Given that I'd put my primary computer in dry docks, I needed something to do. And, like I said, I didn't want this trip to be a complete waste... So I let one of the poor sales people make a really easy sale.

I do have another VCR, but it's job currently is to act as a cable tuner for my Commodore 1084S monitor so I can watch TV in my computer lab (I can't watch the TV tuner through my video card if I'm playing games...). The SVHS VCR has a small keeping-up-with-the-Joneses appeal, but it's also got much better video output, of course, than my old VCR so I can use it to do video capture with aforementioned video card.

So I have one more toy and, for the moment, I am happy. My computer's not happy, but I'll attend to him shortly. But I did get to watch one of the videos I had stockpiled (too bad this episode isn't as good as I remember it being...)

Tuesday, April 24, 2001

Hm, not much to write about lately. Well, some stuff, but it isn't really about me and I'm not comfortable writing about it even semi-publicly. Yes, I'm slowly developing editorial guidlines for this page. There weren't supposed to be any, but I should have known that was unrealistic.

Now that I've got it working under Windows 98, I've been playing Black & White, which devours time in great swathes. No regrets, though. It's fun. My cow isn't as clever and useful as she could be. We'll have to work on that together. I usually get more enjoyment out of growing my villages, so she's feeling neglected. (Ah, she planted a tree in her pen. That's so cute!)

I had to put The Big U back on the shelf for a couple days. Partly because of Black & White, and partly because I didn't want to think about it anymore. I really want to get somebody else to read this book when I'm done (after I'm done, that is, I might re-evaluate, keeping in mind Neal's aforementioned problems with endings). I want to know what they think about it. Consider that a recommendation.

I had been looking (maybe half-heartedly) for a good mystery novel when I stumbled across The Big U (well, that and I had to get a birthday present for my mom). The idea being that I'd get some background before stumbling into a genre I know very little about, aside from what gets played on A&E. I've been wanting to write a cute little mystery story of some sort. The only mysteries I've read since I was about 12 were the Bast trilogy of novels by Rosemary Edghill. These are light and fun enough to move swiftly and enjoyably, but they've also got some poingnant bits on the nature of belief and other insights into other forms of human interaction and bookstores. They're really quite good (Book of Moons is the first I read and the best of the three, IMHO). That's a recommendation.

I'm still hunting for a good modern mystery novel. If anyone'd like to give me recommendations...

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

Something I wrote some time ago...

'I'd never really noticed the sunset out here before.'

The old man stopped briefly to look back at the guy on the bench. His arms were stretched out along the back as he gazed out over the water and into the setting sun. The old man desperately hoped he wasn't trying to start a conversation. There wasn't anyone else around. He mumbled something under his breath and went back to work collecting the daily refuse by the seaside.

'It's really quite something. You know, I drive by here every day and I never bothered to look out there. It's amazing what you miss.' He paused. 'I used to think I didn't have the time to take something like this in. I just had to keep on going and couldn't afford to bother with such unimportant things.'

A gust of wind blew up, sweeping his tie over his shoulder. He closed his eyes, letting the cool breeze blow across his face. The old man was studiously ignoring him.

'Perspective, I suppose. It took quite a bit to shake me up -- make me notice what I was missing. By then it was too late, of course. No point in dwelling on it, I suppose. I just have to get on with it. This time, though, I'm going to take the time to notice things. Like sunsets.'

The wind picked up again. The old man had to struggle to keep his hat on. 'It's getting late,' he said, not looking at the man on the bench.

'Yes, it is.'