Contemplative Order of the Drunken Masters

I got all the parts on wednesday for my new computer.  Everything worked first time out of the box.  I had the machine put together and OSed in 3 hours.  It is good and I’m proud that i slapped the whole thing together so quickly.  Downside is that I then had to leave for PA so it is just sitting at the apartment doing nothing.  I also need to get an HDMI cable for it. Best Buy is cool with selling me one but they want 50 freakin dollars which is outrageous. It can’t actually address all the memory. : )

I want to get back to it and really break it in.  It also needs a name.  I was thinking Elderbeast.

I am putting my first computer together from scratch.  Bought the mobo, processor, and everything. Everything ought to get here next week.  I hope that everything arrives okay and that it all works.  I did a couple days of research and modification to make sure that I got everything I want and that it should all work together. I coughed up the money and all the parts are on their way.  All I have to do now is wait.

I made the comparison that it’s like waiting for a kid to be born.  I’m excited, anxious, and impatient. I’m uncertain if everything is gonna turn out all right.  This could be totally awesome or an expensive mistake.

I’ve spent a bunch of money but far less than I would have had I bought the same type of a computer from a store. Given that my roommate is leaving and taking his tv with him I got a hdtv/monitor.  And given that I’m gonna lose my laptop when i move to the new postion I’m in need of a new awesome machine.

I’ll still be out a laptop which sucks but maybe I can get a cheap one. maybe one of those triple e pc’s.

I’m concerned the parts won’t work when they get here and I’ll have to work hard to get the parts I need and then find out they don’t work together and am gonna have to send it back and have nothing.

I’m excited to pass this rite in computer dorkery. It’s kinda suprising that I got to 30 with 12 years of tech experience and I haven’t tried this already. I mean I’ve done similar things before but I’ve never bought a case, mobo, processor, power supply or similar.  I’ve taken multiple Dells, weeded out the bad parts and put together a good computer out of the WLO. This is different. I’m on my own here.

Google considers me dangerous? My blag can hurt your computer? I would like to think that my website is bad for you brain. Bad for the robot in your head.

I attach the following in order to convince all-mighty google that I am not an evil person.

So RAID 5 backed up hourly and daily to other hard drives. Weekly backups to tape and off siteing of those tapes to a underground location that maintains security and environmental conditions. Spreading your data storage devices to other buildings so that fire/earthquake/tornado/ect. has less of a chance to take your data. 24 hour by 7 days a week hardware, software and network support to make sure that if anything fails it can be replaced quickly while a redundant process takes over.

And these fuckers want more protection?! What the fucking crap! Calm the hell down you paranoid bastard sons of bitches!

Seriously. Some corporate god up on high decided that we need to consolidate the practical outcome of which is that I have some new customers that I didn’t pick nor approve of and am not allowed to get rid of. They want a primary and secondary person that they can get hold of at any time and a rigid overly redundant system of responsibilities so that if anything goes wrong they can know exactly who to blame. The biggest problem I have with this, besides the ass-hattery of their blame game, is that we don’t have a 24×7 system and I don’t feel we ought to put one in place just for a bunch of back-stabbing jerks that were forced on us.

The Twit that works for us as work station support, who claims he was a Domain Admin and that we should trust him, can’t manage to figure out a simple DNS resolution error by himself and instead of asking a user for information about his computer needs he asks me; basically meaning that I have to do his job for him. He claims he was a Domain Admin and he can’t resolve basic hardware, software, and configuration errors! GaRRRR! What a freakin’ newbie! It is bad enough that I have my job and part of my old team leads job but I can’t do his job also.

1. I really shouldn’t shoot the people who frustrate me with their incessant incomprehensible ill-informed demands.

2. I have a responsibility to help these asshats.

3. I have a pride in making sure that my systems function perfectly despite abuse from users.

4. There is always too much work to do.

I’m going to have to drink the cool-aid. I’ve been avoiding it thinking maybe I could get on the mothership by climbing on through the landing gear. I was wrong.

I’m going to have to learn VBScript.

::retch::

I have found the place where one can see the Erisian mysteries, and perhaps the face of Goddess herself, on the world wide web, and I am here to tell my pilgrims how they can have the same revelation.

First, you must have a Google account (who doesn’t these days). Not neccessarily a GMail account, just a generic Google account. You know, the account that let’s Google track every search you submit, every web page you visit, which restaurants you go too, what your breakfast was this morning, etc. Then, set up your individualized Google page, so that they can learn even more about your preferences. Finally, change the theme to Tea Room. Now you too may witness the glories of Goddess as she accepts an offering from her tiny, two-dimensional vulpine worshiper at the holy hour.

My iPod died. Specifically the hard drive in my iPod died. All it does now is make clicking noises. So after I drowned my sorrows in beer, and well after I tried everything I could think of to get it to work again, I started looking into how I could repair it. Thankfully the Internet provided a wealth of instructional material. Now all I have to do is buy the replacement hard drive, very carefully open the case on theiPod , swap the drive, put it back together again, and configure it. In doing this I can even get a bigger hard drive, by capacity not size, than was initially installed.

The point of this blerb is to point out one of the reasons I like technology and my grasp over it compared to other people. A normal cabbage (non-thinking person) might lament the failing of his toy and go buy a new one for quite a lot of money. An almost not cabbage might try to get his toy fixed for slightly less than the previous cabbage. But they will ignore the possibility that they themselves could fix their toy on their own and that while they were at it they could upgrade their toy to an even better toy. I love that technology can rise to meet my needs. I love that the only thing really standing in my way to whatever I want is a smallmodicum of money, some thought and effort. It makes me wonder if the other things work that way too.

How perfect would the world be if a small amount of money, though, and effort were all that you needed to get what you wanted? What if the world is that way already?