Hmm, been a few months.

Darn, where do I start? Well, I recently turned twenty, so go me in surviving so long. Got me a new computer, but it's not a manufactured one you can randomly pick up from Wally-mart or Best Buy or some other store that sells computers. No. I ordered the parts individually off of newegg.com and assembled it by hand. Mostly my brother's hand. Wanted to do it myself, never had a chance.
[link] <-- List of the parts. I also have a heatsink on the way. [link]
Using it would void the warranty on the duel core processor (fine print states that using anything besides the stock heatsink would do so) but if it stops people from complaining that my computer warms the room up...

The one thing that is wrong is with the case, more specifically the main power switch on the front. It is no longer there. I removed it. Why? I think it's faulty. When it was plugged in, I could hardly keep the computer powered on. Hard to do anything when the computer randomly powers down on you. Luckily, the motherboard (mobo for short) has both a power and reset button built in. Pop the side panel, reach my hand in pass several wires, and Bam! Fried gamer. Haven't been zapped yet, guess it's not that dangerous.

Apparently Vista has an option that allows you to put the computer in a low power state. I do that, hit the main power strip after everything powers down, and everything is off. To turn it on, I just turn the strip on and the computer starts back up, and I can start where I left off. Vista may be a resource hog, think some power regulation software thing and my anti-virus software as dangerous threats, ask permission to do everything including asking if it could add two plus two (well, sorta but not really), CnC3 can only work on the administrator account (EA's fault my guess), and installation was a bit of a bitch (apparently Vista has a hissy fit when there is more than three gigs of RAM installed, easily fixed with a somewhat obscure downloadable update that must be done manually, and couple that with the whole power issue before I discovered what all the problems where). I don't think I could ever go back to Windows XP.

All I really need now to basically "complete" this thing is a good word processor (may look into wordpress, getting a legal version of Microsoft Word is somewhat expensive), and photo manipulation software lie photoshop, paint shop pro or gimp(free but I heard it was hard to use). Also need some decent software to view DVD's. I'll look into free alternatives, but I may have to knuckle down and buy the good stuff.
I also need a digital camera, to take pictures of my rig in all its LED glory. Along with my Nintendo Wii that I got a few months back. I so cannot wait for Super Smash Brothers: Brawl to come out in December.

As for that work thing, yeah... I worked Second shift Receiving for several months. They then decided to do away with the third party catalogs: National Geographic society (They apparently have a catalog you can order stuff from, but it's all fairly expensive) and improvements (Some furniture and stuff). The decrease in volume and it being summer, the decide to cut the shift. The small staff we had were scattered about in different places of the warehouse, still on second shift. Some of us have found ourselves working in two departments, we finish work in one, go work in the other.

The low volume has finally taken it's toll on the rest of the warehouse, and now they're merging some of the second shift departments with their first shift counterparts. I'll soon be back in receiving, just on first shift. No more sleeping in for me. But maybe I'll finally be able to get in a full forty hour week for more than a single week or two.

As for any kind of writing or drawing... Nada... Too many life changing things going on to have a proper muse hit me at the most opportune moments to do anything productive in that sense. Unstable work (I still haven't been rolled over to full time, working thru a temp agency means no benefits like payed time off, it's closing in on a year, what the hell), a new computer to break in, and the fact I need a new place to live (I sleep one the couch, my brother has the only bed, there is no real room in the office, and no other place to stash two computers and lots of anime and manga my brother likes spending money on.

Guess that's enough for now.
Laterz