Seasonal Transitions

The last vestiges of winter is coming and going.  The snow has mostly melted in Warrensburg, and as I figured would happen, no more appeared.  I haven't posted in the last couple of days, and there's a reason for that.

For the past four nights, I walked to work.  Each morning, I walked home.  My legs keep begging for mercy, but I'm not giving up.  Tonight, I'll be driving to work seeing as how I need to fill my car up in the morning.

I also need to do some laundry as well, but perhaps that can wait until after I've taken a nap when I get home Monday morning.

I'm also getting close to finishing George Orwell's 1984.  The next book on my list could very well be Brave New World.  Either way, I'll be doing something very special this Tuesday after finishing the book in question.

Speaking of Tuesday, I plan on writing an article on that day so that there's content coming from me each week.  If other contributors were to pick a day to post, that would be excellent.  Imagine if the site eventually had content every day from one person.

It would be the right kind of balance of having regular updates without overwhelming any site visitor with information overload.

New Addition to the Family

I saw a Toshiba notebook in Central Pawn.  It has a dual core Intel Pentium T3400 processor, 2 GB of RAM, a 100+ GB hard drive, and Intel GMA 4500 graphics.  I wanted another computer that was primarily powered by Intel technology for the purposes of testing other operating systems.

Here are some pictures of the computer in question.

I saved a couple of bucks due to the missing faceplate from the optical drive.

Plentiful screen size, no webcam, and no frills.  :)

The machine is currently openSUSE 12.3.  So far things have been pretty stable.  I was even able to use WiFi for the network-based install.

The only problem is that I had to do a manual fix to make sure I could connect to my network at home.  Thank goodness for release notes.

Well, I better cut it short so I can get something to eat, shower, and go to work.  I'll have the next two nights off, so things should get interesting.  Toodles for now.  :)

The Slow Climb Begins.

We progressed through our routine tasks at work faster than anticipated.  I even ran celebration merchandise before lunch.  After lunch, I moved some ice from one machine that makes it to another that doesn't.  One of the added tasks involved pulling impulse merchandise off the shelf so each shelf could be cleaned.

Needless to say, we'll have plenty to do Monday morning.

When I got out of work, I noticed the following on the ground:

I took the photo in my car from my Galaxy S2.  What little snow fell on the ground had frozen.  Not only did I take my sweet time getting to my car, I chose not to rush out of the parking lot as well.

I suffered one broken limb a few years ago.  I don't intend to have anymore for the rest of my life.

Exercise Upgrade Complete

I added a measly one repetition to my workout routine.  That's 31 with the 10 lbs dumb bell for the biceps and triceps.  For pushups off the wall, 21.  A week from this Wednesday, I'll be adding two more.

If I've learned anything in life, it's that one shouldn't hurry too much.

So I'm making my way up that hill slowly but surely.  I'm no Hare, Road Runner, or Sonic the Hedgehog, but I'll get there all the same.  All in due time.

Return of a Weekly Ritual

Tonight's my Friday.  I have Monday and Tuesday nights off.  For quite some time, I wouldn't have much to do on either day unless it was the third Tuesday of the month.  I might have a reason to be really excited for the weekend this time.

The campus anime club has moved their meetings to Tuesday nights.  So I might be visiting campus once a week.  When the weather becomes consistently nice, I'll definitely be walking.

The extra exercise couldn't hurt, and it would be awesome to see the group again.  Plus, I'm wanting to get back into anime.  :)

Pondering a Few Other Things

It's occurred to me that if move my main desktop into my bedroom, there would be more space in the living room.  A TV could be set up for video games and movies.  From there, other strategic rearrangement could take place in order to eventually acquire a couch that's in good condition (preferably for free).

Who knows, that table could even be replaced with a coffee table after that large old school TV goes bye bye.

Such a rearrangement would take place slowly but surely.  In other words, one piece at a time.  Shifting gears a bit, I looked at my paystub online.  Needless to say, I'm glad New Year's Day qualifies as a holiday where I work.

Extra money always helps.

I'm going to be more prudent with this week's pay.  After all, there's an opportunity to catch up on a couple of things.  I also plan on working on my website some more.  Perhaps a test podcast can be recorded so I can make sure the podcasting plugin is working properly.  Now that would be cool.  :)

I better get this posted, so I can go to bed soon.  I plan on hanging out with a couple of friends.  It's been too long since I've done that.

(...and I have laundry and some more cleanup at home to do.....)

I have a good feeling about this week.  :)

Sunday Send Off: Plans for the Week.

Tonight is my "Friday."  In other words, I have Monday and Tuesday nights off.  I'm really looking forward to 7 AM Monday morning.  As I sit here consuming the remainder of my Woodchucks and relaxing, I couldn't help but plan for the week.  Of course things are somewhat tentative, and might change depending on the situation, so I'll have to adjust accordingly.

 Needless to say, I'm thinking that this week is going to be interesting to say the least (and in a good way).


Laundry

I'll definitely need some clean clothes for when I go back to work Wednesday night.  I might do enough of a load to last me a couple of days or do enough to last the usual five depending on the situation.

Meet a Friend for Dinner

 It's been forever since I've had dinner with this friend.  She's one of the most sociable people I've ever met.  She also tends to get worried if she doesn't hear from her friends in a while (she wanted to know if I was mad at her).  It's been a while, so I might as well visit with her and another friend at the same time (haven't had an extended conversation with him in a while either).

Sell the ole' HP dv7 notebook

 I don't use it very much, the touch pad is a royal pain on OS'es other than Windows (right click doesn't work unless I want to do some major tweaking), and switchable graphics and the Linux kernel don't currently get along.  Somebody else is needing a computer to use, and $275 USD sounded good to him.

With that money coming this Thursday, I just might be able to swing...

A Samsung Galaxy S2

I currently have the Exhibit II 4G, which is decent, but the specs are a little low.  If too much stuff is loaded, Android practically has to reload itself after killing as many processes as possible.  For a regular, everyday consumer, it's a great phone.  For what I want to do, I need something a bit more powerful.

Pay Bills

I also get to pay some more bills, which is a part of life.

All in all, I'm looking forward to this week.  Now to get this published, eat some more food, finish off those Woodchucks, and head for bed.

Go With the Flow

It's Saturday and I'm glad I'm off work.  Something interesting happened last night, but I'll be keeping it to myself for the time being.  However, I will talk about something that has been on my mind as a result of this event.

For the longest time, I would analyze things over and over again, especially if it pertained to me.  This one instance caused me to start asking questions, when a voice in the back of my head spoke up.

Stop.  Just see where this leads.

It wasn't the authoritarian type of thinking that discourages questions, but rather an inner calming of myself as I realized that I should just see what happens in the near future.  Either way, I'll see what happens.

On the plus side, it looks like I've got that HP dv7 of mine sold this Thursday.  That will get a computer off of my hands that I haven't been using in a while (switchable graphics and systems using the Linux kernel don't quite mix very well, especially when I want to use the more powerful GPU).

If I do wind up getting another portable computer, I'll be aiming for AMD yet again.  If I replace my ZaReason Breeze 3110 with anything, it will probably be this one.  In other words, I'm thinking of going strictly AMD by getting rid of the one system I that's Intel (Atom that is).

But I digress.

I now fully realize and appreciate the fact that no matter what happens, I always come out of it in one piece.  So with that, I'll have a little bit more food and then I'm off to bed.  :)

Updating the Portable

I have an HP Pavilion dv7 notebook. It has a triple core AMD Phenom, a Radeon 4200 series GPU (battery saving), a Mobility Radeon HD 5400 series with 512 MB of its own RAM, two 320 GB hard drives, a nice big screen, a Blu Ray drive, and other goodies. This system is quite the power house. I will admit that on Linux Mint 12, I can't switch to the higher powered graphics, but that's ok. Now off to Facebook to fulfill a request or two. Later world!