I am so very very tired. But I have a good reason for being tired. For some strange reason, my boss only gave me one day off this week, and because I didn't get around to trying to change it, and because I always like to make more money, I just accepted it. So after work last night, I stayed up til an obscene hour, and ended up getting about only four hours sleep. The way I see it is, if I only have one day off, I have to make the most of it, so why should I waste time sleeping, right? Anyways, I've been having more and more trouble with electronics/computers. I don't know why I waste so much time and money on this stuff, but it is cool to have toys. One of my roommates showed me how I could hook up my stereo to my computer; I'd figured I could do this before, but I just didn't know how. So now I've got awesome computer speakers. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet. And I'm going to lend my other speakers to one of my other roommates. Following one of my fellow blogger's example, I'm going to give my roommates aliases in order to protect the not-so-innocent. I don't need one, obviously, but there's Gimpy, Cal, Nitz and Rocko. Sure hope I can keep them all straight. Anyways, Rocko was the one who enlightened me about how to hook up my speakers to my computer, and Nitz is the one who's getting my old speakers. They're garbage anyways; two of the little ones don't work at all. By the way, if anyone's ever looking for new computer speakers, don't buy Midiland. They suck so badly. I shoulda kept the old Altec Lansings. They were solid. But whatever, live and learn. Anyways, another little adventure I had recently, that I didn't write about til now because I didn't know how it would turn out, was the saga of the TV tuner. For anyone who doesn't know, a tv tuner card is a little doohickey you can put inside your computer, or just plug into the back depending on what kind you buy, and you can watch and record tv on your computer. I figured it was a pretty sweet deal for me, since what precious little free space I have in this room is taken up by clean laundry that never makes it to the closet and piles of stuff that I own, but don't have a clue what to do with. I figured with a tv tuner, I could have the computer and tv all in one, and it would take up less space. So the first chance I got, I went and bought one at Compusmart. I got the usb edition, which is not what was recommended to me, but in retrospect turned out to be the more reliable version. I kept it for a week or so, then got tired of it crashing everytime I tried to perform some complicated function. so I took it back and exchanged it for the slightly cheaper pci edition. The usb one is the one you just plug into your computer, quick and easy for an ignoramus like me. The pci version has to be installed, which is way beyond my abilities. So I brought the new tuner card home and got Nitz to install it for me. We then spent the next few hours trying to install it, ignoring the forboding and numerous error and warning messages that came up. But of course it didn't work, because that would make my life easy. The next day, I snagged Rocko and got him to help me. We messed around with it some more, but the best we could get it to do was play audio on one channel, but there was still no video and it would freeze up my whole computer about 3 seconds after opening.
Then, the other day Kasper came over, and worked on it some more. He came up with a few new ideas, and we actually managed to get the whole mess working, but not without a few snags. But finally, I was able to watch tv. Unfortunately, between then and now, which is maybe 36 hours, the whole program crashed 3 or 4 times. I guess I should thank my lucky stars that all that happened was the program crashed, not taking the entire computer with it. Finally, I decided, screw this; I shouldn't need tech support to watch tv. I can spend the same amount I spent on my dumbass tv tuner at Walmart and get a decent tv set. So, to make a long story just a little longer, that's what I did. I went and got me a tv set. Not the best brand name, but it's the same as one that I've had before, so I'm happy.
Please don't think I'm an impulse shopper, because I'm not... usually. But I seem to need toys to keep me happy. I'm not one of those people who's obsessed with money. I don't care about having lots of money, I just want the stuff you can get with money. I really love shopping though. If it'll improve your opinion of me, I enjoy buying things for other people most of all. That's one of the reasons I love Christmas so much, besides the obvious religious reasons. Ok, now I sound like I'm defending myself. Some of you probably know, ihave a tendency to defend myself even when no one's accusing me.
But anyways, I've got a tv now. My computer's working about as well as I can expect it to, although Outlook is still being quirky and crazy, but that's expected. And I've got kickass sound for all the games I play. So, I guess things are going alright in the electronics/technology dept. Get back to me in a few hours though, and I'm sure things will have changed.
Sorry if any of you find this whole thing incredibly boring. It's just the most interesting thing going on my life (how sad), and I can't think of anything else to write about. So, either you're going to have to come up with more scintillating topics, or just put up with it.
Until next time, then.
