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I rolled out of bed this morning with the sort of mild headache and acute fuzzy-headedness that arise from lack of sufficient sleep. I really should try to get to bed earlier I suppose; I was up fairly late. I'd do it again though; I was up reading to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wooisme.
Even better, I was reading to her from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Astoundingly enough, she'd never read what I consider to be one of the most brilliant and noteworthy examples of science fiction literature. I've been waiting for my chance to remedy that situation.
One of her comments, as I closed the bookmark into the last page of the third chapter and set the book down beside the bed, was that there are is an astounding amount of quotable material. There really is; I repeat passages from the Guide on a daily basis and maybe that's one of the most astounding things about the books. The world depicted therein, one of absurdity, chaos, rampant bureaucracy, and brilliant examples of fuzzy logic, has so much within it that relates almost comically well to the world we are familiar with. Ever since I first read them (I believe it was probably mid-way through elementary school when I first picked up that friendly green book with the now famous phrase emblazoned on it's cover) I've felt as though beneath the light-hearted exterior there are some deep meanings to be extracted from the experiences of Arthur, Ford, and their associated associates. I never have managed to quite figure out what it is, and perhaps that's the point.
I got to leave work early yesterday due to low call volume, though I'm probably going to be here 'till the bitter end (or at least four o' clock) today. I used the extra time to run by Chosen Books to drop off a movie and then I stopped in at Microcenter to see if I could find a cheap hard drive amongst the clearanced computer gear.
There was a bunch of stuff that I would love to play with; wireless routers and KVM switches were calling out to me. Bravely, I passed them by and found what I was looking for; a small hard drive to go with the parts that my dad gave me while I was visiting over Christmas. Of course, small is always relative. I ended up with a returned 60 GB ATA/133 Maxtor. I remember when my dad's 20 MB drive was a monster... Actually, when I found that brand new ones were only seven dollars more, I decided the discount wasn't quite enough to want to deal with used, however briefly, hardware.
The drive is now keeping company with a Pentium 3 667 and 512 MB of SDRam in a box that's going to sit next to the TV and stereo and will run emulators and movies. It's not the cute little micro ATX I wanted; in fact, the case is even missing a side that my dad couldn't find. Most importantly though, it's free and it works. I's got a soundblaster of some sort, a Linksys NIC, and graphics card by Visiontek.
I had planned to get the Windows XP installation underway (I figured this was a good chance for a first experience with XP) and then go work on the raccoon's 'puter which went all 'splodey last week, but it was not to be. The simple, easy OS installation dragged on for four hours. I found that my XP disc was bad (burned copy that I'd never tried before) and went to 2000. I booted with my 4 2k boot discs and found that a file on the Win2K CD was bad too. Finally, I burned another disc with just the 2k install files, figuring I'd boot from a '98 floppy, copy them to a partition on the drive, and install that way. My '98 boot floppy was dead. *sigh* Digital media is so very transient...
Finally I got everything underway. The file transfer from CD to hard drive took forever; then I had to repeat it 'cause I copied it to the partition that the install process was going to over-write. Oops. I was just starting the final install attempt when Andrea got home. I hope to get to her system today...
After going out to dinner, I returned and commenced work on the system again. 2K installed without further issues and, having run my 25' Cat5 cable out to the living room for connectivity, I easily located a driver for the NIC. Things were back on track. For a while. After over an hour of searching, I'm still stuck in 640x480 16 color VGA mode. I can't find a driver for this video card anywhere. It would probably help if I had some clue what model it is. I haven't exhausted all my resources yet, and I have yet to find a card that I couldn't find a driver for; I think I'll get it eventually. This one is just being very tricky. The cards in there are mostly OEM stuff with very few identifying characteristics. Still, I'm very happy for the video card 'cause it has an S-video output which is really the whole point of this machine. I'll nail it tonight.
The whole time I was futzing with the computer, I was also sitting and playing Final Fantasy IX. I was going to play more of The Simpsons: Road Rage (an unexpectedly fun game) but then I saw FF beckoning to me...
It's been so long since I sat down and played a Final Fantasy game. I've finished every US console release through seven (even *shudder* Mystic Quest*) except for number one and three or four of the game boy releases, but I've never played much of eight. The game was going off in a strange direction and, though it was kind of fun at first, it soon wandered farther off the path than I cared to stray. Maybe I'll try it again someday. Ten, as well, seemed kind of odd to me; I never got much chance to play anyway. Nine, though, was different. With nine, Square was reaching back toward their roots, not only through the high fantasy plot but also through the feel of the characters, the game play options, the mini-puzzles, and the multitude of other 'old-school' elements. Sadly, it may have been the last such game from them; I hope that, unlike Origins, their launch of a huge online game won't mean the end of their solo adventures. With so much effort required to keep that game going, such might well be the case. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I plan to keep thoroughly enjoying playing nine, at least for a while. I've bemoaned the dearth of really good RPGs on console systems, yet there are still a not inconsiderable number I haven't gotten through. FF9, Tales of Phantasia, and the Japanese Final Fantasy releases come strongly to mind. I started FF5 and really loved it (why don't they make games like that anymore?) but I hit a buggy part (the fan translation wasn't complete yet and had some issues) and I never got back to it. Then there are real old school games like Dragon Warrior two and three on the old eight-bit Nintendo. I finished number one back in the day and loved it, but I wonder if even the excitement of working my way through a piece of console RPG history will make up for being spoiled by the flashy graphics and smoother feel of newer examples of the breed. At least with my new computer system set up I'll get to play these things on a full size TV (and in amplified stereo sound) as they were meant to be seen...
God/dess I'm a dork.
Hmm, where was I?
It seems Andrea and I are going out to a furry gathering for New Years Eve celebrations. Meanwhile, several hundred miles and a large lake to the West, our Wisconsin family will be having their now-traditional LAN party. I loved being the one to help Evil Bob set up the infrastructure and get computers configured for that and I've missed going the last two years. I so want to be a network technician. Still, I am very much looking forward to seeing some of our Michigan fureinds tomorrow evening for a New Year's party. I'm planning to bring Apples to Apples and such and it should be a really good time.
I feel bad that I know I won't be able to recognize a number of the people who are going to be there despite the fact that I've met them on several occasions. I hope they will forgive me...
Well, that's likely enough for now. More coming later, as always.
wooisme.Even better, I was reading to her from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Astoundingly enough, she'd never read what I consider to be one of the most brilliant and noteworthy examples of science fiction literature. I've been waiting for my chance to remedy that situation.
One of her comments, as I closed the bookmark into the last page of the third chapter and set the book down beside the bed, was that there are is an astounding amount of quotable material. There really is; I repeat passages from the Guide on a daily basis and maybe that's one of the most astounding things about the books. The world depicted therein, one of absurdity, chaos, rampant bureaucracy, and brilliant examples of fuzzy logic, has so much within it that relates almost comically well to the world we are familiar with. Ever since I first read them (I believe it was probably mid-way through elementary school when I first picked up that friendly green book with the now famous phrase emblazoned on it's cover) I've felt as though beneath the light-hearted exterior there are some deep meanings to be extracted from the experiences of Arthur, Ford, and their associated associates. I never have managed to quite figure out what it is, and perhaps that's the point.
I got to leave work early yesterday due to low call volume, though I'm probably going to be here 'till the bitter end (or at least four o' clock) today. I used the extra time to run by Chosen Books to drop off a movie and then I stopped in at Microcenter to see if I could find a cheap hard drive amongst the clearanced computer gear.
There was a bunch of stuff that I would love to play with; wireless routers and KVM switches were calling out to me. Bravely, I passed them by and found what I was looking for; a small hard drive to go with the parts that my dad gave me while I was visiting over Christmas. Of course, small is always relative. I ended up with a returned 60 GB ATA/133 Maxtor. I remember when my dad's 20 MB drive was a monster... Actually, when I found that brand new ones were only seven dollars more, I decided the discount wasn't quite enough to want to deal with used, however briefly, hardware.
The drive is now keeping company with a Pentium 3 667 and 512 MB of SDRam in a box that's going to sit next to the TV and stereo and will run emulators and movies. It's not the cute little micro ATX I wanted; in fact, the case is even missing a side that my dad couldn't find. Most importantly though, it's free and it works. I's got a soundblaster of some sort, a Linksys NIC, and graphics card by Visiontek.
I had planned to get the Windows XP installation underway (I figured this was a good chance for a first experience with XP) and then go work on the raccoon's 'puter which went all 'splodey last week, but it was not to be. The simple, easy OS installation dragged on for four hours. I found that my XP disc was bad (burned copy that I'd never tried before) and went to 2000. I booted with my 4 2k boot discs and found that a file on the Win2K CD was bad too. Finally, I burned another disc with just the 2k install files, figuring I'd boot from a '98 floppy, copy them to a partition on the drive, and install that way. My '98 boot floppy was dead. *sigh* Digital media is so very transient...
Finally I got everything underway. The file transfer from CD to hard drive took forever; then I had to repeat it 'cause I copied it to the partition that the install process was going to over-write. Oops. I was just starting the final install attempt when Andrea got home. I hope to get to her system today...
After going out to dinner, I returned and commenced work on the system again. 2K installed without further issues and, having run my 25' Cat5 cable out to the living room for connectivity, I easily located a driver for the NIC. Things were back on track. For a while. After over an hour of searching, I'm still stuck in 640x480 16 color VGA mode. I can't find a driver for this video card anywhere. It would probably help if I had some clue what model it is. I haven't exhausted all my resources yet, and I have yet to find a card that I couldn't find a driver for; I think I'll get it eventually. This one is just being very tricky. The cards in there are mostly OEM stuff with very few identifying characteristics. Still, I'm very happy for the video card 'cause it has an S-video output which is really the whole point of this machine. I'll nail it tonight.
The whole time I was futzing with the computer, I was also sitting and playing Final Fantasy IX. I was going to play more of The Simpsons: Road Rage (an unexpectedly fun game) but then I saw FF beckoning to me...
It's been so long since I sat down and played a Final Fantasy game. I've finished every US console release through seven (even *shudder* Mystic Quest*) except for number one and three or four of the game boy releases, but I've never played much of eight. The game was going off in a strange direction and, though it was kind of fun at first, it soon wandered farther off the path than I cared to stray. Maybe I'll try it again someday. Ten, as well, seemed kind of odd to me; I never got much chance to play anyway. Nine, though, was different. With nine, Square was reaching back toward their roots, not only through the high fantasy plot but also through the feel of the characters, the game play options, the mini-puzzles, and the multitude of other 'old-school' elements. Sadly, it may have been the last such game from them; I hope that, unlike Origins, their launch of a huge online game won't mean the end of their solo adventures. With so much effort required to keep that game going, such might well be the case. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I plan to keep thoroughly enjoying playing nine, at least for a while. I've bemoaned the dearth of really good RPGs on console systems, yet there are still a not inconsiderable number I haven't gotten through. FF9, Tales of Phantasia, and the Japanese Final Fantasy releases come strongly to mind. I started FF5 and really loved it (why don't they make games like that anymore?) but I hit a buggy part (the fan translation wasn't complete yet and had some issues) and I never got back to it. Then there are real old school games like Dragon Warrior two and three on the old eight-bit Nintendo. I finished number one back in the day and loved it, but I wonder if even the excitement of working my way through a piece of console RPG history will make up for being spoiled by the flashy graphics and smoother feel of newer examples of the breed. At least with my new computer system set up I'll get to play these things on a full size TV (and in amplified stereo sound) as they were meant to be seen...
God/dess I'm a dork.
Hmm, where was I?
It seems Andrea and I are going out to a furry gathering for New Years Eve celebrations. Meanwhile, several hundred miles and a large lake to the West, our Wisconsin family will be having their now-traditional LAN party. I loved being the one to help Evil Bob set up the infrastructure and get computers configured for that and I've missed going the last two years. I so want to be a network technician. Still, I am very much looking forward to seeing some of our Michigan fureinds tomorrow evening for a New Year's party. I'm planning to bring Apples to Apples and such and it should be a really good time.
I feel bad that I know I won't be able to recognize a number of the people who are going to be there despite the fact that I've met them on several occasions. I hope they will forgive me...
Well, that's likely enough for now. More coming later, as always.