R.I.P. Gigabyte GA-7DX Frankenstein Box: 02/25/2000 - 03/14/2007

This paragraph is dedicated to my old computer, may it rest in peace. It lived through almost eight years of my repeated tweaking, experimenting, overclocking, obsessive component-changing, power-using, multi-tasking, repeated bumps, drops, poor soldering skills, and a few brown-outs. She lived a long, productive life (considering what she went through) and served me well. I brought her into existence with a mish-mash of parts that I acquired on the cheap from various sources. She lived hard, served me well, and died owing me nothing. Some of her vital organs have been harvested and put to use in my new Lenovo box which I just purchased from a local computer store. With the aid of a new motherboard, the rest of her will likely be resurrected again in the form of another lovely Frankenstein box who I will raise (yet again) as my own, this time being brought up in the ways of Ubuntu and SUSE instead of the corrupt and evil ways of The Dark Side, which eventually hastened her demise in the previous life. I am now in the process of teaching my current little one a balanced, zen-like approach which includes the ways of Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Windows XP so that she may learn from all of them and use what each may have to offer. (Though I am secretely hoping that she will gravitate toward an outlook residing on the side of Good).

As you may have guessed by now, old computer = dead. I am not pleased that I had to spend a large chunk of my tax return to get a new one, but I saw this coming a while ago and it didn't take me by surprise. This would also be why I have not updated the blog for a couple weeks. I am in the process of experimenting with Ubuntu Linux, Suse Linux, and Red Hat Linux; trying to decide which one I like more. I've tooled around with Linux a little in the past but never in a serious capacity. So this is a whole new confusing ball game for me but I intend to stick with it, even if it means having to peruse technical books & manuals for hours on end. For moral and ethical reasons, this is a step that I've been meaning to take for a long time.

I am in the middle of a bit of a spring-cleaning surge. The basement is still the final, scary frontier... there are relationship leftovers, abandoned hobbies, unfinished projects, furniture & household items in need of repair, and useless tchotchkes by the hundreds down there, all laying around in unorganized piles and in need of much cleaning before they can even be given away. I am saving it all for a weekend off when I'll likely get doped up on coffee and tackle the subterranean chaos with extreme prejudice. I fully expect that it will result in at least half a dozen trips to the local thrift store and a spate of new items for sale on my Ebay seller account.

Wish me luck folks!