check that link out. it's a really interesting and concise read into why sundays are so consistently awful. it made me consciously think about it for the first time. i particularly liked the bit about why so-and-so likes thursday best: 'because then he can still anticipate the weekend before the clock has started running on it.' for me, the best part about this weekend's manly camping trip will be the car ride up: music, friends, the surety of freedom and charred food and cameraderie.

perhaps this is why i start so many projects but finish so few of them. after all, who wants to go on with something after it loses its luster and gets difficult? i hope this doesn't mean i'm becoming an idealist in my old age.

as usual i'll tell you what i mean. a) serial ata hard drives have a different power adapter from normal ide hard drives, and b) the proper power connection did not ship with the drive. so i had to find my own $4 adapter to make it work. fun fact: no one in town knows what a serial ata power adapter is. no one, that is, except the obscure little store at the edge of the desert. this is like the kinky fetish outlet of computer hardware stores. and it took me two days to find it because i'm not into kinky computer fetishes. fine, super, hard drive has power.

unplug old hard drives; plug in shiny new hard drive. insert operating system cd. 'dear user: you don't have any hard drives attached.' riiight.

kick spouse off the laptop; access internet; google 'maxtor serial ata hard drive windows xp setup'. fine, super, windows doesn't natively recognize serial ata hard drives. google for sata drivers, download sata drivers. realize floppy drives haven't been required since mid-1990s. snatch spouse's external usb floppy drive. remember usb devices are not loaded during bluescreen windows setup. brainstorm; call sister to see if sister has operative floppy drive.

pilfer floppy drive from sister's computer. plug floppy drive in. copy drivers to floppy disk, insert disk. computer cannot locate floppy drive after repeated attempts. telepathically order bill gates to implode.

telephone friend, ask for friend's floppy drive. drive to friend's house; acquire floppy drive; insert floppy drive; connect floppy drive. 'floppy disks fail (40)'. aha! progress (an error message where previously there was just an error). google 'floppy disks fail (40)'. discover idiotic n00b error of connecting floppy drive with upside-down ribbon cable. bare teeth and bite ribbon cable in half; find new ribbon cable; connect pin1 to slot1 in motherboard connection and in floppy drive connection.

reboot for the sixtieth time in two hours. clutch throbbing head.

'cannot find drivers needed to complete installation.' curse. take blood pressure medication.

google, google, google, google, find the drivers actually needed for installation. copy to floppy disk. 'please insert a disk into drive a:'. verify disk is in drive a:. copy drivers to floppy disk. 'please insert a disk into drive a:'. remove failed disk from drive a:; CRUSH WITH FIST. repeat with failed blue floppy disk. repeat with failed yellow floppy disk. weep openly. inquire with wife as to presence of further floppy disks. search with wife for additional floppy disks. locate additional floppy disks. copy to floppy disk. re-reboot. cross fingers. bite very very hard on freeze pop sticks.

GLORY AND TRUMPETS! WINDOWS WORKS! and it only took eighteen hours of my weekend.

now i am the proud new owner of a one-disk raid 0 array! (perhaps the only one in the world)



and now to the other areas of my life:

a close friend introduced me to the gorillaz, and three days later finally located a job that is not awful. karma strikes again.

a close wife has finally located a site containing pictures of a new harry potter movie that is not awful (speculatively).

postsecret remains my source of dark satisfaction. we're all us.

where is:
-my coffee
-where is it

i
am not
happy.

oh wait: i'm working full time now, so i am happy.

how does a guy reconcile his own accounts? easily. life zeroes itself. for, as always, everything averages out in the end.


my wife read the new harry potter book last weekend, and now she laughs at my feeble attempts to figure out who the half-blood prince is. (hint: it's me)

and the dvds! oh sweet retinal pleasures. this weekend was an edu-taining mix of the diary of anne frank, the graduate, and the highly disturbing apocalypse now. all of which i can shamelessly recommend but perhaps not all at once. or perhaps.


and i'm off. if anyone finds a way out, let me know.

life has been full lately. goings-on include anniversaries, fireworks, job searches, dark towers, high-stake bluffs, hits and near-hits. all of which, one would think, would provide me with a plethora of material from which to draw. one would think.

the kids outside are enjoying summer very loudly. there is a single muscle fiber in my arm that won't stop twitching. I stay awake too late and wish too much to sleep in. all is to say that nothing has changed.


more around the bend.

today marks the end of finals week for the school I used to attend (and to which I still live very close), which means that my taunts of 'oh, you're still in school, aren't you?' are completely ineffectual for the next three months, and for some people, never again. lucky you, nerds. summer used to mean happiness and long days of sunshine; now it means work and getting my sunshine through windows. in my dreams I'm not merely immortal but perpetually twenty-two in a world where everything's free. I'm vaguely aware that something in this paragraph contradicts something in the previous one, but only vaguely.

a year ago today (tonight, I suppose) I was watching the transit of venus semi-live on the inter-net. as I recall it was the night before a final I did altogether well on. post hoc, ergo propter hoc? perhaps we'll never know.

where I work, everyone gets the silly 'happy birthday' banners over their desks when their respective birthdays roll around. instead of this, their present to me was not doing it. I'm relieved; I wouldn't have been able to bear the attention.

the last several years my sister has gotten me something else I haven't been able to bear, and every christmas I just gave it back to her. recently she gave up and opened it herself. she played it with her roommate and I don't know why I'm telling you this.


happy birthday from the bottom of your heart. thankya.

being all graduated, I was enjoying the lack of tests. how sad. in a week we'll all know how much of an ignoramus I really am. (how equally sad.)

there's hunger in the world, wars, hatred and deceit, a horrible amount of misunderstanding. but last night none of that mattered because all the nerds were getting wet.

NERDS thank you for bringing balance to the force.