10:40pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 12 Feb. 2002 [Tuesday]; Post #122:
They're cancelling Futurama! Go sign this online petition to (hopefully) make FOX change its mind. The 4th season has been great so far. Anyway. Talked to Justin today, though I'm sticking to my decision to abstain from gaming for a while (actually, just games that pit player against player; if there were any table-top games that could be played cooperatively, I'd be willing to participate). And, of course, I'm not GMing GURPS anymore, at least not with those who can't follow the rules and accept consequences for their actions. That's not to say I dislike those people. Anyway. I caught a second mouse around 8:00pm when Andi and I were putting up/feeding dogs. It was sitting in one of the dog crates (prolly eating little bits of dropped food) and I caught it bare-handed. Well, I only had one small aquarium that already contained a mouse, so I went and got the big one (roughly 3' x 1' x 1') and built a divider and lid for it in my dad's shop. All without a tape measure. It came out pretty well. I'd post a picture, but the mice were just transferred and I don't want to frighten them with lights or camera-flash (I've left them in the dark part of the room to adjust).

3:22pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 12 Feb. 2002 [Tuesday]; Post #121:
Saw an amusing quote in a GURPSnet post by wicked.lester@shaw.ca:

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
     -- Charles Babbage

Clever, no? Anyway. Not much happening. My parents are out of town for the week and my grandmother is here. Bored. GURPS Steam-Tech and GURPS Cops have been interesting reads. Need to get the current Girl Genius, PvP, and Dork Tower comics (I forgot to get them at Infinite Frontiers). Still have not heard from Justin. Then again, I think I'm prolly done with gaming for some time. My 1CoolPC shipment came yesterday.

10:23pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 8 Feb. 2002 [Friday]; Post #120:
Justin is angry. He, Matt, and I met at about 4:15pm and went to Infinite Frontiers. I got Zombies!!!, Kill Doctor Lucky, Patent No. 1, Witch Trial, and a number of comics. Anyway, we went back to my house (or my dad's shop, rather) and played Patent and Zombies. Matt won both and then I thought we were going to dinner. As we walk towards my car, Justin heads to his. I ask "Where're you going?" He says "I'm going home." Doesn't even say good-bye or anything; just gets in his car and drives away fast. Matt and I just say 'bye' and go our seperate ways. Of course, I didn't go to town... I only do that when ppl are over. I could comment on how rude people have acted, but I won't. At any rate, I find myself bored and alone more and more lately. Prior to today, I hadn't met with Justin and Matt for social reasons in 10 days. Don't know if I will again.

5:11pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 6 Feb. 2002 [Wednesday]; Post #119:
Well, I ordered a GlobalWin FOP32-1 heatsink w/ a YS-Tech fan rated at 27.2 CFM from my favorite cooling-related online shop, 1CoolPC. $22 and the shipping was low b/c they're based in the same state as me. Then, just now, I ordered an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (OEM & 266 MHz FSB, of course) from GoGoCity for $122. Now I only need a video card and hard drive (I can pull a 256 MB RAM stick out of the 1400 -- it doesn't need all of the 512 it has right now). If it comes right down to it, I can always use the 16 MB PCI video card (a Rage 128 Pro I think) from the 1400 for this linux box (it's normally used for dual monitors on the 1400, but I hardly put that feature to use anymore). But I really need to buy a new HD. I'm thinking of the 60 GB IBM Deskstar (7200 RPM, UATA-100) which GoGoCity has @ $107, but PriceWatch listed a nice 45 GB Maxtor (7200, ATA-133) over at Star Components for only $83.

9:08pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 5 Feb. 2002 [Tuesday]; Post #118:
Just ordered a motherboard from GoGoCity: the Gigabyte GA-7DX+. Only $88. It has the AMD 761 chipset. Very nice. Now I just need to get a processor, video card, hard drive, and NIC. Oh, and memory. But then I'll have finished the hardware portion of my linux box. Woo.

6:58pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 5 Feb. 2002 [Tuesday]; Post #117:
I downloaded the Mandrake Linux 8.1 ISO today. Took about 2 and a half hours (the server would go at 138 kB/s and then after 15 minutes, suddenly drop me to 0 kB/s... the problem may have been with GetRight) to download the 649 mB MandrakeLinux81-ProSuite.i586.iso file. And just about 30 minutes ago, I burned it to CD-R w/ Nero. I went thru the tutorial presented in the autorun and it looks really kewl. I don't know what GUI I'll use tho -- both Gnome and KDE look nice. I'll have to read up on 'em. Ryoga (my cat) caught a mouse but he didn't kill it, or even wound it for that matter. I didn't want him playing with it so I dropped it in this old aquarium and gave it some dog food and water. That was around 4:45 or 5:00. I'll figure out what to do with it later. Oh, last night I started Book of D'ni and I'm already half way thru it. It's really good. Prolly the best of the three. Anyway. The Mandrake Linux will go on the new system I'm building (the one to be in the Codegen 1701 case).

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12:17am [PST; GMT -08:00], 4 Feb. 2002 [Monday]; Post #116:
Updated the list for my MP3 collection (Techie > ÜberGeek's MP3 Collection). 5.35 gB. All the TV shows I watch on Sunday nights were booted b/c of the Superbowl. The only thing to watch was Malcom in the Middle which aired a special, new 1 hour episode. It was good, but not great. Didn't do anything this weekend. Really. Saturday night I downloaded a couple gigabytes of Family Guy and some Simpsons. Watched most of the Family Guy stuff on Sunday. You don't realize how much it sucks until you watch it all in a row like that. Anyway, I like Futurama more, but I've already seen every episode that's ever aired (and have nearly all of them as ASFs and AVIs... ppl that use non-standard codecs really tick me off). Anyway, pretty depressed. Drinking 'Slim-Fast'. It's actually not that bad... the Rich Chocolate Royale tastes good and really knocks your appetite out. Extremely bored. Played a lot of Oni this weekend. Have a test in Criminal Law tomorrow, so I guess I'll play some more Oni and go to bed. Oh, today's MP3 is: Tom Smith - I Want to be Peter Lorre.

12:12am [PST; GMT -08:00], 2 Feb. 2002 [Saturday]; Post #115:
Added Law & Order page to Esoteric section. Right now, it's little more than a character list... but I'll be adding stuff. I finished Book of Ti'ana the day before yesterday. Now I'm on Book of D'ni. I need to re-read Book of Atrus since it makes a lot more sense in light of M:BoT. Anyway, I love this series. I can't wait for the next one. It all makes me want to go buy the new Myst III game (the downloads for it all end up being RA2). Today I received my 2 Codegen 1701 series cases from ColorCases.com. Very nice chassis; smooth edges, lots of space. My only complaints: I don't like the built-in 3.5" floppy drive cutout (who even uses legacy devices anymore? pfff) and the bay covers pop out too easily. Otherwise, it's a great case at a great price. Anyway, I took a picture of the first case which I transferred the guts of an eMachine 266 into. Too bad the front-side USB ports arn't compatible with the cheap-o mobo in there. You shoulda seen the heatsink on the CPU -- must've had half a centimeter of dust built up on its fins. I went thru 10 ethynol-soaked Q-Tips cleaning it. Oh, I downloaded Oni today. Fun game, a little simplistic tho. Hm... what else did I do today? Well, I went to the PvP chatroom on irc.enterthegame.com. Some interesting ppl there. BTW, both PvPonline and Penny-Arcade have changed their site formats/color schemes... I like PvP's, but Penny-Arcade shoulda stuck with their old format. Yesterday I discovered this a cappella group called the Yale Alley Cats... they do some fantastic stuff, the best of which is exemplified in today's MP3: Yale Alley Cats - Come Go With Me. I kinda want to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou again.

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8:16pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 30 Jan. 2002 [Wednesday]; Post #114:
Watching That 80's Show right now. I like Tinsel Grimes and Eddie Shin's characters. This episode is better than the pilot. Of course, it hasn't gotten up to full speed yet. I finally got my satellite connection functioning again (it had been messed up since Monday)... took me 2 hrs. of tech support yesterday and 1 hr. today. I'm almost done with Book of Ti'ana. It's getting really good too. Um... I watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" today; extremely good movie. Definitely one of my Top Ten. Today's MP3 is from that movie, in fact: The Soggy Bottom Boys - I Am A Man With Constant Sorrow. Good song. Wish I had Max Headroom on DVD, but AFAIK, they never even put the series out on VHS.

6:47pm [PST; GMT -08:00], 29 Jan. 2002 [Tuesday]; Post #113:
Justin and I wrote a story one paragraph at a time. It's kind of funny. Read it here (TXT; 8.43 kB).