an alchemy that turns garbage into money

Our garage sale is over. I made almost $330, but we still have a lot of crap left over. That's one less thing to worry about. I guess I'm going to spend the rest of the day fiddling around with my new laptop.

a pirate's life for me

My new laptop has a wireless network card, so I started playing around with it. I soon found an unprotected network that is kinda weak, but fast - way faster than dialup. I don't know whose it is, but I like having the fast internet. I'm currently using it to get all my Windows updates. I don't know how secure or stable this connection is. It's fun to play with though.

faith in chaos

Today was mostly spent getting things ready for the garage sale, it's going to be crazy tomorrow. We had around 1000 price stickers and most of them are gone.

I did stop working on garage sale stuff long enough to go to Best Buy, where I finally got my laptop. It's going to be a while before it's fully up and running, but I have it far enough that this post is being typed on Freeman.

early in the morning

I tried going to bed at a reasonable hour, but that backfired and now I'm up at 4AM instead of going to bed at 4AM.

It looks like the laptop I want is showing up in stores again. Hopefully I can get one today, but I also have to get everything ready for the garage sale tomorrow.

I watched four episodes of That 70's Show in a row the other day. That show took a weird turn somewhere. Donna should not be blonde. Apparently Eric took the year off after high school. He said this, which reminded me of myself:

"I love my job. Because I don't have one. Today was the slip 'n slide
marathon. Tomorrow I'm catching butterflies! And the day after that
I'm breaking out the giant bubble wand."

I am certainly enjoying my unemployment.

more laptop

I went back to Best Buy to check out the laptop I liked. I still want one. They were out this afternoon, but they just got 6 more in tonight so I should get one in the next day or two. Tomorrow I'm going to be busy getting ready for the garage sale, so I may not have time to get it.

you can't make fun of me if i beat you to it

tour de hard drive

I don't feel like doing real work, so I'm exploring my music collection with iTunes. I'm testing the theory that there is at least one decent song on every CD so I'm going through music I don't listen to and flagging the decent songs. Some of them are good except for a stupid intro, so I skip around each song to check. If it does have a stupid intro I can chop it off with sound editing software. I'm an impatient person, I don't want to sit around for 30 seconds - or even a full minute in some cases - for the melody to start. One song lost almost two minutes.

I'm getting better with iTunes. I started by only flagging the truly great songs I have, but now I have another level for songs I like but aren't one the same level as the other songs. I need the flagging to help me find my way around my music, it's pretty easy to get lost.

It's also interesting seeing the different versions of songs I've collected. I have seven different versions of Flaming June by BT, and at least three versions of Finished Symphony by Hybrid.

the hunt is on

I want this laptop. I think I'm almost ready to buy it. I'm pretty sure this would be the most expensive thing I've ever bought. Just one problem: I'm having troubles locating one. If I decide to get it, I would probably have to drive to Rochester for it, if they still have one. I'm going to go to the closest Best Buy tomorrow to play with their floor model some more, and maybe give them some trouble about not having one in stock (even though I already know they don't have it). I want to check it out again because I'm a little worried about the keys falling off, although their floor model was probably just picked at by idiots.

It's been a good year for high-tech. First I got a new digital camera, then an iPod, and now I'm looking at getting a laptop that can probably kick Riemann Mk. II's ass. One of the consolations of having no girlfriend is that I can afford lots of toys.

time flies

Holy crap, it's June already. That sure snuck up on me. I'm going to be 22 in less than two weeks.

Also holy crap it's Wednesday. We're officially having a garage sale this weekend and while I've done some preliminary sorting, I am not at all ready.

At this rate I'm going to be in Oregon before I know it. Not that I'm complaining, it's just going to be a huge shift.

regarding wars

I reread The War of the Worlds tonight. It creeped me out enough that I'm going to listen to some calming music before I go to bed. I tap out pretty easy on horror stuff, especially zombies. I reread that book because I'm excited for the new movie, I'm interested to see how it's going to be updated. I want to see the old movie too.

I'm getting further along in laptop computer research. I found a couple of candidates based on Athlon 64 chips that are real powerhouses for not much money. I think it's very likely that I'm going to get a new computer in the near future. I don't know if I really need a laptop, but I am at least doing a good job of rationalizing it.

I saw something in the news today about how the U.S. and the U.K. stepped up bombing of Iraq in 2002 to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving us an excuse for invading. The Bush administration is outrageous and I hope Bush gets impeached. I am only outraged at Iraq more than all the other things Bush has done because Iraq is killing people.

I'd like to apologize, to whomever is in a position to accept it. When it started, I was for the war in Iraq. I remembered how fun and easy the first Iraq war was, when I collected Desert Storm trading cards. I waited eagerly for the day the invasion would begin and watched CNN - eating popcorn - when it finally arrived. I don't remember when I changed my mind. Maybe it was when the many inspectors found none of the alleged WMDs. I am completely against the war now though, and I'm sorry for getting caught up in the war frenzy when this all started.