Autumn 2001 (Sep-Nov) /
Winter 2001 (Dec-Feb) /
Spring 2002 (Mar-May) /
Summer 2002 (Jun-Aug) /
Autumn 2002 (Sep-Nov) /
Winter 2002 (Dec-Feb) /
Spring 2003 (Mar-May) /
Summer 2003 (Jun-Aug) /
Autumn 2003 (Sep-Nov) /
Winter 2003 (Dec-Feb) /
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Summer 2004 (Jun-Aug) /
Autumn 2004 (Sep-Nov) /
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Spring 2005 (Mar-May) /
Summer 2005 (Jun-Aug) /
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Spring 2006 (Mar-May) /
Summer 2006 (Jun-Aug) /
Autumn 2006 (Sep-Nov) /
Winter 2006 (Dec-Feb)
...So much going on, most of it mundane or work-related (still not exactly back on any sort of a ''regular'' work schedule, though I may have gained an extra day at my ''desired'' location -- which may actually be signaling another shake-up soon to present itself.
Other than that, just growing more infuriated with this ''[p]resident'' -- and burning with a near-hate-filled fury at all those who put their ''trust'' in this human monster and his policies but won't so much as lift a finger or ''set the example'' these comfortable-on-their-ass hypocrites want OTHERS to do on their behalf! If there has never been proof that Satan is still alive and well and deceiving the world, no one needs look no further than the celebration of death, violence and bloodlust of the ''Red Half'' of the American population right now -- and I fear that they are only just getting started.
Unmentioned Highlights From Previous Quarter
September 1, 2005 (Thursday)
Spent all of late last night through to dawn this morning converting some old taped programs I had recorded of the Tom Leykis [Radio] Show to the computer's MP3 files, taking advantage of the (relative) quiet, since not having proper equipment I was restricted to having to use the open microphone to capture the sound.
11:40, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 7, 2005 (Wednesday)
Went to see that dog-awful Hollywood ''remake'' of ''Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara'' (''Dark Water'') at our ''second chance'' theatre late this morning, and I want my money back ... never mind the fact that it only cost me 4 bits!
Went to pick up my paycheck afterwards (...on ''payday,'' even -- for a rare change!), then decided ot take an impulsive trip across the mountains on the Likelike Highway and back via ''Interstate H1.'' During this trip I found by sheer chance the access point to the Ha'iku Stairs hiking trail -- which is still fenced-off and restricted by the ''City and County.''
Throughout the day I began to notice that all of the prices at the various gas stations were looking identical. I made the (correct) assumption that the long sought after gasoline price caps had gone into effect. 87 octane was being offered at three dollars and a dime.
15:00, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 10, 2005 (Saturday)
Was unable to work last night due to being told the previous afternoon that the account on Kapiolani Bvd. had discontinued services with us... since last Saturday! So once again, true to form (...and 'right on time' for this seasonal curse I must endure each and every year), these idiots at the main office wait until the last possible minute to inform me of the changes and make no effort to keep me on schedule in order to keep my workweek from slipping below 20 hours so that I don't again end up losing (then having to ''requalify'' for) my health benefits.
Even so, I was feeling too sick to work anyway, having gone through another one of those bizarre intestinal/fever situations which I'm certain this time had absolutely nothing to do with anything I ate, as I've always been suspecting. The only things I can possibly level it down to now is that sodium hypochlorite cleanser I'd used earlier Thursday or something related to that bitch mosquito that kept biting my ass Tuesday night / Wednesday morning before I finally bit her ass. I was incapacitated enough that I did not even try to visit Desiree (Ariana's mom) to pick up my poetry/prose composition book from her and hopefully talk story with her awhile in a casual ''non-work'' setting for a change.
Went into ''High Bitch Overdrive'' when I returned from my P.O. Box a little while ago. I had finally decided that I'd had more than enough of GEICO flooding me with their advertisements now that it has progressed beyond the point of them bombarding me with their junk mail solicitations, but have since been sending me their shit in in my own name! So I called one of their ''genki'' representatives and informed her that I was highly pissed that after over two and a half years of being force-fed their garbage someone there would not have gotten the message that their services were not wanted. I've always been bitter at this insurance company ever since they started doing those intelligence-insulting radio commercials right about the time I was doing ''booty call'' for Susie about four or five years ago, and they not only grew increasingly irritating and insulting but the junk mail & newsprint ad blitz is what really sent me into a raging fury -- I just finally HAD to say something even though it won't result in much of anything significant.
13:45, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 14, 2005 (Wednesday)
Found a wallet-- overstuffed with business cards and housing over a half-dozen credit/debit cards and a car/truck key --on Pohukaina Street right across from Coral Street on my way back from work this morning. I was able to locate a phone number on one of two personal checks written to local banks (no doubt as part of credit card or loan payments), but after several unsuccessful attempts to get an answer I was told that I should call back later in the evening. I reached the owner, Mr. Kimura, shortly after 19:00 and he agreed to drive by to pick it up.
22:30, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 17, 2005 (Saturday)
That old saying, ''No Good Deed Shall Ever Go Unpunished'' -- I'm beginning to believe it. Here's a list of the things that took place since returning S. Kimura's wallet and refusing a reward offer:
On the way to work Thursday night I was riding my bicycle on the Ewa sidewalk on King Street when I ran into one of those utility pole tie-down cables right in front of what used to be the old Burger King near the corner of Dillingham. I was thrown off the bike and banged up my right knee enough to be more than a minor inconvenience.
On the way back from work early the next morning I rode out as far as the Post Office to check on my latest DVD shipment only to realize that my keys were nowhere on me or among my things, so I doubled back, retracing both my before and after work routes as well as scanning most of the areas I had covered during my working hours, before finally checking where I keep my bicycle locked at the residence -- and sure enough, I had inadvertently left my keys inside the padlock with my cable on the bicycle rack.
It also turned out that when I reviewed my ''Region-1'' DVD of ''Yeogo Goedam'' (intended to replace the 'full screen' ''Region-3'' import from Thailand) it was badly encoded so that the picture would jerk & twitch throughout much of the movie, regardless of which DVD Player I tried to use, so it'll now have to end up being shipped back-- on my dime --for a replacement. (And, on top of that, the 'picture quality' of the new disc is not all that much better than the Thai import... not for the price paid for it.)
Decided to pay a visit to Desiree last night around 22:20 to pick up my poetry/prose journal which I had intended to reclaim last Friday night / Saturday morning. We stayed up talking story and mostly going over & sharing more of our poetic/prosaic writings/thoughts with each other until about 1:20 this morning. She wrote another one very recently, trying to deal with the changing dynamic of the relationship between her daughter (Ariana) and herself, dealing with what she perceives are acts of alienation & rejection compounded with the other pressures/uncertainties in & of her life -- I tried to assure her that it was only that Ariana was going through the ''teenage'' phase of her life where she's naturally going to put more distance between herself and her mother and that Ari's not necessarily doing so out of spite or malice; Desi seemed somewhat reassured by this explanation.
02:30, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 21, 2005 (Wednesday)
Because of trying to defeat another of those cursed ''pop-up'' windows that still manage to slip by the ''blocker'' in Netscape 7.0, something happened which has disabled the browser from functioning, but the in-system verification/repair utility is telling me that the computer ''start-up disk'' is somehow affected (something about a damaged ''sibling link''). The problem, however, does seem to be limited to this specific browser's operation and does not appear to be affecting anything else. Still, I am somewhat hesitant about switching over to OS X out of fear that it may not restart, although restarting in OS 9 is (for the time being, anyway) not a problem. So until I can find out if reinstalling Netscape 7 in OS 9 will fix the problem or if I'm going to have to resort to more drastic measures, like doing another cock-eating ''reinstall'' of the system software (for the ten millionth time!), I'll be reduced to having to get by on using the other browsers which do not have any ''pop-up blocking'' capabilities at all -- and that includes those in the OS X environment which shouldn't even be selling themselves on their ''pop-up blocker'' functions, since they do a very lousy job of living up to their stated claim.
22:00, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 22, 2005 (Thursday)
Update: Further use has revealed that the ''start-up disk'' problem does extend beyond what was initially believed, and not having a compatible ''repair utility'' I am leveled to having to once again re-scrub EVERYTHING and go through the entire torturous process of reformatting everything again from square one! Bitch! (Why the hell Apple Computer cannot simply supply a disk utility with their own machines, rather than having us rely on ''third party'' programmers to do it is one of the biggest F*cking mysteries I'd like to solve!)
Prior to subjecting myself to this abuse all over again, I'll be dropping the ''Dark Princess'' off at the mechanics for her ''safety recall'' operation, plus shipping this bum DVD back to Amazon.
10:40, Hawaii Standard Time.
September 25, 2005 (Sunday)
Update: I don't much feel like being here, especially with a very recently developing sinus headache or some-such, on top of after spending much of Friday and over 14 hours straight from Saturday morning trying to load & reload system software while experiencing increasing instances of inability to repair/restructure the hard disk and encountering newer and more serious cases of the disk drive displaying signs & reports of irreparable damage, until I had finally reached the breaking point to where I was cursing the day I had ever purchased anything from Apple Computer and swearing audibly that a Windows-based PC is in my near future! The problem had progressed to something where I was getting ''Disk First Aid'' reports stating that it had detected something called a ''missing thread report'' that it could not fix. I had finally reached the point where I was going to, as a last resort, try to use my old ''Disk Warrior'' utility, even though I was certain that it would not do much of anything because of the ''support'' conflict, being a utility originally designed for Mac OS 9.1 -- but by the time I thought I had finally figured out how to set it up to run to check the ''G4'' disk the hard disk icon totally disappeared and the hard disk would not mount at all. After several panicked attempts to do a third software restoration on a disk that would not acknowledge its existence, I finally decided to find out what the prompt to ''initialize the disk'' was all about then followed the cue. When the hard disk reappeared I did another restore of the system software, but deliberately withheld installing the OS X.2 ''upgrade'' discs, which seemed to be somehow connected but of which I cannot be entirely certain now that everything (thus far) is performing well in the so-called ''Classic'' OS (even a run of ''Disk First Aid'' assures me that the hard drive is now clear of problems).
I have yet to transfer my personal files back over to the ''G4'' -- and rather than reinstall or transfer my third party apps back over I decided to download everything afresh from the web, except for my recording apps.
But for now, I've got a developing illness and an invading mosquito bitch to contend with.
(late afternoon / early evening), Hawaii Standard Time.
September 26, 2005 (Monday)
Update: Three back-up transfer sessions later-- each followed by disk volume ''verification'' --everything (so far) seems to be holding stable. Almost everything is reset (in ''OS 9,'' at least) with the exception of a few relatively minor 'preference' reassociations and a restoration of my 'desktop themes'; the biggest headache is going to involve re-establishing my web browsing ''bookmarks.''
I'm dreading reloading the ''Mac OS X'' 'upgrade' discs for fear that they are likely responsible for all the problems I've been having, but there are several apps that I occasionally need to use which do not support pre-''OS 10.2,'' so I'm kind of stuck. I'll wait until I'm well settled within the ''OS 9'' environment before taking that risk again.
16:40, Hawaii Standard Time.
Septermber 28, 2005 (Wednesday)
Feeling too tired (..and too morally 'dirty') to attend Bible Study group today. The degree of tiredness really verified itself as I slept straight through from this morning 'til past 6:00 in the evening (which felt more like 11:00 p.m.).
Picked up my replacement DVD on the way from work this morning, and sure enough it would seem that the entire run of this title were carelessly encoded prior to being shipped out! (Now they want to complicate things even further with this ''HD/'BluRay''' horse-crap!)
Put a few finishing touches re: my files & apps; finally had to snatch Microsoft ''Internet Explorer 4.5'' from an early software installation disk, as the sets ''transferred'' from the G3 and the ''downloaded'' files refused to start up in the G4. Other than resetting my ''desktop themes'' and reaccessing/reformatting my browser ''bookmarks,'' I'm comfortable with what I've got to work with in ''OS 9'' -- so I'm dreading the reinstallation of ''OS X.2,'' which I'm still putting off for the time being.
23:55, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 2, 2005 (Sunday)
Again, using the excuse of feeling too tired to attend worship services this morning, though, truth be told, I have been feeling pretty miserable these past few days. Something is still making me sick and I still can't quite put a finger on what thing(s) is/are responsible. This may prove problematic now that my employers have managed to hammer out some degree of a ''regular'' schedule to begin tomorrow.
Just finished running the ''first aid'' application after some period of use and making a few more tweaks, and everything still seems to be holding up fairly well. My next step now is to match up my ''bookmarks'' list between ''Netscape'' and ''Internet Explorer'' then transfer a few more downloaded files over to the G3, then hope & pray that the reinstallation of ''OS X.2'' takes without causing me any problems.
13:00, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 6, 2005 (Thursday)
Okay... I've been trying for the past couple of hours to do the OSX 10.2 update, and sure enough everything started to go haywire all over again! What was a smooth and uneventful run up to that point has delivered another painful blow. Why all of these problems never occurred with the upgrade installed on the G3 is completely beyond my comprehension. I'm going to make one final series of attempts to try straightening this B.S. out, then I'm through playing torture target to this sack of crap! My only concern is that what I'm about to do may result in altering or completely erasing all of the time and hard work I put into restructuring my ''OS 9'' environment. -- All these headaches for something that I use only for a couple of third-party audio applications and a ''multimedia'' application (none of which having pre-10.2 support) plus the alternate system-installed DVD player.
17:05, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 7, 2005 (Friday)
I honest to God don't know what the hell is going on, except that I'm deliberately being driven insane! All from the moment of my last journal entry last night to close to midnight I had rescrubbing, reloading and re-erasing my hard drive and trying different tactics to try to make the installation of the ''OS X.2'' upgrade stick without any problems-- including trying to load ''OS X'' and the ''10.2'' upgrade a couple of times without loading the so-called ''Classic'' (OS9) environment --and just watching things go from worse to worst! The ''Disk First Aid'' utility for the ''OS 9'' environment would tell me it was finding and fixing problems that the ''OS X'' version of the utility said it could not detect on three different occasions. Everything always went to hell as soon as the first of the two ''upgrade'' discs was installed: never a problem to report up to that point.
This morning I was determined to take one final stab at the situation and try to load this shit program on top of a new installation of the new and then old operating systems installed on another ''erased'' hard drive from taken from each of the ''system software'' discs rather than the 4-part ''software restore'' discs. Again, everything looked good and holding steady, up until I loaded the first half of the ''10.2'' upgrade disc again, and sure enough, another shit attack! I was going to reload the ''OS 9'' system disc once again to see if I could run the ''First Aid'' utility and hopefully find a problem and make another repair attempt, but I had to restart the machine in order to eject the upgrade disc which was still inside. During the restart phase I proceeded to rub off some of the sticky grime from the base of the computer, which caused the computer assembly and its mounted viewscreen to rock and alter their positions. As a result of this, this son of a bitch confirmed what I had only thought was my freaking overblown imagination a very long time ago -- that the actual physical position of this mounted viewscreen in some way affects whether or not this piece of shit computer fully boots and starts up! (Which probably explains why I've never experienced these similar problems in the ''G3.'') BUT WHY IT ONLY BEHAVES THIS WAY WHENEVER ''OS X.2'' IS INSTALLED, OR IN THE PROCESS OF BEING INSTALLED, is what's driving me to fucking insanity!
At this point, it's still up and running, probably because I refused thus far to let the damned thing go to sleep on me, and probably because I haven't touched or repositioned this monitor from its awkward angle. I still want to run the ''OS 9'' disk utility to see if it can locate any problems these ''X'' utilities are saying are not there. But for the time being I'm very hesitant about even doing that. I just have it in mind to let the screen saver run until pau hana time tomorrow morning then see where I want to go from there.
19:15, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 9, 2005 (Sunday)
An invitation to a movie date I made with one of the co-employees with my company for last night fell through when I received a call from her a few minutes before I had intended to contact her, whereupon she told me that she was making emergency plans to leave the Island to be with a cousin who had just turned very sick and requested her presence. The cancellation actually gave me the extra time I needed to finish cleaning & getting this apartment back into discernible order.
I had also tried calling Desiree's number this morning past midnight, but kept receiving an error message: I can't be certain if she was disconnected due to non-payment or a reached contract deadline or if she had canceled her number or blocked incoming calls. (I tried again later this afternoon, and the same error message was being replayed.)
I also rode out to the Downtown/Main Branch of my bank this morning an hour past Midnight to make an automated deposit of the past five paychecks (and a supplimental 'allowance' check) I still had sitting here in the apartment. Took that time to also check my P.O. Box and learned that the issuer of one of my credit cards (Providian) has decided to be swallowed up by a bank based in Nevada in another corporate merger madness deal, so I have decided to discontinue use of said Visa card and cut back to just using one card exclusively for everything, rather than designating a different card for a different style of purchasing as I had always done in the past.
So now, for two weeks straight, I've shirked group Bible services due in part to the pressures I've been under lately, especially where this attitude-copping computer is concerned -- I'm determined to get back on track next week.
16:00, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 12, 2005 (Wednesday)
Well... so much for ''getting back on track'' ... I let myself miss again. What else is new?
I had mailed a letter to Desiree after work this morning, since her cell number is still registering as non-accessible. I let her know I was concerned because of the sudden drop-off.
21:55, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 15, 2005 (Saturday)
Really didn't feel much up to going in to work last night, having to deal with another of those bizarre illnesses which I'm beginning to suspect are mosquito-related. Went in anyway, feeling miserable. Turned out to be the right thing to do, as I was the only one to show up for work; the 'partner' I'm supposed to have never showed up and the office couldn't call anyone else in who was willing to cover (kind of gives me a new appreciation for filling in when a regularly scheduled person doesn't show up for his/her duty). I really didn't mind taking over by myself, except that the illness really prevented me from working to my desired potential -- in fact, I had to sneak away a couple of times just to get rested and alleviate the symptoms to a manageable degree.
23:25, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 24, 2005 (Monday)
Finally completed the full restoration & revision of my ''OS 9'' environment apps & preferences and am pretty close to ready to begin rebuilding ''OS X,'' which shouldn't take nearly as long to set back up, since my major usage in that environment consists only of utilizing a number of A/V apps and an occasional non-OS9-supported game. My newest problem now, though, has been the roadblocks & lock-ups which have been occurring as I've tried ''indexing'' my files (which, in all honesty, I don't even know of what benefit doing so there is, since search features have always next-to non-performed anyway -- the one thing about OS X.4 (''Tiger'') that actually did impress me about it, assuming it actually performs as demonstrated).
04:30, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 27, 2005 (Wednesday)
Accidentally went in to go to work last night when it was my regular day off. After returning to the apartment I took the opportunity to try calling Desiree again only to be met again with the error message I received on my earlier attempts -- I have no idea what is behind it, but I'm hoping she & her daughter Ariana are alright and not in any trouble.
I picked up my paychecks later this afternoon, then used a coupon sent with my Providian Visa
credit card statement to purchase the first ''Pizza Hut'' pizza since God can only remember -- well over 12 years, I'm almost certain, as I cannot recall having ever ordered one any time during the two years I spent in Galveston (where I almost exclusively ate ''Little Caesar's'' (especially since having worked there), and not once the entire time I've lived on Oahu. I've all this time considered ''Pizza Rut's'' menu too expensive.
Finished loading my 3rd party apps in ''OSX'' (somehow I lost ''World Book'' -- sad, but no major loss).
17:45, Hawaii Standard Time.
October 31, 2005 (Monday)
I just got finished reviewing the latest shipment of the ''Urusei Yatsura'' DVD collection and I'm EXTREMELY pissed-off! ''AnimEigo''-- the U.S. distributor and ''translators'' --have not only been paying little attention to the 'transfer' quality (this installment being the worst ever), but I am totally furious at the so-called ''translation'' -- mainly the free and unrestrained use of profane language to render some common Japanese expressions of indignation. This was the absolute worst example of their doing so throughout this entire series: every single episode was littered with several examples of profanities -- "shit"... "asshole"... "bastard"... "bitch"... etc. -- everything except crude references to genitalia or coitus! I am so glad that there is only one final 'box set' of this series remaining, so I will no longer have to send these disrespectful people any more of my money. Hopefully, I can take my anger and transfer it into the incentive I need to commit myself to learning the Japanese language so that I may no longer need to rely on the reading of disingenuously translated subtitles.
01:00, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 4, 2005 (Friday)
After all those wasted attempts to secure one or two of them through Yahoo.com's ''FreeCycle'' group (and having a couple of different guys lying to me saying they each had one to offer me and then chose not to follow-up with me because they both decided that it was okay for me to leave a message on their answering machines, but it was too much trouble for them to return the same courtesy to me), I found a couple of unused ethernet cables in one of the trash cans at work this morning that were meant to be part of a building's alarm system (I assume the system that what was in the box was a replacement for a new or upgraded system for which they already had on hand the cables needed and so did not need these newer ones). I tested both cables just to make sure I had what I hoped I had, and though I still do not know for certain whether or not they truly are ''ethernet modem'' cables, they perform the desired job. So now I have the cables I need to test out whether this internet ''router'' I found in the trash months ago is actually in working condition or not -- which is especially important now, now that I am determined to purchase a ''Dell'' PC.
I also mailed in my first ''rent payment'' past my ''lease renewal deadline,'' because (from what I was told by our resident manager) the property management company has been falling behind on their stuff (no explanation given), so at the suggestion of the resident manager I mailed in the payment I normally submitted during throughout the previous lease period and hope it all reflects well and gets credited accordingly -- hopefully with a downward ''modification'' in my monthly obligation.
But this is what makes purchasing the new computer a little uncertain. The model/configuration I've decided on is going to cost somewhere over $1,000 (once shipping fees are factored in), despite being on sale as a ''special offer'' -- and having this, as well as other major expenses such as my motorcycle registration renewal and more advance DVD purchases, falling within this same time frame of uncertainty with regard to my not-yet authenticated ''lease extension,'' I could very well be setting myself up for a painful financial beach-slap.
18:15, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 5, 2005 (Saturday)
Located Desiree's Mazda on the way from work this morning and left a note with my contact information on her windshield, making this my final attempt to re-establish contact between us.
After returning to the apartment I went online and tracked the status on my most recent DVD shipment and found out that the package had arrived over a week ago, but I had never received any notification in my mailbox, so I immediately went to the post office to claim it.
Returning from the post office, the resident manager presented me with the lease renewal forms: my rent will be increasing by $16, which is still probably resulting in my paying more of ''my share'' than I qualify for, but considering what rents are like in the state of Hawaii, I'm not going to be one to complain too loudly.
20:30, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 8, 2005 (Tuesday)
I was actually all set to make my online purchase today of the Dell computer I had been considering for the past week or so, but the asswipes at Dell decided they wanted to play too many games in too short a time frame. First, when I came to the decision on unit/configuration I wanted, the ''introductory price'' was $1,000, which included a 19'' flat panel monitor and a so-called ''dual core'' Intel ''Pentium D'' processor. A few days later, there was a price drop of $50, but there was also a ''size drop'' in the monitor -- ''upgraded'' from a 19-inch to a 17-inch (supposedly a difference between ''analog'' and ''ultra-sharp'' -- if there even is such a substantial difference). Even with this reconfiguration I was ready to place my order, but at almost the last minute (prior to tomorrow's ''deadline'') they pulled another stunt and replaced the ''Pentium D'' with a ''Pentium 4'' processor, and no price reduction! So I'm going to have to see something below the $900 mark before I give any real consideration to the purchasing of this product.
My obsession with Desiree hasn't quite waned just yet -- I had to check between jobs last night to see if the note I had left on her car's windshield had been acquired. Her car was indeed parked in the same location (unmoved?), but the note had been removed (by her? or by someone else?). It's the uncertainty of the whole situation that's driving me to the point of near-insanity.
Called my office this morning, then went in to reiterate while I was picking up my paycheck this afternoon, to discuss my desire to switch workdays at Kapiolani Community College. Part of the reason, as I explained to them, was to cover a workshift they've been having extreme difficulty filling with someone regular & reliable which, in turn, would give myself some ''breathing space'' between jobs, rather than racing from one jobsite to another with only a two-hour gap in between and no rest or time to eat much of anything. The real reason I requested the move, however, is that the person they have me partnered with now is another of those goof-off, non-working, ''put the bulk of the burden on the back of the other guy'' types who enjoys the added distinction of being a major prick -- and I am just so dambed tired of complaining and ''ratting out'' these jerks that it's going to cause the blood vessels in my head to rupture at some point. So hopefully, with a switch in the workdays, I can get at least some relief.
18:15, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 13, 2005 (Sunday)
I finally made my online purchase of the ''Windows-based'' PC I've been screaming about getting for the past I-don't-know-how-many years now just a little over a couple of hours ago -- but not any of the ones I had originally thought I'd be purchasing. You see, the ubiquitous Dell screwed itself royally, first with all the 'bait-&-switching' nonsense they subjected me to (all in short notice), but they also got me to wondering about CPU performances and what-all, which resulted in my going on line to do a little research into Intel's ''Pentium D'' ''dual core'' processors and comparing them against their ''Pentium 4'' ''hyper-threading'' line, to see if the extra bucks really would have been well spent on what may have turned out to be little more than just another ''gimmick.'' After some searching, I found a six-page article (with performance charts) posted at ''The Register'' (UK) which led me to not only question the ''Pentium D's'' hype, but to also ask why it was that Dell was using the ''600'' series of the ''Pentium 4'' in their ''Dimension'' line while setting as the ''introductory'' chip for their ''top of the line'' ''XPS'' models a low-end ''500'' series chip -- which was also the only ''P4'' processor they made available for that model line, reserving any CPU ''upgrades'' only for the ''Pentium D.''
According to what I was able to garner from the article at ''The Register,'' the ''Pentium D'' is an an intriguing concept with overall poor performance -- big hype, little show. The tests showed that ''PD'' can barely keep up with her ''single core'' siblings except in rare instances. But what they also showed me (which confirms something a service technician at our local ''CompUSA'' once told me several years ago when I asked him about the differences) is that ''Advanced Micro Devices'' CPUs generally tend to outperform ''Intels.'' So based on these two new insights into CPU performance, I conducted a new search in hopes of finding a system from another manufacturer which use ''AMD'' processors in their configurations (as ''Dells'' are exclusively ''Intel-based'').
I sort of found what I was looking for in ''Hewlett Packard.'' After spending a couple of hours comparing several ''HP'' models as well as one of their ''Compaq'' models, I finally settled on one of their ''Pavilion'' units (''d4100e''), which I configured with an ''AMD'' ''Athlon 64'' (3500+) processor, an 80 Gig hard drive, 1 Gig of memory, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo optical drive, and a 19'' flat panel LCD monitor. Of course, I included the ''Norton'' anti-virus suite (welcoming myself to the wonderful world of setting myself up for net-attacks, now!), and I also included the ''Works'' package, because I wanted ''Microsoft Word.''
With the ''instant rebates,'' it'll cost me all-in-all close to $1,240! (Thank God for their ''free shipping'' offer, which would've run an additional $100!) But considering that each of the three ''iMacs'' I purchased cost roughly somewhere in the same neighborhood (which were preconfigured much more sparingly and were capable of doing considerably less than even the lowest-end PCs), my only gripe is that I'll now have to find space for it all (and try to get used to having to deal with a ''multi-component'' machine for the first time in my life, having become spoiled by ''iMacs'' and their ''all-contained, singular unit'' configurations) and that I'll now have to force myself (and spend the horrendous amounts of time) to learn the ''Windows'' operating system, of which I know next to nothing, outside of being able to fake my way onto the internet.
There are a couple of additional ''rebates'' (of the dreaded ''mail-in'' variety) which I also qualify for, but I'll need to call customer service to ask if any forms will be shipped with the units or if the PDF 'print-outs' are the only way to acquire them (if the latter, I'll be in a S.L.O.T., since I have no 'printing' capabilities).
22:30, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 17, 2005 (Wednesday)
Forced myself to deposit my most recent paycheck then renew my motorcycle registration and pay my month-overdue phone/DSL bill. Afterwards I went to CompUSA where I once again subjected myself to another of the endless supply of ''Mac-Zombies'' who consider it their holy crusade to seriously question and dissuade anyone who expresses any interest in a ''Microsoft/Windows'' product -- and my being a current ''Mac-user'' whose intent is to ''switch'' to ''Windows'' makes me especially heretical in their view (I got into this latest philosophical discussion by asking for a representative who was fluent in the use of both operating systems who could help explain some of the differences between the two systems and what difficulties a ''newbie'' to ''Windows'' OS could expect, plus to ask about using ''routers'' for shared internet).
While at the computer store I managed to play around & become a bit familiarized with that ''Windows Media Center'' programamajig and realized that it was very likely (as I had already suspected when I configured my ''HP'' to include it) a completely unnecessary sales gimmick that was an unwise waste of the extra $20.
22:30, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 21, 2005 (Monday)
The computer monitor arrived this afternoon. Of course, my request to be given a phone call just prior to drop-off went completely ignored -- as if being forced to endure another of those cursed automated answering/redircting systems which intentionally leave out the option to speak to a live representative didn't infuriate me enough!
21:10, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 22, 2005 (Tuesday)
The rest of the computer arrived this afternoon. The cursed thing is huge-er (yes, I know that's a ''non-word'') than I thought it would be -- the blasted thing being as long and as tall as the keyboard (the size & space consumption of ''PC'' units being the main thing which led me to ''Apple Computers / Macintosh OS'' in the first place)! The little side-stand/bookshelf unit someone intended to discard last night, which I scavenged this early this morning, came right on time for not only this new media bay acquisition, but it also answered the need for the small additional amount of space I needed to take up the recent overflow resulting from the final remaining few additions to my DVD library. I spent most of the time since then trying to figure out how to rearrange things to best accommodate everything and setting up the new computer's hardware (...too many wires, too many pieces, too damned much documentation, etc. for ''PC'' configuration -- here is where ''iMacs'' really spoiled me); my biggest problem is that I'm running out of convenient electrical outlets. In any case, I'll be kept quite busy with reading at work, going through all the various booklets. I don't really plan on turning the machine on or getting started until I've acquired my ''Windows XP for Dummies'' book and internet router I ordered from ''Amazon'' a few days ago, which I hope will arrive by tomorrow morning.
19:50, Hawaii Standard Time.
November 26, 2005 (Saturday)
Found another ethernet cable recently thrown away at work yesterday morning -- same situation as last week (a byproduct of an alarm unit installation) at a different building. Not sure if I'll really need it for anything, unless I decide to connect the ''back-up'' G3 ''iMac'' to the internet as well (doubtful). And as if timed together precisely for this purpose, this latest find was greeted with the arrival of my Amazon.com order of the ''Windows XP for Dummies'' book and internet router. Again, I hooked everything up and let it sit idle until I could figure out what be be done immediately after turning it on.
Three days of reading & researching & navigating ''help'' sites on the internet and already I can say with an air of certainty that I hate ''Windows'' OS! (Of course, all the ''Mac Fanatics'' tried to warn me ... but Steve Jobs keeps indicating to me that he doesn't want anyone like me, so what was I supposed to do?
* Update - (22:45):
Called HP's ''Customer Support'' representatives immediately after posting the latest journal entry -- due to all of the confusing documentation, additional/unsupplied software discs and whatnot, being totally new to anything other than Macintosh I really needed somebody to walk me through step-by-step to get the initial ''set-up'' headache out of the way (-- the rep was very patient and helpful). Once that was taken care of I went through the process of registering & activating my antivirus/firewall protection suite then proceeded to configure & connect my internet router. The past couple of hours have been more or less a ''familiarity session,'' getting accustomed to many of the differences & difficulties, as well as marveling at some of the operating advantages of the ''XP'' system (though there's no doubt in my mind that I will never fully 'warm-up' to the ''Windows'' operating system). I really am taking a particular liking to the 19'' display, when I thought all this time that 15'' was more than sufficient.
18:25, Hawaii Standard Time.
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