Runswithsnails IV

Well, I had my first day of geology class (in college, anyway). And I'll be back to German soon, so I'll have to make this post quick. I know I neglected this during my spring break. Part of the reason for that was that I bought Oblivion and have been playing it on this computer. I fully intend for that game not to take over my entire life, but yeah, I'll most likely go right back to playing as soon as I get home this afternoon.

I actually made three characters on Oblivion when my brother had an XBox 360. When he introduced me to it, he told me not to worry about the name because the character's name is of no importance. So I made a dark elf named Runswithsnails. I joined all of the guilds and performed various quests. On the very last quest in the thieve's guild, a glitch prevented me from being able to finish the quest. My character had taken forever to get as far as he was because he'd leveled up so quickly (on account of Oblivion's misleading skill and leveling system) that the monsters were way stronger than him. So I started over, this time with a carefully planned version of Runswithsnails who took advantage of an invisibility spell to do everything. But then my brother's console died. After he got a second XBox 360, I made yet another Runswithsnails, which I intended to be like the previous version, but instead I ended up with this bizarre creation that was heavily armored and still somehow this amazing acrobat who could jump around and over every obstacle, but with very little damage-dealing capability.

Well, I lost that one too, so now on my computer I have Runswithsnails IV. And he shall be the last in the line of Runswithsnails. He will eventually surpass his predecessors, but he's not quite there yet.

Also, in case you missed it, I finally put a video on my Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZoAbNiQakg

Go and watch it. I am wonderful.

Good to be back at school, I guess. Geology is looking promising. It's in the same room as my organic chemistry lectures were, which makes it feel weird. I didn't really learn anything today. Instead, the instructor rattled off a bunch of questions without answering them. But they're questions that geology can address (or so I hope). More on that later, but probably not. Either way, that's all for now.

Kind of still about the computer...

I now have a mouse. This is good. It is much more convenient than the touchpad. That wheel thingie in the middle of the mouse is a good invention. I would say more, but it is time for dinner. Bye now.

Hell yes (about my computer again because it's totally fixed and everything is good)

I am happy to report that for the first time ever, I am posting from school without any fear of my computer spontaneously crashing on me. If it seems like I'm overdone it with the posts on this topic, well, I agree. In my defense, this was all pretty ridiculous. So to review, on the old journal, it went like this...

New computer for the first time since I don't even remember when...
"The only problem is I forgot to get a mouse, so for now I'm stuck with this silly touchpad (my old mouse is totally incompatible with this newfangled technology). I'll remedy that soon enough." Hahahahahahahahahaha. So much for that. How young and stupid I was three months ago.

I spoke too soon
"Alright, so not having the mouse is not the only problem." No, it definitely wasn't.

Waiting for a response
"I'm bummed out about this upgrade thing, perhaps more than I should be." Somehow I still hadn't realized that the upgrade was the least of my problems.

Hooray for computer issues...
"So in addition to still not having this upgrade thing sorted out, now my old computer has a problem." Oh no, the decade-old computer with too little remaining diskspace that hadn't been defragmented in a year suddenly had a glitch with one web browser that went away after the computer was restarted. The horror, the horror. Actually, at some point in this mess, I started referring to that machine as "old reliable" because I could actually use it. Later that epithet would take on a new meaning, because when I'd restart it while trying to connect it to a network with this one for file transfer, it would reliably take 20 minutes to boot up to the point where I could actually do anything.

Back to school tomorrow
"I still need to buy a mouse for my new computer. And I still haven't resolved the upgrade thing yet, although it seems that we are making progress. For now, that is all. It's not much, I know. But there will be more later. I hope." Well, still no mouse. But I do now have a new mousepad, which I won as a fabulous prize in statistics class. By this point, I must have been all too familiar with the computer's tendency to crash, but I hadn't posted about it. I had talked about it on instant messenger, but because some quick web searches had revealed that the display driver being named in the blue screen was associated with Windows Vista, I assumed that the upgrade would do away with the problem.

At school now
"I have arrived and finally managed to use GRCC's internet—with my laptop. Oh yeah, never done that before." Ah, the beginning of the quarter. And here I thought I'd mainly be using my own personal computer at school rather than the ones in the library or technology center. Heh. Wrong!

Really wanting that upgrade now...
"Stupid Windows Vista crashed on me while I was typing an entry and so, because LJ is also stupid, I lost what I'd typed." Windows Vista didn't crash on you, moron. Your broken computer crashed on you.

This should be easy...
"But you know what, I'm going to take it as a sign that yes, I really, really do want to do chemistry professionally and...okay, Windows Vista crashed again. I'm done. I hate Windows Vista." Again, misplaced blame. Windows Vista isn't that bad. I mean, I'm glad I got my upgrade and all, but I don't know why I was so quick to blame the operating system here. Must have been the stigma. I'd heard bad stuff about Windows Vista so I assumed that it was the source of all my problems.

The saga continues
"I had to scan my receipt and photograph the sticker on the bottom of my computer and send those images to them...and damn, the display driver crashed my computer again. I was going to tell the rest of this story first because I thought I'd finally gotten it to stop. But no. So my computer is still not functioning properly. Awesome. I guess my next update will be from the old computer then..." The plot thickens.

New computer saga continued
"I did some troubleshooting and at this time I have no idea if my computer will crash again. I would like for it not to." It totally was going to. Hindsight. If only I had it before stuff happened.

Inexplicable slump
" I received my new hard drive and installed it. And I shipped the defective hard drive back to them, but I'm still waiting on my recovery disk, as the new hard drive is blank." No, danger. Mayday. Mayday. It isn't the hard drive. It's the motherboard, you fool.

Sleep vs. Homework vs. Neither
"The issues with this computer might finally be resolved. I'm not positive yet." They weren't!

Wherein I explain just what the deal has been with this new computer thing...
"She also gave me the idea of running the test on the hard drive again to see if it was a coincidence that I had both this problem and a bad hard drive or if this problem is some sort that might have messed up the test on the hard drive (i.e. the motherboard is screwed up and it caused a false positive on the test). I actually did that just now and it turned out that it was a coincidence: I got a hard disk test pass this time." Yes, parentheses. You're right. If only you hadn't been so...parenthetical?

So cool...
"Anyway, I am tired and I am waiting for FedEx to deliver my computer, which probably isn't going to happen because the company has a rule that if a signature is required, they can only attempt to make the delivery when you are not home." That was when I was waiting for it to come back from the repair center for the first time.

For a minute there I thought I actually had a working computer...
"Are you surprised that this crap isn't over? I sure am. Yes, indeed, I am shocked. I am absolutely taken aback. Didn't expect this at all." That totally wasn't sarcasm or anything. No sir, no sarcasm there.

Things have been more annoying recently than they were a little less recently
"Why would they need me to sign for an empty box? Why? It's empty! Am I supposed to be worried that someone would steal my empty box? It's empty. It has nothing of value in it. Just give me the damn box. But no, not without my signature. This sucks." In case you couldn't tell, I was really pissed off about that.

The end of the computer saga (I hope)
"I'd like to get acquainted with my new computer for real this time and put all the software I want on it and everything like that, but it's dead week, so the timing isn't the best for that." And now it's finals week and I'm at school posting here instead of studying. Priorities.

So yeah, three months, two trips to the repair center and back, two operating system upgrades, one hard drive replacement, one memory replacement, and one motherboard replacement later, I'm finally confident that my "new" computer is 100% functional.

On Monday night, I attempted to connect both of my computers as a workgroup via local area network in order to transfer like 10 gigabytes of files from the old computer to this one. I say "tried" but actually, I eventually succeeded. It wasn't easy, mostly because of how inaccessible the option is, both in Windows 2000 and Windows 7. After a number of methods that just didn't work, my web-searching eventually turned up something that got the computers recognizing each other. That took like three hours, in part because of how long it took to access my old computer after restarting it, as I was restarting both computers multiple times. But then I had to figure out how to disable the password requirement for one computer to access the other. I made a shared folder on this computer that I could copy stuff to on the old computer, and began moving stuff, which took a long time, probably because of the slowness of my old computer. So yeah, that's done with.

Oh, time to go to class. Bye now.

The end of the computer saga (I hope)

Of course, the last time I thought this was all over, it wasn't actually. But I got my computer back from the repair center again. According to the form taped to the computer, this time the motherboard was repaired (or replaced). I'm fairly confident that this is the end of the saga simply because almost everything else was already ruled out. I mean, mysterious, intermittent crashes on two different operating systems with two different hard drives and the memory replaced too. What else could it have been? Also, supposedly a senior-level technician was to look go over everything before the computer was sent back to me this time.

So yeah, that's cool. It only took three months. So much for being able to use it at school this quarter (much). Very frustrating, but I guess these things happen sometimes.

I'd like to get acquainted with my new computer for real this time and put all the software I want on it and everything like that, but it's dead week, so the timing isn't the best for that. I also want to buy a mouse for this thing and possibly headphones.

The important thing is that the saga is (apparently) over.

Book review: Man Plus, by Frederick Pohl

I think my headache/concussion was actually mostly my neck (trapezius). Anyway, I read another book...

A common element in science fiction from around this time was a futuristic continuation of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. This book at least does something interesting with that concept and extends it elsewhere, with a Chinese-led pan-Asian group that is one of the biggest superpowers in the world. Brazil is also apparently a superpower. Several nations have nuclear arsenals. They have myriad territorial disputes and alliances and factions like something from before World War I in Europe. Only it's with the whole world. And they hate each other even more. And there are big problems with overpopulation. And everyone has nuclear weapons. So yeah, it's one of those stories where the fate of the human race is at stake. And it's one of those stories where global thermonuclear war is the threat that everyone is (rightfully) worried about. But at least it seems like a more authentic version of that theme. It doesn't feel all that contrived (even though it is).

I was only somewhat drawn in by Man Plus at first. The style of writing was to my liking. The alternate future/past/present (not that there's time travel in the story or anything, it's just that I can't remember a year ever being specified, but there are some references that indicate the story can't be taking place all that far from now or what would be now, in the universe of this book anyway) was interesting and somewhat compelling. But the characters were just not likable. That's not necessarily a crippling flaw in a book, but for some reason it defied my expectations. The main character seemed like a boring everyman and almost everyone else was stupid or degenerate or both. It was as though the narrator had a low opinion of these people.

And speaking of that, I found that far too intriguing to be put off much by the unlikability of the characters. I mean, the narrator. We are never properly introduced. The book drops hints and it becomes increasingly obvious. By the time I was sure of the narrator's identity, I was well past hooked on the story and had even grown to like the characters a little.

The premise is that in this world where the total destruction of the human race (by its own weapons) is imminent, the United States government has turned to computing to find ways to avoid that predicament. They come to the conclusion that the only hope for humanity is to colonize Mars. They also come to the conclusion that the only way to have a successful colony on Mars is to have at least one cyborg that can survive the extremes of the Martian environment outside of any protective domes (which will also be built). And that's where the title of the book comes in. The astronaut who volunteers for this project will be man plus whatever machinery is incorporated into him.

The lengths they go to are quite extreme. And the greatest strength of Man Plus is its exploration of cybernetic augmentation.

I never found this to be a really dull book, but I started out considering it only a bit above average. It kept getting better and better, though. If this sounds like the sort of book that would appeal to you, well, it would. I recommend it. Not sure where it goes on my top 50. It makes the list, but it's not in the top 20. I will definitely be reading more Frederik Pohl in the future.

Things have been more annoying recently than they were a little less recently...

I guess I have a minor concussion. Maybe. It's not that bad or anything. I took quite a blow to the head last night at judo practice.

We were working on gripping for offense and defense, which isn't something I really do and I felt like I was doing worse than normal anyway. I was practicing with this kid who's bigger than I am (I think he's 210 pounds or so), but less experienced. When I work with him I mess around sometimes, attacking all out and ignoring defense if I feel up to it or just stuffing his throws and making him really work to set them up. I wasn't doing anything like that this time, because he kept going for kouchi gari and missing and hitting the same spot on my shin. After a while, it was hurting too much for me to bother stepping forward, so I resisted a lot when he tried to pull me that way. He did something that was kind of smart, which was to use this to set up harai goshi.

It ended up being one of those throws where the thrower throws his opponent, but also throws himself (I guess only people who know about judo would get what I mean). Not a problem, except he landed right on my head. Directly. Hard. His body slammed into the front of my head and drove the back of my head into the mat. For several seconds, my vision was filled with white starburst thingies. I sat the rest of practice out, but didn't have any nausea or severe symptoms, just a big headache. When they did running lines at the end of practice, I got back in (since I wouldn't be getting my head banged up more if I just ran lines). I did fine. Better than usual.

I woke up this morning and still had a headache. I've had it all day. It's annoying, but not agonizing like the migraines I usually get (and it's in the back of my head instead of the front). Also, my neck strap muscles are hurting and my trapezius is kind of sore too. So yeah, I guess I have a concussion, although the more serious symptoms I hear about with concussions are absent in my case. The only thing other than the headache and sore neck is a bit of disorientation every once in a while, but it seems to disappear instantly once I notice it.

Also, I am really angry at HP right now. I was expecting to receive the box today that I could use to send my computer to the repair center (again). Well, FedEx showed up around 10:00 in the morning just like they love doing and of course I wasn't there to sign for it because I was at school. So they left a note on the door. That's happened before. But wait a minute. I've done this before. The package is an empty box. It has a prepaid shipping label, two pieces of foam to protect the computer, and a slip of paper for me to write some information. But that's it. Oh, I think the last one also had a strip of tape with which to reseal the box. And that's it. The box is (essentially) empty because when I get it, I'll fill it (with my computer) and send it back to them.

Why would they need me to sign for an empty box? Why? It's empty! Am I supposed to be worried that someone would steal my empty box? It's empty. It has nothing of value in it. Just give me the damn box. But no, not without my signature. This sucks.