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I did something that I used to think I would never do. I bought an iPod. I’ve changed my mind on it at least 3 times in the past couple of days, but I finally placed the order today.

I’ve gotten the idea of getting an mp3 player in my mind several times over the past few years, but I always change my mind. I really don’t need one. All the stuff I can do on an iPod I can do on other devices. I can even do it better on other devices. However, the iPod has a convenience factor and a coolness factor. Although I am rarely in situations where I have to use the iPod, I’m sure I will WANT to use it once I have it.

At one point I thought that I would buy a Zune if I bought any mp3 player. I’m kinda anti-Apple lately. I changed my mine on getting a Zune after a friend of mine got an iPod. I’ve already ripped all of my CDs to my hard drive using iTunes. I still don’t understand why people get so excited over iTunes. It is something awful. I’ll have to get used to it I guess. I’ve also started organizing the mp3s I already had. I can see myself obsessing over this for many hours, but it’ll be great to be able to listen to any of my songs whenever I want.

I’m excited about finally making it into the 21st century in this area. It should be here by the end of the week. I think I’m going to buy some accessories today.

I’m making this entry from my brand new desktop computer. I had planned on having this new machine built weeks ago, but I was delayed by slow shipment times and some complications. I tried doing something like this several years ago but I didn’t really know what I was doing and I ran into so many issues that I just ended up ordering another Dell.

I bought a new video card and processor. I used the DVD-RW, CD-RW (not sure why I still have both), RAM, and hard drive from my previous desktop. I’ll probably be upgrading the RAM very soon.

I learned a valuable lesson during my computer project: you get what you pay for. I don’t know what I was thinking. I bought a barebones kit. I was trying to be cheap and not spend a lot of money on something that may not work out right. Of course, it didn’t work out. After all the diagnostic tests, reading the manuals 50000 times, and seeking advice from others I realized that the problem was most likely crappy equipment. The good thing is that it didn’t cost much to learn that lesson. The second time I ordered more reliable parts. So far so great. The only complaint that I have so far is that the machine is a little loud.

Hopefully, I’ll be playing Oblivion, Titan Quest, or the full version of Prey for the first time tonight. I still haven’t decided. Check out my Xfire profile to see if I’m up to something.

I’ve had a Linksys wireless router for about to two years now. The Linksys firmware is limited. I’ve known for a while that it is possible to install third-party firmware, but I’ve been hesitant to do. I finally decided to go ahead and give it a try. The firmware that I decided to use was Tomato Firmware. All I had to do was use the firmware update option in the default firmware. I haven’t played around with Tomato much, but what I’ve seen so far is cool. I’m mostly interested in the bandwidth usage monitor.

One of the main reasons I decided to change the firmware was that I wanted to monitor our monthly bandwidth usage. I’ve heard about ISPs limiting how much bandwidth you can use. Although my ISP doesn’t do so, out of curiosity I wanted to see how much our household uses. I normally download at least 2 or 3 shows from iTunes each week.

So far I’m not having any problems with the new firmware. I hope that continues.

This has been kind of a rough week between lack of sleep and sinus stuff. I’ve had lots of fun though. I’ve spent many hours playing Valkyrie Profile 2 and may be starting Super Paper Mario tonight.

My new case and motherboard that I ordered from TigerDirect came in the mail the other day. I already received my new processor and video card. I’m moving the DVD burner, sound card, and hard drive from my old computer to this new one. Today I went to the new computer store and bought a cooling fan. I’m so eager to start putting everything today, but since I feel terrible I think I’ll hold off until the weekend.

The thing I miss the most about being a student is learning new stuff. Maybe I’ll take a class over the summer or in the fall since it would be free. I have learned a lot of new stuff at work but it has slowed down some lately. Thankfully, I’ll be getting something fresh and new to jump into within the next few days.

Getting that new monitor last week made me want to make some more upgrades. Everything looks so much better now. There are some PC games out there worth playing and I’m getting the urge to play more. I installed the Command and Conquer 3 demo over the weekend and by default all the settings were low. I have a feeling that if I bump up the settings I’ll see some serious performance issues.

My desktop is about 4.5 years old, so it’s past time to start thinking about a new one. I’m going to start buying components for a new system. Thankfully, I should be able to transfer some of the newer stuff from my old system to my new one.

The first thing I want to buy is a video card because I could probably start using it right away. I’m a little behind on video card advancements. My current card is a Geforce FX 5200 with 128 MB of VRAM. Don’t laugh!

Even something in the 6 series would be an improvement for me. I want to buy other upgrades, so I don’t want to spend too much on a video card. I haven’t started looking at prices yet, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I could shoot higher for a great price. Also, I haven’t ruled out buying an ATI card.

I ended up buying this monitor as a replacement for my CRT that died. It’s fine for what I need it for and I get a rebate if I remember to fill that form out. I seem to be partial to Samsung products these days.

I watched Parenthood the other night at its still good after all this time. My mom was a member of Columbia House (when they had VHS movies) and that was one of the movies she bought. The fact that I still remembered most of it even though I hadn’t seen it in around 15 years means that I must have watched it over and over again. “When you’re slidin’ into first and you feel a sudden burst…”

I finished reading Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub. It’s the sequel to The Talisman. It’s a much different book than The Talisman. The whole style seems different. A lot of that may be because they were written about 20 years apart. It’s still a great book, however. There’s a lot of Dark Tower goodness that people who were fans of that series will enjoy. **minor spoiler warning** It even had a warning about continuing past a certain point at the end just like book 7 of The Dark Tower. **end spoiler warning**

Speaking of The Dark Tower, I hear that it may also be made into a movie or TV series.

I went online to pay my DirecTV bill a few days ago and saw that I owed over $200. It turns out that they charged me fees that I had been told I would be charged. I paid the amount that was due on the last bill, waited a day for the payment to go through, and then called them to have all the extra charges taken care of. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they weren’t trying to cheat me. It probably happened because my call got disconnected before the guy could finalize the deal and the second lady didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to be charged those fees.

Those Amazon.com ads on the right side of the home page seem to be different depending on whether I’m using Internet Explorer or Firefox. I wonder why that is.

I got pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt of all things. The one time I wasn’t wearing it and that happens. I discovered at the time that I didn’t have a recent insurance card on me. I had 3 expired cards, but not one that was up-to-date. I also discovered my driver’s license expired in about 2 months ago on my birthday. I had no idea. Time flies in the real world. He let me off with a warning on the seatbelt and expired driver’s license and only gave me a ticket for no insurance. Once I go show them proof that I do have insurance, I’ll be set.

Update, 2/26
Stephen King has now confirmed that The Dark Tower will be adapted by LOST co-creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof. How much did they pay him for the rights? $19. Somehow that’s not surprising.

Last night I was going about my business updating this site using my desktop computer. All of a sudden the screen on my monitor when black for a second and it came back. I looked at the clock to see if it would be flashing because of a power outage, but I didn’t think that would be the case. After all, I didn’t notice the overhead light go out.

A little later the screen went out again and the monitor started making ticking sounds. The LED that indicates that the monitor is on wasn’t lit. I pressed the power switch on the tower to turn the computer off, but the ticking continued. I was going to wait until what was on TV (The State Within on BBC America) to go off to worry about it more, but the ticking was so annoying that I wanted to take the monitor and throw it in the dumpster. I unplugged the monitor and the ticking stopped.

I’ve never had anything like this happen, but I’m assuming that the monitor is dead. I’ve had it since 2001 or 2002, so it’s probably past time to get a new one. I have a 15-inch monitor that I could use as a backup, but it would be a pain to get to the closet that it is in.

Time to start shopping again.

Yesterday I used my desktop on and off sparingly throughout the day. It’s in my room and I didn’t spend a lot of time in there yesterday. I noticed a noise coming from the case, but it barely registered with me and I didn’t really pay much attention to it. Late that night when I finally sat down to really use it, I defeated the forces of Isengard at Helm’s Deep and then I attacked Isengard itself (The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth). Once I finished playing I went to bed, but I left my computer running. As I lay in bed, I heard the noise again and it finally hit me what it was. I immediately got out of bed and shut the computer off. A few years ago the same noise started coming from my laptop and within a week the hard drive failed. Back then I didn’t know about the dreaded clicking sound and I learned a hard lesson. I hope that I’ve caught it early enough this time that I can retrieve the important (and not so important stuff) from the drive. This morning I bought a new hard drive and I am in the process of getting it all set up. Hopefully, I’ll be back in Middle-Earth soon.

Oh, and I’ve been playing StarCraft some lately. Call me old school.

I’m back in Starkville after a short trip to Jackson. My friends and family were good to me again this year. For my birthday and Christmas I got:

• The Talisman and The Black House, both by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Extended Edition
• Time & Again Shea Butter
• Fraggle Rock: Doin’ the Things That Doozers Do
• a USB Hub
• a USB Adapters Kit
• money
• The Transformers 20th THe Movie Anniversary Edition
• a Visa Gift Card

Recently I bought Bully for the PS2. It’s mission-style gameplay reminds me a lot of GTA. That’s not surprising since they come from the same company. Bully is rated T for Teen, so I guess it won’t be quite as bad as GTA. I wonder if I can finish the game before I go back to work.

I started reading The Talisman on Christmas Eve. I’m already hooked on it and I’m having a hard time putting it down. I think my friend was right when he told me that a lot of the annoying elements of King’s writing are held in check, maybe because of the guy he co-authored the book with. At least I think that’s what John was saying. I discovered tonight that there’s a mini-series based on The Talisman coming out in 2008.

Please don’t waste your time watching The Wicker Man like I did. It was terrible.

The first season of Coupling was really good. I’m looking forward to watching the rest.

I discovered the option on the DirecTV menu that allows you to watch programs in Spanish when available. I never realized how much fun that could be. It really improves the quality of some programs.

I’ll be going back to work a week from Wednesday. I’m going to enjoy this time off as much as I can.

Last night I finished reading Song of Susannah, book 6 of The Dark Tower. It was short compared to the last few in the series, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t mind the story so much as I did the last one. I can’t wait to get started on the last one. Hopefully, it’ll be here by the weekend.

Those Intel Core 2 Duo commercials bother me for some reason.

I saw Saw III over the weekend. It was ok up until the ending.

I think I want to get a Wii instead of an Xbox 360 or a PS3.

George R.R. Martin is upset because PayPal locked his account after his name showed up on a Treasury Department list. It’s an interesting story.

Update (Nov. 9):
Looks like George R.R. Martin’s PayPal dispute was settled after he wrote his blog entry. I doubt that he asked for any special treatment, but I’m sure that fact that he’s a celebrity didn’t hurt.