I still haven’t gotten a

I still haven’t gotten a order confirmation email yet. I got the “we’ve received your order” email, but nothing saying that they’ve shipped it. I don’t expect anyone to have worked yesterday, but come on, it’s 3pm on Monday, 3 days after I ordered things, you’d figure they could have them shipped by now. You know what else sucks. If any of it doesn’t work, I only have 15 from DATE OF PURCAHSE to return it. I paid for 5 day ground shipping and so I figured I’d have a week to test it out. At this rate I’ll only have a few days. To add to the misery of waiting, I’ve got a ton of homework this week, so getting it put together will be a long, late night affair. Sucky, suck, suckity suck. Whatever.

Now I’m getting antsy. I

Now I’m getting antsy. I want my computer now. Right now. Immediately. I don’t want to do my homework, I want to spend the afternoon putting my system together. But, I won’t have that pleasure until next weekend if all goes well. Nagle called me a pessimistic SOB for worrying about it, and he’s right of course, I’m worrying about this thing too much. I know it’s Sunday, but is a shipping confirmation to much to ask for? I think not.

Along the same lines, I’ve been downloading Mandrake 8.2 and I think that once I migrate everything over to the new system, I might switch the old machine over to a linux box. Dunno yet. Either that or FreeBSD. But that won’t be until this summer. Or maybe I might even wait till I get back to school in the fall for that. I’m planning on making it into a server/router/firewall for cable modem sharing purposes. I’ll play with it and see what’s easiest to use/setup. As for the new system, it’ll be running XP simply because there’s no reason not to. If Dave will still let me take him up on his offer that is. Dave rules. Have I mentioned that?

In the meantime it’ll be running 2k until I get home. I’ll try not to put anything incredibly useful on the new machine because I’ll be wanting to do a clean install of XP. That doesn’t mean I won’t be playing games like a mofo. I plan on loading up anything and everything that I can find and experiencing them in all they’re magical 3D glory. This will be the first time I’ll have a processor that’s comparable to my graphics card. In the past I had a AMD K6-3 450 with a TNT2, then the same processor with a GF2. It got the job done, but it was hardly “top-o-the-line.” For the past two years I’ve had to play games with textures turned down, with low resolutions, in 16bit color, without special effects. That is no more. Now, I can play games in 1600×1200, with 32bit color, with every feature available turned on… and I’m ecstatic about it. Woot. I say again, WOOT!

I know what you’re thinking… “Matt, in the midst of all this computer goodness, what about your homework?” Well, fear not, for I have completely forgotten about it. Is that smart? No, its not. But I don’t care. I’m getting a computer! Woot. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. I probably should finish my comic book and take a few rolls of film, that would be the smart thing to do. I think I might.

Later.

Damn. I did it. I

Damn. I did it. I actually did it. I placed my order. It’ll be here in 5-7 days. I’m scared. What if things don’t work? What is their customer service department jerks me around? I dunno. I’m frightened. I’ve read hundreds of reviews on both BizRate, CNet (Certified Stores) and Tom’s Hardware, they all pretty much say the same thing… “good prices, fast shipping, but if something goes wrong, you’re SOL.” They’re lowest rating was a 3.9 out of 5, every other rating was higher, usually around a 4.5, so it seems that people like them. I all worried now. I hate being worried. But, the upside is that I get a bitching machine.

I ordered:

Antec SX1240 Full Tower Case with 400w Smart Power
Athlon XP 2000+
Asus A7N266-E nForce Mobo
Thermaltake A1135 Dragon Orb CPU cooler
Western Gigital WD1200JB 120GB HD
Pioneer 16x Slot Load DVD drive
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
Plextor Plexwriter 24x10x40x CDRW
Gainward GeForce 4 Ultra 700XP – GF4 Ti 4400 128MB
256MB Kingston PC2100 DDR memory

I’m going to use the network card from my current system (or just get another at BestBuy) along with 512MB of PC2100 that Jason is giving me, and that about wraps it up. Can anyone think of anything I’m forgetting? I just remembered that I forgot to get a floppy drive. So, a floppy, a network card and thats about it. So, I know I’ve asked this a few hundred times… but did I do the right thing here?

Well, I went and gave

Well, I went and gave Jason a hand doing sound editing and foley work today. It was kinda fun. Sitting in a studio, reading line and making noise with various things. But, now that’s over with and I’m looking for something to eat. I’m rather hungry but I don’t have much in the house. Kind of odd considering I just went grocery shopping. Oh well. I think I have some frozen chicken nuggets that are calling out to me.

I’d just like to mention something else that’s rather random. I was hoping to upgrade to Windows XP with my new system, it seemed to make sense at the time and there’s really no reason why I shouldn’t. XP Pro is built on Win 2000 code so it should be stable enough. And if I turn off EVERY annoying little “eye-candy” feature it has it might almost be tolerable. But then I looked into how much it was going to be to buy a copy. For starters, $150 for an OEM version is rediculous. I won’t even mention my opinion on a full version costing $300. What the fuck? I like to have actual copies of my operating systems. Windows 2000 has been the only exception and even then the version I have is mostly-legal, it being a full version without a serial number. I wanted to actually have a legit copy of XP but now I see that it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to pay an OEM to install it for me and I’m certainly not going to pay $300 for a copy in a box. That price tag is more money than I’m going to pay for the hard drive it would be on. I think the HD is a little bit more important than the OS. If Microsoft would like to know why 1 in 4 copies of their OS are pirated (actual number) than they have to look no further than their own marketing department. Screw that.

I’m done now. Where are those chicken nuggets???

And has anyone seen the

And has anyone seen the line up for Avalon for May? Holy Damn! If that’s any indication of the events to come this summer, it’s going to be one hell of a ride this summer.

April 26th – Jonathan Peters
May 3rd – Sandra Collins
May 10th – Judge Jules & Richie Hawtin
May 17th – Mauro Picotto & Seb Fontaine
May 24th – Chris Fortier & John Debo

Dang. Boston… it’s a good thing.