Anonymous Poster

Does anyone here know someone who posts under the username Cygnus X-1? I got a rather vaguely threatening post on an old entry in my blog. The entry was made about and around the end of the festival season, which kinda leads me to believe it's someone festival related.

Here's the post, their comment and my reply: Aftermath.

If this is someone anyone is familiar with, please tell them to post in a manner that I can readily reply to. Telling me to be an adult about something, but then they hide. Yeesh.

Sorry if it's a truly anonymous poster with no affiliation to you guys. I'm posting about it in a couple of places, trying to track the person down. But whoever it is has knowledge of x-ray producing blackholes. Wtf.

your time is gonna come

License to Geek

Ack! I was about to have my Geekcraft License revoked! I got a new phone on Friday and I've not said work one about it! How lame of me! It's a Motorola ROKR E1. It's a little on the NOT BRAND NEW OMG! side, but it's still a sweet phone. Bluetooth and iTunes capable. While I'm not a user of iTunes, I can certainly put that MicroSD card to use with my music! I was able to get a "Qualified Upgrade" on the phone, so I was able to get it for $50. As opposed to the usual $200 price tag. So yay that! It's got a camera attached, too. I've already taken a few pictures for use as ringer ID photos. And this phone allows me to set a ring tone for individual phone numbers, which is kinda exciting to me. As soon as my little USB/Bluetooth adapter gets here, I'll be transfering a few mp3's over so I can have a plethora of ringtones! Yay!

sephiroth!

Ding Dong the Crackhead's Gone!

It is a time of leaving opposition for me! Glorious! Crackhead Mike was escorted off the premises yesterday. Good riddance to bad rubbish! Also? Babylon the Great is moving to British Columbia! The Left Coast! Canada! Almost worth the $50 she owes me to be that rid of her!

we'll all float on, alright

Interns, and Why They Should Bathe

So there's this intern. Scott decided, in all of his infinite wisdom, that Geek Squad needed to add babysitting to it's already growing list of responsibilities. So he gets us an intern. However, this intern isn't behaving like an intern. He thinks he's a hotshot computer qenius, who needs no instructions or knowledge from us. Even I can say I've been doing this a whole lot longer than he has. I've been building computers, FOR PAY, since I was 16. Almost 8 years ago. 8 Years ago, this kid was 10 years old. And he refuses to accept the Geek Squad way of doing things. So you've got to tell him over and over and over to do things a certain way because that's how Geek Squad wants to do it. But that's not the worst part about him. Oh no. See, the kid doesn't seem to understand bathing. Working with him today, he smelled about 3 days overdue for a shower. This wasn't an observation I made at a distance mind you. Because there's no such thing as personal space to this kid. He hovers. Almost right on top of you. Standing just beyond your peripheral vision just behind your shoulder. It drives me batty! You can't see him, but you can sure as hell smell him! His skin, his face is covered with oil and acne. Shiny from the grease. Dandruff flecked hair. And fingernails that extend about 1/4" to 1/2" beyond the fingertips, yellow and cracked. I just want to punch him in the face every time I see him! It's nerds like that what give us geeks a bad name!

they're just dyin' to meet you

St. What's Day?

I am somewhat sad. I, for the most part, missed St. Patrick's Day. My Geek Squad uniform is forbidden to have such individualisation that any St. Patty's Day decorations might be. Can't change the color of the undershirt to green or wear a shamrock pin or sticker. And because I had to open yesterday, I couldn't drink much. Chris and I shared a solemn double of Jameson over ice. Speaking of opening, I've been doing far too much of it of late. For the last week, I've been doing naught but open. And I've got two more days of it ahead. Later today is a meeting at 8AM, and tomorrow(Monday) I have to be in at 7. It's been months since they've given me that duty.

And in the "So What Else Is New?" department, Crackhead Mike is ever closer to dismissal. Our admin is looking into the ramifications of each of us making written statements as to his lack of quality as an employee. And speaking of Crackhead Mike...

It seems that Scott, the operations manager, has decided that the Geek Squad needs an intern in his never-ending quest to ruin the Greensboro Geek Squad precinct. This intern is like an uneducated, unskilled and socially retarded version of our uneducated, unskilled and socially retarded Crackhead Mike. They get along famously. However, Nicholas has a nasty habit of second guessing us when we tell him to do something a certain way. I don't care if you think not doing the optional updates will cause upset customers. Best Buy and Geek Squad procedures are to do the High Priority updates. No more, no less. I don't care what you think, I don't care what you say. It is done this way. Do it this way or go away. Also: It is not in your best interest to butt in and second guess the agent at the counter talking to a customer. We are in the uniform, you are not. We are paid professionals, you are an unpaid intern here against our will. Shut. Up.

In happier news, I rearranged my room. I had a clotting problem at the foot of my bed as a result of my desk and chair being right in line with the bed in the middle of the room, with my tv being in the corner to the right. So I switched out the desk and TV, creating a whole flow to the room. I moved my dresser next to the bed, added a fan and replaced the overhead incandescent with a flourescent one, making my room notably cooler and more open. Yay! Now to go about making all the furniture in here of a dark cherry color. Hmmm...

wake up maggie, i think i got somethin' to say to you

I want to go to OKRF

Ok(ha!), so I want to go to the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival. Not the least of which revolves around someone I want to see who will be working a booth there! But it looks pretty big. There's a castle. And around that castle, the Ren-Fest town was built. You can in the castle, and there's things to do! Right now, the best deal I can pitch together through Expedia comes to about $630 for just me. Ouch! I changed the same flights and hotels (in Tulsa, I might see if I can get better deals on rooms in Muskogee, where the Faire is actually located) to two people and the price comes to $425 a person. While still a chunk of change, this is coming into Tulsa on Friday night, leaving Monday around mid-day. Three nights hotel and flight for $425 for two people. I think the tickets come to about $233 round trip. This is for the weekend of May 20, which is best for me. And the hotel I picked is an Embassy Suites which allows for four people per room, so the cost per person would be like $300 a person for a group of four. Plus food, rental car, the faire itself. Unfortunately, you have to be 25 to rent cars in most places. I'll be turning 24 on the 15th of May. Not quite old enough to rent a car. Sigh.

On the other hand, Muskogee is right off I-40. Anyone feel like a road trip?

on the road again...

Weather Phenomenon

Johnson's Law of Directional Precipitation - Whichever direction the driver's side window pane of Justin Johnson's car runs perpindicular is the direction from which any and all precipitation shall fall, resulting in the driver's seat being soaked while leaving the entire passenger section of said conveyence completely dry.

Mo' Money, Mo' Money...

So yay me! I got a raise! Back dated for this next paycheck! Huzzah! And more of a raise than I thought I'd be getting, too. I can deal with that. I won't say how much more here, but if anyone is dying to know how much, just IM me.

squeee!

Who? What? I was listening!

Wow. So where have I been the last six days, huh? I was worried sick about me. I don't call, I don't write. I'm not the man I met a year ago.

...

Or something.

Yeah.

More likely it's that I've been doing the work or sleep routine for the last six days. Gorram retail. Though, really, I can't blame retail. I can blame StaffWorks, which is the scheduling software BestBuy uses. We hates it. It doesn't look at week A when making the schedule for week B, making it so that a full time employee might work, say, Tuesday through Saturday of one week, and then Sunday, making a total of six days, with a ONE DAY OF OFF, then right back to the slog mines. Argh. This will change soon. I have spoken with the Supervisor. If that doesn't work, I'll just change my availablility to make the program give me two days off. Rah. But it's Sunday. So I was home before 8PM. And no work tomorrow, thank you Jesus, just some chores. And I close Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'll finally be able to get some sleep in. Holy crap.

Oh yeah! I had my review today. I will be getting a raise. I don't know how much of a raise, but a raise. And we like raises. Yes, precious. Who knows, maybe it'll be keyed in by my next paycheck. That'd be pretty cool.

i walk the line

Oh Dark Thirty

Well, not really. It's quarter past 10, Monday in the AM. I am on day 3 of my unintended three day weekend. However, I made the mistake of staying up all night playing Dawn of War instead of just going to bed at a decent hour. Why? Because I'm an idiot. I think I'm going to grab a few hours worth of nap before starting the Great Laundry Run. Whee.

who needs sleep? never gonna get it

Carnevale

So there's this old mill built near an old gold mine in Jamestown (a suburb of Greensboro). Someone thought to convert the mill/main building of the mine/land into a castley type deal. All told the place is pretty sweet. Anyway, hey hosted a Carnevale costume-esque masquerade-y type thing this past Saturday. Lots of folk in costume. A vastness of people in club clothes with cheap masks and a lot of goth punks (tell that to a goth or someone claiming to be punk and watch them puff up) wandering about, but there was a large collection of actual Venetian inspired masquerading going on. And aside from that, there were several just awesome costumes. I've a few pictures I'll add presently.


















That's me in the middle with Wes (left) and Doug (roommate, right) at Fire and Sticks Japanese steakhouse prior to Carnevaling.


















Heather and Squatch looking very happy to have their picture taken.























This is Suzie at the actual event.























Lani looking very blue (da ba dee, da ba die).























An, admittedly poor, side shot of King Neptune. A lot of these costumes got ridiculously extravagent.






















Like the poorly photgraphed "The Iron Man" here. Man, what an awesome costume that was.






















And lastly, but leastly, me in my mail and surcoat.

here she comes again

The Scrimshaw Falcon

Wow. Sounds like a cool name for a book or something. But alas, it refers to a model. I put together and painted the Eldar Falcon grav tank that I have (of two) a few days ago, and just got to painting it last night. And since the Ulthwe army I want to field uses black and bone with red accenting (a familiar paint scheme. hmmm.) I thought a few bone-colored panels would look good along the sides. And then I remembered something I had seen in a Siegler's & Co. catalog I had. Scrimshaw. For those who don't know, scrimshaw is a term for artwork carved into bone or horn. It originates from the whaling days of the 1800's. Sailors would often carve artwork into whale teeth to pass the time out at sea, and then sell the artwork when they got back to shore. So I copied some of the mappy-type notions from the scrimshaw, fiddled out a few runes, and bam! scrimshaw falcon. It looks pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.

And today is day one of two off in a row for me. A rare priveledge in the retail world. And I started it in good style by sleeping until 3:30PM. Huzzah. Might just get stuff done of the cleaning type the next couple of days. Shock of shocks.

In other news today, I've started the overclocking of Skywarp. I've currently juiced it up to 2.0GHz instead of the 1.8 it came out of the box with. I've not fully tweaked the voltage just yet, though, so I might be able to squeeze a little more juice out of this machine soon! But, I must go wantingly check the mail to see if any more of my over-priced space elves have made it in yet.

nandato?!

Oh Why Not?

It's been awhile since I posted about Skywarp. Which is significant, since I've made some big changes since the last post. A shiny new processor and a spankerific new video card.

Skywarp 3.0*
Athlon64 3000+ (256KB L1 cache, 1MB L2 cache)
Currently running at 1.8GHz, but I might begin the overclocking soon.
Thermalright XP-90 heatsink
2024MB PC3200 Corsair RAM
Not overclocked. Yet.
SOYO CK8 Dragon Plus Socket 754 Motherboard
160GB HDD (internal)
160GB HDD (internal)
200GB HDD (external)
16x DVD-ROM
16x DVD+/-RW
Floppy Drive
6-in-1 Media Reader
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256MB Video Card
Sony Trinitron 19" (Viewable) Flat CRT monitor
6 Port USB 2.0 PCI card (1 internal)
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital sound card
Altec Lansing 5.1 surround speakers w/ powered subwoofer
4 80mm (Purple 4 LED) case fans
1 80mm (Purple 4 LED) CPU fan
2 80mm (Purple 4 LED) power supply fans
Chieftec 420W power supply

It is a shweet rig, it is. The awesomey bit is that the CPU is actually supposed to be a mobile processor. Which means it uses less voltage for the same performance. And it's a much cooler chip to use. So it's awesome to use for overclocking. And right now it's running about 15 degrees Celsius cooler than the Sempron chip did. And that x1300 is an awesome card. It's the newest card I've ever owned. When I bought that old GeForceFX5500 I had, it was a year or so old, technology wise. The GeForceFX6800 had already come out. But the Radeon X1300 Pro came into the store the day I got it. I was just window shopping, comparing prices. It was so new, Newegg even had it at our retail price. It was the first time my store discount was a better deal on a video card. It's twice as fast and twice as good as the 5500 is. But I never really had any complaints about it. Once I build that media center/server/guest computer, I plan to put the 5500 in it. But I actually have a gaming rig! Yay! Speaking of which, I think I'll get to playing some Dawn of War now.

*Anything in italics is a new addition.

Repent! For tomorrow you die!

Random Day Off

Today was nice. It was a random Friday off. I actually managed to get a lot done. Who knew? I slept a whole damn lot. I passed out around 8:30 last night. And aside from about 30 minutes from 10:30 to 11:00PM, I slepy until about 1:39 this afternoon. Man. That was just what the doctor ordered. I'd been have a cold in sections all week. Started with a mild fever on Sunday with some minor aches and weariness. Then earlier this week, the achiness was gone, but instead, I was dry and scratchy of breathe and throat. And here towards the end of the week, I have been sneezy snuffily, but none of the aching and horrible dry feeling. *shrug* This weather sure ain't helpin' none. It was 70 degrees out today. In February. The heck. And tomorrow (the next day, for those at home keeping count) is forcasted with a HIGH of 35 with a chance of sleet and snow. Bloody hell! This is weird even for North Carolina! I want cold and snow like a few years ago when half of North Carolina lost power. Yeah, it sucked but cold and snow like that. I want a reason to need this ecxessive ability to handle cold not heat that I have. Instead of living in a constant level of "just a hair too warm to really be comfortable in clothing." It's annoying, really. Especially considering I spend half my waking life in pants. And forced to wear shoes. Don't ask me how it works, but often when I am too warm, I just take off my socks and shoes, and bam. My feeling of the temperature is regulated out to something more comfortable. I'm baffled.

Anyway. Got some contacts today! Yay insurance! It's very nice having some actual peripheral vision. Soon I'll actually get some new glasses. These glasses have served me well, but I've had them since 10th grade or there's about. Almost 7 or 8 years. It's time for some new ones.


Crackhead Mike, it turns out, is not leaving, as previously rumored. It seems his scheme (read: utter BS) of getting refurbished iPods from Indonesia fell through thanks to local political unrest. Uh-huh. Either way, we're stuck with him. At least until I can figure out how to get him fired. I'm not malicious, but he makes a huge mess back there that takes all the rest of us in the precinct to clean up. We've had to give away a lot of labor in refunds or free work in relation to his screw ups. He seems to abjectly refuse to follow the operating procedures. But we can't fire him because it would negatively affect our turnover rate and God forbid we should jeopardize that cheap plastic trophy we just got for having a low turnover rate. God forbid. This is why I fear I'll never become a manager. I just don't have the tolerance for bullshit necessary for it.

nani?

Snow!

First snow for me in the longest time. Though it's not the same as at mom's. That kinda mad me a little sad. You have to understand that I love snow. Nothing to me is prettier than a blanket of white below and above. In a more rural setting, falling snow brings a very calming hush to the world. It was nice to see, but here in the city, it loses some of its calming effect. But it still snowed. And like all day. It was too warm for accumulation, sadly, but it kept going anyway. It was nice.

Impatiently, do I await the arrival of my Eldar army. Having all but mastered the Dark Angels, I figured it was about time I got to building the army I originally thought about. Eldar. Space Elves. Don't get me wrong, I love my Dark Angels. So much about them resonates thematically with me. Dark and brooding, the fact that they are considered the First Space Marine Chapter Evaarrrr, of all the chapters in the mythos, the Dark Angels are the only ones that got split in half during the Horus Heresy (where half the good guy armies went bad, for the non-40K players out there) as opposed to the rest which went one way or the other, they're slower moving and very shooty, stubborn as hell. But the Eldar are just so damn sweet looking. Nothing, even the Mighty Land Raider, is cooler looking than the Eldar Falcon Grav Tank. They are, however, a much weaker army. But to counter that, they're much, much faster. It'll be a new thing for me, but I'm looking forward to it. But I chose the Ulthwe (of the Damned) army to field. A lot of freaky psychic powers and a brooding black and bone color scheme. This will be fun. It's just a shame that Jerod's 'Nids will chew through them just as easily as they do my Dark Angels. Oh well.

Wow. Another 4AM post. I need to start going to bed a whole lot earlier. o.O

Oh yeah. Getting sick? Sucks. Getting sick enough to need to stay home..for ME..really, really sucks. Bleh.

tolkien-based heavy metal...yum

Patches and Expansions

Well. After installing the latest patch for Dawn of War and the new expansion for it, I went form being able to win every battle, albeit sometimes only just and only after hours and hours of slogging through wave after wave of enemy, to getting my ass handed to me every time. WTF, over? This is standard difficulty. Not like I was tromping though at insane and suddenly insane is harder. I mean really. How is it that the computer can pull out specialty squads so damn fast? I've got just as much resources AND multi-tasking and I'm still not fast enough. And since when were Space Marines so flimsy? *shakes head*

waaaaaaaagggghhh!

Excitement!

Wow. So a lot has happened and I've been far too lazy to post! What a loser am I! So let's break it down, shall we?

First, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Excellent little RTS game. Squad based, still. You make squads of soldiers that can be expanded out to fullness or left at their original size. Doesn't follow the rules of the tabletop game it's based on, but it's an RTS not turned-based with pre-established army sizes. But it's still awesomely fun!

Second, our washer and dryer finally got delivered today! And I'll tell you with no shame that I was starting a load of laundry before the delivery guy had closed the door on his way out! Knowing that the appliances were being delivered soon, the last load of laundry I did at the complex laundramat was about a week ago and only had two pairs of jeans and a handful of t-shirts. The rest was work clothes, since I had to have those. But in a couple more loads, all my dirty clothes will be clean! Exciting!

I had a very strange dream. I was on what seemed in my head to be some sort of campus. Only it was huge. Like a business in it's uniformity and scale. A huge business park. But there were rules. Strange rules. Like an escalator you could only ride up if you were feeling "up." A stair case that split around a lift that if you walked down either side, you slowed down like you were in slo-mo, but if you took the lift, you were fine. But something was happening, strange occurances, rumors of a dark thing happening that only happened once every 20 or so years. Something big happens across the campus, so some others and I take off across a stretch of the campus comprised of three rising sets of walkways. The walkways are lined on the left with a series of hedges. beyond the hedges is a beach head with humongous waves. I don't know this because I saw them in this dream, but because my self in the dream knew that 1, this was a dream, and that 2, the beach was there and one I had dreamed about some weeks ago. Weirdness. But the others in my group were running along the topmost walkway, safer, but it slowed you down a little. Granted, we all had some powers or another so they were fast enough, but they weren't running as fast as I was. But I was on the bottom. No one took the bottom because on some of the spaces there was a gel. A magic reducing gel. (I've been reading a ridiculous amount of Harry Potter in the last few weeks, not too mention hours and hours of anime). But for me, this gel actually provided a defensive bonus. I seemed to be lacking in magical power, but I had a natural resistance to it. I didn't generally make that known, but most of the other people on the campus avoided me because of my affinity for the substance that was like a poison to so many of them. Behind me was a short, slender anime-esque girl with pale skin, waist-length deep purple hair. She had the same ability as I did regarding the deep blue magic-sapping gel. Only she had a tendency to run it through her hair. Which seemed to act, for her, like a conditioner. And with all the hair, she was constantly wearing a layer of magical defense. She also liked to throw the stuff at her attackers. Her name was Setsuka. Weird! Then I woke up as I made it to the end of the walkways. But the guy was here with the washer and dryer, so it was acceptable.

erlie in tha mornin'

Go Team Venture!

Or, rather, Team Skywarp. Which is a bit of misnomer. It's not a "team," really, so much as a growing collection of Skywarp figures. I got the Robot Masters version of Skywarp and Thundercracker in the mail today. And the adorn the top of Skywarp(PC) quite nicely. I would love to have a Skywarp from every line he was in, if at all possible. Horray eBay.

Filed my taxes today. Isn't that exciting. I'm expecting a nice sum, actually. Next year, though, I might actually need to file for real instead of just using eFile with a 1040EZ like I've been able to do for so many years now. Oh well. Now if only I could get the rest of the money I'm owed, I'd be sitting pretty.

Harvey Birdman! Attorney-at-laaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwooohhyeah...

Grey's Grey Hair

Yep. Found my first one the other day. And you must understand something about my hair. Interspersed amongst the light brownish/dark blondish hair there are single very fine pale blonde hairs. At first I saw and hoped. But I plucked it out, for to better inspect. Alas! 'Twere grey it were! On the other hand, my hair is growing out nicely. That is all.

Wait! Sorry. This just in...as of...this afternoon...yeah. So I got a couple of packages in the mail today. The first of a series of Skywarp's I am trying to procure came in the mail. Transformer's Universe Skywarp. I have noticed, rather sadly, that the Universe line is a much cheaper line than the regular lines. But he looks good up there in front of my three Starscreams (Armada, Energon, Cybertron), Galvatron(Armada), Skywarp(Armada), Thundercracker(Cybertron), and Sideways(Cybertron) a top Skywarp t3h PC. I have Robotmasters Skywarp and Thundercracker on the way. What I'd love to get the Comic Con Skywarp, tiny though he is. Some day.

And speaking of Skywarp, he's running much cooler, about ten degrees celsius, with the Athlon64 DTR Clawhammer 3000+ than the old Sempron. And I got a Thermalright XP-90 heatsink which will, no doubt, cool things off even better. It's not installed, but that's owing to the torrents I'm working on that are so very near completion. That and it's a hassle taking all those Decepticons off the tower. And I really hate not having Skywarp on. Dunno why. I'm just weird that way.

jack in!

Spoke Too Soon

OK, so I spoke a little too soon on the ditching of AMD. It's still a lot cheaper to just get a new CPU. Which I did. And everything works fine now. Or at least fine enough. My heatsink isn't working like the old one did. The new CPU is actually meant for mobile use, not desktop. So my old heatsink doesn't sit quite right. Alas. So I have ordered a new one that everyone says does sit right with the Athlon64 DTR's. But for now, I have a temporary solution. I cut the old heat spreader off the (now) defunct Sempron and slapped it between the HSF(heatsink and fan) and the CPU. It's not great. Temperature is about the same as the old chip. But soon. Very soon.

In other news, will all the pissed off idiots stop coming to bother me at work? I don't care what you think, sir, the Kingston and the PNY RAM are really about the same. If you wanted the better one, you'd have picked the Corsair. And no ma'am, we did not steal your RAM. You're nuts. And to the other ma'am later, I would like to add that you're a bitch for insisting that I help no one else while you go out to your car to get your card to pay for the service I am about to render in front of you. It's a three minute job I'm about to do. While you're running your sweet little self out to the car, I could have checked that guy behind you and said good day. But no. You had to be a bitch. Which is why I charged you $29 for a nothing task. Have a nice day.

mad max, here