An update on things

Hmm, last post was a long while ago. Some of the things I've done since the beginning of November:

• Learned ASP (or enough to get by) at work, but this is sort of still on-going, while still doing 10 other things at the same time


• Participated in my first autocrossing event, which was too much fun for words


• Built my first desktop computer (for my mom because damn. . .she needed a new computer)


• Went to Nashville for Thanksgiving, ate way too much food for the 3 days I was there, did the whole Black Friday thing and got some good deals


• Went through the hiring process at work (funny, I'm still on probation yet I was pretty much in charge of hiring a new person)


• Began gathering parts for my desktop build which will happen after Christmas

Thats pretty much it. Here's some more in-depth details.

Autocrossing was insanely awesome, but it really made me realize a few things. First, I suck at driving. Second, I suck at driving because my car sucks. I really wish my car was in better order because I could just put some suspension mods and I think I'd fair much better. But I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a car that really isnt worth it. That being said, I am actively doing my best to save money so I can maybe buy myself a new car sometime within the next 6 months. I'd like a miata (for autocrossing purposes) but I can't picture myself with a miata as a daily driver. More than likely I'll find a Subie and it will be great.

Black Friday was a good shopping day (though I spent far too much money). Best Buy was the first store we visited and I ended up getting Billy Madison and Minority Report on DVD for $4 each and also a copy of Call of Duty 2 for $25. Almost worth the hour long line we had to stand in. After BB, we stopped in at CompUSA. I ended up buying a $150 case for my computer build. Luckily, there was a $50 mail in rebate. The case is awesome. Its the Antec P180, if you're curious. Check it out on Newegg. We also stopped in at Target for the Family Guy movie, an air mattress, and Grand Theft Auto on PSP. The two final stops included Burlington Coat Factory (where I got a super-heavy-duty jacket) and Staples (where I got a wireless router for the apartment).

Apart from the case, I've also been doing some other shopping for my desktop build. I got an extra 120mm fan for the top of the case (with green LED's no less), some non-ugly wires for floppy and DVD drives, a nice stylish wireless keyboard (and mouse too but I already have a Logitech G5 so the mouse isn't needed), and tomorrow I'll be getting my floppy drive/media card reader. Since my case only has one 3.5" external slot, I figured why not combine the two drives that I put in my mom's computer. After Christmas, where I'm hoping to get some money, I'll hopefully be ordering all the rest of the stuff I want. As of now, I'm going over my budget a little bit, but I am getting better things that should last me 6 months-1 year longer than I was originally planning. Parts include: Abit An8 SLI-ready mobo, AMD Athlon64 3700+ (San Diego core), 2gb of Corsair XMS RAM, evga 7800gt, Seagate 250gb sata hdd, NEC 16x DVD burner (much like the one I already have in an external enclosure), and an Antec TruePower 2.0 550w power supply. Hopefully I'll be happy with that for at least a year and a half to 2 years before I even think its necessary to drop another 7800gt in and run in SLI. The only thing I might buy before a major upgrade like that is another hard drive to either run in raid 0 (if its another 7200rpm drive) or be a gaming-only drive (if its a 10000rpm drive).

That's really about it. As a contributing member of society (by that I mean having a job and not sitting on my ass all day doing nothing), I have grown to appreciate weekends so much more than when I was in school. There's nothing quite like being able to sleep in until 10am. I'd like to say I'll update around Christmas time but more than likely, my next update will be after I have my new desktop built, so who knows when that will be (once the desktop gets built, I'll pretty much be playing games on it constantly). Until then. . .