Daylight Savings Time
Feeling Better
Well I took my antibiotics for a week and am better. The sore throat was gone in a couple days, and while I still cough a bit, I’m certainly mostly better. I don’t know if the doctor’s visit made any difference, or if I would have been fine in a few days anyway, but it doesn’t hurt to go, even if I do hate going to the doctor.
In other news, I bought a new LCD Monitor. I like it a lot, and got a good deal on the price. So two days after I got it, the cats ran into it and there’s a scratch on the screen now. Figures. It isn’t the end of the world, but I’m not too happy to have it marred so quickly. It looks like a smudge on the screen that won’t go away.
I’ve got one more assignment for my Sociology class, then it is just finals, and I’m done for the quarter. Time certainly goes by fast. Especially when you are doing quarters at school, they not only seem fast, but they are. I already took the final for my Oracle PL/SQL class (it was open early) and did reasonably well on it. I’ll get an A in the class in any case. Sociology is the only one that is at risk of ruining my 4.0 average. I completely misunderstood one of the assignments and it dragged down my grade significantly. As long as I do ok on the last assignment and Final I’ll be fine, but I have to get an A on the final to be sure. Of course, it isn’t like it is the end of the world to not get an A in the class, but I’d like to keep it all As for as long as possible. 🙂
Bed time.
Not feeling well
I’ve had a sore throat for a week, so I actually broke down and went to a doctor. He gave me a couple things, and one of them says:
Possible Side Effects: SIDE EFFECTS that may occur while taking this medicine include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, bad taste in mouth, indigestion, stomach pain or discomfort, or headache. If they continue or are bothersome, check with your doctor. CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE if you experience emotional or mood changes, confusion, hallucinations, depression, nightmares, or trouble sleeping. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist.
The captial letters are from what was written, the bold/italic is my own emphasis.
He… Helium.
| He… Helium. You scored 31 Mass, 20 Electronegativity, 30 Metal, and 60 Radioactivity! |
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That’s odd, our tests indicate that you did not just take this test. In fact, we’re not even sure you exist. Oh, wait, no, somebody just found indirect evidence of you in the deep Earth and in the Sun. Okay, so you’re real, but man, you need to get out more. Actually, you’re pretty cool, always doing your own thing, but we kinda wish that you would interact with us a bit more. On a positive note, I think some research lab in Berkeley has managed to put you into a psuedo-stable relationship that, if you’re kept very cold, you won’t walk away from… or maybe that was Xenon. I forget. |
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My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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| Link: The Which Chemical Element Am I Test written by effataigus on Ok Cupid |
GDFPOS Computer
We went to the movies Friday night and when I came home the computer was dead. It would try to turn on, but either turn itself off before it booted up, or go part way through the bios tests and then give an error.
So I got to spend all of Saturday trying to find out what was wrong with it, which appears to be that the motherboard itself croaked. I’ve only had it 7 months or so, it should have lasted for years. I got a new motherboard from CompUSA though, and it works again. Of course, it took two trips to CompUSA because I forgot on the first trip that I would have to take the heatsink off the processor to install it and needed new thermal paste to go with it. I finally finished playing with it around 11pm.
Luckily the RAID was intact on the hard drives, so I didn’t have to reinstall windows and all my programs. I would have been very upset if I had lost all my data. As it is, the day I usually set aside for doing school work was completely taken up working on that. I could do most of my school stuff on the other computer, but it is easier to use this one. At least it works.
Big 5
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Big Five Test Results
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| Extroversion (1%) very low which suggests you are extremely reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private. Friendliness (10%) very low which suggests you are overly selfish, uncooperative, and difficult at the expense too often of the well being of others. Orderliness (73%) high which suggests you are overly organized, neat, structured and restrained at the expense too often of flexibility, variety, spontaneity, and fun. Emotional Stability (96%) very high which suggests you are extremely relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic. Openmindedness (55%) medium which suggests you are moderately intellectual, curious, and imaginative. |
Take Free Big Five Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com
What kind of herb are you?
YOU ARE CHAMOMILE
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Fast Food Commercials
I’ve recently been annoyed by the commercials that Subway has been airing, comparing their food to the Big Mac at McDonalds.
They offend me because they are attacking the worst possible item (nutrition wise) on McDonald’s menu, and saying that their food is better. Which is generally true, but if you don’t compare items that are comparable, then you are just being obnoxious. It would be much more accurate to compare something like the Italian BMT, or Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwiches from Subway to the Big Mac. Those have 450 Calories, with 21 grams of fat, and 440 calories with 26 grams of fat, respectively. That’s not so much better for you than the Big Mac is, which has 600 calories and 33 grams of fat. The big mac is still worse, but at least that is a reasonable comparison. And that assumes that you eat a 6″ sub, not a foot long, which is what many people would have if they went to subway.
Who is the commercial aimed at? Anyone who is usually eating a Big Mac is not really very likely to be choosing one of the 7 subs with 6 grams of fat or less. Or if they do, it isn’t because it is better for them.
I can’t stand McDonald’s food in general, it is high calorie, poor taste, expensive, and generally unhealthy, but I don’t think it is appropriate to try to make your own menu look better by making misleading menu comparisons.
Somewhat done
I got everything except the sound card and speakers on Friday, so I spent friday night assembling it all and installing Windows XP. It went surprisingly smoothly, with a few exceptions.
The first problem was that I used the wrong screws to install the motherboard into the case. The directions said use the “philips head screws” but of course all the screws are philips head, so which ones? I tried some until I found ones that fit, and went with those. Of course, when I got to the hard drive installation, it said to use the “special screws” (who writes these instructions?) and it turned out that those were the ones that I had used on the motherboard, so I had to take them all out. Once I did that, it was smooth sailing.
The computer actually turned on first try, so I was pleased. Everything appeared to be working, until I tried the front USB ports and the card reader, which also connects to the motherboard’s USB connectors. I wasn’t getting any errors, but windows was ignoring both devices. I tried installing the USB bracket that came with the motherboard, and has lights that indicate if it is working or not, and it said things were fine, but still no response from windows. Finally I took out all the connectors for the USB (12 of them) and plugged just the drive in, and that worked fine. So I carefully reinstalled the the 10 pins for the front panel USB ports, and it worked fine after that. Apparently I had mis-installed at least one of the jumpers, and it disabled the entire USB system.
In any case, it all works well, and so I was happy
In other news, the Monitor came today, and took just a few minutes to set it up. It looks really nice, and other than having to setup the screen a bit to fit correctly, it works well.
In major annoyances, Buy.com still hasn’t shipped my sound card and speakers. They’re both on order apparently. It would have been nice if they had let me know before I sent them email asking where my stuff was. There’s no estimate at all on when they will get there either. I’m a bit annoyed, but it isn’t the end of the world. I’m waiting ot activate windows until I have the sound card installed though, so it has the correct configuration set. Windows can get upset if you change the hardware after installing windows. Hopefully it will all come soon, and I can finish putting everything together.
I’m pretty pleased with the performance overall, it starts up really quickly, and installs programs in no time. I haven’t done anything taxing on it so far, but things look good.
I took pictures along the way, but haven’t played with them yet so I can’t put them up here. I will at some point though.