(no subject)

[psipsy]

-Weirdshift came and went again. I know it only happens twice a year but it feels like it's more often than that. Or is it that time seems to be going faster? I got a 6-day weekend out of it this time, like last year. So, it's not worth complaining about. Spent said weekend doing largely nothing, and it felt good.

-New computer is still getting parts added to it, which is what I planned. This time, I installed a Xonar Essence STX sound card. I noticed a significant improvement over the onboard sound, especially when connecting my computer directly to my stereo. With onboard sound, I have to use one of those 1/8" headphone cables and then a headphone/RCA adapter. The new card has RCA outputs built-in, so I'm able to use some nicer cables with better shielding for even more improvement.

-Next thing to add to the new computer: More memory and a 2nd video card. Because I can. A GTX760 and 16GB of memory is already more than enough so I don't have to, but I can.

-There's also the home server I'm planning to rebuild in a few months time. I'm doing that over because when I built my current home server a few years ago, I intentionally went as cheap as possible and it bit me in the long run, in the form of reduced potential capacity. I had also skewed its original purpose away from connecting a pile of hard drives to my local network, becoming something of a fully useable backup desktop. Most home servers aren't designed around the ability to directly play 1080p video, but mine is. (The next one should be able to handle 1080p without a discrete video card anyway.)

-When I'm done with the main build and the home server rebuild, I should have a pair of older computers that still function and are only guilty of being obsolete (by my standards). They may be perfectly useable for someone who's in need of a basic computer with a dual-core processor and a punchy video card.

-There will also be a pile of hard drives that are getting retired. I've calculated that all of the sub-2TB data-only drives (about 18) can be replaced by a trio of 4TB drives, which I have on hand. I'm also finding that some of the older enclosures do not play well with the 4TB drives. And getting XP to see them? Forget it. XP is all "hell no that ain't right". But in this household, Windows 7 64-bit is in the majority.

-Keeping track of my hard drives requires a spreadsheet. According to my spreadsheet, the total space across all of my hard drives is approximately 43TB. Ponder on that.

-One week to AUSA. It felt oddly gratifying to not staff last year. I think my staffing days are through. It was fun back in the day, but the rocket's taken off and I've done my part to get it off the ground. There's not much else I can do for it. If someone comes up to me and asks me to join staff for their convention, "running away screaming" will be my answer.

-Years ago, when going to conventions, I tended to room with friends and once in awhile, a friend-of-a-friend. Not only because it was cheaper but there was also the camaraderie. It was fun. Well, times change. Some friends stopped going to cons entirely for their own reasons, others started going less as an attendee and more on the business end, and there were others who went insane and thought that putting 8 people to a room was a perfectly good idea. I've also changed, and am less interested in doing the "indoor camping trip" from days of yore. That's how it is being an introvert sometimes. But that's a rant for another day.

-Weight loss has officially stalled out. I don't know if it's because I've gotten sloppy in what I eat (likely), or because summer makes me less inclined to work out (yeah this), or I just need to make more changes. Eh, I'll figure something out.

-My only real accomplishment this summer was checking off about half a dozen states. This puts me at 34 out of 50 so far, half of them being added in the last 6 years. Summer is now realistically over but I know of a few more places to check out before it gets too cold and I put myself in some kind of bizarre hibernation.

-Uh, I guess that's it for now.