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Sep. 29th, 2022 03:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyBuilding another computer, because I can! More like, I'm trying to. I already had most of the parts, and I found a CPU someone was throwing out, so I found a cheap used motherboard for it. Except nothing's working at all. Not sure if the CPU was a dud, or the motherboard was a dud, or both, or if I got reckless and messed something up. Well, I didn't pay much for those parts so there's nothing to be mad about. Whatever parts out of this that work, I can use it somewhere else. And I can just as easily derp into Microcenter and pick up a new CPU/mobo combo for relatively cheap.
A lot of my knowledge about computer repair is from years of trial-and-error, and is built upon the foundation of what I know about electronics. Amassing that knowledge required a lot of experimentation, seeing what works, what doesn't, and so on. It takes some courage to accept that things can go wrong and some parts won't survive. What does learning smell like? Learning smells like smoke. Then sometimes, I'll try something that shouldn't work but it does, and that makes it all worth it.
After 4 years I finally had to mow my own yard again. The small local business I had coming around to do it seems to have folded up and hasn't shown up since early August, so my grass was getting a bit long. It was great while they were mowing it for me. They would use a big commercial-grade riding mower and it would take them less than 10 minutes to do what would take me over an hour, so that's how much time I was getting back. I was getting back not just any hours, I was getting those hot buttery sweet & juicy prime nice-weather weekend daytime hours, possibly the most valuable kind to me during the warmer parts of the year. Getting those hours back was worth much more than what I was paying to have someone do that mowing for me.
It's been announced that Japan is going to be fully opening up to tourists next month. The only real ongoing requirement then will be that anyone going into the country needs to be fully vaccinated with boosters and I'm all set in that regard. I'm not going until next year at the earliest anyway, but I am excited for my friends who go a lot more often, some of them going multiple times per year. I'm holding off mainly because of how much vacation time I have left for this year. I used a lot of it in July and August. I was at work for only 7 days in July, and I could have taken off that entire month if I really wanted to. For that matter, thanks to compressed work weeks, holidays, and vacation usage, I haven't done a full 5-day workweek since mid-May, and I voluntarily ended that streak last week. Yeah, I'm flexing.
I do know that when I make that return trip, one of the things I'm going to load up on is more papercraft kits. I can order some online, and they get here reasonably fast. The key thing is, there's always going to be some older gems hiding in the used shops though. Anyway, building the Rabbit House (from the GochiUsa anime) a couple years ago was challenging enough to keep me on my toes, easy enough to not get frustrated with, and fun enough to keep my interest. Also important, the end result was good enough that I feel confident in making another papercraft model.
Oof. Was going to post this some time ago but work has been keeping me busy. On the other hand, there have been times when I was able to save the day because I Know Things. Where to find things, how to do things. Those things.
A lot of my knowledge about computer repair is from years of trial-and-error, and is built upon the foundation of what I know about electronics. Amassing that knowledge required a lot of experimentation, seeing what works, what doesn't, and so on. It takes some courage to accept that things can go wrong and some parts won't survive. What does learning smell like? Learning smells like smoke. Then sometimes, I'll try something that shouldn't work but it does, and that makes it all worth it.
After 4 years I finally had to mow my own yard again. The small local business I had coming around to do it seems to have folded up and hasn't shown up since early August, so my grass was getting a bit long. It was great while they were mowing it for me. They would use a big commercial-grade riding mower and it would take them less than 10 minutes to do what would take me over an hour, so that's how much time I was getting back. I was getting back not just any hours, I was getting those hot buttery sweet & juicy prime nice-weather weekend daytime hours, possibly the most valuable kind to me during the warmer parts of the year. Getting those hours back was worth much more than what I was paying to have someone do that mowing for me.
It's been announced that Japan is going to be fully opening up to tourists next month. The only real ongoing requirement then will be that anyone going into the country needs to be fully vaccinated with boosters and I'm all set in that regard. I'm not going until next year at the earliest anyway, but I am excited for my friends who go a lot more often, some of them going multiple times per year. I'm holding off mainly because of how much vacation time I have left for this year. I used a lot of it in July and August. I was at work for only 7 days in July, and I could have taken off that entire month if I really wanted to. For that matter, thanks to compressed work weeks, holidays, and vacation usage, I haven't done a full 5-day workweek since mid-May, and I voluntarily ended that streak last week. Yeah, I'm flexing.
I do know that when I make that return trip, one of the things I'm going to load up on is more papercraft kits. I can order some online, and they get here reasonably fast. The key thing is, there's always going to be some older gems hiding in the used shops though. Anyway, building the Rabbit House (from the GochiUsa anime) a couple years ago was challenging enough to keep me on my toes, easy enough to not get frustrated with, and fun enough to keep my interest. Also important, the end result was good enough that I feel confident in making another papercraft model.
Oof. Was going to post this some time ago but work has been keeping me busy. On the other hand, there have been times when I was able to save the day because I Know Things. Where to find things, how to do things. Those things.
