The Saga Of The iMacs

We just got a new iMac. That is, if you count a 1999 Graphite DV/SE as new. It's a University cast-off which Mom is particularly happy to have since the current iMac is a pile of disembodied computer parts under the printer shelf.

It is in such a state because that (formerly) Blueberry iMac's Power/Analog/Video board died, and death of PAV boards pretty much renders the whole computer a large, 40-pound doorstop. Which, in a household as computer dependant as ours, is a distinct predicament. Thank God that there's a lot of info on rigging an iMac board to run off of a regular PC power supply, because that's what it's doing and otherwise we'd be sunk. (Not exactly proverbially, either.) I can't say I'm complaining too much, though, since we got that computer from an different local university for, effectively, the cost of a new logic board. (Read: cheap.)

We got that castoff Blueberry machine because the analog board in our original Rev. A Bondi iMac died. When that happened we could at least plug in an external monitor and use it, but using an iMac with an external monitor seems a bit of a waste of space. That machine was also getting, shall we say, rather dated and slow.

So here I am, shuffling files and parts around yet again to make everything work. I just wish you could move OS X system files around with the ease of OS 7/8/9. But alas, the days of simply copying a System Folder to another computer and having it just work are over. Oh well. I've learned more about iMac history and the innards of OS X in the past month than I ever knew before. That's gotta be worth something, right?

Reasons That "Reasons My Life Is Lousy" Is A Lousy Title

Well, for one, my life isn't really lousy. Sure, it has some quirks to it and there are bits that get on my nerves, but it isn't really all that bad. Maybe it should have been "Things About Life I Don't Like So Much".

This is what I get for opening my blog-sized mouth before really thinking through it.

Reasons My Life Is Lousy, Part 1

There's a stack of unread magazines on the bookshelf by my bed. A pile of sorted, but unfiled papers in front of the shelf, which is overflowing, and a couple half-read books are stacked on top. One of my computers is a pile of parts screwed to some metal legs, a pile of stuff is slowly covering the desk, including the laptop that I haven't touched for weeks. (It's ancient.) Don't even mention the lists of miscellaneous things to do or read or think about. And I'm sitting here writing this instead of writing a memo for Technical Writing class.

I don't have time for my life. Or at least I doesn't seem like it. Homework? It's not hard, it's just not done. I'm apathetic. I haven't really figured out how to manage things yet this year. I only have class four days a week! In between and around classes I have whole blocks of time! And I don't know what where the heck it's all going!

Then again, maybe it would help if I hadn't gotten sidetracked looking up stuff on hovercraft for three hours last night.

This Is A Test Of The Facebook Note Import System

It's really nifty how it imports your atom feed and all. It just seems like it ought not to take more than three hours for the post to come through. Interesting.

It's Not Fair, I Tell You

Two bomb threats a school in two days. At the rate we're going, we're going to make Bonny Eagle High School's record a couple years ago look puny. Yesterday wasn't so bad because only the Portland campus was shut down and I don't have any classes in Portland, but today - today some prankster (I assume, until further proof) gyps me out of Work. Money. I would be getting paid to do build stuff.

Yeah, so it's debatable whether hacking up those chairs for Equus and reassembling them in Expressionist/Cubist style is really building stuff, but I would be getting paid for it if the whole blasted school weren't closed from Gorham to Lewiston-Auburn.

Life is really not fair. My brother lives through power outage, lightning, flooding, and general mayhem at school in Illinois and what do I do? I sit here in my kiester because of a stupid bomb threat. *sigh* I guess I'll just have to put up with it.

Score! (The Good-Books-Super-Cheap Edition)

I happened across a really nice looking copy of Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell today in Goodwill and absolutely *could not* resist picking it up. Only $2.99 for such a tome of excellence in such condition?! But of course! I must have it!

Sing I The Praises Of The UPS

I finally got around to reconfiguring things around here and put that UPS that I got a couple weeks ago into service. Now, unless you have a UPS (or a laptop), you have no idea how awesome a feeling it is the first time it goes into action. Oh, to be working on a forum post when the power goes out three times inside of thirteen seconds and then decides to stay there, I, basking calmly in the light of my screen, oblivious to the chaos of young siblings proclaiming near and far that the power has gone out.

Until, of course, the chirps of that most brick-like of saving angels grow more worried of the impending doom of an empty battery. Then one must, unfortunately, finish the forum post, power down the server, and shut everything off, awaiting eagerly such time as the electrons cometh again.