Thursday, July 6th, 2006

Nando's long and expensive trip through the world of Computers

I hope that most of you have been wondering what I've been up to recently and why it has prevented me from writing on this thing. Well, gather around my friends, for I have a story to tell - a very, very very very long one that showcases my ignorance and shame, so you know it's gonna be good. And, I don't need to tell you that it is about computers - those loveable boxes of hate.

This all started close to about three weeks ago when I asked Chua about video cards for my brand spankin new Dell Computer. I felt that an upgrade was in order after only having the 470 dollar product for about a week or two. I open the thing up and and notice that there's no port for a new video card, which disappoints me, but I guess I could live with it. Then, Chua suggests that I could always buy a new motherboard (mobo) and install it in there along with the new video card. Now, fully knowing that I have almost no concept of how to assemble anything remotely close to resembling computers, I decide to embark on this journey, since I figure it will promote self competence. So, I spend a good hour or so trying to figure just how the heck you figure out what kind of motherboard you need. I figured i had a pentium 4 intel chip, so I looked for that, but all the mobos on display only had slots for AGP cards, not the PCI slots for which most of the awesome video cards of today are made (such as the one that Chua had recommended me). Also, I need it to be compatible with the 1 gig sticks of memory. Of course it's never as easy as that since I have to look for mobos that support DDR sdRAM at 400, which proves to be a pain since there's just too much to keep track of. However, once I finally find ones with everything I need, I ask chua which I should get. He tells me to get the second of two choices that I had narrowed down, and just before purchasing it, I decide to go with another mobo because since I'm using an Intel chip, I figure it might be nice to have an intel board. I send the link to Chua for revision and he Okay's it.

The weekend passes and come Wednesday of the following week, I recieve my package at 2:00pm. Allright, I figure, i just have to get the screws out of the old mobo, and slap the new one right in, and we should be good to go. Now, here is where my crazy fortnight truly begins. I'm there using all of my strength to get the screws out of the board. but they JUST WON'T COME OUT!! I go to the hardware store and get a better screwdriver and the guy there recommends some oil lubricant for unscrewing, which at first, I'm not too crazy about, but in the end, I decide to go with it just in case, but kinda figure I won't be using it. So, once I get back home, I'm STILL there trying to get the bloody screws out despite my new fancy screwdriver. My hands feel like they're burning off. My only recourse is to get some gloves and keep going at it. It takes me about a half hour to get the first screw out. And then another hour to get the second out. I reach a peak at the third screw, the other three are just way too in there. Even the slots on top of the screws have warped and lost their shape due to the constant friction that I apply. In the end, I have no choice but to resort to using the oil lubricant, but it still doesnt do anything, so I just feel like giving up. However, after enough time passes, and enough pressure is applied, I manage to get the 4rth screw out!! With two left, I just feel like giving up. Im sweating bullets at this point and my right hand is sore, along with my bicep, which I never even knew I had. I figure that the only important thing is to get the processor out. After that, who cares about the motherboard inside right? I mean i would have liked to have kept it but in the end, if it's just not feasible, there's no need to kill myself over it. It has this weird Heatsink over it that's like a bunch of bars sticking out so I do my best to pull it out, but in the end it I'm just left with sliced fingers and palms. Sigh.

All in all, it takes me a total of four hours to get 6 screws out. I hurl that final, stubborn screw across the room once I get it off and laugh with delight. "Now it begins!" I yell. BUt alas, no, the board is STILL stuck in there. I figure that it must be screwed in from behind the backplate, so I have to remove the right side panel to get at them. THe only problem though... is that there's really no right panel to speak of on the damned thing. I mean, the rest of the case's shell seems to be stuck there with one sheet of metal that wraps from the bottom of the right side up to the left side of the top. I find this odd, as most computers come with detachable Left AND Right panels. So, how am I supposed to get this crazy thing off? I notice that there are these tiny circles all around the case which arent quite screws or nails or circles with screws or nails inside. Still, I think they could be small screws lodged in there, so I make my way back to the hardware store to look for a jeweler's screwdriver, which they don't have so I just get the smallest kind that they do, but it still doesn't work, which leaves me really frustrated and in the end I just jam a slotted screwdriver into one of the sides of the case's shell and hammer it in before jerking it to the side, thus sending those whatever-they-were's all over.

(left: one of the "bolt things" all around the case, holding the shell in place).

In the end, I manage to pop those suckers out relatively easily without much problem, but once I get the shell off and take a look at the back plate, I get even MORE frustrated! Apparently the dang motherboard is being screwed onto the backplate through the processor somehow. By this time I'm just really fed up. I mean, I can't take out the processor cuz it's somehow screwed into the mobo, and I can't get the mobo out becuase it's screwed in under the processor's gates that go around it. I figure i could try seeing if I can get it out by gently unscrewing the screws from the back using a pair of pliers, but screw it. I say, "i don't care about that damned motherboard. I want it OUT!" Now comes the fun part.

The original mission was to leave the mobo as in-tact as possible. by now, bloodied, sweaty, frustrated, and smelling like a dirty yak of some sort, I jam the screw driver under the mobo from the inside and pull as hard as I can. "Besides," I say, "It probably got damaged with all the dang oil i used on it anyway." I pull and pull and slowly it cracks. That wonderful noise of my enemy being destroyed. I have done everything in my power to be as kind and gentle to it, but it simply doesn't understand. Force is now called for. I pull until I hear a snap and then I get a huge chunk of it out. Of course, that still leaves another huge chunk in there, so I pull again and again around the processor, so as not to damage it, and then after a few minutes, the piece with all the ports snaps off. So, there, the once mighty motherboard is reduced to a simple patch on the plate of a case without any shell. It's just a broken frame. Removing the piece with the processor still in there requires some tact, but I don't care anymore. It's about 9:00 at night and I'm tired. I get that last chunk out, but the screws remain, which I dispose of quickly once every piece of the mobo has been expelled.

I really wish I had taken a picture of the mobo's pieces and I was actually planning to once this was all resolved, until a week later, when i really could not laugh at my situation any further (yes, this keeps going).

So, there I have a rather... interesting case for my new stuff, and while I'd rather not try the processor on the new Mobo that I had just gotten, I did take some time to arrange my components around the old case. So I put the CD ROm in place, the hard drive in place, the mobo with the memory attached in there somewhat in place. And for the heck of it, I decided to connect them together. And then I realize, "hmm something is a little off about this set up... why doesn't this cable fit into the slot?"

Well, as it turns out, the motherboard only had one friggin IDE slot, meaning that I could only connect my CDROM drive or my Hard drive. I call Scott, and he tells me that the mobo has slots for SATA devices, which neither my HD or CDROM is, but that I could run the two from the same ribbon, so long as the hard drive is the master and the cdrom drive is the slave, and while it does work, the ribbon is so short that there's no way to set it up without having the case look really retarded beyond the damage that I have done. I'd have the hard drive sticking out of the tower's upper slots, and the faceplate doesn't go over that very well to cover it up.

"Screw it! Screw it all to hell!" I yell. I fall asleep two hours later, determined to be the victor in this duel with fate, for the war has just begun.

The next day, I go to the local computer store, where I ask him to give me a mobo similar to the one I bring in, with the exception of it having two IDE slots. I get a TON of info thrown at me about computers, which actually helps me out since I have no clue what I'm doing. after talking with the dude, I decide to build a decent computer that won't let me down for a few years. I settle on just starting over. Screw the DDR, I'll go with DDR2 and a mobo that can actually be upgraded if I need it to be. I go with the Pentium D chip and the simplest case they have. THey don't have all the parts but can have them by the next day and because the guy says that they'll put the components together, I feel relieved and look forward to using my new computer despite the fact that the parts alone cost more than the dell I purchased.

It should be noted that I should have just bought the parts to begin with , but I was really trying to avoid being in a situation where I would mess everything up since I'm a very curious individual and like to learn stuff through trial and error, and as far as I'm concerned, there is very little room for the latter when it comes to these machines.

So I get home, and look into returning the motherboard but alas, it cannot be done, which leaves me feeling miffed. That's the way it goes, I suppose.

Two days later, on Saturday, I get my parts and I get somewhat nervous because they only put the processor and memory into the mobo and didnt connect it to the case. "It's all right," I think. "I can put it all together myself... i hope." It turns out to be a rather... well, not so good experience. My ignorance in this leaves me with a computer that could have blown up had I not been more fortunate. So i have all the components in there but when I'm trying to upload my OS or the disk that came with the mobo, the system says that it can't read my hard drive, which I still find really confusing. WHile talking to Scott I mention this and he doesn't really understand how this is possible. we go through a few different scenarios but to no avail. I even try to disconnect my hard drives on my old computer and seeing if it will detect them but no, and to make matters worse, now the old computer won't read the hard drives I put back in there.  I decide to take the thing BACK to the store the following Monday (since it's closed on Sunday) and I have to admit my lack of knowledge on this matter, as I have not connected those screws behind the motherboard that keep it from forming a current to the backplate and shorting out. Frankly the guy is amazed it didn't bend or short out. He tells me to do that, and see if that helps the system detect my hard drive, but afraid of messing something else up, I tell him that I'll just pay for them to service it. I also leave my old computer there as well so that they can look at that one.

Two days later, as I'm making my tally of how expensive this has gotten with the dell computer which no longer exists, the parts I ordered online and the parts I got, not to mention the cost of having them looked at,  I just think about how I could have avoided all of this. What's worse is that I still have the DDR from the Dell and the Mobo from online that I ordered that are just being wasted and I know that I would get next to nothing for them if I tried to resell them online on ebay. Then, an idea hits me. It's a crazy one, but still. Why not spend a little more, and have yet another computer?? Nothing fancy- just the basic stuff you need. I'm not someone who likes to splurge but i'd rather spend some money to have something that works than to have parts that are being wasted. So, I order an SATA hard drive, a cheap pentium 4 processor (if there is such a thing) which took forever to select because I kept checking and rechecking the mobo box to make absolutely certain that I was getting something that would be compatible, and a cheap case. I also call my mother and tell her to ship me this really REALLY old disc drive that I've had up in my room for like 6 years now that chua took out of my E-machine way back when he was making the latest computer for me. I'm hoping that it all works.

A few hours later, I get a phone call telling me that my stuff is ready to be picked up. It turns out that I just got too frustrated with the old computer when I was hooking them back up and I just switched the ribbons in the wrong way. The dude there also says that now the new computer is also reading the hard drive just fine. Awesome! So, I hook it up, but it's STILL doing the same thing! Realizing that it's me, not the computer, that is not detecting the situation properly, I call the guy up and tell him about what's going on: the OS disc won't read my hard drive. In response, he tells me a bunch of stuff that I just can't understand and the only thing I can comprehend is "... but if you want to avoid all that you can run the hard drive on the same ribbon." So, hoping that it works, and that somehow i can get it to recognize the device on SEPARATE ports after i have my OS loaded, I configure it in that manner.

Lo and behold I reach a first victory! I load my OS just fine and begin to load some programs. I'm still a little worried about how I'm suppposed to get the thing separated, and again, here is another moment where i have to admit my ignorance, as not knowing anything about anything I decide to go online and update the BIOS... with the incorrect version. Not surprisingly, the thing doesn't load anything anymore. I try everything to salvage my machine - even learning how to identify and remove the battery from the motherboard and safely replacing it - but none of that helps. You know where I'm headed the next morning.

"I told you to just load the driver" the guy tells me, and I think I may know what he was talking about now, but back then it was all just a bunch of gobbelty goop. Nevertheless, the guy says that there may be hope. He will call the company and see if they can replace the mobo but that that could take up to four weeks, and seeing as how I dont really have much of a choice, besides actually paying for another one, I give him the okay, but i also tell him to just load everything up for me because I'm really just frustrated beyond belief at this point. I leave him with the disks he will need to set the thing up (including the OS I got for the old dell machine) once he hears from the mobo place.

It's relatively quiet for the next few days until Monday roles around (earlier this week). All my parts for my 2nd new machine come in and I get to work, certain that I have learned from my previous mistakes. I follow all of the instructions to the letter for placing the processor in the socket, then I place it in the case, and make sure to place the screws underneath to keep it from getting fried. The RAM is already installed.I place the heatsink on top of the chip, which is probably the hardest part of all, and then connect everything in there. And then- once everything is hooked up, i realize I don't ahve a power supply, so I have to go to the computer store to get one, and I joke around with the guy there because I've been there so often by then and tell him that I'm attempting to build one again. I get in, get out, and even though it takes me a good while to hook up all the case's cables to the motherboard, I have it up and running. I load the OS perfectly and things are going great!! "this is awesome," I think.

One of the programs that I'm loading that come with the motherboard is a temperature detection system and that thing doesnt hesitate to pop up on start up, warning me that the processor temperature exceeded recommendations. "GYAH!" I shout and proceed to turn everything off immediately. I do a little reading on the subject and I figure that I haven't installed the heatsink properly, but despite my best efforts, it still doesn't remain fully in place. I decide to turn it back on to see if it will at least still work, and since it does, I go into BIOS and take a look at the temperature, which tells me that it's going at 93 degrees... CELSIUS! I turn it off again quickly and just decide to wait until the next day... except I can't because that's the fourth of July! So on Wednesday of this week I went BACK there yet again, to get it looked at and the guy just pops it open and refits my heat sink. lo and behold we're now running at a cool 43 degrees Celsius, and he didnt even charge me for it, so that's pretty awesome.

Now, it can never be this easy right? Turns out the OS i got from Dell has just run out, so it's been hell trying to get it up and running. But now, after hundreds of dollars, and so much sweat and tears and blood, I have a computer running again. Well, i always did have the old one, but i tried not using that one all that much since I want to give it to my mother before I head out to Minnesota. I figured If I could get a 2nd new one to work, I could load all my programs on here and use it in the interrim before my 1st new one (the better one) is ready to go. THen I'll just load everything onto that one.

So after all that, I've come up with a few conclusions. The first is that I'm a pretty lucky guy. I mean, I could have fried the motherboard and everything connected to it the first time but I didn't thanks to the (what I thought was) undetected hard drive; then I could have had to pay for a new mobo (and I still might have to, but there's a chance I won't) after that BIOS mixup, but maybe I'll just have to pay for the resetting; third, I could have fried my processor if not for that program that came with the mobo : "93 degrees Celsius," the guy said,"we're talking meltdown in a few seconds there." from what I hear the chips are now designed to slow down depending on their heat, but a year ago, i would have had to buy it all over again.

So, while I don't have the utmost faith in this thing that i constructed myself, I do have a better sense of my own competence and an even deeper respect for people who know what to do around these things. I'm hoping that this one lasts at least until i can upload all my files onto the cool computer when i get it back. And if it survives, I can always add stuff to it to make it better, or just have it around in case company drops by when I live in Minn-town. Here now is what is left of the once mighty Dell (sans trashed mobo):

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/Nandose/Dell.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/Nandose/Dell1.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/Nandose/Dell2.jpg

As far as the money situation, it's still not entirely settled, as I still have to wait and see what's going to happen with the motherboard, but sometimes these things happen. At least I was able to use a lot of the parts from the old Dell in my new systems, so though it may not be with us any longer- it still lives on:

the 1 gig of DDR Ram: 2nd new computer I put together
the 160 gig Western Digital Hard Drive: 1st new computer that is in the shop
the the CDR/DVD-RW: 1st new computer
the 15 inch flatscreen Monitor: eventually it will belong to the 2nd computer, since I really really like my 21 inch monitor, even though it's bulky.

I figure all this stuff put together should be worth at least half of what I paid for in the dell, and if I had been told, I would have also been able to use the Dell OS before it crapped out on me.

Stuff that isn't reusable:

The motherboard: obviously, and when Dell goes out of their way to make SURE you can't upgrade or even replace it, no one should be surprised.
The Case: that thing is gone and I am curious if there has ever been anyone who was able to recycle it. I'm not even sure that the connectors in there will be compatible with any motherboard.
The power supply: Why in God's name would you make a Power supply that isn't compatible with anything??? Sigh.

So now you know why i havent been on much. And also, it was during this time that I accidentally broke the remote, so I still havent checked on that but I should either have someone fix that or just restart pretty soon.

Also, due to all the transferring that has been going on and will undoubtedly still be going on for some time, please forgive the broken j-pegs found throughout the site. I need to update the file location and it's a pain and a half.

Speaking of pictures, I've had the chance to go around Madison while the Cow Parade was in town. There are 101 cows sprinkled throughout the area but so far Melanie and I have only been able to catch 79 of them. I've included the fruits of our labor in two versions. The Yahoo pics are a bit smaller than I'd like, but theyre up for the public to view. I also included them in my facebook section, which displays them in better quality, but theyre in two separate albums and you need to be a registered user to see them.

Yahoo Version (smaller size)

Facebook (2 albums-must be registered)

The heat won the championship, which sucks. In other basketball news, the bulls be getting some Ben Wizzle, which should help their chances of making the eastern conference finals (insane to even think about it, isnt it?) though im not entirely sold on the price. It should be exciting to watch though.

As I was purusing the Utah Jazz site tonight, I noticed that the "hottest team in the NBA" is no longer. I was really excited when they resigned Harpring because I thought it meant I would get to see more of him with Raul Lopez and Kris Humphries, but alas, the latter two were traded to different teams a while ago and I didn't know. All is not lost though, as Humphries is headed to Toronto to be with italian-stallion Andrew Bargnani and former All Attractive 2nd Team member Rasho Nesterovic.

Friday, July 7th, 2006

Having nothing to do really isn't all that great after all

Mostly because it really screws up my sleep schedule and I'm always terrified of reverting back to my Winter of Civ days, where I would go to bed at 8am and wake up at 5pm, or even worse- the dreaded SUMMER of CIV where I would go to bed at 3 am, wake up at 9 am, and then fall back to sleep at 4pm and wake up at 8pm. It's been dangerously close to that this summer, and I'm not even playing any video games! I think I just tend to get bored and want to take a nap, therefore it messes up my sleep at night. Regardless, I've been able to keep myself awake when I've needed to... until the next thing comes along that prevents me from going to bed until 4 am, resulting in an early rise, and a sleepy me throughout the day. Today is one of them.

I was busy loading stuff on to this computer box all night and I needed to get up early because I had all these plans, only half of which i was able to accomplish (though not due to waking up late or anything- they just didnt get done).

You know what a really good show was? Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Now, as you may know, I'm a die hard TNG fan, and simply can't get enough of those episodes that are on 5 times a day. However, Spike also shows two episodes of DS9 before the three hour block of TNG, and I figure that since I've seen every episode of TNG at least 7 times, I may as well watch some DS9. I didn't really get into the show when it was on the air. Particularly the early seasons, which to me still aren't all that attractive. However, the one thing I do remember about that show was how towards the end, it became this long saga that involved tons and tons of spaceships fighting one another in a war that involved the Cardassians, the Romulans, the Federation and the Jem Hadaar- an alien race that fought for the Founders. Yeah, I really didn't understand it that well since you kinda had to start watching it early to understand how the FOunders, changelings, Vortas, Dominion and Jem Hadaar were all related. But still, despite the tiny fact I could still enjoy the few episodes that I was able to catch. Then, when I was at Wabash, I remember that SPike TV had DS9 on right before dinner every day, and since there was nothing else to watch, I would catch whatever I could. Still, no matter where I picked up the show, I couldn't understand some elements because theyre not going to go through and explain all the stuff that youve missed since their regular viewers would get sick of it.

Now, I think I can comprehend the stuff that I didnt get before, and it's been itnteresting to catch episodes that explain stuff that I wasn't clear on in the past, leading to many, many "oh, so that's how it happened" moments.If you ask me, though, Anything from the first two seasons is still hit or miss, but somehow, once Avery Brooks shaved his head and grew that goatee, the shows all really seemed to flow a lot better - mostly cuz now you knew that if you messed with Starfleet, you'd have this big angry blacky guy coming after you and he meant business.

COmpared to TNG, there's so much more conflict in DS9, and it really turned into so much more than a weekly "something's coming through the wormhole" episode (which is basically what the first two seasons are mostly like). One of the things I can appreciate about DS9 is that it doesnt rely heavily on technology to resolve everything into a neat little package. LIke, if any of you ever saw TNG, you'll remember that they usually had two plots- one was character driven, the other was some wierd technological or physical problem and the two would somehow be intertwined. So like the sun was about to collapse and kill every person on a nearby planet and I dunno, RIker was doing it with a chick from Planet 5G, and she knows that the only way to stop the sun from exploding or imploding was to sacrifice herself somehow. So, the main story would be about whether or not it was right for one person to sacrifice herself for the sake of 5 billion, but then by the end, Data or Geordi would find a way to save the sun - with an artificially constructed second sun, and they could use some weird program to suck up the solar energy and transfer it to the new unit using the deflector dish, thus hot chick from 5G wouldn't have to kill herself, and Riker could do it with her again until the start of the next show.

DS9 doesnt have that constant "I can build something to make our problem go away" crap. Well, not too much of it anyway. The characters on the show are probably the best written out of any series in terms of balance. I know, I know, Picard is probably the most three dimensional character in any trek series, but when you look at who he had to share the spotlight with- Troi (who would just chime in every few seconds about what she sensed, which almost anyone could deduce by that point), Crusher (who honestly was a really cool character, but just wasn't utilized enough until the end of the series, that's kinda true for Troi as well). Even Geordi had really bad storylines that never really went anywhere. DS9 has pretty likable characters and theyre all well utilized and written.

I was reading an old posting on IMDB by a fan of the show who said that DS9 was a Trek show for people who didn't like 'happy Star Trek (TNG), weird Star Trek (THe original series), or dumb Star Trek (Voyager).' And for the most part I agree, though not everything on TNG was all that happy ( i swear, Picard got beaten up and tortured more times than i can remember).

Good Lord. It's only 9:30. I have to think of something else that will eat up more time.

Becker, Chua , and Scott are supposed to be coming up tomorrow.

That's pretty much it.

Im going to walk around the apt for a bit....

Nope still nothing. Maybe I'll just cut my losses and call it a night. Take it easy, folks.

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

Finding a place to live is dumb

Everything is pretty pricey up there in the Twin-cits, and as much as I love cities, I'd much rather not live where all the commotion is at. I prefer to have a nice quiet place to come to at the end of the work day. I guess I'm looking for something really specific which makes the search really tough. At first I only wanted to have to take one bus from campus to my place but because only three busses pass by my building, I'm gonna need to do a transfer if I want to have a better pick (and just barely) of places to live. But then it's hell too because I've had to verify how often a bus passes by and so forth, because as much as I do like where I live, the only drawback is that the bus passes by every hour and not at all on the weekends. Luckily, just like in Madison, most busses that pass by the university also pass through the downtown area of Minneapolis, so it would be nice to be able to take a day to go downtown and not have to worry about parking. I only have like two days to figure out which places are worth looking at before i have to call on either Thursday or Friday and schedule a time to look through them when Melanie and I go up there on Monday of next week. ANd then the following week i have to move all my crap, so I'm hoping that it all goes smoothly. I'm just really exhausted from looking through pages and pages of uniform ads, and on top of that going back and forth, verifying if they go through the particular bus lines that I need.

Currently, it's raining out here, which is preventing me from going out and enjoying one of my usual walks. For the last two weeks, I have been venturing out to Madison and taking in all of the natural (and sometimes residential) sights this place has to offer. I'm not sure how many of the 17 walks that I have in my awesome book I will be able to complete, but so far, I have 8 in my bag, and I know for sure that I won't be doing one, which involves going to a dog park like seven miles away or so.

The first, and perhaps the best walk is the pheasant branch conservancy right outside my apartment. it goes on forever and has an awesome mix of forests (which I really like) inside the conservancy and savannahs (which I didn't know I would love so much) on the outer circle as you go around the forest. As humid as hell as it gets in these outskirts, it's well worth it. There are fewer bugs than hidden in forests, and there really is no substitute for the sun hitting your face. The best part of it all is the ginormous hill that you can immediately spot and as you walk in its general direction, you can't help but think, "man i wonder if I could find a way to get up there," little realizing that right as you come to the middle of the outer bend, there is a path that criss crosses all the way up there. Once you do see it, you really can't help but venture up there. Trees are everywhere, giving you nice shade once your looong journey upwards and you can plop yourself down on a bench and enjoy the sights. Directly in front you will see the streem that cuts through the grassland, which unfortunately you can not get close to since it's a restricted area, but hey, this is the next best thing.

over to the left, you can see whatever there is of the Madison skyline off in the distance in a haze. It's a pretty long walk, and just to go around without any deviations took about two hours, so Im guessing another hour and half would get me to see all of it.

Next up is the walk along the university's shoreline, which is rather disappointing, because by itself, there really isn't all that much to see. You have boats going along Lake Mendota, which you can probably see from anywhere, and just a bunch of University buildings to your right. Maybe it's just that I'd rather not be around campus, but it didn't feel like much of a walk. It felt more like, "Hey, Im going to class" or something. However, once you walk far enough west, it starts getting better, mainly because you start off on to the Picnic point walk. This area is mainly wooded and lasts about .6 miles, which may not seem like a lot, but if you do combine the walk from the campus shoreline to here, it seems a lot farther. You walk all the way to the tip of land on Lake Mendota and get to see the Madisonian skyline from Lake Mendota.

While it's not my favorite, this walk does have something that no other walk has, which is the constant sound of waves hitting land. WHether youre coming or going, if you stick to the path that's furthest on your right, you will hear the lake, and there are even several points along the way where you can just look out and enjoy the site. The downside is that the walk doesnt loop and you can really keep on going and going along the forest until you realize that there's nothing more to see and now you have to walk all the way back.

Another walk is Owen Park. You get in there, and the entire middle section is a giant savannah- a huge field for you to enjoy. It does provide several options. You can go all the way around, and since it's a hill, you have to go doooooown and then... struggle... back... up. Unfortunately, it's not a very long walk. You can also try to navigate your way through the maze of forests that encircle the field. Getting in is simple, since there are many paths that tempt you inside, but getting out can be confusing- and it could be rather adventurous too if not for the fact that the park is right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, so once you begin feeling like might be lost and feel a thrill of excitement over the opportunity to explore, you realize that in two more blocks youre about to hit a street, so you better turn back. My favorite part of the woods was probably a section to the right as you come in, which takes you higher and higher, further and further up. Unfortunately, you can see some houses around, but still, it's kinda nice to keep on going upwards.  

They also recommended that one take a stroll around the ritzy part of Madison, complete with houses starting at half a million beans, and while I could appreciate the sights, I really didn't have much fun just being awed by how much money people had. If you must take a "building walk" in Madison, it has to be the State Street walk, which has tons of interesting shops and weirdos for you to ignore all the way up to the Capital. From here, I like to venture towards the Monona Terrace and then look both ways. From the Terrace one can also walk to other residential areas that stretch along the isthmus.

I ventured off yesterday to catch the Sunset at Monona Bay, which in many ways was not as good as I expected it to be, and yet better in other ways. I guess I expeced more stuff to be around the lake, but it can look rather deserted. The real gem, though isn't the actual Bay, but the view from around it. You can get a decent shot of the skyline and a rather cool shot of the cars going underneath the Terrace. My favorite though, is the reflection of the orange sun setting down from the sky on the Bay.

 The "Multiculturally appropriate Justice Squad of Dudes" (currently accepting applications for a black guy).

Now,  the moment you have all been waiting for. The update of how becker, chua and scott's visit went. In a word: awesome. It started out rather oddly with Chua and Becker not being able to leave Chicago to get to Scott's place in Lake Forest until two hours after they had originally planned because of girls who just had  to look good. Once they did arrive (at 11:30), it all went down pretty smoovely, with a very tired Scott learning how to play Rummy 500 and then beating the pants off Becker (his instructor) and Me.

We went to bed at around 4. The following day, I had a whole fun filled action packed itinerary, which included parking near campus and going down state street, where we ate at Potbelly's. Unfortunately, becker ended up having to pay for his food because I hadn't paid closer attention to his movement after ordering his sandwhich. I just figured he was back in line because he had forgotten his fixins, so when I paid for everyone's meal, he was out in the cold. Oh well, I got him some Bio-ooze for an Oozinator, so it all works out.

After we ate, we hit the capital and went around the square, which was cool because there were giant stands everywhere with people selling their artwork, and a lot of foodstuff. It was at this point that i think the sun and heat was starting to get to Scott, who commenced to 1) ask a question that I had literally finished answering not one second earlier, or 2) respond to things that he thought people had said, but which in reality no one had said at all. An example of the former is when Chua asked me, "is it always this crazy", and I answered "well, during the summer... it pretty much shuts down during the wintertime." I had no sooner finished sayng the word "time" then scott had asked, "is it always this crazy?" without skipping a beat. CHua and i just laughed for a long period of time before explaining it to him.

Once we hit the Terrace, we took some time in the shade to cool down.

Me: (as i see silly Chua and Scott opening the door to actually go IN to the Terrace instead of going up to the roof) Hey, where are you going?
Chua: Oh, I thought it was this way. There's air conditioning inside.
Me: Oh, come on, you whiners (which scott had previously misconstrued to "wineries")
Becker: well, some of us who don't have brown skin are burning up!

Becker looks out over lake Monona....

...while Nando keeps a silent vigil over the denizens of Madison.

We made the long trek back to campus and took a few pictures of Bascom Mall before meeting up with Melanie who was gracious enough to have ice cold water waiting for us. Everyone seemed to get along well enough, much to my surprise, and I was proud of myself for having instagating one of the most surreal scenes from my point of view

So... how about that "Battle Royale" eh?

And sure enough the two talked about that weird movie, which I had never seen

Scott enjoys the new "Melon Day"

The five of us then proceeded to Smart Studios, where Garbage recorded their albums, which ended up being this odd, abandoned-looking building with little on it except the address. However, along the way, Melanie spotted an old worn Sewing Machine. Scott, of course, ended up taking it home with him. Even more odd, we found a block filled with doll parts and tiny (what we hope were) squirrel bones...

Chua giving the finger

After that, we pretty much just came back here, and wasted what few minutes we had left. Becker and I engaged in a true test of our masculinity by seeing which one of us could beat the other in a bloody game of Simpsons Trivia- Homer Simpson edition. I think we both sucked, not because we didnt know our stuff, but because we thought it would be better if we bypassed all the easy 1, 2, 3 questions and got down to the tough 4 and 5 level questions that don't have any multiple choice. I could get the ones that were from the first 6 seasons, but anything after 7, which unfortunately were plentiful, was beyond the both of us.

And that's pretty much it. I crashed right as they left because all of that walking had pretty much worn me out. It was awesome to see everyone together again for the first time in ... im thinking four years or so, and it was just as pleasing to have my old friends getting along well with my new one. I wonder if there would be anyway to get every active BBX-er together in the same room...

that's it. Minnesota: BBX-Con '07. join me up in the Twin Cities to do a series of stuff that we're all bound to enjoy.

A special  viewing of Glitter!
Funk and Becker duke it out to determine which NFL team is the best - Bears vs Colts
PLUS! Get ready for some Chua fixes my computer(s) action!

Also - anyone in need of a drink? Erinn's uncanny ability to locate the nearest bar will leave you astounded!
Stay warm with Melanie's stories of the current temperature in California!

AND! Scott rates for us the best of classic american cinema based on boobage factor! Twelve Angry Men? Make it THIRTEEN after scott watches this sausage fest!

Pacers vs T-wolves game: KG's bound to be on one of these teams- but which? the suspense is killing me!

Pick a team - Nando's CIV or Chua's WOW - and bet on who can play the most hours without having to sleep!
Marvel! at how out of all of the men in the room, Tony's the one who's still in a relationship!

BBX-Con 07 - if you miss this, you better be dead- or in jail! and if you're in jail, get a computer and join us virtually! ly! ly! ly! ly! ly...

All right, that's enough of that, I must get back to looking for my future apts. And away I go...

Saturday, July 15th, 2006

Dwindle

Gonna head up to St. Paul tomorrow to see some Apts on Monday with Melanie. While I'm kinda excited about it, the two places i was most excited about are no longer available, so I'm gonna have to pick from my second choices. Also, i think the Remote is back up. Go check!

Later

Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Packin up... yet again

Well, it looks like this will be my last full week up here in Mad-town. I settled on a place up in Saint Paul that's decent. Nothing fancy, and not as good as the place I have here, I don't think, but still, one must look forward, not back. I have the rental truck all scheduled for next tuesday, so I'm hoping my app goes through without any problems, cuz if it doesn't, it's gonna leave me stranded with a truck and nowhere to go. It should be fine though. So, this week is mostly going to be utilized for storing things up. I have my books all set up in boxes, but I still need to tape them up. Still on the list is disconnecting the cable, which translates to just taking the modem back to the location since theyre too lazy to come for it until two weeks from now!

I'll post the few pictures that Melanie took of our trip up here soon, but I'm too tired to do that now.

I have mixed feelings about leaving this place. I mean, I think it's easy to get comfortable in Madison because it's pretty slow and calm around here; so while I do find myself wishing I could stay longer, I do realize that I'm almost certain I wouldn't want to live here. It's just the whole 'not a whole lot to do around here' mentality. Not that I would rush out and do all of it if there were tons of options available, but it would be nice to have options. So, I'll move on, pretty certain that where ever I end up next probably won't feel right for me either, and actually, it's probably best that I not get too attached to any place or anybody for a while since I'll most likely be running from one city to another for the next decade or so, unless something major happens.

Anyway, it's late. I leave you with this note: check out the remote.

Monday, July 24th, 2006

Well, this will be my last post for a while, and definitely the last post from Madison - EVER! I have tons of stuff to do so I'll just keep it short. My itinerary for the rest of the week is pretty cluttered.

Monday- return modem to cable place, request a change of address, submit lease info, get rid of the dell computer parts I have left lying around, finish the packing process, and hang out with Melanie.

Tuesday- pick up the truck, pack it up, drive to Saint Paul, unload, drive back to Madison

Wednesday - clean up the apartment, see what's left that I don't need and either throw it out or pack it up so that by night fall I can drive to Chicago for a week and a half or so.

And then I hope to hang out with Chua, Bex, and Scott. I'm not exactly sure when I'm heading to Saint Paul, but I promised Melanie I'd stop in Madison to hang out for a day along the way. 

So long, Madison. It's been a crazy ride!