28/08/2010 – Work and Play

I woke up this morning with a clear goal in mind: Finish working on a laptop for a client, so that I can be done with it, and get it back to them as soon as possible, as well as enjoy the rest of my weekend work free.

Shortly after that I checked my phone and saw I had a text message from my friend Ty asking if we could hang out, because he needed to talk to a friend. I didn’t know what it was about, but was worried, so I put off the laptop repairs until I could see Ty.

He came over after I had lunch, we had a lengthly conversation on matters that aren’t going to be listed here, but after talking for a while, he was feeling better, and we both decided that he was going to head home, come online, and we’d play some Left 4 Dead 2.

We did just that, had a tonne of fun, and put it all behind us. We parted ways once again to have dinner, and after dinner, I finally got to work on the laptop again. It took hours and hours, but I got rid of the problems I could fix, and diagnosed those that I couldn’t so that I can tell ze client in question later what they need to get it back up to snuff.

It was a delicate balance of work and play, but it all worked out. If I want to work on a computer and I invite someone over, I usually just.. concede to the fact that I’ll work on it another day, but this time, while speaking to Ty, it got my mind off of the problems I was having fixing the computer, and the answer to the problems it was having came to me whilst we were talking while playing Left 4 Dead 2.

In the end, Ty needed to talk to me, and even though I didn’t know it, I needed to talk to him. We both needed to get our minds off of what were bothering us (either through conversation, or through ignoring them while conversing on other topics) and it helped us both out greatly.

I’m very pleased, especially because later on in the day Ty went to hang out with Ben for a while, and it ended up with us all playing Left 4 Dead 2 again later in the evening, as well as making plans with Ty to go see a movie tomorrow night.

I love how I set out to make this a work-heavy day (and weekend, honestly) but it turned out I got all my work done /and/ made awesome plans, and had a lot of fun in the process. Life can rock sometimes.

August 28, 2010 · Filed Under Photo 365 - 2010

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27/08/2010 – A Day Comprised of Nothing

Worked a little bit on fixing a laptop, played some TF2, watched a bit of TV. Attended the Magic Night (pictured), came home, watched “Yes Man” with my Mom, followed by some Castle, and now I’m off to bed.

August 28, 2010 · Filed Under Photo 365 - 2010

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26/08/2010 – Finally

I ordered my Tau Battleforce, 40k rulebook, magnets, paints, etc back on July 21st. August 26th, they finally arrive. That’s a bit ridiculous, no?

Either way, it wasn’t neccesarily MiniWarGaming’s fault at first, but as time went on, it became apparent they had simply forgotten to ship my order for two weeks. It was in, they just forgot ’til I e-mailed ‘em asking for a tracking number.

That’s not reason enough for me to not do business with them (I’ve placed two other orders with no problems whatsoever) I just got the short end of the stick when I placed an order.

I’ve noticed that a TONNE of online Warhammer stores claim to have stuff in stock or on hand, when they really don’t. It’s stupid, and I hate it. Don’t say you have it if I have to wait a week for you to get it. -_-

Anyway, it’s here now, and hopefully I’ll end up doing something with it in the coming weeks/months. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth (and made me sick of 40k for the time being) but when I opened the package today, I’ll admit I put together a Fire Warrior, just to see how to do so… and it made me want to put more together.

So perhaps all is not lost.

Other than going into town to pick up the parcel (as well as the assembly of a Fire Warrior or two) I spent the day working on fixing a laptop, playing Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, and playing Team Fortress 2.

I’m happy to note that I’ve gotten back into PC gaming in a big way. Well, just gaming, really, as it wasn’t like I was playing any console titles. In fact the only game I played very much of over the last month and a half was Angry Birds on my iPhone, and I only bought it a week ago.

I’ve always had the tendency (read: I do this) to drift in and out of interests or hobbies. I never dislike something I got into, I just don’t bother with it for months at a time, when suddenly I jump right back in (like a comfortable pair of pants) and do whatever that hobby is to the EXTREME.

For instance, didn’t play any video games for a long while, all I did was play Magic and assemble Warhammer miniatures. This week I’ve been all about the gaming, no Magic for two weeks, and very little 40k.

I’m going to attend the Magic Night tomorrow, as well as play some games this weekend (and perhaps assemble some Stealthsuits) but I have to make a concious effort to partake in more than one hobby at any given time.

I have interest ADD, really. I can focus in on something, but can’t stand to be interested in too many things at once, so I cut some of them out for a while. There was a time when I’d wake up on a day off, assemble a Magic deck, play some TF2, watch a movie, learn a new song on the guitar, fix a computer, beat part of Final Fantasy X, and at the end of the day, even having done so much… I didn’t accomplish /everything/ I wanted to do, so I felt the day was wasted.

That was worse than this, so maybe I’ll just keep picking and choosing new hobbies (bi)weekly.

August 26, 2010 · Filed Under Photo 365 - 2010

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25/08/2010 – Planning

Today was another Wednesday, which means another long work day. Wasn’t too bad though, aside from the heat.

After I got off of work and headed home, I dined on pizza, watched Attack of the Show, and then settled into a night of gaming and online shopping.

I’ve decided I need to get a new main PC, so I’ve been spending my time working out how much dosh I’ll need, what brands I want to be loyal to, what caliber of gaming rig I should build, how much should I future-proof, etc.

It took me weeks and weeks to decide to go back to a desktop gaming rig, rather than a desktop replacement gaming laptop. I priced out laptops, decided to opt for an Alienware M17x R2, and even took the time to see how long I’d have to save up for, etc… but then I decided I should check on NCIX what kind of desktop gaming rig I could build for the same amount of cash.

The results astounded me. I could build one screaming beast of a machine ’twere I to buy it in parts and build it myself (or have NCIX assemble it, but who wants to do that?) rather than go for the laptop formfactor. I was afraid I’d miss portability, but I just decided to keep my current laptop as my portable rig, and have a separate desktop rig.

My ASUS G50V-A1 is showing its’ age, but can still play all the latest and greatest titles at medium graphics, and would work fine for LAN parties or just as a powerful laptop whilst traveling, or to have in another room, and the gaming laptop market these days isn’t so hot.

Anyway, I spent a lot of Wednesday night reading up on parts, reviews, and the advances that have been made since I last built a PC in 2005. There have been some major changes (Socket 1156/1366 CPUs don’t have pins… the socket does!? I feel so out of date…) but not so many that I can’t jump back in head-on.

So yeah, that’s why that’s my photo for the day. It was craptastic, and I took it right before I went to bed, not because I had forgotten, but because I couldn’t decide what to photograph. It’s in black and white because it looked less grainy/pixelated that way. ;)

August 26, 2010 · Filed Under Photo 365 - 2010

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24/08/2010 – Delayed Arrival

A while back now I placed an order online for all manner of Warhammer 40k related stuff, the majority of it being my selected army’s battleforce, the paints I wanted for them, and the core rulebook.

That order was placed on July 21st, and as of August 24th, I still haven’t recieved it. Evidently it was finally shipped on Aug 21st, and Canada Post claims it is in Sechelt now, but the local post office won’t release the parcel.

A few weeks after placing /that/ order, I placed an order with Games Workshop for Commander Shadowsun, a Tau HQ Choice/IC, and that order went through August 12th.

It was shipped sometime around August 15th, and arrived on the 24th. That’s not as bad as the other order (which wasn’t from Games Workshop) but I swear there’s some terrible rip in space/time that follows all Warhammer related goods once they’ve been mailed that causes them to arrive either extremely late, or EXTREMELY late.

Anyhoo, I’m not going to assemble Shadowsun today (lazy, hate metal models) but I figured I’d photograph the box/kit as my photo of the day, as I was looking for an excuse to pull out my camera, and not use my iPhone.

Of course after taking this one picture (of questionable quality) my camera’s battery died, so it’s now charging in the other corner of my room.

Le sigh.

August 24, 2010 · Filed Under Photo 365 - 2010

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