Hey, remember me?

It’s been a while and no good reason for it! I’ve been working on a project recently which was to build a computer. My mom’s laptop was really at the end of it’s rope, and it was time to find her a desktop replacement. I found this very cool little system called the ZPCgx by iWill, a Taiwanese company. It’s a desktop that is designed for laptop parts. That is, a laptop size hard drive and cd rom. The processor and memory are regular size, and graphics and audio is built into the motherboard.

On the front there are two USB ports and two Firewire ports. Also, there is audio in and out. The little notch you see in the front is the opening for the CD drive. On the back there are more USB ports, the monitor out, serial cable, etc. There is a small fan right below the circular opening at the top. The CPU is right below the fan. Then, there are small vents at each corner of the case so that air circulates throughout the whole case. The great part is that this thing is tiny: 7″ x 11″ x 3″ !

So I did some thrifty ebay shopping and now we’ve got a fully running system with: 2.4 GHz Pentium IV Processor – 40 GB 7200 RPM HD – 512 MB DDR SDRAM. Needless to say, coming from my old (but reliable!) Pentium II 400 with 256 MB of RAM, I’m jealous. But it was extremely fun, and at times a little frustrating, to piece together a system. I think that once I settle I’ll throw something together in a similar fashion.

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My job…. hey I have one. Actually it is perfect, if a little dull. I’m doing data entry (don’t vomit yet,) for a small sports photography company. Basically these are the people who photograph kids doing sports in grammar and middle school. I’m sure all of you have at least one plaque of yourself grinning foolishly with some type of ball or bat!! What I have to do is match up the handwritten orders with the proper photo. It’s not thinking work, but I have to be very accurate – wouldn’t want little Johnny to get his pictures back and wonder when the sex change happened.

It’s in Andover, MA, a cool town. Andover is home to the prestigious (in the Hersh sort of way) Philips Andover Academy – the kinda place many Trinity kids went to. It’s pretty classy. Nice main street with stores and beautiful public parks. So I take an hour for lunch every day and sample the food and enjoy sitting outside while I still can. Although I hope such activities do not represent the zenith of my working career, as do many others (i.e. those who paid for my education,) it’s good honest work and it’s satisfying to get a paycheck every week.

I’m loving it now although it gets dark too early. In the days it’s summery hot, and then in the night decidedly autumnal. The crickets still chirp outside my window, though perhaps a bit less loud, and the breezes can waft through open windows while I sleep. I saw a house today with halloween decorations up… seems like someone was eager to decorate, maybe they’ve been watching too much Bravo.

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Speaking of TV, I have a few new favorites. The Daily Show continues to be good, Stephen Colbert still obviously the king of the correspondents. A tall lanky guy did a segment about Kerry choking last night and was very un-funny. Another treat is on weeknights on the Sundance channel. For about an hour and twenty minutes there is a “best of” the day’s Al Franken Show from Air America Radio.

Air America, if you don’t know, is a steadily growing liberal talk radio network. Al Franken kinda started it, and has a show in the afternoon. I really enjoy, though, Mike Malloy. He’s a firebrand for the left – sensible and vocal! You’ve got to love his liberal usage of the term, “Bush crime family…” If you haven’t given it a shot, check out http://www.airamericaradio.com/ today! Be forewarned though, the commercials are cheesy to the max factor – a blend of the usual awful radio spots and little plugs by interest groups. I’m very glad that this exists. One last good show that I’m into is Real Time with Bill Maher. Fridays on HBO – one hour of political discussion with smart guests from both the left and the right (but with a heavy left bent if you haven’t guessed…)

So I’m starting to feel that it’s fun to be political and well versed in what’s up in this country and world. I think that feeling has really spread recently. I wonder though how much of it will remain after election day. The indignation by members of the left is loud and clear, but maybe we’ve learned that we’ve got to prevent so as to avoid backtracking in the future. In that vein, I’ve volunteered to join the Kerry campaign and go canvass in New Hampshire this Saturday. I really can’t believe I’m doing this, because I’ve never officially done any political stuff, but NH is close and I’d like to see Kerry do as well as he can.

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I’ve had lots of random thoughts come and go, such as: “What is/was the longest pneumatic tube ever built?” – “You know those people who try to hard to act as if they are not trying to hard to be cool in an alternative sort of way?” – “I’m not a perfect perrrrrrrrrrrrrson.” – “Why not just take the bag off the little air freshener tree? Because you are a compulsive/neurotic freak, that’s why!” – and many others.

For now.