Hot Chocolate Caffeine

Just the ramblings of my mind, changing from day to day, week to week!

Monday, April 30, 2007

Ain't computers fun!?!?

Well had a lovely Saturday, I realized just what I had done on Thursday night... See I formatted my main computer on Thursday and installed a brand spanking new Windows XP MCE 2005 install. The install went flawlessly, I used the 2 CD Rom drives and the install just grabbed what it needed instead of the previous install on the other computer....

(Remember, the I'm a hack"er" post...)

However, I jumped the gun and didn't backup several key things, like my desktop images, my favorites, and oh yea, my wedding plans folder..... AAAARGH!!

All this came at the same time I looked at my computer monitor on Saturday morning, with it saying:

Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
memory

at the bios level and nothing else.

I powered the system off and back on and guess what

Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
memory

Ok, ok, nothing to worry about, (yea right), just reset the motherboard and go again, I mean the cover is off the side of the tower any way.. Yea, that's all I need to do..

Boot back up:

Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
memory

Oh, no it isn't working, ok, it is stopping before counting the RAM, maybe a stick of RAM is bad...

Pulled out a stick of RAM and Power the system back on...

CRAP:

Intel Pentium 4...

Ok, breath now I say to myself.. Maybe it is just a bad memory slot. I say to mayself as I also consider that I am saving up for a wedding, the rings, and the reception... UGh, my stomach sinks...

I try both RAM sticks in all 4 slots one at a time. No better... But the system beeps like crazy if I don't have any RAM in so it is detecting the sticks... I pull out every other card in the system, the network card, the sound card, the DXr3, (if you know it you probably worked with me at some point), unplugged the CD's the floppy and taking a deep breath, try to boot the system up.

GAH! The same thing, no change. I walk away and go back to bed.


But if you know me you know I can't rest unless I figure out the problem. I lay there in bed thinking I can change out the memory with another system, yea that will work... I get up and go back in there and realize that my new external HD is still plugged into the USB. Just for kicks I unplug the USB cable and reboot the machine and it boots up. So here I sit, with a stack of computer components laying on the desk and a fully functional computer booted up.

Lots of cables unplugged and laying down there on the floor..

And someone feeling like an idiot in the chair..

Never the less, the computer is back up and running, and my new external HD is working fine too, I just don't leave it plugged in anymore..

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Saturday, oh Saturday

Well this weekend was interesting for me to say the least. I had a bunch of errands to run, not the least of which was getting my dogs their shots. Every year there is one day in the spring that a vet donates their time and gives shots to all comers, so for $27 I was able to get rabies shots for all 3 of my dogs. When I take them to a vet for a visit it normally runs over $100, so I try to catch this special day. This year it was on 4/14 from 1 PM till 4 PM at the mill.

Everything went smoothly, my dogs didn't fight with the pit bull in front of the line or with the 3 silky terriers behind me in line! Felt pretty good about it and ran home to clean the house a bit before Kim arrived. Well after Kim left, around 10:00 PM I was getting ready to go to my second job when I felt a paw on my leg, normally the dogs just want attention when they know I'm getting ready to leave, but when I looked down, I saw:

sick pup

click photo to enlarge...

And I realized I had to call in or possibly lose my pup. I've posted the rest of the images on flickr, if you want to see, the title of this article is the link. So I gave her a Benadryl and then 4 hours later more. By 6 AM she got her last one and was looking and feeling like her old self again.

I've been told that the rabies shot normally does not cause this reaction, and the other two of mine had no reaction at all. Don't know what caused it.

Anyway Peace,

Monday, April 16, 2007

What have you been listening to???

For those of you who grew up on TV like I did, sometimes just hearing the sound of one of your favorite TV shows can bring a smile to your face. I was amazed at the depth of TV Theme songs I found on the following site:

TV Theme songs

Peace

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Wedding, reception and similar

Well now we are getting down to the planning, and I'm so glad we decided on a small thing, still lots of decisions to make and set out. We will be getting married on July 19th in Branson... The weekend after we come back we will have a reception in STW somewhere and everyone is invited, more information will be posted, but I will also want to send out invitations to the reception, so if you can mail me your address!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Lookin' forward

Well I believe we have found the spot to have our wedding, now all we have to do is set a date as to when! If you get in the mood to look, hop on over to Branson's Wedding Chapel and take a look....

We don't want a big wedding, but we will probably have a nice reception after the fact in our little home town!

Yes I know I don't say a lot about my fiance, (and boy do I like saying that!), but we are doing very well and enjoying the time we have right now.

Peace

Monday, April 02, 2007

WOW Godzilla™

Many of you know that I am addicted to MMORPG's, (Massively, Multiplayer, Online, Roleplaying, Games)... While there are a plethera of them out at this time, I am sticking with World of Warcraft for the time being... To this end, I present to you, Murkzilla.. Enjoy!

Peace