Tom Wants To Live in Arizona This is a great site, it’s not like I’ll update it or anything.

Funny video

This is a video of a British singer named Amy Winehouse.  She's got a reputation for drinking and partying etc.  She even has a song called "Rehab" about how she WON'T go to rehab. Anyway, this is her singing "Beat It" with Charlotte Church.  It's hilarious.

Video

Good story

Ten reasons you aren't rich

I have my own ten reasons, most of them have to do with not having a job.

Random crap

So the computer is done.  It's up and running and everything is working great.  I haven't given it to my niece yet because it's prefect and it's going to get screwed up.  Plus it took so long and was such a pain in the ass that I don't want it to be ruined yet. I think I will take it over there Friday.  They have TurboTax so I'm going to do my taxes while I'm there.

It's a gorgeous day today.  It's about 75 degrees, sunny, breezy; a perfect day to be unemployed.  It's days like today that make me totally not care that im a fat broke loser.  I'm sitting here watching Batman Begins, eating cake, and playing Pirates on PSP. My parents are having rugs replaced in the basement so i have to hang around the house.

I have such a hard life.

Batman Begins is an aswesome movie.  The only thing that bothers me about it is how the seat moves in the car so he car fly or shoot or whatever it is he does (I just missed it cuz I was typing.)  There is no reason for the seat to move. I don't see the advantage or the purpose, other than to look "cool".  He can do everything sitting up behind the wheel.  Just my two cents.  I can't wait for the next movie... someday.

Progress report

So I found a 2.53 ghz processor on eBay for like 40 bucks shipped.  I got it and put it in the new computer to try it out.  Powered it on and it didn't work.  Nothing. When I got it one of the pins was bent,and I thought maybe it wasn't in the hole. I went to pull the chip out of the slot and nearly burned my fingers off!  It gets super HOT really freakin fast!  Anyway, I finally figured out that the computer won't boot up without the heatsink.  At least thats my belief.  I didn't do anything else to it except install the heatsink and it worked.  Who knows really.  I don't understand. 

I also got another 512MB RAM for it for like 40 bucks.  So now it has 1 GB. 

Anyway, the BIOS has so many different options for stuff I have never heard of.  I am just trying to turn off all the POST crap on the screen and boot up faster.  I can't figure it out. It boots up so I'm somewhat excited about that.  Of course windows on the hard drive won't boot up.  So right now I'm formatting and reinstalling windows over what was a freshly installed windows with a whole mess of games etc. that took me a week to make perfect.  But that was before the whole "upgrade" began, in like, January. The fans are kind of loud too. I wish I would have gotten a nicer case. I wish I had a job and money so I could have just bought a brand new name brand already done computer and been done with it months ago. Live and learn... 

Other non-computer news.... Still no job.  Had a few interviews but no call backs.  Nothing else going on in my life. I saw "Wild Hogs". There was some really funny stuff in it.  I enjoyed it. 

Another computer update

So I got the new motherboard in and installed it.  I put the old processor in and tried to put the old heat sink in it but there isn't a way to connect it to the motherboard.  The heat sink I have has a metal clip that goes through the fins and clips onto the motherboard.  The new motherboard doesn't have the clips. CompUSA didn't have any Socket 478 heat sinks in stock.  So I drove to MicroCenter to get a heat sink. The only one they had was this big round copper thing, it was $40 bucks and weighed more than the entire computer.  So I bought it because I want this computer to be done.

On the way home, I had the bright idea to see if the heatsink from my other computers will fit in my niece's computer.  So I took one out of one of my computers and it fit! So I reutrned the $40 heat sink and found one on eBay for like 12 bucks shipped. 

Anyway, I hooked up my heatsink on the processor in my niece's computer and powered it on.  The fans came on and everything had power, but I didn't have any video at all.  I went to the Biostar website and did some searching and did all their troubleshooting steps.  It said the processor might not be compatible with the motherboard. I took the processor out of my computer and put it in my niece's computer and powered it on.  It booted up! I did some more seaching and reading and found out that the new motherboard doesn't support Willamette chipsets (whatever that is), and, of course, the processor I have is a Willamette.  Of course. 

So now I am searching on eBay for a processor.  I'm looking for a 2.4 ghz or higher, the fastest I can get for under 50 bucks. 

Oh, and the memory I had in the old computer doesn't work on the new motherboard.  It requires PC3200.  I had a 512MB chip in a drawer that works, and I found another 512MB on eBay that's on its way here.   

I think I'm up to around 300 bucks?  I am basically building her a new computer instead of doing a minor upgrade on an old computer.  It's ridiculous and is totally out of control. 

The Police

So I'm sitting here watching The Police open the Grammy awards (I downloaded it). Of all the songs to play they played Roxanne. Sure it's a big hit and everyone knows the song, but they could have done something ELSE.  Anyway, I'm kind of excited they got back together.  Maybe I will get to see them play live somewhere.  They are one of my all time favorite bands.  I could care less about the rest of the Grammy's (probably about as much as you care about anything in this post).  I don't know any of the bands anymore, and am not a fan of rap or most R&B music.  I don't listen to the radio much if at all, and haven't seen a music video in years.  So I'm kind of out of touch with the mainstream.  I know some newer bands that I like, but I don't care if they win awards or not.  I don't know them personally, and it has no effect on my life. 

Lost post

I've been cleaning up my laptop and trying to organize all the files.  I haven't done it in a long long time.  I have crap everywhere.  Ever since I got back from Sydney, my laptop has gotten worse and worse.  I have no room on my desktop for anything else. Anyway I found some things I wanted to put in a post but never got around to it.  I don't think I posted this already. So here it is! A lost post! 

One of the things about the Australian accent is how they said the car brand names.  I will list the brand and then spell it how they say it.  Nissan - Nissen (sounds like missin'), Mazda - Mayzda, Hyundai - Hee-unday. The guy my friend works with laughed when he heard how we pronounce Hyundai and he said "You don't even say all the letters!"  Also, coupe is pronounced "koo-pay" (rhymes with toupee).  They pronounce them this way even on the commercials.

Some other things are Nike.  The say Nike (rhymes with bike).  Addidas is a-did-dus with the emphasis on the A. I can't remember anything else right now.

I miss being in Sydney. 

Computer Update

Well I think I agree with Martin that the motherboard isn't compatible with the new power supply.  So I just ordered a new motherboard.  Cha-ching.  There's another $50 bucks.  I guess I don't have to get gas this week, or eat.  The part should be here sometime next week.  I swear, if it doesn't work, I'm returning whatever I can and using the old pc as the cat litterbox.  Hell, maybe I'll even use it. 

My Computer Nightmare

So my neice gets The Sims 2 for Christmas.  She has an old P3 500 computer with some crappy low end video card in it.  The game won't play on her computer.  So I have an older Compaq P4 1.8 ghz computer that I never really use anymore.  So I thought for her birthday I would get her a pretty decent video card and put it in the old computer and give it to her so she can play her game.  So I blew it away and set it all up and everything and got a GeForce 6800 Xtreme video card for $130 bucks.  Its older but faired very well on tests with the Sims 2.  So I was happy. There was a $30 rebate on it so I sent that away immediately because the deadline was approaching.

So I put the card in the computer and notice that it came with a Y-connector for one of those 4-pin molex power connectors. So I said "hmmm I wonder what this is for" and thats when I realized that it requires a 500W or better power supply to run the card.  So I'm like Christ theres another 70 bucks. (that I dont have because I haven't had a job for 14 months).  So I ordered a power supply and it arrives and its too slim for the case.  theres a huge gap in the back of the case and the screw holes don't line up. So I sent it back (with a 15% restocking fee - which is total bullshit.  I will never order from Acortech.com again.)

I wrote to Compaq to ask them if I can upgrade the power supply to 500w and asked them to give me a part number that will fit that case.  They wrote back and said I have to take it to an HP Repair center to have the motherboard tested.  Don't they have specs and information about this?  I hate Compaq.  They have nothing online about their motherboards or anything.  They are not user-friendly.  I still don't know what kind of motherboard it is etc.  I'm telling you, never again with the Compaq. 

So I went to CompUSA and asked them because they are authorized HP repair center.  They said it doesn't need to be tested, but the power supply size was specially designed for Compaq to fit in the case correctly.  SO I had an idea to buy a cheap case and transfer the motherboard etc into the new case so a regular store bought power supply will fit and I will finally be done with it.  So I bought a $30 case and an $80 power supply and went to work taking it all apart.  I've never built a pc so I don't know where to plug in the LED and power switch cables. The Compaq case has a wire with a special connector so its really easy to know where it goes etc.  Anyway, the new case doesnt exactly match the old one, there aren't any screw holes in the new case for the clips that hold the heatsink down on the motherboard.  Its hard to explain.  So I had to rig a way to keep them on the board, and because of that I had to drill a hole in the case to allow for the bolt thing to poke through.  It doesn't stick out of the outside of the case, just a hole under the motherboard.  Again hard to explain. 

After everything it doesn't power up.  It doesn't do anything.  I took the power supply back and got a new one because they said that it should do something.  The new one doesn't do anything either.  If I plug in the old power supply the computer starts (but if I plug in the new ideo card it beeps, but I think its because the wattage of the old power supply is only like 250w).  So what does that mean?  What are the odds that 2 brand new power supplies from two different store locations are bad?  Maybe the motherboard can't take the wattage?  I don't understand electricity.  I don't know what else to try.  I might take it to CompUSA and have them make it work.  But I should know how to do this. Personally I think that Compaq wires the power supply so that you have to buy from them in order for it to work right.  I have no proof, it's just my assumption. 

So I'm at a loss.  I'm so sick of looking at it.  All this because I was trying to be nice.  I can't return the case because I drilled it (though I could try to), and I can't return the video card because I cut the UPC symbol off the box.  What a waste.  This is why I hate computer games.  Lol

Anybody have any helpful thoughts or ideas?

No good deed goes unpunished.