To MUD or not to MUD.
So...
Colleen and I are all set in our new (well, new to us) house. The whole process was simultaneously stressful and exciting, and now we both agree that it was absolutely worth it. The yard looks nice and is well-landscaped (leaving us almost hidden from 16th) and we have a fig tree that is just going out of season. I went ahead and decided to go wireless to save the hassle of running patch cables all around the house, so I now have my server in the bedroom, the gaming box in my 'office' and my BSD machine will eventually wind up in the guest room. Well, it's physically there right now, but not set up and without a WiFi card. I had to mow the lawn yesterday for the first time in about a decade, and found out that our dog thinks it's a giant salad shooter as he eats the cut grass that ejects from the side. We spent $2000 in appliances (dishwasher, range and refrigerator - all in black) from Lowe's after they agreed to give us 10% off the entire sale, and additional 10% off 2 floor models, and free delivery. My father works at a Lowe's in Franklin, NC, and said that basically if you tell them that Home Depot quoted you something, they'll match it without really researching it. :) I never thought I'd see the day that I enjoyed spending that much money on something that wasn't computer/electronic/game-related.
All in all, we're both delightfully happy with it. We were paying $850/mo. at Lake Crossing, which was a wonderful apartment complex, but it's so much better financially to be paying ~ a $1000/mo. mortgage and actually put our money into something we can own. As a point of reference, the people we bought the house from made $37k on it in less than 2 years (which means they pay capital gains tax, but that's another issue). I also transferred back to Main Street Publix from Tower Square, and it takes me about 4 minutes to get there now, which is so damn nice.
Colleen's employer just sold for $50M [nice server, Gainesville Sun!] and we're hoping that things change for the better (i.e. retirement). Naylor held a nice party for the employees, and the founder gave their associates a bonus of $800/year of service - so Colleen received a $4800 bonus. :) We're putting $2000 into Publix stock and saving for a trip to Italy next year during the World Cup. We're also going to put some money aside and take another trip back to Savannah, GA sometime in September.
Pixoria, the founders of Konfabulator, was recently purchased by Yahoo!. I've noticed that since the purchase, the release of widgets has been much quicker. Anybody not familiar with Konfabulator should definitely check it out - probably the most useful application I have along with Trillian.
I broke down and installed Worldgroup BBS software on my server. I mentioned before about having watched the BBS documentary and it got me all nostalgic, so I installed WG and put on MajorMUD for ol' times' sake. I'm sure it will run its course, but for now I'm enjoying a text-based MUD over the likes of UT2k4 and my PS2. :)
I'd also like to mention that Colleen has gotten me hooked on - get ready, another hyperlink - Television Without Pity. I just read the Six Feet Under recaps for now, but goddamn is that a cool site for catching up on shows - funny and well-written.
No more paragraphs or hyperlinks. More news as events warrant.
-commiecat
Colleen and I are all set in our new (well, new to us) house. The whole process was simultaneously stressful and exciting, and now we both agree that it was absolutely worth it. The yard looks nice and is well-landscaped (leaving us almost hidden from 16th) and we have a fig tree that is just going out of season. I went ahead and decided to go wireless to save the hassle of running patch cables all around the house, so I now have my server in the bedroom, the gaming box in my 'office' and my BSD machine will eventually wind up in the guest room. Well, it's physically there right now, but not set up and without a WiFi card. I had to mow the lawn yesterday for the first time in about a decade, and found out that our dog thinks it's a giant salad shooter as he eats the cut grass that ejects from the side. We spent $2000 in appliances (dishwasher, range and refrigerator - all in black) from Lowe's after they agreed to give us 10% off the entire sale, and additional 10% off 2 floor models, and free delivery. My father works at a Lowe's in Franklin, NC, and said that basically if you tell them that Home Depot quoted you something, they'll match it without really researching it. :) I never thought I'd see the day that I enjoyed spending that much money on something that wasn't computer/electronic/game-related.
All in all, we're both delightfully happy with it. We were paying $850/mo. at Lake Crossing, which was a wonderful apartment complex, but it's so much better financially to be paying ~ a $1000/mo. mortgage and actually put our money into something we can own. As a point of reference, the people we bought the house from made $37k on it in less than 2 years (which means they pay capital gains tax, but that's another issue). I also transferred back to Main Street Publix from Tower Square, and it takes me about 4 minutes to get there now, which is so damn nice.
Colleen's employer just sold for $50M [nice server, Gainesville Sun!] and we're hoping that things change for the better (i.e. retirement). Naylor held a nice party for the employees, and the founder gave their associates a bonus of $800/year of service - so Colleen received a $4800 bonus. :) We're putting $2000 into Publix stock and saving for a trip to Italy next year during the World Cup. We're also going to put some money aside and take another trip back to Savannah, GA sometime in September.
Pixoria, the founders of Konfabulator, was recently purchased by Yahoo!. I've noticed that since the purchase, the release of widgets has been much quicker. Anybody not familiar with Konfabulator should definitely check it out - probably the most useful application I have along with Trillian.
I broke down and installed Worldgroup BBS software on my server. I mentioned before about having watched the BBS documentary and it got me all nostalgic, so I installed WG and put on MajorMUD for ol' times' sake. I'm sure it will run its course, but for now I'm enjoying a text-based MUD over the likes of UT2k4 and my PS2. :)
I'd also like to mention that Colleen has gotten me hooked on - get ready, another hyperlink - Television Without Pity. I just read the Six Feet Under recaps for now, but goddamn is that a cool site for catching up on shows - funny and well-written.
No more paragraphs or hyperlinks. More news as events warrant.
-commiecat