Craters where it all should have been.
I don't drink beer. Not really. I think there's been one beer that I liked, but it was a microbrew in Cincinnatti that I'll never have again, and that makes me sad. I drink Guiness, but that doesn't count because it's something of a genetic obligation. On the whole, I don't like beer, and it usually makes me a little nauseous. However, there are just some days that I will have one out of opportunity. Today is one of those days, and I'll give you the ending of the day first: Having finally given up on my computer and seeing a 50 minute queue on Blackhand, I went downstairs, grabbed the cajun rice from Papadeaux, three bottles of Negra Modelo from my mom's visit, and watched some Chapelle CDs.
Now, let's back that up some.
I woke up today in Fort Worth, Texas. For those of you who aren't familiar with the town, there's not alot going on. It's sort've like Kansas City but a little smaller. Some (but not alot of) remarkable architecture, indifferent people, and not alot of sites of interest. I was in town for my Dalls-FtWorth monthly trip, and because the Radisson I usually stayed at was booked up due to some freakass convention in down, I was in the Sheraton downtown. Apparently none of the freakasses could afford a little nicer place. Because I was spending a little more on the hotel this time around, I decided to chill on dinner costs and didn't really have the money on me to go into my usual coping mechanism for being in a boring town - getting ripped on rum and margaritas.
So I woke up, completely sober, with absolutely nothing to do till 1:30pm at the halfway house there in Fort Worth. I had to check out at noon, so I figured I would just kill time in the hotel room till noon, go get lunch, and then go to the gig. The wrinkle here is that I woke up at 7am and there was not shit to watch on tv. I didn't bring a book. So I spent about 5 hours aimlessly trolling forums and shit. Not as much fun as it sounds.
I get to lunch, and this is the highlight of my day. The best fucking creole shrimp I have ever fucking had. I'm a pretty moderate eater, but this is one of those times I thought to myself "Augh I'm stuffed BUT I CANNOT LET THIS GO TO WASTE".
Naturally, an hour later, I was starting to feel sick in the middle of my presentation at the halfway house. It didn't help that one of the staff there tried to be "helpful" and constantly interjected her little personal stories to go along with my points. Or to just flat out tell me "Oh no, that's not how it works" in front of the youths. For those who have never talked to me while I'm working with the TYC, I get the slightest bit ghetto when I get there. It's both because the environment rubs off on me and also so I don't sound like Captain Uptight White Asshole. And this woman would not shut up. I about had, as they say, a snatch-off-my-wig moment.
But I made it through. I ran about 30 minutes late, but whatever. It just meant I'd be hitting traffic all the way home, but HEY WHATEVER. It's not like this day is going to get worse. I'm gonna get home, and Kim was cool and got WotlK for me, installed it, and I'll just crash, get some food, and screw around in WoW for the rest of the night.
I get home, and my computer is locked up. I reset it. It now won't power up. I start playing mad scientist with the cords, trying to isolate the issue in either a short with the components, a bad supply, or a faulty mobo. This thing is giving me all sorts of fucking conflicting responses such as: I unhook the dvd drive, and it powers up okay, making me think the dvd drive is fine, but then it shuts itself down, I rehook the drive, and it starts up except the OS won't boot. Eventually I give up and take it in to Best Buy to see if they can monitor the supply and get an error code on the mobo. The board code says there's a faulty component. But then the power supply gives out completely. Their analysis was the supply was dying, and us turning it off, on, off, on, off, etc about 20 times finally killed it. I say okay great, and that's when, we notice something.
I have an XPS 710 from Dell. Some of you are savvy and are already laughing at me because you know how this story ends. For those of you who don't, here's a bit of trivia - your standard power supply has a 24-pin cord extending from it to go into your motherboard. This is as universal as, say, 4 wheels on a car. HOWEVER, apparently Dell has a super sekret sauce special power supply it builds (and does not share) for these machines with a secondary power out that hooks into the bottom of the motherboard as well.
Dell will kindly sell me a new one for 150$! And they'll ship it in a week.
So at that point, I fucking give up. And you all know the rest. I'll probably scour ebay tomorrow.
Now, let's back that up some.
I woke up today in Fort Worth, Texas. For those of you who aren't familiar with the town, there's not alot going on. It's sort've like Kansas City but a little smaller. Some (but not alot of) remarkable architecture, indifferent people, and not alot of sites of interest. I was in town for my Dalls-FtWorth monthly trip, and because the Radisson I usually stayed at was booked up due to some freakass convention in down, I was in the Sheraton downtown. Apparently none of the freakasses could afford a little nicer place. Because I was spending a little more on the hotel this time around, I decided to chill on dinner costs and didn't really have the money on me to go into my usual coping mechanism for being in a boring town - getting ripped on rum and margaritas.
So I woke up, completely sober, with absolutely nothing to do till 1:30pm at the halfway house there in Fort Worth. I had to check out at noon, so I figured I would just kill time in the hotel room till noon, go get lunch, and then go to the gig. The wrinkle here is that I woke up at 7am and there was not shit to watch on tv. I didn't bring a book. So I spent about 5 hours aimlessly trolling forums and shit. Not as much fun as it sounds.
I get to lunch, and this is the highlight of my day. The best fucking creole shrimp I have ever fucking had. I'm a pretty moderate eater, but this is one of those times I thought to myself "Augh I'm stuffed BUT I CANNOT LET THIS GO TO WASTE".
Naturally, an hour later, I was starting to feel sick in the middle of my presentation at the halfway house. It didn't help that one of the staff there tried to be "helpful" and constantly interjected her little personal stories to go along with my points. Or to just flat out tell me "Oh no, that's not how it works" in front of the youths. For those who have never talked to me while I'm working with the TYC, I get the slightest bit ghetto when I get there. It's both because the environment rubs off on me and also so I don't sound like Captain Uptight White Asshole. And this woman would not shut up. I about had, as they say, a snatch-off-my-wig moment.
But I made it through. I ran about 30 minutes late, but whatever. It just meant I'd be hitting traffic all the way home, but HEY WHATEVER. It's not like this day is going to get worse. I'm gonna get home, and Kim was cool and got WotlK for me, installed it, and I'll just crash, get some food, and screw around in WoW for the rest of the night.
I get home, and my computer is locked up. I reset it. It now won't power up. I start playing mad scientist with the cords, trying to isolate the issue in either a short with the components, a bad supply, or a faulty mobo. This thing is giving me all sorts of fucking conflicting responses such as: I unhook the dvd drive, and it powers up okay, making me think the dvd drive is fine, but then it shuts itself down, I rehook the drive, and it starts up except the OS won't boot. Eventually I give up and take it in to Best Buy to see if they can monitor the supply and get an error code on the mobo. The board code says there's a faulty component. But then the power supply gives out completely. Their analysis was the supply was dying, and us turning it off, on, off, on, off, etc about 20 times finally killed it. I say okay great, and that's when, we notice something.
I have an XPS 710 from Dell. Some of you are savvy and are already laughing at me because you know how this story ends. For those of you who don't, here's a bit of trivia - your standard power supply has a 24-pin cord extending from it to go into your motherboard. This is as universal as, say, 4 wheels on a car. HOWEVER, apparently Dell has a super sekret sauce special power supply it builds (and does not share) for these machines with a secondary power out that hooks into the bottom of the motherboard as well.
Dell will kindly sell me a new one for 150$! And they'll ship it in a week.
So at that point, I fucking give up. And you all know the rest. I'll probably scour ebay tomorrow.