Monthly update (for real)
1. Work. (Or, lack thereof.)
I got laid off due to "downsizing" a couple weeks ago, because my store wasn't pulling in enough profit to warrant two employees. So of course, they get rid of the guy who's been there longer and has a family to provide for in favor of the guy who has slightly more experience than me. At the time, I was exceptionally pissed off, but I got over it quick...frankly, without me there, they've probably lost about one third to one half of their customer base. I wasn't making them money, but I was keeping the customers happy and coming back to me, which in turn brought in the occasional new customer.
In the meantime, I've been looking for a new line of work altogether, though so far it's turned up a lot of "submit your resume and wait"-type results. Four really good positions available in the Grand Rapids area opened recently for an electronics technician, and they sound pretty similar to what I did while I was in the Army as a radio technician. However, I'll have no idea whether or not I'm eligible for employment by any of them until they call me. I hate that. I can't follow up, I can't talk to anyone in the office, I can't call to see if it's even been received...I just have to send it in and pray.
2. Family.
That week was a bad week for us. Cheyenne caught a cold shortly before I lost my job, followed soon by Rachel. Then, as if it couldn't get worse, Rachel's grandfather died that following Friday. The combination of stress, illness and lack of money drove us to postpone our wedding plans--AGAIN--until we can figure out yet a cheaper solution and alternative to a big reception at a ski lodge. I can't say much about Rachel's grandfather, because I only ever met him two or three times in his life (not counting the viewings and funeral).
Cheyenne's becoming more and more two-ish...that is, she's acting more and more stubborn, temperamental, and in general just more fussy. We think it's a combination of having a cold and teething (apparently she's not done yet), so hopefully it'll pass once she's fully recovered. Otherwise, she's still Cheyenne; she's still pretty good-natured, friendly toward other people and little kids (she gave quite a few strangers hugs at the funeral home during the viewings, and played with her second cousin who's the same age), and incredibly fun to watch TV or listen to music with. She sings along with most of our music, and in some cases, she's better than the singers. :-P
3. Money.
So, no job = loss of income. So, too, apparently, does starting a new school. I've been without my GI Bill for almost four months now, and it's really straining our financial situation. Fortunately, we had another big tax refund, but that only lasted us long enough to pay back Rachel's mom and get our car and insurance up to date. Now we're back down to scraping the bottom of the barrel again, so it might be a while before we're able to have our reception and honeymoon. Thankfully as well, both my dad and Rachel's grandmother (her dad's mom) are sending us money that they would have been putting toward our wedding next month if it weren't postponed, so that'll help get us through the next month until I start receiving a regular paycheck again. In the meantime, I'm going to contact Unemployment and see if I qualify for benefits this round, having worked just over six months full-time at Future Comm. Maybe that'll help with a couple of the bills, as long as we put everything else we've got into rent and the car payment.
4. Laptop.
Last item on the list...the (supposedly) 64-bit laptop. I bought an Acer Aspire AS3003WLCi from NewEgg. (The one shown is a 3004, but the specs are identical except for the processor.) Now, the motherboard socket is AMD-754, meaning that the memory bus supports 64-bit word lengths between CPU and RAM. The RAM bus speed is 400MHz as well. It came with 256MB DDR-333 stock, so I bought an additional 1GB DDR-400 chip to replace it. It still runs at 333MHz, though, since I had to keep the original 256MB DDR-333 card in there to help with the onboard IGP which uses 128MB shared memory. However, the Sempron processor included in the machine is 32-bit.
I bought a Turion Mobile MT-32 processor shortly afterward, thinking that I could install Windows XP x64 to make use of the 64-bit architecture, as well as mess around with 64-bit GNU/Linux distributions. However, I came to find out that most of the drivers needed to operate the hardware that came with my laptop are Acer proprietary in Windows, and while the standard 64-bit counterparts will work, I kept having problems with crashing, CPU speed detection (using AMD's PowerNow! for laptop power management), and overall buggy devices. Plus, one of the biggest reasons for having a laptop--roadtrips--isn't an option, because the drivers for Rachel's phone don't work with Windows x64...for that matter, Motorola hasn't made new drivers for their damn phones since Windows 2000. So having a 64-bit OS wouldn't allow us to use the phone as modem when we're on the road, meaning Rachel would have no Internet. Minor issue, but considering what I put into upgrading the thing, it's not worth it.
There's still hope, though...I'm keeping the Turion processor around, because it will serve my desktop in a few months. Once I have a job and we're caught up on bills, I'll be replacing my motherboard as well (Athlon XP 2500+, anyone?) with an AMD-754 board that includes AGP and SATA-I. This way I'll be able to make full use of the 64-bit architecture in Windows and Linux on my desktop, but only my motherboard will need replacing. I have a perfectly functional Radeon 9600 XT video card (AGP) which I would otherwise have to replace if I were to upgrade to an AMD-939 motherboard...not to mention that the new Athlon 64 X2s (which I would be getting) are pretty expensive compared to Intels and AMD-754 chips (one of which I already own), AND I would likely have to buy a PCI-X video card to replace my AGP card. Hell, if I were going to drop THAT much money into upgrading my computer, why not spend a few more bucks and get a couple SATA-II drives at $80 each to quadruple my storage capacity? Granted, I could spend $500 right now and just go that route, complete with an Opteron Denmark 165 dual-core processor (server-grade processor, better and more stable at higher clocks over standard than the X2)--but I don't have $500, and I don't need that kind of power right now. So...I'll be happy once my Turion is running my desktop, and I can do the mega-upgrade once we're stable again. Whenever that'll be.
I got laid off due to "downsizing" a couple weeks ago, because my store wasn't pulling in enough profit to warrant two employees. So of course, they get rid of the guy who's been there longer and has a family to provide for in favor of the guy who has slightly more experience than me. At the time, I was exceptionally pissed off, but I got over it quick...frankly, without me there, they've probably lost about one third to one half of their customer base. I wasn't making them money, but I was keeping the customers happy and coming back to me, which in turn brought in the occasional new customer.
In the meantime, I've been looking for a new line of work altogether, though so far it's turned up a lot of "submit your resume and wait"-type results. Four really good positions available in the Grand Rapids area opened recently for an electronics technician, and they sound pretty similar to what I did while I was in the Army as a radio technician. However, I'll have no idea whether or not I'm eligible for employment by any of them until they call me. I hate that. I can't follow up, I can't talk to anyone in the office, I can't call to see if it's even been received...I just have to send it in and pray.
2. Family.
That week was a bad week for us. Cheyenne caught a cold shortly before I lost my job, followed soon by Rachel. Then, as if it couldn't get worse, Rachel's grandfather died that following Friday. The combination of stress, illness and lack of money drove us to postpone our wedding plans--AGAIN--until we can figure out yet a cheaper solution and alternative to a big reception at a ski lodge. I can't say much about Rachel's grandfather, because I only ever met him two or three times in his life (not counting the viewings and funeral).
Cheyenne's becoming more and more two-ish...that is, she's acting more and more stubborn, temperamental, and in general just more fussy. We think it's a combination of having a cold and teething (apparently she's not done yet), so hopefully it'll pass once she's fully recovered. Otherwise, she's still Cheyenne; she's still pretty good-natured, friendly toward other people and little kids (she gave quite a few strangers hugs at the funeral home during the viewings, and played with her second cousin who's the same age), and incredibly fun to watch TV or listen to music with. She sings along with most of our music, and in some cases, she's better than the singers. :-P
3. Money.
So, no job = loss of income. So, too, apparently, does starting a new school. I've been without my GI Bill for almost four months now, and it's really straining our financial situation. Fortunately, we had another big tax refund, but that only lasted us long enough to pay back Rachel's mom and get our car and insurance up to date. Now we're back down to scraping the bottom of the barrel again, so it might be a while before we're able to have our reception and honeymoon. Thankfully as well, both my dad and Rachel's grandmother (her dad's mom) are sending us money that they would have been putting toward our wedding next month if it weren't postponed, so that'll help get us through the next month until I start receiving a regular paycheck again. In the meantime, I'm going to contact Unemployment and see if I qualify for benefits this round, having worked just over six months full-time at Future Comm. Maybe that'll help with a couple of the bills, as long as we put everything else we've got into rent and the car payment.
4. Laptop.
Last item on the list...the (supposedly) 64-bit laptop. I bought an Acer Aspire AS3003WLCi from NewEgg. (The one shown is a 3004, but the specs are identical except for the processor.) Now, the motherboard socket is AMD-754, meaning that the memory bus supports 64-bit word lengths between CPU and RAM. The RAM bus speed is 400MHz as well. It came with 256MB DDR-333 stock, so I bought an additional 1GB DDR-400 chip to replace it. It still runs at 333MHz, though, since I had to keep the original 256MB DDR-333 card in there to help with the onboard IGP which uses 128MB shared memory. However, the Sempron processor included in the machine is 32-bit.
I bought a Turion Mobile MT-32 processor shortly afterward, thinking that I could install Windows XP x64 to make use of the 64-bit architecture, as well as mess around with 64-bit GNU/Linux distributions. However, I came to find out that most of the drivers needed to operate the hardware that came with my laptop are Acer proprietary in Windows, and while the standard 64-bit counterparts will work, I kept having problems with crashing, CPU speed detection (using AMD's PowerNow! for laptop power management), and overall buggy devices. Plus, one of the biggest reasons for having a laptop--roadtrips--isn't an option, because the drivers for Rachel's phone don't work with Windows x64...for that matter, Motorola hasn't made new drivers for their damn phones since Windows 2000. So having a 64-bit OS wouldn't allow us to use the phone as modem when we're on the road, meaning Rachel would have no Internet. Minor issue, but considering what I put into upgrading the thing, it's not worth it.
There's still hope, though...I'm keeping the Turion processor around, because it will serve my desktop in a few months. Once I have a job and we're caught up on bills, I'll be replacing my motherboard as well (Athlon XP 2500+, anyone?) with an AMD-754 board that includes AGP and SATA-I. This way I'll be able to make full use of the 64-bit architecture in Windows and Linux on my desktop, but only my motherboard will need replacing. I have a perfectly functional Radeon 9600 XT video card (AGP) which I would otherwise have to replace if I were to upgrade to an AMD-939 motherboard...not to mention that the new Athlon 64 X2s (which I would be getting) are pretty expensive compared to Intels and AMD-754 chips (one of which I already own), AND I would likely have to buy a PCI-X video card to replace my AGP card. Hell, if I were going to drop THAT much money into upgrading my computer, why not spend a few more bucks and get a couple SATA-II drives at $80 each to quadruple my storage capacity? Granted, I could spend $500 right now and just go that route, complete with an Opteron Denmark 165 dual-core processor (server-grade processor, better and more stable at higher clocks over standard than the X2)--but I don't have $500, and I don't need that kind of power right now. So...I'll be happy once my Turion is running my desktop, and I can do the mega-upgrade once we're stable again. Whenever that'll be.