Entry 01/03/2011 11:17:16 AM – Mentat 593

First off, I would like to take the opportunity to deeply and gratefully thank my anonymous patron for extending my Deviant Art subscription for another year. I have my suspicions as to who that patron is given my rather heavy handed approach to bestowing one some time back; although unlike that certain who, I will simply leave well enough alone with the appreciation that someone really likes me enough to extend my subscription another year. Though I digress and say:

Thank you. *bowing* It is most appreciated.

And now back to our usual programming… Already in progress.

2011.

Hard to imagine sitting here that I’m into another decade in the 21st century. Well, technically I have been since last years (as calendars and decades go from 00 to 09 and then repeat), the brain such as it is tends to put the numbers 01 – 00 instead. I usually joke about it because my brain doesn’t like nil (or imaginary numbers for that matter) and will organize accordingly. Seems that I’m not the only one in this as too many other people do the same. Good thing too, I’m typically token enough in my eccentricities. I don’t need to be completely off the beaten path all the time, eh?

Not surprisingly in this time I was also able to get my resolutions for the year written out as well. Sure they’re nothing too strenuous or difficult (for me) to fulfill though I will admit that they’re going to take quite a bit more discipline than I have demonstrated through the 2010 year. One of them though is a carry-over from the year before — one that I have got to delve into more than I did last year. Suffice it to say that while I won’t be posting them publicly, I will say they are going to be adhered to, to the best of my ability — if only because I need the diversions and the discipline which I haven’t been practicing all that much in the last year or two.

Hard to imagine as I’m sitting here that it’s been more than 3 weeks since the last time I’ve sat down to write. There have been numerous times that I’ve thought about writing an entry prior to the Christmas Holiday Dysfunction, and then again as a quick “hello, I’m still alive” between Christmas and New Year’s. But the fact of the matter is that I was entirely enjoying my slacktastic time playing games, watching shows in my Hulu queue, generally being a pain in the butt with my family, and chatting with friends when I could. People that have known me for some years know that the easiest way to get in contact with me is usually through the various messengers if they really need to get hold of me, and those that are only moderately acquainted; well… I did warn that I was going to be away (mostly) during the last months stretch. It’s not as though I’m going to die or end up in a hospital somewhere in that time. Heh, my family’s stressful yes, but not that stressful.

Since the last time I’ve written the computer continues to run well. I’m still seeing an odd BSOD in regards to something that doesn’t seem to be running properly during the boot up process. And the information that I’ve been able to dig up has been sketchy; but given that in the last three weeks it’s only happened twice during a reboot, I’m not going to worry too much about it and keep it on the radar for just a little bit longer. I still suspect it’s because of the old PS/2 keyboard being swapped out for a USB keyboard instead — for even though I was able to clean up the problem in Check for Performance Issues looking through the System Event Viewer I’m seeing a System Error that the ATI-Tool had failed to load. There’s a couple of Microsoft and Google Entries that explain how to remove it; though admittedly I haven’t had much want to continue tinkering with something that’s only moderately annoying. That and if I knacker something up, I really am not in the mood at the moment to play reinstall the Operating System. That can take some hours that I don’t want to spend time on, as I rather have a list of other niggling things that I need to do at the moment. Until then though I think I’ll stick by the old saying of, “don’t fix what isn’t really broken.”

And in the last three days I took the opportunity to update many of the programs that I haven’t checked for updates in a while. Many of the programs that I have loaded seem to have had a couple of minor bug tweaks and fixes, with a couple that have shown some major improvements. One of those updates is actually an open source game that I’ve been having a bit of fun with is UFO: Alien Invasion. As a long-time fan of UFO: Enemy Unknown (otherwise known as X-Com: UFO Defense here in the USA) fan, this game seems to be a pretty good improvement to the original. Significant graphics, with the right sort of turn-based that I appreciate in this sort of isometric game play. Now granted I haven’t gotten quite that far into it (as it’s not a game one can cheat at like the old UFO: Enemy Unknown) though it’s the right sort of annoying for me to want to play for a bit, take a break and come back and play some more. Either or, for me — it’s entertaining without being too frustrating.

On the homestead, things are just going. As I’m sure some folk have caught in pictures at the various places, last week we had our first nor’easter of the season. The media blew it completely out of proportion by calling it “The Blizzard of 2010”. Pfft, 6 inches (15 cm) and the Governor/State not even declaring a state of emergency for the snowstorm is hardly a blizzard. Hell, by the time I was up and helping my uncle and neighbor with shoveling out the driveway and walks, the city had pretty much did a fine job clearing out the roads in the neighborhood. Which was quite the shock given that in the past, our neck of Fairmount is usually the last section of the city that’s done as we’ve had snow mounds in the roads lasting until 5 PM the next day after the blizzard. In fact, according to my neighbor, they had actually been up and down the street at about 2 in the morning plowing the street clean. Good thing too, given that it can be a bit annoying come the morning when Uncle and I are clearing out the driveway and the huge plows come through pushing the mounds back at the end of the drive. A week later, with a bit of balmy 40s F (~4 C) the snows and ice that had accumulated in the drive and on the steps have cleared up enough leaving just the sand and what’s left of the salt in the driveway.

The Hellbeast continues to surprise me with her wacky appetite. While she was completely in heaven having leftover turkey that headed in her direction, she’s shown interest in foods that she’s never shown interest in before. Spinach & Cheese from the occasional Calzone lunch, granola, peanuts and raisins (probably because of the sea salt on them from the trail mix that I’ve been chomping on), Pizza Crust (though I noticed she’s a bit picky as to which Pizza place I order from and will only settle for Olly’s), this morning it was parts of my Cinnamon Buns, and for lunch she seems to have taken a liking to Deviled Ham (with the bread I might add). On the other hand, she’s also become completely allergic to most canned seafood with the exclusion of Tuna, and even then she only eats that once a week. Heh, old age and that mass in her stomach is what I suspect is the problem. At least she continues to do well for the most part.

As for the family, Christmas Holidays and me… All I’m going to say is that I survived it. Good thing too, I wasn’t up for the crazy amounts of drama and dysfunction that can come up during the holidays.

I think this is going to be it for the time being. Sure it was a hodgepodge but given I’ve been away for more than three weeks, I believe it’s a good start for the moment. Will probably be back through the week as I try to get more of the other thoughts in my head out. Until the next time.