Winning poker tournaments on Christmas Day...

...is a great way to start.

My Dad told me this morning that he wants to celebrate Christmas on January 5th. Its his way of saying he forgot to shop. He's always tried to be a philanthropist.

In related news, I am going to my Mom's now. Two pairs of socks and a Kenny G CD here I come. "He's a great musician, and I know you'd appreciate it!" I do Mom, I really do.

I got the mail yesterday to get my new license, but to my elation I also found another rejection for a credit card, and a nice bill from another medical institute. I am reminded again that I don't have health insurance and should never go to the hospital, and never break a bone.

Did you know freeze-dried coffee has half the caffeine of drip coffee? I started drinking freeze-dried coffee in Australia because it was more convenient. Its nice to know I am not fusing my body with too much of caffeine all day. Maybe I'll calm down one day and use decaf once in a while.

I'm still convinced Karma is on my side from the other night, lets see how things pan out.

They will see us waving...

I am NOT a PC.

So my Desktop computer crashed a few days ago... and it's been my problem to fix for the last few days. If you know me well, you know I'm always fixing something, even if it's not worth it.  

So I had to reinstall Windows XP Home Edition on it. Which I did after I found the right CDs, but not before searching every inch of my room for them. I dusted them off and after like 10 attempts, the status bar just went from 60% to 75% then back to 60%. Too bad MS-DOS doesn't tell you when its rated for finishing a a document so fast it just switches from 60% to 75% and back again huh? So instead of lighting the computer on fire and throwing it out the window, I gave up hope for awhile. I watched some Iron Chef, made some rice and beans, and enjoyed the crazy Moon, Venus, Jupiter setup there was in the sky last night. When I came back the Welcome screen was open with no users entered. I was enthralled.  

So I made a new user, signed in and finally got through to the main Windows XP desktop interface. There was a shitty background and a Recycle Bin and thats it. Oof. Everything I've had since 1998 was on this computer and it was wiped clean because it did an Automatic Update. Thanks Microsoft. Coming through in the clutch. Old papers, pictures, programs, music, and anything else, gone. Needless to say I was pumped.

I pretty much gave up on this computer a long time ago, but I did work for my father on it for awhile because there are better free Web Developers for Windows then Mac (although Dreamweaver trumps them all). When it decided to give up, I also decided to give up on it and give it to my Dad as an early Christmas present. He loves doing nothing with computers, but I don't. Although, he would need internet capabilities on it. All the network drivers were obviously erased and I couldn't connect to the internet, right? I went searching through the files to see if they were hidden or corrupt or anything of use. I looked at the data space left on the hard drive for some reason and it said 20.8 of 55.8 gigabytes were used. I thought to myself 'There is no fucking way that my shit is still on here, but how the fuck does an OS take up 20 gigabytes?' Well I was wrong. After some more searching and uncovering hidden folders, there was my entire User Interface, circa 1998. So I start in on finding my network card which I do find. But since I installed another Windows XP on the computer, it won't read the old files, only the new ones. Cue: Mind blown. I have all the necessary drivers, equipment, and files to run my computer exactly the same as before, but the computer itself won't recognize it because it doesn't think it exists. Microsoft makes money on peoples laziness, and producing seemingly insurmountable problems like this. Too bad I don't have a job and don't have the money to give this problem to someone else to fix this. No more money to you from me, Bill.  

The PC/Windows era is quickly coming to an end. Microsoft will stop making computers and shitty operating systems as soon as people stop buying them. So please, for my (and your future) peace of mind, buy a Mac.