Circumstances.
Circumstances.
So, back in…. May. The 17th or 18th thereof. The laptop I was using hit the loading screen singularity. It booted to an error message. I could restart, and get the same error message, or I could try to run recovery, watch it fail, then restart.
So geared up in my informal hazmat-lite disposable attire, I stepped out of the front door of my little Fortress of Crazitude, and went inside the house, where the functional human beings live, to use a laptop there.
Searching for something I liked was going to take a while. In that strange Before Time, when people went outside without being masked, Dad zipped out and kindly got for me the cheapest laptop he could find.
Now I could begin my search in earnest.
Starting with the gaming rigs. Hideous, hideous, awkard design (that was hideous). The closest to what I was looking for was an Alienware model… that was hideous, and came with something called Tobii eye-tracking. I don’t want my computer staring at me. Plus, this was a gimmick, I don’t play the kind of intense shooters where every picosecond counts.
I kept looking.
I found a laptop marketed as a ‘desktop replacement’. Just the sort of thing I wanted. Something with the power of a desktop, but without needing me to do a major cleaning job to find space for it, and/or rig up something to hold a monitor where I wanted it? Perfect.
So I looked around, a place in the US, it had them in stock, and they would even customize it. Great, a bigger hard-drive! Okay the thing needed two power-bricks to work, which would be a hassle, but I could live with that.
In the meantime, the budget laptop could just about run an older version of Minecraft… as long it was on the server my bff’s hurricane child had dragged me onto, I could make do.
I made my order. ……….
3 weeks passed. I heard nothing from them. Okay, the world is in chaos, I expected some delays. Still, I wanted at least some idea for how much longer I would be making ersatz icepacks to keep my new little laptop from overheating from the overworking I was currently giving it, even as I did my best to cut down on my usual habits to lessen strain on it’s CPU.
I sent in a request for an update. “Oh yeah, turns out we didn’t actually have one in stock”. So how long till they could get one? “Oh they’re discontinued. How about one of these?”
All the ‘these’ were ones I’d looked at and already discounted. Wait, here’s one on eBay, how I about I send it to you, and you upgrade that one? I’ll pay the extra shipping fees.
“Oh no, we wouldn’t be able to honor a warranty on that.”
My domain is the black hole of electronics. Once it’s in here, it won’t leave again. My OCD means I cant have something sent out to be repaired and have it sent back. Once it’s here, it’s here. I tried to explain this, and said I would waive any rights to a warranty. It would be the most expensive idiot tax I’d ever paid, but I was willing to pay it.
June passed and I heard nothing.
Time to look again. I had toyed with the idea of a custom rig from another place in the US, but, oh, the price tag. And the wait time. …Mainly the price tag. Okay, major purchase for me, and I was going to crack open my savings. But still, I’m on a pension.
Okay, another look, see if I can find anywhere in Australia. More cash could be spent on the laptop itself and not the insane international shipping tool.
I found a place. Custom configurations, in a shell that isn’t painful to look at.
Could it be?
I checked some reviews. Chunky…. I like a bit of heft to a device. Besides, it wasn’t going to be doing a lot of moving anyway. 1-2 metres on average at best. Fans can get loud…. that means they’re working. I can get a headset if I need it.
Ooh, and they have a sale on too. I consult with in-house tech support. I’m told I can get the hard-drives cheaper elsewhere, and another M2 memory stick, then put them in myself.
Sweet, more cash to spend on the graphics card and CPU. Not quite top-tier, but heck, I hadn’t been running any of my games on the old laptop at full graphics settings anyway. No dvd drive though, but every other maker seems to have dispensed with those as well. Oh well, it’s not like I used those much anyway, and I can always get an external one.
And it only needs the one power brick.!
Better specs than the discontinued model, I can max out on hard-drive space and have a second M2 drive just for my games, with plenty of room!
Before the end of June, I make my order.
I find a big hard-drive, a good sized M2 stick, and even an external usb enclosure for the hard drive I pulled out of the blue-screened purgatory.
July, that place in the US actually mails me back. Since I was willing to waive a warranty, they might be able to source a model off eBay. Ship has sailed, I’ve found me something nicer, and I’ve picked out the extra drives for it.
A few days later, the new place emails me. They’re having delays, but we have a new range out which will be coming in sooner, here are the stats, we can switch you over to one of those?
I forward the stats to tech support. Nope, the hard drive you got in anticipation won’t fit. New place “hmm, that’s true, we’ll do our best to keep you updated”.
They do, and and my order’s been put in priority for assemblage.
As August gets into gear, my new workhorse arrives, and the poor beleaguered budget laptop can retire to light browsing duty.
Only the big hard drive I got? Turns out it’s fat ass can’t fit in the drive bay. Oops. But with the help of tech support, I found an external enclosure that will fit it, so I have a roomy and easy to use backup device.
And then I stripped the head on the screw holding in the M2 memory. And the other slot, that requires a lot more work to get to. But I’m already wiped from the ordeal, the files on the now external drives run fine, and I still have plenty of room on the drive. I can wait for the sales, and pick up some (carefully dimension-checked) drives then. (This beast will hold 2 standard hard drives!) and get around to putting in the second M2 stick.
And that concludes this chapter of Crazy Shut-in Searches for Their Dream Laptop.
More Posts from Gnarynhar and Others
Kougami Foundation Internal Research Report: Long-term metaphysical human side-effects due to long-term bodily possession by a sentient avian-based alchemical construct. Or, How Izumi Shingo became a Disney Princess.
The first clue Ankh's possession had Changed Things was something anybody would miss. The balcony and windows of the Izumi apartment, Shingo’s car, favourite spot to eat lunch, etc. Japan was a clean place and bird droppings are only something you notice when they’re present.
The second clue was odd, but a bird attacking the robber Shingo had been chasing through the park- well it was close to nesting season- the conclusion anyone would come to is that the robber came too close to the bird’s nest. Between the adrenaline of the chase, cuffing the man, and the planning of the paperwork ahead, well, no-one ever thought to wonder why Shingo was exempt form the bird’s attack.
The third clue however, couldn’t be ignored or explained away.
It had been a long day, the latest in a sequence of long days, and it would be a long night as well. Shingo had not only missed lunch, but dinner as well, and wouldn’t be getting a break anytime soon to let him rectify the problem. A situation he lamented about out loud.
He found out that he had been overheard by more than his coworkers when not long after he spoke, a Tokyo raven- those eerily clever, oversized urban corvids- dropped off a bag of senbei, sold by a vending machine only few blocks away.
What if Ankh's title "King of the Birds" actually had some weight to it? With the King dead, the guy the King ended up posessing for a year seems as fitting a candidate for Regent until the King's ressurection right?
Honestly, even for a throw-away one-shot, I'm not that happy with this. Really needs a beta or co-author to punch it up I think.
Io: *so embarrassed* Ryuu: .... honestly, all I’m getting from Ryuu is white noise. For all I know he’s re-arranging his social calendar. Yumoto: ...It’s not like I thought we should call ourselves princes. Atsushi: *is using his glasses as shields and is determined to stoic his way through this* En: I’d say either- “We didn’t choose this” or- “Dude, seriously?!”
The questions we all want to ask when watching a magical boy/girl anime
My feelings on the Fallout 4 trailer.
Okay coming late to the party here, but then, that sums up my relationship with games for the most part.
Promo: It's Fallout 4!
Me: Ooh neat, I've been having a lot of fun with Fallout 3, what's this one about?
Promo: It's Fallout 4!
Me: Yeah, but what is it abou.. Promo: Fallout 4! Look! Dog!
Me: Hey, great looking animation on the dog. I never used the dog, I can't stand dogs getting hurt, even in video games, I took the Animal Friend perk just so wouldn't have to hurt the wild dogs. So anyway, what's the game about?
Promo: It's Fallout 4!
Me: Ah, that's all pre-rendered stuff, I'm with Yahtzee on this one, that doesn't count. Nice looking locations, but what's the gameplay like?
Promo: It's Fallout 4! Vault 111!
Me: So is this still in the Washigton area? Does the story tie in with the events of Fallout 3? Is it set sometime after? Before? During, but in another place? Are you going to give me anything?
Promo: It's Fallout 4!
Me: Yeah, but what's the storyline? What's the starting goal of the game? Hell, what's the gameplay like? I’m not going to drop my cash on a name and some pre-rendered graphics that tell me nothing about the product.
Promo: It's Fallout 4!
Me: Oh fuck this.
Promo: It’s Fallout 4! Pre-order now!
Oh for fuck’s sake....
Why is every sci-fi game I play always end with having to sacrifice yourself, or everything was pointless and humanity as whole gets fucked over or be forced to watch as the main character fucks over humanity because they’re being duped or just because they can’t think rationally for 1 minute and realise they’re being total idiots.
Okay, as technology improves, things get easier- but why is it that the biggest morons always end up in space, deciding the fate of all life on Earth?!
Hey, it's a legitimate reason for not getting off the couch in my family. "Can't move- catted."
I always imagine this happening to Wash and either Carolina or Maine just walk over like “get up” and he just points to the cat like “i cANT now shush it’s sleeping”
Livejournal, you’re killing me.
So, i can’t log into either of my lj accounts. I get a “password out of date - reset it” message. But it’s been like 5 years since I last used those accounts, we’ve changed ISPs I don’t know how many times since then. To be able to reset the password, I’d have to change the account to my current email address. To change my email address I’d have to log in, which I can’t do unless I reset the password. Oh, and old accounts aren’t deleted after years of inactivity (but their passwords can expire!) just how many accounts are there I wonder, where people have the password, but can’t use it because it’s “out of date”. It’s maddening. .... about the only solution I can see is finding out if we have records of who our ISP was in 2016, hoping they’re still around and signing up for a very short time, just to get an old email address back, so I can reset the passwords, change the email addresses then cancel the account with the ISP. Or, actually get a hold of someone at livejournal, have them see that the email accounts associated with the accounts don’t work anymore, and either let me log in with the “out of date” passwords so I can change the email address, or have them change the email address so I can reset the password. Does anyone even work at Livejournal anymore? For all I know, it’s all been automated, and the only human beings involved are whoever cleans rooms the servers are in. ......yeah, I’m not gonna hold my breath.
He must have had the time of his life playing Killbas... I just hope before he stepped on set there were enough stagehands to properly season the scenery for him.
Actors with multiple roles in toku: Shindo Gaku
Ad/Eagle Sazer (Chousei Kantai Sazer-X, 2005-2006).
Kakizaki Satoshi/Kamen Rider Killbus (Kamen Rider Build New World : Kamen Rider Cross-Z, 2019).
He was also Sid/Barizorg in Gokaiger.
Argh.
And like a dumbass, I didn’t bookmark http://acetechnologist.tumblr.com and my brain can’t hold information well, so I had to spend a while finding it again. I was in the mood to re-read some of the reactioncaps, only to find I didn’t have it in my bookmarks. I like the reactioncaps, it actually got me motivated enough to finally watch through Kuuga- allthough it was something of an adventure finding the fansubs for it. Still, I’m glad it got me to finally watch it though. -Although ‘Odagiri effect’? Shouldn’t that be ‘Katsurayama effect’? Ichijo is where the real hotness is at. <3 As for lately, finally took a look at some Agito. Got through 12 episodes so far. Was thinking of looking at the reactioncaps for it to help put me in the mood to tackle some more eps, only to find out, no bookmark.
That’s the downside of keeping everything open in tabs. Circumstances happen, and everything disappears, and you realize there were a lot of things you should have bookmarked, but didn’t. Anyway, at least I’ll have more context for the fanfics. Yes, I read fanfic for series I haven’t seen yet. Some things, I do backwards. ....and some things I do in such an out-of-order fashion it goes beyond comprehension.
Dan Kuroto after he’s dropped the good guy act and launches into the scenery chewing is one of the most glorious hamtastic performances out there, and you can feel how much fun Iwanaga-san is having. The only thing that could beat it is Shindo Gaku’s work as Killbus in the Build New World movie. There’s good chance that if they were close by, even sets he didn’t appear on had tooth-marks. One can only hope the stagehands were given proper guides to each actors tastes so they could properly season each set beforehand. “it’s a Dan Kuroto scene, salt? Chicken salt? Pepper? Soy or Barbeque sauce?! I NEED TO KNOW!”
I just learned that the actor who plays Kuroto Dan, Tetsuya Iwanaga, has a lot of talents. He’s pharmacist (I think making him the only Ex Aid cast member with a medical background), fluent in English, and an actual “genius” in real life. For instance, he got a “triple A rating” on the JAXA astronaut qualification test.
He’s also seems to be soft spoken:
(He’s like this in other interviews, not just the one here in English.)
I bring this last part up because I knew he was having fun playing Kuroto but wow, this drives home just how much he’s having a blast.
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gnarynhar reblogged this · 4 years ago
Australian, unfocused, prone to creating stream-of-consciousness wall-of-text-attacks, actually crazy (housebound by severe OCD).
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