Category Archives: Journal

New Computer

I bought a new computer. The parts came in Monday, but it’s not working yet. Whenever I install the video drivers and reboot, Windows hangs while loading. I have to use Last Known Good Configuration to get it to boot again. I’ve tried a bunch of different drivers, and none works. I think the video card could be bad. Sometimes when I boot, I don’t get any video output. I have to unplug the power from the video card and reseat it. Nine times out of ten that doesn’t fix it though. At this point I can’t tell if it really does fix it the other time or if it’s just me trying repeatedly. I get beep codes on boot too but haven’t looked into them too much.
I was also wondering if it was an issue with everything being 64-bit. Despite everything supposedly being compatible, I know 64-bit is relatively new. On top of that, Vista 64-bit is more supported than XP 64-bit. The drivers are for XP x64, but I thought I’d try XP 32-bit or Vista 64-bit.
My only XP CD was old and bad so I asked Collin to burn my legitimate XP Pro with SP2. He said it asked him if he wanted to correct the size of the burn because the disc size was unequal to the image size. He apparently said no to this. The disc didn’t work. It couldn’t find a file on the disc. I burned the same image on gem’s computer and got the same error when I attempted to use it, but the burn also failed verification. Some people on forums had the same error because their discs or drives were dirty, but my drive is brand new and seems to work otherwise (it installed XP x64) and the discs look good.
Next I downloaded Vista Business 64-bit and burned it. It didn’t pass verification either and won’t work at all. No computer can even recognize it.
Eventually, I’ll get another OS on there with which to test the card. If it works, then I know it’s a software issue. If it doesn’t work, it’s most likely a hardware issue and I’ll try the card in another computer. My hardware is after the break.
MSI P45 Neo-F motherboard for LGA 775 Quad-core / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo / Pentium CPUs. FSB 1600/1333 MHz. Intel P45 north bridge and Intel ICH10 south bridge. 4x240pin DDR2 1066 slots (max 16 GB). 1 PCI Express 2.0×16 slot, 2 PCI Express x1 slots, 3 PCI slots. 6 3 Gb/s SATA connections. 8 channel Realtek ALC888 audio. Gigabit LAN. 2 PS/2, 1 COM, 1 LPT, 4 USB 2 rear ports. 4 onboard USB.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale CPU Dual-Core at 2.53 GHz and 1066 MHz FSM. 3 MB L2 cache, 64 bit support.
4 GB (2x2GB sticks) OCZ Platinum 240pin DDR2 1066 memory. 5-5-5-18 timing.
PNY GeForce 8800 GT at 600 MHz. PCI Express 2.0×16. 512 MB of video memory at 1800 MHz. DirectX 10 compatible. 2 DVI ports and s-video out. Max res 2560×1600.
750 GB Samsung SATA 3.0 GB/s HDD (7200 rpm)
550 watt Antec power supply
Rosewill 802.11b/g wifi card.
DVD-burner
Windows XP Professional x64 installed.

School

I’ve been in school again for over a week! It’s alright. CSE 112 is about circuits and is based on the one class I failed at UCI. We took this test on the first day that wasn’t worth any points to see how we were at the subject. It was kind of hard =/ I think I’ll have some trouble in this class. Today was the discussion’s first meeting. Our professor runs discussion as well. He was annoyed that no one had looked at the homework yet that was assigned Tuesday and is due next Tuesday. He wondered why we would show up to discussion if we hadn’t looked at it and how he was supposed to help us with it. It really annoyed me. How were we supposed to know he was going to go over the homework?
CSE 151 is about VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integrated – integrated circuits). He said he expects us to have taken and be familiar with CSE 112 even though it’s not a prereq. He also won’t let us switch into a discussion because it’s waitlisted. We’re at slots 1 and 2. The discussion in which we’re enrolled conflicts with a class we’re trying to add. The TA doesn’t mind us going to the full discussion, and it’s not like we even need to go! I don’t know what we’ll do about that.
CSE 135A is about signals. It’s prereq is another class I really hated. He wouldn’t let us add unless we passed a test. It was really hard, but we both passed. He signed our add cards, but it conflicts with that discussion. Not sure what’ll happen. Maybe add cards ignore schedule conflicts? If so, we could just not go to discussion.
Lastly, I’m taking senior design project course. I’m working with gem, Corey, and his brother. Hopefully it’ll go alright!

Currently Playing

I was trying to make a post every Monday about what I was playing, but that kind of faded away. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with one a week, but here’s what I’ve been playing lately:
I started and finished Brooktown High (PSP) recently. It’s a dating sim in which you talk to girls, go on dates, study, attend classes, and equip various clothing. Most dating sims I’ve played were only dialog choice games, while this one had a lot of other things to manage as well. It might have been because it was a western game.
I got back into Spore on the day before yesterday as well. The space phase is pretty interesting, but I’m not sure what to do when enemy empires demand money.
Bioshock’s been on my shelf and unplayed for almost a year now. I’m still only a few hours into the game, but I’m enjoying it. It does really stress me out though so I can’t play it for long. I guess that’s good because it draws me into the game. I think I’m too out of shape for video games.
Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars took some of my time. I don’t know if I’ll ever get an A rank. I also played GTA a bit. I think GTA was my favorite game in the series.
Lately I started playing Kirby Super Star Ultra. Funny how such a simple game can please me for so many years. I know it’s not terribly long, but I’m really enjoying it.
Samba de Amigo came out yesterday, and I tried it a little. I haven’t had time to really sit down with it, but it’s pretty cool so far.

Ass

Some girl today at a gas station wore just a short dress that when she bent over to get something, I saw at least half of her ass. Quite strange.

Anime Expo 2008

I just got back from Anime Expo in Los Angeles, and it was great! This year I went to the opening ceremony, the AMV contest, AX Idol, a signing by NIS character designers, a NIS America panel, Last Comic Standing, a David Hayter panel, a David Hayter signing, Whose Line Is It Anime?, and the closing ceremony. And I spent less than $50 on merchandise!
We stayed at the Omni hotel, which was only a few minutes away from the convention center via shuttle. Shuttles were free for us. The hotel was very nice, especially at 60 degrees the whole time, but I lost my extra battery for my camera. I’m pretty sure it was dead (broken dead) so it wasn’t a big loss. Antonio said he may have lost boxers and jeans. Duncan, who was in a different room, lost a pair of glasses. Justin, also in the other room, lost a pair of boxers as well. That doesn’t just seem like coincidence. Are the cleaning people stealing things? Together with the fact that there was a used tampon in between the mattress and box-spring of Justin’s bed (they got a free upgrade for that), I’m not sure I’d want to stay there again despite it seeming very nice.
This was the first year that I went to the opening ceremony. It was fun, but not too terribly exciting. I did mingle quite a bit with The World Ends With You, although it took me days to realize that the reason why I couldn’t see other players was because I was using the PAL version.
The AMV contest was quite long, but a lot of fun. There are definitely some AMVs I’d like to look up and watch some more, and they made me more interested in a few anime series. None of my choices won, but oh well.
AX Idol was really awesome. Last year I thought it was really boring, but this year, almost every contestant had a lot of talent. Half of the people were competing in voice acting, and the other half were singing. It was really amazing. One guy, who had his head shaved except for a short triangle-shaped mohawk, sang Rain, from Cowboy Bebop. I have a nice picture of him courtesy of “JUB” via Pictochat!
photo.jpg
Last Comic Standing is a stand-up competition. It was funny and very enjoyable, but some of the “comedians” were quite bad. A lot of them told jokes like “I’m a minority…it’s hard to like anime when you’re Black and/or Hispanic, food stamps, Home Depot etc.” I’m glad these people can joke around with their own culture’s negative stereotypes, but seriously, enough. The two finalists were also pretty bad >_>. I guess the audience was stupid because they’re the ones were judging. There were judges there to comment, but they didn’t choose the winners. Do you know who the coolest judge was? Man-Faye! It was awesome seeing him! Whose Line Is It Anime? is an improv show in which everything is anime themed. Terribly bad. It did make me miss Live Nude People that much more though.
We hung out at the NIS booth a bit, and I got my picture taken with a giant Prinny! Phoenix was funny as always too. I bought a Disgaea picture and got autographs from two different character designers that work at NIS. I also went to a NIS panel where they talked about Disgaea 3 and A Witch’s Tale, their new upcoming games.
I also went to a David Hayter panel. He was the voice of Lupin in Lupin the Third, the voice of Snake in the MGS series, and the screenplay writer of X-Men. It was really entertaining. I tried getting his autograph at multiple sessions but kept not making them. Finally on the last day, I managed to get his autograph.
I also went to the closing ceremony, and it was pretty boring. We did go to Little Tokyo to eat though, where the food was delicious!
I can’t wait for next year!

Graduations, Roommates Left :(

Thursday was the last day of school. I stayed up pretty late talking to William that night, and Friday morning we went to Jackie’s Engineering graduation. It was fun! It was also Justina and Kevin’s graduations! Afterwards we ate with Larysa at Del Taco. After a nap, we went to Joann’s Social Sciences graduation! Ed and Mike made lots of noise with pots and pans when they called out her name. Afterwards we went out to dinner with Justina and her family. That was really fun, and Allison Tsao was there. Although I knew they were related, I wasn’t thinking about that fact when I got there so was pleasantly surprised to find Allison there too. Allison had completely moved out just that week too. Dinner was great! We at Traditions by Pascal. It was a very nice restaurant, and the food was quite delicious. I had garlic chicken and cr

New Roommates, New Room, New Job, New Games etc.

I got the entry title down, but finding the urge to write this post is proving to be a lot of work.

gem’s been looking for new roommates. Hana moved in a few weeks ago. She goes to Concordia and is pretty cool. Mike moves out of my place in a week, and I’m moving into his room. Duncan wants me to move into his room same day so he can move into my old room. Hopefully I can, but I have a project to do that weekend too. I recently started a part-time job as a software development engineer at Meridian Link. It’s doing C# ASP.NET web development.
We’ve been Mario Kart Wii a lot. It’s very easy to approach for non-gamers, which is nice because it allows a lot of people to play. I played it quite a bit until I finished the GP, and I participated in both tournaments, but lately I’ve stopped playing it alone. We also got Wii Fit last week; it’s a lot better than I thought it would be. It’s fun and approachable by non-gamers, and it seems to actually be helping. I’ve been a bit sore at least =D
Jackie, gemma, and I started a book club. Surprisingly William joined too. Antonio suggested I read Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony by John Scalzi. gem read them after me, and she recommended them to Jackie. After that we decided to start a book club and have since read Brave New World and Neverwhere. We’re going to read Jonathan Livingston Seagull next.
I got a Pirate Nero tokidoki flash drive. It’s a Mimobot designer consumer electronics USB stick. I repaired my PSP a while ago and have lately been playing Azure Dreams as much as possible. I really love this game but never finished it.
In Classics we read selections from Iliad and Odyssey. We just finished reading Argonautika and are now reading the Aeneid. I really didn’t like the Argonautika very much. The Aeneid is very entertaining.

Fire

While playing TF2 earlier, I noticed my screen dim. The AC indicator was off so I checked the rear of my laptop, but my cord was still in place. Then I checked the AC adapter. I picked it up, noticed a spark, and then noticed fire before promptly unplugging it.
(Voice) MrUser: MEDIC!
MrUser : My computer power supply just caught fire 0_o
Player NerubianTerror has joined the game
lunchbox : lol
MrUser : I guess I keep playing until my laptop batter dies?
@flac : the means you should turn it off and stop playing TF2
Player Mr.Underhill has joined the game
(TEAM) GM|SPLAT : sentry in our sewer
MrUser : that’s no fun
@flac : before it burns your comp
gambit : at least finish the level! 😉
Player GLASS has joined the game
Player zero has joined the game
MrUser : I unplugged it
MrUser : exactly gambit