Vicodin for the pain - $10
Root Canal for the cure - $950
Crown for the strength - $1100
Keeping my tooth instead of pulling it, priceless.

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but have been too lazy. A while ago, I built my own media center PC. This is the first time I've put an entire computer together (although I've swapped parts many times before), so I'm quite surprised that everything (almost) worked first try.

Here we go.

I ordered the pieces mostly from newegg (except a video card, which I picked up last minute from Fry's), and the case from pcalchemy. Here's the parts list:

ABIT AG8 ATX Motherboard - $120.00
Intel Pentium 4 505J Prescott 2.66 GHz Processor - $115.00
Patriot Signature Series 1GB DDR SDRAM - $80.00
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - $39.90
Maxtor 300GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - $126.25
Graphics card with NVIDIA GeForce 6600 and 256 MB DDR3 - $149.99
Ahanix MCE601 Case with Card reader - $219 + $17.95
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE Tuner card
OTA HDTV tuner card


The parts.


The case.


The motherboard fits nicely.


What a mess.


A tangle of wires.


Installing Windows.


Top view. You can see the PSU on the top left, DVD top right, harddisk bays on the bottom right, the big ass fan on top of the CPU, and a mess of wires going everywhere.


The SD and HD tuner cards.


Two harddrives stacked together = 550 GB of storage. Still not enough.


Almost done. Front view with memory card reader.


Done. You can see the VFD glowing.


Half-Life looks pretty good on the widescreen.

Why do tooth nerves have to die? I've been in unbelievable pain for the past few days because (dentist's speculation) a nerve in my molar is dying, and when it dies, it inflames and causes unbearable suffering for me.

Unfortunately, this means I'll probably need a root canal, and then a crown, which means a lot of big bucks since my yearly allowance on my dental insurance is almost up. And to beat on a poor cliche, when it rains, it pours, I can't get an appointment until next Monday, and I'm dying over here. I even went to my doctor to get some vicodin, and that does NOTHING for my pain.

Kill me now.

I admit, I have a bit of a problem when it comes to keeping wallets. It's not that I lose them, or that they break, but they just become unsatisfactory after several months of use. I always get annoyed by a couple of little things, and end up buying a new one. I've searched long and high for the perfect wallet for me.

Let me start at the beginning.

Once upon a time, I had a normal wallet just like everyone else, I think it was my dad's old one, a bifold, with a zipper, and a coin compartment. It served Grade 5 Ming just fine. You could fit my entire life savings of $5 into it, and enough space for my various trivial cards (the Pepsi membership card I got from a blind taste test in Edmonton probably wins the cake).

Then, there was a stage of turmoil, bifolds, trifolds, back to bifolds. At one point, my wallet was so full of useless cards that it ballooned to George Costanza wallet proportions. I even had a plastic coin holder all through high school because Canada has such a coin-centric currency, and I had to organize my coins somehow. This lasted through the first couple years of university.

Eventually, the bulk of the wallet started weighing me down. I was tired of carrying it around with me, of flipping it open every time I needed a card or cash, of carrying change in my pocket, and having it fall out when I sit on a nice and plush couch.

I stopped carrying change. I tried to get rid of small change at the scene, usually looking for "save the children" donation boxes, or those leave-a-penny trays. Everything else went into a jar once I got home. But this was no solution, I still needed to solve the problem of the wallet. So around my first internship in the US, I started experimenting.

First came the money clip. It was a radical jump, like a coke addict going off the snuff cold turkey. There was a slew of problems. The clip wasn't tight enough when I didn't have enough cash, and too tight when I got too many $1 bills. There was no good place for my cards, and it was too inconvenient to get money in and out. It had to go.

Then I tried various combinations of money clips with card holders. Some had metal clips, some had magnetic clips, some moved, some used a taper to hold the cards, there was even a day when I decided to use one of those black paper clamps. Through all this, I eventually learned what I wanted:

1. Must be slim (I've narrowed the number of cards I carry with me down to 5 - CC, bank card, ID, bus pass, work ID), and cannot be thicker than my RAZR.
2. Must be carry-able in both the front and back pockets, and cannot be uncomfortable when carried in the back pocket.
3. Must have compartment to hold cards, and something to hold cash (I like to be able to reach into my pocket, and pull out everything with one fell swoop), I may have OCD, but it's what I like.
4. Cannot be metal - metal scratches other metal, and that's unacceptable because I may carry various electronic devices with me.

Recently I settled on this, I've had it for about a month now, and it seems to be everything I want. We'll see how long it lasts. Wish me luck.

Again.

Steve Jobs is good at making a statement, and reversing his stance at the next press release. He's reiterated many times that video doesn't really make sense on the iPod, but today, Apple released a new iPod that shows videos. It's got a bigger screen (2.5"), comes in black, but is wider than previous iPods (mainly because of the screen).

Apple also released a new iMac with Front Row, which is essentially their 10' interface. Could this begin Apple's foray into the home entertainment space? Could they be encroaching on Microsoft's Media Center? If they come out with an all-in-one device that integrated their new Intel platform with a PVR and syncs to your iPod that does video, it could be the modern day yuppy's wet dream.

I've been working full time for one year now. 52 weeks yesterday actually. I wish I had something to reflect upon.

Over the weekend I read this article about The Game by Leah McLaren in the Globe and Mail, which talks about the art of picking up.

Internationally renowned in PUA circles as the top practitioner of the craft, Strauss had much to overcome. For one thing, he is not classically handsome or successful. He is a short, bald, admittedly neurotic author ... After spending months on the road with the Crüe and receiving little more than a kiss on the cheek -- from Tommy Lee -- Strauss assumed he was "doomed to be one of those guys watching other guys have all the fun."

...

Today, Strauss sits in front of me, picking at his grilled salmon, a wholly changed man. Not only does he have an international book deal and movie option, not only is he dating the model-gorgeous guitarist for Courtney Love's band, he is a confident person who values and loves himself. The Game, in other words, worked for him.

Here's the book. One click, done.

Why did google maps switch sides? My eye focuses to the top left of every page because almost every publication in the modern world is formatted this way. Now I find it disorienting to navigate.

Here I was, thinking that Seattle was all liberal, being on the West coast, supporting Howard Dean, supporting gay rights, voting Democrat, etc, etc. But the city council, shortly axing the monorail project, just passed an ordinance requiring a 4 foot distance between strippers and customers. Not that I've been to a strip club in Seattle, but this is a little ridiculous, especially being on top of the (I've heard second hand) current alcohol ban in strip clubs.

Really, I'd feel better if they just banned strip clubs outright. At least then they'd be showing some balls rather than skirting around the issue.

I just watched Maria Full of Grace last night, and today I see this article in the BBC.

It makes you wonder how they can actually punish the right person, or is punishment even addressing the root of the problem?

Nothing much happening lately except work and spending a lot of money. Paying off car insurance bills, MRI bills, new TV, new media center, etc.

At least I can still work in the US, just got my H1-B today, coming back from Vancouver.

Speaking of Vancouver, we went there this weekend, and caught a pre-season game of the Canucks and the Oilers. We didn't have any tickets, but decided to go the arena and scalp some. It turned out that the game wasn't sold out, and we got $90 tickets for almost half price. So three expensive beers and eight goals later, we went back to Lucy Mae Brown - our favourite Vancouver bar - and then back to the Westin and into our heavenly bed experience.