Tag Archives: random

Personal, Rant, Technology

CompUSA Somehow Got a Resurrection and They are Cool, Somewhat.

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So… boredom struck me and ever since I have been addicted to Voice Command on my HTC Kaiser, I have found it somewhat interesting to have it read out my text messages while driving. Just my Bluetooth headset was good, but it didn’t quite match up to my Kaiser. I decided to check out the “NEW” CompUSA, as it seemed like they had been given new life by a managing corporation…

On walking in… I was surprised they were trying to come off more like a Best Buy, albeit smaller and more controlled. I was more interested in scoping out the Bluetooth headsets and I was a bit shocked to see unlocked GSM phones for sale. Brand new phones, completely unlocked, and unbranded. No pushy sales reps trying to cram a contract down your throat either.

It was interesting seeing the shop in a new light as their prices are far more reasonable than before. It was bad when they tried to be the guys at the top and fall, but personally, if they can keep to the new principles… they may just succeed.

Personal

A Semi-Sane Blurb Before I Go Nutty

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With the chaos of my job at the office, corporate cannot rally reinforcements to aid me. Due to this, I am going to be at the office for an entire 12 hours. I do get two 30 minute lunches as the law requires, but a person must have something to look forward to endure a mental flogging of sorts. Me? I do my 12 hour shift tomorrow only to walk in 12 hours later and work 9am to 5:30pm Thursday. I may possibly be disgruntled and maybe a tinge insane, only if things at the office mess up continuously. I know the past Friday, I was on edge from the fax machine imploding on itself from the paper feed mechanism choking on itself with me trying to service the machine and juggling phone calls with other offices and clients… I can only hope that I can try to hold my sanity through. I mean, I had an insane Friday and then an insane Monday, so the worst is over for now? I just hope so.

I don’t mind the money, because the more cash… well, the quicker I can get to my 60,000 mile maintenance parts. Considering it’ll be $550 in parts and supplies, I could use all the money I can get. Lucky me, I will be doing the 60,000 mile service with my friend Radioactive from the Dallas Miata Enthusiasts, which saves me $800 – $1,100 in shop labor fees as well as 2-5 days of downtime. My main cost will be 10 – 12 hours of laboring on my car with a buddy who will keep me laughing and conversing. I do look forward to my car running like a properly maintained machine… after the 60,000 mile maintenance, oil change, new spark plugs and wires, new synthetic gear oil… I expect to be seeing a side of Devil that I have possibly never seen. I have never had a chance to ride with Devil in near brand new status and even with a brand new batch of gear oil either. After that, my next task will be to get new tires to ensure I get a proper contact patch on driving. My next major expense for Devil will be the drop top maintenance. I am seriously debating on buying an upgraded cloth top with new seals as I hate the vinyl top limiting me to days warmer than 65F.

I may have to hold off on getting a phone upgrade from my considerations to doing maintenance and potential upgrades to Devil… As fun as it would be to get an HTC Touch Dual, TyTN2, or even a Blackberry device, it’s not necessary as my P990i does the job well enough. Gaming expenses will definitely be taking a hit for me… I may look into DS and PSP hacking and modifications, but that’s a while away. I hope that my school will play nice with Ubuntu Linux, especially with regards to the proprietary Windows applications for some of the CD’s packed in academic textbooks out there… There’s always the route of getting VMware on my laptop, should things get desperate.

Hopefully the office can let me just do weekend shifts while I am at school to get a steady source of income to pay for my car note and insurance. If they can’t… it’ll muck things up a bit more. I just need to make sure before anything… If they can’t I may need to request a transfer to another division where I can be guaranteed weekend shifts on a weekly basis. It does suck to have my car note and insurance payment as my only encumbrances, but far better than being in constant debt. Though for me, it puts insult to injury as I will be the “poor, starving college student” with reducing my work load in exchange for an education.

Rant

Random Blurb and Ranting on a Cold, Rainy Day

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I have lived in a small suburb for damn near all my life, so I have seen some interesting things with my 23 years of living… One thing that amuses me about the majority of DFW area drivers is that rainy roads and rain instantly sets off the “panic mode” on many people’s minds and their driving gets offensive rather than defensive. Naturally, rain or adverse weather conditions makes drivers learn to bide their time and take a slower pace to avoid any additional delays from getting into an accident. I see the following annoyances with the drivers in my city panicking:

  • Failure to go below the speed limit
  • Reckless lane switching
  • Heedless stomping on the brakes at the absolute last second
  • Hydroplaning

Unfortunately for me being a roadster (tiny) manual transmission driver, this puts me and other fellow drivers at risk for some careless person to suddenly panic or behave poorly on the road. I know on my way to the gym at 8:00 that there were 2 multi-car pile-ups from some clown losing control of their vehicle. Here’s the irony of it all: it took place in a SCHOOL ZONE! A twenty mile-per-hour school zone. I can only imagine that the reactions of the asinine drivers must have been embarrassing to hold up school traffic from their short witted thoughts.

The last exam of the semester was today for me, boy… was it a doozy. The questions blitzed my mind and ransacked my memory banks to thoroughly exhaust me completely. I mean, the class was great but for some reason… that exam “kicked my ass”. I know that I actually enjoyed my classes this semester, but I wish I could have dumped more time on them… It sucks having to work and go to school, but that is the price to pay for freedom. With the holiday season here and the office spitting out more and more paperwork, I hope to increase my intake of hours to pay off things and maybe have a little money to spend on myself. I am not sure if I can afford to attend school next semester, but I may ask family if they are willing to make a plea bargain with me… I just don’t think it will bode well though, unfortunately… I pray that ’round tax time… I should be seeing a bigger return for working a whole year with a company that does not use shady methods to write off taxation.

For those wondering when the next “serious” reviews are coming… I will say that they will be hitting home soon. The next review will be over my feelings over the wildly popular Nintendo DS  game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I will give Nintendo credit for making a wonderfully refreshing game that makes even the most casual fan feel at home. Keep watching the blog, I will have the review up once I get through the game or even beat it.