Well at least I didn't wait a week to do another post

Been a busy week, just like the last. I'll be so glad when this semester is over. I am finding some regrets in carrying Composition & Rhetoric and Great Books II-AP in the same semester but I'm trying to get stuff done my senior year. In Great Books yesterday we were assigned to do a Herman Hesse project, which can be anything that shows Hesse's writing style and philosophy. Making a movie out of either Siddhartha and Demian did sound like a good idea but I'd have to shoot it in less than a month, not to mention round up enough people who could regulary work on making it. I'd also need at least one female, for there's a lady character in both books, which only makes things worse.

I got up early this morning to take the ACT. The most agonizing 4 hours I've been through in a long time. I ended up leaving about 10 of the questions blank on the Mathematics part cause I ran out of time, plus I had trouble doing those questions that go "Angle B is 60 degrees, segment AC has a measure of the 20. Find angle C." That's all they basically give you. On the other hand, I am a little thankful that we covered basic stuff in Pre-Calc B before this. Otherwise I wouldn't have a clue how to do some problems I ran into dealing with midpoints and slope.

I ordered in a "Game of the Year" copy of Civilization III off Ebay, 10 bucks cheap, to give to a friend when christmas-time comes along. I've also spoke with Draq already of possibly investigating into shamanism, or at least reading into it.

I end this post with the best news of all. I was informed this morning via a call from my mom, who's in Des Moines for a Hemophilia of Iowa board meeting (I'll speak more on this condition sometime) that our computer's cable connection will be reestablished on Tuesday. This is perfect timing for we here have a teacher in-service day, also known as no school. I'm gonna spend a looooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg time getting reaquainted with Counter-Strike and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.

I've waited an entire week to do another post

I have only my lazy, procrastinatic (is that even a word?) self to blame for not having made a post in a week. My procrastination at school has blogged me down with projects I should have had done before and I'm still being dragged down. Hopefully by the end of the week everything will be better. I still have to continue finding notes on my composition & rhetoric source. My Machiavelli letter to the prime minister of Japan is ready to be turned in, if only I had his address. I have to get started on my Siddhartha art project which gives me three more days to work on it. Why must the strive to be unique bring so much work? Guess it gives our minds something to occupy themselves with.

My RAM for my 486 arrived on Saturday. I managed to put in two of the four sticks but the computer gave error beats after I powered it back up. I think I know my problem: you see, older RAM such as the SIMMs I'm putting into my 486 have to be installed in identical pairs in their corresponding banks. In the case of my computer, they have to be installed side-by-side. The two sticks I put into my system tonight are on opposite banks and that doesn't help it one bit. I'll get it all figured out when I have more time.

This weekend me and Draq volunteered to give some scares at Evilhouse, a haunted house in a nearby park. I made werewolf sounds while he played a vampire in the crypt. This coming weekend we're doing it again. I'm not sure what role he's filling it but I'm thinking of doing what we call the "door room" with some friends of mine from school. I'm thinking of going in a tribal motif, provided that they have an outfit I can borrow at the house. One of my friends already has his own barbaric outfit since he's in Belegarth, a medieval fighting group. I'm thinking possibly of having my "war paint" for lack of a more correct term look something like this. Yes, I am aware that's Keira Knightley under the paint and it is from King Arthur, the movie I was most obsessed with over the summer. It's still a cool british/celtic design I'd like to work into my tribal appearance. I'd make the pale green-blue though a little more visible and darker. Well I'm off to see if I can log into Avatar. I've been getting timeout errors everytime I try to log in tonight.

Monday Monday Monday! See the incredible Boredom!

Yea, like most monday nights this one is pretty much a drag. It doesn't help to think that I still have to get started on notecards for Composition & Rhetoric and begin on my Machiavellian letter to the Prime Minister of Japan. Seriously, I'm going to write a letter to the Prime Minister of Japan on the Prince. The main allure of sending a letter to such a person in power is because as our Great Books teacher told us, a couple years ago a student sent such a letter to the king of Zimbawe, who in turn invited her to his country. Right now, the prospect of the same thing happening to me if I label the address to Tokyo is at best a false hope, but I'm still going to do it. Here's to hopefully composing a sucessful letter.

A bit more tonight on my 486 project. I opened up my computer case, which wasn't too tough. The case just slides off the top. Still trying to identify what motherboard it is, but the riser card and its attachments block most of the board's view so I can't see too much. I know where the RAM slots and the processor, so one possibility would be to look at motherboard blueprints online, which just happen to be on a site I know. Problem is that the site has no blueprints of Anigma motherboards and I haven't found my motherboard design on the site yet, which leads me to further believe that my motherboard is really an Anigma. My payment for the RAM sticks I ordered from Ebay last week goes out tomorrow since today's Columbus Day. IBM_525 today asked I think our ALPHA teacher why we don't observe Columbus Day. There's a lot of holidays our school doesn't observe. Our "School" system as IBM_525 puts it is messed up enough, but think of how bad it would be if we didn't respect Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving or even Spring Break.

It's been half an hour and I can't think of anything else to put in this entry, so this'll do it for now.

And now, the latest thing I'm spending all my time on

Just for carlification before I begin, this entry isn't what I spent hour upon hour researching. What it mainly pertains to is the focus.

I've been having a slowly growing obsession to tinket with the old computer in my bedroom, the one we had before this one. It's in actually an 80486-processor computer, making it at least 10 years old. I warn you, the following part should only be read by those that actually have a faint idea about the inner workings of a computer, as so not to cause confusion.

It's a 486 processor computer, as I said before. To be more specific, it has a 80486SX processor, which you can learn more about how it fits into the whole processor history here. According to the system number, it runs at 33mhz, though the half-assed Windows 95 loaded onto it says its only 11mhz. It has a single riser card plugged into the motherboard via an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus slot, with five other ISA connections on the riser card itself to allow additional I/O (Input/Output) cards. Currently it has 12mb of RAM installed into it, 3 sticks in the motherboard itself I ordered a set of RAM off Ebay (4 sticks x 16mb each=64mb total) just yesterday and shipped in my payment today. Hopefully I can document my work on this computer on a website that currently hasn't of yet been built, but I'm possibly thinking of putting that into place.

What's hampering me though with working with my computer is finding out what motherboard it uses. Three brands of motherboards were built for Gateway 2000 models: Micronics, Intel, and Anigma. I've looked over the 486 models built by Micronics and Intel so that rules them out. Some people who have worked on these computers consider Angima products to be, well, enigmas as the pun goes. The company disbanded sometime ago, about 8 or 9 years ago. In addition, Gateway never disclosed who the actual manufacturer of the Anigma boards were, so I can't get any help from them. I did manage however to find one site that discussed the Anigma boards to some extent, which is how I found out about them. I probably won't get to doing any work on the computer for sometime, especially not tomorrow. Mom wants me to to see 'Ladder 49' with her at the theater and I have to finish reading Siddhartha for Great Books II-AP and study AP Biology.

A better monday than last week's, but not by much

I'm composing this latest entry after a tiring monday. I wish mondays would be more gentle, cause after the weekend they seem harsh in comparison.

I finished, to some extent, a lab report for AP Biology due tomorrow. I still have to finish typing up some stuff and create a chart in Excel for my journal. And more and more things have been added to my mind to pile up my unsure thoughts. Since last night, which isn't really much time in terms of consideration, I've been thinking of possibly going for an undergraduate B.A. in International Studies, the reason being that the possibly for studying abroad is particularly tantalizing. If I could study or practice medicine in a foreign country, it would be quite a different experience than what I would get in here. Either way, getting my degree is still a far time off and will defently take some thought. Maybe when I go down to Iowa City next month I can inquire with the university on my ideas.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to start thinking about my Machiavelli letter for Great Books II-AP. Each student writes a letter highlighting Machinvellian principles and suggestions to a person in power. As for myself, I'm thinking of sending it to the Prime Minister of Japan. It'll take quite some thinking to figure out just what to say and how to say it in a way that will be encouraging and respectful. Seeing as how I'm planning to send this letter to the leader of a country, no wonder I'm nervous.

It's bedtime now, so time to shut down the ol' tower again.