Well, I decided to do a written update. I’ll probably go outside and take some pictures afterwards so there should be two whole updates in one day. Amazing. This is another bolded title update. Brace yourselves and enjoy.
Ken Jennings He has won thirty-five days straight and broke a million dollars on Jeopardy last week. He’s the Mormon Mauler. I’ve been watching probably three days a week, and he simply dominates everyone else. From what I can tell, he’ll just hit the buzzer as soon as possible and think of the answer as the timer runs down. Sometimes, it seems like the opponents just give up and watch him. He doesn’t do well at all whenever the subject is related to current entertainers, but I bet he knows who Pocahontas visited three days before her seventh birthday. Go watch if you haven’t seen him in action yet.
On a side note, this site shows the maximum amount of money a Jeopardy contestant can win in a day. Running the entire board once would be pretty ridiculous on its own.
Computer I built a new computer last week. For the most part, I had video editing in mind, but I haven’t used it for that purpose yet. When I turn eighteen, I plan on opening another checking account and my own blockbuster account so I can get a movie pass. Then the extra encoding speed will come in handy. Other than that, I just need some actors to fill the roles of my storyboards. I decided to wait a bit on the video card purchase, since the new generation cards are still pretty hard to come across. My guess is that some form of Nvidia’s 6800 will be a personal Christmas present. It’s not a beast by any means, but I’m definitely happy with the purchase. For reference, I didn’t choose a Pentium 4 “because I like Intel”. Here are the components:
- Pentium 4 2.8 ghz Northwood @ 3.3 ghz
- 2x Corsair XMS PC3200 512mb RAM
- Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
- Zalman CNPS700A-Alcu Heatsink/Fan
- 2x Hitachi 160gb 7200 8mb
- NEC 2510-A 8x DL DVD+/-RW
- Winfast TV2000 Expert TV Tuner
- Beastly Gainward GeForce 4 Ti-4200
TV Tuner It’s been pretty great. I can play Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in my room again. This sort of defeats the purpose of moving the actual TV out of my room to stay away from it, but it was a cheaper solution than waiting for an X800 All in Wonder and more flexible than just purchasing a 9800 All in Wonder right at this moment. The recording function is really nice, especially with its integration with the TV Titan website. Best of all, I can watch Captain Planet again. Water is still fine! And I’m still pretty sure Heart is useless.
Organization Two weeks ago, I finished reading Getting Results for Dummies. I wasn’t exactly expecting it to change my life, but it gave me a few ideas on organization. Right now, I have a Steno spiral notebook (it just flips up vertically and has two columns on each page) to keep track of my time. I use two pages a day, one for a to-do list and one for my schedule. On the to-do list, I write, well, things I have to do. Then I write my schedule and cross things off my to-do list when I put them on my schedule. It’s simple, but it’s worked pretty well so far. Sometimes I decide that sitting in my chair and practicing Magneto combos is really important and that it should take two hours. When that happens, my schedule gets thrown off a bit. Practice makes perfect. I’ve considered purchasing a PDA, but I’m not too sure yet.
The Electronics Guy at the Exchange Man, he’s annoying.