Bishop's Peak
Now Playing: "Free" by Mya on NoAlbum
Topic: Personal
Last night I went hiking up Bishop's with Nick and Dave. We started at about 7:15 so the sun was setting as we hiked up. It was beautiful. The sun was gone by the time we got to the top but while we were up there, we got to see the moon rise out from behind this hill. It was funny because at first we just saw this glow and we were trying to figure out what it was. I thought it was a fire until Nick pointed out that it was moon. It was also really cool because we were above the clouds. Just as we were starting to make our way back down, the Men's Colony disappeared beneath the clouds. Then on our way down we saw two deer. It was the first time I had seen any wildlife on the hike (the mouse that crept up to us when we were on the rock at the top does not count as all mice and rats must die). The hike was beautiful as always.

Topic: Personal
Work days left: 11
SLO days left: 15
USA days left: 22

...But who's counting? ;-)

$180 later...
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Personal
...and I have a fully function computer. Well almost. Here are the notes from the store that installed the CD drive:

Computer missing 75% of screws. Bracket securing optical drive cable missing. Added screws to hold optical drive in place. Computer in poor condition.

I draw your attention to the part in bold. The auction listing:

This is an ibook 12" 800mhz laptop with a 12" xga lcd screen. with airport wireless connectivity, bluetooth wireless connectivity, 100gb hard drive with 8mb cache (apple O.E.) and an Apple O.E. cd drive! the laptop is in flawless working condition with a new 3.5hr battery, os x tiger 10.4.2, all updates ilife 05 and iwork 05. also alot of other apps!the screen's right hinge is just a tad loose but does not affect it at all, it also has a Torx screw missing from the bottom, also i doubled the factory ram wich makes it much much faster. see pics, it was a wonderful laptop for me for a long long time and it will be good to you too! thanks for looking and happy bidding, also feel free to e-mail with questions, thats what i am here for! Radeon mobility 7500 with 32mb ddr sdram Faster than my ibook G4 1.2 in everyhting i tried! I might add the only reason for sale is i need a car and selling my powerbook and ibook are enough to pay for it! i reserve the right to sell locally! PLEASE GIVE ME BEST OFFERS I TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY! also buy it now has been lowered 50 dollars U.S.

I again draw your attention to the bold parts. For a "flawless working condition" laptop, I've paid a lot of money to make it functional: $50 for the charger, $30 for the replacement CD drive and $150 for the labor to replace the CD drive. Sometimes I wish Ebay left more room in feedback. That way I could have included the poor packaging he did. Yeah, I left him negative feedback and he probably will do the same for me but I don't care. I was going to make it neutral until I saw what the store wrote about it being in poor condition.

The iBook Saga
Topic: Personal
As I've mentioned before, my CD-drive stopped working a week or two ago. When I told my dad he was outraged saying that the computer should be guarnteed to work completely properly for 30 days and that combined with the fact that the computer didn't come with the charger, I should ask the guy for my money back because I was taken advantage of. I told him that it wouldn't happen because the guy who sold it did not mention in the auction that the charger was included, said that all sales are final with no returns or refunds and the computer arrived to me working and broke while in my possession. My dad said that it shouldn't matter because "obviously" this guy sold it because it was about to go bad. My dad said that Ebay should protect me from such things and that I should ask for my money back from the seller and some how explain my situation to Ebay and see what they say.

Well, since I hadn't gotten the stupid bluetooth module that was promised in the auction, I emailed the guys saying it still hadn't arrived and that I would rather just return everything because of the reasons above. Guess what he said? He said exactly what I told my dad. Oh and the module arrived yesterday when I got home. I told my dad that the seller and Ebay are very good about covering their asses about this but he still went all "it should to guarnteed to work for 30 days." Before I even contacted the seller, my dad was saying "well if you had asked me I would have said to just buy a new one." I could have sworn that I asked for his old Powerbook for London when my desktop started to die but I guess I didn't since he gave it to Justin. And they didn't make any mention of buying the $1000+ computer for me so excuse me for attempting to save a little money. As of right now, even if I take the iBook to a store with my replacement part and it cost $100 for them to put it in, I'd still have saved about $200 off of a new G4. Yes, the G4 has a faster processor but I haven't noticed any difference in the speed of performance between this and my desktop. Or I could attempt to save that $100 and replace the CD drive myself but...yeah, I think that's a very bad idea.

Lesson learned here: don't buy big purchases off of ebay.

ESP
Topic: Personal
I was on my bed in and out of a nap. Then suddenly I decide to get up and begin walking towards the other side of the room. Then BAM! My cell phone starts to ring.

Although it was Bridget and as I picked up she went through a bad spot and we got disconnected, but still. Weird, huh?

Cryptic, part II
Topic: Personal
Well it's about time my feelings stopped getting trampled on. But it's going to take more than one time to repair them.

Gym
Now Playing: iPod because I still have no CD drive
Topic: Personal
Going to the gym has become such a chore lately. There's so little motivation for me. I have no workout partner to talk to and help motivate me and me him/her. I have no classes to completely stress over and give me energy. As it is, by the time 5pm rolls around, I'm ready to take a nap. I need to find some way to make it "fun" again so there's actually some motivation aside from the nagging to stop aka lose weight. And that situation is starting to become completely hopeless as the scale just increases. *sigh* Well, at least I've succeeded in making the gym part of my routine.

Cryptic
Topic: Personal
Once I can forgive but twice hurts my feelings. Being deliberately left out of something reminds me of 7th grade which is not a good thing.

On a different note, I've found a drink I like: rum and coke.

Back up and running!
Topic: Personal
I bought a charger for my laptop today yesterday so now I have a fully functional computer. Yay! I installed AIM, TexShop and Antivirus (currently scanning). I also put on all of my backed up stuff. After the antivirus is done and after I sleep a bit, I'll put printer, floppy and tablet software on and then run DiskWarrior just to be safe. Then I'll hook up my digital camera (which now has a case thank goodness (note to self: return bulky case to Best Buy sometime later today) ) and then I'll play around with iSight.

I like shiny new toys. =)

Sucess!
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Service Desk conversations
Topic: Personal
I have sucessfully bought a laptop! The guy shipped it yesterday so I should have it by the end of this week hopefully. Horray!

My other success story is that I finally made it up the California entrance to school without stopping on my bike this morning. I went slowly but I didn't stop. I was very proud of myself.