This is so not true.

Posted by snarfyboy on 17 January 2005 at 10:38 PM

There are lots of nerd tests out there, but this one is relatively short (compared to the classic Nerdity test with its 500 questions)

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A Christmas Eve Story

Posted by snarfyboy on 12 January 2005 at 09:20 AM

In my family, as a kid, I only have vague memories of opening presents on Christmas morning. Somewhere, early in my life, our family switched to gift opening on Christmas Eve. I am pretty sure it was not me nor my sisters that were responsible for this change, but rather my mother. Christmas was her favorite time of the year, and she was as excited about gift opening as her children were. Perhaps more so.

My mom loved Christmas so much, that around June each year she couldn't stand it anymore and for a week in June all we heard was Christmas carols around the house. Out of the stereo or she would just sing them while cleaning - out of key and as loudly as possible.

But she was also just as impatient and curious about gifts as any kid. As an example, one Christmas my dad got her an antique grocer's scale that she had wanted. After wrapping the gift, my dad realized it needed chains to suspend the weighing basket. So he went to the local hardware store, bought a nice looking length of chain, and wrapped the it in a small separate box, with no padding so the chain links would make plenty of noise when the box was shaken.

Well let me tell you, we heard that box being shaken several times a day every day for two weeks before Christmas, as my mom desperately tried to figure out what could be in that box. When the time came to open gifts at last, we made sure she opened that gift first. As she puzzled over the length of chain, I told her it was punk rock jewelry - which she believed! It was some time before she got to open the antique scale and had put two and two together (with some help from her children).

So we pulled a joke on mom on Christmas. One which she would later laugh about for years to come. That was my mom, she loved Christmas, and Christmas stories were the best, after opening gifts, of course. And maybe Christmas Carols.

So it was her, one year, that decided to move gift opening to Christmas Eve. Probably as soon as I found out the shocking truth about Santa Claus was this decision made. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she let the big secret out just so she could move gift opening to Christmas Eve.

But my mom also wanted to be formal and proper about things. If we were going to have gift opening on Christmas Eve, then a big Christmas dinner should be held first. And so, for a couple years, my mom would slave all day in the kitchen and make a big dinner on Christmas Eve.

But soon, this too gave way to my mom's desire to open gifts as soon as possible. I distinctly remember one Christmas Eve dinner of McDonald's. Easy to make, quick to finish and all the sooner to dive into gift opening.

However, McDonald's was still a "dinner", and soon we found ourselves opening gifts in the early afternoon. So came the next solution: forget dinner entirely, and eat hors d'oeuvres (or as my mom called them "horse doovers") while opening gifts. Many of these hors d'oeuvres have become family tradition over the year.

That is how my family still tries to celebrate Christmas every year. So I present to you this year's Christmas Eve in the galleries.

... and Merry Christmas, Mom.

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Happy New Year

Posted by snarfyboy on 9 January 2005 at 04:32 PM

Happy New year, 8 days late.

Ron says I don't post enough.

He's right.

Oh well. I was having PC issues during December. I thought I had a hard drive crash, so I had to rebuild my PC with a new one. But then my problems persisted. It turns out that the real problem was that the new video card I got was drawing too much power from my system, and without enough power, random pieces of equipment fail.

My Sony VAIO is pretty versitile, but the one thing in it that is propritary is the power supply. I may have been able to wedge a new one in, but then I had no way to power my speakers, due to SONY's odd decision to have the speakers plug into the back of a PC rather then a normal wall socket. So, unable to put a new power supply in, I was left with an extra hard drive and a very nice video card.

This jumpstarted me into a project that I knew would either be fulfilling or make me crazy: building my own PC from scratch. I considered it a rite of passage. I have been in the business for over a decade but have never frankenstiened my own PC to life. I had replaced just about every part on a computer at one point or another, so in a way I have done it, but not all at once from the beginning, and tailored for me. Plus certain things I hadn't done: I had never purchased a case before, or literally screwed a motherboard into it.

So, after my typical Snarfyboy research, I impulse bought a lot of equipment (Case, Motherboard and processor) and started from there. After I saw a good deal on some memory at Best Buy I shopped till I dropped and got all the rest of the pieces I needed.

I was surprised to find that the machine started up and ran on the first try. But when I installed some Intel utilities to check the temps inside my case, I found it was overheating like crazy.

So, I need to rethink some things. For now, I have ordered a highly regarded fan system to add to my airflow in the hopes that it will keep the temps under control.

Meanwhile, on my old pc - which still is a good pc - I have yet to reinstall a number of programs. In fact due to my own stupidity, my email wasn't seneding emails all last month. So if you sent me something, I may have replied, but it never went out.

I would post pictures of the new setup, but my dad is in Florida and has the digital camera. Plus, there is always that possibility of me getting a new case (I am least happy with that purchase).

Also, I got City of Heroes for Christmas - another MMORPG. Just what I needed. So now I have EQ2 going and CoH going at the same time, and World of Warcraft beckons me as well. Something's got to give.

I can post photos of my characters from CoH, however. So here you go.

Above is my first main character, the cyborg Technodyne, showing the Brim Warrior (i.e., Trent) what I think of his hat. Since we both chose to be the same class of superhero though (scrapper), our combat was boring and not effective enough. So I switched to another character:

This is Tiaga, a Blaster that uses ice power to freeze bad guys in their tracks.

I also created this guy on a lark, just because I thought he would be funny. I don't expect to ever use him, but he is named "Cowboy Clark":

And finally, here is Tiaga hovering up one of the biggest butts in Paragon City:

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