by Matt | Jun 10, 2002 | Imported Entry
I think this is the first time in history that I’ve actually enjoyed a “customer service” experience. I decided to give Gainward a call directly and see about getting my card replaced. After only a few minutes on the phone I was talking to a rep and explaining my situation. He said that my card was most certainly covered under their manufactures warrenty and that all I had to do was mail my card to them and they would mail back a replacement. He gave me a RMA (return) number and said I didn’t even need any of the original packaging. I should keep the box, the software, the driver disks and the connectors and simply send back the card. So, tomorrow, I’ll put this baby in the mail. According to the rep, I should have my replacement about two weeks after I send them mine. Not half bad. Thanks Gainward. Your card may have fallen apart, but at least you have good customer service.
by Matt | Jun 8, 2002 | Imported Entry
Woot. Midway through game night and I’m taking a moment to center my chi. Otherwise known as “eating a slice of pizza and drinking a soda.” Ok, it’s a little centering… at least to a gamer. But seriously. Game night is going well. Chip, Dave and myself have been playing some CS, HL:Surprise and Jedi Knight II. Chip just left to pick up Jason so who knows what we’ll play next. “Game Night” is also a great way for us Uber Nerds to share those little interesting links, MODs, MP3s and other tid bits that only us nerds know how to find. Tonight Chip showed me Style XP. Think Windows Blinds + Logon Loader + Style Editor + Plus!. It’s pretty nifty. You can customize so much. Now, if only it had icon changing abilities, it would be my ultimate desktop toy. For now I’ll have to settle with only being able to change 99% of my desktop… darn.
Post Avalon update: I’m sore as all hell. My back hurts, my feet hurt. My ears are ringing as much as before. I suppose it’s because it wasn’t quite as deafening as usual last night. That or I’m losing my hearing. Either way.
Ok, back to games.
by Matt | Jun 8, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well… last night was fun, mostly. There were a few annoyances that I’ll mention, but that can wait for a second.
The day actually started around 9 when we got up to head into the city. We wanted to have plenty of time to wonder around Harvard Square and Chris wanted to go to the New Balance factory store. After dropping off my brother at the T stop in Coply Square we decided that since New Balance was furthest away we should probable make it our first stop. It didn’t take very long and I actually got some new sneakers too. Just some simple gray ones. Mostly because my old sneakers had seen better days and it was just about time to get new ones anyways. After that we drove back to Coply, parked and took the T over to Harvard. As always we wanted to go to Urban Outfitters since their “Bargain Basement” is usually a really good bargain and we can usually find some nice stuff. This time it was a different story. Everything in the basement was nearly the price of the things up stairs and there wasn’t really anything that was worth buying. Seriously, I don’t consider a $35 shirt to be a “bargain” in any basement. Especially when the original price was $39.
After that we decided to hit our favorite store on the planet. Newbury Comics. Now, you have to understand that at this point Chris and I have given more money to Newbury Comics than nearly anyone on the planet, so we should probably have a “valued members” plaque on the wall or something. Yesterday however, Newbury’s out did themselves. I found, in the used rack of all places, the motherload. I now have, in my possesion, the original 3 disk set from the great Paul Van Dyk. Ask any collector how much “Vorsprung Dyk Technik” is worth and they’d probably give you a number in the upper 70s. I found it for a staggering $12. You have to realize where this baby comes from. This is an out of print, german imported, tripple cd set, from 1992. To me at least, this is the equivelant of finding the Beetles “Abby Road” on vinyl for $1.50. Its that great a find.
After all that shopping excitement it was time for lunch. A quick stop at Uno’s Pizza dealt with that while we tried to figure out what to do next. At this point it was 3:00pm and the club didn’t open until 10. I won’t bore you with details about how we wittled away the next 7 hours at Barnes and Noble by reading magazine, because you probably would fall asleep. Either way, around 10 we walked over to Landsdown St and into Avalon.
There wasn’t that big of a crowd until around 11:30 so we just kind of sat in the back and watched John Debo warm up. I have to honestly say that I wasn’t that impressed with his DJing. We kept the whole thing to under 120bpm (beats per minute, slow by techno standards) and really didn’t play anything interesting. Around 12, DJ Micro took over and things got a little better. Playing some decent tunes (at least one’s that I recognized) he played a pretty good set. He even threw in some old stuff to keep us old skoolers happy. The night was mostly enjoyable, with a few exceptions. These exceptions can, and will, ruin and evening unless they’re taken in stride. I have a hard time taking anything in stride, so this kind of thing annoys the piss out of me. I will now list my greviances in no perticular order:
– Smokers – I hope you die and early cancerous death you chain smoking, arm flailing morons. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve nearly been hit by someones cigarette. Hey fuckos, if you’re going to smoke, walk over to the bar and do it, don’t stand next to me. That also goes for the…
– Sloppy Drunks – Honestly, if you can take your liquior, don’t buy it. Holding a cup above your head so it won’t spill is also unacceptable. Why? Because then it simply splashes on other people.
– Spandex – It’s a privildge, not a right. It also went out in the 80s… so fuck off.
– Sausage Parties – I have no problem with a bunch of guys out having a good time, but when you team up and pelvis thrust at a girl like some bad Saturday Night Live sketch, it’s pretty annoying. Especially for the girl. No one appreciates your cock being in everyone’s way.
– “I’m Paul Oakenfold” – Stupid trendy mother fuckers. Take off your sunglasses, your Abercrombie t-shirts and your giant attitude. You’re in a club for christ sakes. Put your spikey, greased up hair away too. Idiots.
– Bump-and-grinders – There’s nothing I hate more than couples on the dance floor. If my girlfriend were with me there’s no way in hell we’d be doing anything like what these people were doing. What’s even more annoying is when you’re stuck in between two couples. The couple of the left is practicing having children and the couple on the right is playing so much tonsile hockey we might as well give them the Stanely Cup. Find a room.
– My personal bubble – I have one, respect it. If you don’t, I’m not responsible for the pain you’re going to endure. This may include sharp rib pokes from my elbows, stepping on your feet, pushing you out of the way or even punching you in the back of the head… which, as one stupid Boston clubber can tell you, wasn’t an accident. You invade my space, I’m going to resist more than the French Underground.
So, it was a good DJ set but was more or less mared by stupid people. It wasn’t completely un-enjoyable, but it certainly isn’t on my list of “great nights spent dancing”. Oh well. At least I have the greatest Paul Van Dyk CD ever to show for my trip. Hooray for me.
Now it’s time to see if I can get this dumb computer working. Wish me luck. Oh, and I appologize for the spelling mistakes… I know there’s a lot of them, but I’m having so many software problems at the moment that I dare not run a spell checker. Sorry.
by Matt | Jun 6, 2002 | Imported Entry
Talk about crappy. Both my computer and the weather are rather crappy at the moment. Chris’ keyboard (the one I’m typing on at the moment) is also crappy… but thats a whole other issue. Anyway, we took my card over to Chris’ house and gave it a try in his machine. The same “bad connection” type problems appeared over here as well. So at this point I’m gonna give tech support a shot and see if I can get anyone from Gainward (the cards manufacturer) to let me know how I can return it. Hopefully I’ll get a response but “web help” has always been known to be less than responsive. We’ll see. Besides that, at some point tonight Chris, Chip and myself are going to go see “The Sum of All Fears” which everyone tells me is really good. I still haven’t seen StarWars yet but I think that’ll wait till this weekend. Saturday I hope to play some computer games with the boys but if this video card issue isn’t straitened out I’m not sure if I’ll be able to… unless of course if someone wants to loan me a GeForce 4 for the evening… but I don’t see that happening. Ok, gotta run. Later.
by Matt | Jun 5, 2002 | Imported Entry
I was also thinking today about how long it’s been since I’ve done nothing. Seriously. If I’m not at school, then I’m at home and working, if I’m not at either I’m somewhere in between. If I’m not in Savannah, then I’m in New Hampshire. Even when I go on vacation I’m usually doing something. Not that those “somethings” are bad, it’s just that sometimes I’d like to do absolutely nothing… and I haven’t gotten that chance. I’d like to sit, on my ass, in a deck chair, on some tropical island, with a Corona and absoluetly nothing nearby except the cabanna (sp?) where I got that Corona. And that’s it. I don’t want to go shopping at local stores. I don’t want to go water skiing. I don’t want to even get up for lunch. I want to sit there and do nothing. I fear that I’ll never actually get that to happen. I can see myself finishing school and jumping strait into work. I don’t really want that. I need a break. A mental break. Maybe I’m just tired. Maybe it’s that I don’t really want to find a job. I know I have to, and I have ever intention of doing it… I just don’t want to. I think most people honestly don’t want to either. But we all do things we don’t like so that we can maintain our quality of life or life style… but when do we get a break so that we can enjoy that “quality” that we’ve been working towards? At retirement? I hope not. Maybe I’ll just go to bed now and hopefully sleep in… that’s as close to doing nothing as I can get at the moment… I might as well sleep in and enjoy it. Sorry for the rambling… my computer has put me in a bad mood. That and I miss my Lauren. I never feel quite like myself when she’s not around.
G’Night.
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