Night blogging (15): Computer, stress, and spending time. · 6:41am Oct 19th, 2016
Hey guys. Sorry I haven't posted anything like I said I would. Some things came up and I probably could have planned some things a little better. Good news, though. I'll have my new custom made computer by tomorrow! 
I'll be picking it up after work tomorrow, head straight home, set it up, have dinner, and [hopefully] everything will be ready for me to finally get back to writing again. I still have a couple chapters from my other stories that need to be edited, which will be my first priority before I start writing TMS again. I may also try some games I want to play on it to see how well it operates (miles better than my old laptop, hopefully), so if it seems like I'm taking a bit, that may be part of why. 
I also want to try being more active in other activities, like doing some sport or try drawing again. Work has been overwhelming me to the point of questioning my career choices and I want to do some things that could relieve some stress. May be difficult with the upcoming cold weather and the holidays (retail's most excruciating time of year. Yay. 
), but I'll try to keep myself sane and not think of ways of offing myself to get away from the never-ending Christmas songs. 
TL;DR: New computer coming, updates will be back on track momentarily, work and stress suck balls, and Christmas blows *puts on top hat* Bah Humbug.
Thank you all for your patience, and I'll keep in touch. PM me if you have any questions, comments, and/or concerns. Until next time,
This is Dudeler, signing off.
P.S. Finally freakin' time for me to put this tablet away. Pain in the ass to do everything on, especially typing and my huge ass fingers making this more difficult.
I'm on my 9th year of retail work going into the Thanksgiving rush. Try not to let the grind get to you outside of work. Drop work at the time clock, the less you think about it the better.
And this is mostly personal but if they ask you to come in on a day off, and you don't want to for any reason, don't go in. For the first 2 or 3 years I just always went in when they called. I cancelled plans, I lost sleep, I went in when I needed a day off. Don't do that shit.
Sometimes you just gotta grind it out to pay the bills, I get that. But you really want to strike a good work/life balance to keep your mental, emotional, and physical health where it needs to be.
What're your new PC's specs? I happen to have a custom PC so I'm just a tad curious.
I for one will be watching for your work.
First, take it apart and put it together again for practice for when it comes time to upgrade.
Run World Community Grid and help improve the human condition.
4261880
Use speccy.
http://filehippo.com/download_speccy
4262201
I know what my specs are, though. I meant, I want his specs.
4261836 Yeah, that might be difficult if your staff is disastrously low in numbers and you're one of the few capable people to know pretty much everything there is about the store (and I've only worked there for at least 6 months!). Plus they don't really ask me if I want to come in when I already work 50 hours a week in 6 days. If I do get two subsequent days off at some point, then yeah, I'll sayno if they ask.
4261880 I'll put down what's written in my invoice: Antec Sonata case, antec 450 power supply, ASUS Z170-K motherboard, intel core i5 6500, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 240 GB m.2 SATA SSD, and a GeForce GTX 950 video card, with Windows 10 as the OS.
Yeah I couldn't name any of these from the top of my head, but I did look them up before buying and they sound like they had good functions.
4262138 I'd say that was a good idea if I wasn't so exhausted after driving around for addtional accessories. I think I'll set it up first and then I'll take a look inside later. The guy who put it together showed me how to take off the cover and what it was like inside before I took it home, so I don't think it will be too complicated to figure it out, bit do you have any good videos or sources on how to [dis]assemble and such?
4262681
The most important thing is to wear a ground strap. Also, while it's important to dust out the case from time to time, don't use a vacuum unless it's a special antistatic vac. Otherwise just use canned air.
Also, also, keep magnets away from the inside. Including magnetized screwdrivers.
And you might want to wear an exercise headband to keep sweat from dripping.
Take note of the CPU socket type and RAM type and supported speeds.
tuttleswildcatwebsite.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/5/6/13565607/1244114_orig.jpg
4262681
Nice specs! Is this your first custom PC?
4262816 Yep, first custom made one. I think this is just right for me, having the parts I need right there instead of finding a manufactured, commercially built tower that fits my preferences. Plus the case is pretty sturdy from what he told me, so I could reuse it a bunch if I want to.
4262763 Few things, what's a ground strap, how would I use it, and doesn't canned air damage the computer as well? I was told not to do that when I tried dusting my old laptop, so I thought that'd be applied in this case, too.
4262763 Nevermind about the strap, I looked it up, but the canned air thing is still conflicting.
4263013
I suppose if you hold the can upside down, the propellant will squirt out a bit, causing an area of localized cold. That might cause cosmetic discoloration and maybe cause moisture from condensation if it's humid. I never really thought about it.
As long as you don't hold the hose too close to the case, a vacuum with a blowing setting or an ordinary air compressor to blow out the dust and dust bunnies should be safe. Though one of my old instructors once told a story of how someone tried that with a professional industrial compressor and cracked the motherboard in half with the force of the air stream.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2037100/youre-a-dirty-dirty-dusty-pc.html
4262998
That's the beauty of custom PCs. Welcome to the pcmasterrace, lol. I built mine this year as well, except I've been having RAM issues, unfortunately.
4263475
BSOD w/memory dump or something else? If its the first, you got a dead stick/slot
4263424 4263475 You guys wouldn't happen to know any good wireless adapters, would you? One that could find networks to connect and access Internet without any installation whatsoever? Like plug it in, starts up in a snap, finds a network, and BOOM, you got internet? The last few I tried needed a CD to start an installation-that I can't do as my tower doesn't have a disc drive-and even if I could download the software from the maker's website, I can't even do that because, surprise, my computer can't connect to any networks to access the internet and get on those sites to begin with.
I'm pulling my hair out with how much this is driving me nuts since I just want to start playing games, write fics, watch videos, do SOMETHING that a computer's supposed to be used for or I just invested in a really expensive door stop. I'm wondering if I should look into getting a really long ethernet cable to make connecting to the Internet possible.
Oh, and getting into a car accident pretty much adds the cherry on top of this sundae of madness that I want to commit bloody murder to.
4265916
Not that I know of. There may be PCI network cards like that, if you've got the spare room.
4264977
PC bsods when too many applications are asking for RAM. They don't even have to he asking for much, it will crash without fail if I open more than 3 that ask for any. Getting replacement RAM next month.
As in a USB dongle or a wireless access point or bridge that connects to the RJ45 port? Or a combo device?
https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Dreambox-Network-Printer-Microsoft/dp/B005OIB6XI/ref=sr_1_3
Vonets has a decent reputation, despite being a Chinese company who doesn't seem to have hired a completely fluent English-speaker for their main website or amazon product descriptions.
To clarify, you've already got a modem and router, but don't want to run Cat5 to where you're setting up your rig?
4265984 Got a router, yes (my parents', specifically), I don't know what a modem or Cat5 is.
I recently got a USB attached DVD drive the builder of my tower let me borrow, so I'm crossing my fingers that things pull through.
Unless your home is connected to a city-wide wireless network (and those things are stupid since they never play nice with static DNS settings), you have to have a modem.
And it's really sad how optical drives are being phased out. While booting from FAT32 usb devices works fine, it's more complicated than it should be. And streaming media can't hold a candle to what you can do with a physical disk and decryption library.
"Cat5" is old shorthand for ethernet cable that old-fashioned techies still use, even though Category 5 cable is obsolete. Cat5e and Cat6 are the standard now.
Kind of like how most people I know still say "BIOS" even when working with newfangled UEFI stuff.