Day 2 of 50 complete. $140 of $3250, 4.30% raised. Finish: November 1st.

Revised my numbers for 330 dollars a week. (Short day for Tuesday math class.) Doing pretty well, a bit tired, though, but I think that's just because I'm working, because I'm still getting 8 hours of sleep a night, like I have even when waking up at noon. (Actually, more like 7 hours, since I can't fall asleep at midnight, yet... I'm sure that'll change.) I actually plotted a finish date, too. November 1st! Maybe I will be able to do NaNoWriMo again this year... Hmm. Or I might be too busy playing Oblivion to care. We shall seeee.

Here's something I've been wanting to share for a few day, but never got around to it. The definition of irony. The definition of irony isn't seeing Microsoft Windows merrily booting itself on an Apple computer. It's this:

Irony is when Apple iTunes, a music player, needs to restart Windows... Windows Vista, I might add. The version of Windows that doesn't REQUIRE restarts anymore. (With the exception of OS update, which, I might add, requires that most OSes reboot after applying.)

I'm sitting here still wondering why in all heck an MP3 player needs to reboot Windows after installing. Especially since it's merely an upgrade. Is it because it can't restart the services? Lame. Apache2Triad can do that, and look, it asks me for administrative privileges in the first place! It certainly has the power to start and stop services. If services are the fault here, then chalk it up to lousy programming.

Is it installing a kernel-level piece of code that Windows can't start? I certainly hope not. It's a music player, for crying out loud, not a critical security update. If iTunes is installing kernel code... I'm going to be angry. If Winamp can upgrade without rebooting, certainly Apple's "glass of water in hell" (according to Steve Jobs) shouldn't have to. If it's installing kernel code, what do we chalk it up to? Lousy programming.

Fear not, Vista nay-sayers... For I have also updated my XP system and it also asked for a reboot. Perhaps it installs a driver? In which case, rebooting in XP would indeed be required. But in Vista? With the previously cried for, yet now oft-overlooked feature of user-mode drivers? Not required in the least bit. Not even my VIDEO CARD DRIVER asked for a reboot. It merely uninstalled, flickered the monitor a few times, and voila! Done deal. Why should iTunes ask for a reboot?

But what driver could it possibly be for? The iPod? No, I honestly don't think so. Windows XP and Vista can both discover an "iPod" when you plug it in... Without having installed iTunes. It's a built-in driver. Is it an iPhone driver? That would certainly be the pinnacle of irony. But still, let's not forget that Vista doesn't need to be rebooted for drivers.

Still, I find it oddly humorous. iTunes, a music player, asking for a reboot.

Day 1 of 46 complete. $70 of $3250, 2.15% raised.

So today marked my first day of a real world work schedule, with the intention of buying myself a top-notch gaming computer before Christmas! Current progress puts my goal somewhere around Thanksgiving, depending on if I work Saturdays or not... Which I probably won't. My initial projection placed the goal around the end of October, but that was with an 8 hour day. What, you think I can't work an 8 hour day? Well, maybe... But here's my current weekly schedule for those of you who are used to me being on at certain times:

Sunday:
Wake up at 8am. Leave for church at 9am, which starts between 9:15 and 9:30. Church ends at 11am. I have free time before lunch, which is at any time between 12pm and 2pm, but usually 1pm. Free time until supper, which is any time between 6pm and 7pm. I will probably use this time to catch up on college homework, finishing up the previous week's Linux assignments. Free time after supper, shower between 9pm and 10pm, in bed at or before 12am-midnight. The hour or two after my shower will probably be spent watching any number of TV shows I have, including Earth: Final Conflict, Babylon 5 and Monk.

Monday:
Wake up at 8am. 2 hours of free time until 10am, when I go out to work. Believe me, I need every minute of those 2 hours to wake up completely. Dare I say time for an episode or two of a TV show? Work until lunch, which, of course, is between 12pm and 2pm. Whenever it is, take 1 hour for my lunch break. (This is what reconfigured my schedule from an 8 hour work day to a 7 hour work day.) After the hour break, return to work. Peter Heck Show starts at 3pm with highlights from previous shows, and an all new show from 4pm to 6pm. Very awesome highlight to the work day... Keeps things from getting too depressingly monotonous! Peter Heck Show ends at 6pm, work ends at 6pm and I eat supper. Free time after supper until 9pm to 10pm, which is when I take my shower, and then be in bed at or before 12am-midnight! Free time after supper will probably be used to scan over my math homework for my class on Tuesday.

Tuesday:
Wake up at 8am. Work at 10am. 1 hour lunch break. I will probably stop working at 3pm to scan over my math homework again before 5:15, when I leave for my class that goes from 6pm to 8:50pm. Come home, take a shower... Free time until I go to bed at or before 12am-midnight. I will NOT be doing classes, since I just got back from some crazy math.

Wednesday-Thursday:
(See Monday...)

Friday:
Exactly like Monday, except I'll probably stay up late like I used to, except I want 8 hours of sleep, and I want to wake up no later than noon, so 4am will be my absolute latest... Which is never a problem. Everyone wimps out on Friday nights anyway. Friday night will be my Skype/movie/game night. Plan accordingly! College classes may be scattered into the mix throughout the evening, depending on how pressing my schedule is.

Saturday:
Free day... Not really! Wake up at 12pm-noon and focus solely on any and all classes remaining for the week. TV shows will, of course, be scattered throughout the day, giving me some nice distractions from pure work. Shower between 9pm and 10pm and be in bed at or before 12am-midnight, because church is on Sunday.

Thus, my schedule is concluded... 4, 7-hour work days and 1, 5-hour work day (Tuesday) per week. That'll make it about 10 weeks until I have enough... In a perfect world. Halo 3 is due to come out and I just (re-)pre-ordered the Legendary Edition, so that'll need paid off. I also have some remaining funds on my credit card from college books and Xbox 360, but financial aid should take care of the college books and the 360 is mostly paid off already, so no sweat there.

Needless to say, I won't be doing National Novel Writing Month this year... oh well.

So I had to write a thank-you note for the book scholarship I got from my college. Mom insisted that I handwrite it, so after forgetting to do it for a couple of days, I finally managed to get it done...

Except that it took me 30 minutes to write something like four sentences (that I had already put on the computer) because I kept stopping to erase words because they weren't perfect. I even tried to use the envelope to help keep my lines straight, but it didn't work. Man, I haven't written in cursive for a while, but still...

I think I've been watching too much Monk... That's the only thing that ran through my mind the entire time. I know I'll copy accents and mannerisms when I watch a lot of something, like the Doctor or Rodney McKay or Jack O'neill, but this is getting a little scary.

Alright, remember that supercomputer I talked about in April? Yeah, I kind of missed the boat on that... With the whole "working all summer to get a powerful gaming system". I think what happened was that I wanted to hang out with people during the summer, because everyone's out of school, and I know that these are the last years of having summers off. Anyway, with the advent of everyone going back to college now, with less contact during the days, I've decided to rekindle my idea of building that new computer. It helps that all my classes right now are easy-peasy computer classes (Linux, Network, two A+) of things I already know, so I'm going to have lots of time on my hands still. (Unfortunately, Intermediate Algebra is still pretty intense, and I haven't really worked that into my schedule, yet.)

The job I have access to is a pretty good job, actually. 10 dollars an hour, which is twice the minimum wage in Indiana. I decided to check on that a few weeks ago, and I was shocked at the wage I would be starting at. So, suddenly, 10 an hour doesn't sound so bad at all. A full-time day of work would get me 80 dollars. 5 full-time days a week would be $400. 5 weeks in a month would be around $2000. Still living at home, that's a pretty hefty amount. (For the record, I will probably remain living at home until I'm done with college.)

September just started today, on Saturday, and I have no math class next week because it's on Labor Day and heaven forbid that any government or educational institute would work on a holiday. So I'm going to take this opportunity to get my sleep schedule sorted out, and get into the habit of working full-time. I don't think it'll be so bad as long as I don't work after 6pm. I think 10am to 6pm sounds decent for any job.

Anyway! Just to warn you all... I'm going to stop bugging you all about being bored, because I'm on a mission now, and for those of you who are curious (probably none of you, but oh well), here's the current specs of the system I'm budgeting for:

Behold, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600... 4-cores, each running at 2.4Ghz, with a 1066Mhz bus speed. 64-bit capable... The second best in consumer processor technology at the time of this post! The best is 2.66Ghz, priced at 554.99. This 2.4ghz is only 289.99. I think I can do without the extra 2 points in clock speed to shave off the extra 200+ dollars. The Core 2 Duo Extremes are... Well... Extreme. Only 2 cores, the best running at around 3.0Ghz, with a 1333Mhz bus speed, costing nearly 1,500 dollars. No, thank you. I'll take a four-core, please.

The eVGA manufactured nForce 680i SLI motherboard. Arguably the best chipset you could ever want for gaming in a motherboard. I believe this is the fourth or fifth chipset endeavor by nVidia, and the reviews are incredibly high. Maximum of 8GB of 1200Mhz RAM and built for two videocards, this is clearly the choice for me in building a system with speed in mind! Why? Well, read on! Weighing in at 219.99, it's a little high compared to other motherboards, but for the features and pure speed this provides, coupled with nVidia-approved RAM and an nVidia video card, it's well worth the asking price!

This is why! The eVGA nVidia GeForce 8800GTS with 640MB of video RAM. The second best video card available for consumers made by nVidia at this time. The next card up is the 8800GTX with 768MB of video RAM, which is pretty much just an overclocked GTS that's been slapped with 128MB more RAM. Nothing special, and the GTX is 500 to 600 dollars, while the GTS 640MB version sits at a lovely 379.99. Until nVidia releases a new model, the price will remain the same, so don't bother to wait if you're going for the best at this time. While you're at it, buy two of these dudes and slap on an SLI bridge! Two of these cards working together with a shared 1.2GB of video RAM is sure to blow away any graphics you throw at it for a long time to come. (Relatively speaking, in the computer industry.) I know I'm getting two!

Now what good is a high-speed processor and two knockout video cards without perfectly matched RAM to go with it? The Kingston HyperX series of RAM is clearly the way to go. Packed with a lifetime warranty on all their chips, and approved by nVidia to support SLI and the nForce chipset, you might as well stock up on these! This particular model is the 1066Mhz model, which matches the processor's bus speed flawlessly. This is a very important thing to pay attention to! When gunning for speed, speed IS the key when buying RAM. Always match the bus speed of the processor. The motherboard listed above supports 8GB of RAM, but for now, there are no affordable 1066Mhz 2GB chips to reach that high with the mere 4 slots available on the motherboard. We'll settle for two packets of these sets of 2 1GB chips, totalling 4GB of RAM. At 199.99 for each packet, the price seems high, but don't let it fool you. For a 1066Mhz chip, it's a nice steal!

People think of the processor as the core of the computer system. But they're WRONG. The fastest processor on the planet won't do a thing without a power supply! With the 64-bit four-core processor, the two GeForce 8800GTS cards, the 4GB of RAM and all the drives and extra peripherals, the ThermalTake 1200 watt power supply is sure to cater to every imaginable configuration! With modular cables, you can simply unplug the extra, unused power cables and get that air flow moving through the system in the most efficient way possible! Plenty of long cords accompany this package, and you're sure to never run of out connectors, but even if you do, you can easily split the power connectors and have plenty of energy to spare! This guy is a bit pricey, at 379.99, but the room to grow and the large assortment of cables is nothing to shake a stick at. It's well worth the price.

With such massive power and heat being pumped out by all this awesome technology, you're going to need a case to cover it! Let me introduce to you the NZXT Zero ATX Full Tower! It might not look like much, but with five 5-1/4" drive bays, three 3-1/2" drive bays, six internal 3-1/2" hard drive bays, and eight cooling fans? There is absolutely no way you can go wrong. Plenty of room to pack in the peripherals, and enough fans to cause a hurricane. It comes with no power supply, but we're buying that separately anyway, so all 139 dollars is going straight to the quality of the case, which, I might add, is 100% aluminum. Overclocking is an option and overheating is NOT an option with this case.

So we're done, right? WRONG. Where are you going to install all your amazing games? I'll tell you where... The Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 Serial ATA harddrive... 320GB of space for all your DVD-sized applications. You'll need to play a lot of games to fill this thing up. But in case you're like me, you'll probably get two, to total 640GB of drive space. Each drive is only 79.99, so you'd be silly NOT to get two. You will ALWAYS need storage space!

All this is all very well and good, but what use is a new computer without a new monitor? An LCD monitor! An LCD monitor made by Samsung! Quite possibly the best LCD manufacturer there is, and this model is no exception of their technological prowess. It is the Samsung 244T-BK... a pitch black, widescreen, 24" monitor that runs at an optimum resolution of 1920x1200. Adjustable hight and a pivot is an added bonus that not all LCDs have! It's quite pricey, though, at 699.99, but a monitor is nothing you want to skimp on, especially when shooting for games. It also sports a USB 2.0 hub.

So that's it folks! Of course, without a doubt, I would always recommend you use the Microsoft Intellimouse Optical as your mouse. There's no other mouse that feels quite a good as this one, and after years of wear and tear... It still works as if it were brand new! The keyboard I have yet to do some studies on. I will have to go to town and just... Type on a few display models to see what I like. I will probably settle for a Microsoft keyboard, in the end.

Then, of course, there's the sound card. Obviously, Creative is the choice here... But I have yet to do research on how well the cards work with Vista. The X-Fi looks to be the best choice... I have an Audigy 2, but Creative seems to be slowing support for that card now, anyway. And, above all, their Vista support is TERRIBLE. They've had access to Vista for 12 months now, and barely anything works? No excuse for that. nVidia can make working drivers in that time, why can't the monopoly of sound cards?

The price of this system comes to around 3000 dollars... Kind of high, but not exactly for something of this... magnitude. Someone linked to a comparable Alienware system and it was 6000 dollars. Ouch... Building your own system is clearly the way to go, and if something breaks, the parts will be generic enough to replace without having to buy dumb, useless proprietary parts like a certain company I know... HI, DELL!

When all is said an done, this system will be running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit... and Half-Life 2 and Oblivion and Crysis and Bioshock at full power! (Granted, of course, that 2K Games gets rid of that atrocious copy-protection. No way I'm buying Bioshock for PC until they let me install that thing as many times as I darn well please!) I was briefly considering getting a USB drive for Vista ReadyBoost, but I was looking at some numbers and it didn't seem to help a whole lot right now, at least with the moderately priced drives. I'm sure I probably won't need it, though... Not with this system. All the drivers I'll need are provided in 64-bit, so I'll have no problems there. The only problems I'll run into will be the lack of 16-bit applications... And the only one I can think of would be the very first release of Myst. Not exactly something I'll be sad to miss, but if I ever get the urge to play it again, I could always whip out an emulator or just use my 32-bit laptop.