What would I be without my projects?  This go around is going to be a bio hack.  I’m quitting smoking, cutting out sugars AND trying to get some exercise in.  It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.  Really, if I fail at it all, I’m not any worse off than I am now.

Later.

Which I promptly did. Problem is, I’m not as cool as I thought I was and it took about twice as long as anticipated, but lo and behold, I completed it. So now you can leave all your filthy comments on Drawing On Cards.

Have fun, you bloody jackoffs.

So if you care to follow the series you can find all the comics there. I’m soon to add RSS support and a comment system, because THIS… IS… SPA– er, WEB 2.0!

Right, anyhow, yeah… I need more coffee.

I promise there will be something new soon. Really. I mean it. Like right now. Well, not really “right now”, more like “right now in the near future”. You get the point though.

But I digress.  I present to you my entire collection in a series I called “Drawing On Cards”, which was originally here.  I’m going to attempt to do more in the series, but don’t consider that a commitment.  I’m fickle, dammit.

The book I speak of is Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends & Influence People.  Now traditionally it is listed as a book for sales people, but as you can find out by reading it, we are all really trying to sell something to someone.  The references in the book may be a little dated, but when it comes to people we have really been the same for many, many years now.  I seriously suggest you read it.

My two cents for the day.

My boss’s CPU fan fell off the other day.  Yes, fell off.  No big deal.  I’ll just order a cheap replacement.  I did.  I also didn’t pay attention to the dimensions of said fan.  What I got in via UPS today was this:

$30 bought that behemouth that is going on a simple AMD64 3200+.  Can we say overkill?  I knew you could!

Yes, that is it directly against my head… and I have a big head.

And here is the final product installed.  The thing honestly puts out colder air than my air conditioner.  It certainly isn’t “absolutely quiet” as the box claims, but for its size it is relatively silent.

Just thought I’d share with everyone today.  Lucky you.

For those of you to lazy to click the link or want to know why I feel so strongly about it I will explain.  You see, I’ve been very fond of Windows 7, as you may be able to tell from the previous posts in this blog.  All that was robbed from me when Microsoft just gave us all the finger with the new Release Candidate (RC).  I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I am, and a little hurt too.

Basically, for all of us running Windows 7 Beta now, we have to trash our entire systems and install fresh for RC1.  Why?  Not because its a good idea, nay, because its mandatory. That’s right.  You will be promptly informed that you CANNOT upgrade and that you have to reinstall.  Because Microsoft wants better data on real-world installation processes.

“It’s their OS, they can do what they want.”  Yes, yes it is.  But it is typical Microsoft behavior to put what they want first, versus what their loyal user base wants.  I believe Dale Carnigie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is required reading for most marketing students.  Too bad Microsoft’s PR team never went to school, apparently.  Basically Carnigie points out that if you want someone to do something, you sell it to them from the perspective that they want to do it from.

It is a complete disregard to ask 2.5 million people to reinstall their OS.  That’s a conservative number.  That’s just how many people got legitimate keys.  2.5 million people, reinstall your OS please because we would not like to have to do as much work ourselves.  Fuck you Microsoft.

That is what I love about the Linux community.  The community is thought of FIRST.  Not what is going to save the most on the bottom line.  Yes, Linux has its stumbling blocks, yes it is not the supported super giant that Microsoft is, but you know what?  Ubuntu hasn’t ever told me to go fuck myself because I wanted to upgrade to a less buggy version of the SAME OS.

“It’s still a beta, you should expect that.”  No, I expect Microsoft not to be so damn lazy.  I know, a lot to expect, especially after Windows ME.  Because we can all read between the lines: some thing is broken in the installation process but it only happens on people running Windows 7 beta.  Easiest solution?  Tell everyone running the beta to re-install and add a spin that makes it look like we are making the world a better place by doing so.  That just isn’t good logic from a team of people responsible for rolling out the newest OS to be mass consumed.

What’s even funnier is that XP’s support life expires next week.  A lot of people opted out of Vista in favor of waiting for Windows 7.  What happens when you go to install Windows 7 on your XP machine and it breaks all to hell and back?  Is Microsoft gonna cop out on the fact that XP isn’t supported anymore?  Probably.

Microsoft, I have always had a love/hate relationship with you.  But yet, I find myself almost at the edge.  If it wasn’t for the fact that Photoshop doesn’t run on Linux (Wine doesn’t count) I would have long time ago severed the relationship.  But now I believe this to be just another sign that I should dump the zero and get with a hero.

Yes, I did just quote Vanlla Ice.  Blow me.

At my core I am an anal retentive person.  I analyze and systematically retool everything I do trying to achieve the highest level of precision.  It’s exactly why it takes me an hour and a half to wash the dishes.  I sacrifice speed for the fact of knowing that the silverware is as clean as humanly possible.

It is from this mentality that springs forth my constant need to control my life.  Being a Capricorn, control is life-blood.  I’m not getting into astrology and why your birthday dictates who you are, but suffice it to say, I am textbook Capricorn.  So how much control do I have in reality?

Let’s look at a few things.  I have spreadsheets that tell me to the penny how much I can spend on any given thing.  I have GCal crammed full of every date related event possible.  I have to-do list that is structured, accurate and ritual.  I even have a complete archive of pretty much every even partially significant data I have ever had.  With this ever churning organization structure that would even make David Allen jealous, you would think I’d be on top of every moment of every second of my life.

The irony lies in the fact that it is all really in vain. All my bills are past due even though the money is there to pay them, the house is a mess, and I purge more out of my to-do list than I mark off.  The stress of it all is honestly physically sickening.  I’m honestly at a loss of even what to do about it.

The solution is obviously not to be carefree about it.  I’ve tried that for years which only produced the same results, I just didn’t pay attention to the outcomes as much.  Of course the immediate response from everyone is “oh, everyone’s life is like that.”  I believe I have to call bullshit on that one.  If that was the case no one would make it past 40 because we’d all have committed suicide in mid-life.

Here is the kicker though: does it boil down to social life?  Yes, it is well documented that humans are social creatures.  What happens when you are socially deprived?  Yes, I have a close friend, a girlfriend of 6 years and beautiful children that I interact with daily, but is that enough even for an introvert like myself?  Is this that social atrophy rearing its ugly head in a self-destructive subconscious sabotage of my life?

I am by no means a psychology specialist.  I’d like to be, but the thought of 8 more years of schooling makes me queasy.  So I throw this out to you, oh Internet cloud of human computation, what is the missing gear in this machine that is so vital?  Your comments are heavily solicited and greatly welcome.