Busy with Life/Computer
Well I haven’t been posting lately, it seems. Well it was mostly because I was busy with the Lupin III encode (it seems fft3dfilter works best on this movie) and managing the tags for all 125 songs in the Sakura Taisen Complete Song Box 2002-2006 download. I wish those guys would just print one more for me.
Oh, and the scroll wheel off my old mouse broke. It came with my laptop, which means my parents gave it to me, and it’s from their company. Jesus Christ, they’d better be fucking grateful I’m not putting their name on this site, because that’d be bad for their company image. Anyway, I took it apart, and it was really broken… it seemed that the rotating thing had stuck and my attempts to scroll down to see just a bit more of Oyari Ashito’s artwork broke the axle off the plastic wheel.
Like hell I’m going to superglue it back. It’s time to buy a new mouse!
But let’s go off on a tangent for a while. I was planning to buy a mouse, but I found that the Logitech MX400 was just too expensive (60CAD at all shops, including NCIX). I love Logitech mice. I even love their old two button ball mice when they were rebranded by IBM. I bought the MX310 at Malaysia, and within a year the logo on top of the mouse had already rubbed away. So one day when I was eating breakfast planning to hit the rounds and spend more money, I happened across this Vietnamese friend of mine, and this girl (this guy always seems to be eating with new girls every now and then) who was also Vietnamese. So I said hi and walked over, and pretty soon we were walking off to the Anthropology Museum or something. I managed to hit up some conversation (if I keep at it I might be able to slowly increase the number of people I can talk with at a single time, perhaps scaling up to even an entire nation!) and halfway along the trail we passed a path to Wreck Beach. She said she had never been to Wreck Beach before, so we went down there. Then we climbed the rocks – you see there was a trail of sharp, hard, jaggy rocks curving all the way to a lighthouse in the distance. Vietnamese friend there managed to walk on top of the rocks, but my feet just kept on shrugging when I applied pressure on them. So while he walked ahead briskly and seemed as if he would really make it to the lighthouse after all in an hour, I lagged behind with the Vietnamese girl. Now and then we would stop to take pictures of us men standing very tall on each rock (with my knee trembling slightly) against the sunlight, while she would ask him to take pictures of her in various poses (all innocent, the kind you might see in your mom’s photo album), which weren’t too bad but she always made the same smile whenever she faced the camera.
It was really tiring. Then we had to go all the way back… sigh. Let’s not talk about it, but it really drained all the energy out of me. I was really thirsty at the end of this horrible ordeal, and so I was anxious to make it back to civilization, the Musuem of Anthropology being a prime example. But she kept on stopping to take pictures… and maybe it was just my thirstiness amplifying things, but she seemed to be stopping twice every minute to take a freaking picture! In vain were my remarks about the general lack of water in the air… she seemed to be stopping every second now and taking every freaking fucking picture… I scooped up some water from the sea… it didn’t help my thirst one bit… and finally, when she took it upon herself to take a picture of her sitting on top of a fallen tree trunk, I made up my mind that it was time to go. I told them that I would go ahead, and trudged ahead, spurred only by the thought of water and the mosquitoes surrounding me. I finally reached the trail that went up (sigh) towards the Musuem, and damn, was it hard climbing up those stairs when dehydrated.
But I finally made it. I got up there and found my way to the Sub… and I ran straight for Starbucks (god was finally on my side, no people in front of me or anybody’s orders to tie them up) and ordered a Venti Frappucino.
I should do this everyday to remind myself just how awesome Starbucks Frappucinos are. Risking total brain freeze, I gulped the contents of that thing down… but I do not wish to share with you the joy of finally drinking cold coffee after a horrendous morning. Suffice to say I convinced myself afterwards that I did not need a mouse and bought a white PSP instead (!) at Future Shop. I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t seen that ‘originally 199.99, now 179.99′ sticker on the box. Apparently Future Shop takes off 10% on all goods returned to the store. I didn’t dare buy a Memory Stick, though… I knew my money wouldn’t hold out. At the time I estimated I had about 100CAD left.
I went back on the bus, strangely not feeling very elated. I sat next to a rather attractive girl, and using her iPhone as a springboard, launched into a conversation that luckily she was willing to hold up. I’m starting to think my conversation skillz are back again.
Getting back home, I unwrapped the thing and found that the crappy Star Wars game disc was broken. Aww, like I give a fuck. I plugged it into the wall and fired it up… and after a few hours, plus a visit to my bank’s website that informed me that I did not actually have ~100CAD left in my account, I had 20CAD, I was firmly convinced that without a Memory Stick, a PSP was about as useful as a dildo for a man.
I didn’t feel very energetic after that. I went down to the University Village and ate there (terrified at the prospect of only having 20CAD without a job)… seriously, that PSP did not make me sleep well that night. I called Small, told him to come over and have a look at it, since I was returning it tomorrow… he was firmly of the opinion that it was a brick. I told him that I needed a Memory Stick to do any demonstrations, and so we pretty much agreed that it was a bad purchase. Luckily return policies exist in Canada, and even if they don’t… woohoo white PSP! I woke up early the next day and promptly returned the PSP. Poor PSP. On the way back, two girls sat next to me. I ignored them and looked forward with an iron glare.
Hopefully somebody will realise, when another 10% is shaved off 179.99, that it’s a really good deal for a white PSP. Or better yet, just leave it until I get enough money.
Which brings me to yesterday. Since I couldn’t have a PSP, I thought it would be nice to actually buy a useful thing instead: a mouse. I hit upon the bright idea of going to the UBC Bookstore to buy a mouse (thank the Vietnamese guy for that idea) and went there after frequenting NCIX and Future Shop yet again. There were only two mice worth considering: the Logitech MX518 and the Logitech G5 Laser. Given that they both looked the same, and one cost 40CAD while the other cost 60…. the choice was pretty obvious wasn’t it? I told myself that the lasers could supposedly track over any surface… but then again it wasn’t that much of a problem with my MX310. Lasers were supposedly more accurate… but I totally creamed Small 20-5 in Quake 3 using my cheapo mouse that my parents gave me, so I’m obviously not being limited by the mouse here. Lastly, lasers were supposed to have better power consumption, but then I reminded myself that it’s not like my laptop’s battery life was that short. So I bought the Logitech MX518. Lovely mouse, I’m sure you’ll agree. It’s heavier than most (read: feels more solid) and you can change the DPI (read: sensitivity) on the fly.
This time, I walked back to Totem Park with a compelling urge to unwrap the package on the street curb. Just like normal. And later that night, Andy invited me to go to BC Sushi, which cost 30CAD per meal. Returning the PSP was a very good idea after all.
EDIT: You know, just looking at this post makes me go: damn, now I’m getting too scared to read that.
