Toys

On Tuesday, a long-time, faithful, and very hard working client, and her business, donated some old computers for me. In this picture, you'll see eight computers, including my laptop, and nine if you include my Pocket PC. Many of these computers are still quite powerful. Faster than what I've been using so far. A few weren't in full working condition. One was missing a harddrive, and another had a broken power supply. Not to worry; since I'm taking A+ Hardware class, I'm learning how to mix and match parts.

Lastnight, I played with my acquired toys. Maybe a bit too much. Stayed up till two working on one:

Here, I had two mostly apart, trying to find parts that matched, so I could get one working all the way. Chili kept me company while I played with my new toys:

I did take the best of all of them, and put together a good desktop machine for me to use while I"m in school. It's one I'll call my 'practice machine'. I can play hardware and OS learning scenarios on it while I'm taking the A+ class. I was actually able to load a copy of Ubuntu Linux and Windows on it. Dual boot. The Windows was from the OS on my laptop, so it can't stay, but I'll be able to get Windows XP Professional on it tomorrow. Valencia Community College has a deal with Microsoft for all that stuff.

Very soon, I'll have a few machines, good to go, and will need to find good homes for them. I'm going to try to learn to support them, somehow. I need to learn and practice that part too. I want to give them to people or families with no computer.

My Laptop is still my prime machine. When it comes time to real-load the Operating System (right now, Windows XP Home), I'll put both Windows Professional and Ubuntu Linux on it.

In Other News
You see above the major news in my life. Work is good. Personal Training is good. Yoga is good, mostly. I need to do more - everyday. Relationship is way good.

Neal Boortz says, there are no 'unfortunate' or 'fortunate' people. People make choices that lead them were they are. That may or may not be true; I don't get to decide on some of the external events going on around me. But, I do think I'm on of the 'Fortunate Ones'. CCR and Missing Persons wrote songs about people like me. I may not have money, and so far, it looks like that's been a really good thing for me. In all other areas of life, I'm way better off. When I've had money, it sucked. Sucked the life out of me.

Enough personal commentary. Back to the books (or, ebooks, as the case may be).