Yet another weekend goes by at the speed of light. In some ways I feel I got a lot done, in others, not so much.
I am not even sure I remember what I did on Friday night. (woah, now I remember, I did the Happy Hour with some of the people from work! And learning how gross some of my work mates can be!) It was mostly just recovering from one heck of a week. High stress at the work place with some inter-personnel issues, and some rather sad news on Lee’s end. One thing I did try and do was throw in the new Vista disk and start an upgrade. Yeah, that didn’t go so well, but that leads into Saturday.
Happy Vista Day! I say that because Saturday was pretty much all Vista All day! Yeah I am doing the whole vista thing and going all the way, I have the Ultimate version. (No really, it’s called ultimate) Well, as I stated earlier, I started the install on Friday night. Well it wouldn’t upgrade, but it did give me the option to install to one of my clear drives. You see, I have 3 hard drives in my machine. SATA1 = 500gb, SATA2 = 300gb, and IDE1 = 100gb. My main drive is SATA1, so it said it would install to IDE1 and do a multi-boot. Silly me, I believed it! After the initial copy and configure, it needed to reboot, so I let it.
NTFS Not found
Press CTL + ALT + DEL to restart
Oh crap
So I try and repair using my XP disk. No Dice as the XP disk doesn’t see the SATA drives without special drivers (which can only be loaded via floppy disk, ……what’s a floppy disk? I haven’t had a floppy drive in years!) So I finish the install to the IDE drive and am able to see all my sad lonely files on SATA1. I start the move of the 100gb of personal data to SATA2 for safe keeping. This is going to take a while so I take a break from the PC and watch The Producers! Great movie/play/musical. Really makes me miss doing theater. Checking back on my copy…. Nope, not done yet.
When the copy finally finished I was able to install Vista to SATA1 and do all the updates and such. I cleaned off IDE1 and started the migration of my data back to SATA1 from SATA2. (copy, not move. Just in case). I also went about installing any excess drivers I needed for the network card and such. I also got to play with the Media Center stuff (the 360 acts as an extender). I also had to reinstall my Zune and such, which meant a wipe and reload on the Zune as a new association with the new OS. So now I am copying 100gb back to SATA1 and copying 30gb to my Zune. Time to run to the mall!!
I managed to find a gem at the mall too. At the FYE Movies they sell some used DVD’s and I uncovered a $6.99 gold mine! The 2 disk Animated full series of Clerks! Yeah, I had to pick that up. Andrew and I also took some time to have dinner (yup, it was around 6pm by now) at UNO’s and visit some the usual stores.
When I got back home, I checked on the copy. It was only ½ done!
“Windows requires administrator access to move this file, do you want to allow access?”
Ugh! Yes, allow access. Well, now I get to watch some Clerks! 3 episodes later, the copy is done and I can start re-configuring my machine to like it was. Installing Office, installing Money 2006. Moving all the My Documents files to their right locations (Vista has a new layout for all the files). Ok, take Vista disk out of drive so I can install, install program, reboot……
BOOTMGR Not found
Press CTL + ALT + DEL to restart
What?
Ok, drop the Vista disk in and reboot to the disk, run the Starup repair utility and reboot, all is good! More installs, take Vista disk out, install disk in, another reboot….
BOOTMGR Not found
Press CTL + ALT + DEL to restart
Ugh! Vista disk in, reboot and distracted with Clerks…..Machine boots up. But I didn’t boot to the DVD? Ok, so a few searches on the internet (on my Powerbook, how’s that for Irony) and I found that Vista uses a new boot tech called the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) and that mine was all borked up. You see, I could boot up fine when the disk was in, but not without it. I was able to find a utility that showed me what the problem was. My BCD was written as such: (edited down for important parts)
Windows Boot Manager
——————–
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
Windows Boot Loader
——————-
identifier {default}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
So, my BOOTMGR was looking at the D: drive (IDE1) and my windows was installed on the C: drive (SATA1). After looking at 2 different utilities and many different forums, I found the proper way to use the BCDedit program that comes with Vista and changed the Boot Manager device to C:.
For the record the command I used was:
bcdedit.exe /set {bootmgr} osdevice partition=c:
bcdedit.exe /set {bootmgr} device partition=c:
Then I moved the hidden directory of [Boot] and the hidden bootmgr file from IDE1 to SATA1. After that, I booted to the DVD and ran the start-up repair utility again. This time it found an fixed a problem. The big test…..reboot! I took the disk out and crossed my fingers.
YATTA!! It worked! 2 hours of diagnosing and I finally fixed it! That was the big hurdle. Everything else is just tweaking to personal specs and such. I imagine I will write up more thoughts on my Vista experience after I have used it for a few days. I was exhausted.
Sunday I took it easy. I picked up the VGA cable for the 360 because I heard that’s the only way to get it to upscale DVD’s. It also makes some of the games a little crisper as well! While I was out getting that I picked up BeerFest on HD-DVD! I had to sit and watch that. It is probably the most ultimate guy movie I have ever seen! And absolutely hilarious. It was the much needed laugh that I needed after the last two days.
I probably flatter myself that I have 3 whole readers. Anyways, I made it to my appointment and was nervous as all heck. First thing in the nurse asked if she could get a Urine sample. This was a good thing as I had waited on going all morning and I had a good sized glass of water the night before. How many jars did she need filled? I got a little worried though, there was this metal hatchway between the bathroom and lab that she said to set the sample in. This is all fine and everything, I did my stuff and capped it, when I opened the door to put it in I was a tad apprehensive. You see there was another jar there. And I didn’t remember her telling me to wrote my name on the jar, Thoughts racing through my head of some weird lab mix up, I finally broke down and asked. Then I had to learn to write sideways on a jar of my own juice. FUN!
So tomorrow I have an appointment for a psychical. I haven’t really been to a Doctor in probably about 4 years, if not more. I am not talking about the whole “I feel ill” sort of visit, but a full blown “drop yer drawers” visit. I have to say it is scaring the crap out of me. I kind of wish they had an appointment available when I called just so I could get it done that much faster. This way was a full week of anticipation and nervousness. See, the thing is that I am 32 years old and over the past few months/years I have been noticing things that I should probably have gotten checked out a long time ago. But at the time they were all little things. One thing here, another thing there. Except that when you look back at all the little things, and see them all grouped in one big bunch, it’s kind of terrifying. I am thinking of these things because I know that when I go in, I should tell the doctor about them. In the past I have always just gone in with the attitude of “Nothing is wrong with me, I’m Spiderman!!”
See, that’s why we don’t have the super bowl on a Monday. It just doesn’t sound right! Well this weekend was the big game. I know that mot of you are probably saying “You don’t watch football!” You would be half right. I don’t mind watching sports games. Actually they are pretty entertaining. I just can’t do the whole team worship follow every stat of every player, know who scored the 8th touchdown of the 36th super bowl and what he wore to the after party sort of thing. (No offense Don). Besides, with the new TV I was really looking forward to watching the game in all it’s HD glory! (I swear I wrote this before you e-mailed me Em) But that was Sunday, let’s not get ahead.
Saturday morning was kind of blah. I have been having an issue lately where I am overly tired. I tried to get going on Saturday but just couldn’t get the steam and ended up crashing out again till about 10:30. When I finally forced myself out of bed I got dressed and headed down to the mall. Anything to get me up and moving. This ended up being a good thing as I got my Oil changed in the truck and made an appointment with H&R Block. So I was a little productive. In the afternoon I went and played some pool where I heard a vicious nasty rumor that Laura may have been fired! (Laura being my favorite waitress for the last 2 years!) This will be investigated on Tuesday of course. Saturday night was quiet. Heather came over and we watched Underworld: Evolution. Overall, not bad. 
Sunday was the game day! I set about cleaning up the house and getting some last min food. Don and Jen were coming down, Andrew had one of his friends over and Paul was supposed to show (but flaked, no big surprise). Somewhere in the mix I managed to get away and get the latest run of comics as well. So, the menu (of which I had way too much of) consisted of all guy food. We had Tostitos, Doritos, Spicy Thai chips, Queseo dip, Guacamole, Buffalo Wings (50!!!) Bagel Bites, and Brats. Too…….Much…….Foood…. The game was good, close the whole way. The commercials were great as well. If you want game highlights, I am sure 
Finally back to the daily grind! I know this sounds kind of funny, but after all of the holidays and travel and everything else that was going on, it’s kind of nice to get back to the norm. Don’t get me wrong, I love extra days off, but when you are trying to get some work done that you know will be taking a few days, a short week kind of un-motivates you. So no more worries about that! Things are folding back to the standard daily routine. 
On the subject of the 360, I have stepped into the 21st century! Now you know I picked up an Xbox 360 a while back. And the 360 looks great on my 32inch Sony Trinitron. But it doesn’t look Awesome. I had been wanting a new TV for a while and finally saved up the money (and found an awesome deal). Microcenter had a sale on HDTV’s and I found a 37inch LCD that fit my price range. The quality is amazing and I did quite a bit of research on it before picking it up! Even better, I paid cash! No putting it on credit! So now I am truly in the Digital Age. I got to watch “Heroes” in HD on Monday night and it was amazing. To all those people who say they can’t tell the difference, Come over, I will show you the difference!
So now that things are back to normal, I need to take a look at my own daily routine and see what is in my line-up. The next big event will probably be Farpoint. This would mark my 3rd Farpoint! It’s weird to think about being here for 3 years so far. With the whole military things I was always moving close to every 2 years. 2 in Okinawa, 1 in Korea, 2 in Denver, and The Pentagon had me for just about 3 years. I was also reminded of my daily (or I should say weekly) routine of pool playing yesterday. Every week I go play pool at Bungalow Billiards during lunch. This is usually on Tuesday. I almost always have the same Waitress as well, Laura. Well, I have been doing this for about 2 of the 3 years here and I was told that I was Laura’s 
You know how when you first start out in a relationship, you see everything that is wonderful about the other person? You end up spending all night talking with them and then the next morning when you wake up you remember that you were talking all night with them, but can’t really remember what you were talking about? Not that it matters much because what ever it was, it was wonderful. It’s kind of like when you just get a brand new puppy. They are so cute! The wiggle around and make cute faces, you make cutsie faces right back at them while making goo goo eyes and fuzzy wuzzy talk. (Of Course, that’s what a less than manly person would do, not me of course. Of course I wouldn’t do something like that. Did I say Of course too many times?) This is the initial phase of the relationship. Everything is puppies and kittens.
During that first phase, all of your charm comes out and you use your natural instinct to court your mate. You say all the right things, you glace over to the dresser and all those miniature figurines of ducks all seem to be sitting daintily in a row. (Figuratively speaking) The second phase, you suddenly have it thrust upon you that you are in fact (dun dun dun dun) a human being. In learning so, your body suddenly begins to sweat, body odor becomes apparent, and instantly you have about 15 blemishes on your face that you could swear weren’t there before. But this, as much as we would like to believe, is who you really are. As much as you would like to sit in puppy stage, you advance into that awkward stage where you limbs don’t do what they are supposed to and you trip around a lot.
Sometimes you get through the first stage slip through the second with out another glance, jumping into the comfort stage without looking. Then you realize that you never really got to know the person you are so comfortable with. They realize it too and you learn to just walk away. Other times you jump out of the first phase and hit that second stage like a ton of bricks. No matter how hard you try to make things work, they just don’t work out. Sometimes, though, just sometimes, you venture into that second stage willing and ready to learn and love and grow, and that is what makes the whole relationship worth while. The fact that even after the first stage is done, you get a random memory or thought, and it makes you smile. You think of how you would be without that someone, and it makes you sad. You wish time would fly by so that you could see them again, then you wish time would stand still so you can spend as much as possible with them. Puppies and kittens don’t stay that way forever. They grow up, and become dogs and cats. And in doing so, they become closer to you, and you never want to let them go.
