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dolariNot all things estrogen are good, unfortunately. A few weeks ago, I helped Erin move boxes from the moving truck/trailer to her apartment. I had lost a lot of my stamina from being out of shape, but was still extremely strong and moving quite a few boxes at a time. One thing I've always liked about having a male body was the strength it had. I was no Lou Ferigno, but I was very strong. Strong enough to move boxes of heavy books up a fligh of stairs and to move US into our new apartment in under two days.
There was a box of video tapes on the floor here since I moved in. And I distinctly remember putting these tapes in smaller boxes since the Giant Box of Tapes did a number on my back in 2002. I had had NO problem at all moving these boxes just a few months ago. So Saturday, I went to pick it up and finally put it in the closet where the rest of the tape boxes were...and I pulled a muscle! On a box that wasn't hard at ALL to carry a few months ago!
I'll miss ya, upper body strength. :)
Won't miss much else, though. ;)
Via many hands, but most recently Aadroma
Computers I Owned
1985 - 1989 - IBM PCjr 8088@3MHz, 128k memory "Hal 9000" - Still owned, but in pieces. Still functional.
Boy were we schnookered. In July of 1985, my parents were shopping around for a computer for me, since I'd shown a lot of promise with the TI/99, Apple II and Atari 800XLs at school. My parents literally went to Computerland five or six times over the course of two weeks, and watched me play with the different computers. I latched onto the PCjr...or really, I latched onto the Kings Quest game playing on it. After much discussion, they decided I should have THAT one. Oh, man. Lemme tell you what a mistake that was. My parents paid $2000 for a computer that was literally discontinued the month before we bought it. It came with DOS 2.1, Basic and we bought a LOGO program for it as well. That night, I took it all apart. :) My parents were horrified, I was delighted cause I got to see how everything worked (well, how everything plugged). But over the years, tha machine just wasn't very good. 8088 processor (basically a "186"), 128k Memory, one 360k floppy drive, and Borland Sidekick (which I still have to this day). However, it being so obsolete was a GOOD thing in that when it broke down or wasn't "adequate" I could mess with the hardware directly and work out what needed to be done to it. Then, one day in 1989, my mom said, we got a new computer....
1989 - 1993 - IBM PCjr 8088@3MHz, 720k memory "Sal 9000" - Still owned, but in pieces. Still functional.
Talk about schnookered squared. My mother had a friend at work whos computer had broken down, and my mom paid $10 for the pieces. What she brought home was a machine with 720k of conventional memory(!) 2 360k drives, and at the heart of it...the same piece of shit PCjr. At least I didn't need any real software. However, this is when my tech skills really came home. I fixed the computer myself. It would count up to 520k, then crash, so I manually removed banks of memory until the error disappeared. Then replaced one chip on the last bank till I found a bad chip, and bought a new one, fixing the whole machine for about $2. I replaced the infra red LEDs myself, as well as the floppy drive. All this was done at the fledgling Altex Electronics (At the time it was still more of a radio store), whereI still go for all my computer stuff. Not bad for a kid of 15. I got away from gaming, and more into BASIC programming, moved from DOS 2.1 to 3.3 and even got a copy of Windows 1 to run on it! Christmas of 1993 came around, and I had made mention that I wanted to get a new computer, since nothing was working on the PCjr anymore. And so....
1993-1997 - IBM PS/2 486/SX@33Mhz, 4MB memory, 256MB HDD "PS/2" - Sitting in a landfill somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Yeah, I was really original with the name here. :) For Christmas, I got the PS/2, Along with Dos 6, Windows 3.11, AOL 2.0 and, a 2400 BPS modem. Hot damn I was rolling in it now. It was on this computer that I first got on the net, made SFJenn (With Win 3.11 PAINT and DISPLAY (Which I still use)) and really began to stretch out and assert my individuality and independence (well, at least online :) ). It had several upgrades over the years, eventually having 32MB RAM nd Windows 95, and the most ingenious upgrade I ever saw. My friend Jens Petersen was actually MAD at me for having a Proprietary IBM machine, with a slow SX chip. It had an "Overdrive" socket, which was Intel's way of ripping you off on upgrades (Yeah, it's a SPECIAL upgrade chip, so it costs more than a normal processor, but cheaper than a new PC!) and he literally "made" an overdrive processor for me. It's an AMD 486/DX@100MHz stacked on layer upon layer of redirected pinouts. And hell if the damned thing didn't work (The instructions said "I'm not sure if this works, and if you see smoke, take the processor out."). Wonderful little machine. By 1997, though, I had scoured it for every upgrade I could, and it didn't even have it's original chassis anymore (it was just open to the air). That's when I started work at Swan Technologies...and then we had 60 days till a layoff....
1997-2003 - Pentium 1@200Mhz, 32MB memory, 400MB HDD "Deep 13" - All over the place
We had 60 days to our layoff thanks to laws in PA that say you can't just simply shut a place down, so I took it upon myself to build The Best Computer I could Afford Cause I wasn't gonna Afford One Anytime Soon. The chip was bought THE DAY The P1 MMX chips came out for a Hefty Sum. I managed to build what, at the time, Swan was selling for $2400 with an employee discount for $700. And it worked great, considering I was unemployed for most of it's lifespan. It was on this machine that AWFW and CS got their starts. It saw me move from PA back to Texas, From Austin to San Antonio back to Austin, and was heavily scavenged for parts when I finally decided to build a new machine. Pieces of it are everywhere, now. The motherboard is at Andy's, the Chassis and one of the newer motherboards are in Dean's room and the various upgraded motherboards/hard drives are in a box awaiting return to the donator who lent them to me. When I got my P4, Deep 13 was now a P2@233MHz, 80GB, 128MB RAM monster. And you can't have Deep 13 without....
1998-2000 - 386@25Mhz, 8MB memory, 200MB HDD "Satellite of Love" - Gone to the winds....
A friend gave us a 386 for the hell of it, to see what we could do with it, and it sat around for a while. Then one day Dean said "Do you think we have enough parts for a new PC?" We did. :) Did a lot with it, believe it or not. We only had one computer and two very active Internet users on cable Internet. I installed Windows 3.11 on the machine, put in the TCP/IP stack update, added AIM, ICQ and IE5 to it (yup, 16 bit versions for ALL those), connected it all through the direct cable connection and we had a wonderful Internet portal for use when the other was on the main computer. I left Deep 13 in PA when I moved to Texas (Dean was gonna bring it down with him) and by the time I had it in TX, the chassis had been ripped off it as well. Can up imagine the shock when the Road Runner tech shows up to "install" a network cars and sees a motherboard propped up by legos? And the double shock when I install it myself on Win 3.11 and have it WORK?
2003-Present - Pentium 4@2.4Ghz, 512MB memory, 80GB HDD "Dorothy One" - Sitting next to me.
When I was rehired at Dell after two years of unemployment, I was told, in no uncertain terms "You won't be here long." SoI took it upon myself to save up a few paychecks and replace the aging and patchworked Deep 13. I went out, bought a $400 Motherboard/CPU setup, some memory, a new powersupply and a snazzy new black chassis and built the machine I use now. It does have one specific screw from the Swan Technologies machine, and I printed up a Swan Technologies sticker to put on it, but never put it on. She's been my best computer so far, with the least amount of bumps, crashes or overheats. After two years, the only thing needing replacement were the DVD player and the TV Card (Both holdovers from Deep 13).
2004-Present - Pentium 3@750Ghz, 256MB memory, 20GB HDD Officially: "Dorothy Two" Unofficially "R. Dorothy" - Sitting behind me.
Shortly after being invited to Trinoc, and about a week after I was hired at That Place, I looked at my paycheck and my eyes bugged out. Next week, after a fierce bidding war on EBay, I picked up a nice used Latitude L400 laptop. I'm assuming since I take it everywhere, that it's constant breaking, snapping and cracking are just use, and not the fact that the thing is just prone to breaking down. It's needed a lot of repair work, but has functioned more than satisfactorily for me, to the point where I wonder how I got along without it. As of right now, I'm worried for her, though, as her trackpad is getting wonky and the LCD screen seems to get staticky on cold days. Still, I wouldn't trade her for the world. :)
There was a box of video tapes on the floor here since I moved in. And I distinctly remember putting these tapes in smaller boxes since the Giant Box of Tapes did a number on my back in 2002. I had had NO problem at all moving these boxes just a few months ago. So Saturday, I went to pick it up and finally put it in the closet where the rest of the tape boxes were...and I pulled a muscle! On a box that wasn't hard at ALL to carry a few months ago!
I'll miss ya, upper body strength. :)
Won't miss much else, though. ;)
Via many hands, but most recently Aadroma
Computers I Owned
1985 - 1989 - IBM PCjr 8088@3MHz, 128k memory "Hal 9000" - Still owned, but in pieces. Still functional.
Boy were we schnookered. In July of 1985, my parents were shopping around for a computer for me, since I'd shown a lot of promise with the TI/99, Apple II and Atari 800XLs at school. My parents literally went to Computerland five or six times over the course of two weeks, and watched me play with the different computers. I latched onto the PCjr...or really, I latched onto the Kings Quest game playing on it. After much discussion, they decided I should have THAT one. Oh, man. Lemme tell you what a mistake that was. My parents paid $2000 for a computer that was literally discontinued the month before we bought it. It came with DOS 2.1, Basic and we bought a LOGO program for it as well. That night, I took it all apart. :) My parents were horrified, I was delighted cause I got to see how everything worked (well, how everything plugged). But over the years, tha machine just wasn't very good. 8088 processor (basically a "186"), 128k Memory, one 360k floppy drive, and Borland Sidekick (which I still have to this day). However, it being so obsolete was a GOOD thing in that when it broke down or wasn't "adequate" I could mess with the hardware directly and work out what needed to be done to it. Then, one day in 1989, my mom said, we got a new computer....
1989 - 1993 - IBM PCjr 8088@3MHz, 720k memory "Sal 9000" - Still owned, but in pieces. Still functional.
Talk about schnookered squared. My mother had a friend at work whos computer had broken down, and my mom paid $10 for the pieces. What she brought home was a machine with 720k of conventional memory(!) 2 360k drives, and at the heart of it...the same piece of shit PCjr. At least I didn't need any real software. However, this is when my tech skills really came home. I fixed the computer myself. It would count up to 520k, then crash, so I manually removed banks of memory until the error disappeared. Then replaced one chip on the last bank till I found a bad chip, and bought a new one, fixing the whole machine for about $2. I replaced the infra red LEDs myself, as well as the floppy drive. All this was done at the fledgling Altex Electronics (At the time it was still more of a radio store), whereI still go for all my computer stuff. Not bad for a kid of 15. I got away from gaming, and more into BASIC programming, moved from DOS 2.1 to 3.3 and even got a copy of Windows 1 to run on it! Christmas of 1993 came around, and I had made mention that I wanted to get a new computer, since nothing was working on the PCjr anymore. And so....
1993-1997 - IBM PS/2 486/SX@33Mhz, 4MB memory, 256MB HDD "PS/2" - Sitting in a landfill somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Yeah, I was really original with the name here. :) For Christmas, I got the PS/2, Along with Dos 6, Windows 3.11, AOL 2.0 and, a 2400 BPS modem. Hot damn I was rolling in it now. It was on this computer that I first got on the net, made SFJenn (With Win 3.11 PAINT and DISPLAY (Which I still use)) and really began to stretch out and assert my individuality and independence (well, at least online :) ). It had several upgrades over the years, eventually having 32MB RAM nd Windows 95, and the most ingenious upgrade I ever saw. My friend Jens Petersen was actually MAD at me for having a Proprietary IBM machine, with a slow SX chip. It had an "Overdrive" socket, which was Intel's way of ripping you off on upgrades (Yeah, it's a SPECIAL upgrade chip, so it costs more than a normal processor, but cheaper than a new PC!) and he literally "made" an overdrive processor for me. It's an AMD 486/DX@100MHz stacked on layer upon layer of redirected pinouts. And hell if the damned thing didn't work (The instructions said "I'm not sure if this works, and if you see smoke, take the processor out."). Wonderful little machine. By 1997, though, I had scoured it for every upgrade I could, and it didn't even have it's original chassis anymore (it was just open to the air). That's when I started work at Swan Technologies...and then we had 60 days till a layoff....
1997-2003 - Pentium 1@200Mhz, 32MB memory, 400MB HDD "Deep 13" - All over the place
We had 60 days to our layoff thanks to laws in PA that say you can't just simply shut a place down, so I took it upon myself to build The Best Computer I could Afford Cause I wasn't gonna Afford One Anytime Soon. The chip was bought THE DAY The P1 MMX chips came out for a Hefty Sum. I managed to build what, at the time, Swan was selling for $2400 with an employee discount for $700. And it worked great, considering I was unemployed for most of it's lifespan. It was on this machine that AWFW and CS got their starts. It saw me move from PA back to Texas, From Austin to San Antonio back to Austin, and was heavily scavenged for parts when I finally decided to build a new machine. Pieces of it are everywhere, now. The motherboard is at Andy's, the Chassis and one of the newer motherboards are in Dean's room and the various upgraded motherboards/hard drives are in a box awaiting return to the donator who lent them to me. When I got my P4, Deep 13 was now a P2@233MHz, 80GB, 128MB RAM monster. And you can't have Deep 13 without....
1998-2000 - 386@25Mhz, 8MB memory, 200MB HDD "Satellite of Love" - Gone to the winds....
A friend gave us a 386 for the hell of it, to see what we could do with it, and it sat around for a while. Then one day Dean said "Do you think we have enough parts for a new PC?" We did. :) Did a lot with it, believe it or not. We only had one computer and two very active Internet users on cable Internet. I installed Windows 3.11 on the machine, put in the TCP/IP stack update, added AIM, ICQ and IE5 to it (yup, 16 bit versions for ALL those), connected it all through the direct cable connection and we had a wonderful Internet portal for use when the other was on the main computer. I left Deep 13 in PA when I moved to Texas (Dean was gonna bring it down with him) and by the time I had it in TX, the chassis had been ripped off it as well. Can up imagine the shock when the Road Runner tech shows up to "install" a network cars and sees a motherboard propped up by legos? And the double shock when I install it myself on Win 3.11 and have it WORK?
2003-Present - Pentium 4@2.4Ghz, 512MB memory, 80GB HDD "Dorothy One" - Sitting next to me.
When I was rehired at Dell after two years of unemployment, I was told, in no uncertain terms "You won't be here long." SoI took it upon myself to save up a few paychecks and replace the aging and patchworked Deep 13. I went out, bought a $400 Motherboard/CPU setup, some memory, a new powersupply and a snazzy new black chassis and built the machine I use now. It does have one specific screw from the Swan Technologies machine, and I printed up a Swan Technologies sticker to put on it, but never put it on. She's been my best computer so far, with the least amount of bumps, crashes or overheats. After two years, the only thing needing replacement were the DVD player and the TV Card (Both holdovers from Deep 13).
2004-Present - Pentium 3@750Ghz, 256MB memory, 20GB HDD Officially: "Dorothy Two" Unofficially "R. Dorothy" - Sitting behind me.
Shortly after being invited to Trinoc, and about a week after I was hired at That Place, I looked at my paycheck and my eyes bugged out. Next week, after a fierce bidding war on EBay, I picked up a nice used Latitude L400 laptop. I'm assuming since I take it everywhere, that it's constant breaking, snapping and cracking are just use, and not the fact that the thing is just prone to breaking down. It's needed a lot of repair work, but has functioned more than satisfactorily for me, to the point where I wonder how I got along without it. As of right now, I'm worried for her, though, as her trackpad is getting wonky and the LCD screen seems to get staticky on cold days. Still, I wouldn't trade her for the world. :)
