You probably noticed that I haven't posted much lately. This is mainly because I never liked writing long posts or keeping a journal. I find that Facebook fits my style much better than LJ ever did or ever will, and allows me to keep people informed about my life with greater frequency and detail. I'm able to randomly drop in links to things I find interesting, view other people's links and videos right in the home page. I will still keep this account, but only as a photo host. Please don't expect further entries here. If you're reading this, you've probably already friended me on facebook.

"That girl needs to be in a bikini. Oh wait, this is a funeral, isn't it? Black bikini then." - Jeremy Clarkson

So the time has come for me to replace my aging desktop. I do a fair bit of high definition video editing, and my requirements were simple: a Macintosh with power, and lots of it. Oh yeah, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money either, so the shiny 8-core Mac Pro for $3.5K is a bit out of my price range.

My original plan was to make a Hackintosh with the parts adding up to about $1400. This would be a Core i7 based computer, which when overclocked would give even a top of the line Mac Pro a run for its money in HD rendering performance. Unfortunately the realization set in that when combined into a working machine, these parts become practically worthless. I would not be able to resell this computer for any reasonable amount of money down the road when I needed to upgrade. Ever tried to sell a custom built PC? If a top-of-the-line Dell XPS gaming laptop, purchased by me in 2008 for $1200, right now would not fetch even half that money, what chance would my custom rig have? It would just not be a smart financial decision to build a machine for the price of a used car which I will literally throw away in two years. Macs, on the other hand, lose only about 1/3 of their new value over two years. Yep, time to get the genuine hardware. It will be cheaper in the long run.

I spent a good chunk of my workday yesterday hunting Craigslist for a perfect mac. I decided that I needed an aluminum iMac between 2.4 and 2.8 ghz, 2GB ram (I would upgrade to 4 myself). Several deals fell through, the machines were either sold, or the owner wanted too much $$ for them. I reached a deal with one owner, only to have him turn around and ask for more money because he had other offers. I told him to pound sand.

Ultimately, ended up using Apple's free Ipod touch promotion and purchased a new machine, a 24" imac. I'll put the ipod touch I got free on eBay if noone wants to buy locally (anyone need an 8GB iPod touch still in the box for $200? Shameless promo!). Plus the computer itself was another $100 off for an educational discount.
When savings are factored in, my gorgeous new 24" iMac comes in at about $1200 plus tax. The specs on it are: Core 2 duo 2.66ghz, 4 GB Ram, 620GB HDD. Plenty fast for doing the editing, and any rendering I usually have the computer do at night when I'm asleep.

Now comes the long saga of juggling data from multiple externals to re-arrange everything for the new machine. But with this purchase, I'm finally completely free of Windows! (my laptop, a Dell XPS, is currently running OS X Leopard) Having used windows since version 3.11, I shed a tear for microsoft. But it won't be a big tear.

Well, another year has passed and I'm single again. This was a long time coming, and I tried everything I could to stop it from happening... but that's like standing on the tracks in hope of stopping a train. I know we both made the right decision, but that doesn't seem to fill the emptiness inside...

The Rental Car Rally is almost upon us. I have the whole weekend planned out, including a Vegas stop on Sunday night.

I spend about 4 hours doing the decals for the car. My tools are my printer and an exacto-knife as well as a blank roll of vinly. Which means making a lot of templates, cutting out over them, then applying the vinyl (an art of its own).

The nose of the lotus is practically impossible to wrap at all, let alone successfully. I've decided against trying to make the entire nose black as I don't have the hundreds of hours it would be required to wrap the whole theing. Instead, I'm wrapping the top portion of the nose, along with a number right down the middle. The front can stay yellow. I'm trying to keep the car accurate to the Speed Racer movie, but since I don't have the Number Nine's nose cone anyway, I don't think a bit of yellow right up front will make a difference.

My girlfriend will be working on the costumes on friday to bring them up to standard. I'm using a racng head sock as a basis for a cap/hood for my head. The result should be sweet.

... because a little bit of Nigel is never enough...

This IS my happy face. Now hand over the raisins.


With this cuteness, I will take over the world.

Some more photos from the calendar photoshoot. Enjoy!

I'm outraged at the Miss America Pageant. Not because Miss California lost due to her views on gay marriage (an inappropriate question to ask in a pageant) but because a judge then openly called her a b*tch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX8CYgPfPzY

I'm contemplating getting a Chinchilla. I will have to figure out what room he can reside in, as my room gets pretty hot in the summer and I'm not inclined to run the AC all day. Will have to talk this over with the landlord.