What do you do with a drunken sailor (or, in this case, a bricked laptop)

I like Dell laptops. Well, I like mine. Well, I liked mine.

See, the problem is that it no longer runs. That’s an inconvenience when you want it to run, no? On the rare occasion I can get it to post, it will run about 4 minutes EVERY time before it locks up indefinitely. I have to cut power manually to get it to shut off. Following the harsh power down, the darn thing refuses to boot for me for a good long time. I have realized, though, two things about this frustrating conundrum.

1. When I remove the battery and push and jigger the power cable end that is in the computer to the right, 4/10 times I can get the thing to start.
2. Whenever I attempt to write an email, blog post, tweet, Jaiku, etc, explaining my problem the laptop freezes.

This leads me to two distinct realizations.

1. The source of the problem lies in either my power socket, power adapter, battery, or any combination of the above. Additionally, there may be some parts that need to be reseated, as the intense heat given off by El Monstro del Dell over the years may have caused some crazy expansions.
2. My laptop is self-aware

So, I’ll be taking the beast of burden apart soon and looking at all the problem aspects (if I can find them). Assuming any are super simple snap together/solder jobs, I’ll be happy. If not, anybody have a semi-decent laptop to spare?

Dan’s Auto, Good. Meineke of Liberty, EVIL

Took my car for inspection to Meinike of Liberty to get my MO plates. Meinike said I was leaking power steering fluid, needed a new rack and pinion at $1100 to pass. Said, NO!

Took my car to Dan’s Auto in Liberty. Dan looked at it, said, “There’s rust and condensation on it, it’s not leaking at all.”

Meinike is GREEDY No business from us.

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LFG: XP Farming

Need to get skill points on my Necro in Guild Wars so I can capture some more elite skills. I’ve fallen behind in GW (went about 4 months without really playing). Elite necro skills I have yet to capture on Hades of the North:

1. Cultist’s Fervor
2. Life Transfer
3. Offering of Blood
4. Soul Leech
5. Spoil Victor
6. Vampiric Spirit
7. Well of Power
8. Order of Apostasy
9. Pain of Disenchantment
10. Signet of Suffering
11. Soul Bind
12. Weaken Knees
13. Aura of the Lich
14. Discord
15. Order of Undeath
16. Toxic Chill
17. Icy Veins
18. Wail of Doom

It takes 15,000 XP to gain a skill point, which means I need to get about 270,000 XP to get all of these skills. Fortunately, there are other ways to gain skill points. Each mission reward, if completed at master level, yields three skill points.

Hades of the North has gained 180,000 XP in the past two days, and 400,000 XP in the past week (currently sitting at about 880,000 XP). This is ridiculously fast to me. It took me forever to get to 1,000,000 XP on my warrior, but my necro is cruising fast. Woohoo!

Guild Wars: Eye of the North comes out on Friday

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Badger Badger Badger Badger

Check out this awesome Instructables how-to. Warning, if you have a phobia of snakes, this is probably not the greatest link for you to check out.

Basically, how to clean a snake for food. Snake is tasty, if you weren’t aware. Also, snakeskin is definitely stylish, depending on what you use it for. But don’t go out killing these poor guys just for fun.

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New Recipe Up

It’s been a long time since I have posted anything at Mediocre Food, but I’m gonna remedy that.

I give you: Melon Shrimp!

It’s extremely easy, and tasty to boot. Good for cocktail parties, a snack, feeding to cats, whatever you want!

Going to post some more recipes soon. As usual, there aren’t really correct proportions to any of my recipes, but you can experiment to find the point you like.

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Hooray!

“Dear Daniel :
     
Congratulations!  After reviewing your summer semester grade report, I am happy to find that you have met all the criteria to be removed from probation.

You are now a student whose GOOD STANDING is RESTORED.  I wish you all the best as you continue your education.
      
Sincerely,

Gloria

Gloria B. Melton, Ph.D.
Dean of Students”

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Fatbloggin: 166

Going up in weight and feeling bad because of it. I’m on vacation though, so I can justify it. Today alone, I had 24 Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets and an original chicken sandwich and a 44oz Sonic Limeade. I never get to eat Chick-fil-A (been about 3 years since I have) and the same goes with Sonic.

The plus side is that I have been drinking mucho water in the 95F weather. It should be easier to get more water in after doing it for necessity.

Been watching Survivorman for a while now. I want to go camping now, is that wrong of me?

Plan for tomorrow is basically to head to church, come back, watch the NASCAR race at Michigan (my fave track next to everyones fave, Bristol), and then go running in the heat for as long as I can. Tomorrow is hopefully about working out. Monday I need to get some things done (dentist, getting new plates/registration for car, etc). Tuesday I’ll get in Flock work again finally. Wednesday is for whatever comes up, and Thursday and Friday we will be taking Jenn up to school (I’ll be only 3 hours from Jill, but won’t see her).

The evening cicadas here sing an amazing tune every night. It is something we don’t get in Houghton, sadly.

Working on recording plans again, now that we can converse with Bakke more freely (hooray broadband).

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Love

Love is devotion, and of all the places to see this exemplified, Futurama episode S05E09 “The Sting” is amazing. Every time I watch it I feel like I could be such a better person.

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The Royals and Chiefs play around here

I’m in Liberty, MO, chilling in my room in our pretty sweet house. It’s humongous, and I’m completely unused to that. Barney is sleeping on the floor, curled up next to the door in my room.

Drive down was simple, with the exception of trying to get to the Mall of America to meet with Bakke. They honestly need to put up new signs. Or signs to begin with.

After that, the drive was remarkably uneventful. Once I hit Iowa, there were literally no cars around me for about an hour. After Des Moines it was much the same. Simply 200 miles of dark, vacant road. Stayed awake easily, trying to crash now.

Skype is down. Sad 😦

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Tweeting All the Way to KC

I’ll be tweeting (posting to Twitter) along the way to Kansas City tomorrow whenever something funky happens/enter a state/see something awesome.

Trip details:

• From my house in Houghton to my family house in Liberty, MO there are 790 miles
• My car gets a low average of 35 miles per gallon
• It will take approximately 23 gallons of gas to get down to Liberty
• I will pass through five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri (in that order)
• For about half of the trip, I will be on I-35 (more than 500 miles is on I-35)
• Due to a lack of decent air conditioning, and my love of good mileage, I will lose approximately two pounds of water weight (I’ve measured in previous, shorter trips through not-so-hot weather), but I have plenty of bottled water to replenish that.

My Twitter account is at http://twitter.com/danakin

If only Jaiku let me post via SMS…not yet though.

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