So I have come home for the holidays and that means family, friends, and holiday cheer; well at least it should. The thing about having your Grandfather die so close to the holidays is that it really puts a heavy rain on what should be a nice parade. I mean its expected given the circumstances but it seems this storm is raining on all of Fresno, both literally and figuratively. It seems like even my friends are tired, worn out, and unenthusiastic about everything; despite a rather enjoyable evening last night. What I have come to expect from home just doesn’t seem to be all there right now. Maybe the weather is to blame; I mean, most people don’t enjoy the rain like I do. Maybe everybody needs to go outside and jump in a puddle and have a good scream like in Garden State. I love the feel of rain hitting my face, especially when its raining really hard. I am trying to remain optimistic about the next few days though. Yesterday night was enjoyable and my mom is finally home. I also was given a $500 allowance to buy my fathers new computer, which I will talk about more shortly. And today in Adobe Bridge I learned some sweet new tricks that will play a HUGE role in future projects. I tinkered around with a few things and made a little photo album of my dads computer for you all to see (check it out below). Since I have started blogging I have always wanted to write about buying, making, and building a new computer. Being the geek I am I am now going to fulfill a dream.

Going back to thanksgiving or so I was chatting with my father about all the new gaming consoles coming out and how far graphics have come in desktop computing. These conversations eventually led to my father asking how he could play modern games on his current computer by only spending $100. Of course he wasn’t concerned with playing them all maxed out and such. But it this made clear that what he didn’t need was just a new graphics card so he could start gaming, but that what he really needed was an entirely new computer. While my dad was talking about wanting to play games and such he would commonly express his displeasure with the entire computer. So as such I had the idea that it was time to retire his old computer the specs of which I am not completely sure on. I believe its an old Athlon Thunderbird clocked at 1.1Ghz with a top of the line Geforce 2 Ultra 64Mb and a woping 256Mb of DDR memory, when it was a big deal to have double data rate and 256Mb! So needless to say his old machine will be put to rest and his new one will be a MAJOR upgrade for him. So I went over to Newegg and started hunting around and pricing things out. I wanted to try and get him an Intel E6600 as I have read many great reviews on them and a Nvidea GeForce 7900 of some kind as I expected prices to have come down with the release of the 8800. However, as always Intel prices are much higher then AMD prices and the 8800’s high price still leaves a large market for there 7900’s to float on. So the run down goes like this:

AMD 64 X2 3800+ (65 Watt Addition)
MSI K9NU Neo (It had 3 PCI Slots and 1 PCIe, DDR2 800 support, and a fan less heat sink for quite operation, and at $65 that’s a steal for a good brand)
1 Gb DDR2 800
EVGA GeForce 7600 GT w/ 256Mb DDR3
Thermaltake Matrix Case w/ 400 Watt Power supply
LG Supermulti DVD R/RW+ (quite frankly, it burns everything crazy fast for $20 and that’s awesome!)

Check Out Pictures Here

In all it should prove to be a great computer that will game pretty good. I expect it will likely play anything my father can throw at it maxed out with all the pretties at the native resolution for his screen (1280×1024). As for the rest of my day, Anthony brought home his new puppy and I need to do lot of x-mas shopping. And despite all this talk of fun tech gizmo’s and Anthony’s adorable little puppy I am still rather bitter for whatever reason. I don’t know why I am so grumpy, in fact I would say I am almost down right belligerent. Thankfully I have a loving girlfriend and a fresh copy of The Arcade Fire - Funeral to keep me going. Tomorrow is another day… and I am hoping for a bit of sunshine in a rather wearing storm.

Adept

Well folks it would seem it has been a little while since I blogged but I’m here and ready to type my thoughts away for the world to see. I am currently swept up in a full on emo/indie music kick. I think that just now as I am writing this it might have occurred to me why. As you may very well know my Grandfather has recently pasted away and that has effected my family in a lot of ways. I could go into more unnecessary details of all that I feel is really effecting me right now but in essence it comes down to the all consuming human condition of love. I feel that I maybe be venting a little bit of pent up emotional turmoil right now and have effectively managed to just bottle up and hide a bit of this by living in a world of emotional filled lyrics.

To start, I am deeply in love with my girlfriend Lindsay. Those of you who have the benefit of interaction with me in person; I know that I may not show my love for Lindsay in the most perfect ways. In fact, in my honest opinion, I am a very shitty boyfriend. Truth be told, I love her more then the world and she makes me happy in ways I can’t describe; I only wish I was better at showing it. I am doing my absolute best to change, on my own terms, in a way I feel is for the better, but I fear I may have forgotten entirely how to properly treat a women. I fear I have gotten to comfortable in my two and a half year relationship. I don’t know what it is exactly but I know she deserves better then this and I am damn lucky for having such an understanding girlfriend.

Continuing the topic of love, I think… wait let me say this properly, I know, that my friends play a huge roll in my life. And I’m talking about my true friends, the real ones that don’t need any more explanation. In all, I only have handful of acquaintances I can call my friends. To those friends who read this and know, and for those friends who don’t, just know that you are like family to me. I love and cherish you all and never forget that. In a lot of ways, I feel I am a better friend then boyfriend. While I know in my heart how I feel about Linds, I fear that I may never be able to show her what she once knew.

It is getting rather late and I should be turning in. I will likely wake up tomorrow feeling one hundred percent better about myself and my feelings. Sometimes it just takes a small crack in the floor boards to shed light on a world of problems. Luckily, these are recognized and fixable. At least I hope so…

Adept

I bring you this post live from an exciting room filled with a world of fantastical angles and demons. As the the epic battle of good and evil wages in front of me I bring you a plethora of rambles and thoughts fresh from my mind to yours.

To start things off, it would appear that I am finally sort of done with school, at least for the time being. I managed to successfully make it through an entire semester of Graphic Design 104 nightmares and a teacher that I am pretty sure hates me. After the first, and thankfully the last, all nighter of the semester I managed to complete all that was necessary for my design portfolio. I managed to get some awesome feed back from another professor and showed up for class two hours early after 28 hours without sleep. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Needless to say, I got everything done and am still rolling 39 hours later. I will admit I crashed after about 31 hours and had a 1 hour nap. Unfortunately, like any nap (for me that is) I woke up with what can only be described as the feeling of death or as I commonly refer to it the freight train. Next time some one sees me napping off be sure to slap me out of it.

In other news, as some of you may know my Grandfather passed away last Friday and while I am quite ok with everything it would appear that his passing and such has brought up issues amongst my family. For those of you who pray, if you could do so on that matter it would be great. My Grandpa wanted to be cremated and the services are expected sometime after Christmas.

A few days ago I got a phone call from a friend regarding a little soirée she wanted to throw together. Know one would think oh small hang out and what not but that would be under estimating an Allison Waffles party. You see she has a way of taking things to the next level and for this adventure we had a sushi party. Yes, thats correct, lets forgo red party cups and quiche and say it again. SUSHI! So… three hours after the phone call she had been to the store and arrived in my apartment. She cooked up some tasty rice, which by the way is different from your average white sticky rice. At seven the only two guests that could make it showed up and then it was on like Donkey Kong. One could argue that a five person party would be rather bland and uneventful, however; this turned out to be a blast in a half. Not only that but a anything larger and the size of the party would out grow the college sized budget. So thank you Waffles for you lovely party and I’m still waiting for that Ron-Do Party!

That just about raps up this eclectic little ramble of thoughts. “Until next time, Go F!@# yourself San Diego!”, “Damn it, who typed that on the teleprompter?”

Adept

With the bulk of my finals worries nearing the inevitable event horizon that will be Monday morning this weekend has become a weekend of constant work and procrastination. While I have managed to get some work done it is looming uncomfortably above me. This of course makes it nearly impossible to enjoy anything else.

On a different note… actually there really isn’t a different note. I will now go back to doing homework.

Adpet

Before I begin, I would like to let you all know that my Grandfather has peacefully passed away this afternoon around 1pm. My family and I have expected and prepared for this for the last two months. As a result it has been the best possible two months a dieing 75 year old man could have ever asked for. God gave him an opportunity that many never receive and that time eventually ended. In typical Shartsis fashion he will not be remembered for his death but rather we will celebrate life and all that it has given us. I can now only pray that God has mercy on his soul.

With that said, it seems almost pointless to talk about anything else. Death Cab did take the stage as expected and performed above expectations. You would think a Death Cab For Cutie show would be a somber experience, however; it is better described as a roller coaster of emotions. There where of course the expected acoustic and piano ballads but they where surrounded with what can only be described as epic moments of musical enjoyment. The highlight of which came midway through a 15 minute long version of Transatlanticism when a second drum set was brought out and Ben Gibberd threw his guitar off the stage and decided to play a seven minute drum solo that ended in an epic explosion of lights and sound that no words could ever describe. The drum set was removed he picked up his guitar and they then proceeded to finish the song they had began play 12 minutes prior. They concluded with one more song and a three song encore. To my disappointment they never played 405, however they ended with a very lively and upbeat version of The Sound of Settling. In all the show was A-MAZ-ING-!!!

Upon leaving the Paramount Theatre, which by the way is the absolutely most beautiful piece of architecture I have ever seen, Linds and I had the fortunate pleasure of meeting Leslie Feist and Ben Gibberd and letting them know how much we enjoy their music. The night concluded with a drive home, a kiss good bye, and a peaceful nights rest.

Adept

So Feist just finished an AMAZING set. It literally gave me the chills. As if that wasn’t enough I now have the pleasure of experiencing Death Cab Live! I am stoked like a fire to say the least. I’ll be sure to report on my listenings. Of course I would not be able to bring you all this live blog post without this awesome phone that was so graciously given to me. So thank you Dale. All right intermission is almost over. Peace out home slicers.

Adept