Bathroom Improvements

Woot, we finally got a full-length mirror on the bathroom door. We also got the right length screws for the drawer pulls, and replaced the drain stopper (3/8″ threaded shaft). Maybe Bunky can let me relax for the rest of the weekend now.

Seven Years of Bad Luck

About a month ago, I was complaining about our inability to get a mirror delivered. Well… we still haven’t gotten it. Before I get to that, I should mention that the shipping company’s customer service has been about 300% better, ever since Bunky tattled on them to the VP. I’m not sure this is their fault, but here’s how it’s been going down:

1. We did eventually get the mirror, after the VP stepped in. Unfortunately, when we opened up the box we found the main mirror board and frame that it swivels on… but no base. The frame simply ended in screws. I suspect that the mirror maker sent the wrong box to the shipper, but a new mirror had to be ordered.
2. The new mirror (denoted mirror_2) was supposed to arrive tomorrow, at which time we were supposed to ship mirror_1 back for free. However, the shipper seemed unaware that they were supposed to pick up mirror_1, so I asked that they confirm that the pickup was feasible. They called me today to tell me that yes, it was feasible. Unfortunately they also told me that they had inspected mirror_2 before delivery and found that mirror_2 was broken. They have already put in an order for mirror_3, and I suspect the broken mirror was the fault of the shipper, as they were being awfully helpful.

So it’s going to be at least a few more weeks without a full-length mirror, and a few more weeks of waking up to Bunky frantically asking me if shoe pair 1 looks good with pants pair 3.

Now With Five Times More S

A few months ago, I’d been contemplating getting a new camera, and yesterday my shiny new Canon S5 IS arrived (right after I took my first MBA midterm). It also came with a bonus 2GB card, which is good because the default card is a pittling 32 MB one (WTF…). I was too tired to give it a thorough workout, but what I saw really impressed me.

The main knock against the S5 is that it is not much of an improvement over the S3, but by all accounts the S3 was very good. The 12x zoom was too much for the apartment to handle, because we don’t have enough square footage to take advantage of it. When I zoom in all the way, I can’t even tell what I am looking at. The lag is so much lower, and the pictures I took were very crisp and clean. I didn’t even optimize the settings, but I was able to capture cat pictures better than before. Also the big, well-designed buttons made it easy (a snap even) to move from menu to menu quickly.

When zoomed in, the IS really helps, and you can take great pictures at a lower ISO than normal. The lens cap that I heard so many complaints about wasn’t too bad, and it is clearly supposed to pop off easily in case you forget to take it off before turning on the camera. The flash is not awesome, but the camera has a hotshoe. As for the size, it is not that big, but unfortunately this is not a camera you can put in your pockets (unless you are MC Hammer).

Not So Good Vibrations

I fell victim to impulsive buying, and got one of those disposable battery-powered vibrating toothbrushes. The idea is that it vibrates while you brush your teeth and this helps dislodge plaque.

It was not nearly as thrilling as this article would suggest. It feels weird brushing your teeth with the thing, and since you don’t hold a toothbrush still in your mouth the vibration feels redundant. I’m not wholly convinced, but you can still use it like a normal toothbrush if you don’t turn it on, so it’s not a complete waste.

Computer Armory

For my own future reference, here are the specs of the recently ordered computer:

Case
Cooler Master Centurion 5: I like how it looks, although I do worry about the possibility of having to clean a lot of cat hair out of the foam… I like that the internal bits can be swapped around without needing tools. The one I ordered supposedly has a window, which is nice. I swapped out the under-powered 350w PSU that comes with it, per Velius’ (and other peoples’) suggestion. The new PSU is a 550w Legolas Logisys. I hear the cheap ones can fail just as easily as the really expensive ones, so I went cheap.

Motherboard
Biostar I945GZ-M775 mATX with Intel 945GZ chipset and 8-channel audio: Pretty much the cheapest motherboard that would give me a PCI-e 16 slot and hook up to an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Only supports 2×1GB of DDR2-533 RAM, but I’ll probably need a new computer by the time I need more than 2GB RAM.

CPU
Intel E6300 Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz processor: I really didn’t want to get a Pentium D, and I am a little shy of AMD this time. I like what I’ve read about the Core 2 Duo line, so I got the cheapest one…

Hard Drive
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 250GB: Nothing too special, although it’s amazing how cheap space is these days. I more than tripled the amount the HD could hold for $30.

Memory
Corsair Value Select DDR2-533: I got two 1GB sticks of the stuff, and I’ve read that it’s a reasonable bargain without too much performance loss.

Graphics
nVidia GeForce 7100GS 256MB: Not really very good; supposedly the 7100GS is just a reworking of the GeForce 6200. Oh well, what’s the point of paying much for a DirectX-9 card anyway?

Audio
Random onboard 6-channel audio: I never splurge for a sound card.

Optical Drive
Random CD/DVD thing: I already have two reasonably new CD/DVD Read/Write drives.

I didn’t bother getting a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or OS because I already have all those things. I’m going to wait on Vista, as per Catnip’s suggestion; perhaps the Vista purchase will accompany the purchase of a new DirectX-10 GFX card in the future. Other than that, I totally cheaped out because I’m finding more and more than computers are becoming disposable after only a few years.

Awesome En Route

This Saturday, the 40-inch LCD Sony Bravia television that Bunky ordered is arriving. I think we might be picking up the HDTV box tonight, and the TV stand arrives on Wednesday. It’s gonna be completely crazy. Bunky will probably be glued to the tube, even though we’ll have to set it on an old desk at first (since the TV is so much larger than the stand for our current POS television). I keep telling Bunky that World of Warcraft is gonna look freaking awesome on the 40-inch, but she just scowls at me.

We haven’t purchased a HDMI cable yet, and I’m wondering if we’ll need it right away.