The rest of the weekend has gone fairly well - again, I managed to get everything done that I planned to do.  A good deal of time was spent trying to install the new HDD I had gotten.  And after numerous hours trying to copy my current HDD over to the new one (albeit unsucessfully), then trying to just install Win98SE on it (unsuccessfully at first), I was finally met with success after having to flash the BIOS to the latest version.

People may harp and gripe and gnash their teeth at Microsoft and Mr. Gates, but the bottom line is, it *is* possible to fix/repair PCs.  Having built my current system, I have definitely learned a lot more about how computers work, and feel like I can pretty much fix any problem that arises.  I know exactly what components (brand, model, etc) is in the machine, and I can be assured that they are as high quality as I desire.  As opposed to pre-built third-party PCs where they use proprietary or not-as-high quality parts.  I am even hesitant to custom-order a pre-built PC using parts I specify from lesser known companies found in Computer Shopper.  Even though their prices are extraordinary, I am of the firm belief where computers are concerned, you really do get what you pay for.  Plus who knows what actually gets put into your system - system builders could be putting in inferior or refurbished components without your knowledge.  For once, probably because I understand more of how a computer works and how it is put together, I would rather spend the time and effort (even if it requires some time to troubleshoot and get the system running smoothly) building my own system thankyouverymuch.  Because I feel that in the long run if something were to go wrong, since I know exactly what went into my computer, it makes it easier to troubleshoot.  And upgrading the computer is a snap as I have a wealth of knowledge on the internet to let me know what is compatible and what isn't.

This isn't to say that I am a 100% die-hard sworn PC user.  For a good deal of my computing years, I was a Mac user.  Thus I skipped the entire generation of 486 and Pentium class Windows 3.1 PCs.  Sometimes I think that may have been a blessing in disguise.  My computing tendencies tend to follow whichever type of computer is more dominant in the field I am in.  For example, during my college years, almost all of the computers available in labs were Macs.  So for compatibility sake, that's what I ended up going with as well.  But once I advanced to graduate school, PCs dominated the engineering labs (not to mention solely being used in my particular field), so I switched loyalties to Microsoft.  You won't find me ever defending PCs or Macs against the staunch fiercely loyal PC or Mac advocate, as I can see the benefits and drawbacks of each.  Hell, if I had the money, I'd have at least one of each for my own personal use.  

As it is, I have already acquired quite a collection of computers which Jen just rolls her eyes at.  Why do I have so many?  Call it a hobby, call it a collection, call it having difficulty letting go of the past.  Looking around our computer room/home office, you could definitely say that I am a computer junkie.  Both old and new computer parts are strewn across the various surfaces of the room.  Just from where I am sitting, I can see an old ATi PCI video card, an old 24x Goldstar CD-ROM drive, a PCI Winmodem that I took out when trying to install Windows on my PII box, a Linksys network card, and my old Quantum 4GB HDD.  CD-ROMs and floppy diskettes (about 4 different versions of DOS bootup disks) are scattered haphazardly.  The true sign of a junkie is the lack of any identifying marks on floppies to distinguish them from one another.  The PII machine is at least upright now even though the side cover is still off.  3 monitors are in the room, one of which has been placed on a filing cabinet for lack of space.  It's a computer lovers paradise, but a spouse's worst nightmare.  Jumpers, BIOS, AGP, ATA, DDR, overclocking may seem like a foreign language to some, but they are everyday words in the life of a hardcore computer user.

Normal people may compare clock speeds or monitor sizes when it comes to their own systems.  Trying to impress their counterparts with terms like megahertz, gigahertz, gigabyte, megabyte.  But we computer junkies go far beyond that.  We talk about how much we have our systems overclocked.  (Btw, overclocking has nothing to do with time.)  We compare how many fans we have in our system (I have 4 - one case fan, 2 fans on my mobo, and 1 fan on my video card).  We talk about front-side bus speeds, video cards, different types of RAM - essentially things that don't make a noticeable difference to the average user, but gives us all bigger heads.

Even with three systems and three monitors in this room (my main Duron 750MHz system, my Pentium-2 266MHz "snail", and my Pentium Pro 120MHz Linux box), I still have a 66MHz PowerMac 6100 sitting downstairs that I "inherited" from my best friend.  It may be a dinosaur, but at least is a functional Mac.  I guess you could say I'm obsessed with computers, but I'll just say it's a hobby.  After all, isn't that what *any* hobby is?  We computer lusers can be kind of quirky.

Other than being taken to the pits of despair and then the thrill of victory with the "snail", the rest of the weekend was quite relaxing.  We took the kiddos out to the lake in town for a walk Saturday evening.  One of those moments where afterwards we thought, "why the heck don't we do this more often?"

And this afternoon was spent looking at houses in the older section of Little Rock.  Even though we're not quite ready to buy just yet, Jen has always had a penchant towards old Craftsman-style homes.  A lot of these homes were built in the 30s, but have been kept in remarkable shape or even restored.  The detail put into the interior of these homes just can't be found in today's new homes.  Several open houses later, Jen was in love with two houses in particular, and we decided this was definitely one of the neighborhoods we would be considering.

We always seem to have these episodic periods of house hunting, even though we may not be quite ready to buy.  And when we do, we always seem to find a couple that we just love to death, and then get all depressed because we know we are nowhere ready to buy.  Somehow we always end up talking about how much money we would actually need, how our finances are, and what we need to do to get ready to buy.  It's so easy to talk about loans with little or no downpayment, loans where you can roll the closing costs into the loan, but finding out about these programs and actually getting finances ready to buy is a whole other story.  Having said that, it does motivate us and give us incentive to "be ready" when the time actually comes.

After we finally got home with a tired boy and grumpy girl, I fell asleep for several hours as driving around in the hot sun all morning and afternoon had zapped all of my energy.  I woke up to the kids running around the house, and the TV blaring.  Evidently they somehow failed to see dear 'ol dad napping on the couch.  Even though I had gotten quite a bit of sleep, I awoke very groggy and it took a long time before I was fully conscious and functional.

Big day at work tomorrow.  Stay tuned...