ShimPossible

I have been waiting quite some time now to get a laptop.  Compusa had a great deal on one about a month ago.  The Acer 5672 – ATIx1400 with 2GB ram, for around $900.  That would have been great if I had been quick enough to get it.  But it has been out of stock for over a month.  It is still listed on their site though.

I finaly gave in and bought a different laptop from NewEgg.  Its the same model (Acer 5672) but with only 1GB of ram and a ATIx1600 card in it.  Cost $1100 (after shipping).  Not bad, but it wasn’t what I wanted.  I would much rather have the 2GB of ram instead of the faster video card.

I was rather impressed that the latop didn’t come with all kinds of junk preinstalled, like most PCs do.  This only had the required drives and some ATI utilities on it.  Good job ACER. I now have to setup the laptop with all of my goodies.

The one thing I don’t like about the latop, is that it doesnt feel very sturdy.  The plastic around the frame easily moves when you press on it.  Makes me wonder if dust will collect inside.  Also the side where the card slots are, flexes very easily.

 I wonder how much of a battery drain the faster video card is.

We went to the beach yesterday.  Not much in it self, but the trip back was a little interesting.

When we got to the beach, I was the last one out of the car, so I had to lock the doors.  Funny thing was the doors locked but the alarm never beeped to say it was set.  This seemed a little strange, but I figgured maybe I just didn’t here it because I was far away.

On the way home from the beach, I heard this clicking noise.  It sounded alot like one of the blinkers were on, or maybe a rock stuck in the tire.  We checked everything we could and it didn’t go away.  So we pulled over to see if we could find it.  Thats when my sister said “Wait, whats the smell?”  It seems something started smoking under the steering wheel and was giving off a burt plastic smell.  There is nothing quite like being in a car that is on, and seeing smoke pour out of it.   We traced the smoke down to a little box, that we assume is the car alarm.  Pulled all the wires from it and set it aside.  It seems that box has been having some trouble for a while now, and just happened to kick the bucket while we were in the car.  Good thing we were there to stop it, or we would have one less car today.

I’ve been meaning to most something here for a while, but never got around to it.  I guess sleep took priority.  After working all week, sleeping for a day sounds alot better than typing, for some reason.  Anyway, the house has most of the roof and exterior walls up now.  Now we have some shade to hide from the sun. 

 A few weeks ago, water got turned off in our neighborhood, for two days.  As a result the city put in a porta-potty for the block.  Great huh?  Can you imagine the line for it in the morning.  Ten families all haveing to share one, that is sitting in the middle of the block.  At least they gave us one porta-potty for each street, instead of one for the entire neighborhood.  Afaik, no one actauly used them, except for one laddy who was sight seeing around the island and saw it as an opportunity to relieve herself.

 Another wonderful, half thought out idea was the drinking water we got.  Our landlord dropped off a 5 gallon jug of drinking water at our house.  This was to be used while the tap water was turned off.  Great idea, expect the jug was for a water cooler.  We had to pry the lid off before we could get any water out.  Trying to pour it was another story.  But water is water right?

 Right before I went to Molokai my laptop died.  The screen tripped out, then it refused to turn back on.  I took the machine to the sony repair department to see if they would fix it.  They called a month later to tell me it was going to be over $750 to fix it, and that they didn’t have an exact idea what was wrong with it.  I bought the laptop for less then that, and considering I can get a much better one for $1500, I decided not the fix it.  The rull of thumb on computers is that if it costs 2x as much for a new machine as it does to fix it, better to get the new machine.  Infact, Compusa had a sale the other week, and for $900 I could have gotten a 1.6Ghz Core Duo, 120gb, 2gb, Ati-x1300 Laptop.   I missed it, now I gota wait for the next one.  Unless someone has something simular they want to point me at, for under $1000.

I have had less time then I expected to here. I work 40 hours a week building the house, but the is only spaced across 4 days. For those not to quick in math, thats 10 hour days. What time is left durring the day is spent watching Naruto on youtube. Then it’s off to sleep to start everything over again. Here in a week or two though, we will have caught up on all of the episodes. I dont know what we will do then.

We filled the columns up with concrete and put the beams on them last week. This week we finished the floor and put frames for the exterior walls up. Its so much nicer now that we are out of the dirt and have a nice wooden floor to walk on. It is also nice to see some progress.

Today we went all the way out to the western most point of the island. Only way there is down a dirt road that goes through the ranch. Then is a little hike down the beach to the point. Seems most people just bring their 4 weelers there and speed down the beach and dirt paths. Us poor people just walk it in slippers.

Oh yeah. for those who care, Pictures

Ok, I’m in moloka’i for the summer.  Helping my family to build there new house.   Nothing quite like going from a desk job, to hauling cinder blocks all day long, under the sun.  I swear I have a lable someone on me that says not to expose to direct sunlight.  Oh well.  Did i mention cinder blocks are heavy, and there are about 10 pallets worth to move.

In case you were wondering about moloka’i, its friendly.  There is only one main road on the island.  Everyone waves as they drive by.  There isnt alot of cars on the street too. Of the ones you see, 90% are 4×4 trucks.  I’m sure almost everyone knows everyone here.  I still have yet to explore the island and see all the hidden things.  Maybe I’ll get some pictures too.

 There is no mail delivery, you just pick it up at the postoffice in your PO BOX.  Fed Ex you say, well I did see one truck, but its been parking in the same spot the last 2 days.  There are a few banks around.  Bank of Hawaii is here with a nice building.  But one town over, there is another bank, and it is in what looks like a portable building.  You know those temporary calls rooms they build at the highschools, out of wood.  I swear the bank was in one of those.  What ever works right?