Saturday, February 14, 2009

What a Whirlwind of a Week

What a week! We went from tons of snow and ice on the ground, to a day close to 70, and last night it snowed and there is a couple of inches on the ground again today!

I do not post too much about work, but I received my annual performance review this week and was stunned by getting a rating of "Development Needed". I worked very hard all year, and am formulating a politically correct reply to add as part of the formal review, which includes a statement along the lines of "If I had development needs, why were they not mentioned as impacting my performance and endangering my rating in any of my weekly meetings?" Anyway, the bottom line is I know I worked hard and accomplished a lot this past year! Perhaps this also explains why they are moving me into a new role instead of another managers slot that opened up in my old group after mine was eliminated.

I've also been spending the past few months, on and off, deciding what to do about my Home Theater PC (HTPC). While it is certainly powerful enough for most gaming and playing back of DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray discs, I have been wanting a better video card. Originally I planned to just replace the case, power supply, and video card as the current case and power supply are non-standard and is only 250 watts, which anyone who knows about computers understands there is not a lot of wiggle room for expansion.

So, a many month, on and off, journey began as I researched the best way to do this. The cost of a good case, power supply, and video card I wanted was close to $600 and change. I decided that at this point in time I did not want to spend the money. Then, I sold my previous HTPC, my Onkyo Receiver, and some speakers to a friend. That brought some extra dollars in along with the fact I am getting a good tax refund, my son is going to pay me almost half the car payment money he has owed me for several years, and it turns out I am going to get a small inheritance from my Dad's estate now that all the bills are paid.

So, I spent the last two weeks feverishly researching in my free time and yesterday finally placed the order for all the parts for a brand new HTPC. For double the price of the parts upgrade I can get a whole new very powerful system that has room to grow going forward, which the current system does not, and would not if I kept the same motherboard.

Last night I went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday with the X, So, and Danielle, we had a nice dinner, though it took them three times to bring me some fries that were fresh. When I go out I will not eat fries unless they are hot and crisp! I rarely get fries, and when I do this is the condition they must be in! So, when mine arrived and had obviously been sitting under the warming lamp, I asked for fresh ones. A new order was brought out that was even worse! A quick word to the manager soon had a large order of hot, crispy fries, and everyone else, particularly the X, was willing to save me some carbs by eating a lot of the fries.

Afterwards arriving home, Tails and I watched TV, and I played some Left 4 Dead on expert settings which is always a hoot! I retired around 1 AM looking forward to the weekend and no having to get up early for work.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Chris,

I can easily imagine the copious drooling that is permeating your shirt as you slaver in anticipation of the arrival of the parts for your new HTPC!

- David

P.S.: Change your shirt!

Blandishment Blog said...

David - Truly I am wearing the third shirt of the day thus far! Of course the second change was required after the exercise bike ride this morning!

Unknown said...

Chris,

I knew it! You should get a large lobster bib!!!!

- David

Blandishment Blog said...

David - After what was flowing down my chin yesterday while being sick the bib would have been a good thing!