So, the first thing I notice, WordPress has magically and awesomely changed its admin interface. It’s now far easier to use and, well, actually works. And works at a decent speed. I may have to pay more visits to here. I’ve spent the last 10 minutes sorting out all my categories and I think I’m all ready to sit and write a blog post. This is admittedly something I’ve not done in a long time, so my skills may be rusty. But, having just looked through my past posts briefly, clearly anybody that ever did and does read this won’t mind.
So, the topic of this blog post will be dust. No, no, I know what you’re thinking. I’m not referring to “Dust”, the 2001 film directed by Milčo Mančevski. Nor even am I referring to the 70s hard rock group, “Dust”. Nor even “Dust”, the character in the X-men franchise. (Related: I love wikipedia’s disambiguation pages. So much trivia in life I’ve gleaned purely from prodding various words in desperately into Wikipedia’s search engine and searching for the “For other uses, see **** (Disambiguation)” link). (Related: With brackets, how does one use the full stop? If a bracketed section begins after a full stop, should I have a full stop at the end of the internal part of this bracket or on the outside? I’m rambling again, I should stop.)…
No, this post is about dust. The particles and expression, to celebrate my return to the world of blogging. As I metaphorically blow the dust off my blog in preparation for the next 2 weeks in which I’ll write 2000 word essay entries every day and then just give up and find something easier to do with my life, like hunt for bigfoot or build a giant space elevator to Neptune.
So, a few days ago I noticed my computers performance was… well, wasn’t what it used to be. It was very slow in graphics, and when running 3D applications there was a lot of… corrupt data. Very corrupt data. Like, weird shapes everywhere, textures disappearing, colours flooding the screen. This was a problem back in Bolton but I learned to ignore it. But no, new year, new start and I want to find out what’s causing it. Also, I ran a Counter Strike: Source FPS test a few days ago and the computer started beeping violently, as if to warn me that it was about to blow up. A relatively short google search finds a plethora of various easy solutions, but I’m a bold person and my eyes scanned the page looking for the one that would allow me to go inside my computer, because I like to do that.
Sure enough I found it, graphics card overheating. Great, so I can go in and find out what’s wrong with my cooling system. Why a computer would even need a cooling system in these freezing temperatures with no radiator on with the window constantly open is quite beyond me, but somehow it was managing it. Kaine, my desktop computer, uses liquid cooling though, and I was unsure exactly how easy that would be to diagnose. A few minutes later, side off, and I saw exactly how easy it would be. Very. It was.. somewhat unpleasant. There was an inch thick layer of compressed dust lying right on top of the graphics card, the cooling system, all over everything, insulting the whole computer and making it run far hotter than it should have, like my graphics card dressed warm for the winter.
Having identified the problem it was time to draw up a battle plan. Numerous options were open to me. I could get some paper towels and wipe it all off very carefully, so as to ensure not to make a mess. I could lay a newspaper down and tip the dusty contents out onto it. But no, I chose the far more scientific and clever method, like a Mega Drive (Sega Genesis to the Americans, I believe) gamer, to simply blow as hard as I could in the general direction of the dust. Like a war general that could choose to employ an army but instead rushes into the enemy capital naked with a large target painted across his chest. As soon as I upset the first they all came charging straight for me, like an angry particle mob, waving their pitchforks and torches. I ran fast and far.
But like any good soldier or village idiot I didn’t know when to give up, I stood vigilant in the face of dust. Er, with the face of dust. I blew again, and again. Then I just realised, why not just get the vacuum cleaner and clean it out? Which it turned out I had to do anyway to clear up the no-mans land which was the floor next to the side of the computer. And now it runs like a dream again. A noisy dream, but still a dream. No graphical artifacts, no bugs, no corrupt data, no processor beeping like a time bomb that had been angered. Which is always a good thing.
So, why dust? Why make a whole blog post just about some miniscule particles that occasionally could lead to a computer malfunction? Well, dust to me implies a fresh start. Brand new resolutions. Mostly, I think, because I’m constantly starting projects and never finishing them, so a “new start” for me is usually just going to an old project and metaphorically blowing the dust off. And it is a time for a new start. A new year, new exams followed by a new semester, new opportunities, new chances to mess it all up again.
Traditionally it’s also the time to make resolutions but I’d only break them. Instead I post a list of things that I wish to do this year. Each one is worth Mindezpoints, which are like Gamerscore on the Xbox. Like a sort of personalised achievement system. And by the end of this year, I plan on being the person with the most Mindezpoints on the planet. Which, unless this catches on (which it won’t), I will actually do in just one achievement. It’s the same rules as xbox achievements, each year (game) is worth a total of 1000 Mindezpoints, and achievements are weighted as to how many Mindezpoints they’re worth. It seems a far better way to doing new years resolutions, particularly in this age of achievements and enlightenment. So:
- Learn Japanese to at least a basic conversational level. [200]
- Read all of the following books. [75]
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – The Trilogy Of Four [Douglas Adams]
- Tricks Of The Mind [Derren Brown]
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell [Susanna Clarke]
- Best New Manga
- Any 16 other [proper] books. With words and everything.
- Watch all of the following full series’ of animé [50]
- Toradora!
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Bleach
- Gravitation
- Any 16 other [proper] series. With subtitles and everything.
- Write 150 interesting blog posts. [75]
- Get at least 4 characters in World of Warcraft to level 80. [50]
- Pass the first year of Computer Science with at least a 2i (60%) average. [200]
- Finish the “Puzzler Giant Book Of Crosswords” (396 crosswords). [50]
- Learn Morse Code. [50]
- Go for 7 days in a row of living in Manchester without going to Subway, the chippy, McDonalds, or any other nearby fast food store. [50]
- Make a tuna pasta bake. [25]
- Do not miss any deadlines for any coursework in semester 2, even when it’s gotten to the end and it’s just the last piece of work and you’ve got 100% in all the others. [50]
- Don’t die in 2009. [25]
- At least once, go to a comedy club on open mic night and perform a stand up comedy routine. [100]
I think I’ve thrown in some interesting ones there. I doubt I’ll get the full 1000, but that makes it all the more fun. Incidentally, I’m counting this as one of my 150 interesting blog posts, so only 149 to go. Also, as per the standard with xbox games, expansion packs can come out. Each expansion pack, which can come at any point during the year, adds a further set of achievements worth 250 Mindezpoints in total. Actually, I think I want this to catch on. Go on, everyone go make your own Mindezpoints achievement system! It’s fun, just don’t make them all easy, the objective is to throw some in that are just unrealistic. Well I find it funner than a simple list of resolutions anyway. To each his or her own.
Now I think it’s time to stop because I’ve rambled on long enough, I’ve given you more than enough to read. Whether I continue from this point on is a matter of debate, though is looking good since doing so would help me gain my place on the leaderboard of Mindezpoints. Watch this space I guess.
-Mindez
