Like I said, when I bought my iMac back in '06, I paid the extra $170 to get the 3-year AppleCare plan - which basically covers it for 3 years. I'm about 3 months from the expiration on that, which i guess is better than being three months *after* said expiration, given the circumstances. I'm cashing in on that now.

I took my iMac in for repairs today. While the reinstalls seemed to help its performance, it didn't (as i feared) fix the real problem. I have since run some tests and diagnostics and determined that the video ram is unstable, mostly when operating at high load - or more specifically, at high temperature. The thing runs hot when it gets going - up to 63 degrees celsius - and it just doesn't seem to be able to take the heat anymore. Once it hits 58 or so, it will fail diagnostic video ram checks frequently. At 60+, it's every time.

I don't know what temp the iMac's gpu *should* run at, so it may be that it's running unnecessarily hot. Installing a fan regulator and bumping the baseline up a few hundred rpms does keep the temperatures down (and seems to eliminate any video artifacts), but it doesn't seem to make the system any more stable as it will still crash on me - so i'm not sure what the actual cause is or whether i'm merely seeing symptoms of the real problem.

Hopefully I'll know something in a few days.

I'm now especially glad for Kotoko, the new Macbook I got over christmas, without which I would be much more thoroughly distressed at even the temporary loss of my beloved iMac.

~PS

Computer problems and troubleshooting *used* to be a normal, nearly every-day event in my life.

Then I got a Mac, and everything was great...

...for about 2.5 years.

Thing is, i've now gotten *used* to not having computer problems, and so when they inevitably surface, I get very severely irked.

Seems lately poor Hikaru (my iMac) has picked up "a slight flutter". Namely, it's has been displaying some video artifacts and occasionally causing the window server to freeze. Yesterday I wiped it and reinstalled, hoping it was a software problem - but I saw evidence of the video artifacts almost immediately, and strangely with greater frequency than before. After a little research, i'm starting to think this problem is heat-related. I blew some canned air into her neglected vents and installed a fan-regulator to bump the minimum speed of the internal fans for greater circulation.

Since the reinstall, however, i've had other problems. Some problems with permissions and indexing (which i'm *hoping* i've gotten straightened out) and a curious domino process-zombiing which seems to cause all attempted actions to hang - even shutting down.

I'm still trying to sort some stuff out, but I'll be watching her pretty closely for the next few weeks. She's still under warranty till August and I just may end up using that Apple Care plan I bought...

~PS

Last week was pretty cool. On wednesday, Sheri and I headed up to OH for a couple of reasons.

The first reason was for work. Kedrick and Addie wanted me to take a trip up there to see the new office and to have at least a couple days in the office with everyone else. It was actually a lot of fun. I like working from home, but I enjoyed being in the office too - getting to hang out with my coworkers who are, i must say, pretty awesome. We got a lot done, but there was a fair amount of laughing and general goofiness as well. The work environment there (for those of us in the back room, anyway) was really laid back and relaxing. For someone like me, it was just about perfect for productivity.

So Thursday and Friday were spent at the office, finishing up a project which most of us are quite excited about and going over some general practices and methods. It was a good time.

On saturday, Kedrick and Addie took us to the Cincinnati area. We had tasty lunch and Graeter's ice cream - which was funny because i'd actually had the very thing i ordered before, I just hadn't realized it. Edie gave me some of their Black Raspberry Chip ice cream the last time we were over there playing Talisman.

After that, we went to Ault Park. They had wanted me to take some pictures of them as part of a yearly tradition. It was the first time i'd *really* tried portrait photography. I don't typically do 'posed' shots of people, i think candid shots are so much more natural. I also don't "direct" - I basically just let them sit or stand however they wanted or thought would look good, and I simply tried to make the most of it. I won't say they turned out fantastically, but I think there are a few in there that would look nice on their wall. It was a good time. Most importantly, I now have a little xp in this capacity and I learned a bit about what tends to work and what doesn't. I'm still far from considering myself particularly qualified for this yet. A little of my difficulty might be equipment-related as i don't really have nice portrait lenses (a nice 50mm prime would have been good), but I suspect it's mostly technique that needs practicing.

We were also talking about all of us going to the Ren Fair later in October if we can at all manage it... ...that would be awesome. :-)

Later Saturday afternoon we headed to my grandparents' in Greenville - which was the second reason for our trip. We hardly ever get to see them, which is kind of a shame. My parents and my uncle had also headed there for the Easter weekend, and the group of us had a great time talking together. We even got to sit out on their deck Sunday afternoon, which was really nice. We didn't do a whole lot, but it's always cool just to spend time with family. I'd like to get to see all of them more often than I do. Hopefully when we have a car that we trust a little more (and don't necessarily have to rent for trips like this) we'll be able to see some of them a little more.

~PS

Finally went to Thunderdome last night. Pretty cool place. We watched some guy beat Force Unleashed on a giant projector screen, played Apples to Apples and ate some tasty food.

The weather yesterday was awesome and we had a bit of a picnic at the Linear Trail park in Erwin. Due to the fact that there's only one picnic table in the area we went to, we ended up having lunch with a random couple. They were nice and fun to talk to. They lived in Alaska for a few years, which i thought was cool. Yay for meeting random people.

Went to John's on saturday to see if my MouseGuard stuff had come in yet. Still hasn't - apparently it's on back-order and some of it's hard to get. He did have a couple issues I didn't have though, so i picked those up (which was kind of nice - the last few times i've been in there it's been 'walk in, ask about stuff, walk out'). Actually, i misread the back of one and so accidentally bought one i already had... ...so Llama got to inherit it. Still much looking forward to getting the roleplaying book. :-D

Had a gaming session on friday night, which i think was good despite several of us being tired (and some occasionally nodding off...heh). The "plot" at this point is pretty open because i wanted to put the players into a situation where they have to decide what to do about the circumstances. This isn't bad, but it's less straight-forward and usually results in the players having to weigh lots of options and so it can move kind of slowly at times. I think they're doing well with it though.
I'm also really trying to get to a few plot points before Ginger moves... ...we'll miss her a lot...

On some house stuff: mowing season has begun, and it's already getting ahead of me. We had a pretty impressive storm the other night and the basement stayed dry - looks like my sealing job around the font doorjamb worked well. Oh, and i unclogged the sink which had been draining ridiculously slowly for a while.

I've been addicted to Super Paper Mario lately - I started it about a week ago and i've now played it enough to pass Ginger and Tony in the plot (though Tony's still a few levels above me - he's been working on the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials). It's a very fun game... ...and since Sheri won't let me play Okami...


~PS

I've been listening to a fair amount of new stuff lately. Note that that's "new" not so much in terms of release date (with the exception of the Hazards of Love, which just came out last week) but "new" meaning "i haven't really listened to it before....much". In fact, i've had some of it for a while... ...my playlist just hadn't spun around it to it much until now. Anyway, in the interest of sharing some new music, here you go:


The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
I'm still not sure exactly what i think of this album. Oh, I like it a *lot* - but it seems to play differently than a lot of other records. The Hazards of Love is a concept album. It's 17 tracks tell one continuous, flowing story. The lyrics are great, and in Colin's typical style. The music is impressive and interesting. The whole thing has a very even keel, and there aren't a lot of drastic musical changes in it. Despite the fact that sections of it are very soft acoustic and other parts are hard electric, it all blends together nicely. However, that tends to make it difficult to sort out the 'favorite' songs on the album. Basically, this album is quite interesting to really listen and pay attention to, or it's also good as a sort of background musical tableau... ...but you really can't take it as individual songs. It's also quite difficult to compare to their other albums, though I think Picaresque is still my favorite overall.
I also enjoy the fact that Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) is a guest vocalist on a few of the tracks. She opened for them when i saw them on the Crane Wife tour back in '07.


Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
I heard a little of this album in B&N over christmas, but i didn't get around to picking it up until now. This is a good one. It has a feel similar to his project with Calexico, In The Reins or the Woman King ep in terms of instrumentation - which i like a lot and these three albums go very nicely together. I particularly like "Wolves (The Song of the Shepherd's Dog)" and "The Devil Never Sleeps" but all of the songs have a nice feel to them.


Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Not Animal
I *loved* their first album, The Dust of Retreat, so i had high hopes for this one. It didn't disappoint me. The style is very consistent with their first album. It keeps the same curious lyrical style and interesting instrumentation/arrangement while continuing to be creative and new. I still rate The Dust of Retreat slightly higher, but this one continues to grow on me more as I listen to it. Not sure I have any particularly favorite songs from it yet.


The Islands - Arm's Way
This is the followup to their first album, Return to the Sea. Arm's Way has a slightly different feel to it i think, but it still has that overall interesting abstractness to it that I liked so much about the first record. I think there are fewer songs on this album that really grabbed me when compared to Return to the Sea, but I do enjoy "Creeper", "Kids Don't Know Shit" and "I Feel Evil Creeping In" and the general sound of the rest of the album.


Fleet Foxes
Self-titled record. Just a mention in passing - I've only heard parts of this record, but the band's name intrigued me. Very mellow, very folkish. I think listening to it while driving would be a bad idea (event moreso than Iron & Wine). Actually, they remind me a lot of the Great Lake Swimmers with more instrumentation.


Alkaline Trio - Agony and Irony
"One of these things is not like the others..." Yeah, yeah. The rest of the albums on this list fit a sort of mellowish and/or indie theme... ...and then we go straight to goth punk/rock.
Agony and Irony follows Good Mourning and Crimson's progression to a smoother, less crunchy, yet still very hard rock sound. Some of this probably has to do with better producing, etc. I like Alkaline Trio's earlier stuff, but it definitely has a less polished sound - be that good or bad. Anyway, i've been listening to the them quite a bit lately, and to this record in particular. Overall, i wouldn't say it's any more spectacular than their previous releases, but, like previous records, it has a good overall sound and there are a few songs that I really like and latch on to. Namely, for this record those are "Calling All Skeletons" (their opener and single from this album - not particularly awesome, but i like the sound), "Over and Out" (which is depressing, but well composed), "Live Young, Die Fast" (which i greatly enjoy for the play on words there), and especially "Love Love, Kiss Kiss" (which is equal parts jealousy, denial and "quit whining, emo kid").

~PS