Regardless of the upgrades I received a few months ago, the computer is still struggling. I was trying to play Sims 2 and it completely crashed the system. Now usually what happens is the screen goes blue and the mouse turns into the hourglass so you know the system is doing something. That’s what used to happen when I had graphic problems (sometimes it’d clear itself, but then it would do it again and then nothing would happen you’d be stuck with that screen). Now, however, the screen turns off. Yes that’s right my monitor suddenly says “No signal received” and it switches off. You can play around with whatever on the system, or you can try unplugging the monitor and re-plugging it into the system and still the message “No signal received” appears and it switches itself to standby. What’s worse is that I can’t reset the system. The reset button no longer works. Actually it hasn’t worked since I got it back from the workshop - along with a number of other things that don’t work. I have about 6 (or it might even be 7) USB ports, but 3 of them don’t work now; the jack for the headphone that sits on top of my machine causes the headphones to heat up till they are almost burning your ears off, and at first I thought it was the headphones but it wasn’t as they worked perfectly fine with any other equipment.

So I had to power down… only after I powered down, it wouldn’t switch on again. In fact it didn’t want to do anything. I opened up the front of the machine (it opens up on the front separately from the side) and discovered my new dilemma… the power button had dropped out of its hole -_-;; So I had to open the entire machine up, move the hard drive and the floppy drive out of the way and try and stick the tiny little bugger back in its place. After much fiddling for an hour, I finally managed to get it back into its spot, put everything back the way it was and sealed it all up. I then switched it on and… well everything was fine, the hard drive was fine which was the important thing, but now the DVDRom drive doesn’t work - the computer doesn’t even know its there! Luckily its not my burner, that is still recognised and it works so either my DVDRom drive has crashed, or when I was putting the wires back I may have accidentally pulled its connectors out (though I don’t see how since they’re ‘miles’ apart… >_>

Anyway things are okay for now, I’ve just uninstalled all of the Sims2 games that I had and will have to just remember what it was like to once play that game :\ However, there is an option that has come before me in the way of salary packaging. There was a little pamphlet in my payslip last week all about salary packaging for a laptop. Its actually a pretty good offer - basically you pick out the laptop you want, then the price is deducted from your pay and this is done over a period of time that you select. Its similar to taking out a loan but you don’t have to pay any interest. The good points are that you don’t have to pay for the laptop up front, and you pay tax on a lesser amount. The bad point is the reduction in pay lol, though if its what I think it is, it won’t be all that bad.

I still have to think about it though. I’ve not heard anything bad about it, though most people who use the salary packaging option are usually earning more money than me!

Its the end of another month so I figured its time for another post!

There were a few hiccups with the server this past week, but thankfully everything seems to be running okay again. Wordpress has been upgraded again to the latest release, and I’ve also upgraded a couple of other programs running on my other websites.

Last week I had the week off, though I did very little. I had some intentions though I wasn’t committed to anything. It was merely a week to relax and unwind. Of course now its back to the real world again…

Over the past month I’ve grabbed a number of Gundam model kits and started building them. The panel lining is the one part that makes it take longer to put together, but granted these are not the kits where you paint and glue, they’re just the ones you stick together. I do have some Gundam markers which could make them look more detailed, but I’ve only used them on a couple of my Gundam models so far. Below are links to the images of the Gundams I’ve put together so far:

Goufy - HGUC MS07 Gouf (blue) and Gouf Ignited Yzak Custom (white)
Throne Eins (Gundam 00)
Blaze Zaku Phantom (Dearka Custom) (Gundam Seed Destiny) (view 1) (view 2)
Graham’s Custom Flag vs Gundam Exia (Gundam 00)
Graham’s Custom Flag (converted flight mode)
Strike Noir vs Stargazer (Gundam Seed Stargazer) (view 1) (view 2)
Strike Freedom (Gundam Seed Destiny) this is the 1/100 HG version
Civilian Astray DSSD Custom (Gundam Seed Destiny) (view 1) (view 2)

I’m still working on the Overflag - which looks pretty much the same as Graham’s Custom Flag only its got an extra weapon I think; and the Throne Zwei. I was intending to finish those two kits off over the week I had off but just didn’t get around to it. I would like to get a couple of MG kits (Master Grade) though the cost is the only thing getting in the way lol.

New anime series began this month in Japan. The two popular ones that started this month were Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 and Vampire Knight. I still haven’t watched all of the first season of Code Geass yet so I need to catch up on that first probably! I’ve got the five volumes of the Vampire Knight manga - currently its up to volume 8 though only 5 have been converted to English. Hopefully the rest will be coming out soon. Other new series that are actually quite good that I’m also watching are Special A - about some kids who are in a special class since their knowledge and skills put them above even the A+ students. The focus, however, is on the rivalry between the number 1 and 2 students. Its a pretty cute comedy series. Soul Eater - another comedy which strangely has two time slots, one during prime time and the other that’s labelled “The Late Show”. According to most subbers there is little difference between the two versions. A few others that are good so far are Amatsuki, Toshokan Sensou, Druaga no To: The Aegis of Uruk and the yaoi-manga based anime series Junjou Romantica. Kyou Kara Maou also started its Season 3 run though only a few subbers have picked it up. And as usual Naruto Shippuuden and Bleach continue their eternal run (along with D.Gray-man which seems to be catching up in terms of length).

Not played any games in a while. I was intending to get Final Fantasy Crisis Core for the PSP but I had other committments and couldn’t afford it at the time. I probably still won’t be able to get it just yet, maybe next payday… Since I haven’t played any games lately I kind of thought it silly to spend a lot of money when I’ve not been in the mood to play any games. I did pick up the PSP to play one of the games I had but I got bored almost instantly :\ Silly I know - I mean I have a DS, PSP, 360 and PS2 but I haven’t touched any of them for almost the entire month of April! I’ve been busy focusing on other things and not really in the mood to play… There’s also the latest expansion pack for Sims 2 (Kitchen and Bathroom) though I haven’t played that game in a while either so I’m not sure about buying that just yet.

I watched a couple of JPop concerts this month too. Namely Koda Kumi’s Black Cherry Tour and m-flo’s Cosmicolour tour. I also had a look at Namie Amuro’s Play tour but hers was a bit boring. She’s a good dancer and singer, but she doesn’t interact with the crowd and doesn’t really look like she’s enjoying herself. Ku-chan is the opposite, she smiles and laughs and gets the audience all excited and encourages them to join in. She definitely enjoys herself when she’s performing. Verbal and Taku (m-flo) are also great performers, and definitely showed a lot of enthusiasm during the concert. They had a huge number of guest artists appear which was great, although not all of the originals were there to sing. Regardless, it was a fantastic concert.

That’s been about it for this month. Though the beginning seems a long way away now lol - its a bit hazy. There’s not a lot happening this coming month. I will probably take a day off somewhere but I usually decide that in the spur of the moment lol.