Too Much Time: What My Homework Produces

Title: Subtitle.

Oh youtube, so many hours wasted. Here's a classic vid for ya!

Nobody's Watching (edited)

Part 1:



Part 2:


Part 3:

Alright Blog, You and Me...

I haven't been blogging lately. This is due to a number of factors, such as:
1) Moving from my home, Kelowna, back to school, Abbotsford
2) Not having the internet (which has thus been re-established)
3) Not having anything worth saying (fear of the intellectually powerful blogs)
4) Laziness

This, then, is an update of what has happened recently.

School

Columbia Bible College is back in action. I'm living off campus this year, which is a massive change. I still live very close to the school, but it's still very different. The main reason is that I don't eat my meals in the cafeteria anymore. This has saved my wallet and my waist from serious trauma, but as a sacrifice my social life has petered out. Meals times are social times, where you get to meet all the new students, learn about each other, laugh, and eat. Now I return to my apartment and cook myself something delicious - though alone. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I am a third year after all. I already have all the friends I need.

Oh.

Snap.

...

Sigh.

Classes are mostly good. I dislike tangents from teachers that demand respect, so I'm not a huge fan of Intro to Christian Ministries. I also don't like profs that can't pace themselves properly, or don't have interesting material, so OT Theology is a bit of a drag. My other three though, Classics in Religious Lit, English Lit, and Church History are all awesome. I should be studying for my Church History quiz which is in 23 minutes, but I decided to do this instead.

Work

I've been trying to get a job here. Not really trying but more of an amusing side task when I've finished watching too many episodes of Buffy - The Vampire Slayer. Which, by the way, is awesome. I love the irony, the writing, the characters... so good. I did, however, apply at the school for a "whatever-they-give-me" type job. I didn't get one at first, but after repeated inquiries, I get to monitor the parking lot. That's right CBC students, park properly and with a pass, or else I'll slap a $35 fine on your windshield. I believe I start Monday. It's only a few hours a week, like, an hour a day type thing, but it'll be enough to pay for a bill or two. And really, that's all I'm asking for.

Love

No comment.

Music

I didn't make the Vespers team this year, mainly because CBC axed our former traveling worship band, Souled Out. Thus the available music ministries shortened, letting Steve Kim (resident bass-pro-expert) take the top spot. It's one of those things I can't be shamed by. Steve Kim is an amazing bass player/man of sexiness, and I'm alright with him being awesome. I'm on a chapel team, instead. This is the least involved I've been at CBC since I began. Even my first year I was on two chapel teams, and now it's only one. Oh well, more time to watch Buffy!

In Conclusion

I like kittens.

Ubuntu Linux

Ah, the beauty of Linux.

So the past few days have been stressful, to say the least. My computer was giving me a headache and a half. It would alternate between not being able to connect to my latest favorite game, WoW, and randomly crashing in the midst of a game, program, idle, etc. It would hang, the sound annoyingly repeating itself, etc, etc. I went through a few weeks of half hearted attempts to get the problems resolved, to no avail. Finally, I decided that I would format my computer. I backed up the files I deemed necessary, waited a few days to make sure I was making the right decision, and then on Thursday morning (my day off, 1 of 2) I formatted my computer. I had the option to install partions onto my HD (sectioning off one section of the Hard Drive from the other), so I did. I wanted to do this so that I could, at a later date, either use the seperate partion simply for storage data (.mp3s, .avis, etc) OR use it to install Linux.

I installed Windows XP after formating (bye bye 10GB of music! Seeya 30GB of movies/tv shows!), booted it up, and BLAM. Windows has detected a virus on your computer. Windows has detected malicous software.

Already? (i thought to my self) I JUST turned it on!

Oh glory, the security flaws of Windows and IE, and the preconfigured package of Java that comes installed with Windows XP, etc.

I'll spare you the gory details, but over the next 38 hours I ran back and forth from my computer, to our home computer, to my mother's work computer, passing floppies and CDs (some old, some newly burnt) full of updates I couldn't download direct onto my computer (because of the virus/spyware/etc) in an attempt to get it up and running. Within that space I was also forced to REFORMAT my computer yet again (deleting PART of the virus, but not all), reinstalling Windows XP again (this time without an internet connection, and having a CD full of useful anti-spyware/firewall/anti-virus protection programs, though, outdated, as well as Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, etc, etc) and losing the partion that I had made earlier. FINALLY after that time I had a working copy of Windows XP, with absolutely nothing on it but anti-everything software. The most annoying part was trying to get Windows to update, which it wouldn't for whatever reason. It takes FOREVER for the windows site to determine that a) I have the software necessary to download updates, and b) which updates I need, after which it'll either tell me that it won't download, or after I got it to download, that it won't install.

In the next two hours I downloaded Ubuntu, a Linux distribution, burned it to a CD, installed it on my computer using it's default settings (which automatically repartitioned my drive WITHOUT harming XP), and updated it completely. It is now chock-full of every sort of software that I need. Instant Messanging (combining AIM/YIM/MSN/ICQ/IRC/etc), Photo editing, Word processing, Internet Surfing, Email, etc, etc, etc. If I need anything else there's a handy "Add/Remove" selection which lets me PICK from well over 200 different applications that I might want, which it'll download and install automatically for me.

I did all of this while watching Sin City. Movie length: 1 hour 58 minutes. I sometimes paused it while I hit "next" on the setup screens.

This is what Ubuntu looks like:

LINK

It's beautiful. Smooth, fast, secure, easy to work with. The only problem is that it isn't supported by as many developers as Microsoft, so I can't play most games without a bit of work. But I may be willing to put that work in. I love Linux.

So that's what I've done over the last few days. Thursday and Friday - installing Windows XP. Friday night, watching Sin City and install Ubuntu. Saturday, work, come home and install WoW on XP, then surf the internet with Linux. Hurray for a dual boot system. Computer geeks, eat your heart out.