Now I go all techno-geek on you!

Friday, April 21, 2006

A few years ago I tried migrating to linux but I never felt I could do all the stuff I used to do in Windows. I ran multiboot and after a while I realized I didn't boot up in linux all that much, so away it went into the dark corners of my mind. I killed the linux partition because I never used it.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I got the idea to try again. I have a server which has been running slackware for years, but I wanted to see if linux was desktop-ready. Could I replace Windows (which I use everyday for all kinds of things) with linux without being frustrated or feeling restricted? I looked around at the different distributions and settled with Gentoo. Click forward a few times and here we are. 12.5% of my computer is now running linux and I'm not the least bit frustrated (not counting non-computer related frustration). The game support is a bit flakey (using Wine) but they're busy trying to map d3d to opengl, so I'm hopeful, other than that it's really nice. I kind of like the idea of having source code available for most of the software I run, even though I'll probably never tamper with any of it. I haven't booted up Windows in over a week. This is also one of the reasons why I haven't written here for a while, been busy getting my machine working for me instead of against me (I do not condone torture and I only do it for fun) and now it finally is.

I've been thinking about getting a PDA. I've read people can reach close to 80 wpm on one of those using the Fitaly-layout. The question is, do I need one? I bought a laptop a few years ago to, among other things, become a bit more mobile. The thing with laptops is that they weigh a couple of kilos and they're really hard to fit into your pants... ehh.. pocket. You really shouldn't put your laptop in your pants, that would be wrong. I plan on using it for writing, but I don't know if that's a feasible idea? Will writing on one of those give me carpal tunnel syndrome or give me hairy palms? Could it give me the ability to write wherever I am? I hope so...

Truck!

posted by Richard @ 12:15 2 comments

Fangs and blood

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I have never actually seen a vampire. Oh, I have seen Interview with a Vampire and BtVS but I've never actually seen a real, living (dead?) vampire. The reason for this is because there are no such thing as vampires -- or so I thought. Then something hit me... all of those stories can't be fiction, can they? I mean, the vampire myth goes way back (I don't think they called them vampires back then) so there must be some truth to it.

This of course led me to the movies. Whenever there are vampires in movies, there's usually a vampire hunter. From Dr. Abraham van Helsing to Blade and Buffy. How come there is always a vampire hunter around when vampires roam? "They're just movies", right? Possibly, but I think there is something more to it. I think if you want to see a vampire, you have to actually hunt it. Vampires don't like attention (with the exception of Lestat from the movie Queen of the Damned, but let's not talk about wanna-be-goth vampires) and a vampire hunter casts too much light on them (and in Blade's case, UV-light) which means they have to destroy him or her.

So my conclusion is this: if you want to see a vampire you're gonna have to become a vampire hunter (or slayer if you're a girl and have super powers) and except for putting out an ad in the paper, buying a cool trenchcoat (brown cloth or black leather, depending on the era you want to represent) and getting yourself a silver cross (it should be silver in case you run into a werewolf, then you can stab it to death, or so I've heard) you should also get yourself one of these: a Vampire-slaying kit.

So, time to go out and hunt, and if you still don't find any vampires, you can get your girlfriend or boyfriend to act the hunter and you'll pretend to be the vampire: The forbidden love.

"A vampire in love with a slayer. Poetic, in a maudlin sort of way."

posted by Richard @ 18:40 3 comments