Tedger.com

requiem noun (also requiem mass) (esp. in the Roman Catholic Church) a Mass for the repose of the souls of the dead. • a musical composition setting parts of such a Mass, or of a similar character. • an act or token of remembrance : he designed the epic as a requiem for his wife.
ORIGIN Middle English : from Latin (first word of the Mass), accusative of requies ‘rest.’
- Oxford Dictionary
As I’ve already mentioned I was going to be getting a new computer.  Being without a primary computer isn’t fun for anyone.  Luckily for the interim I had aria to use, but she’s hardly a replacement.  Wasting no time, on Wednesday I went to Des Moines to the Apple Store in the Jordan Creek Mall.  Keegan came along with, allowing us to talk about computers the whole way down.
I had called down earlier in the day to reserve a machine but we decided to take a look around before finishing the job.  We looked at the new black Macbooks, and keegan set off the alarm by unplugging the ethernet/security cable from one.  I have to say it was pretty snazzy.  At that point I was ready to pickup my new machine.
I went up to the front and ended up being helped by the manager of the store.  He began checking my things out (I was getting a White Macbook and a new case for it) and we were having one of your run of the mill standard employee/customer small talk sessions.  Eventually I mentioned that I work in Computer Service at ISU primarily doing hardware repairs on Apples.  He then started asking a few questions about that.  It seemed to me that he was feeling me out, seeing if I was full of crap or if I really did do hardware repair and that I knew what I was talking about.  When he was satisfied with what he found he said “So, are you interested in a part-time job?”
…
Wow, that was kind of cool!  I politely declined as I love my current job, and it would be a 45 minute trip just to get there any day that I worked.  Still, very cool.
I finished getting everything I needed eventually (Macbook, VGA adapter for my desk monitor, Composite/S-Video adapter for TV hookup, and a sleeve to protect my Macbook in my bag) and Keegan and I returned to Ames.  I have posted a few pictures of the computer and a few of the trip itself on the picture section.  Or at least I will sometime today.
Now you might be wondering (or you may have already guessed) why I have the dictionary definition of requiem in the first few lines of the post. It is because that is the name I have deiced upon. I thought it was very fitting both in the context of my musical naming scheme and the circumstances that I got the computer in. Requiem is the name, and it’s name shall be Requiem.
Not to sound like a bad award show, but I have to thank my parents on this one. They really bailed me out.

Last tuesday I was handed down a tragedy into my life. A death in the family. On May 16th 2006 my dearest Powerbook G4, Sam, left the world of working computers. The signs were long and coming and I fear I did too little, too late to save it. The fan had been going out and Monday morning I went into work and ordered a new one. Tuesday afternoon the fan arrived and I replaced it. Everything seems to have gone smoothly, except for one thing. The Thermal Pad (a pad of thermally conductive material put between a processor and a heat sink to aid in cooling) over the processor was well… discolored as if it was burned. Obviously something meant to conduct heat shouldn’t become burned, but it did. After replacing the heat sink, be it coincidence or something of my doing, Sam refused to boot. The symptoms were consistent with a processor failure and at that point there was nothing I could do.
When looked at it objectively to fix Sam it would have cost far more than she is worth. I sent an e-mail to my parents explaining the situation. My Dad was very understanding and sent me some money to replace her. More on that in the following posts.

Sam Powerbook G4 b.2003-d.2006 RIP

Well the Spring semester has ended. Finals went by. I had a fantastic schedule, I was done Tuesday of finals week with no more than 2 a day. I had a week off…. of classes (I was working all of that week) but it was nice.
However classes are back. I’m taking two summer classes this year. The first is a statistics class shrug. The second is a Political Science class on World War I. It’s with one of my favorite professors Richard Mansbach. I had Prof. Mansbach last year for “International Security Policy” which was about security politics from the Greeks and the Persians all the way up to the Cold War. I loved the class, and I thought Mansbach was fantastic. Of course I was exited to see that he was offering a class this summer. It’s only 2 weeks long (compared to the stat class that’s lasting till July 7th) but after a tenth of the class, ie: 1 day, I’m really enjoying it.
Well here comes the professor, so that’s all for now.

Well, I’ve done it… I’ve relapsed my addiction…. I’ve rejoined World of Warcraft. For those of you who may be concerned, don’t be. I’ve kind of decided that this is a summer thing. I did it last summer when I had less to do, and I’m doing it again this summer. Of course (as you’ll see in my next post) I am taking classes this summer. Last night I was easily able to do my homework, play WoW AND plan for the summer Star Wars D20 campaign that I’m running this summer (more on that later).

I’m enjoying it just as much as I did before, perhaps more. But no need for an intervention, it’s under control…. for now… dun dun DUN!