New Computer

At long last my new computer arrived today. We ordered it a few weeks ago after a few weeks of research, which was brought on by the sudden death of our old laptop. It took a rather circuitous route to get here. It was built in China, shipped to Louisville, KY, then to Anchorage, AK, then back to Louisville before being shipped to Minneapolis for distribution. But the good news is it made it here and appears to be in one peice. The bad news is I have to wait until tonight to play with it.

Are you hep to the jive?

Apparently Alaska is getting more hep (as Cab Calloway would say) now that we've left (now, who's really surprised by that?)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23187007/

Better today than yesterday

Went ahead and bit the laptop bullet. One nice thing is that by waiting a day we get a fancier rendition of the same model, we spend less money up front and get a rebate (at least in theory) than if we had been impatient. I won't however check tomorrow's price, I don't want to know!

Pain at the Pump

This article is about a village near where I grew up.

$11.00 a gallon or so for fuel. I suppose $3.00 isn't so bad.

All crossed up

So, we got home from Chicago on Sunday and turned on our laptop only to find that it wouldn't boot much past the BIOS screen, it got all of the way to a "your computer screwed up last time, do you want to start normally, start in safe mode or start with last known option, you have 30 seconds to decide" (or something similar). The 30 seconds took about 15 minutes to count down and then the computer stalled. Tried again, same thing. Tried again, same thing. Tried again, you get the picture.

Much to Amanda's chagrin I got out some tools and started plugging away figuring it may be that something was unseated and then we'd be good to go. Took out the batteries, took off the keyboard, took off the monitor, took out the hard drive, took out all of Amanda's hope of a revival (last time I did this the computer never responded again). Plugged everything back in, "your computer screwed up ...". So, started researching new computers and data recovery methods (apparently backing up twice a year and backing up only to the existing hard drive doesn't do too much good). I really got going into the recovery phase when I realized that my "Challenge 2008" spreadsheet was gone!!!

Data recovery costs just as much as a new computer, who'da thunk?

Cracked into the BIOS last night, saw that 1 battery was at 0% and the other was at 11%. Switched batteries, came back to life. Apparently what has happened is that 1 battery is dead and 1 is alive. Also 1 battery port in the computer is dead and 1 is alive. Pre-switching it happened that the dead battery was in the live port and the live battery was in the dead port. Switched 'em, good to go. Got my all important "Challenge 2008" backed up to the external, and also backed up other little files like tax records, pictures, etc...

Still probably going to get the new computer, probably a lenovo/IBM (anyone have an employee friends/family discount available?), this one is heading downhill (maybe today, maybe 6 months from now right before our next major backup).

Watch for Falling Moose

Living in Alaska you frequently see signs that warn "Watch for Falling Rocks" and "Moose Crossing"....but maybe we need one that reads "Watch for Falling Moose"

(picture borrowed from adn.com)

I came across this story today in the Anchorage Daily News. Apparently a moose slipped off of the rocky cliffs just above the highway on the Turnagain Arm, and landed just a few feet in front of an Alaska State Trooper squad car that was traveling along the road. A sad day for the moose, a good day for those who got to eat it, and an entertaining story for the rest of us.

Icebox of the Nation?

I had just finished reading this story today in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner detailing the recent cold snap that has kept the Fairbanks area at 40 degrees below zero for 8 days now (some areas as have been as low as 52 below zero), when I went to cnn.com and saw this story about the "Icebox of the Nation", International Falls, MN.

The story about International Falls brags that they have just recorded a new record low of -40, three degrees colder than the previous record low of -37, and it had warmed up to -18 by morning. In contrast, in Fairbanks -40 is not an uncommon number to reach for days at a time and for most of last week the high temp for the day was in the -30's.

I had two thoughts on this:

1) Why is it that a town in MN getting to -40 for a few hours overnight makes front-page news on cnn.com when parts of AK are -40 all the time?

2) Maybe the town that gives itself a name like "Icebox of the Nation" should have to be the coldest place in the nation.

Demo Party

That's right, this weekend we will be in Chicago to start work on demo-ing our house...specifically the kitchen cabinets and the remaining carpet upstairs. We are planning on starting (and finishing) demo work on the kitchen on Friday, so if you're in the area and have nothing better to do, grab a sledge hammer and come on over. We'd also like to get our tile dry fit on Friday afternoon/evening so that on Saturday morning we can go right to work laying tile. Once set, the tile will need 48 hours to cure before installing cabinets, so we'll move upstairs on Sunday to remove the remaining carpet. We are also still in need of someone to do drywall (perferably to have it ready by Sun/Mon) so we can hang cabinets...so if you (or someone you know) would like to help us out with that please let us know ASAP.

And of course if you have absolutely no desire to help out with our project, please feel free to just stop by and say hello. If you need our new phone numbers just email us and we'll get them to you.

Market Nerd

You know you're a stock market nerd when you see a commercial for tide detergent 2x ultra and immediately think of ProFunds Ultra ProShares (which are designed to magnify the return of the market by a factor of 2, so in essence 2x Ultra)