The Big Move

I finally got my new site up. It's got some very exciting NOTHING going on, but I will be posting there from now on. I've been experimenting with various themes and messing with the style sheets and such, so if you notice the site randomly looking like crap, hit reload a few hundred times and I'll probably have broken it some other new way. So here goes the big move over to:

SteakGirl.com

New Compy

Ooomf, back from the dead. Forgive my running off and hiding without so much a word. I've been avoiding my creepy new computer like the plague...but my replacement has arrived and not having a mechanical tenant in my living room is nice. So as much as I've bitched about that other computer, it's kind of hard to just take my word for it. So here's a picture of the beast sitting next to my old machine:
Yeah, fitting that computer in the old space was out of question.
I'm very happy with my new XPS 410. It's pretty much the same size as the old one.

Feed me, Seymour!

I'm returning my computer, here's why:

Computer	Height	Width	Depth
Dimension E 520	16.2	7.4	17.25
XPS 410	18.13	7.38	17.88
XPS 710	21.86	8.6	24.25

My old computer was a Dimension of some sort...I was expecting something slightly bigger. I'm thinking of getting a 410 to replace that scary ass 710.

"Your computer has too much computer in it. And not enough typewriter."

I called up Dell this morning before I left for work to tell them I'm sending the monster machine back. The guy on the phone was nice about it, he simply asked me why. I told him it's just too huge of a machine. He offered me money to keep the machine. For just a moment I was distracted...hmmm...money... What? No, please I don't want the stupid machine. If I keep the machine long term the damned thing needs to pay rent to take up that much of my living space. It's going back.

Baby Jesus and Hot Wax

According to weather forecast, today was supposed to be epic powder day at the mountains, so I got off my lazy behind and waxed my board yesterday. Being new at this hot waxing business I covered the hell out of my board with wax because getting “an even thin layer” of wax is actually harder than it sounds. In the end, I think any kindergartener with some crayons and school radiator could have done a better job – but at least I didn’t kill my family with fluorocarbon fume. I’ll take my small victories wherever I can find them. I scraped and scraped, but I still felt like maybe I’ve left too much wax on the board. I was worried I would just stick to the side of the mountain completely motionless.

It turns out, even if you completely botched your waxing job, your board would still love it. My board loved the new waxing so much I could almost hear it say, “Wheeee! Wheeeeee!!! Let’s gooooo!” I’m all for a happy fast board, but it was a bit hard to explain when the board kept wanting to plow over people waiting in line for the lift.

Unfortunately, today’s snow turned out to be the opposite of epic powder. It was warm and dumping drenching rain in Seattle, so we had wet snow pellets in Stevens. I could deal with trying to board in heavy wet snow, but the real kick in the nuts had to be the lack of visibility. It was near impossible to see the ground. I don’t mind falling when I’m being careless and catching an edge here and there, but it felt like injustice was being served when random ninja snow humps catch you. I don’t mind catching some air here and there, but well…when you’re going down head first with your body parallel to the mountain, that’s not always as fun as it looks. And then there’s the crazy happy board that, soon as it touched some snow, went “Wheeee!” and tried to drag me down the mountain whether I was upright or not.

All in all, I love knowing how to tune and wax my own board, I’m shocked that I haven’t done it sooner. It’s worth your while if you go boarding more than 3 times a year. The last time I had my board tuned and waxed was end of last season, so the speed and control difference was ridiculously noticeable.

Now I’d like to take a moment out to bitch about the snow condition. I think my not drinking is making baby Jesus cry because EVERY damned time I made sure to stay home and not drink so I could be nice and chirpy for the promised awesome snow day, it would be crappy the next day. The last truly epic powder day I had was when I was hungover and cursing life.

Yes, Master.

I ordered a new computer from Dell recently and have been eagerly waiting its arrival. It didn't get delivered till late last night, so the system was waiting in the house's main living room while I was showering and getting ready to go out. As I was leaving, I figured I should move the boxes into my living room. I took one look at the box that housed the brain of the computer and thought "Oh, fuck no!" The box was over 70lbs and could probably provide adequate shelter for a small family. What the hell kind of computer weighs over 70lbs!? I looked at the box again to make sure they didn't decide to send me some 25 inch CRT monitor because that is the only possibility in my mind as to how a computer could weigh this much. Mind you, this is ONLY the computer part...not monitor because the monitor box is about 1/4 of that size and weight, due to the fact that its a simple 20-inch flat screen. I looked at the box some more and decided I'll deal with it in the morning because I was just damned scared of the box. I've NEVER had a computer scare me like that.

I finally cracked the box open this morning and peeked inside the box to make sure there wasn't a giant monster waiting inside, getting ready to pounce out and consume my family. You see that picture with all the different Dell machines up top? You see that slightly bigger machine? Well, the picture is fucking misleading because you just see it from the front - from the side, the machine is a god damned beast. I've moved around plenty of computers in my life...the only thing I've ever grunted from lifting were the old 21 inch CRT monitors. The computer tower? Meh, I can lift the thing with one hand if need be. I was grunting and heaving trying to get the giant metal box up to my living room.

When I first booted up the machine it sounded like an airplane trying for take-off but then it quickly winded down to a pleasant hum. At this point, I'm thinking this machine is plotting to take over the world on its own and make me its bitch. It's that scary of a machine.

I'm currently reformatting my old computer and installing World of Warcraft on it, so I can give it to my 11 years-old brother so we can WoW together. It's just a part of what I do to make sure he gets beaten up and stuffed into lockers.

More of the Old

When I kick my lazy streak in the nuts, I’ll move my blog over to SteakGirl.com. Yes, I own that now because apparently the crazy Germans that owned it before didn’t manage to make a kickass porn site out of it and decided to let the domain go when the year ran out.

Will I make a porn site out of it? As interesting as the idea sound…I don’t think so. It’ll be the same old me rambling endless about trying to figure out how the hell do I use this new piece of gear.

So last year, I’ve made a point to start taking better care of me in hopes that my bones won’t crack and my liver will hold so that I might be able to hike into old age. This year, I’ve decided I should learn how to take care of my gear. I wanted to learn how to tune my bike and snowboard instead of bringing it into some shop or another and remain clueless on what they do with my equipment. Since it’s winter, I went to buy a bunch of stuff so that I can tune my own snowboard. I’ve got the world’s cutest iron to wax my board and got all sorts of files for the edges, I’ve even picked up a brush for my snowboard…I think I’m taking better care of my board than myself as this point.

When I got home, I looked up what I was supposed to do with at the wax and scrubby pad and stuff; I found a pretty good website on this. Then I read the website, “Step 1: Clean your snowboard”. Shit. I completely forgot base cleaner. How the hell was I supposed to know that I actually need to clean the damned board? I mean, I’m going to cover the damn thing in poisonous wax anyhow…what’s a little dirt here and there? Sigh. I’m just not that smart sometimes.

So if you read about some girl killing her entire family with poisonous wax fumes - that idiot would be me.

Happy Hangover Day!

Happy New Years from the top of Mount Si:
After a wonderful year of hiking, it felt right to go on a hike on the 31st...what a beautiful day. I took a moment to clear my head, thought about all the best moments of 2006...people that I'm grateful for and people that I think perhaps I should stop stressing over. I had a great year with a lot of heartaches and triumphs, some that I've shared, some that I figured is better left unsaid but I learned a lot about myself this year. I've found that can almost always push myself beyond limits that I thought I had.

And a drunken party with my family:
I ended the year surrounded by people that loves me and I love dearly in return.