FEVER PITCH FEVER PITCH FEVER PITCH!

So... I didn't write much in my last post. It was really nice to get a few pictures up, though. You may have noticed I screwed up my template to do it. I blame that on the template. Yes, I know how to fix it, and no, I don't think it's worth the effort. If I had built this site myself, of course I'd fix it, but the whole point of Blogger is that it's supposed to be easy, plug-and-play blogging. I have friends who maintain their own blogs on their own servers, and I think they spend more time tweaking options, futzing with CSS, installing, configuring, reinstalling, updating packages with security fixes, etc. than they do actually blogging.

But then again, I think they enjoy that.

So perhaps it is a sign of my current state that I can't remember why I wrote "FEVER PITCH FEVER PITCH FEVER PITCH!" as the title of this post. I remember that I saw that written on somebody's shirt long ago, either one of my students or one of my fellow teachers. I can't recall what triggered that memory, though.

Anyway, I got home from work around 2:30 tonight. Been working pretty hard on this paper. When I left, the lab was still lively. I guess mine isn't the only deadline this week.

Got home, and the task ahead of me was to throw away my couch. I picked this couch out of the garbage like, back in April or something. Or was it June? Stained and ugly, but it's big and supportive. I spent a lot of time trying to find a cover for it, ended up just throwing a giant futon cover over it, which made it more or less presentable. Then Mikko cracked her head on it really hard after bouncing the wrong way on my exercise ball, and later Takami did something involving her neck on some sort of internal corner or something - still not sure how that happened but she got a big red mark.

So, like many things in my life that are not good for me, I was debating for a long time whether I should keep it or get rid of it. But last week I took some action and bought a replacement. Nice, cushy, leather, and hard to injure yourself on. And tonight was Big Gomi night. Not throwing it away tonight would mean keeping it until December. So I cleared it off, slouched on it three or four different ways, lay down for a while, read a page of Harry Potter curled up in it, and bid the couch farewell. Then I wrestled it out of my house single-handed at 3am trying not to wake up the neighbors.

So sad to see it go, but I need to move on with my life.

In other news, my computer at home died again. Hardware problem this time... not really sure what it is, but my fan stopped working. After futzing with BIOS and jumpers and plugging the fan wires into different headers on the motherboard, I finally got her back up and running again. Except... now, remember, I have the Shuttle ST62K "Zen" system, which is designed for virtually silent operation, with an ultra-efficient ventilation system and advanced Integrated Cooling Engine (ICE) technology to keep the system operating at a nearly inaudible level. What a great idea... if it worked. Instead, I have a little white box sitting next to me roaring like a 727 clawing at the tarmac.

This computer has had no end of problems since I got it. I even bought a replacement system since the old one had so many issues... weird electrical grounding stuff, inadequate ventilation, dead fan, spontaneous rebooting, and horribly noisy sound circuitry. The new system worked like a charm, except for more fan problems, weird bluescreening behavior, and about 30% of the times I shut the system down, it would stop the hard disks but not turn itself off. And now the fan controller is really wacked. If I put it on "Smart Fan" mode or even "Medium" or "Low", it seems to randomly switch between racing the fan and running it at a nonfunctional purr... regardless of the CPU temperature. Yeccch.

Computers suck. Maybe I should start taking abacus lessons again.

But after that little rant I now realize that my fan is what reminded me of the FEVER PITCH T-shirt. :)

A cappella is also running at a moderate fever pitch right now... big preparations for our Amazing Osakapella Fifth Anniversary Spectacular! I don't really have any idea what's going on, though, because all the discussion is in Japanese. I think I might have to make a speech or something. Anyway, I can't believe we're five years old!!

What else is up in my life? Hmm... still debating whether a Ph.D. is worth it, and other "what should I do with my life?" issues. Considering moving to civilization... I think Morinomiya might be nice. But would it? I've been thinking about it a lot lately - how exciting it would be to be able to go to a convenience store after sundown, how novel it would be to have a bar anywhere nearby, what sorts of things I'm going to do on my commute to work ... and also how much more expensive, small, and less safe it will be, how much I'll miss the various seasonal insects bellowing symphonies outside my window, and how I'll miss the stars. Some beautiful stars tonight. It'll also be so much trouble to find an apartment, move all my crap, and then get new furniture and stuff (although the couch is taken care of!). Worth it? Hmm... the jury is still out.

Ok, it's mad late and I've got a very long day ahead of me at work tomorrow. Oyasumi!