bah, i got into a fucking car accident on wednesday. sitting at mathilda, going north and the light turns green, i take a left turn toward moffett park drive and all of a sudden i see this car bearing down on me. i look up at the light, and mine is red, but it’s too late. i’m screeching to a halt and so is the other guy and BAM, we crash into each other. thankfully neither of us were hurt, but my car got $1200 in damage, and i’m sure the other guy’s car was a few g’s also. i’m stuck with a shitty rental until they finish work on my car by early next week. car insurance sucks, especially with a $1k deductible. my insurance company is making out like a bandit, only paying $160, which is so lame considering you have to pay them money for the policy. that money should get applied to things like this! fuck!
farewell to my perfect driving record (no accidents OR tickets). i know ben will love that….
the whole ordeal has been superfrustrating and expensive. the shot in the arm that i got from my unexpected tax refund just got sucked up like a vampire going on a feeding frenzy at the other end of my vein.
i love the new job/program/placement whatever you want to call it that i have now. the airborne laser program is really fucking cool. the stuff i’m working on controls the hardware that does all the laser stuff. i’m just starting to learn the ropes and the people here are incredibly nice and helpful. so many more people in my peer group too, unlike previous experiences. there’s a stanford and uw grad right about my age that sit by me so that’s pretty cool.
watched probably 1/3 of apollo 13 last night. i had never seen any of it before and if i wasn’t so tired, i would have watched the whole thing. it’s a great movie, and the stuff seems that much more understandable and tangible to me now that i work in the aerospace industry. Rockets and shuttles… crazy hard science and engineering.
finally caved and bought parts to build a new computer. trying out AMD stuff by getting an Athlon 2500XP, Asus A7N8X-E board, 512mb Kingston HyperX memory, an Antec Sonata case, and using a few parts I bought in December (200GB Hitachi HD, PNY GeForce 5600 Ultra, and LiteOn 4X +- DVD Burner) so it should be a fun, formidable, yet cheap system. i think all the parts cost me about $800 including tax. That’s less than 1/4 of what I paid for my last system, which will be relegated to my linux box that i’ll use to play around.
i’m off work early today to pick up the case at Frys, and then go to the apartment to await a delivery from IKEA to replace some furniture they damaged in shipping. hoping to have my new system built tonight!