Okay! So, I filed my FAFSA stuff (man, that sounds like a bad sound effect) and I have requested info from my current list of possible colleges, and I have made organized lists of the steps I need to take for each college and what I’ve done so far and what precise major I’m thinking of for each one. Sigh. Sending SAT scores is $9.50 per copy, and HS transcripts are $2 each, and I think my college transcripts are free, and then there’s application fees which run about $30 per school… I need to write up all the addresses so I can head over to my old high school and get some transcripts sent out. I will let myself wait on this until I start getting the info packets from the schools and, you know, finish going through schools and deciding which I want to apply to. XD
I’m actually pretty excited. It’s hard to concentrate and keep track of all the school stuff, but I have a lot of Post-Its stuck on everything keeping track of this stuff, and that helps a lot. I’m pleased that I really am treating it like a job, spending hours and hours a day just focusing on getting things done for school. I’m taking a break right now because of a headache, and I need to sweep my room and push laundry through the wash, but I feel very accomplished.

[x] File FAFSA
[x] List colleges to apply to (that are still accepting Fall applications)
[  ] Get applications
[  ] Start filling out applications
[  ] Brainstorm essay ideas

Kubuntu 32-bit install crapped out. I tried text-only install, mostly because I managed to download an iso with no LiveCD stuff. For some reason Dad was playing with resolution settings for the monitor, and we discovered that the install seems to complete in one resolution and craps out midway in all other resolutions. He doesn’t remember which resolution, though, and if I touch that machine again right now I will scream.

I keep thinking this is the latest in a series of display-related issues, but I’m having trouble remembering the others. We never managed to get the HD-video working in Windows, at any rate… And the only resolution available with the correct aspect ratio seems to be the monitor’s max, 1440×900. Drivers for the video card seem to be controlling that, rather than whatever Windows normally uses to control the resolution. The 64-bit install attempts kept giving me hardware communication errors (or so Google says) and in the very beginning we had to play with some CPU settings to get things to display and to fix the date/time, dunno if that would alter it. Ah, I know what else - the earlier attempts at installing Linux crapped out when trying to load the OS, and installed copies crapped out when asked to load X. A little bit too much of a coincidence.
I have the awful feeling that this is just a symptom of something horribly, horribly wrong, so I am very leery of getting too comfortable using Gibby just yet. I know I should give up at this point, just use a different system entirely, but I don’t want to use someone else’s computer. I want my own computer, with all my data from my old hard drive, my own Firefox favorites and my own plugins and software and games. I’ll never be able to trust it, not after all this, but it’s mine and I won’t just give up.

No one but me cares. You get to hear about it anyway. I no longer remember everything that has gone wrong, horribly horribly wrong, with this damn computer. That thought is rather depressing. I will never be able to trust it again.

Previous problem: LiveCD failed to boot Linux from either DVD or CD in DVD drive. Theory for next step: Try installing CD from CD drive.

DVD drive switched out for CD drive; attempt at Linux install unsuccessful (see later notes on kernel panic). Windows XP installation was begun, drive repartitioned for 100GB Windows space and 400GB free space; Windows installed successfully. Drivers for installed hardware all installed successfully in Windows. Kubuntu was again attempted. No matter what selection is made in LiveCD, it begins to load the OS. When in the pretty loading bar screen, it appears to freeze and the keyboard blinks; turns out this is kernel panic, with the message of a Machine Check Exception 4, bank 4: b200000000070f0f, TSC blahblahblah. Says there is an I/O buffer error with device fd0 block 0. There is no device fd0.

Next attempt at circumventing whatever the hell is broken now: installing 32-bit Ubuntu, since it’s on hand. Dad theorizes that since 32-bit Windows works, 32-bit Linux should work. I theorize that I really want to punch my computer in the nuts. Am now considering a case mod so that this is possible, with the addition of one of those hacky-sack sound things so that it will cry when impacted hard enough. Will sell it and be rich.

EDIT: The Ubuntu install worked, but the Ubuntu networking functionality is broken. Will try Kubuntu tomorrow. Am staring in fascination at Windows. It works! And it’s XP! It’s so shiny and working and did I mention that it works? I am writing this edit from Gibby. How novel, a working computer!

Oh look, I have a blog.

I feel like I’ve done nothing useful lately, even though my sister and I successfully cleaned out the office. She’ll be moving in with her kitties this week, then leaving them in my care while she has an awesome vacation. I am very excited about the kitties. And today is Little Sister’s birthday. She’s so old now. D:

I was gonna bitch, but instead I will say that I never, ever get tired of watching Big Cat Rescue’s videos.

Hospitals suck. They’re fascinating, but they suck all the same, because if you’re in one you’re either working there, admitted, or visiting someone you care about and whose condition you can do nothing about.

I should get my damn taxes mailed out tomorrow. I’m considering giving up on the office - I’ve been doing some sorting as I empty it out, books in one pile, papers in another, gadgets in this box, that kinda thing - it’s just a pain in the damn ass now, and I’m sick of it. I should just get a giant box and toss everything that’s left into it. But I know I’m just bitchy because my room is a mess because I haven’t put away my laundry and the living room is a mess because Dad hasn’t sorted his papers and even if he did there’s nowhere to put them yet, and the mess makes me upset and listless. I really want to get things to the dump - a bunch of bedframes, broken furniture, that kind of thing. It’ll help empty out the old rattery, which I can then shove the office shit into. I just… I haven’t made any visible progress. It’s all messy, everything I had cleaned. And my computer still doesn’t work - I can’t even recite the list of shit it’s pulled since it broke, every time I seem to patch away the current problem it gives me a new issue. I’m going to end up building a new system, I think, in an entirely different machine. I don’t even know what’s broken in Gibby anymore, I really don’t. Every time I think about the damn thing I just want to scream and kick things. I want to smash it into bits and set it on fire.

…I may be having a bad week.

I did almost nothing that was actually useful today, but I have restored my confidence in myself! :D This is fantastic and I consider it a win. There was lovely snow when I got up at a reasonable hour, and then a fabulous breakfast of Texas french toast with bananas and strawberries in syrup and whipped cream, and then I mailed out a package to an editor of Tokyopop (HAHA NAMEDROPPING) and hung out with Dad and THEN.

THEN I MADE A CTHULHU.

I actually have not read any of Lovecraft’s work, but I find the concept of a mind-rending horror absolutely fascinating, and I think the conventional portrayal of Cthulhu does not do the idea justice. So I sat down to make something awesome and tentacled, and ended up with a purely conventional Cthulhu face. :/ Well, we have to start somewhere, and it looks so awesome. My camera is broken, sadly, or else I’d have pictures. ;_; I should uh talk to their customer service and see how much it will cost to fix. BUT ANYWAY Cthulhu took me about three hours to make, and he’s about 5″ tall and 3″ wide. He’s made of air-drying clay, so I guess I just have to hope it dries evenly and doesn’t crack, and has glass bead-things for eyes, and a paper-clip hanger in back. :3 He’s so adorably grumpy~ It sounds weird, but I purposefully made his features slightly asymmetrical. I guess it might look like shoddy work, but I love it. Creepy things are made creepy by their unfamiliarity, and asymmetry is the easiest way to make someone uneasy. Next time I’ll make an awesome Cthulhu~!

P.S.