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 All that lives eternally and stands the test of time is an epitome of artistry.

Just struck with that thought while browsing through pictures of some very old sculptures and historical monuments. Those structures are awe-inspiring, have stood the test of time, and still stand tall and strong to tell a story. 

Aha! Long time no see folks! And now that I do remember my good old livejournal, look what I've got! A worthless post just for killing a few minutes before dawn - just because I lost all sleep tonight.

It's 2:40 AM IST. I couldn't succeed in falling asleep this night, yet again, but the cause is a new one though. An old neck injury raising its head last morning gave me a lot more new pain to deal with. So, since I could not possibly sleep with all that pain in the neck that doesn't let me lie down, I thought I might as well sit up and spruce up some aesthetics on a current project I am working on.

But as soon as I turn on the power on my box, what do we get there? Nothing. Radio silence. No beeps, no messages, "no video signal". "That has happened before. Let's try again". No go. But this second time, it spat a weird string of beep-codes at me. So its 2:45 AM and I am figuring out BIOS beep codes for my ASUS P5NE SLI board, which I guessed has a Phoenix BIOS; right or not, the beep code is pretty much common for all in this case - 1 long, 3 short! WTF! Forgot the neck pain for a moment.

What do 1 long and 3 short beeps mean for a Phoenix BIOS? That's the video card! Oh no! 10000 bucks down the drain? But hey, I just shutdown the system with love just about 3 hours ago, and everything was working fine till then! And till this point, I've somehow managed to pull off a smiling face. :P



Either ways, I had to check up as I can hardly sleep with this load in my mind. SO, it's 3AM, my neck has lost a couple of degrees of freedom from its already limited set, and this is what I am doing - pulling out all the components out of the box to isolate the problem.




Pulled out the RAM sticks, cleaned them up, cleaned up the slots and put them back. These Transcend memory modules have been a severe pain in the ass ever since their warranty period expired. :/ Everything used to work just fine until it was within the warranty period though. I have had the same problem because of the RAM sticks earlier which just required me to take them out, clean up and fit them back. And there's just a little bit of dust on them, sans the contacts. But no go this time! Same beep code again.

Disconnected all hard disks because I don't know how many times I gotta decipher the BIOS beep codes; I don't want those blowing up in my face at a time like this.

With the smile beginning to fade, with an unreliable heart beat in this already unreliable frame of bones for more than 20 mins now, skipping a few along the way, I decided to remove and check the graphic card chanting all this while "Not now baby, not now! Don't give up just yet. Hang on for a few more months, I need you real bad at this time!"



Pulled it out; not burnt, phew! Cleaned it up while I am at it, for which I sacrificed one of my painting brushes, put it back. Voila! BIOS POST happened. No boot device there yet, but that's fine. It still is strange though, the cabinet did not move an mm, by any means, since I turned it off a few hours ago, and now it needs the video card to be re-fitted in place. :/

At this point, I refitted one of the hard drives to boot and get another WTF-skip-a-heart-beat moment of a lifetime, and this time, it was the memory. It's uncertain behavior has given me shivers before and made it pretty hard for me to figure out if it's the mobo or the RAM that's faulty. Switched the slot and it worked this time. Phew! But that doesn't always work.

Shabby uncertain ways to keep your machine up and running - but I sure can't trust my hardware vendor for this! I've witnessed him blow up my CoolerMasters power-supply along with his entire shop's electricity when I needed to redeem it's warranty within 2 days of purchase. Yeah, despite me warning him, he switched the power supply to 150V mode and connected it to the AC mains to "check" it - dude! we live in India - we have 240V connections here! And it blew up - literally - with sparklers flying through the shop and scent of burnt metal from its windings intoxicating his customers. That's the time I decided to think double-twice before buying any hardware from this guy and never to take anything to him for repairs. 

And to top it all - I spotted a tiny little mouse doing the rounds all over the house floor in these early morning hours! 

Okay, I can stop blabbering now. The birds have woken up and the milk vans are here. Time to go get some tea! More worthless hardware rants later. ;) 


Edit: Strangely (because I didn't remove the CMOS battery), when my machine booted up again, it had the wrong date set, and I made a mistake in resetting it again in all that rush of excitement. Thus a future date of this post. Corrected.

Sigh!
My blog is just turning into a 'quote bank' lately. No original posts - no time to make one! (oops! did I just kill a fairy? :P )

Alright, /me says to myself:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
(-Voltaire)

Yes, although it has just become a place where I am copy-pasting quotes, but only those words make it here, that have perpetually dissolved in my life and made a big change in me. Over and out for now.

Work-load has never been more fun! :)

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
~ Angela Monet

Loved this. So true.

Those who can't change their mind can't change anything
- George Bernard Shaw


Hmm.. This seems to be getting trendy. This post just looks like the previous. But the quote suits perfectly for the current circumstances around me nevertheless, with someone claiming to be God and never willing to change their mind. Deja Vu, as well!

Note to self:

Education is an admirable thing,but it is well to remember
from time to time that nothing that's worth knowing can be
taught.

-- Oscar Wilde


(Not that i copy-paste quotes everyday on the blog. Just
that this is surely a fact worth reminding to everyone
each day..., esp to me!)

Teach by example...
Or don't fscking blabber about it!

Keep your mind's doors open...
Or don't get involved in a debate.

Learn while you live...
Or you are as good as dead.

When one feels nostalgic, I anticipate the same from the near future for nostalgia had no meaning in my life. There was no beautiful past to look back to, except for a few traces that I cherish. All I have is just the hope and desire for a better future for those I live for, for those I would die for...

[ Thank you lazyweb for letting me silently vent... ]

While watching an episode of Bleach, I was kind of moved by what Mizuiro says:

"Sometimes I think that everyone on this planet is connected together with countless chords,
just like patients on IVs after surgery. We try so hard from getting those chords severed.
But despite our best efforts, they always wind up being severed.
And it's very hard to set up a new connection with some people.
I still can't do it..."

Amazing how a cartoon (i would rather say, animated) series communicates many fundamental philosophies of life so intricately through such substantial and engaging characters they've created and held on to. The above one may not be the best of things said in Bleach... Just that I had this blog open and it struck me to write about it today.

Love Bleach! My best wishes to all you animators, story writers, art directors and everyone else working on it!

And on second thoughts... I held back an entry I made about ATMs of a bank that played some music to my ears until I could be sure that my opinion doesn't get me into legal trouble. WTH, i don't use those anyway! :P


"Everything that's legal is not necessarily "right" and everything that's "right" is not necessarily legal"
-- Someone :P