What does one have to do to get a new desktop computer?
As far as I know, a desktop computer's lifespan is only about 3 years. You can squeeze out another couple more but by your fifth year all the new software will kill your PC.
My PC is a holdover from a previous employee of the Desk. It's a Pentium 4 with just a Gig of memory and a miniscule 33GB hard disk space circa 2004. In this age of 8GBs and terrabytes, my desktop is already Jurassic. Much of the HDD space has been consumed by programs -- especially the space-hogging ones that I use for my work like Photoshop and Illustrator. On average I only have 3GB of space at anytime to use for whatever I'm doing and that has resulted to lots of bog downs, slow downs and crashes.
I think I've filed five complaints so far to those in-charge of the gadgetry but instead of recommending an upgrade of the desktop to a new one, the techs just try to squeeze in more life from this little box -- resetting and resetting program settings, adjusting space considerations, clearing unused files, compressing bits and pieces. I mean, yes, there's virtue in recycling and saving especially if we're talking about a million-peso worth machine but for an old P4?
I also requested an additional hard disk and additional memory. These were denied as the techs determined the ole desktop can still do without such upgrades. For the hard disk space, they suggested burning into CDs old files (been doing this tedious task actually everytime my PC hits the 1GB remaining space mark). For the memory, they just denied it because buying a DDR is not cost-effective (so I make do with what I have).
I'm writing this as I'm contemplating writing another complaint but I'm sure they'll just send one of their tech guys and have him manipulate stuff and voila -- your PC is still usable. Until the desktop crashes and decides to die permanently (crossing my fingers that that'll happen), I won't be expecting any upgrade to a Dual-Core or an i-Core 5 anytime.
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Not that I'm not grateful to this desktop (on which a lot of my recent entries have been written with). But come on, it's more than 5 years old and it's time to retire the thing. If they decide to sell this I'll even buy it for home-use (and upgrade it with my spare parts from my old P4 -- savvy it up to 3GB memory, hook up the two HDDs and add the DVD-RW). But I'm really due for an upgrade in terms of office-ware.
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Since Elvie has had to take the graveyard shift this week, I've been sleeping downstairs on a makeshift bed (using the sofa's cushions). And I've been kept company by my daughter, Ikai, who for two nights now have had bouts of sadness with the thought that she's not sleeping with her Mama beside her.
Last Monday, Ikai woke up crying in the middle of the night looking for her Mama. I was awakened by her bawling and tried to comfort her until she went back to sleep. Yesternight, she woke up annoyed to see me instead of her Mama beside me and started shoving and pushing. I cajoled her and reminded her that her Mama wasn't around and she then shouted at me "Hug!" She just needed comforting.
On the other hand, Issa is definitely not sleeping beside me. I can't hush her when she wakes up and starts crying. So she stays with her Auntie although last night I heard Issa cry several times, saying "Emm", meaning she wants her Mama.
I feel sad for my daughters who are very attached to their Mama. Unfortunately, there's not a thing that can be done as Elvie has to go on graveyard shift to be fair with her colleagues. We just continue to hope that things change for the better at Elvie's Desk as we all want a balance between our family life and our professional career and our little girls need their mother as often as possible.
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I love boardgames.
Started out with Snakes and Ladders when I was five or six years old and gradually moved on to more complex games like Monopoly, Millionaire's Games, Games of the General, and a host of other staples that can be bought from your friendly, neighborhood bookstore or department store. And then there was Risk, introduced by a friend of mine, which educated me that some boardgames rely not only on the roll of the dice but required you to think and strategize. There was also Cluedo which furthered the notion of using the gray matter to win the game.
In late 80s, during my late gradeschool years, my burgeoning fascination with fantasy and an increasing addiction to the SNES game Legend of Zelda led me to create a fantasy-themed board game. I don't recall much of the details but it's basically a race to finish a certain quest first. Players chose an archetype race to play (elf, dwarf, barbarian, magician, warrior, etc.) and then using a die, move around the boardgame (yes, I drew an actual boardgame on a cartolina) to gather necessary items to fulfill a quest. If I recall correctly, each race-type had to collect five objects specific to the race scattered all over the map and that meant traversing the five main continents to search for the items. Once a player completes the five objects, he/she then needs to race to the central continent for the final prize. While traversing the continents, players encounter monsters, traps, choose-your-action scenarios, and a host of other roadblocks. I playtested the game with a couple of neighborhood friends and found out that the game was too long to sustain the interest of 12-year olds. I shelved the game but not the idea. Up to this day, the map of that boardgame continues to be a major influence in my world-building (with names like Aquaelous (the Water Nation), Somalario (the Desert), Rubitanjia (the Red Kingdom), Skull Island (where the ultimate prize or curse waits), Greenland (major food source of the world), etcetera etcetera.
Sometime in college, I scored a Dungeons and Dragons board game for about a thousand bucks (with inflation factored in that would cost around Php 4,000 now) but sadly I never got to play it because there was no one to play the game with (the boardgame gathered not just dust as the years went by but also came under termite attack which thereafter led to it landing in the trash bin).
Little did I know then that boardgaming was huge.
Thanks to the internet, it's been only early this decade that I learned that there are a lot boardgames that can be bought and played depending on your preferred theme, your age, mechanics, and the fun level. Boardgames can also be played with cards, with miniatures, and a whole lot of other paraphernalia -- more than just your average pawn and dice variety. There are boardgames with ultra-complex rules and then there are games that have simple rules but require a lot of strategy.
Although I've never really had the chance to play a variety of boardgames, reading about them and learning different mechanics and luck factors have attracted my interest. I've not yet revived my gradeschool boardgame but I've come up with two gaming concepts already. Unfortunately, these gaming concepts have been in the doldrums since 2004.
Why this talk about boardgames? It's because I'm challenging myself to put some substance to the boardgaming concepts I've had all these years. For both gaming concepts, I've pretty much hammered out the details including the mechanics and now what needs to be done is to actually produce the game. That means creating the actual boardgame and game pieces and designing art for the boardgame and the cards (both game concepts use cards ala Monopoly). In short, actual game design. Then afterwards, playtesting should follow.
In this entire process, I think I'm more excited in the designing part but then again the game can't solely be based on the artwork. It has to be fun, exciting, having the right mix of luck, strategy and quick-thinking.
Do I intend to go commercial with the games? Why surely that's an idea. Probably sell it online, keep a small inventory on hand. But the main thrust is to actually get something produced that can be played even if it's only going to be me and my girls playing it. More than money, the driving force behind my want to design a boardgame is for fulfillment, a sense of personal satisfaction that I've created something that can be enjoyed by others.
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I'm down to the last few chapters of Dune: The Battle of Corrin. And I have no idea of what to read next.
In the meantime, there's a need for me to inventory my books. Moving from apartment to apartment through the years has somehow made me lost count of my books, especially those book series I've completed and now I fear I am losing one or two from each. Before the bookshelf was bought my books were scattered all over the place and even with the purchase of the bookself, I've really made no effort to account my books. I fear I've especially lost several volumes from my Eddings' Series as these were the books that I've read and re-read through the years and in some cases, I've left the book on the TV shelf, under the sala table, or by the stairs and there's the large likelihood that these did not make it to the bookshelf.
And I need a bigger bookshelf.
After I finished Dune: The Machine Crusade last Friday, I found out to my dismay, that I couldn't just jam it back to the bookshelf because it was already full. TMC now awaits shelving on top of the bookshelf along with other odds and kaboodles. And looking around our bedroom, I saw three other other books outside of the shelf and three other recently-bought pre-owned books were still in a plastic bag right beside my daughter's toys on a make-shift countertop.
Maybe if we manage to eke out an agreement with our landlady in the apartment for another two years, it might be worthwhile to have a carpenter install another bookshelf, a built-in one instead of purchasing another one as there's no more space in the apartment for it. Plus, putting the shelf overhead will keep books out of children's reach especially with little Issa now in walker mode.
Ah, well, one has to do what one needs to do to protect one's treasures, right?
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Good day, folks!
