Thinking about stuff..

I've been doing some thinking tonight, and I am coming to the slow realization that it's time to upgrade this PC of mine. I can't play DooM 3, I can barely play Unreal Tournament 2004, and I have no idea how well I'll be able to run The Sims 2. Of course, what started as a simple "upgrade the Motherboard/Memory/CPU/Video Card" soon became "price components so that a computer can be built from scratch."

My only problem? Aside from the obvious issues of paying my other bills off and saving money to go back to school, I really want a serious telescope. You know, something like an 8-inch f/6 Newtonian reflector on an equatorial mount, with 3-4 lenses and some filters for various purposes.

Yeah. I want to do some SERIOUS stargazing, dammit. I'm ready to see those dim objects that I never can quite see in this 60mm refractor or the 115mm reflector. (The 115mm reflector actually has a nice aperture, but it's focal length makes getting new eyepieces for it prohibitive. I'd have to get lenses that I probably wouldn't need for another telescope, just to use that one at greater than 16x.)

So, what do I do? I guess I have no choice now. I must make a decision about what I want to spend my money on, and set up a budget. Allocate a certain amount to paying bills, another section to food and gas, a third section to add to my savings, with the remainder to spend as I wish. *sigh* If that's what it's gonna take, then so be it.

$1400 - Fully-loaded computer, complete with new case, speakers, and peripherals.
$5000 - (Estimate) School for that Associate's Degree in Accounting with the concentration in Computers
$2000 - Fully-loaded telescope, with all necessary eyepieces, filters, cases, and accessories.
$2000 - Random guess-timate about the amount I'm going to want to sink into my car, to get it in prime running shape again.

That's about $10000. That's a lot of money, to understate things. *rolls up sleeves* Oh well, I guess I better get to work on this budget thing! *yawns* Right after I go to bed..

He's alive!! My God, he's alive!!

Well, I didn't get that budget done today, but I had an excuse. No, really, I did. :)

I woke up at 630am, and found myself reading Negima, volumes 1 and 2. Really good and fun manga. I can't wait for the next one! I went back to sleep around 1030am, and slept until noon. The RPG was cancelled, due to personal issues with the host, so I didn't have to worry about that. However, I knew I was supposed to meet andric around noon, so I hopped online to let her know when to expect me.

I got ready, and then the phone rang. It was from Pennsylvania. I ignored it, since I didn't think I knew anyone from Pennsylvania. Adam's voice a moment later proved me wrong: "Rick's on the phone!"
I grabbed the receiver, and immediately asked the most important question I could think of: "Where the fuck have you been?" The short of it goes like this: Not a couple of days aftere our hangout that day in June, his trailer in Nesbit, MS, caught fire, and burned to the ground. He got out alright, as did his wife and child. However, he lost EVERYTHING, including his keepsake trunk that had the Magic cards he kept around "just in case someone wants to play" and his dicebag, Tinkerbell.* So, his dad wires him some money, and he heads BACK up north to start over, again.

He just got a phone, and called to let me know he was alright. I can't tell you how good it was to hear his voice. Rick may be a prick (and justifiably proud of it), but he is just about my best damn friend in the world. I have no doubts that Rick would lay down his life for me. I would do the same for him. So, we talked for a while, until he had to let me go, because he had to break back into his house. He had locked his keys inside. :)

I met up with andric, who needs to replace the battery in her doorbell. :) We grabbed some Wendy's, and watched Bubba Ho-Tep. Great movie. I absolutely loved it. I showed her my Nightwish concert DVD. While we watched that, I perused a book she had, Shut Up and Sing, by Laura Ingraham. Very interesting reading material, let me tell you. I may not be 100% in her camp, but she made some sense on what I did read. (And that, my friends, is as far as I am taking ANYTHING political in my LJ without locking the post.)

I bought three CDs off of her, including Sailor Moon - Memorial of the Musical 8, Sailor Moon - Memorial of the Musical 9, and X-Japan - Ballad Collection. I love X-Japan, but their ballads can make ANYONE suicidal. Sheesh. :)

I came home, and cleaned out my desk drawers. Now, I can get to my financial information, and I even found my birth certificate in there. An organized desk is a happy desk. While working on it, I talked briefly to Charles, and told him that Rick was alright. Charles wants me to come over tomorrow. Chances are good that I will, and I'll probably also bring Settlers of Catan, since I wanna do more than watch TV (which we have a bad habit of doing when we're there).

Work in the morning, kids, and I get to deal with the fallout of the letter I left for my manager on Friday. Wish me luck!

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* - It was a bag with a generic version of the Bertie Bott's Beans, and it had three little bells - similar to the way a jester's bells are on his hat - hanging off the bottom. It was dubbed "Tinkerbell" and the guys in the group called it "the gayest dicebag on the face of the planet." If you saw it, you'd understand, though it WAS blue, not pink, so it wasn't THAT gay. (Well, that, and the fact that the gay joke got old after the 100th time, even to me.)