My new desktop system

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 w/ 1066 MHz FSB. Awesome.

Asus P5N32-E SLI motherboard. Excellent.

Asus GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCI-Express. Amazing.

4 GB RAM. Yep, that should be enough.

DVD burner with LightScribe. Nice.

4x Seagate 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA 2 hard drives. Huge.

Antec Sonata III 500 case. Beautiful.

I'll configure the HDs as follows: 2 HDs will be in a mirror as my primary drive. I'll back up the primary to another bare drive. The last HD will be a scratch drive.

2 TB raw disk space. Unbelievable.

I've got two more 500 GB SATA drives that I'll put in enclosures. One will be in an eSATA enclosure, and I'll use it as my external backup for my desktop. The other will go in a USB 2 enclosure, and will be used to back up my laptop.

I've got one Dell 2407; I'll get a second one when I return from Austin, so I can work dual-headed, as I now do with my laptop. Nice.

This is the coolest computer I've ever owned. And I designed and built it. Very nice.

Fun, relaxing weekend

We had my birthday dinner and cake this past Saturday night; it was wonderful.

When I was in Catalina, I bought a cheap set of 100 2g plastic poker chips and a couple decks of cards. My brother and I played five-card draw in the evenings as best we remembered it, and enjoyed. Of course, we never play for money.

After dinner and cake Saturday night, I divided the chips between the four of us (Mom, Dad, Ryan, and myself). To my great surprise, we had a blast.

Yesterday afternoon, Ryan and I went in search of better poker chips. I ended up at the great gaming store Legends in Cupertino, where they had a 500-chip starter set. They're 11.5g composite chips - clay and plastic - in a nice aluminum carrying case. They're wonderful. We played last night (five-card draw) with the new chips and enjoyed greatly. At first my Mom was skeptical, but once she started handling the new chips she understood.

On the way home from Legends we stopped at Borders and I looked at a few books on Texas Hold Em. I think I got a good one; I enjoyed reading the first bit of it last night.

The only issue I have with the chip set (hee hee, IT pun intended) was that they didn't include blue chips; blue's my favorite color. I got 200 white, 100 red, 100 green, and 100 black. So when I got home last night I went online in search of blue chips; I think I found an exact match.

I also did a bit of research on cards. I dug out some Excalibur casino Bee cards and compared them to the Bicycle cards I bought on Catalina. Except for the large index, I much prefer the Bee cards; they are less flimsy and have a much better feel to them. They're easier to shuffle.

So I added a blue and red pack (with normal index) to my order. The store had a few different types of plastic cards, so I did a bit of research on them. I added two packs of inexpensive Royal plastic cards to my order. I looked at the Brazilian plastic cards, but passed on them. I next looked at the KEH cards; they're a cellulose (i.e. paper) and plastic composite. I read a few reviews. They sound wonderful, so I added a set to my order.

I got a few more red chips and some purple chips, and I got a case for these 300 extra chips. I can't wait to receive my order and confirm that they're the same chips.

Now I just need to find a few more opportunities to play. Hopefully my brother and I will find some time this week to practice Hold Em; we will then teach it to my parents, hopefully starting next week.

My first Cisco business trip

Yesterday, I booked my first business trip in a really long time. I support the systems in a lab in Austin, and I'm going there in October. I'm really looking forward to visiting Austin. I've not been since I flew back in late 1990/early 1991 for my friend's wedding.

In other news, I'm about halfway through Harry Potter book 7. I am so addicted to that series. I'm aiming to be done by end of day Saturday.

I skipped my Over the Rhine concert last night. I didn't feel like going to the City alone. Lame, I know.

I must like vacation

I must like being on vacation. I just booked airfare and hotel for four nights in Las Vegas in November. Cool!

Pics from the inland Cape tour

I've posted a few pics from our inland off-road Cape tour. Fun!

New photo gallery of my Catalina trip so far

I'm uploading now to my Smugmug site a gallery of my Catalina trip so far. These are the 33 most interesting pictures of the 249 I've taken so far, based on a quick perusal of my photos this evening. None are edited except for the few 16x9 crops. Enjoy!