Thrower-induced recovery notwithstanding, it was time to get a new poker machine. I can’t trust my laptop to keep on working the way it’s been working the past few days, and rather than find myself without a computer at what will most likely be the most inconvenient time possible, I figure the best thing to do is get a replacement. I checked out Dell’s site to see what kinds of deals they had available, but they seemed rather so-so. A little over $500 would get me a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with 512MB SDRAM, an 80GB HD, DVD-ROM/CD-RW, and integrated video with a 2 year warranty.

I don’t really need a high-powered machine. But Glasstrack assured me that for the money I was willing to spend, I could get a much better machine if I were willing to shop around and buy the components I needed. Here’s what we came up with…
Continue reading The new poker machine →

Back in Beijng my laptop decided to stop working. I’d hit the power button, a few of the LEDs would flash, and nothing. No POST.

I then removed the batteries, the hard drive, and the memory, and tried booting using one DIMM and the power cable. It worked!

I moved the DIMM to a different slot. It worked. Cool. Probably a memory problem.

I tried the second DIMM in the second slot. It worked. Eh?

I tried the second DIMM in the first slot. Okay… this works, too.

I eventually added the hard drive, the second DIMM, and both batteries, and that seemed to work, too. I sealed it up, and boom, no POST.

I took that thing apart and put it back together again for hours and never got it to POST consistently. More often than not, I’d get nothing. I figured there was something broken somewhere on something expensive, and rather than fix a 2 year old laptop for a few hundred dollars or more, I’d get a new one.

I tried getting it to boot a few more times while in China and Korea, but finally gave up. I knew the hard drive was still good, so I could get my old data off the machine at the very least.

—

Jack: Was it ticking?
Airport Security Officer: Actually throwers don’t worry about ticking ’cause modern bombs don’t tick.
Jack: Sorry, throwers?
Airport Security Officer: Baggage handlers. But, when a suitcase vibrates, then the throwers gotta call the police.
Jack: My suitcase was vibrating?
Airport Security Officer: Nine times out of ten it’s an electric razor, but every once in a while…
[whispering]
Airport Security Officer: it’s a dildo. Of course it’s company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo… always use the indefinite article a dildo, never your dildo.
Jack: I don’t own…
[Officer waves Jack off]

—

Well, son of a gun. My computer works. It booted right up when I pulled it out of my suitcase.

No, I didn’t have KK cracked twice in a tournament. Somewhere between Osaka and Westport I came down with a cold or infection that made its presence known a couple nights ago and pretty much put glacier-walking off the itinerary. We decided to cut the travels short and head back home.

I was definitely ill: at one point on the drive home through Arthur’s Pass I couldn’t make it across the car park without feeling too cold and miserable to continue; once back into Christchurch we ran into several of my sister’s flatmates and friends, many of whom were dressed in t-shirts while I had on four layers of warm clothing.

Today’s been spent in and out of bed, drinking fluids and keeping warm. I’d like to note that this is the third time this year I’ve come down with something. It may be time to quit smoking.

After Vegas, of course.

Maybe that third beer wasn’t such a good idea, but I’ve managed to spend the first 3 hours of my 6 hour layover in Osaka doing what I do best: spending time on the Internet, smoking cigarettes, and drinking beer. I should put some money in my PokerRoom account so I can play some Java-based Hold’em.

Like the Incheon (Seoul) airport, the Osaka airport has these smoking areas and Internet kiosks. Anyone who’s had to wait for the next flight in an airport can understand that these things, and $5 draft beer, can help pass the time adequately. If my friggin’ laptop hadn’t died, I could also be making (or losing) some big bets playing at Party Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot tables. Ah well. One can’t have everything.

But having my laptop with me also would have also enabled me to avoid using this goddamn Japanese keyboard. There’s extra keys, and a colon key where the apostrophe should be. That makes typing all these conjunctions an exercise my Asahi-addled brain isn’t completely equipped to handle. Good thing I have a modified type-A personality. I wouldn’t want to foist misspellings and bizarre punctuation on my reading public.

Ah yes, one other nicety about the airport here in Osaka and the one in Incheon (Seoul) (which I keep wanting to spell as “Seould”): bathrooms for handicapped persons. I’m not handicapped (at least not in the way they would define it), but I can appreciate a bathroom where I have a toilet and sink all to my lonesome. I just wish I had more food in my system so I could take full advantage of them.

2.75 hours to go until my flight. You sleeping Americans go on and have a good time dreaming of waking up to an English-speaking world. I’ll be joining you in 15 hours when I touch down in Auckland, New Zealand.

Goodbye, Seoul. Hello, Christchurch.