CMOS, pronounced – see moss

I fixed up my laptop real good and I can do other stuff real good to. You see there was this major annoyance problemO where I would hit the power button on my laptoppy O and leave it to turn on O just to have it say heck NO. It would complain that I had not set the date and time correctly, even though I totally had set it proper and good. But all I had to do was hit F1 and the computer started up... but then Windows would jump on board and stop the start up again and be all like Hey you didn’t set the date and time correctly, then it would have the little OK button. Yes OK, freakin OK! I would just hit enter and it would carry on normally. The clock in the bottom right corner (such a good place for a clock to be) would be totally in another year and just all wrong, as much as I tried to help it, it never remember what the time actually was.

After extensive investigation the problem was diagnosed as a flat CMOS battery. Yeah like what the heck is that. Well I’ll tell you it is very important for remembering the time whilst your computer is powered off. Thus began the quest of battery replacement. Many dragons were slain along the way – metaphorically. John Eldridge would have be proud of such an adventure to live and such a beauty to rescue (that’s my laptop baby!). Especially when I found the true heart of the computer, which was the wounded and neglected CMOS battery. The journey into the heart was more difficult than initially expected. All screws were removed and yet they beauty held its self together, afraid to let me inside. Not knowing what to do I turned to the world (wide web) for answers. I came across photos and descriptions of how to dismantle a laptop, I came a across numerous warnings of the dangers, all of this helped but still it was not enough. Still I had no specifics on my exact model. My beauty – Compaq Presario 1400 (14XL343 to be precise). Who would fight for its heart if not I? Who would mend its wound? The world (wide web) didn’t have the answers. I turned to the maker, I hooked up with an online technician through the Compaq web site his name was Shawn and he showed me the written word, the pdf manual for my exact model, full of diagrams and instructions on how to get not just to the heart but to everything. I was so grateful. My search for answers had be satisfied. Now it was time to do it. I unscrewed the screws and pulled the correct bits off, I found the battery, silver and shiny. I wrote its name down and brought a new one from Dick Smiths for $10. I took out the old and put in the new. All the while being careful to ground my self by touching a large metal object, very important in avoiding electrostatic discharge which is basically the devil at work. My beauty now has new life, no longer does it stop and stall during start up, it sails plain through. Now it knows the truth, that its 12.07 am on the 22nd June 2006, that truth and that new heart have set it free.

The journey did not stop there friend, oh no not at all! So many greater things were in store! It was really just the beginning to the life this Compaq Presario 1400 was always made for. There are 5 purposes... just kidding, I wont go there. I will finish with a to be continued. So tune in next time folks... will Justin’s beauty really be able to live out of its new heart? What about its old and slow ways of thinking? What more perils await our intrepid computer fixer as he shapes his machine into the greatest thesis witting beast of all time?!

Super... Mario!

We all want to be Super. Like Super Mario. But what do you have that is so Super? Can you jump and bash blocks and leap over chasms real good? And do other stuff real good too? Like eating mushrooms and becoming invincible and extra large and white and shoot fire balls? ha? ha? Can you put on a hat with wings and fly? Its all about finding the right hat that will give the right super power. Its a me!

We all know that chicks like guys with skills. And super skills I’m sure are all the more appealing, alternatively you could just bake cakes or something (no I’m not growing out of that movie anytime soon). So vote in the new poll for which super power you would most want. Some guidelines are provided bellow.

Invisibility, means that nobody can see you... unless using a high tech thermal imaging device. Would be helpful at avoiding people, being sneaky, and would make for a good stunt to pull on your one hundred and eleventh birthday.

Flying, means that you can propel yourself through thin air, without the aid of any device. You can fly up to 500km per hour. Like other forms of physical exertion it requires energy, the faster you fly the tiereder you get, and the bigger the mess, and if you drink and fly then you will crash and die and be a certain type of idiot. Would make travel more cheap and fast, would be lots of fun and you could give friends a ride on your back. Perhaps you will find Neverland, take the second to the right and straight on 'till morning, hopefully you wont end up in California.

Telepathy, means you can read peoples minds. It is something you can turn on and off so you don’t always have to be listening which would be quite draining. You can only read one person at a time, and its really hard to do if they or someone else are talking to you at the same time, but you will get used to it after a while. It also means that you will have no friends... unless nobody knows or don’t care. Would be useful at understanding what women want, or what anybody wants, could help reduce communications problems and you could become know as the human lie detector.

Teleportation, means you can zap form one place to another in a few seconds. But you have to know how to get to where you are going so you have to have been to that place before. It is not possible to simply look at a photograph or video footage. Attempting to teleport based on such flimsy evidence may lead to becoming stuck in teleportation space which pretty much means being lost forever. You can teleport anywhere on earth but not to the moon or mars or anywhere else. Unless you first fly out to the moon, then you can teleport around the moon, but not back to earth... its just too far. Attempting to teleport such large distances may result in death. If you drink and teleport you may end up in the wrong place and be late for work, but why are you drinking before work anyway, gosh! Would be as useful as a washing machine, it will save you time on boring things like travel so you can spend it on the things you love, because being there is everything.

Time stoppage, means you can stop time for the whole world except yourself. So basically everybody freezes in the middle of whatever they are doing and you can just walk around and do normal stuff. If used too often will result in aging faster than your peers. Would be useful in finishing an assignment, meeting people on time, being the only kid in school with a mustache, and basically cheating in all kinds of ways.

Alter appearance, means you can change into anything you have the imagination for but must take up the same volume as your current self, in one piece. Would be good for espionage, hide and seek and getting what you want.

Breath fire, means you can exhale fire from your mouth, just like a dragon. You can alter the distance of the flame depending how hard you exhale but limit of up to two meters. Would be hand in many situations. Many.

Super human strength, means you can have the strength of 20 men or 40 woman... whichever you prefer. The strength is physical and applies to all muscles in the body. Would be useful for leaping over buildings in a single bound, opening jars, lifting cars, self defense and becoming governor.

Results form the previous poll are:
The best part of a fruit crumble is:

14 % The fruit
71% The crumble
10% No preference
5% I dont like fruit crumble's

No real surprise here, the crumble wins and I still cant figure out why but crumble is sooooo good. Its tempting to just make only crumble (it has been done) but admittedly the apple or whatever else does add something. I like to think of it as a synergistic relationship. 1+1 = 3. or perhaps 1 +2 = 4. where apple is 1 crumble is 2 but together they are 4.

Well cool yeah

It was the best of times... I mean it was well cool yeah! Which is the English way of saying really really cool. You see My Mum is from a city called Colchester in England and all her side of the family still live in England so I have like infinity cousins over there only two of which I have ever meet – Emily who visited with her mum about 5 years ago when I was still living in Hamilton, and her older sister Amanda who stayed a couple of nights with us when I flatted on Castle st. This time Emily came to NZ as part of her Masters to do a placement at the New Zealand film archive in Wellington. Then she came to Dunedin just to see me :) awww... and to have a good time. Which I think we had. We did some of the standard Dunedin stuff like Baldwin street (which incase you don’t know is like the steepest in the world), Otago and Settlers museums, Signal hill, Mt Cargill, St Kilda/St Clair beach, shopping and the peninsular, amongst some other things.

Man I love the peninsular, it just gets better every time. The group for our big peninsular adventure was Me and Emily, my flatmate Kirsten and Kirsten’s little red car. We went right to the end where the Albatross place is. We didnt go on the tour but when we were mucking around near the car park a Albatross flew right over our heads (for free!) and then swooped back round for a second pass, it was awesome! I have never seen them that close before. Its wing span was huge. There were a couple of seagulls nearby that were pretending to be Albatros’s. Our theory was that the seagulls like to hang out there because they get more attention when people mistake them for Albatross’s. We were not fooled. We then had hot chocolate at the cafe and discovered that Emily (who is a vegetarian) cant eat marshmallows because they have gelatin in them – which is made form animals. So lucky me I got her marshmallows – whilst this was not the highlight of the trip it was a very joyous occasion – and it was to be repeated a couple of days later at another cafe. It’s strange to think that when eating marshmallows you are eating part of an animal, I mean its just not as obvious as chicken or mince beef. But I guess even then you dont think about the animals cause its not shaped like an animal, you dont sit there and think I wonder if this chicken had large talons??? But umm thats of topic. Oh and now that I think about it you can buy chicken that still resembles a chicken.

We then went to the infamous Sandfly bay which none of us had been to before. This is the place to go to see Penguins... supposedly, I mean I was really a bit skeptical. Its just that penguins are not the sort of thing you see that often, or ever. So I was just getting my self emotionally prepared for the possibility that the penguins might rather swim that day than come onto the beach. Its about a 30 min walk to a little hut at the end of the beach where you are supposed to hid and spy on incoming penguins. Now even if we saw nothing it was a beautiful walk along the beach, it was overcast and moody and the waves were so wild... I actually feelt like jumping in for a swim but I had no togs or towel. Before we got to the hut we encountered 3 sealions just chilling out on the sand. Sealions are bold and boisterous, rare and beautiful. One of them roared at us. From the Hut we actually saw two penguins... that were climbing/jumping up the side of a hill! It was crazy I dont know where they were going. I would have liked to have gone up to see them a bit closer but its about respect and we didnt want to annoy them. On the way back we saw two more penguins one of which did a run and dive back into the sea which was awesome cause they run so cutely! Kind of like a waddle :) Im totally going back to Sandfly bay in the future and I hear there is another great bay near buy. Still so much to discover.

Other highlights of Emilies vist including getting to show her what a modern church service is like (that’s Elim baby!). Dinner at Filadelfio's and a roast we had a home with some other pep's (on seperate nights). Oh and we watched Napoleon Dynamite together and The Brady Bunch movie... and the third Brady Bunch Movie! Which was actually a bit bellow average cause they didnt have the same cast as the original two. But it was cool to watch it with her cause both her and my family were crazy about it when we were kids and I mean I still rate them pretty highly. OH my nose! Now I’ll never be a teen model what’s the point in living I might as well die!!! Marsha Marsha Marsha! Hey there groovy chick... your happening in a far-out kinda way ;) and oh so many many more great scenes/quotes its just classic! Dont even try to deny it.

Yeah had an awesome few days with Emily and the people that joined us for various things. Its funny to think it was only the second time i’d ever met her and we get on so well. Im sure we will have more great times in the future as we both do some travel!

Ok so random fact about Emily... her boyfriend has painted 3 larger than life size paintings of her that were recently on display in a London Gallery. How cool is that.

Well cool I'd say!