Xmas toys 4 computing? ?

[phreenet]

I did well I suppose, got an Iomega External USB 2.0 40X CDRW. Also got the cash to hook up with a nice Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, which sounds 10X better than my ShitBlaster Live! 5.1, and I had to get an Adaptec USB 2.0 card for the burner yay!!

[bikr]

i dont' know where my post went haha.. but i'm posting it again , anyway.. joe , nice setup , plug those rca's in the back though yucky.. =p i just got a technics reciever and sony speakers from my friend who got a new system in his house.. it's not DTS but it's awesome!$@#$@# --bikr

[kai]

i got a ps2 , and a 20" flat stero tv with component in its a samsung was only 200$ but it looked real nice , as nice as the sony and toshiba. A fortron 460w psu that is 24 pin now im looking for an adapter. Some clothes that i will never wear.

[phreenet]

I must have cool relatives, they always manage to get me kick ass cloths that I will wear, and probably most of you would wear too.

[FoolOnTheHill]

I also didnt recieve any computer related items, but I still made out pretty well. I got a bunch of DVDs, including Spiderman, Episode II, Fight Club, Wayne's World 1&2, LOTR extended edition and Goldmember.

These, of course pale in comparison to what my christmas cash helped to buy me: A Martin DR acoustic guitar from guitar center. Completely solid wood throughout, amazing sound for the price and a great feel. Not to mention that it'll only gain value and increase in sound quality over time..

Only problem with that is, that I'm flat broke now.

[Puzzdre]

Now I'm feeling better, so I can add what I got for Xmas too...a nicotine/caffeine poisoning...and my pancreas just got out of a shock...

[airspirit]

Vitamins N and C^2 are a bad combination in high amounts. I learned that the hard way on a carrier. Two packs of cigs and 15 espressos in one day left be coughing blood.

That doesn't include the bleeding ulcer I got from living for a week on Mountain Dew and Marlboro Reds. I lost over 30 lbs. in two weeks then ... I still have problems with my stomach sometimes resulting from that.

[Puzzdre]

Two packs of cigs and 15 espressos in one day

Wow, this is almost my daily average... 2 packs and 7 to 10 espressos (some of them with milk, it's more healthier ya know... )...
But in this times of gathering, this amounts rise sky high 'cos sit of sit and talk with everybody....now I know...

Jup, for today (it's 7 pm here), 10 cigarettes and 3 coffees till now...I wander how long that would last...

What's a Mountin Dew (suppose it's a beer)?

[phreenet]

Smoking is such a disgusting habit, tsk tsk tsk. Moutain Dew isn't beer its a soda beverage with a good amount of cafine added.

[Puzzdre]

Smoking is such a disgusting habit, tsk tsk tsk

LOL, what's a good morning coffee without a cigarette????

There's a saying here - 'If you give me shit, be sure to provide a spoon too...'

[gogo]

Originally posted by airspirit
I still have problems with my stomach sometimes resulting from that.

I lived on tabacco, coffee and crap food for 10+ years. I was also a vegetarian.
a pouch of tabacco (probably close to 3 packs, though unfiltered) a day and I have no clue how much coffee.
About 5 years ago my body stopped completely digesting food, and barely processed the Vitamins and such. The doc's actualy said to NOT cut cold turkey, they were afraid my body would go into shock. Between the smoking, coffee and (shhh, drugs) from when I was younger I screwed up my metabolism. Really bad. Since High School I've had a problem keeping weight on, but it had gotten really bad. I was down to 110. I'm 6'4".
So, for the last 5 years I've been cutting down and re-introducing thing back into my diet.
Down to one pouch a week & 1/2, 3 cups of coffee (1/2 caff) and none after noon. I'm also up to 185lbs. There is still a lot I cannot eat, and I can no longer be a Vegetarian (body has a real hard time with veg protien, you don't want to know what it does) but I feel a lot better. Just wish I could just eat 3 normal meals instead of lots of little ones all day long.

[Joe]

its funny, someone in Chat gave me shit about buying a Home theater and a TV when I am complaning about not having any money for the site and being broke

Simple fact is : I work for money I can enjoy, and when I have the choice of dumping more of my hard earned cash into ProCooling, or take my Xmas goodies ( Gift certs and such) and buy something I can enjoy every night. Sometimes I will chose to buy myself something instead of shore'n up ProCooling for another few months. I just wanted to clarify this incase there is anyone else out there wondering the same thing.

Also its real hard to impress a date at your apartment when you have no TV, and no real stereo. ProCooling doesnt make up for those to the women hehehe

[Puzzdre]

airspirit, gogo, I'm glad the things are getting better for ya!... It's kinda funny how a man can forgive how to breathe without restrictions...maybe I'm gonna continue with this low count of cigarettes...

joe, some people think that if you run the site, you don't have the private life of your own, and they do not separate those things.

Think they should be ignored...:shrug:

Cheers!

[airspirit]

Everyone has the right to take care of themselves, Joe. I currently rule my neighborhood in terms of internet services with an iron fist, and sometimes get complaintes about my service. I'm running 2x cable uplinks and 1x DSL uplink through 3x WAP and four firewalls, feeding 2 PCs in my house (3 to come!!!), and 15 others throughout the neighborhood in 8 households. At the moment my rate spread is only $10 per machine, giving me $150 in income for about $90 in service outlay. That gives me $60 for machine maintenance, power consumption, and the hassle of being tech support for over a dozen people and knowing each individual system intimately for servicing and maintenance, not to mention troubleshooting. I have equipment covering 6 different brands in my extended network, and that is only including the WAPs and adapters ... with network adapters and such on top of that my job is ugly in terms of sheer knowledge required.

I have three channels in use (Jester, Maverick, and Iceman), and I have to monitor the directional output of each depending on weather conditions (snow makes things ugly for certain houses). People expect my time and effort on the drop of a hat (even in the middle of the night) if they have any issues, including things as trivial as "low" connection strengths/speeds on the channels. People don't understand sometimes that even though I'm providing them an absolute STEAL for broadband and access, not to mention the killer setting for LAN games and the world's grandest repository of warez and gamez along with other standard downloads and patches at up to 11Mbps, that I have a life too. I got questioned by one of them about my cooling project because I "should" be spending the money upgrading hardware so they could be on a "very high" signal strength all the time.

I told that person to piss off promptly, and asked if he was unhappy with his service, and if so, I'd be MORE THAN HAPPY to disconnect them and reimburse them the last two month's connection fee, and they dropped it immediately.

What people don't understand is that for us geeks, these pet projects (some more extravagant and public than others) are just hobbies. They don't pay the bills, and they serve no purpose except to fuel our techlust and egos (in some circumstances), but are usually not the center of our lives.

Would I be miffed if Pro/Cooling went down? You bet! Do I feel that you should live like a hermit in order to support it? Hell no! We have lives just like anyone else, and we want the same things as everyone else. People that expect us to do without for the privilege of helping them need to understand that we are doing them a favor, and should in no way be compelled to oblige them further. Everything we do for others in these respects are out of goodwill, and it is not something they deserve. Do I have a right to demand you keep the doors open on your sweat and tears? F*ck no! If I knew he was diverting funds from the site to pay for these things, I have the right to gripe, but that's about all I could do. In the end, Joe can do whatever he wants because IT IS HIS ENTERPRISE.

If I had the chance to redo history, I may not have started the mini-ISP I'm running. Honestly, the $60 a month "profit" is broken down into the following: $20 for power consumption (thirsty bastids), and $40 going toward the debt of over $500 I went into to buy the hardware to support this thing. In the end, I earn no support from it, but I end up spending about 10 hours a month doing "house calls" for people. The only reason I did it was to help people. I'm sure that's the only reason this site still exists, is because Joe understands how many people are helped, and it gives us a place to congregate and push for the common good (correct me if I'm wrong).

In short: why should those of us that bust our humps for others have to starve to do so, adding insult to injury? It's not right. If anyone has problems with how this site is run, they should just f*ck off, because they obviously don't understand what a blessing it is that Joe even bothers to give you this forum in the first place.

/rant mode off.

[airspirit]

Puzzdre, if you want to quit, here's a tip:

Buy lots of booze, and wait until you have a few days off. When you can stay home for four days straight, the last day of work, stop smoking at around 6 PM, and tough it out for the night (you'll be tired, so go to bed early). Drink lots of water that night.

Day One: Start drinking booze first thing upon waking up, alternating one drink:on glass of water. Make sure that you NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE AND THAT THERE IS NOTHING IN THE HOUSE TO SMOKE. By noon you should be pretty wasted. Be sure to gorge yourself on as much food as possible during this, and keep drinking booze and water. Your body will be screaming for hydration, as nicotine is a diuretic. The withdrawals are not nearly as bad if you are drunk, full, and hydrated. If necessary, take 400 mg Ibuprofin every 4 hours. By the end of the day, your body will be purged of nicotine completely. Take 2x multivitamins.

Day Two: This is the worst day. Anyone can make it one day, but day two (36-60 hours) is the hardest part. Start doing the same routine as day one, but try to have somebody over (who doesn't smoke) to ENSURE that you don't get weak and stumble to the nearest store for relief. You should have slept around 10-12 hours the previous night, and you will be very tired this second day due to withdrawals. Every four hours, take 200 mg Ibuprofin and 1 TBSP of sugar to fight the insulin buildup from the alcohol and residuals from withdrawals. You will need to go to the bathroom, but you'll need to take a laxative to do it (trying not to be sick here). If you don't go, you'll be in misery on day three. Take 2x multivitamins.

Day Three: You probably didn't oversleep too much. You won't need to drink so much booze today (though you'll need the water DESPERATELY), and your eating habits should return to normal somewhat. Keep up 1TBSP sugar/200 mg Ibuprofin every four hours. Tough it out, and have a friend. Withdrawals won't be too bad this day. Take a multivitamin, and try to go to sleep at the normal time.

Day Four: Get off the booze completely. Keep drinking water constantly, and try to eat normally. You shouldn't need the Ibuprofin or the sugar. Take a nap in the afternoon. Take a multivitamin (continue taking daily for the next month). Brace yourself for temptation when you return to the world and make plans to avoid ANY AND ALL smoking related events.

Day Five: Withdrawals are completely over. You'll be constipated as hell, but otherwise, the only things that will make you start smoking again is habit and psychosomatic issues. Good luck in your smoke-free life.

This is a guaranteed method of cold-turkey quitting. I've put at least a dozen people through it, and 2/3 are still smoke free at the six month point. Nobody wants to go through that again. The only thing that would make you start again is if you're stupid enough to have another smoke. If you have just one, you will be smoking more than in the beginning within a week. That is a promise. There is no "just one" when it comes to smoking.

[Puzzdre]

Among the other things said...

What people don't understand is that for us geeks, these pet projects (some more extravagant and public than others) are just hobbies. They don't pay the bills, and they serve no purpose except to fuel our techlust and egos (in some circumstances), but are usually not the center of our lives.

If anyone has problems with how this site is run, they should just f*ck off, because they obviously don't understand what a blessing it is that Joe even bothers to give you this forum in the first place.

Straight to the point and ABSOLUTELY right!

[Puzzdre]

!!!

WOW WOW WOW!

This is the first step-by-step recipe for quit smoking I ever saw, and surely is the most comprehensive one!
Down to the bone...wow!
I'll save it to my hdd for sure, although I don't quite want (nor have the time at this point) to try it.

One thing for sure, if you ppl see unusual amount of typo errors in my possible posts, be sure the hell week has started...

And yes, I know that 'just one mean nothing' thing...it brought me on the smoking road again four yrs ago...:shrug:

Wow, thx again!

[gogo]

Originally posted by Joe
Also its real hard to impress a date at your apartment when you have no TV, and no real stereo. ProCooling doesnt make up for those to the women hehehe

But what about the Pro Cooling thong?

[jtroutma]

airspirit: AMEN!!!!!!!

You just decribed half of my life right there in about one page of rant!

Joe, go and spend some money on yourself and DONT EVER FEEL SORRY ABOUT IT!

All we do ask is you try and keep ProCooling around as long as you can Thanks for all your support and your dedication.

[airspirit]

Puzz: if you do this method, you do have one thing to look forward to. Your emotions after that first week will completely shut off. You won't feel happy, sad, angry, excited, NOTHING. You get to see how Spock deals with stuff, and you'll have a ton of people wondering what the hell is wrong with you. It's good fun, believe me. There is a Stephen King short story that deals with this particular aspect of quitting, and it is quite hilarious.

[Puzzdre]

LOOOL, airspirit,

Live long and prosper (I'm doing that fingers thing)!

Thanx!