Back to the Table

Many moons ago I got rid of almost all of the vinyl LPs I had. I did so because I had a record player that no longer functioned and I fully intended to replace all the albums with those wonderful space-saving CDs. I packed up all of my albums and took them to a local shop that bought used vinyl and discs. I can't recall how many records I sold or how much I got for them, but it couldn't have been enough; I'm now regretting have done that.

Feeling nostalgic

I enjoy playing guitar. I should, I have five of them.

Stats and Pops

I started Cities: Skylines around a week ago. After a few struggles, my city began to hum along nicely. I even received an achievement for keeping the crime rate under 10% for 4 years. But, as I began to expand the city, I began to have major problems.

Happier times

Vorsicht! This game is scheise

Wolfenstein: The New Order is much like its protagonist: big, dumb, and ugly.

I don't feel like dancing, no sir, no dancing today

I am intrigued by Wolfenstein's alternate reality; it's fascinating to speculate on what would have happened had the so-called Third Reich won WWII. But this game pursues it only insofar as a reason for shooting, killing, and exploding Nazis. All of that, ultimately, is unrewarding as the thick-necked, fat-headed American protagonist tears his way across that overused linear path from point A to point B, through a vast, grey, flat wasteland, to yet another dull, cliched, laughable final boss. I'll never get those hours back.

Minecraft Notes

My girlfriend tells me I'm I nerd.

Just Suggesting

Looking for music to code or clean by? Check out Stars as Lights. Here's the artist's own description:

     Stars As Lights is a one-man ambient / post-rock project aiming to be the background music for beautiful moments.

I would also add a bit of shoegaze/dreampop in there. It's all instrumental, and the guitar work is fantastic.

If you're looking for something a bit more electronic I suggest you check out the soundtrack to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The tracks are short ---- the longest being 4:25 ---- but they are moody, atmospheric, and introspective. Perfect if you need unobtrusive background music.

Just in Case

From this

To this

I spent a good deal of time and money modifying my old Thermaltake case, but I was never satisfied with it. So, when I saw that my favourite online computer components store had the NZXT H440 in stock, I promptly charged it to my favourite credit card. This case has many cool features (e.g., a fan hub, LEDs, sound-dampening material), but the one that clinched it for me was the PSU shroud. It hides all those ugly cables and has two slots for SSDs. It sports a nice, clean build and it's as quiet as a church mouse.

So that should be the final upgrade (at least, for the next few years). Here's the final build.

NZXT H440 case
     includes 3, 120mm intake fans in the front and 1, 140mm exhaust fan in the back
Corsair AX860 860W PSU
ASUS ROG Maximus Hero VII  (Z97) motherboard
Intel i5-4690k CPU
G-Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB 1866MHz CL9 RAM
Gigabyte GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 3xWindforce graphics card
     GPU clock: 1114MHZ; Memory: 1753MHz; Boost: 1253MHz
Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD
Seagate 1TB HDD (secondary drive)
Western Digital Blue 2TB HDD (backup drive)
Coolermaster Seidon 240M Liquid CPU cooler
     stock fans removed and replaced with two, 120mm Noctua NF-P12 PWM fans
Corsair braided cables, red

Razer Deathadder mouse
Razer Deathstalker keyboard
ASUS VG248QE 144Hz LED monitor