Apple is the devil Bobby Boucher, the DEVIL!

I can't be the only one who thinks hand models are creepy 

Here we are with day three of my personal challenge to just write SOMETHING. I will say, it’s been both easier and harder than I thought.

I finally remembered what I was going to write about yesterday. It was supposed to me much more interesting and not completely about computer building plans. (Which is still coming along, by the way) Here goes nothing.

Basically, Apple is the devil.

I really appreciate the fact that iTunes has a lot of what I want. I travel a lot, so I’m rarely home to watch TV. So now that the new seasons of all the shows I watch are about to start back up, I find myself checking the iTunes store daily. I only plan on seeing if a certain show is able to be subscribed to, but I inevitably find my eyes wandering to the “recommended” area of this fiendish program.

Two days ago I spent 35 dollars on music without even thinking about it. It’s gotten to the point that I have to start adding an iTunes allowance into my monthly budget. And, like I said earlier, I appreciate the convenience of iTunes, it really makes impulse purchases extremely easy. In my case two days ago, I purchased two new albums that I didn’t even know were on the horizon. Both are fortunately very good, so I don’t feel like I wasted my money. But damn, it is hard to resist the Genius. “You might like this stuff that we know you will find totally awesome. We know you are just going to buy it, so just go ahead and do it. Resistance in Futile.”

I also own an iPhone. AKA “The Jesus Phone”. I find that I have a lot of utility with my iPhone. It is, however, frustrating to have to constantly update all the apps that I’ve purchased. It would be nice to have the phone do it for me. You know, since I’ve already spent so much on the damn phone, the data plan with AT&T, and purchasing the app itself.

Don’t even get me started on wireless syncing. I know its possible Apple. And I want it!

I avoided iTunes for years. Until my phone, of course. Now I feel like it’s integrated itself into my computer, as well as my life. I’ve considered using alternative products, but that would just feel weird, you know?

So I’ll keep using my iPhone (3GS, I’m not getting an iPhone 4 until I know for certain that the antenna issue is under control) and I’ll keep using iTunes until something exponentially better/easier comes out. Apple will keep getting way too much of my money and I’ll keep my downloaded copy of Star Trek on my iPhone. Because, seriously, that’s just an awesome movie.

I just have to keep telling myself that there is no reason for me to get an iPad right now. I should at least wait until the next generation and I don’t really need it at the moment!

Oh, but the gadget guy inside is sad about that decision… Damn my personal responsibility.

This post is like Seinfeld minus the funny.

Did you know that Microsoft Word 2007 has an option to upload a blog post directly to Blogger? I type everything in word before I even think about publishing it, because honestly I am not that great of a speller. Word’s word database (that seems like an odd statement to me for some reason) is much better than the one built into Google Chrome. But as cool as it is to be able to upload directly from Word, I am not going to try to do it right now. But it’s nice that I have the option. Thanks Microsoft!

Okay, enough stalling I guess.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the new computer today. Of course, as soon as I had some free time to sit down in my office and start doing some research, the air conditioner decided that it was time to blow up. This probably isn’t going to be as detailed of a blog post as I had envisioned when I was finishing up my Day One challenge. But I think that life want to be able to roundhouse kick you in the groin every once in a while, just to let you know it’s there. But I don’t let that hold me down. No Sir.

During my brainstorming today I’ve come up with a few ideas and guidelines for what I want to do. First off, I am going to try and save money and use some of the existing hardware from my aforementioned failures of computers that I built a few years ago. I should be able to reuse at least the case, power supply, and hard drives.

Of course, I just hope that I don’t get any evil technology devils that want to come and transfer themselves from my last failure.

I’m going to use an Intel processor – probably a Core i7 and a solid state hard drive for the Windows 7 boot drive. Other than that, thing are pretty much in the air. I want to be able to play anything coming out this holiday season on max settings, so there needs to be a good video card in there. Or hell, it might be TWO video cards. I just don’t know how crazy I’m going to be. At some point I will need to come up with a budget. But I don’t want to just yet because budgets are not fun. And if you could believe it, WAY less interesting on what is turning out to be an extremely boring post.

Seriously, I just reread everything so far and I don’t even have anything good to say about myself. Two posts in two days talking about thinking about building a computer is pretty lame.

Melanie has been wonderfully encouraging of what I have been writing. I will say it’s probably why I have not yet given up and hung my head in shame.

Fortunately for me, tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Maybe I’ll use that knowledge to my advantage so tomorrow when I am boring, I can at least be boring with some flair. 

I can has blog topic?

I’m going to start things off by apologizing.

You see, I tried thinking of things to write about over this past week, and I’ve pretty much come up with nothing interesting. I have to write a lot for my job. But it’s hardly anything entertaining, so it’s easy. I did get myself prepared today. I got myself a Red Bull and a pizza and I’m just going to write until something mildly interesting happens.

Because, you know, I hate to fail.

I’m still trying to stick to a certain degree of anonymity, so it’s hard to come up with things to say without blatantly giving myself away. Melanie has been trying to help me come up with a few ideas. Mainly that I write what interests me, and what I know. I’d like to keep all the relationship stuff on her site for now, unless I just need to get something out that doesn’t fall within her PG-13 guidelines. And, unlike some people, I actually care about what I submit for her approval.

I think my best bet (and Melanie’s suggestion) is to write a pseudo “How To” article.

Or, in this case, the intro to one.

I’ve recently decide that it’s high time for a computer upgrade. It’s a reward to myself for being a responsible adult and paying off debt, as well as a birtdaychristmasholycrapideserveritaftertheyearihad present. And yes, I just made up a word. Deal, mmm’kay?

Am I rationalizing? Probably. But it’s okay, because there are a bunch of games coming out soon. Err… I mean, I will be way moar productive!!!111

There is just one small problem. While I have a lot of experience building computers for myself (and others), the last time I did build one, it went horribly, horribly wrong. To this day I am still not 100% sure what happened. I purchased all the right parts. I really did all the research that I could and found the best combination of hardware. Then I bought two of everything. One set for me, and one for my former significant other.

I took my time and relished being finally able to use “good” parts to build a few nice gaming rigs. I carefully laid everything out methodically assembled both monstrosities before I ever tested one. Oh, but I was so sure it would work perfectly fine.

But then it wouldn’t boot up.

Oh shit. Ohshitohshitohshit! Now I was getting angry stares from my (former) ol’ lady. The angry stares turned into mild nagging. Eventually, the nagging turned into a fully fledged verbal assault that had me wanting to cower in the corner.

I tried my best to diagnose the problem. And to this day I think that all THREE motherboards that I had were bad. Everything else that I tested seemed to work fine. But I never lived it down. And it traumatized me. This was three years ago.

Eventually, I did get those computers to work. Sort of. They never did become the powerful gaming computers that I had intended them to be. The beratement that I got from my ex was just too stressful and eventually I just gave up on them. And I since I was traveling a bit anyway, I justified the purchase of laptops. Now that my laptop is starting to show its age, its time I try my hand at building a computer again.

So, tomorrow might not bring a continuation of this story. Or maybe it will. I do plan on making a How-To post on putting a computer together. It saves me a crap ton of money instead of paying for a pre-built one from a company. (EFF YOU DELL!) 

Queue CSI: Miami Intro Music

-OR-
Well... It looks like the deadline... Came sooner than he though.
YEEAAAAHH!

So, I've certainly given some thought as to what I should write on here. In a way, my anonymity is a hindrance, because there are things that I could talk about... But then it would just be too easy to figure me out. Not that I necessarily go out of my way to hid it, but it has been comforting to know that I can have a venue that is free from everyone's preconceived notions of me.

I may decide to break my self imposed restrictions, provided I have a reason to.

I have decided that in the near future, I am going to try a little challenge for myself. You see, I have a hard time writing. Not the thought process in and of itself, but just getting it all down and polished enough to where I feel comfortable with sharing.

Since these past months have been all about trying new things and (slowly) getting out of my shell, I've decided that I am going to try to do something that I NEVER do. I'm going to commit myself to posting one article on this site a day for three days straight. And its going to be 500 words or more.

Please, if anyone has any ideas... I could use them. I still need some time, but in the interest of me kicking myself into gear, I'm going to state on here that I'll start no later than next Friday.

That gives me one week. I'm freaking out, man.

Type type type...

I've finally have an opportunity to sit down and write... And I owe Melanie some stuff first, but maybe I'll give my own blog some lovin' once I'm done.

Which is funny, considering what I am talking about for Melanie's site.

Ghost Blog!

 I command you to go to hell and sit on a red hot coal, and wait for me, until it snows! 

I've been a bad blogger! I said once a week and its been... (let me look) 12 days!!! Holy crap I suck. What can I say besides a the main ingredient of "I've been busy" with a dash of "I've been lazy" thrown in for good measure.

I promised Melanie that I would work on something for her website in the next few days. Even if she has another guy giving his opinion. I'm shocked. Nay, appalled. Where is my agent, and what is he doing about this faux pas?

I suppose I have only myself to blame.

But anyway, I've almost reached a point where I have a little bit of breathing room. I'll try to get something up here within the next few days.

You know, for my multitude of followers...

-NG

I don't want to come back down from this cloud. It's taken me all this time to find out what I need.

Time to kick my bad habits... 

I'm coming down off of the high of a good day. I've been doing a lot of things at my job lately that has some creative juices flowing. It has felt so good to finally feel positive after such a dark period. I started feeling better over the last two months or so. Before that I was just trying some days, and going through the motions on others.

I would like to say that I don't particularly like being single. I've never been one of those roguish men seeking conquest after conquest. Of course its nice to feel wanted and have everything that a relationship entails, but I have to admit that I needed to be single for a while. 

You see, I came out of a long term relationship over a year ago that turned dysfunctional towards the end. It was really hard to let go and move on, even after everything that happened. I became jaded. I became selfish. And I became anti-social. I probably needed to do those things for a while. Hell, it took everything that I could muster to not become self-destructive. Maybe I did all of those things so I could build a temporary shield around my psyche. But all of those things, well, they simply are not me. 

Writing has been therapeutic, even though most of what I have written won't be seen by anyone else's eyes but mine. The last thing that I want to do is make this blog about that past relationship. Its time to put the past behind me and move on. I feel that I have a lot to offer a woman. I've been inspired by Melanie to think of a list of what are deal-breakers in a future relationship. I suppose I'll try to work on that at some point. 

Mental note: Add making a list to the list. 

I don't feel 100% quite yet, but I think I am close enough that I can actually contribute to a healthy relationship. I will say, it feels nice finally being me again.

What's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?

I love Super Troopers!

But our shenanigans are cheeky and fun.

But that is not what this blog is about. I decided to name this Nice Guy Shenanigans because I expect this to be a bunch of random, crazy things.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what I am going to talk about. My friend Melanie suggested that I start a blog, so here I am. More than likely I'll continue to lurk over at her place, but perhaps I'll attempt to post things here from time to time.

I am going to remain anonymous for now. But that does not mean that I will not engage anyone in conversation. (That means you, ladies!) :p

I'll make no promises. This isn't the first time I've tried to start one of these. But since I'm attempting to create new habits for myself, maybe I'll stick to it. Its also nice that I have Melanie encouraging me.

Maybe I'll try for once a week.

But, for now I have to reply to some comments and write my next response to a relationship question.