So, it’s the end of another quiet Thanksgiving here at the house. I can’t say it’s been TOO eventful, really; just a quiet day off for the most part. I got up around about my usual time, had my morning coffee, and did the usual morning routine. Thanksgiving dinner for us happened around 1 PM. Unlike a lot of families and people I know, Thanksgiving is always a small, quiet affair at the house. Our closest relatives live in California, and we don’t really ever get a chance to go see them. That’s just my dad’s brother and his family, including his married daughter. The bulk of the rest of our family lives in England, and they celebrate Thanksgiving on July 4th. So, unless we invite guests over like Louie and his mom, it’s just the three of us. We had an appetizer of shrimp cocktail for myself, and herring in sour cream for my parents. For the actual entree, we had turkey breast, dressing, mashed potatoes, peas, and gravy. :-) Dessert consisted of a choice between pumpkin pie and cheesecake. As is traditional with us, for the most part, we chose the pumpkin pie. After that, I went upstairs and slept for a few hours. :-)
I was productive this evening, though. My desk has been a disaster area for ages, and I figured it was time I did something about it. While on the phone with Dave (who called to chit-chat and catch up), I cleaned off my desk itself and gave it a good dusting. Once I got Dave off the phone, the REAL grunt work began: I shut down the PC, and began removing it and ALL of the peripherals and wiring. While doing so, I removed several items that had been obsoleted and needed to go, such as a VGA cable for my monitor (since upgrading my machine in late 2005, I’ve been using DVI) and a PS/2 extension cable (my keyboard and mouse are both Bluetooth). I also finally removed the old four-port USB hub that had been causing my main PC to crash on boot. After removing everything out and then dusting and vacuuming, I put the needed equipment back in. While doing so, I went ahead and took the time to set up my new four-port USB hub (the one shaped like the TARDIS). After getting it set up, I couldn’t resist the chance to take an amusing picture of it, so I grabbed my cell phone and my talking Dalek toy…
You get the idea the Dalek is thinking, “Somehow, I was expecting it to be somewhat bigger…” :-)
As for the Dalek-shaped webcam, I’ll get that set up tomorrow. I’m not quite looking forward to tomorrow; as much as I want to avoid the Black Friday traffic, I have to go to Office Depot to see if I can get a set of inexpensive computer speakers for my main PC to replace my old ones. I don’t need anything fancy, really, so a set of $30 Logitech speakers would work fine. The subwoofer on my old one blew a diode, and as such is making a rather tremedous hum when plugged in. Ah, well… I’m just hoping it won’t be TOO much of a big hassle.
For now, though, I’m just going to run downstairs and get a beer, and then think of the answers Kerri requested in the last post. Of all the people I expected to answer, she wasn’t one of them, so I actually have to think about what I want to ask her and tell her. :-) Ah, well… at least it’ll be a relaxing rest of the evening.
Those are rad.