Friday, May 21, 2021

You (Almost) Can't Have It - 21 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 435

Micah 6:8
Psalm 37:1-4
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

My computer is getting old. It started with Windows XP, upgraded to Windows 7, then over to Windows 10. It's starting to show its age with its fairly ancient Athlon 4-core processor and massive(!) 4GB of RAM. So, I'm looking at what's out there for my next build (yes, I build my own machines - always have since my first 80486 tower), and it's a bit frustrating.

I don't want all that much, but what I want is what I want, and it looks like the industry thinks I'm wrong. (By the way, shout out to Mr. Twiddy for singing that song to his High School Biology class.)

I want a 6 or 8 core Ryzen with 16GB of RAM - that's no problem. I want Gb Ethernet - again no problem. I just want a decent video card - that's a bit problematic, as everything is more powerful than I need, more expensive than I'd like, and nearly unavailable anyway (curses on you, crypto-miners!).

But the hardest part - and this is crazy to me - is finding a reasonable case (mid-tower) that allows for an optical drive. I know things are available for download - I do that too - but I have lots of things on DVDs, and I actually burn discs fairly regularly, both audio and video. I guess I'm a dinosaur, but I think having a physical copy of things that I've purchased seems a reasonable hedge against internet outages and suppliers' going out of business.

It's not impossible to find, but good grief it's been difficult. Sheer lunacy if you ask me.

By the way, today is Gotye's birthday (you used to know him). Enjoy! (this one is even cooler)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

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