Out with the Old; In with the New

Some weekends I am challenged by my blog. I feel it a duty to post something, so people know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but it's not every weekend you run across a Jurrasoid Insect Monster, or cause grievous pain to your digits. This week I have a theme.

Books

Finally, at very long last, after stutterstops, changes in venue, and mini-sabbaticals, I've finished Guns, Germs, and Steel. That book is a massive undertaking, but in the end, it's worth it. I don't blame anyone who skips over a dozen of pages of detail at a time, and I don't think it's a bad idea. The book is like one of those college courses that you just couldn't wrap your head around entirely because you had other classes, legal drinking ages, and girls(!) to distract you as well, but you still took something very profound from it. For me, as more of a self-supposed architect of imaginary worlds than a true student of history, I took more world-building tips than life-changing data, but I think it's probably created a bedrock for my meta-scale worldview from which I'll unknowingly argue in the future.

The book I'm moving to is supposed to be a terrific, insightful, lyrical, and fun translation of the Pentateuch, and I'm very excited (though I certainly don't expect to rush right through it). I should probably toss in a Heinlein book (he's my favorite author), as I need to read some good fiction to instruct me in difficulties I'm having moving through some of the less exciting portions of the various fictions I'm creating. I think I'll pick I Will Fear No Evil. It definitely deserves a re-read.

Under-desk Space Usage

I've had this server somewhere around my computer desk since Pasadena. Due to multiple reasons (it sounds like a jet engine when you turn it on / it has less than 60 GB of RAID'd usable space / it's very old), I rarely turn it on. I'm going to move it into the attic storage space. Replacing it is:

A mini Fridge! Yay! Cold beer upstairs! Kim and I were given $500 in $50 gift cards to Home Depot as part of using LendingTree.com when we were buying the house. We agreed to take $100 each for a spending spree, since we had already bought most of the things we needed before the cards arrived. I'm very please with my purchase, but I also got a push-broom and a front-door mat with dragonflies on it. Kim bought mostly wall-paper removal stuff and a sander.

CD Storage

Back in Buena Park, I moved all my CD's from their whacky stackable jewel cases to more streamlined slipcovers, due largely to their large and ever-increasing numbers. However, to this moment, they remain mostly in or around the box I moved them in, drastically reducing the overall efficience of the change. But I bought from Target:

I think each drawer should hold about 30 or 40 CDs in slips, so I can keep my top 140 CD's easily accessible. I'll still have to find homes for the other 500, but it's a start!