New computer is on the way.
I pulled the trigger on a (mostly) prebuilt system from CyberpowerPC. Found it using TopRigz, which is a tool created by people at the /Prebuilts subreddit. I swapped out the case for something I thought looked a little cooler, and courtesy of their one-day Valentine’s Day special, got a couple of upgrades.
I’m getting smarter in my old age, though. I knew, for example, that I was going to have to buy a new keyboard. I mentioned last week that there are a ton of keyboards out there and I could feel myself approaching information overload. CyberpowerPC ships their machines with a basic unlit keyboard for free; I upgraded it to an RGB unit for a few dollars, because I’ve come to really appreciate backlit keyboards. I’ll make do with that one for a bit until I can choose one that matches the case aesthetics.
I’ll need to get speakers, at least one more monitor, and a monitor arm to mount them up high. If I do this right, I’ll have three monitors running. I’ll have to think it through pretty carefully though, because I want at least one of the monitors to be portrait orientation to make it easier to edit my stories. But would it look weird to have both a portrait and a landscape monitor on the same arm? I feel like it would. We’ll see.
I’m open to suggestions for speakers and monitors, by the way. My current extended monitor is a 7-year-old HP 22CWA which has done okay for what I’ve used it for. I’m not sure how it’ll work with the new machine. I suspect the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in the new computer will show the limitations of the older monitor.
Soundwise, I’ve got two different speakers on my wish list right now: these Creative Pebble units, or the PreSonus Eris. I could have bought the former with the computer direct from CyberpowerPC, but they’re cheaper on Amazon. The PreSonus speakers come recommended by a writer on AbsoluteWrite. I’m still wondering though. I’ve got a week or so before the computer ships, so there’s plenty of time.
Now I have to work on clearing my desk to make room for the new box.
Brave New World
Middle Son took us to this one. Great flick. I thought it was one of the more solid recent entries in the MCU. It’s not Endgame but it wasn’t intended to be. There’s some old characters and some new ones. Some very funny lines (“He’s 110 years old.” “I can work with that.”).
I’m not sure how I feel about Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross. I know Hurt died so Ross had to be recast. I’m just not sure I like Ford in that role. And Ford’s a great actor, and there were parts of the movie where he was great. But there were parts where it didn’t quit click, too. Nothing I can necessarily put my finger on though. I’m probably still stuck on him as Jack Ryan in the old Tom Clancy movies. I thought Alec Baldwin was a much better Jack Ryan.
Writing
Still didn’t make goal. I’ve been spending too much time doomscrolling in the evenings, which gets me to bed well after midnight, which means I don’t get up until close to noon. Then I get frustrated, can’t focus, and start doomscrolling….yeah.
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