Houston, TX Week 2

I treated Monday just like a train run; that is, I didn't go anywhere or do anything of import. It was a day of laundry, cleaning, reading, and napping. And backing up my computer as I planned to reinstall the OS.

Sadly for me, when I went hunting for a copy of Windows 7 on Tuesday, it was not to be found anywhere in stores. I could either have it mailed and wait another week, or install Windows 8.1. Being impatient I went out and bought 8.1. Installation was very easy and smooth, but right after it was finished my screen went black. After 3-4 hours of trying to figure out the problem, the frustration was too much. Jameson came over to help me out. 5-6 hours later (around 2am), we had determined that it was a conflict with the graphics driver, but we were unable to fix the problem using any logical conventional means. Poor Jameson worked so hard to fix it. What a trooper! We went to sleep exhausted and frustrated.

The next day after calling both Microsoft and Intel and getting nowhere, I asked our bass player Jerome to take a look. Jerome has vast knowledge on many different subjects, and when it comes to computers and their maintenance/repair, he's the go-to guy here at the circus. He figured out that my BIOs was outdated, and once it had been updated he was able to reinstall the graphics driver, and just like that my computer was back to normal!

I am one of those holdouts who still prefers PCs over Macs. But this whole experience was ridiculous. One more episode like this and I might make the switch. To be fair, the problem was with Dell's components. But somewhere along the way, either Microsoft, Intel or Dell should have run a compatibility check and notified customers of the exact updates needed for at least the most standard equipment.

In any case, now that I've had time to actually work with Windows 8 I think it's pretty cool. Basically the Desktop has become the Start Menu, and you can install apps to it like you would on a tablet. It's actually very similar to the XBox Dashboard. The normal Windows Desktop still exists, but personally, I'm more inclined to keep everything on the new Start menu. Some of my favorite features include the Bing News app in which I was able to customize my own newspaper, and the ability to install apps just as you would on a tablet and have them display information instantly on startup. Speaking of startup, I notice an increased speed there and on overall function as well. Best of all, if you right-click on the Start menu button, you'll immediately get Task Manager and all of the other wonderful system tools that Microsoft tended to bury in previous versions.

Anyway, that's my opinion on that :P The next day (Thursday) we had a split. I brought my PC to the building to reinstall all of my things. There was no internet in the dressing room, so I set up near the elephant compound to work. While waiting for some updates, I noticed that Siam was having a blast with some toys :)
Thanks to Jimmy for permission to take pics!




Super cute~<3

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