It's been a little while since I've posted. Much of my time has been spent on reddit, since I finally caved and got an account over there. I've also been working more on my K&R exercises and working my way through Metroid Prime 3 to get all the goodies. Hypermode is pretty tough, even for me! I died five times on the Mogenar drone battle, when Veteran difficulty didn't give me any real issues! It's certainly worth playing through if you enjoy a good challenge like me.

Car Repairs

As mentioned in an older post, my car started stalling back in December. I narrowed down the cause to the throttle position sensor. It's an itty bitty sensor that's affixed to the bottom of the throttle body and is responsible for telling the engine how much fuel to use. At least, that's how my cartarded self interprets it! Anyway, it's in a stupid place on my 1994 Buick LeSabre; too cramped to use a regular screwdriver to get it out, and there's a metal pipe right underneath it so I can't fit a small screwdriver in there, either. I had bought a gasket for the throttle body since I figured I'd have to take it off to get to the sensor a little easier... NOPE. There are a lot of bolts and nuts in some really strange places that made getting the throttle body off in a timely manner impractical with standard everyday tools.

I decided "screw it" and used a pair of pliers to (slowly) extract the screws from the old sensor, and used them to put the screws back into the new one... but not before going to the hardware store and buying nicer screws that were too large. Did I mention I was seeing my daughter that afternoon and was in a hurry? Yeah... what a peachy day that was. Since the skin on my hands is somewhat soft and thin, I didn't get through the ordeal without a few light cuts and a bruised thumb knuckle from using various tools all day.

I learned that day why mechanics tend to curse a lot. But hey -- at least I did it! My sister's husband and a friend helped me as well, but they let me do most of the work. It felt good to basically fix my car on my own. Oh yeah, the sensor ran me about $60. For something so small, there's no way it cost that much to manufacture and test. Oh well, it doesn't stall anymore. Now it needs tires and probably brakes!

Saving Moolah

Before Etrian Odyssey 4: Legends of the Titan came out, I preordered it. Because I'm a sucker for preorder bonuses and Atlus is pretty badass. There's a catch to this: I don't own a 3DS! So I've begun saving for the 3DS XL. I've culled my game collection to afford things in the past, but as a result my collection today is less than half what it was; I'm running out of games to sell! Work's been picking up, but it's still not enough to let me venture out and just pick up a 3DS XL. I need to find a better job... Oh yeah, I also bought the new Animal Crossing because it was on sale. Stop me, I'm buying games I can't play yet! :/ Maybe I can sell a few more games or get a Web project commission or something. Anyways, I should have a 3DS XL by my birthday. If not, I'm going to be angry. Etrian Odyssey and Animal Crossing need me!

Upgrades, anyone?

Sporkblog 2.2 is in the last-minute testing phase. The new version should be live by the weekend and introduces a few logical and visual changes. Now I can cut off posts anywhere I want in list view. This will result in a little "Read more" link so it clutters up the interface less and allows you to focus on the article. This won't be used for all posts, but I think it's a usability enhancement that'll be appreciated.

Another upcoming change is comment editing. There have been a few discussions on here where my inability to edit comments produced a few confusing comments. When 2.2 goes live, I'll be auditing every comment for requests to correct information or clear up any typos for people. Commenters still will not be able to edit, as that requires setting a cookie for each comment they make (or session variables), and I don't agree with that sort of design. It also can lead to changing a comment after someone's responded to it. Kinda dishonest. That said, there's more that I want to add to better the experience. We'll see what the future holds!

On a semi-related note, I've taken to updating my Gentoo GNU/Linux system on a monthly schedule. This allows me to isolate the cause of breakages and if I plan them for a weekend, I have time to work kinks out. Since this is my only computer at the moment, it's important for me to always have it working. I've been meaning to shop around for a laptop, but nothing out there speaks to me. I want modest specs so I can code, write, and browse, with a long battery life and strong keyboard design. I'll probably be using my Typematrix 2030 most of the time, but still... I wish they made Dvorak laptop keyboards! If you have a laptop to recommend that's friendly to Linux or BSDs, please let me know in the comments! I'm hoping to spend less than $400 if possible. This is obviously a long-term wish since I can't even afford to fix my car now, but it's important to have goals!