Okay, so it’s been a terribly, disastrously long time since I blogged. I actually disappeared from the Internet for several weeks due to a pressing need to concentrate on my studies, which caused some worry at ZetaBoards… thanks to those who cared enough to check in on me! But everything now is fine, and I’m back in action. I am in the midst of preparations to travel to Niger (Africa) next month; I applied for my visa today and got vaccinated for yellow fever. I still need to pick up a malaria prophylactic (Malarone) and complete a bunch of paperwork, but I’m on my way! I leave July 8 and return July 28. I’ll be working with a team of undergrads and doctors to minister to the people of Niamey (capital city of), Niger.
Almost as exciting is the progress of my computer build! I have every part ordered, and the final two (video card and hard drive) arrive tomorrow. I’ll be building over the weekend, and barring any DOA parts, will have my new computer done by Monday! In keeping with the Greek mythology theme all my hardware is named on, the new computer will be called Mercury; it’s silver and fast 
I’ll be extensively documenting this build, mostly to please Scotty, but also this is my first scratch build. I’ve done plenty of upgrading and installation to Erebus, my six-year-old ABS machine, but it still came pre-built. One interesting note about my parts-ordering process is that I ordered pretty much every piece from a different company. I did this both to save shipping costs (find free shipping deals) and to get the best deal on every part. A side effect, though, is that I have a lot of useful information on different companies’ shipping habits and general post-order followup.
Read the rest of this thought »