Geek...to Chic in one weekend....

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

So there.
I play DDO.
I play DDO too much.
At work, when I have to spend mind numbing hours at a desk in an office waiting on the off chance someone might walk up and have a question I might be able to answer.
...sorry...I had to go answer one. 5th one today...lol.
back to the story...

So, since staring at the walls has the effect of putting my mind in standby, I have to find things to do.
Surf the net.
Shop the net.
Study (yeah...right!)
Find not-yet-blocked game sites to while away the hours.

Till I found DDO...
Now I surf the forums all day.

I have the reputation of being a gamer.
Funny how one thing can label you.
I get the brunt of the office jokes...as in...Watch it! She will hit you with her +9 wizard!
Explaining to them it is level 9 not +9 and that at the time I had never played an arcane in the game just proves their point.

They are big on being right...not accuracy.

A while back I drug out of the closet 9 out of 12 of my co workers either played an on line game of some kind or had in the past...

Still...I am the only office gamer.

I am the pariah.

Last weekend, I had a B-day...a big one...

Being twice divorced, recently-permanantly single, (it is for the best...), I thought...

What are my options...
1.) Spend the day playing DDO...watching my beloved gaming rig slowly fail before my eyes...
2.) Take my self to movies and dinner...tempting....
3.) Stay home and watch ROAR!, eat ice cream and watch DVD's...
4.) or get my lazy good for nothing pseudo geek self up and go to Fry's and build myself the gaming rig to replace my Alienware...

I got a shower...(lol)...got dressed in street clothes and got to the electronics-geeks-dreamland...
And I got lost...
AMD...INTEL...
Huge tower...mid tower..
Top o'dah'line or mid range...

I needed help..
I went the the For Dummies section of the computer books.
...I did mention I am a pseudo-geek...right? I pass for geek but have never finished my Qual.

I looked, and looked but the Big Book of Preventing Yvonne's Blunders just wasn't on the shelf.

...But PC Modding for Dummies was. BAM! I got the book, a cooler for my Alien(yeah..another one...)(burrying it in ice wouldn't keep it chill.) and and headed through the McD drive through...so I could peruse the pages of my purchaced prize...at the far end of the Fry's parking lot...in privacy.

An hour later, a note book with notes in my hand (sometimes you gotta have a sanity check) I went shopping.

I priced, I perused, I planned...
I started to notice that even if I went top price...on everything...and bought a 42 in tv in addition to the monitor I would still be a few hundred shy of the bazillion dollar price tag on my old rig...

But I digress...

And I rant...

This is how I became cool instead of a fool. Not my past rig mistakes...

I compiled piles of boxes. I became both popular and unpopular amoung the customers and the clerks a-like.
I pushed around a big loaded down cart. I blocked peoples' view.
People told me I had a nice box...er...case...umm...<ahem>
I found strangers walking up to me to confide in me whispered secrets...all because of the confidence from the book.

Guess what...not all computer clerks are cluesless. They just don't want to have to explain the ABC'z.. they would rather talk in XYZ'z.

So...I got all the gear...got past the cashier...got it in the car...got it in the house.

Assembly took hours..I am slow...I call it meticulous...lol. First time...n00b.

At around 9 it was assembled and it shone there in the middle of the living room...and I got the shakes...
I went on line to ask for my guildies' help...boost the confidence. One last sanity check..I am weak.

Well, it was a long night..I worried I woke often as it formated and loaded and did other silly stuff...all by itself without catching on fire.

I walked in to work...exhausted...but smiling...and let a fellow gamer know what I had done...

Suddenly the oohs and ahhs and the I need ones and the but did you remember and the you should haves filled the office...

No longer was I the gamer..I was now...the one with the new computer...
..and the +9 wizard guy isn't talking to me anymore!
'Cause my new rig trumps his...

[Hafeal]

Congrats Yvonne.

Looks like I now know just the person to assist me when I upgrade ...

[Caelan]

congrats on the new gear, yvonne.... but the real question was... didn't ddo look cool on the new setup?!?!?!!!

AND:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cowdenicus]

Did you get batteries for your sound powered mic????

[Brutous]

So there.
I play DDO.
I play DDO too much.
At work, when I have to spend mind numbing hours at a desk in an office waiting on the off chance someone might walk up and have a question I might be able to answer.
...sorry...I had to go answer one. 5th one today...lol.
back to the story...

So, since staring at the walls has the effect of putting my mind in standby, I have to find things to do.
Surf the net.
Shop the net.
Study (yeah...right!)
Find not-yet-blocked game sites to while away the hours.

Till I found DDO...
Now I surf the forums all day.

I have the reputation of being a gamer.
Funny how one thing can label you.
I get the brunt of the office jokes...as in...Watch it! She will hit you with her +9 wizard!
Explaining to them it is level 9 not +9 and that at the time I had never played an arcane in the game just proves their point.

They are big on being right...not accuracy.

A while back I drug out of the closet 9 out of 12 of my co workers either played an on line game of some kind or had in the past...

Still...I am the only office gamer.

I am the pariah.

Last weekend, I had a B-day...a big one...

Being twice divorced, recently-permanantly single, (it is for the best...), I thought...

What are my options...
1.) Spend the day playing DDO...watching my beloved gaming rig slowly fail before my eyes...
2.) Take my self to movies and dinner...tempting....
3.) Stay home and watch ROAR!, eat ice cream and watch DVD's...
4.) or get my lazy good for nothing pseudo geek self up and go to Fry's and build myself the gaming rig to replace my Alienware...

I got a shower...(lol)...got dressed in street clothes and got to the electronics-geeks-dreamland...
And I got lost...
AMD...INTEL...
Huge tower...mid tower..
Top o'dah'line or mid range...

I needed help..
I went the the For Dummies section of the computer books.
...I did mention I am a pseudo-geek...right? I pass for geek but have never finished my Qual.

I looked, and looked but the Big Book of Preventing Yvonne's Blunders just wasn't on the shelf.

...But PC Modding for Dummies was. BAM! I got the book, a cooler for my Alien(yeah..another one...)(burrying it in ice wouldn't keep it chill.) and and headed through the McD drive through...so I could peruse the pages of my purchaced prize...at the far end of the Fry's parking lot...in privacy.

An hour later, a note book with notes in my hand (sometimes you gotta have a sanity check) I went shopping.

I priced, I perused, I planned...
I started to notice that even if I went top price...on everything...and bought a 42 in tv in addition to the monitor I would still be a few hundred shy of the bazillion dollar price tag on my old rig...

But I digress...

And I rant...

This is how I became cool instead of a fool. Not my past rig mistakes...

I compiled piles of boxes. I became both popular and unpopular amoung the customers and the clerks a-like.
I pushed around a big loaded down cart. I blocked peoples' view.
People told me I had a nice box...er...case...umm...<ahem>
I found strangers walking up to me to confide in me whispered secrets...all because of the confidence from the book.

Guess what...not all computer clerks are cluesless. They just don't want to have to explain the ABC'z.. they would rather talk in XYZ'z.

So...I got all the gear...got past the cashier...got it in the car...got it in the house.

Assembly took hours..I am slow...I call it meticulous...lol. First time...n00b.

At around 9 it was assembled and it shone there in the middle of the living room...and I got the shakes...
I went on line to ask for my guildies' help...boost the confidence. One last sanity check..I am weak.

Well, it was a long night..I worried I woke often as it formated and loaded and did other silly stuff...all by itself without catching on fire.

I walked in to work...exhausted...but smiling...and let a fellow gamer know what I had done...

Suddenly the oohs and ahhs and the I need ones and the but did you remember and the you should haves filled the office...

No longer was I the gamer..I was now...the one with the new computer...
..and the +9 wizard guy isn't talking to me anymore!
'Cause my new rig trumps his...

congratz.... now you can blame your isp for the lag.

anyway congratz i was the same way last august- AMD 6000 two 8800 GTS sli-
4 gig of ram..

Did you recycle you old pc?

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

My alien? We have a love hate relationship...my last one got recycled to my mom...this one I am keeping...