I know I have more-or-less said this a couple of times already, but I will say it one more time:  Happy New Year!  2010 passed quietly since my last Nothing Day post, so I feel I am entitled to the declaration one last time.

I am making progress towards full, non-agency employment with the company I work for.  I got a call late last week which I returned on Monday.  This resulted in an official offer letter and a large quantity of online documentation to be completed.  I completed said documentation in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  Yesterday morning I went to a testing clinic and peed in a cup for a drug test.  Not counting alcohol–which I haven’t touched in…um….yeah, it’s been that long; I can’t remember–I have never had anything to do with recreational drugs, so the test was an easy thing to pass.  Now I am waiting mostly for the background check to finish.  The target start date is January 21.

The reason I was up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning was because I got Part 1 of some minor computer upgrades I am doing.  Part 1 was video card #2.  This should have arrived on Friday, but the streets were a bit icy so UPS decided to not deliver.  I installed the card, attached the crossfire cable, messed around with a funny little card on my motherboard which controls which video card slots will and will not be operational, and finally got it working.  In the process, I learned something about Crossfire:  This technology allows you to connect two or three video cards together so they act as a single card.  This much I knew, but what I did not know was this meant only the outputs on one video card will work.  I need to investigate this further and see if there’s a way to get all the video cards’ outputs to work with Crossfire enabled.  (There is, fortunately, a way to disable it so the cards function normally.)

Part 2 of my upgrade plan arrived yesterday.  This is not an upgrade, per se, but it will improve my situation.  It is a monitor stand designed to hold up to six monitors.  The only problem is my current desk is not really designed for handling a monitor stand like this, so today I will engage Part 3 of my plan, which is to buy a new desk.  This is a new addition to the plan, added when I received Part 2 and realized I simply could not make it work with my current desk.  If all goes well, I will have the new desk assembled and the old one removed before EverQuest raid time tonight.  The kittens have an appointment today, which will delay the desk-buying, but I have some hope we’ll finish that soon enough for me to find a good desk and get it home (with help from a friend with a car) in time to get the assembly thing done before raid time.  I have time frames in mind; if we don’t get back before 1530 or 1600 at the absolute latest, I will not attempt assembly today and will instead do it tomorrow.

Speaking of the kittens, if all goes well today at their appointment, Kivuli will receive the shot she needs to receive prior to being spayed.  If things go as planned, next week she’ll have the spaying surgery.

Not much to report on in EverQuest.  I haven’t raided in three weeks, so I am looking forward to tonight’s raid.  Shaka continues to make good progress with AA points.  Boom and Dan are edging forward on regular experience.  All three have almost completed two sets of tasks in the starter zone for the new expansion.  I believe that once they succeed–which may happen today–they will each receive a Trophy offers in-game benefits.

That’s all I have for this week.  See you tomorrow.