PC fixed (hopefully)

On Sunday evening my PC broke. I have been getting error messages about the CPU fan not working every time I switch the PC on for the last month or so, but the fan was actually working and the PC also worked alright. But on Sunday I came back from a walk and my bedroom (where the PC is) was smelling a bit funny, it had that 'something isn't quite right with some electronics' smell. However, the actual PC didn't seem particularly smelly, so I carried on working until the PC shut down unexpectedly.

I knew it must be the failing fan causing the CPU to overheat, so I went down in the garage to find the stock CPU fan (I had bought an Arctic Freezer 7 fan when I built the PC, and never installed the stock fan that came with the processor). Unfortunately, despite searching in many boxes, I couldn't find the fan, so I had to order a replacement and then wait a few days for delivery. It seems that Amazon only shipped it out on Tuesday (that's when they sent the dispatch email), but I paid for 1^st class postage, and so received it today (Wednesday).

Annoyingly, this problem happened just at the time that Mauser went on holiday, otherwise he would have been able to get me a fan from work on Monday.

While I was without PC I polished my desk, moved my desk around, and worked on some articles for my photo tips website. I watched Ben play on Portal 2 and made / decorated a cake with him as well.

I spent this afternoon uninstalling the old fan and installing the new fan on my PC. The new fan is an Arctic Freezer 7 Rev. 2, so an updated version of the old fan. I was hoping it might run cooler than the old fan, but it seems to be the same - as I write this the case temperature sensor is showing 32°C, the CPU will be running quite a bit hotter than that. Room temperature is quite cool at the moment.

In the evening I didn't think there would be a sunset, but actually there was a really nice one. Thankfully I did manage to catch some of it. Possibly I missed the best, but I don't know. Certainly it would have been better if I'd been out earlier in time to get my tripod and camera set up without having to rush as the light faded.

Also in the evening I watched Ben complete Portal 2, and sorted some old photos, just geocoding them and moving them from one nearly full drive to a different drive with more space. My PC was taking ages to start due to failing Windows Updates, so I had to install the updates separately, which took a while. I also managed to crash my PC by changing the output socket on my soundcard that the speakers were plugged into (the one they were plugged into wasn't working - the card has 3 unlabelled output sockets for surround sound and I am using stereo speakers). Not sure how that could make the PC crash, but it did.

This morning I started cutting out pogs in Photoshop, then went to church. In the afternoon I finished preparing the pog images and updated the website. I went in the garden for a bit while the sun was out, then spent quite a while baking a madeira cake.

After tea

Metadataring

Today (and the past few days) I was mainly researching and adding descriptions, keywords etc. for some Korea photos.

In the morning today I also made some Eccles Cakes.

In the afternoon today I also took some photos of wasp grubs.

In the evening today I also watched an episode of Magi Rangers and an episode of Masked Rider with L. Later I finished off my Blinky-il plasticine figure.

Various stuff

This morning I was mainly reading Nikon Rumors, going an AFFX webinar, doing a bit of work on an old pano, geocoding some photos, and topping up the pond. Weirdly I removed some pondweed / algae from the pond and it had a damselfly on it. Not sure what a damselfly must have been doing underwater on the pondweed.

In the afternoon I worked on an article for ezine articles and articlesbase for my photography tips website.

In the evening I submitted the article and went out on a walk. It looked like there was going to be a nice sunset, but unfortunately the sun just set behind the clouds, and it was a rubbish sunset.

Photo processing

This morning I was geo-coding my photos from yesterday and Saturday. While that was working I checked my emails, wrote yesterday's and Saturday's blog posts, and did some vacuuming. I listened to 'Relax with Mekon'. I remembered last night how good the song Mekon did featuring Roxanne Shante is, and I think Annie Mac said she'd leave Radio 1 if it didn't get to number one. I don't think it even charted, and Annie is still working at Radio 1 over ten years later.

I spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon reading the latest posts and linked info on Thom Hogan's site and processing the pano I took yesterday evening.

In the evening I processed some more photos and went out on a walk to take some more photos. But the sunset wasn't very good as there was hardly any cloud around.

Various

This morning I updated my pog website and went to church. After dinner I finished watching 'Jeremiah Johnson' with Mauser and Bo.

The rest of the afternoon I was working on a blog post for my photo tips website.

In the evening I went out to East Farndon again, hoping for a better sunset today as there were some clouds around. Unfortunately I mis-judged the sunset time and the time it takes to get to the hill, so I was about an hour too early. I spent some of this taking photos in a different field, and quite a lot of it just waiting in freezing cold wind.

Thankfully I was rewarded with a nice sunset, though it could have been better. The hill did get lit up by the sun just before it set, but the fields below didn't get lit up the sun. The strength and warmth of the sun seemed to be diluted slightly by having to shine through some thin cloud as well.

I probably missed the best part of the sunset (soon after the sun set) as I was walking very quickly down a road to try and get warm. But I hope I've still got some good photos.