I feel like a total dick.

So I'm sitting on campus with my laptop out right now, and I'm doing something so socially awkward that if I was anyone but myself, I'd be failing at life right now. But since I'm a fucking badass, I can do this. I'm playing DOOM while listening to Psytrance in the corner. And I look like a fucking champ.

Psytrance is the shit.

Hey all, I've recently begun to get into a subgenre of trance called Psytrance. It's different from traditional trance (as weird as it feels to call any form of trance "traditional") in that it doesn't rely on catchy hooks, lyrics, or verses to get its message across. Psytrance songs are rather linear in nature and can be quite long, relying less on memorable moments and more on the whole picture, which is rather constant throughout the whole song. This allows your mind to ignore its "expectations" of the music such as "Oh, the chorus is coming soon, I better get ready". Instead, your brain can think and flow freely with the subtle variations in the flow of the music without having any pre-cut expectations for what lies ahead.

In summary: It's good thinkin' music. Lawl.

If you wanna hear it, listen to my Last.fm player over there, I'm sure that's all you will hear since that's all I have listened to all night. If it's working like it says it does, you should hear Psytrance playing right now.

Anyway, ciao, I justed to post my thoughts on it... that no one will read.

REVIEW: Hewlett-Packard Pavilion DV2910US Notebook PC

Well, my old, decrepit Toshiba Satellite A15 officially bit the dust. No OS would stay installed on it for more than 24 hours before complete system failure. After about a week of desperately trying to fix it, I gave up and got a new laptop.

I went with the HP Pavilion DV2910US notebook PC, and I thought I'd share my impressions with you.

This computer is a powerhouse for its price. I got a deal at Circuit City, $579.00 after rebates. Best Buy had the same laptop for $200.00 more, so I jumped at the opportunity.

Upon opening the box when I got home, I immediately was impressed with the care of the packaging. Minor, I know, but I seriously have not seen any piece of electronics so well-packed and organized. It says a lot about the company.

When I removed the laptop, I realized just how sexy it was. The lid is black with a very subtle carbon fiber-like design on it, with very light markings and designs that are pleasing to the eye. The whole notebook is very glossy without managing to show fingerprints badly at all. The palm rest is silver, featuring similar designs to the lid. It's one of the most attractive notebooks I have ever seen and is very compact.


Anyway, once I was done checking out the aesthetics, I opened it up and hit the power button. Immediately, all of the shortcut buttons along the top of the keyboard lit up blue. The cool thing about these buttons is that they are touch-activated and aren't actually buttons at all. One touch mutes the volume, as well as manual volume adjustment. This functionality is directly linked to the Windows sound volume controls, rather than being a separate volume control. This is very convenient, as all of the volume adjustments are handled in the Windows software and not physically on the machine.

Back to the first bootup. After a lengthy initial boot (configuring the settings for Vista), I was devastated to be greeted with an HP installer, which was dumping thirty pounds of shit (also known as "pre-installed software") onto my fresh notebook. Knowing I would immediately remove all of it, this process was annoyingly long, but I expected it.

After all of this finished and Windows started, I got to see just how much shit HP put onto my computer. I had two Yahoo! search bars - on the desktop. And so, I began the tedious process of removing all of the fecal excrements that plagued my new computer. Two hours later, I was all cleaned up and had a nice, blank copy of Vista Premium.

Now for what everyone cares about: the system specs and performance.

This notebook comes equipped with a 1.8ghz dual-core Intel Centrino processor, 250GB of hard drive space, 3GB of RAM, and (the only weak point here) an Intel Extreme Graphics video processor. As you can expect, everything is blisteringly fast. To this point, I have not had one single slowdown or delay with running any program. Everything runs amazingly smooth, and Vista Premium shines on this machine. The screen is beautiful and the overall performance makes this machine feel solid and fluent. The hard drive space is plentiful, and the 3GB of RAM make any program run effortlessly.

The LCD screen is absolutely top-notch. At 14.1 inches with a widescreen display, this laptop is compact - something I like in a notebook. The screen quality is gorgeous, shining brightly with extremely vivid colors and rendering everything on-screen with excellent sharpness.

The only "weak" point this system has it its video card. Intel Extreme Graphics has never been a great video processor, but this laptop is for school. I can play pretty games on my desktop PC. That being said, the graphical power of this machine is by no means "bad". I can play Portal quite well, even windowed. Not the most demanding game, but if it runs Portal, it can most definitely play recent titles like Half-Life 2 or other Source engine titles. You probably won't be playing any Crysis, but this is up-to-par with most PC titles up until about a year ago.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with this computer. Performance outside of gaming is absolutely amazing, and still impressive in-game. I can tell that I will be using it for a long, long time. Everything feels perfectly harmonious and responsive.

Here are the complete system specifications:

- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5550 (1.83 GHz)
- 250GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive
- 3072MB DDR2 SDRAM (2 Dimm)
- LightScribe Super Multi 8x DVD/RW with Double Layer Support
- Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) with Service Pack 1
- Built-in webcam
- 14.1" WXGA High-Definition Widescren BrightView Display
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with shared graphics memory
- Intel PRO/Wireless Network Connection
- 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
- ExpressCard/54 PC Card Slot
- Expansion Port 3
- 6-Cell Lithium Battery

My final review score: 9.2/10

It's official: I need a new laptop.

I woke up this morning to see my laptop caught in an infinite loop. It would restart, show the Windows loading screen, blue screen, and restart again.

This is only about 20 hours after I totally reformatted it, haha. The thing is dying. Poor eternal laptop. Currently Ubuntu Linux is installing on it, hopefully it will work properly.

Oh, the irony, Microsoft.

Dear Microsoft,

Your "security update" you forced upon me did a lot of good. Upon rebooting afterwords, I was greeted to a black screen that said "MISSING OR CORRUPT SYSTEM FILE". I really enjoyed trusting you to protect my computer, only to brick it.

Needless to say, I reformatted... again. This time, Windows Update will never be turned on. Kay, thanks.