Yesterday was a slightly strange day for me.

Here at work mostly everything I could possible do in the day was finished and it was already 11am. (only 5 more hours to go)

So, I wait quietly and pick up the current book series I'm reading, so I could finish it before the next one is released.

"The Dark Tower"
Book 4
By Stephen King
Wizard and Glass

I read about 5 chapters and realize that it's already 2pm (3 hours to go)

I start checking my hotmail and charter.net email accounts.
My father sent me an email with links to the items he just purchased.
(He was looking to upgrade his computer from his current AMD Athlon XP 1700+ to something quicker)
Link one was an aBit IC7 MAX3 mainboard, which is an excellent board, and the second was a P4 3ghz monster

You have to understand in the past 2 years since I moved closer to my family. My father has been gradually becoming a hardcore gamer/ computer geek. Which is fine by me. (I already am one)
Now I've built him 2 computers in the past and he felt he could build his own from the things I've showed him.

I email him back and tell him that when the parts get in today, "Back-up your important data and do a fresh install of winxp".
(which he does)

The last 3 hours was spent fiddling around on the web looking at upcoming computer hardware for my future upgrade.
(I've had a 1ghz for almost 3+ years) I've decided to take the plunge into the 64-bit computing world and slowly build-up a second computer.
The pieces I've choosen are the MSI K8T Master-Far2 and the Athlon FX-51.
I know you're probably thinking (damn that's expensive) but I'll buy one peice at a time spanning the course of 3-4 months. (I've waited this long I can wait longer)

5pm
Work's over and I start driving home. The drive home usually takes anywheres from 45 minutes to 1 hour depending if I'm going 75mph or 85mph.

I get home and surf the web for awhile. Allyn (my wife) wants to cook-up some Beef and Broccolli stir-fry for tonight. (which totally hit the spot)

I start messing around with Stardock's ObjectDock and found that the program is excellent especially since lately I've been on an icon hunting bonanza. (over 700mb of icons)

I also check to see my ebay status (work blocks eBay's website).

AH-HA, I won 2 Sinkholes. MTG (Magic the Gathering) use to be a hobby of mine back in highschool. ('95 was the year I quit and tappered off in '96) Just recently several friends have stirred my interest back into the game and my brother (Daniel 22) and I are slowly re-igniting our interest again. 20 dollars for 2 cards.

Later on I decided to finally reinstall all my games and programs after I felt the system was stable enough.

6pm
Installed Dreamweaver MX, Anarchy Online, Savage, Nero, Roxio and other little programs.

7pm
Dinner was DAMN good, I love my wife.

8pm
Dad calls me up to tell me his brand new computer doesn't work. He explains to me what's happening. (it will power-on and start continiously beeping) He asks me to come over and check it out and see if he did anything wrong. I tell him "I'll be there in an hour".
During the next hour I start watching episodes 7 & 8 of Naruto.

9pm
I head out to my father's house (he only lives 15 minutes away).
I head down to the family room and see the chaos of his work spread all around the room; packaging, boxes, computer parts and tools in odd little piles here and there.

10pm
I figured out why his computer wouldn't load (even to the BIOS). He forgot to plug the extra power plug into his RADEON 9800pro. He explained the story to me on how he missed such an obvious thing.
After he had the entire computer put together and turned it on, a couple seconds later the beeping would start. This startled him so bad that he ran around to the back of the computer to unplug it quickly. Now when I did this, I was in the back of the computer and he was at the front with the monitor. As soon as the computer started beeping for me. He states "HEY! there's a message here that says that you haven't plugged the external power plug to your video card". I just look at him and he looks at me with an "Oh, crap" face and we chuckle about it.

I decided to stay there and help him out with his clean install of WinXP Pro while we talk about old computer games with my youngest brother (Dale 15) Talking about how I remember the first computer games I use to play. I also explained how we thought a Pentium 60mhz was Top Dog in our block. How Ultima 3-7 looked and played. X-wing, Tie-Fighter, Wing Commander, X-Com, and a slew of other games I can't remember off the top of my head. After that we decided to have my dad finish watching "Red vs Blue" (an absolutely hilarious web-show based on the Halo computer game) and he loved every minute of it.

11pm
Holy crap, this install is taking a long freaking time. (So my father says as well)

1130pm
He heads to bed, I decide to wait it out a bit (even though I have to be at work the next day at 730am)

12am
I decided to leave for the night and go to sleep.

530am
I wake up for work and check my Trillian messages and emails before eating breakfast, showering, and changing clothes. Daniel mentions to me that it's been stuck on 13% for the last 5 hours.

630am
Time to leave for work and take the dog (Kayla) over to my fathers house for him to dog-sit.

645am
He tells me that he just restarted the computer and the it says registering components insted of installing. (That's a plus, but the computer isn't ready yet)

735am
I get to work and start my work-day.

Closing comments:

Sometimes I feel like not fixing my fathers computer at all. (to tell you the truth)
He's my dad, yet I don't get any money for repairing or upgrading or fixing small problems that he's having. It's almost like it's part of the contract we have since I was born.

And other times while I'm fixing a computer, I feel that I have to fix it "Right away", "Right now". To me when I fix a clients computer I like that feeling that they've used their hard earned money and got the same "Hard-Work" in return. I don't like having an incomplete project, especially since it's someone else that's paying me to do it. I tend to go out of my way to repair someones computer (especially when there's money involved or a favor to be had) even staying up late 2-3 days in a row. Getting only 3-4 hours of sleep each day.

That's just the life I lead... and that's just the way I feel.

Zah