Things that might be decidedly odd…

New Power Supply

So, I opened up the box containing my computer that I had shipped from Germany. A cursory look through the thing seemed to indicate that everything was in order. However, there are a couple of small dents (that weren’t there before) in the case that slightly hinder its opening and closing. I guess it’s not too bad considering the thing traveled thousands of miles via the international postal system.

Anyhow, since I sold my old power supply before I left Germany, I set out to Fry’s today to buy a new one. I took my new car and there were no problems. The longer I drive it, the more comfortable I feel about it being in good shape. Tomorrow will be the acid test though, when I have to go get it smogged and get this break clunking sound figured out.

Fry’s was a total zoo today, I guess because of the Memorial Day holiday. They had a lot of power supplies there, but in true Fry’s fashion most were crappy no-name brands, while the boxes of the few good brands had those notorious “this item may have been opened and returned, but we looked at it and it seems ok” stickers on them. Years ago Fry’s lost a big class action suit, where they got busted for reselling returned merchandise as new. So, now they put those lame stickers and drop the price like $3 on those items. I was hoping to buy a good Antec or Enermax power supply, ideally something similar to what I had in Germany (an Enermax EG465AX-VE(G) FM). In the end, I grabbed an Enermax EG420P-VE SFMA box off the overstock shelf (no sticker on it, hence not returned or so they say). It’s lower power than the old one and cost about $78 before tax (CompUSA wanted like $100 for an Antec I think). It claims to be part of the low noise line, although the last one I had was really quiet and it was just a standard model. The thing is that my computer has several other much noisier fans in it, so it hardly matters how loud the power supply fans are.

After I got home, I hooked it up and everything seemed to work fine. However, as soon as I hit the power button, I realized that I didn’t have a keyboard! And it didn’t even cross my mind until that moment that I should have bought one at Fry’s. Doh! Oh well, I can pick one up probably over at the Office Depot in town.

Wash and Wax

Today my dad and I washed and waxed my new car. After all that, I’m feeling pretty beat, but the car does look much nicer. There were a lot of little black marks and bits of dirt on the car, which rubbed out really well with the wax. Knowing myself and my future living conditions, this will probably be the last time the car is really washed and waxed (at least by me) for quite a while. Maybe in North Carolina, my living arrangements will allow it though.

Speaking of North Carolina, I really need to make plans to find somewhere to live there soon. I was hoping Janet would send out a list of the new cohort, but that hasn’t happened yet. Hence, I’m thinking about just winging it and finding a room in a shared apartment off the graduate student housing board. However, after buying this new car, I’m really broke. If I wait until after June 10th to buy the tickets, at least I won’t have to pay until my August 10th credit card bill. We’ll see. I could also still go and get a loan for part of the car, but I’m not sure I want to go through all the hassle of getting the loans plus filling out more DMV paperwork with respect to adding a lean holder to the title. I’m really looking forward to getting paid at my new job in Berkeley. With any luck, I should be free of any debts incurred from the car, moving, and the new computer by the end of the summer!

Car

Today began somewhat frustrated. My dad and I called back a few people who were selling cars we were interested in, but who we couldn’t get ahold of before. Unfortunately, none of those really panned out. Some weren’t home, while others were just weirdos who happened to be located pretty far away. Yesterday we saw an ad on TV, advertising that the local Honda dealership in Irvine was having a big car sale, so we decided maybe we’d go check that out. However, there was still this one car I had found on the AutoTrader, which I for whatever reason hadn’t noticed before (maybe it was just listed?). Well, we called the guy up and he said to drive on down (to his house in Costa Mesa).

Well, we drive out there and realize that we’re just a block away from this other car we looked at the day before. Anyhow, the car turned out to be pretty nice both cosmetically and mechanically (well as much as a layman can determine). While test driving it, my dad and I agreed we should make an offer on it. The guy agreed to let us take it to a mechanic to check it out. We drove up to the Toyota dealer out there to look into getting the car checked over there, but they wanted $150 and we’d have to wait 3-4 hours. So instead, we took it to an independent mechanic who indicated that it was in pretty good shape and said that it sounded like a fair deal.

So, we went up to the credit union and took out a bunch of money (cash!) and went back to make an offer. They immediately agreed to our offer, which was below their asking price. Doh! We should have gone lower! Anyhow, within a matter of minutes I had a car. It’s still weird really. It all happened so fast!

I now have a 1994 Toyota Camry (white) with only about 75,000 miles on it. Yes, it’s like vanilla ice cream, but I don’t need fancy; I need reliable.

Later, my mom and I headed over to AAA to check out getting a membership and/or some insurance for me and to transfer the car title. The place was a total zoo, since it was around 4pm the day before Memorial Day weekend (they closed at 5pm). In the end, I did get insurance and got most of the title/registration transfer paperwork done. Basically, all I still need to do is get the car smogged and then hand the paperwork in.

Also, I met up with Beth’s parents, who offered to buy my old laptop for $250. I got everything setup there and it was nice talking to them. Whew though. What a day!

Now that most of the major tasks are done, I need to finish up the loose ends on Tuesday and then probably head up to Berkeley on Wed or Thurs.

Car Search et al

So over the past couple days, my dad and I have been shopping for a car. Things have been going slow, so I’m worried I won’t find one in time. However, I can postpone moving into Ridge a bit still, which gives me some extra time.

So far we’ve only looked at two cars, both of which were nothing great, but certainly ok. On Tuesday, my brother Kevin came down, which sorta limited how many we could see and Wednesday, we met up with my grandpa for pretty much the entire afternoon and evening. Hopefully, tomorrow will be more fruitful.

I feel like maybe I’ve been looking for something too specific (ie, manual transmissions), which may be limiting the possibility of finding something good in a reasonably tight amount of time. Tomorrow I’ll try broadening the search and with any luck see some more good cars, maybe even buy one soon.

New Computer

Also today my new laptop was awaiting me at my parents’ house: a 15″ Powerbook. I was really impressed by the ease in which it set itself up (wireless network and everything included). It’s pretty shiny and neato, but unfortunately does have one small stuck pixel in the lower left corner. Apparently, Apple won’t replace over just one pixel, which is sorta a bummer. However, the stuck pixel is VERY out of the way, being in the bottom most row of pixels. I was reading about several other people online who had a stuck pixel in the middle of their screen. Since, it’s green (my favorite color), changing the background color has minimized its effect as well.

Amusingly, my dad said “Hey it just says Jeff Schoner in really, really small green print”.

Other than that, I’ve been pretty impressed and happy with it so far. I just got gcc installed and am loving every minute of the UNIX integration. Now, I just need to get the extra memory I bought installed because OS X is already doing some major swapping when I open multiple apps.

Trip Back Home

So the last few days have been pretty action packed.

On Sunday, Jeremy and I went to the Völklinger Hütte, which is the only iron works preserved in its original form today. Pretty neat.

After that, I started packing like a mad man. It was intense! Just as I was throwing away the last bag of garbage the taxi pulled up. Unfortunately, I gave the taxi service the wrong pickup time, since I wasn’t thinking. This was bad because we arrived at the train station at around 3:15am, over an hour before the train was going to leave and before the train station opened for the day (doh!). Anyhow, Jeremy and I parted in Cologne with me continuing on to Düsseldorf Airport.

I flew on LTU, which was somewhat strange. It’s a self described vacation airline based in Germany. Virtually all of the other passengers were Germans on personal travel to sunny Kalifornien.

Travel

So, Jeremy and I met up in Konstanz on Thursday to check out the Bodensee area. Thursday was very hot and sunny (always a rarety for Germany). Combined with the 4 day holiday weekend, we had some trouble finding a place to stay (the guy at the youth hostel there informed us that they are already booked through October even). In the end, we stayed at this hotel room that was part of the “Bodensee-Arena” (yes, as in a sports arena although a small one), which was just over the border in Switzerland.

Even though it was literaly about 200m from the actual border (which runs right through the middle of the city), the people on the Swiss side spoke crazy hard to understand Swiss German, while those on the German side were still more or less speaking Hochdeutsch. Very interesting.

The second day there, we checked out this place Meersburg further down the lake as well as its castle (the oldest one in Germany, dating to the 7th century), then headed off to Freiburg im Breisgau.

In Freiburg, we wandered around town a bit and got something to eat. The next morning, we headed to Titisee, which is a very small town on a really nice glacial lake in the Black Forest. Apparently, it’s the place where either the cuckoo clock was invented or at least it was once very famous for making them. Now days, it is somewhat of a tourist trap for older Germans and families, but it was still nice and we did a very short hike up into the forest, which was nice.

Earlier today, we headed back to Saarbrooklyn, where we went to the Mexican restaurant on St. Johanner Markt for dinner.

Whew, lots of traveling. And my feet are killing me! OK, I need to sleep.

Unn?

OK, I found out I was right about “Unn?”

More info from Überleben im Saarland:

Die vielseitige Begrüßungs-Formel “Unn. . . ?” ist der erste Beweis dafür, dass Deine Existenz im Bewusstsein Deines saarländischen Kommilitonen angekommen ist. Mit “Unn. . . ?” gibt er zu verstehen, dass er Dich wiedererkennt und bereit ist, mit Dir ein Schwätzchen (”eh Schwäzzche”) einzuleiten. “Unn. . . ?” bedeutet, je nach Zusammenhang, etwa: “Wie geht’s?”, “Wie war die Klausur?”, “Schön, Dich zu sehen, kommst Du mit in die Mensa?”, oder auch: “Bist Du jetzt wieder mit Deiner Freundin zusammen?”. Es ist ganz einfach: Er sagt “Unn. . . ?”, und Du suchst Dir was Passendes aus.

Last Day of Work

So, today was my last day at MPI. I managed to see several people, who wished me a fond farewell over this desert Tina had brought (it was also her and Vlastimil’s birthday). I also managed to run into Kara and Sajjad on my way to the grocery store, where we said a brief goodbye as well.

I finally ended up making it over to the UniShop to buy a university t-shirt. I was sorta disappointed in that everything they had their only was in English. I don’t know exactly why, but when ever I hear the phrase “Saarland University” it reminds me of a line in the Simpsons where Ralph says he wants to go to “Bovine University” when he grows up. Also, they only had shirts in M, XL, and XXL (which is how they refer to the sizes, not “large” or “extra large” but “el” and “icks el”. It’s not that they were out of L. They just don’t buy shirts in that size. So I got an ‘M’ after the lady assured me that it won’t shrink that much in the washer. We’ll see. I also when downtown and bought a shirt from the tourist office after Gernot managed to remind me about the ones they have there. It’s black (in size “el”) and says “Unn?” in giant letters, with “made in Saarbrigge” in smaller ones below. Ya, it’s Saarlaendisch. Fun. The weird part was that they had like 5 different slogans, but since I don’t know Saarlaendisch I couldn’t really figure out what they were supposed to mean. I think I recall Waqar telling me that “Unn?” means something like “How are you? your family? the world? your dog? etc.” But I need to figure that out, cause I’m sure people will start asking me what it means if I wear it around in the States. Oh ya, and the people in AG4 all signed an MPI shirt for me too, which is the standard sort of going away thing. So, it’s nice a nice momento too.

Moving Stuff

So, earlier today I mailed off my desktop computer. The guy at the post office was really strange. First, he seem surprised that I wanted to send such a large box. Then when I told him it was a compuetr (he asked) he gave me this weird look that I interpreted as “are you sure you want to send this through the mail?”

But what the hell else am I supposed to do? Pay UPS like 250EUR to overnight it?!? So, I got the insurance and all that and sent it airmail (6-7 days plus customs clearance time) for 75EUR. Strangely, the package only weighed 6.5kg, which is less than the much smaller box of books I sent a couple weeks ago (7.7kg). Also annoying though is that he asked me if the box contained any books, which means maybe I could have sent the earlier package at some sort of int’l book rate. Arg! The lady last time didn’t even ask about it even though I wrote “books” on the customs form. I dunno, maybe she couldn’t read English or something.