I had a dream this morning. As I've said before, it's pretty uncommon for me to remember my dreams. I don't think I've remembered one since the last one. Okay, THAT made sense. Since the last one I blogged about, back in freaking I dunno, lemme look it up. November. Maybe it's because I don't normally go to bed until I'm actually tired. Or maybe it's because my definition of "tired" is "if I don't go to bed NAO Pattie's gonna find me passed out at my computer or on the crapper. Again." Maybe I need to look at that. And maybe I'm rambling.

The dream. That's right. For whatever reason I dreamed I was back at Bluffton. Trigger and Hoch were there, even though it was my senior year. Found my room and started talking to the new roomies and the people popping in and out, none of whom I recognized. The thing I found remarkable was how easily I was talking to everybody, that's never been my strong suit. So why this dream now? Some possibilities:

* I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Bluffton. Who wouldn't want to dream about it?

* As of February 15, my student loans were paid in full. OH GOD YES. Now I can think about Bluffton without also thinking "Jeez, I'm STILL paying them?"

* My mom's getting ready to redo some rooms at her house, which means I'm going to be cleaning my old room out (and probably cleaning out stuff here, since I'm sure I'll find stuff there I want to bring here). Preparation for a waking trip down memory lane?

* Long nights of pushing a dust mop and cleaning crappers allow for copious amounts of introspection, and occasionally the topic turns to where my life has been -- and why -- and where I want it to go. One of the things I've realized is that I need to readjust how much it matters what certain people think, say and do. Let it reflect on what kind of person they are, then let it go. Easier said than done, maybe, but hey. Maybe a reaction to introspection?

* I've also realized that I really want to reconnect with Jon, one of my friends from Bluffton and one of the few I've spoken to since. (His wedding was where I met Pattie.) He's far from perfect, sure, but show me someone who isn't.

* Speaking of weddings, Rachael's is in a few weeks. The last time I was at a non-family wedding where I was the one who first knew the couple was, in fact, back when I was at Bluffton. Maybe that one's a stretch, but hey, my major was chemistry, not dream analysis.

So iunno, I've just lost motivation to blog. Only reason I'm really doing it now is to put off calling my interviewer back -- I despise talking on the phone. Screw it, I'll call. Didn't get it, ah well. I got more dental swords, these ones have a flip-out point guard so Nate will be happy to know they don't reach far into the ear canal. Not that the waxy fortress has made any return anyways, I think irritation from the loud radio chatter and earpieces at OfficeMax had a lot to do with it. So I'm-a be married in a little under two months, and Pattie has come to the realization that momma and I were right about eloping. It'll still be a nice wedding, just much headacheness planning it. We're still on track, although we've still got some invitation stragglers to get addresses for and some groomsmen still need fitted for tuxes.

And I make fun of Pattie for not using carriage returns. Wow. I have to pee.

I am returned. So, Pirates of the Caribbean Online. For as good a speller as I am, I ALWAYS want two "R"s and one "B" in that word. Anyways. The limited free trial is nifty. I went ahead and did the $5 for the first month of unlimited, will know better in a few weeks if it's worth $10/mo after that. So far it's really fun, which surprises me because I normally hate the behind-the-character-3D crapola. Back in the day I think I tried to play Guild Wars for a whole week before I gave up in disgust. Leave it to Disney to finally get it right.

So our furnace is out again. The one nice thing about renting is that it's someone else's problem when stuff goes to pot. Which is ironic, because going to the pot is my only problem when the furnace goes out. I swear that toilet seat has a layer of dry ice on it.

Shill #2: Have I told you guys about NutraCal? Good stuff. I'm not personally worried about calcium deficiency -- I'd actually originally gotten it for Pattie, as it also boasts increased energy. Turns out Pattie can't handle it on the far end of her GI tract, but I've noticed it gives me more energy. Anyone who's interested can get a jar for $3.85, coupon code is CAL101. Without the period. That just denotes the end of the sentence.

I like green tea.

So I finally used up the last of that wretched toothpaste I had. The flavor wasn't bad, it was the packaging. It was a two-part toothpaste, but both parts were in one segmented tube. As you can guess, only one part ever came out at a time, and it got worse as I went up the tube. Technically there was still a little useable product in there, I just gave up on it. Good riddance.

If someone comes up to you and asks you to clean out the sink thigamajigger, are you going to figure out they wanted you to take the dishes out of the strainer, which is not in the sink? Yeah, me either. And that apparently makes me an asshole. Huh.

And I'm spent.

A word to the wise, learn from my mistake or suffer my fate: If you're going to deep-fry a pot pie, thaw it first, for not even boiling oil shall warm its frozen heart.

My aunt went on NutriSystem for a few months, and I think I inherited about a month's worth of food she didn't like. Good stuff if you like a wide variety of foods, though probably not worth the cost even if you liked it all. Especially since some of these "meals" are "here's turkey in viniagrette, go buy lettuce and salad toppings".

The new job's going well enough, would still like to get out of the retail environment though. I was hoping it was just Lima that was a dead spot for lab jobs -- apparently it's the entire area. Honda's Anna plant is doing a round of open hiring, it'd be nice to get a call back from them, otherwise we'll have to figure out where we want to look for jobs at.

Wedding planning has slowed down a bit, I think we're at a point where there's not so much to do until closer to time.

Anybody wanna come do my dishes?

So the rotten thing about Wal-Mart is, they're paying me more than some of the guys training me. Not that I want to make less, but they could afford to pay the veterans more.

I have finally made the pilgrimage to Sonic and partaken of its tasty beverages. They even put real limes in the cherry limeade (the cherries are hit-or-miss) with which they make the SuperSonic Sunrise. And jalapeños in the breakfast burritos. It's a good thing they're not any closer...

So, even trying to do everything simple and cheap, throwing a wedding is an expensive affair. Which I'm sure a few of you could have told me, but anywho. Aside from the honeymoon, most of the budget is for miscellaneous stuff. Before I'd have figured it'd be food, but one of Pattie's aunts loves to cook so we just have to buy bulk food.

Just the brokest he's been in a very long time.

Still no job, had a few interviews though. Setting up a second interview with the Devil (Wal-Mart) tomorrow, not thrilled about going back into retail but it'd be 3rd shift so I can keep looking for other stuff without taking time off.

Holy run-on sentence, Batman!

Other than that, living with Pattie is going well, not that I thought there'd be any problems. We still love each other and we're still getting married.

If you have the chance, deep-fried Twinkies and Snickers are surprisingly good. I recommend frying the Snickers first, as the oil takes on some chocolate that transfers to the Twinkies.

Few things are better than instant hot chocolate mixed with instant coffee. I'd imagine instant hot chocolate mixed with expresso is one of them, but that's not instant and we already had hot water.

So anyways, a while back I'd complained about being in a holding pattern. To say the least, that's no longer the case.

• I've changed my permanent address for the first time since 1990, and it's no longer the same as mom's.
• I no longer work at OfficeMax -- actually, have I ever mentioned I worked there? I know I've regaled y'all with copy center stories....
• As of 16 April, Pattie and I are officially engaged. ♥
• We went to Toronto again this year, lots of fun but not as many pictures. They actually got me up on le Tour CN this year, which is where I gave Pattie the ring.
• Getting my computer set up was a PITA. More specifically, the stereo and the wireless were PsITA, the computer itself went fine. This wasn't really new for me, but Pattie says I swore more those two days than she's heard me in the previous nine years. Translation: She wasn't around when I was trying to set up wireless with the LinkSYS hardware.

And I'm spent.

So, given that my supervisor is set to have twins in April and our inventory is coming up, I was shocked that me giving my two weeks notice went over so well. I kept everything positive on my end, so I'm sure that helped. Feels weird, though -- I've worked there for four years, there've been stretches where I've seen these people more than my family.

Also picked up the ring today, I can hardly wait. Of course, I passed that point of no return a while ago...

And now for something completely different.

Methinks the Ubuntu experiment is over for a while. It's certainly got potential, but until it learns to play nice with wireless -- or until I can hook up with a cord -- it's not really all that useful to me. It'll stay on the computer, though, I'm horribly slow at filling up a hard drive.

Only nine more months until winter. Think positive.

So, I haven't decided the exact location for the question, but the ring is bought.

Things are going to get really interesting at work soon.

Saw my great-aunt and -uncle today. Not that there's anything great about them, she's shrill and he's cut from the same cloth as my grandmother (though fortunately not nearly so much cloth went into him).

So, I got dragged kicking and screaming into the '90s. Yes, Sean now has a cell phone.

I've spent too much time on my keyboard, QWERTY feels weird now.

It's hotter than blue fuck in here, I need to find something cold. Be right back.

Cold compress. Woohoo!

And I'm spent.

So, Pattie says I should blog. But what about?

Normally I just blog when I'm in the mood to, I'm pretty streaky with it. Last time was the 12th, that doesn't seem like that long ago to me. Also, sometimes I blog when there's nothing else to do, but she's pretty much taken care of that. Not that I'd want it any other way.

Work is pretty much the same -- too much bullshit for too little money. The purple people-eater is running fine, it's weird seeing my old car with Michigan plates -- did I mention the brake job that Midas quoted as $940 only cost Jerry $30 to do? C'est la vie.

As an aside, I'd like to say that I hate Pattie's keyboard and mouse, although the way things are set up here I don't think wired would work well.

Pattie and I are getting married, I know I haven't mentioned that. April 26, 2008 seems like such a long time away. While I'm generally looking forward to it -- even if it is just making official the love we already have -- methinks the logistics are eventually going to become a nightmare. Mom pitched a fit when she found out we were planning on kilts, Mike threatened to pitch a fit if I nix the kilts, and Pattie just wants me to keep the peace but sooner or later one or the other is gonna wind up being pissed anyways. I know what I should do -- set both sets of demands aside, sit down with Pattie and decide what we want, and then invite them to be a part of it. And I guess I've committed to doing that, 'cause it's not like Mike can't read this.

But I'm not going to look at anything tonight. Mentally tired and physically awake is never a good combination for wedding plans. Or blogging. Pattie may kill me in the morning, even though she kinda asked for it.

I think part of the problem is that I always figured when the time came, I'd elope -- I can't say as I really have a "dream wedding". All I know is that I don't want shotguns at the ceremony (clay pigeon-shooting at the reception is fine), I don't want a cerberus shooting bees from its mouths, and we can't have lilacs or lillies or else Christy's face will swell up.

I know I just said that it seems like a long ways off, but when I cross-reference it with how badly I tend to procrastinate -- and with how many things can go wrong -- it really isn't.

Boy, for not having anything to blog about, I certainly am burning up the keyboard tonight.

So I, of the mutant immune system that almost never ails, haven't had more than half a voice for two weeks now, going strong into a third. No pain, no fever, nothing to indicate I'm sick except extra phlegm and a voice that sounds like I'm 90 years old and smoked for 70, as a coworker put it. It's certainly put a damper on the Karaoke Revolution, which is much more fun than I thought it would be prior to playing it.

Oh, I LIED to you! Work hasn't been s^2 d^2 -- as of Saturday night when I left, this week's schedule still wasn't posted. Gotta love that. So I'm assuming it's the same as it has been, and if anyone says anything they can die in a fire.

And this time, I can't blame it on icy mud puddles or running in the wrong shoes. I just plain fell, right there in the driveway while taking out the trash. Gouged my left thumb pretty good and scraped up my left knee. It's a good thing I'm flexible and get plenty of calcium, else I'd prolly have torn and/or broken something by now. So, I dunno, maybe I need ankle-strengthening exercises? Balance exercises? Both? lol

Speaking of which, few things are more comical than the look on your coworkers' faces when they say something mildly amusing (or trying too hard to be amusing) and you just deadpan say "lol". Yeah. I've been on the internets way too long.

So how, exactly, do you *get* a sinus infection anyways? Pattie's had one for a few weeks, and my sister has a sinus infection that never really does go away, and I got nuthin'. Not that I really want one or anything, they don't sound like a lot of fun, just saying.

So Eric at work is prolly mad at me. They'd asked me to stay over (after my 10-hour shift) to help put away machines. I was considering it, when I go to the back to load up a cart and there he is, chatting away on a personal phone call. If he's got time for that, I figured he didn't need any help.

I was actually motivated enough to get a workout in before work this morning. I may burn off this blubber yet.

While neither is my favorite on its own, something about blond hair and brown eyes on the same person just makes me drool.

So, yuuhidokka says I must list seven songs I've been listening to a lot, or the zebra gets it. I think she's bluffing -- I don't think they have zebras in Singapore -- but just in case, I shall do so anyhow.

Marilyn Manson - Suicide Is Painless -- Manson's original work may be hit-or-miss, but he's one hell of a cover artist. Probably because he does his own thing with the songs instead of trying to sing them the way they were originally sung.

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start The Fire -- Who'd have thought that a musical Cliff's notes would be a hit? Billy Joel, that's who.

Lemon Demon - The Ultimate Showdown (of Ultimate Destiny) -- I'm just geek enough to have burned this to CD. I think I somewhat frightened Mike by rattling off the entire montage that kills Chuck Norris on IM.

The Buckwheat Boys - Peanut Butter Jelly Time -- 'Nuff said.

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (not Constantinople) -- Actually, the Turks do often refer to the city as Kostantiniyye, "the city of Constantine," so Constantinople isn't really out of place.

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata -- I remember hearing a 3-channel version of this on our first computer, and even that couldn't screw it up. Fully orchestrated, it's just awesome.

Britney Spears - Anticipating -- Yes, I like poppy stuff sometimes. Sue me.
I'm also supposed to tag seven people. I don't think seven people read this regularly, so do it if ya wanna. Please, think of the zebra.

I like extra-sharp cheddar cheese. A pox upon your mild substitute!

We had a customer today who bought photo paper, and couldn't figure out why there was a perforation through one end of her pictures and a white gap she had to cut off on the other end. And I had to expain it without LOLing or slapping the stupid out of her.

Geeks do it 1000101-style.

Or: "The chickens are comin' home to roost, Bobby Boucher."

Our district management ain't too bright. They always announce when they're coming down for a visit, resulting in the flight of the bumblebee the day before.

I've long wished our DM could see the store the way it's really run. Tomorrow I get my wish.

Day shift -- people called off.
Night shift -- understaffed.
Plan C -- FotBB after we close. Except our assistant manager of sales gets a call -- her kid needs stitches. Don't get me wrong, I'd have rather stayed and completed our conspirational clean-up than have her kid get hurt, but that's not what happened. And since she's the only manager there, everyone has to leave if she leaves.

I at least got the copy center presentable. Still, it's gonna be an interesting visit.

The worst thing about being a "copy center geek," as Nate puts it, isn't snippy customers, or low pay, or idiot management, or malfunctioning equipment, or not having a car you trust to drive to Cleveland (or the desire, but they don't need to know that) which pretty much guarantees you won't get promoted 'cause the supervisor has to go to these meetings fairly regularly.

The worst thing about being a "copy center geek" is the rare occasion when you have to help someone put together a "Have you seen me?" flyer for their missing kid. I mean, you're happy to do the DTP for free (not that it takes long enough to charge anyways), and you charge them the least you can get away with for the copies without getting throttled by the corporate overlords, but still, the whole time -- and the rest of the night, really -- you're left wondering who does this type of shit. Up 'til then, today had been a bit of a relief, as store management (in a rare display of intelligence) agreed that politics aside, there was no reason for me to drag my arse to the Mistake By The Lake; but something like that just sinks pretty much anything.

Making fun of customers is so much more fun when there's more than one of you making fun of the same one.

Some of the people from work (Eric, Betsy, and Jeni) and I went to the bowling alley yesterday after work, and amidst poor pool-playing (all games were decided by either an early 8-ball or scratching on the break) and poor bowling (our scores ranged from mid-60s to barely breaking 100), we of course took the opportunity to make pot-shots at our customers. Granted, without them we wouldn't have jobs, but that just makes it more irritating.

So Eric and I, both working at the copy center, focused on one customer. She's actually a really nice lady, and absolutely loves the work we do for her -- she just has this unique voice pattern where everything sounds breathy and excited, and a strange naïvete regarding any of the technology we use. And none so much as the laminator. How anyone can get excited over heat-softened plastic and adhesive I shall never know, but hey, it's better than getting all hot-and-bothered over pimples.

"Let's LAMinate it! IT'll LAST forEVer!"

This, then, was the running joke for the rest of the night -- everyone and everything was suggested for being LAMinated. Any other group of people wouldn't have even been amused, but we're pretty brain-damaged. Probably from smelling LAMination.

We then went to Ruby Tuesday, where I was informed they were out of veggie burgers. Ratfuckers. Wound up with a bisonburger instead -- not bad, but not what I was in the mood for.

And now for something completely different: a letter to the month of January.
---
Dear January,

Seriously, what the hell are you thinking? You're square in the middle of winter, you're supposed to bring snow. Snow. Nieve. Not rain. Snow. So, in closing, you're a ratfucker too, for bringing rain and not snow.

Sincerely,
me

Simple -- they don't trample cashiers, especially if you've been open for 3 hours.

First BF since '03 that I haven't opened, and I didn't miss it a bit. Not used to standing that long -- you don't realize how much sitting you do at the copy center until you're back up front -- but overall a much more pleasant experience than throwing the doors open at 7am and scrambling out of the way.

Making my sister's get-well card (ACL/kneecap realignment) went over well enough that I thought about making Christmas cards this year, then decided better of it. My humor is way underappreciated within my family, I'm not old enough for sappy, religious would be kinda weird because we're pretty incongruous and usually just don't talk about it, and "happy holidays" is the Times New Roman of Christmas cards -- default, insipid, uninspired. Plus, I don't usually do Christmas cards, so I'm sure I'd forget someone and they'd feel slighted. Probably do one for mom and for sis, maybe one for Mike and Pattie -- they're at least more accustomed to my humor -- but that's about it.

As I'm sure you've noticed, by and large I'm a cheap-ass. Honey is one notable exception, because you can really tell a difference. Get some from your local apiary (or a distributor for them, often a locally-owned health food store), and you'll never go back. Great for hot tea, a bowl of cooked barley, or straight on a spoon.

News on the July 7 entry -- Ribbon is not a supervisor. Le sigh. Had planned to start hitting the pavement back then, before the possibility came up -- suppose I'll get started now instead.

Each and every one of you loses 5 points for failing to point out that Carnivore was a program designed to flag e-mails, and as such could not have picked up my journal entry. For shame...

We got a puppy, mom decided to name him Boomer. As a long-time Bengals fan (Stop laughing. Now.), this suits me just fine.


This is Boomer.
More pics of him and the other dogs.

First off, bombings in London today -- 3 subways and a bus hit, 37 killed and hundreds injured. If any Brits read this, my thoughts are with you -- for what that's worth, coming from a nearly-anonymous voice on the intarweb -- and good on you for largely not displaying the islamoracism that's been whipped up (again...) among so many of my fellow Americans. Love my country, but I hope someday it grows the hell up.

Mom came home sick today, bad stomachache/migraine. Doesn't look serious, just uncomfortable. She's never had a strong stomach, though. Neither does my sister, and from what I remember neither did my dad. Not sure where I got the iron gastric basket from.

And then, the fun. Went to my sister's house after supper, and my cousin and her boyfriend show up. She's talkng about how my aunt and uncle are being nice to him again, and I jokingly make the comment that mom's never nice to any of my boyfriends.

She just gets quiet and kinda looks at me. I think sis was the one to tell her I was kidding, and she's like "Oh, I didn't know, I never asked him [me] what he liked." We all got a good laugh out of that one.

Last but not least, they're making me full-time at work, and tossing around the idea of making me copy dept. supervisor, hinging mostly on approval from the district manager. It'd be better money than I'm making now, and heaven knows nothing else has panned out, but I don't know just how far into the belly of the corporate beast I'm willing to go. We shall see.

The color copier at work doesn't collate, so we (really *I* so far, maybe I'll get help tomorrow) get to hand-collate 8500 color copies for an order. Tedious work, though there are worse things I could be doing.* Anyways, these copies are also 3-hole punched. Hence, one page has the headings USERNAME and ASSWORD. After sorting a few thousand sheets, this seemed like the funniest thing evar. And of course I left it in.

I need all the humor I can get, by the time I'm done I'm gonna look like this little fellow:



Cheerful lookin' little guy.

*One of those things I *could* be doing is toilet-diving. Again. This has been several moons ago, but a customer came up to the front to inform us that he'd accidentally dropped the air freshener in the toilet after he flushed. No biggie. But, between his report and me getting back there, somebody decided to make an offering of chocolate to the porcelain idol. And so, yours truly had the pleasure of using a garbage bag as a makeshift glove to get the freshener out. One of my finer accomplishments, if I do say so myself.

Jalapeño in my belly, a nice 42°F outside, and GnR in the CD player. Aah.

Thanksgiving went well, much less drama than I anticipated. No Stove Top or sweet potatoes, but I survived. Mom, her new boyfriend Paul, sis and I went to my aunt and uncle's house, along with their 6 kids, one grandkid (and one set to pop out in February), and two of their kids' significant others. Pretty uneventful, aside from the youngest girl (8) being überupset over the oldest boy (19) being home for the last time before he ships off to Kuwait to finish training, then a year in Iraq. Of course, with the stop-loss measures already in place, who knows how long he'll really be over there. I'm proud of him for wanting to serve our country, I just wish our current administration wanted him to as well.

And then there's Black Friday (i.e. today). Working retail on the morning after Thanksgiving opens up a new set of questions about humanity, starting with "Why the bleeding hell would you stand in line for hours -- literally -- to save a few bucks?" Seriously, go back to work, and in the time you'd have spent in line to get $20 off of that scanner, you've made that much anyways. Not that I should complain -- people were too busy trying to grab the deals to really pester the employees much. Don't think I was complained at once during the initial rush -- yeah, it's a rush, you open the door and rush out of the way to avoid being trampled -- just like the rest of the year, it's the people who come in late for an ad thinking we should have infinite stock who get pissy. By noon, we'd sold as much as we normally do in a week, and when I stopped back in at 20:30 to request a day off and fill out a punch correction, we'd tacked on another 60%.

And now for something completely different.

I remember now why mom got herself a new computer -- this one randomly shuts off. Once you're on for a while it's usually okay, it just takes ~4 tries to get it to stay on. So, with Christmas and my birthday (12/28) coming up...in lieu of fighting the masses or ordering another Dell (since my first one burned up a few RAM sticks before burning out the motherboard), I'm using this one's keyboard and monitor and building my own. (The list below is out-of-date as of 28 Nov 04, I'll update with a firm list once I order.)

AsiaPro ASYS Black ATX Mid Tower Case With 450W PSU, Model "180 BLACK" (roomy, cheap, 4 fan mounts, and doesn't look bad)
SUNON 80mm Ball Bearing Case fan, Model "KD1208PTB2" (x4) (overheating killed my laptop, not this time)
ECS "755-A2 V1.0" SiS755 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU (nothing too special, but cheap)
AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor (Heatsink and Fan included) (1600 MHz FBS, woohoo!)
Kingmax 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 (because God won't provide the RAM)
Kingmax SuperRAM Series 184 Pin 256MB DDR (also PC-3200 -- rather have 2x512s, but I'm on a budget)
GIGABYTE ATI RADEON 9250 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "GV-R925128T" (that should handle Guild Wars)
AOpen 4-Channel PCI Sound Card, Model "Cobra AW840" (a cheap-ass 16-bit sound card for my OLD [like, 80386 old] speakers, still a step up from integrated)
Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD400JB (8 Mb cache, and I don't pirate so I don't need much room)
NU Technology Black 8X DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model DDW-082 BLK (nothing too special here either)
Round IDE cables (for better cooling...these, 4 case fans, and CPU and RAM heatsinks should do the trick)
VANTEC IceBerq Aluminum DDR Memory Heat Spreader, Model "DDR-A1A" (x2) (did I mention I've been burned on overheating before?)
Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 -OEM (rather have DOS, but they don't program for it anymore)
POWMAX Mid Tower ATX Case with 400W Power Supply, Model "CP769PL-6"
Rosewill 52x32x52x16 CD-RW Black Combo Drive, Model C523216B
Samsung Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model SFD321B/LBL1
A4TECH 5 BUTTON DUAL SCROLL OPTICAL MOUSE USB/ PS/2

Grand total with S+H: roughly $650 (from newegg.com). $650 for a prebuilt computer would still have me using a Celeron with 256Mb of RAM and integrated audio/video, and netting an extra monitor I don't need. Nice. Here's to hoping this goes well -- I've installed hardware components before, so this is more a matter of scale than anything really new, but still.