And The Universe Laughed...

The mind and i have been reuniting lately. As you may have noticed, we posted 3 out of the last 4 days. And work has been going well on getting back towards some painting. Finally sorted out all the problems with the 3D model and render software and actually prepped for a painting. Today was get the graphics tablet and painting software re-installed day so we could maybe do some real artwork again.

Regular readers know what comes next...

The Universe seems to actively hate it when i get any artwork done. And so the system died. Or rather, it seems that the video card fried out. A burst of snow to the screen, and nothing.

The graphics card is, of course, the newest and most expensive piece of gear in the system. It costs more than half of what a new system would run. It's a massive beast with two huge fans that looks like a drone ready to lift off.
And, like most of what's made these days, it's a piece of crap. But, that's how we do it in this great land. Computer components used to be manufactured with rigorous quality controls and be built to last. They had to be, because they were still trying to build the market.
But, once everyone is using them and needs them, that gets tossed out. Make it quick, and plan for it to die soon so they'll need another one - the American Way of business, responsible for so much of what you hate about the world around you.

Joy.

So, yeah. Who knows how long i'll be down. Or how long the system will be down, for that matter. I might have an old card around that will work and get it up and running again within a day. It might be weeks. I don't even know where to go to get one these days, and experience precludes use of internet to order things like computer parts. Thanks, no - I don't need the wrong part shipped from China to arrive at the wrong location and MAYBE eventually be returned for the right part - but one that was previously returned by someone else due to problems with it... try again. 

I tend to be a nexus for system errors, even when the system isn't rigged for abuse.

So, maybe there'll be new post tomorrow.
Maybe there'll be new post next month.
Maybe next year.
We've seen before how this can play out around here.

Meanwhile - i like at least one pic in every post, but the only thing on this system right now is Smoker Warning Label for cigarettes and such that we should try.

This one might actually work -