June 2010 – Page 2 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

New computer!

So about a year ago, I blogged about my dream computer, with dual monitors, a nice comfy chair, and…well, that was it. What can I say? I’m easy to please.

Well, now that I’m graduated from BYU and (theoretically) no longer have access to BYU’s computers, I decided to go ahead and build my dream machine.

I got a lot of help picking out parts from my friend Cognoscente, who is a pirate par excellence. My goal was to be as economical as possible while still picking out parts that are going to last for a long time. I bought virtually everything from newegg.com, except for the mouse and keyboard which I picked up for $5 each from the BYU surplus sale (I’ll probably pick up a second monitor from them, eventually).

Anyway, here are the specs:

CPU—Intel i3-530 (2.93 GHz, 4 MB cache) ($114.99)
Mobo—Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 (USB 3.0) ($119.99)
HDD—Western Digital 1TB drive ($69.99)
RAM—A-DATA DDR3 2 x 2GB ($98.99)
Video Card—Zotac 9800 GT 512 MB x2 DVI ($89.99)
PSU—Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450 W ($69.99)
Optical Drive—ASUS 2 MB cache DVD burner ($21.99)
Case—Rosewill Blackbone ($39.99)
Monitor—ASUS 22″ widescreen 1680 x 1050 ($169.99)
Total Price (including s&h, not including rebates): $824.05

I ordered the parts on Memorial day, and guess what? Everything but the video card showed up this morning–and the video card is scheduled to come tomorrow!

So this weekend, after I find a desk somewhere (either from DI or listed free on craigslist), I’m going to get together with Cognoscente and put together this beast.

So yeah, I’m totally geeking out about this new computer. It’s going to be sweeeet once it’s set up–I can hardly wait!

I’m also hoping it will help me write more. Right now, my only machine is my netbook, which is extremely portable and useful for travel, but not very good as a primary machine. It can get tiresome to write on a 10″ screen all day.

So yeah, I totally know what I’m doing this weekend. It’s going to be AWESOME 🙂

Mercenary Savior 3.0 is finished!

That’s right–after nearly three months, the third draft is finished!

How do I feel? Tired. It’s 2:00 am and I’m just coming off of three straight hours of writing. I. Need. Sleep.

I will say this, though: finishing this draft isn’t quite as satisfying, knowing that it needs at least one more revision before it’s fully polished. It’s an accomplishment, I know, but there’s still work to be done–lots of it.

Ah, well. I’ve got time. My goal is to have the finished, polished, final draft done before the end of the year. Now, I just need to put this one on the back burner and let it simmer for a while. In a couple of months, after I’ve finished another project, I’ll probably be excited enough about it to pick it up again.

So much for that. Here are the stats:

Mercenary Savior 3.0

mss pages: 646
words: 135,756
file size: 1,822 KB
chapters: 30
start date: 13 March 2010
end date: 1 June 2010

Old About page

Well, now that I’m graduated and can no longer say that I’m a BYU student, it’s time to write a new About page for this blog. Before I do that, though, here’s the old page, in case you want to read it one last time.

About Me

Who am I?

I am an oldest son, an annoying older brother. I have three beautiful sisters and an amazing mother and father, all of whom I love very much.

I am a believing, practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have a deep belief in God and an abiding faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Redeemer. I’m certainly not perfect–far from it!–but I try my best to love, serve, listen, and appreciate the people in my life, friends and otherwise.

I am a senior at Brigham Young University, studying Arabic, political science, the modern Middle East, and English. My academic interests don’t stop there, however. I also love history, astronomy, linguistics, international relations, philosophy, economics, psychology…basically, I love learning.

I love writing, especially science fiction. I fell in love with the genre as a young boy, when I read A Wrinkle in Time and saw Star Wars episode IV: A New Hope. Those works triggered my inner creativity, and I have been writing SF&F continuously ever since. I’ve never been able to stop.

I’m a writer, aspiring to become an author. I’m not relying on talent alone to reach that goal, though. I’ve been working hard on my craft since 2007, trying to get my writing up to a professional level while researching the publishing industry. In that time, I’ve written three unpublished novels and had one short story published with Leading Edge.

I would like nothing more than to be a professional, full-time fiction writer. I’m not there yet, but I’m on my way.

Contact

If you would like to contact me for any reason, I can be reached at the following email (despammed): joseph dot vasicek at gmail dot com.

You can also find me on twitter and on facebook.

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