goddamn, that was a big ordeal. earlier today, kara, who's in the process of moving out, took her phone. the reasons why are unclear to me, as not only does she have another phone she could take, but she's not even close to finished moving, and, as i understand it, the phone's not even set up at the new place. anyway, she unplugged her phone. and she left me this note:

which i can't find right now. anyway, she unplugged her phone, but didn't plug the answering machine and caller id box back in, as she couldn't figure out how. now, after suspending the initial disbelief that someone couldn't figure out how to connect a caller id box, answering machine and phone, there's also another issue: why unplug those things in the first place? i mean, the phone's got two cords, one with a phone jack at the end and one with a power jack. you unplug 'em both and the phone's unplugged. why unplug anything else at all? and speaking of unplugging things for no reason at all, she also cut off the power to my computer--and, seemingly, managed to give the cpu a good bump. that was enough to send my temperamental cpu fan over the edge. the next time i powered the machine up, it sounded like someone had replaced the fan with a coffee can full of gravel. so i went to the compusa.

i bought a new fan and some heatsink paste stuff. i also browsed the video games a little bit, kinda debating buying 'state of emergency' or 'fifa 2002' some more. and i stopped off at best buy, to get a toslink cable, so that i can enjoy 5.1 sound from my ps2 (which reminds me, i ought to buy another one for the cable box, or else get that one from shaun and connect it to my cd player--my receiver only has two digital inputs). and i also went to barnes & noble, and, like, why? what a hellhole. anyway, so i finally got home, just aching to install this fresh new fan (it's got a huge copper heatsink, and it's quiet, too). and i got home, and took off the old fan/heatsink. everything was loverly, except that when i pulled out the heatsink, i also pulled the chip out of the socket. and, i bent some of the pins, of which there are, like, hundreds. so i painstakingly bent 'em back, then, terrified, put the chip back in. tightened everything down and powered it on. well, everything was great, except it wasn't booting. after some trial- and-error, i wound up putting the chip again, pushing it down a good bit harder this time. but when i took the fan out, the insane assembly that holds it to the socket came apart in my hands. and i sure didn't remember what it looked like. so i put the fan back together and hoped for the best. well, it stayed attached, and now everything, seemingly, is chill.  ¶ 12:33 AM