I have nothing terribly interesting to write, so I�ll try to keep it a brief as possible. It�s drawing even closer to the end of the quarter. I have a couple of final presentations due this week, a final exam next week and a week or so of Spring break, from school at least, thereafter. Despite all that, things must be winding down, because I�m not nearly as stressed as I was a couple of entries ago.

I�ve been trying to avoid any unnecessary purchases, especially gadgets not necessarily because I can�t afford it, though I can easily go broke if I started buying every little thing I wanted on impulse, but mostly because I seem to derive more enjoyment if I delay my gratification even just for a small amount of time. So the plan is, I wait until I get my grades and if I get 2 As, I�ll get myself 2 things that I�ve been wanting, budget allowing of course.

One of the things I�ve been wanting is the Motorola wireless DJ headphones. They can hook up to my phone via Bluetooth and I can listen to tunes in stereo wirelessly from there. Since it also has a headset profile, I can take calls through it as well. So far I�ve been getting along fine with my Sony noise canceling headphones. There�s a microphone and an answer button built into the adapter so I can take calls with the headphones on, but all the wires seem to get in the way. I also want to upgrade the memory from 1GB to 2GB. I�ve deleted some older songs I don�t listen to as much before to make room, but I�ve also loaded up a few new games and other stuff for my phone, so it�s pretty close to capacity.

I�ve been offsetting my need to spend, by making a few charitable contributions to the causes of some of my online acquaintances. I gave a donation for Acorn�s cycle marathon to benefit Multiple Sclerosis. I�d post a link, but she�s shy about sharing her full name to the internet world, so if you are also an acquaintance of hers and are willing to donate, leave her a friendly note or something. I also gave a donation to Anthronut�s dance marathon to benefit cancer research. I�m not sure if she wants me to directly link her either, but if you are feeling in the generous mood, I�m sure she will welcome a few more donations to put her over her goal of $300 worth of pledges.

Although it is not a charitable contribution per se, I also sent a wedding gift to my newlywed cousin in the Philippines via wire transfer. Actually it was my dad�s idea, he mailed me a check and I added my own money to his and then sent it off. I�ve never gave away this much money before in such as short time span, but I have to admit, it kind of feels good, I�d say it easily feels as good if not better than if I went ahead and bought yet another gadget for myself.

In other news, the operating system of my Alienware system gave up the ghost. It�s been acting up on me several weeks prior to the crash and it has actually been out of commission several weeks after, I just haven�t had much time to fix it, until last weekend that is. I was able to get my hands on a free student copy of Windows Vista for Business thanks to my school and the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance (MSDNAA). It was kind of a pain in the ass to download (2.6 GB download) and burn the ISO image onto a DVD (I wasted at least 2 DVD+Rs trying to get the image onto a DVD) and to actually get the ethernet port to work, but once I got the net connection, it was all downhill from there. I must say that although there are obvious similarities between Windows XP and Windows Vista, I would have to say in terms of look and feel at least, Vista is significantly different than XP, so much so that took me a while to acquaint myself with some of Vista�s nuances. I�m not saying it�s bad, just different.

For those contemplating an upgrade to Vista, I suggest at the very least, enough technical knowledge to know how to back up your important data to another place like a DVD or an external hard drive. I also suggest loading the Vista operating system from scratch using a clean install and not an upgrade installation, because you are going be updating a good portion of your drivers and programs anyway. Also you do not want to carry over any headaches from your previous install. It would also be a major help if you knew how to load the load the drivers for your internet connection because you will probably need to download all those things through Windows Update or from the vendors of your hardware/software. Bottom line is if you have the geek skills or you have a geek that can do this for you, then go for the upgrade, otherwise you may be better off just sticking with Windows XP, which although is less pretty, will fulfill most if not all of OS needs or if you have the cash, just buy a system with Vista already on it.

So anyway, that�s all I have to write for now, so until next time...