random.. but i finally was able to watch the Disneyland fireworks show "Remember.. Dreams Come True" that literally everyone said was the park's very best fireworks show to date.. it showed for only ONE weekend last weekend, to have a show between the halloween and christmas fireworks. and sadly, i wasn't too impressed. i know i know, it's a very sentimental and meaningful show, but i think i was spoiled by the high-energy of the Halloween Screams fireworks show. i did like the fireworks that were launched from Main Street itself, those were quite a surprise.

but now that Christmas time has officially started at Disneyland, i'm very much looking forward to the Holiday Magic fireworks... and the castle's mini-show... and the snow on Main Street. let's go? :D

why is it that when I earn money (and that's saying a lot considering I do not have a regular job) something has to happen or something has to break and in turn, make me spend said money?

I knew my HP TX1000z laptop was going to die but I didn't expect it to die so quickly. it started about a year ago when my wireless Internet stopped working. after extended research I found out that a good number of the laptops under the same model were manufactured with a faulty Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). the GPU would run too hot for the motherboard to handle. first on it's way out was the wireless. check.

I sent my laptop in for warranty (which was about to expire) and they fixed it after about a month. got laptop back and it worked again for a good half a year. the wireless cut out again. it was no longer under warranty, so I went out to buy an external wireless card for my expresscard slot. the GPU did it's damage again and burned the components for the expresscard. so I've had to use a USB wireless dongle since then.

upon further research, I've found that after the wireless stops working, the next to go is the display. and that finally happened the other day. I was converting a movie to be able to play on my iPhone, which is very graphics intensive, so my GPU was running pretty hot. everything starts to error and my computer shuts off. I turn it back on to find that the GPU itself had burned and no longer works, leaving me with a laptop that has literally no screen.

while still able to access my laptop remotely from my desktop via VNC, I was able to back everything up onto my external hard drive. I was also able to disable the GPU remotely. so now my screen works again, but it can only run at 800x600 resolution with the GPU disabled. everything seems bogged down. and I can't really do any designing work on it. having a visual again, it makes backup up of files a lot easier.

what makes me mad is that HP will not accept fault for shipping out units with faulty GPUs. they say that the amount of people with this problem isn't large enough compared to the units sold to count for a recall. so pretty much, once the warranty is up on these units, they simply don't care because they already got their money. google the words "tx1000" and "gpu" and "faulty" and you'll get pages upon pages of this exact problem that HP will not fess up for. while their products have most likely proved since then, I will never buy HP again because of their horrible customer support and the unprofessional decisions they have made regarding this issue. i will not support a company who won't take fault for such a failure of their own product. that is not acceptable.

research has taught me that after the GPU dies, people have experienced a failure to even boot up the laptop. no thanks, im not about to lose everything.

I've since then started looking for a new laptop. my budget was about 800 dollars since I have no job, and the laptop would have to be pretty strong in graphics so I can continue designing graphics for JayVee and if I might possibly pursue it in the near future. I can safely say I've grown out of the whole sub/ultra-compact sized laptops as well as novelty features like the touch screen that I didn't really use too much. with the help of mr Chadwick, he found me a laptop that seems to be compatible with my needs and requirements. a Lenovo IdeaPad Y550. custom built with an Intel Core2Duo P8700 Processing Unit and a dedicated nVidia GeForce 240m GPU. the total came out to under 800 dollars, and just under 900 after tax and shipping. the machine will be severely lacking in RAM, but that is easily upgraded along the way. I shall have it in hand within a few weeks so I'll have an update and review then. let's hope for no more problems.

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com