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I played around with installing games to ram today. Unfortunately, since I only have 4GB of system memory, I was somewhat limited on which games I could install to it.

I installed Half-Life from cd first. It didn’t work. I found out that the unupdated non-steam version of Half-Life does not get along with Windows XP 64. It can’t recognize the way Windows handles the memory. The error I got kept telling me Half-Life requires at least 16MB of ram. Next I installed steam to RAM and ran Half-Life through that. This time the game launched, and I do mean launched. It was up in mere seconds. The load times were amazing. I hit a loading screen while running down a hallway on my way to get the HEV suit. It looked like the game just stuttered for a quarter second. The only other indication was the text “Loading” that was barely there long enough to notice. The first computer I played this game on took roughly a full minute to load a new area.

I wanted to test with Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, or Portal, but they all require much more space than I can provide in RAM. With another 4GB of RAM I could make a 6GB RAM disk and that wouldn’t have been a problem. It turns out that no matter how much computer I have I will always want more.

My attorney called me today. The appelate court denied our request for an appeal. I don’t know why, and I doubt that it really matters. Here’s what happens now. In the middle of December, I can’t remember the day he told me, I go to a hearing to sever some charges. What that means is I’ll face trial on those charges seperate from the other ones. My attorney doesn’t feel that I can get a fair trial with all of the charges lumped together. I think he is right. I go to trial in the middle of January, I can’t remember the day he told me, and I lose. At some point after that I go to a sentencing hearing, and they tell me when to report to jail. I should have some time to get my affairs in order, but I intend to start that process now.

All my attorney told me today was the appeal was denied and when the court dates are. The rest I put together myself. I know what they have against me. I know my chances to beat it are next to zero. I’m having a bad day.

Just about everybody is familiar with the acronym KISS, (Keep It Simple Stupid) and if you’re not it’s fairly self explanatory. I listened to a story today on the radio about a gentleman named Jim Bakker who visited with the Graham family after being released from prison. All Mr. Bakker had to use as a wallet was an envelope with some papers he needed to keep track of stuffed inside. The story is told because Ruth Graham gave Mr. Bakker one of Billy Grahams wallets they had laying in a drawer. At this point he had only been out of prison for a couple of days, so he had no money to purchase a wallet with or put in the wallet if he got one.

The discussion on the radio was about how complex our lives have become. There is so little that we truely need. Most everything in our lives here in the United Stated is just a want. For the most part I think I have a fairly simple life. I go to work, come home, go to work, come home. Mix in some church and an occasional activity like paintball and that’s about it.

The list of what I need is very short. I need clothing to wear, a bed to sleep in, and transportation to work and the grocery store. Everything else is extra.

I’m going to spend the next few weeks trimming down on certain areas of my life. I don’t really need all that Dr. Pepper I’ve been drinking. I don’t really need most of the junk I keep stored in my bedroom. I’ve lost track of what is truely important and I need to adjust my priorities.