First off, when I finally have some spare cash and decide to get a new computer, I'm calling you P. All insanity aside, it sounds as if you at least know what you're doing (well, for the most part), and building your own system is just so much cheaper than the alternative. My PC, which is sitting in storage at the moment, is from '03 or '04. Yeah. It's that old.
On another note entirely, I was horrified earlier this week when I discovered that I agreed with PETA on something. The Colbert Report did a piece on the emerging science of growing meat in the laboratory, and spent some time interviewing the head of the organization; you know, the lady who wants her flesh fried in a public place upon her death so that people will realize that human and animal flesh is essentially the same thing, and it's morally wrong to eat either.
PETA is offering $1M to whomever comes up with a viable method of growing meat in the lab. Now I think growing my steak and cheeseburger is a fantastic idea, yet I seem to be pretty much alone in this. Most everyone I've ever discussed the topic with (it's a great conversation starter...) finds the entire concept disgusting. Growing meat seems like a fantastic idea though. We no longer have to waste resources on gargantuan numbers of farm animals, and as an added bonus it may slow the destruction of the Amazon as the need for the multitude of continually migrating ranches would evaporate. In addition, meat has a very large energy content (not to mention protein content), which, as I understand evolutionary biology, is why the smarter animals tend to be the meat eaters. Human evolution sped up once we became omnivores. Meat is therefore a very important food item. It's scarcity in places makes it a luxury though, leading to diminished statures and health. There's a reason politicians from Henry IV to Herbert Hoover promoted the idea of a chicken in every pot as a prime of community development. Growing meat could radically expand the number of people who could enjoy such luxuries.
...Still, now that I learn that I and PETA are in agreement on something, I'm forced to rethink my position. Maybe all those people who I decided Just Didn't Get It have a point? The alternative, that PETA may actually be right about something, is a concept almost to horrible to contemplate.
