A Cat's Life

When you first found me I heard you say,
“Little Kitty, have you lost your way?”
My eyes said yes, and I guess I knew
Just exactly what you would do.
You reached for me as I tried to discover:
Should I take a chance or run for cover?
But tired and hungry and sadly alone,
I was desperately in need of a friendly home.
Your hands spoke of kindness and safety too,
And asked that I put my trust in you.
You carried me in and before peeking from afar
Brought me warm milk and tuna named “Star.”
You hoped I'd stay, and that I did;
But behind the sofa I usually hid.
The days passed on but not my despair
Until we shared your favorite chair.
How happy you were when I saw fit
To finally with you enjoy a sit.

You stroked my head and combed my fur,
And I gave thanks with a new found purr-
From that day there was no doubt:
We both knew what it was all about.
Love and joy with trust were there,
And year after year the best of care.
I hope you know how much I cared
For you and the life we daily shared.
No more of you could I expect or ask,
But sadly for you there's one more task.
Because the day will come when we must part,
A time I know will break your heart.
If I could I'd help you decide,
But your love for me will be your guide.
Please don't let me linger when my time has come,
And there's nothing more that can be done.
Let me go to my final rest.
Knowing as always you've done your best.

Go with fond memories from when I first heard you say,
“Little Kitty have you lost your way?”
Ted Gagne, DVM

In loving memory of Chloe
?/?/2006 - 4/23/2007

A few pictures of chloe:

X3333 this is my favorite picture (comment me if you want the fullsize pic)

Also, some pictures of a fan mod I did (cough cough - fan service - cough cough) on a digital hinote vp laptop, as the original fan was missing and it was overheating playing halflife:

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The fan was about 1.5cm too big, it also did not have the correct connector, so I cut the connector and was going to solder the wires to the board (minus the rpm signal wire (yellow), as the motherboard lacks that feature). I then measured the voltage on the fan port (one volt) whereas the fan needed five to run. This is what led to me wiring it to the ps/2 port, which can supply 5v at about 500ma max.

 

Inside of PC where the fan will go:

 

Fan installed next to the rather bizarre heatsink (the fins are on the underside, along with the block that sits on the cpu). As seen in the picture, the fan blows out of the computer, drawing air over the cpu. I noted when testing the fan outside the computer that it could move quite a bit of air, but now that it's in the computer it dosent move much air (probably due to the severe angle of the fan and the restricted intake)

 

The PC after being put all back together. Note the vent -- it used to have a grill of plastic crosspieces that I had to break out (one had already been broken) to allow for the ps/2 cable (and of course to improve airflow).

 

The kitchen table after I was all done (note the 7up bottle -- in addition to that I also consumed four cans of dew). The mod took about six hours from having the idea (10:00 PM) to about four am (PC running halflife w/o overheating). A few main points to cover:

1. Stripping 28 guage wires is a bad idea if the smallest your wire stripper goes is 22. Using scissors is also a bad idea (I ended up going through two cables before getting it right, due to continualy stripping and accidentally cutting very fine wires)

2. Taking way too many pictures is a good thing

3. If working with a ps/2 or usb connector, after you slit the cable casing open and have all the wires stripped and are testing something, pay attention to the data wires and make sure they don't touch either the +5v, or either ground. You will screw over your board.

4. Do a better mounting job on the fan than I did. Right now its just wedged against a voltage regulator on the board, with the EMI sheild under the keyboard holding it down.

All in all, I think I've accomplished what I set out to do (getting halflife to run without overheating). I also got yelled at for not cleaning the table =_=, but so is life.

Still reading?

*shocked*

Please excuse the bad pun earlier ><, and leave comments.