Windows didn't try to use the Creative drivers for this card, which leads me to think that the Creative drivers won't work with it--and without the Creative drivers I can't use the Creative software, including using "What U Hear" as a recording source.
Drat and blast.
This is going to make the occasional digitization of anime music a royal pain in the ass, because I'll have to dump it to the DVD recorder and then use the "line in" on the audio card.
On the plus side, I do not often record stuff that way anyway. On the minus side, I'm going to be a lot more reluctant to do it, because it's such a pain.
Unfortunately, I'm stuck; replacing the sound card the same day it broke requires going to a retail place for parts, and there are no computer stores around here within a reasonable driving distance. Fry's is in Lombard, which is a mere hour's drive; but Mom has two diagnostic procedures today (one was at noon, the other's at 4:30) and I don't have time to drive to Lombard.
Best Buy has three choices: the card I bought, its cheaper cousin ($30), and two varieties of Sound Blaster. The latter two cards are $100 and $150, respectively. (I do not consider USB sound modules a viable option.)
An exact replacement for the blown card will run $50, which is what I paid for the Rocketfish card. No, I'm not going to use this one until I can get another Creative card and then return it; that's the kind of thing a total jerkoff does.
I'll have to decide how important "What U Hear" is and go from there, I guess. Worst case: I buy a Creative Labs card and this one gets boxed up as an emergency replacement.
* * *
The gun shop in Glenwood had a worn-looking Ruger Mk II (I think it was a Mk II; it might have been a Mk I) for entirely too much money. It was on consignment. Asking price--I don't remember exactly but I think it was over $400. But hey--it came with extra magazines!
Since I was just there to have a gander, I didn't spend a lot of time looking at anything; I didn't want to take too much of the guy's time.
The place was totally devoid of customers, though--not surprising for noonish on a Thursday.
The range is open every day but Monday starting at 10 AM, so I know I can probably get over there sometime soon with the Mossberg and the Astra. Heh. Range time is $11 an hour, but what else can I do? I certainly can't go out in my back yard, after all.
* * *
The sinus congestion I've been struggling with has finally gone away, mostly. I still feel pretty lousy, though.
It seems like I always follow a pattern with this:
1) I start the antibiotics; I feel better within 24 hours and have all kinds of energy.
2) After a few days, though, I start to feel more cruddy than before I started with the pills. I sleep a lot.
3) Usually about a week in or so, I start feeling normal again.
...I'm still on #2. Well, it's been five days; I'm already tired of sleeping all the damn time, not that there's anything I can do about it. I simply don't have the energy to play WoW or watch anime or read or draw; and so I end up sitting in my rocking chair and thinking until I get drowsy, at which point I go back to bed and sleep for another 3-5 hours.
* * *
While I was at Best Buy, I happened to see that they've got a house brand (Insignia) TV on sale for $500. 46". And I thought, "Dang, I was right about them getting cheaper!"
...I didn't really stop to look at the details because I'm not in the market for a new TV right now and I didn't want to be harassed by salespeople. It might have been a plasma screen, which I'm not interested in; you can't run WoW on a plasma screen without risking burn-in. (And when I get a blab slab I want to be able to hook my PC up to it for teh awesome.) It might have been a floor model, though the sign I saw was a regular sale sign.
Naturally Best Buy's web site is no help here; the TV I think I saw is listed as costing $750 on sale.
I don't even really care all that much about the details. The point is, the damn blab slabs are getting cheaper. I'll probably end up buying an LG, just because the monitor for this system is an LG monitor and I like it. My only complaint with this monitor is the inability to adjust its viewing angle; I can swivel it left and right but not up and down, and sometimes there's enough glare that I'd like to be able to change the angle a bit. Oh well.
* * *
Having checked my bank account, I did indeed have to pull some cash from the Ruger fund to buy the sound card. Well, that's how life works; except for when you're the government, you have a given budget and you have to stay within it. Thanks to the particulars of my living situation I'm not entirely without means, but of course I have to stay within them the same way just about everyone else does.
$50 for a new sound card isn't too much of a setback. Since I can't watch (or dub to DVD) anime without a sound output device--and it's harder to play WoW without sound--I figure I might as well just fix the computer and get on with life.
* * *
Well, just about time to take off for Mom's other test. *sigh*