{"id":3734,"date":"2006-03-21T16:06:05","date_gmt":"2006-03-22T00:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2006\/03\/21\/sometimes-birthdays-come-early\/"},"modified":"2019-12-20T09:22:12","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T17:22:12","slug":"sometimes-birthdays-come-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2006\/03\/21\/sometimes-birthdays-come-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes birthdays come early"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:6771,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/116066413&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20190121135423\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/116066413\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 09:17:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 09:17:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6772,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/116068206&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/116068206&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6773,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/accessories.us.dell.com\\\/sna\\\/productdetail.aspx?sku=20053YR&amp;c=us&amp;l=en&amp;cs=19&amp;category_id=2999&amp;page=external&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6774,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/116068483&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20190121071314\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/116068483\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 09:17:49&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 09:17:49&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6221,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000170&amp;type=4&amp;subid=0&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Last week sometime, Prairie surprised me by mentioning what she&#8217;d been thinking about for my birthday present this year. <em>Really<\/em> surprised me, too &#8212; it was far and beyond anything I&#8217;d expected her to do.<\/p>\n<p>When we went online and checked prices, we found that there was a 20% off sale going on right then&#8230;and that it would be over in just a couple days. Since waiting and paying more money didn&#8217;t make sense, Prairie went ahead and ordered the present for me.<\/p>\n<p>It came in today.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/djwudi\/116066413\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/41\/116066413_f1f3e369d8.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Old, dying 17 inch CRT\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is my desk, with the setup I&#8217;ve been working with for the past few years. I&#8217;d been grumbling off and on about the fact that the old 17&#8243; CRT I was using was on its last legs: still useable, but <em>definitely<\/em> not performing as well as it should be. It was too dark, calibration and tweaking couldn&#8217;t push it up to where it was supposed to be, and I could only set the resolution so high (a decidedly non-standard 1152&#215;870), as any higher and text became unreadable.<\/p>\n<p>This is my desk with the new birthday present:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/djwudi\/116068206\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/16\/116068206_532afe461b.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"20 inch Dell 2005FPW LCD\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A brand-new, bright and shiny <a href=\"http:\/\/accessories.us.dell.com\/sna\/productdetail.aspx?sku=20053YR&amp;c=us&amp;l=en&amp;cs=19&amp;category_id=2999&amp;page=external\" title=\"Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW 20.1-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel LCD Monitor with Height Adjustable Stand and 3-Year Warranty\">Dell 2005FPW<\/a> 20&#8243; 16:10 widescreen LCD display! So, so, <em>so<\/em> much nicer! Colors that don&#8217;t make dark areas look like a muddy mess! A <em>huge<\/em> amount of workspace! And it even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/djwudi\/116068483\/\" title=\"Flickr: After: 20&quot; Dell 2005FPW LCD\">pivots<\/a>, though I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s something I&#8217;ll be doing terribly often.<\/p>\n<p>Best. Girl. Ever.<\/p>\n<p>(Of course, she was the Best. Girl. Ever. <em>long<\/em> before she got me this as a present&#8230;this is just one more reason.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000170&amp;type=4&amp;subid=0\" title=\"Get iTunes\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"iTunes\" border=\"0\" width=\"61\" height=\"15\" src=\"http:\/\/images.apple.com\/itunesaffiliates\/logos\/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png\" \/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/ad.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/show?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;bids=78941.10000170&amp;type=4&amp;subid=0\" alt=\"\" \/> &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DKilling Joke%2526songTerm=Are You Receiving%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Search for 'Are You Receiving' on the iTMS\">Are You Receiving<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DKilling Joke%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Search for 'Killing Joke' on the iTMS\">Killing Joke<\/a> from the album <em><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DKilling Joke%2526albumTerm=Wilful Days%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Search for 'Wilful Days' on the iTMS\">Wilful Days<\/a><\/em> (1979, 4:59).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week sometime, Prairie surprised me by mentioning what she&#8217;d been thinking about for my birthday present this year. _Really_ surprised me, too &#8212; it was far and beyond anything I&#8217;d expected her to do. It came in today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2043],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-3734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}