astradele

I’m starting to develop a theory about being chronically tired. By chronically tired, I mean not complete exhaustion, but a kind of build-up, day-to-day spending a little more than you get back.

I’m feeling a little tired right now, and aside from the usual signs of hazy thinking, I’m definitely feeling a lack of physical coordination. I’ve noticed that I’ve been banging dishware around a lot more in the last couple months, too. I wonder if I should use unusual clumsiness as early signs of general fatigue. That’s earlier and more convenient to keep an eye out for than what I usually use: making really stupid mistakes or headaches from taking caffeine one more time to ward off fatigue.

My computer displayed the annoying tendency to skip every couple minutes when playing music (and not doing much else). It’s a Asus P4P800-E with a Realtek AC97 onboard audio. It’s not new, and I’m not sure what changed. Could be changing to Windows XP, or all the cat hair the computer ingests. Oddly, it plays fine after a reboot – for an hour or two.

So after making dutiful attempts with the BIOS and reinstallng drivers, I give up and buy a “real” sound card, the SB Audigy 2 ZS. And voila, no more skipping.

I’m still irked though, but in a different way. The detail at which I understand why things are going wrong has decreased substantially over the years. Understandable as technology gets more complex and people get more specialized… but still annoying.