Confessions of a Practicing Tightwad/OP

Most of my metaphorical fires and alligators taken care of now. Now all I have to do the rest of the week is drain the metaphorical swamp... (it's overflowing primarily with references to metaphors, I think. :-) Yeh, yeh. Open post. You know awhat to do... or not. ;-) If not, drop me a note and I'll put you on the right track. Just link to this post and trackback. Now that I may have a normal schedule today and tomorrow, I'll try to at least round up some of the more interesting links from this week. Also have to finish up an assignment from Alezandra *s*. And maybe a year's roundup of TWC tomorrow, if I can fit it in. This post will be open all weekend, so tb-away! Now, the tightwaddery confession of the week. I just love NOT spending money for something I really do HAVE to have. Like my new router/firewall. (Recap: my last router/firewall died; no replacements on hand. Essentially killed the rest of my lil network, and while one or two of my computers can survive with my backup dialup, having just my own net cruiser connected to broadband while family home for a while was... not fun.) Yeh, ate up more of the time I didn't have this week just researching which setup I wanted to build and then configuring it the way I wanted. Upside? After rummaging around in my junk parts, printing out and studying a buncha manuals on different router/firewall builds, yadayada, for the cost of my own spare time (what I could spare, that is :-), I've got a much more robust router/firewall setup than I would let myself buy off the shelf. And I have a much better understanding of what my firewall is doing and MUCH more detailed control over my traffic. Oh, and the last router/firewall that died? Still under warranty. A replacement is on the way, so I'll have that for my wireless access. Total cost to emulate a ~$300 router/firewall? About $15 for Cat5e cable and RJ-45 plugs (new cables-why not?) A few CDRs shipping the old router back under warranty (yeh, not rightly a cost for this router/firewall, but will re-enable my wireless capabilities). Maybe I'll post some pictures after I finish changing my network closet a bit. Confessed at TMH's Bacon Bits (where it looks like TMH had better be using the industrial-strength sunscreen or he'll be emulating some bacon...), Liberal Common Sense (where Lisa trots out the "last of..." saw a coupla days early) and maybe some other places if I decide my reputation can take the hit of confessing my tightwaddery too widely.