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Iceplug News (Old)

Nov 25 2011, 8:18
Got my new computer parts and will be installing them in about 12 hours from now. I just have to set the stage! Hopefully, this works out, because I haven't planned very well on which parts I am going to swap over. So, what parts of a computer can you swap out before it officially becomes a new computer? What parts of the computer can you swap out before installed programs (i.e. Microsoft Office) say that you have a new computer and have to re-register? I would conclude that the motherboard is the answer to this question and the motherboard is the main thing that will be switched out.
Second news, I'm trying to find an affordable version of Visual Studio to upgrade to (and, by upgrade, I mean new version). My web search found that Visual Studio Premium cashes in at $2,299... that's more than my computer! Who can afford such a thing? That's a tenth of a car! Third, I've found the identity of a few songs that I couldn't identify last year. I thought I uploaded more of them, but there was only the one Touhou song from Scarlet Devil Mario. Fourth, playing Minecraft.

Nov 6 2011, 6:20
So, here's a status update. The old computer (the one with Quadrill 5) doesn't open the BIOS anymore. Remember when I said that I isolated the problem to the sound card? Yeah, that was a lie. Currently, the computer powers up, but nothing happens after that. I've "reisolated" the problem to the CPU or the power supply. So, now I have this computer, the "Computer of Retribution" (it needed an awesome name), that I'm using until I can salvage some or all of my old computer hard drive (in progress, the parts should be coming to me). It has Windows 7 on it, but as long as it's not Vista, things should be fine. I started making music on this computer as well and, the one major benefit for me for having Windows 7 is that every computer that I've had Windows 7 has had negligible latency in recording music. Secondly, I found out what was wrong with the old computer with the CHKDSK obsession... the hard drive failed... although, I'm sure I said that earlier. I merely swapped out the hard drive with another one and it runs great. The only thing is that the computer refused to install Windows XP probably because the computer is designed for 64-bit operations, and Windows XP is not a 64-bit OS. Thirdly, playing Terraria on Steam. Fourthly, studying for an Engineer's Examination, which consists of multiple little "examlets" followed by a few big 'uns occurring in early January. I should be studying now, but I decided to procrastinate until tomorrow. Fifthly, Quadrill 5 progress is *actually postponed* until I can C/I/R the XP computer.

Sep 5 2011, 17:45
I've updated the Projects page with some Quadrill 5 screenshots. Get excited, Quadrill 5 progress is *actually happening*! In other news, my computer failed the 24-hour "seasoning run"... in the eighth hour. So, I can't really run the computer without expecting it to randomly shutdown at some point in the day. Let's hope that I can write this message before it shuts down. Regardless, the computer runs for much longer than it did when I was using the sound card. Also, don't use the word "Irregardless"... what does irregardless mean? I think I know what it's supposed to mean, but I also know what it actually means... so, if I regard something, that means that I'm considering it, right? So, regardless means that I'm not considering something. Then, irregardless means... ? Also, I finished Portal 2 last week. It's a good game, much like the first Portal, with lots more unique features.

Aug 29 2011, 05:45
I've isolated the problem in my computer to the new sound card that I installed. So, after not using the sound card over the past week, my computer hasn't automatically shutdown or restarted. Perhaps the problem was due to overheating - or just the sound card being weird. At any rate, I ran my computer for 12 hours back on Wednesday to see if it could pass a "seasoning run" - and it did, once I unplugged everything from my sound card and stopped using the sound card to play my music/sounds/etc. Perhaps, I'll be able to resume working on Quadrill 5 now.

Jul 15 2011, 05:16
Status update: The computer seems to run longer when I don't run it for a longer period of time. However, it is telling me that there is "not enough space in SMBIOS" before Windows starts.

Jun 18 2011, 23:51
Victim number three: my computer only runs for about an hour now. For some unknown reason, it stops sending out any external signals - the keyboard turns off, the monitor loses signal, and the computer appears to still be running. I assume that something is wrong inside of the computer. Recall the old computer which would just take 30 minutes to do something. This computer does things perfectly... it just stops doing everything after about an hour of operation. I need to figure out the cause of this, because I don't like having all of my computers catastrophically fail.

Jun 12 2011, 21:57
So, I just got off of my short little hiatus and am back to making some music and some projects. I'm working hard on Quadrill 5 right now after a brief slap in the face from reality. Why did I decide to make Quadrill 5 out of columns? It seemed like a good idea at first until I realized that, over three months of brainstorming, not one idea made me say "Well, it's a good thing that I'm making columns." Also, I was going to implement some tile-based flags, which columns don't support. These tile-based flags you'll probably see in the first update that I post of Quadrill 5. I also uploaded some music for 2011. I missed the second half of 2010, but I'm making up for that by giving you some really good stuff this time. A lot of it is music that is already made for Quadrill 5, but I have a few songs from other games. You may notice that 'TaleSpin' and 'Arc Rise Fantasia' were released about 20 years from each other, but I've added music for both games at once. I'm just appreciating good videogame music, regardless of age, origin, or... genre? Well, I won't talk about what genre is in regards to videogame music, but feel free to enjoy some MIDI. Also, I recommend downloading Platform Tour and giving it a try if you haven't already. I may not be able to run VB.NET on my computer, but I will someday, and I appreciate any feedback for the future.

Mar 4 2011, 08:55
Obvious note of the day: The new wave of new bubble tents do not offer much privacy. I'm really glad they paid someone to tell me that. Seriously, I'm looking at the picture provided (which you can see if you google "bubble tent") and I can see the forest and sky behind the tent. It's not like we're in Perfect Dark and the tent is a cloaking device. I can even see the furniture in the tent!

Feb 1 2011, 06:32
Just got my new sound card today. I wonder what exciting new possibilities it will open up. Also, I'm wiling away my time playing Eve. Also, I'm making some music for 2011, but I'll upload some when I get enough made. So, in short, this update is just saying that I'm about to update a whole bunch of things.

Jan 1 2011, 08:09
Happy New Year! As always, I updated the MIDI section to show rankings - although, I need to actually upload the songs. I'll do that when I decide which songs to upload. I also need to start making more original content... otherwise, I won't have any material for Quadrill 5. Oh, by the way, I'm working on Quadrill 5. Expect some pictures and development progress soon and also expect Quadrill 4 full edition, because the only one I have on the website currently is the demo. Also, please play Platform Tour and give me some feedback. I haven't heard from anyone in a while. I apologize for not updating recently - being lazy.

Oct 30 2010, 20:26
So, I spent a few weeks investigating what was wrong with my computer. At first, I noticed that it took a few more minutes for Windows 7 to start up with every reboot. Start up time reached about 30 minutes before the computer randomly popped up a CHKDSK scan before starting the computer. CHKDSK successfully froze on a "Usn verification check complete" line. Restarting the computer from this point caused Windows to start up fairly quickly... but then Windows became really slow while operating... taking almost five minutes just to pop up My Documents and Internet Explorer was DOA... but I copied at least what I could to a disk... the computer froze completely while I was copying files. I next tried to do a System Restore... but, apparently, I never used it. I refused to believe that I didn't make a System Restore point. Perhaps it got consumed by the computer. I spent several startups caught in a "mandatory" CHKDSK scan which again always froze on "Usn verification check complete"... as well as press any button to skip the CHKDSK scan failing to skip the CHKDSK scan... and then another CHKDSK scan failing at the same point. I left the computer starting up at 11 in the morning. I came back to find that Windows 7 miraculously started up six hours later after whatever it is that the computer was trying to do for six hours. I tried copying a few more files to my external drive... but, that failed instantly as double-clicking on Windows Explorer caused the computer to do something for 30 minutes... then giving me around twenty error messages all saying something similar to "The file xxxxxx could not be found at address xxxxxx. Please run the CHKDSK utility." Which would be nice if CHKDSK actually finished the scan... but I was more skeptical of twenty different errors referring me to the same program which didn't work... so, I formatted the computer. After formatting the computer, Windows 7 started up like a dream. I even got to use the Internets! The second startup was uneventful and took about a minute. The third startup took around three minutes... at least it's better than six hours! Each startup again taking a bit longer than the previous. The last startup for that computer took around ten minutes... while I was using the Internet, I opened My Documents... and waited... and waited... BAM! Blue Screen of Death! In Windows 7! Something was definitely up. After restarting the computer and expecting CHKDSK to popup again, I was pleasantly surprised to note that the computer was telling me that there was no operating system on the computer... so, now I have a confused look on my face. I placed in the Windows 7 CDs and was even further surprised that the computer now was telling me that there was no hard disk in the computer. So, I, being the patient and understanding person that I am, chucked that computer out of my room and got a new one. This one, roughly half the cost of the previous computer, runs excellently and quickly. The only other thing to note is that it is currently running Windows XP. Hey, I used Windows XP for seven years and, although the problems were probably not due to Windows Vista or Windows 7, I won't know for sure. The other side thing, Quadrill 4 runs perfectly on Windows XP with a simple installation of dx7vb.dll!

Aug 21 2010, 21:05
More Hawaii pictures: Wildlife of Hawaii: Centipede and Millipede... remember that a centimeter is bigger than a millimeter and, by the same vein, a centipede is bigger than a millipede. Why is it so dark in here?
Not sure what additives you add to soap to make it this bright? Stare at this picture long enough and you'll forget ... something. A snail that stopped by after a rainstorm
SCENICE! I can haz mango tree in my backyard?

Aug 9 2010, 21:45
Iceplug is a walking advertisement for Arby's. Well, I do tend to have an Arby's bag in my hand while I'm walking through the mall and to the car.

Aug 8 2010, 18:46
I am currently playing Final Fantasy XIII (That's 13) and it is a treat. Very lush environments and has a pretty odd type of challenge that I am enjoying at the moment. I guess I'll spoil it a little for you. Similar to Persona 3, if the leader dies, the game is over. With that being said, if you aren't paying attention to the leader, the enemy can quickly pound you into a game over. I'm sure that doesn't sound very glamorous but the game allows you to 'Retry' a battle, which puts you on the map just before the battle occurs -- it's as if the battle never happened . It's down to business, nothing cumbersome like the old games, where you watch game over and the system resets itself causing you to have to reload your save file... none of that. You will simply find yourself staring at the monster that you were initially fighting and you can get right back to business! Nevertheless, I probably hit around ten game overs so far.
Stay tuned for updates in the Music Section. I've had lots of time to work on music due to, um, free time? You may see me on Steam, but I have no idea what I'm doing. That is, in fact, me on Steam though, if you see me there. Direct link coming soon.

Aug 1 2010, 17:47
So, a little comment to let you all know that I am still here: I watched Inception in the theaters last weekend and it was a blast. I have never had so much fun keeping up with a plot in the movies than I have watching Inception. I suppose that part of it is because I haven't watched many movies this year. I was thoroughly pleased, although I may have to resolve against watching too many movies so that I have a good time watching some other movie this year... if that makes sense. It probably doesn't make sense, because I'm not good at making sense.

Apr 19 2010, 16:42
Between the hours that I work and when glass repair places are open, I may never get the glass in my car replaced. It's pretty hard to get an empty block of two hours when the place is only open from 8:00 to 16:30 on Monday to Friday. Surely, I cannot be the only person who works from 8:00 to 16:30 on Monday to Friday.
In more positive news, I added a whole bunch of MIDI files to my music section. Note, the files that have the source as 'unknown' should suggest that I am not sure of where the source comes from, but I *could* tell you where I heard the song from. Also, more Touhou music, but I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one it is.

Apr 5 2010, 4:00
Okay, so I'm taking a break from programming for a bit and spending my time working on music. I'll probably have some musical updates coming later this month or maybe next month. Also, I went to the Navy Submarine Birthday Ball Saturday. I actually had fun for the most part and it seems like everyone had a good time. Now, it's time to go to work... and yes it is four in the morning.

Mar 10 2010, 19:57
I set up a Facebook account, although I'm not sure how often I'll actually use it since I have my website here. Come to think of it, I haven't really even used the website that much since I started work. Hopefully, I'll be able to drop a few messages here.

Feb 9 2010, 19:47
Now, I forgot to mention this in the last update, but erm...
Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Them Saints?

Feb 8 2010, 17:53
I bought my Windows 7 upgrade and installed it last night while I "slept"... actually had to wake up a few times because it insisted on asking me lots of questions where I was expecting it to get with the installations and stuff. I slept for about 7 hours while the installation was doing its thing. I'm trying out Windows 7 now. I noticed instantly that Google Earth now runs smoother and isn't getting swamped when zooming into Hawaii and the trillions of pictures available. I still need to look at a couple of things that need to be reset in Windows 7 - or if they can be reset - such as putting write privileges on the C drive because I have programs that write stuff to the C drive (it's a bad habit of mine that I should stop) and these programs raise errors when accessing a file on the C drive.
Also, I've started work right now. It's pretty light, but it will pick up soon. I'm also kicking around the idea of making a Facebook page... but I'm not sure if I want my face on Facebook. A little bit of FYI: if you look at the location of Hawaii with respect to where timezones usually are, you'll notice that Hawaii is a bit to the west of where you'd expect the timezone line for Hawaii to be. What does that mean? Well, sunrise and sunset seem to fall at around 7 o' clock rather than 6 o' clock.
The pictures below don't seem to work for some reason.

Feb 4 2010, 16:02
Well, we finally got the Internet connection in the Hawaii house. I bought a new keyboard which actually does a very good job of recording music! Perhaps this will be a sign of lots of music coming soon. As far as work, I think I got conned out of my full February break... we'll see.

Feb 3 2010, 10:32
I figured that I'll share some Connecticut snow pictures from the blizzard we had earlier:
Jack Frost has lost his mind, What has science done?, Snow Rocks, ICE COFFIN!!!.
Hawaii pics: Waikiki Hotel Area, Look'it them Hills!.

Jan 30 2010, 17:11
I had to fly from Hawaii to Newark to get my car shipped, then turn right back around and fly from Newark to Hawaii. Just a little quick note to consider with the previous sentence: a direct flight from Hawaii to Newark and vice versa is 4966 miles (or approximately). That means that flying directly to Newark from Hawaii and back is only 68 miles short of 10,000 miles. Now, that would be fine and dandy if I caught direct flights going both ways. I flew out of Hawaii to Las Vegas and had an eight-hour layover. So, I decided to check out the city of Las Vegas - it is in fact, in a very desert-like environment. I didn't take any pictures of cacti because they weren't far enough away from the highway. I have other pictures though - they didn't really come out very good because I hadn't had that much luck with the night feature of my camera.
Luxor Pyramid, An Obelisk With Luxor on it, Mandalay Bay, I think, A Roller Coaster and a Building With a Guitar, Excaliber Casino. Another interesting feature: Las Vegas' Airport has slot machines in the waiting areas. Too much?
Next, I flew from Las Vegas and landed in Charlotte. The flight was uneventful because everyone on the flight was asleep (it arrived in Charlotte at 6 in the morning). The flight from Charlotte to Newark was not as copacetic: my seat had a cup full of mystery beverage (we'll refer to it as Sprite) in the seat pocket and there were Mentos everywhere. I guess they didn't have time to clean inside. Also, this may be my inexperience(?) with planes, but I would prefer to use the restroom before boarding the plane, because, after the bags are stowed, the people are seated, and the plane begins to move, that's generally not the time to spring up and walk casually into the restroom. We hit quite a bit of turbulence flying into Newark as well... sufficient to frighten a couple of people on the plane (I guess it was their first time). A woman across the aisle was freaking out and a woman further ahead in the plane sprang out of her seat as soon as the plane landed, looking a bit more awake than others on the plane. Well, flying isn't for everybody, I guess.
The next gem was that the temperature in Newark was "a nice and balmy 16F". Not something I was looking forward to after the 76F of Hawaii... and I was going to be in Newark for the next few hours. So, first I had to pay 200 bucks to get my car out of the parking garage after leaving my car there for a week. Next, I had to drive far enough to deplete the gas in my car to under a quarter of the tank. Third, I had to actually find the place to get my car shipped. Fourth, and, in my mind, not much to be worried about, I had to be back at the airport for boarding in three and a half hours. I found the shipping place fine, but then I had to deplete the gas inside. So, I drove around looking for a gas station that would take gas out of the car. Got lost. Drove on a highway, tried to get back on the Interstate, but missed and drove into another town, got even more lost until I found the Interstate, retraced the path from the airport to get back to the store. When I got back, I had an hour left before boarding began, but at least I was below a quarter of a tank. The taxi driver which drove me back to the hotel was amazing. I got to the front entrance of the airport just as boarding began. Fortunately, I already had the ticket, so I got on to the flight with no problems. Except for the 11 and a half hour flight back to Hawaii. Phew! I don't think I'll be doing much flying anymore this year - at least, not to the mainland.

Jan 24 2010, 14:25
Aloha! It's Iceplug from Hawaii. My keyboard seems to be having trouble processing what I type for some reason. Anyway, what a trip! On the 21st I drove to Rhode Island to visit family. On the 22nd, I received an award for my supreme skills in 'getting schooled': a large picture. Though the picture is nice, it was much larger than I anticipated. I managed to somehow fit in my luggage for Hawaii.
So, after receiving my award, the task was to go drive from Eastern CT to NJ in order to have the car shipped to Hawaii in three and a half hours. One of my passengers figured that a reasonable intermediate stop from Connecticut to New Jersey that wouldn't take too much time was a bus station in Manhattan of N.Y. Yes, you read that correctly (I hope): N.Y. ... not NY... N.Y., as in New York City - and Manhattan of all places! Out of the goodness of heart, I went to N.Y. - I suppose part of it was that, deep inside, I still wanted to go to N.Y.C. The decision was a poor one: three hours into the trip, we still weren't at the bus station. If you've never drove in Manhattan, it's pretty rough. It's basically as bad as people say it is, but, as with a lot of tasks that I end up facing, there are people who can do it, so there shouldn't be a reason why I can't do it. However, you should do it with a complete list of driving instructions! Although I was only in N.Y. for about a hour, I must've gotten spellstruck, because I think it is a beautiful city, undeserving of the negative comments that I may have mentioned earlier on my front page.
This left us with a little less than a half hour to go to NJ - the risk wasn't worth it, and my other passenger needed to catch a flight out of Newark. So, I drove using gut instinct and somehow (I still don't see how) made it out of Manhattan in under 10 minutes. Driving down the NJ Turnpike to the airport was fairly good, but wasn't enough to get there in time. So, the car was not shipped and we missed a flight (not my flight!). FYI: You need to make it to the airport *at least* 45 minutes before your flight. 26 minutes before is inadequate as we observed on the 22nd - and also taking your time to get there 47 minutes before is not good either as we observed on the next day! Really! What a stress! Fortunately, I checked my stuff in two hours before my flight (probably just out of pure disdain) and caught my flights to Hawaii. A quick stopover in L.A. (You read that right, Los Angeles) revealed some really tall mountains that you really don't get to see on the East Coast. I noted to myself: I've now been in N.Y. and L.A., despite thinking that I'd never be in either. (I guess LAX doesn't really count as being in L.A.)
So, upon landing in Hawaii, the sky was very ominous and overcast due to 'vog' (fog due to volcanic activity), but beneath the vog, Hawaii looks wonderful. I'll upload pictures once I get my camera connector. I have to fly back to Newark to ship my car on a later date, which is a hassle: the flights usually add up to 12 hours from Honolulu to Newark. *Sigh* I'll be glad when this is over with.

Jan 20 2010, 16:50
I've got a little bit of downtime. I've had to do a lot of running around taking care of business in regards to the car since I just got the registration for it. I took it to the car dealership for service and found out that I had to get several fluids replaced. So, they set me up with a rental car so that I could drive around the city for a few hours while I wait for repairs. I got lost several times looking for something that wasn't there. I ate at a Deli, windowshopped in GameStop, and drove to a city called 'Mystic'. I hear they have good pizza, but I didn't see anywhere to park. After getting my car back, I took all of the change in my car that I accumulated for the past four years (I found some coins that I probably put in my car when I first got a website in 2004) and took it to a CoinStar machine. It came out to be around 30 dollars according to the machine... I had 5 dollars worth of pennies, which is a lot of pennies for one person to be carrying around in their car. I decided I would donate my $30 to the Haiti Relief efforts - there's my feelgood moment for the day. I then spent the rest of the day driving laps around the state of Connecticut looking for people with bags and bags with people. I got an eye inspection ... I mean, an 'optometry appointment' today, which was uneventful, and got boxes moved out of my place here in Connecticut. It's almost time to leave CT - the feeling is bittersweet, because I didn't really get a chance to drive around and see a lot of the area. I drove through Hartford on my way here and then I am going to end up driving through New Haven to leave. Some trivia for you: Yale University is in New Haven, CT. I should drive through and look at their video game programming curriculum lol. Connecticut is the 3rd smallest state, beat by Rhode Island (1st) and Delaware (2nd). I'll see you all later with possibly more trivia and more updates.

Jan 11 2010, 19:05
I got my registration in the mail! Yeah, boy! Now, I have to get everything done for the car but at least I have peace of mind in knowing that I can get my car to Hawaii.

Jan 8 2010, 16:08
Still waiting for my registration in the mail. I also was told that I need to get a bevy of checkups at medical, so I'll have to do that in addition to all of the other stuff that I need to do over the next two weeks in preparation for the move to Hawaii. Just think... in three weeks from now, I will be on an island!
So, here's today's Physics lesson. In the absence of air, if you dropped a rock from the top of the Burj Dubai, how fast would it be moving when it hits the ground? Seriously, Burj Dubai is a frighteningly tall building. According to the linked site, Burj Dubai is 818 meters tall. That comes out to a little over half of a mile. It looks like it is about twice taller than the second-closest building in the world. On the top floor, you get one great window view, though. So, for those of you who actually calculated out the speed of the rock at the bottom, you got (a little under) 127 m/s, right? That comes out to about 280 mph. That's a speedy rock!

Jan 5 2010, 13:48
Still waiting for my registration in the mail. I just spoke with LA DMV and they said that the registration and things are in the mail and I can expect to receive them any day now. That's just what I need, because if I don't have registration before the 22nd, I can pretty much kiss my car goodbye. However, I want my car en route to Hawaii as soon as possible. When I get my registration, I'll do a little dance.
Also, I seem to have a few too many boxes here in CT! I need to get rid of a few before I can be able to get on a plane. Graduation here is on the 22nd, and I am planning on flying to Hawaii ASAP to enjoy the lush tropical island. But, I can't get on the plane with eighteen bags of gobbledygook, so we'll just have to kick those bags into bins in CT or donate some stuff to charity.
Speaking of Hawaii, all of the pictures I've seen of Hawaii are beautiful. It's a bit intimidating if you can't find any really ugly pictures of, you know, torrential downpours, ugly sunsets, or polluted beaches. Come to think of it, I'm not sure anyone in their right mind posts pictures of ugly sunsets or polluted beaches. Oops! Nevertheless, it looks pretty, and I'm looking forward to tour each island for a bit.

Jan 1 2010, 9:02
Traditional update to the music list to show the list of the Top 10 MIDI Files for last year. This time, I've uploaded them all so you can decide if you agree with my top 10. Music that I didn't compose typically falls lower because I give points toward composition and sequencing - if the song was composed by someone else, then I can't receive credit for the composition... period! Also, I find that songs that I use a lot (that is assigned to a project that I work on a lot) tends to do better. Also, you may be surprised, but Perish Song did not make the Top 10! Mutiny! What about that huge article that you wrote about your love of Touhou music? Well, ah... um... I don't know, but I liked some other songs. I've heard a rumor that the song at tenth place is from Touhou, but it doesn't sound like it is... . I can write about my love for Ys music, I guess . Also, I was a little troubled because I didn't compose many 'original' songs this year, as you may be able to tell from what I uploaded this year.
Anyhow, Happy New Year and Happy New Decade(?). We have some snow falling outside - currently, on the ground, there is snow from two different years: 2009 and 2010.

Dec 31 2009, 16:35
It's the last day of the year 2009. The jury is still out as to whether this is the last day of the decade, because we have yet to decide if 2010 is the last year of the decade or if 2009 is the last year. *sigh* You wonder why we're having such problems with this. It's getting annoying.
So, according to wikipedia, the decade ends on the year 2010. Therefore, I can conclude that this decade actually ends on the year 2009! Phew, I'm glad we cleared that up. Oh yeah, and for those of you who saw that I went to wikipedia: don't worry, I'm all right. It was just a little joke. For those of you who don't get the joke, please find my rant about wikipedia. I may not have uploaded it yet, but I'm sure I've mentioned something to this effect.
So, let's take a little look back to 2009:
My website was down during the beginning of 2009. What you need to know from the beginning 2009 is:
My mom died at the beginning of the year. I was sad, not only because we were really close, but a whole lot of other things changed afterwards and I'm not happy about those... but, what can you do? Keep on living. I moved most of my really important things from home (HS diploma, LSU degree) to NY with me and put the rest into storage in hopes that I'd be able to buy a house in the near future (near future became far future about three months ago).
On a lighter note, after slipping and sliding on the ice-covered sidewalk in front of my house in NY, I finally got a cutting rod and dug down to the sidewalk, only to find that there were actually two feet of ice on top of the sidewalk! I bought Magic Salt to cut the ice down to size. The best part about Magic Salt? It makes the ice go Snap, Crackle, and Pop when you put it on. Ultimately, I bought enough to reveal a mat that was lying on the ground in fall that got buried by two feet of ice. I get a little too violent with the cutting rod on my car and chip off some of the paint. There's a large snow mountain on the side of the road that is about 4-5 feet high. It takes nearly two months of 50 degree weather and diligent snow chopping to remove this snow mountain completely.
On Jan 15th, a pilot safely landed a plane in a river after some birds blow out the engines and nobody died. That was amazing, especially when you consider what a pilot actually *has* to do to land on water - just note that the pilot cannot have any view of the water when landing on the water! However, the fact that it had to happen in the state that I was in at the time kind of ruined the overall mood (?) of the plane landing.
I went skiing at Mount Gore for Martin Luther King Day. I tore those bunny slopes up! And, of course, I had to pretend like I was sliding down D'boutit Peaks from Quadrill 3!
I went skiing again at Mount Gore, but I decided to actually go onto an "Easy" slope. After falling face first in the snow three times on the way down, my glasses broke and the screw to put them together fell in the snow. I should have just brought a cardboard box and slid down the mountain on that. But, it was some extreme speed! I'd say that I was going about 30 mph before I ate the snow on the last fall.
I must have been doing some extreme sitting during February, because my back hurts when I breathe in.
Platform Tour development during January and February 2009 was excellent. I had just set things up so that once you beat the boss of the first world, you get warped to the second world. I was left with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.
I got this website back up and running and now you should be able to follow along with the old entries from 2009 and entries from earlier (2008, 2007, 2006, etc.) .

Dec 26 2009, 12:02
Updated the Code section one more time to finish up all of my C# progress. I spent the last couple of days writing an expression evaluator in C#. No matter how many of these things I write, there's always something that I miss. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas. Celebrate by playing the Platform Tour! If you get any errors when trying to run the game, please tell me via e-mail or guestbook. Regardless, for those who have got it to run, I appreciate your positive comments and hope you are indeed having fun playing. I still can't believe how much fun I'm having playing through the game using various weapons.

Dec 20 2009, 20:06
Updated the Code section to reflect my current progress in C#. Just to clear up any confusion, I do not plan on abandoning VB.NET like others have done. The main reason for me learning C# is to be proficient in the current language for the new wave of development from the Microsoft front - read: XNA. And, although, I won't have any real time to work on C# for the next couple of years, I figure I should make the necessary preparations as soon as possible.
Anyway, the Survivor Finale is on. Let's talk later...

Dec 17 2009, 21:17
The Top 10 Happiest States. Of course, you obviously must have some idea of which state is revealed to be number one by the fact that I'm randomly posting a link to a Yahoo article. "Might not reflect current levels of well-being since the data were collected before [...] Hurricane Katrina." Regardless, that means that Louisiana would have been the happiest while I was there. Aw... this makes me happy! Superfluous smiley faces... .

Dec 17 2009, 19:53
I put up a little page of me making small steps back in to C#. This is mostly coming as the reaction to Microsoft not giving Visual Basic compatibility with all of its new stuff, namely, XNA, which apparently, only works with C#. That, in addition, to C# being fully tricked out with the latest technology each release and VB.NET still tricked in (?). Example: they still leave Option Strict off for new versions of VB as the default, but it's default turned on in C#... and still much stricter than in VB. But, I'm not going to get started on this. It's almost Christmastime! Make a VB Christmas Tree out of Classes or something.
Other news: I just got a letter from Louisiana DMV stating that they apparently couldn't find the enclosed letter stating that I don't have any debt on my car. So, it looks like my six-week wait was in vain if they couldn't find something that was already there... this poses a problem. If I can't put a current plate on my car, my car cannot go anywhere. Specifically, it can't go to Hawaii and will probably remain in the towing area of Connecticut, forever lost, because I cannot drive my car to Hawaii! Speaking of driving to Hawaii, they have Interstates in Hawaii - that's an interesting concept. How can you have an Interstate that is only in one state? I suppose I *really* can't say too much about it, because Louisiana has Interstate 12 which connects Interstate 10 in Slidell to Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge. Oops.

Dec 14 2009, 19:31
I have updated the Power II section to prove that I am still making developments on Power II. I couldn't help but notice that Christmas is just around the corner and I haven't made any Christmas songs yet. There's always "A Covert Christmas" in the Music file section, but I think I want to make something similarly odd and Christmas-themed. I think I'll keep it a surprise (even to myself) until then. I'm redoubling my efforts to become good at C#. Despite how similar C# is to VB.NET, there are still some nuances that I just haven't gotten the hang of yet. I already had a C++ quick runthrough, complete with extraneous pointers, pointers to structures with pointers, structures with pointers to structures, and pointers to classes with overloaded operators using pointers to other classes with pointers. *Sigh* At least, there are no excessive pointers required in C#.

Dec 7 2009, 10:44
It's getting pretty cold here in CT. It snowed two days ago and there's still ice. Fortunately, I don't have to drive around excessively like I had to in NY. I'm still working on Power II and I expect to have an update done sometime near the end of this week.
I watched The Box yesterday and I'm still confused. At least Cameron Diaz is easy on the eyes, as always .

Dec 4 2009, 21:42
Chat with me. I can be found on openircnet's IRC channel #code. Of course, to talk on IRC, you'll need an IRC client. I recommend downloading mIRC. I am around most days from 16:00-21:00 Eastern Standard Time (21:00-2:00 GMT). Remember: /server irc.randomirc.com:6667 to get connected.
In other news, I added Platform Tour's Lurk-A-Lurk Music to the Music Section. I have been working on Power II, but I haven't got any good updates yet. I've spent a lot of the time making tools in VB6 to make Power II easier.

Nov 22 2009, 16:07
Well, here's something that I've noticed a lot more in Vista and the new age of applications that are out there, ready to be installed on someone's computer with a bunch of undocumented features. Well, I'll show you the history leading up to this point via programming threads at XVBT.
So, what do these threads have in common? How do I get my program in front of every window? I don't think SetWindowPos works for DirectX or OpenGL (fullscreen) games or applications... What a hard question!
Can I show and keep a regular window/form on top of a running full screen directx game? Gee, there it is again!
I want to know how to make a form always visible while running any fullscreen game. Well, I can show you how to keep the running fullscreen window visible!
what can I do to make a form appears on top of any other appz like the MSNMessenger? lol, appz. Not to be confused with apps or applications :p.
I'm wondering how to get complete control of the computer resources when running my program in fullscreen mode? (I want to prevent programs like MSN messenger from displaying on top of my program). This is another hard question.
So, there's a war going on between those who want windows to show up in front of fullscreen games (and, I guess, movies) and those who want their fullscreen games on top of applications that popup over fullscreen games. Well, you can compare the number of entries on either side to see who won the war.
See my reaction here
Also, the Z key broke off of my keyboard! This computer is barely a year old and already keys are coming off? Gee. Well, upgrading to Windows 7 doesn't magically fix broken keyboard keys.

Nov 20 2009, 19:08
Well, I'm still in Connecticut. I got to watch 2012. It's a fairly good movie if you're into apocalypse movies. At first, I was taken aback from the whole 'movie is two and a half hours long' thing. But aside from that, it was pretty good. The effects are nicely done, the acting is good, and I liked it. Now, the plot, hm.... Well, after watching tons of apocalypse, better known as 'Science FICTION' movies, you know that there's going to be some really cheesy scientific explanation of what happened. "Hey, if all the planets align, neutrinos can mutate"... and I'm like "Word?"... yeah, that's the best you can do after hyping us up for almost a year? But, hey, whatever, it's better than other movies, such as The Core (yes, I thoroughly disliked The Core). Also, some of the scenes in the movie are ridiculously cheesy... but I suppose that I've come to accept that. I mean, it wouldn't provide the same feeling if the main character was driving at 80 mph with nothing following them.
Now, everyone is (read: news outlets vice people) getting all worried about the movie (which is the initial reason as to why I did not want to watch this movie ever since the first trailer)... "omg, is the world really going to end in 2012". The movie even goes as far as to put a specific date on it, which makes the problem worse. Fortunately, NASA comes to save the day by saying something to the effect of 'it is unlikely that the world will end on this date'. Thanks, but I don't think the efforts of NASA are necessary for a measly old Hollywood movie that wants to win a few awards. Also, I'm not repeating the date, because it's not important, I'm not sure of the exact date, and I think it better that the date not be beaten into the heads of everyone so that we can subdue chaos on the actual date. Hey, it's not the end of the world if the world doesn't come to an end!
On a much lighter note, I watched The Men Who Stare At Goats - an enjoyable movie. It's not exactly a 'non-stop laughter' movie - it knows when it needs to develop the plot more. But it's also not entirely devoid of comedy - we'll say there are spots that are pretty funny.
Also funny (weird funny): U.S. President bows to Japanese Emperor - world is outraged. Uhm? Isn't that how people greet others in Japan? They're talking as if the President was doing the 'Ride The Pony/Shake Your Booty' dance in front of the Japanese Emperor. But anyway, I'm sure you've heard this topic beat to death from both sides already, so I won't delve into this any further.
I've also found myself messing around with Lunar Magic and SMW Central. I can't say that this will last for very long, but I'm doing it mostly as an excuse to see how games such as Super Mario World work. I also received some bizarre e-mail stating that I need to renew my account with this random company. This doesn't make any sense, so I will contact the original company about this matter.

Nov 7 2009, 17:59
I am in Connecticut now and boy is the weather average here! Well, at any rate, I got into a little issue with that whole NY registration thing. Before I could even get my car parked in Connecticut, I got a citation for invalid registration. So I've sent some paperwork to the LA DMV (Again, LA is Louisiana and L.A. is Los Angeles, but I won't get into that discussion again) asking for help. I think something special happened once I paid the car off, though. Hopefully that something special is LA registration. Also, I had the pleasure of going to Koto's Japanese Steakhouse - it is very nice. I watched Paranormal Activity - that movie is pretty weird and I heard rumors that it was doctored, but I don't know... have plans that will keep you up until the next morning . Also watched a funny spoof of it called Sexual Activity (hey, if you got a video made mostly of a couple in the bedroom, you're asking for someone to make a sex-related parody of it)! Plans are still set to go to Hawaii at the end of January 2010. Other than that, not much other news here.

Oct 31 2009, 3:34
Driving on teh Intertstatestes lol. Yeah, sorry about that, but I'm about to drive to CT in the early morning hours - (hopefully, if I get everything packed in time - I suppose this isn't helping me meet that time requirement very much).

Oct 30 2009, 15:29
I'm disconnecting the Internet. See you all in CT or HI.

Oct 29 2009, 17:09
Oh-em-jee, the rooms have never looked so empty here. The movers came a bit later than planned, but earlier than I expected. They came in like a Kansas tornado, almost, and all of my stuff was gone in under an hour. Now, I have to get ready to drive to Connecticut - I'll probably head out early Saturday morning. I'll have to pack up my computer - I'll do that after my internet service disconnects at some time today. After that point, I'll be out of touch. B-B-L

Oct 26 2009, 18:23
Uhm... so yes, today I got my orders at about 10:00 - I am, in fact, still going to go to Hawaii after going to SOBC in Connecticut. Important detail: I have to be in Connecticut by next Monday (That's Nov 2nd - after we set the clocks back)! The next matter of business is to schedule my stuff for being moved. Since I need to be in Connecticut by next Monday, I would like to move out before then, kthx, and I cannot have my stuff moved over the weekend - so that gives me only four possible days - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday lol. So, naturally, I haven't started getting ready yet (I mean, I have organized a few things, but I haven't made any earnest effort to getting ready).
With that in mind, I'll let you take a wild guess as to when the movers are coming. Would you like the answer? No, not Tuesday, thank goodness. No, not Friday, although that would have been desired. Nope, Wednesday... which means I have less than 48 hours to make some order out of the chaos of where I live currently.
In other news, I added a guide on how to download .NET programs in the above section - you can also find it here. So, I just decided to write about what is going on, because I may be out of touch in a few days. Also, I went to Best Buy and realized that they sell WTF Blankets there. I should get one and blog about how comfortable I am.

Oct 22 2009, 15:57
Platform Tour is now available for download! Like most of my other .NET Downloads, this requires .NET Framework and DirectX. Let me know what you think - does something look really nice or does something look not really nice? I accept feedback via email or guestbook.

Oct 22 2009, 7:44
There are only three more things that need to be fixed on the Platform Tour. I plan to upload after work, so hang in there.

Oct 20 2009, 16:03
I fixed an error that I put in the Music section.

Oct 19 2009, 7:09
Platform Tour will be complete on October 22nd! Updated Platform Tour section.

Oct 15 2009, 7:04
Updated Platform Tour, Music, and Quote sections. Platform Tour is coming in a week (hopefully)! Get excited! :D

Sep 22 2009, 7:25
Updated Platform Tour section. In other news, looks like I will finally be able to leave NY this November... but this isn't written in stone (or on orders) yet. I completed FF6 Advance special dungeon and now I'm working on some more music - some of which is for Quadrill 5, which I don't think I'm going to be able to finish anytime soon, but maybe I'll be able to start it. We'll just have to see what the future holds.

Jul 12 2009, 23:40
Just finished Valkyrie Profile about an hour ago. Yes, I only went for the B Ending as that one is the most intuitive IMO. It is a great feeling, having Valkyrie run all over Jotunheim Palace, kicking bad guy butt and taking names. Bloodbane was kind of tricky though, but I got him defeated. Surt got his behind good and kicked. We mopped the floor with him! Anyway, that concludes my Valkyrie Profile weekend. Now, to get back to work on the Platform Tour.

Jul 12 2009, 7:39
Yesterday's jaunt through Valkyrie Profile got me through Chapter 4 and 5. I finally found a spot where it is possible to build levels. While exploring the Arkdain Ruins, I was moderately surprised to run into a throwback from Legend of Zelda. It's a small room with two monsters in it, but the door behind you shuts and locks. You have to engage battle with both of the enemies and defeat them in order for the door to open. Everytime you enter the room, the monsters come back so you can fight them repeatedly. The other monsters elsewhere in the game disappear after you beat them. I stayed for about 4 minutes there and then left. Right now I'm on Chapter 6 and I'm loving it whenever Freya says, "It is magnificent!!", in response to my performance. All right, back to the game.

Jul 11 2009, 9:25
Played Valkyrie Profile yesterday and got up to the Black Dream Tower. My party got into a battle with some monstrous glowflies. I figured it'd be a good idea to use a Dark Savior to knock them down... unfortunately it knocked the first one right into explosive range - the monstrous glowfly promptly explodes and kills half of my team, knocks Aelia down to 8 HP, and Valkyrie is OK (she has over half her HP left). I somehow managed to kill them with just Valkyrie, but that's where I'm at today.

Jul 10 2009, 8:08
So, now it is the weekend. I am going to play Valkyrie Profile as I promised. Unfortunately, for me, I have a bit of a headache from yesterday that carried over into today. Hopefully, this doesn't interfere with my plans.

Jul 4 2009, 10:11
I received Valkyrie Profile in the mail yesterday and am excited, because I've wanted to play this game for almost ten years -- ever since I first saw someone playing it during my first year of college. I figure I'll play it next weekend. This weekend is Independence Day and I have other plans for today... which may be cancelled because it looks like it will rain. *Sigh*

Jun 29 2009, 17:33
I updated Music section. Specifically, Perish Song? is from a Megaman Hack, however, the actual song referenced is a bit different from the in-game music. The music can be found here as #6. Anyways, I had a few more songs that I wanted to post, but I kinda have to make them first. It seems that I have misplaced my camera which had the last pictures of my house in LA. I hope I haven't thrown it into the garbage... I would be DEVASTATED. I feel DEVASTATED. I also feel like typing DEVASTATED in caps also. It's also about 90 degrees here. Not bad for Upstate NY! I figured it wouldn't make a degree over 80, but looks like I was wrong.

Jun 10 2009, 8:31
I have updated the Projects area again after quite a bit of programming and work. It's almost summertime here in NY and racing season is just around the corner. Still, I hope to be leaving NY sometime very soon, but I don't think that it is going to happen. *sigh*

Mar 29 2009, 18:22
Today, the ice has melted off of my sidewalk. Spring is here. But even more important than melting snow: marijuana-filled brownies. I can just imagine some cop just sitting on the sofa, eyes bugged out with a vacant expression on his face with lifeless arms and back, and the wife collapsed halfway on a sofa and the floor, also with the same expression on her face.

Mar 25 2009, 13:29
More bad news. I downloaded something from the Internet that has somehow prevented the Microsoft AudioVideoPlayback.dll from playing MP3 files. All applications that play MP3 files will hang as soon as the application tries to stop the music which should have been playing. I even tried it out with a test program and the test program hangs when trying to stop the music. This is a minor setback, though, as I can still work on the game... I just have to disable the music. MIDI files still play fine.

Mar 15 2009, 8:30
The question that I had to face before this weekend: would it be easier to get this title form filled out and notarized (you know, the notary I mentioned last week) OR would it be easier to get a form from the DMV that says that I don't have a title from them? Silly me, I thought that it would be a quick little printout that would only take a DMV worker a few minutes to printout. Boy, was I wrong. Did you know they have a form for that, too? Not only that, I have to put it in the mail and it's going to take several weeks for them to reply, saying that I don't have a title in New York. *sigh* You know, the problem isn't NY... it's that DMV. I'm starting to realize that people don't like DMVs because of the ones in NY. As if it isn't enough, I have to jump through all of these miscellaneous hoops to get registered here (probably not going to meet my March deadline) and the roads and traffic lights aren't even that great. But anyway, I still have more forms to fill out.

Mar 5 2009, 20:02
I just played through Eversion. It is a, um, interesting game to say the least. I was going to get some things done today, but I got very frustrated. First of all, I can't figure out how to get Vista to change the default MIDI output. Second of all, what is the body of a car? (I was thinking more along the lines of 'Yes, there is a body there'). Third, I need to notarize a signature and I don't even know the purpose of a notary. I just remember the notary from Syberia. Fourth, we are beginning long hours at work today, which will prevent me from doing anything else until the next Thursday. And, on that note, be back on Thursday (or maybe Wednesday).

Mar 2 2009, 10:09
Well, here I am looking over the list of items that can be accepted as proof that I am who I say I am, and all I can say is, "Goodness Griefous". I just want a license plate! So here we go:
Welfare Card - Sorry, I'm not on welfare.
NYS Learner's Permit - Sorry, I know how to drive...
NYS Pistol Permit - The time it would take to get one would be better spent driving home and getting one there, if possible.
NYS Professional License - This is why they call it the Empire State... because you must be part of the Empire before you can become part of the Empire!
NYS Registration Document - Ah, now this one I actually have and my name is correct... 33% done.
NYS Certificate of Title - What in the world is this? Pass.
Driver's License - Check... 67% done.
Mohawk Tribe Photo - Sorry, but once again, I am not from the Empire State.
US Military Dependent Card - Well, I do depend on myself, but I can't use this because my name doesn't match... *sigh*
College ID with Transcript - I think I threw the ID away and the transcript is a definite NO.
High School ID - I suppose this would be in schools up here, but not where I'm from.
US Marriage Record - Oh, I can just go to the club tonight and pick up a quick bride to get this one lol.
Social Security Card with Signature - Sorry, but for some reason I don't have one of these... brb.
So, yes. It sounded easy over the phone until I told her that I lived in NY. The receptionist exclaims, "Oh...", defeatedly. The next part made me laugh. "Here, in the country [US?], we just go to the social security office." Yes! Proof that NY is it's own country! :P Bottom line: it's going to take a week for this one.
Computer Printed Pay Stub with name - Do Photoshopped pay stubs count? At any rate, my name doesn't appear on any of them.
Employee ID Card - Again, same as miltary ID: names don't match.
High School Diploma - DING! Unfortunately, it's half as valuable as a driver's license and assuming that it has my suffix as well... 83% complete, possibly.
Supermarket Check Cashing Card - Um...? Can I give them two loaves of bread as proof of identity?
Union Card - Nope. How about a Confederate Card? I don't have one of those either :-\
US Health Insurance Card - I may be able to gamble with this one as I do have one but I'll have to look for it and hope that it has my name on it identical to my driver's license.
Life Insurance Policy - I'll write them a letter, "I promise not to die unless death takes me first...". I don't think that one will go over well.
Utility Bill - now this one is curious because I currently don't pay the bills here. I give money to someone else who pays the bills.
Veteran's Photo ID - Um... sorry.
W-2 Form with SSN - brb. OK, the name doesn't match. So close.
Bank Statement, Credit Card, ATM Card, or Check - yes, I have all four of these, but only one is acceptable... however, it may be just the amount of information that I need.
US Birth Certificate - well, it's not even worth any credit as to who I am according to NY DMV. The fact that I am alive is meaningless to the DMV unless I work in the state? Must be a whole bunch of zombies somewhere out there. Can you say 'Resident Evil'?
Canadian DMV - Ah, shoots, I don't have one.
So, looks like I need to bring my Registration, Driver's License, High School Diploma, Car Title and ATM Card to the DMV. What a random list of items! I'll also bring my Super Nintendo, a set of headlights, and a gallon of vinegar, as well... and I just checked my diploma, and it doesn't have my suffix. Zrcfzrcfzrfzrf!

Mar 1 2009, 20:58
Well, March is here and it's about the same temperature that it was for the last four months - the snow mountains still haven't melted off of the side of the road enough. I've uploaded some quotes about threads (threats) in the quote section.

Feb 28 2009, 17:52
Let's talk 'Bad Ideas'. Bad Idea: driving home with dilated eyes. I'm sure it sounds bad, but it at least provided the illusion that it was a clear day outside with bright skies (and very dark roads). I drove to Albany yesterday morning to get my eyes checked for spots and I got some pictures taken of my eyes - I felt like an eye model lol. Before that, I got my eyes good and dilated. Things started looking brighter afterwards (bad joke *groan*). After I got my eyes photographed, the doctor found nothing wrong with them so I left on my merry way back home. I walked out of the front door and then it hit me- my eyes are still dilated. I spent a few minutes trying to find my car in the parking lot and got in. At first, I thought, "Maybe I'll just suffer all the way back to the house.", but then I figured that that would be too dangerous on the Interstate. So, I slept for a little bit in the car until it got too cold, then I went ahead and drove home. I worked on the platform tour some more as I wondered what I am going to do about this driver's license (I am basically waiting for duplicates of hundreds of documents to come in the mail so that I can renew my license). This'll be fun... .

Feb 25 2009, 21:18
A wise person once said, "If you don't know, then you better [axe] somebody.", so I'm going to ask somebody what I should do about this license plate fiasco (it should pose as some sort of insurance that I'm not the only person who knows about this) - or maybe I'll be told that I am stupid ... that possibility always exists. Also, what are giggle drops? This commercial always makes me laugh - probably because I have no idea about what they're eating and what chocolate doo-diddles and giggle drops are (sprinkles and gumdrops, perhaps). Perhaps, I should go to Price Chopper and ask for some giggle drops.

Feb 24 2009, 02:00
So, here's the situation (ignore the time, that's not important )... the DMV is pretty much making it impossible for me to get my driver's license renewed here, as I need about five thousand forms of ID just to renew a license plate. That leaves two options: renew from South Carolina or renew from Louisiana. It doesn't seem like it will be too much of a problem to renew from either except there's a major flaw in both: I have no addresses in either state. However, the plate is from SC and the license is from LA (the insurance is from NY, thank you). I'm still on the fence about which one I should do... I think either outcome is going to have me jumping through hoops like a fool. I also need to find something to do rather than business... ugh.

Feb 20 2009, 10:43
I was told from a reliable source that there will be no more snow this winter. It makes me happy and it makes me sad. I am happy because it means that the snow mountains can begin to start disappearing off of the sides of the road and sidewalks will be in use again, but I am sad because I didn't build a snowman. I did, however, have a commemorative snowball fight in a parking lot at work; an experience I will never forget. I will also not forget doing the fishtail up an inclined bridge at night with a large truck stalled in the middle of the road at the foot of the bridge ramp. But anyway, spring is only a month away, and with spring comes lots of rain to fall and freeze and make lots of lovely ice.

Feb 18 2009, 12:25
Been working on the Platform Tour mostly. I'm still hesitant to get my license plate renewed up here in NY, for fear of me having to take part in some ridiculous NY verification and continuous checking process. Maybe it won't be that bad. Or, I can try to get a hometown license plate through the military. I'll just need to put in the paperwork for it over the Internet. It's supposed to snow tonight for the last time this winter, but we'll just have to see about that. Hopefully it snows while I am asleep.

Feb 15 2009, 16:47
I did, in fact, watch Taken last night, in a crowded movie theater. I usually don't enjoy a movie as much when the theater is crowded because somebody is always talking about something related to the movie, or throwing their two cents into the pot, when really I just want everyone to sit down and shut up. But, everybody was cooperating throughout the movie -- I was pleased and it made me enjoy the movie even more. I thought Taken was another one of those good old-fashioned one-man army movies (I like one-man army movies), but I don't want to spoil it for you all :P go see it. Now, I'm not sure what movie I want to see next... maybe I'll wait for next movie cycle... or maybe I'll watch movies that I didn't want to see in the first place. In other news, I did a whole bunch of work on the Platform Tour and now it's time for a break. Also, Amazing Race comes on tonight (or should I refer to it as THE Amazing Race?) in about three hours from now. lol I just remembered that, in the sold out movie theater, people were placing their jackets and coats in chairs to reserve them and to let people know that "this seat's tahyken".

Feb 14 2009, 15:40
I spent most of this morning working on the boss for the Platform Tour and it looks like I'm almost done with Zone 2... that means it's time to move to Zone 3. I'm also considering going to the movies tonight and seeing Taken... which (if you've watched and remember from Forrest Gump) I just can't help saying in a thick Alabama child accent "Tahyken". "This seat's tahyken"... "can't sit heah". I like that movie.

Feb 14 2009, 0:08
OK, so I recently heard about another plane accident that has occurred in NY. No, not the one where the pilot saved the lives of all 150 people on board. No, this one resulted in the death of all 48 people on board and another person on the ground. It's so sad to see news like this. However, it got me thinking: why is all of this bad stuff happening in NY? Yet another reason I am ready to leave NY and go to another (safer?) state. Remember that plane flights are, in fact, much safer than cars (just drive around for a few minutes and you'll probably sense this), so having two plane incidents in such close proximity to each other is a bit unnerving. On a lighter note, I went to the movies and watched "Slumdog Millionaire" today, which is a good movie (and coming from me, 'good movie' means almost nothing). I also worked a little bit on the Platform Tour, and I'll post an update later today.

Feb 12 2009, 19:55
Well, the snow is melting in New York, so driving should be a little bit safer now than it was last month. As you all might know, I have a pretty decent toleration of cold temperatures and a healthy respect for "nasty" cold weather... however, my tolerance for the cold is lost when everyone expects everyone to pretend like this is nothing. I personally believe that we should show some discretion when there is a HUGE FREAKING SNOW MOUNTAIN on a corner of a street that people might just want to see around. The problem here: if I don't pull out several feet past the stop line, I can't tell if traffic is coming and then I'm just playing Russian Roulette at every intersection. The other problem: In order to see around the mountain such as, I have to pull out into the street, probably into a lane of traffic, to see if any traffic. Well, Survivor 18 is coming on, so brb.

Feb 11 2009, 18:21
I have updated the Projects section for the Platform tour and the Quotes section. I figure I'll update piece by piece. Right now, I am going to go house window shopping on the internet.

Feb 11 2009, 18:21
I just got finished shoveling a snow mountain from the front of my house. Normally, it wouldn't be much of a problem, but, since something is wrong with my back, it was quite painful. However, I couldn't give up since it's 47 degrees, and probably won't be above freezing for much longer. The snow was more slushy than usual, but there were still some hard pieces requiring "surgery" lol. In other news, I need to work on the rest of my website to reflect recent changes and other things I need to add. brb

Feb 11 2009, 05:40
I have restored my website from the ashes! lol But I haven't actually updated anything yet. I'll consider updating things after work today. Also, my back is KILLING me. I don't think it's actually my back, but something inside of it.

Mar 23 2008, 9:41
I hate taxes... .

Jan 1 2008, 16:05
I've updated a bunch of pages on my website: the ones that used to say terminology should all say something different now. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good and safe New Year's Celebration. I am currently celebrating right now with lots of bedrest... and fluids... and high body temperatures, aches, lots of phlegm. Does it sound like I'm sick? You bet. I've got a fever of all things.
I've been working on the Platform Tour, but I didn't post any information about it over the past year. I uploaded songs that I made to the Music Section, but nothing too exciting here.

Dec 28 2007, 09:52
Updated Power II. I'm about to go through and remove all of the Terminology titles. As you may have noticed, I made the title of each page 'Terminology', but not every pages is actually a terminology page. That was me being lazy.
2008 is almost upon us. I'm still waiting on my gift from Santa. I'll probably have to go get it from him. I'll probably also have to pay for it. I'll have to figure out which store Santa is in. He's also probably not going to be dressed in red, but probably some sort of store uniform. Heaux heaux heaux, got any coupons?!
(P.S. Heaux heaux heaux is used in Louisiana and certain other locales because the other spelling is used for something else)

Dec 14 2007, 18:02
Two weeks ago, I was heading to choir practice, and I was late because there was a parade. In an effort to find another way around the parade, I traveled around many roads, down many streets, and by many houses - it was apparently a residential area with only one outlet. The parade cut off the main intersection near my house, so I had to take the back way out.
After about an hour and a half the parade was still going so I had to backtrack to the back entrance to get to my house. When I got there, I found a couple of high school students trying to get a drink from a vending machine (through some means that I wasn't sure of) to no avail. So, I gave them some quarters so that they could buy a "soda". They thanked me profusely and one particular statement that made me wonder was the tall girl who said under her breath, "Thank you sir, you are the s***." I asked myself, "Do I remember anybody from my school who'd thank a stranger by saying that they are the s***." Shrug. Currently, I am doing nothing right now. *sigh* Bored.

Nov 20 2007, 5:03
Just providing a little bit of an update. Well, I forgot to mention that last month, I was selected to join the submarine force. I'm really excited about this choice because I applied for it last year, and now I finally got picked up. So, training begins January and I'll probably not have enough time to do as much work on my projects as I want to next year.
Also, driving continues to be an interesting experience. Some times it seems like the traffic light system is out to get me. Sure, I've been through each intersection light a few times and have the patterns down, but that still doesn't allow me to get to the intersection when the light is green. It also doesn't help that all of the pathways that I can take to get to an intersection default to red in my direction! Even more mystifying, the way that traffic builds up around the lights, I have a much higher chance of catching a red light when going the other way. Shouldn't it be 50/50? If not 50/50, at least 20/80 so that I have a good chance of catching the green lights going the other way?

Oct 14 2007, 19:23
I've updated the Power II section. Don't worry, Power II is not on a backburner like other projects that I'm "working on".

Sep 30 2007, 09:36
Taxes are evil. Even now, 5 months after they were supposed to be turned in, they still continue to vex me. Consider this: For 2007, I actually got a nice refund from the Federal Taxes. I was thinking that maybe this year would be a good tax year. Finishing the South Carolina taxes quickly got rid of that apparently nonsensical thought. You got to pay SC over one thousand dollars! xcvmnklvnxlkn ( <-- ASCII yelling ).
Not content with paying them the arm they requested, I get a letter in the mail last week. "You paid XYZ dollars, but you were only required to pay ABC. You paid us $60 too much." The stuff in quotes isn't exactly what the letter said -- I'm just paraphrasing. Here's the silly part. "As penalty for not correctly estimating (??) the amount of taxes you should have paid, we will assess this penalty fee of $31.", which was conveniently not taken out of the $60 overpayment and I don't know where the overpayment went. I will never understand tax stuff. vopifnwklejvnksf!

Sep 25 2007, 20:35
When you have a group of people performing a task, one person will do the best job (this person will be referred to as the star), and one person will do the worst job (this person will be referred to as the donut). Nobody wants to be the donut. I always try not to be the donut in any group setting. Consider this:
If your group is tasked with something, the supervisor typically expects the star to do the job wonderfully. The donut, on the other hand, has varied expectations from the supervisor. The most interesting thing, in my opinion, is how much the supervisor's expectations of the donut vary from supervisor to supervisor. The supervisor spends time to groom the star while doing *something* to the donut. Some supervisors take active roles in helping the donut, some task the star to help the donut. In all cases, the supervisor should at least help the donut - that should be straightforward.
However, the interesting and sad question is: How can the donut not become the donut? Well, there is a simple answer - I say simple because it doesn't take a lot of thinking to get the basic idea. If you don't like being the donut, improve so that you're better than someone else! Well, the next question is how does the donut improve? There has to be some possible way that the donut can use to become better than someone else. Consider the "ease" at which the star can improve his/her performance - I put the "ease" in quotes, because the supervisor can make it look easier. A donut must spend a lot of effort to improve on his/her own. The donut must endure a lot of hardship on his/her way to improvement. The donut must maintain a strong work ethic and patience, despite being the donut. If nothing happens, this can instantly cause the donut's performance to go into a downward spiral. This must be prevented, unless everybody this donut works for (stars and supervisors) is cold-hearted, selfish, or needs to have someone excluded from the group (this one's a tough one to deal with both ways).
The simple way to not become the donut, if you find yourself in that position, is to find ways to improve. Observe how the star does his/her business, take ideas from other people (with their consent, mind you!), and most important of all, the donut must not lose hope (it sounds cheesy, but it does work). Signs to let you know that you're the donut: everything involving your work seems to change very quickly - due to coworkers and/or supervisor changing their game plan of how to fix you.
If you are the star, you should help the donut. Having been the star and the donut at some point in life, when the star helps the donut, the donut appreciates it, and the star feels better.
If you, as a supervisor, can identify a donut that you work with, then you should take steps so that that person is no longer the donut. I personally believe that the best group environment is not one where there is a single individual that is consistently the donut. Rather, I think that the best environment is one where the "donut" status gets to be passed along from task to task.
I do seem to be speaking cryptically, but that's the best way I can summarize my experience as star and as donut.
Speaking of cryptic, here are some funny classified ads.

Sep 21 2007, 06:49
Last Wednesday, I got "promoted" to Bull Ensign. With promotion to Bull Ensign, I get to wear big oversized Ensign collar devices. People in the hallways look at them funny - my those are big bars you've got there.
But anyway, they get to rest today as I try out my new full service dress white. For an example of full service dress white, look at the captain's picture here.

Sep 18 2007, 18:58
I was driving home from work today around where I live. As I'm rounding a speed bump, some child throws a ball into the street. The ball rolls slowly and exactly into the middle of the street. It's not everyday that you see a child throw a ball into the street and the ball stops exactly in the middle. The other thing: the kid didn't run carefreefully (ok, carefreefully is not a word, more like carelessly) into the street to grab the ball. Instead, the child ran the other way... as if the ball was nothing more than an object of uselessness... instead opting to play a game of hide and seek I think. Confusing. So there I am in the street trying to drive around this little ball, looking around for other children. Perhaps the ball was thrown to someone on the other side of the street. This was an idea that I could have accepted if there were people on the other side of the street, but there was not a soul on the other side. Next, I thought, maybe there's an invisible child in the street and I shouldn't run over him. But, then, if I run over an invisible child, how could you tell that he/she was run over by a car? Tread marks seared onto the child's invisible body, laying clean in the middle of the street? No blood, no sweat, no tears! It would undoubtedly hurt my conscience knowing that I killed an invisible child.
I wouldn't be the first person to run over an invisible person. Even worse than invisible people are people who suddenly become visible. More fun with invisible driving antics. I had to laugh at the one "The pedestrian had no idea which way to run, so I ran over him".
I'm reminded of the street I was driving on when I took this picture in WNY. A few miles back, there was a curve going off to the right. On the inside of the curve was a large golfing field (I didn't know it was a golfing field until I got further down the road) and on the outside was a house on a small hill. As I passed around the curve, I noticed an object falling from the sky. At first, I was thinking that it was a piece of trash that was just carried away by the wind. Then, I watched the object hit the ground 20 feet in front of my car. It bounced back up about 20 feet. Trash usually doesn't "bounce", does it? It came to rest in the house lawn across the street at the foot of the hill. A couple hundred feet down on the right: "Golf Course ->".

Sep 13 2007, 19:02
I just took another look at the Miss USA South Carolina speech. The best part about the speech is the part where she says "[...] I believe that our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. [...]". That part always makes me laugh.
But on a different note related to this thing: A lot of talk seems to be going on about how dumb she is for saying something like that. Being somebody who's been in a similar situation, I have to disagree. If anything, she needs to work on her public speaking skills. Whenever you have somebody going up in front of thousands of cameras, are caught off guard by some type of response, and are not very experienced in handling themselves, they can say some jacked up stuff. For instance, when I'm teaching, I'm sure that I say some completely screwed up stuff from time to time, as many of my students point out all too often - that doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm talking about - no, it simply means that I'm not good at expressing what I want. That's what people fail to realize about this Miss SC speech - she's not saying the mumbo-jumbo because she's an idiot, she's not making any sense because she's trying to answer the question and but doesn't have her thoughts together.
Also, people are using this to say that her education system is poor. Well, given that her public speaking skills are out of wack, that would imply that there needs to be a better public speaking course in school - since she's a teen, this also implies that we need public speaking courses in High School. Now, there are definitely high school courses with public speaking courses, but how many students actually take them? Add to this the number of students who go through high schools that don't have public speaking courses. Certain jobs don't even *require* public speaking (accounting, analysts, programmers, engineering), so they don't really need to take public speaking courses anyway. Saying that U.S. education is poor because Miss SC said this is saying that everybody in the U.S. needs to take a public speaking course (no, more than the 11th grade history report that you read to the class or the 12th grade speech that you gave in English class, a purely public speaking course - in high school, regardless of if you need it or not).
I remember my communications class - was awful. I think the instructor assumed that we were all very well-versed people and just knew we were going to do well... that is, until I gave my report. I made every error in the book, but I passed! And we spent months in the class too. The best thing that I remember from the class was that there is no such thing as an equal group of three, all groups of three are made up of two really close people and a "third wheel". How true. Gee, I think our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. .

Sep 9 2007, 20:52
Correction to previous: I tried to follow the laws, not to break them. And the 200 ft is supposed to be about 50 ft.

Sep 9 2007, 18:18
I have returned from my trip to Niagara Falls, and what a trip it was. The first thing I do when I arrive in Niagara Falls is visit the actual Niagara Falls themselves (yes, there is more than one). Here are some pictures:
Niagara Falls - one of my better pictures This is the most beautiful picture ever! A little cascade right before the free fall Niagara Falls can make you thirsty! Forecast for the next 20 years: 100% chance of rain Across the river is a tiny place called Canada Some people threw in some coins - should I have picked them up? Is this a groundhog?.
After I thoroughly visited Niagara Falls, I checked in. The next day, I decided to drive around NY and see what was there. I knew driving in NY could get tricky, but I didn't know that it was that way on purpose lol Yes, there are rural areas in NY, especially WNY (West New York). There's Lake Ontario You see lots of Canadian Flags - no I didn't go to Canada!. I also took a ride on a jetboat through parts of the Niagara Gorge as 14+ feet waves soared overhead, soaking me completely. Needless to say, I don't have a picture of waves such as. I bought dinner at McDonald's - probably just because of this sign. Club 2-Shakes sounds like it is off the heezy lol.
Day 3, what did you do, Iceplug? A: I drove to Ohio. Seriously, I drove to Ohio. Niagara Falls to Ohio is only a quarter of the distance from Niagara Falls to N.Y. So after paying about $250 in tolls, (actually it was $5.20 total to use the NY Speedway), I was able to add part of Ohio onto my trip. Granted, I only went to Geneva. Geneva Rockstone! There's Lake Erie Get Some! When I took this picture, the first thing that came to mind was "Coral Ensemble. DO NOT HAMMER ON SIDE.
Day 4, I returned home. Of course, I knew I was missing something ... New York traffic jams. It was an exciting trip. Here's one last picture of Niagara Falls. This is also the first trip that I've been on where all 4 of the flights were on time! Amazing!
I did have to drive through Pennsylvania to get to Ohio. I have no pictures of anything in PA, because I-90 in PA, while only 40 miles long before going into Ohio, was under road construction for most of the distance.
Driving statistics:
I ran over 0 pedestrian during my trip. I ran only 1 car onto the shoulder. For some reason, a lot of the drivers just loved to drive in my blind spot. I overtook 2 cars, drove off of the road 0 times, was stopped by 0 police cars, and hit 0 cars. I drove over the speed limit for most of the Interstate, but not on streets and highways, and maintained safe distance (compensation?). I drove approximately 500 miles during these four days. I probably broke some driving law in NY, but I tried. Just two questions left unanswered
1. If you come to a stop light that has a flashing red circle and a green arrow right, do you have to stop before going through the light to the right?
2. If you come to an intersection with two stop signs and one of the stop signs is 20-40 feet closer than the other, do you have to stop for both?
I also realize that stop lights are supposed to be timed so that a car can go from speed limit to stop while the yellow light is active, but they are not all of the time. Case in point: I ran a red light at one intersection because the light was yellow when I was estimated 200 feet away - usually, close enough to go through before the light turns red. Sadly, it turned red before I got to the stop line! FFgegf But not to worry, SC drivers do that all the time lol .

Sep 4 2007, 18:05
Tomorrow morning begins my trip to Niagara Falls. I get to fly from Charleston at 7 in the morning and arrive in New York at 11. For some reason, when I say "New York", people think I'm talking about New York, NY. Not quite. Though, the only suitable way that I can think of to be distinct about New York, NY and NY is the same way that I differentiate Los Angeles and Louisiana's abbreviation. As Louisiana gets the postal abbreviation LA and Los Angeles gets the dots (L.A.), the state of New York gets the postal abbreviation NY, and the city of New York gets the dots (N.Y.). But, since I will rarely ever refer to L.A. and N.Y., that makes things much easier. . Anyway, I'll be in Niagara Falls (again, not actually inside of the waterfall, but the city) tomorrow. I'll take lots of pictures -- of course, none of the pictures will be a first-person view of me going over the edge, merely because I don't think the camera would survive the fall like I would, so why bring it duh! . I'll probably also drive around the area. I hear it's only 60 miles from Niagara Falls to Pennsylvania and only 40 more miles to Ohio. I still have to get around how small the Northeast states are - plus the speed limits are probably much lower than they are on the opposite sides of the U.S.

Aug 22 2007, 21:37
Here are some more pictures of my aircraft carrier ride: Plane. The steps are very vertical - about a 60 degree incline.

Aug 21 2007, 7:06
I am starting to feel less and less powerful as everyday goes by. I look at all of the things that I *should* have done and regret that I should have done more. I would like to simply say to not do it again, but I often find that I would rather ride it out. But, oh well, I don't *have* to do pushups every morning . I guess we'll just have to see what happens. When you're rock bottom, the only place to go is up, but there are those who would look down at you and give you a shovel (which is annoying)... .
At any rate, I feel for the people who are being attacked by Hurricane Dean right now - I was in that position two years ago.

Aug 19 2007, 22:07
Today is my birthday. I turn 24. I celebrated my birthday by doing some paperwork that I can't finish today. However, I did treat myself to a nice Southwest Taco Salad from Wendy's. I also just returned from my aircraft carrier ride, which was excellent. I have a few pictures to upload, so let me go ahead and link them up...
Ring ring ring... the plane! - If you don't have earplugs, your ears will be ringing if you're outside and one of these comes near.
The Navy has the best rolls and the best chocolate milk ever - you know it's good by the darkness of the brown shade of the milk, plus it took an entire minute to pour from the machine into the glass.
Surrounded by miles of ocean. Over a mile away from land in all directions: North, East, West, South, even down, probably!
The hangar bay is big enough to fit a building inside of it. Since planes are, technically, buildings (things that are built)... Sunrise at sea
- it's a pretty picture that I think I will use in one of my games as a background. A landing It was a great trip - I learned a lot and enjoyed myself. Next trip is Niagara Falls in early September!

Aug 12 2007, 06:40
Right now, I'm getting for my trip this week. I will spend a week on an aircraft carrier to see all of the interesting things that go on and the people who man the aircraft carrier. I should be back by the 18th - just in time for my birthday which is exactly one week from now! Yay... I turn 24 next week... time to start lying about my age.

Aug 9 2007, 20:09
104F heat index ... and this is at 7 PM. It was brutal 6 hours ago as I was running errands. Tomorrow, the heat index gets to go up to 116F. Fortunately, I will actually be inside for most of it. And, this could be much worse -- consider Alabama, currently with a 109F heat index. Consider the fact that it will be 118F in Basra tomorrow (which is probably today, right now). I'll post some updates when I get around to it. It probably won't be next week because I am going on a boat ride and be a pretend-sailor.

Aug 7 2007, 22:06
I finally have the guestbook up and running with some new "features" installed (no, not bugs) that should help me maintain the guestbook immensely. I invested quite a bit of time in PHP to add these things, but I hope its worth it. Now, I will pay for it tomorrow (long day). Today was another good day. It had the potential to go down quickly but, fortunately, these disasters were averted and I came back home in a good mood. And as usual, I'll post some updates soon (like, this year). Now, time for some zzz.

Aug 6 2007, 20:51
The guestbook is still disabled and I really should go look for a PHP page that tells me how to do it correctly... I'll add it to my to-do list. For me, today was a really fun day - for no apparent reason, today was fun. I realized yesterday that I've lost several important documents and I should search profusely for them. I seem to have a good knack for losing things (assuming that these documents were actually lost and not thrown away), as I'm sure many people do. To top it off today, I left my house three times today, realizing that I've forgotten something. I've also lost my checks - I managed to get all the way to work before realizing that I forgot them! Of course, I don't find them when I return home ... . Oh yes, these checks that I didn't find, I wrecked the apartment again looking for them, so now I have to clean up the apartment again.
Other fun things that happened today: I tried to take a "shortcut" to work during the afternoon. This "shortcut" added 6 minutes onto the usual time that it takes me to get to work. It was also incredibly hot today! The heat index for today was 102F, which is WAY higher than the melting point of ice. I, of course, had the task of walking back and forth in the heat in uniform (if my intuition was correct, I should have been inside with a big pool of sweat on my uniform - smart sitting can hide any sweat stain). Of course, with temperatures so high, organized outdoor physical training is prohibited (indoor is fine and I guess, unorganized outdoor PT - go pushups!), so that means running after work would not have been a good idea.
But, I assure you that today was indeed fun. Yesterday, I forced myself to do today with exactly 4 hours of sleep (close enough). A funny thing that I've noticed is that, when I'm low on sleep, I tend to become happier, which doesn't make sense to me. (adaptation to work?) I was happy all day today. I thought to myself, "Why can't everyday be like this?".
I got plenty of things done that I need to get done today (I'm sure that makes most people happy), including putting in my leave request for Niagara Falls (I spelled it Niagra on the first one - arg, those things have to be perfect!) and getting my information in order for my boat ride next week. Everyone at work seemed very happy today too, so maybe it's contagious. Plus, I think the person who did interviews with me two and a half years ago finally checked in today. I just have to take a moment and realize how much my life has changed in the past 3 years (as I did when I was talking to a YNCS today).
Now, I'm listening to music and procrastinating about looking up PHP. Updates coming sometime this year!

Aug 3 2007, 06:44
I've temporarily disabled my guestbook, until I figure out some way to stop the spam. But, anyway, in other news, I'm going to visit Niagara Falls in September sometime (on the American side). Maybe, I'll even get a barrel and go over the edge! Or not... . I don't know what will happen there. I'll probably just go tour a big chunk of New York.
I'm spending a lot of time working on Platform Tour and work. Updates coming sometime this year!

Jul 24 2007, 05:41
Well, I'm somewhat back again, and I am now filtering out spam on my guestbook. *Sigh* Is nothing sacred?
So, last month, I decided to try to start playing Final Fantasy VII again. This failed horribly! I played for about an hour and for most of that hour, I was trapped on an island. Yuffie takes all of my materia and I can't leave. So, I walk to Wutai (about a 10 minute walk), fighting monsters, who are annoyingly boring, the whole way. I get to Wutai and think, "Now, how do I find Yuffie?". So, I walk around and find stores and such, and I eventually get tired of looking around the town and leave. Then, I remember that I can't leave the island. Oh, great! So, I turned it off and played Tetris instead.

Apr 30 2007, 20:27
I just found a little article about video game addiction. Of course, I got sucked in by the rhetorical question "Does video game addiction exist?".
Given that a person can be hooked on anything, the answer seems to be yes! I can also be hooked on blowing up stuff. These people get good paying jobs blowing things up (I think). Unfortunately, the whole video game addiction thing is being presented to the people from the reporter and editor's point of view. The news reporters and editors are probably not of the generation that grew up playing video games - and aren't exactly itching to try one of the newer (or older) video games. I find that a lot of the reports about video games are quite one-sided. Instead, we get all of the negative stuff flooding our news, going right into the ears of already partially skeptical people, who are just waiting for some reason to throw little Jimmy's Nintendo away forever. "OK, so somebody spent 5 days playing a game and is now in a life-threatening condition." Quick, somebody throw all of the PS3's away!
There seems to be quite an extreme mix of college youngsters these days that are either "Games rule!" or "Games drool!". Why such extremism? Could it be that the people who like games grew up in households with other older people who like games? Maybe the people who didn't like games are part of a household that has not had someone who used to play video games.
It's also possible to be hooked onto television, cigarettes, and eating. Let's throw away all of the TVs, liquor stores, and food!
My stance on this "video game addiction" is this: the biggest problem with video games is that they are not a substitute for physical activity (unless you really want it to be). If you play all day, you turn slow. But, must we continue and find a bunch of other stuff to tag along to video games? What next? "Are video games linked to skin cancer?"

Apr 29 2007, 20:10
Perhaps I'm just one of those raving crazy grammatical police lunatics, but the one thing that always gets me is when I'm reading a really long sentence (or paragraph), and everything is very-well written so that you can understand exactly what the author intended, you get to that one thought or sentence in the paragraph, and you're completelyhaltingly bearings your reading expire eons crashing down. Isn't that annoying? I find myself reading "articles" on the web and encountering these bizarre sentences. Then, I have to sit there and read the sentence over again to figure out what the author intended to say.
Occasionally, people nag at me for picking about their spelling and grammar. I try to be as nice as I possibly can (only throw tomatoes at them rather than the usual paperweight ), but, inevitably, I get either the response "close enough" or "but you knew what I meant".
Firstly (and this is where I start reaching for the paperweights), everyone should care (to some extent) about their spelling. Secondly, I, personally, don't like spending a minute reading the same sentence because someone spells "because" as "b-e-s-i-d-e-s".
English is already hard enough to interpret when everything is spelled correctly. Even my students have fussed at me for using 'it' and 'this' too much.
"An apple is bigger than an orange when it's chemically treated." - is the apple chemically treated or is the orange chemically treated? These are the kinds of sentences which, when placed in a larger paragraph, require me to read it (the sentence) again. Oh, let's also use "then" instead of "than". "An apple is bigger then an orange when it's chemically treated." At first glance, now it looks like a list: The apple is bigger, and then the chemically-treated orange is smaller. *Sigh*

Anyway, I hope this lets you see where I stand in regards to spelling.

Apr 24 2007, 19:51
I just realized how intriguing video game history has become. After taking a few good looks on the web at old video games and new video games, it is amazing how 20 years ago, the primitive graphics of the Nintendo were really the bomb. Anyway, I'm somewhat back.

Feb 1 2007, 22:35
Yes, I am still alive. I just haven't made any meaningful updates. I could just give you pictures of the same old update over and over again, but I figure that I won't do that. Anyway, I realize how old I'm getting by seeing this new level of absurdness going around on the web. Case in point: Vista. It just doesn't seem like 2 + 2 = 4 with Vista. Maybe I shouldn't knock it until I've tried it, but from what I've already heard, VB.NET's life ends at the Vista, and VB6 continues on. So, most of my games and tips and stuff for VB.NET will be useless to Vista users. So, not only do the people who visit my site to download games have to have a newly downloaded .NET Framework (and DirectX 9), but must also remember that it won't work in Vista! Secondly, you got to have a beast of a computer just to be able to run it! Gee, if people had beasts of computers, they could run my games on XP no problem (I think). But, anyway, I just felt like doing a little bit of typing this evening.

Jan 16 2007, 19:05
I added an update on Power II.

Oct 23 2006, 19:43
I forced myself to work on a few more maps for Power II - I find that the biggest thing that is slowing my progress for Power II development is creating maps. I, surprisingly, have not much trouble actually adding treasures and monsters to the map, which actually takes the most effort. By forcing myself to make at least one map everyday, I figure I can at least have the entirety of Swole, Eriega, the Milly Forest, and Weber Mountain Pass done by the end of the year. If I look back at all of the days that have passed since I started this project, I should have had at least 700 maps done (I have 208 done so far - 700 would definitely have me at Lukarm and even farther past the point that my story has developed :P). I updated Quote and Other Stuff.

Oct 21 2006, 7:12
This link takes you to a really neat and useless graph creator - give it a webpage and it spits out a bunch of colored circles with lines connecting them (looks pretty). On a side note, isn't it annoying when you read something like this, advertising how pretty and neat a webpage is, but there's no link to it? Heh heh heh heh!

Oct 15 2006, 21:21
So, I was browsing a few sites and found some game reviews. One thing that I do like about reviews - they are good for things that you're thinking about buying when you get a nice positive review. And, that's about it... Sure, having a couple dozen people act as critics does help to get the point across, there comes that fine line where criticism stops and personal feelings comes in. I like to hear some good remarks about some things and, when something falls short (maybe play control is a bit odd), we could be straight to the point... but nooooo we have to go on and on about how slightly bad something is, pulling out all of our nice metaphors and catch phrases. (Ugh, the play control felt like oil, the characters looked ugly like trucks - trucks and oil in one game!) However, the best things that I've discovered from reading reviews is that it's a great excuse to be funny ! I find it enjoyable reading reviews on games (that I don't plan on buying anyway) and reading all of the "this game sucks" reviews (don't get me wrong, some of the good ones are funny too).
Anyway, I updated the Power II section.

Oct 8 2006, 17:27
Here's an interesting article on Windows Vista and its lackluster support for .NET! According to the article, VB6 works in Vista, and all VS.NETs do not work. Notice that VS.NET 2005 has the greatest chance of working out of all of the .NET versions... making 2002 and 2003 into little pieces of bridge that connected the two versions. But anyway, I added a download for the last Platform Tour tutorial.

Oct 2 2006, 16:14
I am working on some things, but I haven't got any nice pictures as of yet.

Sep 7 2006, 20:05
I made some bug-free water on the first attempt today - you can jump into the water by going here.

Sep 4 2006, 17:07
I've made just a few small updates to the Computer section.

Jul 2 2006, 7:48
I've been tinkering with DirectX 3D recently for .NET and it is fun! Tutorials coming soon! Plus, I've been playing the Super Nintendo recently.

Jun 1 2006, 20:40
I just realized that somebody dropped a whole bunch of dots in my guestbook. If anybody would like a bucket full of dots, feel free and I'll send you a file containing each of the dots . In other news, I haven't actually been working on anything recently, however, as promised, I will start working with DirectX 9.0 3D soon (eye candy)!

May 29 2006, 12:07
I found this very amusing - why children should be accompanied by an adult while surfing the internet. So, I decided to do a Google Search on the word 'teh'. Unsurprisingly, the first link that appears is a link to a wikipedia article - the source of all reputable (yeah, right) knowledge on the Internet. You can see that the article clearly suggests 'Teh' as an alternative spelling of the. So, I've misunderstood all of these years! I can use 'teh' in place of 'the' on all of my reports and still retain that professional document feeling. In other news, I worked on Power II - updates coming soon.

May 21 2006, 18:24
Updated Power II. Right now, teaching is how I am spending most of my free time... that, and I bought Final Fantasy VII for my PC (wow, Square has come a long way since FF7, looking at screenshots for FF12.

May 8 2006, 20:03
I did a little bit of updating in Power II, mostly music and graphics, but I added some interesting stuff. I looked at the name of my city by the name of "Swole" and thought to myself, "Is it really spelled that way?". This question is ultimately doomed to failure, because 'Swole' is slang (for Swollen). I conducted a research (the re in research stands for Google) and found quite a few hits on the world Swole. These consisted of, mostly, the proper usage of Swole (as I could tell from the number of Rap and Urban dictionary articles that I got), but I also got a few articles on muscle-enhancing drugs... ironic. My next search was on 'Swoll', and the first hit that I get contains cursewords. The first part of the hits for 'Swoll' were proper usage as well - the remainder were from people who have a last name of 'Swoll'. So, which one is right? I think the results are very inconclusive for three (3) reasons.
1. Swole/swoll is slang anyway - it's used in speech and not in text, so I wouldn't expect there to be an exact spelling.
2. The research hits that I got for Swole were 227K, counting the muscle-enlargement pages, and the hits that I got for Swoll were 295K, counting the various Mr., Ms., and Mrs. Swoll households.
3. Swell is the root, and Swollen is the past participle. Swollen is a silly-looking past participle anyway, with similar past participles appearing quite different (Tell -> Told, Sell -> Sold, Dwell -> Dwelt, all of which end in d/t and have the same number of syllables as the root). So, is swollen misspelled? Sure it is. So, I figure, if the past participle breaks rules of English, surely the slang variant can break rules of English. I think it would make much more sense to have a "Swelled" or a "Swelt" eye than a "Swollen" eye, but then again, I didn't write the language. Plus, we're used to it anyway. So, feel free to use Swole and Swoll interchangably.

May 4 2006, 20:20
What am I doing up at 20:20? Updating my website of course. I updated the Power II section. In other news, tomorrow is May the 5th - only FIVE more days until I begin teaching! I also killed an exceptionally large roach on Monday. They run quite fast. The big roaches are the ones that you must smush by bringing your shoe all the way to behind your head and swinging ... splatter ... anyway, it was an uninvited guest, so I promptly showed him the floor.

Apr 25 2006, 18:57
I found a couple of wonderful articles on the web about how to make transparent GIFs and animated GIFs in .NET. I had so much fun making these that I felt like sharing these with everyone. This is link to a page with two links.

Apr 24 2006, 18:47
The road that I usually take to go to work everyday was apparently the site of a major prostitution bust yesterday (Sunday). The police caught a couple of prostitutes in daylight... must not have been very sharp prostitutes. On the TV shows, they always show prostitutes hiding in poorly lit areas so that police don't see them. Anyway, the police caught them and then sent a few more undercover police dressed as prostitutes to catch some unsuspecting 'customers'. About 15 people got caught! That serves them right for showcasing prostitutive supply and demand in broad (no pun intended) daylight. The interesting part is that the street that they caught them on is only wide enough for exactly two cars to fit on. The shoulder is nonexistant and mere inches off of the side of the road anywhere is a mailbox, a bush, a tree, or a garbage can. So, I figure these prostituents maximized their chance of being caught on location as well. With a cop car on one side of the street, you only have room enough to fit three people (two cops and a prostitute)... any more people added and somebody would be falling off the side of the street. So, yes, prostitutional exchange is easy to catch on Sunday afternoons on narrow, well-lit streets (and trees do not make streets poorly-lit ... unless the street goes through a rainforest or something) .
In updates, I have been working a little on the artwork for various games (Bomberman Six and Power II).

Apr 14 2006, 19:11
Have I mentioned that I love my job? Teaching is definitely something that makes me feel all warm inside (you may be able to tell due to my collection of 'tutorials'). My first class begins on the 10th of May, but the promise of teaching makes me happy even if it won't be but until a year.
Anyway, in other news, I realized that I find passing gas funny. Today, for exercise, we were stretching our ankles for a brief run, getting warmed up (though, at 85 degrees, this wouldn't take too long) and getting loose. One member of our group decided to pass some gas and get "a little too loose", as our coordinator put it.

Apr 13 2006, 20:18
I was browsing around forums today and I came to the striking conclusion that I have probably seen all words of a basic fifteen-year old's vocabulary misspelled at sometime in my life. So, I'll take a brief time to reflect on five of the more funnier ones that I can remember:
board - something wide, as in a board-tipped marker, a boardsword, or Boardway.
tpye - sorry, this one's just a mistpye
lien - supposed to be a wild animal; king of the (financial?) jungle
scentence - a sweet smelling sentence (Courtesy of Squirm for finding this one for me
) thurst - rockets move off of the principle of thurst - I guess if you remove all of the water in the rocket, it'll move faster?

Apr 12 2006, 20:04
Now, I've done some large-scale updates. I've updated the Projects section to reflect what I am actually "working on". I've updated the Music section... sort of. I'll probably have some more updates coming later this year. By the way, the Guestbook still works.

Apr 11 2006, 19:43
Yay! We are open and in business!!! After a long 3 month break with the collapse of vwebservices, we are back in business. I still have a few updates to make like in the subcategories off on the left. Welcome back.

Apr 11 2006, 18:58
Well, here we are on our new site. Right now, I'm just shuffling things around in place and changing all of the vwebservices references to .us references. Right now, I'm more interested in the fight that is taking place nearby... but anyway, welcome.

Feb 12 2006, 19:40
Here I am talking to myself once more about updates that I already know that I made to my website - unfortunately, no one else can see what I am talking about. The Power II section is updated.

Jan 25 2006, 20:08
Website still down... and this message is totally pointless since no one can see it... well, except me.

Jan 15 2006, 16:13
So, apparently my website is down but if you can somehow see this, the map tiling tutorial has reached a level of balance (not necessarily complete). I may update it from time to time as I see fit.

Jan 1 2006, 13:23
Happy New Year! I've updated... some stuff.

Dec 28 2005, 9:12
Updated the Power II section in the Projects Page.

Dec 26 2005, 19:30
I've started working on a tiling tutorial from the ground up. We'll see how long this lasts. Also, I have started work on Power II again, but I haven't actually written anything for it yet. The New Year is almost here.

Dec 20 2005, 19:20
I have updated the Music Section with links for this (Winter) quarter, and I have also added a new article for API in .NET. This one is on GetShortPathName, used with mciSendString. Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Dec 14 2005, 17:17
Wow, time flies! It's already 8 days later. But anyway, I've added a Quote, so things aren't totally stagnant here. I have several mini-projects that I'm working on and I need to finish one so that I can finish some more. I certainly hope everyone is prepared for the holidays. Shop early, shop quickly. Don't attempt to manage a vehicle unless you are sober and wide awake. I am going to update the music section as soon as I can find something that I've written recently.

Dec 6 2005, 6:40
Still here... going to work sometime this morning. Most of my work has been on my MIDI Compiler, although I have been spotted working on Quadrill 4.

Nov 28 2005, 17:00
Well, I've finally got electricity in my apartment! Now, we just have to get some Internet connected and we'll be ready. What, no furniture yet? Well, that's not as important as getting an Internet connection!

Nov 21 2005, 15:47
Tomorrow I will execute my Permanent Change of Station to South Carolina. I should arrive by the 23rd and hopefully, I'll be able to set up headquarters shortly thereafter.

Nov 20 2005, 16:20
I'm back! I had a great time at Newport -- the weather was nice and cool the whole time. I was not prepared however, for the gangs of ducks, seagulls, and geese (gooses, as called by some people) walking around and setting treasures everywhere! Yes, we did lots of pushups and the classes were fairly short and interesting *grin*, but firefighting and weapon training were exceptionally more fun... . We also were given the opportunity to travel for about 3 miles on foot (at miscellaneous speeds) on busy streets, swim in a pool filled with real-life shark impersonators (you'd be surprised at how much they resemble fake shark impersonators), extract injured personnel prototypes (crash-dummies) from damaged submarines in thick smoke (no one got asphyxiated), and, of course, have a night on the town for celebration and dancing. Anyway, I moved my old news updates to an old news update page as far as 'updates' go.

Oct 15 2005, 8:14
Well, it's about that time. Tomorrow, I "disembark" from southeastern Louisiana and travel up north to Rhode Island. I will be taking what I'll summarize as "Navy School" in Newport, which will be a jam-packed five-week labor session, complete with pushups, condensed classes, and low temperatures. I will probably not be in contact with a computer and definitely not the Internet, so don't expect any updates anytime soon. I will see everyone in November sometime (hopefully).

Oct 13 2005, 21:36
Added an article on Pool and Billiard Physics.

Oct 10 2005, 10:15
I am attempting to revive the .Net Platform Game Tour. The first phase of this revival is to complete all of the C# tutorials that I neglected to do last year. The only thing, I only have a week to do it, as I will be absent next week. I added the PII Fight Song to the Music section (somewhere) as well.

Oct 3 2005, 21:41
It's the lovely month of October. I've added a Color and Font article.

Sep 28 2005, 18:38
Added the Color Matrix article to the Computer section. It is almost October!

Sep 26 2005, 19:00
Updated Quote, Computer, and Other Stuff section.

Sep 24 2005, 15:13
The demo for Power II is available for download - all 3.25 MB of it. It only took a year. Details available on the Power II Project Page.

Sep 22 2005, 11:44
Updated Power II section. Not again... Rita!

Sep 18 2005, 9:22
Added my Prompts Namespace article to the Computer section.

Sep 17 2005, 14:33
Hurricane Katrina started hitting us at about 6:00 on the morning of Aug 29. The power went off at 5:51 and the water went out at about 8:00. It was an interesting sight to see a major hurricane in all of its (somewhat weakened by landfall) fury. The eyewall began passing its large self over us sometime at around 10:30... that's when the really nasty weather came. Our neighbors across the street lost a few chairs and a swimming pool that wasn't bolted down very sturdily. Worse than that, a really old tree in their front yard was totally knocked over onto their power lines. Damage to our house was pretty small... a few shingles on our former shingly roof blew off. Large quantities of rain gave the North, West, and South faces of the house a pretty good washing... the moist conditions on the north wall of the house led to water leakages, specifically in my room and the useless room that is next to mine. A piece of roof side paneling came aloose and added more noise to an already noisy storm. The highway in front of our house is almost surrounded by trees and power lines. When the storm started to subside at about 14:00, we could clearly see the highway and how it was made impassable with downed trees, power lines, and power lines. An old uninhabited cabin behind a few trees lost a roof, but fortunately no one was inside. My car got a nice jet washing since I had to park it outside during the storm. Fortunately, I parked on the east side of the house, the side that handled the hurricane best. The mail delivery didn't run (unsurprisingly)... whatever happened to the old saying "neither rain nor snow... " (kidding) ? The night after the storm was a hot one. No moving wind to provide some coolness. A couple of people (I assume they were city workers) made their way along the tree, wire, and pole laden highway, clearing the highway with bulldozers and saws of every size, power, and timbre. They were able to clear most of the trees off of the highway by nightfall. The day after the storm we looked around town. Lots of destruction... several areas, which were considerably more forested than ours, were battered by fallen trees. Power lines lay across the road and a few power poles were snapped into two, toppled over, or otherwise made useless and dangerous. The road to the Primary School is obstacled with large trees covering large portions of the road, but the road itself was still negotiable. The school itself was fine - only lost a few shingles and a really large tree that was positioned next to the swing sets was uprooted. Traffic lights in town were out - driving up to one was filled with rhythmic anticipation like the same anticipation you get when you try to jump into a jump rope game. We actually saw how many people treated it as an "all-way STOP" like they are supposed to... . Several businesses lost their windows and glass covered the sidewalks. A certain shop had its front awning collapse in such a way that it protected the large windows in front. The Elem and Jr High schools appeared unscathed, but the library (situated next to a forest) was practically hidden; trees were toppled over into a pile on the parking lot. A few trees had actually landed on the library. The stadium district had few trees, but lots of power lines - the north end was practically a spiderweb of power. The practitioner's district, where the doctors and professionals set up shop was mostly intact. The church up the street had several power poles snapped in two like toothpicks. The high school, which is practically out of town, was intact, but all roads leading to it (except the one we took) were blocked. Four days after the storm, we made our way to the local distribution area. We got some free (somewhat) ice, water, and military rations (MREs). Cellphone reception is nonexistent; I have "0 bars". After about 7 days with no power, the refrigerator was starting to stink and get mildew. Fortunately, our water was on. Certain sections of town started to get power and get back to business. We bought some groceries and stuff. We drove to a Wal-Mart in another city and I bought a camera. The final 10 days were just waiting, studying. I got a German and a French book so that I could learn a few more languages. We saw a few electricity maintenance trucks snooping around on Day 13. They were actually parking and had finished replanting power poles by Day 15. By Day 16 they were really showing some progress and at the end of Day 18 (Sep. 15) our lights come back on. .
Many trees were laying after the storm.. The forest across the highway from our house. Even brick columns were ravaged.

Aug 28, 2005, 19:45
More updates! Specifically updates to the Music section.

Aug 28, 2005, 10:17
Updated the Power II section. Now, back to the issue at hand... Katrina.

Aug 18, 2005, 16:19
Updated the Power II section again. Things are looking good! Also, it is my birthday tomorrow. I am planning on eating at a very nice (costs more than $7 USD to get full) restaurant... although it is Friday, so they'll probably be full if I go for lunch.

Aug 17, 2005, 21:08
Finished an article on Gaussian Random Numbers. It can be found here.

Aug 14, 2005, 21:08
Updated Power II section.

Aug 13, 2005, 19:38
Having a time trying to think of some good tutorials to write with my "webpage" application. I updated the music file section and added the Fall File selection. It looks kind of small because it's mostly recent work and I have artist's block. I am still looking through DirectX9 as well - at least that's going smoothly.

Jul 26, 2005, 20:53
I fixed the Exit Statement article and added an article (which happens to be supplemental in nature) on Interpolation, since it seems to pop up anywhere in programming. Among other news articles, we did have a successful launch today, and Grand Theft Auto finally got the AO rating it deserves! Condolences to the people in London because of the train bombings.

Jul 23, 2005, 8:09
Well, I added one tutorial. The last three weeks have been pretty busy with conference preparations (going to Iowa for a few days). Also, I was working on a little application that is kind of like FrontPage, but it converts RTF to HTML. I didn't have any book on Rich Text Format, so no one could tell me "RTFM." (Rich Text Format Manual", not the other, more vulgar one...). But, I've written that tutorial here on Avoiding Exit Statements.

Jul 4, 2005, 11:05
I guess I should explain Project DamageZone. This was the little "project" that I gave myself (accidentally) to do during the month of June and this project (I called DamageZone) was to build a computer from the ground up. It started when I decided that I needed to upgrade my graphics card so that I could use DirectX 9 3D (which is just waaay too restrictive). So, I started looking at the big bad NVidia GeForce 6800... so it uses an AGP slot (I really should've actually looked in my computer instead of in Device Manager)... according to Device Manager, I had a ProSavage graphics card connected via (VIA) the AGP slot (yes, I should have known better). So, I uninstall the drivers and hustle off to Best Buy and pick up a NVidia GeForce 6800 that requires an AGP slot to connect to. Now, I make it back to the house, open my little-bitty HP computer and search for the AGP slot. I didn't find it. Strangely, the ProSavage drivers have mysteriously reinstalled themselves on the computer... I ignore that and think over my next step.

So, I called BFG Tech customer support to try to figure out why I can't find the AGP slot... of course, it is because there IS NO AGP slot in the computer (despite there being a ProSavage graphics card in it). BFG Tech customer support was friendly, recommending me to either return the card (I came too far to give up now) or look on TigerDirect for a motherboard or motherboard-CPU-combo that has an AGP slot. They also recommended me to call HP support as well. So, I then called HP support, which eventually led nowhere... my warranties expired at the beginning of this year (perhaps that's why no one wanted to help me). This led me to TigerDirect, looking at motherboard-CPU-combos.

Eventually, I settled on the Chaintech SK8T800 that comes with an AMD Athlon 64 3000 processor. At this point, I'm lost, so I head on to mIRC (openircnet.ath.cx:6667) for some tech support... I was led to first getting a case that is big enough to hold this big motherboard... so, I opted for the ThermalRock Dragon ATX at AllStarShop, big enough to hold the motherboard (and probably big enough to pack the kitchen sink). The next thing was to get a fan for the new Athlon 64 3000 CPU, since a fan did not come with the motherboard-CPU combo. I returned to TigerDirect to look at my motherboard-CPU... TigerDirect was nice enough to list some additional recommended products - one of which is a nice Masscool CPU Fan. I was also recommended (I couldn't have done this without gentle recommendations to the right products) to get some DDR RAM... I found some inexpensive ULTRA 512MB RAM at TigerDirect. Rounding out the recommendations, I needed to get a power supply - GavinO recommended this specific one - a Silencer 410W ATX for powering my graphics card. Thank you GavinO, Rust710, and wakjah .

So, I had 5 items being shipped to me and next came the task of putting it together. I followed this very nice tutorial at ExtremeTech on how to install motherboard stuff. First, the seemingly simple task of putting the CPU into the motherboard - according to the article, the CPU should slip into the holes and the lever will easily lower back to the base... well, the CPU slipped in easily (alignment was never an issue), but the lever didn't lower so easily. I didn't want to push too hard because the CPU is delicate. I tried something which didn't work too well, and got a couple of the CPU pins to be crooked. So, I took my Kinko's Card and tried to align the pins (I had to reattempt in the morning - I started to think that I'd need another CPU if any pins broke) - eventually I got to a point where the CPU would fit into the holes - I then pressed that pesky old "zero force" lever down onto the motherboard. I heard an unsettling, but quiet "crunch" sound - the sound you get when biting into a Snickers with no almonds or something.

Then, came the even more laborious task of installing the CPU Fan. I put the little whip cream cooling stuff on the CPU and on the belly of the CPU fan, of course, not without getting some on my fingers and clothes . Getting the CPU Fan on top of the CPU was the task. This was about 90 minutes of playing with the CPU fan base, screwing it out and rescrewing it back in, examining the screw position, and deducing what I already figured - I'd have to mash this sucker into my motherboard. Getting it to connect required me to bend the hook while pressing down on the fan - considerably - with a force that would break other things laying around the house. Next was the task of screwing the motherboard into the case. This went without a problem except for a lack of enough screw holes - my motherboard is now hanging in by three screws (maybe four, but I only remember 3). I paused to admire my handiwork, following the tutorial, again... before realizing that I forgot to put in the I/O connector panel - so now I have the naked connectors protruding from the back of the computer.

After a bit of recuperation time and work, I began to put the power supply (also called the power supply unit, for some reason) into the case. None of the screw holes aligned. But according to the picture on the box, I should be installing it this way. So, by chance I decide to insert the power supply into the computer upsidedown. Surprisingly, all of the screw holes were aligned. I went ahead and added the screws, puzzled as to why the picture on the box is upside down. Next, came the relatively simple task of inserting RAM, PCI cards, and, of course, my new NVidia GeForce 6800 into the new motherboard AGP slot.

Then, I took all of the drives out of my tiny HP computer and threw them somewhere inside the case: the floppy drive, also with no cover, sits next to the power button, while the CD-R drive floats in the center 5.25" slot, two slots away from either end... it is resting upon the hard drive (conveniently tall enough to rest the CD-R into the 3rd slot. None of the screw holes matched for the CD-R; that's why it is hovering in the 3rd slot... the hard drive screws are too degraded to unscrew from the hard drive container, so I unscrewed the entire container and put it inside the new case. Attaching the case wires to the motherboard required a little investigation - all manuals listed indicate that red is positive and black is ground (I knew this from engineering classes), however the Power LED had green and white wires. I just made a guess as to which is positive (white). I figured ground is green in this case. Finally, I connected all of the power connectors (dongles is such a silly word that I refuse to use it) - fans, drives, mobo. If I was more observant, I would've actually connected the motherboard power under the case bar - all twenty of the wires are flattened against the window of the case between the cover and the case bar. I also put in a new sound card.

The moment of truth: the power button. Nothing happened at first because my surge protector was off. But, afterwards, I got a successful boot into the BIOS. I set the time and other stuff, then I tried to boot into Windows. This is where the final test was: about 15 seconds into trying to boot into windows, I get a STOP message. If you don't know what a STOP message is, it's the more aggravating version of the BSOD: it flashes on the screen for a TENTH of a second (only long enough for two or three glimpses) and all it says is that there is a problem at some spot(s) in memory, no names or anything to go by, and the help just says to try again. I sat there foolishly trying to write part the message down everytime it occurs (I could've just hit F8 and disabled automatic restart, had I known what it was). Windows would boot into safe mode and I eventually concluded that it was either SP2 or my drivers not uninstalling. I attempted to uninstall drivers, but nothing happened.

After accidentally disabling VGA, I lost Safe Mode. There's only one option left - system recovery. Most of the articles on the web only tell you how to do this if you have Windows XP Disks, but my situation was complicated by the XP disks being installed on a hidden partition. Finally, I found a site that explained how to recover with a hidden partition - you merely press F10 while starting up the computer. After waiting for about 30 minutes for the recovery, Windows finally loaded (in SP1, but it loaded). I followed all of the little intro screens and finally got into Windows again. The graphics card works, but my new Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card didn't seem to work. Turns out that it just plays quietly, so the volume is turned up all the way. The only thing that remains is I now have to install and reregister all of the applications that aren't standalone, such as Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft Office, and stuff. The plus side: since doing the system recovery, I can use all of my expired software again that is supposed to end after X days (I'll only use them for a little bit). And, that is "Project: DamageZone"

Jul 1, 2005, 11:00
We're back! Apparently, the server that this site was on decided to suspend all of its websites, leaving us out in the cold. But looks like things are up now. At the moment, I am still trying to get everything reorganized after "Project: DamageZone" - I'll explain that sometime later. I also seem to be unable to work on my exvb blog. But, the good news is we're back! If you haven't already downloaded the Q4Demo, then you're missing out on an exciting new Quadrill adventure.

Jun 4, 2005, 9:08
The demo for Quadrill 4 is finally up after over two years of waiting and development. Also, if you look around, you'll see that I added some nice little VB6, VB.NET, and C#.NET graphics in the Computer and Projects section.

Jun 2, 2005, 19:33
Blockserv is now updated. Download version 1.1 which includes Training levels and more key commands. I am preparing to make a move to the Baton Rouge area on the 6th, not that this should be as much of a concern as my ongoing computer upgrade saga. It's not being written anywhere, so don't go looking for it. I may write on it once it is complete, but not right now. Also, the demo for the eagerly-awaited Quadrill 4 is coming very soon. And, yes, I decided to put my name all over the main page.

Jun 1, 2005, 20:57
Updated Music section and added Spell Check article to Computer section.

May 29, 2005, 15:13
Added section on DirectX Audio Video Playback. Memorial Day tomorrow.

May 23, 2005, 18:06
Updated Computer section and added summer quarter files to music file section.

May 22, 2005, 10:42
Finally completed and uploaded Blocks ERV (Blockserv) for VB.NET 2003. Have fun.

May 21, 2005, 10:50
Put in a few more pages under the Computer section. Also, I've updated the Guestbook a little bit so that you can look at the entries.

May 7, 2005, 17:03
Updated Blocks section of Project list, where I am working on the new and almost complete new update to Blocks in .NET.

May 4, 2005, 22:35
I added a mciSendString snippet in the Computer section and updated the music section to reflect the new contest.

Apr 30, 2005, 10:56
Miscellaneous updates in the Music, Quote, and Other section.

Apr 20, 2005, 11:49
Well, I've updated the JumpCross section, added a mini string-parsing introduction, and then there's this old game that looks like Quadrill that I uploaded (in Other Stuff).

Apr 10, 2005, 10:25
After a long break with me getting other things together (such as car insurance that reflects my excellent -- pronounce as 'DREAD-ful' -- driving skills), I updated my site again for the first time this month.

Mar 11 2005, 8:20
Fixed the songs in the Music section and updated the Q4 section.

Mar 4 2005, 8:56
Updated Power II: Island section, Other Stuff, and added the Music File List for spring quarter.

Feb 18 2005, 17:19
Made a few additions here and there - Part 25 added to Platform Tour.

Feb 8 2005, 15:18
Updated Computer section and Power II section.

Jan 29 2005, 18:00
Updated Computer section again.

Jan 27 2005, 16:26
Updated Computer and Quote section.

Jan 20 2005, 17:54
Updated the .NET Platform Tour with Part 23 and Quadrill 4 section.

Jan 9 2005, 19:13
Fixed the VB and C# Syntax highlighter. Apparently I forgot to test the C# vB tags.

Jan 6 2005, 13:13
Added the VB and C# Syntax highlighter.

Jan 1 2005, 20:20
Updated Music section. Happy New Year.

Dec 31 2004, 11:38
Updated Periodics section and Power II section.

Dec 24 2004, 21:11
Update the .NET Platform Tour with Part 22.

Dec 23 2004, 15:00
Updated more miscellaneous parts of the website. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Dec 18 2004, 19:48
Updated... well, I forgot now, but I updated the Computer section. I also added the Foreword, because I feel that some people may have been confused coming to my site and being lost. I'll put up a section just on me... sometime next year. There are less than seven days until Christmas! I changed my main screen's background color, too.

Dec 7 2004, 8:02
Updated the Power II section . I am going to update the .NET Platform Tour. I am aware that the link to Part 21 goes nowhere, and is gone for now.

Dec 1 2004, 10:26
OK, I've updated practically every section. I added a DrawImage page to the computer section, and an update to Q4 in the Projects section. I have added the new winter links for the music sections. I also created a little page where you can leave a message for me or just fill it out with random silliness. I wiled away a few days learning PHP, so test my page here.

Nov 22 2004, 9:56
Mostly, updated the Power II section .

Nov 18 2004, 17:32
Updated the Q4 section and added Part 20 to the Platform Tour.

Nov 11 2004, 17:19
Added small part 19 to the .NET Platform Tour.

Nov 7 2004, 15:54
Updated a few things within the Computer section, and posted my update to Power II.

Nov 4 2004, 15:48
Updated the .NET Platform Tour with Part 17. Have a Happy Thursday.

Nov 3 2004, 19:04
Updated the .NET Platform Tour with Part 16.

Nov 1 2004, 6:41
Added a bunch of periodic sections in the Computer section, as supplements for the .NET Platform Tour (not quite finished yet, though).

Oct 24 2004, 17:45
Updated stuff in the Computer section, like the .NET Platform Tour.

Oct 18 2004, 19:21
I'm back. What was I doing? I was working on my next project and trying to finish Quadrill 4 (Among other things of course).

Sep 16 2004, 11:02
Added Part 13 and Part 14 to the .NET Platform Tour.

Sep 11 2004, 13:54
Added Part 12 to the .NET Platform Tour. I hope everyone is having a safe Patriot's Day.

Sep 5 2004, 16:42
Updated the C# sections of the .NET Platform Game Tour.

Aug 31 2004, 21:53
Jump-Cross, a secret game that I was working on is now available for download on the main page here. It's just a simple little game to pass the time. It's written in VB.NET 2003, so you need the VS.NET runtime files installed to run it.

Aug 30 2004, 20:38
Added Part 11 to the .NET Platform Game Tour. I'm going to finish the C# section as well... but on Wednesday, probably.

Aug 26 2004, 17:27
Updated Quadrill 4 and Power III... I think I've updated the Quadrill 3 section. I've added more music to the Music section as well. I am now using 24 hour time on all date and time listings (not all of them have been changed yet), and I've added the Q3 map editor.

Aug 20 2004, 141:03
Updated Quadrill 3 and Power III sections of the Projects.

Aug 16 2004, 35:18
I have updated the Quadrill 3 Player's Guide a little.

Aug 13 2004, 137:37
OK. I have updated the Quadrill 4, Quadrill 3, and Quadrill sections. I have added little to nothing else. More stuff to come soon.

Jul 30 2004, 129:15
Well, it was long break, and then, I lost all of the changes that I made before I uploaded my updates, so I had to make them again. I added table borders on all of the Platform Tour pages and added a section to the Quadrill 4 section.

Jul 5 2004, 44:35
Part 10 has been added to the .NET Platform Tour. Also, there are a couple of updates stashed around somewhere.

Jun 25 2004, 135:51
I added Part 9 to the .NET Platform Tour.

Jun 16 2004, 90:39
Well, I've changed the second section to Computer. Part 8 is now in the .NET Platform Tour, and there is another section added to Power III under the Project menu.

Jun 11 2004, 138:13
Hmm... nobody noticed that I actually misplaced the 's in Wise Man's Computer (well, I hope not)... so I incinerated that entire name. I added a name to the Purple list as well. I am going to add a few more MIDI files sometime during this weekend.

Jun 6 2004, 15:01
I added 4 versions of the Platform tour for C#. Now it looks really busy. I guess the section can't be named VB Walkthroughs if there are examples. That's why it is now known as the Wise Man's Computer. Also added another person to the Orange People list.

Jun 4, 2004, 138:51
Part 7 of the Platform tour has been added. There's also another small section on Binary in the Walkthrough section, and a little section added to the Quadrill 4 section.

May 31 2004, 45:30
Part 6 of the Platform Tour has been added. I meant to update the Q4 section today, but a mysterious program cleared the screenshot that I took of myself going crazy in the Surgerius building. I'll try again tomorrow.

May 30 2004, 13:53
Part 5 of the Platform Tour has been added. There is a new section in the Projects page, but how long will it last? Hmm.... I have added another name to the Orange People list

May 26 2004, 90:53
Part 4 of the .NET Platform Tour has been added. I am going to add another section on Boolean and Binary about And, Or, <<, and >>. Also, I am going to start adding some C# examples... once I get my syntax highlighter to accept a C# file. I need to find some time to update the DirectX articles as well.

May 24 2004, 45:27
The Quadrill 4 section has been updated for the desert. I have added the third part of the .NET Platform Tour. I think I did something else today, but I'm not sure. I'll probably think of it sooner or later (after I upload). Ah... I added a new name to the Orange People list.

May 23 2004, 10:34
Added the bitmap for .NPT section 2. Save it to the bin folder with your application in it for part 2.

May 23 2004, 10:27
I added the code to the first Platform game section using my newly updated code syntax highlighter. I don't think all of the bugs have been worked out yet, but I plan to post it when I am finished. I also added a few links here and there in the Code section as well. I have to leave soon for Sunday, though.

May 22 2004, 166:22
Added section 2 to the .NET Platform Game section. I went to a lovely cookout today where we had shrimp and fish, and I was composing a beautiful MIDI symphony as my experimentation with expression continues. I'll let you hear it when I'm finished. (I think I have to listen to it 14 more times to add expression.)

May 21 2004, 134:36
The Quadrill 4 section has been updated... and that's about it.

May 20 2004, 118:08
.NET Platform Game section 1 has been added. Also, I added direct links to all of the News items. Haven't updated the Quadrill 4 section, but I will soon.

May 20 2004, 112:16
I have updated my VB walkthroughs section and added another small little code snippet showing uses for API FindWindow, FindWindowEx, FlashWindow, and SendMessage. I think the Marching.mid has been fixed now. I am going to update the Quadrill 4 section in a few minutes... or an hour.

May 19 2004, 86:38
I have added several MIDI files for this quarter (May - July), some of which include the already successful Attack Ship music, the (somewhat) famous Acknowledge music, and the highly anticipated Magnet MIDI file. I also cleaned up the music section a lot, so it looks a little bit sparse (and it's now a bronze color). I've added an explanation below of the 168-hour clock stamps that you probably see around here a lot, so check it out.

May 19 2004, 81:27
Well, I've changed the water color that used to be over there to the left (not the right ). I've changed the silly text that was at the top of this page. Expect it to expand soon. Yes, the .NET Platform Tour will have its first installment on Friday of this week. Yes, there will be some more MIDI files up today. Your wish is (sometimes) my command. The math section, however, will not be up by today.

May 18 2004, 67:31
Well, we are now at a new home on the vwebservices domain, as we wave farewell to the cs-soft domain.
Anyway, the .NET Platform Tour is coming soon. I'm going to resolve to update my webpage daily, or at least biweekly.
I will also be adding some new projects that I am working on to the projects page along with some more MIDI files and thinking about opening up a
math section. Stay tuned!