updates and milestones

Hello you guys,

Steve again.

I have some important updates to tell you about today.
First of all, the number of views on this blog has officially reached, you guessed it, 5000! That is quite a big milestone for the blog! We are half way to the 5 digit numbers! Since it took about 729 days to reach this number of views, I expect that it will take upto 1300 views (I may be wrong, but who cares) to reach 10000. I just want to thank you viewers for getting this blog so far and paying attention to my content.

Another thing is that I will be creating a photos page soon, gathering all the pictures in my blog and adding them to separate categories, similar to the audio page. Also, I will display the latest image right below the name of the category. Please click on this button thingie every morning until it works. I will tell you that it might take until either tomorrow to get it up and running, so please be patient.

Now, I will tell you about my recent days.

On saturday, I went to my friend’s birthday party. It was a horse back riding party, which turned out to be pretty fun! I will have the pictures posted on this post and hopefully the photos page by friday, so check back then.
After the hourse back riding part, we got some ice cream from Derry Queen (I got a hot fudge milkshake), and my friend opened his present that I got him.

After that party, Saturday night just turned into a relaxed chill kind of night. My dad baught me and my sister some freekishly awesome speakers for our phones and book readers, so me and libby watched stormbreaker, an Alex Rider movie on them.

Sunday was a pretty fun day as well. So, there is this relatively new goalball coach that also helps Libby studie for her AP test. She is pretty funny, and me, libby, and her like to tell jokes. Her name is Shena, but Libby calles her Coach because she was trying to teach Libby who is quite an experienced player (and she is pretty new) how to throw. This brought out the name Coach, and though this occured several weeks or months ago, Libby still uses the name. Well, I went with Libby and Coach to study, after which we ate at some Mexican food restaurant and I got chicken fingers. Then, we got some yogert from this yogert place. I ended up getting cake batter yogert with angel food cake on top.

After that, Coach had to take us home, after which the routine returned to normal.
Yesterday was like any old munday, not much to talk about.
So far, today has been pretty good, I guess if you’d call sitting in reading class an awesome experience.

Well, I guess that wraps up this post for today. Once again, expect those photos to be on that page, and the hourse riding photos by Friday or Saturday hopefully.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

Blog update, news, shout outs and all that kind of stuff

you guys,
steve again

I am back for, you guessed it, some updates for the blog.

First of all, I would like to give a shout out to my friend Brett, because he has been wanting to be shouted out on the blog for the passed 4 months.

Furthermore, I’ve had a long but good week. Staar testing was this Tuesday and Wednesday (math and reading), and I’m almost sure I passed both tests. Today and monday have been normal school days, and Saturday and Sunday of last week were pretty normal.
In fact, let me tell you about every day since friday. So, this weekend like i said was quite normal. Saturday was nothing but goalball practice, Libby’s friend coming over, and relaxing. Sunday was acleaning day. Monday was test review day at school, and otherwise normal (there was no spin class), but I hope we go tonight. Tuesday and Wednesday were staar testing, then stay at home alone afternoons, while as to the contrast today has been a normal Thursday.
If you’re wondering, I do have a bit of social studies homework supposedly, however I will try to knock it out before the end of school (homework as you know isn’t the funnest thing ever).

Now, on to the gamebook stranded part 2.

I think I’ve found a website host that will let me host my gamebook on its servers. To put that less geeky, I think I found a solution for you to play the gamebook online! If this indeed works, I will convert all the books to playable online, or browser based games.
I haven’t started the developement process of the game yet, but I will shortly. I am beginning to get an idea of the release time–some time in the second half of next month (last post I just said some time next month). If you’re wondering why it is taking so long, it is because I want a high quality fun game for you all that will take a long time to play. For now, you can enjoy my other 2 games, kids prison and stranded part one here.

Another thing, I got another follower this week, shortly after Friday night’s post. So, I just want to welcome you, the new follower to the blog, and thank the older ones for keeping on reading these entries, and viewing the site. Also, you know how Sunday I declaired that I had 4902 viewers, the total now exceeds 4950. Thanks for viewing!

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

Happy 2nd birthday to the blog!

Hey you guys,
Steve again

Can you believe it? Two whole years of this blog have come and gone just like that! Makes you wonder how fast the next several years to come will pass. Huh?

Well, I have as usual to tell you an anual report. If you would like to compare last year’s to this one, click here to view last year’s anual report, along with a few ore posts.

Well, this year’s report is as follows.

  • 4902 views total
  • 44 followers
  • 654 blog posts
  • 20 pages
  • 22 blog categories
  • 72 comments
  • 953 search tags

This website has undergone some major changes. If you’ve been in touch with the news page, you know that the site got a real domain (at this time last year, the site was sssjournal.wordpress.com), and that I was also able to get a site upgrade for audio. Another thing, I quit the how my day went posts, since I thought they were quite repetitive and you guys didn’t enjoy them as much. To proove my theory, the day I announced I was quitting them I received 3 followers.
Like I said last year, I amsstill getting posative feedback from you readers. Just remember, keep reading, and I’ll keep posting!

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

p.s
the blog’s birthday also happens to be on one of my best friend’s birthday! So, wish them both a happy birthday, and have a wonderful day!

Busy Week

Hey you guys,
Steve again.

I know the last time I posted to the blog was Monday, but I still have a lot to tell you.

First, we are aproaching the blog’s birthday! In fact, it is this sunday, April 21, 2013. The blog will be turning 2 years old then. On that day, expect an anual report telling you all the stats as of that day. If you want to see all of what I posted this day last year, click here.

Besides that, I know you’ve probably heard about the bombing in Boston. Not only that, there was a massive explosion in texas, about an hour or so from where I live. Though it was far away, there was still a noise that sounded like thunder that followed it, and the noise reached my ears. Since I was sitting right next to a door leading outside, and there wasn’t much noise, I was able to hear it purfectly. Meanwhile, people down south felt something similar to that of an earthquake caused by the explosion, however the explosion triggered a seismograph which reached all the way to the pan handle. The miniture earthquake it caused was a magnitude 2.1.

Finally, I have some more news to tell you about. I am starting to work on stranded part 2, and this one I am going to try and make it possible to play online. If I can do this, I will convert all my games to where you can play in your browser, and ultimately put a backlink to the blog at the end of them. As for the read me files on the games, I will post them as seperate files on the gamebooks page of the website.
As of now, I don’t have a speciffic release date for this game, however it will be some time next month.

Other then that, there’s not much to say. So, thanks for reading!

thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

updates

Hey you guys,
Steve again.

I hope you are ready to read for a long time. I have quite a bit to tell you on this post, since I haven’t posted since April 3rd.

So, I’ll start with weather.

In the passed few days, there has been storms. I didn’t get to record them however, since I was at school. There is a pretty significant chance that we’ll get pounded again this Thursday morning, so maybe I’ll be able to record it. Other than that, it’s supposed to get up to 90 degrees today. That is extremely hot for the month of april in my opinion; it was in the 30’s last Wednesday and will be 60 degrees by Thursday.
Now that I think about it, I’m starting to develope a hunch that a big tornado outbreak is coming soon. With all this wind, mad temperature swings, storms, and heat, it just seems likely that either a huge severe thunderstorm outbreak will occur, or perhaps a large tornado outbreak might occur in the next couple months. As you should know, tornadoes or tornadic thunderstorms form from cold dry air clashing with hot humid air. You could expect something like this especially if a cold front or dryline passes through during the afternoon/early evening hours, when daytime heating exists. That is why we need to watch out, and keep our fingers crossed should a tornado outbreak occur.

Now that I have the weather thing knocked out, I should probably tell you what’s been going on with me lately.

The first week of April wasn’t very exciting. Besides severe weather day, nothing much really happened. The second week of april was more exciting though.
On monday of that week, I did my normal routine, along with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday was the day that I missed school, so my o&m which means orientation and mobility teacher took me, my sister, and our friend out on a fieldtrip to the Galloria (I don’t know how to spell it, but whatever). There, I got a couple massages from Brookstone, explored some store that I don’t know how to spell the name of, ate at Rasing Canes, got lots of candy at Candyland, and in total spending about $13.35. After that trip, I had to return to school, but only for about an hour.
After the school day ended, I went streight home, and got ready for Transition Weekend, a fun weekend for the blind and visually impaired.
Me and my sister were both going to this weekend long camp, while my mom and dad were just taking us there. So, we left about 4:30, and arrived at the bus which would take us to the camp around 5 or so.

The camp was in Cedar Hill, which was a 45 minute bus ride.
As we drove there I wondered how the weekend would go. I wondered what activities there would be, what time we would go to bed and get up, what food we’d eat, when we would leave, and if it would be fun.

As it turns out, I didn’t have any reason to worry. The weekend was a blast! After getting there, we unpacked, settled in, and ate pizza for dinner. The slices were litterally about a foot long, and the base was about 7 inches wide. I ended up having two slices (sorry if I am making you hungry), and those filled me up pretty good. After dinner, we got to know each other, and had an opening thing where we did activites and stuff.
After that, we cooked these brownies. They were oranges that we scooped the pulp out of and replaced it with brownie mix. I didn’t eat one, because they were all eaten when I was in the shower.
I did get a regular brownie however, which turned out to be pretty good.

We went to bed at 11:00 that night, and got up at 6:30 the next morning. After getting ready for the day on saturday, then eating a good breakfast, we did more activites (but these were outside). They were just more activites to get to know and bond with each other. After that, we did some low rope activites, which was working on team work. Then, we had lunch. After lunch was the fun stuff. We had about an hour of down time, before it was time for rock climbing and zipline. I only got 4 feet up the rockwall, but did the zipline completely. My least favorite part of the zipline was standing on that 50 foot platform. If you don’t know this, I am extremely afraid of heights.

It wasn’t that bad when I actually zipped down the line. In fact, it was real fun. The only bad thing about it was that I couldn’t go again.

After that zipline experience, we ate dinner, had more down time, then went to the camp fire. There, we just sang, talked about the day, and socialised. After that comes the funny part.
So, when we got back to the cabbin, the counsiler took us boys into our bunk wing.
This guy was a real jokester, and actually made us think we were getting in trouble. It actually turns out, he just wanted to tell us how good we did, and I was deep relieved.

After that, there was a store thing that people could use face money to buy awesome stuff. I got a deck of playing cards, and a pack of gram crackers. After that however, I headed out to the porch, where a silly string war was taking place.
“Can I try?” I asked one of the boys.
He handed me the bottle, which was broken. So, I had to ask the counsiler who talked to us earlier to fix it for me. He fixed it, but instead of returning it to me sprayed me. He got me in the mouth, the nose, and the chest. He also got my head when I ducked down.

After that fun experience, I went and took a shower, and fell asleep after a long but fun day.

Yesterday was the day it all ended. After eating breakfast, there was a closing saramony. That consisted of crying, talking, laughing. After that, it was time to go home. I went home with my dad, but he took me and libby to nanna’s. There we ate lunch, played cards, and returned to our home. There, I got on my home computer (I fixed it and got it to work). After that, I had my dinner, and things returned to normal.
Now, I’m at school, and nothing much is happening. It is Monday, so tonight me and mom will be going to spin class once more. I can’t wait!

Well, I guess that concludes today’s post. I will post again soon!

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

severe weather day!

Hey you guys,
steve again.

Do you remember my April 3rd journal entry from last year?
If not, click that link to read it.
Last year, there was a massive tornado outbreak not only in texas, but stretching up into the northwest part of the country. This spawned huge tornadoes, one of which causing a tornado emergency to be issued in Dallas county. Mind you, that was last year. This year, we aren’t in on so much action. This April 3rd I’m afraid is cold, rainy, and dreary like what you’d get in February. What is the forecast for today?
Cloudy with showers likely and issolated thunderstorms with highs in the mid 50’s and northeast winds. What was the forecast last year?
Showers and thunderstorms (a near 100% chance), with some possibley being severe, and it was in the 70’s.
What a difference? The only thing that remains the same is that it will rain this April 3rd like it did last year. There will not however be any severe weather today.

Recap back to last April 3rd.
I don’t know how much I said about last April 3rd in the journal entry, but I will tell you about the day anyway.
So, it started off as any normal day would. I went ahead and went to school, the air was kind of heavy and muggy. It wasn’t that dark outside when I went to school, seen as how the storms weren’t supposed to hit until the afternoon. I wasn’t too woried about the weather, because large hail, damaging wind, and heavy rain were the main threats. There was a small chance for perhaps an issolated tornado or 2, but I wasn’t too concerned.
Last year, I had to pass a window only to get to second period and 5th period. When I went to second, it was still bright outside, and I still wasn’t concerned.
When I went to fifth period however, things weren’t looking too bright. As my friend was walking me to choir, I looked curiously at how dark it had become. I just ultimately assumed a thunderstorm was coming.
It wasn’t until we got well into choir that the omonous storms began to move in. Our choir teacher, MS McQueen was having to get on to us because the class was being bad. We were fixing to start writing sentences, and I had just bent my knees to sit down when it happened.

Out of the blue, the tornado sirens began blaring. At first, I wondered if it was the weekly test. “How could that be though? It is Tuesday at like 1:15,” I wondered in my head.
That is when a rumble of thunder crashed outside, and I realised it wasn’t a test. The class got quiet as Ms McQueen went to take a look outside. When she came back in the room, she instructed us to quiet down in case the principal were to say something. I sat there shaking in fear in case it were to tornado.
Though the weather was pretty bad, we were still able to go to 6th period. My friend took me passed the window and I could barely see any light. It was dark, black, and omonous outside.
During 6th period, most of the classes had to sit out in the hallway. Sence I was in a science class, we sat under the table and I cracked jokes with my friends because we were all kind of scared. We had to leave for 7th period a few minutes late, because the storm warning had expired.
I didn’t know this until recently, but the reason we were under the tables in 6th period was due to that tornado emergency. Sixth period is in the 2:00 hour, and the tornado emergency was issued at 2:01 p.m for Mesquite, Dallas, and I can’t remember the other city.
Well, 7th period seemed normal. There was only one omonous sign throughout the period–the fact that so many people were leaving school early.
Here is where the situation gets to a breaking point.
As I sat in my class drumbing my fingers on the desk absent mindedly, the principal comes on the intercom. “All students riding the bus cannot leave school until the weather clears up. These students must remain in their classrooms until the teacher dismisses them,” he says.
That showed me something was going on.
“What?” a kid in my class asked.
“He’s just trying to keep you safe,” replied the teacher.

Sence I don’t like to get through all of the crowds, I leave a couple minutes early. I left that day about 3:19, expecting a thunderstorm to be on the way. When I emerged in the front, I heard hail pinging on the metal roof. It was so dark at this time, it looked like the sun was 2 minutes away from being totally gone.
Soon, the hail stopped. i thought that meant the storms were over, that is until this happened.
My sister came out of her theater class about 3:25, and we emerged into the stormy afternoon. The air was still, heavy, and warm. It wasn’t even raining or anything. It was a sort of serene; calm. There was only 1 or 2 raindrops, and absolutely no wind what so ever. The only thing that was off was that it had got even darker now. Now, it looked like 20 seconds before it got pitch black. This was freeking me out just a bit.
As soon as I climbed into the front seet of my mom’s car, the sirens began wailing. It got even darker to the point where you could just see the smallest bit of light, and the principal came on again. “All students and teachers, leave any exterier…” I shut the door, and my mom started driving before he could finish.
The worsed of it was over after that. That evening, it continued to thunder through about 8:00 PM, but no more tornadic storms came over our area.

I’m afraid that our story has come to a close. I do know that this april 3rd will not be nearly as hectic, but it will be way colder than last.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

easter storm

Hey guys,
Steve here.
A large line of thunderstorms moved across the dallas fort worth metroplex yesterday morning. It contained very heavy rain and strong winds that I guess were an upwards of 50 miles per hour. I cot this whole storm on recording. Listen below.
listen now, or use the audio player if you can detect it:

This can also be found on the natural events weather page along with several other eppic storm sounds.