average – Page 5

3 whole years!

Hey guys,
Steve here.
It’s already been 3 years everyone! And together, we can celebrate another year of this awesome site…
Well yeah, that is true, but let’s cut to the chase. As with all annual posts, I have a stats report to show you guys. If you’d like to compare the stats report below with the one from last year, click here.

10198 views
138 followers
757 posts
32 categories
1203 search tags
22 pages

Those are just some of the stats for this blog. However, I have more to talk about than just stats in this post, thus is why that list was so brief.
April 21, 2011 at 5:05 PM, I published my first ever post to this blog. Can you believe that? That means, at the time of this writing, this blog is approximately 3 years and 4 hours old. And yes, believe it or not, most of the views and followers came in the last year! In fact, there were only 44 followers, and 4902 views on April 21, 2013, and that number has since doubled, or maybe even tripled over just this past year… talk about astonishing!
switching topics, let me give you a brief life update (it probably won’t be brief :). But anyway, Wednesday and Thursday of last week were normal days. However, on Friday after school, my family and a few of our church friends went to the lake house.
We stayed the night and came home on Saturday evening. It went mostly the same as last time, except there were quite a few more people, and I didn’t get a sunburn, mainly due to the fact that I had to lather myself with thick layers of sunscreen practically every hour… but it’s better to be safe than sorry… right?
Anyway, the excitement of the weekend didn’t end there. No, after going home, showering, and chilling for the rest of Saturday night, we had to get up at 5:15 in the morning to attend Easter sunrise service at our church. After that, we were there until 12:30, because of Sunday school and regular Sunday morning service.
After church, we met up with Justin, and went to my papa Dutch’s house for easter dinner, where I had pork, sweet potatoes, bread, and candy.
We ended up staying until around 4:30 or so. And after we got home, I took a nap, and woke up thinking it was Monday already. Yes, I actually woke up, panicking at 7:40 last night because I thought it was 7:40 this morning. I didn’t truly know what day it was until 3 minutes later, after getting upset that there was no coffee, and having pulled out a plate, when I absent mindedly checking the date on my watch and realizing it was still Sunday.
Well, the night ended well anyway–a nice energizing cup of warm coffee, and a thunderstorm. Unfortunately however, it wasn’t one worth recording, but none the less it was pleasant to listen to.
As for today, it was your average Monday. I had a doctors appointment, but only missed choir and part of math. However, on a last note, there were 2 more storms today. I didn’t record any of them though.
Moving on, I am excited to tell you that I have our next episode of the Steven D podcast planned out. I will be recording it tomorrow afternoon–so, if you’re subscribed to the feed via a pod catcher or podcast receiver, check that at some point tomorrow. If you’re not subscribed to the feed, however, be sure to check the podcast page.
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Ps. I’d just like to thank you guys for putting up with, and reading this blog. I hope it’s been funny, intertaining, informational, and exciting!
You guys have been awesome for putting up with delays, forgetfulness, and procrastination on my part. Even on those 3 week blogging breaks, 2 week gamebook release delays, and month long podcast delays, you guys patiently sat through it all, and had faith in me, knowing that I’d get the job done some how.
Well, if you guys continue to read this blog, you can look forward to more of your favorite posts and content over the coming years.
Thankyou for reading everyone, and have a great week!

Great podcast news and life updates

Hey guys,
Steve here.
I’m going to try and keep this post long. Let’s see if that actually works, and makes me keep it short–because after all, when I say I’ll keep it short, it ends up being long, so let’s see if this little trick of mine works.
Anyway, it’s now April 15, the day before the pole on whether or not this site should have a home page will close. So, if you’d like a say in the matter, tonight and tomorrow are your only chances–at 8:00 tomorrow night, or somewhere thereafter, the pole will no longer exist, and I’ll do what you guys decided.
So, since it’s the last day, I’ll put the pole on the post:
[polldaddy poll=7937065]
Moving on, let’s sstart off with the great podcast news. If you listened to the podcast episode 20, you know that I said I’d try and do an rss feed for the podcast. I’m not sure whether or not I mentioned this on a previous post… but who knows. Anyway, with that said, I stuck to my word… and we now have a podcast feed, which you can subscribe to by visiting the podcast page.
Moving on, my life has been pretty normal over the passed 5 days or so. On Friday and Saturday, not much happened, besides school and goal ball. Sunday, however, we went to church, then some friends from church came over and hung out and had lunch with us. Also on Sunday, Justin came over once again to visit.
Yesterday was a cold, windy, and blustery Monday. Speaking of Mondays, I didn’t write a Monday’s Musings entry because I didn’t have a topic once again, and by the time I got off of Skype with Danny, I’d already stayed up passed the time I prefer to go to bed on nights before I have to get up at 5:45 in the morning, so writing a lengthy blog post was out of the question.
As for today, it was the beginner orchestra festival I talked about in two of my most recent posts. As was expected, I missed most of school, then had a proceeding concert this evening. There were, literally, about a thousand people, so when I was done, I grabbed on to my dad, and him, my sister, and I had to make our way through the massive croud in order to get out of there. If you ask me, putting a thousand or more people in a gymnasium isn’t the most brilliant idea you could come up with, but I guess I didn’t really have a say in the matter. Other than the large abundance of people, the concert went quite well. I think, that I had all my bowings correct… but who knows. And if I didn’t, no matter.
Well I guess that about wraps up this post. Hmm, seems my trick worked. I guess that on any post I want to keep short from now on, I’ll put “I’m going to try and keep this post long,” and vice versa.
Well besides that, I hope you enjoyed this post. I’ll talk (and by that I mean make you guys improve your reading skills and vocabulary by reading another one of my posts:) to you all later.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve

Podcast and programming news, and a brief update

Hey guys,
Steve here.
Since I posted here on Tuesday, I’m going to try and keep this short. Also, instead of presenting you with the pole again, I’ll instead advise that you visit the post from Tuesday and fill it out; I’m sure you don’t like me posting it at the top of every post. But if you’re wondering, it’s a close battle. 3 people voted in favor of a home page, while 2 others voted in favor of keeping the blog posts on the front page. We’ll just have to see what happens. So if you haven’t voted, please do. I need all the feedback I can get on that pole. And remember, just 6 more days, and I’ll quit all this pole talk.
Moving on to what this post is mainly about, let’s start off with software news. As of now, I still don’t yet have a Patton for my software. This is a pity, because sQuad word is now ready for release. That’s right, it’s actually ready! With all the features necessary for a note pad application implemented, and now that I got the visual aspects of the program usable, I feel it appropriate to say that, sQuad word version 1.0 is ready to go! Another feature I want to add, however, is the ability to recover documents you haven’t yet saved. I think how I’m going to do that is first, when the program launches, checking to see if the file tempfile.swd exists. If it does, an alert box will pop up asking you if you would like to recover the previous unsaved document. If you hit yes, it will recover the tempfile.swd file, allowing you to edit and read its contents. If you hit no, however, it will delete that file, and create a new temporary file, and bring you to the editor, where it will proceed to save your work in the tempfile.swd file every 30 seconds until you hit save as and specify another file to put your current work in. After you hit save
as, it will delete the tempfile, since it’s no longer needed, and auto save will work as normal on the new file you are working on.
This is useful, for example, if your computer unexpectedly dies or shuts down, and you haven’t yet performed save as on the document that you’re working on.
This feature will be possible to implement, though it will take a bit of tweaking on the code. I guess I have time to do that before I get my Patton and permission to release it.
Besides that, the only thing standing in my way is, that Patton. Well now that I have something to show for my work, I’ll show my dad and tell him about what it can do this weekend, and hopefully we’ll then get a Patton.
Also, while still on the subject of programming, Trash is still being worked on. It’s not an abandoned project; I want to play it as much as you do, so I’m still working on it. Unfortunately, there’s still work to be done on that, along with a lot of thorough beta testing before it can be released.
Besides that, I have some good news for my next podcast episode. I’ve been holding it off until I can find a place to record it without that annoying chirping (you listeners of the podcast may be accustom to hearing small chirping/beeping noises intermittently throughout the podcast. That is my smoke detector, its batteries are running low). However, I’ve found a new place to record the podcast, where the obtrusive beeps and chirps will no longer occur. Good news… right?
In other news, as you know, I probably will not post to this blog again until late this weekend or next week. But on Saturday, one of the days I won’t be posting, Danny’s 17th birthday will occur. Danny, if you’re reading this post, (I know you are), Happy birthday!
Besides that, I have a positive future ahead of me for the time being. After this long, boring day at school, I’ll go home, and then tomorrow will be that Firewheel fieldtrip! Thus, I’ll end up missing all but part of first period, and I think part of 6th period and all of 7th period. And after those are over, it’ll be the weekend. As for next week, we have that beginner orchestra festival I briefly mentioned in Tuesday’s update. In case I didn’t tell you, that’ll cause us to miss all but first, part of sixth, and all of 7th period, kind of like Friday’s field trip. In addition, also mentioned in Tuesday’s update, we’ll have a concert Tuesday night.
Completely off topic, we’re expected to get some storms on Sunday afternoon and evening, with the passage of a cold front. It appears that the strong cold front will collide with warm moist air, so there is the possibility of some severe storms. I’ll let you know if we get any though. Note, however, that as seen last week, severe weather situations can evolve at a last-minute notice, so I’ll be watching that.
Well okay, I’ll admit this post probably wasn’t as short as it could’ve been. But on days like today, I tend to have lots to say, which is weird, since I blogged like two days ago. Well, thanks for reading this post. I’ll talk to you guys later.
Thanks for reading,
Type you later,
Steve.

life and programming updates

Hey guys,
Steve here.
I’ve been wanting to write this post all day, but since my school recently got a new website blocking filter, wordpress has been blocked, thus eliminating the possibility of that happening at school. And when I got home this afternoon, I was far too tired to produce anything better than a sloppy, short, rushed life update post.
Okay guys, I’m really sorry for annoying you… but it’s really important to me that you vote on the, you guessed it, pole that will be presented below. Unfollow me if you wish… but I need to get your opinion. If you can just bear with me, this will only stick around through April 16, but until then, here you go.
[polldaddy poll=7937065]
So you want to know what’s up with me lately? Presumably, seen as how you’re reading this post. Well Since last Wednesday, much has happened in this life of mine. So where do I start? Well I guess how about Thursday and Friday. Yes, I’m sorry, the most boring days of my last week.
Since that severe weather day post was posted on Thursday, you could gather that we had another severe weather outbreak. The day was still rather uneventful for me; all the storms stayed north of us, and I spent the evening practically attached to my radio.
As for Friday, nothing much happened then either, and besides goal ball and my favorite weather (rain), Saturday was the same.
Sunday, however, was a good day, right from the moment I woke up. Sunday morning was one of those rare occasions when I get to wake up to the exciting yet comforting sound of thunder. And when I got up, I had a wonderful breakfast of eggs and sossage, then it was off to church.
After church, and a little bit of house cleaning, something really awesome happened. My brother Justin, whom I hadn’t seen in 3 years, came over for dinner! It was nice, but shocking, to finally get to see him again. Man… he’s already 20, and has a job. I still remember those days when he was 15. And, the day I last saw him was April 12, 2011, just 9 days before I started this blog!
Anyway, after the excitement of seeing my brother again, Monday and today were normal. I didn’t even have to write a Monday’s musings post last night; I wrote it on Saturday, and scheduled it to appear on the blog last night. That’s another neat feature of word press :).
As for the future, I’m going to miss school on Friday. My o&m teacher is taking my sister and I, and I think some other kids, to the firewheel town center. I’m not sure exactly what the field trip is for, but I’m looking forward to it. Since I don’t know exactly how the day will go, I’ll be sure and blog about it.
Besides the field trip, the beginner Orchestra Festival is next Tuesday. Basically, my orchestra class will be going up to a high school, where we’ll practice our songs (I might be wrong), but then we’ll come back in the afternoon. And at 6:20 Tuesday evening, we’ll have to be right back up at the high school, where we’ll be performing our music.
I guess that’s it for future life events.
Moving on, I did mention programming updates in the post title… right? Well here’s why.
As a programmer, you know I couldn’t stay away from my code for too long… so I didn’t. Last night, I decided to start working on sQuad word once again, and messed around with some of the code. By messed around with some of the code, I mean adding autosaving (never worry about your work being erased), and majorly tweeking the configuration. It used to be that, if say you wanted to show the version number in the window title, you’d have to check that option in the options menu, restart the program, then it would take affect. But now, it will automatically do it, no restart required. This is the same for the word wrap option.
And while on the subject of software, my dad and I will look in to getting a Patton (I think that is another word for software license) soon. If we get that, I’ll publish version 1.0 of sQuad word. But remember, I still have some visual testing to do, to at least make sure the thing works for you sighted users.
As for Trash, that will require a bit more tedious code work. Thus, I’m not even going to bather with that until I get the patton.
Well I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjouyed it. Have a good night all of you, and try not to get bored to tears by the end of this workweek. Believe me, I’ll take that advice myself :).
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

Updates and questions

Hey guys,
Steve here.
I’m in a pretty awesome mood today–staar testing is all gone, I just had my coffee, and I get the privilege to write yet another blog post.
Well as the post title implies, I have a question for you readers–but no need to worry, it’s just a matter of filling out a small pole. So I was thinking… should I have a home page (an actual home page), or should the home page remain as it is, the blog entries.
Let me elaborate here. A home page, is what you’d see when first logging onto stevend.net. I was thinking about creating one of those, instead of showing blog entries on the home page as is being done currently. So, I’d kindly ask any and all readers of this post to fill out the pole below, and submit in your vote. In two weeks, (on April 16), I will decide based on the majority of votes whether or not to do a custom home page. So please vote, you have two weeks to do so.
[polldaddy poll=7937065]
Alright… with that knocked out of the way, let’s get on to the main body of this post.
First of all, I’d like to inform you about severe weather day, and the weather expected therein. On Monday, I said that the weather on Thursday April 3 (dubbed by me as severe weather day) was going to be severe; large hail, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes. The forecast really hasn’t changed much, except that the storms are now most likely to hit mid to late morning, and the main severe weather threat is going to be east of where I live. So, hopefully, we will not be seeing any tornadoes in the near future.
On to life news, school has been boring (more than usual), because of staar testing. Basically, on both yesterday and today, I sat at a table for 5 hours, completing tests that were (no exaggeration), at least 60 questions. Not to mention, the English test which I took today, had like 6 stories in it. My goodness, state of Texas, why must you burden me with such horrendous and pointless work? I am a natural born relaxationist (don’t ask me if that’s a word, because I honestly don’t know)… so all that work was too much for me.
Anyway, besides school, I still haven’t programmed since last week… except maybe a bit on Sunday out of pure bordem. I plan to talk to my dad, and try to reason with him that my intentions aren’t to sell my software as of yet, but to release them as first programs. And if he thinks someone can steel it from me, (I think this is the case), I’ll need to let him know that I’m releasing this software as an executable, and not open source code, thus no one can modify the windows that are titled “trash by sQuad software” and “sQuad word.” because after all, despite my endless excited ranting about programming in the past months and years, he just told me last Thursday, after I’d spent 2 months of hard stressful work on 2 projects with quite a bit of potential. In fact, oddly enough, today marks exactly one month since I first began writing the code for Trash, and this Sunday will not only mark 2 months since the first lines of sQuad word were written, but also the day I began actually learning programming. So do you see where I’m coming from?
Moving on, I also have some news about the podcast. I know I said I couldn’t schedule episodes to the date, as we all know how that was going, but I can tell you the game of the day for the next few episodes… in case you’re interested. For episodes 20 and 21, I will continue my swamping with Steve series, and for episode 20 the campaign I’ll be playing is one called “twisted egg hunt.” It’s like an egg hunt, but there are also zombies; so not only do you have to find as many eggs as is possible in the allotted time period, but you also have to avoid having your brains eaten by zombies. Good times, good times.
Aside from that, episode 22 will have a review of the remarkable game my friend Danny is working on, the first of its kind. It’s called snow race, and is an accessible, multi player snowboarding game for the blind. I highly recommend you go to his website (the link will be at the bottom of the post) to check it out, because it’s a truly awesome game. So I guess you’d better look forward to episode 22, because that’s when snow race will be demonstrated.
That’s about it for podcast game of the days, but I’ll get some more games to test in later episodes. And while on the subject of podcasts, I can see a few of you’ve listened to episode 19? That is, after all, the most clicked link on my website in the last 3 days. Well I’m just glad you enjoy it.
———————-
Completely changing topics, let’s discuss my future for a while. This weekend, I don’t know what I’ll do as of yet, except goal ball. It seems like a while since I’ve gone to goal ball, though it’s probably only been two weeks. Also in my near future, I have a orchestra concert coming up on April 15 (we’re playing some good songs, but not the best songs we’ve learned. I think the songs we’re playing are songs we learned about 2 weeks ago). But for our orchestra concert on May 29, we’re playing some pretty awesome songs, so good that I’ve officially declared them “my jams.”
Also, we’re having a choir concert, however I don’t know exactly when that is. But for that, we’re singing “black burd” by the Beatles, and just the way you are by Bruno Mars.
Anyway, continuing with future events, on April 6 it will officially be 2 months until the last day of school. Also, there are only 7 more Monday’s left of school, but that’s not counting memorial day, which of course we have off.
Well I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. Good night everyone, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week, and look forward to another one of my posts.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.S. Here’s where to go to find out more about snow race:
the snow race page of danny’s website

A wonderful birthday party

Hey guys,
Steve here.
Yes, I know it’s Monday, and that usually means Monday’s Musings. Monday’s Musings 17 will still happen, but it will be next week–I have a lot to say in this update, and don’t currently have a good enough topic for the Monday’s Musings post for this week.
Unfortunately, I must start off this post with some bad news; not crushing news (to you guys anyway), and not news that will impact this blog and how it runs, but none the less bad news. So I was telling my dad about the software I’m creating, and he informed me that he doesn’t want me releasing it. I can understand where he’s coming from, he only is doing this for my good, but none the less I wasn’t very happy about it. I should’ve told him about my software developing dream 2 years ago when I first got it, so maybe then I woulddn’t have gotten so deep into creating software and wanting to do it.
I’ll admit, that after learning that I wasn’t supposed to release software, I was a bit upset Thursday night, and decided to quit work on my software. This decision still stands, and until I can release them, my programs will be safely tucked away in my private dropbox folder.
Moving on to better, less depressing news, Last weekend had to be one of the best birthday parties I’ve ever had. We went to the lake as promised, and though my sister brought her friend, two of my best friends Oscar (the one from church) and Joseph (a friend from school) got to come.
To start it off, Friday was an all out good day. Besides school, I got a great storm recording (that I will share at the end of the post and on the natural events page), that contained some hail, and a really good close up of wind, rain, and lots of lightening. And yes, my cat was in an attention seaking mood that day, so he meowed at the end of the recording, and of course I had to meow back… lol.
Anyway, after catching that recording, my friends came over, and we hung out until it was time to make the hour long drive to my grand parents’ lake house. When we got there, we had a dinner of hotdogs and chips. Then, my dad and one of my friends went out fishing, and I fell asleep very early, so I don’t know what all the rest of them were doing.
On Saturday, I awoke to the refreshing smell of pancakes, and ended up having 10 of the things. Oscar and I were trying to see who could eat the most, and I out ate him 10 to 6. Moving on, after breakfast, we went fishing for a while, and spent the rest of the day riding the pontune, and playing and having a good time.
For dinner that night, we had hamburgers, and then a fantastic tasting cookie cake. And before I knew it, it was time to go home.
Although that party ended with me getting a pretty painful and red sunburn, it was well worth it. Getting to go to the lake house isn’t something we do often, so when we do go I try to have as much fun as possible–and my birthday party was no exception. I had lots of fun, and look forward to the next time we go.
Since we got home around 8:00 Saturday night, nothing worth blogging about happened for the rest of the night. But on Sunday, we had pretty much a full day of church. You know the singing practice I was going to last Sunday right after I wrote that post? That was to practice for 5th Sunday singing, which occured yesterday afternoon. Someone from church and I sung “He Knows My Name” for the 5th Sunday Singing (It’s up to my mom whether or not she posts the link to the video in the comments). But the reason we were at church all day was because there was morning survice, a potluck lunch (I had meat loaf, fajitas, a ham sandwich, spaghetti, and chocolate cake), and right after that was the 5th sing service, where people would either play or sing a christian song in front of all the people in the church.
Besides that, nothing else happened this weekend. On the bright side, I recorded episode 19 of the Steve n d podcast on Thursday night, so you can go to the podcasts page if you want to listen to it.
As for today, it was a normal school day. Tomorrow and Wednesday, however, we will be having staar testing (state of texas assessment of accadimic readiness), over math and English. I’m not sure which day is which; but I know the only test I feel nervice about is the math one. English I feel pretty confident about, but math… well not so much. I think I’ll do fine though. I haven’t failed that class all year; I haven’t made anything below a B minus in there.
As a final note, we could have some more potentially severe weather mid week. And the most promising day for bad weather just happens to be April 3, or severe weather day as I like to call it. Will April 3 continue to live up to its name? Will we get a massive tornado outbreak? Or will something happen and there are no storms that day or the ones that do occur aren’t severe? Well we’ll just have to see, I guess.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post, and sorry (yes I am sorry) there was no Monday’s musings post. Don’t worry, they will resume next week, It’s just that I needed to get this post published, and couldn’t think of a musing topic. Just letting you know for future reference, that kind of stuff might actually happen in the future.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
p.s. I didn’t forget the storm recording, here it is:
download
or listen to it online:

Another Birthday well spent

Hey guys,
Steve here.
As the title suggests, this was a good day. I’m pretty tired right now; not sure if it’s all that sugar I ate, or all the fun I had, or both… so I think I’m going to try and make this a short post.
I don’t know if this is coincidence, but this blog reached 10,000 views on my birthday! That’s a nice present… isn’t it?
Well anyway, after I posted on Sunday, not much happened–besides singing practice and church of course, as I said would happen.
On Monday, I went to school like normal, as well as on Tuesday, or Steve Eve. By the way, I hope you all had a wonderful Steve eve!
Waking up today was pleasant. for one, I got that extra 1 hour and 15 minutes of sleep, because my dad took me to school as aposed to the bus which comes and picks me up at 7:00. And for 2, I pigged out on a wonderful breakfast–a glazed donut, chocolate donut, a cinnamon roll, donut wholes, cake donut, 2 pigs in a blanket, and a nice big bottle of chocolate milk. And though I was very full afterward, I’ve gotta say that was the best breakfast I’ve had in quite a while.
Anyway, school was pretty boring today–but, I got a lot of happy birthday wishes though. And when I turned 15, (at 3:01 PM), my science teacher was giving a lecture on compound elements on the periodic table.
When I got home, however, I took a short break before we all (me, my mom, my dad, and my sister) went to stake n shake, where I had (you guessed it), chicken fingers and an m & m / cookies and cream shake.
After that, we went to church, where the youth leader through a small party–I had a cake, and cupcake, and they all sung happy birthday to me, me in cluded).
Finally after church, I came home, showered, and have been relaxing and reflecting over the day since then. On Friday night and Saturday, I’ll be having my birthday party down at the lake. And I know you’re probably wondering what I got–nothing just yet. I’m waiting to open my presents until the party itself.
Well I guess that concludes this post, since I’ve got to go to bed. I really enjoyed this birthday; and though I’m a bit sad that it’s over, I can rest assured that more birthdays are to come in the future, and I still have a party to look forward to. Good night to you all, and happy Day of the Best!
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

It's Sunday… yet I'm still excited

Hey guys,
Steve here.
It’s Sunday, the day before the long stressful week starts, however I’m still in as good of a mood as I would be on Friday. First of all, it’s the start of the week of my birthday, and second of all I’m seriously almost done with Trash.
To start off, let me tell you what I mean by “seriously almost done with trash.” I don’t mean that it’s almost ready to beta test–it’s still too buggy to play; I mean it’s in the process of being tested, and almost all bugs have been eliminated.
Since I last posted, here’s what I’ve implemented:
-wild card. What is a card game without a wild card? So far, you can place the wild card on any position that doesn’t have a face up card already in it, however the computer can not yet utilize the card. When this is complete, I plan to have it where you can move said wild card around. Why you ask? Say you have the wild card in the second position, and you draw a 2. Say that then you still need a 5. I want you to be able to replace the wild card in the second position with the 2, then put that wild card in the 5. See what I’m saying?
Moving on, but also on the subject of software, I didn’t get a chance to test the visual aspects of sQuad word on Friday, because Luke, the friend I’m testing it with, decided it would be a great idea not to come to school. Oh well… we’re not in a hurry with this, are we?
Also, something that happened to my sister gave me an idea for another feature. She had almost finished a, I think 50, question test, when her computer shut down, causing her to lose her answers. So, I decided, as that has happened to me before, that I would implement an autosave feature. Thus, I think this will further delay sQuad word’s release… but you can rest assured that your documents won’t be erased should your computer unexpectedly shut down.
Completely changing topics, I had quite an awesome weekend. I spent both nights Skyping Danny, beta testing his snow boarding game for the blind with him, and programming and testing Trash. As for yesterday during the day, I had to get up at 6:00 in the morning, because my sister had some test, and then her, my mom and I were going to north park mall with one of our vision teachers, MS. Kristie Smith. I’m not sure why we were going, but it ended up being fun.
So after Libby’s test, we went to the mall as expected. There were other blind and visually impaired kids there. While we were there, we went to the apple store (I got to test out an iPhone 5, and an IPad air). Ever notice how light an iPad air is compaired to other apple products?
Anyway, after that, we went to build a bare, and just for the fun of it, I made a white bare and named him “bob.”
Afterward, we tried out tea samples, something I wasn’t a big fan of, since I’m not a tea person. And after that, we tried out some lotion samples, then ate ice cream.
When we got home, I crashed for about an hour and a half, before eating lunch… and spending my night talking to Danny and all that stuff.
Today was a more relaxed day. The only thing worth blogging about that I did was going to church.
Well that about concludes today’s post. I’m ending this so soon because next Sunday is 5th Sunday singing, and I’m going to the church at 5:30 to practice a song I’ll be singing… and I have to get ready. That, and I don’t have much else to say.
So, I hope you look forward to steve eve, and the day of the best. Also, don’t forget to stay in tune for the Monday’s musings post tomorrow night.

Spring has arrived

Hey guys,
Steve here.
Did you know today is the first day of Spring? Yes, we all made it through that cold; harsh winter of 2013 and 2014.
Call me negative, call me paranoid… but there’s one main thing that comes to mind when I think about spring–tornadoes. Tornadoes are probably my biggest fear, thus the fact that we’re entering a 2-3 month period where they are possible, if not likely to happen, is a bit disconcerting to me.
As a more posative thought, spring also means my birthday, as well as the blog’s birthday. It also means that there are no more seasons separating us from summer break; I don’t know if this has occurred to you before, but summer break starts on June 6, and it’s not even summer officially until June 21. And on a completely unrelated note, I can also get some storm recordings now. Since thunderstorms tend to occur during the spring more than any other time, and the ones that happen during spring are the most epic ones, I’m bound to get some rather nice recordings… and expect them to be in stereo.
Aside from it being spring and all, I have some exciting news, along with upcoming events. Trash is going very well–not only have I completed the computer draw from junk pile procedure, but I have even done a win round procedure. (see the post on March 6 if you have no idea what trash is or when I started programming it). If progress keeps going how it’s going now, I expect a testers version out (not to you, to my friend), by Steve eve or the day of the best. (the day of the best being a reference to my birthday, because I’m so narcissistic like that).
As for sQuad word, (used to be ultra pad until I quit collaboration with Mason), I’m still fixing visual stuff. Since I only see my friend from school… well… at school, testing that is going slow. I get him to look at it, come home and try to fix it, and get him to look at the next day… etc etc. I’m going to look at a notepad example either tonight or tomorrow and see how they visually did theirs, and copy that for mine. (I won’t copy any code, just the x and y positions, and the width and height of the edit box where you type all your text). Anyway, if I can do that, and my friend tests it and says it looks good, I’ll get it out to you tomorrow or this weekend, and if not, next week. Remember, that when I publish it, you’ll know because the software page will be renamed to “sQuad software.”
Besides software and such, let me give you a brief, and I mean really brief this time, life update.
You know the zombie book I was reading, (it was called “Feed, newsflesh trilogy #1” in case you don’t remember (it was also mentioned on March 6th’s post))? well by golly I finally finished it. Sure it was 2 and a half weeks after I got it, but I! finished it! Not that it’s exciting (it was a good book), but it took me forever to finish that. It must have been 600 pages.
Well As you know with all trilogies, they have 3 books. So, I’m now reading “Deadline, newsflesh trilogy #2.” It’s turning out to be good so far.
Besides all that reading, I haven’t been doing much. Literally, for this whole school week, my evenings were spent on Skype with Danny, and programming. But how can you blame me? Danny is my closest friend, granted we don’t see each other, and programming is one of my hobbies, and hopefully future career. And hey, if those colleges see I want to program, and have done it for several years already, they’ll have no problems letting me in… right? :))
Looking ahead to the future, it’s almost my birthday. A day that, if you like this blog, you’ll be as happy as I’ll be–isn’t it true that if I was never born, nor would this blog be? And of course, don’t forget the upcoming birthday of the blog.
And on a final note, speaking of the blog, we’re almost at 10000 views–and I won’t say the usual “keep viewing and I’ll keep posting” line again, since that really makes me sound like I’m posting for the views; something I am not doing.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

A mid week update

Hey guys,
Steve here.
Well spring break is over, along with two days of our first week back to school. Isn’t it amazing how time can fly by so fast? I mean even when posting the Monday’s musings post… I was amazed–it’s already been 15 weeks of Monday’s musings? And yet it seems like Monday’s Musings 6 was written last Friday. Well not really, considering Monday’s musings posts are written only on Mondays, but you get my point anyway.
For you storm recording fans, I have some good news for you. On March 15, we got a pretty big storm, and I was able to record it not only in stereo, but from an out-of-the-window vantage point. Yes, you will hear wind hitting the microphone, but that can serve as more proof I recorded it vertually outdoors. And if you hear some talking, and you will, it’s because I was at my church friend’s house at the time of the recording.
Aside from storm recording, my spring break was one of relaxation, and forgetting school all together; acting like it didn’t exist, and waiting until Sunday to do violin practice, because after all that is an aspect of school, that I believed I didn’t need to worry about over the break. After posting that blog post last Tuesday, I had two of the same days–spending my time being lazy and playing on the computer. On Friday, however, my mom, sister, and I fed the ducks at white rock lake. And now that I think back to it, didn’t we do the same thing on the Friday of spring break last year? It’s even written in a blog post from around that time.
After feeding the ducks Friday, we went to a palio bakery, and tried some of their desserts. I got to try a cookie, and a cupcake, both made with absolutely no milk. Now how weird is that? Even weirder, the things tasted good!
After our day out, we came home, and I programmed, and skyped danny; nothing productive for the rest of the night.
On Saturday, we had goal ball practice, and then we went to my church friend Oscar’s house to spend the day. We went because I guess my mom and dad planned to spend the day with them, but didn’t tell me about it until Saturday morning, so once again I didn’t tell you guys in advance.
So basically, after goalball, I ran home, made sure I had my recorder and stereo microphone, and weather radio, and we were off. So, that night when we were still over there, the storms hit, and I was able to get that great recording. But due to noise and microphone positioning, it took me like 5 attempts before I finally got the perfect recording. Welcome to the world of audio production. *sighs*
Later on that night, we had ice cream… or should I say everyone but me had ice cream. I accidentally fell asleep around 10:10 or so, and they had ice cream right after that. (lololol) I don’t know how I always fall asleep at parties and get togethers like that right before they have dessert.
Skipping ahead to Sunday, it started off with church as usual, and the rest of it was spent getting ready for school, and on the computer. And as for yesterday and Today, I had school, and was on the computer in the evenings. (well I guess we’re officially back into the routine).
In other news, Trash is nearing completion. I am already working on the winning procedure–and when that’s complete, I can put up an early beta, but sadly you guys won’t be able to play it because I need my friends to check for bugs before I toss it out to you guys. But hey, even if it takes long, at least I’m trying to make it as bug free and enjoyable as possible before giving it to you guys.
Speaking of software, Mason and I stopped colaboration on Ultrapad, because we wanted to release it on our own and do different things on it. Besides, there was some stuff in there I wanted to take out, and replace with different stuff… so it’s for the best. Anyway I think I got the bug fixed–and if that’s true, you’ll know by the nice little link posted on the software page. Also, when I release that, the software page will be renamed to sQuad software, so be on the look out for that in the next few days. (yes, in other words, check back often:).
Aside from all that, My birthday is only 8 days away! So in exactly a week from now, that’s right, it’ll be Steve eve! I decided not to have a birthday party, however I will be eating stake n shake for my birthday dinner. MMM there shakes and chicken tenders are so freaking good!
As for what I’m wanting for my birthday, there are two things–one of which I must see if it exists. I want swamp, and a talking rain gage. Or at least a braille one anyway. I’m not complaining here, but it is a matter of fact that there just isn’t a whole lot in the way of accessible technology out there, thus is the reason I’m having to make sure if such a thing as a talking rain gage exists.
Changing topic, Spring is just around the corner, which also means tornado season. That literally has to be my least favorite thing about spring; even reading about a tornado watch that was issued for Florida (my friend lives there and I was checking the weather) had me shaking, mainly because I know that weather is bound to hit any day now.
As another change in topic, high school transition night was supposed to be tonight. It’s some night where they show you the layout of the high school and you can meet the teachers… but I didn’t bather to go; there will come a day this summer where I’ll go up to the high school, give it a tour, and meet the teachers anyway.
Speaking of which, I’m sort of hoping I don’t get put in Pre AP next year. I thought of that, because my o&m teacher and I were going to talk to the high school counciler (not mental guidance counciler, the one that manages your schedules and such), about me being in pre AP next year. Call me lazy, call me under acheaving… whatever, but I just don’t feel like doing it. You see I’m one of those who doesn’t want to drop out of high school, or even just graduate with 70’s and 80’s as my average; I want to graduate, be successfull, and have a’s and b’s in high school. I don’t care about this whole destinguished program stuff, (although my sister does, and I’m proud of her). I just don’t feel it’s nessessary; if I can get into a college that’s not poor quality, and has programming and/or meteorology classes, I’ll go for it.
But with all that said, I guess that’s the end of tonight’s post. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and look forward to my next post.
(and yes, I have my next 4 posts scheduled, but I’m not releasing dates :).
Thanks for reading,
Type you later,
Steve.
P.s. There are only 10 Mondays left of school! Hurray!
P.S.S:
this is the first one of my posts that is over 1000 words… isn’t it?