Hey guys,
Steve here.
So far, that is for the last 12 days, 2015 has been quite a good year. I’ve been pretty good about sticking to my goals for this year–consistent podcast schedule, a good blogging routine, piano practice ETC.
There have also been several other factors that made the last week and a half such a good time for me. Firstly, I received a report card last week, where I learned that my lowest grade (that includes 3rd six weeks, semester averages, and semester exams that I wasn’t exempt from) was a, 90. Not that I was really worried; I try to be responsible with my school work most of the time, but I still wasn’t expecting that.
Also, last week wasn’t very stressful. Contrary to what I previously thought, the first week back at school did not come as a harsh slap in the face; waking up bright and early once again wasn’t all that difficult, though I was pretty tired the first few days I had to do so. The work wasn’t too hard, though I suspect it’s because it was the first week of a new semester. And between practicing my piano, doing some here-and-there programming, talking to my friends, reading, and recording pod cast episodes, I haven’t had much time for boredom.
Speaking of reading, I’ve started a new book. Recently I’ve been reading later installments of book series, because either the service I use to get audiobooks doesn’t have the title I want to read in their listing, or I procrastinate too much to read it when it comes out. But anyways, after finishing the final installment to the heroes of Olympus series, I read Day 21, the sequel to the 100 by Kass Morgan. Now, I’m reading Cress, the third installment in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. As good as these books are, I kind of wish I’d read them sooner, because even now I’m still remembering details from previous books in the series.
Moving on, as you might have noticed, I never again mentioned the winter weather event that was possible for New Years Eve and New Years Day. For one, I forgot to mention that, and secondly it wasn’t worth talking about, because it all ended up being just rain. Even on New Years Eve, there was still a 70% chance of winter precipitation in the forecast, and a winter weather advisory had been issued. However, by midnight, the forecast had changed, and only a slight chance of freezing rain remained, and even that never came to pass, making the whole event just a couple days of cold rain. So as you can see, definitely nothing to get excited about.
On the technical side of things, I’ve done quite a bit in the way of coding and gaming over the past 10 days. To start off, Paladin of the sky (found at http://www.vgstorm.com), was the center of my gaming world for 3 days, before I finally reached the end of the demo. Whether or not I will buy the game is still under heavy consideration–as much as I like the game, and the story, there are some parts (namely the combat system and room sizes) that I don’t like. But I really, really like the story, so who knows; that actually might inspire me to purchase it.
Also, park boss has been another recent favorite of mine, though after playing that a lot for a week or so, I kind of lost interest in it. I haven’t even opened the game in a week now.
Speaking of games, Danny has released another installment to the death match series. it’s called Death Match: a new beginning. I’m not sure of all the features it has thus far, though I know that the last time I played it, you could fly ships, and explore planets. Danny told me of another feature he’d added, but I cannot remember what it was.
Also, if you haven’t played death match: project alpha yet, you definitely should. great story, awesome style of game play. Both of these games can be found at his website: http://realitygaming.usa.cc
or the audio games.net forum.
And Finally, I’ve been dabbling a bit in pure basic again, as was briefly mentioned earlier in this post. Though I haven’t produced anything useful, resourceful, or even enjoyable, I’ve been messing around with things such as text to speech support and the basics of game creation. Just today, in fact, I learned that for some reason, the Pure Text to Speech library does not like the idea of compiling Unicode executable files; every time I’d try to run an Unicode executable that used text to speech, I was greeted by an application crash and invalid memory access error. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry, because I don’t know what that error means either). Luckily, with the configuration of some compiler options, I was able to finally resolve the issue. This means I can actually move forward and begin to bring a game idea I have into reality. We’ll just have to see though.
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you all enjoyed it. I’ll blog you all later.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Category: life
2015, A New and Better Year
Hey guys,
Steve here.
It’s 2015 already, something I find hard to believe. Though another year has come and gone, I don’t feel the necessity to write up a stats report, mainly due to the fact that writing such a report is quite tedious, and not really worth my time. However, one thing I will say, is that I only published 50 posts on this blog in 2014. That’s not only 65 less than the amount of posts published in 2013, but it also meant that 315 days of last year came and went without one single word from me.
With the new year, I plan to change that though. If I can help it, there will be no 46 day long gaps between posts, no more of those 3 and a half week late pod casts. Though I’ve always been a bit unreliable as far as podcast scheduling goes, it got way out of hand recently. Also, when reading through my posts from 2013 and early last year, I realized how much of a total slacker I’ve been recently. Posting once a month has had a profound affect on my connection with you guys, my readers, and it’s ended up resulting in my posts being vague summaries of a vast time period that, by the time I’d finally sit down to write, I’d forgotten nearly 75% of.
So starting now, I’ll once again focus on a 4 to 10 day blogging routine, such as the one I had in place around this time last year. I’m looking forward to this upcoming year, and the interesting things I’ll be able to blog about.
Anyways, that aside, I’ve had a great last week of Christmas vacation. I attended a couple of family functions, played games, stuffed my face full of candy, and shoved all thoughts of school out of my mind. In fact, the only learning I’ve done this week has been strictly piano related, and the only book I’ve read this week is the Blood of Olympus, the fifth book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. As for my new year celebration, it wasn’t too exciting, but it wasn’t at all bad. I went to church for a while, but ended up watching the new years countdown on TV.
These two short weeks sure went by way too fast, and next week will come to me as a slap in the face, as there is no staying up until 1 in the morning and getting up around 10 during the school week. I’m Kind of ready to get back into the normal routine, but at the same time not looking forward to the work.
That about wraps up this post. I hope you all had a great new year.
thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
PS. I enjoyed doing the 26th episode of the pod cast on Sunday. In fact, I’m still addicted to the game I demonstrated therein. More details on that in a later post.
Holiday updates
Hey guys,
Steve here.
Wow. It’s been nearly two months since anything, and that includes blog posts, pod casts, audio files… etc was posted here. One might think that I’ve settled into a once-a-month blogging routine, which, in a way, I have. However, with the coming of the new year, I plan to change that. In fact, I have the next two episodes of the podcast planned out, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy the games I plan to demonstrate, as they were picked by listeners of the podcast.
Since my last post, life has gone on, for the most part, as it always does–school, concerts, breaks and the like. But as you know, Christmas was yesterday, and that brought about a couple of interesting things:
for one, I got a piano. I’ve actually been wanting to learn piano for a while, and have recently found a visually impaired teacher who is pretty good. That being said, if I stay dedicated, which will more than likely be the case, I am pretty much set up to learn. I’m really looking forward to it.
also, at long last, Aprone has released version 3.4 of swamp, something I’ve been excited about for quite some time now. To my satisfaction, the new update comes with an extensive list of bug fixes and new features such as fully customizable crate missions and the fixing of some incredibly annoying sound bugs, among other things. Unfortunately, the new version is in upwards of 660 megabytes, and downloading it will be a real pain.
In other news, it is expected to get bitterly cold next week. Tomorrow, in fact, the temperature will likely fail to exceed 50, and Sunday will come without change. After it warms into the low to middle 50s on Monday, the temperatures will plunge into the 30s Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with the possibility of some wintery precipitation. As winter weather events, especially those that occur in Texas are so unpredictable, I’ll keep you up to date on the situation.
That concludes tonight’s post, but expect another one in a few days. Also, if you have the time, be sure to check out Episode 26 of the Steven D podcast, which is scheduled for Sunday, December 28. And finally, happy holidays to you all.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.S. Happy national Pajama day… hopefully you celebrated accordingly. 😀
I'm back, at long last
Hey guys,
Steve here.
At long last, I have returned from my extended break from this blog, and it is definitely good to be back. Though I’m sure you agree with the preceding statement, You are undoubtedly wondering why I was gone for so long.
This time, the main reason I was gone for such an extensive amount of time wasn’t “lack of motivation,” which seams to be the primary excuse most bloggers use for inconsistent writing. Instead, the primary factor in this most recent absence was my highly addictive gaming habits. Just recently, in fact it was around the time of my last post, I got really addicted to Quentin C’s game room, that social platform featuring a wide variety of card and board games that I demonstrated in an episode of my podcast. Since Quentin C’s game room has so many games, as soon as I would lose interest in one game, another would take it’s place. That being said, I had no inclination to sit down and write a post, as it would’ve given me less time to play games. On the bright side, however, I posted the Road to Rage podcast, and it turned out to be quite awesome, as Danny and I played while talking over Skype resulting in a near half hour of constant joking, laughter, and battle; 3 things that normally don’t go together.
aside from that, though I still find Quentin C’s playroom quite addictive, I’ve remembered the truth–my blog is much more important than my games.
Besides spending a lot of time on Quentin C’s game room, my life over the past month has been dotted with the occasional significant event. First of all, there was sports extravaganza, which took place the week after my last post. Since I have attended this event every year since I had this blog, I will not go into an in-depth explanation. But to summarize it, for those who don’t know, there was a goal ball tournament on Friday night, then on Saturday there were track and field events all day such as races and other competitions.
Besides Sports Extravaganza, my church also had its annual fall festival last week. Not much to say about that–it was quite fun, and I spent the day with someone significant to me. On a related note, I also got to spend this past Sunday with the previously mentioned individual.
As life would have it, unfortunately not every day was as good as those I just talked about. There was still that struggle called school, but on the bright side today was an early release day. There was also another early release day last month, after my last blog post, and I must say that was a lot funner than today. While there were still only 4 hours of school today like the last time, and there wasn’t too much work to do in my classes, it was still unlike last month when I had the extremely rare luxury of sitting in one classroom all day long, having absolutely no work to do, and spending the whole time reading and playing cards.
On a completely unrelated note, the weather the past couple days has been unseasonably cold, thanks to an arctic blast that is affecting a lot of the United States. Fortunately, though the high temperatures here in Texas are not in the single digits, as they were in places such as Denver, and our lo temperatures aren’t -21 degrees below 0 as they were in places such as Casper, Wyoming, our high temperatures didn’t even hit 40, and the lo this morning was in the 20s.
In addition, there is also a, slight, chance of snow Sunday night. Since that is far away, it’s impossible to determine if we will get any accumulating snowfall yet. However, I will closely monitor that situation, however since it is so early in the season I’m not very optimistic.
Well, I guess this wraps up tonight’s post. Thank you for reading, and as I previously said, I am very glad to be back.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
PS. My cat turned 10 today. I cannot believe he is already that old!
Tech news and some quick updates
Hey guys,
Steve here.
OK. I know I’ve been gone for quite a bit of time, but I won’t say anything about it because it has happened so much lately, that giving another excuse for why it was so would be frivolous and redundant. So instead, let’s get on to what this post was mainly about, because a lot has happened in the last 3 weeks.
First of all, I got my personal computer back last Saturday, complete with all my files! Guess my theory was correct–it was, in fact, not the hard drive. I guess I fried the motherboard, the AC jack, and the AC adapter; the latter two things being the result of the charger getting stepped on while plugged in.
Since then, I’ve avoided charging it at night, and also I’ve been shutting it down at night to prolong battery life. I’m hoping this will prevent me from breaking the computer again.
My fixed computer, along with the fact that we finally replaced the battery to the fire alarm in my room, have resulted in me being able to produce pod casts again, this time without those annoying chirps! But since I haven’t been very active on my website recently, I haven’t done anything in the way of pod casting since getting my computer back.
Speaking of pod casts, I still want to do ‘the Road to Rage’ for the game, but I think I will do a demonstration of the version which has single player mode. Unfortunately, this version is a bit out of date, because Ghorthalon, the developer, took single player out of the newest rtr version; however I think he might add it back in.
Anyway, so it doesn’t seem as though I’m just recording a podcast on a game you can’t get your hands on anymore, I’ll put the download link for that version on the show notes. So, you podcast fans, the episode will come out on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014.
Switching topics, I’ve not done much in the way of coding, even though I have pure Basic, and my “secret project” files are on my hard drive. However, especially as we head into October, I’ll ramp up the coding. Once I create a playable version, I’ll do a podcast (teaser if you will) on it. Trust me, this game is far more interesting than the beginner projects I’ve recently done, which none of them were published. But that’s oK, those were just beginner projects that, at the time, seemed a big deal to me. I mean, I have a playable version of the card game I was making on my hard drive– a couple code tweaks and it will be ready to go, and I guess I could toss it on the software page just for the heck of it. It was really just a small project though.
But as for the word pad I was creating, I discontinued it. The reason for that was because I lost motivation, and couldn’t fix some of the visual aspects of the program. As a result, I won’t post that here.
All that aside, school has been going well for me this year, that is, after I quit getting lost. The only class that I find a bit boring is choir, but hopefully that will change.
Well… to say the year has gone totally good would be stretching the truth just a bit. Because, just 2 days after getting my home computer back, the fans on my school computer decided to go bad… erg! What is it with computers these days? Every time a computer of mine has broken, it’s been different every time–virus, hard drive failure, broke the lid half off, motherboard/AC jack, then fans. Makes me wonder… what’s next? But then again, I really don’t want the answer to that question.
Well anyways, for the two days after my computer broke until I got a temporary replacement, I had to walk across the school and back every time I got an assignment, which by the way was quite frequently. This was because there was a computer with a screen reader on it, however it was in the special education classroom. It got bad enough to where I was walking down there 3-4 times a day, so I was definitely relieved to get that temporary replacement computer. No drop box, and a short battery life, but who cares!
Anyway, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.s. Also, remember me in your prayers not only because tomorrow is picture day, (something I really don’t like), and I have choir class, but also because I would really like to get my school computer back soon. I also hope, that like my home computer, the files on it can be saved.
A Mostly Good Week
Hey guys,
Steve here.
Though it went by pretty fast, the first week of high school was somewhat stressful. As I said in my last post, I had quite a bit of trouble navigating the school, especially on my B days. In fact, on Thursday, the first day I went about my B day schedule without assistance, I got majorly lost going to pretty much every class, and it took me the better part of 10 minutes to get where I was going. By the end of that day, I was practically cursing the school’s name, and feeling very frustrated.
Thankfully, however, my o&m teacher came back Friday and yesterday, and we practiced that schedule over and over again, so I feel pretty comfortable with it now. Today was the first A day that I had to be by myself, and I didn’t get lost once. Tomorrow, I’ll have to do it alone as well, and though it’s a B day, I don’t feel in the least bit nervous.
That aside, the classes and social aspects of school have gone quite smoothly. Besides making some new friends, I ended up with some pretty good teachers, and my classes, though long and some of them resulting in lots of seemingly frivelous homework, are also not bad.
Off the topic of school, I’m once again able to program! Thanks to Danny, who provided me with the latest setup file for pure basic, I was able to install it to a flash drive, and with drop box on my school computer, access and edit the source code for my game. And, even though it’s been roughly a month since I last worked on it, I created an outline detailing my plans and goals for the game, along with in depth descriptions of each and every feature I plan to add, thus making it easier to pick up where I left off.
Techie rambling aside, I am rather happy to have my good old pure basic back. It’s been a long month without being able to code, the cause of that being the failure of my computer.
Speaking of which, I just learned last night that it will be sent in to HP, so they can have a look at it. They will be sending a box to put the computer in, and we’ll have to mail it back to them, then they can begin fixing or looking at it.
So saying, I recall telling you guys that I might be able to do a podcast soon. I didn’t do it last week, however, due to the fact that for 1 I hadn’t decided upon a game and for 2 we had a family get together on Sunday. I now have a game that I want to do it over, called the Road to Rage. Since the game is on a computer which I have access to, and I am equipped with the means to record a podcast, I will try and get that done and posted this Sunday. So if you listen to my podcasts, keep an eye out for another episode!
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post.
Thanks for reading,
Type you later,
Steve.
PS. I’ve finally started reading the James Bond (007) books. I’m only on the first one, and so far am really enjoying it!
The First Day of School, Unexpected Bad News, and a Few Quick Updates
Hey guys,
Steve here.
First of all, I must appolagise for the following reasons:
1. My huge, unexpected blogging break, that I had even after I said I’d post more frequently.
2. There have been no podcasts what soever, meaning I have 3 of those to catch up on
To those of you who were expecting another podcast episode, I’m sure it was a huge disappointment for you to realize that not only had one not been done, but there was no post explaining why. And even for those who just read the blog… I’m sure you guys were concerned as well. The reason I haven’t been able to do much to the site is that on Wednesday, August 6, my personal laptop decided it was the perfect time to stop working, that is, when you hit the power button, nothing happens, it’s as if the computer is without battery and AC adapter.
Believe me, I tried everything (different cord, a different battery, using the same cord and battery on a different, working computer, a hard reset, having my dad look at it), but to no avail.
As a result, the next time I was able to lay my hands on the keyboard of a working computer was eleven days later, because my sister was nice enough to let me borrow her personal computer for the time being. As a bonus, that computer has the Road to Rage installed, and I was able to get swamp on a flash drive and run it. So, though I am unable to download dropbox (the installer kept popping up ads and unnecessary offers so I finally just gave up with the installation), and I can’t get pure basic at this time, I’m still at least partially set for now.
But I promise, as soon as I have the means to do so, I will get back on a schedule with publishing podcasts. This was a very unfortunate occurrence for all of us, and I can’t wait to have my computer back!
That aside, the rest of my summer, which as you might know is over, went pretty much as expected. It involved school shopping, a rather nice vacation to Maine, and then just a week of relaxing before the start of school, which actually was today.
Well, believe it or not, I’m a freshmen now. It was a bit nerve racking this morning, walking into a school (and a big one at that), full of people I didn’t know, and not knowing my way around the place; but overall the day was okay, about as good as a normal school day can be. Since I’m in high school, I had 4 classes today, and will have 4 completely different ones tomorrow, so I’ll have to do this whole First Day of School thing again, ug.
Well, I guess that about wraps up this post. Since my days will be more busy and exciting, I’ll have more to write about, so expect more frequent updates from me. And, I have drop box on my school computer, which is the computer I’ll probably be using a lot this school year, so hopefully I will be able to do a podcast, though I can’t promise anything. In the unlikely event that I become able to do one on that computer, I’ll let you know.
Thanks for reading,
Type you later,
Steve.
P.S. I forgot to mention this, but last Monday I found out I didn’t have to do my summer project, because as it turns out I didn’t get into pre AP. I guess that’s a good thing, because the part of it I actually mustered up the motivation to do is currently on my home computer.
A Productive Week
Hey guys,
Steve here.
The last week or so has gone quite well for me. It’s not that I did anything special; my family isn’t going on vacation for another week and a half. However, I actually managed to get some stuff done, in sharp contrast to the last two months, where I didn’t even bother to write frequently, or produce pod casts. Well, instead of just saying I’d write soon and not doing it, I actually did this time, plus some.
First of all, I did the 23rd episode of the Steven D Podcast, featuring death match, the game Danny created. I know I’ve done it before, however Danny remade the game completely, so I figured I would demonstrate the new version. Despite the fact that I only did 2 levels, the podcast still lasted almost 50 minutes.
For those of you who were checking the page or are subscribed to the feed, you noticed that I did the episode two days late. I tried to do it on Sunday, I really did, but here are three things that prevented it:
1. too much background noise.
2. The internet was acting up, so while I was in the call with Danny, it dropped.
3. The game was so long, that by the time I got to level 4, the recording was already over an hour long.
So instead of going through with it and producing a crappy, messed up, drawn out podcast, I deleted the recording, and waited until Tuesday to redo it. But hey, at least I did it, unlike the previous times I said I would but didn’t.
While still on the subject of pod casts, Episode twenty four, which is scheduled for this Sunday, will feature levels 3 and 4 of death match. I really can’t wait to play those, especially since I’ve never played fully through level four, so it’ll be an adventure for me as well.
Aside from pod casts, I also completed a lot of my school project. As it turns out, the dialectical journal part of it is going quite well. Since the book I chose, “The 5th wave by Rick Yancey,” has been such a page turner for me, I was able to obtain the 10 important quotes in no time, and am pretty much done with that part of the project. I guess that’s proof that, as I said in the last post, I didn’t wait until August 20 to start the project, especially since that is still 20 days away. As for the Homer’s Odyssey part of it, I haven’t started that yet. However, I’m quite confident that I can get that done in a day or less, which is why I’m doing that part last.
changing topics, I watched the finale of we’re alive last Tuesday, as I said I would in my last post. In case some of you actually watch that, and haven’t watched the finale just yet, I won’t spoil it. But in case you’re wondering, It was very good, and I was a bit bummed out that it was over.
But yes, I made sure all my chores were done, and there would be no interruptions, and I watched it as it streamed.
Well, I guess that about wraps up today’s post. I will definitely post more than two posts this month, since that seems to be all I posted last month. And don’t forget, (and this also goes for myself), that I have pod casts coming up on August 3 and 10.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
My july… so far
Hey guys,
Steve is still here.
Today, out of pure bordem, I decided to do a bit of browsing around my website. While doing so, I discovered that including this one, there have only been 3 posts published to this blog since June first. Please know that I’m not losing interest in blogging, it’s just that there hasn’t been very much to blog about. But since it’s been 18 days since my last entry, and I went to a camp during that time, I figured it was definitely time to write a post.
For me, the 4th was quite uneventful. All I did that day was sit around and listen to episodes of we’re alive, an audio drama about people who are trying to survive the zombie Apocalypse. I watched from chapter 40 to 47 that day, and chapter 48, the finale, will be available to listen to on the 29th of this month. I can’t wait!
Moving on, my family spent Saturday and half of Sunday traveling to camp. Since Lions camp is in Kerrville, about 5 and a half hours from my house, me, my mom, my dad, and sister drove to Austin Saturday afternoon, and spent the night in a hotel, and made it to the camp by about 1:30 in the afternoon.
Since Sunday was the first night of camp, all we did was the opening ceremony. Also, since I was in the oldest age group, I got to choose 2 block classes (from 10 to 12 each morning, the first one we’d go to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the second we’d go to on Tuesday and Thursday). I chose cooking, and center stage, a sort of acting class.
Camp turned out to be quite a blast. In cooking class, we cooked omelets, granola bars (they were more like blobs, but they still tasted good), and angel food cake. In center stage, we learned stage combat, and went on a field trip to see a play on Thursday night. Although we had to leave the play early due to some inappropriate content, I still got to miss the dance, which is definitely okay with me.
Besides block class, there were several activities including ropes (where you climb things), r&a (recreation and athletics, similar to gym class), swimming, horses, archery, and swimming.
At ropes, I actually managed to reach the top of the 30 foot rock wall, although there was a lot of nausea, heavy breathing, and breaks involved, because I’m not really in shape; but what really matters is that I made it :).
Each night after dinner, we’d have a night activity. On Monday, it was something called carnival, where there were games and snacks. I ended up eating a pretty good size stick of cotton candy, and let’s just say I was very hyper the rest of that night.
Tuesday, at least for my unit, was camp out, which is pretty much self-explanatory. For dinner we had hobo packs. In mine, I had meat, potatoes, and some seasoning.
On Wednesday, we had Night Court, where you could file a complaint about one of your councilors, and there was a chance that counselor would get punished in front of all the campers. What would normally happen was that they got lots of nasty stuff poured on them.
Thursday night’s activity was the dance, but since I went on that trip, I didn’t go.
And on Friday, we had the closing ceremony. Since my sister is 16, she graduated camp, but I still have one year. I will definitely be going back next year, because I had a blast.
All I really did last week was unpack, and get back in to the normal routine. Today was mostly the same, but my mom, sister and I went swimming this afternoon.
Besides that, for those of you who have followed this blog fir 3 months or more, you probably remember a post where I said I didn’t particularly want to take pre-AP english next school year. For those of you who commented on that, telling me to take the class, you’ll be happy to know that I am, in fact, taking it. Proof of this is the summer assignment I received yesterday… ug.
I have to create a dialect journal over a book of my choice (thank goodness it’s not like last year where I did an assignment over a book I didn’t care to read). I don’t remember the exact assignment off the top of my head, but I’ll look at it and work on it tomorrow.
Also, we have to do some research on Homer’s Odyssey. This is a relief because I actually thought I’d have to read the book over the summer. But thankfully, we’re not reading it until the school year begins, so I guess that makes things a whole lot better for me.
Well this year, unlike last year, I won’t wait until August 20 to begin the assignment, in case 4 days of summer isn’t enough to complete it.
On a completely different subject, I haven’t done a podcast in quite a while. Recently, however, I’ve obtained a few great games to demo in the podcast, so expect that to change. For those of you subscribed to the podcast feed, the episodes will show up in your feed July 27, August 3, and August 10. For those of you who haven’t subscribed to the podcast feed, the url to copy into your pod catcher is https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49289052/stevendpodcast.xml
.
If you don’t have, or know how to use, a pod catcher, then check back to the podcast page on each of those days to listen to the episodes, which will be 23, 24, and 25.
Well, I guess that about wraps up today’s post. Hopefully, I will have more to blog about in the next few days, so I’ll be able to write more frequently. And if I don’t write soon, know that you’ll get to read another one of my awesome posts somewhere in the next couple weeks.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
Updates and stories
Hey guys,
Steve here.
I can’t believe it, but it’s already been 3 weeks since I last posted to this blog–and a fun 3 weeks it was. I have quite a bit to tell you, but I’ll try to keep this post as short as possible.
The first 10 days after my last update were pretty much uneventful. The only thing I did worth blogging about was going to the lake house, that is, except being without a sister for a week (she went to a PE class at the Texas School for the Blind).
But on Sunday, June 22, I went to TSB for a writer’s workshop class which lasted two weeks. In the class, we’d start the day by coming up with a theme. Some of the daily themes we came up with were darkness, anger, love, emotions, and on the first day, why write.
After we came up with, and had a consensus for the daily theme, we’d usually do some free writing. For the first two days, I was unable to come up with anything (I finally wrote two or 3 pieces, one of which will be at the bottom of this post).
In the afternoon, the teacher would give us some inspiration, which would be different each day. One day, he taught us about song writing, other days it was different forms of poetry, some being different types of writing. After that, we’d have more free writing time, then we’d share what we wrote.
Also, we did this thing called “work shopping,” where we’d go through an investigative report paper which would ask questions such as what’s happening, what were details that really stood out to the reader, could the story have a different title, could it have a different starting point etc.
On Thursday of last week, since the inspiration for the day was Eco poetics, our class visited a place called Bright Leaf nature preserve, where we had a guided tour of a forest filled with plants and trees you wouldn’t normally see in your back yard. I would’ve taken pictures, but wasn’t sure if I was allowed to, and besides I didn’t bring my phone to school that day.
After visiting the nature preserve, we ate and had the daily inspiration lesson at a park, which was practically swarming with peacocks.
Besides that, we went to a coffee shop this past Tuesday. There, we did some free writing and editing. I don’t know if it was the caffeine, the chocolate coffee drink I had, or the fact that I was getting to a good part of the piece I was working on, but that was by far my most productive day of writing.
At the end of the two weeks, there was an end of program show, where we displayed our work, or in the writers’ case, read our stories. I read my story Desperation and Frustration; I’ll post the recording on a different post. Also written by me was a piece (not exactly a complete story, but I guess you could call it an excerpt) called Unyielding Vines, which I’ll include at the end of this post.
To sum it up, I had a lot of fun during that class. If it still exists next year, It’ll definitely be on the list of programs I might want to sign up for, most likely somewhere at the top.
Well, I guess that wraps up this post. I won’t be doing any more posts for at least the next week, because next week is Texas Lions Club Camp. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.S. my story.
Disclaimer: If you are not okay with reading about horror or blood, please do not read this story.
Unyielding Vines
I could only lie there, paralyzed with fear, feeling the terrible sensation of the vines tearing into my wrists and ankles, their thorns biting
into my skin. The night was bitterly cold, a harsh wind rustling the densely packed trees and bushes surrounding me. Mixed with the sounds of
the forest were the sounds of countless vines surging toward me, a horrendous crackling pressing in from all sides.
Muscles bulging, I desperately tried to pull my hands free, tugging at the vines with all my might. Thorns sliced deep into my wrists in
protest, blood oozing over the tops of my hands and wetting the ground beneath them. Shrieking with pain, I fell back, gasping at the burning
sensation of thorns digging into my deeply cut wrists. The pain was quickly forgotten as more vines reached me, stabbing through my white t-
shirt and carving searing cuts down my sides and across my back as they wormed their way beneath me. Wincing, I sat up, the vines ripping there
way out of my shirt, other ones clawing at my clothes, shredding the material and slashing the skin underneath.
Riddled with pain, I lay back, landing in a bed of vines, Cringing at the pain of thorns stabbing into my back. Trembling with pain and the
biting cold washing over my newly exposed skin, I let my head rest upon the cool, damp ground. Closing my eyes, I lie still, doing my best to
ignore the intense pain raging through me.
All of a sudden, a vine began to work its way under the right side of my neck. Within a second or two, it was wrapped around all but the far
left side. While I still could, I snapped my head to the left with a harsh popping sound, pain coursing through my spine. Angrily, I craned my
head forward, biting down on the nearest vine I could reach, tugging and wrenching with all my might, the vine stretching and creaking, the
muscles in my neck bulging with the effort. Driven by raw fear and the immense pain, I tugged with a force I never even knew I had, heavy
breaths escaping my tightly clenched teeth.
Finally, the vine gave way with a harsh crack, the ends quickly retreating into the forest, my head smashing into the ground, lights flashing
before my eyes. Dazed, I lie there, as yet another vine shoved its way under my neck, wrapping around my throat with enough force to jerk my
head to the side, the sore muscles in my neck screaming with pain. Suddenly, it became impossible to breathe, and boiling panic swelled within
me, urging me to fight.
Frantically, I began thrashing, vines slicing through my skin and clothes in retaliation, the burning pain intensifying to an uncontrollable
roar.
The pain of a thousand raging infernos erupted from my throat as a thorn stabbed into the side of my neck, a fountain of blood pouring from the
wound. My mouth flew open in a silent scream, my body violently convulsing with the immense pain and the desperate need for oxygen.
My strength quickly fading, I stopped struggling, falling into the deadly grip of the many vines wrapped around me. As I lie there, the darkness
closed in, a comforting veil separating me from that awful, unbearable pain. It seized control of my mind, pulling me down into its comforting
embrace.
Steven Daugherty