Category: life

life updates, and a new blog development

Hey guys,
Steve here.

I’m starting something new on my blog. It will happen every Monday, and is called Monday’s musings. On the Monday’s musings post, I will share my thoughts, opinions, and rants. These will not be life updates; although life updates will continue. Basically, a Monday’s Musings post will be for my thoughts and rants that have no part in my life update posts, and wouldn’t make sense in them. I hope you look forward to these new posts!

On to some other things, I did the podcast episode 15 Friday, and will do episode 16 today. As for that q9 series I was doing, I will have to do it differently. Instead of doing worlds now, I will do it level by level, but there are only 6 levels left. It will not be the same thing every time; the amount of action and excitement will increase. Well, I guess that gives me a game of the day for at least the next 5 or 6 episodes. Also, while still on the topic of pod casting, I will try to create a feed burner for the podcast. I hope it works so you can subscribe to the cast with a feed reader or something.

As for my life, I had a fun weekend. Although I didn’t go many places (due to the ice storm that I will tell you about later in the post), I did other fun things. For example, I did the podcast, baked cookies and a cookie cake with my mom, hung out with dad yesterday, and talked to friends on Skype and wrote this blog post today.
Although I appreciated the unexpected 3 day weekend, I don’t want to go to school tomorrow. That will bring back the stress, the work, the projects… and everything else that goes along with having to go to school. On a positive note, winter break is in two weeks. I seriously can’t wait for that! Oh and by the way, I finally composed a Christmas list, so I bet my parents and the rest of my family are happy.
On another note, my old vision teacher, and a family friend named Dawn has created a really great blog. I think you should check it out. The address is
http://dawnadams.org.

As for the winter storm, I definitely did not get ripped off. That storm was pretty extreme–it dumped 1 to 3 inches of ice and sleet, and from Thursday night to about an hour ago I think, temperatures did not go above 32. I caught a recording of this for the interesting segment of episode 15 of the podcast, and I also got one on the natural events page.

Well I guess that about concludes today’s post. I’ll be back tomorrow night with the first Monday’s Musings post. Please comment on tomorrows post when it comes out and tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

Latest news concerning Steven D: Winter storm causes extreme excitement, a strange thing or 2 about school, and out with the sister… temporarily anyway

Hey guys,
Steve here.

As I’m sure you know by reading my blog post about a week and a half ago, the winter storm that was expected to hit our area turned out to be a complete rip-off. The most recent one, which is supposed to begin shortly, has actually turned out to be worse than I last said in my Tuesday entry. Now, my weather radio (see the weather radio forecasts page for Update 2 which will be posted around 10:00 this evening), has told people “do not travel unless it is an emergency.” Not only that, but 1/2 inches of sleet, and 1/2 inches of ice accumulation are expected over night. Also, if it doesn’t sound obvious to you by now, there is also a winter storm warning in affect. Although the warning only extends through 6:00 tomorrow evening, temperatures will remain below freezing through mid day Sunday, and another round of wintery precipitation is expected Saturday through Sunday morning.
Besides weather, my sister has gone to Austin for the weekend. She is going down for an O&M (orientation & mobility) thing with our O&M teacher (I’ve been wrapped up in my life to know anything more about the trip). All this means for me, however, is that Libby will be gone for 3 days; piece and quiet at last :))).

In the title of this post, I recall saying something about a “strange thing or 2 about school.” What I meant by this was my progress report. As of right now, my grade in math exceeds that of orchestra. The math grade, 100, strangely tops the orchestra grade of 89. Although both grades are good, I still can’t believe that I’m making a better grade in one of the hardest core subjects than I am in some easy (just because it’s easy, doesn’t mean it’s not fun) alective class like orchestra.
While I’m still on the subject of school, I am proud to say that I’ve started my National History Day Project. I’m doing it over the underground railroad (the theme is rights and responsibilities). I will definately finish it by the due date (December 13, I think), and after that is out of the way I will do Stranded.

In the podcasting part of my life, I only have one more make-up episode to complete–Episode 15. Of course, I have episode 17 to do on Saturday, but that is a scheduled episode, and not one I have to make up. Also, as episode 14 was recorded, expect me to use my sony ICD-PX720 recorder to record most of the podcast, except of course the game of the day section.
By the way, while still on the topic of the podcast, I have all but one of the remaining episodes of 2013 completely planned out. Do not, however, think I’m going to spoil anything.

On another note, I recorded and submitted that review for main menu (the radio show that reviews products for blind people). And although this review was submitted Wednesday night, I still have yet to receive confirmation that the review is going to be included in this week’s edition of main menu.

Finally, I am still editing the website. The navigation menu is all kinds of messed up; links to certain pages such as blog test 2012 appearing twice in the menu. Fortunately for you however, I am working diligently to fix this issue. I hope you enjoy the new page names and site revisions! For more information about what I’m doing, see the site news page (I don’t know the exact url, so you’ll have to use my navigation menu (that page is in there).

Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

P.s. I got my 100th follower! Thank you so much Nate $mith for being follower 100, and all you other wonder people for being follower 1 through 99!

Happy times and big stressers: a busy start to December

Hey guys,
Steve here.

As I write this post, I’m pretty tired. I want nothing more than another break right about now, as I have quite a bit to do in the next few days. Also, There is some weather stuff I’m excited about, and I’ll tell you about that in this post.

As far as my life, it has been exciting but stressful as I said in the post title. Not much happened after my blog post on Sunday, nothing big anyway. I did however get to spend time with the family–baking cookies, and even decorating the Christmas tree. By the way, my 1 and a half year old cat Bell is already loving the fact that she can (or thinks she can) take down the ornaments and play with them… silly cat!
Getting back to my life, I’ve been busy the last day or so (Yesterday not so much, but today and tomorrow… I am). As for today, I had school, and my orchestra concert afterward, yet there is still more for me to do. I have to do a review for a popular radio show for the blind called Main Menu, where people submit reviews of software and hardware that can be made accessible for blind people. On my review, I will be doing my digital recorder and the software used to convert recordings and change settings on the recorder.
As for tomorrow, I pretty much have the day planned out. It will be school, studying for a test which I will tell you about later on in the post, starting my history day project, church, and doing episode 15 of the podcast, which will be the last one I have to make up. After episode 15, Devin can hopefully join me once again. Sounds like a busy couple of days, right?
As for the test, it’s for Spanish. The amount of nervousness I feel about that is comparable to how my mom feels about the half marathon she is going to run on Sunday. The reason for me being so nervous, is that if I fail, I will fail the semester, and end up having to take Spanish 1 again. I really don’t want this, so please cross your fingers, or pray for me.
Back on the subject of life, I have a choir concert coming up next Thirsday. That is also a day before my history project is due… I think. My NJHS hours are due next Wednesday; I only have 1… but I guess if I get kicked out it will be one less stresser laid upon my life, and what did NJHS really do for me anyway?

At the beginning of this post, I briefly mentioned some exciting weather stuff going to happen. Coming up on Friday into Sunday, there is expected to be a possible winter weather event. I am not too optimistic about this; considering the wrip off I got last week. None the less, I will record and post weather updates starting tomorrow morning, and going through most likely Saturday or Sunday, so stay in tune to the weather radio forecasts page, as that will be the page where all the weather updates will go like last time.
I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and please wish me good luck on that test. Well, you don’t actually have to :))), whether or not you choose to is up to you. Until my next post…

thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

P.s. I recall promising you a picture of the decorated Christmas tree in Sunday’s post, so here you go. Also is a picture of me baking cookies on Sunday night, and of me standing by the tree before the concert tonight. Also there’s a pic of me playing violin at the concert. Enjoy!

the decorated Christmas tree as I promised
me standing by the Christmas tree before tonight's concert
making cookies... mm.
Johny Rosin up your bow and play that fiddle hard...

Thanksgiving break

Hello all,
Steve here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and joyful thanksgiving!

As for my thanksgiving, it seemed to fly by. Even though two days were spent doing nothing and being in the house all day, this break still managed to get away… some how.
Tuesday was the last school day. It was long, yet there wasn’t much work to do; I guess that kind of helped. As for Tuesday night, I was happy that the break was finally upon me… so I took advantage of it, and well… took a break and spent the night relaxing.
Wednesday was one of the days I was in the house all day. I worked on Stranded that day, played Hogwarts Live… but did nothing else even close to being productive.
Thursday… now that was a good day! I mean I got to eat a whole bunch, and chill with the family, (what I’m most thankful for).
Friday was another day like Wednesday. But on Friday, I found my digital voice recorder (I hope to record podcasts, game reviews, and storm recordings on it because it is very high quality). I also found out something about headphones that you and I never knew about… but you’ll have to wait until the next podcast release (this should be soon since everything is back to normal in my schedule) to find out what my new tech discovery is.
As for Saturday, all 4 of us got up early and ate at Dennies, before picking out our Christmas tree. I hope to get a picture of it when we decorate it so you can see how it looks. After getting the tree, I spent the rest of the day researching the type of recorder I have (the model), so I could determine what software and/or drivers I would need to connect it to my computer. In case you’re wondering, it’s a Sony ICD-PX720.
Not only did I do that whole recorder thing, but I also reorganized my room, and had to do a whole bunch of cleaning and rearranging. Also last night, I helped my parents and sister bring christmas decorations down from the attic. So basically, yesterday was quite a busy and productive day… *pats myself on the back*.
As for today, it was a sort of average day. After going to church like normal, I just chilled for a while and then all 4 of us went by my nanna’s house so my dad could fix their roof, and then my papa’s house so we could give him a birthday card.
Well I guess that about wraps up this update. I have an orchestra concert Tuesday that I will hopefully blog about, but that’s about it for what’s coming up. Thanks for reading this post!

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
steve.

P.s. I have quit work on stranded for now, this way I can focus completely on my National History Day project. I’ll resume work on Stranded once my project is done.

intresting weather, and a life update

Hey guys,
Steve here.

There is a winter storm warning in affect for Texas?
Yeah, you read that right. Tomorrow into Monday afternoon, there is the potential for 1 to 2 inches of sleet and ice accumulations mainly along and west of the Interstate 35 corridor; I am shocked. The winter storm, as of now, could cause power outages, extremely hazardous if not impossible travel conditions, and hopefully no school, but we’ll have to see about that.
I will continue to update you guys on this situation, and maybe post some stuff on the weather forecast page

–life–

My life has been good the past several days. I am now a level 13 on the game I’ve been playing, and would be a level 14 perhaps if I wouldn’t quit making such stupid decisions that get me killed. Some of those include fighting enemies that are one to two levels above me and stupidest of all fighting enemies when my hit points (health) are below fifty.
Besides the game, I have been working more on Stranded, but kind of taking it easy. I have created that avoid the Rpg board, but unfortunately there are still parts of it that need touching up, and the process of cleaning the thing up is very confusing (you would have to use the program I’m using to create it to get what I’m talking about).
On other news, I’m in a pretty good mood today. This is probably due to the fact that I just had coffee and got up so nothing has happened, and there’s at least a 50% chance we won’t go to school on Monday, and a 15 to 20% chance we won’t go on Tuesday either. The main reason however, is the fact that I have a weekend to look forward to, and a short school week that is going to be at most two days long, before a nice five day break, even if it is not the longest break you could get.
Finally, if you’re wanting more information about what has happened in the past two or three days, you have come to the right blog post. Thursday was a pretty normal day; after going to school, I was able to just relax and play my game, not worrying about homework or anything like that. Yesterday, after going to school and getting home in all that cold weather, I was presented with a nice surprise. My mom, being the good mom she is, made me hot coco and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for a snack. Plus, I was able to come home to a warm and good smelling house.
The rest of yesterday consisted of playing hogwarts, crashing for a wile with my cat (he must’ve been feeling tired as well), and then taking a nice warm bath.
I can’t say much about today, because it just started. I know that me, my sister, and dad are going bowling around noon with the whole goal ball team, and after that it will more than likely become an afternoon of chillaxing. Tomorrow is expected to be extremely cold and stormy (mainly in the afternoon), and I’m looking forward to that. I will also continue to update the weather forecasts page (the one I gave a link to on the top of the post) with weather forecasts, that way you aren’t bugged by like 3 blog posts in 24 hours.
I guess that about wraps up today’s post. I suppose I’ll see you in a couple days.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

A brief update on my past and future life

Hey guys,
Steve here.

I’ve already made it through over half the school week. I often wonder how such a stressful, strenuous-on-the-brain activity as school can go by so fast. But either way, as I lie hear, suffering from both the lazy bug and a severe case of “I don’t feel like doing anything idis,” I really don’t care about how quick school was today; the fact that I get to chill right now is what matters.
The last two days, I’ve continued to hold myself accountable for that goal I set on Stranded. I have yet to work on it tonight though. Also, speaking of projects and the like, I have a national history day project that I have to do by the 13th of next month. “and I present to you… the world’s worst procrastinator, *drum roll*… Steven D!” That being said because I haven’t started on it. Also to proove that I’m a procrastinator, I have 10 service hours for NJHS due by December 11, and only have 1 down.
Although I dread doing the history project as much as I dread the math STAAR test, I still have to do it anyway because it’s “mandatory” for all pre-AP students in my school district to do it.
Moving on, I had that NJHS thing I told you I would be attending this afternoon. I had to help two of my friends sweep, but it was fun because I knew a lot of people that stayed after school for that and got to talk to them. The only bad thing is that I didn’t get home until around 4:40. Also while on the subject of school (even though this isn’t necessarily about school itself), my sister and I won a poem/drawing contest for my dad’s work. In this contest, children of the people who work for his company would enter a drawing or poem or something like that into the contest to go on a fitness calender. Whoever won would receive a $50 visa gift card and a flash light. Both my sister and I won this contest, but I don’t have the poems we wrote to put on the blog. Sorry about that.
As far as future life goes, I can’t say anything concerning what will happen tomorrow, but hopefully the carpet upstairs will be put in on Friday. I’m ready for things to return to normal. On Saturday and Sunday, since I don’t have goal ball, I honestly have no clue what I will do. Next week will only bring two days of school; both expected to be very cold. We get out for Thanksgiving break Tuesday, with our first full day off Wednesday. The week after the break, I have an orchestra concert on December 3rd. My sister also has one the same time on the same day but at different schools, so we’ll have to work something out. If I am right, I think I have a choir concert the week after the orchestra concert, and my national history day project is due that same week. Also, Christmas break starts the next week (on December 20), and Christmas is the week after that. So, to make things short, I have something going on every week for the rest of 2013.
I guess that about sums up life, and this blog post for that matter.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

P.s. I’m still addicted to Hogwarts Live. Tell me, is it a problem that I have jumped up 11 levels since I posted the last update?