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 Unfortunately, this version is a bit out of date, because Ghorthalon, the developer, took single player out of the newest rtr version; however I think he might add it back in.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.
Category: school
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.
Great news and a busy week
Hey guys,
Steve here.
As the post title implies, I’ve got some good news to tell you guys about. It might not affect you as much as it does me… but I figured I’d share it with you, this being my blog.
Remember that Spanish exam I talked about in last Thursday’s update? Well I figured two good things about it:
1. Turns out, that won’t determine whether or not I fail or pass Spanish 1. It’s the semester averages combined, not the semester exam scores as I previously thought. And judging by the fact that my grade in that class has been passing all year long, that answers the question of whether or not I’m done with Spanish 1.
2. The test has been moved back a week. So even if there were a good reason for me to be panicking, I could give my nerves a rest for about another week.
Oh man, you wouldn’t believe how relieved I was to learn that. I’m not terrible in Spanish, though I’m not the best either.
Moving on, also mentioned in the title, I’m having a rather busy week this week. There’s been church, concerts, and will be more church, and even… I think a family get together on Sunday.
To start off, we went to church twice last Sunday, as we normally do. On Monday, my sister had an orchestra concert, followed by my choir concert on Tuesday. Tonight, we’re going to church, and Friday night fellowship will be this Friday at our church. And finally, on Sunday, I believe we’re having a family get together.
Monday will be memorial day, and there’s nothing planned that day. I think I might spend Monday programming, because I haven’t done much of that in a while. Come to think of it, besides playing games and doing a late podcast, I really haven’t done anything productive in the world of technology in quite some time.
Moving on, but still kind of on my previous topic, there are only 11 days of school left, one of which will be Tiger Bash, a day of fun and absolutely no school work. And, the last days of school will be early release days. I guess after that, until June 23 when I go to church camp, I’ll have plenty of time to program, Skype, blog, and podcast; so if I’m not blogging a lot now, just remember that I will when school lets out, because I’ll have plenty of free time.
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I promis to blog more often.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
P.S. Episode 23 of the Steven D podcast hasn’t been forgotten. I’ll get with danny and we’ll record it together.
Getting back into it… hopefully
Hey guys,
Steve here.
As you might already know, this blog hasn’t been updated much over the past 20 days. The reason for this isn’t that I’m losing intrest in blogging, but that there hasn’t been much worth blogging about over the past several days. As of yet, nothing extremely interesting has happened, however I felt the need to end the extreme blog post deprivation I was putting you guys through.
One year prior to today, a tornado outbreak broke out across north Texas. Though more states might have been involved, I performed little if any research on the outbreak. But as far as I know, there were 18 tornadoes (judging by the last post I posted about it last year), leaving 6 people dead. And I recall, that on that day, there was a low tornado threat. Makes me think that though meteorology has greatly improved over the past centry, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. Because after all, I don’t think anyone could’ve guessed that there would be 18 tornadoes; and come to think of it, the next week when there was a huge outbreak predicted, the storms were hardly even severe.
Changing topics, I finally got the 22nd podcast done, though some of you might already know that, judging by the fact that it’s already been downloaded. As for how many times, I unfortunately can’t check that, but I know that it’s in the top clicks widget. This podcast episode was a bit different; instead of having several segments, I featured a game review. This might occur sometimes, since it seems more sinsible to do game reviews in podcasts, since not only is it hard to muster up the motivation to do a game review at random, but a podcast seems the most likely place for people to look for one.
While still on the topic of game reviews, Danny wants to do a let’s play of Dead Space, and would like for me to join in. If this occurs, I will blog about it and put it on the audio game reviews and demonstrations page.
Moving on, I have some pretty big school related things coming up. First of all, my choir concert, the last one of the year, will be on Tuesday, May 20. Also, there will be an orchestra concert, also the final one, on May 29.
But there’s one more daunting task looming ahead, one which I know I’ll have to prey really hard about. It’s the Spanish 1 final exam, which is going to take place next Thursday. And if I don’t pass it, that will be one whole year of assignment after assignment, and memorizing vocabulary and grammar of another language, wasted. Because should my grade fall short of 70, I will have failed the class and will have to take it again next year.
While still on the subject of school, there are only 15 days left, two of which are half days. It’s hard to believe that I only have 15 days left in middle school–exciting, oh so exciting, but very hard to believe. But of course, there will still be more checkpoints and test in the last couple weeks of school. Though unlike the Spanish exam, these tests don’t really worry me; they’re just more obstacles on the path to freedom, from middle school that is.
Well, I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post. I hope to get back into a regular blogging routine.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
I'm back at last
Hey guys,
Steve here.
11 whole days? Has it really been that long? Wow, I can’t believe I made you readers spend a week and a half without reading my awesome blog posts!
As is with posts such as this, I have quite a bit to tell you, because though it is possible to take a break from blogging, I can’t say the same for life.
The weekend after my last post, my family and I went down to Round Rock for a goal ball tournament type of thing. After getting up at 5:17 AM to be exact, I got dressed, had a bight to eat, then we drove up in a rented van with Julie, one of our goal ball players.
When we got there that morning, we did a few small events just to pass the time before lunch, and the tournament, or more accurately “series of games,” took place after lunch, lasting until about 4:30.
I call it a series of games rather than a tournament because there was no formality what soever. Throughout the so called tournament, we, along with a couple other teams from the Texas school for the blind and Round Rock itself, played against each other, without keeping track of who was winning. There were no awards at the end, no team got “first place,” it was just a series of games, albeit a fun one.
Since roundrock is so far away, and we had to drop Julie off, we didn’t get home until about 10, at which point I was pretty tired.
Sunday was a normal day. I recall mentioning that there was the possibility of Tornados on Sunday, however we were once again spaired. However, people in places such as Arkansas, Iowa, Alabama, and a few other states that I can’t think of at the moment weren’t so lucky. The tornadoes that swept through the nation’s mid section Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday left 35 people ddead. In fact, in a city called Tupelo, a meteorologist had to take cover during a live broadcast.
changing topics, also around the time those tornadoes were sweeping across areas to the north of us, revival was going on at my church. Though I don’t know why it was considered a revival to this day, one thing I can say is that the singers and preacher we had were awesome. For some reason, we had a different preacher preach during revival, and different singers leading us in worship.
And now that it’s over, I miss those people. I hope they come back to our church soon.
Switching back to the topic of my life, besides the revival, not much happened during the school week. But on Friday night, Dars (That stands for something, however I don’t know what it is) had an over night stay at the fortworth zoo planned. My sister and I went, and it turned out to be pretty awesome. This was the 3rd time I’ve been on this particular trip, but it was by far the most fun. It was much the same as last time–get there, eat dinner, go on a tour, do an arts and crafts activity, go to bed, wake up the next morning and have breakfast followed by an animal presentation, take another walk around the zoo, eat lunch, go to the gift shop, and then leave… but this time I had some cool people to hang out.
Well, I guess that brings us to here and now. I’d tell you about Sunday, however it was like any normal Sunday; church in the morning and evening, cleaning, and talking to friends. And today at school… well that was boring as usual. On the bright side, we only have 23 more school days to go! And then, it’ll be summer, then I’ll be in high school.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve
Ps. As for the podcast, I couldn’t do that on Friday because I was in a hurry. I’ll do it tomorrow though.
Weather News and Blog Updates
Hey guys,
Steve here.
If you’ve read my about page, or home page, you probably know why my name is Severe Storm Steve–it’s because I was the meteorologist at my elementary school for 4 out of the 6 years I attended it. Well, if you’ve been dieing for me to play that role once again, here you go.
This weekend, a pacific storm system, combined with a dryline will cause some rather dangerous storms to form across North Texas. On Saturday afternoon and night, the storms will be focused mainly to the northwest of where I live. Sunday, however, these storms will move east and impact where I live, and they will likely be severe. Large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes are all possible!
However, if storms end up coming our way Saturday night, the threat for severe weather will decrease on Sunday. Well I guess we’ll just have to see how this all plays out; I guess that’s a reason to look forward to my next post… huh?
Moving on, I recorded Episode 21 of the Steven D podcast, which actually turned out to be quite distructive. Starting off, for the interesting segment, I aired Playing With Explosives Episode 4 (Playing With Explosives being a minicast Danny and I are making, that has to do with rather funny and unfortunate dealings with some rather distructive explosives). In playing with explosives 2, I let Danny try out a nifty device called a Rocket Chair. When he sits in it and pulls the cord, both him and the chair fly sky high in a fireball, only to come crashing down with a loud and distructive bang. There is more… but you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what it is.
Next, for the game of the day segment, I do “twisted egg hunt” for the last installment of the Swamping With Steve series. Ever gone easter egg hunting in a field of zombies?
Finally, the not so distructive part, I give you guys some helpful websites for my tech tip. So, what are you guys waiting for? Just go to the podcasts page to check it out, and subscribe to the podcast feed while you are there.
Besides the podcast news, I have a bit of a busy weekend coming up. It won’t be non stop like last weekend was, but none the less I have a few things planned.
On Saturday, my family is taking a trip down to Round Rock for some goal ball event. I’m not sure exactly what this event will consist of, so I guess it’ll come as a surprise to all of us.
Meanwhile, Sunday, we’re going to church… and I don’t think anything else is planned for the day… that is for me anyway. I guess mother nature will be quite busy on Sunday :). But on the bright side, I might get in some storm recordings… and if the storms are severe enough, they will likely be awesome recordings.
Changing topics, I’m quite glad that staar testing is over. Those tests are such pains in the butt–I sit in a room, taking a 60 to 65 question test, over some pretty hard subjects. Fortunately, I found out today that not only did I pass both reading and math tests, but got 6 As on my report card and 1 b+. Ironically, the b+ was in English class. But why? I’m an awesome writer! 🙂
Well folks, I guess that concludes tonight’s post. I should be back for another update either Saturday or Sunday, and if not then early next week.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
PS. I have the next two podcasts planned:
May 2, and May 12. So please stay in tuned for those episodes.
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.