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 Unfortunately, this version is a bit out of date, because Ghorthalon, the developer, took single player out of the newest rtr version; however I think he might add it back in.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.

updates and some devastating news

Hey guys,
Steve here.

For the first time in… well I don’t know how long, I have some bad news. This isn’t just bad news that will affect me; it will affect a lot of you guys, and bring some great disappointment.
For some reason, my computer has broken. It’s not the average virus or blue screen; nope, my hard drive stopped spinning. It turns on, makes some weird noises, and then just stops all together. I’m thinking that the hard drive is stuck… and if that’s the case, and my dad has the time, knowledge, tools, and is willing to, he might be able to open up the computer and adjust the drive if that’s the issue. If not, I will have to use the netbook, another smaller and slower computer but one that I can use. Fortunately, that problem will be easy to fix for me.
You might not think this affects you, but it does. For one, I will definitely not be doing the podcast episode on Saturday. I am using my school computer, and this does not have the game I was going to do, and nor does it have administrative privileges for my account. In addition, I can’t download dropbox, so the file would not be uploaded. Fortunately, due to dropbox uploading everything you put in the folder, if my computer’s hard drive were to be beyond repair, the site files would still be safe and uploaded.
Also, due to my computer being broken, you and I can forget stranded for now anyway. It will definitely not be released in seven days, unless a miracle just so happened to occur. If my hard drive can’t be restored, the release of stranded will be pushed back way further because I’ll have to restart.
As for me, I cannot play swamp any longer… so that is also disappointing.

On a better note, today was the last full day of school before winter break. I’m not sure why, and definitely not complaining, but we have two early release days (tomorrow and Friday). In addition, I won’t have to go to all my classes each day either. Tomorrow I have to go to choir, math, social studies, and English, while on Friday I go to Spanish, orchestra, science, and then back to English. I don’t think we’ll be doing much work, so I guess I’d better charge up my book reader and download some nice interesting thrillers.
Even though the schedules are flipped around tomorrow and Friday, I really don’t care. I just want those two days of school to be done and out of the way–because once school is over with, the wait until Christmas will be a lot less agonizing.
On other news, my parents have started Christmas shopping. It’s not bad now… but once there are gifts under the tree that I bump into, it will be very tempting, I’m sure of it. On the bright side, that will only last a few days.
As a final note, I hope you all liked my Monday’s Musings post. I know that quite a few of you liked the part about the “messed up fur advisories.” That was something I added just to put some humor in that post.

Thanks for reading,
Type you later,
Steve.
P.S.
I’m glad I got the broken computer news out on this blog post, because even though it was important, it also helped with some of the frustration and anger that I had because the computer broke. And now don’t you see why I love writing so much?