I've Returned

Hey guys,
Steve here.
The last three to four weeks have been packed full of camp. The camp I was at when I posted my most recent blog entry, which lasted three weeks, was an outdoor adventures/PE class that I attended at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which got half of my required high school PE credit out of the way. The second camp, which I went to only three days after returning home from PE, was Texas Lions Camp. Despite getting home sick A Lot, I had a good time, and was a bit sad when I graduated on Friday.
All that being said, my busy schedule has prevented me from doing much in the way of technology, that being the reason I haven’t posted to this blog in nearly a month. However, though it was nearly a month after it was recorded, I finally uploaded the Audio Quake podcast yesterday. The next episode will be over the game Beatstar, and will be scheduled for next Sunday. Stay tuned!
Now that I’m back home, I can once again resume coding, and my focus will primarily be on S Quad Racing. Today, though, I released the set of audio game developer tools released in my last post to the audio games community, so depending on whether or not they have any further suggestions there could be updates to that as well.
Well, that about wraps up this short update. Though both camps I went to were fun, I’m certainly glad to be back to the blog, and all things geek related!
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
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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

games and updates

Hey guys,
Steve here.
As most of you guys probably know, the game Swamp, featured in several podcast episodes, went paid a few months ago. The program itself is still free, but to get on multi-player, you need to purchase a Kaldobsky (Kaldobsky is the last name of Swamp’s creator) gamer account. The reason for this was due to the numerous hackers who tried to destroy the server… and Jeremy Kaldobsky figured that if people had to pay $24 per year for a gamer account, it might deter them.
Well last weekend, I finally got around to buying a gamer account, and resumed playing. I was a level 44 when I bought it, and am now level 46. One of my favorite things in the new version is that on all sporting rifles (Marlin, Remington, and Winchester), the reputation and experience you earn per kill has been doubled. Due to this change, I now make sure that every time I die, (which is a lot because I tend to take stupid risks), I purchase a Winchester before doing anything else.
Also, Kaldobsky made it to where you have to go to different maps to buy some of the basic armor. So in order to get a leather jacket, (it provides low protection but doesn’t slow me down like some of the alternatives), combat boots (because they provide medium protection), and a football helmet which can provide a random amount of protection, I have to go to map 3, where there are dire zombies which are very dangerous and hard to kill with the weapons I can afford. In addition, to get there, I must cross a map which is swarming with hoards of zombies.
Because of this, when I level up next time, I will spend 40 skill points on speed (40 is the maximum number of points you can have in that skill), and the remaining 6 on sneak which quiets your footsteps so it’s harder for zombies to hear you. Well, I guess I have a lot of playing to do, because I still need around 8000 more experience points until I can level up. I guess that beats the 11400 I needed when I first reached level 46.
In other news, I’m officially out of middle school, something I’m actually quite happy about. As for summer plans, I am going to the Texas School for the Blind in 2 weeks for a 2 week long writers workshop class, and since I like to write, I’m looking forward to it. The week after, I think I’m going to Texas Lions camp, a camp I’ve attended for the passed 2 years.
Later on in the summer, in August I believe, I think we’re going to Maine, but don’t know exactly what day we’re going.
As for what I’ve already done this Summer, not much. Just relaxing, playing computer games, and forgetting about school.
thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

tlc

Hey you guys,
Steve here.

If you are wondering what “TLC” stands for, it is Texas Lions Camp.

This week was a fun one. Camp went by pretty fast, and there were lots of fun activities. This might be a long post, so sit back and enjoy it…

On sunday, we drove up. Same as last year (see the July 2012 archive to see last year’s trip). It was getting to know everyone, seeing old friends, opening night etc etc.
Monday was the first day of activities. Since I was one of the older campers, I got a block class which is like a school elective but lasts 2 hours. There was water front (a water aerobics class), ceramics (you know, the class where you make clay stuff), music, radio, and I think that’s about it. I chose ceramics, which actually turned out pretty fun. So, after getting up at 7 in the morning, eating breakfast, cleaning up the cabbin we stayed in, and going to the usual morning activity of Flag Pole, that is where I went.
Monday was the day we made our project, and mine was a cat.
After block class, there was lunch. I shouldn’t have to explain that in detail (it was just lunch). Next, was archery. My first shot was a bulls eye, however every one after that hit the grass beyond the target.
Next, was rest period. That was from 2 to 4, and it was basicly self explanitory–we would have rest time. After that was r&a, (recreation and athlettics; a PE type of activity). After that was swimming, then dinner. For our night activity on Monday’s night activity, there was a carnival, where you’d play games, earn tickets, and buy some food and drinks. I got a stick of cotton candy that was almost a foot wide (and didn’t finish it), popcorn, and fruit punch which my sister shook and sent it all over me.
After that, we went to bed.
Tuesday morning went similar to Monday, except we played games in ceramics while our clay projects dried. Instead of having archery at 1:00, we had ropes. I guess it was low ropes on Tuesday, because we just played games.
After ropes and then rest period, we had horses. The weird thing about the horse I rode, was that it caughed. I literally never new that horses could caugh.
After horses, we had swimming.

Tuesday night was pretty unusual, because we did camp out. Camp out is where we go to a camp sight, eat hobo packs, sleep outside, and get smores. Instead of eating our usual dinner, that is what we did.
Wednesday morning, we had to come back from camp out. We ate breakfast, skipped the cabbin cleaning (and instead took showers), skipped flag pole, and went to ceramics. That day, we made crayon projects where we drew a picture, and melted crayons with a hair drier to make a pattern. Mine was meant to look like curtains opening on stage to reveal a kitten, but it ended up looking like a kitten trying to escape a volcano.
After that, we had archery and lunch and rest period again, R&A, swimming, Dinner, than our night activity.
The night activity was night court, in which one of the staff at camp acted like judge Judie. Campers would get to file clames on there councilors and say they were doing bad things to them. Then, the defense attorney would try to save them from punishment, the prosecutor would come out and try to proove them guilty, a witness would sometimes come out after that and also proove them guilty, and then the jury would vote on whether they were guilty or not guilty. If they were guilty, the judge would give them a punishment similar to what they did. For example a councilor named Colton was clamed to have thrown a camper in a trash can, and eat more smores at camp out than he should’ve. For this, his punishment was to be put in a trash can, and he had to look like a smore since he liked them so much. They dumped chocolate, crushed gram crackers, and put melted marshmallow all over him. Oh yeah, it was said he put the camper in a moldy trash can, so he had to put a piece of moldy bread in his mouth, and then ware some on his face.
After the councilors would be punished, they were sent to jail.

After getting a good laugh at that activity, it was once again time for us to go to bed.

Thursday was the last day of activities. The morning went similar to Monday and Tuesday, except we fired our clay projects, and listen to the radio class as they did senior speeches, where the 16 year-old soon-to-be graduates of tlc talked about there experiences as a camper. After that, we had lunch, ropes (I climbed the 40 foot rock wall and hit the top), rest period, our final R&A, swimming, dinner, then a dance. I danced with about 4 people, all of them campers and councilors from Libby’s cabbin.
After that, we went to bed.
Friday, was just the day we packed. We didn’t do much, besides picnics, the talent show, rested, and ate lots of pizza. The only big thing was the award saramony, which was at night. I got the funniest camper award.

After that, it was time to go home.

That is all I did at camp. Hope you enjoyed.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

sumarised update and game released

Hey you guys,
Steve again.

Woe… finally back blogging, huh?

So, as you know, summer break has started for me. In fact, it started 12 days ago, meaning I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks and 1 day. Haven’t you all missed my awesome posts? Oh yeah, and another thing to say. Remember I said stranded was to be released on June 8? Well I bet I ment to put a 1 before that 8, because it’s being released on June 18 instead of june 8. So, I will give you that game, before talking about my life.

stranded

So, as you should know, I am going to put the link before the story summary of the game. So, here it is: download the awesome game now. Now, for the story.

After waking up on a misterious platform in the middle of noware in this weird place, you must find your way through this game. As the title says, your objective is to fight and defeat the boss, who might seem a harmless mouse but isn’t one after all. In this game, you will encounter 2 elusive creatures–a cat that looks very violent and weird, but could actually be of some help, and the boss of course. After you defeat the boss, you will find out something you’ve wanted to know for a while now. You will find that out at the very end, but why should I spoil it for you? That’s right, I shouldn’t.

I hope you enjoy! Just make sure you hurry over to the gamebooks page and play stranded part 1 if you haven’t done so already.

life summary

Now, on to the life events.
My life has gone pretty well since June 3rd, because of tiger reward camp which turned out awesome, and then summer break. The strange thing was the fact that it didn’t set in for me that it was summer until the first monday we were off, because the way the school year ended for me. It ended with my dad picking me up early from school, nothing wrong with that just seeming something that might also happen in the middle of the school year. So, that’s why it took so long.
Otherwise, my last 2 weeks of summer have gone by pretty fast, because they were fun and stuff. One thing I forgot to mencion, is actually where I am now. I am at tsb once again (see the monthly archive for February because that was the last time I’ve been here), but this time I’m here for Catching Rays, a class all about solar weather. My teachers are pretty awesome, not to mencion everybody is my friend here. I even get to hang out with my computer geek friend, the only person I’ve been to more than 2 camps with. It is going to be a fun rest of the week–tomorrow we have a swim party, thursday a movie, and friday is going home. One thing we did in class is to make a SID solar wind antenna which has a computer that is round, light, and fits in the palm of your hand. It takes data it receives from solar blasts and CMEs and sends it to a sound card. I don’t remember much of the rest, but that you can put it in audacity (an audio editor) and here the frequency noises it makes. Also, it puts the data in a spread sheet.

On another note, if you’re wondering what I have planned for the summer, it is:
1. finish this tsb program
2. stay home for 2 weeks
3. go to lions club camp
4. stay home for 3 weeks
5. go to broken bow
6. go to maine
7. stay home until it’s gime to go back to school.

Well, I’m glad I got you caught up on the blog, and that stranded is finally out! I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve

camp summary

Here is how camp went, in a breif summary. I didn’t have my computer, so couldn’t type.

We drove up to camp on sunday morning, and got there in the afternoon. Sunday night, was just the opening saramony, and time to make friends. We also had a dinner picnac.
On monday, we went to the flag pole just before 10:00 (our first activity.) After we did that, we had day activities which were the basics. RNA, which is like PE. Swimming, lunch, acting class, rest period, radio class, and archery. Each activities were an hor at least, so by then it was time for archery.
Tuesday was sort of the same way, except we had horses before rest period, arts and crafts right after it, and ropes for the last day activity. We also had camp out night, so I just hung out with friends at the camp sight, and ate a meet and potato hobo pack for dinner.
Wednesday, we didn’t have any activities before lunch, however the afternoon routine was similar to that of Monday’s. For our night activities, since it was the fourth of july, were TLC (texas lions camp) Idol. Simular to Amarican Idol, but they did acts that got judged. After that was a cool fireworks display (because I could see the flashing and hear the sound.)
On thursday, we had a Tuesday like routine, except at lunch. I had been fighting with this kid Philip, and my counseler Gus told him to tell our team leader. So, I was very angery the whole hour. But, at 1, after lunch, we had nature studies instead of horses.
That night, we had the dance (I danced with one person for a few minutes, but spent most of the time hiding in a corner with my sister.
On friday, we had flag pole like normal, but spent the day packing, and going to the talent show. After several hours of chatting with friends, we ate dinner, had the award saramony, and my mom picked me and my sister. We also car pooled with some friends.
Instead of making the six hour drive, we stopped at a hotel for the night (we left on Saturday morning.)

That is how my camp went.