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 Unfortunately, this version is a bit out of date, because Ghorthalon, the developer, took single player out of the newest rtr version; however I think he might add it back in.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.
Tag: stress
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!
Monday’s Musings 2: To Be Like My Cat For Just One Day… Do I Really Want That?
Hey guys,
Steve here.
Often times, I wish nothing more than to be like my cat. Small; impervious to the world around me, living a stress free lifestyle. Though I know that as a cat I wouldn’t have the good parts of the human life, but nor would I have the bad parts.
Although the stress of the past week has fallen off my shoulders (I’ve turned in my history project, finished the Spanish exam, and got that choir concert out of the way), there’s still another long week of school to get through. If only I could be a cat for a day…
The pros to being a cat are as follows:
1. Their only stresses are “when am I going to get more food?” “My gosh… I want out of this room I’m trapped in!”, “Errrrrrrrg! Won’t these people stop petting me already?”, “Dang it, there’s no soft bed for me to lie on.”, and, for some cats anyway *puts emphasis on his cat Bell*, “Ah man, there’s nothing to play with! *swishes tail threw the air in frustration*.”
2. If I were a cat, I wouldn’t have a care in the world. News and world events could happen, and I’d just meow in disgust at the urgent-sounding talkers.
3. I would be small–so, if I ever wanted alone time (not that I don’t get any in our current world, but there’s always going to be someone calling my name at one point or another), I could just go hide in a secret out-of-the-way place.
3. I could run real fast, and for long distances.
4. I could eat, drink, sleep, and do whatever else I wanted to do at any time of the day or night.
5. There would be no responsibilities; no one telling me what to do all the time.
6. I could lay around being lazy all day, and nobody would make any unnecessary remarks. (We are all lazy some times)
As with all luxuries, there are some major catches. They’re as follows:
1. As a cat, I’d be looked down upon by every human being or other living creature in the world, except rodents, small insects, and fish.
2. As a cat, I would miss out on great family moments. I would not participate in any traditions, memories, or celebrations.
3. As a cat, unless a show called “Dog With a Blog” that plays on Disney channel were real, and happened to cats too, I couldn’t do my favorite thing, writing and blogging.
4. As a cat, I would drink and eat the same things every single day.
5. As a cat, I couldn’t reach out for help. Therefore, if I was unlucky and got adopted into an abusive family, there would be no way out for me.
6. I couldn’t communicate. Thus, if I was feeling ill, and it turned out to be serious, I couldn’t just ask my mom or dad to take me to the doctor.
7. When people did get a hold of me, I could never tell them to “let me go” or “stop touching me.” This is especially bad for my cat Bell, who never expresses her frustrations by sound.
8. If I were lost or in danger, I couldn’t just pull out the good ol’ cell and call up Mom or dad and ask them to help me.
9. I could never check the weather forecast before I went outside. So if baseball sized hail or a tornado or even just rain were coming, harsh luck to me. God, I wish there were a cat weather forecast on weatherbug.com. Because then if I were a cat, it could issue “messed up fur advisories” that would tell me when not to go outside so I would not get caught in the rain or other fur ruining stuff that would be coming down.
10. I would be so vulnerable out on my own. If a big dog comes out of some old rundown yard, I’m done.
Basically, even though I get stressed (and I’m almost positive you do too), I would rather stay human. Because after all, the cons out way the pros, and a life with lots of good things and some stress would be better than a life with a lot more convenience but a lot more stress and danger. Of course, at least for me, there will always be times I forget this, and wish as I said I did at the beginning of the post that I could be a cat, if only for one day.
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
An overdo update… well sort of
Hey guys,
Steve here.
When writing a blog post, I often find myself looking through it and trying to polish my writing. It seems as though I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my writing, even if I don’t pay much attention to spelling. That is probably the main, and only reason I haven’t blogged recently–the limit on time would rush me in the post writing process, and it would come out to me as being crappy.
I did quite a lot the past week; there were lots of things on my mind, lots of things I had to get done. I don’t know whether I had a stressful or exciting week; both of those emotions played a big role in my past few days. I guess that I’ll unfold my week for you guys in chronological order.
Monday:
That was one of the least active days of the past week. I was disappointed that my school district held classes, but none the less I was still thankful for that unexpected 3 day weekend. One thing I did that day was post my Monday’s Musings post, which I hope you liked by the way.
Tuesday:
Tuesday was when the stress started rolling in. On Tuesday, I found out that I had several written things I had to do for my history project. A title page, a process paper, and my topic… what I was doing (type of presentation)… and who was in my group. I normally prefer to work alone on these kinds of things so as not to slow me down or cause me to receive a bad grade because of miscommunication. Well I had to get those turned in by Thursday, and not to mention the project is due Monday. Thank God I’m almost done with it.
Besides the project, there was the choir concert. I was looking forward to it, however it added something to my to-do list. And, to top that off, now that I’m almost done with the history project, the thought that I have to work on Stranded is slowly creeping its way tback to the front of my mind.
So I guess that with all that stuff going on, I just haven’t had the time nor had I the motivation to blog the past few days. Speaking of which, let me tell you about the rest of my week.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday, I forgot the NJHS meeting. Oh well, I got the hour sheet to the teacher, and all she did was act surprised… but I wasn’t kicked out. Unexpected, but none the less good for my college resume.
Thursday:
On Thursday, nothing much happened. I was relaxing in the bath, listening to another episode of We’re Alive, an audio drama about the zombie Apocalypse I remember mentioning on this blog, when I heard of a book that caught my attention. It’s called the Enemy, and is written by Charlie Higson. The book is about a mysterious disease that suddenly strikes everyone over the age of 16. They develop huge pustules, blisters, and boils, soon after they go mad and turn into zombies (eating kids and the like). And finally, they die… in a way that I’d rather not mention on this blog. I think you could read it because although you get a feel for how the disease progresses (from going mad to dieing), it’s not the most gruesome book you’ll ever read. And don’t tell me you’ve never read a gruesome book in your life.
Back on topic, let me tell you about Friday:
Friday was Friday the 13th. That sort of snuck up on me, but luckily nothing bad happened. I just remember waking up yesterday going “Wait… is it Friday the 13th?”
Also, we had a church event with my youth group. There’s only about 5 or 6 people in there, and all of them are fun. We hung out, hid, ate nachos and s’mores, drank hot chocolate, and generally had a good time. It was over around 11, and I was pretty tired.
Today:
So today started unexpectedly. I was awakened by my bedroom light, and my dad telling me that I had to go with him to take my “fat cat” to the vet. He had to go because he has a flee alergy and licked his lower back raw.
Anyway, I was genuinely grumpy that I was awakened so early for that reason, but I went anyway. After the vet trip, I spent the rest of the day at home, playing swamp and the like. Tonight was the exciting part, though.
Me, my sister, and my mom got to see catching fire! I won’t give the details, in case you guys didn’t see it yet, but I will tell you it was good. Best of all there was descriptive audio (you’d put on a headphone, and listen to the lady describe what was going on in the movie. So, me and my sister got the real hunger games experience!
Well I guess that about wraps up tonight’s post, because I’m getting tired, and have said all I needed to say plus some extra :). I hope you enjoyed this post, and have a great rest of your weekend!
Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.
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!
what’s happening
Well, there’s not much to say at this point. As you probably know, by reading my recent how my day went posts, life is average. The only anoying thing about it is, my september alergies. It almost seems that they will never leave me alone, and that they will come every september. Last week, they did make me throw up early one morning, it was either Wednesday or Thursday. Well, there is also something intresting to tell you guys about. Bell, our little kitten is getting fixed tomorrow. I wonder how that will feel, especially since she won’t be able to play around very much. As a matter of fact, she is attacking Trashua at this very moment. I can’t believe how much she loves to do that. It is as if she loves making him scream at her, because that is what he always ends up doing.
If you are wondering about Newton and Fatsie (Cassie) my two dogs, they are doing well. Otherwise, there isn’t much more to say about my passed and near future. Besides the fact that Iam stressed out from school, there isn’t much to say.
I do have to tell you, that I am making a C on my progress report for reading. Now, this isn’t something I would go bosting about to all my friends, but to whoom is currently on this site, you know now. Congradulations! You have just figured out my sucky grade in reading class. The good news is, that I am making a 90 in math. Yeah, that is pretty awesome, but it isn’t awesome that 2 of my books have been lost in that class. I am still loving seventh period. In a Daily Language review quiz we took on friday, not one person passed. That was because I hadn’t turned it in yet, since I give ms Seltzer my flashdrive on Mondays. I have givven it to her today, and hope to find that grade by 7th period tomorrow.
I am pretty sure you are thinking, “I am gonna follow this blog, so I can make fun of every bad grade Steven ever makes on his school progress reports and report cards!”
Well, sorry to bust your bubble, dash your hopes, or bum you out, but you’re very wrong. I just shared 3 grades with you, but that doesn’t mean anything. I will still keep posting to this fabuless website, but I won’t tell you every grade of every week of every 6 weeks for the rest of the year, just to let you know that right off hand.
Well, that is all I have for today, so you better have a good day yourself. Thankyou!