Late night mind-not-sleeping-ness

I'm laying in bed and my mind is just not shutting off. Now is as good a time as any to share my thoughts. First of all, I'd really like to thank my Dad for always supporting me and taking an interest in what I'm interested in. You listened to me rave about my scuba classes. You helped me out with my first (and subsequently only) guitar and amp and gig-bag. You're the reason I graduated in the top 10 percent of my highschool class. And now, thank you for supporting me with my programming. You bought me a book and saved me money, and now I can bring myself to the next level. This is early, but happy father's day.

Next off, I was laying in bed thinking about my long-term gaming project. I did tell you it was a game I've been working on, I believe. Forget about the moths, I've been doing the game longer. School, and now work, have taken away the time I'd use toward it, but I learn more every day. I learn more through work and through theory, and I make my game a little more in my head each day. The book my Dad has bought me will greatly boost me.

Second, how about that Interplay thing? Crazy, really. I've been reading IGDA's Quality of Life White Paper and BAM here's a prime example of what you really need to watch for. I hope Interplay makes a comeback, but what the hell is this not paying employees for a month business. The rent is past due, employees don't have health insurance and you still owe Bioware over $150k for Baldurs Gate. Good on you for thinking positively, though. Come back and maybe you can hire me.

-This life or the next. You know, whenever you come around to it

Creator of Worlds!

I did it! The last few days at work here I'd been trying to have my trap objects and moth objects coincide with each other on the same plane of existence. I'd become very frustrated when my program either didn't run or everything did what it was supposed to do but with blobbing. Blobbing being the moths leaving a trail behind them. They should be just a dot on the grid flying around, however they felt the need to leave a line behind them everywhere they flew.

I have, however, managed to have my traps and moths coexist together happily. They'd done it before, but the traps were simply values on a lower-layer grid. The moths read the values on the lower layer grid, while flying about. Any grid position with a value 0 was seen as the ground. Any value of 1 was seen as a trap, and the moth promptly committed suicide. The Observer layer drew any spot of value 1 as a yellow square, for human viewing purposes. Now there are no more values. We have trap objects.

The benefit of trap objects: They can count the number of moths that have become 'trapped' inside them. Trap objects can relay their position on the grid and any other piece of relevant information that may later be thought of. This makes me quite happy, and less frustrations now.

I lied a little, though. At the moment, the trap objects only work as a thing that's in the way. They don't trap moths yet, the moths just don't run into the same square as a trap. But I am a creator of worlds and I can have them do what I want.

-Destroyer of worlds, too

Musical Musicness

I hadn't used my MP3 player for the last 12 months because it was presumed dead. It'd play, but it kept monotonically telling me its door was open (MP3 CD Player). Staring down at it, door closed, you could understand the confusion. I gave up on it when it stubbornly decided to stop playing my tunes.

A year later I get the bright idea to poke around and find out what its problem is. It turns out, having it sit in my car on those hot summer days made a few parts extremely warm. One part in particular is the spring that holds the door open while you are replacing CDs. It had melted the plastic mount it was sitting in, which incidentally shifted to lid, preventing the player from realizing it was, in all accounts of reality, closed. Screw the spring, he's been evicted. And my player works fine again.

-MP3 goodness

I present to you

An unnamed poem (EDIT: I'd like to name the poem "Keep Digging" -WiLD2)
-By WiLD2

Once upon a long time ago
there lived a Man who owned a hole.
He dug and dug and dug each day
until the time He could finally say,
"Why was that hole I dug so deep?
I'm way down low and I've got to keep
my head on straight and my shoes on tight
as I settle down for tonight, tonight."
And He went to sleep when the very next day
He awoke again with a yawn to say,
"I'll scratch my belly and then my bum
as it appears the dawn has early come.
The question is why I've done this so
to dig myself my very own hole?
I'll lay down now, close my eyes and rave.
It appears I've dug my very own grave."

-Thank you

While at work
I've finally shown off some of my cunning lingualism. I know it'd shown a long absence. I'm at work right now, programming and such, but I had to take a break and get my mind off track. You know, for some creativity. I hope you enjoyed the poem, I found it rather witty.

-Nutty like a log after christmas

Bird Flu

When is it going to stop? There was a huge outbreak of the bird flu in the Vancouver area just over a month ago. Hundreds of Thousands of chickens were slaughtered. I think even the price of chicken dropped where I live, which is great because chicken is a necessity. And now there's chance that the new strain of bird flu found in the same area is capable of spreading to and killing humans. Here's the thought that came to mind:

Zombies.

Let me explain

In Resident Evil, Umbrella Corporation manufactured a medical mishap they called the 't-virus'. This thing, when ingested or inhaled by living flesh, turned its host into a shambling mass of murder. In George Romeros zombie films it is a virus as well. Sure, flu is a bacteria (isn't it?) but it has the means of spreading from one person to the next. All that needs to be done now is beta test the mushball strain which simply turns people catatonic. Then upgrade the mushball strain with features such as 'consume thy own flesh' and 'hunt anything with two legs and a heart-beat' and we've got the zombie strain.

-Not bad for a days work

Oh!

E3 starts tomorrow. The Electronic Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles. Oh, how I wish I could be there.

I spent part of this morning reading about E3 and people's experiences there. To be a consumer and there it sounds like fun. To be an exhibitionist and there sounds like fun.

-to be there

On the job

I've begun work as a research assistant for the summer. It's great, I'm a 'software engineer' as my position. I'm writing a simulation in SWARM involving codling moths, and their actions based on the presence or non-presence of pheromone traps.

So I'm at work right now, on a Linux machine. I'd never used Linux before a week ago, I kind of like it. I should dual-boot my system at home with a Linux partition. You know, for Linux software and stuff. Have fun getting SWARM to work on a Windows machine, they dropped support for that years ago.

-A good guy

I should clarify

Our kitten, contrary to what I posted weeks ago, is male. We were under the impression she was a he, but Nefret is now a Loki. We kept him, rather than an exchange for a female.

-And he scratches the hell out of everything

How to do

I guess I have no idea how to clip a cat's claws. I was under the impression that as I was doing this, my purpose was to stop him from pulling threads out of our pants and to stop him from leaving nasty scratches on our arms and feet. So I cut about 1/3 of his whole claw off (roughly 1/2 of the dead-skin claw). I steared clear of the flesh under his claw, and three times I cut his nails without so much as a sound of discontent from him. Then my girlfriend offered her help, I clipped a fourth claw. He let out a disgruntled meow which freaked her out. She's upset at me now, and I've got a kitten running around playing as he normally would, which is exactly what he should be doing.

I guess I'm wrong, I wasn't supposed to cut off enough claw so he'd never break our skin or rip our clothes. I was supposed to blunt the claw, take off a fraction of a millimeter from his claw. In doing so, he'd still be able to climb, still be able to 'play with his toys' but he wouldn't be able to scratch us.

-I was wrong

I almost forgot

I went hiking up Enderby Cliffs last sunday. Follow this link for the pics.

-sunburned

Summer working

I started summer work today. It wasn't programming or anything, and I didn't even see my employer. She stayed at home because she was out until 12:30 last night setting up a display. Which leads me to tell you what I did today. The University was having an open house research expo and I was manning the Math/Stat department's display. Hey, I thought it was volunteer work but an email tells me that I'm getting paid for it. Rawxer.

I borrowed a book from the public library the other day. I had to return another, though. I was returning the Annotated Dragon Lance Chronicles, which I read before back in grades 5 to 7. I couldn't renew it any more, I suppose twice is all you can. Funny, though, when they check it back into the computer I can sign it out and start renewing it again for another total of 63 days.

Right, back to the book I borrowed. Dungeons and Dreamers: The rise of computer game culture from Geek to Chic. Great book, I highly recommend it if you're remotely into games and/or game-design. On top of that, while I was at the University library today I borrowed a couple more books. Deitel & Deitel's Java 2 text and Programming Pearls which may give me some nice reading material.

Zombies ate my fingers - I've finally watched my Night of the Living Dead DVD I got for Easter. I have to say, it's as bad as I remember, but good at the same time. The freakiest part of the movie is seeing the corpse of the house's owner upstairs in the house everyone boards themselves up in. The corpse doesn't move and you only see it twice for a second each time but it sets the atmosphere and emotion.

Speaking of zombies, I had the opportunity to watch the remake of Dawn of the Dead. I'll try not to spoil it too much. It was awesome. It holds true to zombie mythology in the way the disease is spread and shines light in new areas. Let me just say one word 'pregnancy'. It's nice to see a world going up in flames (cinemagraphically) the way the world went to hell in this movie. The car crash scene just after the woman escapes her suburban neighborhood rawked. I wish I could rewind it and watch it again (because it just shows how the world is going to hell). I could go on and on.

And have you noticed how fast zombies move these days? I think the only recent zombie movie that holds true to real zombie speed is Resident Evil. The latest movie to introduce speedy-zombies was 28 Days Later which was alright because to me those weren't bread and butter zombies. Those were rage-infused humans. The new Dawn movie had speedy zombies.
Let's look back to the original Dead series. Night was the first, and their zombies were slow-ass. Slow ass. Grandma with her walker running full force was the top speed of even the healthiest zombie in that movie. Dawn's zombies were slow, too. The remake, however, strapped roller-blades on them and let them loose on top of a hill (figuratively). No longer can Grandma with her walker outrun these beasts, until she's been bitten and comes back. The ultimate cure for back-pain, Grandma's ready for a marathon.

-another 2 cents

I have a dream!

There was snow on the ground, and I was at the home I lived at before I moved away to finish school elsewhere. Zombies is what my dream focused on. There were zombies everywhere and the scene was right out of 90's Night of the Living Dead (remake).

The zombies were being commanded by a larger minion who was searching for a ring that was being kept in the house. Violence ensued and I witnessed my Dad and neighbor dropping many-a-zombie with shotgun blasts. Have you ever seen a zombie from 5 feet away through a sliding glass door? I have, and it's awesome.

World Peace and Unity - It's just my idea that what we need to bring the world to peace is a goal all countries can work towards. So we need a zombie outbreak; then all countries can agree to set aside their differences and together annhilate the population of zombies spreading across the globe.

Good grades
I've passed 3 of my 4 classes, and that RAWKS. No more chemistry for me!!! I finally passed Math 122 and Java Programming is done like dinner. I'm still waiting for my results of Physics, but that's in the bag.

-In the bag of doom! (but that's a good thing)

Got to love those exams

I've written three of my four exams, and have confirmed that I've passed at least one of them. I'm crossing my fingers for the rest. At the moment, I'm studying for physics, which will be written at 9:30am tomorrow. An exam on a Saturday.

My girlfriend bought me Will Rock for Easter, along with the classic Night of the Living Dead (black and white. 1968) DVD!!! I've almost completed the game, I just kicked Medusa's ass. Since when can Medusa fly? And since when can you look at her in the eye? She also shoots homing fireballs at you.

-Zues Almighty

A baby

I've got one, only two days ago; Friday night. It's a feline. A kitten, and she's beautiful. Nefret is her name, which means 'The most beautiful', as in the name "Nefertari" or "Nefertiti", the egyptian queens of old.

School is finished for the year, now I just have to deal with exams. My first exam is this coming Tuesday. Java which should go over well. I just need to study. So, I'm going to study now. Yeah, I'm kinda lifeless right now but I should study anyway.

-Nefret, the black and white kitty cat

Resourcefulness

I hope I spelled that right. I know, there's spell checker and all but what's the fun in that if you can't spell words correctly yourself? And it's fun when people make fun of other people's bad spelling.

I just found a nifty article on GameDev.net about programming your own MUD (Multi-User Dungeon). Not that I'm planning on doing that any time soon, but what the hell for a read, eh?

-Hehe, I said "eh".

More language

This judges the success of skills. Based on this, however, you have a slight chance of success even if you aren't practiced in the art of that skill. However, because it's turn based (that's the idea, anyway), you don't really want to go wasting your turn just to fail an attack. This is if the highest skill level is 15, but that can be adjusted. Here goes:

int sLevel = CurrentSkillLevel;
success = ((int)(Math.random()*17);
if (success <= sLevel || success == 16) {
the skill is successful;
}
else (skill fails);

You might be wondering what the 16 is for. Well, like I said earlier, that is the small chance of success if you haven't practiced the skill at all. You get a 1 in 16 chance of success. Likewise, the greater skill level, the more chance of success.

This may also be used as a damage modifier. Up to your skill level, it multiplies the damage of that attack by:

double half = 0.5
damage (sLevel*half)+((int)(Math.random()*attack);

These are just some ideas, anyway. I think of them and want to write them down for my later reference.

Here's what I'm doing today. I'm driving to my Dad's house so he can check out my car. It's about time it has a tune-up anyway. I've been driving it for 3 years and it only get's progressively less cooperative. I'd been jump-starting my car this winter on the coldest of days because the battery wouldn't sustain itself. My MP3 player melted in the summer time and keeps telling me the cover isn't closed even though it is closed. And the tire popped on it. As well as the car doing a funny 3 steps forward 1 step back dance while driving up hill. It chugs, it really does.

-Explosive

A flat

Got a flat tire on the drive home tonight, didn't help that it was 11:30pm and had no way to see in my back trunk while looking for the necessary tools: Tire iron, spare tire (ok, that was easy to find), jack, twisty piece for jack. 20 minutes later (and an impressed girlfriend, too) it was done. Now I'm home and going to sleep.

-Bed time and well deserved

The language

Java is the language. I'm still programming away, whenever I find time. That time is usually on Tuesday and Thursday mornings between 8am and 11:15am. I get to school early on those days to program in the library, and my Programming class starts at 11:30.

Not much to talk about, I guess. I'm just up at 11:28pm because I had a stroke of genius that got me excited and I couldn't sleep. I was thinking that in a game that determines the difficulty of play based on the level that you are at would be something like this:

int level = yourCurrentLevel;
difficulty = (level-3)+((int)(Math.random()*6));


This basically says, "Ok, you're level 8? Alright. Your opponent will be any level from 3 below you (level 5) to 2 above you (level 10)." Assuming anything below 3 levels lower would be too easy and any levels greater than 2 above your current level would be too hard.
You could throw a switch or a few if statements in there to determine what happens when a random level of difficulty is selected. Like which opponent at the suitable level to face.

-Bed time now

And for the cream filling

I was virtually transperant from the online world during my first semester of school this year. As you can see from my single post in late September and my absence until this very day. I'd been busy with school, and Medievia. However, I've again stopped playing dear Medievia. It was great and all for the first couple months, but like any game you reach a point where you feel you've progressed as far as you can and thus, feeling a)victorious or b)burned out, stop playing. You move on to bigger and better things. My bigger and better things were Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR).

GTA:VC is a great game. You have to love jacking cars and shooting guns, as well as money. That game was great fun. Was. I lost interest in the game (are you seeing a trend here?) right around the end of the game. So I moved on to KOTOR. Badass is what I have to say. I've never really had any great urge to watch any of the Star Wars movies but after playing this game I want to watch the original three movies right now. But like the other games I've played, KOTOR fell through to something else, I admit.

I've been working on a project at home since mid-December. I'm programming something in Java that should bring great enjoyment to many people. I spent an hour in the office of my Java professor yesterday afternoon going over my code and how I can improve it. Slated for an April release; I'm learning more tricks to use in the program with every class I attend.

Christmas was great. My girlfriend and I got a digital camera from her father for Christmas. It doesn't see extensive use, but we do have 100+ pictures taken since we got it. And since my birthday was just days after Christmas... hehe. My Mom and Brother bought me a 256MB Flash-Rom USB Hard-drive. I'm listening to Billy Talent here at school with WinAmp running off my hard-drive as I type this. It rawks. Thanks Mom and Brother.
On the topic of other cool stuff, my girlfriend bought me a sweet case for my computer. Follow the link and fill your shorts with envy. Thanks, hun.

-Always looking for my next entertainement fix

To read minds

I figure that if I was able to read minds, I wouldn't study as hard for test. And you know what? That would be all right. Why? Because, if I had the ability to read minds, I'd be able to know what people wanted and/or were looking for all the time. I'd know what my professor was expecting me to study; or better yet I'd know what to expect on the next quiz/test/midterm/exam. I would study only the questions on the exam, and I would ace it. And that would be fine.

After graduating with honors, I'd make it into the real world. I'd be prepared for anything in the work place. With my power to read minds, I'd have the combined knowledge of all my co-workers. I'd be a prodigy, that's what I'd be. And if I were to go on a game show, anything to do with knowledge, I'd be able to use my powers and come out on top.

You may think this is cheating; cheating == evil, but I'd have to disagree. If I have those powers, why not use them. If everyone had those powers then it wouldn't be such a big deal. Knowledge would be passed down from one person to the next, and everyone would be just as intelligent as the next. From here, society could go two ways. We either degenerate into a reliant conglomerate of false-knowledge or

-we feed on knowledge and increase our intelligence even more.