Matt's Blog: It's Blogtastic!!!

The Little Things

2007-05-23T14:13:00.000-05:00

It's the little things which make a difference sometimes. Take earlier today, for instance. This week, I have been struggling under a massive amount of work that has all been assigned in the past week, including, but not limited to, three video projects, one 10+ page research paper, and a group presentation for English. So imagine my distress when I get a progress report from my Spanish teacher today giving me a grade of 66% in the class. Needless to say, I was quite distressed. This was then augmented by the fact that I currently have two B's in that class, one C, and a C on the midterm (which averages with the final to form another marking period). My top choice college, Olin College, does not accept students who receive C's in a class (it's damn hard to get into.) So now you know where my issue was.

So I took a closer look at the progress report. Most grades were actually quite good. Mostly A's, one B and one C (on a 15-point assignment, no less, so not even worth that much). But there was also one F. I took a look at that. Zero points out of 64. Damn. I quickly summed up the total points for the marking period, and got about 240. So I was missing over a quarter of the required work for the class, meaning that if I turned it in and got a 100% I would end up with about a 92%.

Distressed, I flipped through my work, and found the assignment sitting there in my binder, having never been turned in. 32 questions, 64 points, and the difference between a D and an A. My teacher accepted it, since obviously I had already done it. Those two pieces of paper literally saved my chance to go to my #1 college choice.

So celebrate the little things, because sometimes they're all that matters.

Junior Prom

2007-04-30T20:15:00.000-05:00

Saturday evening was our Junior Prom, and, as I detailed in my last post, I went with a girl by the name of Allison. Honestly, there's not much to say besides the fact that I had a great time and am still trying to recover from lack of sleep. I've uploaded the three best pictures from the pre-prom party to Flickr, which you can view here.

Rebirth

2007-04-22T18:18:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking lately about the fact that I haven't posted to this blog in possibly the longest time in its history. So I began considering the reasons for my departure. I narrowed the list down to two things:

Lack of inspiration
Utter dread of actually having to view the terrible, terrible template it had

So, I decided to tackle the second one first. As you can see, my blog has now returned to a more old-school template with a few new bits of awesome, like the drop-down archive. I've also gotten rid of the link section to dead blogs and instead linked to a few of my own projects and my two favorite blogs. I also upgraded the licensing on my blog to CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, which will confer a few new benefits.

But the template is not the only thing that has changed. I now actually have a few things to talk about, and will do so. (I've actually had a few things to talk about before, but I didn't want to because of the shitty template).

First, I did in fact win National Novel Writing Month last year. My book, The Darkening of Alus, is not completed yet, however, and I'm still trying to force myself to write both that and The Tales of Deepspace, my current writing project. I'll keep you informed of any updates regarding the status of any future books.

Second, I traveled to Florida over Winter Break with the Downingtown High School Blue & Gold Marching Band (combined East & West campuses). I have still been too lazy to pick things for putting on Flickr, but they will come eventually.

Third, thanks to an hour and a half of sitting outside of my local Target in sub-freezing temperatures, I managed to buy a Wii. I currently have only Wii Sports and Twilight Princess, but I intend to pick up a few big-name titles when they release.

Fourth, over Spring Break I took a one-week road trip with my father to visit colleges. As they stand right now, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering is at the top of my list, with University of Delaware and University of Pennsylvania falling into a tie for second place. I'll keep you posted.

Fifth and last, something happened that I was totally not expecting within the past ten days. On the Friday before last (4/13) I was asked by a senior named Mandy if I would go to prom with her. Naturally, being the suave guy I am, I managed to fumble my way into getting the weekend as a time to make sure I was available, which I am, meaning that I now get to go to my school's senior prom as a junior on June 1st. Meanwhile, last Thursday (4/20) I was called and asked by a classmate of mine named Allison if I would go to junior prom with her. Again, I said yes, meaning that over the weekend I got to run around like crazy trying to figure out what to wear next Saturday (4/28). The answer, as it turns, is black pants and a black three-button suit jacket with a purple shirt and purple tie. It looks damn good.

I suppose that that covers my life over the past few months. I do ask for any comments regarding the current appearance of the blog. Like it? Dislike it? Want to condemn me to to the fiery pits of hell for my crimes against humanity and the Internet? Let me know!

Wii

2007-01-21T21:58:00.000-05:00

I realize that I haven't posted in a while, so a full update is coming. At the moment, I'm blogging from my brand new Wii. Huzzah.

Tada!

2006-11-30T21:48:00.000-05:00

A Political Rant

2006-11-20T17:50:00.000-05:00

I realize that political rants are thankfully rare on this blog, but I couldn't help but rant about an issue that was made known to me last night. This particular one has to do with a representative from New York known as Charles Rangel.

Honestly, I'm not sure what Rangel's stance is on the war in Iraq. But I do know his stance on possibly the most touchy war subject since Vietnam: the draft. Rangel supports the draft, and in fact says that you cannot support the war without supporting the draft. This is bullshit. I don't support the war, I'd like to pull out but I know we can't just pick an arbitrary date to do so, but even so, that statement is utter bullshit. Seriously now.

Anyways, according to the bill he'll be proposing soon, all males ages 18-42 would have to register for the draft. I'm not in that age range. Why do I care? I'm 17. In one year, I'd have to register to possibly go and get shot at in a war we really shouldn't be in. Rangel himself, according to my calculations via Wikipedia, is 76, nowhere near the draft range. So I want to send him a message:

Mr. Rangel, if you want to bring the draft back, include yourself. Then we'll see how much you really like the idea.

Hopefully the rest of Congress isn't this asshat retarded. I'm Quiggy and I approve this message.

So About That Novel...

2006-11-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

Alternate Title: I Don't Wanna Play, I Just Wanna Bang On The Drum All Day

So today I went to a two-hour meeting on my school's Indoor Drumline program at my school. I intend to play mallets for the 2007 season, which shouldn't be too hard given the fact that I play piano and was impressed as to how easy two-mallet playing is. Four-mallet will be harder, but hey. Anyways, I got home and my parents and I discussed how scheduling will work if I do Indoor, because it is a huge frikkin' time commitment. That's when they got all up in my face about the fact that I'm not meeting expectations and how they think I've got too much on my plate yada yada yada and basically what happens to, and this is an exact figure, 100% of high school juniors. It's only, y'know, the hardest year of grade school.

Anyways, the topic fell inevitable to NaNoWriMo. I'm doing amazingly well this year, as I haven't gotten below 2k any day yet this month. Today is the first exception, since now I've got all kinds of bullshit work. So while I'm not behind, I got quite possibly the worst talk ever. Here's the gist of it:

I've told you before and I'm gonna tell you again, Matt. I think that doing NaNoWriMo this year is stupid. I'm not gonna support you, and neither is your mother. You shouldn't be doing it, it is the least important thing on your plate, and it's only going to hurt you in the long run.

So basically my parents don't give a damn about what is my most anticipated project this year. I've been planning this since at least August. Not only that, I intend to try to get it published for real this year, as it is turning out to be a really good novel that I think would actually stand a chance at some publishing houses.

So if you skipped to the end: parents don't want me writing, I do want me to write, as well as participate in Indoor Drumline. We'll see what happens.

</rant>

Off and Running

2006-11-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

Today was the start of National Novel Writing Month. As usual, I'm competing again. I haven't had much time to set up a blog for my novel, but once it's up, I'll let you know. In the mean time, check out last year's novel. You can buy the book there too. Woo.

EDIT: In the meantime, check out this sexy counter to track my progress:

We Interrupt This Blog

2006-10-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

I found a funny quote in my history book that I decided to share with. Keep in mind that this is a highly-recomended book for AP United States History: "The early years of Jamestown proved a nightmare for all concerned–except the buzzards."

Illinois, Michigan, and the Rest

2006-09-30T17:34:00.000-05:00

So on Thursday night Doug and I went out to see Sufjan Stevens live in concert at the Tower Theater. It was simply incredible. Highlights included the eccentric but awesome butterfly uniforms that everyone wore (think the love children of butterflies and militia members, and you'll get the idea), a few really good new songs, an awesome rendition of the trumpet solo in The Transfiguration, and, of course, Sufjan himself.

Rock on.

Avast

2006-09-19T20:00:00.000-05:00

Arr, ye scallywags! Today do be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Now bring me all your rum and treasure, or I'll keel-haul ya!

My pirate name is:

Mad Dog Cash

Part crazy, part mangy, all rabid, you're the pirate all the others fear might just snap soon. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Never Knew Me a Better Time

2006-09-05T19:15:00.000-05:00

I'm gonna talk about two things today, both of which happened yesterday. First of all, yesterday was my seventeenth birthday. My relatives gave me a number of gifts, including, but not limited to, tickets to a Sufjan Stevens concert in Philly, a cell phone, and new headphones. For my birthday, I invited over Doug, Ben, Gus, and Lindsay, for a session of Dungeons & Dragons. That was good fun. Doug, Ben, and Gus chipped in to buy me two D&D books, Five Nations and Stormwrack.

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter died yesterday. As a kid I always loved watching his show whenever I was at a house with cable, and it made for excellent Saturday morning watching ever since he came over to network TV. Godspeed, man.

NaNo '06

2006-08-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

First off, just a quite pat on the back for me: I beat Metroid Prime 2 yesterday. Heck yes. Also, for those who care, I happened to run into Cimmie Binning a few nights ago. Nothing terribly exciting going on, though it was an interesting chance encounter.

Anyways, I've decided to try to participate in National Novel Writing Month again this year. For those not aware, I was a winner last year. My novel The Tower is available from Lulu.com here.

My problem with this year is that I've got a number of cool ideas for books, and I'd like some feedback on them. I may end up expanding this list later, but I doubt it. Here are my current ideas for a book, note that all titles are subject to change:

The Siege of Ashtur: A morally ambigious book following the lives of five people in the fantasy realm of Ali'aste, as it is engulfed in war. The book culminates at the titular Siege of Ashtur. Some characters live while others die, some gain glory while others spend the rest of their lives in sorrow. This would be a lot of fun to write, and is currently what I'm leaning towards.
The Journey: A sequel to The Tower, this book follows Jude and the gang as they make their way to the world of Kryon. Bad fortune swings their way, though, as the ship drifts off-course, leaving them to fend for themselves in the universe. Think "The Odyssey" in space. This book would also basically guarantee a third book, which I'm thinking would be called either "The Return" or "The Kryons".
The Raeli Tales: The story of a number (currently undecided) people from all walks of intergalactic life travelling on a frigate to the world of Raeli. This is basically "The Canterbury Tales" in space, as they each tell tales of either their own lives or tales that they have heard before.
Rise of the Ainaens: A tragedy set in my incomplete campaign setting of Ainae, this book chronicles the rise of the evil ainaen race, as they systematically capture, enslave, and kill the "lesser races" of the world. Not the happiest book ever.
Loophole: A revisiting of my failed 2004 NaNoWriMo novel, only this time good. 'Nuff said.

Any thoughts on these novel ideas? Any other ideas that you'd like to see me write? Comment and tell me!

Summer Vacation

2006-08-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

By my (probably inaccurate) calculations, I have been out of school for eight weeks, and I return three weeks from Monday. During the earlier parts of the summer, I didn't do much: went to different beaches, sat around at the computer, played D&D, went to summer school. So on Monday, I decided to start working on my summer work for school (save the reading, which I started much, much earlier).

So what all do I get to do? I have a list of 36 vocabulary words that I have to define for history (the majority of which are not in the book), in addition to six chapters worth of questions. I did one chapter last night. It took me an hour. I also have four short stories to read for Spanish, with work assigned with each one. I did the first one the day before yesterday. It took me another hour. I also have to spend a total of 10 hours watching Spanish media. I've done four. I also have a decently-sized math packet, which I have not yet started.

What's so bad about this, you might ask? I mean, I still have more than three weeks. My problem is that on Monday, I leave for a week in Key Largo for SCUBA diving. The week after, I have band camp. For two weeks. Mandatory.

So the rest of this week is the last of my free time at home, and now I get to spend the time working on summer stuff. Sucks.

Braced for a Storm

2006-07-19T19:57:00.000-05:00

Two things in my recent life that I'd like to mention. The first thing is that last night, for those of you unaware, Chester County, PA, got whacked quite hard by a hurricane-force thunderstorm. It was bad enough that believable rumors of a tornado are circulating. All of this managed to cause most of the county's power to go out at about 7:15 PM last night, and it wasn't restored until 6:55 PM today. That wasn't much fun, but hey, power's back now.

The other is that earlier today I got my braces off. For those curious, the orthodontist's office had no power when they did it. Everything that they used was either mechanical or battery-operated. Pretty cool when you think about it, and now I'm ready for all the salt water taffy at the shore that I can eat next week.

Tales of Topsail

2006-06-28T20:02:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a very long time. What's happened since then? Well, school's ended, for one thing. That's a good thing. I did well at the end of the year, only one B for fourth marking period, and no one got an A in that class. No one. Really.

Recently, I got back from a trip to Topsail Beach, NC, which I had taken with a bunch of friends. For more information, see this awesome photo pool by Dougward.

I'm also going to take this time to announce a new project of mine, called Tales of Deepspace. I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with this project, and I hope that you have fun reading it. Check out the first post for more information on it. Until next time, au revoir!

Now Available: The Tower

2006-05-04T20:39:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to raise it to your attention that my 2005 NaNoWriMo book, The Tower, is now available for purchase as a soft-cover paperback from Lulu.com. To purchase, click the magic underlined text. Copies go for only $9.95 plus shipping & handling.

The Return

2006-05-01T16:19:00.000-05:00

I have indeed returned from my trip. It was fun, though now I'm very sunburned after a 2-hour game of beach football sans shirt and sunblock. Still, I had a good time. We cam in 2^nd, for those interested in that.

I actually have a number of things I want to talk about today. The first few are ads for things. I recently purchased a copy of the Epic Role Playing Game, which, from what I have read so far, is very good. Also, I bought a copy of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which I started playing earlier today. If you liked MP1, you'll like 2. The third is that I began reading the first book of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, called The Eye of the World. It's a very thick book, but very good, with very deep plots and believable storylines and characters. I highly recommend this, it ranks at least evenly with Lord of the Rings.

My last thing is that I have come up with a tentative idea for a NaNoWriMo book for this year. The book would be in the Fantasy genre, and would follow the storylines of a number of different characters on different sides of a war. Each character would be different, and each nation would have its good side and its bad side, to try to add moral ambiguity into the tale. Basically, I'd be aiming for a tragic end in a siege of an elven city, which I have temporarily named Ashtur. And it is thus that I present you with this idea for a book, which I would name "The Siege of Ashtur".

Myrtle Beach

2006-04-25T20:11:00.000-05:00

Just a heads-up that I won't be available until either Sunday night or Monday afternoon, since I'm going on a band trip to Myrtle Beach, leaving tomorrow.

See ya then!

Coming Soon to a Front Porch Near You!

2006-04-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

Today I finished up editing the 209 pages of rough draft for my 2005 NaNoWriMo book, The Tower. I also began the next step, formatting the book for publishing via Lulu. With luck, I'll be able to give you a link to the book for purchase by next Saturday.

Can't wait to have a copy of this in my hands.

Just a Half a Mile from the Railroad Track

2006-04-09T13:09:00.000-05:00

So last night my parents took me out to the Gershman Y (which I had never heard of before, mind you), to see a concert by Arlo Guthrie. It was simply amazing. Apparently it was also the first time that he has performed his most famous song, Alice's Restaurant, in years.

Simply put, if you ever get the chance to see Arlo Guthrie in concert, go. I mean, after all, what other song can you name that has a single line as long as "Twenty-seven 8x10 glossy color photos with circles and lines on them and a paragraph on the back of each one 'splaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us"? Honestly now.

April Fools

2006-04-02T14:04:00.000-05:00

Obviously enough, yesterday was April Fool's Day, so I switched up my blog with Doug's for the day. Hopefully we confused someone.

The Prodigal Quiggy

2006-03-21T15:45:00.000-05:00

After adventures involving things of the computer trouble-related, I have indeed returned. The problem with my computer turned out to be a bit of burning on the motherboard. So for about $150, Dad bought a new motherboard and installed it. He then installed Windows XP Professional on the computer, and now it's back up and running.

Of course, life isn't that simple. In the process, I lost my registry, though not my hard disk, so I still have all of my files, but none of my programs work. As of right now, I haven't installed many, but I have installed the most important ones: Firefox, OpenOffice, Gaim, and iTunes. So I'll slowly be returning to the Quiggy that you're used to.

Peace out.

Ibid.

2006-03-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

I again apologize for my disappearance from all things computer. My computer is currently having massive issues, as it won't boot up, and when you try, you can smell burning. Not a good thing. So what this does mean is that I should be getting a new computer sometime soon, possibly even a Mac of some sort. More updates as they become available.

Computer Issues

2006-03-04T11:14:00.000-05:00

Just a note that my computer is currently having issues, so I might be disappearing for a bit. My apologies in advance.

1≠2

2006-03-01T20:13:00.000-05:00

I recently recieved a math test back from my teacher during our Trig unit. I got an 89%, which is of course a very respectable grade. However, I couldn't believe it when I looked over the actual test, and realized that I lost 4 points, or 5% of the grade, over one stupid question. While this is not the actual question, it is basically what she was asking:

Prove the following identity:
2 sin x cos x - sin² x - cos² x = 1

For those who have not had Trig, I should tell you that one of the identities is that -sin² x - cos² x = -1. Therefore, the above equation could be rewritten as:

2 sin x cos x - 1 = 1

I then simplified the equation further, by adding one to both sides.

2 sin x cos x = 2

From there I went, divided by two, and proved the identity. My problem, according to my teacher, was in the adding of 1 to both sides of the equation. Because the two sides have not been proven to be equal, she said, I cannot add 1 to both sides.

Frankly, this is utter bullshit. If I have the equation 1=2, which is clearly not correct, adding 1 to both sides, yielding 2=3, is also not correct. There is no way that doing something to both sides of an inequality will make them an equality. No possible way.

I guess this is just my way of venting off some anger, but also asking, "What do you think? Should I get those 4 points back, and get that grade up to a 94%?"

Doom

2006-02-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've been playing, and getting quite addicted to, the classic game by id Software, Doom. Despite having been made 13 years ago, and having graphics that agree with that, it has the best gameplay of just about any game I have ever seen, a compelling atmosphere, and very creepy enemies.

I've compiled a .zip file with all the stuff you need to play Doom, which you can download from my Openomy account (link). In it you'll find a copy of the source port ZDoom, and probably some saved games of mine, because I don't know what files I can delete and what I can't to still make it work. ZDoom runs on Windows 95, 98, XP, NT, and Linux. If you want some other platform, you can find a list of source ports here.

One quick warning is that if you're turned off by pixelated blood and heavy Satanic imagery, you probably shouldn't play this. Otherwise, it's an excellent game, and I recommend you check out the Doom Wiki at http://doom.wikicities.com. Have fun!

Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T16:50:00.000-05:00

So today is Valentine's Day, as if you needed to be informed of that. Now, you may ask, "So Quiggy, who's your special someone today?", and if you do, you will recieve the very simple answer: "No one." Why is this? Because, like a proper geek, I can't seem to actually get anyone interested in me, not even the girls at D&D club. I suppose there's one exception to that, but she's a senior and already spoken for.

I liked a quote I heard from a friend today, so I'll reproduce it here. She said,

"Y'know, they ought to rename Valentine's Day something else, like Single Recognition Day."

The sad part about this is that it is oh so very true. I hate Valentine's Day. Stupid greeting card companies making me feel lonely... Again.

Just Thought you Oughta Know

2006-02-10T16:05:00.000-05:00

dicepool.com: "

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

More Sickness and Such

2006-02-03T18:01:00.000-05:00

Fortunately, after I got sick in my last post, I got well enough to take the rest of my midterms, only to then get sick like two days after the last one. Fortunately, this illness wasn't as bad, but it was rather frustrating.

So what else I have I done? I've gotten my midterm grades back. High A's on most, 85% on Math, an abysmal 78% on Spanish, and the "I'm A Fat Kid"-seeming 56% on P.E. That one's just stupid as hell, they based the grades off of the Presidential Fitness Test.

I also played D&D in there a few times, once in Eberron, the rest at D&D club. Eberron was fun, since we got to start up a new campaign, which I'm DMing again. I also picked up the excellent book Magic of Incarnum, which, after I get some playtesting in, I'll probably end up adding to the Eberron campaign. It's a great system for those who play, with excellent flavor. I've also been putting in significant work on Ainae, my personal campaign setting. It's hosted on the excellent pbwiki website, for an unlimited number of password protected wikis. I highly recommend it for storing anything.

I should probably be off now, I have to write an English theme on A Tale of Two Cities, which is actually a really good book if you can make it all the way through.

Sickness

2006-01-17T12:23:00.000-05:00

Boy oh boy, I got to stay home today on account of a stomach bug, causing me to stay up all night and vomit. Yummy. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but this week is midterms. Granted, today I've only got P.E. and Electronics, but it will also put a damper on my asking questions and studying for tomorrow's midterms, English and Honors Math Analysis (or Hon. Math Anal., if you're the front desk).

Movie'd

2006-01-16T18:21:00.000-05:00

I saw three movies in the past three days, which is a bit unusual for me. So I'll do a brief run-down of each one for you. All three were superb, in my opinion, if you care.

The first was The Princess Bride, which is absolutely hilarious. It's a fantasy story, except totally clichéd (on purpose, mind you). Except of course, with phrases like "What about the R.O.U.S'?" "Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't believe they exist!" [Gets attacked by an R.O.U.S.]

The second was The Italian Job. This movie surpassed my expectations. I figured it would be a good movie, but the acting was superb, the action sequences amazing, and the plot stunning. I highly recommend this to all of you.

The third and final one was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This one was, of course, excellent. All three of the previous ones had been good, but this one was also amazing. I especially liked it because I could barely remember the events of the book, so it served as a nice refresher.

Out of the three, I would most highly recommend The Italian Job. It is a wonderful movie with twists, action, and Mini Coopers. Can't beat that.

Geek Power!

2006-01-06T16:44:00.000-05:00

Sure, why not? I mean, there's Black Power and Girl Power, so I think we should get some Geek Power going. (Actually, I just like the title, and thought I'd use it, as it has to do with this post).

Two geeky things to note. The first is that I have uploaded a few of my favorite TI-83+ programs to my Walagata account. I actually uploaded them for Mapper, a map inspiration program that I wrote recently, but I decided I'd give you a few extras. I might update it some later, and I'll post that stuff over here. Here's an either very late or extraordinarily early Christmas present.

The other geeky thing is that I recently ordered a copy of the D&D book Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations from Amazon yesterday. Obviously it's not here yet, but should be fun once it arrives. Gotta love a book primarily about a race that eats brains. Yum.

Dee 'un Dee

2006-01-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day, as it was the first time that my parents allowed me to hitch a ride with some of my D&D ~~geeks~~ friends (although they are geeks) over to Fat Cat Comics & Games, our local geek store. It was good fun, got to play in a place that feels like a dungeon (since that's how they designed their basement). I played a level 4 human fighter, who I plan to upload to 3edb for those interested.

I'll say though, being stuck between two noobs is a bit annoying. Especially when they have literally never played before, and one is playing a wizard, and the other a druid. Yarrg.

Edit: Garrett"

Christmas Recap

2005-12-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

Once again, Merry Christmas/Festivus/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Whatever to everyone out there. I personally celebrate Christmas, and had a rather good one. Here's a list of some of the better gifts that I recieved, in case you're curious.

The Indispensible Calvin and Hobbes
4x4x4 Rubik's Cube (Rubik's Revenge)
Civilization III: Conquests
Fractal Mapper v7.0
SCUBA lessons
Power Macintosh (picked up from my aunt's town dump)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts (Tertiary, Quandary, and Quintessential Phases)

So there's a quick recap of my holiday, and for those of you still celebrating, have a good one.

'Tis the Season

2005-12-24T16:32:00.000-05:00

Before I begin this holiday greeting, let me just say that, qute simply, Chronicles of Narnia rocks. There you go.

Please accept with no obligation, expressed or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practised within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasions of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious / secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Britain* great (not to imply that Britain* is greater than any other country or is the only great country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal.

It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting.

It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself/himself or others, is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable as the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

The wisher takes no responsibility for any interpretation you may have made with regard to the word "good" and any subsequent actions taken as a result of any interpretations you may or may not have made.

Humbug Merry Christmas

2005-12-17T19:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, I realize it is still eight days 'till Christmas, but at this point, I'm probably as in as much of a holiday mood as I will be until the big day itself.

The reason is because, like last year, I got to ride in the Station 47 Tower 1 truck, driving around the area, throwing candy at to little kids. That's always good fun, and its nice to know that kids are still as oblivious as ever when you throw a handful of hard mint candies behind them.

So if you feel like talking to me about holiday-related things, tonight's your night, people. Better act fast, before this offer is gone forever.

Pearl Harbor

2005-12-07T15:01:00.000-05:00

Arizona Memorial
Originally uploaded by Quiggy.

So today is the sixty-fouth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Having visited the memorial while I was in Hawai'i, this one has some more significance for me.

When it was attacked, 2,571 people were killed, 188 planes destroyed, and 12 battleships damaged or sunk. That's a whole lot of damage.

Just think about that tonight, when you're not doing anything. More than 2,500 people died so that you could have the freedom to sit down at home and read, write, and blog freely. Think about that.

Ack!

2005-12-03T20:15:00.000-05:00

I was browsing through the NaNoWriMo forums some, since I'm still suffering from depression since its all over (I have started editing, though), and I found this neat service called WebPen, an online writer's notes database. I'll be using it frequently since I've decided to write more often, since NaNoWriMo was so much fun.

Anyway, I decided to sign up for their forum, since its a seperate login. The forum runs under Lussumo Vanilla, an interesting forum program. To sign up, I had to submit an application, so that they can keep spammers out. In order to do that, I had to click the little "I agree to the Terms and Conditions" thing, so I did.

That was when I got this error message. Wow, I've never quite gotten one like that, and it was worthy of being posted here. I have to admit, I was a little spooked by that one.

P.S. I hadn't read the Terms and Conditions, but I have now. I'm an evil evil man.

Fifty Thousand

2005-11-27T20:01:00.000-05:00

I finally hit the 50k mark for The Tower today. Not only that, but I finished the actual story.

And now comes the post-NaNoWriMo depression. I don't know what to do with myself. I've been seriously considering doing two things. The first is going through and deleting some of my old blogs that I don't actually post to anymore.

The second is to start a new one. It'll have short stories by me posted weekly, and the opportunity for you people to mail in suggestions for stories to me. Maybe it'll help me relax my writer's self, which now has nothing to do.

Still Alive

2005-11-18T16:41:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am still alive, contrary to what some of you may be thinking. I've been devoting almost all of my time to The Tower, my 2005 NaNoWriMo book.

If you want to watch my progress, read the blog, or just watch this counter, which is pretty cool:

NaNoCalc

2005-11-05T18:05:00.000-05:00

I made a pretty cool program for the TI-83+ today which calculates how much work you still have to do for NaNoWriMo. Just plug in your current word count and the date, and you're good to go. Here's the code for it:
PROGRAM:NANOCALC :ClrHome :Disp "Word count?" :Input W :Disp "Today's date?" :Input D :int((1666+(2/3)D)→X :X-W→X :W/50000→P :100P→P :ClrHome :Disp "You need",X,"words." :Pause :Disp "" :Disp "You are",P,"percent done."

Halloween/NaNoWriMo Eve

2005-10-31T20:04:00.000-05:00

Tonight, obviously enough, was Halloween, in case you're unobservant enough to miss that. I didn't really have a great time, I thought I was going to be invited to go trick-or-treating, but wasn't. These things happen, and I didn't really feel like tying a turtle shell to my back. (I did earlier, over the weekend, for the Downingtown Halloween Parade.)

In other news, for those who don't talk to Doug or I much, tomorrow is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. My book this year is called The Tower, and Doug's is The Adventures of Little Timmy. Should be fun, I'll probably run periodic updates here as time progresses.

For now, boo!

Free Speech

2005-10-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

There was a post on Slashdot (aka /.) yesterday about a Catholic school requiring students to take down their blogs. (The reason I bring this up is because I only heard it on the Slashdot Review today). From the article:

"Students at Pope John XIII, a Catholic high school, were told to take down their blogs from sites like Xanga and MySpace or face suspension. Rev. Kieran McHugh, the school's principal, said that he was trying to protect students from online predators. Not too surprisingly, free speech advocates got more than a little concerned."

This is outrageous and stupid. If my school were to say, for those same reasons, that I would have to take down this blog, I would not do so, even if it meant suspension. I quote one of the most influential documents of all time, and certainly the most influential in our country:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

While primarily a rant, I just wanted to make it known that the Internet is a free place. The Internet is not a place where others have control over what you do, save the local governments of the area you live in. And so now I'll close this rant and surprisingly long and rambling post. Adieu!

Power Outage

2005-10-24T16:20:00.000-05:00

Friday at school was – interesting, to say the least. About halfway through 1st period, the power went out in part of the school. How they managed that I haven't figured out. Unfortunately, the power was still on in the cafeteria, so we still had to stay at school. (Its illegal to run a school and not feed the students, so had the power gone out in the cafeteria, we would've been sent home). Power came back on in most of the school by the end of the day, though not in my electronics class, which, obviously, sucked.

On Saturday I had a cavalcade (band competition), so I was in school again. Power was back out in parts of the building.

Today in school, power was still out. (That made homeroom interesting – no lights!) Once again, power in the cafeteria.

They were claiming that they'll have it fixed by tomorrow. $5 says they won't, and the power will be out in the cafeteria.

As an aside, this is also the 200th post on my blog. That rocks.

Driving Range

2005-10-16T19:23:00.000-05:00

You might recall that a few weeks back I got my learner's permit. Well, today I finally got to go out and drive. Oo.

Let's just say that its hard to drive your first car when its stick shift. I lost count of the number of times I stalled. And turning is surprisingly hard.

Still, it was driving, and made me happy. Also, Races of Eberron owns. Thanks, Gus!

Wallace & Gromit

2005-10-08T17:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the big Downingtown East vs. West game, in which both teams were going to meet in a giant spectacle of bands, cheerleaders, and maybe even football players. Both bands were going to be debuting their entire field shows at the game. But they didn't, because everything but the game itself was cancelled due to weather. So my sister, Kim, who was coming home from college for the weekend to see the field shows, didn't see them.

Fortunately though, because Dad felt bad about this, he decided that we should go and see a movie. So we went to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It was amazing. If you've never seen any of the shorts, then there is something wrong with you. Anyways, it was an excellent movie, not many great quotes though (save "May Contain Nuts"), and I highly recommend it to all.

Permitted to Cry

2005-09-30T14:19:00.000-05:00

Today was an inservice day over at the Downingtown Area School District, so Dad and I decided to run an errand. Well, two errands, actually. One was to the doctor's office to get a form signed. The other was to head on over to Malvern so that I could get my learner's permit test done so for my driving permit. I passed with flying colors.

So now, I should technically be allowed to drive a car, so long as it is between the hours of 5:00 AM and 11:00 PM and I have a licensed individual of the age of 21 (or a licensed spouse of the age of 18) in the car with me.

But I can't, because the goddamn system was down. So I'll be dropping by tomorrow to (hopefully) pick up the thing so that I can drive some.

The Tower

2005-09-24T20:26:00.000-05:00

Yes, it is remarkably early to be doing this, but I have done it nonetheless. I have opened a blog for my NaNoWriMo book. It is located at kryonomicon.blogspot.com, and should be significantly better than last year's. I'm actually going to work on the book before it starts (not writing any content, though) so that I'm not starting from scratch on Nov. 1.

Avast!

2005-09-19T15:52:00.000-05:00

Yarrr, me mateys! Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Now heave to and prepare to be boarded!

unblokt

2005-09-17T11:16:00.000-05:00

Here's another cool writing game, called unblokt. The idea behind this one is you're given two sentences, and you have to write one that would fit between them. Eventually, they'll end up completing an entire novel (right now they're about 36% done). You can even read the book, although it reads like getting a schizophrenic chimp to write a book. Regardless, its a cool idea, and worth taking a look at.

oneword

2005-09-12T16:06:00.000-05:00

I was following Doug's Furl account, and came across an interesting item, called Oneword. It gives you one word a day, and you have 60 seconds to write about whatever flows from you. Its really quite good. Today's word was vein. This is what I wrote:

My veins bulge out slightly from my hands. I think that this is because of my piano playing, as my friend Gabrielle and I believe. Whether or not this is true I cannot say. Regardless, it seems as though veins bulge mostly in piano players. My piano teacher has it, and my mom too (she used to play, but not much anymore). There's plenty of old people with it, so I bet that they played too.

Then you get to read other people's entries. Its really quite cool.

Another Actual Screenshot

2005-09-06T20:12:00.000-05:00

SPAM

2005-09-05T13:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my 16th birthday (meaning, legally, I can get my permit now! *dances*). I woke up around 9:30 when my parents came and woke me up, and gave me two presents. One was this SPAM shirt, and the other the soundtrack to SpamAlot (warning: flash site). At this point I figured out that we were heading out to NYC to see SpamAlot, which, in fact, we did.

It was an excellent musical. It was true to the movie in the most humorous scenes, such as the killer rabbit and Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch scene. The biggest problems were that Lancelot turned out to be gay (at least it had a good song to go along with it), they encountered the Black Knight in the forest of the knights who say "Ni!", and there was no witch hunt scene. Still, very excellent musical, gets 9/10 overall.

Creepy

2005-08-30T19:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on the bus ride home, I talked to Kelsey Trojanov for the first time in a while. She moved into our neighborhood over the summer, and is switching over to West. What's creepy is that today in English class I noticed that she sits behind me and to the right one seat each direction. Creepier still, we had a kid transfer into that same English today.

It was Mike Slouf.

Back To School

2005-08-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

Granted, if this were actually a commercial (seeing as how that is a phrase only seen in commercials), then I really ought to set up something to play "In the Name of Science" for you, since its in every freaking back to school ad!

Regardless, today was back to school. Nothing bad, I'm afraid Chemistry will give me some problems, as the teacher is really confusing, but otherwise everything is good. 'Cept gym (which, granted, I didn't have today, but I'll have it tomorrow). My problem is that for BD2 gym, there is a 10th grade gym and a 12th grade gym (and probably also 11 and 9). Regardless, they overbooked the 10th grade gym, so I got moved to the 12th grade one. Which means that I, unathletic Quiggy, get stuck in a gym class with kids two years older than me.

Fun.

Band Camp - Day 10

2005-08-26T17:35:00.000-05:00

Today was the last day of band camp. Clarinets managed to have the most points left at the end of the week (1060), and therefore earned a pizza and ice cream party, which was good. Three days 'till school starts, and honestly, I'm not sure I mind too much.

Also, Book 2 of the Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini, entitled Eldest, came out a few days ago, and so far its as good as its predecessor, Eragon.

And one more thing, stare at the center + in this image for about ten seconds or so, and all the dots'll disappear. It's quite odd.

Band Camp - Day 4

2005-08-18T19:17:00.000-05:00

More band camp's been going on, but not much has really been happening. We've managed to get a little more than halfway through the first piece out of three, and we've gotten the music and drill together. That's a good thing.

Also, as a note to all those folks over at Something Awful and other sites, stop abusing WikiFur. The Internet is a free place, people are entitled to Furry Fandom wikis.

Band Camp - Day 1

2005-08-15T19:54:00.000-05:00

Today was day 1 of 10 of band camp, which occurs every weekday this week and next, in order to prepare us for the dreaded field show. Not much happened, besides learning to drink water (we had someone pass out), wear good shoes (too many people in flip-flops for marching band), and KNOW HOW TO FUCKING MARCH. Anywho, that's what I'll be doing this week, I'll post more info when I get it, like my set info if I get it.

Actual Urban Dead Screenshot

2005-08-14T18:37:00.000-05:00

Slightly altered, to be fair, but only in that I cropped the image.

Back, for the Last Time

2005-08-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

This was my last trip this summer. Next week starts band camp, which lasts two weeks and then comes sch**l.

For those who couldn't decode the title of my last post (V^mont), I went to Vermont for a week and a half. I really didn't do much, 'cept watch AMC the last few nights, watching a Bond movie every night. Good stuff. I forgot my camera, so no pictures of this trip, I'm afraid. I've also made a variant class and a prestige class for use in any psionic D&D game, and I've posted them both to our Forumer board.

Vmont

2005-08-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

I am leaving tomorrow and will not be back until the next Saturday (not this week, but next's). So I'll tell you when I get back. Sorry for any inconveniences.

Hawai'i Pictures

2005-07-28T16:42:00.000-05:00

No, I haven't forgotten, I do indeed have some pictures from Hawai'i that I would like to share with you. I'll post my favorite three here, and the rest are available here.

Very blue waters off the coast of Waikiki. This is a picture taken from the catamaran trip. In the distance is Diamondhead, and also another boat.

Very cool looking fish, seen on that same trip off the coast. Part of the trigger fish family.

Extraordinarily beautiful sunset, taken the last evening in Hawai'i. Overlooks Waikiki Bay.

Earth & Moon

2005-07-22T13:26:00.000-05:00

The other day, on Moon Day, Google had a little thing called Google Moon, which is still up. Basically, it's Keyhole technology of the Moon. Following a link from that, I found a page I have never seen before, called Google Earth. This is the most kick-ass thing ever. It's Keyhole, but free. And it has even more functionality then the 7-day Keyhole trial.

Insanity.

Hawai'i

2005-07-17T15:15:00.000-05:00

So I left on July 9 for Hawai'i and came back a couple o' days ago (no duh). Here is, to the best of my ability, an account of what occurred on the trip.

Saturday: Got up at 3:45 AM EST. I flew out to Chicago to catch a connecting flight over to the Honolulu airport. Getting there was painfully long and slow. We're talking three in-flight movies slow. I watched Sahara, which was actually quite good, but chose not to watch Guess Who or Fever Pitch. We finally arrived at 1:00 PM HST, which is 7:00 PM EST. We went to sleep that night at about 10:30 PM HST. If you do the math, I was up for more than 24 hours that day. We went off to eat dinner at Planet Hollywood that night, but we realy didn't do anything else that exciting.

Sunday: We went over to Diamond Head, and hiked up to the summit. Great view from up there. Then we went to Waikiki Aquarium. Then we went to Waikiki beach for a short bit o' time.

Monday: We rode a bus up to the North Shore to see the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is actually quite good. 'cept when the other kids decide to leave a show on the ancient dancing of New Zealand to play Duck, Duck, Goose.

Tuesday: We went to the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Honestly, you can't say anything about it. But if you'd been there, you'd know exactly how I feel about it.

Wednesday: We went out on a catamaran to go snorkeling off the shore of Waikiki beach. Honestly, nothing exciting, Marine Lab's snorkeling was much better (and my SCUBA diving in the Bahamas last year was better still).

Thursday: Went snorkling in Hanauma Bay. Good stuff, much better than the previous day. Only problem is that the coral there is much too high. Oh well, make do with what you've got.

Friday: Got on a plane to fly home.

Saturday: Got home.

Pictures still to come.

Back

2005-07-16T11:01:00.000-05:00

I'm back, but I shant have an informative post for a little bit.

Hawai'i

2005-07-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving for Hawai'i tomorrow, and I'll be back exactly one week from then. I'll probably have pictures to post, but no guarantees.

Duterra

2005-07-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

I've started work on a personal campaign setting, called Duterra (Latin for "two Earths"). Doug has been kind enough to give me FTP access to a folder on contrapants.org, so I've been FTPing files up there. I'm nowhere near to the point of releasing it, but as a sneak peek, I'll let you see the opening page. It's here. Any suggestions, please comment on this page. I'll also let you in on the rolls of the races in Duterra, which is located here.

Back, For Now

2005-07-04T16:38:00.000-05:00

I'm back from my travels now. I'll be leaving Saturday for Hawai'i, though. It would be good if we could get Eberron together between now and then. The Spy Museum is awesome. This post is non-linear. Like non-lines. So there.

It's good to be in D.C.

2005-07-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

'cept I'm not there yet. I'll be leaving Stone Harbor tomorrow to head out to Washington D.C. to see the Spy Museum, which should be good. I'll get back Monday (I think), and I'll be around 'til Saturday, when I leave for Hawai'i. Maybe we can get an Eberron session in there, not sure though. I'll talk to you guys when I get back.

@ the shore

2005-06-28T21:50:00.000-05:00

So I'm currently sitting at Stone Harbor, typing on a laptop running irritating dial-up service. Man, cable internet has spoiled me. At least its running Firefox.

So I spent a week at Camp Sankanac, and yes, that is indeed right across the street from Ben's house. It was good fun, and I got to wear a heavy log around my neck and get a breakfast consisting of one slice of bread, a raw egg, and a match. Don't ask.

Then, we went to Ben's, and I picked him up so we could go to Stone Harbor. After a brief stop at my house for laundry, we came over to el shore. We did typical shore stuff, namely go to the beach, play mini-golf, and watch both excellent and crappy movies. We've watched a number of movies (some after Ben left, which he did earlier today), which were Mean Girls (crappy), National Treasure (surprisingly good), Miss Congeniality 2 (crappy), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition (excellent), and Napoleon Dynamite (excellent).

Later this week I'll be heading to DC to visit the spy museum, I'll post an update at some point explaining my adventures from then 'till now.

EDIT: Add to the list Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (good).

Leaving

2005-06-18T20:32:00.000-05:00

I'll be gone for two or so weeks, starting tomorrow, so don't expect to hear from me for a while. I might get to post in there, but don't count it. (Expect an audiopost if anything). Anywho, I'll talk to you when I get back!

Yus!

2005-06-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

Another thing that I submitted to Dave Barry has been blogged. It's a picture of a mullet (the fish) with a mullet (the hairstyle). For the picture, see this post. For the backstory, see this post. And as for my other unsubmitted entry, its now on Flickr.

Believe it or not, I have a life

2005-06-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

I just never post about it.

A week ago today was the last day of school, which makes me happy. No more putting up with Mrs. Chiodo, the English teacher who was slightly worse than Mrs. Sabra. (Insert other assorted good things about summer here).

Over the weekend I went to Ben's house for D&D, which was good fun. We added psionics, which was interesting seeing as how I lacked the book for psionics. I have it now, it just arrived from Amazon.

Yesterday Dave, Ian, and Sean (three friends from the neighborhood) came over and we mucked about in the water having a good time (rather like dolphins). And now I am sunburned, again. I'm gonna have skin cancer someday, I can feel it.

Today, I drove to Philly to drop my sister off at some intercity thing that lasts 6 weeks. Not that bad, 'cept of course the obligatory long trip. And today I have a piano recital, which pisses me off.

This is my hero

2005-06-12T20:26:00.000-05:00


malfunction doSAT (SAT)
{
   SAT = 3:45;
   for (hell=0; hell<3:45; hell++)
       {
           misery.inflict(slowly);
       }
   global future = false;
   return screwed();
}

2005-06-11T10:16:00.000-05:00

WTF.

Addendum

2005-06-08T14:58:00.000-05:00

This post is a follow-up to my previous post, which mentioned the company Magnatune in passing.

Basically, Magnatune is a record label company. However, it is entirely online-based, and uses open source principles. It releases all music under a Creative Commons license, specifically, CC-BY-NC-SA, which states that you can remix any songs you find on it, but you may not make money and you must attribute the work.

But wait, there's more! You can listen to any of their music by streaming it free off their site! This is quite possibly the coolest thing. While you may not be able to take it on the road in your iPod or such unless you purchase it, the "try before you buy" concept for music blows my mind.

And its still better. When you do buy the stuff, they ask you how much you want to pay, between $5 and $18. $8 is recommended, and while you might think they get only $5 from each album, they say the average is $10! Man, I need to buy me some of this stuff.

From what I've heard so far, Falik is pretty good (kind of a Middle Eastern electronica), and Doug likes Brad Sucks.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

2005-06-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

One more final and day of school to go. Very little else is going on. However, Magnatune is awesome. Open-source music label. What more could you want?

Indy

2005-05-31T16:19:00.000-05:00

So I just went to Indianapolis to see the Indy 500, and to march in ye olde Downingtown High School Marching Band. Friday we drove in a coach bus for twelve hours, which was actually not so bad since we watched Napoleon Dynamite and Young Frankenstein. On Saturday we had a parade in town, and then we headed over to a mall, where I met up with my friend Jake who lives out there. While there, Jake bought LotR: The Third Age and I finally purchased Metroid Prime. Very fun games. Sunday we headed over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where we marched around it as part of the pre-race celebration. I left the band with my parents afterwords, and we went over and watched the race. It was quite exciting, although now, I'm slightly more red than an overcooked lobster. Then we headed over to Jake's house, where we played some Third Age, and also some Star Wars: Battlefront. Yesterday we drove home, and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. Now life is boring again, but at least tomorrow, I'll be able to see the last day of school in the nine-day forecast.

I'm Back

2005-05-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

Update tomorrow.

Teh ByeZ

2005-05-26T16:28:00.000-05:00

I'll be heading out to Indy for the Indy 500 this weekend, so don't expect to talk to me.

I'm a Friggin' Star!

2005-05-21T20:27:00.000-05:00

Let's see, this week has been boring, yet again. I saw the new Star Wars movie yesterday, which pleasantly surprised me. It was quite good, better than I and II. But General Grievous is a stupid name for a bad guy. Then today I played the Forge of Fury campaign, which surprised me in that we successfully completed the adventure, somehow without entering the Forge of Fury. Then we played Star Munchkin for a bit, which was good fun. Now I think I'll shut up.

A Long-Awaited Post

2005-05-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Mostly because nothing has been going on. Wednesday was D&D, that was fun, I played as a samurai. Thursday was a band concert rehearsal. Friday was the band concert, that went really great. And please, no one ever say ph34r to me again. To understand why, see this page.

Dear Blog

2005-05-06T15:03:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear blog!
Happy birthday to you!

Nostalgia

2005-05-03T20:28:00.000-05:00

Today I had an inservice day, so I jumped over to Monty G for the day to bother people. Fun stuff, but doesn't yield good blogging conditions. So there you go. Exciting day, boring post, sums up my life.

WARNING: LONG POST

2005-05-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

That's right, long post, dealing with a big number of things, hopefully in relatively chronological order.

D&D Forums! Loving provided by Forumer.
Mr. Bennett (band director) made a statement in band about piano players possibly being interested in learning the mallets for the field show next year, instead of their standard instruments. Should I?
The new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy KICKS ASS. Alan Rickman makes a good Marvin, though not as good as the Marvin in the TV show. Better body, worse acting. (Wow, I just said the HHGG TV show had good acting. *twitch*)
D&D session on Saturday. Kicked the shit out of a dragon. Thanks entirely to my spell Ghost Sound, which lasted all of twelve seconds.
Learned about an awesome card game, called Munchkin. Hilarious for role-players such as myself.
I recorded the HHGG TV show on PBS last night. Good stuff. Actually follows the book (at least, I think it does. The book might follow the TV show). Horrible acting, horrible special effects, hilarity ensues.

I think that's it. Anything else?

Totally Awesome Game

2005-04-28T15:11:00.000-05:00

Totally awesome game, possibly at least as good, if not better than, N. It's called Robot Battle. Most of you won't like it, because its a coding/scripting game, but for those of us who do like that, it is teh awesome. I plan to work at a new wikicity (which was how I found it), located at http://robotbattle.wikicities.com. As I said, totally awesome!

Ugh.

2005-04-25T15:43:00.000-05:00

Last week, I got three new shirts. Would you believe that more people got this one than this one?

Wiki, IRC, #polaqu, oh my!

2005-04-23T15:11:00.000-05:00

I've decided to delve deeper into the workings of WikiCities. To do so, I got an IRC client. IRC is basically a big happy network of chat rooms. I decided to use X-Chat, which is based off of the source code for Gaim. I am now a regular at #wikicities (the channel for Wikicities) on the Freenode network. I also created #polaqu, a channel for Polaqu, the Wikicity I run, which is a free D&D 3.5e Campaign Setting. Wow, 8 links in one post.

Popes and Pyramids

2005-04-19T18:28:00.000-05:00

New pope, as if you haven't already heard. Pope Benedict XVI. German. Apparently was a member of Hitler Youth back in his youth, though that was common back then. Oh, and also, a new (stupid) food pyramid. Your tax dollars at work.

The Week in Review

2005-04-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

So yeah, you probably noticed that I haven't blogged since Saturday. I'm not getting lazy, I'm just getting nothing exciting to happen to me. End of story. (Trust me, I'll bet you don't care at all about, say, the Goatse-sized ass in my Electronics class).

Death to Health Nuts!

2005-04-09T19:41:00.000-05:00

So this week they're killing Cookie Monster as we know and love. Now, he has to eat health food because people think he's making kids fat. He's not making kids fat! Parents are making kids fat! YOU DON'T HAVE TO GIVE INTO THEIR EVERY WHIM, F**KTARDS!!! Oh, and sorry for the bad picture, you'd be amazed how hard it is to get a good picture of Cookie Monster.

DDA

2005-04-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

So I made a DDA for N. A DDA means "Don't Do Anything", so load it up, press Caps Lock, and watch the show!

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|5^396,552!11^396,564,396,36!2^372,24,0,1!2^420,24,0,1!2^372,528,0,-1!0^420,276!0^396,300!0^372,276!0^396,252!0^408,264!0^408,288!0^384,288!0^420,252!0^408,240!0^396,228!0^384,240!0^372,252!0^360,264!0^348,276!0^360,288!0^372,300!0^384,312!0^396,324!0^408,312!0^420,300!0^432,288!0^444,276!0^432,264!0^432,240!0^360,312!0^432,312!0^360,240!0^384,252!0^372,264!0^360,276!0^372,288!0^384,300!0^396,312!0^408,300!0^420,288!0^432,276!0^420,264!0^408,252!0^396,240!0^372,240!0^360,252!0^360,300!0^372,312!0^420,312!0^432,300!0^432,252!0^420,240!0^348,264!0^348,288!0^336,276!0^384,324!0^408,324!0^396,336!0^444,288!0^444,264!0^456,276!0^408,228!0^384,228!0^396,216!0^384,264!2^396,432,-0.707106781186547,0.707106781186547!2^372,384,1,0!2^456,384,0,-1!2^420,252,0,1!2^420,456,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^456,384,0,-1!2^456,384,0,-1!2^456,384,0,-1!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^372,384,1,0!2^456,408,0,-1!2^444,252,-1,0!2^540,456,0,-1!2^420,216,0,-1!2^228,420,0,-1!9^228,396,1,1,9,16,0,0,-1!2^156,252,0.707106781186547,-0.707106781186547!2^204,156,1,0!2^192,228,0,-1!2^372,300,0,-1!2^372,240,0,-1!9^396,36,1,1,16,1,0,0,-1!2^372,192,0,-1!2^372,60,0.707106781186547,-0.707106781186547!2^456,72,-1,0!2^396,84,0.707106781186547,0.707106781186547!2^564,432,-1,0!8^396,276,2!8^396,276,3!8^396,276,0!8^396,276,1!12^396,96!12^552,444!2^420,180,-0.707106781186547,-0.707106781186547!7^132,276,0!10^36,276!3^108,276!9^156,300,0,1,7,12,0,-1,0!7^660,252,2!7^660,300,2!3^684,252!3^684,300!7^132,252,0!3^108,252!9^108,264,1,0,4,11,0,0,-1!9^132,264,1,0,5,11,0,0,-1!3^396,552!2^396,576,0,-1!8^684,300,2!8^684,252,2

Heh, APRIL FOOLS!

2005-04-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

Alright, so its a day too late. Still.

Brian Damage

2005-03-31T15:57:00.000-05:00

No, not typo. Well, yes typo. On the back of a shirt. A Dark Side of the Moon shirt, no less, that I saw in school today. On my friend, Ian's, back. And speaking of Ian, his sister, Lindsay, I think her name is, joined D&D club yesterday. And now Ian plans to, which means that Sean, his fraternal twin brother, and maybe even Dave Hoyle, whom some you have met, might play D&D as well. *lolls*

Breathe

2005-03-29T16:24:00.000-05:00

So I went back to school today. Teh suXorz. Not much is happening, somehow my Bio grade jumped from like an 83% to an 88%. I'm not complaining. We started watching the TKM movie in English. That is, the one with Beaver Dill. RPOL.net kicks total ass. Nothing else, really. G'bye.

Happy Easter

2005-03-27T20:34:00.000-05:00

And suchlike.

Evolution

2005-03-22T19:44:00.000-05:00

Well, through pondering in study halls, I've come up with another rebuttal for evolution. Hear me out:

All organisms must reproduce to survive. Duh. All single-celled organisms reproduce through asexual reproduction (aka mitosis) because they are unable to meet the requirements for sexual reproduction: sexual organs and sex cells. Note the italics. A cell cannot produce a cell that is different from itself. A tissue or an organ can, but not a single cell. Single-celled organisms do not have tissues, because they are made of cells, and no organs, because organs are made of tissues. However, multicellular organisms must reproduce sexually. This is because there is no way that a multicellular organism could coordinate every single cell to undergo mitosis at the same time. Also note that scientists have said that life grew from a single cell. Therefore, according to evolution:

At some point, a multicellular organism reproduced asexually, or two single-celled organisms reproduced sexually
At some point, an asexually reproducing organism randomly figured out how to reproduce sexually with another organism of the same type

I just wanted to post this, not to start an argument, but just because, for me, its the clinching proof that evolution does not work.

Polaqu

2005-03-18T17:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I've done it. I created a wiki. This particular wiki is a collaborative D&D setting, called Polaqu. Check here! And no, you may not be admins or sysops just becuase you're my friends. Sorry.

OMFG

2005-03-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

My parents are literally forcing me to stay up to work on a lab report -- that's due Wednesday.