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The Jungle, Explored...


sroberson

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Lol, my problem is I have a hard time finding the time to pin myself down and do the projects I think about. I wish I knew more graphical programming and game development stuff. I'll have to look at Jcreator and see what that is. My first language was C++ so its a language I am somewhat comfortable with...or at least I was. I have been playing around with a lot more batch, bash, and perl scripting for some linux machines and a bit of tinkering with Windows. I need to learn some Visual C++ though for one of the projects I have (simple project, make a quick program that allows users to change the background screen of their computer for logins using registry edits. Free! and No Viruses!)

Heh, hopefully graduate in the Fall. I just have to keep telling myself to care for a little bit longer. I lost a bit of my ability to care today after I got a modest raise at work.

Well...still have to work on the roof just a bit. Some of the boards around the flashing are rotted (not structural problem, mostly aesthetic at this point) but they need to be replaced and fixed a bit so it wont happen again. Another problem is one of the back doors is a bit rotten in the corner from having water splash on it when it rains. The landscaping around the door slopes toward the door so water runs over the gutters and it splashes into the door. Hmm...might want to do some painting, new insulation, fixing the cracks in the brick. Its a lot of little things, I feel like I got a pretty sweet deal :D

Bloggin!

Went into work today after getting an email from the Human Resources guy saying that he wanted to speak to me this morning. As usual, having people in positions like that wanting to speak to me makes me very nervous. So, after waking up late and rushing to get to work I walk in his office and am informed I am getting a raise. Most excellent...

billtedairguitar-730529.jpg

Work went by as usual, read the news and got even more astounded by society ruining itself (or the news media at least reporting as such). Found out how to continue with one of the projects I was thinking of working on (mentioned above). Thought I might have to speak with the programmers around the office to see if they knew how to do it since it was such a hard topic to search for on Google. In fact, I still am not sure how I found it...but this article was wonderful: http://www.c-sharpco...rOpenaFile.aspx (how to call a Windows Explorer file browser to select files and return the path). Also found out the best way of implementing changes to the Windows registry (hint: look up how to use the "reg" command for batch programming).

After work I went to a neighborhood association meeting for the neighborhood I am moving into (ok, moving in is subjective since I grew up there pretty much my whole life) and started formulating a argument for shuttering up some half way homes that are trying to make it in the area.

Spoiler, because I am about to unleash a huge rant about societies failure to do the sensible thing regarding half way homes and crime.

Now for the rant, since I brought that up...The halfway home (an establishment that houses former prison inmates after they were convicted of drug or alcohol problems among others) that is being fought this time is run by a company called Oxford House, who started sneaking people into the home without actually seeking a permit to do so. You see, there is a legal limit on the number of unrelated occupants of a home. The maximum being 4 at least where I live. Neighbors have noticed that as many as 6 people occupy the home and its a revolving door of people walking around asking other people for money. On top of this problem of them not legally supposed to be putting 6 people in this home, they are also at the corner of two very busy roads, thus causing a traffic issue with up to 4 or 6 cars pulling in and out of the driveway. This, Oxford House, applies no rules to living in the home, and doesn't have any supervisor living on site either. They will approach the city when the time comes to ask for forgiveness in not getting a permit and probably get away with it.

My problem is this: Why should the city provide a permit to a 'rehabilitation' home that applies no rules or accountability to those occupying it? They shouldn't. You see, I am all for the rehabilitation of citizens and incorporating them into the system (rehabilitation allows citizens who once were a drain on society's tax money to become contributors to said society), but they must be monitored and assisted in reaching this potential of theirs. Shoving a bunch of criminals in a house with no supervision is asking for trouble and failure...but then it dawned on me....

That's the point....

The company wants the criminals to fail and be put back in jail. This way, it becomes a cyclical problem of people going to overcrowded prisons inciting an even more angry and bitter prison population who gets unleashed on society who then causes more problems as they are allowed to occupy half way homes hell bent on making society worse so they can make more money off them. They don't make money on society being perfect, they make it on being imperfect and problematic. Why should the city fund them? They want to SAVE money by not opening up more prisons and allowing criminals back on the streets into these homes in the hopes that maybe they will integrate themselves again. Sadly, in return, the homes that these people are located to allow the criminals get worse, ruining property value of the community it is located in, inciting fear in the local population, etc. Its a pretty quick way of inviting a cancerous existence to a relatively stable and healthy community by building up halfway houses in the middle of it all (Oh hell..wait a minute, these houses are right next to schools too! Go figure...). Now, I am not much for believing in the good of religion as it has largely been the cause of hundreds of millions of deaths around the world in self righteous war for the same God (another rant, another day)...but after hearing how one of the churches in the area was operating a halfway home that at least had rules, classes, and supervisors...I had hope that maybe religion does help society after all. They are doing it right. They are in it for the saving of lost souls, not in it to charge up to 12 criminals $400 each to stay in a home that is valued in the area of $120k (which doing the math in my head a little bit, could mean monthly mortgage in the area of $800/month...but since they probably flat out bought the house they will only be facing the taxes and insurance problem) meaning that the company is netting approximately $3000+ per month after utilities. I wonder who the penal system and Oxford House is lobbying at the local level to push this through...God Bless America, the man with the deepest pockets win. Hopefully the petition we are working on that I mentioned above speaks more loudly than money. It worked in another case right down the street form my house. I might bring up my frustration over an obviously corrupt or nearsighted government that feels like its ok to allow a cancerous company like Oxford House to exacerbate the crime problems of the area and ruin a community...problem is I will have to clean up my tongue so they will take me seriously...or take into account some of the people at the City Hall might be pocketing their money and sweating under the collar when someone realizes the overall problem. I could write on forever about this kind of stuff...but I will have to save room elsewhere for my complaints about the status quo. Spoiler endingggg....now!

On the lighter side...Who else thinks the design for Fox McCloud in Adventures is a heck of a lot better than in Assault? I really miss Rareware now :( . Their graphic design was incredible in my opinion for 2002. It had the telltale signs of primitive graphic design of the time (that awkward black outline of the fur on Fox) but I still feel that was incredible work. Also, on Adventures...I am starting to understand how disappointingly pointless Krystal is as I come to realization that maybe she really is just eye candy with no personality and that my interest in her was also based on the fact I filled in the blanks with her by reading fanfiction that gave her something at all. For the love of anything good, Nintendo...Please give her some sort of character!

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Bleh, haven't been able to play with the little computer projects I had on my mind for a while. Work got busy, and then I started working on a fanfiction that I already sort of hit a brick wall of indecision on what path to take next and how to edit my style to add more emotion (since I sort of predicted the problem of me writing like a technical writer).

Got a camping trip to go to this weekend that I can't say I am entirely thrilled about going on - but then I usually feel that way about all camping trips I go on. Idk, I used to enjoy going camping and hanging out with the youth group that I have been a part of since I was....17? But it just hasn't really been the same lately. Guess I am starting to feel a bit more like the outcast grownup since I suppose that's what I am at this rate - yet at an awkward phase where I don't really feel in touch with what the parents of the youth to have much fun conversing with. I also just want to spend time moving into my house and get out of the apartment. Bought the place nearly 2 weeks ago and still haven't had the chance to move much of anything in because I can't get the time to rent a trailer and use my car to move everything.

Grr....FireFox, you have no idea how close I am to getting rid of you. Your persistence to jack up my CPU usage to as much as 41% by yourself is unacceptable. Also quite random...Guess we will see if Chrome will work. I am just typing and getting "Not Responding" BS from FireFox.

EDIT: That awkward moment when you finally give in and use Internet Explorer and it works better than FireFox for the time..-_-

Anyone else having problems with it?

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Got back from camping! Was actually a lot more fun than I made it out to sound. Didn't find any diamonds (I went to a diamond 'mine', and when I say mine I mean a mud field in which you sift through the dirt) but had a good time all the same. Did see someone else find a diamond. Got an awkward sunburn on the right side of my body though since half of my body was in the shade when I was sifting through the dirt. Ate way too much last night and probably need to force myself to exercise a bit to work off the guilt.

Since I ended up ruining my nice-ish looking tennis shoes, had to go out and buy some dress shoes for work. I guess it was about time I did something like that anyways. Probably will have to consider looking more professional in the near future. Which reminds me...need to get laundry done! Grr.

Didn't really come up with much of an immediate direction for the fanfiction while I had time to think about it, but that shouldn't be a surprise to me since I feel I am a perfectionist. Hopefully something will come to me as I write parts and expand on the initial writing.

Wheeelp, guess that's it for now. Don't have much of a rant or anything. Hope everyone is ready to start another week! *weakly enthusiastic cheering*

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Holy s**t dude, someone found a diamond? That`s awesome.

I`ve found that when you dress nicely, teachers and other authoritah respect you more, compared to wearing a t shirt and athletic pants every day. Good luck with the fanfiction!

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Yeah! The whole time I was sifting through the dirt I was looking for anything that might appear diamond like - turns out I was finding a lot of slivers of quartz :/

When this guy found a diamond it looked totally different from what I thought. Stuck out, and pardon the phrase but it really applies, "like a diamond in the rough". It was very easy to notice in a pile of dirt - not like my experience in panning for gold. That stuff is harder to find in my opinion.

So, yesterday my roommate and I decided to just be retarded with money and invested in a Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Star Fox64 3D! Super excited to play it! I guess he had to save some face by buying that for me since he was being a turd about me finally putting my foot down and deciding to pack up everything from the apartment and move to my house this weekend. I guess he still is being a bit of a turd, but its mostly when he hasn't had anything to eat...its almost hilarious that I can act a bit like my mom always being able to question me when I haven't had anything to eat and get grumpy. But anyways, I hope I can finally move this weekend and get out of the apartment.

On the topic of the apartment, I can't help but feel like I made an incredibly good decision with the house now. The complex posted the new terms for lease since they know our lease is nearing its expiration...the terms were ridiculous. For a 6 month lease, rent jumped by $60 per month or approximately $10 less overall than a mortgage on a 4 bedroom 2 bath house. Anything less than 6 month leases was on average $900/month. Insane! It makes me reevaluate my position to offer rent for something like $400/month with utilities included.

I finally got to work on some of my projects again, focusing mostly on developing a Windows application that allows users to change their login screen for Windows 7 and XP (strangely enough, Vista uses an entirely different means of controlling the background by incorporating the images into a .dll Windows system file. I have no idea on how to manipulate it and may not give support for Windows Vista). I know how to do it at the command line batch scripting level, but I figured I would rather give everyone a graphical interface so it would look prettier and be easier to use. Problem is, I have no idea on how to do Windows application programming and began a wild goose chase in trying to learn C++ when I eventually learned it gets a lot easier if I learn C# or VisualBasic.

Maybe if I can come up with a cool enough project out of this I can turn it into my capstone project and have life made for that class by the time the Fall semester comes around!

I've got a pretty big question to ask, what happened to the backwards support Wii has for Gamecube games? I just bought the Wii that I mentioned earlier and noticed that it doesn't have the controller ports for Gamecube controllers. Did they remove Gamecube support for all of the new Wii consoles? That would seriously break my heart, as I have yet again found myself in the predicament of losing my beloved Gamecube titles. My brother and sister have an older Wii with the Gamecube controller ports and was wondering if they still did this or if they planned on phasing them out. If anyone has an answer, I would love to know if I need to return the Wii and get another version that has compatibility with Gamecube games!

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Hello, sorry for not beig here lately, my internet died some days ago,but i have read what you have done, i understand what you meant with your post about the criminals and the state, got me a lot to think about, you seem to have a strong enough point to support your ideas, however, i cannot comment much on that since im not too informed to give my own opinion about the subject.

Also, well even if you didn´t find any diamons you had fun, that's the important thing,a nd im interested in the projects you talk about programing,

As for the wii, im not too sure but i have a strong feeling that you bought a later version of the console wich eliminated the backward compatibility, does your wii sits horizontally rather than vertically?, if so, then i think that´s why, because those are the later models, so it is more likely that at this point, they have taken out backwards compatibility to make it less expensive, but then again, thats just especulation.

Hope i have helped ya!

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Heh, Luminous you and I were in the same boat. I finally got my stuff moved to my house and I was without internet (or the time to actually use the internet) until just now - so my next post will probably be lengthy as I have been playing with new ideas for little projects or thoughts on computer and network performance. When I made that post regarding the questionable motives behind the half-way home (group home) I had the assumption that they were a crooked and slimy group of people looking to make money off of the delinquency and general degradation of society...and heck I was right! I was at the City Hall meeting where I was to stand for a particular item that asked for the permit that they received to be revoked. Their lawyers stepped up and spewed all kinds of BS. They lied in their application in so many ways its infuriating that they have jobs being just #@&#@#$%@#&@#$ (I don't want to be that profane so I just hit Shift + number keys):

City Hall and group home rant continued...

-They said the size of the home was 1900 sq feet when it is actually 1500 sq feet

-They said that they had adequate parking, and when they personally brought up a satellite image of the house it showed tire tracks in the backyard...it is illegal to park in the grass where I am

-They suggested that the home was for "disabled people" but they failed to refer to their brochure when it pointedly said it was basically a rehabilitation home (they also pointed out that alcoholics are defined as disabled by the crack smoking federal government who apparently is just that stupid

-They refused to refer to the home as a "group home" and for some reason wanted to "consider it a single family residence with more than 4 unrelated disabled people living in it" which a real nice way of saying they want to shove as many as 12 people in the house, each charged $100 a week to be unsupervised, and not have the local or federal government identities investigating them every once in a while. Scum bags...

Ugh, makes me pissed. Worst of all they are hiding behind the Federal Fair Housing act to try and get away with it. The City attorney warned that the board members could not discuss the topic in any other way other than simply a zoning issue otherwise they might be prosecuted for making a decision based on guidelines protected, yet again, by the retarded government that for some reason doesnt believe in making alcoholics accountable for their own stupid problems. They City Board ran out of time to allow the supporters of the item to speak so they postponed the topic for another month while the City attorney researched the issue more (he seems to not know the topic well). On the bright side it looks like the City Board looks at the lawyers for the group home with the same kind of disdain as I do...so they might side with the neighborhood and just bite the bullet with a prosecution that would inevitably happen.

I did actually have fun doing the diamond mining, it was relaxing in a way. Just the mindless simplicity of it helped me to slow down in such a busy life lately. Things get a lot simpler when your only goal that day is to simply sift through dirt and try not to get all muddy at the same time while looking for diamonds.

I made a bit of progress on the program to do background changes, I ran into multiple issues with how to generate separate threads and processes to handle the separate forms and openfiledialog calls (the ability to open up the windows explorer to request the file path). In its simplest form however, it sort of works. I was having trouble getting the batch script that I call to work properly (it simply checks to see if the OEMBackground registry value exists, if it doesn't create it with the right value, if it doesn't delete it and add it again with the right value just to make sure, then creates a folder in the correct path) and for some reason when I try to do a file copy function call in C# it can't find the file path I want to send it to...works just fine for copying the file location to root of the drive (C:) but can't get it under C:Windowssystem32oobeinfobackgrounds....haven't been able to mess with it much lately so I can't say I didn't make a typo somewhere.

The Wii I have sits horizontally. I actually went to a used game store and asked the guy there what the deal was and he said that the new ones won't play Gamecube games...Made me so sad I considered buying a old Wii from him so I could play StarFox Adventures at my leisure. He said that the reason they might have taken away the backwards compatibility was so they could make more money on forcing people to buy their Wii games (which honestly, I can't seem to find many good ones...which is sad).

Still to come! I have been doing some poking around with ideas of working with proxy servers and modifying FireFox to allow more freedom in editing the amount of cached information you are allowed to store on your local drive (funny enough, the developers of FireFox thought 1GB of cache storage would be sufficient...NOT I!). Hopefully I will come up with an interesting submission discussing the matter. In the mean time I think I shall join many of the members here in singing the blues on upcoming Finals with school. I have a feeling one of my classes, Computer Security, could be the death of me...I just want to pass. Oh dear god of the procrastinating student...hear my prayers!

OH! And last but certainly not least....I want to buy a domesticated fox.

http://www.tinytrack...ls.com/fox.html

http://www.exoticani...ox-for-sale.asp

I don't know what kind, but probably something other than a red or grey fox (Arkansas has some pretty tight limitations on where you can import them from) and I don't know about a name. It obviously has to have a StarFox reference, but I can't simply name it 'Fox'. Clever enough my sister knew what I was thinking when I brought up buying a fox and said "You should name it James!...James McCloud!". And to think StarFox 64, the only game I had seriously played in my life that mentions James McCloud was released before she was even born...I am so proud of her.

Anyways, other than James McCloud, I can't think of any obvious male foxes in the game franchise that I could use. Several female names obviously come to mind but I want to keep my bases covered.

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Well today kind of sucked. Thought things would be going uphill this week since I got my washer and dryer into the house, when I get back and find the air conditioner isn't working (after a grand total of...one week..) and worst of all there appears to be a city ordinance against the ownership of foxes. I would probably write more but I am still working on not going rage face over the A/C not working and having to hear my roommate complain about it (its a pretty grand level of suck for the A/C to go in the south with temperatures creeping up). I guess thankfully there is home owners insurance...Now if only their service is fast....I have other things to think about other than trying to tune out my roommate.

On the bright side though, just so I can end this on a happier and techy note which I tend to focus on a lot of...I managed to set up a LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, php/perl) server and set to work on learning SQL scripting, PHP, and refreshing myself on fundamental website development. I felt rather proud of the modest progress I made. Only damper on the whole thing I suppose is I am not using the easy-mode Dreamweaver to just throw something together (no offense intended towards those who use Dreamweaver, just I know some who use it and really have no idea what they are doing but call themselves "web developers" all the same).

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So, turns out my air conditioner wasn't broken and I am just semi-retarded. There is a switch attached to A/C units (which is apparently common) that the guys who installed the washer and dryer turned off for whatever reason. In my rage-mode of trying to figure out my next solution I went and bought window mounted air conditioners yesterday and shortly after installing them...I diagnosed the problem and fixed it. I had a small aneurism I think when I just curiously flipped the switch and the A/C turned on. Now that I am some $230 down the drain for window A/C units, I am have to find a way to dig out of that mess.

Onward! Not looking forward to the finals I have to take. I can't seem to get myself to care too much, senioritis kicking in hard-mode I guess. Test tomorrow is over Applied Networking which I am not too terribly worried about it since it is open book and I have at least a rudimentary idea of networking away from class. Gotta take that test in Cybercrime before I forget or I will end up missing that test as well as the other two tests this semester I just forgot about. Computer Security is going to be my biggest worry on Tuesday...you always know its a bad sign when you have to calculate the worst grade you can make to still pass the class. Then after all of that, I get about a week of breathing room before I get shoved into Physics for Engineers...yay...I just want to graduate already. I can't help but feel like college is this huge scheme to imprison society's youth to companies and the government as they fight their way back out of the debt they mired themselves into getting at best a mediocre education.

Continued...college and "slave to the grind" rant. Keep in mind kids that read this, I advocate a college education 100% simply because the rest of society tells you that you have to have one or else you aren't worth anything. Until something is changed, you need a college degree, make the best of it

Or if they don't assume massive amounts of debt, they are expected these days to absorb the glut of empty houses that are sitting on the market, pay the banks their interest rates on mortgages so they make a ton of money, get good jobs so the government can tax said graduated citizen and then misappropriate said taxes into programs that just self-perpetuate the problem). Companies can eat the kids up coming out of college and shove them in low wage jobs simply because their new hire can't fight back. They need the job to pay off their loans more than they need to cause confrontation and fight the good fight for employee rights (I myself am debt free after making a wise decision to go with a college that pretty much paid me to go there). Lately I have become an advocate for free state education at the college/university level, that way the upper crust members of society can still go to their private schools and get a "better" education (or whatever), but students would no longer have to worry about how fast they need to be shoved through the system and how fast they need to grab a job and be the next "slave to the grind".

So, I at one point made a comment in the forums that I feel Falco could be replaced by Krystal in the next Super Smash Bros. After unlocking Falco in Brawl just about an hour ago, I realize I would like to retract that statement and tell Nintendo to simply add Krystal as yet another StarFox character. Falco > Fox all day long in Brawl in my opinion. Still can't kill Olimar for some unknown reason.

Long drawn out soap-box about perceived class warfare...

So I think I will spend some time diving into some social or economic issue I get my "Jimmie's rustled" (source:

http://knowyourmeme....tled-my-jimmies) about. *Goes into the archives of articles I emailed to myself*

This one was a keeper:

http://www.cnn.com/2....html?hpt=hp_t2

Apparently, Wall Street investors took offense to Zuckerberg wearing a hoodie. I can't say I exactly know what to say to this article, other than scoff heartily at the audacity that Wall Street investors have. I am not going to say I am a Facebook fanatic and have been slowly creeping towards that edge where I give up on it because I am starting to realize there are a lot of people I don't want to know about, who is seeing who, blah blah blah...so by extension I am not a Zuckerberg lover either. I just feel like their comments about Zuckerberg being too immature to lead Facebook is about one of the stupidest things I have heard in a while. Because, only an mature person unlike Zuckerberg would be able to make a company worth an approximate $100 Billion (with a 'B') that is set to become one of the hottest publicly traded stocks? Wait...he did do that? Whilst wearing a hoodie? Oh. Then I don't understand what the problem is. Are all people supposed to dress like monkeys to be inducted into this "cool kid" wealthy club where they get to enjoy tax breaks to high heavens and control over governmental affairs? Its kind of ridiculous the image one must convey just to become accepted...though I guess this isn't the first time I have heard or thought of such a predicament. There have been articles in the past that I have read regarding class warfare where the affluent members of suburbs try to cast out those they see as 'unfit' to dwell in upper or middle class society because they don't adhere to their standards of what is "classy" (because being snobs and looking down upon society from a cloud is classy, at least from what I experience with some upper crust members of Arkansas) . They made their money, they paid their dues, god forbid if I ever get to that sort of status where I can dwell in the nice and new suburbs - they would come out and lynch me for my offenses to the neighborhood. </rant>

Also...an update on the fox ownership situation...After poking around the city ordinances, it would appear it is unlawful to have a fox within a household. I was heartbroken to hear this...I will pursue the issue and see if I can get special permission by submitting "pretty please?" and perhaps "cherry on top"s

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Well, pertaining to the air conditioning, think of it this way. If you main one breaks for real, then you already have a backup, case closed.

Well, pertaining to the air conditioning, think of it this way. If you main one breaks for real, then you already have a backup, case closed.

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Well, pertaining to the air conditioning, think of it this way. If you main one breaks for real, then you already have a backup, case closed.

Well, pertaining to the air conditioning, think of it this way. If you main one breaks for real, then you already have a backup, case closed.

I guess I had to be told twice since I bought two of them XD

You know, you are right. I kept telling myself it would be nice to return them and get some money back...but then that would essentially be blowing money away. Not to mention the fact I don't want to burn out my A/C this summer and may resort to using the smaller A/C units to supplement the central one (its tough keeping a house cool when its 110 degrees outside). I suppose i'll hold on to them. Thanks for the advice! :)

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Well, found out the rough way this morning I failed a class. Pretty simple reason why really, take online class, forget you have online class, forget tests. Ya know. Its not that I didn't know the material, in fact I have heard the material recited to me twice before in other classes and I could answer questions without the aid of the book in many cases. I just kept forgetting. So, I have been spending much of today pouring over the book and notes for the one class I was pretty sure I was going to fail but had a chance all the same. Still don't feel so good about it - but considering my usual reaction to things like this...I'll say I am doing pretty good Going to have to redo my plans on graduating since the class isn't offered until next Spring and I need it for my minor. Would make life a lot simpler if I had another roommate I could put up with and fix the financial concerns I have. I will admit the one thing at the moment that makes me cringe a little. Seeing all of my former classmates on Facebook making "cute" or "clever" (in quotations, because they really look pretty dumb) about their graduation. Forgive me for being kind of mean here, but I just want to tell them "Hey! Congrats on graduating! You accomplished a goal that everyone already expected you to finish in today's society! What's that? Now you need a job?...Welcome to the real world..."

So...during my time of supposedly studying, I chanced across a youtube video showing off StarFox models and instantly got stuck there for a while and started feeling impatient for a new game already. I just can't help but wonder, with such fine detail and work on modeling of characters, how is it Nintendo is so apparently blind to the fanbase demanding something bigger and better than Command? (Yeah, it's Krystal. Haters gon' hate, and fans continue loving her. But I can't help but feel like whether you love or hate her, the modeling work is some incredible work)

Wish I knew how to do this kind of work...Does anyone out there know how?

Short post for today, mind is too cluttered up with some droll on Computer Security models all I can hear in my head is "integrity models...Bell-LaPadula model...Session Keys...Kerberos...Chinese-Wall...Needham-Schroeder...Nonce, etc, etc"Its any wonder I have any fun thoughts on my mind lol

EDIT: Upon me becoming impatient for more news on upcoming StarFox game, I did a Google search and found that there has been some new information posted on the homepage of this website! Silly me...Hopefully the rumor is true, and that the next release, as we all hope, will be a mega success.

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Sorry to hear about you´r failed class, althought it relieves me to read that i wasn´t actually a class you had trouble with and you can easily pass again, i would be much more worried i it was because you tried and you failed, well i know what you are talking about, seeing people talking about graduating like if it were the most amazing thing in the world, when it´s just another step in life, it´s what you expect when you enter university after all.

We share the same troubles, i failed my programming class because i didn´t practice enough with Jcreator and i had trouble with relatively simple problems in my code, i admitt this made me realise how much time i was wasting and realied how could i really change things by planning better my time, i admit i procastinate a lot, and it´s not good to fail a subject since my father actually gets incredibly angry and gets really mad at me, i´ll admit it´s reasonable, but not the way he does it, he tends to be really incomprehensible with many stuff, like, wanting for me to be perfect; it certainly put a lot of stress on me, actually, i think he´s the main reaosn i find getting good grades stressful.

But talking about you, as i say, from what i see, you seem to have no trouble with your subjects so im glad for you, that online class will be no problem next time you take it, but still i give you my best wishes.

Now, talking about star fox (this is a star fox forum after all), i wish the rumor´s of a new star fox game to be true (as anyone else) but my biggest concern is the fans, if a title was indeed in development and eventually released, i would just hope the fans to stop splitting in sides, the crystal haters, the "star fox adventures was better" fans, etc., i would love if Star Fox 64 3D was considered a reboot and started another set of games, that way, the broken base created after adventures would stop, but that´s just a personal opinion.

Anyway, as for the pet fox, i see the situation here, why dont you get a normal do?, like, a cool breed one like a shiba inu?, or a bulldog you can name "Bill", heh.

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Yeah, still sucks though that I will have to go through the class again and do the same boring homework crammed into an hour or 2 before it is supposed to be submitted. Worst I guess is having to pay for it again - which this time it will start having to come out of my own pockets since my scholarships ran out this year. Next time I take the class I will certainly schedule the tests on my phone so I won't forget. I am worried about another class though which I took the test for on Tuesday. I think I figured out that I needed to simply pass the final to pass the class, but I am not so sure on how well I did on the final, especially with how fickle the teachers are in grading That class I did have a hard time with :/

I think I hit a certain point lately where the good grades didn't really matter to me. I can't really apply for grants or scholarships and jobs aren't going to look at my GPA to consider me for the job, they are going to look at whether I have experience and if I have a degree (which I often refer to a degree as a 'coupon'). I have spoken with several people, and they tell me that when they got hired, their employer didn't even ask to see their actual diploma/degree. They just asked what they got it in and moved on. My favorite is where the degree that the person got had nothing to do with their current job. Chemistry Degree....System Administrator for a University, "huh?"

Sorry to hear about the programming class though :/

After seeing the rumor that was posted on the main page of SF-O recently, I have pretty much been going to Google every day searching for more rumors about a StarFox game in the making. Nothing different has come up yet, but as they have been saying, we will know more in a couple weeks at the E3 convention. I have never cared much about the events of E3 or really in game titles being released (as in, ever I have never anticipated a new game title before), but the rumors of another StarFox have me biting on my nails and giving me an overly optimistic feel about the whole thing. I agree with you though, that all of the fans need to just band together and appreciate the games. I have never found a need to be on one side or the other as far as the game goes because I am just more interested in seeing more of the game in general. Even though I would like to have a Fox X Krystal thing continue, I would be even more excited for a new StarFox game to be released that captures myself as much if not more than SF64 or Adventures. Rail-shooter, foot missions, adventure game, whatever. I just want a game with Fox McCloud that makes me want to play it over and over again for years.

Heh, no advancement on the owning a pet fox, but I have to give you internet points for seeing exactly what I was wanting to do. Pay tribute to StarFox by owning a fox. Can't remember if I mentioned it earlier but I joked about owning a wolf and a fox and having them fight it out and call it "live action StarFox!" My dad was telling me a story that he heard about his hometown in Texas just recently...Was saying that someone was selling wolf pups out of the back of a truck. After doing research on the city ordinances of said hometown I realized that they allow special permits for domesticated wild animals. And all of a sudden, Texas got a lot cooler (I actually really don't like Texas...I can't really explain why very well but I just haven't really liked visiting). I have yet to actually contact anyone where I live as far as special permits are concerned but I have a bad feeling I won't get very far with it. My biggest problem is I don't know who to contact first...Zoo director? Game and Fish Commission? Veterinarians?

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Well, computer was acting like a turd...so I just got finished reinstalling Windows 7. Still can't say its working right, every time I use a site with Flash it freaks out and starts eating up my memory and processes real bad. I tried Internet Explorer just to see what would happen, and after viewing a few YouTube videos, the memory usage jumped to 1.5GB. GRR!!! I wouldn't mind so much the problems if I knew what caused it - but with the fact being that I work on desktop problems like this all the time at work and I am sort of expected to know how to troubleshoot the issue, but I can't seem to get my own laptop to work right its a bit frustrating. It might be time to just buy or build a new computer. It has been on my mind recently, the problem is with me being a miser about money lately, I keep eyeing extra parts lying around work.

Been sick the past few days, came down with the flu I think since I was pretty much crippled for a day or so with muscle and joint pains - it was pretty miserable. I still have a persistent cough that is bothering me and plenty of congestion :/ . Keep hoping it wont get worse so I can get hours in at work.

So, some good news! I actually passed that one class I figured I would have failed! Excited about that. I would be more excited if I were actually graduating, but oh well. Get to have a couple weeks of more work till I get put back into the grind for some Physics classes (bleh...). Worst part is my hours with work will be terrible for at least half of the summer, which is bad timing considering I have to pay mortgage now. Will probably put off the second class of physics till another semester when I have more flexibility with scheduling. Who else is still wrapping up their finals?

I keep kind of hoping that maybe I will find freetime someday to work on little hobbies or whatever else I want, but then something comes up. I guess that freetime might come up after I get out of school. Next project I need to put some time on is the fanfic I started - I keep wondering if its any good or not.

Hung out with some friends over the weekend and got to experience the radience of their having graduated already...as well as one friend who seemed to have it in his mind that I have a messed up life. That I threw away my childhood and as a result of that I have problems. I can't help but feel confused by this statement, as I feel like I have a pretty good grip on my life compared to the friend who said this. I responded to him "I may have misplaced my childhood years, but I certainly won't be doing the same to the rest of my life. Being an adult is as much of a grand adventure as being a child, but it isn't like training mode anymore. Its the real deal." I guess that may be the best way to sum up how I feel about life. I want to make life as much of a surprise to me as those around me, always keep me guessing what new possibility or strangeness I can come up with next.

Can't wait for E3 convention, only 14 days or so I guess? I can't help but feel this sense of letdown actually. Since the rumor of the StarFox Metroid crossover, I kind of feel like I will be disappointed either by the crossover actually happening, or by a StarFox game not being made at all. I guess the next two weeks will be pretty busy with rumor mills starting up left and right.

Weeell, that concludes that blurb of randomness, I didn't really have a direction for my mind to go so its just a mess of thoughts this time.. Take care all!

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Pretty typical day with work really with the exception of feeling kind of ill still. I wouldn't actually be here writing much of anything if it weren't for the somewhat pensive mood I have been in regarding encountering an ex of mine today and didn't really expect it. It was a fast, month long relationship that I didn't really let go of when she did. It actually took me a long time to get over it. Anyways, for whatever reason I didn't say anything to her, not even "hello" which I feel kind of bad about. I acknowledged her existence, and didn't speak a word to her regardless of being in the same vicinity for about 2.5 hours. I'm not bitter with her or mad, in fact I wish I could remain friends at least but every attempt at that it seems to fail (I guess in all reality its her that pushes the conversations I have tried to have with her into a ditch and constantly finds an excuse for not being to "hang out"...but I suppose she could hate me for something I did that I won't get into details about). I just kind of feel like it would have been the right thing to do to at least do small talk for 5 minutes or so. Can't really explain why I feel that way since every logical ounce of my being says "naah, that just makes you look desperate". I guess on the bright side, my encounter with her didn't essentially cripple me emotionally like it did in the past - though I at least spoke with her those times and had, what I thought, was pretty good conversation. Guess its a sign I moved on as a whole, which is good, but there is still that nagging part of me that sits there asking "What if?" as if it were an attainable vision.

Wish I were a better musician, write some sort of song about it and get over it.

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Maybe you just have a lot in your mind, that´why you didn´t talked to her, as you have written, you have a lot of things to do, your home,school.

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Thanks Luminous. Heh, that's definitely the truth I have a lot on my mind so that wouldn't be a lie or an exaggeration for anyone to believe that...so many bills coming up and work continuously getting more and more hectic and busy (not complaining...I get to work on something, look up, and find that several hours have disappeared).

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Thanks Luminous. Heh, that's definitely the truth I have a lot on my mind so that wouldn't be a lie or an exaggeration for anyone to believe that...so many bills coming up and work continuously getting more and more hectic and busy (not complaining...I get to work on something, look up, and find that several hours have disappeared).

That being said, don´t think too much about that, you just have a lot of responsabilities to take care of first, good luck with that.

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A'ight so I have had a few toasts to our beloved Fox today so I might start just rambling.

Curse yoooooouuu Nintendo! Sorta. I am actually becoming relieved that Star Fox wasn't at E3, maybe Nintendo still needs to learn the error of its ways and have time to get their dirty hands off good franchises before they get infected with their ultra-progressive strange way of deciding to play vidje games by flapping one's arms about awkwardly. If they happen to sprout ears and listen to what fans want, maybe they won't butt in and ruin any chance of Star Fox from being an awesome game. Here's to you (still), Fox! Stocking my fridge with 'Fox Tail' from now on hopefully in a sign of good luck.

Fox Tail

IMAG0097.jpg?t=1338859530

Started taking my summer class, Physics for Engineers, and I have to admit its possibly one of the worst things I have ever experienced both physically and mentally. The instructors are next to useless, insulting, and at one time suggested that if we have a problem "Well go Google it!" If i'm not mistaken I paid the University good money to TEACH ME! Not instruct me to go to a widely available and free resource anyone can use. If I for a moment knew I could go to Google to earn a degree then I would gladly do so. Suggesting I go look it up on Google concretes in my mind that College is a money making scheme blah blah blah, another rant I had in a previous post I had. I am still unsure if I should launch a formal complaint about such feelings that we should implement free resources to learn material that we theoretically paid for from somewhere else. Still got 3 weeks and 3 days to go before I hopefully get the heck out of it...and then jump into Physics II which most likely will result in more blood, sweat, tears, and stocks in a beer company of my choice.

I have been working on trying to advance the fanfiction I started, but I can't seem to get much inspiration to continue the story. Not sure if I like the development of characters or not. It doesn't feel natural anymore, more forced than anything which I guess is a bad sign. Still getting some material together to make longer "chapters" though.

Sigh, Hydrangeas dying out front. It seems no matter how much water I keep giving those things they always look wilted. And heck, then when it rains heavily it looks like a wild Snorlax when and trampled through them. I shouted angry at the plants one day "I dare you to up and die on me. I will feel no remorse will replacing you with Holly bushes...least they wouldn't require so much water". Watering plants feels almost like watching money come flying out of a hose on fire. Albeit, its more like watching a cascade of nickles pour out of the hose on fire...but the end result is still molten slag that I can't use to spend on other things. hydrangeas is not the kind of plant to have in an Arkansan summer :/ . On the bright side at least I feel like I caught up with cleaning up.

Now to ask myself the most important question of the night...To play more Banjo Kazooie or to be responsible and do Physics homework/studying?...decisions decisions...

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  • 2 months later...

Well...haven't been here in forever and I apologize for the fact that the biggest reason I am bag here "blogging" is more because of a sort of whinefest if anyone cares to listen to it.

Got into a band that is relatively competent after I started looking around a couple months ago. Good news. The other guitarist has some original material already and they can work in the general area of hard rock/metal that I would like to play with. Good news.

But after the past few days and the past practice today, it doesn't feel so kosher. Nothing felt very together and I feel responsible for it somehow. I liked to consider myself a pretty technically able guitar player but trying to figure out what happened sort of bothers me a lot as I like to put blame on myself to just do better somehow. I also can't help but feel somewhat estranged from the others already. Conversations occurring without me (though I kind of do it to myself since I continue practicing while the other get a smoke) regarding the image and promotion of the band. Feeling like my bits and pieces of songs aren't considered after accepting everything coming my way and trying to work with it - maybe its just my heavier thrasher approach to guitar that sets them off. Attempting to record and create harmonizing guitar parts to original songs aren't commented upon. Idk, it bothers me a lot and I feel a bit trapped because I was hoping it would actually go somewhere and it already feels pretty toast. Its not easy finding competent classic hard rock/metal musicians around Arkansas who don't smoke incredible amounts of week, drink, or are generally extremely dumb...so it depresses me a little as I this is something I have at least wanted a shot at.

On the bright side of life - I may have a chance to go to Japan for a week to do some Independent study for my Computer Science degree...I'll find out tomorrow and whether it is worth my pursuing it. The way I figure, Japan's culture is so silly compared to what we are used to (we as in Americans) that my mind will be blown for a week and I will enjoy the culture shock....or I will enjoy having my mind blown about how Americans portray Japanese culture in such a silly limelight and I will be more educated on the matter. School kicks off tomorrow with Physics 2...which sounds about as much fun as ruining consecutive band practices every day forever. Hopefully that will work out fine and it will be one of the last hurdles in getting my degree so I can get a better paying job and perhaps even work on a solo musical effort recording my own material and catch up with treating this house the way it deserves - not like its in the ghetto. I actually hope to raise the taxes on the surrounding property to chase off some people...Just have to invest a ton into my own.

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Sorry to hear about the band dude, hope everything gets better.

Also, will you go to japan?

And good luck with Physics, you will certainly do better than me, i have mathematics and im pretty stressed.

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Sorry to hear about the band dude, hope everything gets better.

Also, will you go to japan?

And good luck with Physics, you will certainly do better than me, i have mathematics and im pretty stressed.

No go on the trip to Japan sadly. Tried getting in touch with the professor in charge of organizing the oversea study and all of the slots filled up already. Least he was nice enough to let me know there could be other opportunities in the future. Have to laugh though that the Japanese professor isn't running it, the Taiwanese professor is (his name still gets me, Chia-Chiu Chiang, but if he is feeling particularly goofy that day he will tell everyone to call him "chu-chu"). I'm a actually sitting outside my physics 2 class right now..waiting for the pain to start lol, I'm pretty nervous about this too so you aren't the only one fretting about classes.

Sigh, now if only work would change :/.... I've got my boss breathing down my back throwing snide remarks atmme whenever he gets the chance and flooding me with projects I have no hope of completing in some cases... Hopefully I can find a job on the campus so I can get a discount on tuition and go to grad school..oh yeah and get a better paycheck for my work

Updated at end of the day: Well, got kicked out of said band I mentioned before. Kind of feel like Dave Mustaine after he got kicked out of Metallica, a bit angry and ready for a revenge streak. Not sure why since I wasn't even associated with them for that long. I guess I am just impatient for creating something and getting down to doing shows playing music I want to play. I suppose now I can focus on writing what I want to write and see where that goes. I would usually be crushed by the things going on lately in life (trust me, its not just the band frustration), but for some reason I have found some new strength to keep moving forward and to find at least some optimism in it all; but not least of all just the determination to fix the problems in my way. Can't say what changed other than I simply joined this site - so I guess I will jokingly suggest that Star Fox ended up saving a piece of my life (which I feel only mildly silly saying that). Funny how that went full circle from playing a demo of it in a Target back in '97 to joining an online community in 2012 and at least temporarily escaping the crushing bouts of depression I used to suffer from.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey, I just stumbled on your journal. You got lots of stuff going on in your life ! And how the heck can you afford a house at 22 !?

And lol, I actually somewhat wish to have a pet fox too one day ! I'd probably pick a Fenec fox, mostly because they don't need as much space as red foxes, and they supposedly make good pet because of their social structure. Also, because I love Fennec foxes :)

But I just wonder if I'd be able to take care of him/her properly, since i'm not even able to take care of myself properly, which kinda make the whole thing a little more than a distant dream :/ Plus there's the question of finding a vet, and food. And also, I'm kinda afraid to step on the fox, since they're so damn small ! And I heard they can go for as much as 1000$ and up !

And I think you also mentionned you wished you knew some more about game / graphics programming ?

Well, I'd suggest you find some documentation on how 3d rendering is done first. There's pretty much only one way to do it properly, and all API use that same method, only the function names change. Its a shame that there is almost nothing I know of on the web that properly explains it :S

And if you are able to read French, I have a few really well made pdfs by my 3d teacher that explain the whole thing nice and simple !

Also, XNA is supposedly pretty good to start with for learning graphics and game coding. I never really tried it much, but I have some friends that used it and were pretty satisfied.

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