Feeling: Pouty

Well, after fiddling around with Octavia for an hour last night (and then having a technician test the processor and memory) we came to the realization that the motherboard is dead. I already ordered a new one and I should have it in a few days. I picked one of the cheapest boards on Newegg ($40) because I expect to do I full system upgrade in a year or two anyway. I hate computers! Sure I'm using them for about twelve hours a day--but I really hate them!

In videogame news I'm currently trying to beat all of the scenarios in the SNES version of SIMCity. Bern was extremely easy, San Francisco and Boston were pretty quick, even Tokyo was fairly easy. However, Detroit is still freaking hard. Just like in real life, the city is a cesspool of crime and pollution. The other ones were pretty simple to figure out. Stop fires, add police departments, convert roads into mass transit; simple. Detroit, on the other hand, is more like, put up a bunch of police stations that drain all your funds early on so you can't afford them later and crime runs rampant making everyone hate you. I figure it out eventually.

Teeth don't hurt quite so bad.

Feeling: Okay

Want to watch videos of someone rip on bad Nintendo games? Of course you do, who doesn't? Check out The Angry Nintendo Nerd. I especially like the Freddy and Jason shows.

Well, it looks like I got my new computer just in time to watch my old one die. Yesterday, Octavia's power supply got a little smoky and burned up. I should have expected it, the wattage was far too low for the amount of devices I have, but it had been working fine so I figured it could handle it. Well, according to the smell of fried electronics, it couldn't. Today, I picked up a new power supply which should be powerful enough (450 watts, and a higher amperage) but I won't know if the rest of the hardware is okay until I replace it and boot her up again. I'd say, "cross your fingers," but that wouldn't do any good.

Teeth don't hurt quite so bad.

Feeling: Bored

Melanie is finally clean and fully loaded with programs that have a use. It took patience and perseverance, but now I have a fully operational laptop without 20 GB worth of crap on her.

Note to self: Never spend nine hours of your Sunday watching the entire series of a show consisting of 25 episodes at 22 minutes per episode in one day. Especially when the show (Berserk) isn't that great. That's right, I didn't think Berserk was that great. And before you send me emails about how awesome Berserk is, just remember my rule: anime fanboys are not people and thus their emails don't count.

Aside from couch potatoing too much I was slightly productive over the weekend. I cleaned house, did dishes, and bought groceries and some new couch pillows (no relation to me being a couch potato).

Teeth still hurt.

Feeling: Cheery

So yeah, the name isn't as unique as the normal names I give, but Melanie is derived from the Greek word for "dark", and Melanie is indeed dark. Well, for the first hour that I had her all I did was uninstall all the crap that HP pre-loaded. After booting up the computer I had two and a half columns of desktop icons. Two and a half columns from a "clean install"? That's a total joke. Most of the crap they pre-loaded are just trial versions of software anyway. Pay for software? Please! If I can't find a free equivalent I'm going to pirate it. Although, this is the first computer I've ever had that has a legal version of Windows on it. I still need to delete about twenty more programs before she's properly clean and I've already installed FireFox and VLC, so she's slowly becoming a computer that I'm not embarrassed to show my friends.

I also found out something really awesome. No longer will I have to take breaks from my computer just because I have to use the bathroom. That -so- rocks! I did a check for free wireless connections in my apartment complex (i.e. unencrypted WANs) and found that the only place where I get a signal is in my bathroom. Kind of strange really, there must be something about the walls or floors that allows the wireless signal through better than the other rooms. Oh well, I can surf on the pot.

It has come to my attention that there are actually women out there that don't understand the human fascination with boobs. How in the world can this be possible? Boobs are so freaking awesome! They come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. You gotta catch 'em all!

You know what I don't see very much of any more... shareware software. In the 90's shareware was huge and people were tossing it left and right. However, thanks to the open source boom shareware has become a thing of the past. Now all those small shareware apps that cost $40 to register have been replaced by an open source equivalent. Maybe it's just that because I'm surrounded by techies all the time that we're constantly talking about the latest piece of free software.

Teeth still hurt.

Feeling: Elated

New computer is here! Parse be to the FedEx gods! I haven't given her a name yet because I haven't had any time to get the feel of her, she'll be named soon enough.

I hear a law firm advertised on NPR a lot. Their website is mmbjlaw.com, or more interestingly written: Mm, BJ law.

The Commodore 64 version of the Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar soundtrack is now in the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation. I also updated Anthony Mollick's bio thanks to the information obtained in my Interview of him.

I finally got around to throwing out the carton of spoiled eggnog that's been in my refrigerator since mid-November. I had to do battle with it just to get it into the trash. Once eggnog matures after its second month it starts using its ninja skills in combat and it takes a stout heart to defeat it. Thank goodness I trashed it before it went super saiyan on me!

Teeth still hurt.

Feeling: Blah

This morning I woke up an hour early to go to the dentist to have my teeth drilled. I'm tired and my teeth hurt something fierce. As you can no doubt guess, I'm not very pleased with this morning.

My laptop was delayed, but it's supposed to show up tomorrow. Once I get her, I'll have to come up with a name that meets her personality. It's always a difficult decision.

I created a few more t-shirt designs. I'm taking a look at cafepress's new direct printing method to see if I want to start another online t-shirt store. My last one sold a solid 1 shirt, but then I did only have three designs (two of which sucked) and I was very unimpressed with their iron-on transfer so I took the store down. I ordered a new shirt using the direct printing to see what the quality is like, but I'm waiting for that as well. I'll keep you informed of the outcome because I know you're all holding your breath.

Feeling: Cynical

I added my first Commodore 64 game into the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation. It's the soundtrack to the game Ultima III: Exodus, and it's pretty good considering the dated sound of the C64.

Why is it that every time you see a pro-life billboard they plaster up the most hideous looking kids in the world on them. There are two such billboards in my city and each of them has a butt-ugly freak of nature grinning down like a leper. These kids look like something that you'd find waiting for you in a public restroom stall. I don't want them to live, I want to flush them!

Here's a fun math problem. It's called, "What percentage of the people listed as Buddhists or Taoists in MySpace are rich white girls who found out their favorite stuck-up celebrity's religion by watching an ET Exclusive and shouted 'Me too!'?" The answer: 98%.

Feeling: Happy

I've finally got around to typing up my videogame collection. It's missing the bulk of my Atari collection as well as my controllers and stuff, but it has most of my games. I'll probably put up the peripherals later.

On Sunday I was contacted by Tony Mollick, one of the composers featured in the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation. He gave me some new information to add to the site, and I also requested an interview with him, so maybe I'll have a much more detailed entry about him soon.

I've started work on dismantling the pointless database. It was turning out to be another Wikipedia and that is unnecessary? I've decided to stick to smaller research projects like the VGMPF. I'm currently turning all of the pages where I already have the information somewhere else on my site into redirects. Once all of the redirects and mini pages are gone I'll focus on making proper pages for the remainders.

Feeling: Happy

This morning I had a dream that I was in basic training for the army. I never did make it into combat, but I did have a very spirited bike ride on the sidewalk which doesn't really fit in to what I've heard basic training is like.

There is something that I've come to realize as I meet more people and that is that I'm the only person in the entire state of Michigan that actually likes living here. Practically all of my friends--old and young--truely detest this state saying that it's boring, cold, and poor. I, on the other hand, find beauty and serenity in this state and I truly adore all that it has to offer. Of course, I took an online quiz to figure out which state I should live in and it dumped me in Idaho so I guess my personal ideals aren't that normal.

I didn't know this, but among liars, thieves, and prostitutes, Jesus also hates sports fans. In fact, people that watch Monday Night Football are actually on Hell's Host Wanted list. Even more surprisingly murderers are not. Basically, Jesus thinks that slaying innocent people for fun and profit isn't quite as bad as watching the vile unholiness and foul disgust that is professional golf. Yeah, that sounds about right; I mean how else could Tiger Woods have such large white teeth if not for a deal made with Satan!

Tonight I'm going to the Robert T. Longway Planetarium to see the "Pink Floyd's: The Wall" laser show. Since I'm the king of all nerds I should find this very exciting.

Feeling: Okay

I've updated the Harry Potter pages with the latest products and cleaned up some broken links.

If the pattern for gay pride is rainbows, then what should the pattern be for straight pride? You guessed it... flannel.

Date tonight with Jackie... life is good.

Feeling: Okay

I had a strange dream about little computer devices everywhere. Before going to bed I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley. I wonder if they're somehow related? Nah!

I finally got around to ordering my very first notebook computer. I'll probably receive it some time next week. It's a pretty and shiny new HP Pavilion dv9010us Entertainment Notebook PC.

Oh yes, about five years ago I was playing around with the Game Genie codes of a few games and I found something really cool in the game Super C. There are two hidden weapons that you can't get normally. Well, today I finally got around to putting it up on the Web. Instead of bothering with the annoying Game Genie codes, I show you how to do it with FCE Ultra cheat codes. Take a look at the NES hacking page under the Super C entry.

Here's a little something that appeared in my inbox, a link to underware that's fun to wear!

Feeling: Lonely

Wanna see Kimberly's kitten Isaac trying to consume my toes? Isn't he just an adorable varmint?

I added some more ROM offsets to the Kid Icarus and Contra ROM notes. I also added a section for the NES NTSC color palette in the NES hacking page.

*sigh* I need some excitement... Maybe I'll try to rob a bank in a SCUBA suit while yodeling and at the same time juggling live yaks named Earl. Nah, I think someone else already did it.

Feeling: Sad

I spent the last weekend with Kimberly that I will for some time since she's moving to Missouri at the end of January. We were hoping to get to go skiing, but global warming has prevented us from doing such... even in the middle of January. Well, we still had a good time, even if she still makes fun of my awesome taste in music.

I've added some more hacking notes to the NES hacking page. There is now information about the game Contra, and also a mess of memory offsets for Section Z.

If you ever feel the need to convert your old NES console into a DVD player, take a look at this.

Feeling: Aggravated

I had to be to work two hours earlier this morning since several people are out of the office. My red eyes and yawns are a testament to how much I disapprove. As a bonus I also had to setup a new client today (which is a stressful time in and of itself), but for added rapture I got to spend several hours trying to support someone else's code that doesn't work on a new system (as humor would have it, the person who wrote the code is one of the people that is in a different state). But the real coup de grāce happened when I was debugging the code... Do you remember that big problem I had at the beginning of this week with a bunch of clients all needing software updates... well I accidentally deleted all of the code that I wrote for the fixes while debugging this new problem. The good news is that they're all still running right now with no problems. The bad news is that I need to try and write about fifty lines of code from memory, and any screw ups will cause the clients to go down again. I'm just bursting with jubilance. Seriously, I have jubilance just spewing out of my ass. I need some DDR to calm my nerves.

Enough bitching, the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation now has the Kid Icarus soundtrack.

Feeling: Lonely

The Videogame Music Preservation Foundation has been updated with the MIDI soundtrack from Age of Empires.

I've posted the Kid Icarus hacking notes and text table, and I also finished recording the soundtrack which I should have posted tomorrow.

Feeling: Lonely

Do you know what the world of cinema needs more of these days? 80's montages. On a completely unrelated note, I watched The Karate Kid last night.

While eating dinner last night I was accosted by one of the servers. He wanted to know what I was reading (Starship Titanic). He looked like a typical "Flint thug"; his head was shaved and he had a goatee and his walk and talk were loud and boisterous; certainly not that of a nerd. My first impression was curiosity. Why was he interested in my book when he doesn't even look like he can read, besides this book doesn't have pictures of 9mm's, drugs, or gang signs. As soon as he heard the word starship from the title he immediately began raving about several novels in the Star Wars and Warcraft book series, and then about how he just started getting into role-playing. He was a newly formed geek; how quaint. Like most newly formed geeks he still had the appearance of a non-geek and didn't know proper geek etiquette as he continued to ramble on about books I had no intention of ever reading, but even worse, those "had to be there" moments of role-playing that nobody else cares about (sadly, even most veteran geeks never learn that this is poor etiquette). I was happy for him that he was able to find an intellectual pursuit, but I still wished he go away because I wanted to continue eating my yummy Cajun chicken sandwich.

I also started working on a bit of hacking of Kid Icarus's memory. I've deduced the bulk of the character's variables (life, hearts, feathers, power-ups, etc.) and a few others. I'll have the notes up soon, but I'm also working on getting the soundtrack recorded as well.

Feeling: Okay

There is another soundtrack into the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation. This time I added the Japanese release of The Goonies for the Famicom.

I also started a new section in the game hacking page which is specifically for NES hacking. It's not much now other than some notes about hacking a few games, but I'll update it every so often.

Work has been extremely tedious the past couple of days. Eight of our clients were updated by their manufacturers which caused our software to fail on all of them. I've been working on fixing each one manually which has been a total pain in my fingers.

Feeling: Sleepy

On Friday night I stayed out late and went bowling. It was actually a humbling experience because it was with six other women, five of which were lesbians and the other was married. I can't remember a time when I've been surrounded by that many women and completely ignored (well, not since high school anyway).

On Sunday I drove up to Frankenmuth, especially the Bavarian Inn to hit up their arcade, specifically DDR Super Nova.

Also, over the weekend I watched the movie Holes, which has several deviations from the book. Once again a fat hero was replaced by a skinny one, and the ending was far more happy-go-lucky than the book. Overall, the movie was more childish, which is rather annoying.

I also finished reading A Wind In the Door once more. It doesn't rank up there with A Wrinkle In Time, but it's still pretty good.

For actual updates today I've added the Kung Fu Kim soundtrack into the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation.

Feeling: Cold Sore

This morning was so warm that I couldn't even see my breath because it's 48 degrees and getting warmer. We're expecting a high of 50, but a high of 30 is the average. That's only twenty degrees warmer, I'm sure that's not a significant amount. Way to go Bush, keep those oil fires burning. Don't waste any of your war money on the environment.

Work was pretty solid today. Luckily, I get a nice weekend of recuperation from the week. Actually, the week wasn't too bad, I just still haven't recovered from last weekend!

Feeling: Cold Sore

Nothing says lovin' like a good day at home doing nothing, and that's exactly what I did yesterday. I watched Mythbusters, ate left-overs, cleaned up my hard drives a little and went to bed early. All in all it was a right boring evening, but that's just what I needed.

There is a cosmetic update to the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation that completes the template change which I started several months ago. I should have a new soundtrack up pretty soon.

I have a new obsession song, as seen to the right. A Pirate Looks At Forty by Jimmy Buffett. I'm not a big Buffett fan, but I really like that song.

You know what movie scene climax really rocks my socks? The head cuttin' duel in the movie Crossroads (the 1986 movie, not that piece of offal with Britney Spears). Although the movie shows Steve Vai and Ralph Macchio playing, the real guitar work was done by Steve Vai and Ry Cooder. Cooder played all the slide guitar riffs while Vai played all of own work and Macchio's final riff. The two perform an amazing sound, but the last riff done by Steve Vai is just amazing. Steve Vai also gives awesome presence in the movie looking nicely demonic like any great rock guitarist should. The whole duel puts a huge grin on my face every time I watch it. It's amazes me that someone can actually play a guitar with that much speed and precision. It's s shame that they digress from the whole point of the movie (that the blues isn't about merely playing guitar, it's about the suffering and strife that gives it its soul) and finish with a hellacious mutation of classical Paganini which is at the opposite end of the music spectrum, but since I'm not a huge blues fan I'm not that bothered. You can watch it on YouTube, and you can also listen to it on Steve Vai's album The Elusive Light and Sound, Volume 1 (Tracks 5 and 6).

December's updates have been moved to the old news page.

Feeling: Cold Sore

Last night with Tabree was a lot of fun. We got caught up with what's been happening in each other's lives, and she still thinks I'm awesome beyond all belief (honest, would I make something like that up?). Although she ended up wasting me at bowling. I was behind for the first three game, but I finally beat her on the forth game. (Luckily her arm wears out faster than mine!)

The lame thing is that when I woke up yesterday it felt like I was getting a cold sore on my lower lip, and sure enough, I am. Luckily, I started putting acyclovir on it fairly early in its development, so it shouldn't last very long.

I've resorted the game fonts page to be ordered by the name of the game, or failing that, the font title. This appears to be a much easier way to search. I'm thinking about breaking it up into a more like how the Videogame Music Preservation Foundation is setup, thus you'd pick the game you'd want, and you'd see all the fonts associated with it. The problem comes from fonts that can't easily be associated to a game. I'm in no hurry though, so maybe in the future.

My gurus have answered another terribly easy question.

Feeling: Sleepy

I must really learn to quit deviating from my sleeping schedule so much. Even though I stayed home alone for the "new year" I stayed up late playing videogames and watching movies. While lying down last night I kept looking at my clock and just watched the hours fly by in a waking boredom. I don't remember seeing 5 or 7, but I got to watch every other hour tick away nice and slowly. You can be sure that I'm in tip-top condition today. I actually yawned while writing that. I guess I need to work harder at self-deception as well.

Since we're talking about videogames; on Friday I started playing ActRaiser--on Monday I beat ActRaiser. It was a really cool game meshing a sword swinging platformer with something akin to SIM City. Plus, any game where you get to play god is alright in my book. All of the bosses, were really easy, up until the final boss which meant beating a supped-up version of six earlier bosses, and then the final boss who had hit points coming out of his ears.

I doubt I'm the only person who gets weirded out when I hear a phone conversation coming from the stall of a public restroom. The thing that weirds me out even more is that there are people who don't mind having conversations in the stalls of public restrooms. For future reference to all of my friends, if I call you and you're on a toilet taking care of your "paper work", just call me back later.

Most people simply treat Scientology as a joke, but the people of Clearwater Florida often see how criminal they can be, even to the point of having sway in the local law enforcement. Of course, this is pretty much the same with any religion and law enforcement.

This evening I'm going to hang out with my old friend Tabree whom I haven't seen since last year. Wow, I wasn't even trying to make a pun there, but I guess it happened anyway. Yes, I know it's the second of January, and I'm seeing a lot of people for the first time since last year, but what I meant to say was that I haven't seen Tabree in around 360 days.