Tales from the Land of Linux

Well, I still have my old habits of procrastination, but that's no big deal, I hope! The main thing that's been going on is that I've been experimenting with Linux. I currently have Fedora Core 6, and after initial difficulties it's been pretty simple. Of course, by "initial difficulties" I mean that I had to make manual adjustments just to get the login screen to load up. And then the headache of setting up a so-called "Winmodem". Oh well. It's working reasonably well now.

In other news, I had a concert on Thursday night. We did pretty well, if I do say so myself, and I had a 4-measure solo in one of the pieces. We played Selections from Fantasia, Peter and the Wolf, Rock and Roll Classic!, and Scottish Tryptich. Those probably don't ring a bell (except Fantasia), but anyway...

I've also been on the lookout for good Linux games, and I'd appreciate a note if you find any. I found one promising one that runs mainly on Windows but can be compiled on Linux. It's a 3D roguelike called Egoboo, and you can find it's homepage here. I just found it today, so I haven't tried it yet. The page looks rather outdated, and the wiki is REALLY outdated, but there's signs of recent activity on the forums.

That being said, I'll hopefully try to make another post before the new year. (I think I know what my New Year's resolution is going to be...)

Don't Even MENTION Nano...

Alright, I'll admit it: I haven't worked on my novel in over a week! I only have about 8000 words right now. I think I'm going to give up. I don't even find my story interesting anymore, which is a real problem.

In other news, I've migrated to Blogger beta, and with that comes another interface change. I've put up my (updated) game list for all to see, whether it be geeky or not. Dreams have been off the radar, but I have been sick a lot lately. I stayed home from school three times already this month, which is about what I average per year. My parents had me take a blood test last Friday to see if it might be diabetes (I had/have persistant fatigue and thirst). I haven't heard back yet, so let's hope no news is good news. :)

Finally, my dad had mentioned to me a couple days ago that he used to have a Commodore 64 and has kept it in the closet. I dug it out yesterday, but I know some parts are missing. I can't connect it to our new TV either, it seems. But I've heard that, for those who can't stand the thought of soldering, that Radio Shack might be the answer. Wish me luck with that, and drop me a line if you know anything about commodores.

Edit: Two little things. First, with the beta comes label technology, so you can zone in on certain categories. It doesn't do much now, with so few posts, but... Also, I just realized that I have this odd tendency to stick elipses into my post titles. :P

The woes of NaNoWriMo...

Well, it's Nov. 4th and so far I still have my sanity... but that may or may not change. Really, I'm surprised that I have the time to post here. I'm at around 4600 words right now, and I was supposed to be at 5000 words by the end of yesterday. Oh well. I didn't exactly have much of a social life before, so...

In any case, I've been too lazy to upload the thing in its entirety yet, but I posted two short excerpts on my NaNoWriMo profile. That's my link of the day.

There's one final thing I want to share. It's kind of sad, actually, but since I love crunching numbers I have percentages complete for all my favorite video games. If anyone cares, heres the list:

Kingdom Hearts - 7%
Dark Cloud 2 - 9%
Okami - 25%
Final Fantasy 7 - 5%
Morrowind - 3%
Oblivion - 5%
Neverwinter Nights - 2%
Doukutsu - 95% (Just can't beat the secret level...)
Zelda: Wind Waker - 15%
The Sims 2 - N/A
Warcraft 3 - 25%
FATE - N/A

Time is tight, so farewell and good luck to all fellow Nanoers... Oh, and if anyone actually reads this, please let me know.

Oh, uh... Oops?

Well, what can I say? School makes things busier than ever. I'm just posting to let whoever may actually be reading this that it'll be even more deserted here (if possible) starting tomorrow. That's because NaNoWriMo starts, and I'm going to try for 50k. I made it last year, so I'm not worried at all. I only have the vaguest of an idea: This alcoholic drunk guy will end up in prison for some crime, sharing a cell with a hippie. They somehow have to work together to break out unless he wants to slowly go insane. The rest of the plot will just kind of magically appear on the page like it did last year. It's getting late, so I have to get some sleep. Wish me luck!

It's About Time I feel better...

Ugh... I had started getting a stuffy nose last tuesday, and I stayed home Friday because I still had it. But I didn't actually get the full sickness until yesterday. I woke up at around 4:45 AM and shortly thereafter I started shaking uncontrollably. Needless to say, it wasn't fun and I stayed home that day as well. But compared to what is sounded like my dad had for all of last night, I should consider myself lucky... I only had diarrhea once, but he had it (along with puking) pretty much all night! :(

I'm feeling better now, which is good, but I also had / have a LOT of makeup work to do, which is bad. I'll have to get up early tomorrow to get to jazz band. It starts at 7:10 AM and I usually get to school at 7:30. Oh well. Everything will be fine. I was getting sick of being sick :P.

Oh, wow! I better get offline and go to bed now. The next major event in my life is probably a braces tightening on Thursday. I guarantee that my orthodontist will be furious (hey, I don't know ANY teens who make brushing 4x a day and flossing, and mouthwash a priority, so...). Anyway, I'll be back! I mean, I'm getting better, right? It only took about 1.5 weeks this time!

So much to catch up on, so little time...

Okay, well, I'll just be blunt here and say that I'm not all that good at keeping promises. :P But hey, I said it wouldn't be four months, and it was only two-and-a-half! I have a lot to tell you and I'm not sure where to start.

First of all, you've probably noticed that I've made some changes to the way my blog looks. In a fit of random motivation, I changed the general look of it and the header description. I also added a hit counter and a guestbook, both of which are found right at the bottom of the page. If you leave notes for me there, I might just post more often! :)

Also, I lost my job, oh, say, a month ago. I accidentally messed up and failed an alcohol Sting Test. (I'd never had one before, whoops!) The $100 fine wasn't too nice either. :(

Oh, and one last thing: I have taken up my interest in dreams again recently, and I will probably start a dedicated blog for those soon. There's a nice forum about lucid dreaming that I have linked to. Simply put, lucid dreaming is realizing that you're dreaming while still in the dream! I had a brief one on Monday and it was great. ^_^

Oh, okay, one really really final last thing: I just don't seem as interested in The Sims anymore, but still play Oblivion on and off. With that, I bid you farewell. (I will post again this week! I will I will I will...)

Uhh... My life had some technical difficulties?

I don't really have a good reason for not posting in so long. My best excuse is that I've been busy playing games, and isn't that what this blog is all about? ;) In any case, I'll tell you that I've been rather busy, even though it's summer. Last Monday I got a job at our local supermarket as a cashier, and I finally got my first paycheck yesterday. It was my day off, so of course my family had to drive down 1.5 hours to Best Buy so I could upgrade my graphics card. :) I got an awesome Radeon X1600 Pro to replace my Radeon X300, and from a test this morning I can tell you that the difference is night and day. I can finally run Oblivion at decent settings!

I've also been busy making a game of my own, but progress is slow. My website is having a bit of trouble last time I checked, so I haven't updated a new version yet. (The website itself is a wasteland - hasn't been updated since December.) However, I have here a link to a semi-recent version of my game. Working title? "Matrix World". Lame, I know, but for a first game it's not too bad so far.

I'll be back soon (this time I mean it, and "soon" doesn't mean 4 months from now).

The Elder Scrolls and The Sims: My "Favorites"

Admit it: Every gamer has his or her "Favorites". Despite how you say you like all the games in your collection, you probably have a few that you'd, for instance, grab first in the event of a fire. My two favorites happen to both be for the PC. I love Morrowind, the third in the Elder Scrolls Series, and The Sims 2. Because of this, I'm hoping to buy an expansion pack for the Sims tomorrow. On Thursday, I'll be getting Oblivion, the "sequel" to Morrowind.

My questions to you are: 1. What are your favorite games?
2. What expansion pack do you recommend I buy tomorrow? I really like all of them and can't choose.

P.S. Fellow gamers waiting for Oblivion, take heart: I will post a review of it as soon as I can.