Journals
One fine day, I was just on steam browsing thru some free stuff, when I came upon what seems like weird-looking visual novel-ish game. If you didn't know, a visual novel is an anime played out in a video game.
The steam game turned out to be a cross between a visual novel, final fantasy, and zelda. Can you imagine what it is like. The premise is: your dad abandoned you in your home, leaving you with a huge debt. The Fairy World Loan Office comes to your home one day to collect your payment, but your daddy high tailed it and left you to deal with the loan officer. So, since you are unable to pay, they threaten to foreclose on your ass, and you will be forced to live in a box. Luckily, the loan officer takes pity on you and gives you about a week to repay part of the debt (10,000).
Oh, I forgot to mention, you are a prepubescent girl. So, I wonder how the flip you can get the 10,000 in one week. Well, I'm sure you've played some final fantasy, so go be an adventurer and save the world? The random monsters you defeat are sure to drop cash like they drop droppings. Oh, but wait. You're a prepubescent NPC girl, not some RPG game's main character. So, I guess you can do what smart NPC's do: sell items and crap.
There you have it. Your role in this game is to run a final fantasy style item shop, selling stuff to NPC's and adventurers who will get all the glory from killing monsters with the iron sword they bought from your little shop. But the game isn't as plain as "iron sword - 1200gp" Apparently, you are tutored by the loan officer to sell your stuff at rip-off prices. A "heal HP by 20" crappy item can be sold by you for over a hundred rupees. And what's worse, your customers are gonna haggle with you like you're some kind of low-brow flea market. As a grade-school girl under a huge debt, you need to be in tune with the fine art of business and shopkeeping. Good luck.
BUT BUT BUT that aspect is only half the game. The other half involves you hiring diablo-2-ish adventurers (who may also become your customers) to battle in the dungeons and pick up random drops. You can then take the items dropped by the digusting monsters and sell them to everyday people. That apple that your customer just bought was dropped by a hideous wolf-sized spider in the dungeons. Nah, it's okay. Don't ask, don't tell. Then everyone's happy.
You've played all those RPG's where you buy equipment and potions from those item shops you frequent. Well today you can be one of those item shops, to see what it's like. But since this community is centered on an action game involving direct interactions with monsters, this particular game may not be your cup of coffee. I actually never played this game. But if you are a business or economics major or something like that, then maybe you would be interested in this game.
Name? Oh, er, I think it called race tear or something. It's very early in the list of steam demos.
The steam game turned out to be a cross between a visual novel, final fantasy, and zelda. Can you imagine what it is like. The premise is: your dad abandoned you in your home, leaving you with a huge debt. The Fairy World Loan Office comes to your home one day to collect your payment, but your daddy high tailed it and left you to deal with the loan officer. So, since you are unable to pay, they threaten to foreclose on your ass, and you will be forced to live in a box. Luckily, the loan officer takes pity on you and gives you about a week to repay part of the debt (10,000).
Oh, I forgot to mention, you are a prepubescent girl. So, I wonder how the flip you can get the 10,000 in one week. Well, I'm sure you've played some final fantasy, so go be an adventurer and save the world? The random monsters you defeat are sure to drop cash like they drop droppings. Oh, but wait. You're a prepubescent NPC girl, not some RPG game's main character. So, I guess you can do what smart NPC's do: sell items and crap.
There you have it. Your role in this game is to run a final fantasy style item shop, selling stuff to NPC's and adventurers who will get all the glory from killing monsters with the iron sword they bought from your little shop. But the game isn't as plain as "iron sword - 1200gp" Apparently, you are tutored by the loan officer to sell your stuff at rip-off prices. A "heal HP by 20" crappy item can be sold by you for over a hundred rupees. And what's worse, your customers are gonna haggle with you like you're some kind of low-brow flea market. As a grade-school girl under a huge debt, you need to be in tune with the fine art of business and shopkeeping. Good luck.
BUT BUT BUT that aspect is only half the game. The other half involves you hiring diablo-2-ish adventurers (who may also become your customers) to battle in the dungeons and pick up random drops. You can then take the items dropped by the digusting monsters and sell them to everyday people. That apple that your customer just bought was dropped by a hideous wolf-sized spider in the dungeons. Nah, it's okay. Don't ask, don't tell. Then everyone's happy.
You've played all those RPG's where you buy equipment and potions from those item shops you frequent. Well today you can be one of those item shops, to see what it's like. But since this community is centered on an action game involving direct interactions with monsters, this particular game may not be your cup of coffee. I actually never played this game. But if you are a business or economics major or something like that, then maybe you would be interested in this game.
Name? Oh, er, I think it called race tear or something. It's very early in the list of steam demos.
Repairing my audio system was a success! I have such a cool feeling I could do this by myself.
Here's the link to my blogpost:
http://sjackm.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/repairing-the-audio-system/
Here's the link to my blogpost:
http://sjackm.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/repairing-the-audio-system/
Hey guys, I'm having this problem with my video card... It's an Nvidia Geforce 7600GS. Basically what's wrong is, A couple of days ago I downloaded the latest driver from the Nvidia website, It searched my system and told me which one to download and said it's for my model as well as many other newer cards... Anyway, since I've had this new driver installed, my pc keeps getting the blue screen of death and freezing up commonly, I'm ultra sure it's the new drivers fault since it's been happening since I installed it, and I'm pretty sure Nvidia won't bother fixing this error for a 4 year old card, so what should I do guys? I'm thinking of buying a new card soon anyway, but I don't have the money for it (I want something good so I don't have to upgrade for some time). So I have to fix this somehow in the mean time.
I'm posting this message using Firefox on Ubuntu. Well, at least virtually speaking.
I just installed 'VirtualBox'(open source software) that gives me the ability to run(or emulate?) a machine(computer) inside my OS, hence giving me the ability to run different operating systems and try them out.
I only installed it because I really wanted to try Ubuntu without too much hustle.
It's really cool though. I may not be able to run windows applications but if I had a notebook I'd definitely install Ubuntu on it :).
I just installed 'VirtualBox'(open source software) that gives me the ability to run(or emulate?) a machine(computer) inside my OS, hence giving me the ability to run different operating systems and try them out.
I only installed it because I really wanted to try Ubuntu without too much hustle.
It's really cool though. I may not be able to run windows applications but if I had a notebook I'd definitely install Ubuntu on it :).
Hello all!
First off i would like to thank every one of you who wished me good luck! The surgery went VERY well and i was off the table and in the recovery room quicker than the predicted minimum operating time. (4-6 hours) I had ZERO incisions made (unless you consider an IV an incision, which you shouldnt) But they took 2 IV's and went in thru my groin, and fixed everything from there.
The IV's are located right about where the middle of your thighs meet the pelvic area.
So i came out of heart surgery with 2 pieces of gauze taped to me
Here's all the details if you would like;
Woke up at 5:00 to leave my house at 5:30. Picked up my dad at his place around 5:45, and got to the hospital around 6:20. We checked in and i was immediatley instructed to put on that silly gown thingy and these REALLY uncomfortable socks with rubber sticky pads on the bottom (and top, for those who can't wear socks properly?) Anyway, they take my vitals, put me on an EKG, take blood pressure, the whole 9 yards, and then they prepared my gurney (rolling hospital bed) for the journey down to the O.R.
So i get into the O.R. and what i see was fascinating.
That was not the lab, but that picture is almost exactly what i saw in the lab. A table with multiple monitors on it, and some other equipment floating around in the lab.
They put these special stickypads on me as to make a 3-d picture of my heart (i think) and of course, the automatic blood pressure thingy, and all the other stickys for the EKG and stuff.
While they were preparing me they asked me what type of music i liked; i responded with classic rock, and within 30 seconds, they had "The Dark Side of The Moon" playing throughout the SURROUND SOUND SPEAKER SYSTEM.
So i'm getting nice and comfy on the bed, checking out my 3-d heart beat (it was really freaking cool) when the anesthesiologist team came in and started to prepare me for going under.
this was BY FAR the worse part (and the part i remember most) -
It was a team of 2, a younger looking guy (presumabley straight out of med school) and an older, more experienced / less nervous looking fellow. So first they prepare the inside of my elbow for IV insertion. (This IV is for the fluids, and so called 'happy juice') the older doc told the younger one not to do it there, because then my arm can't bend. So they un-did the tournaquette, and flipped my arm over and proceded to find a vein on my forearm about 2 inches above thumb-side of my wrist. So they re-apply the tournaquette lower on my arm and start slapping my arm to find a vein.
Mr. New guy is prodding me with an Iv for about a minute trying to find that damn vein. Well he cant find it, so they move on to my hand.
He trys again on my hand, slapping away - at this point i'm not looking because i'm REALLY anxious and IV's just freak me the hell out.. Anyway, i feel the pinch, and a certain degree of relieif comes over me until he hits some type of nerve and a very sharp pain shoots up my arm, into my neck and down my right side all at once....
To which i responded..
"Ohhhhhhh... what was that..."
Mr new guy said, "oh i'm sorry that was my fault", withdrew the IV, and handed the reins over to mr. experience.
Who got the iv in first shot, btw.
So i'm almost twitching out of my skin at this point, just Irked by what just happened.. and then mr.experience screws a little syrange into my IV line and says.. "Ok now just relax while we give you some "happy juice""
So about 5 seconds after that... i didnt give a shit about anything really.
my hand and arm still felt odd and incomfortable, and i felt the burn of the 3 IV holes.. but still.. didnt care..
I sat like that for about a minute before i got tired, and decided to fall asleep.
I awake from my dream in a haze, very tired, and wanting to go back to sleep. I see a doctor above me, talking, but i have no idea what he's saying. I'm wheeled back to the waiting room, transferred to my bed, and in walks my family: Mom, Dad, G/F, and Aunt. Along with a few nurses.
I felt like i was out for 20 minutes... turns out it was almost 3.5 hours, and the surgery just went extrememly well. From what was told to me, i had a pretty basic case of SVT, and when they were in my heart, the abnormal heartbeat was easy to cause.
They cauterized the area with the extra circuit, and couldnt cause the abnormal heartbeat to happen again.
Long story short they made me chill at the hospital for another 2 hours.. i just watched discovery channel, and had some lunch (some sort of meat with mashed potatoes and green beans - which was surprisingly good, and definitly satisfying seeing as how i didnt eat since the night before)
So all in all i can't lift anything over 10lbs for 3 days, really can't shower until tomorrow[friday] (ugh fucking gross), and then i can't jog or bike or do anything too strenuous for another 2-3 weeks after that.
I'm essentially back to normal! yay
As for recovery, Yesterday my GF and i did some..re-arranging of my bedroom.
We took the nightstand next to my bed and put it at the foot of my bed. I stole my mom's wireless mouse, (traded with my G9 - which she loves and i'm afraid im not gonna get it back) and i moved my computer into the middle of my room. I put my 23" widescreen on the nightstand and with my new copy of netflix i can stream any movie i'd ever want straight to my CPU monitor.
Plus with windows 7 magnifier and on screen keyboard all i had to do was navigate with the mouse and have almost full control of my computer.
Yesterday my girl and i watched the first 7 episodes of SG:SG1 before passing out at like 10:30 lol.
I'm typing this from my mom's laptop in the kitchen right now.
I can walk and stuff, but the IV locations are pretty tender. Kinda wierd to sit and stand from sitting, however.
First off i would like to thank every one of you who wished me good luck! The surgery went VERY well and i was off the table and in the recovery room quicker than the predicted minimum operating time. (4-6 hours) I had ZERO incisions made (unless you consider an IV an incision, which you shouldnt) But they took 2 IV's and went in thru my groin, and fixed everything from there.
The IV's are located right about where the middle of your thighs meet the pelvic area.
So i came out of heart surgery with 2 pieces of gauze taped to me
Here's all the details if you would like;
Woke up at 5:00 to leave my house at 5:30. Picked up my dad at his place around 5:45, and got to the hospital around 6:20. We checked in and i was immediatley instructed to put on that silly gown thingy and these REALLY uncomfortable socks with rubber sticky pads on the bottom (and top, for those who can't wear socks properly?) Anyway, they take my vitals, put me on an EKG, take blood pressure, the whole 9 yards, and then they prepared my gurney (rolling hospital bed) for the journey down to the O.R.
So i get into the O.R. and what i see was fascinating.
They put these special stickypads on me as to make a 3-d picture of my heart (i think) and of course, the automatic blood pressure thingy, and all the other stickys for the EKG and stuff.
While they were preparing me they asked me what type of music i liked; i responded with classic rock, and within 30 seconds, they had "The Dark Side of The Moon" playing throughout the SURROUND SOUND SPEAKER SYSTEM.
So i'm getting nice and comfy on the bed, checking out my 3-d heart beat (it was really freaking cool) when the anesthesiologist team came in and started to prepare me for going under.
this was BY FAR the worse part (and the part i remember most) -
It was a team of 2, a younger looking guy (presumabley straight out of med school) and an older, more experienced / less nervous looking fellow. So first they prepare the inside of my elbow for IV insertion. (This IV is for the fluids, and so called 'happy juice') the older doc told the younger one not to do it there, because then my arm can't bend. So they un-did the tournaquette, and flipped my arm over and proceded to find a vein on my forearm about 2 inches above thumb-side of my wrist. So they re-apply the tournaquette lower on my arm and start slapping my arm to find a vein.
Mr. New guy is prodding me with an Iv for about a minute trying to find that damn vein. Well he cant find it, so they move on to my hand.
He trys again on my hand, slapping away - at this point i'm not looking because i'm REALLY anxious and IV's just freak me the hell out.. Anyway, i feel the pinch, and a certain degree of relieif comes over me until he hits some type of nerve and a very sharp pain shoots up my arm, into my neck and down my right side all at once....
To which i responded..
"Ohhhhhhh... what was that..."
Mr new guy said, "oh i'm sorry that was my fault", withdrew the IV, and handed the reins over to mr. experience.
Who got the iv in first shot, btw.
So i'm almost twitching out of my skin at this point, just Irked by what just happened.. and then mr.experience screws a little syrange into my IV line and says.. "Ok now just relax while we give you some "happy juice""
So about 5 seconds after that... i didnt give a shit about anything really.
my hand and arm still felt odd and incomfortable, and i felt the burn of the 3 IV holes.. but still.. didnt care..
I sat like that for about a minute before i got tired, and decided to fall asleep.
I awake from my dream in a haze, very tired, and wanting to go back to sleep. I see a doctor above me, talking, but i have no idea what he's saying. I'm wheeled back to the waiting room, transferred to my bed, and in walks my family: Mom, Dad, G/F, and Aunt. Along with a few nurses.
I felt like i was out for 20 minutes... turns out it was almost 3.5 hours, and the surgery just went extrememly well. From what was told to me, i had a pretty basic case of SVT, and when they were in my heart, the abnormal heartbeat was easy to cause.
They cauterized the area with the extra circuit, and couldnt cause the abnormal heartbeat to happen again.
Long story short they made me chill at the hospital for another 2 hours.. i just watched discovery channel, and had some lunch (some sort of meat with mashed potatoes and green beans - which was surprisingly good, and definitly satisfying seeing as how i didnt eat since the night before)
So all in all i can't lift anything over 10lbs for 3 days, really can't shower until tomorrow[friday] (ugh fucking gross), and then i can't jog or bike or do anything too strenuous for another 2-3 weeks after that.
I'm essentially back to normal! yay
As for recovery, Yesterday my GF and i did some..re-arranging of my bedroom.
We took the nightstand next to my bed and put it at the foot of my bed. I stole my mom's wireless mouse, (traded with my G9 - which she loves and i'm afraid im not gonna get it back) and i moved my computer into the middle of my room. I put my 23" widescreen on the nightstand and with my new copy of netflix i can stream any movie i'd ever want straight to my CPU monitor.
Plus with windows 7 magnifier and on screen keyboard all i had to do was navigate with the mouse and have almost full control of my computer.
Yesterday my girl and i watched the first 7 episodes of SG:SG1 before passing out at like 10:30 lol.
I'm typing this from my mom's laptop in the kitchen right now.
I can walk and stuff, but the IV locations are pretty tender. Kinda wierd to sit and stand from sitting, however.
MAC owners. More money than sense it seems. :/
On top of this, my friend has an iPhone and had to replace his headphones recently because they got a little damp in the rain. I'm talking the nasty little earplug headphones, not some big, sound enhancing headset.
Cost to replace the flimsy things? ?20!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Apple can eat a dick.
Cost to replace the flimsy things? ?20!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Apple can eat a dick.
Hello TWHL
Tomorrow AM I go in for heart surgery.
It's nothing major, but i figure you all should know.
By "nothing major" i mean that the operation is not 'open heart' and there will be no incisions made to my skin.
If you remember some time ago i informed you all of a... condition i have called SVT. Well I could do one of 2 things to combat this;
1) i can take beta blockers to lower my heart rate for the rest of my life and hope that's enough to get me by.
2) i can have a surgical procedure done, and it all goes away.
Naturally i chose the surgery because who wants to be on meds for the rest of their life? Not me.
About the surgery:
The procedure i'm having done is called an ablation.
And if you click that link you'll note the quote:"removal of material from the surface of an object".
And if you read up on SVT you'll know that i have an extra electrical pathway running down my heart.
So if you put one and one together, i get one less electrical pathway in my heart.
They're going in I.V. (intravenous, or into-vein for all you NOT sitting on a cushion), and they will be entering the inside of my heart.
Once inside the doctors will try to trigger the SVT (REALLY fast abnormal heartbeat) using whatever means necessary (usually adrenaline). After they have caused the abnormal heartbeat to occur, the doctors will take their laser, or high-frequency burner, and proceed to ablate, or shave off, or burn, or destroy, that extraneous pathway in my heart.
Once they think they have gotten rid of it, they will shoot me up with some more adrenaline and if my heartbeat slows to normal after it all wears off, the surgery will be a success, and i will be back to normal!
Things to note:
1) The doctor who is performing my procedure has been doing this since 1988 (the year i was born) and has done literally 1000's of procedures.
2) nobody has ever died from this procedure under this man's watch
3) with 2 being said, the worst case scenario is that they can't pinpoint the cause of the irregular heartbeat, and a) they have to do it again some other time, or b) they get it, but i have more than 1 extra path, and they didn't get that one.
So, now that you have the facts, any questions?
Tomorrow AM I go in for heart surgery.
It's nothing major, but i figure you all should know.
By "nothing major" i mean that the operation is not 'open heart' and there will be no incisions made to my skin.
If you remember some time ago i informed you all of a... condition i have called SVT. Well I could do one of 2 things to combat this;
1) i can take beta blockers to lower my heart rate for the rest of my life and hope that's enough to get me by.
2) i can have a surgical procedure done, and it all goes away.
Naturally i chose the surgery because who wants to be on meds for the rest of their life? Not me.
About the surgery:
The procedure i'm having done is called an ablation.
And if you click that link you'll note the quote:"removal of material from the surface of an object".
And if you read up on SVT you'll know that i have an extra electrical pathway running down my heart.
So if you put one and one together, i get one less electrical pathway in my heart.
They're going in I.V. (intravenous, or into-vein for all you NOT sitting on a cushion), and they will be entering the inside of my heart.
Once inside the doctors will try to trigger the SVT (REALLY fast abnormal heartbeat) using whatever means necessary (usually adrenaline). After they have caused the abnormal heartbeat to occur, the doctors will take their laser, or high-frequency burner, and proceed to ablate, or shave off, or burn, or destroy, that extraneous pathway in my heart.
Once they think they have gotten rid of it, they will shoot me up with some more adrenaline and if my heartbeat slows to normal after it all wears off, the surgery will be a success, and i will be back to normal!
Things to note:
1) The doctor who is performing my procedure has been doing this since 1988 (the year i was born) and has done literally 1000's of procedures.
2) nobody has ever died from this procedure under this man's watch
3) with 2 being said, the worst case scenario is that they can't pinpoint the cause of the irregular heartbeat, and a) they have to do it again some other time, or b) they get it, but i have more than 1 extra path, and they didn't get that one.
So, now that you have the facts, any questions?
Thanks to the Mighty atom, I just got to play another 17 great HL2 maps. This new computer has a 64 bit OS, making it extremely incompatible with many old software, including HL1. I also remember back in may where you guys told me about how portal was free and I got to try it out too. Man, what a wonderful community here.
This week, the HL1 mod I want to talk about is Macky's adventures, made by those japanese people that you may be familiar with. As such, you will be taking the role of a little anime girl who will use a slingshot to fight evil baddies. This mod has an autoexec file that makes your gameplay occur in the third person. The maps are very boxy and plain, so don't harbor some high expectations. I also experienced cases where ammo was in really short supply, and fighting evil baddies with hornetguns using a melee weapon was really difficult. If you're interested, I'm pretty sure there is a moddb page on this yet another mod with weird themes.
*about that religious squabble: I liked the part crollo cited my exp: A thread about compo 28 somehow turned into a religio-political flamewar. Impressive.
This week, the HL1 mod I want to talk about is Macky's adventures, made by those japanese people that you may be familiar with. As such, you will be taking the role of a little anime girl who will use a slingshot to fight evil baddies. This mod has an autoexec file that makes your gameplay occur in the third person. The maps are very boxy and plain, so don't harbor some high expectations. I also experienced cases where ammo was in really short supply, and fighting evil baddies with hornetguns using a melee weapon was really difficult. If you're interested, I'm pretty sure there is a moddb page on this yet another mod with weird themes.
*about that religious squabble: I liked the part crollo cited my exp: A thread about compo 28 somehow turned into a religio-political flamewar. Impressive.
Well, my last day of freedom before the school year starts is wrapping up to a close. What did I do this summer? I played video games, went swimming, entered a compo, and generally relaxed.
Damn, I wish I had another month to do the same stuff in.
Well, see you tomorrow around 6:30 AM.
Damn, I wish I had another month to do the same stuff in.
Well, see you tomorrow around 6:30 AM.
WHO. IS. HUNGRY?!?!?!?!
Don't know if these work out side of the US, but dominoes pizza, is secretly giving out free Cinna Stix and soda, you can only get 1 soda per order, but the Cinna Stix have no limit. EBCS and EBFC. Carry out is free, delivery is not. Good luck, it worked for this Ameri-fag. Love you to.
Don't know if these work out side of the US, but dominoes pizza, is secretly giving out free Cinna Stix and soda, you can only get 1 soda per order, but the Cinna Stix have no limit. EBCS and EBFC. Carry out is free, delivery is not. Good luck, it worked for this Ameri-fag. Love you to.
It took me over two years, but I have finally found out that the name of the polyhedron I was looking for is tetrakis hexahedron.
It's a 24-sided regular polyhedron. Think of it as a cube whose square faces are turned into square pyramids.
I'm so happy.
It's a 24-sided regular polyhedron. Think of it as a cube whose square faces are turned into square pyramids.
SDK Proof Of Concept!
Got 2 of em:
1) steam engine sorta thingy... but not really..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5IkqaWXoE
2) R-type inspired airplane shooter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVKuo-G86fE
Using all the triggers and stuff in ep2 for the compo got my idea gears churning. Expect a bunch of random 30sec and under clips from me in the near future
Got 2 of em:
1) steam engine sorta thingy... but not really..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5IkqaWXoE
2) R-type inspired airplane shooter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVKuo-G86fE
Using all the triggers and stuff in ep2 for the compo got my idea gears churning. Expect a bunch of random 30sec and under clips from me in the near future
Aight, lets do this shit, i know this is a website about Mapping for HL/2 and stuff, but I mean, not every aspect has to be about mapping, right? Anyways, yesterday i told a girl I thought was my friend, girl A, that I liked another girl, girl B, shes pretty and is awesome at computing like me, and today, aperantly girl A told B i liked her....WHAT THE FUCK. She even promised not to tell, i mean, just, REALLY?
OK, post comments mocking my shitty life right after the three dots..
.
Also, for Maximum Mudkipz, use this
http://www.twhl.co.za/journals.php?id=6753&leet=2
OK, post comments mocking my shitty life right after the three dots..
.
Also, for Maximum Mudkipz, use this
http://www.twhl.co.za/journals.php?id=6753&leet=2
Just got Lyssa's MRI scan. {:<
Its a 3cm AVM between the occipital and temporal lobe on the right side. This calls for an embelization and a craniotomy back to back.