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Nov. 27th, 2009 @ 12:45 am Happy Snappy T
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Spiketail Hatchling
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I had a lot of fun, but let me get some ranting out:

Earlier this month, I was told I would have to leave my home in Cedarcrest-B for Turkey weekend so they could put all the stray students in Laurel-A. This is an inconvenience...

Later, there was some news: It costs $78 to stay the weekend. Further inconvenience.

Angie and I stop by the office to drop off our money and try to pick up our keys: She didn't have change for us, so we only paid $60. Why didn't she have change? Didn't she expect people to be giving her $80 and wanting $2 in change? Inconvenience. She tells us to check out email.

I do-- it says, "Anyone found in any other residence hall after 10 AM on Thursday will be charged with trespassing and made to leave campus—NO EXCEPTIONS AND NO EXCUSES!" So, according to netiquette, they're yelling at me. Furthermore, they told us, "You will return your key to the Residence Life Office at 120 Pinecrest by 3 PM Monday, November 30th, or you will be charged for a lost key." So, they're rude hard-asses because we can't drive home to our families. Inconvenience? More like rage.

So, this morning (Happy Thanksgiving, Mark!), I lug alll my shit up from Cedarcrest (and I do mean up-- this campus is -not- -at all- flat. Anywhere.) I stop by and get my key. Move into my room. I'm on a deserted girl's floor. I have to walk downstairs to use the bathroom. And they still want $80.

Then, after Thanksgiving lunch/dinner at a church in Wellsboro (which was cool, I suppose), we try to get back into the dorms-- and we're locked out. We get rudely handled by the folks at Doane (the only building still open), and then up comes Barney Fife to help us out. He accuses us of not having the right to be there-- otherwise our cards would work... right? After everybody else trying to get into the building (around 2PM) dispersed, Angie and I grabbed some stuff and waited around the lobby area. Other people would need to be let in, and we wanted to know when we could come and go or whatever.

Anyway, after talking with "Andy" on the phone, the door situation was finally figured out at 5:30PM. Yeah. We were in the lobby all that time. But then, where else would we go? The Mountie (the shuttle) isn't running... Manser's closed... North Hall's closed... Elliot's closed. You get the idea. $2200 for room and board, $80 extra for thanksgiving break, rudely treated, and waiting around, helped the guy trouble-shoot the door, otherwise he'd probably swear up and down that it worked when it really didn't...

WHAAAAAAT the HELLLLLLL?

The school's fantastic-- Comp Sci folks are awesome. Prof Phillips rocks j00r socks... but, seriously, some of their human relations could use to be better. Oh! And the RA on duty-- who's supposed to be at the desk right now-- is chilling in her room on B-side (which is closed) and has a sign on the desk, "Come on over if you need me! lol! I'm still getting paid!"

There are two types of people: really cool ones and people I'd love to punch in the face... with a hammer.

Otherwise, Angie and I got sugar highs, ate Swedish fish, drank diet pepsi and ran around like a bunch of five-year-olds, "played" the piano a bit, and worked a little on homework. Saw the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off... which is still funny. Guess it wasn't so bad... 'cept that I'm not made of money. If I didn't have the $80, I don't know where the fuck I'd be.

Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving, folks.
-Mark: The Guy Who Needs To Cheer Up For LiveJournal
Nov. 17th, 2009 @ 03:15 pm Here's a trick for you kids out there....
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Spiketail Hatchling
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Wanna impress somebody? Well, with what I just discovered, you probably won't.

Anyway, we were learning properties of binary numbers and we learned a method of subtraction using "2's Complement" addition. It's pretty spiffy. Then, I was like, "I wonder if you could do this in base 10." And you can! Now, subtracting ANY number is just as easy as subtracting from 9! No more regrouping! It's gonna be all the rage everywhere! Calculators will be thrown to the wayside and children will rejoice!

Who am I kidding? This is a drawn out process, so, here we go...

Example:

1695
-412
----
 ??


Step 1: Find the number with the most digits. (1695 has 4.)
Step 2: Write down 9's in the place of that number. (9999)
Step 3: Subract the subtractor in the original problem (412) from step 2 (9999-412=9587). This is the only subtraction you'll ever do in the process, and there will be absolutely no regrouping.
Step 4: (Magic step) Add one to step 3 (9588).
Step 5: Remember the number we haven't touched yet? Add that (1695) to step 4. (1695 + 9588 = 11283)
Step 6: Remember step 1? The number we wrote down is the same size as our result, if our result is larger (which it usually is), chop off the number(s) from the left until it's the right size. 1695 has 4 digits, so we chop off the one from the left side of our result in step 5. (11283 -> 1283)
Step 7: There is no step seven! You're done. 1283 is the answer.

Now, go and tell your friends. It even works with crap like 5 - 3. (9 - 3 is 6. And one is 7. 7 + 5 is 12, chop off the 1 and the result is 2. BAM! Also works with negative results, but you have to find the 9's complement of the result and that's extra work.)

Ciao
-Mark the Digi-wizard
Nov. 12th, 2009 @ 07:25 pm Heeee's back!
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All the way back from Illinois!! With nothing to show for it. The interview kinda sucked. Totally lost my train of thought a billion jillion times. I think it's something about waking up at 4AM, getting a ride to an airport 45 minutes away, going through the indecencies of security, getting on a plane, getting off a plane, waiting for the next plane, getting on that plane late, getting off that plane late, RUNNING to catch a subway to another terminal to get on YET ANOTHER plane and then landing in Bloomington, waiting for ANOTHER hour to check into a hotel, getting to my room just in time to drop my shit off before I had to meet the HR dude from State Farm to give me a lift to the interview 9 hours and 1 timezone later.

If you can understand all that, you're a better person than I give you credit for in real life.

Otherwise, I've got some swag. Ate most of it. Angie at the rest of it. There were some non-edibles. I've got a check for $800 on the way and a $50 thanks-for-playing-but-you-didn't-win gift card... which the winners received also.

By the way, just to get this straight: There was an internship interview AND a presentation on my coding competition entry. I left on Thursday and came back on Saturday. Poor Jenn had both ways. Mansfield. Elmira. Blah. I can add another couple of states to the states-I've-been-to-and-urinated-in list. Woooh!

Anyways, the flights were amazing. The planes were a bit small, but that made the turbulence all the more noticeable, and, therefore, awesome. Being all alone was kinda scary, kinda sad, but really awesome. Yeah! "I can do it on my own..." (--Li'l Brudder from H*R)

So, otherwise, I took a really freaking easy test on Monday when I got back. ("Welcome home! Have a test.") And it turned out I got a C. My first goddamn C of the semester. I raged. But, otherwise, everything's cool. Grades are doing pretty good.

The fifty bucks has been rolling around in my mind. At first I was thinking "slide rule", but ThinkGeek is sold out. Or, I could get some serious toys. I can imagine a breadboard and a coupla potentiometers, some wire, buttons, a piezoelectric buzzer or two, LOTS of LEDs, maybe some more LEDs. I want a big breadboard, too. Like, a loaf of breadboard. Oh, and some ICs-- mostly flip-flops. (No, not THOSE flip-flops... D-type with preset and clear.) And a DC motor or two. ( They're like $0.60 a piece. :-D ) ...or an Arduino, the king of hobby microcontrollers. I'm sure Mike could get in some serious trouble if he learned about how easy an Arduino is to program and wire to stuff...

But I'll probably save the money and use it on something important... like they're charging $78 dollars for me to stay here for Thanksgiving. Those idiots. I pay $2,000 for room and board. They didn't charge for fall break, which was 4 days, just like Thanksgiving... but now I'm expected to cough up an extra hundred bucks just to stay on campus. And we're not going to be given food, so I have to buy my own food! And everything even remotely entertaining (and, by that, I mean the library, Alumni Hall, and Manser) won't be open. It's like $78 for absolutely nothing.

Lemmeeseehere, it's National Novel-Writing Month and I haven't written a single word. Damned education...

But, let me end this on a happy note:
D-Flat

-Mark "I Do Update My Livejournal Sometimes" B.
Oct. 29th, 2009 @ 07:36 pm Illinois
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Spiketail Hatchling
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One week from today I'll be in sunny downtown Bloomington, IL for the competition and seeing about a possible internship. There'll be another interview and then I might be in Bloomington for 11 weeks this summer. Damn, I might never be home... I'm sure Mike's gonna be thrilled. Otherwise, I've got As for my midterm grades (oh yeah!) I dunno know about the illois-for-the-summer deal, but if they give me enough money, I wouldn't mind stopping home only for Christmas and spring break... even though I miss my room and stuff.

Otherwise, I know how to solve a Rubik's cube now-- takes about 3 minutes, so, that's another cool product of going to college.

'til next time
-Mark

PS- the webcomic's still up and going strong.
Oct. 19th, 2009 @ 12:40 am Flippin' wow!!!
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I wish I had posted before I left for college. Man! What a crazy romp.

Discrete Structures has to be my hardest class; computer organization must be the second. Calc and Business Programming are relatively easy this time around.

If it weren't so late, I'd go into lots of details and things. For now, I'd like to proudly point out http://www.sfresearchcenter.com/codingcomp/winners.aspx .

I'll post again sometime soon.
Jun. 1st, 2009 @ 11:37 pm First person crapper!
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So, I promised some awesome QBasic stuff... but all I can show off is some crap. QBasic doesn't offer the necessary drawing tools to really clean this up... but, anyways, excuses aside, I've compiled some screenshots of the maze-game.

( Screenshots and stuff )

Yup. That's all you get.
Jun. 1st, 2009 @ 02:10 am More accomplishments and such
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Man, everybody's graduating. It's crazy... Oh yeah, except me. I'm still waiting to go off to school. Heh, heh.

Angie and I celebrated our third anniversary this past week. That was cool. Congratulations, us!It's a shame Chris is still in the picture.

And work's still the same as always.

The other day, a patron came in with a beat-up on wrestling book that was more than a month overdue. He slapped it on the counter and said, "How much do I have to pay for this?" To which, I scanned the book, clicked all the necessary doohickies, addressed the man by his name, and told him, "$19.00". Up to this point, he was rather cordial. Now, however, he looked upset, "Four extra dollars?!" he asked, or, rather, shouted... in a library.

"Beg your pardon, sir?" I asked, turning from the console. He pointed to the printed price on the book, which matched the computer's price of the book-- Fifteen dollars. I then, in a lowered voice, hoping that he would follow suit, "There's a processing charge, sir."

He looked beside himself, "Pretend your on this side of the counter," he said, "I'm getting raped again! I have this cell phone that's worth thirty-five dollars, and the government made me pay fifty for it! This is just incredible." By this point, of course, he's shouting and everybody's looking at him.

"Fifteen covers the book, and the four covers new labels for the back and spine, for transporting the replacement book, for new security tags..." I attempted.

"It's not about the book!" he continued.

"Are you going to pay for it or not?"

"Take the money..." after which I completely stopped listening to the copious amounts of dribble coming from his mouth-- right in front of his son, by the way-- and took his money.

"Have a nice day," he sneered.

I had a little laugh. Quite jovially, I added, "You too, sir." --with a smile even-- he looked so pissed, it was remarkable. It's a terrible shame people like that aren't humiliated by their stupidity.

Anyway, I thought I'd share that.

Also, I finished a "two-and-a-half" first-person dimensional maze game. It's written in QBasic (thought I'd go for a bit of a challenge). The only way I could get it to run even remotely fast is to make it look quite horrendous. I'll post screenshots sometime when it's not 2:30AM. It's pretty crap-tastic, but, at less than 400 lines of code (including hard-coded map data), what do you expect?

So, this is has been another exciting installment of Mark's life. Hope June's better.
May. 6th, 2009 @ 12:21 am Despite problems on Angie's side...
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Today was an abysmal day.

I've got this cool project idea in my head-- it's just all the details seem impossible to work out. I mean, the idea looks cool in my head, but it's only part of the idea. It's going to be this computer game based off of this role-playing-like (not an actual RPG) pen-paper-and-dice game I made recently. There are just fifty-jillion problems ranging from computerized bots to Internet play to map generation to how the user interface is going to work. So, it's going to be a beautifully uphill battle. Guess tomorrow, with all this free time that's been dropped on my lap, I can start figuring this shit out.

Then there's crap with Angie...

Then, at work tonight, the strangest thing happened. This real bitch of a woman came in to get a library card. I was putting some reserves on the reserve shelf, so I got to hear a part of the conversation.

Library-Worker: I just need you to sign your card, please.
Bitch-Woman: What if I refuse?
LW: I beg your pardon?
BW: I don't sign anything-- people can duplicate a signature, and I don't want to have to deal with that.
BW said this in the rudest possible way. I looked over my shoulder, glared at the woman, and looked at Cheryl. She asked me, "What should I do? Could she just print her name?"
Here, I shrugged exaggeratedly.

I was waiting for the woman to leave so I could talk to Cheryl about this. I had the idea of the woman writing an "X" in the space and Cheryl being the 'witness' for it. Anyway, apparently when waiting for this woman to leave, I looked at her in a way that she didn't like.

Anywhoo, moments later, my supervisor came over to me. I was now shelving a cart. She gestured for me to follow her.

My Boss: Mark, do you know the woman who was just here? She didn't want to sign her name...
Me: Yeah. I remember.
MB: She said you gave her a dirty look. You rolled your eyes or something and she complained to me.
*Now, I mean, what person complains about this shit? She had to be a big bitch, right?
Me: I shrugged at [library-worker above] and looked around while I was thinking.
MB: I know. People can take things to have different meanings.
At this point the library-worker woman rushed in--
LW: Mark didn't do -anything- wrong!

And we got in a big discussion. They all said I was "innocent of all wrongdoing" or whatever. The assistant manager came in and had a few laughs. I was kinda sweating and worried and a little whigged-out. I hope this isn't going on a written record anywhere...

-Marko.
Feb. 27th, 2009 @ 02:31 am Developments update!
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To the tune of: Is There for Honest Poverty?
It's been five weeks since the last update. Damn shame, too.

St. Valentine's Day was great with Angie. We worked all that day, but we were able to enjoy the evening. Not to mention the day before was a Friday I had off, and we went to Towson for some fun, purchasing each other presents, and all that gooey sh--ow of emotion.

Also, we were left with the house to ourselves for a little while a few weeks back. That could only possibly result in one thing: Lots of video games and junk food. I was poor, but Angie sprung for some pizza. Gamera + Godzilla + video games + pizza = win.

And, of course, there were lots of other crap days in there, too. I won't go there. I played lots of Counterstrike with Mike, which is cool for the nostalgia... 'cept these nights lately he's been "out". I can only wonder with whooooooo....

I'd been feeling a little uncreative lately. Well, the webcomics seem kinda uninspired. I think it's starting to show that Thucom can't put time into quality scripts and, quite frankly, I don't have a sense of humor. I think they removed it years ago... something about a baseball bat... who knows.

But, since Tuesday, I've managed to create the framework for a new game. Now, anybody who knows jack about the games I've made knows that they're always turn-based and two-dimensional. It's just the way I role. No CPU-sucking over here. But now... the framework I've got (in less than three days, no less) is one for a slightly different game. Oh, it's still turn-based. But the dimensions seem to have increased! What? What's that?! Yeah! Mark discovered raycasting! I know it doesn't look like much, but I can create two kinds of primitives (spheres and boxes), and do some really basic CSG-subtraction (carving one object out of another) and (really primitive) lighting. Well, an image is worth a thousand (or so) words, so here's my slightly-fisheyed project screenshot:



I thought this such high-priority that I took the screenshot in a window-manger that bore some resemblance to Windows... just 'coz it's that cool.

Anyway, that's probably it for the next five weeks. Hopefully by then I've figured out how to smooth out the sphere and perhaps add some freakin' textures... and speed the damn thing out. 5 - 10 seconds per frame is terrible.

Ciao
-Marko.
Jan. 22nd, 2009 @ 03:00 am So, I've been racking my head on this...
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I keep kidding Angie about reasons to update the ol' livejournal, but when I'm in front of the computer, I instantly forget all the reasons I could possibly have to write something down.

So, with that explanation out of the way, you can understand why I don't have anything funny to say right here. Hooray.

The reason I was so inspired to write something at 3 A.M. before having to work eight hours tomorrow was that I finished my first GIF encoder. It's certainly not the best, fastest, or even anything really cool... but it's written in Perl, so I can chuck GIF streams straight to your browser and you'll see pretty images. Great, eh?

Otherwise, nothing too much has been happening. I've had a three-day weekend which wasn't nearly long enough. It's segued into a 6-day work-week starting Wednesday ("yesterday") and ending Monday.

Work's been interesting. We've got some new faces and they're starting to mash together and interact a bit. Angie's getting along great. Give her a router list and off she goes. Everybody there is cool in their own way, and there's nobody who -really- bugs me anymore, so that's definitely a plus.

The new RFID system is in place. Under the old system, people on desk would constantly scowl every time they heard the words, "Please read the screen" spoken from the self-checkout machine. Now the words to look out for are, "Rotate items as shown." We've advanced. Now the patrons will say, "What does that mean?" Furthermore, we have to un-train them for the use of the old machines. Doofuses who haven't noticed that the screen is showing them something COMPLETELY different than anything they'd ever seen before still trying to scan their books like dummies.

I had an old man, a techno-phobe who somehow figured out how to use the old machines, try to use the new one without even paying attention to the fact that it was very different. I expect this same scene to play out a hundred more times before my next day off. *shakes an angry fist* Take that, old people. Just... take that.

So, yeah. That's about everything. The weekend off was awesome. Spent every day with Angie, of course. Went to Towson twice, and she's proven quite capable of using her magic Visa card. It's great. She does too much for me. Wait. She's probably reading this. ANGELA, IF YOU'RE READING THIS: YOU DO TOO MUCH FOR ME.

Otherwise, I'm really happy about the GIF thing. The trouble is it takes several seconds to run, and I'd like to make a fully-functional interactive browser-game that uses it. I just need to reorganize things so that the word-size is equal to 8 bits (one byte) so I don't have to pad and truncate and convert stuff... but that's all down the road. So far, I've produced a black background with a single blue dot, and that's all I need. My heart almost stopped when my image reading program opened the file without complaint. Then I decided to write this entry. Now, I'm deciding it's about time for bed.

Take that Lempel, Ziv, and Welch, and your collective stupid compression algorithm, too.

-Mark and his several Godzilla action figures.
Jan. 13th, 2009 @ 12:31 am Seven Weeks
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Seven weeks and very little to show for it. I'm working on backing up the ol' Godzilla collection (still). More importantly, I was planning on being at a four-year university right now. Blah! (All Monsters Attack has a little nick in the disc, so I'm backin' that up first. Hooray for paranoia.)

Otherwise, I've been pretty dry creatively until yesterday. I want to write my own encoder for GIF files; however, progress is going very slowly. Still having troubles. Essentially, the file I create is one byte shorter than it should be and contains some erroneous values. Blech.

The Webcomic is still up, and it's not voting for itself. (Shameless publicity). Also, ZephyrScent.com is up. It's girly and stuff, but I made it for a co-worker who paid top dollar for my prestige and skill. Fear the skills. Uh huh. You just keep on fearin' over there. Yes. I mean you.

And that's about it. So little going on, it's hardly worth the update.

For probably another 7 weeks or so
-Marko
Nov. 22nd, 2008 @ 12:02 am Today
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Mood: My feet hurt
So, today we went to get Angie's transcripts and then go to the mall at White Marsh for some random funs. It was supposed to be simple, but, somehow, things went wrong.

First we stopped up at the bank and dropped some crap off, deposited some mail, and headed toward the bus stop.

Then, we, in our infinite wisdom, decided to take the #55 bus up to Rossville Blvd and Pulaski Highway. (You know, maps.google.com if you'd like to see this in action). I signaled the stop a bit late, so we had to back-track a little and re-cross Pulaski Highway. Anyways, it was about two miles from Rossville and Pulaski to the place we had to go (Middle River Road). It was supposed to be "on the corner", but it was another quarter mile from there to the correct address (at the back of the business park). The two miles that we walked down Pulaski, now, was through the snow over a lot of terrain where there wasn't a sidewalk, including a bridge with a very narrow shoulder. Farther on (far after the bridge with barely a shoulder) there was a bike lane. Go figure. Assholes.

Anyway, once we reached the back of this stupid industrial park, we went inside to meet the lady behind the desk. She was a trip. The following is a bit of an exaggeration, but, keep in mind that Angela and I had just walked more than two miles to see this stupid bit... lady.

Mark (upon entering): Man what a long -walk- we had!
Angela: Certainly, wonderful boyfriend!
Receptionist (who had a master's degree, mind you): You need to fill in this form. *throws form at Angela*
Angela: Aurguhhuuhllright.
(Angela fills out form)
Receptionist: You got cho ID?
Angela: Yup. Right here! *pulls out ID*
Rec: Shoo. You got two dolla?
Angela: Sure do!
Rec: I need a money orda, foo!
Angela: You don't take cash?
Rec: Bitch! You best be trippin' Go walk, I mean, DRRRIIIVE cho self down to the Citgo and get some money orda!! Foooooo'!
(Angela begins to walk away from counter)
Rec: And push in the goddamn chair! Who raised you?- A packa wolves?

And so we left, went the friggen quarter-mile back to the corner, got a money order (cost a dollar extra), went all the way back. Aside: On the way back, we noticed a squirrel who climbed up into the roof of one of the business park buildings. That's mildly important later.

Rec: S'about time! Shit. Now just fill this out!
Angela: Okay. *sigh*
Rec: Oh shi--- Screw me like an Arab. That da wrong form! Forgiiive me.
It was at this point, I noticed a cross around her neck. Also, at this point, I began pulling the chair back out.
Rec: Here, sign this one instead, foo'.
Angela: Okay!
Rec: Here yo transcrip. Make sure the seal ain't broken or it not official anymo'. Got it?
Angela: Yes, ma'am.
Rec: Good. Now scoot.

And so we left, with the chair still pulled out. We have to stick it to that mean lady. On the way out, another squirrel was climbing into the attic of one of the buildings. Two old ladies were pointing at it for no less than five minutes saying stupid stuff like:

Lady 1: Oh! My word! Did you see that little squirrel climb through there?
Lady 2: Yes! My word, too. It was a fast little thing.
Lady 1: Yes, yes it was. They've got a regular squirrel problem.
Lady 2: Why, yes they have! They'd better get that checked out.
Lady 1: Indeed! Oh! My hip! It's been giving me trouble. Yes! The squirrel ran through that little hole.
Lady 2: My hip's been giving me trouble, too, dearie. Good thing I've got this Aleve. I love squirrels.
Lady 1: He was so fast!
Lady 2: He ran right into that little hole there.
Lady 1: I saw it. It was right through that little hole in the corner where the wall meets the roof there.
Lady 2: They should fix the roof right there so that there isn't a little hole for little squirrels to run through!
Lady 1: Yes, that they should, dearie.

And so on. If they had cameras, I'm sure they would've been taking pictures of other squirrels in the vicinity, the hole, and, if possible, perhaps another squirrel entering that hole.

And so we went on. Instead of going down Pulaski Highway again, as we valued our lives, we went down Middle River Road. It began snowing again. We went all the way the crap to Eastern Blvd near Kingston Road, down past my house, to the bus stop at which we started. From there we caught a second fifty-five, and transferred (after standing in the snow forever) to the 35 and got to White Marsh around 3. We left my house before 11. Splee!

Anyways, White Marsh was fun. We ate bunches. I've got another Godzilla movie crossed off t3h list. Good times.
Nov. 3rd, 2008 @ 04:47 am November Second!
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So, I'm trying to get caught up to the word count I should for the national novel writing month thingamajig. Sadly, I've lost some of my writing touch since last year and I'm trying to make it up. It's harder than I remembered. Then again, last year's novel was about zombies, and, as such, it was pretty simple to write. This year, it's a little bit different. I'm not writing at the same, amazing speed. It's a damn shame.

Otherwise, Halloween was alright. Nothing special. Got to get caught up on my halloween-ish movies, though. Now I'm less pop-culturally challenged... and that's always a plus.

Lastly, just about everything is on hold for the month. Sorry, The Iliad, Java, and the rest. It's pretty much just novel and Webcomic for the rest of the month. :-/
Oct. 24th, 2008 @ 11:57 pm Read and believe...
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I don't care about campaign ads or who said what to whom. I don't care if Barack Obama called John McCain's running mate a slippity-sloppity-slutbag, or if John McCain called Obama's scary-looking-wife the same thing. Just stick to the issues.

I'm all about the voting. We've got less than two weeks, so read on up:

Ron Paul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislation_sponsored_by_Ron_Paul (<-VOTE FOR THIS GUY) / http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/p000583/votes/
Bob Barr: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b000169/votes/ (I suppose you could vote for this fellow, too)
Barack Obama: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/votes/
John McCain: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/votes/


Remember to Vote.
Oct. 19th, 2008 @ 11:53 pm SIX WEEKS?!
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Man, it's been forever since the last update. I gotta get on this thing more often... Hey! That's what I always say.

So, this coming week really sucks. Picking up too many hours to enjoy time with Angie. *sigh* She's got big, exciting news of a new job-- all available on her blog, available exclusively from the awesome "friends" page.

I've gone through some projects. Made some minor bugfixes for jFlagCap so it sucks even less. I've got some more ideas to chuck into it, but I'm kinda busy. I'm also working on a website for a coworker. It sells girly soaps and crap-- not really my forté, but I'm plugging and chugging. Otherwise, my cool 2.5 dimensional shoot-em-up still hasn't made it past the awesomely-themed-menus stage. If only humans didn't need sleep...

Otherwise, I've been running rather dry creatively lately. I want to do something architectural and three-dimensional, but writing a full 3D engine is really fricken difficult. 2.5D is hard enough...

Anyways, the Godzilla collection is really coming along. I managed to find some hard-to-find DVDs from Hong-Kong for $5 per movie. They had Godzilla action figures on sale ($5!) at K-B the other day. I was tempted to pick up two, but I only got one... and Angie, with her infinite strength and wisdom, had to fix his broken tail. The sad part is that there are still EIGHT movies left in the series that I don't own. That gets expensive really quickly. Oh well. It'll get done one day. Li'l bit at a time.

Anyways, I'll try to post more often. :-D

-Marko the Adventurer
Sep. 8th, 2008 @ 01:00 am Y'know what's funny?
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According to this thing, I posted three days ago. It feels much longer. But, when an eon goes by, it feels much shorter.

Anywhoo, I've got the worst cold in the friggen world. I felt terrible last night into today, so, what happens? I hang out with my 'friends' Dustin, Beth, and Jess today. Hooray. Angie and I were treated like a fourth and fifth wheel. Beth wanted Starbucks, so she and Dustin went into Starbucks and she left her dog with Angie and I. We went to a block-party, and, since we are not of that block, we got an appropriately cold shoulder. There, again, Beth dumped her dog on Angie and I. Later, Angie and I were "treated" to a book store. When it was time that everyone wanted to go, I yielded and we started toward the door. The moment Dustin wanted to stop, the world stopped again. The day was spent, essentially, waiting for Dustin. Hoo-fuckity-ray.

The most memorable moment for me was when a woman, named Jane, walked up to us at the block party and said:

"Hi Mark! I'm Jane!" I was wearing a name badge. It had that "You Tarzan; me Jane" sound. Heh.
"Hello!" said I, taking her hand to shake it.
"Where do you guys live?" she inquired.
"Oh," I began, "We're from Essex."
"We're Beth's guests," chimed in Angie because the woman started to scowl.

She very abruptly dropped my hand and walked away.

Great, right? I'm sure glad I don't live there... snobs.

Otherwise, I was a guest to some bad driving, some home invasion while a poor woman was sleeping, and, since I've got my cold (and thus a throbbing headache), I was treated to a loud vocal performance by EVERYBODY in Beth's car.

Also, in Beth's car, the police stopped up the road, and, instead of going around, we parked, Jess got out, and Dustin was about to "start some shit." I just wanted to get home, as Beth's not the best driver. So, they argued and spat at each other about anything of which they could think. If I hear the words "fucking porker" ever again, I'ma kill that kid.1

As for me, thanks EVERYBODY (that means nobody but Angie) for asking, but I feel like crap. I feel really warm but with goosebumps; I have a terrible headache; I can't hear, can't breathe, and lights somehow seem a little dimmer.

Anyway, I'd like to give a special thanks to Beth, Dustin, and, of course, Jess for all their support and commiseration. [pause] NOT.

-Mark Bitchity Angry Old Sick Man.


1: Not really.
Sep. 4th, 2008 @ 02:22 am Goji Ramble
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Now, for those of you who know anything about my life over the past few months, I've become a veritable Godzilla nut. So, if you're not interested in the big G, then this post means like... nothing to you.


In the 90's series: Godzilla returns in 1984 to burninate and do other destructive things to Tokyo, and Japan in general. I haven't seen the movie, but that's pretty much granted, right? '89 through '94 Godzilla kicks the arse of Biollante, King Ghidorah, Mothra, MechaGodzilla, and SpaceGodzilla (in that order). In that time, he also gives birth (???!!!) to a son who has different names through the three movies he's in.

Now. In '95, Godzilla Senior dies. Big sad scene. In fact, in Japan, that was the big tagline for the movie. Really incredible bit of work done there. Almost a tear-jerker, really. And then, in the very last few seconds of the film, we see that Godzilla Jr. has grown and mutated into his father from the fall-out of the giant nuclear meltdown. So, essentially the series could continue after a short break. The last shot of the movie was a very nineties-looking Godzilla waving about in a very misty ghost-city.

In 1999, the next Godzilla movie came (not counting the Matthew Brodrick thing, of course). Godzilla looks totally different. Somebody over there in Japan forgot to watch Destoroyah. What a shame!

So, I rambled to Angie that Goji Jr. never got his justice. But then, a few days ago I remembered a scene in Final Wars (2004) that looks rather similar to one in Godzilla VS Destoroyah. I mentioned it on the offhand. But, guess what, ladies and gents. Now, at 2:30AM some crazy weeknight, I've got the proof. It looks damn-near identical, except some crappy editing in Final Wars. Godzilla-Jr-turned-senior finally got his justice, or, if not continuity, then at least a shout-out... It's not the same footage in Final Wars, but it, at least visually, patches up the story-line very well.

It goes something like this, after the Destoroyah incident came the prologue of Final Wars. This makes the Millennium series a complete jumble. That's okay in my opinion, though, because it always was a needless jumble. Hopefully, in the next series, they'll get their continuity groove back on.

Anyway, here's the proof I've been ranting about:
( Big images follow )

And that's my ramble. The Final Wars image is a little weird. The director had the idea of cutting back and forth between it and Godzilla frozen in a big iceberg.


...and I'm a big dork.
Aug. 25th, 2008 @ 01:18 am Man! Two WEEKS?
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Mood: I need to post more often.
To the tune of: GvMG '92 OST: MechaGodzilla Landing Preparations
It's been two weeks since I've updated. This is really fishy. I could've sworn it was just a few days ago.

Friday was the big twenty-three. Damn. I feel like I'm so old and my live hasn't gone where it needs to go. I've not finished college.

On the upside, I got a pretty good deal with presents. Angie's made me an awesome Godzilla tee-shirt. I can't wait 'til it's finished; I'm dying to show it off. Also, she recreated the barricade from Les Miserables out of cookies, graham crackers, and oodles and oodles of frosting (with red food coloring for blood). (If you want some, Mike, go ahead and take some.) I was kinda counting on Dad to ask me what I wanted... 'coz he usually does... then he gets it... then I'm happy. I was going to get Biollante, but he never asked. So... that kinda bummed me out. Only two movies away from seeing two out of the three Godzilla series. Biollante and Return of Godzilla are the two big roadblocks. But, in the grand scheme of things, I'm thankful for what I've got. If not for Angie, it would've been a sad birthday indeed.

Otherwise, add Wednesdays to the constantly-growing list of days I work. I love working with books. I like some of the patrons, but, man, others are a real headache and a half. I hate ghetto people-- purveyors/writers of smut. Nothing is more embarrassing than some real jerko asking "What book do I owe fines for?" (Preposition at the end and all) and having to answer: "The book is entitled 'Is the Bitch Dead or What?'" Furthermore, I'd really like people to know my name isn't "Where are the sale books?" nor is it "Hey!" or "How do you work this thing?" I know it's Essex and all, but "Excuse me" is still cool, right? Also, I wear a name-badge and everything. Even better, you could wait until you're asked if you need assistance, which we're prone to doing when you stand in the middle of the floor looking like a clueless asshole. I hate a good 50% of patrons.

I keep slowly working on this fantastic new Java project, but the end result is so deathly overwhelming, I don't devote enough time to it.

*sigh* Usually, in the evenings when I'm walking home, I think of something I could add to the ol' L.J., but I keep forgetting when I'm actually in front of a computer.
Aug. 6th, 2008 @ 04:30 am Some geekdom
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Current Location: EMACS
Mood: smiling
To the tune of: Nightwish - Dead to the World
Wow. EMACS (for non-geeks).

Now, I know that some of you (Mike) will be surprised, but EMACS is really a pretty darn nifty text-editor.

Before I continue my justification, let's stop and remember the role of the web-browser. Once, not so very long ago, it was used for viewing static web-pages. Now, it's used in place of an e-mail client, instant messenger, image viewer, text editor, and everything else. People don't play games on their computers anymore, they use their web-browser to check their myspace, e-mail, to buy crap from e-bay, pay your bills, and, soon, make crap levitate.

So, why don't we take this one step farther? Why not put the web-browser into a text-editor? I mean, emacs has a few games, a calendar, a calculator; it can tell you the phase of the moon, give you a diary to write your crap, allow you to use sendmail to send an email, let you edit directories, and a thousand other things. I'm also certain that somebody wrote a web-browser for emacs.

"But, Mark! Vim is sooo much smaller and more elegant!" Okay. Think. When you want to cut, copy, and paste in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Notepad, MS. Word, OpenOffice, or whatever, you reach for CTRL+X, CTRL+C and CTRL+V (respectively). So, in vim, it's only natural that you'd press ESC to exit insert mode, then press V to enter visual mode, set your mark with the arrow keys and then press Y to copy, d to cut. To paste, you have to press p. That's a jillion steps to do a microsecond's worth of work anywhere else. And I do mean anywhere.

So, what is it in EMACS? Ctrl+Space to set your mark. (You can do this in VIM too, but it requires even MORE work) Then it's Ctrl+W, Alt+W, Ctrl+Y for cut/copy/paste. I mean... which would you rather do? Switch modes or just mash buttons?

...and don't get me started on how awesome EMACS' buffer management is.

They're both portable, platform independent and all that crap. One just comes with its own programming language, was written by Richard fricken Stallman himself, etc.

Now, I'm definitely not going to admit that EMACS is perfect. It's CRAZY filesize is probably its biggest problem... but, you've gotta remember, EMACS is more than just an editor. It's a fricken way of life.


C-X C-W
Jul. 20th, 2008 @ 10:09 pm Holy crap!
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Man. So much for constant updating, eh?

Last week was Chili's with Angie. Great food was free. Blood will be soon.

Work = suck. RFID = Baaaadly implemented.

Godzilla = Cool!

Java = more to come

webcomicwebcomic = still there!

-Marko.