Cactus Band and Pre-Natal Days
10/05/09 at 20:43 EST
This year's birthday turned out to be much more eventful than it's been in previous years. Drove down to Guelph Friday night to rest up early for the treasure hunt the next day. I failed to mention this, but I picked up an old Atari 2600 last week and part of the goal yesterday was to locate and acquire the missing pieces necessary to get the ol' wood-grain console running: an adapter to plug the RCA cable into post-1990 TVs and an actual game to play it with, as mine did not come with any. That was rather successful.
{IMG REMOVED AT src=./img/misc/retro.jpg>
I've gotten the hang of Donkey Kong Jr and its hilarious artwork, but the third iteration of stage 3 moves too fast to be enjoyed. Damn timing windows are smaller than the number of people who will read this sentence.
News almost rivaling the quality of goodness above was that I'd finally found a copy of TMNT4: Turtles in Time for the SNES. I didn't have much cash on me, but was able to haggle about 31% of the price away, picking it up for $20. That was another treasured find.
Less exciting, I was present at Porcupine Tree's 2010 Toronto gig, and heard the The Incident album for the first time. It had its moments, its ups and its downs, but I firmly believe that had I been familiar with the music I would have been into it more: this was evident when songs from Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet and Anesthetize came on. There was some joy in familiarity there, and I thoroughly enjoyed such performances as "Way Out of Here".
Today proved pretty constructive as well; I've further tuned my bike brakes, so they actually stop the bike now. Hopefully with this improvement I won't get hit by any more cars. Using the drill I got for Easter (yes, you read that correctly: power tools for religious holidays is how my family rolls) I was able to install some mending brackets into my Gamecube's chassis, so it can handle the weight of the scotch mints inside it. It's nice to make use of the handle the way it was meant to be used, rather than babying the unit.
I'm finally in the market for a electronic drum kit. I've been eying the Roland v3 drum series, and the Internet has revealed a few resellers in proximity to me, but I'm now burdened with the communication aspect of it, which I never do well on: the merchants I am in communication with are almost always bad at communicating back.
Fingers crossed, drumsticks at the ready, and Rock Band 2 filling the void in the meantime.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming
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Scrub sauce
10/04/21 at 22:08 EST
I was doing the dishes moments ago. With my forearms submerged in soapy water and a cloth clutched in one hand, I couldn't help laughing at the dishes in the sink:
{IMG REMOVED AT src='./img/misc/gcsink.jpg'>
This might need explaining.
I bought a Gamecube a few months back in part to have an inexpensive toy to play around with, but primarily because I wanted some kind of nerdy lunch box that went beyond Prinnies. Unfortunately there isn't a great deal of volume inside a Gamecube, so I re-purposed it as a candy jar. Turns out, the Gamecube is useful for more than just playing video games and holding candy.
Sparing the unnecessary details, there was a leftover container of scrub sauce from Scrubway at work on Friday that I offered to take home and consume, in an effort to reduce food waste. Being as I am, I forgot about my obligation and left the container of scrub sauce at work when I went home. For the better, I suppose, since the container it was in was rather flimsy and leak-prone, and I needed a solid holding unit to transport the container safely, so that the damage would be minimal if it did in fact leak. Of course, I had the perfect tool for the job.
Long story short: I placed the sauce container in the Gamecube, biked home, retrieved the container, and voila: container leaked all over the Gamecube's innards, but was still salvageable. No mess in my backpack, to boot.
I'd say Nintendo makes pretty solid products.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming
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10/04/21 at 22:08 EST
I was doing the dishes moments ago. With my forearms submerged in soapy water and a cloth clutched in one hand, I couldn't help laughing at the dishes in the sink:
{IMG REMOVED AT src='./img/misc/gcsink.jpg'>
This might need explaining.
I bought a Gamecube a few months back in part to have an inexpensive toy to play around with, but primarily because I wanted some kind of nerdy lunch box that went beyond Prinnies. Unfortunately there isn't a great deal of volume inside a Gamecube, so I re-purposed it as a candy jar. Turns out, the Gamecube is useful for more than just playing video games and holding candy.
Sparing the unnecessary details, there was a leftover container of scrub sauce from Scrubway at work on Friday that I offered to take home and consume, in an effort to reduce food waste. Being as I am, I forgot about my obligation and left the container of scrub sauce at work when I went home. For the better, I suppose, since the container it was in was rather flimsy and leak-prone, and I needed a solid holding unit to transport the container safely, so that the damage would be minimal if it did in fact leak. Of course, I had the perfect tool for the job.
Long story short: I placed the sauce container in the Gamecube, biked home, retrieved the container, and voila: container leaked all over the Gamecube's innards, but was still salvageable. No mess in my backpack, to boot.
I'd say Nintendo makes pretty solid products.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming
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First Celebration of SUNGOD Day
10/04/20 at 23:21 EST
Making a quick post while I still can today. Just wanted to wish all the sun worshipers out there a happy 420 Pray To SUNGOD Everyday Day before I bring the night's festivities to a close. Got some junk food and a silly movie I don't understand about robo geishas called ROBOGEISHA.
I fixed(ish) my bike brakes and my bones have healed so keep on shinin' SUNGOD, and I'll keep on making the most of your blessings.
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Tagged under: Life
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10/04/20 at 23:21 EST
Making a quick post while I still can today. Just wanted to wish all the sun worshipers out there a happy 420 Pray To SUNGOD Everyday Day before I bring the night's festivities to a close. Got some junk food and a silly movie I don't understand about robo geishas called ROBOGEISHA.
I fixed(ish) my bike brakes and my bones have healed so keep on shinin' SUNGOD, and I'll keep on making the most of your blessings.
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Tagged under: Life
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February and March 2010, Abridged
10/04/05 at 20:12 EST
I've been flirting with the idea of making use of this site again, not as a coding exercise but as the original intention of the whole project: a web log. The problem I'm facing with that is one or several issues consisting of:
a) My lack of conviction in keeping to any of my projects
b) My unwillingness or lack of vanity necessary to believe that my life interests other people
c) My naivety regarding the fact that some people do actually find this sort of thing interesting, or at the very least, want something to read while they are bored in class or at work.
What ultimately brought upon my effort to update this site is summarized and paraphrased below:
19:42 {@awpkun} I just got hit by a car
19:43 {@Remmy} blog about it awp
Now, I'll touch on that later once I've brought everyone up to speed in a quick abridged version of what I've been up to for the last two months.
New job as a software tester has been going well. I'm learning a lot of things as expected, both directly applicable to working (read: useful stuff) and regarding office politics and the silliness that goes on behind the bureaucracy (which, thankfully, I've needed to outsource to experience). Overall, I've been enjoying it quite a bit.
February was a slow month, but it was in February that the scales of economic application of finances eventually tipped and I dove full-board into retro gaming. Since my arrival at my new apartment I've acquired an array of retro gaming consoles and games, and have been steadily building my collection of classics both of my childhood and of what my childhood missed out on. The newest members of the family are Donkey Kong 64 and Final Fight, but I've been really enjoying the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series. I'd say it was in good time with the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but last I checked that was a) an episodic (read: incomplete) release, and b) not releasing for another half-year or so. Bollocks to that. I'll also take a picture of the redecoration of my room brought upon by the acquisition of a 1990's Squaresoft title when I'm feeling up to it.
I have been to see the fathers of black metal, the tr00est of tr00 kvlt, Norwegian Black Metal monsters Immortal. I'll upload pics and re-encode the video of the new album's titular piece, "All Shall Fall" to match the expected formatting used by the Videos section.
A pet project of mine that has been in secret development for nearly two years received a private, beta release in March. I'm going to leave the details on this one scarce for now, but as it nears completion, I'll probably leak some more information on that. I'll have to create a Projects section of the site as well, also to accommodate my upcoming TWEWY script hack. Don't get your hopes up, it'll be years before I have anything for that.
I was up to visit my family this past weekend, which was nice - it was the first time I'd been up to Elliot Lake when the house up there was in a livable state. It was quite a treat to be able to go up there and not spend two hours doing manual labour only to turn around and return home immediately after. Also got to smash a TV. Again, video later. Too sore (read: lazy) and hungry (read: lazy) for that now.
The brakes on my bike have been quite poor for a long time now. I've known this, and figured I'd have them fixed eventually. As for the question of before or after I get hit by a car as a result of poor brakes, that question was answered. Luckily I knew two seconds beforehand that I was going to be T-boned by that car eagerly crossing into the intersection so I was able to brace myself for impact, roll graciously along the hood of the car, and not crack my skull open upon hitting the pavement below.
In the aftermath, I did what any gentleman would do: I picked myself and my bike up, confirmed that the car of the man who struck me was not damaged, biked home, and cracked open a beer while talking to friends about how stupid I am.
The role adrenaline plays in this sort of thing is something that fascinates me. It took only a second for enough adrenaline to build up in my system to prevent any sort of pain from being felt until long after I was hit: nothing hurt until I was three quarters of the way home, a good three or four minutes after the fact.
At any rate, I seem to have lost my train of thought. I'm going to go play-test the games I bought (you can never be too sure) and then cook dinner. Until next time, unless the next accident kills me.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming, Work
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10/04/05 at 20:12 EST
I've been flirting with the idea of making use of this site again, not as a coding exercise but as the original intention of the whole project: a web log. The problem I'm facing with that is one or several issues consisting of:
a) My lack of conviction in keeping to any of my projects
b) My unwillingness or lack of vanity necessary to believe that my life interests other people
c) My naivety regarding the fact that some people do actually find this sort of thing interesting, or at the very least, want something to read while they are bored in class or at work.
What ultimately brought upon my effort to update this site is summarized and paraphrased below:
19:42 {@awpkun} I just got hit by a car
19:43 {@Remmy} blog about it awp
Now, I'll touch on that later once I've brought everyone up to speed in a quick abridged version of what I've been up to for the last two months.
New job as a software tester has been going well. I'm learning a lot of things as expected, both directly applicable to working (read: useful stuff) and regarding office politics and the silliness that goes on behind the bureaucracy (which, thankfully, I've needed to outsource to experience). Overall, I've been enjoying it quite a bit.
February was a slow month, but it was in February that the scales of economic application of finances eventually tipped and I dove full-board into retro gaming. Since my arrival at my new apartment I've acquired an array of retro gaming consoles and games, and have been steadily building my collection of classics both of my childhood and of what my childhood missed out on. The newest members of the family are Donkey Kong 64 and Final Fight, but I've been really enjoying the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series. I'd say it was in good time with the upcoming release of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but last I checked that was a) an episodic (read: incomplete) release, and b) not releasing for another half-year or so. Bollocks to that. I'll also take a picture of the redecoration of my room brought upon by the acquisition of a 1990's Squaresoft title when I'm feeling up to it.
I have been to see the fathers of black metal, the tr00est of tr00 kvlt, Norwegian Black Metal monsters Immortal. I'll upload pics and re-encode the video of the new album's titular piece, "All Shall Fall" to match the expected formatting used by the Videos section.
A pet project of mine that has been in secret development for nearly two years received a private, beta release in March. I'm going to leave the details on this one scarce for now, but as it nears completion, I'll probably leak some more information on that. I'll have to create a Projects section of the site as well, also to accommodate my upcoming TWEWY script hack. Don't get your hopes up, it'll be years before I have anything for that.
I was up to visit my family this past weekend, which was nice - it was the first time I'd been up to Elliot Lake when the house up there was in a livable state. It was quite a treat to be able to go up there and not spend two hours doing manual labour only to turn around and return home immediately after. Also got to smash a TV. Again, video later. Too sore (read: lazy) and hungry (read: lazy) for that now.
The brakes on my bike have been quite poor for a long time now. I've known this, and figured I'd have them fixed eventually. As for the question of before or after I get hit by a car as a result of poor brakes, that question was answered. Luckily I knew two seconds beforehand that I was going to be T-boned by that car eagerly crossing into the intersection so I was able to brace myself for impact, roll graciously along the hood of the car, and not crack my skull open upon hitting the pavement below.
In the aftermath, I did what any gentleman would do: I picked myself and my bike up, confirmed that the car of the man who struck me was not damaged, biked home, and cracked open a beer while talking to friends about how stupid I am.
The role adrenaline plays in this sort of thing is something that fascinates me. It took only a second for enough adrenaline to build up in my system to prevent any sort of pain from being felt until long after I was hit: nothing hurt until I was three quarters of the way home, a good three or four minutes after the fact.
At any rate, I seem to have lost my train of thought. I'm going to go play-test the games I bought (you can never be too sure) and then cook dinner. Until next time, unless the next accident kills me.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming, Work
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What's That? Make a REAL Post?
10/01/20 at 22:08 EST
Layers of digital dust have accumulated on my RSS feed - what have I been doing? I was at the home page, looking over my "successful" attempt to break post #37 using an injection in post #38, when my eyes fell to post #36's comments on my TWEWY hack, which ended in speculation.
Yes, I've succeeded in writing a patcher - in fact, the day after #36 was written, I'd developed a patcher that can take a LEGAL digital copy of TWEWY (tested PAL, may work with NTSC/U and NTSC/J but those are untested at present) and re-write the game script with the file I am/was developing. I've gotten around working with the script pretty well, but the process is extremely slow, and took perhaps a hearty 12 hours to re-write just the first day, excluding all UI elements, some of which I do not know how to hack. I imagine I could easily edit the script handler within the game to allow greater control of dialog, but I see it strictly as exploratory at present; I certainly do not have that kind of time to burn any more.
What with getting a job and all.
(Yay!)
(It's a real job, too!)
On an unrelated note, it's high time I logged a few more hours into Torchlight. I'll update various page(s) of this website sooner or later, but I haven't done anything interesting in a while so don't have high hopes for anything.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming, Work
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10/01/20 at 22:08 EST
Layers of digital dust have accumulated on my RSS feed - what have I been doing? I was at the home page, looking over my "successful" attempt to break post #37 using an injection in post #38, when my eyes fell to post #36's comments on my TWEWY hack, which ended in speculation.
Yes, I've succeeded in writing a patcher - in fact, the day after #36 was written, I'd developed a patcher that can take a LEGAL digital copy of TWEWY (tested PAL, may work with NTSC/U and NTSC/J but those are untested at present) and re-write the game script with the file I am/was developing. I've gotten around working with the script pretty well, but the process is extremely slow, and took perhaps a hearty 12 hours to re-write just the first day, excluding all UI elements, some of which I do not know how to hack. I imagine I could easily edit the script handler within the game to allow greater control of dialog, but I see it strictly as exploratory at present; I certainly do not have that kind of time to burn any more.
What with getting a job and all.
(Yay!)
(It's a real job, too!)
On an unrelated note, it's high time I logged a few more hours into Torchlight. I'll update various page(s) of this website sooner or later, but I haven't done anything interesting in a while so don't have high hopes for anything.
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Tagged under: Life, Gaming, Work
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Don't Mind Me or My Broken Code (Continued)
10/01/20 at 20:34 EST
Okay let's try another injection.
Rats. More specifically, requires a bit of esoteric post-processing effort in order to be dangerous. Looks like my concerns are extremely implementation-specific and require substantial neglect to be abused.
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Tagged under: Work
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10/01/20 at 20:34 EST
Okay let's try another injection.
Rats. More specifically, requires a bit of esoteric post-processing effort in order to be dangerous. Looks like my concerns are extremely implementation-specific and require substantial neglect to be abused.
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Tagged under: Work
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Hey I succeeded in breaking this
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Tagged under: Work
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Tagged under: Work
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The World is Pretty Odd
09/12/08 at 17:50 EST
I've tried this once before and failed, but my second attempt was met with a different consequence. I am, of course, referring to my day's efforts to hack the game script for The World Ends With You for the DS. As much of the binary code as I've deciphered, I'm reluctant to change too much at this point - it's pretty easy to re-write the literal dialog bubbles, but I have a sneaking suspicion that modifying the quantity of bubbles in any given scene in the game script will either result in undefined behaviour or just flat-out crash the DS.
Perhaps when all is said and done I can provide a means to share my revised game script with the world - if I do rewrite the entire game, that is. The proof of concept was a nice reward for me, but actually changing the entire script might prove a bit tiresome. It's a JRPG, after all. They love their dialog.
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Tagged under: Gaming
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09/12/08 at 17:50 EST
I've tried this once before and failed, but my second attempt was met with a different consequence. I am, of course, referring to my day's efforts to hack the game script for The World Ends With You for the DS. As much of the binary code as I've deciphered, I'm reluctant to change too much at this point - it's pretty easy to re-write the literal dialog bubbles, but I have a sneaking suspicion that modifying the quantity of bubbles in any given scene in the game script will either result in undefined behaviour or just flat-out crash the DS.
Perhaps when all is said and done I can provide a means to share my revised game script with the world - if I do rewrite the entire game, that is. The proof of concept was a nice reward for me, but actually changing the entire script might prove a bit tiresome. It's a JRPG, after all. They love their dialog.
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Tagged under: Gaming
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Hibernating
09/12/07 at 14:44 EST
So the site has been pretty inactive lately, a consequence of I myself being inactive lately. No progress has been made on my catch-22 job hunting; University degrees apparently don't carry any weight any more, which isn't entirely surprising to me - I've seen many a good thing become poor, withered, and/or useless when given enough time to become so.
Can't say a lot of interesting things have happened lately apart from IRL having the occasional Physics glitch. I also found the missing part I needed for my SNES to work, and in my mental dormancy I have decided to spend some of my time revisiting the 90s. Is it surprising that I've never played my way through Super Mario RPG before? Well, having acquired the original cartridge has provided some sort of nostalgia-induced encouragement I've needed to stick with it this time around.
Another part of my spare time is now being preoccupied by my goal to take personal "large-scale" programming a bit more seriously, and I've been met with some good and some lackluster results. All in all, I am quite fond of C# development, and the IDE I'm using (VS08) is a welcome change to the standard Wordpad/vim I've become accustomed to coding in. With any luck, I'll find some sort of resolve to carry on with it long enough to see some kind of reward for my efforts. Not too optimistic at this point; my body is currently trying to encourage the practice of hibernation. These cold, dreary winter days are best slept away, my friend.
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Tagged under: Life
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09/12/07 at 14:44 EST
So the site has been pretty inactive lately, a consequence of I myself being inactive lately. No progress has been made on my catch-22 job hunting; University degrees apparently don't carry any weight any more, which isn't entirely surprising to me - I've seen many a good thing become poor, withered, and/or useless when given enough time to become so.
Can't say a lot of interesting things have happened lately apart from IRL having the occasional Physics glitch. I also found the missing part I needed for my SNES to work, and in my mental dormancy I have decided to spend some of my time revisiting the 90s. Is it surprising that I've never played my way through Super Mario RPG before? Well, having acquired the original cartridge has provided some sort of nostalgia-induced encouragement I've needed to stick with it this time around.
Another part of my spare time is now being preoccupied by my goal to take personal "large-scale" programming a bit more seriously, and I've been met with some good and some lackluster results. All in all, I am quite fond of C# development, and the IDE I'm using (VS08) is a welcome change to the standard Wordpad/vim I've become accustomed to coding in. With any luck, I'll find some sort of resolve to carry on with it long enough to see some kind of reward for my efforts. Not too optimistic at this point; my body is currently trying to encourage the practice of hibernation. These cold, dreary winter days are best slept away, my friend.
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Tagged under: Life
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There Will Be Mods
09/11/18 at 11:42 EST
So I've been modifying how my Wii runs Super Smash Bros Brawl lately with some decent results:
{IMG REMOVED AT src='./img/misc/smallbrawl.jpg'>
While it remains something like a 20-step process to get anything done and requires at least a rudimentary understanding of computer technology, I'm rather impressed with how simple the process is - at least, for me. Brawl modding has really come quite far, and I'd like to catch up with it to some degree if I can.
A friend of mine came up with a brilliant idea yesterday that will for the present remain undisclosed, but suffice to say it would make a very nice rainy day project. Given, however, that it requires a slight monetary investment, I fear I may need to put it on the back burner until the hunt for employment yields some actual results. I've considered putting a CEIL on the number of "thanks, but no thanks" industry letters I've received before I decide to settle for something less than half my worth.
I have my pride, but I also have my bills and my penchant for eating food on a regular basis.
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Tagged under: Gaming
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09/11/18 at 11:42 EST
So I've been modifying how my Wii runs Super Smash Bros Brawl lately with some decent results:
{IMG REMOVED AT src='./img/misc/smallbrawl.jpg'>
While it remains something like a 20-step process to get anything done and requires at least a rudimentary understanding of computer technology, I'm rather impressed with how simple the process is - at least, for me. Brawl modding has really come quite far, and I'd like to catch up with it to some degree if I can.
A friend of mine came up with a brilliant idea yesterday that will for the present remain undisclosed, but suffice to say it would make a very nice rainy day project. Given, however, that it requires a slight monetary investment, I fear I may need to put it on the back burner until the hunt for employment yields some actual results. I've considered putting a CEIL on the number of "thanks, but no thanks" industry letters I've received before I decide to settle for something less than half my worth.
I have my pride, but I also have my bills and my penchant for eating food on a regular basis.
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Tagged under: Gaming
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