yours truly

-the essay page

(apr)wed 9th 2003
[whoops]

Kinda missed a day there. Meh, no harm no foul. :D So lessee. I still have to finish that essay. I already put up what I have of it, I haven't even edited it or anything, but I dunno, feel free to read it. You'll have to read it again when it's finished though cause stuff will be different.

In Psychology, yesterday, we were assigned this really great project. We have to write how certain things affect the mind. There was a whole list of options to choose, and we were chosen randomly to pick the option we got, because no one could have the same topic. I was called upon near the middle, but most of the good ones had already been taken, so I chose TV and Video Games. I'm going to dissapoint my teacher and focus on Video Games. He's a TV hound, I can tell, but oh well :D

I'll try my hardest to finish that essay up for your reading pleasure, or displeasure if you see fit. I have to a few essays to write for school. Ick, so many essays. We get an essay a class in English. Really sucks. It's alot of work. Last year I believe I wrote about twelve essays all together, out of every class. I'm sure we've already written eight or nine in English.

So I wonder if Angelfire has CGI, I doubt it. I'm looking for a CGI script that changes images every time a website is accessed, I may write my own but if I can find one that would be cool. The reason for this is I want the title image to change to something different, randomly, every time you access the site. That would be cool if I could find a script that does that, then of course I may have to see if anyone I know would be willing to sacrifice some webspace for me, webspace that has CGI, PHP, and MySQL. Who knows :D

Anyway, off to do some writing!

[the mundane]

Hey there!

Yesterday after my most recent post I decided to write a sort of narrative on how 2d fighters, the Street Fighter series in particular, have impacted my life. It was getting rather long so I decided to give it a separate page, so when it's finished, 'cause it isn't yet, I'll put up a link for it.

Other than that there's not a whole lot goin' on. Turvy got a rad new foot bag, it's a real Hackey-Sack brand bag too. It's really great, we usually spend part of our breaks and lunches hackey-sacking, it's fun stuff.

What else... Ah, there's exactly one hour and forty minutes left in the auction for the Dreamcast. I got an email back from the guy last night, he said he had been out of town for a few days. I replied as quickly as I could but I haven't heard anything back, thus when the time is right I'm gunna bid, bid, bid, that is allowing I can get my mum to lend me fifty bucks ;cD

Well, I'm gunna call it quits for this update, for now :D Later tonight I'll put up the essay and then maybe by then I'll have thought of something more interesting to talk about!

Ah! But before I forget, I'll let you have a peak at what I did when I got home from school this afternoon, obviously, it's the image to the right... ;D

(apr)mon 7th 2003
[qcf + P cont...]

So, what is "qcf + P"? Well above is a depiction from SNK vs Capcom of what qcf + P does if you play as Ken (dude in the red whom launched the blue fireball).

The "qcf" denotes a joystick motion; quarter circle forward (if your character is facing right). The "+ P" is performed immediately after the "qcf" joystick motion, the "P" denotes any of the punch buttons whether it be Jab, Strong, or Fierce, which punch to choose all depends on the situation.

Each punch determines a different speed for the fireball, Jab = Slow, Strong = Average, Fierce = Fast.

Capcom games use a six button layout that encompasses the three punches along with three separate kicks known as Short, Forward, and Roundhouse.

Fighting games have been around for a long time, since the early ninetees and since then the names of the basic punches and kicks have been made simpler for ease of writing and memorization. The three punches and kicks are now divided into three categories, with a kick and a punch in each. The categories used are simply Light, Medium, and Hard, this makes writing move lists easier and makes the memorization of moves that much easier.

Well I reckon I'll make another post later tonight with some more explanation, not that you reall care but hey :D

[qcf + P]

Wow, Monday hits hard sometimes, hehe. I got almost no sleep last night, I'm not really sure why, well, no I'm pretty sure why :D I stayed up until one o'clock in the morning reading "The Beckoning Silence" by Joe Simpson. It's main focus is him and his partner's ascent of the Eiger North Face, the Eiger is hailed as one of the most technical alpine ascents in Europe. It's 13,000 feet of vertical climbing. Very impressive. I believe they fail, either in the ascent or the abseil, I'm not sure yet. They've just started up the mountain, the first half of the book was all the events leading up to the climb, it's very well written and a great read!

Besides reading into the wee hours of the morn', I'm honestly not too sure as to why I couldn't get some decent rest. I was really hot for one, so I opened my window, then I got really cold, so I closed it and on and on. I rolled around some and dozed off until about ten to five, rolled around some more until six thirty, then got up at seven thirty. Rough. I'm really, really, really sore from our exploits yesterday, my back is all tense and achey, and I banged the side of my ankle on a rock and no it's also really sore. Oh well. It should all heal quickly.

Well I best be off for school now, I have English and Entrepreneurship, English this morning, and Entrepreneurship this afternoon *sigh*. Entrepreneurship is one, if not the best class I have right now and it's so dull. I've got to finish up my Business Plan quickly, it's a little behind but I think I'll be alright since I only planned for my venture to go for three days, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'll be selling doughnuts. Should be good!

Ta!

(apr)sun 6th 2003
[the adventure]

Well to say the least, the day was great! Connor showed up at about twelve thirty, oh no, maybe one, well we left my house at one, we then proceeded to Sam's house and retrieved him. From there we went back to my house, I grabbed a little guide book, of a place called Cougar Canyon, for Connor to check out. I also nabbed my climbing knickers because the weather in the direction we were headed was looking better then before. From my place we drove into town and stopped quickly at Connor's to see if his girlfriend had shown up, she hadn't so we left for Ellison Park. The weather was stunning, very remeniscent of summer, warm and inviting. It took us about ten minutes to get to the park, on the way we drove past the airport and saw some gliders comming into land, it was cool because they flew right over our car as we drove down the road.

We were glad to see the gate open when we showed up, last week it was closed and we had to hike all the way in, which really isn't very arduous, just makes more time before the climbing starts. Anyway, this time we decided to get a bit more serious about the climbing aspect of the trip whereas last week we mostly scrambled around and sat around.

We hiked straight to the wall we had found last weekend, and a bit to our surprise there were people bouldering around. We didn't catch their names, we probably should have but I'm sure we'll see them again. They were working on a rather stubborn problem, I'm in no means to grade it but it was tricky. Anyway, they had been working on it for about half an hour before we showed up and they nailed it about ten minutes later. So we had some fun for an hour or two I'd reckon, bouldering around, the rock was great, lots of fun stuff to check out. As I said, we decided to be a bit more serious about the climbing aspect this time, so I brought both pairs of my shoes, they're both slippers, one pair are Boreal Zens, and the other are Five.Ten Ananazis. I order the Zens online from Mountain Equipment Coop while I was in Kyrgizstan, they were small when I got them and now they're even smaller. So last summer when I got back I bought a pair of the Ananazis, they're quite a bit bigger, and are good for when my feet get fatigued from wearing the Zens.

We decided to call it a day for the bouldering and we went scrambling around along the water side. Ha, we came to a rather easy section that me and Connor had conquered last weekend so I recommended we try the tougher looking route that hangs right over the water. This being his first time bouldering/scrambling for real he opted to take the easier route. As I waited for Connor to get accross the traverse I watched Sam climb up the easy way and then as he neared the top I faintly heard this hissing. As Sam got to the crest the hissing grew louder and Sam stopped immediately, "We have some uh, wildlife!" He called down. So I asked him what it was, albeit I was a little nervous because the hiss sounded very much like a snake from where I was. So Sam peaked above the crest and he quickly downclimbed and said, "It was a goose on her nest!" It was very funny but apparently Sam's fear was justifiable, as mothering geese have been known to attack and quite violently.

So after that was scrambled around some more and made our way back to the car. All in all, it was a fantastic day and I look forward to going back next weekend, now Connor's in the market for shoes of his own! :D

[it's a beautiful day]

Wow, it's days like this when I wish I had a digital camera just to show you all what I see. Though I may be lacking a digital camera, I do have a real camera of the Canon EOS variety. It's the lowest model on their line of EOS cameras, but I lub it so much. The one problem that I've had with it, which I had never considered before I chose to go with an SLR is film! Before, when I was living in Kyrgizstan film cost like a dollar, sometimes less, and same with developing, it cost almost nothing to get a single roll processed. Now! I took in five rolls, it cost forty dollars, and most rolls of film cost seven to eight dollars. *sigh* Oh well. I still have lots of fun with it.



This talk about film reminds me of this crazy dream I had the other night, it was quite strange. My friend Connor and I were off on a trip, we were climbing I think, in England. Anyways we had gotten down from a big wall we had just climbed, packed up our gear and gotten into the car. We started driving and we were talking about where we're going to go now, and then I dozed off. This is the really weird part though, when I woke up we were in Kyrgizstan! Right in the capitol city, Bishkek. Though it wasn't immediately apparent to myself where were, as was the same with Connor, who oddly was driving and still did not know. It only took a mere moment to realise though. It was strange, we found this new shop that really isn't there called Tokyo Snow, it was a boarding shop. So we went in and then I spotted outside, where we just were, a large hike up to the top of a ridge.

The weather was a bit soggy, and clouds were coverining the very near mountain range of the Tien Shan, and I so desperately wanted to show Connor how great they were. So we left the shop quickly and hiked up the hill, all the while Connor was firing off hiking and climbing tips, t'was strange. Anyway, we got to the top and wow. It felt so amazing, I felt free of anything, no responsibilities, no problems, nothing, just perfect. I could feel the wind and the sun filtering down through the clouds on to my face. It was stunning. Then I woke up!

I really don't know the meaning of the dream but I can understand alot of aspects of it, many of which I didn't mention.

Anyhow, it's Sunday, and Connor, Sam, and myself are going climbing in Ellison Provincial Park today, it should be good! Connor will be here soon so I better go!

(apr)sat 5th 2003
[arrival]

*crashes violently through the ceiling*

Well! I'm back, so is the site! Not that it really affects you or anyone one else you're related to, I just thought I'd state the fact that the site is back. It's been four months, four months of school, four months of games, four months of madness. Not really madness, just life in general. A few weeks ago I was thinking about the site and how I would never end up updating it or getting back to it ever again.

Today changed those feelings though. I was pondering, thinking, meandering, and I realised that the stuff I was thinking about would be absolutely fantastic to put down on... Byte form. Honestly, I can't even remember what I was thinking about but I really want to get back into my previously short lived habit of rambling and ranting on my site. It was lots of fun, and since it's my site I can make it look anyway I want. This is really quite confusing to read I'm sure, it's compeletely stream of conciousness writing.

Which reminds me, we're reading this utterly dreck book-my teacher is reading aloud-this utterly dreck book called "The Stone Angel" by some old woman whom I can't quite remember the name. Anyhow, it's written compeletely through stream of conciousness which at times is rather cool, but the story is so bleh. She's an old nintey year old woman reveling, or broiling one may come to think, in thoughts of her past. It's dull, and I'll leave it at that.

Hum, well, ah I'm listening to Sublime - Scarlet Begonias, it's not a bad tune. Sublime is by far one of if not the most favorite bands of mine. They're music is so varied, and the lyrics and instruments are killer.

So I've been playing a lot of fighting games these past few months. I've been using a Logitech Wingman Extreme gamepad for all of the face smashing goodness, and about this controller, I've had it ever since I got this computer, about- wow almost gee, I almost can't believe it. Almost five years ago. Anyways I suppose I've never used it this hard before because now the d-pad is kind buggered, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. For a while though the d-pad felt nice because it felt broken-in, now it just feels broken. I need a new one, but alas I cannot afford a new one.

Just so you don't start feeling sorry for me in any way, the reason I can't afford a new controller is because I've set my sights on a Dreamcast. There's an auction on eBay, a guy has a Dreamcast with one controller and a demo disc, the real kicker is that he's in Vancouver a mere five hour drive/thirty minute flight from here, thus the shipping costs would be meager! I'm stoked. I can't believe I never considered a Dreamcast before. What an amazing system, it's a 128bit system, and the fact that it came out when the N64 and Playstation were around is just gob-smacking. I don't understand why it failed. It has great sports games, tons of fighting games (the reason I'm getting one) and just oodles of extras! Well, I can't wait, I hope I win this auction, only one hurdle before I start bidding, I need to borrow about fifty bucks from my mum. I reckon I can pay her back before I graduate, which is in about two and a half months so it's cool.

Mmm! Caesar Salad. My mum just came and handed me a big beautiful bowl of Caesar Salad, which is by far my most favorite salad. What a brilliant dressing. It would be great to come up with something like Caesar Salad, or Hollandaise Sauce, you know something really world renowned :D

The world renowned bit reminds me, in Psychology we're watching Ghandi! It's a great movie, so far, we've watched about an hour of it. Hum.


This is becoming rather long winded, I might as well call it quits for now. Have no fear though, I will be back sooner than later and I'm going to commence work on the redesign, should be a lot better!

For now I shall leave you with a sprite I ripped and then coloured from one of the games I'm currently addicted to, SNK vs. Capcom Millenium Fight.