I hate being broke
Well, I’ve been putting it off all month but… my Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Linux PDA is now on eBay so I can pay this month’s rent. I bought it a few years ago from Staples. The guy that sold it to me was really cute, and he was all like “You know it runs linux, right?” and I’m all like “yeah.”. Of course, Staples no longer sells PDAs, so I wonder what happened to the cute guy that used to be behind the counter. Perhaps he’s unemployed like me.
Anyway, it’s been really fun. Because it runs Linux, there are so many things it could do. Something about knowing I could have a wifi webserver in my pocket was just really cool.
Anyway, I hope someone buys it. eBay charged me $3.50 to list it, which they’ll take from my credit card at an undisclosed time. With my luck, this will be after interest has accrued for the month, pushing me over my limit, and giving me a nice $30 over limit fee. yay. <sarcasm>I bet my credit report is in amazing shape now</sarcasm>
-Sam
Go penguin, it’s your birthday
I finally got around to doing a Linux port of DreamZZT:
Because it’s built with libSDL, it should also build on Mac OSX, BSD, and other platforms supported by SDL that Jay doesn’t believe exist. I don’t have access to a Mac, so anyone out there with OSX and the compiler that would be willing to compile and test dreamzzt for me, please let me know.
-Sam
Allez Cuisine!
Fuki-san: With one last final to go, this looks like it should be an exciting event! Now entering GITC-1400 stadium, it’s the Iron Coder: Sam Steele! Sam is 19 years old and comes from the city of Newark. Now lets have a look at our challenger: an IT201 Final exam! Not much is known about this exam yet, it has been top secret until now! One man! One Exam! The HEAT will be ON!!
Fuki-san: Now entering GITC-1400 stadium, it’s the Chairman Marc Sequeria!
Chariman: [japanese text, not subtitled]
Fuki-san: With us today, we have Japanese pop-star AnnoyingGirl, food export Dr. KnowItAll, and japanese fortune teller I.C.Future.
KnowItAll: Greetings. It’s a pleasure to be here today. You know, back in some time period noone’s heard of, the ancient japanese used to take exams, too.
AnnoyingGirl: That’s so interesting! I’ve never been so interested! Tee Hee!
Chairman: ALLEZ CUISINE!!!!!
Fuki-san: The chairman is now handing out the exams, and … what’s this? Ohta, can we get a close up on what he’s handing out?
Ohta: Yes Fuki-san! He appears to be handing out a traditional NJIT essay booklet.
AnnoyingGirl: Ah…
KnowItAll: That’s right, no multiple choice here! ha ha ha. I’ve seen this type of booklet before, he’s probably going to have to write an essay, or maaaaybe… short answer?
AnnoyingGIrl: Short answer?
KnowItAll: Right. Fill-in-the-blank.
AnnoyingGirl: Oh! I get it now. Tee Hee.
Fuki-san: Ohta, can you get a comment from Sam before the exam starts?
Ohta: Sure. Sam, how do you think you’ll do on this exam?
Sam: Who are you, and what are you saying? I dont understand japanese! Where’s the translater lady? Aren’t these exams supposed to be quiet and closed?
Fuki-san: Alright, Sequeira-san is now handing out the exam sheets. Yes! It looks to be both short answer and fill in the blank.
Fortune: You were right!
KnowItAll: Yes. No essay though. ha ha ha.
Fuki-san: What’s this the Iron Coder is pulling out of his pocket?
Fortune: It looks like a wooden stick?
KnowItAll: That’s a writing implement, known as a pencil. These are commonly used to take ScanTron tests, as well as essays and other sorts of exams.
Ohta: You’re right, the Iron Coder has just taken out a Number Two Pencil.
AnnoyingGIrl: Ahh.. number two! So exciting!
Fuki-san: He appears to be.. yes! He’s filling in the answers!
Fortune: He sure knows his stuff.
AnnoyingGirl: Is he hesitating?
KnowItAll: No, I think he’s just concentrating hard.
Fuki-san: He appears to have turned the pencil upside down, and is rubbing it vigerously across the page! I’ve never seen such a technique!
Ohta: Yes, he appears to have misspelled a word, and is erasing the mistake from the page
AnnoyingGirl: Ahh
KnowItAll: You know, erasers are made of rubber.
AnnoyingGirl: That’s so interesting! Tee Hee!
*Female announcer* 5 minutes to go!
Fuki-san: With five minutes left, how do you think he’ll do? Will he finish on time? Let’s find out!
AnnoyingGirl: I hope he’s doing ok, I’m so excitited! Tee Hee!
KnowItAll: Yes, he appears to be on the final problem.
*Female announcer* 5 seconds! 3! 2! 1! *gong*
Fuki-san: That’s it! The time is up! The IT201 final exam is OVER!!!!
Ohta: Sam, how do you think you did?
Sam: Well, I think I did ok.
Ohta: So, you did your best?
Sam: I did my best.
Is it over yet?
3 more finals to go! I finished my IT201 final project today, it’s a silly little Flash presentation about a fake company. You can view the flash presentation here. I’m probably gonna take my online MIS final tonight, since I have 2 in-class finals tomorrow, and then it’s winter break time!!!!!
DDR Bass! DDR Bass!
All your bass are belong to DDR Solo – Bass Mix. We took Brian to Jersey Gardens so he could go christmas shopping, on the condition that he let us stop by the arcade to play DDR. The arcade has a machine called “DDR Solo – Bass Mix” which has corner arrows along with the regular 4 panels, making it a lot harder. Anyway, I finally passed a non-stop megamix, and got this really neat online score password thing:
I love my camera phone 🙂 Anyway, as we were about to leave, I noticed Jay still had 1 song to go, and it had superstar! I failed after like 2 seconds because I suck at hitting the diagonal panels, but it was fun, and I love that song.
Also, I got bored of doing my final project for IT-201 in Flash, so I made this little animation for Jay. Noone else will get the joke, but it was fun. Anyway, I guess I should get back to this project..
-Sam
Teaching an old dog new tricks
Ok, so I was feeling overly creative this weekend and added a pretty cool effect to the water in ZZT. Check it out: (click to enlarge)
Of course, it looks even cooler animated. Hmm, I think this is also the first screenshot I’ve posted in here that was taken from the Dreamcast instead of from Windows. yay!
Also, I’ve finally implemented enough of ZZT-OOP for the Town of ZZT’s ending sequence to work, so the game is finally completable! If all goes as planned, I should have a beta release ready for the holidays.
-Sam
Welcome to Newark
Ok, so I don’t know if this is funny or sad, or just Newark. I’m staring out the window of my apartment, when an Ambulance (or some other vehicle with sirens and lights, my glasses weren’t on) comes up to the gate to enter the parking lot. But the guard wasn’t around to let it in. So it’s sitting there, lights flashing, making funny siren noises for at least a minute or two, trying to get the attention of someone to open the gate. It’s not like there was noone out there, either. i saw plenty of people walking around out there, just noone cared enough to let the vehicle in. I’m glad to know that if I suffer some horrible accident, the ambulance will have to spend several minutes sitting outside the parking lot instead of helping me. Welcome to Newark.
-Sam
It’s Thinking(TM)
Ok, so I’m talking to James today and he sends me some Japanese text in gaim. Since I’m on Windows, I didn’t have the Japanese font installed, so I figured.. hey, IE likes to bother me with annoying messages, lets make that japanese language pack box pop up! So I browse over to http://www.sega.co.jp and ….. THERE’S A NEW SONIC GAME COMING OUT AT THE END OF THE MONTH!!!
Ok. So I’m a little behind in gaming news. I haven’t read a gaming mag since the last issue of ODCM (Official Dreamcast Magazine, for the uninformed). So anyway, Sonic Heros brings back some of the characters from Knuckles’ Chaotix: Espio the chameleon (the bestest, coolest character), Charmey Bee (the smallest, annoyingest character), and Vector the Alligator (Gil calls him Lizardo).
So anyway, to ease my excitement, I busted out the Genesis + 32x and played Knuckles Chaotix as Espio, teamed with Heavy, Lizardo, and finally Knuckles. After a few hours I finally beat the game, but couldn’t get all the Chaos Rings. Those special stages get incredibly hard, and Game Genie isn’t compatible with 32X, so I can’t even cheat 🙁
Anyway, back to James. I’m chatting with him, and I blurt out:
welco
metot
henex
tlevel
and he’s all like “wtf? that’s gibberish!” and I’m all like “Hello!? Sega slogan!”. For the uninformed, or those of you too young to remember, Welco Metot Henex Tlevel, or spaced correctly: welcome to the next level, was Sega’s marketing campaign for the SegaCD, an addon for the Sega Genesis. You know, the thing before the Saturn, which is the thing before the Dreamcast. Yes, it’s a sad state of affairs, but some of the youngins out there aren’t familiar with the Genesis.
Anyway, while trying to prove my case to James, I took this pretty little picture with my phone:
It’s Sonic CD, with WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL proudly displayed on the front. I also found the most amazing livejournal entry ever while searching google for said phrase:
WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL
Google only turns up 9 pages that match Sega’s old advertising phrase. I want to be the tenth one. =)
Amazing. If google manages to find this, I suppose I’ll be number 14 or so!
-Sam
gobble gobble
Happy day after turkey day.
LEFTOVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
-Sam