Anchor’ed!

So I went to see my grandparents this weekend. My grandfather’s in terrible shape. He’s afraid of hospitals and is pretty unstable. Less worry about if, when, or why he dies, more about who’s not on the will. My aunt had a baby shower (or so I’m informed) so I went with my cousin, uncle, and brother out to the beach on my uncle’s boat. We’d just gotten there, and another boat dropped anchor nearby. Some idiot comes speeding along (my uncle’s a cop, but didn’t really care) and runs straight through their line. So now he’s stuck with them. Coast guard comes along and tries to help them. Me and my cousin are shouting “cut the line!” but nobody’s listening. After about an hour, the guy jumps into the water and frees his boat. He goes off with the coast guard, and guess what. The anchor’s stuck.

We’re still watching from the boat, and laughing, and this poor couple on the other boat refuses to cut their $100 anchor. They call a $500 sea tow, and a guy from shore’s telling them to turn the boat and try from the other side. Sea tow shows up and grabs the anchor line, ties it to his boat, and drives off in the opposite direction. It works. We were laughing so much. Sea tow gets his money, gives the line back. The ship drops anchor and another guy runs over the line. Laugh.

Insurgency is not out. No need to complain yet, if it’s not out by July we can start yelling. I’ll keep every reader updated.

This Weekend

I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, and I was going to post, but I didn’t get home for a while and had a lot of things to finish. First, let’s talk Sopranos.

Last night was the end of the series and so many people expected someone to die at the end. If you missed it, don’t be sad. The ending sucked. I don’t care how philosophically you want to end your crime show, you DON’T, I repeat, DON’T end it like that. So they’re sitting in a diner with about 20 people who could have killed anyone. Over a thousand different endings. Someone has trouble parking, comes in and it ends. The fuck was that. Screw the movie, I want closure.

As for my actual life, I went to visit my grandparents. My cousin graduates soon, so we celebrated on Sunday. He’s going into high school soon, just so you don’t think he’s through college. We left the party at about three. A few minutes later we get a call from my uncle, but didn’t hear it because my mom silenced her cell phone. We got home early, and my mom checks her voicemail. We call back and it turns out that my grandfather cut his hand on the garage door right after we left, and had been arguing whether or not to go to the emergency room with my uncle. He vomited and passed out. They called us right after that happened, and they were in the hospital when we got home. We had to go all the way there, and he was stable when we got there, but the doctor didn’t want us to see him. It’s for the best I suppose.

So we wasted some of our time going to the hospital, but at least we knew he was okay. He’d been in shock for about a hour. We drove home and got home quickly again (two in a row.) We got another call saying that we should go back to the hospital. My grandfather was in critical condition. We drove back only to find that he was critical for about six minutes (those of you keeping score at home, that’s about 3 hours wasted on our end and an hour and six minutes for my grandfather.) Had to drive all the way home, after the doctor still didn’t want us to see him. Got home around 8:15. Long day. Needed sleep. I didn’t get everything done I wanted to do.

Left Behind

I joined the team of Left Behind a couple of days ago. You should pay attention to their site every once in a while. Here‘s a link to the ModDB page. Left Behind places you in the shoes of an unnamed pilot shot down over a city during the 7 hour war. You must fight your way out alive and get back together with your allies.

I’ve been watching Insurgency for a while now. June’s the release date, but nothing’s going on yet. Insurgency is a SOURCE mod with high levels of realism. Insurgency takes place in the modern day and you can play as the USMC or the Insurgents. Games are squad based and the different teams are for the different kinds of players. Marines are for more tactical players who enjoy realism. Insurgents are if you don’t give a damn about realism and just wanna blow shit up. Gonna be great.

The World without Garry

I had a dream last night. A very vivid one. It was the world if Garry Newman never existed. It was basically the internet, but perfect. Steam was perfect, message boards were perfect, it was basically taking every nook and cranny of the internet and polishing it off. Here’s a few in depth points:

You know SOURCE SDK? It’s much simpler. Mappping is about 10 times easier with no crashes but the best part of it is that maps would never lag in game. What about Mod Scripting? Too simple. Valve didn’t need to use Microsoft .NET after they built an app from the ground up. The code can still be done in .NET, but the application is extremely simple. It’s basically press a button, type something in, and click okay and tada! Your new weapon is made. Users can compile new things for the SOURCE Scripter (my mind’s not creative, it might have been something else but I only heard the name once in the entire dream) by using .NET and Valve publishes updates weekly.

Valve’s Steam is extremely powerful. The servers run from over 8 countries which means download times are enhanced. Steam also has a “Submit a Mod” button on their Mods page which allows you to submit your mod to that page. But won’t the list overflow? Don’t worry. Valve employees examine every mod submitted. On the submit screen you had to specify genre, version (Beta, Full Game, Updated Full Game, Sequel, Trilogy, etc.), and give it a little description. When a mod is examined, if any information is wrong, it is changed immediately. If your mod is on steam you can edit it on a new “My Mods” tab. It allows you to change any bit of information about it as well as bring it off steam. Mods can have passwords applied to them for a closed beta, and more than one person can manage the mod in the “My Mods” tab by adding their name to a list.

But if that “Third Party Mod” thing is getting you down, Valve offers the option to sponsor. You pay $1 and your game is submitted for free. You pay $5 and your game is submitted for $5. The maximum price to pay is $30. Valve gets 75% of your profits, which means you’re still down money if it’s not a hit. If it is a hit and many people but it, you’ll be much richer. No monthly fees, just that 75% of profits rule. Mods are still listed in the “My Mods” tab with their status changed from “Third Party Mod” to “Full Game.” You can remove your sponsorship from a game and return to third party, and you will be refunded half of what you paid. There’s also a “Submit Media” Button that allows you to submit a movie to the media page. Movies are also edited in the My Mods tab.

Before I go any further, you probably are wondering what happened to Garry’s Mod. Don’t fear. A guy named John released his own mod called “Sandbox.” It was basically the same thing, but he submitted it for free. John also built a forum called “Johnny Community.” That was basically a Facepunch, but rules weren’t as strict and much nicer. There was still an OIFY, and it was still called OIFY, but it wasn’t bad at all. It was actually where most people would turn their life around. It had very complex debates and only a handful of porn threads and spam threads appeared each week. John also respected his LUA and Mapping community.

Did I just say LUA? Well guess what, LUA is also much easier. Like Valve, John released an LUA Scripter. Addons for the scripter were made in .NET, but the scripter was just as, if not, simpler than Valve’s. This made everyone able to enjoy the fun of LUA. Not to mention, people actually played gamemodes. Most servers wouldn’t play Sandbox or Light RP, not even modifications. Most servers would play fun games. Sandbox, like Garry’s Mod, is updated weekly with breaks for one week monthly and Winter break. Sandbox also went through multiple versions, but thanks to SOURCE Scripter, there were only 3 versions.

Well, that’s my dream. Try not to think “OMG U HATEZ GARRY!” I don’t hate him. If I knew Garry I’d tell him this dream and we’d probably laugh for hours, but I think the dream’s trying to tell me something. Nobody kill Garry. It might just be telling me how the world can be improved.

15 days of torment

Today marked the 15 school day left point. In the next 15 days I’ll be busier and under more stress than ever. I should be better again this summer. I wrote the problem of the day in history while the rest of my class finished a test. I was basically the third to last person done, so I didn’t have time to edit it. See if you can solve it and post a comment. Answer is coming next week! Don’t cheat.

I have little else to say, so I’ll stop writing here.

Problem of the Week #1

So I decided that I’d have a little mental challenge for you guys. I’ll write up a problem and post it every wednesday. Today’s problem is math based.

Your average ticking clock moves 6 degrees every tick and has a tick every second. The hour hand moves 30 degrees every hour, or 1/120 every second, or every tick. After 9,828 ticks, what is the combined total of the number of hours and the combined number of degrees between the hour and the second hand?

Try to solve the question without looking at the comments in case it’s posted. The answer will be given next week along with a new problem.

New Blog and Feelin’ Good

Today I’m starting Nerdblog. It’s not entirely version one, but this is the first version on wordpress. I tried to start blogs before, but they died pretty quickly. I’m pretty sure about this one. I’ll keep it updated frequently, not every day. Let’s hope you enjoy it.

As for feeling good, I had a pretty good day today, which is rare. I usually have crappy days and days that balance out. A good day is an event that must be savored. I finished my science project early, I made a mistake with the total score conversion, and it turns out I had enough points a week ago to finish. I still blew my ass off online trying to score the extra credit and had to finish 20 worksheets for the remaining credit.

I’m still glad I got it out of my way. This leaves me loads of time for more stuff. I actually have two essays due on Friday. I don’t have much time to do them, and only just got my sources. I’ve almost finished the first. I have another project due next week, but the bulk of it is done. I’d say that I won’t have much time finishing up the school year for internet stuff. Exams are all finished, but I have a ton of work due in the next few weeks.

Otherwise, I’m looking forward to the summer.