and the whatnot of sorts

Yesterday I successfully gave directions to some tourists.  Here’s an exciting recap:

tourists: “Excuse me.  Which way is it to the beach?”

me: “I think it’s over there” (pointing)

tourists: “Thanks”

This isn’t the first time that I’ve pointed a direction to a tourist, but it is the first time that I’ve been correct.

I’m 1 for 5 so far in Vancouver.  You wouldn’t believe how proud I am of this.

In other news, my parents have some pictures from the Vancouver trip up on their photo website.

some notes added where appropriate

here on youtube

Here are a few games that I made with MMF ( a nice no-programming-needed application-creating tool ) in middleschool/early highschool and also one newer game.  They’re somewhat embarrassing for a number of reasons, but I thought I would post them anyways for posterity or something.

1. Dodgeball Extreme

It’s a single-player avoid-bouncing-balls game. If that doesn’t quite make sense, 14-year-old me decided to include an extensive Help section which can definitely be checked out.

To play the game you will need cncs232 ( put it in c:\WINDOWS\system\ )
click here download Dodgeball Extreme

2. Cool Tennis ( aka Smash Tennis )

Cool Tennis is pong with gravity ( the gravity is a bit less than a universal force, though, since it only affects the paddle ). There is a 1-player mode ( shown below ) and a 2-player mode ( not shown below ). I made an updated version at some point, but unfortunately I lost the file in a computer crash. I might as well also state that the updated version had 3d-graphics, an extensive online-play mode, and a rather impressive eye-tracking gestural control system. It’s a shame that I lost it.

To play the game you will need cncs232 ( put it in c:\WINDOWS\system\ )  — this is the same file as above so if you already have it, you don’t need it again.

click here to get Cool Tennis

3. Wizard Beta --the pinnacle of young me’s game-creating attempts.

Wizard Beta is a platforming game. Like the previous games, the title alone explains everything needed to know about it. Here’s the breakdown:

Wizard: You play as a wizard… who, naturally, can cast spells and such. As you can see in the screenshot below, you wear a nice wizarding hat and wizarding cloak. Painted on these are several magic symbols such as the moon, a star, and, apparently, the greater-than sign. You also have a long gray beard as all wizards must have.

Beta: There are a lot of bugs.

To play the game you will need cncs232 ( put it in c:\WINDOWS\system\ )  — this is the same file as above so if you already have it, you don’t need it again.

click here to get Wizard Beta

4. Avoid-a-ball

This game was made just a few months ago in a somewhat successful attempt to learn a bit of actionscript programming ( and was shortly followed by an even more successful forgetting of everything about actionscript ).  It’s a very basic 2-player game and you should grab a friend and check it out here.

great animation/story from the person that made Les Triplettes de Belleville. see it here

how to:  go to settings-->always use https-->save changes

why? this

SmartPop Popcorn: microwaving for 2.5 minutes yields 10 popped kernels.  microwaving for 3.5 minutes yields 12 popped kernels and a popcorn bag with severe burn marks.  However, people that buy popcorn on amazon.com seem to like it.

GUM Butler-Weave Floss: within 2 days it forced me to do an unsuccessful Google search for “how to remove a piece of stuck floss from molars“.  How embarassing… It is nothing more than mint-flavored string to me now.

read about it and see video here