ross goes to canada

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