Friends

I am facing the reality that in 12 days I will start grad school... *excited and terrified...*

My financial aide packet is credited to my account, I have orientation on sunday and then an assistantship meeting next friday when I'll get my work schedule.

I have looked up what books I need, and am shocked at how little it will cost compared to YCP. Oh and btw the books look AWESOME!!!! Especially the one about graveyard preservation!!!

Next week I'll go supply shopping and tomorrow I'm going to throw my trusty messenger bag in to be washed *I bought it my second semester at YCP and I LOVE it*

So wow. This is it. This is what it feels like to be starting as a grad student...

So I've decided that the interactive fiction situation is totally insane, especially with regard to Linux. When you understand the phrase "interactive fiction" to mean "text adventures you could run on a TRS-80 with no problems", excuses kind of fall on the floor.

Playing Games:

Very few IF titles are standalone programs. Instead, they are shipped as byte-compiled "story files" that are interpreted by a standard virtual machine. Oops! Did I say a standard? I meant nearly a dozen. There's eight versions of the Z-Machine, which was initially developed by Infocom to do Zork and all of their other awesome games. Anything with a ".z*" extension (where the star is a digit) is a Z-Machine story file.

Then there's Gluxl, which was designed to overcome some of the limitations of the Z-Machine (it's 32bit instead of 16bit, for example), similar in other ways but of course completely incompatible with the Z-Machine.

Then there's Blorbs, which are actually a package format which typically contains a Z-Code or Gluxl story file and additional stuff. Think of it as the RPM of interactive fiction.

Now, as far as I've seen, there is no single interpreter that will let you play all of these formats. What's more, I've not seen any single interpreter that guarantees it can play all Blorbs! Apparently there's enough wiggle room in that "standard" for you to create a "correct" interpreter that will play some games but not others, even though all of the games are themselves "correct".

I keep wanting to point out that what we're talking about are games that write text to the screen and allow you to type back to them. Also, since the dawn of this genre, portability has been the number one goal and was solved nearly thirty years ago.

Writing Games

If you want to write IF games, and want people to actually be able to play them, there are two practical options: TADS or Inform 7. Either of these systems and languages will allow you to write a game and compile it to a "standard" format.

TADS very much looks like a programming language (or of a weird hybrid of C++ and Perl) and has lots of syntactic sugar to support the notion that you're writing IF. To do anything really interesting, you need to have some minimal programming skills, but it doesn't take much effort at all to do some pretty neat things.

Inform 7 is designed to be a "natural language" approach to writing IF. You type sentences like "The piano is in the conservatory" and the system makes things happen. It's actually quite impressive. The biggest issue, though, is that when you want to do something that more naturally requires a programmatic approach, it's completely non-obvious how you would go about doing it, and the documentation is less than useful in most situations.

Both of these environments have a few issues in common, the one of most practical concern to me being that they don't work for shit under Linux. The TADS compiler for Linux seems to be barfing on completely legal code that I know for a fact works flawlessly with their Windows system. The Inform 7 system lacks some of the features of the Windows and Mac version (including one pretty damn fucking important feature) and goes snookin' loopy if you keep it up for more than twenty or so minutes. Whenever you type a keystroke after some time has gone by, the CPU usage of the process goes to 99% and causes the entire machine to crawl. Yes, you read that write, typing pegs the CPU.

I want to point out, again, that we're talking about systems designed to create games that write text to the screen and allow you to type back at them. You know, something that was a solved problem thirty years ago.

Conclusion

So this is obviously totally out of control. If I was in any way a sensible person I'd just say fuck it and write off creating my own IF as an absurdly unattainable goal. Since that's not going to happen (yet) I'm pretty much left with looking at TADS again (the lesser of the evils) and seeing how I can make it work.

Or, you know, ha! I decide to write my shit in some other language and either say to hell with the "standard" formats or figure out how to write a compiler for the Z-Machine.

Well, 2010 has actually gotten off to a great start! In this first week I found out that I'm finally getting medical insurance, which will be awesome. Whenever I think of how much money my condition is costing me per month I want to curl up on my living room rug and cry. I'm pretty sure it's comparable to a mortgage payment at this point.

The next piece of news is that it looks like I've hit the top of the waiting list for a program through my mental health people called "In Shape". You might remember hearing about this months ago, but basically it gives me a full-blown gym membership and personal trainer for a grand total of five bucks a month. I wasn't expecting to hear anything more about it until some time in March, but the list appears to have thinned out so I'm going in on Friday for the initial paperwork.

There's other good things in the works that should be finally resolved in the next couple of weeks, so it's definitely looking like 2010 is starting off awesome.

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In other news, I'm waiting for some fly tying stuff to show up, although it's not likely to arrive until tomorrow. Once it does, I'll be spending a fair amount of time in the den working with that and hopefully not caring so much that it's not spring.

I've been going through my tying books as well as charts and other info I've found on the types of critters fish feed on her in New Hampshire, and bought materials accordingly. My fly boxes should be more than full by the end of the month and I might even know what I'm doing by then!

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Getting outside continues to be a high priority for me. My folks found some long underwear on sale and bought it for me, which allows me to be outside now pretty much no matter what the temperature is. This is good because being trapped inside is hideous. I need air. I need to be able to move around and look at things other than the walls of my apartment. I've made a number of improvements to my place, not the least of which is keeping it spotless, but I still hate it and every minute I have to be here. There's nothing wrong with the apartment itself, but as I've said before, I was trapped here for so long that now it just feels like a prison.

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Work progresses on a variety of other fronts. Little reading or writing projects. I continue to play around with Inform 7 and might someday have an actual thing to show for it. I'm also beginning to work on the Genesys re-write again since it looks like my proofreader/editor is available now. There are also a couple of related things I'm beginning to pursue.

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Other than that, I'm sitting here, drinking coffee and figuring out how best to start the day off. I think a walk is in order.

Funny you should ask...it was a nice lazy sunday here at area 51

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I had a request to make funnel cakes this week so I dug up my recipe so I can buy the ingredients...feel free to snag if you want...


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When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Happily I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
--Shakespeare

My dream car 1972 VW Karmen Ghia but mine would be metal flake purple.

If I had money to spare I would gladly buy a new car and I would LOVE to own an eco friendly hybrid or the above pictured car...either way I'd be happy

Sweet Baby Krishna!!! I am fucking exhausted!!!

Today was crazy. I woke up early to deposit a check then went and got more sugar. When I came home the dog had gone Mosh-tarded on me and destroyed the house. And more importantly, he destroyed my Pennsic jewelry box, the one I spent 3 days straight painting! That was it, game over.

I grabbed the dog, his food and his bowl and tossed him in the van and took him back to mom. Mom now lives 2 hrs away from me. Two hours up, two hours there to help her unpack, and two hours home. I grabbed dinner on the way back.

I did not get to start the sugar until 7pm. I only just finished, and its quarter after midnight.

The following pictures involve 20lbs of powdered sugar, 6lbs of corn starch, a pint of corn syrup, 8 boxes of gelatin, and a bottle of vinegar.

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I feel I should say more about the pastillage process. Give myself some notes and insights for next time. But now that it's nearly 1 am (adding all the pics took a while) I am proud that I can still type reasonably well.

Tomorrow I let this stuff dry. Susan volunteered to get me more ingredients at Sams Club and I'm going to let her do that so that I can attempt to make another full set of everything.

Gods I'm pooped....

what is the deal with all the pacifiers!!! i mean isn't it easier just not to start the habbit with kids in the first place? why is it that we feel the need to plug up our kids faces with huge hunks of plastic then make excuses why its ok for them to still have them at age 5!

yes i am one of "those" moms and people who looks at your 3 year old and feels sorry for them. i think it keeps them from talking, makes kids less attractive, et al.

i just don't get it.

If you had me alone, locked up in your house for twenty-four hours and I had to do whatever you wanted me to, what would you have me / you / us do?

*All comments are permanently screened*

Repost this in your journal and see what kind of responses you get!

OK, I spent 5 hours today in the kitchen making pastillage. I encountered many problems.

Problem 1) my recipe is WAY to huge for my kitchen aid

This caused me to have to break it down (aka math) and make many little batches. But the previous batches didn't want to stay pliant no matter what I did. To make enough dough to do the scroll meant I needed a minion. So he kneeded the dough while I made the dough. He rolled it out and I cut it/sculpted it.

Problem 2) there is no way at all to figure out how much dough I am going to need for my final piece

I bought enough to make the origninal recipe twice. I am now out of ingredients and have only made 6 quills and 1 scroll.

Problem 3) every piece needs multiple stunt doubles because shit WILL BREAK, no way around that.

I am out of space to dry shit, out of ingredients, and out of money to go and buy ingredients. I currently have 88 cents to my name.

Problem 4) I have 88 cents in my bank account but need to buy more shit for the pistachio baklava as well as more shit for the pastillage..... Gods I hope my account doesn't bounce!!

so new years has come and gone.. and mine started with crap! not 5 min to midnight and the mil was already setting me off.. alex was in her kitchen where she was preparing some snacks (which she had been told not to do and asked not to do but felt the need to do any way) .. anyway.. alex takes a cracker.. not a big deal.. but then he sets down the cracker and goes for the chocolate .. i am explaining to him he needs to eat what he took fist.. i do this right in front of her 3 times.. and just as he is settling down and starts eating his cracker again she puts a plate right in front of him and dumps teh mini bags of gummi's on it.. (btw his favorite!) so now he wants one of those and gets mad when i tell him no.. and she gets all pissy cause i won't let him have one and is like(well its something special) so i take him and go outside.. (my fil has a very bad ear infection and alex's screaming isn't exactly pleasant to listen to) i mean WTF really? really? so this is the start to my new year.. and its not like new years is my thing anyway.. i could care less.. i barely can keep track of the day as it is sometimes..

today gets a little better as alex slept in (10 am) and we layed in bed til 11:30.. then G started work on the kitchen (hopefully it will be done by the end of the month) .. we still have no hot running water but can use the showers next door and the dishwasher (oh ya.. we picked up our dishwasher) heats its own water.. so all is good to go.. Frieman... bless him loaned us a 2 burner hotplate (we only had a 1 burner one) and i am using the hell out of my crockpot.. must go.. can't focus on the computer screen..

So, last year brought with it a hell of a lot of stuff. Some really shitty, some really awesome and a bunch of stuff in between. Overall, I think there was much more awesome this year than in previous years, as a direct result of the much improvement had on the disorder front. In an effort to "focus on the positive" that my collection of doctors, therapists and handlers ceaselessly recommend, here's an incomplete list of the good, in no particular order:

1. Alex and I have had a lot of fun! From playing games, to taking walks, to acting silly to just plain hanging out. She's getting older and more interactive by the day.

2. I started fly fishing and found what looks to be a life-long love of it.

3. I finally built my role-playing game. The rules are done, people play it and I think it's a whole lot of awesome. The only thing left is to re-write it in a more organized/professional way and get it proofread/edited, but I could stick a fork in it today if I really want to.

4. I'm actually managing my finances in a productive way, with all of my bills paid up and the ability to set and keep to a budget.

5. In addition to my mental health, my physical health is on the upswing. I've lost more than thirty pounds, I'm eating better and the next few months are a world of opportunity to continue improving. I think there's every chance I can hit the goals I set for the spring.

6. I finally got my hunter safety certification, dealing with the classes for which was no small feat.

7. As an extension of a couple points listed above, I've discovered I possess a deep love for the outdoors that I'm doing everything I can to explore.

8. Related to the above, since my health has improved I've discovered that for the last ten or fifteen years I've been my condition, rather than myself. As such, the last year has really been dominated by this feeling that I'm just getting to know myself.

The list is by no means exhaustive, but that's what I can think of right off the top of my head.

Not too bad, if I do say so myself.