I was just so excited about this I had to post it — I got collision semi-working! So now when the ball hits the paddle on the edge, it bounces at a 45 degree angle; when it hits near the center, it bounces more in a straight up direction. Still some major problems, but it’s a milestone. ^_^
Monthly Archive for February, 2009
I just jogged a quarter of a mile. Some may laugh at that and say “Hahaha! I laugh at that!” But for me? That’s pretty good, especially if I can keep it up. I weigh about 127 pounds, and I’m thinking that at least 7 of those pounds is fat. So it’s my goal that, before easter, I will lose 7 pounds, or at least turn those 7 pounds into toned, rippling muscle.
If I succeed, I will post a picture of myself in a speedo. Mark your calendars!
And not related at all: geeky graffiti!
Worked on a main menu for my DS game last night. Not too hard at all, though it’s admittedly rather simple right now. Eventually (maybe now? we shall see) I’m going to sit down and create a work-around function for sprites larger then 64×64. I have a sort of plan in my head, I just have to put it down on paper in a .c file. ^_^
I think in a bout a week I’ll post what I’ve got so far. But before I do that, I want the following:
- a fully functional main menu
- non-crappy collision
- the ball bouncing off the paddle and a different angle depending on where it hits.
I actually tried implementing that last one — it didn’t turn out very well. I think the problem was that it was converting a float (0.[something]) to an integer — and this would always end up as 1, which would in turn make the ball bounce straight up. Argh.
So, I just switched over to WordPress. And so far I would have to say that it is much better then Textpattern. Honestly, the only reason I was using Textpattern in the first place is because no one else was. You know those people who do everything they can to fit in? I’m kinda the opposite. Not with everything, mind you — but certainly with my software choices. That’s one of the reasons I started using Linux — though now, I keep using Linux because it’s so awesome. 
The one thing that’s bugging me so far with WordPress is the gray color scheme. It’s nice and easy on the eyes, yes, but the finer details literally disappear, due to my low-contrast ratio LCD monitor. The borders, especially — as I’m writing this, this text is just floating in a sea of white. I can only see the borders and the difference in background colors if I look at my monitor from an angle.
If only I’d known about contrast ratio when I’d bought this monitor, I’d have… looked longingly at the more expensive monitors and bought this one anyway, probably. Well. I guess I’ll either learn to live with it, or I’ll just stop whining and change the theme. ^_^
So I’ve got this hat, right? I call it my elf cap — it’s shaped kinda like a Santa Claus hat, only much longer and without the little puffball on the end. Anyway, I was at a Mardi Gras party last night and, and I was starting to get bored, so I grabbed some helium balloons and tied them to the end of my cap. Then I got some more balloons, and some more, and some more, until my cap was standing straight up. I think at that point I had about fifteen to twenty balloons.
There were a few people taking pictures, so I will attempt to track down a few copies and post them here.
Also, today is the first day of Lent. Relevant picture:
There was something I was going to write and I can’t remember it now. It was bound to have exceedingly interesting…
In other news, today is Mardi Gras! Today is also the day I have failed to assemble a Guy Fawkes papercraft mask. It’s not totally my fault (don’t look at me like that!) because there weren’t any instructions on where to make the folds. And since my brain shuts off when confronted by artistic-type things like that, I couldn’t figure it out on my own. And yes, I know Guy Fawkes masks are traditionally worn on November 5th, not Mardi Gras, but it IS a mask that I think looks cool so STFU. ∗thumbs nose in general direction of internet∗
More things I did today! I ordered a lavalier (I think I spelled that right) microphone from Amazon, as well as a collection of ten inch color gels from B&H. Last Thursday I bought a 500 watt work lamp from the pawnshop (almost brand new and only $8!) with the intention of using it in my movies — hence the color gels. I hope I can find another lamp for cheap; I’ll definitely be checking back at the pawnshop regularly. Later today when I go into town I’m planning on picking up a rheostat (variable resistor) and a short extension cord. Then I will try not to electrocute myself while building a dongle type thing that will plug in between the wall and my lamp to adjust the brightness of said lamp.
As you might have guessed, I gearing up for a movie. It’s going to be very awesome and hopefully actually doable. I had to shelve my last project after realizing that there was no way of doing it without spending way too much money. So in this new one I’m trying to restrain myself from from writing in ten-minute-long fight scenes involving giant robots. It’s hard.
A DS homebrew game, at that. I’ll be putting up a page on it pretty soon… and by “soon” I mean, “whenever I feel like it which probably won’t be for quite a while.”
Blah. I feel like I should write something more, because two sentences is quite lame. But I can’t really think of anything, except to say that collision detection is a bitch.
I just recently re-read Speaker for the Dead. Near the end, there’s something very interesting — a letter written by a character named San Angelo, in which he related a parable told to him by someone else. I quite like it, so I decided to transcribe it after I concluded it was not available elsewhere online.
A great rabbi stands teaching in the marketplace. It happens t hat a husband finds proof that morning of his wife’s adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death. (There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine, a speaker for the dead, has told me of two other rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I’m going to tell you.)
The rabbi walks foreword and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forebears, and waits with the stones heavy in their hands.
“Is there anyone here,” he asks them, “who has not desired another man’s wife, another woman’s husband?”
They murmur and say, “We all know the desire. But, Rabbi, none of us has acted on it.”
The rabbi says, “Then kneel down and give thanks that God made you strong.” He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the marketplace. Just before he lets her go, he whispers, to her, “Tell the lord magistrate who saved his mistress. Then he’ll know I am his loyal servant.”
So the woman lives, because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.
Another rabbi, another city. He goes to her and stops the mob, as in the other story, and says “Which one of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.”
The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated.
As the they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground, the rabbi picks up one of the stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head, and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brains onto the cobblestones.
“Nor I am without sin,” he says to the people. “But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it.”
So the woman died because her community was to rigid to endure her deviance.
The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis, and when they veer to far, they die. Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him.
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