Random Rosie Comment of the Day:
Boy, it's been a while since I've had one of those, hasn't it!? This entry, though, is actually largely about Rosie, and not so random...
This past Monday (which I had off... go presidents!) was the one-year-anniversary of us getting Rosie!!! I have some pictures that, with luck, will get on my web site sometime within the next year....
This past Tuesday was even more exciting -- our neighbors got a new cockapoo named Cooper! He's very cute. He met Rosie for the first time yesterday, which was very entertaining -- Cooper kept on hiding under the chairs, where Rosie couldn't get at him, and then jumping out and attacking Rosie's cheek, neck, or tail. Rosie, in turn, would paw at Cooper, occasionally trapping him.
Exams:
This Monday we have our first exams of the year. You see, we have each class for two out of the three trimesters, so we have our first exams 2/3 through the year. Fortunately, I have only two on Monday: Physics and Freshman Seminar. In fact, I really only have one (to study for, at least), because the Freshman Seminar one is almost exclusively opinion-based.
I'm certainly not looking forward to the end of the year, when I'll have four. :-(
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Monday, February 14, 2005
Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! :-) Valentine's Day means candy, and candy means goodness... yay!
Today at school we got our Math tests back. As a matter of policy, I don't state my grades, but I will say that I've gotten the exact same score percentage-wise on this Math test, our recent History quiz (both were last Friday -- we got the History quizzes back 15 minutes after taking them), and the History test before that. Crazy, isn't it?
However, my Math score looks like it's about to be overturned due to some noble arguing by a few of my classmates and I regarding question #16 during class today while reviewing the test. Here's the problem. (Specifics may be off, but the gist of it is right.)
Line AB is congruent to line BC. Line AD is congruent to line BD. Line CD is a perpendicular bisector of line AB. True or false.
I say false -- you can draw it so it's either way, so it's false. The teacher says true. What do you say?
Today at school we got our Math tests back. As a matter of policy, I don't state my grades, but I will say that I've gotten the exact same score percentage-wise on this Math test, our recent History quiz (both were last Friday -- we got the History quizzes back 15 minutes after taking them), and the History test before that. Crazy, isn't it?
However, my Math score looks like it's about to be overturned due to some noble arguing by a few of my classmates and I regarding question #16 during class today while reviewing the test. Here's the problem. (Specifics may be off, but the gist of it is right.)
Line AB is congruent to line BC. Line AD is congruent to line BD. Line CD is a perpendicular bisector of line AB. True or false.
I say false -- you can draw it so it's either way, so it's false. The teacher says true. What do you say?
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Patriot's Parade = No School!
Since the Patriots Parade is today, we were told that, if we had permission from our parents, we didn't have to go to school today! Yippee! :-) I would have gone, but we'd get nothing done in class anyway with so few people.
Go Pats! :-)
Go Pats! :-)
Sunday, February 06, 2005
SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!!!
Congratulations to the good ol' New England Patriots, winners of Super Bowl XXXIX!!! YIPPEE!!! Four championships in as many years for New England... not too bad! :-)
Feel like checking who won the last 38? Head on over to MSN Search (advertised today during the game) and search "Who won Super Bowl [insert number here]?"
GO PATS!
Feel like checking who won the last 38? Head on over to MSN Search (advertised today during the game) and search "Who won Super Bowl [insert number here]?"
GO PATS!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
More Mirrors
We've actually just started studying mirrors in physics class (what a coincidence!), and I'm rapidly losing confidence in my explanation of why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. It still makes a tiny bit of sense, though -- in a strange, pointless kind of way... ;-)
Additionally, I'm now reaching greater understanding of the part mirror curvature plays in image size. For a long time I've had a basic understanting of how the light bends differently because of the curve, but only now am I learning about focal points and focal length and such. Light is an extremely interesting subject. :-)
Enough of this light enlightenment... back to Spanish homeowork. :-(
Additionally, I'm now reaching greater understanding of the part mirror curvature plays in image size. For a long time I've had a basic understanting of how the light bends differently because of the curve, but only now am I learning about focal points and focal length and such. Light is an extremely interesting subject. :-)
Enough of this light enlightenment... back to Spanish homeowork. :-(
Sunday, January 30, 2005
More Sledding, "Kiss me Kate"
This past Saturday I started the day off with a trip to the bookstore. Next I went sledding at the same place I went last week. Much of my old camp remained, though the new snow had made it a bit harder to see.
This time I actually sledded a bit more, but I also spent a lot of time building a nice little snow tunnel with a neighbor of ours. (His younger brother was there, too, but he was sledding most of the time.) The snow's deep enough that we could build a nice deep tunnel with a sturdy roof and not have to increase the natural depth of the snow at all. :-)
Last night we went to my uncle's school's production of Kiss Me, Kate, which was good. It had a couple of especially funny parts, such as a random wandering donkey and a nice little dead bird!
This time I actually sledded a bit more, but I also spent a lot of time building a nice little snow tunnel with a neighbor of ours. (His younger brother was there, too, but he was sledding most of the time.) The snow's deep enough that we could build a nice deep tunnel with a sturdy roof and not have to increase the natural depth of the snow at all. :-)
Last night we went to my uncle's school's production of Kiss Me, Kate, which was good. It had a couple of especially funny parts, such as a random wandering donkey and a nice little dead bird!
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
School & Snow
Despite rampant AIM-based speculation to the contrary, we did have school today. Oh well. Yesterday's snow day was very enjoyable -- my younger brother's friend came over and we played videogames (Halo 2 & Mercenaries) and went sledding.
Almost the entire time they were sledding, I was working on a little base camp at the top of the hill (so would it be a... umm... summit camp?). I flattened out a pretty big area -- plenty of room for the three enough, with plenty of room for a couple more. The flattening was crucial -- there was so much so it was next to impossible to walk otherwise. I then created custom-made spots for out tubes. I also defined the top of our run, complete with a queue area. I also made an elevated flattened area -- the "Snow City Cafe." There I had three little bowl-shaped indents in the snow for eating our M&Ms out of. :-)
Videogaming was also, of course, plenty of fun. I had one particularly great solo game (meaning my brother & his friend were doing something else) of Team Fiesta on Beaver Creek. I ended up winning the game for our team with 20 kills. At the end, I was doing really well with a rocket launcher -- I was so proud of myself. :-)
Almost the entire time they were sledding, I was working on a little base camp at the top of the hill (so would it be a... umm... summit camp?). I flattened out a pretty big area -- plenty of room for the three enough, with plenty of room for a couple more. The flattening was crucial -- there was so much so it was next to impossible to walk otherwise. I then created custom-made spots for out tubes. I also defined the top of our run, complete with a queue area. I also made an elevated flattened area -- the "Snow City Cafe." There I had three little bowl-shaped indents in the snow for eating our M&Ms out of. :-)
Videogaming was also, of course, plenty of fun. I had one particularly great solo game (meaning my brother & his friend were doing something else) of Team Fiesta on Beaver Creek. I ended up winning the game for our team with 20 kills. At the end, I was doing really well with a rocket launcher -- I was so proud of myself. :-)
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Super Bowl and Snow Day!!!
The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl!!! :-)
And -- it can't get much better than this -- we even have a snow day tomorrow because of all the... well... snow! I've had very few full weeks recently -- last week we had Monday off for MLK Jr. day and Tuesday off for Parent/Teacher Conferences! We have about two feet of snow here. It's amazing!
GO PATS!!!
And -- it can't get much better than this -- we even have a snow day tomorrow because of all the... well... snow! I've had very few full weeks recently -- last week we had Monday off for MLK Jr. day and Tuesday off for Parent/Teacher Conferences! We have about two feet of snow here. It's amazing!
GO PATS!!!
Mirrors and Mercs
Thursdays and Tuesdays at school for me are double-block days -- we have only two classes (not counting Art), but we have each for twice as long. That means 2-hour classes. Fortunately, we're given a ten or fifteen minute break in the middle of class so that we don't get quite so worn out.
This past Thursday I had Geometry for the last two hours of school. During our break, I suddenly realized something I had never known before: why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. Coming back from the break, I burst back into class and said, "I know why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear!" The two other kids in the classroom at the time seemed a tad bit confused as to why I was randomly saying such a thing. I explained it to them, and then to a few other kids as they got back from break. I was exceptionally excited about my discovery, but no one else really cared that much. ;-)
Anyway, here's why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear.
.......................3 feet.............................
YOU -------------------- MIRROR
You're only three feet away from the mirror, but the light has to go there and back again.
YOU -------------------> MIRROR
..........<-------------------.................
Thus, those three feet are doubled! Get it? Pretty cool, huh? The effect is exaggerated in a car, since you're not looking at yourself -- you're looking at something else farther back.
..........................................YOU --------> MIRROR
OTHER CAR <------------------------ ................
Late last Tuesday night we got the LucasArts game Mercenaries, but I just had my first chance to play it today. (Willy's been playing it all week, and he's still only a little more than a quarter through the game.) It's awesome! I highly recommend it.
The game takes place in at least 2008. Australian forces uncovered a North Korean nuclear weapons cache, and the Allied Nations (basically a new UN) pours into Korea to take out this new threat. Your goal in the game is to capture or kill (capture is preferred) the "deck of 52" -- 52 North Korean leaders. There are also several side-quests -- races, challenges, et cetera.
So far, though, I haven't really played the main game -- the only card I've captured is the Two of Clubs (at least I think it's clubs). Instead, I've had fun hijacking vehicles, demolishing cities with devastating airstrikes, and sending cars skyrocketing into the air with huge amounts of C4. You can also call in supply drops, where helicopters come and drop off weapons, vehicles (including fuel trucks, tanks, sports cars, and helicopters), and more.
The helicopters have this really cool retractable magnet clamp thing -- you deploy it and then it hangs beneath you, and then you can latch on & pick up anything from supply crates to civilian cars to tanks and other helicopters. Just make sure you don't try to get anything that's too heavy, or it'll end up dragging you down!
Again, I highly, highly recommend this game. :-D
This past Thursday I had Geometry for the last two hours of school. During our break, I suddenly realized something I had never known before: why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear. Coming back from the break, I burst back into class and said, "I know why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear!" The two other kids in the classroom at the time seemed a tad bit confused as to why I was randomly saying such a thing. I explained it to them, and then to a few other kids as they got back from break. I was exceptionally excited about my discovery, but no one else really cared that much. ;-)
Anyway, here's why objects in mirrors are closer than they appear.
.......................3 feet.............................
YOU -------------------- MIRROR
You're only three feet away from the mirror, but the light has to go there and back again.
YOU -------------------> MIRROR
..........<-------------------.................
Thus, those three feet are doubled! Get it? Pretty cool, huh? The effect is exaggerated in a car, since you're not looking at yourself -- you're looking at something else farther back.
..........................................YOU --------> MIRROR
OTHER CAR <------------------------ ................
Late last Tuesday night we got the LucasArts game Mercenaries, but I just had my first chance to play it today. (Willy's been playing it all week, and he's still only a little more than a quarter through the game.) It's awesome! I highly recommend it.
The game takes place in at least 2008. Australian forces uncovered a North Korean nuclear weapons cache, and the Allied Nations (basically a new UN) pours into Korea to take out this new threat. Your goal in the game is to capture or kill (capture is preferred) the "deck of 52" -- 52 North Korean leaders. There are also several side-quests -- races, challenges, et cetera.
So far, though, I haven't really played the main game -- the only card I've captured is the Two of Clubs (at least I think it's clubs). Instead, I've had fun hijacking vehicles, demolishing cities with devastating airstrikes, and sending cars skyrocketing into the air with huge amounts of C4. You can also call in supply drops, where helicopters come and drop off weapons, vehicles (including fuel trucks, tanks, sports cars, and helicopters), and more.
The helicopters have this really cool retractable magnet clamp thing -- you deploy it and then it hangs beneath you, and then you can latch on & pick up anything from supply crates to civilian cars to tanks and other helicopters. Just make sure you don't try to get anything that's too heavy, or it'll end up dragging you down!
Again, I highly, highly recommend this game. :-D
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
10,000 Black Holes
10,000 or more black holes are now said to be orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. Wow.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
SNOW DAY!!!
Wahoo - it's a snow day!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
Hmm, what to do... how about a mix of web site work, videogames (we got MechAssault 2 & it's great!), and homework? I'd say that's pretty likely.
Hmm, what to do... how about a mix of web site work, videogames (we got MechAssault 2 & it's great!), and homework? I'd say that's pretty likely.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Tophtucker.com v4.0 is ONLINE!!!
As of last night at about 11:45, the first parts of Tophtucker.com Version 4.0 are online. For information on some of the changes, click here. Since I'm not yet totally done with all the content, you may still stumble upon some old-style pages, broken links, and various other missing content. Over the next few weeks I'll be uploading the rest.
The updates to the TuckLyne section (including the Athena and TuckLyne Studios subsections), by the way, will be significantly farther off in the future, since that requires a whole new design. Note that TuckLyne itself will also be reorganization somewhat. There's a lot of stuff that's kind of hiding in the shadows, and that needs to be fixed. Just today I stumbled upon this section on the TuckLyne web site, which I don't remember AT ALL and which is thus completely out of date. I don't even know some of those people listed in the staff section! That's the stuff that needs to reorganized, merged into other divisions, or outright eliminated.
Well, it's dinner time for me, and then homework. Today was my first day of school after break... so sad... anyway, be sure to check out the new site! :-) Adios!
The updates to the TuckLyne section (including the Athena and TuckLyne Studios subsections), by the way, will be significantly farther off in the future, since that requires a whole new design. Note that TuckLyne itself will also be reorganization somewhat. There's a lot of stuff that's kind of hiding in the shadows, and that needs to be fixed. Just today I stumbled upon this section on the TuckLyne web site, which I don't remember AT ALL and which is thus completely out of date. I don't even know some of those people listed in the staff section! That's the stuff that needs to reorganized, merged into other divisions, or outright eliminated.
Well, it's dinner time for me, and then homework. Today was my first day of school after break... so sad... anyway, be sure to check out the new site! :-) Adios!
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Vacation is pretty much over.
Well, today is my last day of vacation, which is extremely sad. While I don't have a good enough memory to remember what I did every single day, like I did for Thanksgiving break, here's an overview of what I did with dates when possible.
Dec. 17 (Friday):
This was our last day of school... yay! After school we went to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was pretty good.
Dec. 19 (Sunday):
Some friends came over, including a rocket scientist who helped us recover some files from a dead computer. ;-) Then we played a lot of Halo 2 - a lot of Halo 2. A lotalotalot. By the end of the night we had gotten pretty good!
Week One in General:
This week I did a lot of web site editing, reading, and Halo 2. :-) My brother came home from California, which was very nice! We ended up playing Halo 2 with a lot of different friends that week... it's a great game!!!
Dec. 24 (Friday):
On the 24th we went to a friend's house for a Christmas Eve party and generally got even more excited for Christmas. :-)
Dec. 25 (Saturday):
CHRISTMAS!!! :-) On Christmas we opened presents, talked with a lot of people who came over, and then went out to my grandparent's house in Concord to have a little family party.
I also started watching these funny Star Wars cartoons I got, "Droids." They're not meant to be funny... but they are. ;-)
Dec. 26 (Sunday):
We went to a nice little baptism in the morning and then a party at the family's house later at night. My younger brother and I also played a lot of Dance Dance Revolution with our older brother... actually, I was playing "Rome: Total War" most of the time! :-)
Week Two in General:
This week there was a lot less web site work being done. ;-) How could I get such things done with all that Christmas excitement?!?
Dec. 27 (Monday):
My older brother's flight back to California was scheduled for the 27th at about 6:00 AM, meaning we weren't expecting to see him at all on Monday. Fortunately, the snow cancelled his flight, so he ended up going home Tuesday instead!
Dec. 28 (Tuesday):
Willy's friend came over and they went sledding while I took over the world in Rise of Nations, which I had started playing the previous day.
Willy's friend ended up sleeping over, and that night we randomly met his brother online in Xbox LIVE!!! The chances of that happening are absolutely miniscule, yet it happened.
We alternated playing Xbox LIVE and watching more of the hilarious Star Wars cartoons. We also started watching "Battle for Endor," the second in a series of two live-action Ewok movies... we started with the second by accident.
Dec. 29 (Wednesday):
Rosie turned ONE!!! We had a little birthday celebration, complete with a cake that she couldn't eat. Oh well... she got little doggie treats instead.
I continued watching "Battle for Endor" and also saw a big of the first movie, "Caravan of Courage."
Dec. 30 (Thursday):
I worked on an old "TuckLyne Studios" production, "Survivor or Not," and also worked on a Special Edition of an animated Star Wars movie I did in 7th Grade as a book report for the book "X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar."
Dec. 31 (Friday):
I continued work on Starfighters of Adumar. That night, we had a few friends over for a New Year's Eve gathering. We watched Napoleon Dynamite, which is an incredibly strange movie. A little more than halfway through, at about 11:50 PM, we switched to ABC or CBS (I forget which... all I remember is that Regis Philbin was the host) for their New Year's Eve coverage.
JANUARY 1, 2005!!! (Saturday):
Happy New Year! We watched a bit more of the New Year's coverage on TV, including some of the fireworks in Boston. Then we finished Napoleon Dynamite, said good-bye to our friends, and went to bed...
...and woke up the same day! That doesn't happen very often. I watched most of Star Wars: Episodes I and II in celebration of the fact that Episode III comes out this year!!!, and then went to The Polar Express at the Comcast IMAX Theater in Jordan's Furniture. Contrary to what nearly every critic thought, it was really good.
That night I finished my work on the Special Edition of Starfighters of Adumar.
Jan. 2 (Sunday):
Today! Well, today (so far) I've had breakfast and written this. Later today I'll work a tiny bit on my web site, UPLOAD IT ALL (despite the fact that it's practically guarenteed I won't be totally finished), and -- this is the worst part -- do my homework. I think it should be illegal to give kids homework over vacation. Fortunately, I don't have much.
Well, that's all. Farewell!
Dec. 17 (Friday):
This was our last day of school... yay! After school we went to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, which was pretty good.
Dec. 19 (Sunday):
Some friends came over, including a rocket scientist who helped us recover some files from a dead computer. ;-) Then we played a lot of Halo 2 - a lot of Halo 2. A lotalotalot. By the end of the night we had gotten pretty good!
Week One in General:
This week I did a lot of web site editing, reading, and Halo 2. :-) My brother came home from California, which was very nice! We ended up playing Halo 2 with a lot of different friends that week... it's a great game!!!
Dec. 24 (Friday):
On the 24th we went to a friend's house for a Christmas Eve party and generally got even more excited for Christmas. :-)
Dec. 25 (Saturday):
CHRISTMAS!!! :-) On Christmas we opened presents, talked with a lot of people who came over, and then went out to my grandparent's house in Concord to have a little family party.
I also started watching these funny Star Wars cartoons I got, "Droids." They're not meant to be funny... but they are. ;-)
Dec. 26 (Sunday):
We went to a nice little baptism in the morning and then a party at the family's house later at night. My younger brother and I also played a lot of Dance Dance Revolution with our older brother... actually, I was playing "Rome: Total War" most of the time! :-)
Week Two in General:
This week there was a lot less web site work being done. ;-) How could I get such things done with all that Christmas excitement?!?
Dec. 27 (Monday):
My older brother's flight back to California was scheduled for the 27th at about 6:00 AM, meaning we weren't expecting to see him at all on Monday. Fortunately, the snow cancelled his flight, so he ended up going home Tuesday instead!
Dec. 28 (Tuesday):
Willy's friend came over and they went sledding while I took over the world in Rise of Nations, which I had started playing the previous day.
Willy's friend ended up sleeping over, and that night we randomly met his brother online in Xbox LIVE!!! The chances of that happening are absolutely miniscule, yet it happened.
We alternated playing Xbox LIVE and watching more of the hilarious Star Wars cartoons. We also started watching "Battle for Endor," the second in a series of two live-action Ewok movies... we started with the second by accident.
Dec. 29 (Wednesday):
Rosie turned ONE!!! We had a little birthday celebration, complete with a cake that she couldn't eat. Oh well... she got little doggie treats instead.
I continued watching "Battle for Endor" and also saw a big of the first movie, "Caravan of Courage."
Dec. 30 (Thursday):
I worked on an old "TuckLyne Studios" production, "Survivor or Not," and also worked on a Special Edition of an animated Star Wars movie I did in 7th Grade as a book report for the book "X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar."
Dec. 31 (Friday):
I continued work on Starfighters of Adumar. That night, we had a few friends over for a New Year's Eve gathering. We watched Napoleon Dynamite, which is an incredibly strange movie. A little more than halfway through, at about 11:50 PM, we switched to ABC or CBS (I forget which... all I remember is that Regis Philbin was the host) for their New Year's Eve coverage.
JANUARY 1, 2005!!! (Saturday):
Happy New Year! We watched a bit more of the New Year's coverage on TV, including some of the fireworks in Boston. Then we finished Napoleon Dynamite, said good-bye to our friends, and went to bed...
...and woke up the same day! That doesn't happen very often. I watched most of Star Wars: Episodes I and II in celebration of the fact that Episode III comes out this year!!!, and then went to The Polar Express at the Comcast IMAX Theater in Jordan's Furniture. Contrary to what nearly every critic thought, it was really good.
That night I finished my work on the Special Edition of Starfighters of Adumar.
Jan. 2 (Sunday):
Today! Well, today (so far) I've had breakfast and written this. Later today I'll work a tiny bit on my web site, UPLOAD IT ALL (despite the fact that it's practically guarenteed I won't be totally finished), and -- this is the worst part -- do my homework. I think it should be illegal to give kids homework over vacation. Fortunately, I don't have much.
Well, that's all. Farewell!
Saturday, December 25, 2004
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Merry Christmas everyone! I love Christmas. If only it was longer... :-)
Due to all the Christmas excitement, I haven't been doing much work on my web site these past couple of days. Oh well... whether it's done or not, what I have of version 4.0 is going online at the end of this week, and version 3.2 is coming down.
Adios!
Due to all the Christmas excitement, I haven't been doing much work on my web site these past couple of days. Oh well... whether it's done or not, what I have of version 4.0 is going online at the end of this week, and version 3.2 is coming down.
Adios!
Friday, December 17, 2004
Winter Vacation!!!
Wahoo - winter vacation has officially begun!!! That means that, hopefully, I'll be working on my web site a lot. Finished or not, I'll upload what I have two weeks from now, at the end of vacation -- and the beginning of the new year! :-)
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Titles & MSN Search Beta
First of all, I've decided to add titles to all of my posts in order to make it easier to find what you're looking for. Rejoice!
Second of all, I've started using MSN Search more and more now that they've released their great new beta. Try searching for "population of india," "prime minister of canada," "39 feet in meters," "define garrulous," "3x - 97.4 = 4 * 3x," "lifespan of an elephant," "height of K2," "John Williams," or a bunch of other cool things. Check it out!
Oh -- and happy December!!!
Second of all, I've started using MSN Search more and more now that they've released their great new beta. Try searching for "population of india," "prime minister of canada," "39 feet in meters," "define garrulous," "3x - 97.4 = 4 * 3x," "lifespan of an elephant," "height of K2," "John Williams," or a bunch of other cool things. Check it out!
Oh -- and happy December!!!
Sunday, November 28, 2004
I'm now enjoying my last hour (or less) of vacation. Very sad... I won't even be able to wake up late tomorrow! Sad, sad, sad. Oh well. To honor the occassion, I'll now run through what I did this past week. Get ready for one of my longest posts ever!
Friday (Nov. 19)
My last class ended at 11:40, and then we went on a field trip to the mall until 2:10 (it's a very long story why we'd be doing that... but the good news is, while there I picked up two new Star Wars action figures!). After that, a few friends and I went to a new store near my house: "The Container Store." I had at first expected it to be fairly boring, but then I started hearing good things about it. Now that I've been there, I agree that it's great. :-) I got a stapler that, instead of staples, cuts a piece of the paper to be stapled and then folds it over itself in some weird way so that it acts as a fastener! It's great.
After that, we did... well... nothing, really, except kind of sitting around. Then we went to the school play, which was "On the Razzle" this year. It was pretty good, depite some pretty obvious (but very well handled!) errors. ;-)
Saturday (Nov. 20)
I went a couple different friends to go see the movie "National Treasure." It was pretty good, although the heroes acted pretty stupid at times. "Hey!" they say, "let's just pull out the Declaration of Independance in front of a trillion tourists and hope no one notices us discussing buried treasure!"
Sunday (Nov. 21)
We went out to Concord briefly to visit my grandparents, and then we left and went to the Celtics game! We won! Better yet, David Ortiz was there! He got ten times more applause than anyone on the Celtics, as is to be expected. :-)
Monday (Nov. 22) & Tuesday (Nov. 23)
I didn't really do anything but read and play Halo 2. That's not to say that I hadn't been reading and playing Halo 2 quite a bit those other days -- it's just that it's all I did on Monday & Tuesday. Well, except for a little computer stuff. Actually, a fair amount of computer stuff... but not as much as reading and playing.
On Tuesday, I played around with Adobe Atmosphere a little bit, which I had gotton as an early Christmas present two weeks ago today (the 28th -- so I got it the 14th). Previously I had opened it once or twice, but on Tuesday I actually managed to -- gasp -- create a small room with a red floor. (I still had the problem that every time the viewer opened the file they fell past the room into the empty void beyond, though.)
Wednesday (Nov. 24)
At this point it started to hit me that, tragically, vacation was halfway over! Unfortunately, that didn't at all spur me on to work more on my web site or anything, and to this moment I haven't worked on it one ounce, which is really a shame. Seriously -- I wish I had gotton more done. Sigh.
Anyway, on Wednesday I went to Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp with a couple of the same friends with whom I went to the Container Store. It was a good movie, but very sad. (Although I argue that it has a "happy" ending -- at least sort off. It's that "the-world-is-dead-but-it-lives-on-in-your-heart" kind of ending.)
Thursday (Nov. 25)
I was greeted in the morning by my older brother, back for the weekend from San Diego!!! :-) Unfortunately, he had to head off to Rhode Island for the day almost immediately.
Later in the day -- around 1:00 -- we started the 1-hour trek (great for more reading) to my cousin's house for my family's annual Thanksgiving party. It was in a different house this year, which was interesting. My cousins have a GIANT golden retriever (Shamrock), a TINY little fluffy dog whose face looked like an Ewok (Logan), a cute little kitten who looked like one of Hasbro's "FurReal" animatronic toys (Spencer), and three other cats and a rabbit.
The kids spent almost the entire time in the basement, playing EA Sport's Madden 2005 for PS2 and ping pong.
Friday (Nov. 26)
We finally got some quality time with my brother -- YAY! There was plenty more Halo 2 to be had, as well as some computer time and reading -- how typical.
Saturday (Nov. 27)
My brother's friend came over, and my older brother, and another friend. We (but not my older brother) played with Nerf guns. Hehe... fun! Shooting! Guns! (Just kidding. ;-) ) That night, we played Red Sox Monopoly (but didn't finish our game) and watched some extras on the Harry Potter & the Prizoner of Azkaban and Star Wars Trilogy DVDs. There are some funny interviews on the HP disc, and the Star Wars DVD set has a great 2-hour documentary Empire of Dreams about the making of Star Wars that I just started watching earlier this week (maybe during that Monday-Tuesday lull -- I can't remember). The best part is the original screen tests -- they're hilariously bad, in some cases!
Sunday (Nov. 28)
How sad -- the last day of vacation. It also happens to be today. I woke up and immediately went on the computer, determined to get something done -- preferably web site related. Instead, though, I ended up making some read progress in Atmosphere. I was creating a simple maze when my older brother came over, and we started making a house together. Now it's a two-story mansion, although it still has no rooms -- only floors, walls, and stairs. Still, at least I've figured out how to texture the surfaces!
I'm hoping to put some of my Atmosphere stuff on my web site in time for version 4.0, which is now looking at a possible Summer 2005 release, although I'm still hoping and trying for a Christmas 2004 release, which with any luck will become a reality.
Later in the day, I (and my brother, Willy) did our family's Christmas card. Willy wrote the message and drew a couple little things, and then I scanned it, edited his handwriting in Photoshop to try to make it a little more readable, and put in some scanned photos. Next, sadly, I had to do my Spanish homework. We definitely shouldn't be given homework over vacations.
Finally, the same people who came over last night to play Monopoly came over tonight in an effort to finish the game, this time accompanied by their younger brother, who spent the time playing Midtown Madness 3 -- the first game to be in our Xbox other than Halo 2 since we got it on November 9th. In Monopoly, I landed on Free Parking and got about a thousand dollars, only to land on a spot with a rent of $1,150, go to jail, spend three turns trying to get doubles & fail each time, have to pay $50 to get out, and then get a Chance card that forced me to pay another $50. Yikes. Bad luck. By the time we stopped, everybody was in debt except one person: Mr. Diego Moneybags, who not only had that I-Owe-You worth over a thousand from me, but also other IOUs from the other people. Ironically, he has the fewest properties out of all of us: just four.
Even after today we didn't finish the game. Hopefully we'll have some other chance later.
Well, sadly it's almost time for me to get my last sleep of the vacation. Before then, though, I still I'll squeeze in just a couple minutes of web site editing. ;-)
Friday (Nov. 19)
My last class ended at 11:40, and then we went on a field trip to the mall until 2:10 (it's a very long story why we'd be doing that... but the good news is, while there I picked up two new Star Wars action figures!). After that, a few friends and I went to a new store near my house: "The Container Store." I had at first expected it to be fairly boring, but then I started hearing good things about it. Now that I've been there, I agree that it's great. :-) I got a stapler that, instead of staples, cuts a piece of the paper to be stapled and then folds it over itself in some weird way so that it acts as a fastener! It's great.
After that, we did... well... nothing, really, except kind of sitting around. Then we went to the school play, which was "On the Razzle" this year. It was pretty good, depite some pretty obvious (but very well handled!) errors. ;-)
Saturday (Nov. 20)
I went a couple different friends to go see the movie "National Treasure." It was pretty good, although the heroes acted pretty stupid at times. "Hey!" they say, "let's just pull out the Declaration of Independance in front of a trillion tourists and hope no one notices us discussing buried treasure!"
Sunday (Nov. 21)
We went out to Concord briefly to visit my grandparents, and then we left and went to the Celtics game! We won! Better yet, David Ortiz was there! He got ten times more applause than anyone on the Celtics, as is to be expected. :-)
Monday (Nov. 22) & Tuesday (Nov. 23)
I didn't really do anything but read and play Halo 2. That's not to say that I hadn't been reading and playing Halo 2 quite a bit those other days -- it's just that it's all I did on Monday & Tuesday. Well, except for a little computer stuff. Actually, a fair amount of computer stuff... but not as much as reading and playing.
On Tuesday, I played around with Adobe Atmosphere a little bit, which I had gotton as an early Christmas present two weeks ago today (the 28th -- so I got it the 14th). Previously I had opened it once or twice, but on Tuesday I actually managed to -- gasp -- create a small room with a red floor. (I still had the problem that every time the viewer opened the file they fell past the room into the empty void beyond, though.)
Wednesday (Nov. 24)
At this point it started to hit me that, tragically, vacation was halfway over! Unfortunately, that didn't at all spur me on to work more on my web site or anything, and to this moment I haven't worked on it one ounce, which is really a shame. Seriously -- I wish I had gotton more done. Sigh.
Anyway, on Wednesday I went to Finding Neverland starring Johnny Depp with a couple of the same friends with whom I went to the Container Store. It was a good movie, but very sad. (Although I argue that it has a "happy" ending -- at least sort off. It's that "the-world-is-dead-but-it-lives-on-in-your-heart" kind of ending.)
Thursday (Nov. 25)
I was greeted in the morning by my older brother, back for the weekend from San Diego!!! :-) Unfortunately, he had to head off to Rhode Island for the day almost immediately.
Later in the day -- around 1:00 -- we started the 1-hour trek (great for more reading) to my cousin's house for my family's annual Thanksgiving party. It was in a different house this year, which was interesting. My cousins have a GIANT golden retriever (Shamrock), a TINY little fluffy dog whose face looked like an Ewok (Logan), a cute little kitten who looked like one of Hasbro's "FurReal" animatronic toys (Spencer), and three other cats and a rabbit.
The kids spent almost the entire time in the basement, playing EA Sport's Madden 2005 for PS2 and ping pong.
Friday (Nov. 26)
We finally got some quality time with my brother -- YAY! There was plenty more Halo 2 to be had, as well as some computer time and reading -- how typical.
Saturday (Nov. 27)
My brother's friend came over, and my older brother, and another friend. We (but not my older brother) played with Nerf guns. Hehe... fun! Shooting! Guns! (Just kidding. ;-) ) That night, we played Red Sox Monopoly (but didn't finish our game) and watched some extras on the Harry Potter & the Prizoner of Azkaban and Star Wars Trilogy DVDs. There are some funny interviews on the HP disc, and the Star Wars DVD set has a great 2-hour documentary Empire of Dreams about the making of Star Wars that I just started watching earlier this week (maybe during that Monday-Tuesday lull -- I can't remember). The best part is the original screen tests -- they're hilariously bad, in some cases!
Sunday (Nov. 28)
How sad -- the last day of vacation. It also happens to be today. I woke up and immediately went on the computer, determined to get something done -- preferably web site related. Instead, though, I ended up making some read progress in Atmosphere. I was creating a simple maze when my older brother came over, and we started making a house together. Now it's a two-story mansion, although it still has no rooms -- only floors, walls, and stairs. Still, at least I've figured out how to texture the surfaces!
I'm hoping to put some of my Atmosphere stuff on my web site in time for version 4.0, which is now looking at a possible Summer 2005 release, although I'm still hoping and trying for a Christmas 2004 release, which with any luck will become a reality.
Later in the day, I (and my brother, Willy) did our family's Christmas card. Willy wrote the message and drew a couple little things, and then I scanned it, edited his handwriting in Photoshop to try to make it a little more readable, and put in some scanned photos. Next, sadly, I had to do my Spanish homework. We definitely shouldn't be given homework over vacations.
Finally, the same people who came over last night to play Monopoly came over tonight in an effort to finish the game, this time accompanied by their younger brother, who spent the time playing Midtown Madness 3 -- the first game to be in our Xbox other than Halo 2 since we got it on November 9th. In Monopoly, I landed on Free Parking and got about a thousand dollars, only to land on a spot with a rent of $1,150, go to jail, spend three turns trying to get doubles & fail each time, have to pay $50 to get out, and then get a Chance card that forced me to pay another $50. Yikes. Bad luck. By the time we stopped, everybody was in debt except one person: Mr. Diego Moneybags, who not only had that I-Owe-You worth over a thousand from me, but also other IOUs from the other people. Ironically, he has the fewest properties out of all of us: just four.
Even after today we didn't finish the game. Hopefully we'll have some other chance later.
Well, sadly it's almost time for me to get my last sleep of the vacation. Before then, though, I still I'll squeeze in just a couple minutes of web site editing. ;-)
Saturday, November 27, 2004
According to the latest issue of Wired, Murphy's Laws have been proven to be statistically true.
I'm currently on my second-to-last day of Thanksgiving Break, enjoying a nice game of Halo 2. It is GREAT. :-) We've now created a clan, Tiny Green Men -- the name is based on the original-but-too-long name we first had in mind, Deep Space Leprechauns. Strange, I know... it's a VERY long story. If you play Halo 2 on Xbox LIVE, get an account over at Bungie.net for the best stat-tracking I've ever seen, and then check out the site we have over there for our clan and join!
I'm currently on my second-to-last day of Thanksgiving Break, enjoying a nice game of Halo 2. It is GREAT. :-) We've now created a clan, Tiny Green Men -- the name is based on the original-but-too-long name we first had in mind, Deep Space Leprechauns. Strange, I know... it's a VERY long story. If you play Halo 2 on Xbox LIVE, get an account over at Bungie.net for the best stat-tracking I've ever seen, and then check out the site we have over there for our clan and join!
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Halo 2 sold 2.4 MILLION copies in the United States and Canada the day it came out (November 9th), which is equivalent to $125 million dollars for Bungie and Microsoft. That's more money on opening day than any movie in history!
I can certainly see why so many people bought it -- it's awesome! I've been playing a ton online, and soon my friend and I will be starting our very own clan. :-)
I have to go do homework now. :-( Bye-bye!
P.S. Yesterday was the first snow of the season -- yippee!! There was actually a couple inches outside today, which is a lot considering it's only November.
I can certainly see why so many people bought it -- it's awesome! I've been playing a ton online, and soon my friend and I will be starting our very own clan. :-)
I have to go do homework now. :-( Bye-bye!
P.S. Yesterday was the first snow of the season -- yippee!! There was actually a couple inches outside today, which is a lot considering it's only November.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)