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Hawks

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  1. Hawks
    What's happened since then? I've gotten a lot busier.
     
    I also bought myself a bass for my birthday, a Fender Affinity Jazz Bass, it's neat but I can't really play it yet. Looking into lessons, but I haven't found anyone yet.
     
    Plus 3 AP classes, an involved engineering course, and student council with an inept advisor yields me being braindead most of the time.
     
    Yeah that's it. I need to do some art asap, I've got Thurs and Fri off but have 2 doc appts on Thurs... Dentist and general, general to evaluate my anti-depression (generic Prozac stuff). It's kind of working, but not perfect... I want to draw a sine graph to represent my response to it.. Something like a normal sine graph represents a normal person's outlook/demeanor, with an amplitude of 1, and a 'baseline' at 0 [so their mood fluctuates from -1 to 1]. Before the anti depressant, I think I would place myself at a baseline of -8 or so, with my amplitude being something like 4 or 5. It spent much more time under the -8 line than above it though. Now I think it has a baseline at -5 ish, so it still doesn't go above 0, but gets close to it, and is less negative; like an amplitude of 2 or 3.
     
    So Friday is my free day!
     
    OH AND HAPPY PI DAY!
  2. Hawks
    I decided I will start reviewing random things that I have purchased that I think people might possibly care to read. I shall start with the Nintendo DSi and some of its accessories and games.
     
    Nintendo DSi
    I give it a 9/10. It serves its purpose as a game-playing device, and does more than that. I know people scoff at the .2mpx cameras and sometimes at the Nintendo name, but it's surely worth the $169.99 US for it, especially if it's your first time with a Nintendo portable, or any portable. I bought it because I felt it was time for me to have something nice that would hopefully last a long time; the DSi fit the bill. I've loved Nintendo's games since forever (I own a Wii and GameCube as well, and had a NES for a long time) and I wanted in on the amazing amount of awesome DS games. The ability to download games is a huge plus for Nintendo; I can get some versions of cartridge games without paying the full $20-$30 for them. I can also start turning my DS into a sort of tiny laptop, if you will. There are useful apps with a Nintendo theme, such as the Animal Crossing Calculator and Mario Clock. There is a free animation app and free web browser. I only buy the things I want. Later on, I'll review the DSiWare I've downloaded, but now we've got the other features to discuss.
     
    The DSi is also the first Nintendo portable to support SD/SDHC expansion, up to 32GB with current firmware. You can store your pictures on it, and listen to music you've loaded onto it. Certain games and apps can store profiles and information on the card to swap with others. Unfortunately, the DSi only accepts AAC format, so if you've got lots of .mp3s, you need to convert them. It's worth it though, the sound quality is excellent, both from the on-board speakers and through the headphone jack (even with lousy $12 earbuds). There's a few toys that let you speed up/slow down your music and play with the pitch. It has a selection of visualizations which match the beat and bass of the music, and L and R sound effects.
     
    The DSi keeps the DS's mic and adds a decent sound recording device, but you are limited to 10 seconds at a time. The two 0.2 megapixel cameras are useful for quick shots and for playing around with pictures and faces using the built in 'filters' and doodle software. You can also directly upload pics to your Facebook account (with 1.4US firmware). Pictures are transferable back and forth between an SD card and the internal memory. The dual screens are 3.5" rather than 3", and as a result, the DSi has slightly larger dimensions. It is thinner than the DS Lite, due to the fact that the GBA slot has been removed.
     
    The DSi charges rather fast (~2 hours to full) but apparently has a slightly shorter battery life. I have no problems playing on the lowest brightness setting indoors, but outdoors there's no point really. The ability to hot-swap with no risk of damage is nice too.
     
    The reason the DSi gets 9/10 is a ) the loss of the GBA slot, and b ) Nintendo's policy against homebrew. I'd like to buy an AceKart, but not knowing that it'll continue to work after a forced update doesn't make me want to... They've given us a lovely SD slot, and only let us play music and store pictures on it. I'd love to download apps, roms, and such from the Internet, put them on a card, and play them in my DSi; so I ask for an update to treat the SD slot more like a drive on a PC. I think many homebrewers would like that very much also, and it'd get rid of problem a; I could just download/buy the roms. (Nintendo offering GB/GBA games through the DSi Shop would be acceptable as well- this would require enabling saving to an SD from the Shop.)
     
    Now, on to accessories!
     
    I've purchased two things; your run-of-the-mill Clean & Protect Kit, and a NERF Armor DSi Case. The Clean and Protect kit I purchased is listed on Amazon here. I bought it at Target for $9.99 (they were out of black, so I got red.) It contains two screen protectors, a game card case which holds up to 4 DS games, 3 red styli, and a little red cloth with the DS box logo thing printed on it. The cloth is not great, I don't use it for anything but keep it in my IKEA 'random electronics case'. The screen protector instructions weren't clear, and I couldn't tell which went on which screen. They work fine if you can get them to fit correctly. The styli and case are general things, not much to say about them; they're the same across the board really.
     
    The DSi Nerf Armor is epic. I had trouble holding on to my DSi for long periods of time since it's so thin. This fixed it and finally got rid of my fear of dropping the thing and breaking it. It also matches the color of my stylus/card case which is semi-useful. It's listed here on Amazon. I got it at Wal-Mart for basically the same price. The foam is pretty durable and my only complaints are that the SD slot is kind of hard to access and the camera lens cover (on the outside) is a bit hard to pry open without tearing the foam. All of the important ports are accessible, the headphone jack and volume control are recessed in about a half inch due to the thickness of the foam. The back is very open, it's no problem to change cards or charge it.
     
    Now we have the DSiWare software. I've downloaded a number of titles, as I received 1000 free points for logging into the shop before October 1st 2009 (in the US it's over, but this promo may still be running in other areas of the world). To start, I downloaded the Opera Browser (free), PictoBits (Picopics or summat in EU/JA) (500), Animal Crossing Calulator (200), and Mario Clock (200). Between my purchase of the DSi and that of a Points card, Nintendo released FlipNote Studio (free) and I downloaded it. Last week, I purchased a Points Card (2000 points, $19.99US). I downloaded Castle of Magic (500), ELECTROPLANKTON: Beatnes (200), and Touch Solitaire (200).
     
    Opera Browser for DSi: Free
    7/10
    This is a good little browser for simpler websites; you can't really check e-mail with it though. It does not support flash, java applets, and various other bits of code. The iPod Touch version of Facebook works well on it, it's the best example. The DSi only has some 216Mb of RAM, which figures into a lot of its issues with the browser and Internet in general. It uses a built in search engine (Google or Yahoo) which is nice if you need to look up something fast. The new forum software does not recognize it as a mobile device and as such doesn't switch the skin automatically; any of the normal skins won't load. It's free, so what else can you say about it?
     
    PictoBits: 500
    Art Style: PiCOPiCT (EU, JA) Art Style PiCTOBiTS (NA)
    10/10
    This is by far the best game I've ever played (next to Tetris.). It combines elements of Tetris, classic NES games, and the abilities of the touchscreen to create a highly addictive puzzle game. Pieces fall from the sky, and you must pick up the 'bits' (which collect up on the bottom) to complete a square or rectangle of at least 4 bits. The bits that were matched fly up to the top screen to begin creating an 8-bit picture from a classic NES game. The music is amazing; it includes a music mode which lets you listen to the music (duh.). It's remixes of the originals, still with that NES sound-chip feel. There are two completely new tracks, the opening theme and the credits theme.
    If you download only one game, PiCTOBiTS must be it.
     
    Animal Crossing Calculator: 200
    9/10
    It's a calculator. With an Animal Crossing theme. There's not much to it. It has a unit converter as well, with a highly random age converter (from human to dog, hamster, horse, etc. years). The shop description says 'See your favorite Animal Crossing characters'... The only one I've seen is Tom Nook, and I've tried a lot of stuff. Which is why it's only 9/10.
     
    Mario Clock: 200
    10/10
    It's Mario, and it's a clock, it's music, it's a game. Mario runs along the top screen, which displays the current time in digital (12 or 24h) or analog format. You can control Mario (or Luigi's) motion to a certain extent; you can speed him up with B or jump with A. After you collect 100 coins, it resets, sends a mini-Mario/Luigi to the clock area, and you collect more coins. After collecting 1200 coins, you are rewarded with a little cutscene. It is all done in classic Super Mario Bros. style, the 8-bit NES art. You can set up to 3 alarms, and the alarms give you the option of the theme music, the starman music, or the underwater theme as alarms, and you can also use a recorded sound.
     
    FlipNote Studio: Free
    7/10
    This is portrayed as a useful tool for jotting down notes and also creating flipbook style animations. I don't like it much. The interface is slightly confusing and the app is rather slow. The fun bit is uploading your creations to Flipnote Hatena and looking at other people's flipnotes. Last I saw, it's a way to get around some of the restrictions of the DSi; it lets you add music and there are a lot of them that are just music. It's kind of like a wannabe YouTube for the DSi. The Hatena site was rather slow and had a lot of issues when loading; I haven't gone on it in a while, so I don't know if it's been fixed.
     
    Castle of Magic: 500
    9/10
    This is the only non-Nintendo DSiWare title I've downloaded. It's a port of the Castle of Magic game for iPhones and whatnot. The game itself is full of homages to classic video games; there are gems to collect, and when you get 100 you get a free life, if you're carrying gems and you get hit by an enemy, you don't die. Wizzy (the main character) can jump on enemies' heads and butt-slam/stomp the ground. It follows the storyline of 'evil wizard steals girl, boy must rescue girl, boy gets cool powers to rescue girl with', which is kind of repetitive, but okay in this game. There are a few cutscenes leading up to boss battles and such, and the commentary is really dorky and the font is not rendered particularly well. It's a fun little game with five worlds with 3 levels and a boss battle in each. I've not finished it yet, so I can't comment on the ending.
    It has a really odd (and a really annoying) feature. In certain levels, you must take a picture of an item that is a certain color to get a power-up needed to complete the level. After dieing a few times, this need to constantly take another picture is annoying.
    You can also take random pictures of things and the game will map them onto items and enemies in the game (this is a feature unique to the DSi version). This is just odd and slightly disturbing.
     
    ELECTROPLANKTON: Beatnes: 200
    9/10
    This is the single 'instrument' Beatnes from the DS game ELECTROPLANKTON. Beatnes makes NES-chip type sounds when you touch different parts of them with the stylus. It lets you create really interesting custom musical compositions. You can't save them though. The tracks/levels included are Mario, Kid Icarus, NES Medley, and Robot. There is also an audience mode where the plankton just make the noises, you don't have to poke them. For $2 it's well worth it if you, like me, have an obsession with NES games and music.
     
    Touch Solitaire: 200
    10/10
    There's not much you can ask for from a solitaire game. This one is published by Nintendo, and I got it because of that and also because I heard the '5-in-1' version is not that good. It includes Spider and Klondike solitaire, two modes, easy and normal/hard, for each. It tracks how long you've played it and how many games you've played and won per day. It also records your total wins and displays these in the DSi menu in the app icon. It features the cat mascot from the Wii News channel.
     
    My next reviews will be regarding headphones and a few DS games.
  3. Hawks

    Ohai again.

    By Hawks,

    I've been up to a lot of naught lately.
     
    News:
    Our washing machine is DEAD. So we can't have the new one delivered until Dec. 10 so we've got to go to the laundromat a few times before then... Plus the new one is way better and cost half as much as the original. Never buy a GE appliance. Oh, and I can't take it apart. :(
     
    Thanksgiving was suckish. Nothing to report.
     
    I decided to make each of my cousins a papercraft thingy for Xmas. Three of them are simple Cubeecrafts (Darth Vader, LongCat, and Yami Yugi) and one is a bear on a cupcake that'll take me a bit. I also found some awesomesauce Magic TG deck box papercrafts, so I'm making one for my brother and one for myself (even though I don't play MTG). Reminds me, I forgot to print out the spine label for his... Will do that later if I can.
     
    I've been messing with my sig.
     
    I like TS_Stormrage's fictional articles for the times, you should go read them.
     
    You should also go check out upcoming TET events. 'Cause TET is full of win.
     
    I believe that is all. What do you want me to talk about in my blog? I haven't ever got anything interesting to talk about.
  4. Hawks

    AP Lit and Crazy Calc

    By Hawks,

    So for AP Lit we have to read novels outside of class and write a one page analysis on each one. My first one was 'The Scarlet Letter' which was an okay book. The second one, 'Sense and Sensibility', I absolutely hated and actually have not finished even though the paper's due on Friday (thank goodness for Sparknotes). Anyway, I'm trying to decide on the next one. It preferably has to be short or a quick read, which is why I'm looking at plays mostly. My list consists of King Lear, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night, As You Like it, or Invisible Man by Ralph Emerson. I'm leaning towards Twelfth Night.
     
    And I've had craploads of Calc homework, plus my teacher can't teach the Chain Rule or Implicit Differentiation. So I am totally lost in that class now. But all of us are, so hopefully that will be fixed soon.
     
    And on top of it all, I've got to design a motor, even though we're not really sure what kind of motor we're building. See, a DC brushless motor is the most efficient, but requires a controller and we're having some guys help us with it and we're not really sure what they're doing, so my engineering teacher had us design a brushed DC motor. And so getting the brushes on the magnet assembly to contact the brushes on the stationary coils is what I'm having an issue with at the moment. I'm pretty sure we'll figure it our tomorrow though, simply because it will make more sense when my brain is not fried.
     
    Now I believe I will check if anyone's replied to my T&C post and then take a shower and maybe watch some TV or go to bed.
  5. Hawks
    I've been thinking about changing my display name from hawkxs to Hawk. (Although I haven't even checked if it's available...) How do you feel about this? (if you even care). Dang, it has two posts but was last active over three years ago... http://forum.tip.it/user/87511-hawk/
     
    Second thing. Random real life type I-want-a-boyfriend stuff. There's a guy I like blah blah blah. Except I'm too chicken to ask him out because I've never done this before and don't have the slightest idea what to do. There's a formal in like January that I am going to ask him to, but I feel like I should do something before this because there's a random girl who may or may not like him as well.
     
    Yeah so I am kind of not feeling great at the moment, have some sort of a cold like thing and am just very meh today.
  6. Hawks

    So mah first entry

    By Hawks,

    Currently a bit angry with the forums and their whole rich text editor crap... But I think I can get rid of it, will see in a bit. My German teacher (who had been on maternity leave for the past like five weeks and was due to come back next week) randomly moved to North Carolina on Saturday, and told our long-term sub to 'Teach them the stuff in this book." That was it. She was an epic, awesome, amazing German teacher and I'm really sad and disappointed to see her just leave. I understand why she did, all of the kids are attached to her (or they absolutely can't stand her). Our long-term sub is really good and I like her, but she's just not the same. We were all looking forward to having her back, and now we don't know what's going to happen at the end of the semester because our current (long-term sub) teacher was planning on moving to Germany at the end of the year, we at least know that she'll probably be here until the end of the semester, but we don't know about the next semester. Oddly enough, our sub had a story to tell about how her own German teacher was laid off while she was in German 3 because they spent the money to update their football field (I would have been pissed. And I don't use that sort of language lightly.) They had to do distance learning with the teacher at the other high school.
     
    Today was a crappy day, it's shaping up to be a pretty crappy week for my friends and I, if nothing better happens in the next couple of days. A friend's dad is heading to Iraq, one of my friends (who loved our German teacher who left) was gone today, I think it was because she was sick though.
     
    I also fell off/out of my bed (I have a loft bed, about 6 feet up) at 5:30 this morning, I thought the ladder was where it wasn't. I somehow scraped up my right hand and probably have bruises developing on my leg.
  7. Hawks
    I bought LEGO Rock Band for the DS yesterday and it's pretty epic, especially since it was only $20. The songs are kind of lame, and they're shortened but it's good value. Plus you can play it on the DSi... which is why I bought it.
     
    The epic book is the Ultimate LEGO Minifig Sticker Collection ( http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Sticker-Collection-Minifigure-COLLECTIONS/dp/0756659841 ) It is basically fiftysome pages of minifig stickers and it includes some older styles and licensed lines (Umbridge even got her own lego sticker).
     
    I also got a new sketch book, it's a Strathmore sketch one, the recycled 400 series. It's 9x12 I think, and it was on sale which was nice.
     
    'Tis all, I suppose.
  8. Hawks

    Is this fair? + Birthday!

    By Hawks,

    My school has an on-going 'EDP' (Educational Development Plan) thing where each year you work on a different aspect of preparing you to go into the workforce/to college. For sophomores, this is a 'Life Timeline'... You have to plan out, starting Junior year and go ten years into the future. They gave us 3 lab days with a total of 10 days until it is due. We have to include what colleges we apply to, how much they cost, any jobs we have, how much we make, hobbies/activities, where we are living, how old we are, big ticket purchases, etc, etc.
     
    Then we have to write a 3 paragraph paper detailing why we chose the career we did, what we would do in the occurance of an 'unexpected life event' (randomly handed out to each kid, things like 'get pregnant in 2014', company goes out of business, get divorced) then describe how we felt about the assignment (by picking one adjective).
     
    I talked to the counselor who created this assignment for the majority of my physics hour on Thursday. Why do I have to do this assignment, I asked, and what's the point if it doesn't count for anything but 100 points in English class? She said it's to let her get to know the 800 students better; if she knows I play hockey, she can send me a hockey scholarship, that sort of thing. Which still doesn't make sense.
     
    Then she told me that since I'm angry about the assignment, I must be afraid of something in the assignment or the future. I told her I can't possibly think of anything I'm afraid of in that context, but that I'm angry because I view this assignment as a waste of my time. I generally live in the present. I know what I'm doing tomorrow, or that I'm going to college, but I don't know where or exactly what for yet; so there's no point in making any of it up.
     
    She basically said that's crap and that I really am afraid of something. So I'm still angry about it and my adjective will be something along the lines of 'not ideal'.
     
    My 16th was on Tuesday, I got a balloon animal kit, a dancing penguin bookmark, a pound of Chessex multi-sided dice, Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone in German), a pair of Ink'd Skullcandy earbuds, a Puzzle Calendar (like legos + perpetual calendar), and an Imaginext Dragon (that was on clearance at Wal-Mart for $7 so I told my mom she needed to get it :razz: ). I also got $20 cash and two checks for $20. Plus I've yet to visit my grandparents for my birthday celebration; I'm pretty sure they're getting me some Toy Story LEGOs. Haven't gotten my license yet.
  9. Hawks
    Yep, today was a snow day, and so is tomorrow! We got like a foot of slush/rain/snow today, and we're going to have 50mph sustained winds tonight and tomorrow plus another foot of snow tomorrow!
     
    This means I got a ton of concept art done today! All that needs to be done atm is some ash armor, and I'm going to work on that before I go to bed in a bit. I also drew this epic blue dragon today. Go look at my gallery to find it since I'm out of time.
     
    All for today. Thanks for reading.
  10. Hawks

    Yep.

    By Hawks,

    Have a stupid project/presentation on a gluten free diet due on Friday. Seriously. She expects us to have a nice poster and a 4-5 minute presentation about our diet by Friday. She gave us like 1 1/2 hours in class to research and wouldn't let us print anything out. We had crappy art supplies and not even legit poster board. As a result, I have to use my seminar tomorrow to work with my partner on it. And bring in my own scissors, glue, markers, and colored pencils to make it look half-decent. And write notecards since we have to pretend to look at the audience. Plus my partner doesn't like speaking in front of people.
     
    To sum it up, I hate group projects and poorly-orchestrated projects.
     
    I am taking on another project which is probably a bad idea, but it'll give me something to draw whilst I attempt to finish up the Divinite stuff. It's Ash stuff this time, and I'm looking forward to doing a couple character designs (shamans!) and fun stuff.
     
    Last night we had a jazz band performance type thing. I'm still deaf/can't hear well out of my right ear. I play bari sax and had to sit right in front of and to the left of the drum set... We got fed though! It was nice...
     
    Not much else to say other than I apologize for not getting anything I should have done for you done.
     
    Thanks for reading.
  12. Hawks
    My keyboard just kind of randomly stopped half-working.
     
    So now I shall post what I was going to post.
     
    Had thanksgiving dinner with some family yesterday; learned a random dice game I'm not sure of the name of. Involves 6d6 and random scoring rules.
    Will be baking pies today (for thanksgiving mk ii) and with some luck getting out some Christmas decorations and wrapping some presents.
    Made some fonts I was going to try out but then the keyboard died so I didn't do that. May do that later.
    Going to a hockey game tonight. Not actually very excited. There's a post-game skate, so I might get to do that.
     
    Nothing much else to report. Still slowly ut surely workig o oept art for aaps1... Ad there goes the otto row of keys agai... dag
     
    FUDGE!
  13. Hawks

    What I've Been Up To

    By Hawks,

    Been doing a lot of nothing lately. I've kind of been working on concept art for zaaps1, you can see it in my gallery if you want to. Today I made oatmeal scotchies and no-bake cookies, first attempt at using a stove in a while.
     
    WE GOT A NEW TOASTER IN THE MAIL RANDOMLY YESTERDAY! Our prior toaster was burning everything, and had been for a while, yet we had not replaced it. I was honestly going to go to Target on Black Friday at 4AM for a $3 toaster, it was that bad. But the place where my dad works has a gift catalog every year, all the employees get to pick something out of it. My dad got the toaster, because it was the only thing we kind of needed/wanted in it. It's a really nice toaster, 4-slice, with funky blue LEDs and digital timer display things. It's a Cuisinart... Lemme find a pic of it...
     
    DANG. This thing has a list price of $185... Even on Amazon, it's $97... AND WE GOT IT FOR FREE!!! YAY!

     
    And that's that. Tomorrow's my mom's birthday, so we'll be playing with the Wii... We got her Wii Fit Plus because she wanted it. And I might go see New Moon. Dunno yet, don't really care either way. Going to be stupid, only going to see if I can pick out the Muse song... I Belong to You/something random in French, which is actually like my favorite song on the album!
  14. Hawks

    Organizing my thoughts

    By Hawks,

    a) netbooks
    -jr high. why?
    -why in general
     
    b ) certain programs
    -gimp on netbooks?
    -ps and gimp on same computers?
    -internet exploder
     
    c) open office
    -why?
    -why?
    -why?
     
    d) prep for real world
    -so why no ms office?
    -its frickin world standard
    -aka oo frickin sucks
    -wanna know why?
    -why personal netbooks to jr. high?
     
    Any other details I should include?
  15. Hawks
    Today. My brother was supposed to have a soccer game about a half hour away. There happens to be a Sonic there, the first in our lowly state. I happen to <3 Sonic. We spent a half an hour trying to find where the game was, we couldn't find it or any of his teammates (except the goalie; he was lost too). So we gave up and went to Sonic. I usually get the Popcorn Chicken but today I decided to get a Fritos Chili Cheese Pie. The best decision I made all day. It's frickin' awesome. Basically a walking taco in a box with more meat/cheese/fritos and a hint of chili flavoring. Plus you could add bacon to it for an extra 50 cents, not that you need it. It's just totally epic.
     
    So on Saturday, we went to a Hot Topic to buy some neon orange Chuck Taylors. They had one pair left, a mens' 10. I wear a mens' 7. 'Twas a sad day. I would have purchased the neon double upper high tops they sell at Journeys, but a friend of mine has them and I didn't think she would want me buying the same ones as her. I told her this this morning and she said I should have. I will go to another mall soonish and hopefully they will have my size in the neon orange Chucks.
     
    Also my mom started on my Halloween costume, it's a Link-style medieval tunic and a long-sleeved shirt. She needs interfacing to continue work on it though, so it's stopped temporarily. I'm looking into starting chainmail commissions eventually, I have looked into starting costs and it'll be around $50 for the wire and the extra parts I need to set up the jig to make the rings. If I set up a website, I'll be sure to put it in teh blag. :)
     
    That's all for now.
  16. Hawks
    Didn't go to school today which also sucks because now I have excessive pre-calc homework, world history hw, english hw, and a german test and a quiz in nutrition to make up. Had a godawful headache yesterday around 8:30. Seriously my skull was like splitting, and my muscles were having spasms, I was in such pain that I was crying so hard I was almost hyperventilating. My back/neck/shoulders hurt like crap too. Took some ibuprofen, then some Tylenol, didn't help much. Went to doctor this morning and she said I had a tension headache, and to take 800mg of ibuprofen (4x recommended dosage) every 8 hours. My dad's really allergic to it, so I might be too. Anyway, I took it about 4 hours ago and it's all come back now and I dunno what to do for another four hours or what to do when I go to school tomorrow, I know it'll hurt. I can't concentrate on anything anyway, and trying to understand what people mean on TIF is really hard for me at the moment. I guess it could be worse, it could be chronic migraines (a friend of mine gets them, she has to carry around extra-strength Excedrin with her all the time, and takes some random anti-seizure meds because they help for some reason).
     
    So sorry if I'm not making sense or not understanding you at the moment. I feel like crap, but I really can't miss school tomorrow, but I don't know if I can make it through school tomorrow.
     
    There was going to be something important I think but I guess not.
     
    Thanks for reading once again.
  17. Hawks
    We have these temporary 'Technology Coaches' who are supposed to help our teachers with the smart boards and the TV-on-the-smart-board and all of that crap. Today we had one in class as we were using DIGITAL CAMERAS. Ooooooh. :roll: These cameras are apparently brand-new. They are some sort of Sony Coolpix cameras, and do not have memory cards... They can take a max of 3 pics at one time. The school bought at least 50 of these. And 'personal' netbooks for every 6th-8th grader, which they will continue buying new each year indefinitely. These netbooks have a total net cost (to the user, if you break it beyond repair or lose the whole thing) of $660. They forced anyone who wanted their student to be able to take it home (which is pretty much required, because they won't let them take them to different classes either, apparently) to pay a non-refundable 'insurance' payment of $30 ANNUALLY.
     
    And the superintendent says we'll be 'in a desperate situation' next year, with potential layoffs and stuff. Supposedly in our original bond issue, which was passed in 2002ish, there was money in there to buy technology. I'm not sure if it was specifically labeled 'computers for student use' but if it wasn't why don't I have the INDUSTRY STANDARD, where anyone who goes into the workforce will be expected to be able to use, most colleges use assignments using these programs, WHY DON'T I HAVE MICROSOFT OFFICE? Why am I forced to suffer with third-rate, awful and really almost unusable software, OpenOffice.org?
     
    Maybe I was indoctrinated on Microsoft Office, maybe I was raised on it (they're both the same really). But it was truly the right choice, I can't find anyone who has naught but good things to say about OpenOffice. They've all had some sort of [rather large] issue with it.. I am an avid Firefox and GIMP user, I know good (free, open-source) things when I see them. OpenOffice is NOT a good thing; it's a real case of 'you get what you pay for'.
     
    Next on the docket: A Senate committee allows a bill which levees an additional $4,000/yr tax on the people.
    It hasn't been passed by the Senate/House yet, but has exited the 'committee' stage where the bill is written, revised, and finally given to the rest of the Senate/House to vote on. This bill taxes the companies which provide 'Cadillac' insurance to their employees. This includes the company my dad works for.
     
    A little bit of background. My dad is a software developer; he doesn't work on a manufacturing line, but the company has plenty of employees who do, in the US even! The Democrats have never gotten this, and probably never will; when you levy a tax on a company, the company has to pass the tax on to its employees and customers. The employees benefits will go down, or they'll pay a lot more for them, and the customers will have to pay more for the company's goods/services. Even 'the little guy' who works 9-to-5 down on the line will pay a lot more, and they get paid a lot less than my dad does. Supposedly this is who the Democrats are supposed to be looking out for. (By the way, this insurance is group insurance, with an included dental and vision plan. We pay $100 a paycheck for coverage estimated at $12,000 worth of coverage a year. My mom's employer does not and can't offer an insurance program until she retires.)
     
    I have type one diabetes. I have a great endocrinologist, who looks out for me and writes prescriptions for perhaps more than I need each month, but when you have a life-threatening disease that's a good thing. A vial of 50 blood glucose test strips is $50. I go through about five a month. That's already $250. My insulin (I go through 5 100mL vials a month) is $120 a vial, after insurance company 'haggling'. Straight up, it'd cost about $200 each. Luckily, our co-pay is only $20 and we actually get a flex spending account which works on dental, some orthodontia (a first payment on one set), and some glasses (1 pair per family member every two years; only at places on an 'accepted' list.).
     
    If this makes it through, our vision insurance will go out the window, the dental program won't be included anymore, and our deductible and out-of-pocket expenses will go up. We need health care reform, but this is not the way to go about it. We desperately need tort reform. If we lower the amount patients can get, lower the things they can sue for, we lower the amount of unnecessary tests doctors perform to be absolutely sure they have an alibi should they be sued. Therefore, doctors pay less in malpractice insurance, and they charge patients less. My grandma recently had cataract surgery done, on both eyes. It was $3500 an eye. $1700 of that for malpractice insurance. This is why our society pays so much for health care and yet gets so little out of it. Not so desperately, we need a high-risk insurance pool for those of us with pre-existing conditions who can't get coverage anywhere else or choose not to (most states have a carrier who has to take you, but you can wait up to 60 days and be subject to even higher costs than a high-risk pool.) We need to place more emphasis on healthy living, prevention and education is key. For those diseases which can't be prevented, or have no proven cause (type 1 diabetes, other autoimmune disorders, autism and other learning disabilities, some cancers) we need to provide money for research, to cure it or find more effective treatments.
     
    Once again thanks for reading, if you made it this far. I'm off to play some Guitar Hero: Van Halen, we got it free since we bought GH5. Win.
  18. Hawks
    So my dad's thinking about password-protecting our wi-fi, because my brother has some kind of issues and apparently can't handle the Internet without the (excessive) filters my parents put on our computers (Norton Anti-Virus fricking sucks.) The school gave every kid a freaking netbook (they have 2gb hard drives and 8" screens, which is fail to begin with and they kill any network you try to hook them up to) and expect them to take them home to complete their assignments and expect their parents to watch them on the Internet. My parents are of course completely OCD to begin with about computers (my dad is some sort of it support/systems programmer) and they just don't get it. I've been meaning to get a job for some time, but who's going to hire a 15 year old who doesn't have a license in this economy? Plus I wouldn't apply for any sort of manual labor job; I'm not cut out for that. I'd like to set up a commission art/graphic design/costume business but I really think my parents would flip out or completely take over.
     
    Anyway, back to the wi-fi issue. We've got a Wii; I've got a DSi, and they both need to be connected to the Internet on a regular basis to function properly. If he secures the network, I'm going to need to hack it to get the password because there's no way he'll give it to me. I've recently started thinking that even if I bought my own laptop (I've built one on the Dell website, a Studio 15 I believe, with decent stuff, for $943) they'd try to restrict what I did on it.
     
    The computer I'm currently using is around ten years old, at least. It's running Windows 2000, and sadly has IE 6 on it (though I finally got him to break down and put Firefox 3.5 on it a few months ago). It's got a bunch of pictures and crap that's supposedly 'important' and so we can't just buy a new one and put Linux on this one (because my parents are stupid about these things).
     
    Hating my situation at the moment. If you're actually reading this, I commend you.
     
    Signing off for now.
  19. Hawks
    With Christmas in less than a week, and since I've got a lot of time on my hands right now, I thought I'd write you all something to waste some time on. Since nobody told me what they wanted me to talk about on my last blog [except for some bizarre Engrish rock crusher comment...], I still haven't got any ideas. But anyway.
     
    There are a number of presents under the tree and none of them are for me; this is presumably due to the fact that I have wrapped all but one of the presents... That is, anyone who would be wrapping my stuff hasn't wrapped anything yet. :P
     
    I finished the papercrafts for my cousins [but don't have boxes for them] and eagerly await Ninjatoes' new Mario papercraft, which I think I shall tackle if he releases it before January.
     
    I'm going to be hopefully working on some interesting Lego minifig customs after Christmas when I receive my BrickForge stuff.
     
    I am currently ill and dunno what's wrong; I've got some craptastic upper respiratory crap going on and my neck kills.
     
    And looking forward to the finish of TS_Stormrage's fictional about the Fremminks! (definitely spelling fail.)
     
    That is all.
  20. Hawks
    Summer goals:
    Pleather Vambraces - DONE!
    Fierce Deity Link Papercraft - DONE!
    Duct Tape Chucks - DONE!
    Custom Lego Minifig - Sort of done, need new BF pieces
    AP Bio - DONE!
    AP Calc - Three pages left
    English 11 Test-Out - See below
     
    Reading list:
    Othello - I read it in manga form...
    Pride and Prejudice - DONE!
    Beowulf - DONE!
    Frankenstein - DONE!
    Lord of the Flies - In progress
     
    In other news, I have been frequenting BrickForge's forums ( http://www.brickforge.com/forum/index.php ) which are pretty cool, if lacking in activity.
  21. Hawks
    My last day of school is this Friday, the 11th; it's a half-day. Not looking forward to exams but looking forward to being done for the summer. Although I won't really be, as I've got AP Bio and Calc work to do over the summer, and I'm trying to test out of English 11... But at least there's no getting up at 5:30 anymore.
     
    I've got a half-finished something Deity Link papercraft on my desk, he's only legs at the moment, and I hope to finish building him soon. I'd also like to go to my local zoo, botanical gardens, and an art museum in the area to see the new exhibits. I'm going to camp again for CIT for two weeks, then hopefully spending more time up there playing with bottle rockets and such.
     
    I'd like to earn some money over the summer for some of the new Lego Kingdoms sets and possibly save up for a Zune.
     
    Oh and I need to see Toy Story 3.
  22. Hawks

    Spring Break

    By Hawks,

    The end of next week marks the start of spring break for me. I'm going to Chicago, home of many LEGO stores. In lieu of Easter junk, my parents have offered to buy me something there; I have gladly agreed. I want to buy a pound of Lego bricks.
     
    In case you're wondering about my random absences, I joined the school soccer team this year and it's taking a lot of my time.
     
    Not much else to say.
  23. Hawks
    Well. I'll start off with a list of things I want to accomplish and some detail-type things along with that.
     
    1. Get mah license. Shan't be hard, as long as I pass my test. So that's to be done in February.
    2. Be more active in Falador and TET. I need ideas for both. If you have something you think would make an awesome event or an awesome RP, PM me.
    3. Get a job. (See below)
    4. Not get seriously injured.
    5. I guess that's pretty much it.
     
    Regarding a job. This is what I'd like to do: Sell polymer clay charms and such artsy-fartsy type stuff online, through Etsy or summat like that. 2 problems. I'm not 18, and I don't know how to ask my parents about being able to do this, nor to set up an additional PayPal account to pay for the listings.
     
    I've developed a good list of things I could sell, based on things I've seen on Etsy and DA. I did manage to talk to my mom about that, and she noted that most of the things on my list are copyrighted (mainly by Nintendo... :P) Obviously, I don't want the feds coming after me for selling some little knockoff Super Mushroom charms. So of my list there's like two things I could pull off as not copyrighted: tetrominoes (which still are pretty much Nintendo's) and jester hats.
     
    So in preparing to post this, I've come up with another idea, that can't really be copyrighted by anyone as it's so proliferate. Medieval/Fantasy style weaponry armor, items, in the form of keychains, charms, smallish statue type things, etc. (Essentially things from RuneScape and D&D)
     
    Regarding commissions: I'd rather not do that, at least not through DA. If I can arrange it through some other site, or Etsy, that would be okay though. I'm also slowly working on getting some experience with making chainmail so I can sell that too.
     
    Has anyone had experience with this kind of thing or any recommendations on where I can get information? Advice on where to buy bulk materials is good too...
  24. Hawks
    There is now a group on DeviantART for anyone who happens to have a DA account to join. It is #Tip-It-Artists. If your DA isn't some obvious variation on your TIF account I'd ask that you proclaim yourself in your request to join. Everyone is automatically a contributor, if you'd like to sign on as a co-founder (aka admin), then do that. (You may or may not end up as a co-founder, we'll decide based on your contributions to TIF and the like.)
     
    I got new goalie skates yesterday as we were about a place that sold them and they happened to be 50% off (They're last year's model... :blink: Same thing happened with my other ones.), which was good because they were still $100 in the end. I'll find a pic.

    A pair of CCM Vector goalie skates, I'm unsure which version, probably the 4.0. The box is currently under a large pile of laundry.
     
    Also I just requested this as my JDRF Walk prize. I raised $1000 this year, which I'm very proud of. After much deliberation, I decided I'd be better off with the portable speaker system than the wireless one, the hoodie, or the scooter (which I plan on buying eventually anyway- they're not that expensive). It may not be that great, but the great thing about it is it's FREE! :thumbsup: JDRF is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a cause I fully support as I have had type 1 for nearly 8 years now... I've now had it more than half of my life. For more info, check out their website at http://www.jdrf.org .
     
    Thanks for reading!
  25. Hawks

    Dang.

    By Hawks,

    It's nearly noon and I haven't anything else to do, except try a bronze dragon (did earlier but I set it up wrong so it fell off the page) and do my daily Wii Fit thing. :P
     
    No school because 'it's a blizzard out there'... They actually called school yesterday, which was nice so I didn't have to get up at 5:30. I'm working on some armor concept art for quelmotz's firemaking suggestion: http://forum.tip.it/topic/252019-reviving-firemaking-ash-equipment-charms-and-more/ Take a look and leave your thoughts!
     
    My last.fm is hating on me and keeps playing the same 50-some songs randomly. I made this sig out of my dragon art from yesterday, for the SOTW:
     

     
    Yeah not much going on. Later I'll have hockey (hopefully) so that'll be fun.
     
    And I found this epic thing on ThinkGeek that I must have:

    LEGO HEAD LAMP!
     
    Thanks for reading.
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