Quite a bit has happened. Let’s start with the awesome: Dad bought a new car.

Under the hood...

Angel Eye Headlights....

And, with the even more awesome: I get to use the old one.

2001 BMW X5

This has been my dream car for quite some time… I was thrilled when my Dad pulled in with the new one. His old car now becomes the “third family car”. And since I’m the “third family driver,” I get to use it. Hooray! I’ve already done a few things with it — including replacing the window regulator in the door (the little guy that moves the window up and down). With a lovely auxiliary adapter and Bluetooth audio gateway, I was also able to set up a wireless audio connection with my phone, which doubles as my MP3 player. So now I have the ability to hop in the car, choose a song/playlist/whatever out of my music library, and have it play through the car stereo. Neat. GPS from my phone works the same way — voice guidance playing over my music. Double neat. I’m considering ordering some LED kits for daytime running lights — like the angel eyes my Dad’s car has… but they’re proving to be kind of expensive. So maybe not. It’s neat as it is.

In other news,

I’ve taken up a Summer job down in Cincinnati with my relative, Matt. We’ll be working as day camp counselors for a local community club. Although it’ll be my first time as a camp counselor, I think it’ll be a positive and rewarding experience, not to mention a good way to spend my time over the Summer. We’ll be taking the X5 down there in a couple of weeks — my first long-distance drive without my parents, which I’m also quite excited for. I’ll probably end up visiting some other friends from Ohio while I’m down… something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile. Should be fun.

On the tech front,

I’ve been working on a Content Management System to utilize when working with future clients, currently called HCMS. It allows for more customization over positioning and such than other CMS systems I’ve worked with, and also provides an extension system should some functionality not be present by default. After I finish this system, completing projects for future clients should be a breeze. Throw together a template, stick HCMS behind it, add whatever extensions they might need for specific functionality, and off they go. No more coding dynamic sites from scratch for a single purpose.

I’ve also been working with GazeboNews, and recently assisted in the launching of their new site, which now consists of a whole lot more than just news stories, as it did before. We’ve been using Wordpress as a platform for the new site, but the more we add to it, the more I think it’s the wrong direction to go in. Wordpress is meant for blogging (as I’m doing now). A series of posts with comments, maybe a few pages/widgets here and there, but nothing too fancy. This is how GazeboNews used to operate, back when they used Typepad and were limited to this kind of system. Now, however, they have the ability to modify Wordpress to suit their needs, so we’re bolting on new features left and right. The template has sort of become a mess (code-wise), and I’m afraid that things are going to break once Wordpress gets upgraded or some such. Perhaps once my CMS is finished, it can serve as a replacement. I don’t believe Wordpress is meant for a site with the kind of functionality GazeboNews has in mind.

Hopefully I’ll start updating this blog more often… although I know I’ve said that before. Guess we’ll see.

First of all, I joined the sailing team (somewhat inadvertantly, however). It’s probably a good decision in the long run, however. It gives me something to do, and my parents say it should help me get into colleges who aren’t just looking for someone who hangs out at his computer all day(/night). I’ve only done one regatta so far, which was kind of a bust due to no wind, but I hope to participate in more relatively soon.

Another recent event is a Tribes 2 mod that I’ve started, which I’m calling Krypton Construct. Krypton Construct began as a co-development project with another Tribes 2 player I met, named Netherdark. We named our lovely little Quantium Modification “Xenon Construct”. Netherdark and I had some conflicts, though. He wanted to strip everybody’s credits out of the mod, and I did not. So I broke off, took some stuff from Xenon mod, and started from scratch, using Construction 0.70a as a base for my mod. I named it Krypton Construct, and so far it’s going pretty well. Some features that set it apart from other mods are Permission Spheres, an advanced F2 menu with player preferences and an integrated save system, and Theorem, my lovely little bot who helps me administrate the server. Krypton has climbed the ranks of Construction Mods (if I do say so myself), and is up at the top with ACCM, ECM, and Metallic. I plan to make many more advances, and hopefully help it to become the best construction mod out there, but that is going to take quite a bit of work.

On another note, the Tribes 2 master servers are going to be shut down on November the 1st. That’s no good. Electricutioner, a coding mastermind, is developing a replacement for these vital servers that he says should be running well before November 1st. Once this occurs, we should have full community support, and free accounts for Tribes 2. This means that I can hand out copies of Tribes 2, free of charge, that people can play with no hassle. The popularity of Tribes 2 just might go up as a change… which would be great, because I never want that game to die. Hopefully this plan doesn’t backfire, but I have a high amount of confidence in Electricutioner, I think he can get this done quickly and intelligently.

I’m a Sophomore now. It’s no different than being a Freshman, except for the fact that I’m no longer hanging out in the basement for most of the day. I’m also taking Driver’s Ed this year, and I should be able to get my license right before the start of the Summer. Driving is pretty awesome, and easier than I thought it would be. I’m a bit ahead of the game, as I’m already driving on highways and such (even though we’re not at that point yet in the class room). The only problem I’m foreseeing is that once I get my license, I’ll be without a vehicle. I was considering purchasing a cheapo American-made car, but after talking to some family members and friends, I’ve decided that that’s not a good idea. Instead, I’m planning on getting a car of slightly higher quality. Now, my dad told me about his plans to eventually sell his BMW X5 and buy another newer X5… and a thought occured. If I earned enough money by the time he decides to sell his X5, maybe he’d sell the car to me. That would be the most awesome thing in the world, but based on my research, I’d have to get a pretty darn decent amount of money before he’d sell it to me. Like, at least $10,000.  That will take awhile. I’ll need quite a decent job to make that happen. Hopefully I can find a decent opportunity over the summer… but as of now, this idea is somewhat of a dream. Maybe I can do some freelance coding or some such….

In terms of school, things are a bit… weird. The Krypton Construction mod I’ve mentioned above is what my main focus is while I’m at home.  My main focus probably should be homework, but it isn’t, so my grades are… OK. They’re satisfactory for me, but apparently not my parents. I had a painful discussion with my Mom tonight after she saw my grades, which were all As, a couple Bs, and one B- in World Civ 2. She asked me if I needed to drop this class, which I took as an insult to my intelligence. This wasn’t even an honors course, and she was wondering if I could handle it. I’m still in rage over that whole argument, but I told her that the reason I was getting the poor grade in World Civ is because I hated history, which is the truth. I have always hated history. I think that in most cases it is a completely useless subject. What we ought to be learning instead is “modern politics” or some such. Something that will help kids actually understand the world’s current problems (of which is has plenty of). Doesn’t that sound like a better way to build our future contributers to society? Anywho, hopefully I can shift my focus a little bit more to my homework, because it’s kind of slipping, albiet only in World Civ.

Well, now, that was a long post. That felt good.

My teacher was giving us a homework assignment that consisted of putting together a comic strip. He pointed out an example on the wall, and I got up to look at it. As I walked toward it, my vision started fading to black around the corners until I couldn’t see at all. This happened very fast. I heard the faint sound of scraping chairs on the ground, and opened my eyes, staring at the floor underneath me. My chest had landed on a chair next to my own desk, I was just kind of slumped on top of it horizontally. It felt like I just woken up from a very long nap. My teacher was leaning over next to me, asking if I was alright. I was feeling no pain, just a very dull numb feeling in parts of my body. He asked what happened, and I took a second to think about it. Then he asked if I had fainted. “I guess,” I said, looking at all of the students just staring at me.

The whole situation was explained to me by one of my classmates. Apparently I just started swaying, and fell right into the chair. My teacher commented that I was only out for maybe two or so seconds.
“If you weren’t unconscious, that would’ve hurt like hell,” said my classmate. Well, good.

So I spent the last ten minutes of class in the nurse’s office, getting my blood pressure checked. It was higher than normal, so I was advised to come and get it tested again tomorrow. I will.

GDC 08: A Tribes Sequel? Sort Of | Tom’s Games

Anyway, my dog re-gained his constant ear-infection, and so that’s pretty annoying. I feel so bad for him, he’s walking everywhere scratching his ear, shaking it like mad, drooling, etc. We’re taking him to the vet soon, but it’s 12 AM right now.

I added Google Analytics to WiredforWar, so the statistics should prove interesting. I haven’t checked my Google Adsense account for ages, I wonder how much I’ve earned. It’s fun running that site, it gives me some sort of sense of pride. Dunno…

I really, really, really want to start SServ from the ground up. It’s ugly, not fully functional, and not popular right now. Analytics tells me it only gets like 3-6 hits a day, some of them being me. I put so much work into it, so it’s kind of disappointing to me that nobody uses it… I even sort of advertised it at school. So maybe I’ll get that done eventually… I most likely won’t get into it until Summer break begins.

Today I started dragging all of the old PCs out of the basement and sticking a dual-boot of Windows and Kubuntu on them. It’s nice to just have functional PCs around, better yet having one for every person in the family to use. I didn’t finish today, because we went to see Spiderman, but hopefully I’ll finish later. I want to figure out how to get network logins so people’s accounts are synced on every computer in the house, but that’s been hard. I’ll probably just give everybody a small directory on a Samba server to work with.

Last night I went to a disaster drill at my Dad’s hospital until 1 AM. It was kind of boring, but interesting. They apparently got some students from some University or something for “patients” that they would practice evacuating. The alarm code was “code triage”, which was pretty interesting when I looked it up on the Wikipedia earlier today. They have this whole system for rationing medical supplies/staff for people who need it most/have the best chance. Veerrry interesting.

Hopefully I’ll have time to finish up installing OSes on some more machines tomorrow, and hopefully even add Analytics to my blog. Google rocks. I need to sleep.

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Anyway, Google Analytics has gotten even cooler. New graphs, details, etc. I want to install it onto the Machines forum, but that requires coding it into every template, and I have not the time for that right now. When summer comes, I’ll be able to do what I want when I want to… that will be nice. Right now, I come home, do some homework, eat, and sleep. Except for the occasional TV show or short game of Tribes. Summer will be awesome to the tenth power.

Welp, I should go to bed so I can stand upright tomorrow. Goodbye.

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I’m trying to catch up with all my homework, and I have just discovered a wonderful thing in the process. This discovery is that if you have a decent amount of late work, that will bump up all of your current work. So, unless you put in a higher amount of time completing both the late work and the new work, you will always have late work. It sucks. So I’ve changed my routine… I’ve finally realized that my PC is a huge distraction, and that avoiding it lets me concentrate more on school work. Right when I get home, I go into the basement, sit on the couch, turn on some music, and drill through my homework for the night. Tonight it kind of sucked, though, because I forgot a text book at school, so I’ll have to go in early tomorrow which I absolutely hate.

I’ve been using Google Docs and Spreadsheets for a bit now, and I have to say it’s quite nice. It saves like every sentence you type, so it’s near impossible to lose things. It allows me to access my docs from both school and home (yes, I know there are many ways of doing it, but this is so convenient). You can upload Openoffice and Word documents and edit them right in your browser, which is cool with computers that don’t have Openoffice or MS Office installed on them. One of the neatest features, however, is that you can add collaborators, who can edit (or just view) your document and you can track who did what to it. It’s neato bandito, and I use it more than Word at school now. Google rocks.

So SwishMax is pretty cool. I know that just Flash is much better, but I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve finally gotten into SwishMax scripting, which has expanded the possibilities of what I can do with it by an enormous amount. The scripting is a ton different from what I’ve learned in the past (basic, HTML, PHP), especially the variables. But it’s still pretty functional, even though it’s highly limiting. When I get this down, though, I’ll actually start trying to implement flash into some of my sites, just ’cause sites with flash are ever so cool.

Well, it’s been nice writing this, but now I must go to bed so I can go into school early tomorrow (yuck).

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Starting to post more often because I’ve got this extension for Firefox that reminds me whenever I look at it…

About that one web-design thing I talked about in my last post….
For the third trimester, I got into a class called “computer communication” or something. But we’re learning HTML (at least the other students are. I know it.) So I mention PHP to the teacher, he says he’s never tried it. I show him some examples of account systems, file storage, SQL databases, and he seemed interested. So maybe I can either teach part of the class, or talk to the teacher about PHP, and maybe get him to teach it.

Anyway, we’re going to be making websites, and competing in teams (like The Apprentice). So most of the class wants me on their team… I wonder what’s going to happen there…

WiredForWar.org is going well… The newsletter team, however small it is, has been assembled, and we’re working on the newsletter. Someone made a comic strip for it, which I think is pretty cool. Hopefully once the first one is sent out, we’ll get some more people on the Newsletter team.

SServ is dying. I think I might move on now unless somebody actually starts using it (or suggests more things to add)… It’s boring because there’s nothing my work on SServ is going for any more.

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“I’m sorry sir, but you cannot return a processor after it’s box has been opened.” Wait a second…. I can’t return a processor a week after I got it when it’s broken?!?! That’s like getting a new DVD, opening the box, and finding it broken in half, and they won’t let you return it. Then the tech manager came in and started to try and pin it on me. We started to ask how you would break an electro-magnetic processor fan.

“Well I don’t know about your son’s ability to install a processor.” he said to my dad, trying to pin it on me. It’s not like I threw it against a wall or anything, it just doesn’t work. Give us a new one! Finally after tons of crap, they gave us a new one. It doesn’t cost them a cent to send that broken fan back to Intel, they could’ve just given us a new one without all the crap they gave us. Now they just lost a customer worth thousands of dollars. I hate Microcenter.

Now I’ve just got to put together my new PC, and I’m all set. Dad’s new one is really awesome. It can run Unreal II at 1280 x 1024 at full graphics, and it still goes fast. Quake 4 also runs seamlessly. Should on my new one too

Anyway, I’m thinking I may upgrade my main site to Joomla, since right now I’m running the old version of it, named Mambo, and this version may have open security risks and stuff like that.
I’ve opened a new site for the Machines community at http://machines.hopto.org. Hopefully this will get rid of the ads on the old hosting service it used to be on, and free up more space for mods and other things that Machines community members may make, not to mention faster speeds.
I’ve also gotten a Tribes server running succesfully here. All I needed to do was to go into SSH (Secure Shell) access, upload Tribes, and run the server. Since my web server runs on Linux, it was quite easy. I also recieved some valuable help from my web hosting provider.

Now, remember, if you have any thoughts, click the No Comments button below. Or if someone actually commented, it might say 1 comment, or however many number of comments there are.
Bye!