I’ve been thought-dumping on facebook lately. Take a gander! Old posts are hidden to non-friends but I think everyone who reads this is on my facebook list.

I was discussing computery things with the coolest Coloradoan chick I know, and I was reminded of an old football game I wrote for the TI-89 graphing calculator in high school. Here’s a link. Apparently it was pretty popular - it’s gotten nearly 10,000 downloads from the site.

I started it on a car trip to North Carolina for a family Christmas trip and continued working on it for a couple months afterward. Reading the documentation brings a tear of nostalgia to my eye. Especially the thank yous, wherein I thank RHCP for their kick-ass programming music. I had great taste in music back then, didn’t I?

If you have any bugs to report, questions, suggestions, or you just
want to say 'good job' or 'this game sucks', you can email me at
jester323@ignmail.com.

I was tossing my freshly washed clothes into the dryer yesterday and I noticed a peculiar setting for the automatic dryness sensor: OPTIMUM DRY. I’ve always kept the dryer at this setting, but I never pondered the terminology. Really, anything other than optimal dryness would be sub-optimal. Who wants anything suboptimal when optimal is an option? In my mind, the other options might as well be still wet and burnt to a crisp. Claiming to be optimum is quite a tall order, but my dryer delivers; I’ve never pulled a moist or charred piece of clothing out. The only way my dryer could be more optimum is by folding the clothes when it’s done. When that happens, I’m gonna start buying guns, ’cause there’s some Terminator shit goin’ down.

Along with Optimum, there’s More Dry, Less Dry and Fluff. There’s also timed-dry for when you’re on some kind of laundry-time budget. Those settings are for laundry noobs. Give me Optimum or give me a new dryer, I’ve always said! Actually, this is the first time I said it, but I’ll probably say it again soon.

I’m still searching for a stove/oven with an optimum deliciousness setting.

Jim: i haven’t gone grocery shopping in awhile
Jim: my grandma sent some catfood for Valentine’s Day
Jim: and I’m hungry
Jim: do the math, and you will arrive at what I’m seriously doing right now
Me: grocery shopping?
Jim: no

Fortunately, his grandma feeds her cat tuna.

I did. Just today.

When I hung up the phone, I felt liberated. A weight has been lifted from my shoulders to the tune of a grand per year. I can’t believe I’ve been paying that much for something I use so little.

I’ve been watching most of my TV through Hulu and Torrents lately, so this shouldn’t affect my day-to-day too awfully much. I like to fall asleep to Discovery or Conan, but I think I can learn how to use my clock radio for that.

Hmm, what else can I find that I don’t use often? Anybody want to buy a Wii?

Here’s a haiku to apologize for the lack of activity recently.

I love this snow verily
I drive through it so merrily
It shouldn’t be distributed so sparingly

Ok, so it’s not a haiku, I don’t care. Have a happy Christmas and a merry New Year!

AC/DC is the most energetic live show I’ve ever heard of.

Here’s some pictures of the show.

Yesterday was a significant day in an industry that defined my childhood and inspired me to be what I am today. The original Sega Genesis turned 20.

October 29, 1988 - The Sega Mega Drive was released in Japan to a relatively unimpressed crowd. NEC’s PC Engine had already been released and had gained significant headway in the market. Sega’s 16-bit system couldn’t close the gap, especially after Nintendo’s Super Famicom showed up on the scene.

January 9, 1989 - Sega re-branded and released its system as the Genesis in the United States. It was the first 16-bit system to be released in the US and gained a decent market, advertising its vague “Blast Processing” as a key feature in the system. In 1991, Nintendo released the Super NES, which, like in Japan, came out ahead in the console wars, due to its dominance in the 8-bit market.

Spring 1994 - We received a hand-me-down Genesis with a few games from my grandpa. As the first real game system I owned, this donation fertilized the seedling that would become my obsession with video games. That opened my interest in how the games were made, which naturally lead me to making my own games with anything that was programmable: BASIC on our computer, TI Calculators, final projects in classes, etc. Over time my drive to make games has waned, but my obsession with them has not.

Happy B-Day, Sega Genesis. Sonic 3 & Knuckles will forever remain my favorite stackable game featuring an animal whose species name I still can’t pronounce to this day.

Not because of the stupid elections, but Harmonix is releasing a very appropriate track pack for Rock Band: Presidents of the United States of America!

At the beginning of the year, I made a list of my most wanted bands for DLC. The second on that list was PUSA, and before the end of the year I’ll be able to play four of their songs. JOY!

Word of the millennium: tutorial

I read somewhere that adding images to your blog posts makes them more fun to read. I went back and added images to some of my recent posts.

What do you think? Keep adding the images or don’t waste my time?