Blade Edge

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Beaten Up Again

October 17th, 2004 · Stuntwork

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Well, couple new bruises, bumps, scrapes, abrasions and cuts to add to the list of minor injuries sustained thus far from the Batman show. Other than that, we had a show dedicated to Charley, one of our Jokers. He has this habit of throwing both his hands up in the air while ranting, so we all mimed this motion at various points in the show. It was pretty funny – if you knew what was going on. I’m sure the audience was puzzled

Anyways… short day today. Just did shows, came home and checked my emails and web boards and such, and now it’s off to bed. Have to get up god-awful early to take my bike in to get serviced. Leaking oil is not a good thing, after all.

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Tired Out

October 16th, 2004 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Man what a long day. I hauled my ass out of bed at 9am to run some errands before hitting the beach and getting in some power kiting with a friend and a fellow cast member from the Batman show. Two more Batman cast members were supposed to make it, but couldn’t. Just as well – more flying time for the rest of us . The wind was pretty gusty, which sucked, but was as fast as 12-16mph, which was good. My two friends were both newbies, and they got pulled off their feet a few times and went crashing headfirst into the sand, lol. Got it all on tape. Good stuff.

While riding my bike today I noticed that I have an oil leak. Crap. I nicked it on a curb apexing a turn Thursday night, so that’s probably what did it. It’s leaking all over my muffler pipe and burning off, getting my peg slippery, and splattering under my rear tire. Wuuunderful. Luckily it’s a tiny leak, but I’ll still have to get it patched up before I can ride again. It’s not too bad tho, we’re supposed to be getting a lot of rain this week anyways. And at least I faired better than my buddy, his ZX6R’s clutch cable snapped on his way home from the beach. D’oh!

So I taped the first Batman show today from backstage. I hadn’t gotten any footage from back there during an actual show, it was pretty cool. We were short on techs tho so it wasn’t the kind of scene I was hoping for, but still aiight. It also decided to pour towards the end of the show, but then stop and partially clear up like a minute after the show was over. Figures. After that one show I left for home (the cast member that came out kiting switches off and on with me for my part, and he did the shows today) to join the family for my sister’s 18th b’day dinner.

Finally, I sat down in front of the comp to catch up on the day’s events, and order my new clock and keyboard/mouse combo. Yey!! New gadgets!!

I fell asleep on the floor in the living room while chatting wih the family, I was so tired. So I’m going to hit the sack early, read some more Star Wars. Peace.

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O! Q! Oooooooohhhhhhh!

October 15th, 2004 · Software

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I got an email from the people at OQO today! They’ve finally released the first model of the OQO UPC (Ultra Personal Computer) for $1999 (with WindowsXP Pro). Whooo! I’m so excited. I was afraid it might cost as much as Sony’s, and that would have been too much for me. But I can handle $2000.

So what the heck would I use it for? Well, for one thing I’m not a 3D developer. I’m quite content to bang out the 2D titles. So I don’t need a huge proc and amazing graphics card. I mean hell, I’m currently developing on an 800MHz P!!!m Sony Vaio with only ~368MB of RAM and I’m getting along just fine. This is an upgrade!

Secondly, it’s a tablet PC as well with its digital pen, so it’ll function great as a PDA. My old Handspring Visor Pro has seen better days. Another upgrade. Yey!

thirdly, the battery should have enough charge for watching a single movie* on the go, and is just cool for toting around videos to show friends from Ebaum’s World

Finally, it’s just damn cool to have a fully-functional* PC in the palm of your hand.

* Okay, here’s the catch that I still haven’t figured out. How do you load stuff into the OQO? There aren’t any external media drives available (yet). I’m at a loss to explain this, and I’ll have to look into it further.

So okay, besides that wonderful announcement, today was pretty good. Great Adventure kicked us out early cause it was raining, so we didn’t get off any shows today. But we have a two-show minimum in our contract, which means I just got $70 for sitting on my ass and reading a magazine for an hour and a half. Nice!

I was going to see that Team America: World Police movie tonight, but it just didn’t happen. That’s okay, I think I’ll see Taxi instead. That looks funny.

I also managed to get some more work done on Tanto. I added some more UI elements and made some engine changes:

  • I noticed that the SDL event loop was processing multiple mouse motion messages in one loop. Seems they pile up quick if the FPS are down. So my message system was also dispatching a buttload of MOUSE_MSGs all at once. So instead, each mouse motion message just updates the cursor position, and then at the end of the event loop, the last mouse position is dispatched to the game objects. Just once. Much better.
  • I tracked down a bug that was mis-labeling the receiver field when global messages were dispatched. It was making me tear my hair out, but it’s solved now.
  • I recoded the scene manager to load viewports with the subscenes. I used to have to code the viewport creation, which was a pain, but now I can just define them in the scene’s data file. Less stuff to code and now it’s easier to edit viewports – no more rebuilds!

So yea, good stuff, good stuff. Crap I have to get to bed early – gotta wake up and go power kiting with some of the Batman cast. Winds are forcasted at around 15mph, which means we’ll get some good jumps in hopefully.

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Back on Track

October 14th, 2004 · Software

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

John and Mushu both stuck by their Linksys routers it seems, and I wasn’t ready to give up on mine yet either (close, but not yet). I installed the Linksys USB wireless adapter and everything schmooved out. I’m pretty sure it’s interference caused by my laptop. My internal card prob isn’t 100% reliable unless it’s within 15 or so feet of the router. I’m about 25-30 feet distant at most. So the antenna is sitting atop my desk now, and I got my cable-like speeds back. Whoohoo!

In other news, I finally got my object callbacks working. There was some minor hassle involved but thanks to Fruny that got sorted out quick. This is great because in the game I’m working on I’ve been polling these Update functions that carry out the game-specific object tasks. Now I can use the callback function instead and no longer have to call the various manager’s Update functions every loop. *phew*

Lessee, what else? Oh yea, cleaned off some spyware thanks to SpyBot Search & Destroy, and my comp no longer locks up when shutting down – quite a relief since it prompted me to think about reformatting. But it seems okay now.

I guess that’s it. Ho hum. Time for bed…

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This Sucks

October 13th, 2004 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

My stupid wireless connection is being crappy again. I can’t stand it! I’ve tried resetting the router twice already, and it hasn’t had the effect it did last time. Firefox keeps popping up the “Document Contains No Data” message box every other time I try to view a webpage. It took me like 30 minutes to go through all the latest journal updates because it took so long to load the damn pages. This is worse than freakin 28.8.

*tosses around random objects*

Argh! It’s so bad that I can’t even log into to the router! WTF?? I thik tomorrow I’m going to try using my sister’s external USB wireless antenna. Maybe my internal card is suffering from horrible interference from my PC for some odd reason. I’m too pissed off to do it tonight. I tried using Boost’s Bind library to bind a callback function to a class function, and stupid VC++ Express keeps crashing (well, the optomization compiler anyways) when it tries to compile the code.

*tosses around more random objects*

So I tried to get any updates I could in case this is a fixed problem, but, of course, my internet sux0rs.

I’m going to bed

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Old Dog Learns New Trick: Story at 10….

October 12th, 2004 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So somehow my WinAmp alarm got screwed up and reset to midnight instead of 12pm, so I ended up sleeping in until like 2:30 and having to head straight to work today. Phoo. I was hoping to do some stuff before work. Ah well. I’ll be sure to start setting my alarm clock as backup from now on. Lesson learned.

So I finally balled up and tossed my newest trick on trampoline at the gym tonight: stomach drop double front flip to feet. It took me like twenty or so tries to turn it over, and by then my knees were purple from kabooming the trampoline. The method of kabooming involves landing slightly high on your chest, and then slamming your knees or feet into the trampoline a split second later to create forward rotation up off your stomach. It’s better to kaboom off your knees rather than your feet tho, since then your legs are already over your head when you start to flip.

I’ve been tossing stomach drop front 1 and 3 (1 flip, with an extra 3/4 rotation to back) for years, but only recently have I considered holding on for that extra 1/4 to my feet. It wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. The only downside, of course, is the abuse to my knees (and a bit to my elbows as well. Trampolines are very coarse). Still, it’s a bad ass trick that not a lot of people can claim to have done. So I’m happy.

For my next trick? Well I got my fliffuss (2 flips with a 1/2 twist), so the next progress would be a 2 and 3 (two flips with an extra 3/4 rotation to back). This is from feet, btw. I dunno. 2 and 3 is kinda intimidating, even for a crazy son of a bitch like me. But maybe next week . And after that I can start tossing triffuses (3 flips with a 1/2 twist). I love trampoline!!

Okay, me and my busted up knees are crawling into bed. After I double and triple check my damn alarm.

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It Works! By Golly!

October 11th, 2004 · Software

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I finally got Tanto to compile and run in VC++ Express. It was a bit of a pain, but I managed. First off, for some reason, VC++ Express couldn’t find Windows.h. WTF? So since I still had VC++ 6 installed, I placed the path to that include folder all the way at the bottom of Express’ Include directories. Problem solved. Next I had a few minor errors that came from using a new compiler vs an out-dated one. Those were easily overcome. Then I had to spend a few minutes fixing a bug that cause Tanto to close immediately after running.

I also plugged two memory leaks. The first was pointed out to me in this thread, and the second was from my console not releasing its command queue at the end of the application. Yey, memory leak free once again! I know for sure cause no leaks were detected during debug mode thanks to this code.

So a decent day overall, at least I managed to get some coding done finally. I also finally got around to posting an ad for selling my landboard that I use for kiting. I haven’t ridden it as much as I thought I would, and I could use the few hundred bucks about now.

Okay, I think I’m gunna go watch a movie before bed. Wheeee…

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It’s been *how* long??

October 10th, 2004 · Stuntwork

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So we (the cast) were sitting in the trailer today between shows, and I recalled how Josh (the Joker) had mentioned last week that we had been on the show for 6 months. Six months!! That’s half a year! It’s so strange to look back to May 7th, when we started rehearsals. I barely knew anyone on the cast then except for my friend Jason, and sixth months later we’re all such close friends it’s like we met years ago, not mere months. Wow. You think of it as “just a summer thing”, but you don’t really realize how long that can be. So yea, that was quite a revelation.

Anyways, today was aiight. I caught up on the sleep I missed out on yesterday. I missed a gymnastics meet that my gym’s Level B girl’s team was competing at, but oh well – I was way too tired to get out of bed. They’ll have more meets anyways.

Shows were good. Decent crowds until the last show, thanks to that god damn queue line for hayride sitting right outside our stadium. ARRRGHGH!! I’m gonna kill the idiot that put that there!! I ripped up the knuckles halfway up my two middle fingers on my right hand in the first show, so that stunk.

After the shows some of the cast went over to the house where the cast of one of the Fright Fest shows was living (a kick-ass dance show) and had a party. Wheee party! Batman vs Catwoman and Dead Man’s Party hanging out. Awesome. We watched some of Dead Man’s cast’s demo tapes, and I realized I had to have one. If I ever get around to making it I’ll be sure to post it.

Oh! Oh! Paintball again in two weeks! YEYEY!!1

Finally, I got a chance to sit down and set up VC++ Express, and convert some of my VC++ 6 projects. Upon build, however, I got an error message saying that <windows.h> was an invalid file. Huh? I tried <windows> and got the same messge. This is my first experience with .NET, so if they phased out the windows.h header file I don’t know about it. I need to use the SYSTEMTIME struct. Anyone know what I need?

So yea… off to bed I guess. The park is open tomorrow and I’m coaching, but they need me at GA otherwise we won’t have enough cast for shows. So I have to wake up early to try and get coverage for my classes so I can be at GA. I’d hate to condemn the cast to meet and greets. Those just plain suck.

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So Tired…

October 9th, 2004 · Personal, Stuntwork

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Whoo, what a day. Well, I didn’t get to sleep as early as I wanted to, so I ended up only getting like 3 hours before I had to wake up and ride down to go paintballing. I had to cash my Six Flags paycheck first – that was my spendin’ cash for the day. So I get down to Top Gun – unfortunately some guys on a bus ahead of me at a traffic light just before the paintball fields decided they were extremely jealous of me sitting on my bike behind them looking all freakin cool, so one of em mooned me. Wunderful.

Anyways *shudders*, two other cast members and I joined the walk on game for the day. There were a ton of people, prob near 50. It wasn’t as fun as my first outing a week or so ago, when we only had like 17 people. It was harder to tell which team won after a game and neither team ever really won a game, since there were so many people. The 15 minute timer would always run out before everyone was killed. Well, except once, when our team pulled a great flanking maneuver and forced back the other team and killed em all. Yea!

Sorry Evo, Mushu – no bruises today. I think I had a little bit of a welt on my leg, but that’s it. I got hit on the gun twice, the legs three times, the neck twice (can’t beleive that didn’t leave anything! Must have been the collar of my coveralls that saved me), the face once (right in the visor) and the head twice (I wear a hat tho). So it’s not for lack of getting shot up. One of the cast members came back with like 4 welts on his chest. I want war wounds too!!!

At least today I got to play longer, since call time is now at 3 instead of 1 (we strolled in at 4 :P). I also got to talk to people who were more into the game, including a guy that used to work there and was toting around a $1300 gun. Good lordy. I have to admit though that I’m still hooked, tho if I were to ever buy a gun I prob wouldn’t sink in more than $500, and only if I had friends willing to go out and play at least once a month. Doing tournaments would be cool too. *sigh* – like I need something else to waste my money on. I spent about $105 today. It was less than half my weekly GA paycheck tho. I could justify a monthly expenditure on paintballing.

So anyways after getting beat up in paintball I had to do three shows. At least we had decent audiences for them this time! I reawoke my heel and back injuries though, so that sucks. My heel injury stems from having a bad tendency to slam my left heel into the ground on my side shoulder rolls. It hurts. Then my back injury is just above my tail bone, and came from an abortive heel flip way back in the beginning of the season when Robin’s hands slipped and I couldn’t make the flip so I kicked out and landed on my back (better than my head at least). My back protector saved me but wearing a belt didn’t. I dunno what I did today to aggravate it, but I can feel it again. So I’m a tad sore, and my quads’ll prob be sore tomorrow from paintballing. Ah well. I was also so tired the first show I lost my balance like three times and fell on my ass twice. It was quite funny.

So yea. Three hours sleep, an hour-30min nap between shows, and that means I’m freakin tired. So I’m going to finish up the last Star Wars: New Jedi Order book and go to bed, Hopefully VC++ Express and I can finally aquaint ourselves tomorrow.

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Shark Tales Rules!

October 8th, 2004 · Personal, Stuntwork

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Ahhh… another wholesome day.

I coached and did two shows today. Nothing spectacular. We still have like 50-75 people per show, in a stadium that can seat like 1300. It’s really pathetic. I’m so disheartened to doing a show for that few people, but I find that once I get out there, I focus so much on the show I forget how many people are in the audience and still try to do my best. I guess it’s a personal thing. I won’t let myself not put out 100%, regardless of the situation. Anyways hopefully they’ll move that damn queue line for the hayride away from the front of the stadium. It looks like the show is closed down, which is prob why we get so few people, when on Labor Day (the last day of regular season before Fright Fest began) we were still packing them in by the hundreds.

Friday being movie night, we caught a late showing of Shark Tales at the local Leowe’s. It wasn’t the best animated movie I’ve seen (Finding Nemo was better IMO) but it was still worth the price of admission, and had me laughing good quite a few times.

On the way to the theater I was a bad ass on my bike, taking Rt-195 at 90mph, the Parkway at 100mph, and Rt-36 at 80mph (speed limits 65mph, 65mph and 50mph, respectively). I passed a State Trooper sitting off to the side of the road on the Parkway while doing 100mph and thought I was dead meat (especially since fines are doubled in a 65mph zone in NJ). He didn’t even flinch. I guess he figured he would have never caught me anyways

So yea. I got home and went online to find that my connection still sux0red. Crap! I finally decided it had to be my router. A while ago it would keep dropping my connection for apparently no reason at random times. I tried switching channels, thinking it was getting bad interference, but that didn’t work either. Finally when I went downstairs to check on it, I realized it was plugged into the wall and kept coming loose and losing power for a second or so. So I plugged it into a power strip and it’s been fine since. So I guess maybe cause it’s been running so long it developed a quirk or something. So I rebooted it and now it’s fine. Go figure.

Still haven’t had a chance to play with VC++ Express other than open a file and stare at it. Whee. I wanted to do more tonight but some of the cast decided to play paintball tomorrow, so I have to go to bed… like now.

PAINTBALL!!! YEY!!1

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