Tag Archives: Old Journal

37 Hours

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I was awake for 37 hours on Friday. It was pretty cool. Pulling an all-nighter on a night when you’re just goofing around is a very different experience than pulling an all-nighter desperately trying to finish a term paper in an hour that should have taken a week to write. Normally, all-nighters are such a stressful experience that the next day always feels a little off. The lighting everywhere seems strange, too bright or too dim. People all seem to be moving in slow-motion one second, and the next everyone’s in fast-forward. Everyone’s speech is very difficult to understand for some reason. And it’s always VERY hard to stay awake.

This was completely different. Friday, at work, Steve called and asked if we wanted to go to Gustav’s. Gustav’s is a German pub/restaurant in NE Portland that’s far enough away from downtown (where I live), that I’ve only been there once with Steve. But now Steve has a car! So quickly, Miles and Ang and I all agreed to meet in the tech room at 9pm (happy hour starts at 10). At 9, we all got together, plus Mark, and headed to Gustav’s. We had so much food. The bill was 50-some dollars between five guys at happy hour. Everyone ate some chicken strips and fries. We all had a large plate of sausage. We all partook of two large orders of fondue. We all had some sort of really rich chocolate dessert. The rest of the guys all had a large mug of dark beer, and I had two Cider Jacks. We all stumbled out at about 11:30, fat and happy.

On the way back downtown, Miles asked if I wanted to hang out in the tek room with him and work on Mutton Kombat (remember Mutton Kombat? from months and months ago?). I said sure, since Annie was in Tacoma for the weekend and wouldn’t care if I spent all night in the tek room geeking out.

So at about midnight, Miles and I sat down and started work. We worked really hard for awhile, then we looked up at the clock and realized it was 6AM. We paused to get breakfast from McDonald’s. Alex was supposed to show up at about Noon to talk to Miles about our other game project, Cube Fighter. Miles and I were supposed to go on shift at about 10AM. We kept working on the game through until 10, when we came on shift and did some work stuff for awhile. Alex finally showed up around 1:30, and at 2pm, I was off shift. Miles and Alex were babbling about code, so I sat down and looked for japanese fonts online. Finally, at about 4:30, we all headed for home (we all live in the same Student Housing building). At 5PM, I was sitting in my living room trying to decide if I was hungry or tired or wide awake (I wasn’t really any of them), when my Mom called and offered me dinner. She picked me up and we had a huge meal of pork chops and steak and baked potatos and salad and ice cream. it was great.

After dinner, I lay down on the couch and started reading one of my brother’s comics. 20 minutes later I woke up and realized I’d been asleep, so I got Mom to take me home to go to bed. Of course, by the time I got home, I was wide awake again, so I stayed up and watched Saturday Night Live, which was horrible. Really bad episode. Finally, at 3AM, I forced myself to go to bed, even though I still wasn’t really tired.

I had been up for 37 hours straight, going strong the whole time (except the 20min nap). It was really odd. I didn’t feel drained or out of it, or anything. A very interesting experience. Mutton Kombat is coming along well, and I hope to get some information on it posted on play.fojar.com later today.

Y2K Ate My Paycheck

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say hello to the only person who was affected by the “Y2K bug.” That’s right. The bank ate my paycheck. I deposited my small check on December 30, and when I went back on January 1 to withdraw some cash, it showed the same balance as before I made a deposit. Needless to say, I was mad. The bank said they would have to investigate and within ten days they would let me know what the “situation” with my money was. In the meantime, the electric company was threatening to cut us off. Arrgh. Luckily, today the money was back, so I’m okay.

New year’s was interesting. Here in Oregon, we’re nearly the last ones to cross the date line. Hawaii and Alaska come after us. So all day long, we got to watch the new year (NOT the new millennium… that’s next year and it got really old hearing EVERY news station report on “the millennium”) advance over other parts of the world. The massive parties in Russia, the huge fireworks in France, the festivities in Britain. Then we saw the party start in Times Square in New York. HUGE parties everywhere! Well, Portland was having a party, too. In Pioneer Square. The city blocked of fifteen blocks surrounding it, and had limited access points guarded (sort of) by cops.

I was just going to have a small party with some friends and get pretty drunk. But everyone else wanted to go to the Square. So we went, and it was REALLY lame. Everyone was bored, there was cheering (on queue), and most of the people were just trying to see themselves on the massive TV screen across the street. The lame radio presenters sucked, and when they put on a documentary about famous historians on the big TV, we decided to leave.

Once we got home, it was cooler, because people kept showing up, and everyone was having fun. The fireworks were going off behind the clouds, so all we could see was the entire sky lighting up red and green.

Christmas was cool, too. We went back to Annie’s home for about a week and hung out with her family. Dave and some of his friends set up a small computer network in the basement, so we got to spend some time playing good multiplayer games.

We spent Christmas eve with her family. They’re self-described pagans, and Annie brought me along to their yearly ritual, which was cool. It was very low-key. They lit some candles, and Annie’s grandmother read out of a book about the origins of the holidays, and then they went around the room and everyone said something. It was really cool.

The next morning, we did a rushed presents-opening with her family, and then ran to the train station to come back to Portland, where my mom and dad picked us up and drove us to Eugene, where my grandparents are, and we did my big family gathering. It was kinda strange, because normally we go around and everyone opens presents one by one, and then we eat, but this year Pop-Pop was eager to get it over with because his football team was doing well for the first time ever.

I felt really happy about the gifts I gave this year. Most years I don’t have enough money to do cool things, but this year I tried to find something really cool for everyone, and I think I succeeded in finding a really good gift for everyone. The only bad thing is that Annie and I made cool homemade cards for everyone, and then I forgot to give them to anyone, and I didn’t wrap half the presents. So even though I got perfect gifts for most people, I felt kinda bad about it anyway. Oh well.

Hmmm… I’ve already written a ton, so I’m going to stop for now, but I’ll try to write more later about some ideas I’ve had recently. :)

Take Home Final

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Yarrrr… (I say that quite a bit… Pirate noises are the best). Well, since I last updated, the term has ended successfully! Out of my three classes this term, not one of them had a traditional final. Graphic Design III had a large final project which was due last week, and then we didn’t meet during finals week at all. American History gave me a take home final. That’s right. A TAKE-HOME final. Oh my god. I thought that I had seen the last of those (and multiple-guess tests) in high school. Oh man. It was great. Two essays on stuff I hadn’t read, but I had plenty of time to research the material right in the text. And then in my Capstone class, we had a final presentation on some really simple concepts, and our last class was just doing those presentations. Really informal, there was food. It was cool. And yet, even though I didn’t have any traditional finals, I’m glad to see this term gone by. Only two left now.

I’m broke again. That sucks. I thought I had a couple hundred dollars left to buy Christmas presents with. I stopped by the ATM… $10. AAAGH! How did I miscalculate that badly? Oh well… Annie’s agreed to loan me what I need in exchange for me paying her half of rent next month.

As the term ended, I got more and more wrapped up in getting stuff done. Then I got really really sick over Thanksgiving. Following that, I was too busy doing schoolwork to clean. Then Annie got a touch of what I had, or something different and was sick for several days in a row. Needless to say, the house was a wreck. Garbage all over, papers piled up on the counter, food all over, not a single clean dish in the house. It sucked. Usually, our place is pretty clean, but we just couldn’t clean. So finally, yesterday, we just sat down and did it. Annie did the dishes, and I picked up everything else and when we got done, our house was livable again! Then she baked chocolate chip cookies!

I had the greatest week ever at work last week. Our boss came in and informed us that there was a big pile of surplus computers in the back room that he would let us gut if we wanted. They were all 486s, and we couldn’t take the cases for legal reasons, but the motherboard and all the other components were ours for free! All we had to do was take them apart! Miles and I together snagged about 13 machines, total. Miles got a few Macs in there, and all the rest are PCs. Now, most of them won’t work (they were surplus for a reason), but if we can even get four or five functioning machines out of this, we can put Linux on them and buy a cheap case, and we’ve gotten fully functional computers for free! The parts are lying on my floor in a box right now, waiting for me to inspect them and pass judgment. I can’t wait.

Tons of good ideas on websites lately. Steve and I are working on a new idea to put up on all the front pages of our sites. We came up with a new logo(s) for Fojar that I’m going to work on. I already put up a new front page for yellow5.com. Miles and I aquired big bad fojar and big bad spaceninja to make competing propaganda sites. I’m working on the new CNS page for work. I’m having fun. In the words of Tank from the Matrix: “It’s a very exciting time!”

And hopefully, now that it’s the break, our team will make some progress on Cube Fighter! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, visit play.fojar.com. I’m really excited about the concept, even if Jester thinks we’re wasting our time. What does that punk know anyway? Just because he’s got a job in the “real” game industry. ;)

Red Elvises Are Your New Favorite Band

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Wow… lots has happened. I’m really not even sure where to start… The term is almost over, which means that I’ve only got about six months of school left. That’s a really strange concept. I’ve been in school practically my whole life… 17 years of school. And soon that’ll all be over. On the one hand, that’s a relief, to have finally made it through this. I’ve been getting more and more burned out on the whole concept of school. It’ll feel good to finish what I set out to do, and to be done with it. But on the other hand, it’s going to be weird. I mean, I’ve never really done anything other than be a student, and now I’m getting ready to move into the real world.

Recently, I went to go see the Red Elvises in concert with Steve and Miles. It kicked so much ass. Oh, man… These guys put on easily the best concert I’ve ever been to. They got everyone totally into it, and everyone was dancing and having fun. There were amazingly attractive women all over the place, and they were all after the band! The lead singer was flirting like mad, dancing with any woman who came up on stage, and actually making out with a girl in the front row at one point. …Steve and I decided that we’re going to have a band like that someday.

The next night, Steve took me to a party that a bunch of people from his martial art were throwing. He said the last party he went to with these people was crazy… He got drunk, and vaguely remembers dancing with no shirt at one point, and waking up with bite marks on his fingers. The plan was, we were going to go heckle these people, which is Steve’s and my usual plan of attack at pretty much anything we end up at. We had seen a lot of these people at the Red Elvises concert the night before and developed a rather low opinion of them, because ALL they talked about was parties they threw. This would have been alright, except you could tell this was all they did, all the time. Their time was equally divided between having these crazy parties, and then talking about them afterward. It got old fast. So Steve and I show up and head to the bar. Heckling’s easier when you’re a little drunk. We started out with a simple shot of vodka each, and then I made us screwdrivers. We drank those, and then decided mixed drinks were for wimps, and went back for a shot of whiskey each. The whiskey was HORRIBLE. We were both making really awful faces and must have looked like absolute idiots. So we washed that whiskey shot down with another shot of vodka, by which point I was feeling a little tired of drinking (though I snuck down for another shot of vodka several hours later). This was all in a half hour. These were at least double shots in each case, because we underestimated the size of the cups we were drinking from. Needless to say, we were suddenly trashed. Much more drunk than we planned. But it was fun! Steve staggered off to the snacks table, and a man I barely knew (met him five minutes before) took me around introducing me to people. He got distracted and wandered off, but I was having fun introducing myself, so I kept doing it. Usually it went something like this:

scott wanders up to a small group of people involved in a conversation and interrupts…
Scott (loudly): HI! My name is Scott! What’s your name?
attractive woman: I’m [insert name]. We’ve already met.
Scott (loudly): I’m terrible sorry! smiling, and shaking hands… move on to next group…

Apparently I met everyone at the party several times. I’m horrible with names in the best of circumstances, and when drunk it was hopeless… but I was having a blast. And everyone seemed to remember me, since I was wearing my Superman shirt and being very loud. At some point people started dancing, and I ended up dancing too, and I was having fun! This is highly unusual… I don’t like dancing. I even danced with a few women there, which I was very proud of, since I usually don’t have the nerve to ask a woman to dance (or in this case, just walk up to a woman and start dancing with her). It’s hard to tell if I was making a big ass out of myself or if everyone else was too drunk to notice. I suspect that I WAS making an ass of myself, but no one else cared. Steve says at one point I started throwing a few punches at him (playfully, not seriously), and he was surprised at how well I was responding to him, blocking his punches easily. I suspect Steve being impressed with my sudden martial arts abilities has quite a bit to do with the fact that a) he and I were VERY drunk, b) normally when he tries to punch me, I just flinch away and run, and c) he was very very drunk and not punching very fast. Also, after this happened, Steve apparently got bored of it, and tried to walk away, which is when I started following him around the room, punching him. He says I’m lucky I didn’t get thrown into the fireplace. I have no memory of this.

Quite a night. Scantily clothed drunk people everywhere, attractive women dancing… It was fun. At some point, though the party started getting a little too serious… People were coupling up, and making out and losing more and more clothing, and I got a little uncomfortable (remember my girlfriend?) and we got a ride home from a very nice guy named Barnaby (I think). I woke up the next morning with muscles in my back aching like they had never been used before (apparently dancing is quite a workout). I was still drunk after sleeping for 8 hours, and my kidneys hurt. Oog. After a few days I felt much better, and decided that I need to drink less. I promised myself no more getting drunk until new years. I didn’t get sick, though…

Then Annie and I started seeing a lot of movies. We went to go see the new James Bond flick (it sucked, except for the boat chase scene), Being John Malkovich, which was really really really strange and something entirely new in a movie, Princess Mononoke, which I realized I had seen before, but it still kicked a great deal of ass, Sleepy Hollow, which was completely awesome, and Dogma, which kicked so much ass I’m not even going to talk about it. Just go see it. Right now.

At some point, Annie and I also got to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead, which is such an incredible play. We had just rented the movie recently, and the play was just as cool. Lots of really really good dialogue. I wish I could play the word games they play.

We spent Thanksgiving with her family, which was fun. We rode the train up to Tacoma first thing in the morning, then quickly went to one of her set of grandparent’s house for dinner, then to the other grandparent’s house for dessert and hanging out. Then we got up the next day and went to Seattle for dinner with my family! Unfortunately on the bus to Seattle I got very very ill, and had a generally unpleasant time, but got better enough to eat dinner still. Over the next several days, I went through just about every symptom of the flu, and I have just now succeeded in getting over the worst of it. It sucked.

Interestingly enough, we just missed the excitement in Seattle by a couple of days. It was really strange to be at home watching the news and seeing them destroy a Starbucks we had been standing in just a few days before.

And, as if all that wasn’t enough recent events, yesterday I got a phone call from Khrynn! She’s my penpal and one of my best friends, even though we’ve never met in real life and have only spoken on the phone once (well, twice now). We trade letters every month or two. She was calling to tell me that she’s just gotten online and has email! So I gave her my email and web page and headed to work, where in half an hour she had already sent me 15 emails and torn through the better part of this journal! It’s good to see you online, Khrynn! :)

Now, I promise I’ll try to write more than once a month!

Hot-Shit Designer

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I almost wrote 11.9, but I guess since it’s 1am, it’s technically tomorrow. Strange concept. For me, it never really becomes tomorrow until I go to bed and wake up again. Makes things kinda screwy when I pull all-nighters. The whole next day, it feels like yesterday.

I have had the greatest couple of days! Well, today was good, but yesterday was fantastic (yesterday was good, the day before was fantastic). Yesterday… MONDAY, I woke up and took my time eating breakfast while reading my email. I’m on a mailing list for a replacement shell for windows called litestep. On this list, there is a rather predicatable fight that breaks out every few months. Sometimes it’s between members of the dev. team, sometimes it’s between members of rival sites, but for whatever reason, this fight keeps breaking out. I wanted to write something into the list telling the two main guys that they were making asses of themselves, but ended up deciding not to get involved in the whole thing. So I walked out the door in a bit of a hurry because I’d gotten absorbed in email. About halfway to school, I realized that I forgot the rent check (due that day). So I decided to skip class (I was going to be late anyway, so I might as well go home and get the check and relax for a few hours until my next class). On my way back home, I came up with a really clever mail to send. I mailed it off, and got a few positive responses, which made me happy. Then I spent the next couple hours lazily tweaking the shell. I managed to get it almost exactly to where I wanted it, with everything exactly how I like, before I had to run to my next class. I got out of that class early, and headed to work, where I was greeted happily, and given a .50 raise! I spent a few hours on the job, got some minor things done, and headed off to graphic design class. I was a little nervous. The last class meeting, our first project of the year was due. I turned it in, but I had skipped probably two out of every three classes, and never met a single time with the teacher about my project, which she really wants us to do. I pulled the project off at the last minute, but managed to do a decent job with it. I figured B-C quality work, not my best, but enough for a passing grade.

Perhaps I should elaborate. I was nervous because all my art teachers dislike me. This isn’t always their fault. I make it fairly clear that graphic design class isn’t my first priority, and sometimes it’s pretty obvious that I don’t respect what my teacher thinks. I’m fully aware that I’m a difficult student to like. I procrastinate and sometimes turn in mediocre work. Out of the last five or six teachers I’ve had, none have really liked me, and one flat out told me that he disliked me. My grades suffered in all these classes partly due to this relationship with the teachers. This year I got a brand new teacher who I’ve never had before, and I’m excited because I’ve heard she’s really laid back and more my style than any of the other Graphic Design teachers. So I’m worried because here’s my chance to start over and leave a good impression, and I’ve already fouled it up. I’ve skipped class a lot, and not met with her.

So that’s where the situation stood. I had turned in my project on time, and my classmates all seemed taken with it (how much of this was just suprise that I managed a decent project at all, I didn’t know). We’re at the first class meeting following that one, and the teacher is going to explain our new project and possibly mention our old ones. We get our new project, and it rules! I’m totally into it, because it lets me do web work, and not so focused on print work, which I don’t like. She’s going around meeting with everyone and when she gets to me, she says “now, what’s your name?” This is a bad sign. I’ve been in this class for four/five weeks and she doesn’t know my name, because I’ve skipped too much. I sheepishly say “scott.” She replies “Oh, YOU’RE Scott! You know you’re a hot-shit designer?” Flabbergasted, I reply “Um… no I didn’t know” (my jaw must have been on the ground… this was NOT what I was expecting)… She looks puzzled… “how could you not know?” I explain my problems with art teachers, and she gives me a nice little talk about how sometimes you just have to ignore opinions when you know you’re right. !!! Wow !!! This was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. After so many years of teacher’s dislike, I really needed to hear a teacher say something really positive about me, and let me know that I’m doing okay. I had reached burnout point and some of the bad work I was doing was because I just didn’t care, because no matter how much effort I put in, the teacher didn’t like it (note: I’m not imagining this… I’ve had fellow students remark to me that this or that teacher really doesn’t like me). Still, it was so great to hear a teacher say something cool about me, especially “hot-shit designer”!! I had been seriously doubting my abilities, and this totally amped me up… I’m really excited about my new project.

After class, I headed home and had a nice meal with Annie and just a good evening. The next day I had off, so I got to sleep in and play computer games, and just relax. I called the bank, and a dumb mistake I made won’t hurt me, I called the cable company about a billing mistake I got, and they not only didn’t give me any shit about it, they told me that I had $50 credit… basically four months free cable!! I feel great! And now it’s bed time.