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7-28-04,
10:03 AM
We're
going to fight fire with
marshmallows.
I'm
not going to include a funny picture
in this update because the update
itself is about a funny picture.
I've changed the pic at the front of
the site, so if your bookmarks lead
directly to the news section, you
might want to go and check out the
front by clicking Home. I spent
almost forty minutes in Photoshop
putting that together, which is
pretty sad considering it isn't
much. I was thinking about making it
a wallpaper for those who desired
it.
Anyway, it's part of an idea I had
of something that could change every
month, but I don't know if I'll
stick to it.
-K.
its gonna be a good day
7-26-04,
6:17 AM
If it
turns out that there is a God, I
don't think that he's evil. I think
that the worst you can say about him
is that basically he's an
underachiever.
Music:
Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang
I'll
get to the What to Think section
eventually.
I
can't wait for this week to be over,
because then I'll have the whole of
August to myself without classes
that I wish I hadn't taken. I'd like
to get some writing done, though I
seriously doubt having more or less
time off will change my habits. I'm
kicking around a Fallout-ish
story in my head, I'd like to get
around to writing something up for
Hero One, and I wouldn't mind
trying to take another crack at a
new IF game. I guess we'll see what
happens.
So, a couple of days ago I ran into
someone I hadn't seen since
elementary school at Walgreen's.
Generally I like to avoid these
types of situations, but given that
he was the only person working the
counter I had no choice but to hope
he wouldn't (or at least show me the
common courtesy to not) recognize
me.
"Hey, Kyle."
It's important to note that I hate
these situations because they are
extremely awkward and uncomfortable
for me, it also doesn't help that I
was not born with a fully functional
"small talk" gene. If I notice
acquaintances from the past in
public areas I do my best to avoid
them so I don't have to go through
things like this. My response to
this greeting was a simple nod of
the head and silence.
"You don't remember me, do you?"
"No, I do. I just don't know what to
say."
Being honest did nothing to help
this event, because the rest of this
meeting consisted of silence and the
beeping of the scanner and register
as he checked me out. Walking toward
and directly in front of the door
that clearly said "out of order"
also did nothing to alleviate the
tension
Long story short: I can never go
back to that Walgreen's again.
-K.
i fight crime on my tippy-toes
7-20-04,
6:23 PM
I mean,
Led Zeppelin didn't write tunes that
every one liked. They left that to
the Bee Gees.
Music:
Moby - That's When I Reach For My
Revolver
Well, it's been a while.
I
found out today that sometimes I'm a
really lucky bastard.
The
alarm went off at 7:30 AM this
morning, I had an hour and a half to
get ready and get to class, I also
hadn't done my homework. Instead of
trying to do it all as quickly as
possible, I decided to go back to
bed for another hour, thinking I
could do it all and show up late.
The alarm goes off at 8:30 AM, but I
figure it's a better idea just to
forget about it entirely and sleep
for the rest of the day. About five
minutes later my dad enters my room
and says, "Don't you have class
today?" Since I'm half asleep, my
first response to the question
wasn't exactly the most thorough.
Me: Urrrhhhh...
Dad: What?
Me (lying): No...
Class was cancelled today.
Dad: So you already
knew?
Me (confused):
Yeah...?
Dad: Then why would
they call to say that you don't have
class?
Me (slowly putting the pieces
together): Beats me.
So
that's going to become my new
mantra; if you keep on lying
eventually you're going to get one
right.
-K.
Arby's gave
me a lifetime coupon for free food.
7-6-04,
6:34 AM
Problem?
I haven't got a problem. I've got
fucking problems. Plural.
Music:
The Strokes - Trying Your Luck
Added the PinMAME instructions to
the Bits and Pieces section.
And
something else from the realm of
computer entertainment before I get
all serious. THQ has released
4 new videos
of
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
the FPS/RPG hybrid being made by
GSC GameWorld, showing off the
setting, monsters, AI, etc. I was
interested enough in this game
before, but now it's shaping up to
be a really impressive title.
They're worth checking out.
Okay, I'm starting to think that now
is not the time to work on Men of
Inaction. I'm afraid that we may
be rushing things by wanting the
script done by the end of the
summer. There's something about the
way we're writing that feels wrong.
I know that we have the ability to
change a draft, but I think it might
be better if we left it alone for a
bit, work independently on it
through the fall and winter while
still keeping in contact. It's an
ambitious project for our first time
out, so I think we should try to
gain a little experience before
diving headfirst into it. I don't
want to have devoted all our effort
to it only to find out much of it is
not filmable within our means. I
would much rather try to turn our
attention to making one or two short
films, as I would like to have
something filmed before the
summer is over. I'd also like to see
how well we all work together, how
we can manage our resources, get a
sense of what we're doing beforehand
instead of the first day of shooting
something as large as this project.
Don't get me wrong, I really want to
make Men of Inaction, because
it has a lot of potential, but I
don't think it's right for our first
project. I'm not adverse to filming
a few "episodes" of The
Apocalypse Man, though we run
into a problem with location. If
anyone wants to get ahold of me
tonight to discuss other projects, I'm
open to suggestions, just nothing
very big.
-K.
your #1 source for dashed hopes
7-5-04,
8:23 AM
I think
the taxis are bulletproof.
Music:
George Harrison - Cheer Down
I
finally updated the What to Think
section.
Since I've been having so much fun
with it, I decided I'd do a write-up
on using PinMAME, the pinball
emulator. Yes, you heard that right,
pinball emulation. It sounds silly,
but hot damn if I haven't been
playing it for hours.
I
know this is a lot to go through,
but it is worth it:
Installing and using Visual Pinball/VPinMAME
1)
Download
and Install Visual Pinball Tech Beta
6.1:
I recommend installing it to
c:\pinball.
2) DirectX 8 or later required. Get
it from
Microsoft.
Most of you probably already have
DirectX 8 or later, since it
installs with games like Call of
Duty, Rainbow Six 3,
Soldier of Fortune 2, etc.
3) Install the latest Windows
Scripting. The current is 5.6.
For Windows
2000 and XP
For Windows
98, ME and NT
4)
Download and
Install Visual PinMAME
Visual PinMAME works together with
Visual Pinball to fully emulate the
whole pinball machine.
Create a sub folder under your
c:\pinball directory called vpinmame.
Extract the zip to this directory,
make sure to set the directory
extract option. Run Setup.exe in the
c:\pinball\vpinmame directory.
Select the default directories you
created as the paths. Also unselect
Skip Test on the options screen
after the directory screen.
5)
Download the
VPinMAME Samples.
Copy pinmame.zip to /pinball/vpinmame/samples/
(keep in zip).
6)
Download the
script files
Unzip these into /pinball/tables.
7)
Download some tables from
here
or
here.
Both sites have a few problems, the
first site will keep asking you for
a username and password, just hit
cancel. They also have a few
incorrectly named ROM files, but
we'll get to that in the
Troubleshooting section below.
The second site is well organized
and has the latest versions of
different tables, as opposed to the
other site, unfortunately you're
only allowed to download five a day.
When you download a table, you need
to get the table file and the ROM
file. For the first site, after
clicking on a title, look for the
blue box and download the files
under "Tablea" and "Rom."
On the second site, click on the
table name to download the table zip
file and click on second piece of
red text in that row to get the ROM.
On a
separate note, I really recommend
getting Indiana Jones (Get the Jive
version), The
Twilight Zone,
Back to the
Future,
Doctor Who, Tales of the
Arabian Nights, Who Dunnit, and
Black Knight
2000.
Though you can get many of those
from the first site, I would
recommend you get them from the
second. I know the download limit
and wait times suck, but the other
site has some horribly outdated
versions of tables. You really
should use that site only if you are
very impatient. If you IM me, I'd be
happy to send you whatever tables I
have. Sorry I couldn't mirror them
here, but I don't have enough space.
8) Installing tables.
So, you've downloaded the zip files
for the table and the ROMs, what do
you do with them?
Open the table zip file, this one
contains a .vpt file and maybe a few
text files. Unzip these into your
/pinball/tables/ directory.
The second zip file is the ROMs,
which contains several oddly named
files with different extensions. All
you have to do is move the zip file
into /pinball/vpinmame/roms/, no
need to unzip it.
9)
Playing a table (finally).
Open Visual Pinball, click File ->
Open... and point it over to your
pinball/tables/ directory. Pick the
table you want to play and open it.
Once it loads, click play, and
select YES when asked if it is legal
for you to be playing. Most tables
have to go through a boot up process
where the scoreboard display will
keep saying "Factory Settings
Restored" or something along those
lines. This only happens the very
first time you run a table, so
restarting it will let you play.
Enjoy.
Troubleshooting:
Sometimes when loading a table a
screen will pop up titled "Game
Info." There will be various bits of
information along with a white box
near the bottom listing several
filenames. This means that the ROM
file you downloaded is misnamed,
which I've found can happen when
downloading from that faulty site.
To remedy this, go into your
/pinball/vpinmame/roms/ directory
and find the ROM file that goes
along with the table and rename the
file to what is under "ROM set name"
on the Game Info screen. That should
take care of the problem.
Occasionally, if you've been playing
for a while and switching from table
to table, the table sound effects
will stop working. All you have to
do is restart Visual Pinball
altogether to fix this.
If
anything else comes up, feel free to
ask me for help.
Controls:
The shift keys control the flippers.
5 inserts a coin.
1 is the start button.
Enter is the plunger.
Space tilts, don't go crazy.
See Pete, this is a little more
complicated than "just download the
emulator."
-K.
goo
7-1-04,
5:23 AM
Can you
run that by me again, Ted? I don't
speak balloon.
Music:
Oasis - Hello
Huzzah, new month. I know, the What
to Think section is almost a week
overdue, and I'll get to that later
today or tomorrow.
I've actually been pretty busy this
week. Between class, homework,
cramming for mid-terms and the
sketch film I'm getting stretched a
little thin. I've been getting about
four hours of sleep a day this week,
and it reminds me a lot of being
back in high school. Considering I
have class in a little less than
four hours I don't think I'll be
getting much sleep today, either.
Thankfully, though, after this
morning's class I will have a whole
four-day weekend ahead of me. With
the outline for the film finished I
can only hope there will be a
writing session or two this weekend
because they have become something I
very much look forward to, even if I
am risking my much beloved sleep. I
really hope we have at least a rough
draft finished by the end of summer,
then we can start to fret about that
little, insignificant bullshit like
sets, costumes, makeup, equipment
and locations.
I think we'll hold off creating a
website dedicated to the project
until the first day of shooting,
when we're pretty sure this isn't
something we'll abandon. I'm
actually still shocked that we've
gotten to the point where there is a
completed outline, because I didn't
think we'd get past tossing around a
couple of concepts. Looking at it, I
am genuinely enthusiastic about
making it, even with my pessimism
cranked all the way up to 11. There
are some genuinely funny ideas on
here, which I'm sure we'll get sick
of and hate by the time we start
shooting, but hopefully it will be
well received on an unsuspecting
public. Taking a look at the
listings for the
St. Louis
Filmmakers Showcase I
have a pretty good feeling they'll
accept anything, as long as you live
within 120 miles of the city. There
is also the added bonus that anyone
who is a local, as in a range
considerably shorter than 120 miles,
automatically has their film
submitted into the International
Film Festival, which would be sweet.
But that's looking too far ahead.
Though I guess that shouldn't be
surprising since discussion has
already started on a sequel, Men
of Inaction 2: The Wrath of Khan.
-K.
In 1832,
Bill Cosby invented vampires
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