Regular Spelling
Thoughts on language and more

Incorrect History

Time is what we make of it. The past is how we recorded it. We cannot prove, after all, that the past exists, we only have the relics left from it. If it is not recorded, it didn't happen, as we cannot prove it's occurence.

Before I start on my next Commodore 64 YouTube video, I wanted to tell of a memory of mine. It just hit me in a flashback, a memory of a particuar side-scrolling platformer that was actually for the Commodore 128, not the Commodore 64.

The problem is, I can't really tell you more than that. Because this game didn't actually exist, as far as I am aware. This game instead was occasionally seen in dreams I had as a kid, playing on my father's Commodore 128. And I know it couldn't have existed like that because a) we had no Commodore 128-specific games, and b) this game was in color and my fathr only had a green monochrome monitor for his Commodore. I used my Commodore 64 on a television, but never had the Commodore 128 hooked up in this fashion.

I don't know if perhaps this was based on some game I saw running at a store or something, but I do know that this recurring game is not something I ever actually played. Yet, in the realm of the memory of the past, it is as real as anything else. The past is fragile, the only truth that which is written. Because, within the realm of the mind, there is no fact from fiction, the past can be whatever anomalies our mind fills it with.

Fri, 29 May 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Low Bandwidth

Been working on trying to get the rough draft of the main script for Spiral Island done by the end of this week, probably not going to happen though. My main problem with this is trying to sort all the infomation in my mind into something comprehensive, which is quite diffucult when I think at a much faster rate then I can type.

A script is a VERY linear format, not condusive to a non-linear thought pattern in the least. Trying to focus on any one point of the script to type it up, when I don't have an exact script in my mind just everything that happens, therefore makes it difficult without having other parts of the script written down to cross reference. I have about 1/3 of the primary script written up, and I'm in general moving my way in a linear direction, but the general process of it is slow. It's not at all like writing prose, I'll tell you that.

Of course that's why this is a rough draft.  I'll be able edit it much easier later.

Thu, 28 May 2009 10:00:00 -0500

New Alexandria

What if the world were to end tomorrow?

It doesn't really matter how, that's not important. It could be neutron bombs, it could be a pandemic disease, but for whatever reason, everyone is dead. Except for you. You're not in danger of death from the cause of everyone else's death. You're alive, but you're alone.

What would you do, exactly? Would you go into depression, and lose the will to continue living? Would you slip into delusions, letting madness and imagination keep you from facing the reality of the world? Would you slip into a form of happiness, liberated by the freedom to enjoy and do whatever you wish without reason or consequence? Would you simply do nothing? Or would you try and do something significant, something to define you, your culture, and your epoch?

Time flows ever forward, with or without you. Because time, or rather the growth of time, has stopped for you, it doesn't mean it's stopped for someone else. And should their line cross over yours, what will they know, what will they have to show? Did your time really exist?

Thu, 21 May 2009 13:00:00 -0500

The Story So Far

So I realize, as I'm writing up the script for Spiral Island, that there's a LOT more to what's going on then what is presented in-game. Granted, one of my main points for Classic is that the story is intrinsic, and so out-of-character knowledge isn't presented here, but there is information Amy would know that I simply don't have anywhere to present because it doesn't really come up in the story.

If you've looked around the AnacondaSoftware website in the last little bit you should have noticed that the splash page simply goes directly to the forums now. I'm working on a remake of the AnacondaSoftware website right now, and decided to just close it down while I'm working on that since the information is simply so out of date. I think once that new site launches I will have a section on the backstory for Spiral Island on hand, while I'm working on the dedicated Spiral Island website.

Tue, 19 May 2009 23:00:00 -0500

Short Update

I'm not going to say much on this yet. Long story short, I've been laid off. I will go into some more details soon.

Fri, 15 May 2009 04:00:00 -0500

Windows 7 RC

Now the Windows 7 Release Candidate is out for public consumption. I decided that I would install this one on my desktop as well, utilizing 80 GB I have laying around doing nothing holding a dead Linux partition.

So far, on my desktop, I've had an issue with it randomly completely locking up the machine. I'm still trying to narrow it down to what the cause is. On my notebook, with the Beta version every other boot or so the keyboard and touchpad didnt work, I have installed the RC on there but haven't used it enough to see if it is fixed yet.

I did send in a few bug reports with Windows 7 Beta, the keyboard and mouse thing one of them. The one that has bothered me the most, however, is a bug with thumbnails and the Photo Viewer. Since I collect a ton of pictures from the internet - japanese art, funny pictures, etc - I have a massive collection of images. A bug that started with Vista exists where for some pictures it will neither load the thumbnail correctly nor show it correctly in Photo Viewer, instead stretching it out to really tall vertically and only a few pixels wide. This ends up making it impossible to tell what the picture is trying to browse through pictures without opening it up in some other software.

I sent in this report with some example pictures, IIRC specifically a picture of Samus Aran and a picture of Old Snake grabbing Link from Zelda Wind Waker. As of 7 RC, they fixed the thumbnail view problem, so it renders thumbnails correctly, but the Photo Viewer aspect of the problem remains. And, unfortunately, since it is RC phase, they took out the bug reporting functions. I sent in another report using Beta's function indicating that it continues in RC, but at this point it probably won't be seen before 7 RTM. I'm hoping they catch it though since it should be a simple enough fix.

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:00:00 -0500