There's So Much Going On!

I was recently thinking about getting a job, but do I really have time for anything more?

This week I had my first two golf lessons. I will be having them every Tuesday and Thursday for a few more weeks. Why am I taking golf? I don't really know. My mom signed me up for it along with my siblings. I'll admit I need more physical activity, and maybe golf would be ideal for me since I'm not generally an active, hyperventilative sports person. Still, I'm not really interested in golf, although everyone says I'll grow to love it... Do some addictions begin with reluctance?

Philosophy and chemistry are going well, and I'm managing to keep up with math and Spanish. Not much to say here.

The computer's internet safety system decided to start blocking blogger because an offensive blog had been updated recently and was thus being linked to from the sign-in page. This prevented me from blogging for a few days, and it was quite frustrating because I couldn't figure out what it was blocking until I had my dad look at it a little while ago.

Last but not least, Mega Man 9 has finally been released! The Blue Bomber's first game since the Playstation is a downloadable title for the Wii (and other internet systems, I believe, such as the Xbox 360) and is designed to be like an NES Mega Man. I got around to downloading it today, and my first impression is: WOW, COOL, GREAT, YES! (retarded, I know.) The graphics are pretty much identical to an NES title; the music and sound have the same, awesome "low" quality of the originals (complete with sound cancellation); and the gameplay is just like it always was! You cannot slide or charge your weapon, but for the really old-school MM fans like me, that's no problem. The only bit I've seen yet that was never present in any form in the NES games (although I haven't seen much yet -- my mom kicked me off after forty minutes) is the lab; you can take screws to Roll and Auto in exchange for items, like in MM7, although there are especially cool, useful, and fun ones this time around. In addition to the regular game, there are some extras and mini-games to unlock, a whole bunch of challenges to fulfill, and a downloader for any add-ons that may be released in the future. Creating Mega Man 9 in the first-generation style is definitely the smartest move Capcom has ever made, and MM9 itself may become the greatest in the series.

So, with all that on my plate, I'll be pretty busy for a while! MM9 is going to steal as much of my free time as my mom allows, although I need to finish Wily's Fortress in a Rockman 2 hack so that I can write a post on it and another like it. That said, I'll probably finish the hack and review the two hacks first, enabling undivided interest in the new title. Between that and my mom, I'm likely to be the last person to beat MM9, but when I do I'll still review it, 'cuz I love the classics, and this is a brand-new classic.

Oh yeah -- the "Something Man" boss names tradition has finally been broken. There are 8 Robot Masters, but one of them is notably different from any other -- it's a she. Yup. Splash Woman. = ) She's a hostile mermaid. Reminds me a bit too much of Leviathan from Mega Man Zero, actually, but I'll let that slide. Besides, she was built by Dr. Light, not Dr. Wily (Ooooohhh.....!? I won't mention the storyline yet because I only know the beginning).

Limitations of Vocabulary

A large vocabulary can make you look smart. It can also confuse people. Or it can make you seem improperly educated.

Yes, I said improperly educated. How? Simple. There are those out there with smaller vocabularies. What difference does that make? Well, those people may not have the full knowledge of a word that you do, and they can think you are using a word in the wrong context.

For example, I said that my literature teacher appraised my paper as college level. My mom thought I was using the word incorrectly -- You don't "appraise" papers. You appraise diamonds. But she looked it up and found that it means to "assess, determine the value." Now the term is growing on her. But how many others would read such a sentence and consider it wrong, or at least awkward?

It's one thing to have to explain stuff to those who do not understand, but it can get annoying when you must defend your works from incorrect, accusatory judgements.

SM64 Codes

Ever wanted to ride a spiney, put the camera on any object, move the trees where you see fit, play as a rabbit, control the race timer, or create coins when you pound the ground? This is the place for you. The creator of this site has made all of the above and even more possible in Super Mario 64. He has such an extensive knowledge of the game's programming, he can change the graphic or behavior values of practically anything. Want Mario's ground pound to shake the screen like a thwomp? No problem! How about throwing a risk factor into collecting red coins by having them spawn chain chomps instead of displaying the number you got? Sure thing! With the codes this guy has made, the game has never been more fun.

He also has loads of neat information, from how to do things like he is to the beta* objects he has uncovered. Even my friend Zoron Maro, the Mario buff, didn't know that the lava-dwelling creature called Blargg was originally going to be in the game; thanks to our code-writing friend, you can now put Blargg into action! Or what about the use of the Boo-related key that is buried in the game's unseen data? We may never know. But we wouldn't know this much if there weren't people like this, exploring games' innards and writing codes to bring them to surface.

*Things that were worked on but then never put into the final game are known as "beta" things: objects, graphics, etc. from the game's beta stages of production.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

I'm sure there are many of you out there who watch movies and nitpick, not the plot lines, but the physics. Well, here are some really smart physicists who give summaries of movies mixed with scientific explenations of why things wouldn't work. This site goes into a lot of detail on the small number of movies they currently list, and it's a good place to learn something and get a laugh at the same time.

The Purpose of Literature

One of my friends was remarking that, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain should have taken some sort of action to avoid or leave the situation of attempted enticement by Bertilak’s wife. It was her opinion that Gawain did not make much of an effort to avoid the near occasion of sin.

Though it might sound like one of those simple solutions that would render a movie too short, there is much to be considered here. Gawain was a very skilled conversationalist, and he turned aside all of her [Bertilak’s wife; she was never named that I recall] smooth-talk flawlessly and without the least rudeness. This went fine for a while, and Gawain trusted in Mary to help him, but his hostess was determined to test his willpower to the max. Eventually Gawain fell to coveting, accepting the girdle that she pressed upon him, finally succumbing to her attempts to deter his righteousness in one area or another.

In many ways, Gawain managed the situation quite well. He kept his purity, which is obviously important. He also remained courteous to his hostess, but at what cost? His fault lay in taking the girdle, which belonged to Bertilak, and Gawain kept it secret from him despite their agreement to exchange what they won each day. This was a violation of their pact and the relationship between host and guest. He later confessed and despised his sin, but he lived on with the knowledge that he was as predisposed to corruption as the rest of humankind.

Could Gawain have handled it any better? Possibly, although the book says that “... he must needs either refuse her with offence or her favours there take.” It could be argued that rudeness is a better alternative to some other forms of sin. On the other hand, a sin is more or less grievous depending on the person and the circumstances, and he could have both done and suffered much more damage by disrespect than by what he did do. In any case, the fact remains that he was not perfect.

But that is what the story is about! While I disagree with my friend to the standpoint of Gawain handling the event foolishly, I have no problem with posing alternative possibilities to what occurs in a book. This is what literature is for. It is an art that depicts the issues, ideas, and happenings in the life of man, exposing what is hidden and provoking thought. With history, they say, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” Literature is much the same way. Above the level of entertainment, we can and should extract what is contained, measure the depths, analyze the philosophy, and ultimately learn something for the betterment of our lives!

So how could Gawain have acted differently? What consequences would another action have had? Or did he handle it to the best of his ability? Could you have done any better? Was the writer trying to convey how we should or shouldn’t go about such a thing? Perhaps he was demonstrating the courtesy we should have, and at the same time displaying its limits? There is so much to ponder on so many levels that I have barely scratched the surface here!

And this goes for books besides your classic literature, as well. Even talking mice and men battling aliens to save the universe have meaning disguised somewhere. Such things are only worth reading because they relate, in some way, to us; since man is the center of creation, literature employs his philosophy, ethics, and emotions. We can find our questions, desires, problems, solutions, and mysteries within pages of writing. It is a tool for learning about ourselves from an outside viewpoint, always changing, logging beliefs from times past, and illuminating the shadows of the future. That is the purpose of literature.

Site: The Mega Man Home Page

For a Mega Man site with everything from info to entertainment (sans online games or anything), this has got to be the best. This site is by a fan of the Mega Man universe (a woman, believe it or not) who has compiled and tested as much data on the different series as you may ever find in one place. She doesn't give step-by-step guides for the games, but she's reviewed them, has lists of where to find items, and has my kind of sense of humor. I had no idea there was a strategy MM game released only in China until this site -- that's how much she knows. And aside from the games themselves, she's even writing her own MM fiction*. She's not a bad artist, either. She could make a blog out of her "Musings" section (unless she has a blog already -- I haven't checked). Gee, what else...? Just go check the place out!


*Okay, I know some of you may think that's typical for a fan, but her books hit me somewhere.... I probably like them a bit extra because they remind me of the Adventures of Link that Shakespeare's Cobbler and I were trying to write some years ago. Some notable similarities are the humor, attitudes of the characters, and the presences and roles of unrelated characters from other games.

Ocarina of Time: Disorder of Events

I've been playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time with various cheat codes so that I can have all the equipment at the beginning and do things like levitate and see just how much of the game I can jump around. After fooling around a bit, I decided to skip as much of the game as I could (short of turning into adult Link with a code) and do everything else out of order. I started with all the usable items and the levitation code, but left out the important quest items such as the Spiritual Stones required to get into the Temple of Time, the ocarina songs, and the Golden Gauntlets. Besides, since some such items trigger events, it is possible to run into serious hang-ups because the game registers that Link has an item, but the part of the game played to get said item has not been completed. (As you will see, I encounter some such instances anyway, but they are larger, more complete areas; the programming is not sliced into so deep that a set of closely related affairs becomes problematically detached.) The Ocarina of Time might be one such item, because a special scene in which you learn a song ensues the moment you get it; the Fairy Ocarina, on the other hand, has no special purpose other than playing a few songs to proceed through the game before you acquire the Ocarina of Time. That said, I also left my inventory devoid of an ocarina so I could get as far as possible without one.


So here's a humorous summary of the game as it happened for me.


Navi comes to Link to tell him to go see the Great Deku Tree. Link has other ideas: he goes to the Lost Woods and uses the bombs he's not supposed to have to blast his way through a shortcut into Goron City. Stepping out onto Death Mountain, he bombs open Dodongo's Cavern, proceeds straight to the boss, and promptly beats the giant lizard up. When he exits the cave, the Goron leader, whom Link had neglected to ever meet, comes down and thanks Link by giving him the Spiritual Stone of Fire, the Goron's Ruby; then he goes back inside and immediately shuts himself in until the messenger from Hyrule arrives to help with their Dodongo problem. Poor amnesiac.

Next Link heads up to Zora's Domain, which he cannot open the entrance to because he neither knows Zelda's Lullaby nor has an ocarina to play it on. He does, however, possess the ability to fly; he floats right over the sealed waterfall, [down through the area where the top never needed to be drawn because it was never going to be seen,] and casually strolls into the cave.

Our young lad flies over the Zora King, who blocks the way to Zora's Fountain, without so much as telling him who he is or that he is about to save his dear little princess. Link gets swallowed by the fish (whale?), Jabu-Jabu, and heads for the parasite residing in its stomach. Link kills the mutated monstrosity and joins up with the the Zora Princess as he leaves the ichthyoid's gut. The grouchy piece of royalty expresses her reluctant gratitude for saving her by handing over the Spiritual Stone of Water, the Zora's Sapphire. Link, knowing full well that she has no idea who he is and might not trust him, decides to go back into the fish (whale?) and double-check things. Sure enough, he finds the Zora's Sapphire sitting down there in another area, but when he discovers that the Zora Princess is there as well and appears to have never seen him before, he decides to leave with what he's got and hope for the best.
[The game gives the message that I have collected all three Stones at this point. It is possible to legitimately get the Zora's Sapphire before the Goron's Ruby; when I tried this once with cheats and got the Zora's Sapphire first, the game said I had one more to go, and when I got the Goron's Ruby it said I had all three. However, the game would never recognize that I was missing the Kokiri's Emerald, because it's not supposed to be possible to leave Kokiri Forest until you have acquired it. You also must actually have all three in order to trigger a cutscene and enter the Temple of Time.]

Having met one princess, Link thinks he'll pay a visit to another: Princess Zelda of Hyrule. After flying over the oblivious guards, Link arrives in the courtyard where Zelda is spying into a castle window. Upon seeing Link, she becomes excited, believing Link is the one from her vision: the "figure holding a green and shining stone." She eagerly asks if he has the Spiritual Stone of the Forest, the Kokiri's Emerald. Well, no, Link doesn't, and he tells her so, but she has such a severe case of cynicism that Link finally gives in and lies that he has it. Zelda is overjoyed at this and proceeds to tell him about the Sacred Realm, the Triforce, about Ganondorf, and about the use of the three Spiritual Stones along with the Ocarina of Time.

Zelda sends Link off to find the other two Stones, and Impa, Zelda's caretaker, escorts him out, but not before teaching him Zelda's Lullaby. As she plays the notes, Link whips the Ocarina of Time out of nowhere and follows along. Only when he is finished does he realize what he is holding, but he has no time to think about it because Impa is trying to show him the way to Death Mountain to get the Goron's Ruby.

Feeling rather annoyed at the two royal women, Link goes back to Kokiri Forest to get the one stone they thought he already had. He and Navi, who has been urging him all this time to see the Great Deku Tree, head for the ancient guardian of the forest ("Great Deku Tree, I'm back!" Navi says). The tree tells Link that the time has come for him to begin a quest -- or, as Link interprets it, it didn't hurt that he left the forest for some adventuring on a whim. The Great Deku Tree allows Link to venture inside him so that he can defeat the evil within, and he does that in about two minutes. When he emerges, the Great Deku Tree thanks Link but says he was doomed before Link even started (well, gee, you lasted this long, didn't you? I think you and that spider were living in symbiosis if you're only dying now that it's gone). Before he passes, he tells Link that Ganondorf put the curse on him (nah, he cursed the once-gentle spider, if you ask me) because he wanted the Kokiri's Emerald, which the tree then gives to Link. When the he finishes relating to Link everything Zelda already had, he says goodbye and ceases to live.

Possessing all three stones, Link heads back to Hyrule Castle to meet Zelda, but as soon as the drawbridge lowers she and Impa come shooting out on a horse, fleeing the castle. Zelda throws the Ocarina of Time back into the river, and as Link follows it with his gaze he sees Ganondorf right outside the castle. Ganondorf demands to know which way Zelda went, but Link draws his sword and shield instead. Simultaneously amused and angry, Ganondorf blasts him with some dark magic and gallops away.

Link rights himself, retrieves the Ocarina of Time from the river, and suddenly goes into some sort of trance in which Zelda teaches him the Song of Time. When he finds himself outside the castle once more, Link pockets the Ocarina and makes for the Temple of Time, wondering if the mysterious vision has any relation to his mysterious momentary possession of the Ocarina some time ago. At any rate, he opens the Door of Time and draws the Master Sword without delay.

After listening to a long speech from Sage Rauru explaining that, a) drawing the Master Sword unsealed the Sacred Realm, allowing Ganondorf to steal the Triforce (gee, maybe we shouldn't have done this. Maybe we should have just waited 50 years for Ganondorf to die.); b) it sent Link forward in time seven years to his adulthood; c) Princess Zelda is safe; and d) he (Rauru) and five others make up six Sages who can help Link defeat Ganondorf; Link finds himself back in the Temple of Time and is quite ready to leave and go anywhere else. Before he can do so, he encounters Sheik, who talks more about the six Sages and tells him where to find and rescue the first one. Finally able to go, Link exits the temple and steps out into the desolate place that was once the kingdom of Hyrule.

As he makes to leave the run-down market, Link takes a detour to Hyrule Castle, which has now obviously become Ganondorf's stronghold. He decides to check it out and see what he can do right now; he flies over the bridgeless gap and enters boldly. Inside he finds six branching passages that seem to generate the energy for a barrier around the central tower. Link heads down each of these in turn, and at the end of each he finds and dispels what sure enough are his hypothesized barrier generators. For each one he destroys, Link is paid a short visit by apparitions of whom he can only assume are the Sages, although he is slightly confused: Sage Rauru didn't need saving, and Sheik told him he would find one Sage in Kokiri Forest, so is he or is he not saving them when he dispels the barriers?

At any rate, he deactivates the barrier and heads up the tower, at the top of which he finds Ganondorf and Zelda, who is magically confined. Link has no time to feel irked at Rauru and Sheik for not having their facts straight, though. Ganondorf intends to recapture the entire Triforce, which split when he took it seven years ago, and Link suddenly realizes that he and Zelda now possess the other two parts. Ganondorf attacks, Link takes him down, Zelda is freed, the end. Or not. The tower begins to collapse and Link and Zelda flee just in time. The end. Or not. Ganondorf transforms into a dark beast and Link faces him once more. When he weakens Ganon sufficiently, Zelda and the Sages seal him in the Sacred Realm, where he will be trapped until A Link to the Past.

Having completed his quest at last, Link turns to Zelda, who more or less apologizes for his lack of teenhood experiences because of the abrupt adventure he had to go on. Taking the Ocarina of Time, Zelda plays it and sends Link back to the youth he had to postpone, telling him to enjoy his childhood now that Ganondorf is gone. When he finds himself a kid back in the Temple of Time, Link thinks he ought to give Zelda a piece of his mind: how is he supposed to enjoy himself? Ganondorf won't be gone for seven years! He makes his way back to the courtyard where he first met the princess as a girl, but before he can say anything, the world turns to stone and says "The End."

Aftermath of Ike

The power is finally back on here as of about half an hour ago. Ike stormed (no pun intended) northeast after smashing Texas, hitting the Ohio/Kentucky area very hard. The winds here reached 84 mph Sunday afternoon; there were trees, power lines, and house roofing ripped out all over, and over half a million people were without power (many still are). I'd go into more detail, but I'm exhausted, and there is cleanup work to be done outside.

Studies Increase

Yesterday marked the beginning of philosophy classes. I think it went quite well for the first day. Mr. H did three things: he talked about a variety of stuff to get our minds started up, initiated minor discussions and asked questions, and warned us that he was going to confuse and twist our brains as we got into the subject. Actually, he was pleased with how well we remembered and utilized what he'd previously taught us. Twice he mentioned that someone told him beforehand that we weren't going to get this stuff, but we were too smart as always!

Hopefully he and Dr. F won't fry my brain as they have both said they will, because I'm going to need a good amount of space for Spanish, which I also started learning yesterday. The Rosetta Stone method of teaching language is to match phrases with pictures, but I need to see if there is a supplementary book of rules that I can reference as well. Why, tell me, is an airplane feminine when a boy is on it, but masculine when a boy is under it??

If You Give a Hero a Hammer ...

The Megaton Hammer has more uses than it seems.

Play ball! I spent a lot of money on this bat, so don't zap it too hard, ok?

Or we could play "Don't Break the Ice."

Ganondorf starts the game.

Link surveys his options and takes his turn.

Ganondorf's move. Hey, hit the blocks, not Link!!

Look's like the board's clear. Ganondorf seems pretty intent on smashing that middle pillar down, though.

I'll say. The guy destroys his whole castle just because he loses a game!

Busy Week

I haven't posted for almost a week, as it was such a busy one. On the weekend we went to a parish festival and had more fun than the average day at King's Island (of course, we are not huge roller coaster fans). On top of the games and the food, there were some pretty good rides, the biggest thriller of which was the "Typhoon," consisting of four or five tripods that spun and rotated around the center like an eggbeater swing set. It was rather fun until the arms of the tripods went out almost completely horizontal. The favorite answer to the question "How was it?" was "Once is enough." Sometimes even I don't care when sentences don't grammatically correspond.

This morning my mom took two of my siblings up to see McCain and Palin at their Ohio stop. I was exhausted from the weekend and still had chemistry to do today, so I opted to stay home and get more sleep. They told me when they got back that they had to stand around in the rain for almost two hours to get through security, and when McCain and Palin came out they were not close enough to get a good view. Then, on the way back to the car, they found the roads closed off because the van transporting the candidates was going to drive off through that area. So, after all they went through to be there, three of my family members got to see McCain and Palin from four feet away as they drove by, and McCain even pointed at my sister's homemade signs!

And besides all that, I've been busy working on chemistry and playing a game to make a blog post (coming soon!), so it seems much longer than a week ago that I began "A Homeschooler's Pensieve."

Mario 64 -- NES Texture

Now this is one cool texture hack. This is a 90% complete edit of Super Mario 64's graphics to make everything look like one of the three NES Super Mario Bros. games. The YouTube video includes a couple of links for download, the codes to alter Mario's colors, and instructions on how to load the textures to your emulator. It worked for me, so try it out and take a look at those classic "BOMB" explosions the Bob-Ombs now make!

I AM WINDOWS. I AM PERFECT.

WARNING: SPOILERS!



I saw the Star Trek Original Series (the remastered version, technically) episode "The Changeling" lately, in which the Enterprise encounters a computer probe designed to destroy, or "sterilize," all that is imperfect. Being impervious to everything they have to throw at it, Kirk and his crew manage to survive for a while because the probe thinks Captain James Kirk is Jackson Roykirk, its one-time creator. However, Nomad, the probe, eventually learns that although Kirk is his creator, he is also an imperfect "biological unit." Just when Nomad deactivates the ship's life support, Kirk finds a way to defeat the computer. He reveals Nomad's mistake of his identity, and that, coupled with the errors that Nomad did not recognize its mistake nor correct it by "sterilization," compelled the machine to eradicate itself on the grounds that it was imperfect.

Nomad didn't do this easily, of course. Its voice generators went screwy and it kept repeating "ERROR ... ERROR...." This made me think of the computers we have today, about how crummy they can be. Specifically, I found myself wondering how long it took people in the Star Trek universe to get past such annoyances as we have today. I can just imagine a Windows Nomad: "I AM WINDOWS. I AM PERFECT." And then Kirk convinces it to destroy itself: "PROCESSING. ESTIMATED TIME REMAINING: 3 MINUTES ... 6 MINUTES ... .73 HOURS.... WINDOWS REQUESTS USER VERIFICATION."

Don't beam the thing into deep space to explode, Kirk, beam it to Bill Gates' office.

Energy Crisis

The issue of our energy crisis was, naturally, brought up in tonight's Republican convention. This reminded me of another tidbit from chemistry class this afternoon, when Dr. F related reacting atoms to teenage relationships.



He said that atoms bond, bonds break, and new bonds are formed, kind of like when a girl breaks up with one guy and hooks up with another. And, as I commented at that point, that releases a lot of energy!

Forget oil drilling, we just need to find a way to harness this.

Smarter than the average college student

One thing I forgot to mention about chemistry class: Dr. F told us to look at the page about units of measurement, and told us that that is the first hurdle most college students have trouble with. How hard can it be to convert 1600 meters to miles?

Site: Zelda Reorchestrated

I'm sure a great number of Zelda fans already know about this place, but I only found it recently, being one of those fans who doesn't browse fan sites all day. Zelda Reorchestrated, or ZREO, is dedicated to creating realistic synthesizations of Zelda music. What's different about ZREO is these people are trying to keep true to the original music as much as possible, while many other places, such as OCremix, are creating variations and medleys however they want. There are some places where I quibble with the style, and some others where the sound isn't real enough, but they are learning how to do better all the time. Considering how far ZREO has come in only a couple years of existence, I have every hope that they will one day have incredible, complete soundtracks to every Zelda title.

Started Chemistry

My junior year in high school has officially started with chemistry class today and every Wednesday henceforth. Dr. F, the teacher for this particular sort of homeschooler's co-op, is a very nice, funny, energetic guy. He joked about having to put me and the other new students through a "baptism of fire" to get into the swing of his classes. Then he went on and talked about science, what chemistry's all about, various things like the elements, significant figures, (the fact that he likes governor Palin) and so on. I think I surprised him with the fact that not one thing he said went over my head, having taken a physical science course in my sophomore year. I even gave him the precise definition of a calorie. At the end of the class, he said it was perfectly fine for us to contact one another for assistance if we didn't understand a concept or couldn't figure out how to get a problem to work; already I had a reputation, for Dr. F indicated me when he said this, and a fellow student across the room even said to expect everyone to be calling me a lot = )

So far, the school year is off to a good start. I'll find out what's in store for me in Mr. H's philosophy class two Fridays from now.

Problems Already!?

As soon as I get my blog up and running, I start having problems. Oh, everything's all right, but it is incredibly frustrating to try to transfer a newly created blog to my other account address, only to find that something is just not working. So either my other address will get the invite eventually, or I will just have an inactive second author on my settings list for eternity.

The Blogging Has Begun!

All right, I've finally joined The Harangued Internet Negotiations Group (T.H.I.N.G.), otherwise known as the blogosphere. I hereby somewhat dedicate this blog to my thoughts on videogames, Calvin and Hobbes, and the fact that I have so many other ideas that swirl through my conciousness that I either need a legilimens or a blog to get them out to other people and avoid the problem of forgetting what I wanted to tell someone when they come home from college. So, here's to all the unknown geniuses who live life trying to remain in God's grace, and just wing everything else as it comes ... like me. Cheers, good luck, and make sure you have enough experience to defeat that final boss!