Tom 7 Radar:
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7493. Chris (c-76-99-55-118.hsd1.pa.comcast.net) –
15 Aug 2008 09:02:36
[ Theme from rt2i ]
I like it. I imagine it as the ending theme to some cheesy NES RPG, playing over a montage of your 8-bit characters visiting key points.
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7492. Tom 7 (h-67-100-131-229.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) –
15 Aug 2008 08:59:43
[ Theme from rt2i ]
Hacking my server?? I'm sending the cybercrime task force after you.
Usually I test this stuff after posting, sorry. I blame lack of sleep. It's fixed now, though my current QuickTime browser plugin installation plays for me only 1 second of the song if I just click? The song downloads and plays fine in iTunes or winamp or whatever, though. (I think this might be a misconfiguration of my web server. I'll look later.) |
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7490. Tadbot (c-76-98-20-178.hsd1.pa.comcast.net) –
15 Aug 2008 03:50:59
[ Theme from rt2i ]
OMG your link to the file is misnamed, so I had to do some 1337 hax0ring to download it. |
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Congratulations, Tom. As others have pointed out, I'm a regular reader and I think this is one of your most fascinating posts ever. |
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7484. Tom 7 (h-67-100-132-199.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) –
11 Aug 2008 18:46:16
[ BAD SAT SCORES ]
I don't know about the other stuff, but I'm fairly certain that if you cancel/don't send your SAT II scores, that no school will ever see them. Even if they did see that you declined to send, that's so common that I doubt they even think anything of it. |
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7481. WFM (cache-ntc-ac08.proxy.aol.com) –
11 Aug 2008 07:42:30
[ BAD SAT SCORES ]
I am SO nervous for college applications soon (I'll be a high school senior for 2008/2009) and, among other things, am nervous if my SAT scores might make or break my chances for getting into one of the colleges I'll apply to (see below for list). The following is my SAT scores from March 2008 (which was my first time taking it, BTW):
*Critical Reading - 510 (out of 800)
*Math - 570 (out of 800)
*Writing - 640 (out of 800)
*OVERALL - 1720 (out of 2400)
My choice of colleges are (in order) the University of South Carolina @ Columbia, University of Florida @ Gainesville, University of Central Florida, and the University of South Florida.
Other than that, my only other blemish was that I scored a 560 on the SAT II Chemistry test [P.S., I was busy studying for 2 AP exams, both of which I passed with a 3]. I bring that up because I want to major in science, preferrably chemistry or pre-pharmacy. As an added twist, I got an 'A' both semesters in Honor's Chemistry. Because I feared what kind of score I would get on the SAT II test, I did not send the score to any college. So, therefore, I have three fearful questions to ask about the SAT, overall:
1) Is a 1720 out of 2400 good enough to get into a moderately-difficult school like USC, UF, UCF, or USF?
2) If I did not cancel my SAT II score, but did (and will) not send it to any college, will any college know about my SAT II score? (HINT: similar to if a tree falls in a forest but if no one is around to here it, does it still make a sound?)
3) Will my "poor" SAT II performance play a role, if any, in college admissions now and in the future (especially considering that I want to be a pharmacist, one day)?
Thanx in advance, for any helpful information about my predicament.
--WFM |
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7480. Pianist (100.86.modemcable.oricom.ca) –
10 Aug 2008 16:27:44
[ Quake 3 Done! ]
Hi there ! I'm back with some power. I started making a run trough quake 3 arena : nightmare. The goal is to make it from start to Xaero. Q3DM0 to Xaero. All in one demo file. It takes time but I think I'll be able to do it someday. I went to q3dm18, but I died 20-19.... You know when you miss it, you have to leave and start over to q3dm0. =/ Many frustrations.. O well I will do it again and again until I got it and let you know!
peace
Pianist |
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7478. Mike Kenny (146-115-26-58.c3-0.abr-ubr1.sbo-abr.ma.cable.rcn.com) –
09 Aug 2008 12:19:18
[ Marathon managed! ]
hahaha, indeed!
thwok: i brought my bass!
glarg: i brought my guitar!
edmund: i brought my drum!
gog: i brought my spear!
thwok: ...not that kind of band, gog. |
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7476. Tom 7 (mobile-032-148-194-042.mycingular.net) –
08 Aug 2008 22:50:21
[ Marathon managed! ]
You should call your band Theme from The Gog |
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7475. Mike Kenny (146-115-26-58.c3-0.abr-ubr1.sbo-abr.ma.cable.rcn.com) –
08 Aug 2008 19:00:25
[ Marathon managed! ]
tom, yes, definitely i think there are problems with 'getting back to nature' or pining for our ancestral environment. i imagine i would have constantly had a sore throat if i had to hunt and gather, or eat the hunted or gathered items of my band-mates.
gog: what should we name our band?
thwok: not that kind of band.
your reply is hugely informative--so to condense, running became important
1. at a time when it caused an easing of emotional pain, by replacing it with physical pain due to exertion
2. "running-as-introspective-time," as you say. this resonates--i sometimes find walking eases anxiety and helps me think. i believe i've heard others mention something about this too. maybe sometimes thoughts cause emotional pain and so we avoid them, as we would avoid putting our hand in fire, and by walking or running, that pain is eased in our viscera (why, i wonder?) and our mind can then approach the thought again.
3. surprising discovery of comfort and new ability.
these were all really interesting points i'd like to think more about. i think i'll query other people i know who run to see if they have any triggers causing them to get into running. i recall hearing of an ultra-marathon runner who had written a book talking about how he started running a lot during a sort of a midlife crisis--i think it was his thirtieth birthday (hardly mid-life i guess) and i think he had an opportunity to cheat on his wife which he 'ran' from. so his story dovetails with yours in terms of an emotional experiencing triggering a desire to run.
i'll have to think about this more--particularly if there's some evolutionary story here--is long distance running just a dulled-down version of the flight response in response to general and less-intense-than-panic emotional pain? is it an accident of our nature without obvious adaptive benefit, or cost? was it a good way of causing socially clashing humans in bands from escaping their particular group and finding their own niche somewhere somewhat away from the old group (would running be social? 'we hate these people. let's go running, guys. hey, why don't we start our own band in that cool place we saw ten miles from here? no, not that kind of band, gog.'
anyway, i'll keep your points in mind and see if i can maybe make use of them in making it easy/fun to run, exercise, or maybe do other things. |
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Just wanted to say helloo |
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7471. Tom 7 (ip67-152-86-163.z86-152-67.customer.algx.net) –
08 Aug 2008 03:20:21
[ New! Escape 200704130 ]
hehh.
landon: I don't think there will ever be user-defined sounds, but I do have sound effects already implemented (!) and awaiting release after a bit more coverage and tuning. What would you do with sound-effect tiles? You mean tiles that trigger sounds when you step on them?
Of course Y and D and undo when you're dead are intentional, especially undo. There's also N, which shows bot numbers. |
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7469. Tom 7 (64-71-21-146.static.wiline.com) –
07 Aug 2008 21:30:29
[ Marathon managed! ]
Haakan: A couple of people have suggested Columbus now. It is pretty conveniently close, so maybe I will try. I'm not surprised that Pittsburgh already has a reputation for being tough... but I think we should own it!
MK: It's a plausible theory. I would probably expand it to include more than just running/sedentary and say that generally the human body adapts to repeated activities and lifestyles pretty well (though there are some we are clearly "built" for). One of the most tragic things for people is that many of the mechanisms we evolved ages ago are no longer relevant and therefore no longer advantageous in a world of abundance. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to those famine and You Have Died Of Dysentery days though. ;) The "hardship" of running 30 minutes a day and avoiding having too many It's It bars is pretty tame in comparison.
The second question: I can tell you for sure two life moments where running became drastically more important to me. First was back in sophomore year of college when some childhood love thing snapped one day and seemed like the worst thing, but now obviously I know that's at worst par for the course, and I felt so shitty that I was in need of some self-punishing vigorous exercise, which for some reason of convenience I decided to do at the CMU track. I was definitely not a runner at that point so I probably only ran a mile, and probably at like an 11 minute pace, but the important thing was how physically in pain that made me feel and how that made the other pain seem comparatively laughable. As mentioned in a recent post, this works great. It is much better than getting drunk or something like that. (I suspect this goes back to being raised mildly Catholic, which even though I couldn't give two shits about its religious mythology now, like it literally bores me to even try to enumerate the ways in which I don't care about it, it is funny how it continues to impact my actual values and behaviors.) I can't say that this specific time started some regular running habit, but it was surely the beginning of running-as-introspective-time for me. The second life moment is less serious but probably more important to the actual habit, which is that I have pretty wide feet and for comfort reasons I've always bought shoes with fitting as the primary concern at the expense of other dimensions. Then one day New Balance became the (or a) cool brand, whereas formerly for me it had just been the specialty like orthotic lame shoes that I got just because they were the ones that were made in 4E sizes. So for my birthday one day (this is like grad school) my parents brought me to buy new shoes and the store had only two pairs in stock that fit me: some middle-of-the-line thing and the venerable NB 991s. I couldn't believe it when I tried on the 991s. I think it was literally the first time that I wore something on my foot that felt like it fit. They were way more expensive than the other middling ones and I felt bad asking my parents for the conspicuously more expensive ones, because I knew they would oblige even if they didn't want to (this is maybe the Catholic thing again), but anyway I got the 991s. The next day I was walking to school and feeling so comfortable in these shoes that I just felt like starting to run, so I did. And then I ran for a bit again on the way home. I was happy that this method of transport was faster so I started timing how long it took me and keeping track of it, and stopped carrying a backpack pointlessly with my notebooks that I could just leave in my grad school office anyway, so that also I could run more efficiently. So that was really it, the shoes, which is trite but true. |
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7464. Mike Kenny (146-115-26-58.c3-0.abr-ubr1.sbo-abr.ma.cable.rcn.com) –
06 Aug 2008 19:38:01
[ Marathon managed! ]
yeah, that sounds sort of like what i've heard others say about running, i think. i'm trying to figure out what there's this addiction or craving or compulsion, which seems positive.
one thing that leaps to mind--maybe we have a running and a sedentary mode deeply ingrained in us from our ancestral past, modes that fit with the demands of our ancestral environment. i've heard a theory that we are meant to run quite a lot--what did it have to do with, getting to water sources or something? maybe gathering intelligence about rapidly evaporating opportunities in a stone age environment ("there's a herd of easy-to-hunt animals ten miles over that way! come on!")?
anyway, if our environment could shift a bit now and again, either seasonally or due to less predictable but not uncommon events, like famines or periods of plenty, different demands might be required of our bodies at different times--arguably our eating habits might reflect a feast or famine reality in our stone age environment--binge when food is plentiful and store fat for times of famine (i've heard this theory from seth roberts). so maybe running is like that. at times it's good to be lethargic, and at times good to be addicted to running, and the shifting demands of our environment activate one tendency or another.
was there something that got you into running, i wonder? a trigger maybe? apologies for the length of this post! |
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7463. landon (adsl-76-233-213-254.dsl.okcyok.sbcglobal.net) –
06 Aug 2008 19:26:26
[ New! Escape 200704130 ]
Did you know that the layer viewing key "Y" works during gameplay.
Did you know that the destination viewing key "D" works during gameplay.
Did you know that undo works when you die. |
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7462. landon (adsl-76-233-213-254.dsl.okcyok.sbcglobal.net) –
06 Aug 2008 19:18:33
[ New! Escape 200704130 ]
What about sound effect tiles? 16 selectable built-in sounds would be nice! |
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congrats! that is a great time. -W |
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7458. Haakan (pool-96-236-148-48.pitbpa.fios.verizon.net) –
06 Aug 2008 06:36:04
[ Marathon managed! ]
Tom,
Congratulations! That's an awsome time for your first marathon.
Columbus Marathon (http://www.columbusmarathon.com/) in October is one of the most popular for qualifying for Boston. It is very flat. I ran it in 2005 (my only Marathon so far -- made too many mistakes and finished just under 3:45).
About Pittsburgh marathon, as far as I know, it is known to be one of the toughest Marathons in the U.S. It was used as the Olympic qualifier in 2000, and I believe elite runners had trouble making the qualifying time that year. |
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7457. Anonymous (c-24-23-124-237.hsd1.pa.comcast.net) –
06 Aug 2008 04:10:42
[ Bathroom? Mushroom! ]
Okay, guys, I don't have this problem, but here are some facts:
To all the people who say mushrooms are harmless - You are wrong.
To all the people who say mushrooms are harmful - You are wrong.
You're also both right.
Some varieties of "bathroom mushroom" are completely harmless, a result of a spore being in the right wet place at the right dark time. Some are a result of a deeper problem. Some release deadly spores, some just kind of hang out.
But like Tom said, don't eat them. Unless your an expert on fungi, just pick 'em out with a paper towel and toss them. Then cover the area in salt, Lysol shower cleaner and - get this - antimicrobial Febreeze. It WILL kill the spores left over, and it will get rid of the mushroomy smell.
The surest sign you've got a deeper problem is if they come back after this treatment. That means that what you plucked was only a small part of a much bigger fungus, growing under or around the original mushroom. This is a problem that can be solved either with extreme dry and heat (if you think the area is small, take a blow drier to it), or with whatever the mushroom is growing on being completely removed. Mushrooms feed on the remains of dead plants and animals, and wood that is being used in a house is a dead tree, so it can pop up anywhere.
Finally. If you see the dreaded black mold, GET THE HELL OUT. Black mold CAN harm you. It is extremely toxic and can cause vomiting, diarrhea, , and it can also grow inside of your own lungs, since they too are wet, warm, and dark. It can even cause leprosy and pulmonary hemorrhaging. If you have a little spot, say growing on grout or something, you can clean it yourself while WEARING a mask. Douse the area with bleach - yes, bleach. Leave it sit for fifteen or more minutes. Now, here's the kicker. You have to clean it up. Go back in and scrub it with a sponge until the affected area is the colour it's supposed to be. But remember, mask and gloves. And if the affected area is large enough, you're going to have to have someone do this for you professionally.
This is what you get from watching the Discovery Health channel six hours a day.
Good luck with your fungi! |
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7452. Tom 7 (ip67-152-86-163.z86-152-67.customer.algx.net) –
04 Aug 2008 23:13:50
[ Marathon managed! ]
Soph: That's the plan! But I guess I'll have to find a race between now and then, or else it won't be until 2010...
Bioch: I know, won't it be awful when I turn 30 in almost 14 months? OLD
MK: I dunno. I think I am pretty well addicted to it now. On Thursday and Friday before the race I wasn't running because I was "tapering" and I literally caught myself pacing around my apartment thinking, Something is Wrong? What is wrong? And it was that I had not run that day. It is important to me because feeling fit is important, I wanna be able to eat what I want, and that time spent doing something difficult and introspective makes the rest of everything seem easier. You are definitely right that I have the personality for approaching lots of things this way. Usually that's good, but not always.
R: Subscription confirmed. 4a0e83f0a030c0eb3015671 Thanks!
Everyone: Okay, I must have made too big of a deal about a long boring post because almost everyone seems to feel the need to tell me that it wasn't that bad or actually that they enjoyed the description. To me this kind of thing just doesn't seem that creative or interesting, it just sorta seems like navel-gazing about something that is kind of an individual thing (and risks sounding like boasting, which I do not want to do). Point taken, and thank you for the encouragement. |
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7450. Scott/Graue (ip70-179-119-114.dc.dc.cox.net) –
04 Aug 2008 20:54:59
[ Marathon managed! ]
Why so self-deprecating? This post _is_ about an interesting project. Congrats! I really like how you shared all the details... it almost makes me feel like I coulda run the marathon too (but I know I couldn'a). |
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7449. Ryan (nc-63-173-123-143.sta.embarqhsd.net) –
04 Aug 2008 20:21:27
[ Marathon managed! ]
subscribe
nice work! |
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7448. Ryan (nc-63-173-123-143.sta.embarqhsd.net) –
04 Aug 2008 20:21:07
[ Marathon managed! ]
unsubscribe |
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