Category Archives: Life

More Super Mario World

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I still remember Christmas in 1991 when my dad bit the bullet and spent $200 for a brand new Super Nintendo Entertainment System (just before the price dropped $20 at Toys R Us). The NES before it had been for him, but this baby was all for me. Super Mario World was the game that launched the system and I spent forever playing through it, discovering all of its secrets. I still remember the first time I beat it. Some of my cousins were staying over and we stayed up half the night playing through the last levels.

On more than one occasion I’ve sought a SNES emulator and a ROM to play this game again (my SNES is 10 hours away at my parents house). Now someone has made it possible to play brand new levels!

Lunar Magic is a level editor I created for Super Mario World (SNES). It’s the first and, as far as I know, the only level editor available for this game. I began looking into making an editor for it shortly after releasing the SoM VWF patch, mostly on a whim to see how hard it would be.

So yeah, ROMs aren’t technically legal. Did I say I’ve had them before? I was only kidding. Although, I do actually own the game. Doesn’t that make it slightly less illegal? Hey, look over there! *Downloads ROM for the nth time*

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Weather

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It’s been pretty scary lately. Now, hurricane Wilma has broken a record with the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. The weather the last few months reminds me of that episode of Family Guy where Peter tells everyone he’s healed Chris and they start worshipping him. He starts acting like God and when bad things start happening he doesn’t understand why, so Brian explains it to him.

You want an explanation? God…is…pissed.

Ok, back to work.

Almost There

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I am one test score away from being fully certified in my applications at Epic. I’ve only been there for four months now. The thing is, I’m not sure I passed the last test.

Once I got out of constant classes, I started getting assigned small scale development and a few projects all of which have kept me pretty busy. I don’t think I’m really supposed to be spending time at work studying anymore so I really didn’t review much before the test. Let’s hope that wasn’t a mistake.

Something strange happened today. One of my latest projects is to retrofit an older version of the software with some changes made by some official body regarding codes that go out on claims. Basically I look at another guy’s work and copy it over to an older version. Anyway, I start adding these codes and a good chunk of them dealt with abortions. Some of them were not that surprising like “abortion due to rape” or “abortion due to imminent danger to the mother,” but the last one was “elective abortion” and that just made me stop and think. I realize that abortions in healthcare are a fact of life, but it was still a little strange to be confronted with it like that.

The weather is finally acting like it’s supposed to, at least that’s what I hear. The A/C will probably be off for the rest of the year, and the bedroom will be nice and cool for sleeping. I’m looking forward to it, but first I catch up on some tech news.

Currently Watching: Angels vs. Yankees

Art Imitating Life

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If you’ve ever heard of the game World of Warcraft, you know that it is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). It’s one of those games that can consume your life if you’re not careful, which is just one excellent reason I’ve avoided it (others would be the cost, and limited free time now that I work 40+ hours per week).

Recently something pretty cool happened in the world of the game. Blizzard, the game maker, introduced a new area with a new boss. When players got there, a spell called Corrupted Blood was cast upon them. Here’s where things get interesting: when players returned to towns in the game, they brought the disease back with them. The result was a virtual plague that quickly spread throughout the game. It was strong enough to kill low level characters and must have been a serious pain even to those at higher levels.

The fact that the whole thing was never supposed to happen doesn’t really matter. The plague spread in a very “natural” way, imitating a real life scenario. I’d say that’s both really cool and pretty scary at the same time.

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LED Bulbs

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A few months ago I started looking into using CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs for our apartment. They cost significantly more than a standard incandescent bulb, but they last several years and use a lot less power so they quickly pay for themselves through energy cost savings. I decided to replace all of the light bulbs in our apartment with CFLs. Now there is something even better out there.

By bunching together groups of LEDs, manufacturers are creating new bulbs that use even less energy for the amount of light they put out. A flashlight that lasts for several years? I might have to look into that. Still, at current prices I’ll be waiting a while before getting rid of our CFLs for LEDs.

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Good Stuff

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It’s been a pretty good weekend. Yesterday was our team canoe trip and despite the weather, it was pretty fun. My shoulders are complaining about all that paddling, but I’ll survive. When we got back from there and warmed up a little, I found out that K-State football had a great day. So we lazed around for a while until the Wisconsin/Michigan game started at five. That was one of the best games I’ve seen in a long time.

After it ended I met up with people from work and we went downtown, which was absolutely insane. Getting there in a cab wasn’t a problem, but getting back was a pain. Milio’s actually ran out of bread and had to sell everyone jalapeño wraps. Maybe it was the alcohol, but it tasted better than the regular sandwich! Finally got home around four, took a quick shower and crashed.

It’s been raining off and on since the canoe trip yesterday and it’s on again right now. It’ll be a great day to veg out. I think Amber is making chili so I’ll get to see if I can stand to eat it for the rest of my life. 🙂

For your enjoyment: ping pong theatrics, what Jimmy should have bought but isn’t cool enough to have, and a little photo test.

Currently Playing: Battlestar Galactica – Home: Part I