Bored Dumb

Nothing new! I'm not going to work on Chess today. Probably not tomorrow either.

Actually, I do have something new. I came up with a killer idea for another novel. And I also came up with a way to tie it in with all my other novels. But I'm not going to give it out here...someone might steal it!

Maybe sometime later I might work on it, but I'm still trying to get the first one done.

Well, not really doing anything else.

So...until next time, remember: All great ideas come from other good ideas, not-so-good ideas, and even-worse-than-purple-ketchup ideas.

---TDM

Monday Slumday

Well, it seems I made it through another Monday alive.

One thing, though: I was in Italian class today, and there's one word that I keep forgetting, so I have to look it up every time I see it. The word is sperare and it means "to hope". So I can quite literally say that "hope" is not in my vocabulary.

Chess, however, is another story. I've made significant progress on the loading section of the game, but it's still not fully functional yet. I suppose I could work on that today, but I might not. I'm not feeling particularly inspired today.

Here's a little word puzzle for you today.

Ph.D. Ph.D. Ph.D.
FREEZING


The answer: 3 degrees above freezing.

So, until next time, remember: Everything we do is a function of t, where t=time, and "do"="procrastinate".

---TDM

Crazy People

Here's something interesting. Take a look at Artful Looter. As an Unhinged card, it contains several jokes that aren't always quite discernible. Here's what I've found so far:

• Its ability is the same as that of Merfolk Looter and it is named "Artful Looter"
• The painting it is stealing is the 7th Edition art of Merfolk Looter
• The windows are broken but the door is open.
• There is glass on the outside of the door, implying that the glass on the door was broken from the inside.

In the flavor text:

• The date of the paper is "Thursday April 1". The next time April 1st falls on a Thursday is 2006. The last time was 2000. (The date of the art was '03)
• The main headline "Priceless Pic Pilfered: Painting Found Abandoned in Graveyard" has alliteration (I don't know why), and the second line alludes to the discard portion of the ability.
• A smaller headline "Merfolk Decry Wizards' Treatment". The "Wizards", as in Wizards of the Coast, decided to remove the Merfolk as the blue race in the Core Set starting with 8th Edition. So the Merfolk are upset.
• The other small headline reads "Local Monster Goes AWOL: Police" and the rest is obscured. AWOL is another Unhinged card.

And that's all that I found.

Furthermore, Chess. I finished the "Save" portion of the program. But it's not worth anything if it can't be loaded, so I'm working on that now. Nothing else new.

Well, until next time, remember: Inside jokes are outside logic.

---TDM

Things you should be aware of

I'm going to open this post by telling you how I'll open this post. There. I did it.

Moving on, the holidays are approaching fast. Well, not really. They're getting closer at a rate of 1 (1 second per second). Never mind.

Anyways, I'm making some more progress on that Chess program. I wrote a few more songs on Punk-o-Matic. And I tried to post some songs on my home page, but that still doesn't work. Grrr.

I really have nothing else to say.

Until next time, remember: Say what you will, but mean what you say.

---TDM

Some More Things

Time for another riddle: You are a farmer. You have a tame wolf, a chicken, and a bag of feed at one side of your farm. It's starting to rain, so you have to bring them to your barn on the other side of the farm. However, you can only carry two things at a time. If you leave the chicken with the feed, it will eat it. If you leave the chicken with the wolf, the wolf will eat it. What do you do?

Sane answer: Take the chicken across the farm and leave it. Go back, then take the wolf and the feed to the barn.

However, by this time the rain has fallen and your feed is spoiled.

Not so sane (but much quicker) answer: Take the feed halfway across the farm, then turn back and pick up the wolf. Bring them to the barn, reach into the wolf's mouth, and pull the chicken out.

I don't know why I just posted that...kinda bored right now...

Until next time, remember: all great men start out "good".

---TDM

Stuff Done

And hello again! I've been thinking about working on the save/load portion of my Chess program, but that involves using either the Serializable interface or something I have to come up with myself.

And here's my problem with the Serializable interface: the Board object stores references to its Pieces and each Piece object has a reference to the Board. The Player object stores references to its Pieces, and each Piece object has a reference to its Player.

I think I'll have to come up with my own way of encoding these objects. Using Serializable will probably be too much work.

And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of making "invitations" to come either here or to my site...hmmm...

I think I should go work on my site right now.

Until next time, remember: All roads lead to mental institutions.

---TDM

Attack of the Killer...Somethings...

Couldn't post yesterday because of some computer troubles. I believe they've abated, but who knows for sure?

In any case, I've been making some progress on my story, but it's nowhere near finished. And Chess...is on standby. Haven't checked back at my website for awhile, maybe they've fixed the problem by now.

And that Star Command problem...I don't think I can really fix it...but I'm getting to understand the data files! Except the serialization codes... So I'll just have to start over--but I'm keeping those files backed up! And I'll back up my new files frequently, too!

Then...

I don't really have anything else to say...

If you're bored, check this out: goto EvilDog's website and open up Punk-o-Matic. Click 'Load' and paste this into the window at the bottom (be sure to remove any spaces if you've copied them, too):

----3-------3---0---1-1---4--0---80---0---0-4-3---3---3---4-0---0---0---0---1---4-9--0---1---5-5-0--40---410---7--4---10---457-0---2---5-5-5-94--1---0---1---4---9494--c--3--03--03--0353-0-4-7-737-78-a-4-4a--3a4137-6-3--03--03--08-1--4-46-7-737-74843--0a--


Oh, yeah, it seems the post I made on Sunday didn't appear...figures...basically I was talking about how my weekend was horrible...I listed 3 bad things that happened. Maybe later I'll try to recreate it or something.

Until next time, remember: There are 3 types of people in this world: those who divide everything into two categories, those who don't, and dead people.

---TDM

Old Stuff, New Stuff, No Different

Well, another week of school has gone by, and I'm not much better off.

I don't really feel like working on Chess today, so instead I think I'll work on my novel. After all, I believe that is much more important.

And the Unhinged release event is on Sunday for me. I hope to go have fun (and win, of course).

Not really anything else.

One thing I do want to ask your opinion of, though:

I have an idea to print out little pieces of paper maybe slightly larger than business card size, saying, "You're invited to The Dark Man's Journal at www.thedarkman.blogspot.com" or something similar. Just to increase the traffic on this site (considering only one person I actually know reads this s***).

Until next time, remember: What isn't a lie isn't necessarily true, either.

---TDM

Apathy

Hey hey! It's Wednesday! That means absolutely nothing!

I may work on Chess later, but I might not.

One thing's for sure--today's a slow day. But I'm sure I can find something to do other than work...like a game...of Chess? Gaah! I keep coming back to that!

And apparently the Unhinged thing is on Sunday...but that's for another day (Sunday)!

Ah, well, if I can't find anything else to do, I'll work on more Punk-o-matic songs. Remember, they're located on EvilDog's web site.

Here's one of my songs as an mp3: Restless Dreams. (I'm just testing the link to see if it works, which it doesn't :P)

Till next time, remember: what doesn't work and never has probably just if missing a semicolon at the end of a line.

---TDM

Monday all over again

Yep, another Monday. And it's 5:00 now, so I guess I'm not gonna get any work done (rationally).

However, I did finish most of my Chess game. I got the gameplay and the checkmate checking completed! Yay! All that's left:

• Save/Load
• AI
• Icons, so you don't have to look at "WK" and guess whether it's a King or Knight (I should probably change that, too.)
• Stalemate checking (though that shouldn't be too difficult, I guess)

Yup.

Till next time, remember: More or less, less is more.

---TDM

Great Ideas

Some more progress on Chess has been made! Yay! Castling works now! I'm currently working on checking for checkmate.

I finished The Dark Tower late Friday night, and it was a great finish to the Dark Tower cycle. I highly recommend them all.

I suppose I really should say something else, but I got nothing.

Howzabout a riddle?

You have two coins totaling 55 cents. One of them is not a nickel. What are the coins?

Answer: The coin that is not a nickel is a half-dollar. The other is a nickel.

Till next time, remember: logical thinking means being as illogical as possible.

---TDM

Unfortunate Circumstances

I've lost faith in most of mankind. I just finished reading a few articles on how Kerry and the Democrats are horribly anti-Semitic, and how Bush is good for the Jewish people and Israel. It disheartens me to learn that the party I had placed my hope in is so actively against me.

I will now retract what I said about Bush on Wednesday the 3rd, because it seems that Kerry fits the description more accurately. Now I don't know how to vote in the next presidential election, and I don't know how to decide, but now I'm in a quandary:

Democrats are anti-Semitic. Catholics (who voted mostly for Bush because of moral issues) don't care for the Jews.

(If you haven't guessed by now, I'm Jewish.)

I'm always afraid that something will happen to us--like a Holocaust sponsored by the US government, especially after that glorious anti-Semitic Mel Gibson movie came out (and all the Catholics watched it religiously, even sending their kids to see it through the schools).

*Sigh*....

Despite how many Jew-haters there are, despite the fact that they outnumber the two-hundredths of a percent of Americans that are Jewish, life goes on.

And I must continue with Chess.

Sorry for dragging you all through today's dirt. I'm just feeling particularly down today.

Oh yeah, I just read a great quote from Stephen King's "The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower":

"When I die, I want to go peacefully, in my sleep, like Grandpa Fred. Not screaming, like the passengers in his car."

Till next time, remember: ...ah, forget it.

---TDM

GRRR!!!!!

I'm so pissed off. I can't get the site to work at all now. Even the link I put under my profile doesn't work.

I'm most likely going to abandon the web site. I can't get it to work as I had wanted. Turns out the web host isn't as great as it seems.

I'm removing the link on the right, but not the one in the post a few days back. I'm lazy that way. You can still visit the site, but it won't amount to much unless I can figure out how to solve all these problems that are occurring.

Till next time, remember: It's healthy to take out your anger on something every now and then (especially if you suffer from stress (Translation: especially if you live)).

---TDM

Piles of Boredom

Here's a riddle for you:

You're out camping (somewhere). It gets really dark and you enter a cave for the night. You take out your flashlight--your batteries are dead. (Figures, huh?) You rummage through your pack, and you find a candle, a lantern, a road flare, and a log (for a fire?). Unfortunately you only have one match. Which do you light first?

(That's my attempt to recall that riddle from the last time I heard it.)

The answer will appear at the end of this post. Ponder the answer as you read.

Okay, I worked on Chess yesterday, and I worked on the site, (but it still doesn't work!!) and last night I realized that my life was headed absolutely nowhere so I decided I would either work on Chess or my novel instead of lounging all the time working on my site. But I'm such a lazy case that it probably won't really happen...for a while.

I don't have anything else for you at this time....

The answer to the riddle is....

"The match, of course!"

Till next time, remember: People are the leading cause of headaches ages 16-24.

---TDM

Loads of Nothing

Computer crashed again, just before I logged in to post here. :(

First order of business, my website: I can't figure out how to post my mp3s on the site. If anyone knows the html code to do that, please respond here. I'm trying to fix the problem myself, too, but any other help will be appreciated. (Plus you'll get to hear my songs as I post them on my site.)

Secondly, Chess. Using a JFrame, I can intercept the exit when the user clicks on it through my "File" menu, but when the 'x' in the corner is clicked, I can't stop the closing (even by using a windowClosing listener). Again, help? please?

Third: Chess. It seems like castling is currently illegal ("You're under arrest for castling! You have the right to remain silent...Any piece you touch on your turn must be moved if possible.") and all other bugs I am chasing with a hammer. (Ain't that a pretty picture?)

Those of you who want to reply to this post, you have until I post again tomorrow. That's the deadline. Hopefully by then, someone (or me) will have solved the problems.

I have nothing more to say. I will update my web page as I can, but...I'm lazy! Deal with it!

---TDM

Website up!

After a long time of fighting with FrontPage to publish my files, I finally give up and just upload the darn htm file.

You can view my web site at http://thedarkman.freelinuxhost.com. Don't forget to bookmark it!
I'll put it somewhere here, too...

And anyway, there's not really anything else to say right now. I'm going to work on my web page some more, but there's no real guarantee that anything will ever get done. (ha ha)

As for Chess, I'll work on that today if I have the time (again, no guarantees. I'm sorry, I know how much you all wanted to see that finished in your lifetimes...)

One last thing before I go: I've enabled any person (fictitious or real) to post comments here. So go ahead, but please don't abuse this. I can turn it off whenever I want to.

Till next time, remember: Program and let program.

---TDM

For Lack of a Better Title

Just when you think you're sane, you're presented with proof that you're not. But I won't go into that! (You all already know that much.)

In any case, I should probably be working on some project I've been putting off...but it's so much fun to simply not do it! Right now I'm recording a few of my Punk-o-Matic songs into mp3s. I probably will put them up on my website. (when I get one--too bad for procrastination!) Till then, you'll have to wait. (Maybe I'll do that today.)

Well, there isn't anything else to report at this time. I'll go make myself useful...(er...more useful than I already am?)

---TDM

Return to the Land of Computing

After two whole days away from a computer, I'm finally back to continue my work on my various, incomplete (and far from it) projects.

The last time I ran my Chess program, I was able to move a Piece. The screen sorta froze at that point. I had assumed that what it was doing was a complete drain on the processor.

I just found what was causing the problem. The problem is in the following code segment:

while (isValid(newloc)) {
if (!isEmpty(newloc)) return objectAt(newloc);
newloc=loc.nextLocation(dir);
}

The method nextLocation(dir) returns the neighbor of the location loc. Because loc is not changing, neither is newloc, and the loop continues indefinitely. I'm going to change the last line to

newloc=newloc.nextLocation(dir);

recompile and try it again.

YAY! It allows me to move without freezing. But, I can't move my black pawns because then the white queen checks my black king (!) and there seem to be some other problems, too.

I'm going to work on them now.

Until next time, remember that small errors lead to big problems.

---TDM

Fiction Day

Well, since I'm not actually yet leaving, I've got most of the day to do some creative work. I could work on my novel, or some music, such as Punk-o-Matic (at Marco Arsenault's site), or Chess.

There are so many things I have yet to finish! (I should probably get started instead of posting here all the time.) My work is never finished. At least I have some things to do on my days off and in my free time. (Perhaps I should also finish that book I'm reading...)

Anyways, see ya later.

---TDM

Wednesday down, still more to go

Well, now, I suppose I should actually write something meaningful in this space...

I'm feeling much better today, and I might actually get some work done on...something. I don't plan on working on Chess today, but maybe something else.

The election is over, Kerry lost, :P. All I have to say is that Bush's reelection is the precursor to the fall of American civilization. Now before anyone (a Republican?) argues with me about that, allow me to say that electing Kerry would only have delayed the inevitable for a few years. I don't know exactly when the end will come, but I strongly believe it will.

I just hope they don't draft me. I'll leave the country to avoid serving if I don't believe in the cause.

Prediction for Bush term 2 (would it technically be 3?): War in another country, Middle East, mid-2005. More amendments to take away people's rights. [If you haven't been able to tell by now, I'm a Democrat.]

I feel really bad about voicing all my concerns like this, but what else is a blog for?

In other news, it's time to abandon all rational thought. I'm going away for a few days, and you'll have to entertain yourself by rereading this post over and over again. (or just wait till I return.) You'll hear from me when I get back.

---TDM

Not too good

What a bad day. Got one helluva headache several hours ago and I still have it.

I just can't really think straight right now.

I might not get any work done on Chess today, certainly not my novel. Can't get onto my music site...I'll try tomorrow.

2 is my new unlucky number.

Not to mention, of course, the freaking election. Make no mistake, choosing one candidate over the other will very likely lead to either a collapse of American society, or the destruction of the entire world.

Did you know it was the Romans' taxing system that caused them to fall? The poor class couldn't pay their taxes, the upper class were too snobby to do so, and so the middle class got the brunt of the taxation. And so...did Rome fall. (I wonder if Rome fell in a day...)

Nothing else new...I suppose eventually I'll make a new website...but a while later.

...

I'm gonna go insert a counter here...cause I want to see how many people actually put up with my ramblings.

A New Beginning

Hello and welcome once again. After being locked out of my geocities account, I've decided to relocate to blogger and....well...blog. I'm not really certain whether I'll be able to post things like my fantasy Magic Cards, or anything else I happen to come up with.

In current news, Unhinged release events coming up on November 20. I'm hoping I can go, but conflicts tend to arise at bad times. I suppose we'll see.

My Chess program is well under way at this point, and all that needs to be done are the piece icons, the stalemate checking, the save/load feature, GUI, AI, and debugging issues. It sounds like a lot, but I'm doing a lot of work every day. I'll keep you updated.