Perla Vardo, The Forgotten Toy (Part 3)

Perla decided that simply loafing around wouldn't work, so he decided to strike out in a random direction, and hope that something good would happen. He wished that he could follow something obvious, like the lemon scented soap, but the trail had simply stopped at the foot of the slide. His meandering brought him to a happily painted tunnel: the right side of the tunnel was bright red, the left side a vibrant indigo, the floor a brilliant shade of jade, and the ceiling was purple. Not royal purple mind you, but the fluffy purple that looks like the colour a cloud would be in your dreams. And much to the relief of Perla, there was electric lights.

Every now and then, Perla would notice a clear glass cube fused into the wall so that the wall was still smooth. Looking through the clear cube, each time he would notice a bookshelf full of books. This was quite confusing to poor Perla, because he could see no way to go and read the books, even if one was on the other side of the wall.

After several long hours of walking, Perla finally reached the end of the hallway. There were three different doors. The one in the center had a symbol like a chicken's foot with a circle centered at the middle prong. The door on the left had the words “Cesium Gurnard “, and it did not have a symbol. The door on the right had no symbol or words, but it had an ominous feeling to it. Perla chose the door in the middle for absolutely no reason, except maybe that he seemed to be drawn to it by an unseen force...

Inside there room, there was nothing but a giant lever. Perla wasn't the most sensible toy in the world, but even he knew that the lever was bad news. Still, he couldn't help but pull it once, just to see what it did. The metal lever screeched in distress at it went down, followed by an awful rumbling. The stone in the room shook and shook, but eventually all was still. In the center of the room, right behind the lever, water that seemed to be suspended in the air seemed to go through a hole in the ceiling. The water, oddly enough, happened to be block shape, and there would be plenty of room for Perla to be completely surrounded by the liquid,

Perla had seen enough strange things in the last day to last him a lifetime, so he ran back to the door he had entered from. Locked. Gulping nervously (if that is even possible due to the fact that he doesn't have a throat), he stepped into the suspended water. For some reason or other, Perla began to rise. And rise he did, faster and faster, until he was almost as sick as he had been when he was on the slide, near the start of his adventure.

Then, pop! He was on the top of dry brown soil. He was back on the surface! But the surface that he had left was a different one than the one he saw right now. Red, hot flames seemed to engulf everything around him. Trees, houses, towns, cities, nations, continents, they were all doomed. He was safe where he was, but anyone seeing the horrific sight would think that it was the end of the world (which it so happened to be). Ragnarök was here. Despite his earlier fear of fire, a malevolent smile crept onto Perla's face. "Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all, he though...".

The End

I'm actually pretty proud of this story, I think it is one of my better works. Just a little bit about the picture: I made it through Minecraft, but it was deceptively long to make, it took me well over a hour to get everything ready. Also, the colours aren't perfectly the same as what I described in the story, but that's okay :)

Perla Vardo, The Forgotten Toy (Part 2)

The old house, an old mansion really, seemed to never be quite the same when Perla went exploring (which wasn't a uncommon thing for him to do, the daily routine of living with other toys could often get boring). Where he once could of sworn was a bedroom, was suddenly, the next time he came through, a hallway. Still, he always managed to find his way back to the nursery, where all the toys lived. One day, Perla was exploring. This probably had something to do with the fact that the other toys were quite annoyed at him at the time (the kewpie doll said that his eye would never be the same after the nitric acid incident).

As he weaved his way through the twisted hallways, he came across a trail of liquid soap. He bent down to smell it; lemon scented. The trail lead to giant door that he was sure he had never seen before. He hopped up, and tried to catch the metal ring that served as the door handle in his teeth. Finally, after much difficulty (it was a heavy door), he managed to open the entrance. He looked into the half-darkness, and from the light that filtered in behind him, he saw what looked to be a giant spiraling slide that seemed to go down for miles and miles. The trail of lemon soap covered the entire slide, all the way to the bottom.

As he was pondering what to do, Perla inched forwards to see all that he could. Suddenly, his yellow foot slipped on some of the soap. He landed on his bottom, and the next thing he knew, the air was whooshing past him as he went down the side. The high velocity of his body surprised him; he had no idea that anyone could go so fast! When he finally got to the bottom of the slide, he was a little discombobulated, and he was also wondering if the soap stains would ever get out of his fabric body.

The giant cavern had very little light: besides the spot of light at the the top of the slide where he had come from, there were some torches mounted about four metres up the wall. The fiery light gave the giant cave quite a atmosphere, although the flames themselves disturbed Perla a good bit (flammable toys are very cautious among fire, for obvious reasons).

Perla Vardo, The Forgotten Toy

I don't know what to write about, so I'll just do a short story. I have no idea, plot, or anything really. I'll just let it flow and hope that an alright result comes forth.

Long, long ago, there was a little pile of fluff named Perla Vardo. He lived in a great old house, that creaked in the night, like old houses often do. He was a yellow plush toy, shaped somewhat like a cat or dog, hand sewn by some caring mother's hand. Several bits of fabric were patched in some places, often with fabric an entirely different color than his natural yellow. He had green eyes, and the insides of his ears were pink. Certain individuals would call him "malevolent", even though he was anything but. In his opinion, of course.

Sure, he was often a mischievous toy, but nothing more than the tan horse, dusty on the shelf, who often would mention that he was too breakable to touch. And he wasn't nearly as arrogant as the tin solder, in his crisp red uniform, and his gold buttons. Even though the other toys had plenty of adventures themselves, enough to fill volumes of books, this story will focus on old, forgotten, Perla.

Every now and then, Perla and the other toys would wonder why there was no humans in the house. Did they at one point have owners, but then the owners moved away? They didn't have any memory of it, all the toys had had always just remembered living the house. Once or twice, they had asked the oldest toy there, an aging teddy bear named Tu, if he knew anything about it. Even at the best of times, Tu could only manage a word or two through the frayed piece of fabric, half as long as it used to be, that served as his mouth. On one occasion, when they asked him about it, he limply rose his left arm halfway in the air, and mumbled something about "ruranog cumign". The other animals supposed that he was simply deranged, and took no heed to his words (which sounded like gibberish to them, anyway).

To be continued, cause I'm too lazy to write it all today...

Psychology

I don't like psychology, particularly child psychology. Just the thought that us children grow, and think in a particular way is kind of odd. Doesn't our culture stress individuality? So why would we think in the same pattern as someone else in our age group?

Really anything that delves into why we think what we think. You know, tv shows that say "They would learn better like this" or "That child is disrespectful because of this". I for one think that our minds are too complex to completely understand with mere speculation. Especially things that are directed towards the parents of teenagers. The full proof guide for tricking your teen to be super obedient? Yeah, I read that too. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be obedient, and luckily my parents have for the most part refrained form using junk like that, but still.

Now, I am just saying this from a layman's point of view. I don't know much about psychology, and for all I know it is a valuable tool. Or not. But, to be fair, a word often used is "tendencies", which means you won't do something for sure, it's just probable. But, it isn't ALWAYS used.

Maybe the reason that I'm having this tirade is not because psychology is bad, but because I, myself, don't want others to predict what I think. Now that I think about it, the psychologists aren't bad. I just get a little annoyed when they write books about it.

Making a Post = Meh

I should be writing a post right now. Something that will make you laugh, cry, or at least enlighten you to the full scope of nuclear physics. Or, at the very least, tell you about my cat. Oh wait, I don't have a cat. No matter. Anyway, instead, I'm just blah. I usually have either the post written, partly written, or a nugget of an idea the day before. I tried that yesterday, but at a bad time. While I was driving. I've had my learners permit for almost two years, so I've got highway driving down. It doesn't take much effort to do it. Sadly, I wasn't too familiar with where I was driving, and the conversation went a little something like this:

My Dad: "You know that the speed limit is 55, right?
Me (going 65): "Uh, YEAH! Just kinda missed the last sign..."

Repeat two or three times. So, it was obvious that I couldn't think up an idea yesterday night, but I had all of the morning and afternoon of today! School? Pshaw. This is more important.

It's odd. I feel like taking part in a philosophical debate, but not something as simple as writing a blog post. I'm weird...

So many things that I should be doing right now, but my mind is kind of hibernating. So, what do I do when I can't think up of a post? I write a post about not being able to write a post. And guess what? IT COUNTS, ABBY! If you have doubts, I can always sing a song. Maybe one about cake...

Ice Cream

I don't really like ice cream. It's an odd thing to say, due to the fact that it seems like at least half of our nation's youth are addicted to the stuff, I'm simply meh about it. Just what is the thing about ice cream that is actually delicious? What logical argument can someone give?

I don't hate ice cream, I just don't adore it. With one exception, if it is soft ice cream (like from Dairy Queen), that's okay, but still, not fantastic. But hard ice cream, I just don't have any joy in eating it. It's cold, sure, but a glass of water could help keep you cool. And although some types have nice flavors, most of them you can't even taste.

That being said, I like the toppings that can be put on ice cream. Chocolate sauce, sprinkles, oreo bits, chocolate chips, it's all good stuff. I actually prefer just eating the toppings without the ice cream (although whenever this is done in public, I usually get a strange look or two).

Maybe part of it is that terrible feeling when the cold ice cream accidentally hits your teeth, instead of your tongue. Just thinking about it makes me shudder in pain.

Walkthrough, Or No Walkthrough

Fact: Braid is an amazing platform puzzle game.
Fact: In the first five levels of Braid, there are 60 puzzle pieces to collect.
Fact: You can not move on to the final level until you have them all.
Fact: I have found 59 of 60 pieces.
Question: Do I use a guide for the last (basically impossible) piece?

Walkthroughs, occasionally the bane of a gamer's existence. Are you really bad at the game that you need someone to hold you by the hand every step of the way? What was the point of buying the game if someone else was going to solve the puzzles?

That being said, I'm no stranger to looking up a guide. For example, if you play a game like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you are going to miss a ton of extra things (such as magic caves) if you don't use a guide. Of course, many people get by without one, but...

I actually have been pretty happy with myself lately. Most of the games that I have been playing recently, I finished without a guide. But Braid DOES have some pretty difficult puzzles.

Would it be worth it using a guide? I've spent hours trying to figure out the puzzle, but I have had no luck so far. Usually, I use a guide only for the following reasons:
1. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for the answer and I just can't find it.
2. Bonus content I would otherwise skip by.
3. It would save me time by not going to every location in a gigantic world to test every far-flung theory I might have.

Braid IS very difficult, but that might be reason NOT to use a guide. The satisfaction of managing to beat it entirely on my own would be really nice.

I've thought about it, and I think I'll do it just by myself this time. I guess this blog post was more for me than for you; it was to orchestrate my thoughts. I think I now have a nugget of idea of how to beat it. Let's see how that works out...

I should probably mention a little something about Braid itself. It was made by independent developer Jonathon Blow. Even though I'm playing it on the PC, it is also available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Although when you first play it you might be tempted to think that it is simply a Mario clone, trust me, it is anything but. You have almost absolute control of time.

And unlike other games that have time control mechanism, such as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, there is no limit to how long you can use your powers, and how far back you can go. For example, if you fall into a pit and die,  you just press your handy "Shift" key and go back in time before you jumped. Then you leap over the pit with a more precisely timed jump. If that was all there was to it, Braid would be fantastically easy. The purpose of the game is to fond all the puzzle pieces, which forces you to stretch your ingenuity in different directions.

However, there really is more to it. How can you not mention the "sorry, but the princess is in another castle" line (which is a reference to Mario) and the water-colour background. And then there is the story. It doesn't make too much sense to me, but it is a story of regret. I think. Maybe.

This post seems to be a two-in-one. I discussed if  should use a walkthrough, and I put in a plea for you to play Braid.

Edit: HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!! I BEAT THE GAME :):):) It was definitely worth it :D I still don't understand the story much more, though.

The Adventures of a Dumb Handwriting Instrument

Note: In the rules of the "one post a day challenge" that myself and Abby are having, it is stated that if someone knows ahead of time that they won't get on the internets for a day, they can write two posts the day. I'm not going to be on tomorrow, so in accordance with the rules I am doing two posts today.

So, I decided that I wanted to write a short story for this post. A problem is that I was afraid that the post would basically just be a clone of short story that someone else had written (specifically, two short stories that Abby wrote for her blog that I really enjoyed: "The Land Of The Lost Socks" and "The Purple Unicorn"). I was also worried about length. I didn't want to do a story with humans in it, because I don't think I would have time to develop the personalities of the characters. Therefor, I decided on something a little shorter. I hope you enjoy it!

Just yesterday, a pen named Bill went on a walk. Bill was a fancy pencil, with an alabaster coloured core, and gold trim. Bill found himself in front of a sign, and a deep, deep hole. The sign read "Bottomless Pit. Signing of waver required before jumping in". Bill, of course, as any responsible ballpoint would, filled out the insurance form and leapt into the hole. He fell, and fell, and fell. Eventually, after a few days of constant descent. He died. The person who made the hole, of course, was not liable because of the waiver he had signed.

The End

Didn't think it would be THAT short, did you? :P

Paperclip Films

A Youtube channel that I have been enjoying lately is PaperclipFilms. There are three guys work together to make the videos: Jon Mullen, and Gary and Grant Gasse. The videos that they end up making are of very high quality, and best of all, they are hilarious. Although for the most part unknown, they recently got a (must deserved) Youtube partnership. Some of you might be familiar with the videos that first somewhat thrust them into the public's eye: The Anti-Social videos. This particular series of videos shows a (saw that coming) anti social homeschooler that (Gasp!) got an IM from a (Gasp!) girl. This of course, was in parody, because they were homeschoolers at the time. Sadly, because of there Youtube partnership, Paperclip Films had to take the videos off of there channel (they can still be found here http://vimeo.com/20795077).

Some of there videos are better than others. For example, I adore the video "Jim's Brain" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBPrF6M-ibo). It's the kind of video that you can watch over and over again and still laugh like a lunatic. Yet, a video like "A Slap in the Face" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wwoqxaBtEc) seems like it could be funny for some people, but just not for me. And then there are videos like "Facebook Privacy: A New Approach" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1b7nuo55k8&feature=relmfu) that are funny to everyone.

So, these guys really deserve more attention. If you want to subscribe to a nice, funny, and clean channel, Paperclip Films is for you.

Sorry about the links, they don't seem to be working, so I just gave the address. I'm not really satisfied with this post, it doesn't seem very well written, but I guess that's okay. The thing I'm aiming for in doing one post a day is quantity, not quality, right?

Portal 2

You know what I could be doing right now? I could be explaining why I've been posting so often these last few days, I could say how I'm competing with my friend/nemesis Abby to see who can blog at least once per day the longest. I could say how you should check out her blog, http://fabbylous.wordpress.com/. But I'm not. I'm gonna talk about Portal 2

I have anticipated playing Portal 2 for a long time. It was released a few days ago, and yet I'm not playing it. Why? BECAUSE MY COMPUTER'S GRAPHICS CARD CAN'T HANDLE HOW AMAZING IT IS! If you have played/own/are about to own/heard of Portal 2, you have probably heard that excuse from me several times. At least I didn't buy the game only to find out it didn't work, I checked specs and it looked like it couldn't handle it.

Yeah, I'm pretty sad. What can I do to deal with this anguish? I watched a few trailers and demos. I believe there were fifteen of them in all. I was taken aback by how it not only LOOKED amazing, but how intricate the puzzles could be. I was practically drooling.

I then looked up the final credits song. If you didn't know, one of the main reasons that the original Portal was so amazing was the incredible closing credits song ("Still Alive", by Jonathon Coulton, one of the best songwritters ever). So, Jonathon Coulton (often referred to as "JoCo" by his fans") also wrote the song for Portal 2. The best thing would of been for me to wait until I play the game (which probably won't be for awhile), and discover the song in all it's glory. But I didn't.

The physics look amazing. That's why the original Portal was so cool, the physics were absolutely groundbreaking. This time around, there are quite a few new tools at the player's command. Boy, it looks so fun...

This is a pretty odd post about a game. Despite the fact how AMAZING Portal 2 is/will be (for me), I haven't actually played it, so I can't actually tell you much about. If you really want to know, look up a real review. There's an internets out there: use it.

Maybe denial will work? Is it possible that if I just focus on replaying some classic Sam and Max games I will actually forget about Portal 2?

Sam and Max

This isn't working. I guess somedays a homicidal computer AI beats a hyperkonetic rabbity thingy. Not all day days. But sadly, today.

The Art Of Making Good Usernames

To join a website these days, you have to have a username. Sadly, there is more to it than just typing in "GregoryLOLOLOLOL___72". Actually, if your username is anything like "GregoryLOLOLOLOL___72", I will find you. And teach you proper username making technique (wait, that's what I'm doing right now!).

I have had plenty of usernames in the past, and a few are a little N00bish. Actually, of all the usernames I've ever had, I can only think of four of them that were any good. Still, I've come a long way since then :)

Whatever you do, DON'T put ANY underscores or numbers in your username. I know on sites like Ebay if the username you chose hasn't been taken, they might give you a substitute one that's really, really bad. Still, many people choose them anyway, not caring what there username looks like.

Use real words, but if the word you want isn't there, change the word up a bit so that it still resembles the original word, but it has its own style. For example, if you liked the word "emerald" but it was already taken, you might use "endarald". I mean, you wouldn't want your username to be "table", but there are plenty of other good words out there. Even better, put words together to make a sentence that is to your liking. (NOT using underscores).

Don't put your name in the username, and don't use your initials. My mom hasn't figures out how to properly make a username yet, and I once saw one that she had made for a website. It was "Marcialady". I think she might of had some underscores and numbers after it too. Learn from her mistake, and never, never do that. It looks really bad. (You don't care that I use you as an example, right Mom? No hard feelings?)

One thing that can look pretty cool is using words from Greek or some other foreign language.

Think up a name that you like, and use it in as many places as you can. For example, a username that I try to use as much as possible  is "Tamerlein". This happened to be a green rider sword from the Inheritance (Eragon) Cycle. I like it a lot, but it isn't perfect because every now and then someone else already made an account with that name, and I either have find a new one or change the letters a bit (like "Tamerlion" instead of "Tamerlein"). Luckily, this doesn't happen very much.

This post won't guarantee that you will make a good username, but (hopefully) it will make think a second before using the first username that pops into your head.

Math

I've realized something, I really like math. Not necessarily doing math, but talking about it. When I'm just hanging out with someone, it isn't uncommon for me to ask what kind of math they are in. It's something that I can easily relate to, due to the fact that a large chunk of my day is spent doing it. It's weird, really. If school is done for the day, why would anyone else want to talk about math of all things?

I also like to tell people younger than me how to do more advanced math. It's not teaching, really. Just sharing what I know.

Then there are the people who do math that is beyond what I'm doing right now. I enjoy learning new concepts that I won't be using for awhile.

At the same time, I can be annoyed at doing math. Sometimes I can enjoy doing it, but often it seems repetitive. Just doing the same thing over, and over, and over again. I can get boring after awhile. And then other times, it seems like the whole world should be like math. You think about it, do the problems, and you're done. It's pretty simple. But sadly, the world isn't like that...

Why am I so comfortable in the wild and wacky wonderland of hyperbolas, logarithms, binomials, and trigonometric functions? I don't know. Sometimes I can't understand all if it, but when I really get it, when it all makes absolute sense, that's cool. It's kind of neat to be able to write a gigantic equation that takes an enormous amount of space, and realize that you understand all of it. If someone asked me to explain the entire problem, showing evidence for everything along the way, I could do it.

Now I'm wondering what I will do my senior year in math. I've got calculus next year, but then I'm done. What will it like to do an entire school year without doing any math? Will I even be able to function?

Hah, I said function without even thinking about. It really isn't funny, but it's math. MATH!

Dandelions

I recently noticed some dandelions growing on the grass. Not only does it mean that Spring is in full bloom, but it reminds me of something. When I was younger, one of the only ways for myself and my siblings to earn money (except for allowances) was to rid our lawn of dandelions. I remember the rate: for every two dandelions that we picked we would get one penny. Now I don't remember if the rate changed when we moved from Canada to the United States, but I'll always remember that rate.

We had to be quick about it too, if we waited too long the dandelions would turn white, and the seeds would swoop across the yard. This of course meant that there would be more dandelion plants next year, which sometimes sounded like not too bad an idea if we wanted to earn more money.

One summer, I remember getting twenty dollars for picking dandelions. Doing the math now, I see that I picked around 4000 plants. Would I show that much dedication for a job now, if I knew that I would only get twenty dollars? (Which is well beneath minimum wage).

It's odd to think about it now, though. Because most of the work was in vain. The dandelions would come right back the next summer if we didn't yank the taproot, and the lawnmower did a much better job than me, Emily, or Stephen. Yet my parents let us do the job anyway, a chance to do good, honest, yet most certainly monotonous labor.

Therefor, dandelions will always hold a special memory for me. How can I forget all those summers of getting my hands stained from the milky substance inside, for slaves wages? I hate to see yet another portion of the younger bit of my childhood going away.

Mock Trial (Again)

I noticed that even though I mentioned the State competition, I never posted again to say how it went. Now most of you don't care, but that doesn't really matter. I don't know why I'm posting now, after State has been done for several weeks, but you probably deserve to know what happened.

First of all, we didn't do well or anything. No one expected we would, we all knew that we wouldn't be as well prepared as the other teams. Still, I think we had a fair showing.

But the thing is, the thing that will stick with me long after Mock Trial is done is not the actual competition, but hanging out with friends. There are so many good times, quote after quote that can remind me of it. After the competition was over, before we all headed back to Marion from Des Moines, all the families went to Culver's for dinner. The adults sat at one row of tables, the younger siblings sat at one table, and all of the team members (that would be ten, plus two guys from team 1 that came to help out) scrunched together at one table. Of course, we were all still in our suits, but it was a great time. Actually, it was more than just a great time. Honestly, I had a ridiculous amount of fun there. I guess I hadn't really done that before, hang out with friends at a restaurant. When I think about it, if I was given the choice of either going to State and competing, or just hanging out at Culver's, I would of picked Culver's.

Then, we had a party at the homeschool just last week. Looking back, it was ridiculously fun too. We hung out, ate food, signed each others T-shirts, and had a game of Apples to Apples with fifteen people. Yeah, I said that right, fifteen people. Apples to Apple is the kind of game that is more fun the more people that you have, especially if you have a fun group. And it doesn't take much to see that we had a fun group.

Well, I guess Mock Trial is finally done. Until next year!