Anyway, I will post some random stuff now, with pictures!
First of all, I've began a new hobby: photography.
Taking pictures is something I've always enjoyed, but I've never owned a quality camera before, and for some reason even though I periodically research them a bit and check prices just to stay up on them, I never really considered buying one. But I did. It's a Canon S80, 8.0MP, and I got a 2GB card for it. So far I really like it, the picture quality is excellent, and it has a lot of cool features. The only thing I would have prefered is a longer zoom, but I decided to forgo the A700's 6x zoom for the 8 megapixels. So far I don't regret my decision. I really have a lot to learn about photography, and since so far I've been obsesed with leaving it on fully manual mode, I take a lot of crappy pictures lol, but I figure that's the best way to learn.
Oh teh Metroid:
Yes, this is my Metroid collection, well, most of it. Missing are the boxes (I still have all the original boxes and instructions), the Metroid GameCube box (I bought my GameCube when they were doing that cool promotion with the Samus on the box and it included Metroid Prime with the Prime 2 demo disc and the Platinum GC for $99), and my bottle of Jones soda with the Metroid label. Someday I'll take a picture of everything together :).
Out of all those Metroids, there are only two I haven't beaten, Hunters, of course, because I just recently bought it, and believe it or not, the original.
What?! What Metroid fan can call themselves a fan without beating the original?! Well I'm sorry, but the original really isn't that fun, and that's comming from a guy who really likes Metroid II. Really, the main problem is that you always start with only 30 health, which means you either die and try again a lot or you sit in front of those pipe things and shoot the flyer guys until you have enough health to move on. It's tedius, and I just don't have the patients for that.
However, I am going though it for real, just to say I've beaten it. I'm doing the draw a map as you go, since everything looks the same.
Anyway, after I beat it and Hunters (which from what I've played I think is kinda short and easy, but the MP is supposed to be fun) I think I'll write what I think about each of them here. Because I can.
This is what I've been "working" on:
Really I've been working on the Scarlet version of the SnakeEngine (check a couple of the past entries if you really care), which so far has involved combining the Samus Sprite engine into it, because it didn't really need to be separate I decided, and making better text capabilities. Previous versions used some crappy windows bitmap font business, which was slow and not 3D. Now I use a font as a texture made from AngelCode's bitmap font generator. While I just did a simple implementation, so far it works infinitly better.
This is also what I've been "working" on:
Oh man, a beat up old car with its hood up and a part on the ground, that's not a good scene.
Wait...
Is that...is that a turbocharger sitting there?!
Why yes, yes it is.
So my brother an I have been hitting the junkyard looking for parts, and while there we found (well, he found it, I wasn't there that day) this, a Garret T-3 turbo out of a Merkur XR4Ti, as you can see the exhaust manifold is still connected, but we took that off. 'So...a turbo off a 4-banger, kinda small don't you think?' Actually, this is a pretty good sized turbo, much bigger than what you find on Eclipses and Volvos, and stock can push about 20psi. But yes, it's a bit small :), I don't feel like explaining now, since this entry is so long I'm sure I'm the only one still reading it, but if you think about it you'll probably understand why with a V-8 (or V-anything really), twin turbo is totally the way to go, and isn't any harder to do. So we've been looking for another turbo. Honestly, I'd be surprised if these ever ended up on my car, but hey, for 50 bucks for a turbo, they're nice to have around :).
I will however be putting money into my car this fall, mostly looking for junkyard upgrades, which are plentiful for 5.0 Mustangs, and I'll certainly document that here.
