Firstly, my graduation. No major celebration, our college wraps it into the senior prizegiving at the end of the year. Just a little saddening knowing that we may not see each other as a group again (except for the sign out day and leaver's dinner in December, and school reunions). The last hour of school we had together we all spent in the school's marae, and we shared stories, memories, contact details, and so on. Very emotional. That evening was graduation. Picking up the joint runner-up to Dux wasn't discouraging, but it was nice to know that the top 4 students in my year all knew each other fairly well, and chances are it was a close competition (or so my inside source tells me).
With college finishing, so was my *ahem* secret project for the last two months. It's a little hard to come out with this, so i'll just have to come right out and say this. For anyone that has known me over the last year or so, you'll know that i've been dropping some subtle and not-so-subtle 'clues', well, not really clues, but stuff that didn't really make a lot of sense. Hopefully this next section might clear up a few things.
Anyway, this idea originally started sometime back in mid June, when I thought it might be interesting to try and make a custom pack of cards. Now your probably thinking, "Yeah, so?", and i'm getting to the point, i'm just taking a scenic route. As i'm not a particularly good artist, I decided to just create each card face using Fireworks (not gunpowder set alight, I used Macromedia Firemorks MX). All 54 designs came out fine, all relatively simple to create. Next came the hard part: Printing them onto durable, poker-sized pieces of card. After trying to print onto old playing cards with the markings rubbed of with turpentine, I struck out after noticing that the ink wouldn't dry properly. After noticing that I could fit 9 card faces on a piece of A4, I had an idea - Why not print them onto card, then laminate it? This was quickly followed by a second idea - I can print them double sided using the college library's printer!
Each Friday I would send a new set of 9 cards (double sided) to school, and print them off onto card, followed immediately by me laminating them and cutting them out. This took around 8 weeks, mainly due to some cards being misprinted, plus I could also start a seperate deck of photos of my family instead. So I finished just before the end of term, and after 5 months of planning and preparation, I finally have my own set of Sonic the Hedgehog themed playing cards!
Yeah yeah, now you're probably thinking, "Man, what a fanboy! Does this guy have a life?" Judge me if you will, I'm happy with it, and whenever I put it in my bag during an exam it made it easier. Lucky pack of cards... Oh! Right! Exams...NCEA is finally over (-ish, waiting on results to come in January). After 6 long, 3 hour exams, my 6 years of taking NZQA approved standards has come to an end. Difficulty was as expected (or easier, see above), Chemistry and Physics proved to be my harder subjects this year, and as a complete breakthrough, the second time I try a Level 3 Japanese exam, I find it a heck of a lot less intimidating than last year. Thanks Mr. Roberts! Oh, wait. Arigato Robarto Sensei. In terms of how much study I did, I did do some, but I suppose I could've done more... you know me, prone to distraction, yadda yadda...
An amazing (personal) gaming feat: I managed to get 100% on not one, not two, but three games over the last few days (and am very close to a fourth). Actually, 4 days after saying that Crash Bandicoot was so hard, I actually managed to complete it! Repetition does pay off. I also managed to complete two other Crash Bandicoot related games, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, and Crash Nitro Kart. If you're not a gamer you can just forget that last section, it probably has little or no significance to you. Not to brag or anything, but I'll probably start a list of games I have completed on the blog somewhere. I think I can make lists on this blog... Ooh! And I'll be (literally) racing against my friend Kyle to see who can get 100% the quickest on Crash Team Racing sometime in December. Anyone want to join us? Leave a comment or whatever, and I'll get back to you via Google Talk, or MSN or something. Not holding out for much response though, since I know there are only about 5 people reading this blog (Please subscribe!).
You've now reached approximately halfway. At about this time I will suggest you refill whatever you were drinking. I'll wait. Go on. Dum de dum dum...
On to this week's events. The last few days my quest for a holiday job continues, and as the inquiry count creeps into the three dozen range, i'm still striking out. But I didn't really want to mention that. Instead...
This afternoon turned into a point-and-click style senario, actually. Just after lunch Dad's girlfriend had to go to work, and she dropped me off at the shops by the beach, about a 5-10 minute walk north of my house. After asking around at a few places, it turned out that they weren't looking for anyone to help them during the holidays (their loss, I suppose). I get home, then I realise that the front door is locked. Stupid me. I think, obviously it's locked 'cause noone's home. So I go to where the spare keys are usually hidden and they're not there. Panic. I try the back door, maybe that hasn't been locked. It was. Now i'm thinking, "Great. I've jot a list of jobs to do this afternoon and Dad's not back for another 2 hours.", so I go into Dad's office downstairs, luckily there's a phone in there. I call him on his mobile, luckily I know his number. After suggesting that there might be a key in a draw in his workshop downstairs, I check there, and there isn't one that fits. Double Panic. Now i'm going to have to climb through an window. If there is one.
Walking around the south side of the house I see a low bathroom window and a high bedroom window open, so I try the bathroom one first. Unfortunatly as has some sort of gizmo that doesn't let it open right out, and I can't detach it. Now I'm looking at my sister's bedroom window. If I can try and describe it there are four windows, effectively. Two windows are small, big enough to get a head through, but that's it. They open out and upwards, and one is. Underneath each of them, are two bigger windows, one opens to the left, the other to the right. They have latches, and a metal lever thing to stop it from swinging outwards. My first step is to find a ladder to get a better look. That's easiy done, there's one in the garage. Next, I need to find something to open the latch. I go back into the laundry room and find a short window brush, its handle also has a hole through it. Next to it is a bungy cord with hooks on either end. It looked useful too, so I took that as well. Back up the ladder, I hold the brush upside down and nudge a glass jar across the windowsill, so I can knock some picture frames off the ledge onto the bed just in front of the window. At this stage i've been at the windowsill for quarter of an hour, and I see a car pull up to the driveway. I'm thinking, "Oh ****, someone's made a tip-off to the cops or something." Luckily, it's only a landscape contractor, and he wanted to take some photos of the work that the workers have done on our driveway and gardens. He only takes 5 minutes, then I go straight back to work again.
The ledge is clear now, so I can hook the latch inside the handle hole, and can open that slightly. Then I take the bungy cord, and attaching it to the brush handle I can hook the metal lever and lift it up, opening the window, and now I can get on top of the windowsill, and land on the bed inside. Mission completed. Do I unlock anything for that? Well, nothing except for the door. Pity I din't have an audience.
I think that this is a long enough post for now, i'll probably think of more stuff to add on about 5 minutes after i've published this, but i've had enough of typing for now. Speaking of which, I've got a lot more typing to go for another project of mine, but that's saved for later.
1 comment:
wow, i didnt know you were making sonic playing cards. thats actually pretty cool. maybe u can market them to sega?
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