In the streets on Halloween

Halloween's a very big event here. At home when I was younger we would dück for apples and try to eat Jammie Dodgers suspended from the kitchen pulley, and that was about it. But here in Brookline, the television, supermarket and local area have been full of nothing else for days. Although to be fair, in Scotland we have to put up with knife-wielding demonic children all the year round rather than just for one night of the year, so perhaps this balances it out a bit.

Not a whole lot went on in our building, though. To satiate the hordes we stuck two paper pumpkins on the door and bought an $8 bag of assorted sweet packets to hand out, but only one group came around collecting money for Unicef and we got rid of about five packs. Our inventory is now as follows:

23 bags of Skittles
42 mini-packs of Starburst
16 bags of M&Ms
43 assorted flavours of Tootsie Rolls (whatever these are)
Two lollipops.

Having felt like I had far too many teeth recently I have begun devouring the Skittles after having sworn off them nine years ago, but there's still a long way to go until we get our salad bowl back again.

Spud's Quest

Here's something to do if you're bored - have a go at Spud's Quest. Be warned that it'll probably consume your life, especially if you're old and non-American enough to remember the Dizzy games by Codemasters. (Screenshots are here.)

It's well-made games like this that really make me proud to be part of the Click community. By request in the chatroom, I have written a walkthrough for it to help people when they're stuck, but I'm not going to give you the link to it. Hah.

Kingdom For A Heart

I'm really annoyed by this post. Now, I am not a complete fascist and I can deal with the fact that the poster doesn't know how to use DOS. We're now in the age where there are people who genuinely never had to learn to use a command-line system, and there were even people like that in my computer science year. It's much like I never had to learn how to subroot my piped kernels in UNIX and other things like that - it's largely useless for the average computer user today. It is instead the description of it as a "code" that gets to me. I just can't understand the thought process behind calling it that. Also, ref. an earlier entry.

Another thing that got to me a bit was an argument on a forum I started visiting recently, where I've learned that one particular member is, well, a bit unstable.* He posted a large attention-seeking moanfest, which was replied to by another member who did remarkably well giving him sympathy and a bit of good advice. The original poster then replied with what can only be described as a tidal wave of emo, and the whole thing went on for ages from there.

So even though the second poster's niceness fell on deaf ears, I took the time to private message him and say thank you for trying to get through to him, for tolerating the angst of the board and generally being a decent human being. Nothing unusual about that at all. And he messaged me back. "um, you're welcome??". Git.

Anyway, to the main point of this post (which I really meant to get to earlier) - song covers. You may find it difficult to believe that doing these can affect social standing, respect and indeed entire friendships. If you mess up a section that sounds obvious to someone else, or modify a favourite part "just to make it easier", the results can be surprisingly devastating. It is therefore with some tentativeness that I have put up a tracked version of Sonata Arctica's "Kingdom for a Heart" that I did when I was bored.

There are a couple of warnings that I have to give before you open it. Most obviously, I have cut out the solo. I honestly could not get it to sound right at all, and rather than make it an embarrassment I thought it best to skip it. Second, I've compressed the MP3 to rather poor quality. There are two reasons for this - first to make it a small download, and second so that you can blame any inadequacies on the bitrate instead of me.

Other than that, it was just done entirely by ear to see if I could work out the construction of the song. Sonata Arctica have always had a rather cavalier approach to changing time signatures (when they feel like it), and I've preserved most of those where I could. As a result of doing it, I've also found out some rather good chord progressions that I hadn't tried before, and learning from it is the real point.

Well, let's hope my Friends list hasn't reduced dramatically by tomorrow.

* Unequivocally mental

Look what I have

My dad sent me the location of a pack of Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes by email - he had convinced one of his co-workers to bring over a package for me and leave it at the hotel she was staying at. We picked up the bag this evening, and I now have most of them stuck between my teeth.

Also in the bag were a postal vote registration letter, an unknown birthday present, a wedding card from Germany and a Stephen King novel, which was a bit unexpected.

We had actually gone out into the city to see "The Prestige", but with that being sold out we opted for "Man of the Year" instead. This is an example of a film that is almost entirely unlike what the trailer presents it as - even though it does contain the comedic elements of the preview, there is a very large sort of consipiracy theory that emerges in the middle and builds to a climax, at which point the director just decided to forget it and end the film virtually right there.

The plot is about a comedian that is elected President of the USA, and during the time when it turns into a conspiracy film, about the software bug in the electronic voting system that caused that to happen. This sounds strange, but my biggest problem with the film is the astonishing unlikelihood of the bug that they chose it to be (it was about candidates with double letters in their names being declared the winner alphabetically). Now, I've been reading the Doom Wiki so I've come across some pretty unlikely bugs recently, but this one beats the lot. What's even more impossible is that no one in the film noticed it before it was released. That's quite a major plot hole.

But the pieces where you're seeing Robin Williams' character's TV programme are very entertaining (I'd certainly watch it). It just tends to get a bit dull in the middle where it attempts to have a plot. But (and this is not something you'd expect to find in this film) I think it has the cleverest scare that I've ever witnessed in any film - it has a long build-up, then lets it fade away anti-climactically, then distracts you with another surprise before springing the main shock on you.

But all that's irrelevant, really, because most of the readers of this journal won't be able to see the film in the UK for about the next three years. And I have Crunchy Nut corn flakes, so who cares?

I can't think why I forgot to mention this.

I have an offer from Wrycan.

Thank you.

Extremely Important Message

I have found the "Water Expands When It Freezes" song from Thinkabout Science. It's at the bottom of this page. (I can think of about two people on my entire list who will know what this means or understand the nostalgia associated with it, but I sent it to my mum and she thinks it's brilliant, so there.) If it helps at all, it's got Norman Lovett in it. If that doesn't make you look I don't know what will.

I've been working on yet another quote site, this time for the Clickteam chatroom. Thanks to a bit of help from to get the formatting right, I think it's the first site of mine to look better than hideously ghastly. It isn't finished yet, but ten quotations and the idea are there.

And I was emailed by the founder of Wrycan on Monday, who invited me to the second interview, which basically amounts to going out to lunch together to see if I'm tolerable as a person or not. Things are looking good.

Flat Photos

As I was reminded yesterday by , about a month ago I promised various people on my diverse friends list that I would have photos of the flat that didn't just include the corner of the desk up by tomorrow. It's now several tomorrows past that, but nevertheless, this is the day that I've remembered to do it.


This is the entranceway to the flat. I'd love to tell you it was taken during an earthquake, but it was just me being unsteady with the camera. To the left, where you can't see them, we have two massive cupboards, one of which is packed floor to ceiling with cardboard. The picture on the wall says "David and Whitney", and was cross-stitched by my sister and given to us for the wedding.


The kitchen is on the left, and is about twice the size of the one in Cupar. The fridge is massive, and we even have a dishwasher. The only drawback is that I don't like electric ovens, as you have to plan to cook something about twenty minutes ahead so the hobs have time to heat up. We're going to add a microwave eventually, when our $100 Best Buy gift card arrives.


The kitchen doubles as Whitney's work space, because we had a lot of room left over at the end of it. The door to the right slides back, so we can talk to or ignore each other as we please.


My own workspace on the other side takes up two desks. I got that chair by discovering it outside an office in Simmons with the note "Please take" on it, and wheeled it the three miles back to the flat. It's perfectly functional even though it only has one arm with a doodle of a face on it. Also in this picture is our dining table, which we haven't really been using much recently.


Turning around, you can see just how large our living room is, as there's room for an entire seating area on the other side.


We thought we were never going to be able to fill this room, but a couple of big sofas took care of that.


The corridor to the bedroom and bathroom leads off this front room. We can't open the door on the right. Also pictured is the Mystery Switch on the right wall - it has three settings, top, middle and bottom, and no one knows what it's meant to do.


And through the corridor on the left is our bedroom. You may notice a gaping omission in the dresser - this is due to IKEA's uselessness. When we first ordered it we had the outside but the wrong drawer parts, then they sent us the drawer sides only, then the rest of the drawers but missed out that one. The clock on the wall is also interesting - you might be able to tell from the reduced image that it's in Hebrew. I found it while putting out the cardboard one night, as someone had just put it out for rubbish collection even though it still worked perfectly. To my great disappointment, it does not run anti-clockwise.

I'm a little portable radiator

I knew something was wrong with me last night. I had been moping around in a dressing gown all day and had been unable to get excited about anything at all, even really amazing things like getting MD5 checks on a PHP page working. It was most obvious when I decided I wanted to go to bed early, and couldn't stop shivering no matter how many covers I piled up around me. To distract myself, I played a bit of The Fool's Errand (which has been trying to get me to play for ages) and then went to sleep with some difficulty.

I woke up at 2am with a dry throat, and just for a change, I was burning up all over. Lying in a half-asleep daze for a while, I had a sickmare involving The Fool's Errand, some sort of Japanese RPG-type scenario involving Kim Jong Il heating up the world, being rushed to hospital, and watching a raven eat something on the windowsill. I considered going through to the kitchen and rubbing an ice cube on my face just to see if it would actually sizzle, but decided that splashing myself with cold water would probably be enough.

Having done that, I drank another full glass of water to try and get some sort of cooling working again, and stumbled back through to the bedroom to find some cold medicine as my nose was blocked. I came back and took the pill, then turned to the sink and violently and noisily vomited my four cheese pizza into it.

(Warning: The previous paragraph contains disturbing imagery and should not be read under any circumstances.)

Having woken Whitney up, I went back to bed and boiled for a while before moving to the chair by the window, and eventually the sofa in the living room, where I eventually got to sleep. When I opened my eyes again I thought that it was about seven in the morning, but then Whitney came through and told me that it was already noon.

I'm feeling a bit better now, but overall it wasn't one of my better nights.

The interview

The interview for the java development position was today, and I think it went quite well. The interviewers seemed reasonably pleased with the presentation on the SSSSS that I gave, along with being far more interested than I had expected in the other areas that I had mentioned on my site. (In fact, one of the coders had an old song of mine on his desktop and had been playing Treasure Tower that morning.) Incidentally - hello to you all if you're reading this.

There was a bit in the middle where I sort of froze up when asked about the methods that I'd learned in Software Engineering, because I could remember hardly any of them, so I'll have to go back and look them up. Otherwise I'm fairly confident. After all, the woman I had been exchanging emails with also went to St Andrews, and that's got to count for something.

I was vastly pleased this evening to discover that I am fully one inch taller than Kai Hansen. Therefore, short people are fantastic.

Real life

I just realised that I completely forgot to mention the progress of my getting a job here. I haven't mentioned anything about real life because it's been pretty much stationary, but a few days ago I got an invitation to an interview with Wrycan, a company that consults people about XML and builds software or databases for them. I'm going for the position of entry level Java programmer, which sounds pretty much ideal for my current situation.

The interview process is rather different from what I had to go through with the RGU, as this time I have to give a 10-15 minute presentation on a "subject of technical nature" to four or five people. I have naturally decided to present the SSSSS (Solitaire Specification, Simulation and Solution System) because it's my biggest "real" software project to date, and includes the use of both Java and XML.

I've been putting off actually doing anything to the existing presentation, but when I think about it the one I did at the end of fourth year doesn't seem appropriate somehow. It explains the decisions I made while working on the project and how it was eventually implemented, but it was deliberately made to avoid mentioning any code at all. And I'm not sure if putting heaps of Java up on the screen and cutting out all the funny bits will just come across as soulless rather than appropriately formal.

Rise from your grave!

As I predicted, my upload of the Altered Beast tribute "Rise From Your Grave" at FA has proved far more popular than any of my "real" music, and has earned 52 views and 3 favourites in just over 12 hours. Granted, it's a bit of a step down from the thousand or so regular downloaders that I used to have, but it's a start. It proves that if you want to get noticed, the best way is to do something stupid.

Also: Head inflating to dangerous proportions!

Eurometal Challenge

Right, Whitney's doing this meme, so I'm going to as well - largely because no one will be able to answer any of them at all.* Here is the gist of it:

Step 1: Put your MP3 (or M4A if you're 1337) player on random.
Step 2: Post lyrics for the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. Unless it was written by Lisa Lougheed.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

- 1 -

In all your fantasies
You always knew
That man and mystery
Were both in you

Phantom of the Opera - . My particular version was done by Nightwish.

- 2 -

Evil Messiah - the world's set on fire
He promised salvation but sent you to hell
Almighty liar - satanic desire
A heart full of anger for no one to see

- 3 -

There's glory in the distance
For the ones that pay the price
Ignorance creates a subtle mind

- 4 -

On the twenty-third day of the month of September
in an early year of a decade not too long before our own,
the human race suddenly encountered a deadly
threat to its very existence.

Overture to Little Shop of Horrors -

- 5 -

I gave you my time
I gave you my whole life
I gave you my love, every dime
They told me it was a crime

- 6 -

Weiter, weiter ins Verderben
Wir müssen leben bis wir sterben
Der Mensch gehört nicht in die Luft
So der Herr im Himmel ruft

That other song by Rammstein that Pooka kept listening to -

- 7 -

And now all the houses
Are rare antiquities.
American tourists flock to see the _________

- 8 -

Here I am, the _________
A lost fallen angel helping mankind where I can
My memories are there to save your world
For you I'm just the _________

- 9 -

Father can you hear me, did you talk to mother earth
What did they say, what did they see, now is time for your rebirth
Open up the silent center of your mind,
I now want to know the future of your kind

- 10 -

After the storm there's a calm
Through the clouds shines a ray of the sun
I am carried from all of my harm
There is no-one that I can't outrun

- 11 -

Deception of fame, vengeance of war, lives torn apart
Losing oneself, spiraling down, feeling the walls closing in
A journey to find
The answers inside
Our illusive mind

- 12 -

It's a miracle we need
Let our hearts unite, so our voices shake the earth
Let us walk away together from the never ending rain
'Til the sun will shine for all of us again

- 13 -

Where's the promised savior, the one who'll save the earth
Perhaps he'll come to bury us, perhaps it'll be too late
Who are they, who are the phantoms, will they end our lives
Maybe they're just you and me, open up your eyes

- 14 -

When I'm looking down on you I see
A wasted land, and the reason is humanity
I must gain control

- 15 -

Higher - It's what I expect from my life
It's like a wire that holds me back down to the ground
Oh I hear you say, "That's the way of the world"
No, hear what I say "I want to do so much in my way"

- 16 -

Things that you started
Are still undone
While you are wasting you precious life
The sleepless nights
Won't leave you be
You're going astray

- 17 -

Never will forgive you, never leave you
You know that if you live like, you will die like
How can I erase your pain and aid you
When Death wants to kiss you and you want kiss Him back...

- 18 -

I watch the children pray, while god just turns away
Out in the ruins they seek shelter
These streets were once my home
But those golden days are gone
Now I'm fighting to survive

- 19 -

Soothing but yet so violent
In this world within the other world
Moonlight in visions heaven sent
I see demon eyes and wings unfurled

- 20 -

I wrote you,
And told you,
You were the biggest fish out here,
You should have never gone to Hollywood.

- 21 -

I'm in this world to be alive
And I can give all they'll never find.
Sometimes I dream to cross the freedom way
"So now you are powerful" - Master guide me
[Ear shattering scream]

- 22 -

What I saw beyond the gate
Eternal darkness - our fate
In everlasting night
Deserted and destroyed
An empire without light

- 23 -

There's no way to stop the ancient ghost that is rising from his grave
Spilling a drop of hatred from his bowl
He senses the fear and misery, searching for fresh blood
Feeling hunger growing in his dark soul

Seeds of Sorrow by Ksahjsalkjdsaoif -

- 24 -

Dark night overwhelming bright light, see the demons fly
Can't trust your senses fear you'll have to die
Super mighty shadows casting amplitudes to ears
Sounds you've never heard that take you high

- 25 -

To this day I guess I'll never know
Just why they let me go
But I'll never go dancing no more
'Til I dance with the dead

* Apart from RaphX and Quadralien

Comment on my journal you bunch of slackers

I had imagined that the American version of Iron Chef (if you don't know what it is, see the summary from a year ago) wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the Japanese one - they have a reputation for messing up Japanese remakes. But it's nice to see that the spirit has remained, with the host being introduced as he comes into the studio doing backflips and somersaults for about fifty yards. And the contest is always started by him bellowing something I can't understand in Japanese and looking like he's about to fight off Godzilla.

It got me thinking about what a British version would be like, but I can't imagine the invincible men of culinary skills being Anthony Worrall-Thompson, Ainsley Harriot, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. Although Gordon Ramsay would be disappointingly appropriate.

Actually I've been missing British TV a surprising amount despite hardly ever watching it (especially now that Top Gear has been delayed indefinitely) and have taken to watching BBC America occasionally for comfort. Whose Line Is It Anyway, which I hadn't actually seen before, is on most nights. It includes Colin Mochrie, which is quite surreal when pretty much all I've seen of him before is him battling a plastic Jesus with space leprechauns and the like.

And finally, I downloaded The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk the other week. It was the first properly mad martial arts film that I ever saw. Unfortunately it's turned out that the version I have has been dubbed into a slightly different East Asian language from the one it was originally recorded in, without subtitles, so it makes even less sense to me than it ever did before.

I'm annoyed!

Do you remember that ZZT game I mentioned about a month ago? Well, there's a screenshot of it over on the left if you don't. After a month or so of lounging around in the pending uploads list of Z2 (which isn't an unusually long waiting time), something bizarre has happened.

I checked the list again today to find that the game had been overwritten with a modified version. This fake version of the file replaces most of the second half of the game with blank corridor-type boards (named "Third Floor" and "Free Will") and a different ending - it also changes the title screen to just read "Castle ZZT". This is part of why I wanted this screenshot here again - I wanted to verify that I didn't just forget to put the word "of" in.

And my name has been left on it. The credit on the title screen is intact, and the text file detailing the game and author has remained untouched. I'm not sure who was trying to do what, but it's very strange.

I've already emailed the admin that seems most normal to ask what's going on. Grr.