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What have you been up to in May of 2007?


If you want to understand the blog and how it's laid out, go here.

May 31, 2007



May 31, 2007: 52 1/4 days and 17 days - new music-related records set. The terrain map has been finished. Also, I joined YouTube to post some of my video game videos. My favorites list has been updated along with jobs I'd be interested in having and some other pages in the same category. 10 new dreams have been recalled, many of which quite well recalled. I also played the Playstion 2 for the first time with a new game I got - Shrek the Third. I got new speakers with an interesting story behind them. My WAV file generator program has also been updated due to a new music system used.

#1 Massive new music-related records: 46 days as the record? Throw that into second place now! 12 days? Trash that as well. Instead of 46 days being the longest time span of listening to the same song, it's now 52 1/4 (and if it weren't for a new game I got, it would've been even higher). Instead of 12 days with the same speed of the same song, it's now 17 days. You may be wondering, if the highest spike (now at 2800) is less than the 3190 record, how did I get that long? It comes down to 4 reasons. First, the song, FF6 World version 1, has a very broad well-liked speed range, from 60 to even 130% true speed. Second, motivation for all other songs is fairly low and knowing my theory on motivation, "one does the action or chooses the option that has the highest motive", it remained far above everything else. Why not go to OWTLI or FF1 World? Gradual neutralization reduced the motivation for practically every song leaving only FF6 World to be racking up time. Third, the song is liked quite well almost all the way through. Fourth, the song is very cheerful, but this only has a minor effect compared to the other three. Why didn't I manage to get "Go Sailing Along" that high? First, there were other songs with very close compatibilities that prevented it and second, the compatibity mentioned is actually quite a bit higher than it really is. The compatibility of 2300 is the spike. The actual sustained value (the average) is around 1300, a huge difference. I tend to think of the spikes for song compatibility, not the most important average. It's the average that controls how much I like a song and how long I stay at it, not the highest spike. I then went at FF1 World for a few days, then FF5 Castle, then right back to FF6 World again.

#2 2D game - Terrain map - done!: Earlier, I mentioned of 82 miles (actually it was 81.92), but I since changed that to 90 miles. The reason for the change was due to calculations. For the terrain map to be displayed in the game, I wanted more zoom settings than just powers of 2. I stuck with 90 because I can add 3's and 5's as well. That is, instead of just 2, 4, 8, and 16 (beyond that are problematic because of the "zero padding" BMP requires and using the bitwise operators to shift pixels is confusing and not worth doing), I could have 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, 80, and 120 - far more. It's that "player freedom" thing and the high customizability. I'm debating on whether or not I should go with 96 miles to open up more zoom settings, but that's only 4 more. Another option, of which I'm highly considering, is a fully customizable zoom, but have the image width increased to the next multiple of 32 to work around the BMP's zero padding. The memory usage and file size don't change from doing this.

I've got 45 miles of mountains and hills, with the other 45 being toward flat ground and lakes. I took careful consideration of my visions to ensure I got them and worked out many of the fine details. I did, however, redo the entire terrain map. When I started on it just after the last update, I redone it right away. I got to 60 miles on the second run, but decided to redo it for 4 reasons. The first is that the mountains had rounded tops and that wasn't realistic. The second is that I had a constant waving effect regularly spaced due to some "rules" I set up. The third were the rules that made it frustrating. Finally, I had 60 miles of mountains and hills when I intended to have only 45 miles. In the third run, of which was fully completed, I planned it in much greater detail (man does that Excel come in handy for that sort of stuff). I had 46 miles of mountains. Instead of 3 planned lakes, I had 4 with lots of room to spare, likely because of the 8.08 extra miles added (90 instead of 81.92).

I've also created the images that are to be displayed that form the actual terrain. That's yet another surprise to me. If you seen my "Mountain Fun" animated GIF, the slopes are based on 15° snaps. In my game, they snap to 5°. I made a simple test image that would show what the terrain may actually look like and that's the surprise - it was smoother than I thought. Given my hypothesis, by cutting the angles snapped to by half, a regular polygon would appear 4 times more circular. Instead of 15° snaps, it's 5° so I thought of it being 9 times finer. As I envisioned it, I was thinking 7 times finer instead of 9.

In addition, I've also planned the background scenery. The new version is much different than the current. Sure there's the 3D-behaving lakes I mentioned in the previous update, but the scenery is going to be more extensive. Since it's likely going to be a year before my game is completed, given my last time at it, and that, after the one year, almost 20 months would have passed, computers would be twice as powerful given Moore's Law. Instead of 32 MB memory as my target, it's now 64 MB. My current plans put it at 40 MB and that includes the scenery, terrain map, character, and a few other things. It doesn't include the lakes since that's very hard to estimate. This is based on a non-optimized version of some scenery elements such as the clouds where there are gaps of full transparency. I figured that, after optimizations are considered, what is saved from this will be used with the lakes. It's only the high-level details and finalization that remain for the scenery. Given my current plan, the scenery would strongly match one of my visions.

Even the character will be enhanced with new special abilities. If you've played the free version of the game as I have it, you may recall that the walking/running action is extremely simple, the character is rather small, and the lighting style doesn't match the scenery. The simplicity came from a 4-phase, 3-image running action. The new version, as planned so far, is to have 8 phases using 8 separate images. This will allow for a much smoother motion. The character will be made 7/3 as big (more than double) and the lighting much more enhanced. The only 2 troublespots are the float run and glide. Unlike before, where there was level ground, the float run always points in the direction of travel. That is, if running uphill on a 45° slope, the float run would be tilted so that the character is running up a 45° slope. That part isn't the problem (as it's fairly easy to do), it's the lighting. I have one way of doing this though - basing the shade of gray to use on the angle offset with the Sun. The spacing with the shades of gray will be linear, but when converted to black of varied transparencies, the shade of gray would be the alpha, based on the actual lighting formula (mentioned in my previous blog update). The exact same thing applies to the glide ability as well, now that pitched gliding is likely going to be used. The float run needs 12 images but the glide needs 28. This is if snapping to a multiple of 15° (going with 5° will have a major increase on the file size and memory usage plus it's not motivating enough - still, with the slopes as fine as they are, it's tricky to see this offset).

In addition, I've created a detailed checklist of what I need to do before the game is finished for is rerelease. The list is fairly long since it's a complete redo, but descriptions are very brief (and quite repetitive as well in some areas) and an assortment of "stamps" are used to indicate the state of something at a quick glance such as whether I've finished it, what I'm doing now, or if I've hit a problem or something. Unlike before, I'm going to mention a possible date for release. Either 2007 (if I'm lucky) or in 2008 are about the best I can get and there's no guarentee of this. It took me about a year before but I continuously redid things and ran into very frustrating problems that caused times where I had no progress at all for weeks or months (due mostly to Gamestudio's limitations and annoyances). This time, I have most everything planned out to fine detail and I've worked out methods for many things previously so instead of a year, completion within 6 months is possible. It took me nearly 3 weeks just to do the terrain map (would've been 9 days but having to redo it many times made it tricky).

#3 New speakers, not as expected: The speakers used for my MP3 player were grade C-. They didn't play anything below 200 Hz very well and frequencies around 700 Hz were amplified more than expected. I decided to get new speakers for my MP3 player but when I got them, I was disappointed. The bass that the other speakers didn't have was now too loud, nearly 10 dB louder. Around 750 Hz it was a bit softer than expected. However, I wasn't to be left out. I tested my computer's speakers with my MP3 player, not knowing it had the correct type of jack (I thought it was the very long type of jack, nearly an inch, not the 9/16-inch size). I was amazed at how good they really were. The frequencies were balanced all around. My MP3 player which has a very poor equalizer that I otherwise never use (since it drains the battery a lot) wouldn't be decent enough for these speakers so I did a switcharoo. What my computer's speakers once were are now for my MP3 player and the speakers that I just got are now used on my computer since it has much better equalizers (two in fact) so I could tone down the bass and slightly amplify the 750 Hz area. Another surprise came after a few days. The surprise was that, over time, without changing any equalizer settings, the bass gradually returned to a more normal volume. Instead of 10 dB, it dropped to about 3 dB by the time of the update, but was down to 5 dB in just 4 or 5 days after getting them. By the start of July, it may be down to 1 dB given the patterns. Yet, with the tone control, I can have a slight equalization effect for my MP3 player without the need for its low-grade equalizer.

#4 10 new dreams recalled and story % in tact added: I recalled 10 new dreams putting the count now at 580. Most of them are moderately recalled, most above the 20% average. I even had two cases where I recalled the dream, but forgot it after I woke up enough. In addition to the 10 new dreams being added, I also added a new stat - how much the story is recalled in a percentage. The scenery has something similar but now the story has been added. Unexpectedly, upon doing so, I have increased my motivation by about 50%.

#5 New game - Shrek the Third: This is, by far, the newest game I've got. It was for the Playstation 2 and since I knew that my sister had it, I figured that I could borrow it (since she already had the Gamecube). I played the game for 2 days and finished it twice. I found several bugs. The worst, at class 5 severity, is where I got stuck in the evil castle area when attempting to get one of those collectibles (for one of the quests). Another bug involves that same level, of class 3 severity, is where, even though I died numerous times from the tricky unstable platforms, the game said that I got a perfect. A bug common in almost all levels is with the shadow (class 1). I see the shadow on a ledge as expected, but I also see it on walls where light naturally couldn't get to (it gets copied onto surfaces directly above or below the character). A fourth bug, of class 4 severity, is where the sound becomes very distorted (constant laughing on the main menu upon doing the finale (in the "normal" difficulty setting) where I lost a life 3 times in the final battle). I've mastered 3 of the minigames (completed all 12 levels of the catacombs leap (I'm a master at platform games so this is sort of expected, even though I had 6 lives remaining by then - not knowing everyone could double-jump was the main downside), completed all 10 levels of the frog herder (that took long enough!) and all 24 levels of the shrekleboard game. I've reached round 8 on the ships ahoy game and, I think, 20, on the shooting range one. Yep, again, I'm studying game mechanics and exploiting weaknesses. I got a gold medal in all 5 of them. All that within just 19 total hours playing it. Yeah, I really need to be a console game beta tester.... The only semi-worthy song in the entire game is that from the minigame "ships ahoy", but its nowhere near many other songs I've got. Since I didn't have a memory card for the coaxial cable required (not the 3 colored connectors), I needed to return to the store to get these. It's the first time I've used the PS2.

My sister doesn't have any other games of interest for the Playstation 2, so that makes the only PS2 game I have. I have plenty of PS1 games though. I wonder how I can get FF10 now. FF12 still seems to be available.

#6 I'm now at YouTube: Earlier, I was uploading videos to Gamespot. All went well at first until Gamespot's numerous bugs prevented me from uploading many of my videos. I've been debating on whether or not I should go to YouTube for these instead and eventually made my decision to go for it. I couldn't upload the stunt where I get tossed up at 2400 mph nor the perfect bowling game in Super Monkey Ball 2 because of Gamespot's bugs. I uploaded these and others I had at Gamespot without any trouble. I've uploaded others I didn't have ready at the time for Gamespot. I've also uploaded a video demonstrating 5 of the many secrets of level 2 in Bubsy 3D and is generally my best video so far. Links to the videos are in the "video game screenshots" section.

#7 WAV file generator redone: I've been debating on it for about a month by now. What am I debating on? Well, on my MP3 player, using the 48-step speed system, I was almost always snapping to common "exact" percentages. I preferred to use 84% true speed over 83.75% and would ignore the 56 2/3% true speed ands use the 55% true speed instead. If I wanted 5/6 true speed, I'd use the 83.75% true speed value instead of 83 1/3% (or 83.33% for easier comparison). I also wanted to more closely match what I do on my computer as well. In my blog in past entries, you may have seen that my computer and MP3 players' speeds were at 68% true speed. My computer could easily get that, but on my MP3 player, I was actually using the closest I had to it, or 67.5% true speed. I wanted a new system that would account for this. I no longer really care about the musical scale.

However, in order for this to work, I needed to make a change to my WAV file generator program which reads a base source file and writes many copies of it with only 8 bytes changed in each (the sample rate and the bytes per second values). I formed the list of speeds which is broader than my previous version, but approximates a 35-step speed system which is roughly what I use on my computer. From 50% true speed, I add 1 to this (51, 52, 53, etc.) until about 66% true speed is reached where I increase it by 2% instead until 132% true speed is reached. In addition, common fractional values like 2/3 and 3/4 are also added. Furthermore, I've added additional speeds to account for the old Talkboy speed system I actively used a decade ago where speed 5 was normal and 4 was 80% true speed. These were all added to the full range possible. In fact, the system goes to 20.97152% true speed (which is finer than the sample rate could offer and is speed -2 in my old system). Speed 0 is about 1/3 true speed. Only OWTLI goes to the -2 area with a very few others going to -1 and 0. Target Zone takes the opposite end where it goes to a bit before speed 12.

I also wanted to make use of the bug in my MP3 player where an audio file played at 12KHz plays back at 2/3 the speed. This may sound strange, but, to get true speed, I merely just speed up the song 50% which shortens it to 2/3 as long. Once encoded to MP3, of which uses the shortened version, the space needed is even smaller, 2/3 as small, than it would be if left at normal speed. The only catch is that frequencies beyond 4KHz are cut off. Most of my songs don't get much beyond 2500 Hz (5000 Hz if 2x harmonics are factored in) at true speed and since many of the speeds are slower than true speed, it becomes even more effective. Sure a song may have 2500 Hz as the highest for the loudest pitch, but play it back at 60% true speed and the highest becomes 1500 Hz instead and 3000 if 2x harmonics are included putting it within the range. You may recall in a previous blog entry where FF1 World has 2200 Hz for the maximum pitch. 2x harmonics puts this at 4400 Hz. At true speed, I'd be using the 16KHz sample rate version which limits the pitch to 8000 Hz (but a lowpass filter cuts off frequences above 5700 Hz which is what I actually base it on (the 12KHz one has 5400 Hz instead but 3600 is considered to account for the speed offset).

I adjusted my program to make use of this which now requires two source files. I tested it and processed 5 songs. The file sizes for each song as a grand total for the same basic speed range is reduced 15% with otherwise better overall quality.

#8 New mind game scene - the log and mud river: For about a week, I've been having a new scene in my mind game where there's a log 3 feet in diameter over a pool of soft, gooey brown mud with a few "lumps". There are 4 here, and one wants to go in the pool of mud as he supposedly has many times before. After a bit of communication, the guy just jumps off the log. Just a fifth of a second before impacting the top of the mud, the time slows down a lot to about 1/16 normal time causing the motion to be very slow. After about a second into the impact at this time factor, I jump backwards about 2 seconds and repeat at 1/32 time. About a second after impact again, the time speed returns to normal and the guy just stands in the mud that is about 4 1/2 feet deep. I generally got this when just before going to bed and a few other various times.



Daily Events



May 1: My luck is neutral in May but right away I recalled a dream using 4/5 of a page of details. I only did a half of a hill, about a half a mile, then went on to readjust the main 2D side view generator. I've decided officially for 90 miles of terrain. I spent over 5 hours figuring out bugs with the rotation and one of which makes no sense. If I set the "ZoomFactor" variable to 3 (gigantic image), 20 (medium) or 60 (small), it works just fine. When I use 8, it only fails with the rotation. The same goes for 16, 32, 24, or anything that is a multiple of 8. 7680 and 144,000 are the widths and heights if ZoomFactor was at 1, are both divisible by 128 (1920 is the greatest common multiple) so why 8 doesn't work, that I don't know. I also got a lot of progress with fixing up the "Interactive Animation" program. I don't yet know if the program can run on systems without Visual C++. I'm now at day 16 for the same song and speed. Although 125% true speed plays on my computer and MP3 player, about 67 or 68% true speed plays in my mind. Woke up at 5:04 AM and went to bed at 10:47 PM.
May 2: I swapped between doing the terrain map and the forums. I finished 12 1/6 miles so far and I've got 77 5/6 miles to go. I ran backup while watching TV, of which took about 3 hours. I'm now 17 days in of the same song and speed, but now have strong signs of getting bored of it. I changed speeds 50 minutes before going to bed and I'm now at 62% true speed. My MP3 player now plays 67 1/2% true speed, which is what I had playing in my head for a while. Using my sampler, my compatibility rises slowly from 60 to 68% true speed but drops rapidly from there. My sampler is only of the area where the spike occurs - the first 4 measures of part 2. Woke up at 9:48 AM and went to bed at 11:43 PM.
May 3: 1/4 page in details make up the new school dream. I'm almost 1/5 done with the terrain map with 17 1/2 miles done. I found the cause to the problem with the rotation and it's not my algorithm at fault. It's the zero-padding BMP requires if a row of pixels is not a multiple of 32-bits. I fixed that and got 8 and 16 working correctly. I'm also (somewhat) surprised at how well the terrain map's 2D side view compresses in Winzip - 600:1! I also set it up to process at a ZoomFactor of 2. Sure 33 MB seems like a lot, but consider that almost a billion pixels are involved. Either 4, 5, 6, 8, or 10 are likely to the default. 17 days is now my official record putting the case of 12 days in second place, a fairly distant second. All day, I was at 67 1/2% true speed, and a spike at 2770 occured, the highest yet for that song, but not quite 7/8 of the record. 30 days in a row for the same song - third place! Woke up at 9:23 AM and went to bed at 11:00 PM.
May 4: I'm now 22 3/4 miles in, 1/4 finished. I finished the another 5 1/4 miles of the terrain. I'm probably going to be doing the highest mountain next which has one of the biggest visions - float-running up a 4:1 slope a bit below the clouds then another similar area just above the clouds. This is on the far right side of the mountain. The mountains remin level for a bit then drop down rapidly toward a large lake 4 or so days away at my current rate (estimated). I also went on an unexpected trip taking a shower beforehand. I'm still heavily involved with FF6 World. That's 3 songs now from the Final Fantasy series that exceeded a month straight and the only songs to get that much. Going 40 days straight seems within reach. 42 days is my offical second place record with 46 as my record not that far behind. Woke up at 9:59 AM and went to bed at 1:34 AM.
May 5: A page-of-details dream involving baseball (and water baseball). 30 miles are now done, 1/3 complete. I ended up redoing some areas because of mistakes I made. Still, I did more than any other day so far. After this mountain is done, a big drop to some small hills where lakes occur. I swapped between the forums and doing the terrain map using my visions as a guide. I've worked out the details for the clouds as well - 288 pixels tall with the same scaling system. It was needed for correct interpreting of my visions and the calculations needed. I'm still at FF6 World and the same 67 1/2% true speed. I have a feeling I'll be with this speed for another week.... Woke up at 11:38 AM and went to bed at 2:17 AM.
May 6: I woke up to storms. Besides the storms, I swapped between TV, the terrain map, and the forums. I've now finished 36.8 miles and paid careful attention to the area focused on in my vision. I spent 2 hours trying to get it right (and correcting mistakes I made in addition). The second tallest mountain is next and the mountain heights drop rapidly with the large deep lake following immediately after. I'm not likely to get there tomorrow or when I go to bed the next time. I'm still at FF6 World the same way. Woke up at 12:45 PM and went to bed at 3:13 AM.
May 7: 42.6 miles of the terrain map is done. I spent quite a bit of time on the forums, more than expected. I got a second area of my visions added. I ordered new speakers for my MP3 player. See news item #xxx for details. I swapped between forums and the terrain map with 2 cases of TV slipped in (eating and "space week"). I'm still at FF6 World without any change. Woke up at 2:45 PM and went to bed at 6:08 AM.
May 8: 3/4 of a page of details for the new draem recalled. I've now finished 49 miles of the terrain map. No visions cover the next 20 or so miles. The far right of the deepest lake (or one of the lakes anyway) is the next and last of the main visions. Just enforcing the intended heights for the peaks and valleys is all I need to focus on. At the start, I was hoping to be able to go to the Skywarn lecture/training thing, but had no way of getting there. I ate watching some TV and did my usual with watching TV (Assignment Discovery). 67.5% true speed for FF6 World still plays. Woke up at 4:25 PM (±10 minutes) and went to bed at 7:20 AM.
May 10: Yay! A dream taking a full page of details! At first, it was TV and eating. I then checked the forums and E-mail. I spent some time fixing a fine-tuning my terrain map generator function adding a few new features. Still, I reached 54.5 miles, another 5.5 finished. I should, hopefully, be starting the lakes tomorrow. The last 1/3 of the day was spent at 72% true speed of FF6 World from 67.5%. I like this speed even more than the last, especially on my computer. Once I get the new speakers, it should change for my MP3 player. Woke up at 6:07 PM and went to bed at 10:05 AM.
May 11: 64 1/2 miles done - 10 miles in one day! I left the hills and mountains and started the lakes. I'm also thinking I should redo all the hills and mountains. They don't really look all that natural - they have a waving effect, smooth rounded tops, rules I've set, randomization is not counted for, etc.. Too much of the area is mountainous/hilly - 50% was my target, not 70%. I swapped between the forums and the terrain map for most of the day. I'm still at FF6 World. 38 days - just 4 for second place and 8 more for first. My record of 46 days seems within reach. 70% likely to bust it and 60% for making 50 days. Woke up at 7:18 PM and went to bed at 10:15 AM.
May 12: I set up the randomization and got it working. I then made my decision - redo the terrain map. I started on it and finished a little over 10 miles. The terrain map preview now looks 5 times more natural and twice as good. I also planned the details out for getting the targeted 45 miles of mountains instead of 61.5 as I had before. Last time, I didn't have the heights and distances planned in nearly as much depth. I had the peaks and valleys only planned for the last 40 or so miles. This time, I went in great detail using Excel to plan and fine-tune the peaks and valleys and got close to my target - 46 miles. That, however, is only a calculated estimate. It is twice as motivating and 70% faster. I took a shower and went to the grocery store with my sister. I checked the forums when I came back and showed my sister the new terrain map and she liked it better than what I had before. I'm still at FF6 World and 72% true speed. The record is getting closer. Yet, there's no other song with a closer motive so busting the 46-day record is almost a certainly. A spike at 2800 also occurred. Woke up at 9:21 PM and went to bed at 3:39 PM.
May 13: Yes! The new recalled dream took 3/4 page of details. I first made a Mother's Day card - an animated GIF of lights dazzling and cycling the 6-step spectrum. I then checked the forums and E-mail and posted that animation I made. It's only 6 frames, hardly anything to my more common ones, and my biggest has over 500 times as many with like 20 times the complexity. I ate watching TV then went at adjusting the help file. The majority of the day was spent doing so. Still, I did another 2 miles on the terrain. Day 40 and still going with no sign of letting up any time soon. 30 hours for the second place record! Woke up at 2:44 AM and went to bed at 6:09 PM.
May 14: I woke up to severe storms. I watched them on TV for about 3 hours. I ate during this time. I then checked the forums and E-mail. I finished another 10 miles of the terrain map, but, just before getting to the first of the envisioned scenes, I encountered a problem. That problem was just how high were the cloud tops? I took out Excel and began planning this. It wasn't just the clouds, but the whole scenery got planned out, including the tough hills and the placement of the lakes. I got most of these worked out then went to bed. You guessed it - still at FF6 World. It's second place when I wake up. Woke up at 2:32 AM and went to bed at 8:16 PM.
May 15: 32.5 miles done! I first checked the forums and E-mail. I then ate watching TV. I got the speakers and found the bass to be unusually strong. I used those from my computer and the balance was almost perfect. I figured I could use an equalizer to take out some of the bass. Rather than my MP3 player, they are now used with my computer. I'm now 42 days in and still going. I did, however, change the speed to 80% true speed halfway through the day. Woke up at 5:23 AM and went to bed at 10:21 PM.
May 16: I had a dream but forgot it when I woke up.... First it was the forums and the terrain map being swapped between. I finished another 10 miles putting me at 42 miles. I should be out of the mountains by tomorrow. Late in the day, I had a strong urge of uploading my videos to YouTube. I uploaded 4 videos and watched 3 others. I processed my "Secrets of Bubsy 3D in level 2" video. I finished 2 2/3 minutes of the vocal part, of which tutors the various secrets. Despite all this, I still did 10 miles of the terrain. 44 days and still counting! 46 days? 95% likely to be busted. Woke up at 8:42 AM and went to bed at 2:28 AM.
May 17: 50 miles done and now I'm further into the lakes than before. I spent a rather long time on the forums which slew me down. I also needed to fix a mistake since my chart I referenced had wrong valley values. It, however, still added more miles. I've got 45 miles of mountains/hills, practically right on my target. I've done 4 miles of the deepest lake and reached the deepest/lowest point. At the end, like yesterday, I continued with the recording for my "Secrets of Level 2" video, now nearly donw with secret #4. There's still another secret yet to cover and 40% more of the video. That's 2 days before finishing. 4 or 5 days remain before finishing the terrain map. I'm still at 80% true speed on FF6 World. Woke up at 11:29 AM and went to bed at 3:16 AM.
May 18: I recalled a weird dream involving an UFO. The day started the usual way - forums, E-mail, eating, then back to the forums. Just when about to resume working on the terrain map, severe storms struck that prevented me from doing so. With hail as big as golf balls, I kept a constant watch on my local TV station for weather alerts and reported anything. I reported 3/8-inch hail and a 50 mph wind gust (a tree limb 1 inch in diameter was knocked off a tree). I monitored them from about 4:30 PM to about 10:20 PM. I was bored much of this time. I rechecked the forums then went at the terrain map finishing just 3 1/3 miles. I finished the deepest lake but ran into a problem - what to do next. My terrain plan was outdated so I spent the last hour getting it updated. 46 days and still going strong - bye bye year-old record! Woke up at 12:19 PM and went to bed at 2:44 AM.
May 19: Yay! A new dream recalled using 1 1/3 pages of details. It took an hour to write the details. I first ate but my nose, being as evil as it is, decided it was time for a nose bleed, a bad one, just after getting my frozen pizza rolls out and ready for preparation. I left my frozen pizza rolls out for 20 minutes because of it. I've had worse though. I finished 60 miles of the terrain map. Like yesterday, I didn't do any of the voice-recording stuff. I was awake for a rather short time, probably because I slept a rather long 10 hours (that's an hour longer than my usual). I uploaded more videos to YouTube, some of which Gamespot's bugs prevented me from uploading at the time. 46 days is no longer the record - it's now 47 (and still counting). I changed speeds to 76% true speed halfway through the day. Woke up at 1:41 PM and went to bed at 3:10 AM.
May 21: Nice! One more dream using 2/3 of a page in details. First it was TV, lots of it (7 hours). First it was 3 hours of computer-related things then 4 more of others. I got on my computer at 11:00 PM and was finally active by midnight. I finished to 62 1/2 miles but my temptation for the recording thing was too strong and making it hard for me to concentrate. I went at it for the remainder of the day and finished at 7:00 AM. I uploaded it to YouTube. I really liked the way the audio came out as well, better than expected. I changed speeds to 83% true speed - 48 days and still counting. Now that I got the recording out of the way, I can focus more on the terrain map. Finish the last 27 1/2 miles and it's updating my website next. Woke up at 3:36 PM and went to bed at 8:34 AM.
May 22: Great, more storms. I watched the radar and stuff on TV for nearly 5 hours then went at my usual stuff - forums, E-mail, and the terrain map. 71.3 miles so far, almost 9 in one day (despite the storms too). I finished the largest lake and the small hills beyond it. It's the medium-sized lake and more plains next. 2 days is all it should take. Updating my site is next followed by the character and/or scenery. I've got a long ways to go before completion. 49 days at FF6 World. I'm only getting small signs of boredom. Woke up at 5:35 PM and went to bed at 7:28 AM.
May 23: I only reached 74 miles as I processed another video - the walking on clouds bug in the Looney Tunes Back in Action game. I then did test prints - C, M, and Y were half as bright as they should be. I guess I'll need to write a program to fix the brightness - first I need more (accurate) data. 50 days at FF6 World and likely to continue even further, even into June. I'm still at 83% true speed though. Woke up at 7:55 PM and went to bed at 9:54 AM.
May 24: Only the final stretch remains! 82 miles are done, all lakes are done, and now it's the final stretch - the last 8 miles. I should, hopefully, be done by tomorrow. I processed another video which is actually 5 put in one - fox drowns in Sonic 2. I then saw a video where Sonic walks in the air based on the slope angle - for Ice Cap. I've had something similar in other areas using debug mode (Hydrocity and Launch Base for sure). I've been after one in Ice Cap, especially the area with the mountains background. I did and spent the last half of the day at Sonic (plus drowning that fox). 51 days and still going. I wonder if that Engergizer Bunny may be related.... Woke up at 9:45 PM and went to bed at 2:01 PM.
May 25: Terrain map done! I finished at 5:00 AM. I nearly finished making the actual images - just some touchups remain making the slopes feature outside programming and testing it, almost done. I then got involved with updating my site starting with my blog's 3 major headlines. I got a start on other things as well. I've got a ways to go. I think you'd already know - I'm still at FF6 world and 83% true speed. Woke up at 12:42 AM and went to bed at 4:49 PM.
May 26: Where'd all the dreams go? I was awake for over 22 hours. First it was eating then forums/E-mail. I did a bit on the site update then took a shower so I could go grocery shopping. Before that happened, I had to stop at dad's work place. I was mainly doing some simple sanding on metal (to make the smooth surface rougher so paint would stick to it). Various other things occurred. This lasted for 3 1/2 hours. I finally went to the grocery store. I got my usual but got a game as well. It was "Shrek the Third" for the Playstation 2. My sister had one but encountered 2 problems - no memory card and no RF adapter. I went to Wal-mart again to get these. I returned then went at the game for over 6 hours. I'm still at FF6 World but not sure if all this stopped my record from increasing. Calculations tell me that the song did not dominate the day - 52 1/4 hours is my new official record. Woke up at 2:18 AM and went to bed at 11:38 PM (±1 minute).
May 27: I first ate then went at the Shrek game for about 13 hours. I got a gold medal on each of the minigames. 12 levels for the Catatomb Leap, 10 in Frog Herder, and 24 in Shrekleboard, and I don't know about the others. I barely even had the game! I found numerous bugs as well. See news item #xxx for details. I forgot to plug in my MP3 player so I went at checking the forums and E-mail while waiting. The record is officially 52 1/4 days since less than half of my waking time was spent at the song for May 26. I switched to FF1 World but likely to change soon. Woke up at 9:37 AM and went to bed at 1:55 AM (±8 minutes).
May 28: I spent most of the day on the website update - no time at the game and very little toward the forums, even going 2 hours without them in one streak. When I ate, I found nothing but junk on on TV - only CNN Headline News had anything, but even it was rather dull (especially for 2 hours). It was almost better if I just left my TV off. I had FF1 World playing at the time to help some. I redid the done stamp for progress checklists and made 4 other stamps. The checklist is about half done. I've got quite a bit to go. FF1 World plays at 76% true speed. Woke up at 11:28 AM and went to bed at 2:20 AM (±1 minute).
May 29: I slept for only 6 hours.... I ate first then watched 3 hours of TV in 2 shows I haven't seen. It was then the forums and E-mail then the site update. I finished the checklist as far as I know. I updated the future plans section a bit as a result. I then went on to the next part - updating the home and favorites part of category 4. I finished 2/3 of the favorites list. I need to add the few dreams I've got and the daily entries and only 2 days remain. FF1 World plays at 76% true speed. Woke up at 9:46 AM and went to bed at 12:05 AM.
May 30: I had a dream but forgot it when I woke up enough to write the details. I finished the favorites and half the daily entries. I have another half of the daily entries, a few more headlines, and the dream journal left. I spent quite a bit of time watching TV as well as updating my WAV file generator program. Instead of a 48-step speed system, it's a 33-step system with extras tossed in making it more like 35. See news item #xxx for further details on this. I processed 5 songs and while they were being saved and converted, I did the daily entries. I was at FF5 Castle all day, but changed back to FF6 World 15 minutes after I went to bed due to renewed interest while processing the songs. It won't add to the record unless I manage to listen to it nonstop until a ways into July. I have 92% true speed playing for FF6 World and had 110% true speed for FF5 Castle. Woke up at 12:04 PM and went to bed at 4:41 AM.
May 31: The day is broken up into 4 parts. The first is nothing new - forums, E-mail, eat, TV, and forums. The second is getting my site updated. I finished it in full just a few minutes after midnight. I did split in an hours' TV, but nothing of much interest was on. The third part was where I made modifications to the duty checklist. I had other things as well for mom's work place stuff. Fourth, I went at that Shrek game finishing 2 other quests and trying out the "hard" difficulty. FF6 World continues on, again. Now it's June, a month of high luck. Woke up at 1:33 PM and went to bed at 6:17 AM.



Go to another time:
Earlier than 2005: Earlier than Nov 2004 | Nov 2004 (and late Oct 2004) | Dec 2004

Year 2005: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2006: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2007: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2008: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2009: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Year 2010: Yet to arrive....

The news entry headlines in bold are color-coded for a reason. They tell how big the event was for the headlines and how good my day was for the daily entries. From May 2006 onward, a slightly different system is used, of which has triple the precision. For dates prior to this that use color coding, from the white color, skipping two to red and so on is used. Here's what each color represents (for updates to before May of 2006):

Extremely major event / Very good day
Major event / Good day
Somewhat major event / Somewhat good day
Normal event / Average day
Somewhat minor event / Somewhat bad day
Minor event / Bad day
Extremely minor event / Very bad day


Footnotes:
None