Category: Family

Semester Winding Down

April 24, 2007

It was just shy of 90 degrees yesterday (Fahrenheit). And yes, that means in under ten days the temperature had risen almost 60 degrees (remember it was snowing just over a week ago). It has gotten cooler now, which is a good thing because it was borderline oppressive yesterday.

The semester is winding down. There is less than two weeks left of classes, during which I have a quiz, an exam, and must give a presentation. So I’m busy preparing. I also have to prepare a poster for a department meeting this weekend, and do a second presentation for a group meeting. None of this is super detailed (or important) stuff, but time consuming nonetheless. I didn’t get a great deal done this past semester with respect to my doctoral work, mostly because for about two months my x-ray detector was broken (the repair company is scheduled to ship it back today), but I’ll be working over the summer to make some progress (hopefully).

Not much other news. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out for DS last weekend, and we’ve both started playing them. Only this morning I unlocked the GTS, which is a system, that lets players wirelessly trade Pokemon with players anywhere in the world (the first few trades I browsed were Japanese players). The game includes a nifty world map that will fill up as trades are completed, so you can see just where on Earth your Pokemon originated. Very very cool, especially for a DS game. (Note to Adam: buy this game so we can battle/trade Pokemon)

Here’s a shot of my DS library as of last week. Not as good as I’d hoped because I chose bad lighting. The idea for doing this was born online; it seems to be a good way to show off ones collection (DS boxes tile well together)

With 85 games in total (including Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, not in the above photo) I have more DS games than 18 of my 21 total systems. Only for PS2 (with 109) and Gameboy Advance (with 138) do I own more. However, I have been accumulating DS games at a far faster rate – an average of slightly over 3/month – than for any other game system I have ever owned…

Atari Baby

March 9, 2007

So I have a big box of Atari now…the same secret source that provided me with that 25 year old Lego kit supplied it. Here’s a shot of the entire bundle, including Yasuda:

< Yossie Loves Atari And here are some detailed shots:

The first is a historic piece of video game history – it’s Nintendo’s first US release. None other than an Atari VCS version of Donkey Kong, which was released under license by Coleco. Interestingly enough, Coleco’s main US plant was in Amsterdam, NY, only a hop and a skip from where we live now. It was at that very plant that they manufactured not only Colecovision systems but also the product that made them truly famous – Cabbage Patch Kids.

The middle picture is a shot of the Atari game Yar’s Revenge, or rather the circuit itself sans plastic case (it is about an inch square). As a child, Kristin found this in a ditch (or something like that) and it still worked fine. It may even work to this day…

The third picture is a shot of some of the basic programming products in the stash. Two cartridges are shown – one for the VCS/2600 and one for an Atari computer (the 5200?) as well as the keypad overlays. We also have a fascinating programming manual which includes details on how to write a basic program that allows the user to program in machine code (ie. You would use the basic cartridge to write an assembly language compiler).

The big question is how much of this stuff still works? And unfortunately I can’t answer that because not only do we not have a TV with the required inputs, the box didn’t include the necessary output cable for the Atari itself. Furthermore, a fair amount of the cartridges are for different systems than the one we have (a vanilla VCS), which are known to have been discarded, unworking, years ago.

So this box will enter the abyss of my attic, lost to future time, until the day arrives that someone else makes a similar blog entry to this one…

Snow Day

February 14, 2007

Today we are in the middle of the biggest snowfall Albany has seen for years, and perhaps the biggest I have ever seen in all my years in America. Overnight saw about 4 inches fall, but we are told the worst is yet to come.

We just finished clearing the driveway (the old fashioned way, with shovels), which took a little under an hour. We’re going to have to do this multiple times because the forecast for today is 18-24 inches of snow (yes, up to 2 feet) with another 6-12 tomorrow. It is falling very heavily right this second.

Here’s some shots of what it looks like right now (about 9 am). I will update this post as the day moves on:

Later that same day…

We just finished our second driveway clear, and it’s now about 1pm. We estimate 8 inches or perhaps slightly more had fallen since 3 hours earlier, which means there was more snow to remove at midday than there was in the morning. Furthermore, it is actually falling much faster now, and according to the forecasts we’re not even halfway done.

As the pictures show, we’re running up against the limit of where we can actually put the snow. Given that it’s getting denser as well, shovelling it up and over the 4 foot piles you can see in the middle shot is out of the question. I wonder what we’ll do?

And into the evening…

I next went out about 4pm, since at that point a further 6 or so inches had accumulated. Even worse, the snowplow’s passing had created a metre high, metre thick wall of densely packed snow that made the end of the driveway impassable. It obviously had to be removed or we weren’t getting out tomorrow.

The snowfall itself had lessened, and it’s possible the worst is over. Although even now they are calling for a few more inches overnight. At about 4 this afternoon, this is what the yardstick said:

So the total of 2 feet seems certain, and possible exceeded at this point. This would be our last time shovelling today, and since we were bone-tired when we began it took a great deal of effort to finish clearing the driveway a third time, much less removing the giant wall of snow at the end…

For those not familiar with our property, here are two shots of the hedge and small garden (containing black-eyed susans) to the left of our driveway, from different angles. One was taken last summer, one today. The pile of snow is almost as tall as I am.

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow morning brings…

Robot Claw