The Gaudyspuds Blog

Hey, it’s really hard to type because my “e” key is sticking, so that’s my excuse for not being able to post anything interesting. So, let me tell you what’s been keeping me so occupied to not come up with any great story. Let me begin!

#1 - As I said before, I’ve become addicted on Crayon Physics. The game is fantastic, and the music is great. It’s like a jazz mixed with some funk…y stuff. Truly, even though there are only 7 levels, I’ve probably played it for a few hours. Check it out at kloonigames.com/crayon.

#2 - Homework. It seriously takes up like at least an hour a day. And I’m not talking about the fun type, how about some old style “fill up the full page of math problems” homework, and how about some thrown in essays into the mix. Great.

#3 - Now, I don’t want you to think that my life is that boring. I also spend time watching Family Guy… that sounds really weird. Anyway, I’ve just been hanging around lately.

#4 - I’ve finally gotten my real website up, not just the SiteBuilder version. Check it out at gaudyspuds.com, not www.gaudyspuds.com.

It’s late, so by!

- Gaudyspuds

Hey, it’s late, so I’ll have to make this pretty quick. My day went through well, only one more until the weekend. Anyway, today, track started up today for me, even though Tuesday was the first meeting. But hey, I had to go to another church that day… instead of running for the different church that I was at today. Than the one I went to? That was confusing.

So anyway, I’m a long distance runner, on a team with about 90% sprinters. I’m about on my own. Today, we just worked on starts - for sprinters. While working on it, the coach said, “Wow, I’m glad you’re not a sprinter!” What’s that suppose to mean, something good or bad? I don’t know, and don’t really care that much. I just run at practices and hate going to the meets.

That isn’t much, but I’ve also been working on other sections of the Gaudyspuds emporium, so see you later.

- Gaudyspuds

Hey, first, I want to wish a family member a very happy birthday. They’ve helped me get as far as I am now with my actual website, which isn’t up yet for the public. Though, no one can see it, so I better come up with something better. They’ve helped me throughout my journey, that fits it. Anyway, I have a lot to tell about my day.

First, today at school, every other Wednesday of the month, during CCP (like a study hall - the last period of the day) we have clubs, or a separate activity to “meet” others. Really, it’s just done so the school can say that they do actually try to do something to stop bullies and let you meet peopl,e you wouldn’t otherwise. Oh yeah, the other Wednesdays during CCP, we have a bullying program! Yeah, great fun for the school.

Anyway, since I seem to have something for writing, I choose to go out for the school newspaper. And let me tell you, that was a big mistake. Here’s what a normal period, or 45 minutes of my life, would be like.

First 5 minutes - Wonder around the school for a minute, remembering that I never really knew which classroom to meet in. Once I remember that we actually meet in the “Computer Lab”, attendance is taken.

Next 10 - I now remember that I have nothing to do, so while staring at a blank screen for a few minutes, I wait for the instructor to finish talking to some other people.

Final 30 minutes - After completing the task that’s needed, I can just check the spelling, yawn, clean my glasses, and tie my shoes for about 15. Finally, I contradict whether I should log of my computer this minute, or wait another.

See, so every other Wednesday for a period I must battle wasting time. So, that part of my day was pretty wasted. Aside from that, nothing else really worth talking about happened. So, see you later. More meat tomorrow.

- Gaudyspuds

So, I’m going to try and go back to stories, and I remember a pretty nice on. It was a lazy Friday night, so my family and I (you don’t need to know anything more about them, it won’t hurt the entertainment of the story) decide that we would go and travel to New York on Saturday, and see a show. What do we decide to see there? How about the Lion King, it was a nice movie, and should be quite interesting to see how the costumes were pulled off. Though, we would find that the toughest thing would be getting there.

The drive was actually very nice. It was a beautiful day to walk about outside, not too cold, and not to humid… in February. Anyway, as we kept on going, we were able to see some of the greatest and finest sites to see. Aside for that glorious scenery, once we got into the heart and blood of the city, it became a little rough. How rough? How about having one of those window washers who just spits on your windows say, “Shup up that ****** yelling,” (Can you tell what he said?). Is that enough to get you a little shaken up?

But, that was the worst of the mix. Once we got there, I could just look around for hours. Which is what we did once we were able to get great seats to The Lion King, without having to get them 3 months in advance. We were able to see many things while waiting for the show, from an African-based church session, which consisted of a high pitched female wale, to people waving banners above their heads, to people ice skating in this warm weather. It was all a nice experience, and the dinner there was neither expensive or distasteful. Time for the show.

One word for you, “amazing”. The costumes were fantastic. The actors and actresses that were apart of the show, great. The only bad thing that I could think of is that I was sick at that time, and the next day had a 102 fever, so I may not of been able to enjoy it too it’s fullest. But if you were even able to find some interest in the movie, you’ll enjoy the show.

Anyway, as I said, I had a fever for the next 4 days, so it wasn’t the best. But that’s behind me, so see ya tomorrow!

- Gaudyspuds

Well, this is my 10 time posting on my new blog, in only 6 days. Here are some stats, pretty amazing if you ask me. Totally unbelievable.

Hits In The Past 4 Days - 40

Unique Viewers Overall- 19(!)

Most Viewers On The Blog At One Time - 2

Comments - 16

As you can see from these graphs, our sales may grow… So, my blog’s getting more popular, but I have to say something real for a post, so get ready for improvements for Nintendo, Part 2!

I’ll start off with the Wii again, I just seem to have something for this system. I guess it’s because it was so revolutionary at the time, but now they need something new. I recently saw the Z Cam, and it seems like it could easily beat out the Wii. Sure, some may rather have a… stick for a controller instead of using their whole body like with webcam games, but when it’s much some accurate with some types of games, it should really be an accessory.  Buy up the rights Nintendo! I really like the boxing game with Wii Sports for some reason, but it would be so much better with this. Like I said yesterday, it seems like the independent programmers win again.

Okay, I don’t want this to get too boring, so I’ll leave it at that and start a more interesting and funny story about when I went to NYC.

- Gaudyspuds

As I said yesterday, my story water isn’t working anymore, seems like I drank too much. Though, this seems to be the time when a bunch of ideas are flowing out. Get ready for some new video game ideas to give the industry a boost.

It seems like the one complaint many people have made about the Wii and the other Nintendo systems is that they make great games for the systems, but they don’t make enough quickly enough. Sure, almost anyone would love  the lighthearted nature of Super Mario Galaxy and the great gameplay of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but those great breeds of games only come out like once a month. The other games that are just mediocre never bring anything new to the industry. Okay, I have to give it to them, the Internet access adds a lot of new ways to play online games, but for $5, that may not really count.

Okay, I’ve said a mouth load. Now, what to do about this problem? First off, so many great games come from independent programmers. How about have a collection of say the top 15 games for the IG festival, which you could buy online, and then use the Wii remote to control, it could produce some nice things. Or, just redo the controls. You would both have some brilliant minds working on some amazingly creative games, and later you may just have some of the best future developers. I’ve played a few of the best games, including the old version of Crayon Physics Deluxe, “Crayon Physics”, and that game alone would be in my library if it was for the Wii. Using the remote could cause magic. It just seems like some games were meant for certain systems, and this one is the killer application of freeware games for the Wii. Other top games were also fantastic. Just being able to play a few online for a few bucks apiece would be great!

Now, I’ve talked about the Wii enough, time to go onto the Nintendo DS, so I cover the two systems I have. Seems like Nintendo wants you to have more control over your movements with their systems…

I really like handheld systems, if there could just be one that had amazing graphics and steller gameplay, I bet that could win the championship for the DS over the PSP once again. I’ve found that some games that have great graphics on the top screen, but just flub it up on the bottom. A game might even have just the same image on the bottom screen. Seriously, there doesn’t seem to be much going on down there. Like with some other games on other systems like the XBox 360, how about use the Wi-Fi to say, have sports stats when you’re playing a sports game float on the bottom. I know it would be great to have chat rooms online with Pictochat, and that actually wouldn’t be that hard. If you would mix that with some other things like say the TV Tuner that was famed in Japan, you could have yourselves a DS bundle package to get people buying.

So, those are just a few ideas that I came up with in a flash to get the Nintendo truck moving a little quicker with orders, if you have any ideas or even have any comments or suggestions at any time, just say something in the comments section, I’ll try to respond.

- Gaudyspuds

Hey, I’ve just been searching around the web today, just looking around, and I’ve come to notice that it seems like about half of the programs on my computer are open-source. I mean, it seems like we take so much from the technical world for granted. We don’t pay for those online games, if we would, everyone would think that the developer was crazy! It’s almost the same way with everything else.

What I’ve come to realize is that people take too much for granted. School, take that for example. If the teacher wouldn’t have their lesson planned for the day, what would happen? Everyone would say how horrible they are, when the other 179 days they were flawless. With humans, your expectations can rise to an enormous level.

The best example I’ve been able to think of is with your parents. They always are there to help you, and no matter what, they’re always there to help you.

Okay, this post is going no where, so I just want to say thanks to my Mom and Dad!

- Gaudyspuds

Hey, I seem to have become more popular, I’ve added a hit counter which is invisible to all but me, and even a counter for how many people are on at what time. So far the maximum is 1 person on at the same time! Wow, that sounds really weird. Even though that may be some juicy information, other than that, I don’t really have any stories to tell. Though, I do have a lot going on in my mind.

It seems like most students don’t really do much with writing. Sure, you might write a report once and a while, but it never seems like students really have the motive to write what their opinions on different topics are. While, on the other side, teachers always seem to stress how much the writing section of all the standardized tests counts, while they don’t spend all of that time working on that. So, I was thinking that it would be so genius to come up with a program to get students blogging. Some might think that this might mean that there should be boundaries set, but I think that they would be more creative if they could do whatever they wanted. They would just say what’s on their mind.

I think this could also help those who have social boundaries or  problems. They would be able to meet others like them. The students would be able to interact, and meet others without discrimination. Everyone would be the same, and learn.

Maybe you would think that this would mean another costly project for the schools, but it isn’t that hard. Either they could use www.wordpress.com, which would work great for their purposes, or they could try to use their own hosting, and use the free open-source software of Wordpress or say MovableType.

Now, wordpress.com would be great because it’s free, and there is no limit to the number of blogs you can have, great if even a whole classroom wants to get into it. It would almost be as good as having a school buy a server for the whole school to have privately owned domains and blogs. It wouln’t cost that much, and the students could have their own slice of the web.

Even though this all sounds great, even fantastic on paper,  getting it out there and able to be up and running could be more challenging. So, I guess this would mean that I should try to take it into my own hands. I know most teachers or instructors would be iffy or concerned about this technology. A good way is if my idea was to become more popular, I could have guest “editors” post stories or articles. It would be a great way for new bloggers to become more well know. Comment about what you think about, tell me if you could help. Thanks!

- Gaudyspuds

As I’ve said before, I’ve already gotten some comments, and all of them being positive. So, I’ll try to go back and add a little humor to my writing. Be ready for my haircut.

Less than a week ago, I decided that it was time to get a haircut. My hair is very straight (like me, men) and grows very fast, the worst combination. No matter what I try to do, my hair always seems to flops over back to normal, so unless I want to look like Moe of “The Three Stooges”, my hair only looks bearable when it’s longer. Though, for me there’s a thin line between looking stylish and looking like the other gender (I’m male… if you didn’t know).

I didn’t go to my regular shop, and that was my first mistake. It was the grand opening a few days ago, so many people were going to just try it out. They seemed to have taken on too much than they could handle. So, the wait was strike one. And it seems like they’ll be playing for the whole team with batting.

Once I was able to be squeezed in, I didn’t get what I paid for. When I said I had wanted to have a small cut, just around the back, so it actually looks like the rest of my hair, the elderly woman gets the bright idea of not listening to what I said. I’m sure the phrase “Screw him, I’m the one with sharp objects at his head and neck,” crossed through her mind a few times. And she spent about 75% of the time just shaving off my hard earned hair with a razor, not even the type I asked for! To add insult to injury (something my father always used to say), she put my hair in a part, to make me look like a 1940s child. Seriously, even if that was hip and what the cool-cats did when you were born, please, at least you should know how to give someone a Paris Hilton style haircut.

So far, the experience hasn’t been going so hot. Even if a drunk Edward Scissorhands (The was why he killed Jim, right? Or was it a mental illness, it might have gone in the family to this lady) did cut my hair (isn’t that so funny - a DRUNK Edward Scissorhands!), I have to congratulate her for only saying 4 words during the whole time she cut my hair. Though, once it was time to pay, it was even worse.

It literally took about 20 minutes to just pay for a horrible haircut. The women (2 had to try to figure it out) had to work out the quirks in the computer program. They kept on saying that my information “Is in cyberspace now”, which had me a little worried… and grumpy. Though, with all of this, the lady that cut my hair did say that she liked my shirt!

Hope that brightened up your evening, until tomorrow.

- Gaudyspuds

Hey, already I have an audience, and everyone seems so supportive. Wow, this makes it a lot different than before, but I’ll try to keep it cool. Anyway, time for me to start.

As I’ve said in my first post, I was going to talk more about a Neurological condition called

“Synesthesia”. Now, you may think that this would be really boring, but I think that it’s so extraordinary. Seriously, we don’t even know very much about ourselves, and we’re going out and trying to explore the universe. All these amazing people are really just like us. But, that’s enough of an introduction, time to find out what I’m talking about. This artical is one I wrote for my Science Fair project, when I was quite young. Here it is;

‘Synesthesia’

The condition called synesthesia is a neurological occurrence in which two senses work at the same time, together. For example, a person with color-graphemic synesthesia may see a bright light when hearing a certain number. In one of the most common types of synesthesia, a synesthete will see a word as a certain color in their mind. Many people see different colors or hear different sounds depending on what type of synesthesia they have. It had been shown through studies that synesthetes almost never agree on what color they may see or their “reaction”. Some people can even experience three senses at once, but this is an extreme case. Scientists aren’t sure of the number of people with synesthesia, with estimates from 1 in 200 to 1 in 100,000. It is possible that many synesthetes go undiagnosed.

A person most likely to be a synesthete would be a woman, left handed, or someone with a synesthetic family member. Even though there has been written evidence on this condition for about 200 years, still not much is known about it. One reason for the slow progress is because scientists have been debating over the importance of the subject for years. Some think that there is no importance in going farther with research, while others are amazed and curious. Still, there has been recent progress and scientific research showing some characteristics, such as synesthetes have a special way of viewing different symbols.

One recent study done by the psychology section of the University of California (San Diego) had one test that showed synesthetes could point out a shape in a matrix of identically colored 5’s and 2’s. Although in the test below the numbers were colored the same, this picture shows what the image might look like to a synesthete.

The scientific consensus on this topic is this synesthesia is in fact a real condition for a small percentage of the human population.

And that is what makes it truly magical.

Well, I hope that sparked a little bit of interest into you, I’m Gaudyspuds, and tomorrow I’m going to have something about

Savant Syndrome, another interesting (I hope) condition. If you have the time, please comment and come back later!

- Gaudyspuds