Man. I have totally lost track of the Windows game making community. I wonder if any of the other "first 10 users" are still active?

In other news, I have a site at http://charlo.gamemakersgarage.com/ in case anybody comes across this little forgotten slice of the internet.

I just got a MacBook a week ago, and I have to say, Leopard so much better than Windows XP. Unfortunately, there's less software for OS X, and the amount of game creation software is much smaller. Hopefully I'll have bootcamp running eventually so I can run all my windows programs. Right now I'm using GameMaker for the mac (www.macgamemaker.com), and while it's not as flexible, the community is tighter-knit and it takes more skill to make really fun games. In windows GameMaker, any idiot can make a breakout clone, but it would take loads of programming knowledge to make one in Mac GameMaker.

Yeah, I know you're all jealous. :D

If you pay attention, you'll notice that most of my recent blog entries of late have lamented the fact that I haven't posted many blog entries recently. This one is no different. Since I don't use GM much anymore, I don't really have any reason to come to this place. Sure, I download a few GM games here and there, and I sometimes visit the YoYogames site (I'm going to take a guess and say that you all hate it irrationally, but I could be wrong), but I have more interesting things to do with my time. Well, the fact that they're more interesting is debatable, but they match my current interests better. I play turn-based games at www.goldtoken.com and I'm a semi-professional scrabble player (I memorize pointless words so I can play a board game, in other words). I also work at the InvisionFree Skin Zone (www.ifsz.net) where I am a global mod.

Are you feeling insignificant yet!?

Besides, blogging isn't for me. My life is relatively free of controversy, and I don't do much exciting stuff. This entry is self-evident. You're probably glad this thing is almost over.

Well, the programming class I mentioned in my previous entry was pretty awesome, although it was way too easy. Most people came into the class with zero experience, so the class moved slowly. That meant I had a lot of time to just fool around on the computer while everybody else finished their projects. My teacher told me that it would be a crime against humanity if I didn't become a programmer, that's how awesome I am.

I'm going to be a Senior next year, which means I should probably start thinking seriously about college/the rest of my life. I've wanted to be a programmer since the start of 6th grade, so I'm hoping to pursue that...otherwise, something involving urban/regional planning would be sweet. I'll probably end up going to a technical college, though, because I want to stay here in Middleton (which is by the way the #1 city to live in according to Money magazine) and the only major college near here (UW-Madison) is extremely selective.

You are probably bored out of your mind at this point. I'll stop.

-Charlo

School starts tomorrow for me...which makes little sense because we then have three days off...anyway, I'm looking forward to taking Programming 2nd semester, but the rest of my classes aren't very exciting. At least I don't have the english teacher I had last year...I would kill myself, and I'm barely exaggerating when I say that. lololololololol!!11!!!emo!111!!!llololololk.

Why do I even post these things? I'm turning into an internet loser. Thank god I don't have a MySpace, though.

<img src="chiggerfruit/cdmod.jpg">
<i style="color:#880000;">Sorry, but this blog is a bit short for a front pager. Just add some more and tag it back up there. =)</i>

A few weeks ago I played in the US Scrabble Open (USSO) in Phoenix, Arizona. Out of twenty-eight games, I won nineteen. However, we were put in divisions based on skill, and I was in the lowest of six divisions. I still won 400 dollars though, which I have yet to receive. >=0

It's not like anybody really cares, they just pretend to be interested. But I tell them anyway.

I haven't touched GM all summer. I came to this site to maybe download some games, because I'm facing the inevitable summer boredom. If anybody has some exceptional games to suggest, leave a comment.

And I can't think of anything else to say.

I can hardly wait for school to end. For serious. I've got good grades in all my classes, which is a complete change for me, so I feel all set there. No need to worry. But I'm just getting so sick of it. My English teacher is SO stupid, it makes me nauseated. I dread that class every day. I even started quoting all the stupid things she said into my notebook until I just stopped listening altogether. AND she's a completely biased liberal who's unafraid to make that known to the class, even if it is through indirect methods. I have nothing against liberals unless they fail to see the other side of any argument, and that's what my teacher does. I doubt anybody else in my class has the mental stamina to figure out anything she says, which is a good thing because most of the things she says are flawed anyway, and if they're not flawed it's just because she read them in a book written by a person 100X smarter than her. We have not done a single fun thing in class all year, and pretty much the only enjoyable thing is coming up right now: we get to CHOOSE a book to read instead of reading one of the ones the curriculum says (while they may be good books, they don't interest me). She grades us on notes, but they're so completely and utterly worthless it's a wonder I got a B on them. I don't know anybody who wants to take 20 pages of notes on a book nobody cares about and that we'll never read again, but she persists.

Oh, that felt good to get out of me.

And what does that "community level 9" icon under my avatar mean?

This site has changed so much since I was last active on it....it's so much bigger...and it's a year old, just like my membership here. I used to be have the most blog posts of anybody here.

However, some things never change. My games are still rated crappily because they are pretty crappy. Well, not crappy, but nothing spectacular. And I still have my kickin' green avatar. And this site, overall, is the best GM site ev4r.

I don't use GM anymore. I'm not into it that much. Going to this site makes me want to upload some of my old games and finish up some WIP's though. I have a puzzle game with seventy-five levels (originally I intended to have 100) just sitting on my hard drive waiting for something to happen (it was made in GM 5.0). Who knows, one day I may get back into it. But my skills at their peak are nothing compared to what even n00bs do in GM these days.

Right now I'm more interested in the DDR simulation program StepMania. I make simfiles, which I can assure you is pretty sweet even though you have no idea what they are. It's not as intensive or creativity-consuming as GM, but it's fun. I also write crappy Harry Potter fanfiction, which is where a lot of my creativity goes. I'm still at my position at the InvisionFree Skin Zone, so nothing has changed there.

Shit, I'm going all nostalgic, maybe I'll stop here...

-Charlo

My interest in GM is rekindled somewhat for no apparent reason. Soon I might start working on new games, but nothing overly complicated since my prowess of GML is about equivalent to my prowess at HTML (that is, very little).

However, the real interest in GM usually happens in the middle of English class, when I'm so bored that ideas are just floating abstractedly in my brain. By the time I get home I usually just visit the <a href="http://www.ifsz.net">IFSZ</a>, where I work. It's also the 147th largest english-speaking message board on the entire intarwebs. I don't have any knowledge of coding languages, but all I do there is review other people's forums. I used to skin, but...

So......


-Charlo

I'm so lazy, I can't even finish the GM games I have WIP'ed. Maybe I'll just release them as is and not care. Not like I care much right now, but still...

At least my computer's working, which you know is a big deal for me after reading my previous bloggings. Of course, my favorite computer game (StepMania) quits for no reason and never saves my scores. Oh well.

I'm getting straight B's this year again in school. I think I'm on the fast track to a technical college. Not like there's anything wrong with technical colleges. You can get great jobs after you graduate from one of those, and not just as a tech support guy either. My social studies teacher is dissapointed in me because I havea B- even though I am far and away the smartest person in the class. When you have people that don't even know who John Kerry is, you know there's a problem with today's youth.