I’m Still Alive!

*waving an arm* I’m still alive! Hello, readers! :-D

Last spring I had took a vacation from this blog, as my life was a lot stressful at the time. Summer was rolling in and I thought, “hey, screw this!” and pack up my cyber-luggage to have a much needed vacation. I unplugged from this blog, blocked out all things politics, and had the best summer of my life!

Though, I continued to get the hit reports in my email inbox with the number of readers coming to this little piece of space in the net. A big chunk of the numbers were of those snagging pics from my blog, which is cool with me, as I’ve snagged these pics myself from Google Images. By the way, if anyone has an issue with me using their image, please let me know. I have no problem taking them down. ;-)

But what shocked me, is that most of the numbers were of legit people reading my posts here! I can tell by the time spent on one article or another here, and return visits. I thought the numbers would dwindle after a while, but it’s held steadily for months now! That’s very flattering and it’s proof that I’m not such a crap writer as I believe myself to be. Haha! Thanks for caring enough to read my rants, bias opinions, and emotional outbursts. It’s much appreciated. :-)

As for my summer, I haven’t been up to too much. I’ve cruised a few forums, enjoyed chatting with my best friends (waves to Juan and Julie!), and also got addicted to micro-blogging. In other words, I relaxed a lot and enjoyed myself, instead of ranting. You can view my Tumbrl here: Now, Where Did I Leave My Keys?

I’ve decided that I’m not coming back to this old blog, not now anyway, maybe someday. I’ve also been growing as a person too over the summer, with a more busier life, and I can’t do the daily posts here like I use to. And there is no room for weekly posts either. But I wanted to let everyone know that everything is good and I’m okay. I hate leaving something on a bad note, if I can help it. Happy holidays everyone! And enjoy writing your own stories in the New Year. :-)

-D

A Long Hiatus

Once again, I’m going through some storms within my life. Last time, I did keep blogging through those storms and muddied The Rainpuddle a little. Hey, it’s my blog to muddy if I feel like it. But this time, I don’t feel like it. :-/

So instead, I’m taking a long break away from writing. Maybe it will only be for a month, maybe the whole summer… or maybe I’ll began to write here again next year. Who knows? What ‘s important to me is that I do what I want to, right now. I have nothing to lose, at this point.

Thanks for reading along with the blog, thus far. If anyone is really reading and not just stopping by this blog to borrow graphics. :-/

Laters.

-D

The PC Game Graveyard?

I often wonder, what happens to PC games after they die? It’s not the games are bad, only with today’s advancing technology, many of our old favorites will not work on the new laptops with faster processing speeds and better video card capabilities. It’s a lot sad, and funny in a way, that a game is forever doomed to a drawer because our new computers are just too good to run the old platforms. :-/

So, here’s my tribute to the fallen PC games that has bought me lots of joy, before technology made them so obsolete. I would still like to play these titles, but alas, they will not work with my good processor, fast memory, and brilliant video card. :-(

- Commander Blood – 1996

This was a very strange, yet fun, first person game with 3-D animation. The plot: you are a commander of a space ship, named Commander Blood (of course), and you work for a guy named Bob Morlock. Bob is a biochemical mastermind and founder of a massive corporation named Kanary. Knowing that his time is ending, Bob’s dying wish is to see The Big Bang, the moment of the universe’s creation. That’s a very tall order, I know, but Commander Blood goes searching for The Big Bang per his dying boss request. On Blood’s trip, he lands on different planets in space, meeting many different and odd space creatures, that reminds me a lot of any Jim Henson movie. It was a very interesting game that kept me well entertained. :-)

 - Shivers II: Harvest Of Souls – 1997

This a horror themed PC game, featuring a series of rock music videos, by a fictional band named Trip Cyclone. It starts off with you, the player, checking into one spooky hotel in a very eerie desert town. An unfriendly clerk at the front desk gives you a message left by someone unknown, claiming “I have your friends, only a warrior can save them.” And your friends are the rock band. You fall asleep in your hotel room, have a very disturbing nightmare about a car accident and a body, and wake up to realize that everyone in town are missing! To find your friends and free the town from a very evil monster, you must follow the rock music videos that hold the clues, left behind by your friends. It’s a very creepy game, but the music is actually kind of cool and puzzles are not easy to solve.

 - Hugo’s House Of Horrors – 1990

There is a series of Hugo games, but the one that I first started out was House of Horrors. It is a very Q-basic style game, using  the arrow keys to move your character and typing in word commands for every action. For example, “open door” to cause that action to happen. But you had to use good common sense and precise directions to get through any board. For the following screen-shot, it starts out that you’re locked outside of the house and the key is located inside the pumpkin. So, the commands are, “get pumpkin”, “drop pumpkin” (thus smashing the  item), “get key” (which was hidden within said pumpkin), “use key” (unlocking the door), “open door”. Yes, it was very tedious, but it kept me a lot engaged, as a teen. Though, I never made it to the ending… and I never will since that game doesn’t work on my system anymore. :-(

I often think about these games, especially as I still have the disks or cd to these games. I often wish to have another go at Commander Blood or to try and get the “good” ending of Shivers II… I had always got the evil ending to that one. But alas, the moment is over. I must mourn the death of these very weird, yet interesting PC games. :-/

Though it makes me wonder… in a few years, will my Sims games become obsolete, with all of the new advancements in computers? God, I hope not! I’d hate to be an old woman, trying to explain to my grandkids of the day, where we had this funny little game called “The Sims 3″. But knowing Maxis, by the time I have grandkids, there will be “The Sims 15″. ;-)

Off topic… Along with my old games are hundreds of floppies full of clip-art! I don’t know why I loved animated GIFs so much, back in the 90′s, but I have around 50 cases of floppies full of them! GIFs for every holiday, season, and subject too! Ah… those crazy times and memories. I’m so much more grown up and sophisticated now… I collect hundreds of jpeg’s from Google images and save it on my usb drive! :-p

-D