Thanksgiving Day!

The time of year in which we give thanks for all we have, has come and gone. I spent the day with Kris and the family at the Parker's home. We had Turkey, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, and Cranberry Suace. We didn't have any bread, which was somewhat unusual, but we survived. Andrea and Jacob ate with us and it was a small gathering. The dogs spent the day at home, snuggling on the couch. It was 17 degrees outside with a very sharp winter wind bringing a chill to the bones.

Jacob brought his Gamecube from his dad's house and we spent the afternoon playing Rainbow Six 3. I had forgotten how much fun that game had been and really enjoyed it. I had thought about buying a copy for the computer as it was available at Walmart in the Jewel Case for $10. I also ran across the Wireless Messenger adapters for the GBA. They were in the clearance aisle for $10 each. I do plan to pick up three of them as soon as I have the money to do so.

Job Status
I submitted an application with Adecco, a temp agency which provides workers for Xcel Energy. I am not exactly expecting too much from this, but it would be nice to get a stable job there. Most positions are Temp-to-Hire and garantee at least 6 months of work. That might be all I am able to do around here. I emailed the recruiter right after submitting my application to introduce myself and let the lady know that a client had recommended I submit directly. Maybe that will be some help.

I still haven't heard back from Documation. I had submitted my resume with them and was hoping to hear back from them. I would have gone in to do a follow-up, but Kris' car began having more "weather-related" problems. I hope something good comes along soon because we could really use a new vehicle.

Chirstmas Music on Willsroom.com
Yeah, Christmas is up now. Alll of the stores are force-feeding the Christmas Crap down everyone's throats. Another season of greed is ahead. I'm really starting to hate the holiday season. All the retailers are encouraging everyone to spend, spend, spend.

I uploaded some Christmas Music to the Site's Mp3 Player. That is one thing I have always enjoyed about the holidays. The music is wonderful. I decided to add my Small button MP3 player to the Blog to add some festivity to the place. If you want to turn it off, just click on the pause button.

Responsible Airsofting

It seems in the last few months that many of the various communities I regularly visit have gotten several new members. In the last few years, I have made myself available to answer questions and generally help these kids out. I say "kids" as many of them are just that - kids. These guys are 12-14 years old and jump right into a hobby with very little preparation and even less common sense.

Airsoft is a combat simulation using 1:1 ratio replicas of real firearms. Being firearm replicas, you have the physical representation of an assault rifle. Assault Rifles have been blown completely out of proportion in the media as being "evil." Whatever your stance on firearms, the concept of the "Assault Rifle" has been misconstrued as being every criminal's first choice when running around shooting up the countryside.

Second, these kids, for whatever reason, have decided that they can run around town waving their airsoft guns at people and that there is nothing wrong with that. This, in turn, opens up the negative media response on the hobby. The Law Enforcement react to the implyed threat in the typical response they should. And "Johhny Newb" gets thrown on the ground at gunpoint, handcuffed, and hauled off to jail. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Newb want to know why Police would react in such a way and demand that somebody pay for this horrible crime.

People, lets accept facts. Airsoft guns are replica firearms. That means they look and act like real firearms. Most people are ignorant of firearms other than they go "bang" and kill (or injure) whomever they go "bang" at. Good. Respect firearms. In the hands of irresponsible people, they are dangerous.

So, little Johhny Newb asks Mom and Dad to buy him an airsoft gun. Do you guys even know what you're getting yourself into? Do you take the time to look at what you're buying your kids? If you wouldn't own a real firearm or give your child a real firearm, why in god's name would you buy him an airsoft gun? If your child is too irresponsible to own a firearm, because you are worried he might run around town with it, then don't you think giving him a replica gun would be just as dangerous?

Airsoft guns are not toys! They shoot plastic BBs that can injure people. The legitimate International Airsoft Hobby stresses safety and responsibility above all other things.

Safety means that you use your airsoft guns while using the proper safety equipment in the proper setting. The proper setting is on an airsoft field - not running around in public and certainly not running around the back yard.

Responsibility means that you respect "the gun." You never use it or play in an area where a bystander may be injured by a stray shot. You never play in areas where someone might stroll by and see heavily armed children running around.

Finally, parents need to take some responsibility. Supervise your child's education. If he doesn't respect that an airsoft gun is dangerous, then he does not need to have one. If he doesn't respect the fact that he can be shot by a Police Officer for carrying the gun around with him, the he doesn't need to have one. And remember, owning a gun is not a right (regardless of what the NRA says). It's a privelege earned by being a responsible citizen. If you can't be a responsible citizen, you have no business having a gun.

Hero Maker Back Online!

Those of you who are familiar with the format of the old site, will remember that I once ran a nifty little program called "Hero Maker." This was a flash program which allowed you to create super heroes and comic book-looking characters from existing templates. The program was designed to be used locally or hosted online. You then had to do a screen capture (Alt+Prt Scr) and paste the pic into Paint. It was fun, occasionally.

A friend of mine from Ohio, who was into the comic book look and RPG (nerdy) nature of the little program enjoyed using it, but was a little annoyed by its limitations. I told him there was an updated version available and that he should look for it. Well, Brady found the full version, but it was much bigger than the former program. I wanted to host the new program, but my bandwidth constraints made that a bit difficult. It would have meant scrapping site features to incorporate the updated version.

Well, with the boost in bandwidth I recieved (2.5 GB of storage, 100 GB bandwidth), I now have space to accomodate the newer, larger program.

http://willsroom.com/HeroMachine/heromachine.html

It's been alot of fun playing around with it. Give it a try, you'll prolly like it. Just remember, you will need to do a screen capture to save you pictures. On Windows Machines, that means using the "Alt+ Prt Scr" command and paste it into a Graphics Program. Also, keep in mind you will need Fashplayer or similar plug-in to run *.swf files. Enjoy!

Current GBA Games Library

The following is a list of our Gameboy Library:

Consoles:

• Gameboy Advanced - White (Will)
• Gameboy Advanced - Clear (Jacob)
• Gameboy Advanced - Purple (Andrea)
• GBA SP - Classic NES Edition (Will)

Gameboy Color Games:

• Army Men: Air Combat
• Arthur's Absolutely Fun Day
• Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage
• Donkey Kong Country
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
• Monster's, Inc.
• NickToons Racing
• Rampage 2: Universal Tour
• Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers
• Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakout
• Super Mario Bros. Deluxe - 2 copies

Game Boy Advanced Games:

• Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros.
• Harry Potter
• Konami Advanced Arcade
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Mario Golf Advanced
• Mario Kart: Advanced Circuit
• Mario Party Advanced
• Namco Museum
• Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
• Robotech: The Macross Saga
• Super Mario Advance
• Super Mario Advance 2
• Super Mario Advance 4
• Tekken Advance
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
• Wolfenstein 3D

Family Preferences:
I'm sure I'm missing one or two at this point, but I will be updating the list as soon as I figure out what is missing. As you can see, the library is a mixture of Retro Classics and "Kiddy" Titles.

Andrea tends to stick with the "Mario" series. She also likes Sonic the Hedgehog, but we don't yet have any of them, yet. She really likes Mario, and is currently playing Mario Party Advanced.

Jacob prefers the action-oriented games like racing, sports, and the shooting games. He also enjoys Mario and Sonic, but is patiently awaiting the purchase of some more titles. He is currently working on Tony Hawk PS3 and Rogue Spear.

I like most of the GBA games, but like most of the retro games. I am currently working on Rogue Spear, Tony Hawk, and Mario Party Advanced. I am still trying to get a few titles, such as : Serious Sam, Doom 1, Doom 2, and Star Wars: Flight of the Millenium Falcon.

Kris does not yet play any of the Gameboys as she claims she can't see the screen. This is somewhat suspicious as she played both Yahtzee and Uno handhelds through several changes of batteries and would become quite agitated if she couldn't find them. :)

Rogue Spear for the GBA!!!

I recently purchased a used copy of Rogue Spear for my GBA on eBay. I paid $8 for this game and have to say I am very happy with it. Unfortunately, it did not come with any manual and was simply the cartirdge. Even worse is the fact that Ubi Soft does not seem to support this game anymore and most of the links to support info on this game is dead, leaving very few options. This game utilizes specific key combinations to accomplish its many features. After about 30 minutes of digging, I found a Game Walk-through with the information I was looking for.

Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
For those of you who aren't familiar, Rogue Spear is the 1999 Sequeal to the original Rainbow Six. This game is one of the first modern Tactical Shooters and argruably, one of hte best. For me, it holds special value as it was the first game I bought for my computer. It has accompanied me north and will doubtlessly be with me on any machine I move on to. Rogue Spear is a classic game which worked well.

As I said before, finding support information on this game was very difficult, so I have decided to include information I found. Hopefully, anyone else looking for this information will now have one more good source.

Rogue Spear for Game Boy Advanced
Control
The controls for this game are as follows:
B - Use current weapon.
A - Reload weapon.
L - Strafe (while held).
Start - Pause the game and check objectives.
Select - Check the map.

L+B - Perform actions (Open doors, defuse bombs, rescue hostages).
L+A - Crouch.
R+B - Aim mode (with crosshairs).
R+A - Change weapons.
L+L - Toggle between making your whole team wait or follow you.
R+R - Toggle between making one member of your team wait or follow you.
L+R+B - Switch characters

Weapons
Pistol- 15 shots per magazine, weak shots, slow rate of fire.
Assault Rifle - 30 shots per magazine, medium shots, fast rate of fire.
Sub Machine Gun - 30 shots per magazine, medium shots, medium rate of fire.
Shotgun - 08 shots per magazine, strong shots, slow rate of fire.
Sniper Rifle - 04 shots per magazine, strong shots, slow rate of fire, attack at a distance.
Flash Bangs - 04 per character, used to distract and blind enemy units.
Frag Grenades - 04 per character, can be used quickly and do lots of damage.

Characters
There are four types of characters that you can choose from in the game -- Assault, Recon, Demolition, and Sniper. Here is the basic breakdown of each character class:

Assault - These troops have more health than the classes above and better weapons than the recon class. Their assault rifle is both powerful and fast; you can hold the fire button down for fully automatic fire. These troops are best suited to taking out the enemies in the final missions that can take more hits and do more damage to you.

Recon - These troops have very little health but move very quietly so they can operate undetected for the most part. Their sub machine gun takes out the majority of enemies with ease. You'll want to have at least one “recon” character in your team for each mission.

Demolition - These troops have lots of health and use shotguns or grenades to get the job done.

Sniper - These troops have very little health but they attack from long distances with their sniper rifles (provided you remember to switch to that weapon) and can take out guards quite easily this way.


Tips
Enemies show up as red dots on your map, hostages are yellow, and objectives that you need to use the action command on are green. When sniping you can often kill the enemy even if you can't see them, simply move your crosshairs to where they should be located with the help of the map.

If your crosshairs turn red, shoot that spot to kill a guard. If your character runs out of ammo you could switch to another weapon, but I find it's easier to leave the character behind and only use him for transporting hostages. You could also keep him in your team and switch to someone with more ammo. Just remember that the other character can't defend him very well anymore.

Any time that you complete a mission in the campaign mode you can replay the stage in lone wolf mode if you wish. In this mode you only control one character instead of four, so it's much more challenging. However in order to make things slightly easier you have unlimited ammo, otherwise it would be pretty cruel if your character ran out of ammo during the mission and there was no way to get more.

Source: Rogue Spear FAQ, Daniel Engel 2004

PC Version vs. GBA Version
Anytime a good PC game comes out, there is usually at least one or two ports. I suppose game developers want to make the most of their title and giving "consolers" the chance to get a taste of what "real" gaming is, could possibly convince them to give it a try. Unfortunately, ports have almost always been bad. Some systems aren't sophisitcated enough to offer all of the features a PC does and most of the time, graphics suffer considerably.

That being said, a GBA port for a PC game is obviously going to suffer in the graphics department. Also, it is difficult to port a full feature First Person Shooter onto a set screen size of 3 inches. How do you port an FPS game onto a 32-bit handheld?

The answer is, they didn't port the game. They created a tactical shooter that had many of the features, but scaled down for portable gaming. RS:GBA is, in fact a brand new game, a different perspective of the original. Instead of FPS, it is a top-down shooter similar to the old GTA and GTA2. In fact, it very closely resembles SWAT 2, in that you lead your team of 4 operators through various scaled-down versions of the original Rogue Spear missions.

Honestly, I was quite surprised by how well it worked out. Ubi was able to create a nice little game for handhelds, while still delivering the "Rogue Spear" theme. The Music and interface were even replicated, making it an enjoyable, almost nostalgic return. I am big into Retro Gaming, so this purchase has actully been a pleasant surprise. I would buy this game new, if need be.

Features
This game features Singleplayer "Campaign" Mode with 15 missions, "LoneWolf" Mode, which is basically the same 15 missions, where you play solo, and a Multiplayer function which allows you to play against others using the GBA Link Cable. I couldn't find too much onformation about this, so I donot know if that means 4 players or 2 players leading 2 mean each.

The game features the full score and sound efects fromthe original games, including voice commands, and audio snippets as well.

Pictures

Pictures: Rogue Spear, GameSpot.com

Today was spent figuring out and paying bills. Bob did pay me, but not exactly what I feel I should have been paid. I don't suppose I would have ever gotten a decent paycheck out of him. I had to threaten to report him to the State Department of Labor to get my pay.

He offered me a very insulting "compromise." I am not satisfied with being paid minimum wage for the amount of work and trouble I had to go through there. But I guess that's the way things are gonna be with Bob. I want nothing else to do with him.

I spent today getting things organized. I need to work on my resume and figure out a gameplan for my next job. The last year has been truly miserable. I have been in and out of 4 jobs. I'm sick of looking for a way to keep our family afloat.

I spoke to my parents yesterday. They have been taking care of my sister's dog for the last year. The dog is some kind of golden retriever or something - a big dog. Dad said it is very rough with Lola. Sophie died two months ago and I'm still pretty angry that the damned dog was so rough with her. I remember when those two sweet beagles were puppies. Erin pawned that damned dog off on them and is making mom and dad take care of it.

I've begged with mom and dad to get rid of it because Erin doesn't take care of her and its really too big a dog for mom to have to deal with. I know what's gonna have to happen. I'm gonna have to come down there and take the dog to a kennel. It's either that or I'll have to find it another home. Mom and Dad seem almost helpless dealing with Erin about it. I'll tell you one thing, if that dog hurt Lola, I'm gonna put the damned thing down myself.

Erin has dumped all of her crap on mom and dad's doorstep, expecting them to have to deal with it and then bitching them out when they do something she doesn't like. I wish Ben would get up off his ass and take that damned dog to Alpine of Ft Davis and get rid of it. But noone seems to want to do anything, they're just gonna let things go.

On the homefront, I still have to find another damned job. I really hate having to hunt for jobs, mostly because of the constant letdowns with doing it. I have a hard time getting excited about any job prospect, and perhaps that is exactly the attitude I should have with them.

Right now, I just don't know what to do. I need work and I need the pay. But I just don't know where to begin with all of this.

I'm still working on finding a new j0b. I had two interviews in the last four days. One job is with Family Video as a Management trainee. According to the guy I interviewed with, they are opening new stores all over the US and need Managers to go tot he new stores. IT's kinda misleading considering the crap I had to go through to get my interview. Who knows?

My second interview was with Radio Shack as a Seasonal Temp. The supervisor asked about the job at 1 Reason, so I let him know what was going on. He'd asked about pay and stuff and I let him know exactly what the problem had been. I'm still pissed about it, but I don't really miss any of it.

I'm still waiting for my damned paycheck. Its been 2 and a half weeks now and we need the money. Kris and I are both certain Bob is going to screw me over again. I was paid for roughly one month of work. And I'm sure he's going to try more of his chickenshit garbage and try to screw me out off the rest of my pay.

I find out today or at least I should find out today if Bob is going to screw me over again. I won't be at all surprised.

Right now, I'm trying to help Jake get the last of his book reports completed. He did the same thing he and Annie usually do - he waited untilt he absolute last minute to do the work and now he's almost out of time. Having to read 6 books and crap out 6 reports in less than a week is more work than most people can do. I'm actually amazed that he has been able to do it. But then again, we haven't let him slack off and have insisted he finish his job.

Of course, it helps that we have a little extra motiviation for him. When he finishes the job, he gets his Gameboy back. If he can get all of his work done today, I promised to take him to Gamestar - a used Game Store, and buy him a new game. At $3-$7 each, it seems a good reward for such hard work. We will also be picking up Star Wars Episode 3 today.

I finally sold the MP5SD6. I could have sent it off to be fixed, but right now, I'm a little tired of airsofting. I haven't had the time or money to spend on the hobby. And until I find a job that pays well enough for me to do so, I'm going to be stuck.

It sucks that my life has had to come to rely on the almighty dollar. I remember a time when I could care less about having money and when having "stuff" didn't make a damn bit of difference to me. I guess those days are gone.