So since I posted last I’ve plugged through to level 18.
Yup the game rolls credits plus you see the castle disintegrate. That’s the black pile of slag to the right.
And then the game continues to play – level 19, 20, 21, 22 and so on. What it does is mix in enemies from other levels. So in level 1 you get ghosts and bats. But I finished the first 18 levels successfully. Time for another game.
So I’ve been slogging through levels in Castlevania on the NES emulator.
Level 10 was a challenge but I made it through. Have the game on pause right now and I screen captured the following to prove I’m at level 14 now. That’s just 4 from the very end of the game. I know there’s a Castlevania II so I may have to download that.
I have the long life cheat enabled. That’s what is allowing me to conquer levels. Lots of fun. Never had this game in my original NES collection but glad I have it now.
Of course as you can see from the image I went in with 3 lives. Got killed off quickly though.
But better – I can consistently get past level 6 now then to level 7 and then level 8. And this is proof I’m starting to reach level 9. So I’m half way through the 18 levels in this game. I’ll keep plugging and keep playing. See how far I can get.
So I’ve driven a number of different cars with my Zipcar account. And I have to say it, hands down my favorite car is the Volkswagen Golf TSi.
I should explain why. I’m a fairly confident driver. They say drive defensively, I aim for offensively.
And the Golf TSi – the perfect car matched to my abilities. It’s an awesome car, 0 to 60 MPH in around 7 second. All I now is at the top of the ramp to I-95 south near me, I’m doing maybe 30MPH and half way down the ramp I’m at 60MPH and I can hear the turbocharger kicking in. Nice.
Just last night, I was able to avoid an accident with an idiotic driver – the handling on the Golf is superb. The short wheelbase makes it a blast to drive too.
The only fault I have with the car, it’s the stupid decision by Volkswagen to not put a USB port in the car and instead that abortion of an iPod connector. Look, some of us don’t want to use an iPod. I suppose if I bought one I’d hack in a USB port – after all that dumb iPod connector has to have a 5 volt rail on it somewhere. Even if it didn’t, pretty easy with an LM7805 voltage regulator and a few other components I could even fashion one that I could tuck into the dashboard.
Because it’s not a car, not a truck but a Twuck or more specifically a van. A Toyota Sienna (It’s also sold as a Lexus – but pure Toyota through and through.)
It has characteristics that are common to all Toyota vehicles. Slam the door and it sounds like you’re closing a tin can.
However the one I drove this evening – it had some redeeming qualities.
For example – this baby could fucking move. I had her up around 90MPH on the highway. Lovely! It almost makes you forgive the fact that it’s a Toyota and a Minivan.
But the piece de resistance, the creme de la creme, this twuck could burn fucking rubber. I mean I pulled a few whole shots with this van, had the tires chirping and squeaking like crazy.
I guess Toyota finally figured out – give a Minivan a reasonably powerful engine, with torque pretty much out the wazoo and you might sell a few more. But no – it’s still a Minivan – useful for hauling people and shit around. and I’d never buy one as my heart belongs to cars of German or Bavarian lineage. To be specific a Volkswagen Golf TSi or Golf R, or a BMW X3.
But it if you are in the market for a minivan – I can highly recommend this one as it’ll let you relive the joys of your gearhead youth and let you pull wholeshots with a van, a front wheel drive van I might add.
I got it because it was mentioned on BosGuy’s Blog. Went over to Amazon, started reading it and decided it was worth the price. Clicked buy and it was instantly on my Fire HD6.
Now this book is seriously funny. Marc Acito (A fellow Italian-American) is a great humorous writer. I’m 43% into the book and I’ll likely finish it tonight, having just gotten it yesterday.
What I will say is the protagonist in this book – his dad must have known mine. Which is why I don’t speak to my father anymore. Only difference between the protagonist and me is I never got into musical theater even if I did get scary high grades all through my education – in fact the only reason I got a 3.82 GPA in college was because there were a few classes I just didn’t give a flying fuck about them, prime among them the Legal Environment of Business. That class REALLY frosted my ass.
But the book is riotously funny. Reading it one the train home I had to stop myself from laughing out loud on several occasions. But at home I read it and I’m asked what’s so funny.
Acito’s writing reminds me a bit of David Sedaris work, or even Douglas Adams. A complete irreverence for the Catholic church which i have in spaced, but the lead character in the book – even dons priestly attire and uses it to maximum advantage. Me – I never had that in me. Getting alcohol was never a problem – particularly when I worked right next to a liquor store and knew their people so as long as the cash was green we had beer and ale.
It’s under ten bucks so go get it and laugh your ass off.
So today I got a rare treat. I got to touch one of these:
Yeah – that part at the end of the subject – it’s a genetic sequencing machine. Way too cool. They’re about the size of say an older HP LaserJet 5si.
The reason I had to touch them today was to get the correct serial numbers off them. Only way to do is is to go into the config menu and it displays there. It’s a totally graphical interface too, very slick! But it’s not just the machine in the image, there’s some computing horsepower behind it.
Spewing Truth in the face of Lies 