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Flack

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  1. Flack

    Friends

    By Flack,

    This week at work I've been meeting with the external user provisioning team here in Oklahoma City. Emily, Johnny and I (all locals) make up 3/8 of the group; the other five members hail from Washington DC, Seattle, Austin, and Atlanta (the location of our last meeting). During the week I found out that both of the guys from Atlanta (Earl and Curlen) are in to videogames, so I decided that Thursday night after dinner I'd invite the team over for some videogames and beer (two things that always go well together).
     
    I'm not exactly sure how Susan got the house cleaned while we were all out to dinner, but she did. All the piles of junk and clutter normally scattered around our home magically disappeared while I was gone. Someday, I hope to locate all those things again. After dinner, when my co-workers and I finally made it back to my house, I was as surprised as they were at how clean the house was. Someone commented on what a nice touch it was to have a candle on the table that sits on our front porch. The funny thing is, I've never seen that candle before and I'm pretty sure it just appeared that day.
     
    Some of the people showed up to play games, some showed up because it sounded like fun, and some showed up because they didn't have anything else to do while out of town on a Thursday night, but everyone who came had a decent time. Wednesday night I moved all three of my newer gaming consoles (Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360) upstairs, where they were connected to the projector. Emily and several others enjoyed rocking out on Guitar Hero III on the Wii. Curlen, the master of all driving games, ended up unlocking several cars on the Gran Turismo HS demo (PS3). Curlen also took on Mason at a couple of Wii Sports games, including bowling (winner: Curlen) and Tennis (winner: Mason). After showing off a few other games, Earl and I ended up playing a full game of Madden 2008 on the Wii. Neither of us had played this particular version before and Earl had never even played a Wii before, so to his credit he was definitely at a disadvantage. Despite Earl returning two separate punts for touchdowns, I was able to squeak out a 3-point victory. In honor of my victory, I wore a football jersey to work on Friday just to rub it in.
     
    My home is personal to me. I don't open it up anymore to people like I used to do. It really meant a lot to me that these people would come over to my house and hang out for the evening. I have a bad habit in my blog of simply referring to these people as "co-workers," when what I really mean is "friends I happen to work with."
  2. Flack

    Mexican Stereo

    By Flack,

    Last night for dinner, Dave, Johnny and I went to Acapulco's, a local Mexican restaurant here in Framingham. As one would expect we entered the restaurant and were promptly seated.
     
    Moments later we noticed a mariachi band in the corner of the dining room. AND THEY BEGAN PLAYING LOUDLY. THEY PLAYED VERY LOUDLY. AND THEY MOVED FROM TABLE TO TABLE, PLAYING ONE ENTIRE SONG FOR EACH TABLE. AND IT KEPT GOING AND GOING AND WE COULD NOT HEAR OURSELVES THINK.
     
    While we were waiting for our food it looked like the band might go the other way and entertain other patrons, but no. They turned the corner, surrounded our table, AND THEN THEY BEGAN PLAYING AGAIN. RIGHT IN MY EAR. MY LEFT EAR HAD AN ACCORDIAN IN IT AND THE RIGHT HAD A TRUMPET. THEY WERE PLAYING SO LOUDLY THAT I FELT LIKE MEXICO WAS INSIDE MY HEAD. IT WAS LIKE HAVING A CHEAP MEXICAN IPOD TURNED UP TO 11 THAT YOU COULD NOT GET OFF YOUR HEAD. It was literally impossible for me to have been any closer to the band; in fact, had I BEEN a member of the band, I would have had to move slightly further away. When the band asked us what we wanted to hear, Johnny said, "something fast." Unfortunately the band leader mistook that as a request regarding tempo, and the four or five musicians played an up-beat song in my ear for what seemed like an eternity.
     
    The margaritas were good, the food was great, and eventually the ringing in my ears waned. About an hour into the meal we hear the band starting up from across the restaurant. We quickly paid our bill and made our way to the exit before being attacked again by blaring mariachi classics.
  3. Flack

    Learning to Fly

    By Flack,

    I've only flown once since 9/11/01, and boy have things changed since then.
     
    I arrived in Dallas curbside with three bags -- one to check (clothes) and two to carry on (laptop and CPAP machine). After paying $2 plus $1 tip to check my bag at the curb, I was informed it was over weight. Aren't we all? I was informed I could either pay a penalty ($50, I believe) or remove something from the suitcase to lighten it. I removed my heavy coat, which I had packed, and put it over the jacket I was already wearing.. Apparently, that little weight it was enough. I had just taken two Sudafed and one mg of Xanax, so instead of asking any questions or being sarcastic I gathered my senses, nodded, smiled, and moved on.
     
    The line for TSA's security searches begins inside the airport's front door. As I approached the X-ray machines I could feel the effects of the drugs taking fact. I tried to look as inconspicuous as a person can look while carrying two bags, wearing two coats, and sweating profusely. After showing my ID and boarding pass I began reading the instructions and following them to the best of my ability. Place your coat(s) in a tub. Check. Place your shoes in a tub. Check. Place your bags in a tub. Check. Remove your laptop and your CPAP from their bags which are in tubs and place them in other tubs. Check. The line of rollers only held six or seven tubs, and I was occupying them all. Now, walk through the metal detector. DING DING DING. Whoops, forgot to take off my belt and my wallet and put those in a tub.
     
    I pass the metal detector, but as I reach for my stuff I hear the following: "Sir, you've been randomly selected for additional screening. Please step this way." So then he tells me to hold my arms out to my side. "I'll make you a deal," I said. "I'll do that, and you hold my pants up." He said that was not an option, and so as I held my arms out my pants slid down to somewhere between my waist and my knees. Good thing I was wearing clean boxers! After the frisking was over, I didn't even bother pulling my pants up. I just waddled back to the rollers and began collecting my tubs. I put my CPAP in its bag and freed up one tub. I put my laptop back in its bag, and freed up another. Eventually I got my shoes, coats, and my belt back on. What a wonderful reintroduction to flying.
     
    A few minutes later, I found my gate -- A19. I found a chair, set down my bags, and took my second Xanax pill. Moments later, I began falling asleep. I tried playing Gameboy a bit but I found my hand/eye coordination was greatly diminished, and more importantly, I found I didn't really care about winning or losing. Sounds like the stuff was working. I didn't even get upset when they announced my flight had been delayed an hour due to a snow storm in Boston. Normally I would have been freaked out; instead, I just sat there, grinning.
     
    An hour later we boarded the plane, and things went just like they should have. We took off, I turned on my MP3 player, and I went to sleep. I was awaken twice by flight attendants asking me if I wanted water. No -- I wanted to sleep. I woke up, covered in drool, as we made our final descent. A few people mentioned that the landing was a little bumpy. I either didn't notice, or didn't care. I can't remember.
     
    Boston had a nice dusting of snow on everything this morning. Class has been good so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week.
  4. Flack
    In the movies, crafty computer wizards always have a self-destruct button somewhere on their computer's desktop. Just click a button and POW, all their private data is erased, permanently and instantly removed from existance.
     
    Back in the day, I had one too -- a secret batch file named KILLME.BAT that, if ran, would have performed a quick format of all my computer's hard drives. I had a copy of this batch file on my old BBS computer, ready to run at a moment's notice. Should "the man" have shown up knocking on (or kicking in) my front door, the plan was to kick off the batch file, erasing both files off my hard drive and years off my sentence. In retrospect, my attempts at deleting electronic evidence would have been pretty pointless; even the most amateur forensic data tech can recover files from a quick format. The only way to really hide information through formatting is by writing over the drive multiple times with 1s and 0s, a process that takes hours to complete. Somehow, I doubt anyone willing to kick in my front door would have waited for such a task to complete.
     
    Before the days of hard drives, data was stored on floppy disks. Obviously with data strewn across hundreds of floppies, mass deletion of data was more difficult. Enter the degausser.
     
    A degausser is an electromagnet -- a device that's magnetic only when powered by electricity. Electromagnets can be safely stored nearby electronic media, as long as they're not turned on. Magnetic media includes cassette tapes, video tapes, floppy disks and computer hard drives. Each of these devices stores its information using magnetised media; put any of them near a big enough magnet, and the data is erased.
     
    Throughout the 80s and 90s I met more than one paranoid soul with a degausser sitting dangerously close to their collection of floppy disks. I don't think any of these people were in any real danger of being raided, but had it happened, they would have been prepared -- a flick of a switch, and bye bye data.
     
    And unlike that old batch file that I had, a degausser would have certainly erased evidence in a hurry. Wiping a big magnet across a floppy disk doesn't just erase the data -- it scrambles its little mind. Think of it as a floppy disk lobotomy. In fact, I recently degaussed some old floppy disks here at work. As a test, I put one of those disks back into the computer to try and see if I could get any information off of it. Windows first said, "this disk is not formatted. Would you like me to format it?" When I said yes, Windows came back and said, "this floppy disk is unusable. Please insert another floppy disk."
     
    Of course with a degausser there are no second chances, so you had better be sure it's the real deal before powering it on. I can only imagine the look on some poor soul's face after hearing his front door being kicked in and wiping his entire disk collection, only to hear his wife yell moments later, "Sorry, hon! I forgot my keys!"
     
    For most people, encryption has replaced those panic buttons. There are lots and lots of drive encryption programs out there today for under $100 that offer unbreakable drive encryption. Jetico's BestCrypt (a program I played around with for quite a while) offers AES, Blowfish, CAST, GOST, RC-6, Serpent, and Twofish encryption algorithms. AES (256 bit) is what the NSA uses for anything ranked "TOP SECRET". Of course the biggest problem with encryption is that to access the data you need a password. Whoever is kicking in your front door knows that you know the password, and there are lots of not very nice things they are likely to do to extract that password from you. I doubt many hackers would hold up long against a taser, rubber hose or waterboarding, but I doubt things would come to that. After they throw your wife in jail as being an accessory to a crime and toss your kids in a foster home for a couple of days, I suspect most of us would give that password up freely.
     
    And then you have to think, why are people kicking your door in in the first place? If they already had enough evidence for a warrant, chances are they don't need what's lying around on your floppy disks to make or break their case -- if anything, it was probably icing. Destroying evidence at that point probably won't help your case.
     
    For the degausser, there is no bargaining and no undoing. We have a giant desktop one here at work that I'm sure would scramble a PC in seconds flat. In fact, I may try that at some point, just to see how well it works.
     
    This blog entry didn't end up where I thought it would end when I started it.
  5. Flack

    Multi Game Hunter

    By Flack,

    At the time of its release, Venus Corporation's Multi Game Hunter (MGH) was a unique console copier that could connect to both Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis game consoles. The Multi Game Hunter included two interchangable adapters allowing it to plug into either machine; a third adapter, which allowed the MGH to play and dump Sega Master System ROMs while connected to the Genesis, was also available. These luxuries, however, were not cheap; MGH units (without the optional SMS adapter) originally sold for around $400.
     

     
    The MGH is a large unit that overhangs the power and reset buttons of the Sega Genesis and hangs off the back of the machine as well. As a result, the MGH gets rocked and tilted quite a bit through normal usage. Unlike some of the later copiers, the MGH requires power from an external power source (I picked up a power adapter from Radio Shack that did the trick). The MGH can use 720k, 1.4, or 1.6 meg floppies.
     
    The menu system is not as polished as many later units. The icons are oversized and undercolored, with the entire menu presented in four colors (not including the blue background). The menu presents the icons horizontally, but since they're so large you must scroll back and forth to see all the options. The SRAM, SNES, Genesis icons all contain the same choices, which makes one wonder why they didn't put them all under the same icon. Two other icons, labelled "options" and "MGH", don't do anything at all ("option not available"). With just a little thought, the menu system could have been greatly improved.
     

     
    The MGH came with two memory configurations -- 16 megabit (2 meg) and 24 megabit (3 meg) -- which worked for a while, but could not dump the later 4 meg cartridges for either system.
     
    Despite its memory limitations, the unit works quite well. The MGH is one of the more reliable Genesis backup units, and the fact that it does SNES ROMs as well is icing on the cake.
  6. Flack

    I Lost My Voice

    By Flack,

    And no, I don't mean in some poetic, muse sense; I mean I literally lost my voice earlier this week. I started feeling bad on Sunday, felt like crap on Monday, felt like worse crap on Tuesday, and back to "just crap" today. Over the weekend my throat started burning and I thought drinking a lot of water would fix it, but it didn't. I slept a ton yesterday, and am feeling a little better today. Truth be known if it were just an average week I would definitely have stayed home yesterday and probably today as well, but the fact of the matter is we simply have too much stuff to do at work and not enough time to do it. No rest for the wicked ...
  7. Flack

    Briefs

    By Flack,

    Saturday morning sucked. I worked approximately 12 hours patching servers all day at work.
     
    Saturday evening was much better. Jeff, Andy, Scott and I (all childhood friends) got together for an evening of fun, food and poker. The idea came while the four of us talked at Andy's birthday party last month. Last night's poker night was similar to our gatherings of old, except instead of booze and pizza we had diet soda and a huge selection of health-conscious snacks (graciously provided by Jeff). Although the group met under the guise of playing poker, really the four of us just wanted to get together, chat about old times and catch up with one another. We had such a good time that we decided to rotate houses and do it on a monthly basis. I'm looking forward to it.
     
    Blog updates have been slow due to (a) a massive headcold and (b) the Xbox 360. Things should pick up after the three-day weekend.
     
    If things work out, Susan and I are planning on sneaking away for a couple of hours later tonight to see Cloverfield. I've seen reviews ranging from 0/4 stars to 4/4 stars. I have no idea what to expect.
  8. Flack

    Phrack Attack

    By Flack,

    Monday night, Mason and I finally picked up an Xbox 360 . The fact that I bought an Xbox 360 isn't as interesting as who I bought it from: the infamous Doctor Phrackenstein.
     
    Doctor Phrackenstein (aka Shawn) is a friend of mine that I've known for, geez, over 20 years now. Ol' Phrack and I met back in 1985, when I first started calling Commodore 64 bulletin boards. In fact, those of you who have read Commodork may recognize his name. Shawn was a good five years older than me; back when I was a twelve-year-old kid mid-high student first calling bulletin boards, he and his friends were about to graduate high school. I was definitely the runt of the circle, but that didn't stop me from hanging around the tech-savvy group, listening to and learning intimate details about computers and the phone system -- things that would be classified as "mischievous fun" back then, and "felonies" today.
     
    BBSes were very localized; of the hundreds of users that regularly called my bulletin board, maybe half a dozen or so were long distance users. Local phone calls were free, so unless there was a compelling reason to do so, most people tended to stick to BBSes in their own area code. As local BBS users began graduating to the Internet (and from high school), those local circles of friends dissipated. Sure, some of us e-mail or chat online from time to time, but the personal visits all but ended. Back in the heyday of BBSes I probably saw Phrack on a monthly basis. Since the rise of the Internet over the past ten or fiften years, I've seen him twice -- Monday night being the second time.
     
    We're both older now, of course. Phrack's got a beautiful house and a lovely wife. I brought Mason along with me to meet Shawn, and on the ride over it donned on me that Mason's only six years younger than I was when I first met Phrack. The first time I ever went to Phrack's house (his parents', actually) he had a Rocky Horror Picture Show poster hanging in his bedroom. At his new house, he's building an upstairs home theater room. I saw a framed Rocky Horror poster leaning against the wall waiting to be hung and wondered if it was the same one from all those years ago.
     
    Computer-based friendships are easy to pick back up. When your common interests are hard drives and videogames and gadgets there's always something to talk about, regardless whether the things you're talking about are from back then or now. Doesn't matter, really. We had a good time catching up with one another and I hope we continue to chat and hang out from time to time. I know "they" say it's not good to live in the past, but whoever "they" are didn't grow up with the friends I had.
  9. Flack

    Super Wildcard DX

    By Flack,

    Right after the Christmas of 1994 I attended HoHoCon, the first "modern" hacker con that later inspired DefCon and HOPE (Link). I remember seeing a lot of cool things that weekend, but one of the coolest was a console copier. As I watched DrunkFux (the founder of HoHoCon) and several members of the Cult of the Dead Cow demonstrating the unit, I knew I had to have one. Tracking down a console copier was not as simple of searching eBay back then. After a few months of searching, in the Spring of 1995 I tracked down Anthrox (a SNES demo group) who connected me with Fairlight, the infamous C64/Amiga/PC cracking group. For several years Fairlight was reselling console copiers. During the transaction I was informed that Fairlight was going to stop selling console copiers, and that I was receiving the very last one. A couple of weeks later, my Super Wildcard DX arrived.
     
    The Super Wildcard DX was made by Front FarEast (FFE), and shipped with 32 megabits (4 megabytes) of RAM, expandable up to 96 megabits. The top of the unit contains a female cartridge port for inserting SNES cartridges. The left hand side contains the floppy drive. The bottom of the unit contains the male cartridge port that inserts into the Super Nintendo.
     

     

     
    When powered on, the unit launches into a graphical menu. Each of the menu's 8 items lead to sub-menus:
     
    - Wildcard Options allows users to run programs, transfer cartridges to disk, edit memory or obtain program information.
    - Disk options allow users to format disks, rename files, delete files, edit files, and copy files.
    - Realtime Save Options allow users to backup and restore real time save data.
    - Password options allow users to edit, backup and restore passwords, and search for cheat codes.
    - Cart options allow users to run a cartridge, transfer programs, transfer battery RAM, and edit memory.
    - Game/Utility options include a PCX picture viewer, a freeware game (Shingles), and a demo (in Chinese).
    - Setup options include screen setup, user message, and reset to default.
    - Diagnostics include self test, Wildcard info, System info, and credits.
     

     
    Through the menu system, dumping cartridges to floppy disks is simple. Games larger than 1.4 meg are automatically split, and users are prompted to insert additional floppy disks as needed. Loading games is just as simple -- games can be loaded from the main menu or, if a disk is in the drive when it is powered on it will autoload, bypassing the main menu completely. The loading screen contains a progression bar, showing users how much of the game has loaded. Once the game is completely loaded, it is stored in the SWC's RAM and stays there until the unit is powered off. If the SNES is reset, the game remains in RAM and will simply restart. The SWC does have a port for a power adapter but does not need one, as it can be powered from the SNES cartridge port.
     
    It should be noted that dumped games end up in .SWC format, which is identical to the .SMC format (same headers). That means ROMs dumped with the SWC will work on any Super Nintendo emulator. This also means the inverse is true; any ROM downloaded from the Internet in SWC/SMC format will load and play on the Super Wildcard.
     
    The Super Wild Card DX is my all time favorite console copier. It's fast, simple to use, and reliable. Its memory editing capabilities and password features greatly expand the functionality of the SNES, and it's high compatibility means almost anything can be dumped and played.
  10. Flack

    Console Copiers

    By Flack,

    Although predated by a few consoles including the Sega CD and the 3D0, it was the Sony PlayStation that ushered in the era of CD-based consoles to the masses. Cheap manufacturing costs and the ability to store 650 megs of game data per CD won out over cartridges, which were more expensive to produce and limited in storage capacity (64 megabytes, on the Nintendo 64).
     
    The unfortunate product of CD and DVD based games was piracy. With CD and DVD burners installed in even the most inexpensive computers, it was only a matter of time before enterprising hackers put two and two together and figured out a way to circumvent the copy protection included in CD-based gaming consoles. Figuring out ways around the protection was the hard part; duplicating the disc based media was simple.
     
    Not so however with cartridge-based games. The average gamer did not have hardware or skills needed to extract (or “dump”) the game data from cartridges, or put that data back on to new, blank cartridges. Doing so (especially on a small scale) would have been cost prohibitive, which is essentially the entire reason for pirating software. So even though cartridge-based consoles did not have the copy protection that the CD-based systems had, because of the obscurity of the cartridge format, those systems were safe from pirates. Right?
     
    Well, not really. While blank cartridges were expensive, floppy disks were not. Thus, the idea of console copiers were born.
     
    [What is a Console Copier?]
     
    Console copiers are devices that attach to cartridge-based systems and perform two primary tasks. The first is to allow users to load games from some form of removable media (other than a cartridge) into the console, tricking the console into thinking a cartridge has been inserted. A console copier’s second function is to allow users to dump their games from cartridge form to some other type of storage. I am being intentionally vauge here, as media differed from machine to machine; most earlier systems used floppy disks for storage. As cartridge-sizes grew, so did the media — Nintendo 64 copiers used Zip Disks or CD-Rom drives for storage. Console copiers had other uses as well, such as ROM hacking and serving as inexpensive software development units, but the primary demographic was undoubtedly pirates.
     
    Flash cards are not console copiers. Flash cards are cartridges that contain memory that can be “flashed,” or reprogrammed, multiple times. Flash cards typically plug into game consoles the same way a cartridge connects. Depending on the amount of RAM the cartridge contains, a flash card may contain multiple games.
     
    Due to inconsistancy between cartridges on earlier systems (such as NES mappers) and the expense in developing and manufacturing such devices, console copiers were relatively rare for 8-bit systems. There were copiers, such as simple EEPROM duplicators for the Atari 2600 or the original Game Doctor for the FamiCom, but it wasn’t until the arrival of 16-bit systems such as the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis launched that console copiers began readily appearing — and by “appearing,” I mean “in the back alleys of Hong Kong.” In the early 1990s, console copiers were difficult to locate in the US. The only way to get one was to order one from some shady overseas company, or buy one from a local importer (and paying his import fees, of course). According to this archived FAQ from 1993, copiers run between “$280 and $370.” That was a lot of money to mail to an overseas company selling illegal devices. As manufacturing prices went down, companies began cranking out console copiers. Companies such as UFO Enterprises, Front Far East, Venus Corp. and the oddly-named Bung Enterprises began churning out dozens of different models.
     
    Most of these devices were similar in design and function. Each unit plugged into a console’s cartridge port, and contained a floppy disk drive and a cartridge port of its own. Insert a game cartridge into the copier, and these machines were able to dump the contents of that cartridge on to a floppy disk. These ROM dumps are the same ROMs that are used for computer-based emulators. Without a cartridge in the unit, games (via the floppy drive) were able to be loaded into the unit and played on the original console. Likewise, ROMs downloaded from the Internet (or BBSes, back then) could be copied to a floppy disk and played, without needing the original cartridge.
     
    3.5″ floppies were large enough to store Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games at first, but as games grew in size, so did the needs for more RAM on console copiers. Most copiers were able to span large games across multiple disks. For the Nintendo 64, the makers of console copiers upgraded their media storage. The Z64 uses Zip Disks; the V64 and CD64 both use CD-Rom drives. Some copiers included parallel ports for linking units directly to computers. Others began including multiple adapters for connecting to multiple systems. Venus’ Multi Game Hunter could connect to both the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. Bung’s Multi Game Doctor could dump SNES, Genesis, Neo-Geo, PC-Engine, Super Graphics, Game Gear, and Game Boy games (Link).
     
    [What happened to Console Copiers?]
     
    The same thing that happened to dinosaurs. No, they didn’t fall into tar pits — they became extinct. After losing a lawsuit to Nintendo in 2000, Bung/Mr. Flash stopped distributing Nintendo copiers. In fear of more lawsuits, other companies quickly followed suit. With all new consoles moving to disc-based media, there was no need for new console copiers. Handheld consoles such as the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo DS moved to flash carts. Flash carts were even developed for many of the older systems as well; Tototek.com currently sells flash carts for the Sega Genesis (which also supports 32X games), Super Nintendo, Game Gear, PC Engine, Sega Master System, and other systems. Some of these include parallel adapters that allow owners to also dump cartridges to their PC, although typically flash carts are simply associated with playing both copyrighted and non-copyrighted (homebrew) games on vintage hardware.
     
    The rest of this week, I’ll be reviewing some console copiers from my private collection. These include copiers for the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and the Nintendo 64. If I haven’t bored you to death by then, I’ll move on to some of the flash carts I own.
  11. Flack

    A Day in the Life ...

    By Flack,

    I pick Mason up from school every day around 3:30pm. Susan and Morgan don't get home until around 6pm, so for two and a half hours, it's just me and the boy. I treasure that time we spend together and the conversations we have. The first thing I always ask him about when he gets in the truck is how his day went.
     
    "It was good," he said yesterday. "I had mashed potatoes and chicken meat for lunch. RyRy (Ryan, one of his friends) and I made up a new game. And we missed snacktime and recess because we were on lockdown."
     
    Lockdown? Is that some sort of thing teacher-imposed punishment when the kids are bad or something? I wish. Lockdown is when the school gets shut down for security reasons. Doors are locked, lights are turned off, shades are drawn, and the children are huddled together in the back of their classroom until the all-clear signal is given.
     
    I quizzed Mason about the lockdown but he had few specific answers. He was pretty sure that it wasn't a drill -- which apparently, they practice as often as we used to do fire and tornado drills. It's hard getting detailed answers from a six-year-old sometimes.
     
    After school I took Mason for a haircut, and when we got home there was a message on the answering machine from Mason's principal. Around 3pm, Yukon Police were chasing a suspect on foot and the chase ended up on school property. The lockdown was real, and lasted about twenty minutes.
     
    I'm not sure what bothered me more -- the fact that my kid's school was locked down for 20 minutes, or how nonchalant he was about the whole incident.
  12. Flack
    If you can gauge the success of an arcade auction by how sore you are the following day(s), then the Dallas SuperAuction was a success. Compared to some of the other SuperAuctions events I've attended I would say it was on the small side, but it still dwarfed all the Oklahoma City auctions I've been to. Your best bet of finding what you want at a decent price at an auction still seems to be in Dallas.
     
    When I walked through the front door I ran into Oklahoma City locals Bricktop, Thomas and Mike. I ended up hanging out with Bricktop and Mike quite a bit during the auction. I can't believe how much those guys know about coin-ops, and I really enjoyed just standing near them, listening to them talk about machines or watching them work on stuff. Just when I think I'm starting to get the hang of these machines I watch the old pros dig in and I start feeling stupid again. Also there were Digital Press alumni 98Pacecar (who seems to know everything about arcade games), Steve W and Darth Sensei. Steve W has an uncanny knack of attracting the megaphone's attention. No matter where he stands the speakers get turned to face him.
     
    I used to write down every sale price of every game, but due to all the buybacks it seems kind of pointless now. I do wish I had written down all the game titles because there were a lot of good games there. The front row had a couple of Ms. Pacs (one that went for under $200), Donkey Kong Jr., Jungle King (non-working), TRON (non-working, which 98Pacecar's buddy bought), Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Joust (board problem?), Donkey Kong (tube problem?), and some others. A couple of years ago at SuperAuctions the first row, maybe row and a half were classics. This past weekend, the first row was half classics and half Multicades/Ultracades. The Multicades were bringing in between $400-$800, although some of those lower ones may have been buybacks. There were a few shooting games, couple of older golf games, several old fighting games (MKII, UMKIII, Tekken) and at least three or four Sega Die Hards in those giant black plastic cabs.
     
    There were lots of redemption games there and if you ever want a giant ticket dispensing game for your house, this is the place to get one. Some of them sold for pennies on the dollar. Hell, some of them sold FOR a dollar! There were a lot of Cherry gambling machines and jukeboxes which seemed to take hours to get through. If you wanted a broken jukebox, you missed out. They sold 11 of them in a lot for one dollar. You would have had to pay me more than that to drag them off. A real Double Diamond slot machine brought $700. The small skill-stop machines went for $40/each and $60/each in two lots.
     
    Before the auction I bought a three-player Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road along with an additional Track Pak board in the parking lot (pre-arranged deal with Darren, and I still owe him the money -- do you take PayPal?). I took dad's trailer just in case I ran across anything else I wanted, but the problem with that is, when I take the trailer I have a tendency to fill it up. From the auction itself, I ended up with a non-working Buster Bros (power supply?), Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Sunset Riders (4 Player), and a Scramble. While loading the games I discovered that most of the wood on my dad's trailer was rotten. When moving the first game up on the trailer, the dolly actually pushed down through the wood.
     
    Of course, as is my luck, the UMK3 and Scramble were working fine at the auction and once I got them home they won't fire up. The UMK3 has no video and just randomly "bongs." The Scramble has a loud buzz coming from the monitor. I really hope the monitor's not hosed on it. Hopefully the jostling of travel just loosened some wires. I'll look at them this week and see what's up.
     
    Preview was from 8am-10am, the auction kicked off around 10:30am, and the last item sold just after 7pm. I had planned on crashing at my friend's house in Dallas, but Susan convinced me I should come home Saturday night, so I did. Those wives sure are convincing sometimes. I threw a tarp over the games Saturday night and unloaded everything Sunday. I had to move games around for a couple of hours just to make room for everything -- something I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with. I also ended up pretty much destroying the trailer -- I put three or four more big holes in the trailer's flooring. That thing's done until I can replace the wood.
     
    I had a good time at the auction, and a great time hanging out with everybody. 98Pacecar and I snuck away for lunch and had a good time hanging out. Sometimes I forget how much the guy knows about coin-op games, but man he knows a lot. I had hoped to hook up with 98Pacecar again later in the day to see his personal collection but I didn't get my last game loaded until 7:30pm. I made it home sometime after midnight. Thanks to all the Digital Press guys who came out, Mike and Dean for helping me load the trailer up after a long, long day, and especially my buddy Jeff who helped me unload all these games off the trailer and into my building. I really, really appreciated his help.
  13. Flack

    Mason's First Computer

    By Flack,

    Although I knew there would come a day when Mason would want his own computer, I didn't realize was that he would be six-years-old when that day came. This has been in the works for a while, but things really kicked into gear Christmas Morning. One of Mason's more expensive presents this year was a Leap Frog brand (I think) learning laptop that plays cartridge-based educational games. It's not *really* a laptop -- it just looks like one. The screen is black and white and only about three inches in size. Mason took one look at it and cast it aside. Later, after the Christmas buzz had died down, Mason came to Susan and said, "you know how you told me to still like the person, even if they get you a bad gift? Well, I still like you even though you got me that laptop." The disappointment spawned from the fact that, for a moment, the kid actually thought we had given him a real laptop. Keep dreaming, bucko!
     
    Backtracking a bit ... sometime last year, dad bought a new computer and said we could have his old one for Mason. The machine's not that old -- in fact, It's a pretty nice computer, with more horsepower under the hood than my server. I set the machine aside but never got around to the reloading project. After Mason's disappointment Christmas morning, I decided this might be a good time to go ahead and get Dad's old computer up and running. Reloading computers always seems like a bigger deal in your head than it usually turns out to be. With the web these days, tracking down drivers even for machines a few years old is typically a non-issue. In less than an hour I had XP loaded and configured.
     
    On the way home from work yesterday, Mason and I stopped by Staples and picked up a couple of wireless NICs. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Staples? Unfortunately in Yukon, only two chains carry computer parts -- Staples, who rarely has what I'm looking for in stock, and Wal-Mart, where I somehow manage to set off the security alarm every time I exit the building. Deciding between these two stores really is "the lesser of two evils." I am at the point where I will start driving to Oklahoma City just to avoid these two particular stores. I should have done that yesterday, but I didn't. I went to Staples, where they had two registers open and both were stopped in their tracks because of merchandise that didn't have price tags on them. The two network cards I bought were marked $39.99, but rang up as $59.99 -- that was another ordeal. ARGH. That's a good pledge to make for 2008 -- stop shopping at Staples!
     
    Installing the USB network cards took less effort than buying them. I haven't used a USB NIC before -- I was afraid that the small form factor would mean bad reception, but so far they seem to work pretty well. It's amazing how worthless a computer seems these days without the Internet. I couldn't update Windows, couldn't find drivers, couldn't do anything before I got the machine online. And really, that's all Mason wants to do. Nickelodeon and Disney have a few websites set up with games and cartoons, and that's all Mason wants to do on the computer so far.
     
    So anyway, things are up and running. Mason spent some time last night on iCarly.com (gag) watching videos, until Morgan clocked him in the head, commandeered the chair and headed off to Sesame Street's website. How early they learn.
  14. Flack
    You may recall from this previous post that we (mostly the kids, with a little help from mom and dad) decorated the front lawn in a Candyland theme in hopes of winning our neighborhood's first annual Christmas Decorating Contest. The kids helped with every aspect of the decorating. Judgement day came and went and ... we heard nothing. After several days, we still heard nothing. I guess I didn't expect them to contact everybody in the neighborhood with a note daying, "Sorry, you didn't win!" but I thought maybe the winning yards would have had a sign or trophy or something posted in the front yard. Even a small sign posted at the entrance of the neighborhood's entrance would have sufficed. Instead we were left with a weird sense of inconclusion. Who won?
     
    Turns out, we did! Well, second place -- but hey, that's good enough for us! Apparently the award committee just now got around to handing out the prizes. Ours, which was hand delivered Sunday, was a $30 gift certificate to Inner Urban (a place I don't really care for but, eh, free is free). Dad, Mason and I went out last night to celebrate -- Mason's treat.
  15. Flack

    Passing the Torch

    By Flack,

    Sometimes it's easy to forget that what is old and mundane to many of us is new and exciting to children. In fact just the other day, the kids went wild when I rolled down the windows while driving in the car. I can't remember the last time I got excited over wind blowing in my face, but the kids loved it. Mason once told me his favorite thing about my truck was "the time I rode in the back of it."
     
    I was twelve years old back in 1985 when the original Super Mario Bros. came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). 1985 wasn't so long ago, it seems. Although I didn't own an NES for several years after its release, two of my neighbors (Doug Deckard and Jason Lee) did, and it was there I got my first taste of Mario, the little red-suited plumber that could. I spent hours at both of their homes, learning the game inside and out. A few years later when Super Mario Bros. 3 came out, Jeff, Andy and I would spend hours upon hours at Jeff's house, racking up extra men and playing weekend-long gaming sessions trying to beat the game.
     
    Back to the kids for a moment; one of the things that really excites them is the projector I have upstairs. Whether it's watching movies or playing games, the kids really don't care what's on as long as it's on the giant screen. Last night while Mommy and Mason were out and Morgan became inconsolable, I put Shrek III on upstairs and her eyes lit up. "Shrek's biiiiiiiig," she said, her tears instantly drying.
     
    Recently, Mason's discovered that all my gaming systems are hooked to the projector as well. A while back I picked up one of those Yobo NES clones. I've heard mixed reviews as to their compatibility and quality, so I decided to hook it up over the weekend and test some games out. The minute Mason heard the sound of videogames echoing from the upstairs game room, he weaseled his way up there into the middle of everything. One of the first games I tested was Super Mario Bros. 3. Mason's been playing the original Super Mario Bros. since he was around two, but for some reason I guess he's never played #3. Like a true gamer, he picked up the game in no time.
     
    So far, Mason's spent the better half of the weekend learning the ins and outs of Super Mario Bros. 3. And while I still enjoy the game in small doses, I have to remember that what I've been playing for twenty years now is all new to him. Every brick that explodes, every new enemy, every new treasure that's discovered lights up his eyes. "Dad, look at this!" he exclaims every time he finds a new hidden room. His joy reminds me of the joy I used to get from playing games, a joy that got lost somewhere in the battle for faster processors and better graphics.
     
    Enjoy it while it lasts, kid.
  16. Flack

    D64 Disk Conversions

    By Flack,

    One of my goals for 2008 is to finish all of the analog-to-digital conversion projects I started in 2007. This includes converting all our VHS tapes to DVDs, and all of our old CDs, cassette tapes and records to MP3. Another one of the projects, which has proved to be both the most rewarding and the most frustrating, is the conversion of all my old Commodore 64 diskettes to D64 images.
     
    Just to get everybody up to speed ... on one hand, in the real world, you have real Commodore 64 computers and real Commodore 64 disk drives that use real floppy disks. On the other hand, you have virtual Commodore 64 machines, called emulators, that run on modern personal computers. These virtual computers need virtual disks to work, and those disks are commonly stored in D64 format. You can take those virtual D64 disks and put them in a virtual disk drive connected to your virtual Commodore 64 and load them and play them as if it were all real. There are two ways to acquire D64 images. You can download them, or, if you have the proper equipment, you can make your own.
     
    So, let's talk about the "proper equipment." The tried and true method requires a unique combination of hardware and software. On the hardware side, you'll need a computer running DOS with either a SPP, PS/2, EPP or ECP parallel port. You'll need a real, vintage Commodore disk drive, and you'll need a special "X1541" cable to connect the two. There are at least six different flavors of "X" cables (X1541, XE1541, XM1541, XA1541, XH1541, and XP1541), each of which require different software tweaks and configurations. Once you get everything wired up and talking, the DOS-based program Star Commander will allow you to convert real Commodore disks to D64 disk images.
     
    The trickiest part of the whole process is finding a parallel port that works. In my experience, the older the computer, the better your chances are of getting everything working. I finally got everything to work by using a 486 PC from the mid-90s, which I keep around for this sole purpose. Adding to the project's complexity is the problem of getting D64 images off my 486 and onto my laptop. When's the last time you networked a DOS-based machine to a Windows XP laptop? I ended up with a dual-boot setup on the 486; that way I can transfer disks through DOS, and connect to my home network using Windows 98 (using ten-year-old networking tools and protocols) to transfer the images over. Clunky, but it works. I don't complain.
     
    Star Commander is a DOS program that resembles the old DOS versions of PC-Tools and Norton Commander, with a split screen display showing the Commodore drive on the left side of the screen and the PC's hard drive on the right. Once everything's connected and working, creating a D64 image is simply a matter of pressing a button, waiting, and praying that my disks are still good and not full of read errors.
     
    The back side of most disk sleeves contained pictoral examples of things that could damage your disks, including: magnets (which includes monitors, speakers, motors, and cell phones), bending, heat, cold, touching the disk, opening the drive while the disk was loading, opening the drive while the disk was being written to, powering the drive or computer off with the disk still in the drive, or exposing the disk to dirt, dust or smoke. Even if you managed to keep your disks away from all those things, the biggest killer of floppy disks has been time. The older 5 1/4 disks get, the more prone they are to develop errors. According to this page, the average life span of a floppy disk is six months. Most of the disks I'm converting are between 20 and 25 years old.
     
    And of course, I run in to errors. If there is a silver lining to this cloud it's that the errors aren't always where data is stored. The conversion process tries to copy and archives every track and sector of a floppy disk. So far I've found lots of disks with errors on the inside or outside edge (Track 1 or Track 35), but that doesn't always seem to affect the data stored on the disk. The only way to know for sure is to test every archive, something that would take years.
     
    It takes roughly a minute to convert each disk to a D64 image, not including things like sorting, cataloging and testing. I have roughly 700 Commodore floppy disks -- double sided. That's 24 hours of conversion time alone; hopefully I can get them all done within a month or two, assuming I put all my other analog to digital conversions on hold. Testing each one could take a year.
     
    The most common question people ask me about this is, "why are you doing this?" Even my wife asked, "hasn't somebody already done this?" For the most part, yes. 95% of what I'm archiving has already been archived. Through Google, I could find 95% of the programs on my disks and download them all in a single day. That leaves 5%, however, that aren't out there. 5% of my programs are things I, or friends of mine, wrote or created. There are pictures, letters, stories, demos and even programs that my friends and I created. There are things on these disks that I have the only known copy of. It is a race against time to archive these things on to a new media that is not deteriorating on a daily basis. In D64 format, these disk images can live on forever. It is a way to finalize my old C64 collection, to set it in stone and share it with the world. I'm not sure that the world's that interested in it, but it's something I feel like I need to do.
     
    The hardest part of the entire process is not getting sidetracked by playing each disk.
  17. Flack

    Fifteen Minutes a Day

    By Flack,

    Internet pal Dave Farquhar recently blogged about his Fifteen Minutes a Day theory. Says Dave:
     
    A few months ago, someone actually posted something helpful: a suggestion that you spend 15 minutes a day working on your hobby instead of talking about it.
     
    Fifteen minutes isn't a lot of time, but that's the point. You can almost always find 15 minutes. And 15 minutes isn't enough time to accomplish anything major, but you can accomplish lots of little things, and getting those little things out of the way can make things more productive on those days when you have a big block of time you can dedicate to it.
     
    I think this is a terrific idea and one I plan on implementing, although I hope to still be able to find time to talk about my adventures as well. Dave goes on to mention that fifteen minutes a day adds up to 91 hours and 15 minutes a year, although I think he forgot that 2008 is a leap year so this year you'll actually get in 91.5 hours of work.
  18. Flack
    As I do the last of my 2007 digital house cleaning, here are a few pictures I took that never made it into blog posts.
     

    Need for Speed Underground arcade game, bluescreened.
     

    Shoddy Properties? I'll say!
     

    Same building -- this way to see Dr. Crook.
     

    Mason needs neither a spoon nor napkin at Braum's.
     

    The cat is inside; the bird, outside.
  19. Flack

    Pearl's

    By Flack,

    Pearl's Restaurant, off I-240 and Penn, is permanently closing tomorrow. A secret informant (my friend's daughter, who works there) told us that someone bought the entire area, and that all the businesses in that area are either closing or moving. This includes Aloha Gardens (one of my favorite Chinese buffets) and Outback (other locations still exist). In honor of Pearl's, we decided to have lunch there one last time. And as I'm sitting in the restaurant, knowing that the doors will close forever tomorrow, I only have one thought on my mind.
     
    What can I steal from here?
     
    Yeah, you heard me. I want a souvenier, a souvenier to remember Pearl's by. Something to remind me of all the great times I've had at this particular location. And by "all the great times," I mean, "both times I've eaten there."
     
    I really, really wanted the sign by the entry way warning patrons about the dangers of eating raw oysters; unfortunately, it was too heavily guarded by Pearl's hostesses, so I had to settle for the next best thing. A pepper grinder.
     

     
    If you would like freshly ground pepper on anything, feel free to stop by my cubical in the basement. Tips (cash or PayPal) gladly accepted.
  20. Flack

    50 Pounds

    By Flack,

    I've been reticent to talk about my post-surgery weight loss for a couple of reasons, the main being I don't really feel like I've done anything. Had I shed a few pounds through diet or exercise or lifestyle changes, I'd be bragging all over the place. The fact is, I'm losing weight because I had my body surgically altered -- although technically my lap band hasn't been filled yet, so it's only offering the minimum restriction possible. Most of the weight loss I've experienced to date has been the result of the mandatory diet I was prescribed by the doctor. Anyone can lose weight under those circumstances.
     
    But anyway, yeah, I've lost 50 pounds since Thanksgiving. A couple of my favorite shirts are starting to fit better, and I've had to put three new holes in my belt. I'm happy, but I wouldn't say I'm proud. Talk to me in another 50 pounds and we'll see if my opinion's changed then.
  21. Flack

    O'Hara Winter Games

    By Flack,

    I made it back to Oklahoma just before the snow arrived. Friday night, the roads were clear; by Saturday afternoon, ice and snow had covered the ground. While driving 875 miles straight through is never particularly enjoyable, the desire to see one's kids combined with the fear of getting stuck in a blizzard are powerful motivators.
     
    Today, the children wanted to play in the "snow" -- or what there was left of it. And as usual, once the two of them got outside, the never-ending fighting between them continued. Desperate for something to keep them busy and out of each other's hair, I invented the first annual O'Hara Winter Games. The events and results were as follows:
     
    Event One: Run to the neighbor's driveway and back. The catch? Mason had to run backwards, while Morgan got to run forwards. One your mark, get set, go! Although Morgan took an early lead, apparently running backwards looked like more fun and so when she also turned around backwards Mason blew past her. Mason 1, Morgan 0.
     
    Event Two: Five laps around the tree. Each kid was to run around the tree in our front yard five times. Mason was doing three laps to Morgan's one; however, mid-race, I announced that if you were wearing a pink hat (like Morgan) that each lap counted as three. Upon Morgan's second lap she decided eating snow was more important than finishing the race. I actually got seven laps out of Mason, telling him one didn't count because he "cut" and another didn't count because he didn't hit my hand. Mason 2, Morgan 0.
     
    Event Three: Snow Angels. On the word "go," each kid was to run to the neighbor's yard, make a snow angel, and run back. Both kids performed the task so each were awarded a point. Mason 3, Morgan 1.
     
    Event Four: Sledding. How far can you go down the icy driveway? Each kid was lined up and slung down the driveway while riding our old plastic sled. The much lighter Morgan slid further than Mason (also partially due to a harder push). Mason 3, Morgan 2.
     
    Event Five: Candyland Hopscotch. With our Candyland yard decorations pretty much ruined from the rain, we turned the colored-patchway into a color-coded round of hopscotch. This game had no real point. I randomly called out colors and the kids ran to those colors, like a simplistic version of twister. Without any rules defined I eventually declared Morgan the winner. Surprisingly, they were both okay with that. Mason 3, Morgan 2.
     
    After five events Mason was officially declared the winner. That suited both kids just fine, as I'm not sure Morgan even knew we were playing a game. After the games, Morgan celebrated her defeat by eating snow mixed with grass, while Mason dumped handfulls of snow into his own hair. Everybody wins in Winter Games!
  22. Flack

    Candyland

    By Flack,

    Our neighborhood is having a "holiday yard decorating" contest this year. When we asked Mason what he wanted to do, he said he wanted a Candyland theme. It was Susan's idea to make everything out of cardboard and paper. Other than paint, we didn't spend a dime. Susan drove the reigns; Mason and Morgan did tons of painting, and I assisted as needed.
     
    Today is judgement day. I'm stuck in Atlanta and couldn't help in the final assembly, but Susan sent me a couple of photos she took after getting everything put up. Good luck, kids!
     

     

  23. Flack

    On the Road Again

    By Flack,

    Today's adventure sends me east on I-40, destination Atlanta. At 860 miles, it's a drive I'd normally make in one day -- however, as I'm still healing a bit, and there's a pretty good chance I'll be running into snow and ice along the way, I've decided to split the drive across two days. My initial plan was to head east on I-40 to Memphis, and then go from Memphis to Atlanta. In case weather gets bad, my alternate plan was to head south to Dallas, and then go east to Atlanta on I-20 -- a route that adds almost 200 miles and over 3 hours to my overall time. The current plan is to try I-40 and, in case things get bad, head south to I-20 and continue east from there.
     
    Packing for this trip has been split into equal thirds. One third of the luggage is clothes. Because I'm still on a special post-op diet, one third is food -- mostly powdered protein drinks, vitamins, and stuff like that. The final third is electronics -- laptop, cell phone, portable dvd player, Gameboy, GPS, MP3 cds, DVDs, and at least half a dozen chargers, if not more. In fact now that I think about it, it might be more of a 25/25/50 split.
     
    Launch time, 10am.
  24. Flack

    Spokane Memories

    By Flack,

    Earlier this week Susan and I received a Christmas card from an old co-worker, out in Spokane. Reading the card reminded me of my first week in Spokane, back in the summer of 1996.
     
    The night before I left for Spokane, Washington to start my new job with the FAA, I packed my Dodge Neon with the bare essentials I would need to survive – a small color television, my computer (a 486/100 in the tallest PC case I've ever owned), a monitor, all my computer disks and CDs, a CD boom box, every audio CD I owned (400 or so) and a small suitcase with a week's worth of clothes. Susan stayed behind in Oklahoma, tying up loose ends (like selling our house), with the intention of bringing the rest of our belongings to Washington with her in a huge U-Haul truck a few weeks later.
     
    I made the 1,800 mile drive in three days, sleeping and napping in my car at rest stops and parking lots along the way. I left on a Monday and arrived in Spokane Wednesday afternoon. I slept in my car that night too, and by Thursday I smelled pretty rank. That morning I found the apartment that we would eventually live in for the next 18 months, but it wasn't available for ten days. Needing a place to stay for the next two weeks, I began crossing Spokane systematically until I found a cute little lot renting apartments for $99 a week. From the road, I could see the stand-alone dollhouse apartments. During the winter, they served as small ski rental units for tourists. During the summer for the most part, they sat vacant.
     
    After talking with the manager, I learned that those small, stand-alone units were actually $199 a week. The $99 units, which I was promised were also nice and clean, were further in the back. I paid for the first week, and drove back to see my new temporary residence.
     
    "32B, the one just after the bus," the owner informed me.
     
    Behind the first few rows of cute, small apartments I found a dumpy trailer park. I had no problem spotting the bus – it was still painted yellow, with a giant tie-died Jimi Hendrix tapestry hanging over the windshield, acting as a curtain. Right past the bus was a mobile home with a line drawn vertically down the middle. The front door of the trailer read 32A. The rear door was 32B.
     
    I parked the Neon next to the back door and began unpacking my belongings, carrying them into my half of the mobile home (which consisted of the master bedroom and master bathroom). To its credit, the room did have Cable TV and a telephone. Just minutes after moving everything from the car to the room, there was a knock at the door; it was Tammy, the girl who lived in the bus. After introducing herself, Tammy wanted to know if she could borrow my phone. For some reason, I said yes.
     
    For the next hour or so, this strange girl sat in the recliner of my bedroom, yapping on the phone. I had made the assumption Tammy had to make an emergency call or something, but no, she had just wanted to chat with her friends. After an hour, I interrupted her and told her I was getting ready to go get some lunch. She asked me if I would pick up some McDonald's for her if she gave me a couple of bucks. Again, I agreed.
     
    Keep in mind that I now had my computer, thousands of dollars of CDs, and everything I owned in Spokane in my room. I got a very uncomfortable feeling about my new neighbor and so, before going to McDonald's, I loaded everything from the room BACK into my Neon. This is a routine I would repeat every time I left my room throughout the next week. Even if I were simply running to the convenient store to pick up a drink, I would pack up all my belongings (a fifteen or twenty minute process) into the car; upon returning, I'd unpack everything once again.
     
    Tammy came over a few more times to use the phone. Whenever she would knock I would pick up the phone and pretend like I was on it before answering the door to dissuade her. Occasionally she'd offer to wait until I was off; eventually, the got the point. At some point during the week she told me a long tale about how she had received some chunk of change when some relative of hers had died. With that, she bought the bus and set out to see the world. Unfortunately, the bus broke down in Spokane, leaving her there. I tried to look interested as the words poured out of her mouth.
     
    After staying in half a mobile home for a week, I was done with that place. I packed everything back into the Neon one last time and spent three more days sleeping in my car before moving into our new apartment.
  25. Flack

    Christmas Digital Trickery

    By Flack,

    For this year's Christmas cards we had two pictures to choose from.
     
    In the first one, everybody's waving, but I'm not smiling.
     

     
    In the second one nobody's waving, Morgan's crying, but I'm smiling.
     

     
    The obvious answer? Cut my face out of photo two and stick it in photo number one.
     

     
    And what about the neighbor's beige truck over there in the corner of the shot?
     

     
    Let's just paint it out!
     

     
    Gone!
     
    Seasons Greetings from the O'Haras and Photoshop.
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