GooRoo's scheduled time away from the Forum

[GooRoo]

I am having an operation tomorrow morning, and don't know when I may be up to doing anything on Gruntz (or much of anything else!) when my wife bringz me home from the hospital. It is a relatively minor thing, but I will be put under with general anestheticz, so will not be allowed to drive myself home from the hospital. The operating room is scheduled for 8:45AM Pacific Daylight Savings Time, and it is estimated that I will be released to go home in the early afternoon ... around 2:00PM. If I am able to do so, I will post in the Forum to let everyone know I am back home.

[Gaby]

crossing fingerz for good luck and for you fast recovery ... hoping to see you back ASAP...

[GooRoo]

I am involved in a stage play with performancez beginning Saturday December 6, 2008, and the last performance on December 21, 2008. Rehearsalz are mostly Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday eveningz now through the first week of December. So my hourz on the Forum will be reduced by about a dozen hourz each work until the end of the run of the play "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". Tonight was the first rehearsal (actually called a "read-through"), and I was away for three hourz. That will be about the normal until the week before opening night, when each night will be four or five hourz long, including a rehearsal on Thursday ... and a "dress rehearsal" on Friday. I will try to get the 'normal' Forum thingz done daily, but will probably not be able to do anything 'extra' ... like BETA testing of new Custom Levelz.

[SwordGrunt]

Good luck. Sounds cool. It's a shame that most of my school activitiez similar to your performancez are somewhat boring.

[GooRoo]

I have not been very active on the Forum for the last couple of weekz ... involvement with this year's Christmas stage play "A Christmas Carol" has taken much of my free time. Until Wednesday I was merely the stage manager ('presiding' over rehearsalz when the Director could not be there, and filling in voicez for actorz/actressez who could not attend a rehearsal), and then became the lighting and sound board operator, due to equipment problemz. Over the weekend I became the radio broadcast recording man as well. So now I have to learn the operation of the recording equipment (which was balky and unsatisfactory on my first test attempt) in order to get a clean recording of the background organist tonight. He is not available tomorrow night, so we must rehearse with his music recorded and played back at the proper timez. Since Wednesday night is "Dress Rehearsal" (where friendz and family are invited to attend free) we cannot have a second rehearsal with recorded music. And Thursdayz, the organist is not available, so we must be ready with the recorded version for "Opening Night" (Thursday). I may not even get on-line to check e-mailz or do a scan of the Forum until Friday!

Today, I have less than five hourz to get the recording equipment and software into a usable state before I have to pack everything up and head for the theatre. So this is likely my last posting until Friday ... unless Murphy diez, and (consequently) everything suddenly goez VERY right!

[twiggy]

Sounds like a "One Man Show" to me. They sure are lucky to have you and that you wear so many different "hats". I hope that the play is a big success. Enjoy

[GooRoo]

Well, I managed to get about one hour and three minutez of clean recording Monday night, but the organist was playing almost continuously so it is difficult to split it apart into programmable sound cuez. It is easy to separate sound bytez when a familiar Christmas Carol is involved, but when the music cue callz for "ominous", or "eerie" or some such, there is nothing obvious to mark the end of one cue, and the beginning of the next. So I am going to try to get a few hourz sleep and re-tackle the project after breakfast.

[GooRoo]

My son-in-law is performing "A Tribute to Elvis" this week-end (August 15 & 16, 2015), and my wife and I will be in attendance. So I probably will not be doing any posting, etc., on the Forum again until Monday.

[GooRoo]

Not all that far away ... just working on another one of my computer projects: committing my weekly Billboard ^(TM) charts to digital storage for faster retrieval. Working on May, 1965 as I am typing this, and continuing through June/July/August/etc. as time allows. I will be checking on things in the Forum a couple times a day.

[GooRoo]

Aug 29, 2018 14:25:49 GMT -8 GooRoo said:

Not all that far away ... just working on another one of my computer projects: committing my weekly Billboard ^(TM) charts to digital storage for faster retrieval. Working on May, 1965 as I am typing this, and continuing through June/July/August/etc. as time allows. I will be checking on things in the Forum a couple times a day.

Best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay. My XP computer arrived today, instead of the expected Friday, so I will only be able to do one week of May, 1965 ... and then over to the XP computer for Gruntzy thingz.

BTW, the computer arrived with working Gruntz installed ... just the Standard Levelz, but I proved that it actually worked ... without a CD-ROM! The CD-ROM the ad said came with it is a bit of a problem, however. I could not find the way to plug it into the laptop computer. The computer and drive seem to be mismatched in connectors. Perhaps the source can clue me in as to the way to do that ... if it is possible at all. The really good news is that there is a connector to plug in an external monitor ... and I have a 20+ inch one that should work. It also has a microfloppy drive, so my wife and I can also try out some of the old games only available on microfloppy disc.

If the CD-ROM drive is actually able to connect, the USB port (currently the connection for the mouse) is blocked. At first, I thought that I could make use of the old multi-port USB device I already have as a spare to "have my cake, and eat it too". But the USB connector for the multi-port device would also be blocked by the optical drive.

So I will finish the documentation of my Brenda Lee songs (which showed me where I left off on the Billboard project) and the May 22, 1965 weekly Billboard chart, and then shift to Gruntz on the XP laptop.

[GooRoo]

I managed to contact the source via telephone, commented favorably on both the speed of delivery and the fact that CD-less Gruntz was preloaded. Found that where I thought the CD drive should go was actually a docking station connector! And found out that the microfloppy drive and the CD drive are mutually exclusive. I must remove the disc drive and plug in the CD drive in its place. My (minor?) problem is that I cannot seem to easily remove the one in order to insert the other. I can hold the locking slide switch to the open position, but cannot manage to easily pull out the drive that is inserted. And I definitely do NOT want to use extra force, or some sort of levering device to separate the drive from its seating. Maybe it just needs a younger person with a stronger grip than what I have to get it to come loose.

I have played the 'Standard' Questz through training and Rocky Roadz, even managed to change the registration to play in 1024X768 pixel screen resolution. But the Statz Page reverts to 640X480 resolution, which just looks ... odd.

The XP laptop only has a 4GB hard drive, which is barely sufficient to store all of Gruntz, so it will strictly be a Gruntz computer. (And I will have to leave some things out, at that ... like the Gruntz Level Editor Manual and other supporting things only required for web site maintenance, etc.) I also need to acquire a mouse pad for it, and a multi-port USB2 pass-through so I may use a flash/thumb drive while retaining the use of the mouse. (Only 1 USB port, poorly placed at the back of the laptop.)

But I highly recommend Tim Schweitzer as a source for legacy computer equipment. A BIG to Tim for his extra effort in locating and installing Gruntz!

[swietymiki]

That's indeed how the resolution patch works. Only the game itself runs at 1024x768, while all other menu-related screens stay default. You can tell that by the resolution of statz pages being provided - they're never larger than 640x480.

[GooRoo]

Aug 30, 2018 6:46:53 GMT -8 swietymiki said:

That's indeed how the resolution patch works. Only the game itself runs at 1024x768, while all other menu-related screens stay default. You can tell that by the resolution of statz pages being provided - they're never larger than 640x480.

But on my Windows 10 laptop, the image fills the screen (window). On the XP laptop, the image is centered with about half the screen both horizontally and vertically empty. Not a deal breaker, just very odd in appearance. Of course, the version currently on the XP is disc-less, and may have other differences from the 'normal' version requiring the CD-ROM to be present at start-up. I believe that everyone knows that the CD-ROM may be removed once the game starts, and the drive used for other things. So even the disc requirement is not much of a hassle.

[GooRoo]

July 17, 2019 is Ed & Mary Lou's 55^th wedding anniversary, so I may not even check in at all until Thursday.

For anything really important, the best choice is email ... I DO check that every day.

[Rik]

You have gathered a lifetime of memories together, may this day be one of your fondest.
Wishing you both a Wonderful Emerald Wedding Anniversary! Happy 55th Wedding Anniversary,