I never really thought my graduation would be something emotional or heart wrenching, but I was wrong… at least slightly. While I couldn’t let myself shed a tear, I did feel a pang during the “Class Reflections” in which a kid I’ve known since kindergarten, another from 3rd grade, and the last from 5th, got up in the gym (silly rain forced us inside) and recalled some interesting and exciting  memories from over the years. The sole reason I didn’t let a tear go is because I had to give a speech right after them; having the MVP of the football team cry while talking about the class gift to the school would be quite a sight.

Now guess what I did right after graduation? I definitely didn’t stick around for the reception. And I didn’t go to any graduation parties. I went home, changed, and then left for Omaha Burke to compete in the State Track Meet. I didn’t do so well… I finished 22nd of 25. In the long run, that was an improvement, given the fact I came in rated at 25th of 25. However, it also came on my second worst day of the season. My best  of the year would have pushed me to 16th, and a school record would be 13th. Overall, I’m just glad I got to compete in the event. It’s truly spectacular and I can see how people really enjoy it.

After all this, it finally dawned on me that I graduated and I’m in the summer now. I finally have time to myself and can progress with getting things done. I’ve begun to compile a to-do list, hoping I might accomplish something. So far it’s not too ridiculous, given til August 19th. If I can get it all done, I’ll call it a good summer, especially if I do end up getting a job.

Well, that’s all for today. I just wanted to keep you guys updated a bit… you know, try and use my blog.

Anyways, today’s entry is about a new feature we just released at SZ. It’s called “Achievements.” It’s similar to the system that Steam, XBox Live, and PSN all use… except it’s for a forum system instead of games. It’s a bit of a twist, but we figured it’d be fun and could prove to be interesting. It also accompanies the points system quite well by giving members alternate methods of earning points.

In essence, the system is just another way to let our members have fun. It gives them something to set their sight on while posting around the forum. It gives them a goal to attempt to obtain. And this goal, besides bragging rights, also gives them points, the monetary system of the Studio. They can then redeem their points for different bonuses around the forum, such as a custom title or colored name. So, the whole process is rewarding our members for aiding the studio.

On top of all that, some of the achievements are kinda fun. It’s going to prove a challenge for some of the members to have a conversation with Team Studio, the vacant admin account, to rickroll both Scorpian and myself, or to annoy Fredy. The achievements system is kind of a trial run, but I think we can expect to see it stick around the Studio for quite a while.

Anyways, that’s it for now… maybe I’ll blog about something else in the near future. Maybe.

So, what’s been going on these past 6 months? School, school, school, and football. That pretty much sums it up. Between getting up for school at 6:30 in the morning, then not getting home until 7 to 7:30 afterwards, I was completely beat this year. Not to mention I had maxed out the amount of classes I’m taking. That never helps. But it all paid off. I earned second team all-district defense recognition and honorable mention all-Omaha (city I live in) defense. So, working that much paid off.

As far as my “internet life” goes, I’ve decided to get a little project up and finally going. Clear Sight RPG is finally back in the works. For those interested, more info can be found here on it. I hope to get it released or at least in beta by the end of winter/Christmas break… will I be able to? Hell if I know. But I truly hope so.

Another project I’ve been working on is a complete recode of SZ’s coding, for all three skins. So far, I’ve got v0 and v1 done, and am in the works with v2. I’ve cut out more then 12kb of total file size for v0 and v1. My next step is to try a suggestion of Dreggie’s that would result in loading all the scripting before loading any of the board by placing the codes to load in the global header. I figure it’s worth a try since it appears to work at another site he tried it at. Another thing I’m going to do is set a no-expire header so that users don’t have to re-download the coding all the time. (I may also do a 14 day or so one for images.) This would increase loading time again, and the coding can be told to redownload by appending a different number to the end of the string. Possibly the file version or something.

Well, that’s all for this entry. Hopefully I’ll keep using my blog and get you guys another entry out sometime in the near future. Oh, and new poll for you guys. =P