0010 - Pokemon Blue - Mewtwo

0010 - Pokemon Blue - Mewtwo
===== [written by JCPMA Sept.21.2011]

This is what Mewtwo looks like on the Nintendo Gameboy Pokemon Blue version game.

Mewtwo is in the Unexplored Dungeon (cave). You can access this only after you have become champion, that is after you defeat the final boss and the game spits out the "credits" and ends. Restart/continue the game. Then travel north of Cerulean City and go into the water. Travel south for a short distance until you see the entrance of the the cave. Mewtwo is in this cave.

Unfortunately, I no longer own a Master-Ball. Several attempts at using Ultra-Balls failed to capture Mewtwo. But, I was able to defeat him in a fight.

0009 - Pokeon Blue Victory

0009 - =======================
===== Pokemon Blue Victory
[written by JCPMA Sept.19.2011]

This essay describes the final stages in the Nintendo Gameboy video game Pokemon Blue Version. Similar to other games, Pokemon Blue starts with the hero on a journey to solve puzzles, amass skills and ultimately to defeat the "boss" to end the journey. The last leg of the game requires navigation through Victory Road in order to gain access to the "bosses". From what I have read, it appears Pokemon Blue, Red, and Yellow versions are the same game, except for perhaps the pokemon monsters that you start out with. The game Pokemon Gold Version however is an entirely different game with unique game play and journeys.

Now, all this being said, this game is fun, does have entertainment value, but also has frustration and anger invokement!
(Unrelated note to Pokemon: Similar frustration is found in the Colecovision game "Miner 2049er". As a miner, you navigate the hero through 10 screens (maybe 11?) to end the game. You have 3 lives/chances to do this. Because the Colecovision console/game has no physical way/feature to save a game, failure means you have to start Miner 2049er "from scratch!" - make sure you save some money for the therapist afterwards to help you deal with the anxiety issues.)
Parts of the Pokemon game puzzles are so difficult, I can't believe that this is a game intended for children! I gave up several times (as I (felt like I) was "going in circles"). This pushed me to go online to look for a cheat, like a "god-mode" cheat that you commonly find in other video games. You know, the kind that makes you walk through walls and be invincible to obstacles. The particular type of cheat I was hoping would exist, is the one where you can always have "repel" permanently on. Repel, is this property where you temporarily can prevent wild pokemon from confronting and thus interrupting you, and even more importantly, delaying you from your game play. This literally happens every few seconds in wilderness areas like grasslands and caves. You haven't experienced real annoyance until you encounter this phenonmenon! I was not able to find either of these cheats. The best I could do was to find some walkthrough guides published on the internet. It was very fortunate that I did find these guides as I would not have been able to finish the game. Back to the point. Do not play this game if you value your time and mental health. If you have a child or loved-one who wants to play Pokemon Blue, do not buy this game for them. However, if you have someone you are not so fond of, then it is ok to buy this game for them. Once again, I can't believe how difficult this game is!

The two Walkthroughs which I needed:
-------------------------------
ALL the mazes and puzzles are difficult, but two were extremely impossible: The quest for the warden's teeth, and finishing Victory Road.
1.) I got really really stuck when I needed to find the Warden's teeth. Even with the walkthrough, the quest is very challenging.
Pokemon Blue Version: FAQ/Walkthrough by CAHowell
Pokemon: Red, Green, and Blue Versions Version: 1.5
First Created on: January 24, 2004
Last Updated on: July 23, 2006
Created By: Jason Howell (CAHowell)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/29130.html

2.) Inside Victory Road, one of the cute characters state "... most trainers ... give up at this point in the game ...". Well, so did I! I was ready to give up as I could not find the exit nor even the entrance. I was stuck in purgatory. Thankfully reading this Walkthrough gave me enough motivation and knowledge to finish Victory Road.
Pokemon blue walkthrough by Ultimate Subber
http://www.supercheats.com/gameboy/pokemonblue.htm


Description of the illustration "PokemonBlueVictory1.png"
-------------------------------
* the guard at the Victory Road gate requires that you have a certain badge before you can pass.
* Once inside Victory Road, you must climb stairs and ladders; Pushing boulders onto colored spheres will help (somewhat). Be prepared to deal with the infinite wild Pokemon.
* Indigo Plateau is the final rest-stop to heal your pokemon.
* Lorelei, the Ice Trainer is the first of the Elite Four.
* Bruno, trains tough pokemon
* Agatha, trains supernatural pokemon
* the last of the Elite Four is Lance the Dragon Trainer
* the final boss to defeat is your friend Ash.
* your six pokemon are entered into the Hall of Fame
* you are rewarded for your efforts by reading the credit list of the production staff of the Pokemon Blue game.

What a waste of time!!

0008 - How to Ruin a Pot or a Pan

0008 - How to Ruin a Pot or a Pan
========== [Sept.27.2011 by JCPMA]
This actually happened many years ago when I lived near the arena. My Meyer® brand, stainless steel sauce pan holds about a 1 litre (approx. 1 qt US) when filled to the brim. Practically its cooking capacity is 750 mL (approx. 1&1/2 pints US) or about the same volume as a standard bottle of wine/booze, 26 ounces. This small pan is the ideal size to heat water to make 2 cups of coffee or tea.
I can't remember the exact details but I was reheating some food or maybe, making something to drink and the stove range was set to "medium" heat. Well,... "a watched pot never boils" so I multi-task and tend to some frivolous/time-wasting tasks on the computer. At the time, it didn't seem frivolous. It was either some dull meaningless organizing "make work" project, or better still, a VIDEO GAME. Then, the desktop PC was in the bedroom. (It's a bad place to have a PC but I was younger and more stupid.) Of course once you get on a computer, all time stands still, and you lose track of it. I must have been on the computer for a very LONG time. How much time does it take to boil off a pint of water?! The time elapsed with the stove on is unknown but I was alerted to its presence, likely by one of the following:
*The food burns and I smell smoke;
*The food burns and the smoke detector sounds;
*The contents boil over and I hear the food/liquid interact with the stove element;
*Water in the pan is boiled off dry and there is a smell. [most likely scenario]

Suddenly, my belly remembers that the stove is on! There is a wave of horror/fear sweeping through my abdomen. Sprinting to the kitchen shows the pan has been destroyed.
The funny smell isn't food, but is metal fumes. The weld holding the aluminum base to the stainless steel body has melted off.
After cleaning the pan, the damage assessment is the following. The exterior bottom has warped. The body is still shiny but the bottom and sides have permanent bronze-like heat-stains of the alloy. Inside the pan, the heat has irreversibly discolored the bottom of the pan giving it a patchy dark gun-metal color.

I still own this pan. It heats un-evenly because the aluminum base is missing but otherwise is usable. The moral of the story is: "Don't be a dork!"

lh!t-142

0007 - HipStreet 4gb usb-drive's death

0007 - HipStreet 4gb usb-drive's death
One day I was doing work at a friend's Win.XP computer. I saved my files to my SanDisk Cruzer USB drive and removed the drive. Next, I plugged in my HipStreet 4GB USB drive and saved the same files to it. But before completion, Windows reported an error. I tried to repeat the procedure. This time, Windows indicates that the USB drive is write-protected (read only), and that I should remedy this.
The drive would not let me add or erase files. (Caution! The following discusses methods and software which will destroy data on the partition and/or MasterBootRecord.) This is what I tried to repair the drive (but not necessarily in this order):

On Windows7:
[* diskpart.exe. - I didnot try this because as I looked at it, I realized the instructions and dos commands???, were beyond my IQ]
* reformat. - Failure, because media is seen as read-only.
* disk management/ storage/. - Failure, no reformat or repartition functions available as the media is seen as read-only
* hp usb formatting tool. - Failure, because media is seen as read-only.
* kd_win.exe (v. 4.1) - I couldn't get this version of Killdisk to work on Win.7.
* KILLDISK_WIN.EXE (v. 5,230). - Partial success. although it took a long time (8hours+), it appears to have wiped the drive partition and the mbr. (If I can't fix the drive, at least then, I can wipe the data for confidentiality reasons.). These are excerpts from the log:

>2011-04-26 15:07:40 Start Session
>2011-04-26 15:07:44 Refreshed
>2011-04-26 15:08:08 Start Scanning Drive [HIPSTREET (E:)]
>2011-04-26 15:08:09 Scanning Drive Completed [HIPSTREET (E:)]
>----------------------------------------Erase Session Begin---------------------------------------
>2011-04-26 15:09:18 Active@ KILLDISK for Windows Build 5.2.3 started
> Target: Generic Flash Disk 3.964 GB
> Located on: Generic Flash Disk (Serial number: )
> Erase method: One Pass Zeros (1 pass) Passes: 1
>Bad (unwritable) sectors detected from 0 to 158696 on Removable Disk 1.
>Error (19) reading sector 0 on Removable Disk 1.
>User stopped erasing at 1 % (pass: 1)
>2011-04-26 15:24:27 Total number of erased device(s): 0, partition(s): 0
>-----------------------------------------Erase Session End----------------------------------------
>2011-04-26 15:24:30 Refreshed
>2011-04-26 15:24:38 Stop Session
>2011-04-26 15:25:58 Start Session
>2011-04-26 15:26:01 Refreshed
>2011-04-26 15:26:55 Refreshed
>2011-04-26 15:26:58 Start Scanning Drive [HIPSTREET (E:)]
>2011-04-26 15:26:59 Scanning Drive Completed [HIPSTREET (E:)]
>----------------------------------------Erase Session

>Begin---------------------------------------
>2011-04-26 15:27:50 Active@ KILLDISK for Windows Build 5.2.3 started
> Target: Generic Flash Disk 3.964 GB
> Located on: Generic Flash Disk (Serial number: )
> Erase method: One Pass Zeros (1 pass) Passes: 1
>Bad (unwritable) sectors detected from 0 to 8312831 on Removable Disk 1.
>Error (19) reading sector 0 on Removable Disk 1.
>Time taken: 08:35:29
>2011-04-27 00:03:18 Total number of erased device(s): 1, partition(s): 0
>-----------------------------------------Erase Session End----------------------------------------
>2011-04-27 00:03:22 Refreshed


On Windows98:
* reformat. - Failure, because media is seen as read-only.
* KILLDISK_WIN.EXE (v. 5,230). - N/A as this version does not work for Windows98
* kd_win.exe (v. 4.1) - This version of Killdisk appeared not to do anything, but on hindsight, I think it does work, (and does the same job as Killdisk_win.exe v 5.23). It just appears frozen because the process is (normally?) slow.
* Ranish Partition Manager (v. 2.44) (ie. part244.exe). - This program allows you to add a standard (generic?) MBR (Master Boot Record?) to your usb drive! It also lets you repartition the drive.
* Swiss Knife Partition Manager 3.09. - This doesn't seem to work for external usb drives. Either it may be meant only for fixed drives or it fails in this circumstance because the usb drive in question is seen as read-only.
[* FDISK - I didnot try this because I don't understand dos, and because it appeared to be a situation where I would easily destroy the fixed HardDrive instead of the external USB drive.]


Conclusion
----------
USB drives are not invulnerable to data loss or physical failure. I don't know much about the HipStreet brand, but it didn't provide a reasonable usage-time before it failed. I assumed it was the same quality as other USB drives because the price was similar. Although damage to some of the drive's partition could be repaired by standard Windows utilities, damage to the lower sectors of the drive (0? 00?) which contains the MBR, will render the drive inoperable.
If you can easily afford to replace a drive, then you should consider physically destroy the corrupt usb-drive, (i.e., with a hammer or flame or other method). This will certainly save you time.