Rimrook6 months ago2019-02-13 13:58:41 UTC 10 comments
I make sketchbooks. Some of them look aged which is quite fun. Been learning the craft for a few years now. ^_^
User posted image
I do plan to sell them soon.
Admer4566 months ago2019-02-08 23:42:56 UTC 3 comments
Mine certainly does. I don't know about you. It could've sucked for me greatly, but I got lucky.
This is yet another one of my "personal history analysis" journals. Hooray. I haven't posted one in a while, but either way, have a nice read. :)

Year Zero

When I finished 9th grade and completed elementary school, I started panicking.
The first question was which high school to choose. My parents really really wanted me to go to the local general high school. HELL NO. 4 more years of Biology, Geography, Music class (where you learn nothing about music BTW, just singing some songs and learning about composers), no. Just no. Also, book reports every 2 weeks instead of every month. No.

So I chose the school that so many people recommended me. An electrical engineering high school. Precisely, the IT course. There were 3 at the time: IT, telecommunications, automatics. The IT course had been introduced a year prior, and it's supposed to have more programming and IT classes than the other courses, which I find really nice. My parents didn't want me to go there because I'd have to travel by bus a lot and I'd lose 2-3 hours daily because of the long bus rides. But it's worth it IMHO.

What will happen to me? Will I get beaten to death by bullies in high school? Will professors be evil in high school? How will I even find my way to the bus station in the city?

Thousands of other questions, however, were frightening me. I thought I'd not be able to handle it for sure, right?

Year One

The first year was not as bad as I thought. I had to get used to taking buses and that stuff.

In the first year, I was in the morning shift, so class would start at 7:00 and typically end at 13:10. It started at 7:30 on Mondays (Practical class + History), and at 7:40 on Wednesdays. Mondays were special: 7:30 to 10:30 (3 classes of Practical class and 2 classes of History).
But that meant I had to wake up at 4 o'clock. D:

There was a bus in 5:40 that would arrive to the bus station in 6:30, so I took that one, until they canceled it, so I had to take the one in 5:15 that would take a longer route but get there in 6:30.
What I see every evening now in the afternoon shiftWhat I see every evening now in the afternoon shift
The professors were nice. My classmates were angels in comparison to the ones from my elementary school.
I was even given a chance to switch to German. I had Turkish in my elementary school and I got tired of it after 3 years. Some Turks came into the town when I was in 6th grade, they convinced most of the parents to vote for Turkish to be a secondary foreign language and it happened. :/
So I switched to German. Surprisingly, it went really well for me. Mum couldn't believe it. :D

Sure, there were some classes where I under-performed: Electrical Engineering and Technical Drawing.
Technical Drawing was that one class where you must be precise down to a micrometre. Otherwise you get a 4 instead of a 5. First semester went like 4, 4, 1, 5. That 1 was when I brought the wrong type of paper to do the blueprint on. Second semester went like 3, 3, 3, 5. I could never draw well. But at least this class was only for the first year.
I got a 3 for these...I got a 3 for these...
Electrical Engineering... my professor was quite interesting. She would go through the lessons at 120 km/h, barely explaining most concepts, and we would not understand much. Lenz's Law, Kirchhoff's Laws, ask what they are to any of my classmates and they won't know. On my first test I got a 1.

Why? Because I was just missing a word or two in my answers, and she crossed basically every answer that had such mistakes. We've even had a situation where we finished all of the lessons for the first year, and moved on to lessons from 2nd grade.

AC currents? Trigonometry? We weren't supposed to learn that right in the first year, lol! But alas, we had to. And frankly, I'm actually thankful for that.
Even though she was very strict on tests, she helped me understand trigonometry and AC currents better later on, in the 2nd year, that is when we got a new EE professor. He's cool.
I had a 4 in EE in the first year. Miraculously, considering that everyone performed badly in it. Like, 60% of the class would fail the test, and I'd be the only guy who got a 3. Of course, there was that one girl who always got a 5. But I can't be like that. She never had a 4 or a 3 in her life. That's just not my style. (don't get me wrong, it's not like I get 4s and 3s often, I actually tend to get 5's, with a tiny tiny mix of 4's - I avoid the lesser marks)

But either way, I surprisingly made some small headlines by winning the Regional Spelling Bee in Mostar and participating in the National Spelling Bee of BiH, and winning 2nd place in an IT competition in Mostar. Pretty good for a first year in HS. :nuts:
User posted image
This is what I'd see when I crossed the bridge leading to the bus station. Nice view.

And bam, the first year ended in the blink of an eye. I survived with a GPA of 4.57, where 4.50 is the minimum for an excellent status (or let's call it A if you wish. 1 = F, 2 = D, 3 = C, 4 = B, 5 = A).
Sooo yeah, then I had a nice summer break and the 2nd year began.

Year Two

But MAN, is the 2nd year good!
I got Programming, something called Processing and Transmission of Signals, and Electronics. I lost Chemistry, Technical Drawing and IT Systems. (BTW classes are not optional in this country - you get them, you have them, and you lose them)
On Programming and IT class, I'm basically the guy who walks around the classroom helping his classmates with their technical problems, and then finishing the actual task on my PC in the last couple of minutes. The two professors are surprised by my efficiency. :)
User posted image
Of course, sometimes my classmates would get scared of the things I was doing. :v

Two classes I like in particular are Practical class and History. They are held in a special place, away from the school.
User posted image
This is a photo from the cleaning action. We were taking out all the trash and cleaning the place up.
User posted image
Playing Super Mario Forever during History class. :walter:
Do not do this, it's not healthy for the 4017 ICDo not do this, it's not healthy for the 4017 IC
One of the circuits we built on Practical class. Not quite happy with what we're doing to the IC itself, but hey, it's flashy!

And some of you know that I'm a school mapper.
It's a draft, still - I'll make sure to revise it when I have the timeIt's a draft, still - I'll make sure to revise it when I have the time
The professors actually like this project, believe it or not. Tell me whatever you want about that 2007 incident, but you know I'll ignore it. :^)

And recently, I found about an extra class where we'll work with Arduino boards. Man, I've been waiting to get my hands on one of those for a while. :crowbar:

The 2nd year was a great change.
I was no longer in the morning shift, I was in the other, afternoon shift.
Class starts at 13:20 and ends in 19:30. However, that ending at 19:30 never happens in my schedule.
Monday:       11:45 -> 17:10
Tuesday:      13:20 -> 19:00
Wednesday:    07:30 -> 10:30
Thursday:     13:20 -> 18:00
Friday:       13:20 -> 18:15
Next year, I'll lose the following classes: History, Physics, Practical class, Electrical Engineering ( :( ), IT.
I'll get the following: Mobile Programming, Computer Networks, Computer Architectures, Democracy, Digital Electronics.


Well, frankly, I've learnt nothing new about programming in high school because I already learned it at home, except the difference between a++ and ++a. (we have C++ for these two years, and we'll get another language in the 4th year)

But what I did learn was a bunch of stuff about electronics. It made me start following YouTubers like GreatScott, ElectroBoom and the like. Not only did I find ElectroBoom's purposeful bloopers funny, I actually understood why they happened and how to prevent that stuff. Lol. Sadly, I don't have many options for buying components. I'll have to get components somewhere. There's a Conrad shop in Sarajevo, and other electronics stores. I'll see what I can do about this stuff.

I met new friends, got used to a totally new community and place. It's quite nice for a change.
The only problem with these new friends is the same as with my old ones. They have no particular interest in anything.
Basically, these guys (and girls) signed up for a school about electrical engineering and programming, yet they don't like either of those.
Most of them signed up in my high school either because they had no idea what school to sign up for, or because they quite simply had a cousin in this school or a close friend.

Had I decided to go for the general high school, I would've been suffering, lol.
Their professors are super strict over there and I'd pretty much be an amount of wasted potential. And people would be disappointed. :/

But yeah, this high school rocks. I love it more than elementary school. :P
If I made the wrong decision, it'd probably suck like it does for most ex-classmates of mine. The general high school wasn't the only choice though. I could've gone for a medical high school, or a construction high school, or a traffic high school, none of which I'd like lol.

There was a girl in elementary school who had all 5's, and even she has trouble in that general high school. I was the only 1 out of 2 people who actually signed up for this type of high school, and the rest mostly went to the general one. And they're suffering, from what they told me.

Either way, I'm pretty much happy now, since I'm slowly getting to know my abilities and what kinds of jobs I'll want to do in the future. :)

I might end up writing a part 2 or 2, 3 and 4, who knows.
JeffMOD6 months ago2019-02-03 13:43:15 UTC 5 comments
Hey all,
So I know I haven't been super active for the past however long in terms of posts, but those of you who pay attention to the Active Users section of the front page have probably noticed me being online (THWL is, after all, still my homepage!) So I just want to say I'm not dead in case I don't log in for a while;
There was a fire in my apartment building early this morning, and while there were no human casualties it's currently not safe for human habitation. The apartment I share with my Mom is untouched aside from the smoke, but because it might be carcinogenic, the fire department has told us we gotta vacate until the county can bring in some cleaners, as well as someone to make sure the structural integrity of the building isn't compromised from the fire, which was on the ground floor and pretty well gutted the apartment it hit.

They're still investigating the cause of the fire but it's pretty clear it was accidental (Though jury is still out on whether it was caused by negligence on the part of the landlord) and I'm staying at my Dad's until everything is given the green light. Since he doesn't have internet, and I have a data cap on my phone, I probably won't be able checking in as often as I usually would.

Anyway, just in case anyone notices me suddenly dropping off the face of the earth, I'm still alive, and will be back.
Cabo Fiambre6 months ago2019-01-25 15:58:02 UTC 8 comments
Hello, it's been a long time since i last logged in, i've never made a journal but i think it's time to do it.

I've been making Half Life maps since 2015 and been perfectioning myself by the years but i reached a point that i don't want to do it anymore because i feel that i spent a lot of time on that and it never gave me anything so i'm gonna leave Half Life modding, however it isn't all lost because i gave another modder a mod that i was developing, hopefully he will continue my work and give this excellent community what i couldn't.

Hope the best for everybody!
Screamernail6 months ago2019-01-22 12:21:13 UTC 15 comments
I wish I was someone now. But. You all know how it goes for me. I can't get anything done how hard I try. I try my best, and that best is REALLY little.

I want to leave gaming. I want to stop use my stupid PCs and just stay on my Mac and work on videos instead of unfinished game projects. Can someone kick me off this site and get it over with? I really don't want to work with Half-Life anymore. Cause I am untalented and unfocused, and rather want to do things I can do. Like slideshows.

If you want to see me when I deactivate then go and post here The Pfhorums

EDIT: Got over my sadness there. Anyway. The HappyFaces test server is

CLOSED (Well that didn't go well)
Screamernail7 months ago2019-01-16 16:27:10 UTC 13 comments
For some reason, I see the PS2 port of Half-Life more atmospheric.
UrbaNebula7 months ago2019-01-10 09:12:28 UTC 9 comments
First of all... Some of you might have seen me banging on about this via social media already, so I apologise. It's not very often I feel really quite proud of myself, but that's the situation right now.

After over a month of studying, I took my Magento 2 Frontend examination yesterday afternoon. Two hours later, I had passed.

I am now officially a Magento 2 Certified Professional Frontend Developer. My name is listed alongside a number of other people who claim they know what they're doing. :P

Magento Certification Directory

I will be taking a couple of other exams in the coming months to bulk up the profile a little, but this is a positive first step to being somewhat officially qualified. Haha
Tetsu07 months ago2019-01-08 19:08:43 UTC 4 comments
My desktop is gathering dust.
My laptop is used to look for jobs and record demos.
My garage is full of old cars and car parts.

However... My band has been recording an album. That's been taking most of my time away from mapping. How I wished I could have entered the last compo.. I started a map even.

The band is Positive Chaos.
The song is King James.

Give it a listen if you would, there's more coming.
Alright. Enough with this Christmas shit! Get rid of them or suffer 12 months of bad luck or something... and bad hat hair! That's bound to happen if you're wearing a hat all year round.
Jessie8 months ago2018-12-13 09:59:21 UTC 6 comments
It's been a while!It's been a while!
I think I'm ready to get back to doing this regularly! I'm only going to make it weekly for now (as opposed to the twice-weekly way I was originally operating), but if it makes sense to me to change that later... well, we'll see.

The regular time will be 10pm Sat UTC. (That's 8am Sun AEST, 10pm Sat GMT, 2pm Sat PST - here's a link for your convenience because I can't list every time zone)
Like always, I doubt there's a time that will suit the entire planet all at once, so I apologize if it's no good for you.

I'm looking forward to making progress in the ol' vault again, and I hope I'll see y'all there!
satchmo8 months ago2018-12-10 13:52:51 UTC 2 comments
I am so nostalgic watching this video, because it was my first computer back in 1986.

How I wish I kept that computer and keyboard.
Strider8 months ago2018-12-10 13:20:37 UTC 3 comments
Quake Xmas Jam 2018
Trailer by dumptruck_ds.

21 new, bite-sized Quake maps for Christmas! Two of them are mine! Loads of really talented Quake mappers contributed to this, and I'm really proud to be a part of this thing, and to have even completed a map this year, let alone two.

If you like Quake, check 'em out! Slaying Shamblers is what Christmas is all about.
Admer4568 months ago2018-12-05 22:49:10 UTC 5 comments
(no TL;DR for the lazy readers, I even put pictures for you)

The day started off as usual. It was an early Wednesday morning and I arrived to the Southern Camp in Mostar. We basically have classrooms on 3 separate locations, and each is specialised for some kinds of classes, e.g. Practical class. Nothing was really special on Practical class today, as my classmate and I were testing out the new prototyping boards and soldering some capacitors on them. We completed all the lessons, so the professor decided to give us something to do, that's why we were soldering instead of assembling a circuit.

Note: my class is split in 2 groups only for Practical class. 10 people from 7:30 to 9:00 and the rest from 10:40 to 12:40 or so.

And then that class ended. We were about to have History class. But then, someone launched Mario Forever on the professor's laptop:
User posted image
(video clips will be included in my 3rd school moments compilation)

It was fun. I was the only one who reached Bowser's castle, except our professor entered the classroom when I was trying to defeat Bowser.
Nice for a change. My classmates (precisely, one of the girls) called it the most interesting class ever. We don't usually play any games while the professor is absent. :P

We had a lesson about Bosnia and Herzegovina in World War I, and I forgot to look at my watch. It was 10:40 and my bus left the station at 10:25. Woops~
User posted image
But I didn't really care. I spent 15 minutes waiting for the bus which would leave at 11:30, but then I remembered hundreds of thoughts from my past. "Change yourself for once.", they said. So instead of spending the rest of the time outside on the cold and windy weather, I walked back to the building.
User posted image
(this is an older photo, ignore the stuff on the floor)

The 2nd half of my class was having Practical class there. They were a class behind my group, so I already knew everything and I decided to help them out and explain some things.
Nice for a change. These guys didn't know a thing about ICs. Imagine what would've happened if I hadn't gone back and stayed where I waited for my bus.

And then a professor from the neighbouring classroom came in, and asked someone to set up the projector. Something wasn't working.
Her entire class was unable to solve the problem. And there were really only 2 things to do: having to use the Intel GMA properties window and enable duplicate displays, and inserting the VGA out into the VGA port, not the Super VGA port. :P
Nice for a change. A presentation could've failed if I hadn't been there.

So, I realised one thing today. I definitely should change in some aspects. I wonder how many things I've missed out by standing still on the spot, or saying "no" when somebody asked me to go somewhere with them.
Change is good. As a Bosniak, I perceived change as one of the worst things that can happen to me, but honestly, now I don't think it's so bad. (and yes, Bosniaks in general hate change - it's a fact that we're one of the biggest haters of change)

And don't worry, I didn't miss the bus in 11:30. xD
UrbaNebula8 months ago2018-12-02 03:53:06 UTC 13 comments
It is time. Get some Christmas all up in your avatars.