I found my game online!

Years ago I had toiled away writing a conversion of Spectrum Holobyte's Soko-ban ("Warehouse Guard") game on the IBM PC for my Atari 8-bit. I had dumped all the levels in hex on printer paper at college, so all I needed to do was figure out the game.

I used a powerful font editor called Envision, published by Antic Magazine. It made creating an animated font very easy. I designed a smoothly animated font for Push It! which I called my game as well as signed my name into the font.

At one point it bogged down even in compiled TurboBASIC, so I pulled out MAC-65 and began putting together a machine language subroutine to check the screen. It was the most important piece of my game and the program self modified it by inserting the screen address and my string table of screen addresses which needed checked as well as how many. It returned a number equal to the boxes put on solution squares. You completed a level by pushing the boxes onto the solution squares.

And I wrote it, finished it, played some levels, and basically had it on a disk and thought not much of it until I uploaded a Diskcomm file of it onto an Atari user group BBS in Arizona. And then I forgot about it.

Some time later, I was contacted by that user group how they went nuts over it and how 6 levels were "unsolvable." So I went back to those the printouts and reentered them and a few I had made mistakes. But I made sure to play those 6 levels and surprise - I solved them! I sent them a new disk but the user group still insisted they were unsolvable... 

I thought as a lark to search for my game online, and I was surprised to see someone uploaded it!

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-push-it_4178.html

Yearly visit to my doctor?

Last week I ran out of refill counts and when that happens, I have to call my primary doctor for refills. Only this time, I had to go in to their office first. I was expecting to be able to talk to her about my issues - falling drowsy and then asleep around noon even in spite of a rousing wake up and breakfast, not having the 4 things I need for my care - scale, shower seat, hand sprayer, and rollerator. I don't know why I don't have these things when all my mother had to do was ask for them.

Instead, I was NPO since midnight before the day of my appointment because they were wanting a blood draw. I was less than enthused.

I spent my week getting ready. I get a phone call from my pharmacy saying I have refills to pick up - apparently the doctor people called them in already. I tell them I will be there on the 3rd because I have other things also to do on that day. I planned to leave my broom closet around 10:30 a.m....

Only thing is 2 days before my appointment, I get a building notice they are doing Covid cleaning from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and would people either stay in their units during that time and spend as little time as possible in the halls.

8:30 a.m. ... Goddamnit to f•vk. So along my preparation to have a little post blood draw picnic, I basically have to wake up and immediately get my underwear, pants, and shoes on before my feet can swell up after being wrapped the night before. And then be out of the building before 8:30 a.m. leaving me to have to wait in parking lots before going to the doctor and bring supremely early.

One detail I left out out until now is I usually take 2 acetaminophen tablets for pain because it hurts getting around. I have to do all this getting out, go to my credit union, go to the doctor, then the pharmacy store, with absolutely no pain relief. Somehow, I managed to do this.

I get out, check my mail, get to my vehicle and get in, get to my credit union, get back in, and get to the pharmacy store parking lot where I wait. I pop on the radio, listen to lunatics on talk radio, look through my mail and other bits I need to write stuff on. I considered going in but realized this was to be a busy day, so I waited to advance to my doctor.

Get to my doctor and no weigh in. I don't get to speak to my doctor, it's straight to the blood draw person. Not enthused. Get the spike in my arm (still hurts a day later) and now I'm being asked to pee in a hat. This hat you don't wear - I'm being told to perform a little urine sample. This is a surprise, because I went back in the broom closet before I left and I was pretty sure I didn't have any more. But I was betrayed and enough came out in the hat to get my nuts warm and moist whereupon I pinched it off to remove the device from the toilet so I could finish... And then I was done. Didn't get to speak to my doctor.

Back in my vehicle, I have my little picnic. Sandwich, water with flavor packet, cold rice with PreCure curry. And 2 acetaminophen. Only thing is, this triggered something else the body does. I started farting. That means I need to visit a toilet soon.

For supper the night before, it was also rice with a little PreCure curry packet. And a raw egg mixed in the hot rice. Only it must not have been hot enough, because my farts were signalling I needed to hit a toilet damn soon and there would be no pain relief or waiting for a powered shopping scooter, this poop baby was going to deliver itself in my pants if I didn't hurry up.

Get to the pharmacy, park, get out, and grabbed a cart without accident. Walk in as quickly as I could, making a beeline to the men's restroom and thankfully nobody on the toilet. Barely had moments to get my ass uncovered before this runny shitstorm was forcing its way out into the toilet.

Then I realized I need to bring my magic butt wiping wand with me at all times because this was going to need wiped off. I also found out the short small end of my cane can be quickly adapted for this purpose with enough toilet tissue wrapped around one end.

Somehow I managed this whole episode of a day where I dropped off the one container I still had for a refill and went back to grab a charged shopping cart (the slow green one) and conduct my business.

Only to find out my doctor called in 3 refills of pills. I hope more get called in after next week's appointment.

When Barty Crouch Jr used polyjuice to become Mad Eye Moody, why was he also missing an eye & part of a leg?