Mirror Mirror World

One goal down, seventy-four-and-a-half to go.

2007-11-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

Wonderful. The MMW rush has ended. Finally my schedule is cleared to pursue various relaxation, right?

Haha, I wish.

The Mirror Mirror World hype ended just in time for me to catch up on my reading of Homer's Odyssey and write a daily reflection. And a fair amount of my Thanksgiving break was spent finishing up a biography on Einstein (don't even ask when I'm gonna throw together the reading log, timeline, random scene thing, collage, etc.). This weekend I can't work on that, though, cuz I gotta do some dumb ol' "Personal Odyssey" in which I describe my life through both a fictitious map and narrative. Tomorrow is dedicated to (after finishing my nightly Odyssey reading and reflection, despite skimping on the remainder of the log stuff) organizing my biology notebook and doing a paper related by: selecting various pieces of work and reflecting upon them in several reflective paragraphs, grading my own notebook, discussing the study skills I used, and informing my teacher of where I need to improve. Then I need to make my momma read through my bio notebook (oh fun), read some choice pieces of work (what, like notes on Cnidaria?), and comment upon it.

Well, at least I get a break at lunch time, right? No class and all that?

Wrong. That's the time specifically dedicated to finishing math homework and ensuring that I remembered to write those Odyssey discussion questions. *lesigh*

Tonight I spent two and a half hours (no joke) reading through a book for history class about Lewis & Clark. I started reading Monday, and I'm gonna start writing my report in class tomorrow (Thursday). 480 pages, medium-sized margins, something around 8-pt font. Don't get me started on the vocab test in English and that one in Spanish, either. 5-minute cram sessions always worked before, and they'll have to do now.

Maybe it will let up in December.

Maybe not.

Culmination

2007-11-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

Yep, I never thought I'd see it happen. But the Something Has Happened plot is released and complete.

Wow.

I feel like there's this huge burden suddenly lifted off of me...

Which, of course, will be un-lifted once I have to start patrolling for even MORE passcode guessers and blah.

But you catch my drift.

Ready to play? Go click on that link over to the left over there and get started ^^

~Matchu

P.S. I love your PMs. But don't PM me unless nobody else on the forums could possibly help you in a million years xP

Approaching Final Destination...

2007-11-15T19:22:00.001-08:00

The end is near, my friends. The "plot" itself has been complete - at this point I'm just cleaning house for you guys.

Last night I wrote up all the debriefs and started redoing the explore overlay code - primarily because it was MUCH easier to rewrite the code than it was to add all those worlds to the old script. I've just now finished it, and you'll notice that the explore map has a new look of sorts: it helps the loading process not throw off the entire page and helps it look a good deal cleaner :)

Tomorrow night I need to finish off the cookie jar codes and see how long it takes for The Mini-Secret-Project to take root - it may or may not be ready in time for full release.

We're looking at a release date around Saturday... in fact, I think I'll go send out a bulk e-mail.

There's light at the end of the tunnel, folks! Release will occur - I'll make sure of it.

~Matchu

Bringin' the U to the 'pdate!

2007-11-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

Life goes on. I'm still in the process of finishing the last few pages of the final mission - heavily plot driven, a lot of photoshoppin', etc. Expect release... soon enough. I still have a few more ideas to work in ;)

Additionally, the hacker incident has not yet been resolved. Check back in for updates, cuz hopefully I'll have some for you eventually xD

Don't lose hope, brethren! The Final Hour approaches...

(P.S. Hope you share my taste in music! ;o)

Ahem.

2007-11-10T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hey there.

I'd like to ask the wiseguy who's been hacking my site to please... not. I assume that you're an avid Mirror Worlder who wants the plot to be released, and instead of finishing it today as planned I'll be busy tracking you down instead. The rest of the community has you to thank for the further delays, so please say "you're welcome," kay?

Apparently Freewebs must have some MAJOR security flaws. I'll be working with them later in the day to both disqualify the hacker and, ideally, deny them access to the Freewebs domain to prevent further attacks.

I'm a hacker at heart, as well. I've actually worked with many of the major Neopets help sites in the past that y'all are familiar with in order to help eliminate crucial security flaws - I found the problems before malicious hackers could, and the webmasters were greatful. This is what we call GOOD hacking.

This person, however, has done nothing more than give me a scare and overwrite a page that took me a fair chunk of time to code (I'm just glad the explore page isn't on the index anymore Dx). I'd like to ask EVERYONE to please refrain from malicious hacking the future, because it's a pain for both me and everyone else. You may think it makes you cool, but it really just earns you a ton of whacks on the head. Seriously.

On the other hand, if you notice a page that I messed up that gave you access to a file listing or something, then by all means report it so that I can patch it up. I'll be quite greatful. DON'T mess with my site in the process.

Kay hacker man. You have been warned. Prepare for a smackdown.

~Matchu

Muahahahaha!

2007-11-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Just figured I'd let you know that, due to a previous mix-up in the official Hive tables, my standings were a lot lower than they really belong.

You're now looking at the SECOND PLACE HIVE HIGH SCORER PERSON OF DOOM =D

...kay. That's all for today ^^ Final mission is in progress, will be completed when my teachers wrap their minds around the fact that I have more to do with my time than just homework.

EDIT: Meh. 2nd place, tied for third.... same thing xP

On the other hand...

2007-10-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Homework is still a pain.

Today I had PSATS, so about half of my teachers didn't have the chance to assign anything. And yet, I have a Current Events paper, Lyrical Analysis paper, and a Bio Lab write-up due tomorrow.

I really should be working :x

Lazy Saturdays...

2007-10-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, finally! A Saturday all to myself... it was quite relaxing. Slept in 'til about 10, went out to lunch with my cousin, and then came home and crashed (while getting plenty of work done, of course!)

Today's progress includes:

Finalization of the Haunted Woods
Basic Coding of the Next Mission
Half of my math homework
Maybe some of my English homework if this next mission stops being so interesting

Ahhh, I've missed these lazy Saturdays. Days where I get plenty done but feel like I did nothing... in a good way ^_^

Haunted Woods Complete!

2007-10-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

That's right, you heard me! The Haunted Woods has now been completed! And as such, I have a special announcement to make.

Another world is detaintable! =D

...I mean, that's kinda of a misleading way to put it. Since it always WAS detaintable, y'all just never noticed. And to add to the challenge this time around, all I'm gonna tell you is that it's NOT Brightvale. Have fun! ^_^

English Homework

2007-10-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

Enjoy.

Matchusian Featured Game - Blackflip

2007-09-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Blackflip

Alright, here's the deal on this game. You want to make one straight line through the puzzle... and every tile you roll over will flip from black to white or vice-versa. Your goal is for each ROW (not the whole puzzle) to either be all-white or all-black.

Provided for you in that spinny flash-link above is a preview of a fairly simple (but not TOO easy) puzzle to get you into the game. Remember, rolling over the outer tiles doesn't get you any penalty, so feel free - after all, quite often it is required ;)

Plots: Those Time-Wasting Menaces We've Grown to Love

2007-09-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Before I begin please note that when I say plot I mean Neopets or mirror world type plots.

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Plots. What about them?

Plots are cool. Plots are fun. Plots are fun for everyone!... Ok, so that’s not totally true, not everyone likes plots. But the people who do, really really really like them. Plots are very captivating in strange ways.

Have you ever dug a grave that took five minutes, and wanted to keep doing it again so much that you spend five hours just clicking that dig button? Ever waited hours just to go get another handful of sand, then wait your turn to get another? Yes, I have too. In fact I once spent seven hours straight on the Neopets Hive attempting to complete the plot. Boy was my mom mad at me!

Plots, even the most boring ones are fun to some people for strange unexplainable reasons. I still can’t figure out why anyone would even attempt to try navigating the Horrible Tedious Temple Of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Tombs, but I did anyway - as did many others.

You may ask, what do people get out of this? Well, unless it is a Neopets plot, nothing (at least nothing tangible). Why, then, do people complete these? One of the reasons is that, if you do complete it quickly, you get your name on the high score table - and sometimes a shiny trophy image (ooh la la!). But that’s still not the main reason I do them. Plots are fun to do because they give you something to do with your mind. Making your brain work on puzzles and similar things means you have less chance of getting memory loss when you get old (although that's not most people's primary reason, I’m sure). In an odd way it is fun to do things repeatedly, search through rooms for hours on end, solve challenging puzzles, and look through creepy asylums named after Meepits. Somehow we achieve a sense of joy and accomplishmment as we search the source codes for clues, and do all those plot things we've come to know and love.

Yes, it is very fun. People do plots not for prizes, but for the feeling of pride and victory in having solved the final puzzle - not to mention saving Neopia for the eight time.

Meep,
Areada

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This was the first guest blog post we've received, and I'm rather proud to be able to put something so well-written on our MMW blog. Finally, the people get a chance to speak. Areada has been the first - so who will be the next? ;o

Matchusian Featured Game - Hoshi Saga 2

2007-09-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Kay, here's your game to play while you wait: Hoshi Saga 2! The goal of the game is simple - in every level, there's a hidden star, and if you can make it appear, then you have won the level! There aren't any static rules, so just keep moving your mouse around, click a bit, and figure it out! There are some hidden levels, so have fun finding them! I'm sure this is the kind of game you guys would like ;)

Image provided by JayIsGames.com - check them out, yo!

Behind the Scenes

2007-09-15T15:02:00.001-07:00

...that's right, it's time for Behind the Scenes at Matchusian Networks! You ready? It's time for a little look at mirrorHTML ;D

I'll just open up a new MMW page over here...

Alrighty... We got our header image, page title, Intro field, Body field, and "extra"... you'll find out what that's for some day, I'm sure. Now, lemme just fill it in real fast, since I need to make Edna's Tower.

Kay. That's that. The page is ready! Let's check it out!

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I'm doing this because I've, once again, had a ridiculously busy homework schedule and haven't had time to do much more than a few things on MMW. That's what you get for going to a school like mine >_<

HW Postponed

2007-09-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm sad to say it, but my work on the Haunted Woods has been postponed until next week (I hope). Somehow these last few days I have had more homework than I've been able to deal with - as I write, it's 10:15 PM. My get-off-compy time is 9:30, and I still have to finish my current events project, evaluate my self-evaluation regarding my abilities as a critical thinker, reader, and writer, start off my two-lesson math homework involving graphing both inequalities and piecewise functions, and take three-column notes on a chapter from the history textbook. This weekend I'll be over in Universal Studios for most of Saturday (it's a Christian deal, with bands and rides and stuff), staying overnight in a multi-story church, and I'll be exhausted once I finally get home on Sunday - probably too exhausted to draw and label a map of Greece, read some random stuff about bacteria in my biology textbook, and write up my six story planners due for the school newspaper on Monday.

...so, yeah. Long story short. I had a great organizational plan of having MMW homework every night, but my real-life homework got in the way. MMW homework is therefore being rescheduled on next week, and I'm crossing my fingers as I hope and pray for few assignments.

Mystery Island is Complete (Not Yet Released)

2007-08-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

So last night I sat down for half an hour and just... ya know, made the world. Mystery Island. It's done. It's the type of world where it's tough for you due to obscure hints and guessing what to do... but it's easy for me since there are so few pages involved ^_^ Best of luck once it's released.

Psst. Once I'm done with Haunted Woods, there's still quite a few more things left to be done. But in return, I'll let you into another world. Sound cool? Good ;D

Psst! New World is Out!

2007-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, you heard me! Krawk Island is complete, and Terror Mountain is now released! Those of you who have been working ahead should find it a piece of cake, but the rest of you... well, we'll see ;D

And here's a quick reminder. Firefox rules. It's the browser I use - and therefore, when I have to choose between something looking pretty for Internet Explorer and looking pretty for Firefox, I choose the latter. IE is just plain glitchy, it's slow, and it can't do cool add-ons like FasterFox, ForecastFox, Greasemonkey, Adblocker, and all the other things that make the internet amazingly cool. So if you're planning on making the switch, then please use the link above this post to download it (cuz then I get money! =D) But seriously. Even if there weren't money in it for me. Firefox is like, amazingly cool. Check it out, yo o:

Bad News and... wait, no, it's just bad news :P

2007-08-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well. School started yesterday. First night of non-vacation and I have tons of paperwork to go through with my parents and some Alg II to get done. Tonight the book-covering from yesterday carries over, not to mention a bit more math to boot. Hopefully the work load will lighten up, but for the moment MMW is taking a short production break. So sorry. Once I get back into the swing of things, it'll start moving faster, I promise (=

Kthx.
~Matchu

Riddle #2 ;o

2007-08-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well. Apparently nobody's solved Riddle #1... So I guess y'all need a nudge in the right direction.

The official hint for Riddle #1 is: "180"

Now, on to Riddle #2 (if you have your answer to #1, please post it in the comments of THIS blog post, by the way).

743114

It's the name of a character, in numerical form. Good luck (and I hope this one is easier - I know the cipher is less obscure, anyways :P)

Misfortune Teller...

2007-08-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

It had been a while since you last entered her tent, and you thought she might have something new to say. However, as you enter the tent, it looks like the Fortune Teller is already in the middle of something. She seems engrossed in something she sees in the crystal ball, and it doesn't seem to be pleasing her...

"The captain rules o'er all the seas,
And brings fair kingdoms to their knees.
But he has one, and you have two
And bad luck comes in threes"

...the Kau's trance is broken, and she looks up at you, seemingly exhausted.

"Well? What are you looking at? It's late! Leave! NOW!"

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Status Update: I have completed Maraqua, and, due to out-of-nowhere plot rewrites, Maraqua and Krawk Island's detaint orders have been switched. The details for the rest are finally coming clear to me, so now it's only a matter of time ;D

Status Update

2007-08-02T18:37:00.001-07:00

Kay. Feel I oughta post at this point, even though I don't have much to say.

Let's see. I am currently... 7 worlds ahead of you. Brightvale, Meridell, Terror Mountain, Neopia Central, Faerieland, Shenkuu, and one I can't mention at the moment. After tons of recounts, I've decided that this is officially sixty percent of all worlds - and I'm currently one and a half weeks ahead of where I expected to be today! Woo! =D

I'm thinking that once I'm done with Krawk Island, I might be willing to release another world to you - depending on how long that takes. But I'm thinking you'll get to see Terror Mountain before full release - I don't want to pre-release too much of it is all, kay? ^^

Alright guys. You rock. Thanks for sticking with me (:

~Matchu

The Fortune Teller's Tent

2007-07-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my tent, little one.

"Now, I don't suppose there's more than one reason to be in my charming little home, hm? You wish to see your future... Well, I'm sure that can be arranged ;) Let's take a quick look into my crystal ball... I require silence, if you will.

"Hmmmmmmmm... the future looks hazy... But from what I can tell...

"There's a mountain. Yes, a snow-covered peak... and I see, I see..." - she pauses a moment, clearly deeply focussed - "I see you! Yes, yes... you are traveling, having taken down the beast in your way... ahh, it's getting foggy again... your mind is hard at work, you're trying to get somewhere, but a puzzle stands between you and what you need... Ahhh, that was quick! The clouds surrounding the mountain are slowly fading...

"I see... a kingdom - clad verdantly, proud of its wisdom... you stand above its fallen sentients, foot firmly planted upon the chest of one... you are presented with a scroll... ohhh no, you seem lost and confused! You continue to stumble around until..... ahh, yes, the clouds part once more.

"I see... a dark kingdom... darker than usual, certainly. I see a pedestal, with a faint glow hovering above it - the only source of light in this kingdom, yet the source of all the darkness. The light is soon extinguished, and the pitch black night fades to twilight, as it should...

"I see... yet another kingdom... the color on the castle, the blood shed defending this fair land... the dark power pulsating from the invaded fortress... but when the king shall rule again, so shall the curse begone.

"Ahhh, the vision is turning hazier still..........." - the fortune teller takes a deep breath, her deep red eyes penetrating the shrouded orb before you...

"........a castle on the clouds...the brightest amber turned to jade...a bustling market, now forlorn...the home of ancients, plagued as the rest..."

The gypsy, lost in thought, turns to you, hazy-eyed. A faint grin is visible on her face... or are you just imagining it?

"That is all I can show you today. Farewell, brave soul."

You stand up, turn around, and begin to walk back toward the tent's entrance. As you pass through the strands of beads hanging from the ceiling, you are unsure what to make of it all - but are enlightened nonetheless.

New World Detaintable!

2007-07-25T10:29:00.001-07:00

That's right, to satisfy all the hungry natives, the Lost Desert is now detaintable!

The hint topic is available here, so good luck, and get working!

And once again, thanks for sticking with me. There's tons of behind the scenes stuff going on at the moment - worlds you can't get to yet, the new Defenders Debreif Area, etc. Thanks so much! =D

~Matchu

ATTENTION!

2007-07-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well. Over the last few days, I was thinking about how slow I'm actually going on this project. I mean, at 34%... I really ought to just release it in two parts, right?

Thing is.

That original progress bar?

Completely and totally WRONG.

I was in a major rush to get that progress bar up, that I skipped over quite a few things I had done.

New progress.

*suspense*

64%! =D

Yep. So. Long story short. Expect a full-blown plot coming soon to a Mirror Mirror World near you ^^

Guest Bloggers Wanted!

2007-07-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

...you may or may not have noticed that there isn't much to write about at the moment. No plots anywhere in sight :/

That's why I need you guys. Please, please, please, please, please - if you have something you want to comment on, whether it be TNT's slacking or anticipation of this summer's Hive plot, please feel free to first e-mail me (matchu1993 at gmail.com) to get the OK on what you wanna write about... then get writing! It's hard to juggle an upcoming theatre performance, working on MMW, and blogging about it, ya know.

...heck, I'd even take rants about how long I'm taking! (Just know that I'd get the final word in the rebuttal ;) )

Well, that's that, y'all. Thanks for readin' and clickin', and thanks in advance for your excellent writin' ;o

~Matchu