Trading Cards

Hello world,

Quick links:

• Trading cards gallery (to browse by image)
• Trading cards by number (to browse by ID number)
• How to log your find
• What this is all about

Thanks for visiting! You've come here either because you read my blog or because you've gotten hold of one of my artist trading cards and want to find out what it's all about. So if you're new and want to hear all about it, click here to get the rundown.

Below you will find a list of all our trading cards by number, and you can click on the number to be taken to that card. Alternatively, you can view my trading cards gallery for your card and click on it to visit its page and view its map.

How to log your find

You can log your find by posting a comment stating the type of trading card (Arise_Victorious or Eyespiral), its number, the date, plus any or all of the following information: where you found it, where it is now/where you left it, your name/username, a link you might want to pimp (e.g. your geocaching profile, your own website), and a link to a photo if you'd like me to include it in the map point. If you've found or left it in a geocache, feel free to post a link to the cache you found/left it in.

As I receive these comments, I will update the post with the new locations of the cards.

Arise_Victorious geocaching trading cards

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.


Eyespiral's artist trading cards

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.


The Rundown

I've been inspired. After running into the idea for artist trading cards on this Burdastyle post and further learning about them on the Artist Trading Card Committee site, I decided these were definitely for me. Since my medium of choice right now is fabric, and since we've gotten into geocaching lately, and since my drawing skills are severely limited, it made sense to make sewn trading cards. In geocaching, it's an advantage if you choose to leave something waterproof (just in case the cache leaks), and fabric will survive. Thus came the evolution of Arise_Victorious geocaching trading cards. These are ones that EJ and I will leave at geocaches that we find during our adventures, and the ones which I hope will make amazing journeys around the world that I'll get to hear about.

Additionally, I plan to make my own ones, Eyespiral's artist trading cards, which I will trade or give in the normal manner.

Here's what the backs of the two different types of trading cards look like. On the left is an Arise_Victorious trading card, on the right an Eyespiral one. You can see the card number in the top right corner of the card.

The big idea: I want to know where our trading cards go. Geocaching is familiar with trackable items, which you can purchase and track on their website, but I want ours to be our very own. So when you find one of our trading cards, you will find both the URL for this page and our email address. Then you'll either post a comment on this post or email us about your find, and when I receive them I will add your location (and name or username, if you so desire) and the date to the list underneath the photo of that trading card. That way I can keep track of all the trading cards I have put out there as well as the journeys they've taken. And you get to see where they've gone, too!

If you'd like to trade or would simply like me to post one of my Eyespiral cards to you, comment on this post with a way for me to get in contact with you to get the postal details. :)


Thanks for taking part and I hope you're inspired, too!

~Eyespiral

Geocaching

Hello world,

I can't believe it, two posts in as many days? Is there something wrong with me? No. I just have had two different topics to post and, surprisingly, enough spare time on two consecutive days to allow me to actually post them. Unfortunately for the crafty creatures out there, neither the last nor this post contains any new projects or tutorials to display: my sewing machine, crochet equipment and all crafty goods have been packed up in preparation for our move on Monday.

My latest obsession? Geocaching. EJ got a handy-dandy handheld GPS (the kind you use for bushwalking) for his birthday and since then we have been busy seeking out a number of the sneakily hidden geocaches around our area. Here's a picture of me with a geocache we discovered on Sunday:

Geocaching is great fun and the best part is that it gets me outside and exploring the area, not to mention the exercise which I don't treat as cruel and unusual punishment because I am distracted by the thrill of the hunt. The basic idea is a follows: Someone with a GPS makes up a cache, which consists of some kind of waterproof container with at least a logbook inside for people to sign when they find it, and hides it away in a secret location (of which they record the lat and long coordinates) where people oughtn't find it by accident. They may also include trade items which can be anything that will fit in the container (marbles, playing cards, toy cars, skipping ropes, stuffed animals, mini compasses, pocket radios - these are all things we've found in caches). They also often include a special prize for the first person to find the cache. They then post up the cache's information on www.geocaching.com.au or www.geocaching.com, and after it is reviewed to ensure it is not in a banned area (in Australia geocaches are banned in national parks) the cache is listed on the site for anyone to look up and find. When you find the geocache you sign the log, and if you want to you can leave a calling card (we've been leaving mini slinkies, coloured plastic sea creatures and glass hearts). You can also take an item from the cache, as long as you leave something of your own to replace it. Here's a picture of me opening the above cache:

It's a really exciting hobby to get into and one that's open to anyone who is interested. All you need is a GPS (often car GPSes will also allow you to input latitude and longitude coordinates, so you may not even need to buy a new piece of equipment) and some motivation - or if you're really keen but can't afford a GPS, you could try relying on GoogleMaps's satellite/street map hybrid to locate the cache you're looking for!

So here's my question to the people who stumble across this post and make it all the way down here without getting bored: should I make a crafty cache of my own? I am planning on placing my own cache in the near future - hopefully before the end of the month, since I'm starting full-time work on 1 Feb and will have less free time available for creativity. But what I wonder is if anyone thinks it will be worthwhile for me to make a special crafty prize for my first to find (FTF)? Something like a peg buddy or a diary cover - I even discussed with EJ making a specialty geocaching logbook with a sewn cover (as I so often do) and with the pages all prepared for listing caches you're searching for, ones you've found and when, and what you left and took from each one. Maybe I could make one for me and one for a special FTF? I guess what I really want to know is if anyone would be interested in getting the coordinates for this special geocache with a crafty prize for the FTF. Anyone? Comment below.

I am also planning a couple of exciting items to make for our own calling cards once we're moved and unpacked. I have been planning on making some sewn trading cards (à la these) for a while now, so these would both busy my idle hands while watching TV (otherwise I use them to stuff food into my mouth) and be a great item to leave in geocaches we visit, not to mention include with gifts or items which I sell in my ebay shop (which is currently inactive due to my busy busy lifestyle :) ).

The other idea I am excited about is to print out either a short story or poem (something that will fit on one page, preferably), cut it into pieces (I haven't decided if it should be sentences, paragraphs, lines or random angular puzzle pieces), laminate them (to protect them from the weather) and leave a note on the back explaining the point (which I will explain in a moment). Then I'll drop off different pieces in different geocaches so that when people find them they can either collect them and relocate them elsewhere or copy down the section they have found, in order to eventually make up the complete piece of writing. If I wanted to be doubly tricky, I could include within the piece of writing the coordinates to a secret cache so that they can find it only after they have completed the puzzle. I could make multiple copies of the same one so that if one piece got lost along the way it wouldn't be impossible to complete it, and that way I would be getting my writing out there in a really unique way and also presenting a new challenge to the geocaching community!

Alright, I need to calm down and finish my jobs around this house before we move. Please comment and tell me your thoughts!

~Eyespiral

Hunt the Wumpus, (evoke), Wumpus Noir, and Wumpus Intergalactica

Hello world,

Now that the hubbub of xmas has passed, I've found a few moments to upload the four versions of Hunt the Wumpus that I mentioned in my pre-xmas post.

Hunt the Wumpus is an old computer game, originally text-based when it came out in the 70s. During my last programming subject at uni - CSCI337 The organisation of programming languages - we had four assignments in which we were to develop Hunt the Wumpus using a different programming language and programming paradigm each time.

I just signed up to MediaFire and uploaded my files and so I'll explain how to run each one in a Linux environment like Ubuntu. You will have to download a couple of packages (as I will instruct) for my games if you do not already have them installed. These games should all also run in a Unix environment and in some cases will do so more easily, but I will only give the instructions for Linux and those Unix users can figure out the differences themselves. :)

Scroll down to view each set of instructions in turn, or click on the name of the Hunt the Wumpus you're interested in below to jump to that one.

• Hunt the Wumpus - Lisp (Functional paradigm)
  
• Hunt the Wumpus (evoke) - Fortran (Imperative paradigm)
  
• Wumpus Noir - Literate C++ (Literate paradigm)
  
• Wumpus Intergalactica - Prolog (Logical paradigm)
  

Hunt the Wumpus - Lisp (Functional paradigm)
This is basically the original game as from its creator (Gregory Yob), but programmed in Lisp rather than BASIC.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see ass3.lisp in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. In order to play the lisp version, you will need to download and install the clisp package. To do this, enter the following into your terminal command line and follow the prompts:
   sudo apt-get install clisp
   
   
4. Now that you have clisp installed, run it by typing clisp into your terminal command line. The programme will display a header and all will be beautiful.
   
   
5. Type (load "ass3.lisp") to load the game file.
   
   
6. Type (wumpus) to start playing the game. Enjoy!
   
   
7. After you have finished playing Hunt the Wumpus and have quit it, you will still be in clisp. To quit this, type (bye). You will be returned to the terminal command line interface.
   

Hunt the Wumpus (evoke) - Fortran (Imperative paradigm)
This follows the same narrative of the original game and the same rules/events/hazards, etc, but I rewrote the story to be a bit more evocative. Programmed in the dinosaur language Fortran77.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see wumpus.f in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. You will need to install the package gfortran, a fortran95 compiler. The assignment required me to programme in fortran77, unfortunately however Ubuntu does not support a fortran77 compiler like g77. Since fortran95 is an extension of fortran77, gfortran still correctly compiles g77 code - the problem that most of my fellow programmers had was that they used functionality that did not exist in 77 and so they lost marks for failure to compile.
   
   You need to type the following into your terminal command line and follow the prompts to get and install gfortran:
   sudo apt-get install gfortran
   
   
   
4. Compile the wumpus.f file by entering the following into your terminal command line:
   gfortran wumpus.f
   
   
5. Now when you type ls into your terminal command line it should list both wumpus.f and a.out. To run Hunt the Wumpus (evoke) type the following in at your terminal command line:
   ./a.out
   
   
6. Enjoy the game! If you'd like to quit mid-game, use Ctrl+C.
   

Wumpus Noir - Literate C++ (Literate paradigm)
Here is where I start to make it a bit more fun! The Wumpus is now a mafia boss, and you are a detective on his tail. It was great, though my darling Karina pointed out after I'd finished that I'd consistently spelt labyrinth incorrectly the whole way though - 'labarynth'. Not to worry. Anyway, this one is using C++ and the literate programming paradigm, one that is very smart and really ought to be used all the time, in my opinion! It forces you to document your code, something which future programmers will thank you for.

Literate programming allows you to generate both a machine-compilable file and a human-readable pdf file from the original web file. I will give you instructions on how to generate both before running the game.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see wumpus.w in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. In order to process the wumpus.w file, you will need to install cweb. Click here to get cweb and install it as per the instructions.
   
   
4. You will also need to download and install pdftex in order to generate a pdf. Click here to download and install it.
   
   
5. Finally, you will need to install 'build-essential', which contains a number of essential development tools that are used for compiling C and C++ files. Type the following into your terminal command line and follow the prompts to get and install build-essential:
   sudo apt-get install build-essential
   
   
6. Now we can get down to business! First, type the following into your terminal command line to prepare to create the pdf file:
   cweave wumpus.w
   
   This will have generated a collection of different files.
   
   
7. To generate the final, readable pdf file, enter the following at your terminal command line:
   pdftex wumpus.tex
   
   You will now find a file called wumpus.pdf in your current directory which documents how I developed this particular version of the game.
   
   
8. To generate the compilable version of the game, type the following into your terminal command line:
   ctangle wumpus.w
   
   This will create the file wumpus.c in your current directory.
   
   
9. Since I work in C++, not C, you then need to convert this into a C++ source file. To do this, enter the following into your terminal command line:
   mv wumpus.c wumpus.cpp
   
   
10. Nearly done. Now to compile the C++ source into an executable, enter the following:
    g++ wumpus.cpp -o wumpus.out
    
    
11. To execute the final game file, type the following into your terminal command line:
    ./wumpus.out
    
    
12. Enjoy! If you wish to exit mid-game, you can do so by pressing Ctrl+C.
    

Wumpus Intergalactica - Prolog (Logical paradigm)
Finally, we have the sci-fi variation. You are a bounty hunter off to neutralise the Wormhole Union of Marauders, Pirates and Unsavoury Scoundrels, aka the WUMPUS. Written in the very frustrating logic language Prolog. While nowhere near the insanity of Lisp, this language is tricky to get used to, and should be left for AI and not games.

1. Click on the name of the game above or click here to download the file. Choose to save it rather than open it in a text editor. Remember where you saved the file.
   
   
2. Open terminal and navigate to the folder containing the file you just downloaded. You should be able to see wumpus.P in the list of files in the current directory when you type ls at your terminal command line.
   
   
3. You will need to download XSB in order to run this game. Click the link to go to their website and follow their instructions to download and install XSB. The game will run with XSB 2.6 and up. Remember where you unpacked the file to; I put mine on the Desktop.
   
   
4. Now you need to run XSB without leaving the directory where you have wumpus.P saved. To do this you need to type the absolute address of the XSB executable into your terminal command line. The XSB executable will be located the the XSB folder you saved, in the bin subfolder, and it will be named 'xsb' (note the lower case). For example, to access my XSB, here is what I typed:
   $HOME/Desktop/XSB/bin/xsb
   
   Once you have opened XSB it will display its header in the terminal and you will be ready to load the prolog file.
   
   
5. Load the wumpus.P file by typing the following:
   [wumpus].
   
   Don't forget the '.' at the end of the command, otherwise XSB will keep hanging, waiting for you to finish your command!
   
   
6. Run the game by typing the following :
   go.
   
   
7. Enjoy!
   
   
8. In order to exit XSB once you have quit Wumpus Intergalactica, type the following:
   halt.
   
   You will be returned to the terminal command line interface.
   

And there you have it, four varieties of Hunt the Wumpus. I hope the sparse few who find this interesting enjoy playing my own personal spin on the game, and that those that stumble upon this in search of help with the programming languages used herein find the code useful to help them learn. :)

Just for funzies, I made an image to go with Wumpus Intergalactica. I actually made it because I was originally going to post the game files for download from deviantArt, and I wanted a thumbnail image for them, but I only made this one before I changed my mind and when with MediaFire. Anyway, here it is:

I altered it a little so it would suit the narrow size of this blog post, but if you click on the image you can see the original 640x480px version.

~ Eyespiral

A note to all those would-be code plagiarisers: If you are planning on ripping off my code for the same class at UOW as I took, be warned - I don't doubt that Ian will remember these particular assignments. So be smart, and only use them to help you understand the languages and as a reference while you are building your own programmes. Toodloo!