Well I started playing around with my blog design again... and about all I ended up changing was the colors. I really tried to change all my tables into Div block elements, but I just have a natural tendency to rely on tables. I have spent 2 hours today playing with using Divs but am tired of trying to figure out why there is a space between my title div and my entry div.
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REMOVE ME!!!
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| blah blah blah |
| blah blah blah |
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This color scheme was based on two things. One, I did not want to recreate all my images for the header and footer bars. Two, I used Colorjack Sphere to help pick out my colors. Color deficiencies are not just for the people using the site, but for the designer too. I couldn't be sure that the colors I picked would look good (without constant badgering my wife). Using this I was able to pick a starting color (my images) and then get up to 5 other colors that could work with it in a pleasing manner.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Around the house
Figured I haven't done my normal family type update in a while. Miranda is 16 months today. Eating and sleeping are still fighting points. We are still waiting for Miranda to start talking to reduce the amount of "point and grunt" (tm) that goes on. As for motor skills, she is doing great. She runs like a pro and is really starting to bring her knees up higher when she moves. She has been doing some puzzles with shaped animal blocks on a wooden board. Really the main sticking point is the sleeping and eating.
For our standard nutrition right now it is 20-30 oz. of Pediasure and whole milk. We add in some fruit (handful of blueberries or dried pineapple/strawberry/whatever) and some crackers which makes up for the whole day. We, of course, offer a very wide variety of food (last night she took a couple bites of pizza and she also ate a couple handfuls of mac and cheese) but most of the time she is not interested. Same goes for non-Pediasured liquids.
Sleep-wise she has gotten in habit of waking up twice in the night and the second time she really refuses to go back down so Michelle has gotten in the habit of letting her sleep in bed with her, just to get a couple more hours. It's a fight. It took me 2 hours last night to get her to sleep. And leaving her in the crib just doesn't work. After all the work to get food in the stomach, she gets super upset and throws up all over me.
But she is growing and developing so... it's ok. Who knows, this might just be teething.
For our standard nutrition right now it is 20-30 oz. of Pediasure and whole milk. We add in some fruit (handful of blueberries or dried pineapple/strawberry/whatever) and some crackers which makes up for the whole day. We, of course, offer a very wide variety of food (last night she took a couple bites of pizza and she also ate a couple handfuls of mac and cheese) but most of the time she is not interested. Same goes for non-Pediasured liquids.
Sleep-wise she has gotten in habit of waking up twice in the night and the second time she really refuses to go back down so Michelle has gotten in the habit of letting her sleep in bed with her, just to get a couple more hours. It's a fight. It took me 2 hours last night to get her to sleep. And leaving her in the crib just doesn't work. After all the work to get food in the stomach, she gets super upset and throws up all over me.
But she is growing and developing so... it's ok. Who knows, this might just be teething.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Lions first preseason game...
First off a link to the Box Score. Unfortunately, I did not get to see this, but I do have some opinions on what I see in the stats.
Pros
Cons
We shall see how this turns out.
Pros
- O-line only let up one sack (although it was the starters)
- 497 passing yards
- 4 sacks and an interception for the Defense
Cons
- 2 picks given away
- Duckett gives up the fumble
- 59 rushing yards
We shall see how this turns out.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Martz says the darnedest things
From the article Johnson will get plenty of playing time against Bengals:
Froggy rear-end?
"We're going to see him a lot in this game," Martz said Tuesday. "We're going to see him a lot in the preseason -- he's got to learn how to play in this league. We're going to wear his little froggy rear-end out."
Froggy rear-end?
Monday, August 06, 2007
Upcoming Xbox Live Arcade games...
Xbox Live Arcade is increasing it's available games, which is definitely a good thing. I have been very impressed so far with the games to date and always looking for new ones to try and buy.
Of particular note is Hexic 2 and Puzzle Quest, while I tried Marathon: Durandal and Spyglass Board Games both of which I was not impressed by.
Of particular note is Hexic 2 and Puzzle Quest, while I tried Marathon: Durandal and Spyglass Board Games both of which I was not impressed by.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
I don't get Facebook
Andrej recently posted on how young people are using social networks which really helps articulate some of my experience with them. I totally understand personal webpages, but we you start talking all these friends and friend invites, it just didn't make sense. I don't get the Wall idea. I can see what someone wrote on my friend's wall but I can't see their response. I may have the same question, does that mean they have to do the same for me? It is just confusing. Give me a bunch of close friends, real blogs with comments, and a tool to aggregate RSS and I am a happy camper.
Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions
Well the deal finally got done (after missing a number of days of training camp) and now all the Lions draft picks are signed. As much fun as the NFL has made the draft, the contract negotiations following the draft have been a point of pain for me. First off, the draft still is and always will be a sort of gambling. You are playing your odds with the number of picks you have on the available talent. You are guaranteed to have busts, but you hope that they are lower down the draft board, because if you bust on a first rounder, you have lost approximately $15 million in cap room for the next year or possible $12 million the following year for releasing a player.
These rookies are all gambles. Anyone of the players in the draft could turn out to not be able to make the transition to the pros. At the same point, some who you would not expect to flourish, will. So why are the teams paying early rounders millions in guaranteed money when they have not played a down? Why not just set a salary cap on each pick in the draft set by the NFL. Make it flexible enough that the agents and teams can still work out deals in there using incentives and what not, but make the guarantees not be so terminally high. This is what destroys parity in the NFL. (I also know bad GMs and coaches destroy parity as well)
Right now, I really feel bad for the Cleveland Browns. They moved up on draft day to pick up Brady Quinn (so they lost some draft picks) at pick 22. But Quinn is now refusing to come under contract for anything less that top 10 money essentially missing all of training camp. At this rate, he is likely to miss all of preseason and is therefore a bust this year, although you really aren't paying him yet. But come on, do you really expect to be paid the same as pick 21? Ridiculous.
So my message to the NFL is put some sort of system in place for signing rookies that actually is able to make preseason fun again, instead of the pain of watching these highly touted players feel like pampered babies.
These rookies are all gambles. Anyone of the players in the draft could turn out to not be able to make the transition to the pros. At the same point, some who you would not expect to flourish, will. So why are the teams paying early rounders millions in guaranteed money when they have not played a down? Why not just set a salary cap on each pick in the draft set by the NFL. Make it flexible enough that the agents and teams can still work out deals in there using incentives and what not, but make the guarantees not be so terminally high. This is what destroys parity in the NFL. (I also know bad GMs and coaches destroy parity as well)
Right now, I really feel bad for the Cleveland Browns. They moved up on draft day to pick up Brady Quinn (so they lost some draft picks) at pick 22. But Quinn is now refusing to come under contract for anything less that top 10 money essentially missing all of training camp. At this rate, he is likely to miss all of preseason and is therefore a bust this year, although you really aren't paying him yet. But come on, do you really expect to be paid the same as pick 21? Ridiculous.
So my message to the NFL is put some sort of system in place for signing rookies that actually is able to make preseason fun again, instead of the pain of watching these highly touted players feel like pampered babies.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Congratulations Cat and A.J.
Well now I am an uncle. So congratulations to my sis-in-law Cat and her hubbie, AJ, on the birth of their little one Daniel Paul.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Review: Campus Legend mode in NCAA Football 08
So I recently picked up NCAA Football 08
for the Xbox 360. Normally I just dig right into the dynasty mode expecting to lose a few games learning the particulars of the game engine, but this time I started by trying out some of the other features. First I tried the minigames of Tug of War (you get 1 play to move the ball and then the opponent gets the same, first to touchdown wins) and also Bowling (10 yards to goal, each yard is a pin with two shots at the end zone).
Next I moved on to Campus Legend Mode. And to be honest it is good enough that I have not left it. First you start out by designing a player and picking a position for them. Next you select your home school and state (high school that is) and you get put right into the high school state playoffs. I picked ROLB to start with figuring that defense is a good place for me. So first off, the only person you can control is the player you have created, so many plays are just not going to involve you. Although there is a lot more pressure because when you blow a coverage or tackle you can't switch to another nearby player to make the tackle. Once you have completed the high school playoffs, you have to select the college that you want to go to. In my case I picked Penn State because I would not be a starter, but I also wouldn't be 3rd string.
Your college career consists of 2 things per day. First is practice where you get 10 reps at various plays (coach calls all plays in both practices and real games). When you make a play it is worth points. These points eventually will earn you a spot on the starting line. For me, I earned my starting spot right before the 3rd game in the season. The different strings make it interesting in the game as well. When you are second string, you are hoping for a blow out so that you can get some field time other than on special teams, where as you hope for a close one during regular play.
One of the nice things in this mode, and frustrating is that the games tend to be really short. This gets a tad annoying as the load times in this game are incredibly long. Another drawback to this mode is that you may play your heart out and do an incredible job, but the team could still lose because the other half of the team is unable to get the job done. Besides the long load times, I have also seen a lot of very screen stutters and lots of xbox 360 fan and drive noise. Just seems to be slightly too intensive.
Graphics wise, this game is good, but not really something you are going to shout from the mountain tops about. Sounds are incredible and after 9 games, I can't complain about the announcers yet. So with all the problems, I still give this game a must buy for Football fans. It is just as fun as it's previous versions (I have played NCAA 01, 04, and 05).
for the Xbox 360. Normally I just dig right into the dynasty mode expecting to lose a few games learning the particulars of the game engine, but this time I started by trying out some of the other features. First I tried the minigames of Tug of War (you get 1 play to move the ball and then the opponent gets the same, first to touchdown wins) and also Bowling (10 yards to goal, each yard is a pin with two shots at the end zone).Next I moved on to Campus Legend Mode. And to be honest it is good enough that I have not left it. First you start out by designing a player and picking a position for them. Next you select your home school and state (high school that is) and you get put right into the high school state playoffs. I picked ROLB to start with figuring that defense is a good place for me. So first off, the only person you can control is the player you have created, so many plays are just not going to involve you. Although there is a lot more pressure because when you blow a coverage or tackle you can't switch to another nearby player to make the tackle. Once you have completed the high school playoffs, you have to select the college that you want to go to. In my case I picked Penn State because I would not be a starter, but I also wouldn't be 3rd string.
Your college career consists of 2 things per day. First is practice where you get 10 reps at various plays (coach calls all plays in both practices and real games). When you make a play it is worth points. These points eventually will earn you a spot on the starting line. For me, I earned my starting spot right before the 3rd game in the season. The different strings make it interesting in the game as well. When you are second string, you are hoping for a blow out so that you can get some field time other than on special teams, where as you hope for a close one during regular play.
One of the nice things in this mode, and frustrating is that the games tend to be really short. This gets a tad annoying as the load times in this game are incredibly long. Another drawback to this mode is that you may play your heart out and do an incredible job, but the team could still lose because the other half of the team is unable to get the job done. Besides the long load times, I have also seen a lot of very screen stutters and lots of xbox 360 fan and drive noise. Just seems to be slightly too intensive.
Graphics wise, this game is good, but not really something you are going to shout from the mountain tops about. Sounds are incredible and after 9 games, I can't complain about the announcers yet. So with all the problems, I still give this game a must buy for Football fans. It is just as fun as it's previous versions (I have played NCAA 01, 04, and 05).
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Review: Harry Potter 7
I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
yesterday and have been mulling over how I was going to give this review without giving anything away. I am pretty sure I can do, but really don't know if this will be at all useful.
I found this book to be on par with the most recent set of books in the series written by J. K. Rowling. As I read through we went through slow portions (about 150 pages in the front half of the book) as well as areas completed chocked full of action and critical events. Reading through, I found there were many times that I could not stand any of the characters and other times where the characters would do endearing things things and I really appreciate that as it gives the main characters some depth of making their own mind instead of being the saints that everyone thinks they are. If I had to fault any of the time spent on the characters, it is the lack of Draco Malfoy. His character is missed in much of the book as the previous antagonist, playing completely second fiddle to the unadulterated evil of Voldemort. In fact you spend so much time with the main three that you might even get a little tired of them.
So in the end, this is a fitting conclusion to a series that bordered on serious and silly, but created a rich world that you could almost believe in.
yesterday and have been mulling over how I was going to give this review without giving anything away. I am pretty sure I can do, but really don't know if this will be at all useful.I found this book to be on par with the most recent set of books in the series written by J. K. Rowling. As I read through we went through slow portions (about 150 pages in the front half of the book) as well as areas completed chocked full of action and critical events. Reading through, I found there were many times that I could not stand any of the characters and other times where the characters would do endearing things things and I really appreciate that as it gives the main characters some depth of making their own mind instead of being the saints that everyone thinks they are. If I had to fault any of the time spent on the characters, it is the lack of Draco Malfoy. His character is missed in much of the book as the previous antagonist, playing completely second fiddle to the unadulterated evil of Voldemort. In fact you spend so much time with the main three that you might even get a little tired of them.
So in the end, this is a fitting conclusion to a series that bordered on serious and silly, but created a rich world that you could almost believe in.
Google Tech Talk: Inbox Zero
Basically a method of not living your life out of your email inbox and instead start creating systems to run your life (less detraction...)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Harry Potter 7
Unlike the majority of folks who have purchased Harry Potter 7, I have not completed it yet. But so far it has been an enjoyable read, but I do have some criticisms. So far, I have noticed some pretty wild fluctuations in the intelligence of the characters and/or assumptions by the author of the intelligence of the readers. To be honest, I think J. K. Rowling did better with the younger books as they were tight and focused.
That being said, it isn't a bad book. Just I have recently read a bunch of books that have been written better, so I think my bar has raised a bit.
That being said, it isn't a bad book. Just I have recently read a bunch of books that have been written better, so I think my bar has raised a bit.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
PAX here I come
Yesterday, my tickets to the Penny Arcade Expo arrived with there usual set of game advertisements. Heading into my third visit to the Expo I am pretty excited. I will miss their previous location at Meydenbauer hall but I think the bigger venue is also a good thing.
Yeah!
Yeah!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Lions ranked above Cowboys
And it could be the biggest insult around, according to one blogger. I love the parity of the NFL but there seems to be a rather large range of parity.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
See ya Parents...
Well two weeks with my parents is at a close. Even thought the title of the post may not seem like I enjoyed it, I really did. We went out and did things. Ate well. Just spent time talking. There were a couple of extra hands to handle Miranda. Overall it was pretty cool and I can't wait for more family to visit.
They also went out and spent a couple of days on the Olympic Peninsula. They took some gorgeous photos while out there. Definitely looks like I will take a trip out there to stay the night some time. Just would be nice to do.
They also went out and spent a couple of days on the Olympic Peninsula. They took some gorgeous photos while out there. Definitely looks like I will take a trip out there to stay the night some time. Just would be nice to do.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Detroit Lions 3-13 again
I saw a blogger wrote about the Lions upcoming season and I really can't flaw the logic. Somehow I wish the Lions would pull their record up above .500 but like a child punished for exuberance, I just can't seriously think they will ever top 6 wins.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
1 hour with Forza 2 for Xbox 360
So far, I have put about an hour into playing Forza 2 on the recommendation of JOT3. I tried the demo and really, really didn't like it, but Jim was very persistent that it really was a good game. I found the demo to be very heavy on the simulation side and lacked the learning progression of dealing with a games physics engine. However this is not the case in the real game. The real game has enjoyment built in from the get go. The physics are heavy simulation but you are eased into the game with easier AI drivers and with slower cars. Plus at some level you can tweak the tuning of the car to more fit your driving style.
The car and driver level progression is pretty neat. Access to better parts and cars is always fun. So right now, I give this a definite must play, as I really want to take the day off of work and play.
Though this should be a note to the developers, don't create a demo that could potentially turn off a segment of the buying population unless you are accurately representing the game...
The car and driver level progression is pretty neat. Access to better parts and cars is always fun. So right now, I give this a definite must play, as I really want to take the day off of work and play.
Though this should be a note to the developers, don't create a demo that could potentially turn off a segment of the buying population unless you are accurately representing the game...
Friday, July 06, 2007
Long time in posting
We've been a tad busy of late. My parents arrived in town last Saturday and we bummed around the first day. To be honest, I don't remember what we did on Saturday. Probably bummed around some more. Although Saturday night, we had our first real boo-boo for Miranda. She was running around and tripped on her feet and fell into the magazine rack. Split her lip open, but a little soap and water with a dose of a Popsicle and everything was all right.
I had to work on Monday and Tuesday but everyone else headed out to Saltwater park and also the Weyerhaeuser Botanical Garden. Don't have any pictures loaded of this yet.
Wednesday, we sat and enjoyed the fabulous weather we have been having playing with Miranda outside and in the water. I grilled some salmon along with green beens and asparagus. Unfortunately I took off a good portion of my arm hair in the process. I think sometimes I just have bad luck with fire.
And finally yesterday we made out way down to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Miranda seemed to have a great time, although I think she spent more time staring at the other kids than looking at the animals. We got a couple of shots of the zoo. I really do recommend it. It is small but really the perfect size for anyone with kids. Later one we headed to the Supermall in Auburn and then called it a night.
I had to work on Monday and Tuesday but everyone else headed out to Saltwater park and also the Weyerhaeuser Botanical Garden. Don't have any pictures loaded of this yet.
Wednesday, we sat and enjoyed the fabulous weather we have been having playing with Miranda outside and in the water. I grilled some salmon along with green beens and asparagus. Unfortunately I took off a good portion of my arm hair in the process. I think sometimes I just have bad luck with fire.
And finally yesterday we made out way down to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Miranda seemed to have a great time, although I think she spent more time staring at the other kids than looking at the animals. We got a couple of shots of the zoo. I really do recommend it. It is small but really the perfect size for anyone with kids. Later one we headed to the Supermall in Auburn and then called it a night.
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