JoeDag32

Combining numerous techniques and best practices I’ve read lately, I’ve implemented various mobile web technologies in numerous projects already. However, the landscape shifts incredibly fast and I was looking for a decent guide to piece all the current ideas in one spot.

Skimming thought the table of contents Head First Mobile Web seemed to be a good fit for my needs. I’m a huge fan of the Head First series, they do an amazing job of explaining various tech topics versus long tomes of text in my opinion.

I was very much impressed with the early chapters on responsive design as this is a technique that I’ve been working with on a rather massive site. While there was nothing really in these chapters that I hadn’t already known, reading through it all and following along to the examples really motivated me to just sit down and hammer out a responsive design. That alone made this book a great purchase for me.

The other chapters on the mobile frameworks and device detection were great too. Both things I’m sure to dabble with fairly soon. The PhoneGap chapters were very useful too. There’s a lot of tips that aren’t mentioned in the online documentation that I found to be quite helpful.

Great book for anyone developer looking to modernize their mobile techniques or even if you already know it all a good read as a refresher too.

Continuing my reading of Harry Potter, I just wrapped up the Order of the Phoenix. I’d have to say, besides year one this has probably been my favorite in the series thus far.

I especially liked that  more side characters got to have a chance for some heroics this time. I’ve also rooted for the lessers and it was really great to read Neville pulling off some courageous moves near the end. I do find myself rooting for the clumsy fool.

It was also pretty cool to finally read Dumbledore in action. I was kinda under the impression at times that he was a frail old man at this point, but that would clearly of been wrong. He’s more like a John Rambo really.

The characters are growing up and so is the overall mood of the story as well. Things continue to get a bit darker and it makes for a more interesting story to me.

Excellent stuff, and I’m glad I finally am reading this series. Onward to Year 6.

Wow, we couldn’t of asked for a better start to the season. The Honey Badgers displayed a level of efficiency throughout the entire contest that comes with a team that knows each player very well and has clearly played kickball in the past.

I spent a good amount of time trying to come up a a lineup and fielding positions for all of the players where they would feel comfortable as well as give us our best shot at victory. Reflecting on the stats of the game (yes, Sean did a fine job recording them), everything played out exactly as I had hoped for when penciling everyone in. It was freakishly weird how well it all played out.

Dustin went 6-6 and really set us up to drive in many runs. John B. also perfect at 5-5 would be the guy who knocked many of our runs in. With a big key 2 out kick that really put the game away. Everyone contributed to offense, with some intelligent small ball that should go a long way this season.

Our fielding was very solid and systematic. John K. made some amazing plays all game, he at times seemed to somehow be everywhere. He’s really going to prove to be a fine addition to the team. Steph also made a very solid play at third base, not allowing a hard hit line drive to get by her, and promptly got the ball in the pitcher limiting that well struck ball to only be a single. That would later save us a run.

Our outfielders of Kevin, Dustin and rookie John B. were solid as well when the opportunity came to make a play. A kickball can float a bit on descent, making it harder to judge than one would think but these guys made it all seem like routine plays.

All in all a great start to the season.

Continuing my mission to read the Harry Potter series I moved onto year 3 and 4 respectively. Both were excellent. I’ve found the series to gradually get a better to me the as I move through the years.

It’s getting a bit more dark and interesting to me. I suppose this makes sense as the characters are a year older in each book and the originally targeted audience has been maturing as well too.

I especially enjoyed the Goblet of Fire. Especially towards the end when Voldemort is back and thinks are looking pretty bleak for Harry. I really had a hard time putting this down towards the end. I was stuck in that well just one more chapter trap that a good book can cause.

All in all the series has been living up to all the hype. I’ve found the ending to be much less predictable than the previous 2 years, and genuinely surprised in some cases.

Good stuff, now onto the Order of the Phoenix.

I noticed online that h ninth and final installment in the Fate of the Jedi series had just just been released. I’d read the previous eight and have been awaiting the conclusion, so I stopped by the Linwood Library hoping that they might already have a copy available to loan. I happily noticed in amongst the new arrivals and checked it out.

It’s been awhile since I read the last installment, but the status of how things were left off quickly were recalled just a few page in. This was some more good stuff, with some pretty epic battles taking place. I really enjoyed how towards the end it kept switching better major battles going on. It really reminded me of watching Return of the Jedi way back when in the theatre.

My only complaint was just how easily the Jedi mowed through the Sith at times. It seemed that they were continually slicing through hundreds of them with little to no loss at times (sorry Barv, your loss was a most noble action). Besides that, I really enjoyed reading the conclusion to this pretty lengthy series.

Even though the ending is a bit predictable, it really did a solid job of wrapping up a long running nine book series. A fine ending.

Woke up really early (think the whole timezone thing must be messing with me a bit), so I figured I’d check out the gym in the hotel. Surprisingly, many others had the same idea. I got a nice super early workout to start off my day.

Then I walked over to the Colorado Convention Center which featured the opening keynote by Dries, the founder of Drupal. The theatre was massive, and much to my surprise it was practically packed with all the attendees. I’m really interested when they release the final count, it’s gotta be at least 3000+

Then the sessions began.

My first was Drupal Media. This is a very important module to practically all the sites I work with now. It was great to hear all about it and it’s features firsthand. I was pleased to hear of how much they’re committed to it and wil really try to chip in myself to this most noble cause.

Then we had lunch. Thousands were driven like cattle to the food upstairs. It was a lunch in a box (like the shoobies pioneered), and not too bad. In my box was a turkey sandwich (very good on some fine bread), a bag of chips, a big chocolate chip cookie and an apple which I wisely decided to save for later in the day (so glad I did just a few minutes ago). A fine box.

Then I went to my first ever BOF (birds of a feather) session. These are more group discussions than formal sessions. It was pretty cool, the topic was Drupal Trends in Education: Mozilla Badges, Learning Registry and Data.ED.gov. Everyone there seemed to be from education, so I had a good amount in common with most of them. The whole badge idea sounds very promising, but I can’t see the NJEA not somehow shooting in down in fear or something like that.

The Drupal Community: Where Are We Going and How to Get Involved was the next session. This had a much smaller attendance than most the other sessions, but the presenter webchick put on an excellent. The audience seemed very eager to contribute to the community and that’s a thing to see.

The next session, HTML 4S turned out to be much more interesting that I’d imagine it’d be. The presenter was a very animated, foul-mouthed Dane. He was hilarious, though there were times I didn’t quite understand what he said I still found myself cracking up. He was clearly very passionate about what he does, and had some excellent tips and suggestions regarding markup with a strong focus on HTML 5 today.

The final session of the day for me was Webform: The Survey Tool for Drupal. The presenter did a really great job, going over the basics as well as some advanced tips that I will surely put to use. I worried that it might be too basic before attending, but it was perfect and I’m glad that I did.

Then I headed back to the hotel and dropped my stuff off and headed out to grab a bite to eat. I’ll try to check out Denver a bit more tonight and see if there’s anything going on in the Code Lounge later tonight if I’m up to it.