Author: Joe

Categories
Video Games

Pokemon Y

Pokemon YI know I’m a grown man, but I still had to play Pokemon Y on the 3DS. There’s just something a bit addictive about the formula to those games.

I started my quest with Chespin. I wanted to start off with someone a lot different for me than in previous games. Plus he looked kinda cool to me.

I was very much impressed with the increased visuals used on the 3DS. Everything was finally made more modern and in 3D. It was really cool to see the little critters rendered in 3D. They just seemed better.

While this wasn’t a very challenging quest (I think I lost once), it was still a fine quest that was taken. It’s a great little way to pass a little free time here and there.

The formula still works, and the upgraded visuals and overall quality were very solid.

Categories
Development

Display a Field Image Outside of the Content Region in Drupal 7 Using Views

I had a project where they wanted a big header image to appear on some of the content pages, above the content. I knew this wouldn’t be too difficult to do, but I was a bit initially stumped as to how best to do it using Drupal 7. I didn’t want to have to install too many modules for it to work, so I decided to start with Views as that module would be installed on the site anyway (of course).

Turns out this is pretty easy to do using Views.

  • First I added an Image field to my Content Type. Then I set the display to Hidden for that field. Easy basic Drupal Content Types stuff so far. Nothing fancy.
  • Then I created a View. A block in this case, and had it display the image field I had created.
  • Under Advanced, I clicked on Contextual Filters. From the list, I chose Content (Nid). I want to filter out by the node id of the current page being viewed. Simple still.
  • Next under the contextual filter options under the When the Filter Value is Not Available  I chose Provide a Default Value and Content ID from the URL from the drop down options.

This simply gets the Content ID from the URL of the current page you are on and then passes it to the filter.

Very easy to setup and works just fine for me!

Categories
Books

11/22/63

11/22/63Just finished up a pretty good one. I’m not sure if 11/22/63 by Stephen King was featured at my library because of the anniversary of JFK’s assassination or if it was part of another type of display, but I gave it a shot and am glad I did.

While it was a rather lengthy book, once I got going I plowed through it rather quickly. It was tough to put down at times, very good stuff.

The whole idea of time travel and it’s potential consequences is always very interesting to me, and the author has an interesting take on it. The whole harmony aspect and how the past does so much to stop itself from being altered was very interesting.

The book also does a really good job of making you think how you would act if given the opportunity to go back and change the past. I do enjoy anytime something can cause me to stop and think like that, whether it’s a great film or a book.

This was a very good read and I’d highly recommend it.

Categories
Development

Cordova statusbar for iOS Plugin

Since iOS 7 was released a month or so ago I’ve been completely stumped with fixing my Cordova iOS app that relied on jQueryMobile. I couldn’t find a clean solution to fix the now changed handling of the statusbar in iOS 7. I had come up with some CSS hacks to work around, but was having a hard time getting my fixed headers to cooperate with jQueryMobile.

I finally noticed that a statusbar plugin had been released for Cordova (PhoneGap). I immediately went to the command line and added it to my project!

I did have a little bit of a time figuring out how to make my statusbar behave like an iOS 6 app. It turned out to be much simpler than I was expecting and of course I was over thinking it.

I just had to edit the config.xml file. In my case I set the preference tag “StatusBarOverlaysWebView” true and a custom color for the statusbar in the preference tag “StatusBarBackgroundColor” as well. Then the plugin worked it’s magic!

 

Categories
Books

Slaughterhouse-Five

I was really stumped with what to read next. While I know it’s not even close to possible, I’m getting to the point where sometimes I think I’ve read everything in the library. So after wandering around with no direction around the fiction area, I stopped in the V section. I’ve never read anything by Kurt Vonnegut and figured that I should give the chap a shot.

So I picked up Slaughterhouse-Five as I did recognize the title, but really had no idea what it was about. I do have to admit that after reading the first few chapters, I was quite confused. Not what I was expecting even though I really had no expectations.

Once I got a few chapters in the life of Billy Pilgrim was beginning to make sense. The book did a solid job of pointing out the terrible thing that is war, something that I’ve always felt was much too glorified by society. Killing people is always a bad thing to do.

The whole aliens and 4th dimension was very strange, but also interesting. There were also several humorous moments mixed in with the doom and gloom as well. A pretty different and interesting read.

Categories
Video Games

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

wind wakerI played and thoroughly enjoyed the Wind Waker when it came out for the Gamecube years ago. I recalled it being like playing a cartoon at the time. It was pretty great. So when I saw it was being re-release for the Wii U I was certain to pick up a copy.

The re-release was even finer than I recalled my previous experience when I played it before. It was really awesome and one of the finest games I’ve ever played. As a grown man, I really shouldn’t get that into a video game, but I was thoroughly hooked. I’d constantly find ways to squeeze in a few minutes here and there, searching for just one more treasure, etc. Addictive at times, but much fun.

The cel-shaded graphics really held up well over time and in HD they were amazing. Everything was so bright and the artistic style was truly impressive. I know some fools thought it was too kiddish with the art style, but I’m still impressed by it. It’s incredibly well done.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game a great deal and at times was almost consumed by it. It was that good. A fine reason to own a Wii U.