Author: Joe

Categories
Video Games

Fire Emblem Awakening

Fire Emblem AwakeningI’ve been a big fan of Fire Emblem games for many years now, and I do believe Awakening was the finest installment yet. I definitely played this game too much and found myself wanting to play it at weird times. While this also says a bit about perhaps I need to find better things to be doing, it clearly also reflects what a fine game this was as well.

I do enjoy strategy games, and challenges as well. The perma-death, is what really makes this series stand out to me. When a character that you’re spent way too many hours leveling up and kinda getting to know in a weird way dies in a battle, they are dead. No extra lives, bringing back from the dead, phoenix downs, etc. They are gone.

While it many sound ever more strange is how attached you become to these stupid characters and just how much effort and thought I found myself spending before each and every move to ensure their safety. There were nervous moments indeed, but I somehow played through Hard level without losing anyone until the very last chapter. I thought that was pretty impressive given how hard and unforgiving this game can be.

This was easily one of my all time favorites and was really impressed with how well done and how much there was to do in this game. The amount of downloadable content has been impressive as well, fine job Nintendo. Though I’m bummed that it’s over, I’m also very glad that I feel like I’ve gotten a good chunk of my life back as well.

Categories
Development

jQuery Mobile Hi-Res Images

I’ve been developing a little mobile app using jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap and ran into a little difficulty with supporting both Retina and earlier iPhone displays. Turns out it’s not too difficult using some CSS3 media queries.

However my hi-res images were showing up way too big still.

Simply adding the background-size attribute to what a “standard size” image should be did the job. It did make a lot of sense too, even though I hadn’t thought of it at first.

For instance, my 640px x 1136px image needed a background-size attribute of 320px x 480px to display properly on the Retina display since they pack a much higher pixel density.

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@media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:2) {
    .ui-body-a, .ui-overlay-a {
        background: url('img/home_bg_2x.jpg') center bottom no-repeat;
        background-size: 320px 480px;
    }
}
Categories
Adventure Sports

Flyers vs Devils

My friends thought it would be a fine idea to get everyone to hang out by going to a hockey game. I believe it was Kevin’s idea, and glad that he came up with it. It’s tough to get everyone together now, so any attempt is most welcomed.

Well my naive self figured, sure that’s a great idea because a hockey ticket could only be $20, right? Well I found out that I was most wrong on this assumption of the current rates for a hockey game. Despite having a moral stand on paying money to see a grown man play a sport while my lazy self is seated, I would find out that I would be $140 the poorer for attending.

For that price I surely thought I would if not be allowed to play, to at least touch the ice. However alas, it was not the case and I could only sit and watch.

And act like a fool during the whole game, since I’m really not into hockey at all. My favorite thing to do was to start “Jared Chants” throughout the game. Such as, “Let’s go Jared!”, a simple “Jared” and even an occasional “Jared you suck!”

Apparently no one on the ice was named Jared, so I probably seemed that much more a fool. Oh well, it did entertain the Shepherd a few rows ahead of me.

It was also discussing hockey with Tim and Wes. I mean, there was just so much hockey to be had! Hockey was everywhere!

I did wind up stealing an ice cream cone accidentally. I swear it had nothing to do with revenge for the ticket price, I truly thought that it was paid for as I walked away. It was cookies and cream in a waffle cone, and very delicious.

We did wind up hanging out a bit afterwards in the cold parking lot even though a warm refuge just feet away. It was nice to get to see everyone and chat a bit. It is amazing just how old everyone is getting, yet how little we have all changed over the years as well.

Perhaps the most amazing event of the night was when Alex started his car for us in the parking lot while he was using the restroom in the Spectrum. This used of technology truly impressed us all, some more than others.

Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Winter 2013 Playoffs – Round 2

Very excited to be playing on the second week of dodgeball playoffs for the first time, we knew we were facing a mighty tough task this week. We’d be facing off against That’s What She Said, whom has the finest girls squad in all of dodgeball. They’re all very good players.

This week we were lucky to have our full roster on hand, and everyone seemed to be feeling pretty positive coming off last week’s incredible performance. We discussed pre-game strategies and were ready to go.

Their girls took the first match, but ours held their own. At this rate it was looking like we might be able to win a few as the night went on. Our guys took the first match with a pretty solid performance. We seemed to of continued where we left off last week.

The Badgers got off to an early lead when the girls upset their squad and took a win. At this time we were all feeling pretty great and knew that we’d gotten off to the start that we needed to. Now we just had to keep applying pressure for the rest of the night.

Well that plan kinda didn’t pan out. Unfortunately That’s What She Said would go on to win the remainder of the matches that night. It stunk, to see us lose this way after having a great start.

I didn’t play very well. My throws just weren’t sinking like they usually do. It resulted in two of my throws being caught, which is the same amount that were caught in the previous ten games this seasons. Not good.

Despite the loss, I was still very proud of the team. I thought we handled things well, and did give it our all throughout the night. I didn’t see any quit from any one. Even when we were down 6-2 the troops still believed we could come back! I’m not sure we’d have such resolve earlier in the season, so that I was very glad to see.

It was also fun watching the championship game later in the night as well. One of the matches was so excited that a few of us were lying on the floor looking under the curtain just to get a glimpse of the excitement. It was pretty funny.

I’m also glad that many of the Badgers hung around to watch the later games too. It was a true honor to of crafted mat bleachers and hand out with the girls watching some good dodgeball. They’re a pretty great bunch, and I was very lucky to have them as teammates.

Hopefully everyone can return for next season and we can continue to improve.

Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Winter 2013 Playoffs – Round 1

For four seasons I’ve been telling myself, one day the entire team will just click one week. Well I was most glad to find out that would occur during a playoff game last night.

Our opponent was Dodgeasserole (green team). When we met previously this season they handed us a loss, with their girls squad soundly handling our girls squad and our guys holding their own. So while we would be the underdogs, it wasn’t too out of the realm of possibilites that we could pull off and upset if we played great.

Unfortunately we were down two girls on the night, with an injury to Ginny and work obligations holding Eryn out. So we would be playing down down a girl the entire night to a fairly strong girl team. Not the best way to start, but oh well what could we do about it. Any and all help would be needed tonight.

Arriving on crutches, then MVP of the team Libby made a guest appearance to cheer us on for our big playoff game. It sounds kinda weird, but her just being there and yelling all the crazy stuff really got the team pumped up. Even though she’s far from playing, she really did make quite the impact on us all last night.

Well the first match was pretty hard fought. Our girls would end up losing a very close on, but wow did they play tough. I knew then, that even though we started off with a loss that we were going to have a legit shot tonight if everyone stayed focused on winning.

Our guys started the night hot and were able to keep up the pressure all game. Wes made a huge catch early that brought John B. back into the game and an eventual victory. The catch can be such a swing play, in this one was massive for us.

The back and forth of matches would continue the entire night. It was pretty awesome to watch the effort and smart play by our shorthanded girls. Even when they were losing a match, their tenacity would feed our guys to go out a play that much harder. We knew if us guys could keep winning, that our girls would eventually break through with a win or two.

On our guys side it was evident that Dustin was stepping up his game tonight. I did my best to make sure he got plenty of playing time and we rode our hot hands. I was glad to make some solid pegs on the night too and got a big catch that helped us win a game as well. My arm wasn’t as live as I had hoped it would be, but if you were midway I was going to hit you and that felt great.

The game continued to go back and forth, with some amazing plays on both sides. Megan made perhaps the greatest dodgeball catch I’ve seen ever. Falling to the ground and doing everything possible to keep that ball from touching the floor. Jared was making big catches too. I continually was reminding him to play hard, and he surely did.

Well the game eventually wound up at a tie, eighth games apiece. This meant a single tiebreaker co-ed game. So we had to pick our squad for this game.

John B. was an automatic selection, he’s simply our best player. Next I selected Julie as I figured she had made some catches on the night and I felt she would be most comfortable playing alongside John B. Next up I had to pick our second girl. It was near impossible to decide between Caitlin and Kristen, as both were playing extremely well and bring very similar, yet different skills to an overtime game. Ultimately Kristen won out in a rock, paper and scissors match to get the honors. Then I sent out Dustin and Kevin. Kevin for his ability to survive if that’s what it came down to and Dustin since he was running hot on the night.

I told our tow girls to play in an assistive role, getting the balls to our guys to throw and even acting as shields for John B. if need be to buy him more time in the match. The strategy was working for us. Before we knew it, there was just 1 guy and and 2 girls for the green. I knew we had a great shot at that point. Eventually it was down to 1 girl for green and she did a tremendous job to hang in there, but time eventually expired.

The Honey Badgers had just won their first playoff game in dramatic fashion. It was great, and I was so excited to see everyone play up to and beyond their potential last night!

We live to play another day!

Categories
Books

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

Those Guys Have All the Fun: The World of ESPNDecided to go with nonfiction on my latest read and figured to give the ESPN book a chance. While I haven’t watched much if any EPSN or really TV in general for several years now, I did use to watch SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight most every day/night in my younger years. So, I figured it’d be interesting to learn about the story behind all that good stuff.

This book was pretty big and comprehensive. It took me quite a while to read through and at times I found it a bit uninteresting. I think that was mainly due to the content when it was regarding the years that I was not an active viewer. The writing was very solid.

I did discover much, especially regarding the early years of the network. Those early chapters not only told the story of their beginnings but also did a solid job of reminding me of how it was like when cable tv was just coming about. I’d forgotten a lot of those early years, but it all came back pretty quickly. I grew up with cable tv, so it was interesting to read through those early years and recall how new it was to me and my brothers at the time.

While a bit too much content for me at times, it was still interesting to me.