Author: Joe

Categories
Video Games

New Super Mario Bros. 2

New Super Mario Bros 2I’ve found my trusty Nintendo 3DS to be a reliable killer of time over the past year or so. It’s done an admirable time of entertaining me from time to time.

So back when all the stores were running all of their big holiday sales I picked up New Super Mario Bros. 2 for pretty cheap and finally got around to playing it a few weeks ago. I’m a big fan of the New Super Mario style as it takes me back to the simpler yet still challenging days of my side scrolling youth.

I’m very glad to say that this is another excellent installment in the Mario franchise. It’s nothing groundbreaking and not quite as good as Super Mario 3D Land (which you should play if you haven’t) was, but still a very enjoying time.

It’s nice to be able to just pick it up and walk somewhere and try to beat a level while collecting all 3 Star Coins, then return to whatever it was I had just taken a break from. Though there are times where you do get sucked into numerous attempts to get a difficult Star Coin, overall the difficulty is just about right.

Very fun and just what you’d expect from a Mario game.

 

Categories
Books

This Book is Full of Spiders

This Book is Full of SpidersI really enjoyed this random library pick. The title This Books is Full of Spiders caught my eye, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Turned out to be a very humorous take on the zombie adventure. The main characters are just a bunch of slackers whom are probably a bit too able for me to relate to. Best friend John was pretty hilarious, and at times I swore the author was writing about a mix of my older brother and a few friends of mine. Some very funny stuff. Oh and his Caddie ride was pretty awesome too.

All the characters were pretty funny, and again were easy to relate to. I’m guessing the author is probably around my age and or grew up down the street or something from me.

Not only was this a very funny read, but the story itself was pretty cool as well. I really liked how various story lines converged at times, and the slight timeline jumps really did a pretty great job of setting things up.

Good book and highly recommended.

Categories
Books

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot

Killing KennedyHaving read Killing Lincoln a few months back and seeing Killing Kennedy in at the library I figured I’d give it a read. I’ve been a fan of history as of late, and while I do know much about Kennedy there’s always more to learn.

I do enjoy the format of this book. Like Lincoln it’s nonfiction, yet written in an almost story manner. I find this to be a bit less heavy than some other books on history, but still based on facts (or at least credible sources).

Even though I clearly know how this one ends, and even if I didn’t the title would tip any off who was from a different planet I was really bummed in the end. What a sad, sad ending. Older people always list his assassination as something they never forget, and reading through this it helps me understand even more.

The author also goes in a great deal about Kennedy’s life as well as the other notable people around him at the time, including his wife, brother Bobby and Lyndon Johnson. The info I read up on Johnson was pretty interesting. I wasn’t as versed on him as other recent presidents.

The info on Oswald was very interesting too. I really like how they parallel both men up until the shooting. It makes for a good read.

 

Categories
Development

Spam Prevention Using Hidden Field

Our site at work has gotten a few pretty intense moments of form spamming over the past few months. Granted a few here and there, we just deal with. However, the really aggressive moments can be quite a nuisance for those receiving all the email submissions.

The big question for us always has been how can we prevent this without being at the expense of the user. For instance, we don’t want a solution that adds more effort to the users and they end up not filling out the form. Not good.

So after some research on suggested approaches I decided to go with the hidden field approach.

This requires adding a field to the form in question, then using some CSS to hide it from view. You can give it a title of do not fill out for those who don’t have CSS enabled in their browser.

Since most spambots tend to fill out every field in a form, you just check if that form has a value when it’s sent. If the bot filled it out, then it’s probably not from a human. If it’s empty, then you’re probably good to send.

We just started testing this approach out, and thus far it’s been good without being too restrictive.

Damn you spammers!

Categories
Video Games

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham CityI did buy a Wii U a month or so ago and was excited when I saw that Batman: Arkham City was released for it. It was a game that since it’s release I’ve been meaning to play, but somehow just never had gotten around to it.

Gotta admit this was as good as I’ve heard. I’ve never been a really big Batman fan (more of a Marvel guy), but whether you were Batman or not it was still a very impressive game. Every now and then something comes along that raises the bar a notch, and this was one of those games.

The story and voice acting are pretty amazing. Better than what you’d find in the biggest budget movies in my opinion.

And the gameplay does a pretty terrific job of making it feel like you are Batman while you play. His moves, all the gadgets, they really seem to get it.

I was also glad that I waited until it came out on the Wii U. I thought that the use of the Gamepad screen was pretty convenient. Having the map and all the gadgets on the second screen was pretty convenient. No pausing to select stuff was nice.

A very impressive game, and amazing example of just how far games have come.

Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Winter 2013 Week 3

The Honey Badgers had a double header this week. This always scares me a bit, because of all the throwing that our guys will do doing on the night. I always fear someone is going to burn their arm/shoulder out. Plus I’m still working up my arm strength/endurance and still have a throw count that I’m gradually building up.

Well to help out our cause this week, we happened to be issued a free agent. Bearded Joe (I don’t know his last name yet, and since we now have 2 Joe’s that’s what I’m going with for now). He instantly proved to be a great teammate and pretty solid player as well. I don’t know how we do it, but we always seem to do great with free agents.

Former Honey Badger great Lauren was on hand as well, not to play (fractured hand) but to present a great fundraiser coming up in May for MS. I’m going to do my best to get the team to volunteer and hopefully get more of the league as well. It sounds like a noble cause.

Our first game was against the Banzai Executioners. As always it was a fun and tight contest. We always enjoy playing them, and it was really neck and neck for the most part. We actually had to call the match short due to time, so I’m not exactly sure if they officially got the victory or if it will be made up at this point.

Overall I thought we underachieved a bit as a team (a bad trend), but did flash signs of improvement along the way. Eryn and Ginny really stood out for their improvement and earned Honey Badger of the Week honors as a result. I thought Chris really played a lot better too, and new addition Bearded Joe not only brought intensity on the court, but off the court as well cheering teammates on.

Our later game was against the new team, Sea You Next Tuesday. I haven’t seen them play before last night, so had no idea what we were up against. They had some talented players, but you could tell they were overall new to the game still.

We were able to defeat them, earning our very first official win of the season! It was pretty nice to finally get that win.

As far as my comeback tour goes, I’ve been very impressed thus far. I’ve been throwing extremely hard and pretty accurate as well. I even have been having success getting some solid, late movement on my throws as well. They’ve been coming off heavy and low, making them very difficult to catch (none have been caught thus far).

All that hard work training and rehabbing have freakishly paid off to me. There’s no way even two months ago I’d of told you I’d be throwing as well as I am today. Arm strength/endurance is still an issue though. The shoulder is doing better than ever, but the elbow does tire out and get’s painful pretty early on though. Gradually working it up every week does seem to build up strength without setbacks so far.

Enough about me, all in all I was very pleased with the team this week! Our girls played a lot more aggressive and that made a huge difference. I hope we continue to improve towards the playoffs.