Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Winter 2013 Week 8

Going into the last game of the regular season, the Honey Badgers have had a very difficult time getting some wins. I’ve felt that our team has been playing alright for most of the season, but it seems that the other teams have been improving a great deal, especially on their girl squads.

We were really glad to end the season with the Banzai Executioners. Not only because they shared the same record as us, but they’re a very honest and fun team to play. They’re a fun bunch.

I really wanted us to give our best tonight and try to get what have seemed to be a most elusive win. So I gave my plea before the start of the game that we try our best to get a win, and was most glad in the results that I would eventually see.

Right out of the gates our girls came out strong. I felt that they played their best last night. They played aggressive and went after the ball, instead of sitting back and getting out of the way. I couldn’t even begin to count just how many catches they would go on to make throughout the night, It was pretty awesome to watch.

Not only was their play superb, but there were high fives, talking, and just overall great team morale going on. At times I think that is our missing ingredient, but not on this night.

Julie, Kristen and Caitlin really seemed to step up their game last night. They really seemed to be playing with more confidence. Ginny was her steady self and Eryn made some big plays of her own as well. They all played really great, especially early on to give the team an early lead as well as confidence.

Not to be outdone, out guys showed up to play as well. While there are times I doubt the intensity and focus of Jared, he was all business last night. Making big catch after big catch, with a huge acrobatic catch to seal an early match victory.

John B. who I saw clutching his shoulder very early on, wasn’t in good throwing shape last night. Being the true teammate that he is, he sound found ways to contribute to the team big time making huge catches as well as drawing fire on himself to free up others to get throws off.

Making a big play of his own was Wes with a huge catch that sealed our victory on the night. He’s always telling me that he’s bummed he hasn’t made many catches, and last nights made up for all of the previous attempts. Dustin also had a pretty impressive last stand and nearly stole a game for the Badgers. He was really bringing heat that game.

Banzai captain Kevin got me out 4 times last night! 3 failed catches on my part as well as a peg on me. Wow, he’s really improved and I’m glad to see that, even though it was at my expense. Besides that, I felt pretty good last week. While I’m pretty sore the next day, I didn’t have any significant elbow pain as I did the previous week. I also felt that I was moving around pretty well and getting close to my pre-injury speed and activity.

A huge win for the Badgers and hoping that we can carry it over into the playoffs next week!

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.