Author: Joe

Categories
Adventure

Board of Trustees Dinner

I had to go to a Board of Trustees meeting for dinner and to be honored for winning the employee of the quarter award the other night. While it was really great to be voted by my co-workers for the award, I wasn’t really looking forward to hanging out with the Board. They’re all extremely nice, but I’ve never been that big on accepting awards. I shy up.

Had to shake a few hands, but pretty much knew most of the people there. A student and a faculty member were being honored as well, so it was nice to sit next to some people with a similar agenda as my own.

Food was good, ate lots of chicken then loaded up on some dessert thing that I probably could of done without. But it was a yummy treat and one that I couldn’t pass up. Once again I’d like to thank all those who took the time to vote for me. It is nice to be recognized by the people I work with. Plus the reserved parking spot did come in handy during commencement when I came back from lunch break.

Categories
Video Games

Punch Out!!

Punch Out!!I do believe I’m addicted to Punch Out!! for the Wii. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! for the NES has always been an all time favorite of mine, a true classic. So when I heard that a new version was due out for the Wii, I was both excited and concerned that it might not be possible for it to live up to the expectations that I had of the game. 

This game is a definite buy.  I actually woke up a little bit earlier on a work day just to sneak another shot at Don Fleminco.  Not sure I’ve done that in a while.  The controls are almost identical to the original, and it also supports the balance board, but I haven’t given that a shot yet.

Defending your title and the various boxer challenges give this game a lot of replay value. There’s a multiplayer mode, which seems pretty fun. The only drawback is no online play, but outside of that this game is a true masterpiece that manages to capture the fun I had back when it originally came out in 1987.

Categories
Design

What the Font?

Found a very cool and usefull iphone app called What the Font? It’s very cool. It’s a app that helps to identify a font.

So for instance, you take a photo using the iphone of a font.  You then crop the image so just the font in question is selected. It then uploads the font and processes it letter by letter and gives back a list of fonts that it think it might be. It takes a minute or so for the whole process, but that’s so much faster than it would take to go through the thousands of fonts I have installed.

So far it’s turned out to be pretty accurate and has helped New Guy Mike and myself figure out what font was used in some old print documents that were created before he worked here.

It’s a very cool app so check it out at the App Store, and oh yeah it’s free too.

Categories
Books

Head First Web Design

Just got done reading through Head First Web Design by O’Reilly. Borders was having a 20% off deal going, and I always like to read through beginner books every now and then to reinforce the basics. This is a great book to read if you’re getting started working on the web.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Head First series, they do an excellent job of visually explaining tech topics. Most tech books are either way too basic or much too advanced, but the Head First series are a pretty solid read. You will need to have a pretty good understanding of XHTML and CSS to get through this one.

I thought the book did a great job of explaining the following:

  • design
  • dealing with a client
  • information architecture
  • designing for your audience
  • using the color wheel
  • navigation
  • writing for the web
  • accessibility

If you’re new to web design or just need a good read on current best practices, I highly recommend this book.

Categories
Sports

Saved a Frisbee

Yesterday the Sherpherd and I purchased some new discs to play disc golf with. The Shepherd found the perfect disc to compliment his side arm release. After playing 2 rounds with him, the pricey disc and he were clearly meant to be.

So today on the first hole, I figured I’d stand by the lake while the other guys teed off just in the rare case a disc would approach the water. The Shepherds drive (which was dead accurate yesterday) made an incredibly sharp turn towards the lake at the last moment.

I was able to position my self with heels to the lake where it looked as though the trajectory of the disc was break and with arms fully extended over my head holding my discs to gain an extra half foot or so timed my jump just perfectly to deflect his disc from going into the lake and at the speed and height it was traveling to surely be lost forever.

Those disc move a hell of a lot faster when they’re coming at you than when they’re leaving. Oh, and they also hurt like hell when they strike your bare hand. But it was worth it as a fine disc was saved today, a very fine disc indeed.

Categories
Adventure Sports

SGA Dodgeball Tournament

Just competed in an incredible dodgeball tournament that was organized by the SGA (Student Government Association) at Atlantic Cape Community College. I assembled a team of staff to participate against several student teams. Sean, Geoff, Coach, Shel, Brit and myself were brave enough to go out there and play against the students.

All in all I was extremely impressed with my teammates. You guys all played great, I’m so proud of them all. We got a chance to play in several heated contests. We were eventually eliminated, but it was a fantastic run indeed.

Phyllis and JoAnne made up some amazing signs and we had our own cheering section rooting us on. Very impressed with those signs. Phyllis said I was throwing some rockets, so that made my day to get comments on my velocity. My accuracy and and catching ability, well that’s another story.

Good job team. Mike took a lot of photos and I will link to them as soon as he gets them off his camera.