Categories
Adventure Video Games

Day of Many Adventures

Lego Polar BearYesterday turned out to be one of my more adventurous days in quite a bit. I guess I was a bit overdue for some adventure since I really haven’t gotten the chance to leave the house much yet this summer due to some bad luck with some unkind viruses and such.

The day began with me making some yummy waffles for breakfast, then heading over to the Philadelphia Zoo. The Zoo was awesome as always and had a really cool Lego exhibit going on. I’ve been working on a Lego sculpture myself recently, so this was a treat for me to check out. The polar bear made of Legos there was amazing, I can’t imagine just how many bricks must’ve gone into making it. Also, the weather wasn’t really that bad while I was there, glad I got there a little on the early side as later in the day it would get extremely hot and humid.

Wall of BricksNext I embarked towards the King of Prussia Mall in search of the Lego Store. I really need some more individual bricks for my sculpture, and I was truly a kid in a candy store in the Lego Store. I figured out a system to most efficiently pack as many bricks as possible into a container. You pay by the container not the brick here, so maximizing brick placement was key.

There were some really cool stores at the mall too, and being in the air condition after on this really hot day turned out to be a nice idea. I got to eat some Chik-fil-A for lunch, which I sorely miss ever since they left the Hamilton Mall. It was one of my favorite lunch spots for the longest time at work.

As great as my day had been thus far, something else ever greater lay in store. As the day was beginning to wind down all the way at the other end of the Mall my eyes caught glance of it. The Wii Games Summer 2010 was in King of Prussia today!!!

It’s a national competition with people competing on various Wii games, and by some amazing coincidence I happened to be there on the day when it was taking place. What amazing luck indeed. I quickly signed up and began competing as the team “Best Team in Town”. I wanted it to be “Best Team in Town 2”, but alas it as too many characters.

My teammate tore it up in bowling and hula hoop on Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus. I did so so on 3 point shoot out on Wii Sports Resort and finished very well on Mario Kart (even though I hit that damn goomba twice). Haha, I actually got tired on my third round in 3 point shooting, it was a very exhausting day and I really needed some water in me at this point.

The final challenge was a 2 player coin grab in Super Mario Bros Wii. I thought we did pretty well in this, it was one of the tougher levels. I was really hoping that Super Mario Galaxy 2 would be part of the competition as I’ve played so much of it recently when I wasn’t feeling well, but oh well the other games were a lot of fun to compete in as well.

“Best Team in Town” finished in a respectable 3rd at the time, and checking the leaderboards just now it looks like we can in 10th place overall out of 48 teams. So that wasn’t too bad considering that neither of us really played these particular games much with the exception of bowling.

After this, finally got a bite to eat then headed home. A truly adventurous day for me, and so nice to be back out doing stuff like a normal person again.

Categories
Development

Indulge in Avalon

Indulge in AvalonLaunched the really cool website www.indulgeinavalon for the folks at the 7 Mile Business Community Association, it’s showcase for businesses in Avalon, NJ. This project was a lot of fun to work on, and the clients were great. They approached me with a very solid plan and and visual design, theyreally knew what they needed done.

Since they needed a site that they would be able to easily maintain, and this is 2010 after all, we decided that building it on the Joomla! CMS would be best for them. I’ve been using Joomla! a great deal recently to meet clients needs, and it’s really worked great for them too. It truly is amazing what open source offers.

The client also had a unique need to manage their properties in a way that didn’t exist in the Joomla! CMS. So I built them a custom component to handle that functionality. It was great, it makes use of Joomla’s built in admin, so it looks completely like the CMS interface, the client didn’t have to learn something completely new.

The component allows the client to add/update/delete business listings, and upload a photo that is automatically resized for them on upload. I used the WideImage library to handle the image resizing. I was thoroughly impressed with WideImage and highly recommend it and will surely be using it again.

The greatest part about this component to me was that I didn’t have to explain how to use it to the client, they just logged in and knew exactly what to do. As a developer, that’s the highest compliment I can think of is when somebody doesn’t notice your work because it just worked.

The site also makes use of the YUI2 CSS Grids for the site layout. I’ve been a huge fan of the YUI library in general, and found myself using them in yet another project (actually can’t think of the last project I haven’t really used YUI).

Since launching, the client has extended the text in the main navigation bar. It’s bumping a link to a new line, so I think I might contact them with a way to improve that. But besides that they’re doing an excellent job managing the site and it was a true pleasure working with them.

Check out www.indulgeinavalon.com

Categories
Uncategorized

The Amazing Healthcare System

I always hear much debate over the flaws of the US Healthcare Industry. Well today, I experienced just how awesome it can be.

I’ve unfortunately been sick, very sick for a very long time. For a week or so I was being falsely treated for strep throat. Not exactly sure when it started, I’m kinda old fashioned and if something hurts you just work through it, so there’s really no telling when this all began.

However, today I experienced just how amazing the system can be. Behold what was done in a single day:

  1. At 10:15 AM made an appointment to see my regular physician at 11:45 AM.
  2. Was promptly seem by my physician with a minimal of wait. Was recommended I see a ear, nose and throat specialist. They set up the appointment for me, same day at 2:00 PM. I also had bloodwork and a chest x-ray setup for me on a walk-in basis, as well as 2 prescriptions made out as well. Cost: $10 co-pay.
  3. 12:20 PM pick up my 2 prescriptions from CVS, then go home and load up on as much fluids as possible. Cost: $6.
  4. 1:50 arrive at the ear, nose and throat doctor. His specialization seems to of paid off in spades with the then mystery of my condition. We agree to take a gamble and he administers a cortisone shot. I do believe there’s enough cortisone in my arm to allow Jamie Moyer to throw a 90+ MPH fastball. I also am written up a prescription that is sent to CVS for me. Cost: $10 co-pay.
  5. 2:30 arrive to get blood work done. It’s amazing how fast the effects of that shot is kicking it, thus far our educated gamble seems to be paying off (thank God, side effects sounded bad). A simple prick in my arm and 2 vials are filled. Cost: $10 co-pay.
  6. 3:00 arrive get a chest x-ray performed. No appointment, I’m in and out in under 20 minutes. Cost: $10 co-pay.
  7. 3:30 arrive at CVS (again!) and pick up my prescription that’s waiting for me. $3.

For a total of $49 and never having to drive more than 7 minutes for any location (that’s with summer traffic mind you), I was able to get incredible health service today! I was so very impressed and so very glad to have solid health insurance as well.

Categories
Video Games

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2This game is amazing. As good as the first Super Mario Galaxy was, the sequel was event better. Level design was so original and creative. I can’t imagine not only how they make these levels come to life, but just simply coming up with their ideas for them. They were really that original.

I’m pretty sure that there’s up to 242 stars to be collected in this one, so even though I’ve beaten Bowser, rescued the Princess and have about 119 stars, there’s still much more game to be played. Oh, and you can play as Luigi on a lot of the levels too, Luigi is awesome. And riding Yoshi is always great as well.

IGN gave this game a rare 10 rating, and I have to agree with the perfect score. Amazing game, and a must play if you own a Wii.

Categories
Design

Going to Make a Lego Dog Sculpture

I’ve decided to make a Lego sculpture over the summer. I kinda wanted to be a Lego designer growing up and somehow lost track of that one, so out of the blue a week or so ago I thought that finally making a Lego sculpture of my own would be a good idea.

I decided that I would be making a dog for my first attempt. I’m modeling it after a Jack Russell Terrier I was once lucky to know named Rocky. He’s not too big, has short hair, and I figured it’d be nice to make something in memory of that crazy guy.

The first task has been to gather up as many white and black bricks as possible. I’ve bought a few bucket sets already, found some bricks that are older than me that were still in my parents attic (so glad I stopped my Mom from throwing them out years ago now), and ordered some individual bricks from lego.com.

It’s so cool that you can order individual bricks online, they have pretty much every shape and color imaginable. Another very useful tool I found was the Lego Digital Designer which is a free download. It allows me to build virtual prototypes before ordering any bricks, so far it’s come very much in handy.

Very eager to finish this creation up and will be sure to upload some photos once it’s complete.

Categories
Adventure Sports

RunAmuck NY

Ran in another RunAmuck with NGM yesterday. This one took place all the way up at Sebago Beach (Harriman State Park) in NY. It was an amazing place, massive with some incredible rocks and mountains which I would learn to despise.

My day began with waking up around 5:00 AM then driving an hour over to NGM’s. Ummm, I kinda found myself driving on the Parkway instead of the Expressway for a bit, and had to turn back early on. I guess that’s what waking up that early does to me. Once I met up NGM and company, we began our 2 1/2 hour drive up to NY. So yeah, I spent a good 7+ hours in a car yesterday, not a good feeling.

We managed to get there with no major problems. Up in North Jersey it was very mountainous and quite scenic, very different from the New Jersey I’m used to. Again the RunAmuck was a very well organized event, and that was apparent as we pulled into the park that was packed with so many people.

NGM and I registered quickly, duct taped our shoes to prevent losing them in the water/muck and eagerly awaited the start of our race. There were so many people, even more than the NJ RunAmuck race. Lining up for the race, NGM and I were pitted next to an older fellow we called Jack Lalane. This old guy was ripped, and would go on to easily crush us in this race.

The race began and NGM and I both began with a steady and consistent pace. Only a few meters in and the runners were faced with a brutal incline up a rocky terrain. This early in the race you could sense a lot of the runners lose confidence, and regret signing up for this. This was a true precursor to the most difficult run I’ve ever experienced.

I found the ground to be extremely unique, there were huge rocks almost everywhere. This make footing very difficult and interesting, as well as slick and not too kind to the ankles. I can’t even begin to count how many times I rolled an ankle during the run, as well as a couple of near spills (one literally almost was a spill  as I almost fell into the lake).

The inclines and declines were so very brutal. Several of them required walking attentively to successfully navigate through them. About 1.75 miles in I was completely exhausted from the hostile terrain. I would then slow it down a bit until NGM caught up then, finish this race up with him.

We even had to trek through a lake! The water was up to our armpits at times. This was so great for me, it allowed me to slow and cool down, catching my breath for the upcoming final leg. NGM and I ran out the final leg of the race together and made it through the final mud pit with a respectable finish.

This was by far the most grueling run I’d ever took a part in. Today my ankles are sore with some swelling, and my right shoulder is shot (I have so rotator cuff issues in there and probably got aggravated with the climbs). So I guess I’m getting a bit old, haha. All in all this was an amazing race and a very fun day, we’ll have to do this again.