Current

hooked on PES 2008

I’m officially hooked on Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for the Wii. The new control scheme plays like a cross between a traditional sports title and a real time strategy game. Online multiplayer performance is close to flawless, though a bit vanilla. Hopefully they’ll add won-loss records and the ability to compete in tournaments to the next version. One pet peeve; two of my opponents have disconnected in the middle of matches to avoid taking a loss - once when I was Arsenal vs Man U. and another time when I was Chelsea vs Man U. As someone who played all the way to the end of a 6-0 beatdown at the hands of Brazil, all I can say to these two guys is QUIT WIMPING OUT AND TAKE YOUR STINKIN’ MEDICINE! Maybe it’s a Man U thing.

Check out the video below.


random minutiae

» Details Philadelphia has chosen a design for their new site. You can see the development version here.

» With considerable help from my oldest daughter, the universe is once again safe thanks to our defeat of Dr. Doom in Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the PS2.

» More inspired genius from the guys who brought you ‘Frozen Grand Central‘. Ladies and gentlemen, Improv Everywhere presents - ‘Food Court Musical‘!


chess club analogues

- kickers are the chess club of the NFL

- writers are the chess club of the Oscars

- COBOL programmers are the chess club of IT

- keyboardists are the chess club of rock

- Frontpage is the chess club of HTML editors

- 3 point shooting specialists are the chess club of the NBA


after ‘hello world’

Whenever I’m learning a new language the first thing I write is the classic ‘hello world’ program. The second thing I’ll write is usually the game ‘Simon‘. It’s a great way to get beyond the basics as it forces you to implement loops, decision trees, arrays, randomization, timers, etc. You can get creative with the user interface as well. And if you’re programming a web application you also have to devise a way to maintain state in order to recall the contents of the array.

So far in my career I’ve programmed it in Basic, C++, PHP, Visual Basic and VB.NET. I’m currently working on a C# implementation. Once that’s done I’m going to try to port the VB.NET and C# versions to ASP.NET. I’ve found it to be the perfect project for familiarizing myself with a new language.


new project - stationery store

Here are some screenshots of a new project I’ve been working on. It’s a stationery store in Philadelphia that’s looking for a new site design. The first one’s kind of a traditional look while the last two are more current. All of them were started in Illustrator and finished in Photoshop. Many thanks to Veerle for her swirls and header backgrounds tutorial. Thanks also to Evan at DinPattern for the cool khaki background on version 1.

mockup 1 for details philly

mockup 2 for details philly

mockup 3 for details philly


happy birthday lisa…

My wife and I met at a gig, kind of like the REO Speedwagon Hallmark commercial. I remember seeing her sitting with a friend watching the band and thinking, ‘hey, she’s cute’. Her friend was cute as well so they were both on my radar. Anyway, at one point during a set I remember glancing towards her and she was looking right at me. We held eye contact for one or two beats longer than normal and I distinctly recall a feeling of something clicking into place. Not like ‘our eyes met across a crowded room’ or anything like that, but something felt right about looking at her. Click.

One of her friends indicated that she might be interested so he introduced us and we began talking - small talk, nothing major. You know, ‘How’s the band sound?’, blah blah blah… just trying to get a feel for if she’s available. But again, that same feeling… not being overcome with emotion or anything, just… something. Like a key fitting into a lock, tumblers falling into place, a click.

Our first date was classic. Dinner and a movie. Chinese food and ‘Goodfellas’. We kissed. Another click.

We’ve been married for 14 years and have three beautiful daughters. On weekends I usually wake up before she does and sometimes I’ll lie in bed and watch her sleeping for a little while, just looking at the shape of her face and feeling her breathing next to me and it’ll come to me with a small shock - I’m in love with my wife. Click.

So anyway, this is for you sweetie. Thanks for:

- our three beautiful girls.

- putting up with me.

- saving me from my crappy life.

- ignoring my snoring (usually).

- the million and one things you do to make everything right.

I love you. And you’ll always be my pretty young wife.


linked in

LinkedIn.com is a social networking site for business associates. I’m in the market for a new gig so I created a profile here. They make it very easy to setup a new profile with one killer feature - the ability to import your existing contacts list which is then used to query the site. If any of your contacts have linkedin profiles you can request to add them as a linkedin connection. Click a couple of checkboxes next to your potential connection’s name and they get a form letter requesting that you be added to their list and vice versa. It’s an excellent implementation of a very clever idea.


the carpenters - venn diagram

inspired by jessica hagy of indexed.com

rainy days and mondays


now why can’t I be cool like that?


how much do your neighbors make?

In the tradition of great internet time wasters like bloxorz and google maps satellite view comes zipskinny.com. Of course, I had to check out how my salary compares to the zip average. Looks like I’m doing ok (so far).