Gale Force

Warning - very poor acronym incoming
Project SHED (Shed-building Helps Everyone De-stress) is now under way at the Gale home.  Yesterday my dad and I poured the slab for our new shed as the first step in beautifying our dirt and weed patch we call our yard.  As soon as I find my digital camera I’ll snap some shots and perhaps even create a shed building time-lapse movie for your viewing pleasure.  For now be content to know that it will be an architectural marvel — Frank Lloyd Wright himself has nothing on my shed design.

Specs:

• 12′7″ x 16′7″ (208 sq ft — 200 sq ft if Orem City asks)
• 9′ walls
• Loft / Attic area
• 9′ overhead garage door
• Man door
• Power overwhelming (+2 pts. for throwing in a Starcraft reference)

Should be fancy!  Stay tuned for more.

In regards to the recent happenings at Virginia Tech…all I can say is…wow.  My heart goes out to everyone affected by this tragedy.

I’m amazed at how quickly this turned into a debate about gun control, violence in video games and VT school administration neglect.  For heaven’s sake…32 people lost their lives!  Can we at least wait a few days before the finger pointing begins?  I will.

This weekend’s soccer outing was a huge improvement over last week! I followed all most of my own advice and we had a great time. The only thing I forgot to bring was my digital camera — and since I didn’t have it, Jachin scored his first goal of the season (damn you and your laws Murphy!). I felt like pulling a Brandy Chastain after he scored his goal, but I don’t look nearly as good without my shirt on as she does — not to mention the other parents might have questioned my sanity.

Until next week…keep ‘em kickin’

The Utah Department of Health is sponsoring a week-long event called Unplug ‘n’ Play that encourages children to Unplug from video games, TV, computers and respirators.  OK so they can keep the respirator plugged in…but you get the idea.  The event kicks off tomorrow (April 14) but the official uPnP week is from Apr 23-29.

With a son who loves video games (/sniff I’m so proud of you son) I fully understand the need for them to “unplug” every now and then and, GASP, go outside! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught my son playing air guitar hero lately…I think the unplug even might be good for him.

With that said, I officially give the Utah DoH’s uPnP event my stamp of approval. I’m sure they’ll be happy to learn that they have received this lofty honor.

I’ve recently accepted a position at NextStat and many of the projects I’m working on are ideal candidates for JavaScript flashiness. I played around with Scriptaculous and Prototype but for me the holy grail of JS frameworks is Moooooooootools.

I’ve used a lot of sliders in my code recently and it’s brain-dead simple:

And then whenever I want to toggle the slider I use:

What could be easier?  If you want to get started with a VERY powerful, yet lightweight JavaScript framework, give MooTools a try.

• MooTools Home
• Download
• Documentation

My buddy and I talked about having a retro-gaming LAN party soon. It got me thinking of all the “good ol’ games” that we used to play. So, in honor of all the wasted hours and empty cans of Mountain Dew, here is installment #1 of “My List of the Best Games EVAR”!

Unreal Tournament

I feel like Scotty from one of the greatest Star Trek TNG episodes of all time — “Relics”

Computer: Please enter program.
Scotty: The android at the bar told me you could show me my ship. Let me see her.
Computer: Insufficient data. Please specify.
Scotty: The Enterprise! Show me the Enterprise you chattering piece of…
Computer: There have been five Federation starships by that name. Please provide registry number.
Scotty: (perturbed) N-C-C-1-7-0-1. No bloody A, B, C, OR D.

Unreal Tournament … no bloody 2003, 2004 (or 2007?) was the best FPS game of all time. My favorite memories of work had nothing to do with the work we did (duh!) … it was all about the after hours UT tournaments! For some reason, no other FPS has quite caught my attention like UT did. It seemed to have the perfect weapon arsenal (minigun anyone?) and that “just right” game play.

Apparently I’m not alone in thinking UT deserves props among the best FPS games of all time. A survey on GameSpot put UT WAY ahead of QIII in FPS popularity and UT has graced many “Best FPS games” lists around the interwebs.

What made UT so great? From GameSpot

As much variety as UT had in its original release, what gave it staying power over the years were the mods and mutators. The mutator format made it easy to package and distribute minor gameplay tweaks, such as instagib game types or low-gravity settings. Since the mutators acted on the game servers, players didn’t have to download anything extra themselves; they just had to join a game with a given mutator enabled. UT’s mod scene also provided a decent selection of free content, such as the popular Tactical Ops mod, which aped the massively popular Counter-Strike but with UT’s much better graphics under the hood. If anyone needs further proof of UT’s greatness, there’s the simple fact that there are still thousands of people playing the core game every day, not just the most popular mods.

Tomorrow Someday….Starcraft

I’m officially a soccer mom! No, I don’t drive a Honda Element nor am I female…but both my kids are playing soccer this summer and that makes me a soccer mom (soccer dad doesn’t sound as suburbanite). We had our first Saturday afternoon of games last week and I wanted to share a few “Soccer Game Day Survival” tips that we learned (the hard way).

1. Bring sunscreen! While the weather was moderate (70-72 degrees) we were outside for 3+ hours and everyone got sunburned! Make sure you have some in your soccer bag at all times — and not the sissy SPF 8 stuff. Honestly…if you’re going to put on SPF why wouldn’t you go for the hard stuff.
2. Speaking of sunburn, a large golf umbrella might not be a bad idea either. I saw a family on the other side of the field that had one and besides reminding me that I haven’t golfed much this year, it seemed like a pretty good idea.
3. Water! And not just water…COLD water. We all had water bottles but by the end of our first game the water was approximately the same temperature as my shower each morning. Bring a small cooler full of ice — everyone will be glad you did.
4. Snacks. Remember that cooler full of ice you brought? Throw in some good game-time snacks including fruit, vegetables and granola bars.
5. Camping chairs and a blanket are a must! While I generally find myself running up and down the sidelines yelling (read: cheering) at my kids, it’s nice to have a spot to plop yourself down when you get tired.
6. Don’t forget the camera. Everyone’s got a digital camera these days so bring it with you! I guarantee you’ll want a photo of your 5 year old daughter’s first goal! Besides you never know when you’ll need photographic proof of your child’s amazing sports feats.

I’m still new to this whole thing so I’m sure we’ll learn more as the season goes on. For now I’m looking forward to our next Saturday at the soccer fields!

I’ve read a lot of good things about WordPress so I decided to break up with Blogger. I’m not smart enough to import my old Blogger posts so if you really want to read them you can go here. For now enjoy the new (and improved?) Gale Force Blog!