News & Updates

Diablo 3 first impressions: level 1 - 20

I've been a Diablo fan for some time.  I enjoyed the first game but didn't play it a great deal.  Later, in 2000, Diablo 2 consumed me for months at a time when I was but a snot-nosed middle school student.  So Diablo 3 has finally arrived in 2012, 12 years later.  Does it live up to expectations?  So far: yes.

The end of a dry spell: a new Team Fortress 2 map

It's been almost two years since I released my last TF2 map called "Mercy" which was a small, experimental CTF map.  I've decided to go at it again and create something new: a Payload map.  I never really got into the game mode back when it was released and thus never mapped for it... until now.

Vesper's first beta is rather polished.  It's fully optimized, detailed (mostly), clipped and the layout is pretty close to what I think it'll be in the final versions.

Low carb day 154: 59 pounds lost and 10 inches off the waist

I've been on low carb for a little over 5 months now. I started out at 235lb and am now at 176lb. In total, I've lost 59 pounds. I started with around a 43-44 inch waist and I now have a 34 inch waist. Here are some of the ridiculous things I've done and eaten on this "diet" (I'd consider my plan a rough guide on what to eat rather than a strict plan):

Font sizing in CSS: em vs. px vs. rem

I've been looking for ways to simplify my CSS development constantly.  I recently made the switch to using Compass/SASS full time in all of my projects due to its simplicity and more importantly the fact that you can create a base template for all of the wild CSS3 effects that require 5 different lines for each browser.

Google blocks search keyword tracking for logged in users

Something I recently noticed in Google Analytics is that they show "(not provided)" for many search keywords these days.  They have recently started blocking search keyword tracking for individuals that are logged in to Google for "security reasons".  This block severely limits the usefulness of Analytics for search, as webmasters have no idea what 20% or more of their visitors are finding their site with.

Low carb day 90: 43 pounds lost and my favorite low carb foods

As I mentioned in my December 11 blog post about how I'd lost 30 pounds, I've been dropping weight.  Today (day 90) I'm down 43 pounds total.  I started out at 235 pounds and now sit at 192.  This is nearly the lightest I've been in 13 years (I got down to 190 in high school).  Other than that one time I've been heavier than this since I was about 12 or so.  I've never been able to get rid of the gut, which is now in my sights thanks to low carb.  And it all happened in just 3 months.

Reflections on My First (Real) Ruby on Rails App

I have completed my first real Ruby on Rails app and it's in production.  The app answers a problem I have at work: individuals ask me to format newsletter templates all the time and it breaks up my day too often.  It's called Newsletter Maker.

PayPal's User Experience Sucks

PayPal is a great convenience for me and a lot of others.  Unfortunately, their website user experience sucks.  Why do I need to search Google to find the pages I need on PayPal.com?

If you're selling online and have PayPal buttons created, you better bookmark the "My Saved Buttons" page, otherwise you're going to need to go five pages deep and find this small link when you want to get back to the list:

Star Wars: The Old Republic first impressions

I’ve been an MMORPG player for years.  I started with Star Wars: Galaxies and dabbled in others like Anarchy Online and Final Fantasy XI in the early 2000s.  I leveled to 80 in Age of Conan (yeah...). 

I started a low carb focused diet 42 days ago. I've lost 30 pounds (detailed analysis)

I'm not a fitness or health professional.  Growing up, I weighed 270lb at my maximum when I was 13 years old.  I implemented a slightly better diet with workouts and dropped to 195lb during high school.  That is my lowest weight.  I've come to realize that my ideal weight is somewhere around 190lb.  I'm 6'0" with a larger build.

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