brianw.techhouse.us

I’ve moved!

Brian — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:58:50 +0000

I’ve finished my transition to a new blog that’s part of a wordpress-mu installation. It can be found here. Eventually I’ll be moving other blogs that I have been managing individually to wordpress-mu. Please update your bookmarks and RSS readers!!!

Preston

Brian — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:22:32 +0000

So most people know by now, but over the summer Lynn and I adopted a kitten from a woman in NJ who catches strays and abandoned kittens and finds homes for them. We were going back and forth on names, but after a day or two of actually having him, we settled on “Preston.” It seemed a good, proper name for a rather proper and sophisticated kitten. He’s almost entirely white with a little gray patch on his head, like a little hat. He is an awesome kitty, full of life and spunk and we love him very much.

I seem to be having some file permission issues with my host, but eventually I will put up some cute pictures of the little guy. Until then, you can search my sister’s Flickr Feed for him.

In Which the pile does not reduce in size

Brian — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:03:31 +0000

Recently I finished a Japanese role-playing game for the DS called “The World Ends With You.” It was very interesting and quirky. I highly enjoined the game’s battle system which was fast-paced and used the stylus well. The story convoluted and bizarre, but got better toward the end. The collecting/upgrading/pokemon aspect of it was well done and fun to manage. I’m back to ChronoTrigger DS on that device now.

Unfortunately, since I last finished a game I have purchased quite a few new ones, including:

Gyromancer (XBLA)
Brutal Legend (XBOX 360)
NHL 10 (XBOX 360)
Assassin’s Creed (PC – D2D)
Titan Quest (PC – D2D)
Torchlight (PC – Steam)
Crate Expectations (XBL Indie)
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (XBLA)
Phantasy Star 2 on (XBLA)
Oblivion (XBox 360, borrowed from Joe)
Plants vs. Zombies (PC)

Most of these titles I bought for $5 – $18 on good sales, so I don’t feel bad about the money. It’s not like they go bad if they sit on my PC. It’s just finding the time to play them, plus the earlier post’s backlog, that is a bit frustrating. I’ve got books and movies queued up, too. Plus real work to do! Eeesh.

Here’s a good introduction to Gyromancer.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/9/30

In Which another site is launched

Brian — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:58:52 +0000

We just launched another contest site, the third in about as many weeks: http://winterclassic.csnphilly.com/. Sign up for a chance to get tickets to the Winter Classic, an outdoor NHL game played in Boston. I didn’t do any actual coding, but I did some project planning and management for it.

We’re currently running a contest for Herr’s which simply asks you to become their friend of Facebook and say something nice. You’re almost guaranteed to win some free food. Like these guys in Afghanistan.

In Which My Brother-in-Law Gets a New Toy

Brian — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:50:26 +0000

My brother-in-law is a marine stationed on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and just received a new toy to play with:

I helped make this.

Brian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:09:23 +0000

Here’s the latest Wawa micro-site that my company created and I was a part of: http://www.wawaturkeyquest.com. Sign-up to receive clues and earn a chance to win some prizes!

The Archer Group also took over hosting duties for the main Chase Health Advance marketing site. I didn’t have to do too much for this project other than move code to new servers and make some slight copy updates. We’ll be adding some stuff soon.

Bearcats Fall 09

Brian — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:07:43 +0000

Here’s my updated hockey schedule for the rest of the long fall/winter season. Go Bearcats!

Updated!

Brian — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:18:59 +0000

Fixed my blog roll issue, now using the new wordpress book mark function. It looks like:
$args = array ( 'title_before' => '

',

'title_after' => '

',

'category_before' => '',

'category_after' => '

'

);

wp_list_bookmarks( $args );

?>

Now I can fix my Mom’s blog. Then update Lynn’s, then on to the new shiny project.

In the meantime, enjoy Molly Lewis, a national treasure, and the youtube embed plugin I just grabbed:

Updating!

Brian — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:32:23 +0000

I’m in the process of updating various blogs around techhouse to the latest Wordpress. Partially for security reasons, partially to quiet my whiny users, but mostly because I’m working on a larger techhouse community project which may involve combining multiple blogs. For that I need the blog export abilities in the latest Wordpress. Wish me luck.

In Which a Game Is Finished

Brian — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:07:03 +0000

I’ve finally made a dent in my Pile O’ Shame: the list of unfinished video games. Last night I finished the main story of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for the DS. I may still fiddle with it on occasion to finish side quests and unlock some things, but I saw credits roll and that’s a good thing. In its place I’m trading a different DS game to a co worker for The World Ends With You, a bizarre action-JRPG set in modern Tokyo from Square-Enix. It’s got a crazy weird battle system that’s apparently very innovative and melds with the story and setting incredibly well. I can’t wait to try it. That still leaves a big pile which includes:

Bioshock
Mass Effect
Disgaea DS
Chronotrigger DS
Fable 2
Final Fantasies 3-7, 12, Tactics and Tactics Advance (I have beaten FF4 and 6 before, but would like to again at some point)
Champions of Norrath

Not to mention some random web games, and NHL 09 which never really end. That’s a lot of shame!