The Master of the Universe Returns

March 3rd, 2012

Sometime around Christmas last year, my daughter and I discovered that the old He-Man and She-Ra series were available through Netflix.  Being a responsible father, I’ve now brain washed her into a true fan.  We have an old sword, bought from the Kansas City Renaissance Festival when I was 12, that’s been dug out of the basement and is now regularly held aloft over my 3 year olds head.  My in-laws found some She-Ra sheets in their store room from my wife’s childhood as well (didn’t remember Swiftwind being pink) which are now being drooled into nightly.

Searching for ways to waste money on my daughters new found obsession (and let’s be honest, mine) I started looking for an old She-Ra on eBay.  Instead I found a wealth of new She-Ra’s.  After a little digging I stumbled onto mattycollector.com.  Turns out Mattel has been producing some fantastic figures since 2008 and I simply had no idea about it.  Due to the size and nature of the line (its primary audience is adult collectors) you can only purchase the figures at a specific time each month, the exceptions being He-Man, Skeletor and their mounts, who are available year round.  Plans currently have the line continuing at least until 2016.

This could have easily been an unhealthy addiction at this point if I had found out about the line sooner, however due to the difficulty in finding products (at a reasonable price anyway) I’ll be starting small with the big guy and his trusty steed.  She-Ra is on her way as well for Lilly to run around the room with.

Why wasn’t this marketed better?  Why does the site look like the owners nephew built the thing?  Really wish they at least had an online banner campaign in place to drive people to it and the site didn’t require me to fact check before I trusted it.  On first blush, I genuinely thought that Matty was an independent collector selling his wares.  Would love to see the bounce rate on their homepage.  The only thing that kept me from wondering off to another corner of the interwebs was another site I stumbled onto, He-Man.org.  The community there is impressive.  Without their enthusiasm I wouldn’t have u-turned back to Matty and picked up the figures mentioned above.  Shout out to Pixel Dan, who’s reviews of the line are terrific, as well as the whole Roast Gooble gang, who I now listen to regularly.

If you miss He-Man as much as I did (a few guys at work fell victim too), head on over to mattycollector.com now.  They’re having a huge sale until March 20th.

Oh.. and go watch this too.  My wife couldn’t stop laughing.

Posted in Scattered Thoughts | No Comments »

Visual Studio Line Break

April 12th, 2011

Dug this up from about a year ago.  This will allow you to drop a vertical guide into Visual Studio at a specified character mark. Very helpful keeping everything on your screen and at a decent width. Meat of the article is posted below as well for posterity.

—

To enable this marker, close visual studio and open the registry editor (regedit.exe). Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Text Editor

Add a new string value named “Guides” to the key with the following value:

RGB(128,128,128) 80

The RGB determines the color of the marker (light gray in this case), the value 80 determines the column where the marker should be shown. Note that you can have up to 13 guides by separating them with commas.

Posted in Development | No Comments »

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

March 24th, 2011

Oldy but a goody kids.  Dating allllll the way back to 1999.  Object oriented development was starting to come into it’s own.  A lot of developers were making the move, which in turn meant that a lot of bad code was starting to be created and put into use.

I’m a huge fan of Martin Fowler.  I follow his Twitter feed. I read his books.  And I’ve always liked this one in particular.  It has a place of honor on my book shelf.  I use at as a reference from time to time, and I’ve found it’s particularly useful when trying to explain a specific something to another developer.  Due to this, we selected this book for a weekly technical book club.

And… as it turns out… this was a book no one wanted to talk about.  Despite all of the good advice in here, there really weren’t many issues anyone felt like throwing down about.  We had a pretty good debate surrounding commenting vs. self-documenting code (I tend towards the later).  There was also a good conversation surrounding the use of polymorphism as, or rather in place of, switch statements (and conditionals in general).  Aside from that, most of the book generated a collective, “Yup! That’s a good idea!”.

If you reached this point in the article, and if you don’t already own this, be sure to add a copy to your library.  It is a terrific resource and reference, like Head First Design Patterns, that can really help boost your vocabulary.  With 12 years under it’s belt though this book now falls under foundational for an Object Oriented developer vs. revolutionary.



Posted in Books, Development | No Comments »

Terminator: Salvation

March 21st, 2011

Why am I talking about a movie that came out nearly 2 years ago?  Because it still makes me angry.  Terminator: Salvation was so close to being a great movie.  Good action, cool characters, neat new perspective on a familiar world.  And then they blow all of that away with an ending that simply rips the movie off its rails and makes the whole journey completely pointless.

Taking place primarily in a post Judgment Day future, the film chooses, wisely, to focus on a new character, Marcus Wright.  Sentenced to death for reasons unknown, Marcus has awakened in the future nightmare we have seen in the previous three films. As the movie progresses it becomes very easy to start to care far more about this new character than the profesized leader of the resistance, John Conner.

WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD

Once we reach the climax of the film, Conner becomes mortally wounded by a brand new T-800, which looks significantly more terrifying than it did in the original.  He is rushed to a field hospital.  Alas, it appears to be too late.  This is the moment when everything falls apart.

Each film in the series brought something new to the franchise and contributed in propelling the story forward.  The first introduced us to the universe.  The second flipped everything sideways, made the bad guy good, gave us insight into Conner himself, and ultimately stopped Judgement Day from happening.  The third, despite its flaws, twisted the second and ultimately taught us that Judgement Day was inevitable.

The fourth movie now has a genuine opportunity to twist the plot a third time and continue to bring us something new.  Kill John Conner.  Have him replaced by our new hero.  And, evidently, this was actually considered.  Can you imagine how far that would skew the lens on the previous films?  When Reese is talking to Sarah about her son – their son – he would know that Conner is going to grow up just to be replaced.  On top of the dramatic awesome that would come from this, John Conner himself would now be a Terminator – or something close to it.  Think about the possibilities moving forward in the series with that asterisk attached to him.

Instead we’re treated to some sentimental garbage where the hero throws his life away in a scenario that involves a heart transplant in an open field hospital.  I’m not sure if the film makers lost their nerve or just didn’t see what a cheat the end of the film was.  There were claims that the films ending changed because of a leak, but that’s a bit shallow too.  Instead of giving us something new and advancing the series, as the previous films did, this film essentially leaves us exactly where we started.  New character is dead.  Conner is leading.  Reese will grow up to father his father figure.

If you haven’t managed to see the film, I’m still going to recommend it.  Bryce Dallas Howard is always great to watch (though under utilized here) and Sam Worthington’s Marcus Wright is an intriguing character.  Once you get to the field hospital though, do yourself a favor and terminate your viewing.

Posted in Movies | No Comments »

Bell’s Java Stout and Cherry Stout

March 19th, 2011

A buddy of mine had several of us over this past Friday for movie night (Howard the Duck and The Room were playing).  Like any good host,he picked a nice sampling for us to all share.  Amongst them was one of Bell’s winter seasonals, Java Stout.  I was really caught off guard by how true to it’s name the beer was.  It was like drinking an iced coffee and was absolutely delicious.

A week or so later, while out hunting for more Java Stout, I came across Bell’s Cherry Stout, another winter seasonal. After the success of the first beer I felt obligated to pick this one up as well. When drank, I felt the tartness and sweetness from the beer was nearly over whelming.  One of my friends enjoyed it a lot, but it was really just too much cherry for me.

After a few days thought, I was struck by how much each beer tasted like it’s star ingredient.  I was really impressed by how good Bell’s is at highlighting the primary flavor in their beers.  The Java Stout tasted like Java.  The Cherry Stout tasted like Cherry (guess I’m not a huge cherry fan).  I’ve also had the priviledge of tasting their Hopslam.  It’s very Hoppy.  It’s nice to see how true this brewer is to their ingredients and how easy they’ve made it for the buyer to know what they should expect.  Bell’s has earned itself a higher point in my rotation.

From the Brewer:

“A mysterious dance of tart Michigan cherries with the dark, roasted malts of a big and bold stout.”

“An enchanting beer made from the marriage of a custom blend of fresh-roasted coffee beans with a dark and roasty stout.”

Posted in Beer, Bell's Brewery | No Comments »

View Source on the iPad!

March 10th, 2011

Learned this trick while on a client call today. Meat of the article is posted below as well for posterity.

—

How to Install a Bookmarklet on Mobile Safari
Navigate to this page on your iPad and select “Add Bookmark”. Change the name of the bookmark to “View Source” or whatever you like. Tap “Save”.

Next, copy the bookmarklet from here. (Select All > Copy.)

Lastly, go to your bookmarks, tap “Edit”, select the bookmark you just created, and replace the URL by pasting in the new code. Tap “Done” and you’re done.A few things:

  • The source you’ll see is the DOM source (“generated source”), not the original HTML source.
  • The ends of some very long strings are partly hidden from view.
  • It works well on the iPad but on the iPhone the text wrapping does not work as well (the ends of more lines are cut off).
  • It should work in any browser that supports the white-space value pre-wrap. But I’ve only tested on iPad, iPhone, and Opera Mini on the iPhone.
  • For some reason the source code output is not fully selectable. You can Select All but you cannot define segments to select.

 

Posted in Development | No Comments »

No. What In The Boulevard Smokestack Series?

March 3rd, 2011

I’m an avid collector.  I have piles of toys, comics and cards from my youth gathering dust in my basement to prove it.  As such, it’s very difficult for me to enjoy something and want to not collect one of everything.  So it is with the Boulevard Smokestack Series.  There is a representative from each Smokestack release lining the tops of the cabinets in my kitchen – or at least, I think there is.

As it turns out, Boulevard is much better at making beer than they are at counting.  I give you exhibit A:

An interesting experiment performed by Boulevard with a Trappist brewery located in south-east Belgium.  Up to this point 11 Smokestacks had been released.  As you can see from the label this was the first Smokestack that was “No X in the Smokestack Series” free, indicating that this may not be considered part of the true line.  Not surprising since this was a collaboration.  However when the next Smokestack, the delicious Rye-on-Rye, was released:

Note it has been labeled “No 13″.  At this point I had just started making a concerted effort at trying all of their beers.  It took me a while to calm down and decide that the Collaboration had indeed been No 12.  Following their 14th, the Dark Truth Stout, we were all treated to the exceptionally delicious Fresh Hop Pale Ale.  Like the Collaboration No 1, the “No X” was absent from the label.  When the Chocolate Ale was released I was sure we would see a No 16 adorn the label, however, as you can plainly see we were once again treated to the 14th in the series!




 

So which is it Boulevard?  Is the Collaboration actually No 12?  Is the Fresh Hop Pale Ale No 15?  Do the Dark Truth Stout and Chocolate Ale share a deep rivalry against each other while sharing a love for the number 14?  Boulevard, please keep on brewing, but if these are going to be labeled and if I’m going to have any chance of keeping up I’m going to need consistency in the labeling and an ability for you to increment.

Posted in Beer, Boulevard Brewing | No Comments »

Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12 Year

February 15th, 2011

I was out in Charlotte, NC this past week on business.  While there we discovered one of a small chain of pubs, Molly MacPherson’s, where they had everything Scottish available.  The place had great food, tons of scotch and terrific beer.

After sampling the Skull Splitter and Old Engine Oil we turned our attention to Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12 Year.  I’ve only just started drinking Scotch Ales recently, but I have to say they are quickly becoming a favorite style of mine.  A perfect union of my love for scotch and beer it’s like having a mountain of cake and eating it too.  Brewed as normal, the beer is then placed in Scotch casks to age.

Ola Dubh starts its life as the previously mentioned Old Engine Oil.  A black ale, Old Engine Oil is a deep, dark, medium bodied beer that lacks the hoppy notes that generally reside in my beers of choice.  The black ale works well, giving the Ola Dubh a canvas that doesn’t fight with the flavors imparted during aging.  The resulting Ola Dubh layers on a taste of caramel and a smoky, woody, whiskey finish, without losing much, if anything from the base.

As a warning, price rises fairly quickly, based on the number of years the scotch was aged.  A 6 pack of the 30 year will run you nearly $80.  Cost aside, next steps for me no include figuring out how to acquire at least the 12 Year, if not some of the more expensive varieties, here in the mid-west.

From the Brewer:

 

“Ola Dubh (or ‘Black Oil’) is so named because it is gloopy and viscous. It is based on Harviestoun’s award-winning Old Engine Oil. With more than a stylistic nod to the classic Imperial Porters (and Stouts) of the nineteenth century, this deliciously rich, dark, 8% a.b.v. beer is the first ale to be aged in malt whisky casks from a named distillery and, with traceable casks and numbered bottles, the first with genuine provenance.”

Posted in Beer, Harviestoun | No Comments »

Boulevard Chocolate Ale

February 10th, 2011

For those of you that missed it, chocolate fever seems to have swept through Kansas City, just in time for Valentines Day, in the form of Boulevards newest Smokestack – Chocolate Ale.  A collaboration with Christopher Elbow, this special release was released in somewhat limited quantities to a demanding public.  Thanks to a few good friends I managed to grab a few of these bottles before the city sold out (in hours) and was able to bring them home to share with the wife for the holiday.  I also had an opportunity to try the beer on tap at the Flying Saucer over lunch, more on that later.

It can not be emphasized enough that this is a CHOCOLATE Ale.  The Chocolate in the beer takes center stage and, while not overwhelming, can not be mistaken for an accent.  The nose smells like a good candy bar,and if drank from the proper glass, permeates itself through the whole drinking experience.  The beer itself is quality, and you can really taste the vanilla notes mentioned on the back label.  At the end of each drink you’ll be treated to a finish matching that of an Elbow truffle.  This last point is where Christopher Elbow really seemed to have put his stamp.

My first sampling of this was on Tuesday night with the wife and we enjoyed it enough to open the second of our three bottles that evening.  When I had some more at the Saucer over lunch I was surprised to find the nose of the beer noticeably stronger than I had remembered and have since noted it as a difference between the tap and bottled versions.  I really hope this becomes a regular brew for Boulevard.  It seems to be an ideal Valentines seasonal and, if this year was any indication, they won’t have any trouble selling.  I know my wife, along with the rest of the ladies in our fine city, would be thankful if they did.

From the Brewer:

“One of the brightest stars in a city of culinary treasures, Christopher Elbow has earned a worldwide reputation for his handcrafted chocolate masterpieces. His sweets are distinguished by their use of unusual , sometimes surprising ingredients, and that adventurous spirit has left its print on this special ale. The aroma is given over to earthy, fruity cocoa, with just a hint of hops. Smooth layers of dark chocolate intertwine with threads of caramel, vanilla, and nutty malt as the flavor warms and rounds to a bittersweet finish.”

Posted in Beer, Boulevard Brewing | No Comments »

Spirit Of Kansas City

February 8th, 2011

Today I was reintroduced to Norman Rockwell’s “Spirit of Kansas City”.

In the summer of 1951 flood devastated Kansas City.  Wanting to boost the cities morale, Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark, contacted Norman Rockwell and commissioned this advertisement for the city.  Hall explained, “This is the story of a courageous city fighting back after a terrible blow by a giant flood. This is a story of a big man rolling up his sleeves and going to work — without whimpering and crying.”

At this point I’ll just let the painting speak for itself.

I love this city.

Posted in Scattered Thoughts | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries