Posted by Branden Russell on July 22, 2010
I’m making more progress on my iPad game, Race For Space. Still not a playable game quite yet. When it is, I’ll need to start getting people to play it and give feedback. Let me know if you’re interested.
Anyone, or know someone, good at writing up good descriptions/press releases? I could use a rewrite to my app descriptions and get a press release kind of thing to give some blogs to hopefully post a review and get some attention.
We signed up for Hulu Plus at hulu.com/plus. So far, not really impressed. Most of the features they claim haven’t been noticed for us on any shows we watch.
I’m getting ready to take the final for my second of two class this semester. So if I pass, that gives me about three months to squeeze in another class, which I need to do if I want to be done by Nov 2011.
Posted by Branden Russell on July 12, 2010
Suzy and I went camping from the 2nd to the 4th. It was tons of fun. We did lots of hiking. We cooked all our meals on the fire. And other than when I woke up before everyone else (and played Angry Birds or read ebooks on my iPad) and taking pictures, nobody used electronics. I’ve posted pics and videos on MobileMe.
Durning a tire rotation, Firestone found we need some new engine mounts. Thankfully, they’re covered under the car warranty for free! Firestone wanted $1,000 to do it. Kia dealer would have done it for only $500, but will do it free since it’s covered. However, that’s not the only repair. Our windshield cracked a few months ago and we keep putting that off, but apparently this month is our month to get the car inspected. So, new windshield and new brake pads too.
I passed a class final. The class was Web Site Design and Development. Pretty interesting. Too bad I don’t have time. It’d be fun to try out some things on the family site.
I spent last weekend fighting my dying shared server. It was down more often than not this month. I kept contacting the hosting company to restart it and then they said they’d have someone look at it to see why it kept dying. So I spent the weekend writing an app my laptop can run to do most the work for my iPhone/iPad app, Weather Watcher. Now that it’s done if my shared server goes down, people can still get their weather updates. It does seem my shared server got looked at; It has been up all day today! First time all month.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 26, 2010
My 10 year work reward came yesterday. I got a tent to go camping a couple times this year.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 24, 2010
Well, I got in line for the iPhone 4 this morning at about 4:40. At about 7:40 I had mine. The store opened at 7 and there were about 100 people in front of me. When I first got here, there were about 600 or so in front of me, but most hadn’t reserved it and they split the line into reserved and walk-ins and reserved got to go first.
It is really, very pretty. The text and images are so crisp and clear. I haven’t used it much yet, but will play with it more later today. I just finished downloading iMovie for it so I can make fun HD movies on the go.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 17, 2010
A couple days ago I pre-ordered the iPhone 4. I should be getting it the morning of the 24th.
My semester started on the 1st of this month. I’ve scheduled my web development class final for 8 July. I’m hoping I can get that and my database class done quickly so I can get an extra class or two in this semester and cut it down to about a year left of school.
We got saddle bags for the motorcycle. It’s so nice not to wear a backpack all the time anymore.
I’m making more progress on my iPad board game. It’s getting pretty cool looking. It’s hard to get more done while trying to get so much school done.
I’ve been getting better at waking up earlier in the morning to get some exercising done. I’ve also been going for walks and reading outside for some lunch breaks when it’s warm.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 14, 2010
Well, we made it home. Yesterday we spent the day unpacking and getting ready for regular life again. The trip was a lot of fun.
I scheduled my first final for the semester for 8 July. It’s the Web Site Design class. I was hoping to take it this month, but the first opening was July. I’m hoping to quickly get that class and my other class, Databases, out of the way quickly and add another 6 or so credits (making a total of 18). If I can do that, I can get it so I might be able to get school done in just shy of a year. Otherwise it’s as much as 2 years from now.
It’s really nice to be driving the motorcycle again instead of taking the sub. Though all that walking was nice. Helped counteract the three or so lunches and two dinners most days. Unfortunately it seems to have gotten cold again. I swear it was around 70 when I left and now it’s back in the 50s. Darn weather.
I didn’t get any school or programming done on vacation like I wanted to. I underestimated how much time we could spend doing things and staying busy exploring. I didn’t think anyone else would be quite so outgoing.
Today I’m hanging flyers around work for the blood drive I’ve scheduled for 1 July from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. If any of you are interested and can make it, I can schedule you an appointment. Walk ins are welcome if you’re unsure. It’ll be in the building across the street from Clark Planetarium on the first floor. 90 South 400 West. You’ll be saving lives and get treats for donating!
Posted by Branden Russell on June 12, 2010
Well, we’re packing up and heading out. I took pictures of some of the house. Some rooms still had people sleeping, so I didn’t get them. We’re cleaning up the house a bit and packing. We need to catch the plane at 1:45 today. It has been a lot of fun and really a lot of exercise and more than enough eating to make up for it.
Pictures are here (not yet). Also on MobileMe and Facebook.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 11, 2010
We got dressed up a bit and wandered around NY with the basic plan of a nice restaurant and a carriage ride. And a comedy show we got tickets for from some guy when originally trying to buy some broadway tickets at TKTS. We had to leave before we’d make it through the line so we’d be on time for burgers with the group. Since we were leaving so early, everyone wanted to go back to TKTS and see about getting broadway tickets. They had Phantom Of The Opera for 40% off; making it still way to expensive (in my opinion. I didn’t like it, everyone else loved it). While waiting in line for tickets, some guy handed us a flier for 10% off a French restaurant down the street that had a good deal on a 2 course meal before the show. It was really good food. After the show, we went to the comedy club thing. It was pretty good. Most of it was funny. After that, we went back to the house around midnight and a few of us played a little bit of Boggle then went to bed.
Pictures are here (not yet). Also on MobileMe and Facebook.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 11, 2010
We are getting ready for a nice dinner and a carriage ride through central park. I just got a fedora.
Posted by Branden Russell on June 11, 2010
Today we are headed off to go look at Tiffany’s and Wall Street. Then probably a couple of lunches. Today we are going to have hamburgers at the house and play the paper game. Then a few of us are going on a carriage ride in Central Park and a dinner at some nice restaurant. Right now we are riding the subway to start the day now the breakfast is over. We had French toast and omelets.
Update: For the rest of the day, we went around Wall Street, saw some historical things there. We looked around Tiffany’s. They had a beautifully decorated store. Then we went to Times Square again to see about getting broadway tickets at TKTS, but they didn’t open until 3. So we went around finding a fedora for me and a gift for Jason and KJ to give Adrian. We wasted more time by going to a really great Pizza place where we started lunch with a wonderful chocolate mouse cake and finished it with a large sausage pizza. TKTS had a really long line and we needed to be back for burgers, so we didn’t stay and get tickets. We did check out the Hershey store. That was disappointingly small.
Pictures are here (not yet). Also on MobileMe and Facebook
