Take a Look In the Distance
I know it has been over two months. Trust me a month ago I was going to make a post. In all actuality the wait was worth it because I have content. The past few months I have not been ignoring the site. I just haven't come up with any threads. I have been constantly tweaking the site here and there. I honestly don't think that the tab has ever closed in my browser from the little things that I do to make this place better. Of course you probably don't notice it but that's what I'm here for today. To rub it in your face!
I recently picked up a CSS book called CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd. You can see examples of the book or purchase the book on the CSS Mastery Website. I have to say that Andy BuddAndy's Website. You can see his genius at work here and even leave him some feedback. is a web design genius. In his book he goes over good design techniques, standards, accessibility , and even browser compatibility. I recommend it to anyone struggling with CSS. Why am I telling you this? With this book I have learned a lot about CSS that isn't just syntax. I learned about design. Design technique that I have implemented into this site. I use to hate design because I didn't understand it. With the knowledge I manage to make the forms look nice and neat and not like a blob of random text boxes.
I also want to point out that I have converted the site from XHTML 1.1 to HTML5. Though the site validates as HTML5 (with the warning of it being experimental) it is not finished. I plan on taking advantage of it. The transition so far was pretty simple. I only came across two real errors. The first one is that the acronym tag is obsolete. All I had to do was change them to abbr and viola. The second problem is an HTML5 specific that has probably drove most developers insane. For some reason you're not allowed to use ISO-8859-1 character encoding. Instead you must use UTF-8 or the recommended Windows-1252. I went with the latter as I really don't feel like installing fonts just to use four accents. If you really care to know the differences in the character encodings then you can look them up on Wikipedia. It's way too nerdy for even me to explain.
Also, so people can shut up about this, my site was created to see if I can do it. The whole purpose of this site is to test my web development abilities and to keep up with the ever changing standards. The content of the site follows my life and my goals and if you don't like it then you can go read some kids blogger about how he/she hates going to high school.
Posted At 2010-08-07 13:07:50 by DeadWolf in Development :: ( No comments )
Zero Productivity
This is going to be like 5 updates in 1.
I'm sure most of you have noticed the new design (If you haven't then shame on you and visit more). I had a goon help write a new style for me. While doing that I did a lot of back end work. Reorganized a bunch of things and added some new stuff. I really worked on the display of the comments because before they looked like crap. I have the cool alternating color thing thanks to the discovery of $id%2. I also implemented a Gravatar avatar for the comments. If you don't have a Gravitar then you should get one. A lot of blogs use it. It's linked by your email address so if you use a different email then it won't show up (I don't spam). The last addition to the site is the Ad banner. I made sure to keep it text only and to make sure it has zero annoyance (Wow Pandora is kicking right now). I get a bit of traffic so I might as well profit from it.
tl;dr: SITE FACE LIFT!!!
Now on to video games.
I have to promote this game because I have been playing it constantly at work because of how awesome it is. Super Mario Crossover. It's Super Mario Bros. but you can play as different icons from the 8-bit era (It's air-a not ear-a you jerk). Give it a play and go to the exploding rabbits website to watch the developer play it.
The next game is one that has mixed reviews. It has disappointed fans and some not so fans. I'm talking about Final Fantasy XIII. I'm a good 10 hours into it so I think I have enough to judge or else it's a very slow paced game. A lot of complaints come from how linear it is. When I heard It I was thinking "Oh it lacks exploration but it can't be that bad". No no no... I was wrong for thinking that. The game is follow a straight narrow path while battling any enemies you come across. The battle sequences are really good but outside of that there is no need for game play because it is simply just pushing one direction (Well you do need to sneak up on enemies for preemptive strikes but really). The biggest complaint I hear is because of Vanille and Fang. Their accents are annoying and I don't think Vanille really has a role in the story other than to be annoying. I think Katy Perry describes them pretty well (Catchy song btw). My complaint is mostly about Hope being a whiny emo and sucking in every battle he encounters. I'm seriously stuck on a boss because he dies way to easy. I have him maxed on his levels and Health accessories. The battle system is pretty unique. It relies on classes and switching between classes. You control your leader of the party and the other characters by their classes by changing the paradigm. If the leader dies it's game over. You can set up chains to perform yourself or you can auto chain based on your leader's class in the current paradigm. Cool battling system in a bad game 
The next game is Fallout 3. I can't comment too much on this because I haven't spent too much time playing it. For the time that I have spent with it I absolutely love it. Crazy story, Open ended game leaves a lot to do. RPG stats on an FPS = Win. Though I wish I had picked up the Game of the Year Edition so I could get the DLC but what ever.
The last game and the most recent I've picked up is 3D Dot Game Heroes. In a nutshell, it's Zelda. Imagine the original Legend of Zelda if it was made today and given a little more plot. It's an obvious clone that can be seen by reading the instruction manual. I'm not saying that this game is bad though. This game is really good. The graphics are beautiful. Controls are fluent. It is a real throwback to the classic games I grew up playing. It knows it's a throwback to the classics. In the story the Kingdom of Dotnia use to be 2D but everyone grew tired of 2D so the King changed the world to 3D. I take it as people got sick of 2D games. It's a good game that seems to have potential and possibly something new to offer to the genre.
I have to end it here because I couldn't get my hands on a copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2... Yet.
Posted At 2010-05-22 02:12:10 by deadwolf in Geekdom :: ( No comments )
The Worlds Toughest Question
Answered in a 4chan meme...
Posted At 2010-04-25 17:09:56 by DeadWolf in Geekdom :: ( No comments )
What Happened to my Design? 5
It's pretty crazy that this is the 5th year. Enjoy the site in its birthday suit.
To know more about why styles are disabled on this website visit the
Annual CSS Naked Day website for more information.
Posted At 2010-04-08 09:07:56 by DeadWolf in Holiday :: ( No comments )
2010 = good game year
I recently bought a PS3 for a few games that are out and some that have yet to be released. My biggest reason for the massive purchase was for Metal Gear Solid 4 and the soon to come The Last Guardian. After I had got the system I instantly fell in love with it. I got a bunch of games for it including the very much amazing Dragon Age: Origins. These games are old and have been out for a while so let me shift focus back to the main thread. I purchased God of War 3. I wouldn't call myself a huge God of War fan but I am a fan. The first 2 are great and I really enjoyed Chains of Olympus on the PSP. When I played God of War 3 I was completely blown away. The graphics are amazing and some times deceiving as you will think you're watching a movie. The game has enough blood and gore to satisfy any violence hungry fiend. It's a definite buy for any PS3 owner.
Outside of the PS3 there are some other games that have been released this year that are really good. Final Fantasy has a new notch in its belt though I haven't played it because of its $60 price tag that I don't want to spend (It'll drop back to $30 in a year anyway). I've heard good things about it so it sounds really promising but I'm not a big fan of Final Fantasy so I won't be getting it any time soon. The new Pokémon games have been released and I got my hand on a copy of Heart Gold. I love it. If the 10 year old me could have played this when the original gold came out then I would be a better person. Lastly, the game I've been waiting for ever to come out has finally been released. That is Cave Story. Updated graphics and music really do the game justice. The added Boss Rush and the ability to play as Curly Brace makes the game worth the $10 price.
That's all I have for this month. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more content in the future.
Posted At 2010-03-29 09:33:11 by DeadWolf in Other :: ( No comments )