Saturday, February 21, 2009
Alive
No updates lately, but yes I'm still alive. I can't say I've been unbelievably busy, but sometimes mustering up the will to do a real post with real content is hard, especially when I know that my audience is really somewhere between 0 and 1, probably rounded down. I have some great ideas in the pipeline, but execution is the problem. I'll try to get back into my routine, since I've been playing some great iPod Touch games, watching some bball games, and had some interesting ideas about random stuff. Hopefully another update soon. Comment on this if you have a comment.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Testing iBlogger
Since the LifeCast app for my iPod proved unreliable and inflexible, I've decided to try out this new one, called iBlogger, from IllumineX. It seems to work fine and it saves my drafts offline so I can work on the go with no Internet connection.
Now I'm testing to see how HTML tags are handled. This sentence should be bold. This sentence should be italicized.
Edit: let's see if iBlogger can make edits.
Now I'm testing to see how HTML tags are handled. This sentence should be bold. This sentence should be italicized.
Edit: let's see if iBlogger can make edits.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Palouse Pressure, Seattle Showdown
So the Bruins had another nailbiter. They blew another 15 point lead to make it an extremely tight game at the end. But this time they managed to avoid overtime and avoid a loss. Behind Nikola Dragovic's third career game of the year (20 points), UCLA beat Washington State in Pullman 61-59.
Quick thoughts and facts:
-This was UCLA's 9th straight win against Washington State, and UCLA leads the all-time series 94-13.
-Nikola keeps getting better, and the team continued to shoot pretty well from the perimeter. That's good, because we weren't really getting much interior production.
-After last week's loss to ASU, Coach Howland said he needed to play the reserves more. They did play a little more this time, but not much. Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee need more playing time.
-Alfred was his usual intense self on defense, but he started out shooting 0/3 from the field on some tremendously questionable shots. He did step up to the challenge when needed at the free throw line, however.
-Darren didn't do much for most of the game, but really made a difference in the last few minutes when it was dangerously close.
-Josh Lazy Dog Shipp didn't do much.
-Despite the departure of Derrick Low and Robbie Cowgill, WSU still posed a great challenge to UCLA. This is likely a combination of the tough crowd in Pullman and UCLA's frontline, which still needs some work.
Tomorrow UCLA meets Washington at Washington, and surprisingly, it's an early battle for 1st place in the Pac-10. UCLA and the Huskies are tied for 1st, after Cal dropped out of the 3-way tie losing to Oregon State last night.
UCLA vs Washington is at 1p.m. PT on... surprise, surprise, FSN Prime Ticket.
Quick thoughts and facts:
-This was UCLA's 9th straight win against Washington State, and UCLA leads the all-time series 94-13.
-Nikola keeps getting better, and the team continued to shoot pretty well from the perimeter. That's good, because we weren't really getting much interior production.
-After last week's loss to ASU, Coach Howland said he needed to play the reserves more. They did play a little more this time, but not much. Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee need more playing time.
-Alfred was his usual intense self on defense, but he started out shooting 0/3 from the field on some tremendously questionable shots. He did step up to the challenge when needed at the free throw line, however.
-Darren didn't do much for most of the game, but really made a difference in the last few minutes when it was dangerously close.
-Josh Lazy Dog Shipp didn't do much.
-Despite the departure of Derrick Low and Robbie Cowgill, WSU still posed a great challenge to UCLA. This is likely a combination of the tough crowd in Pullman and UCLA's frontline, which still needs some work.
Tomorrow UCLA meets Washington at Washington, and surprisingly, it's an early battle for 1st place in the Pac-10. UCLA and the Huskies are tied for 1st, after Cal dropped out of the 3-way tie losing to Oregon State last night.
UCLA vs Washington is at 1p.m. PT on... surprise, surprise, FSN Prime Ticket.
Tower Defense Redux
Looks like there was at least a little bit of interest in my last post about Tower Defense games on the iPod, so here's a followup.
First, I'll go over the bonus challenge mode "This is Sparta" in the game Tap Defense. I finally got around to beating this mode in Easy and Medium, and both of them rely pretty heavily on the Earthquake tower. To recap, the This is Sparta mode has these special rules:
Start with 3 lives, rather than 20
Start with 3 halos, rather than 0
Start with 300 gold (in honor of the movie "300")
9 Towers Max, as opposed to normal rules where you're only limited by space and gold
3 of each tower max
This is Sparta: Easy mode
First, I used two of the three starting halos to increase my interest rate. You want to be in the position, in the second half of your game (round 21+) to be really racking up the money to a couple thousand. More on that later. To start, get two arrow towers along the bottom half of the map, as shown in the picture. They don't have to be exactly in those places, but preferably they should be able to reach both the bottom area of the path and the part of the path that runs through the middle. Like in the normal game, you'll want to use as few towers as possible at as low levels as possible while still killing all enemies, because that saves you money.
Anyway, this placement for your first two arrow towers should be fine, though sometimes the game throws a bit of a curveball at you and bunches up those gremlins such that the arrows can't get 'em all at once. In that case, place an arrow tower near the upper right corner of the screen. Unfortunately, it can be a bit tricky knowing whether your towers will cover adequately until it's too late, especially if you're trying to minimize your money spent. I had to restart quite a few times and use trial and error until I got a better feel for how little coverage I could get away with. The first few rounds, arrows should suffice. Since you've already used your max of 3 arrow towers, it's a good idea to upgrade them. It's truly amazing what difference a level 3 Arrow tower makes. In fact, a single level 3 arrow tower can likely handle the first three rounds of enemies no problem. But of course that would be more costly. Wait 'til you get more money, and you'll want to upgrade all three arrow towers to level two some time before round 10.
For the first round of succubi and then demons, you may want a cannon in there somewhere. Preferably it should be in the top half of the map, so the arrows can soften up the enemies first and the cannon can make the kill. Despite the game's advice, fire cats, at least in the early rounds, need not be dealt with using water towers. Your upgraded arrows and single cannon tower should suffice. I actually used my first 6 halos for interest rate. Upgrade all your arrow towers to level three when you get into the teen rounds, and you may want a second cannon and a water tower as well. That brings you to 6/9 towers. Also keep in mind that arrow towers can go up to level 4. In the first 2/3 of the game, it's not a good idea to make all three of your arrow towers level 4, though one level 4 arrow tower can be really really helpful, and often kill enemies in one hit. The downside is that its refire rate is very, very slow.
When you get above round 20, if you've been using your money wisely (more on that later), you should have enough to get an earthquake tower (of course, you will want to save two halos to research it). I'm not entirely sure on the total amount of money, but have at least 2000 gold to spend on it. At level 3, the earthquake tower has enormous range, and does 2000 damage. Since you're severely limited in the number of towers you can create, the range and damage done by the earthquake is invaluable. With the earthquake and other towers in the positions shown in my picture, you should do fine. Just be sure to use your earthquakes liberally, because at level three the recharge time is very good. Later in the game, it might be helpful to replace an arrow tower with a level 3 storm tower to quickly whittle some enemy energy down before being pulverized by the earthquake.
Congrats! You've beaten This is Sparta on Easy!
Here are some more tips for money.
-Never ever create a tower right at the end of a round. You're spending money on it but not getting any utility for that round, and even worse, you won't get as much interest. Wait 'til the beginning of the next round to build towers. If you must place a tower as an emergency measure, do it as soon as you can so you can get the most utility out of it for that round.
-If your interest rate is high enough, and depending on the tower, you can try selling a tower right before the round ends, so you get extra interest from it. This is generally not a good idea for, say, a level 3 Storm tower or Earthquake tower, because you'll probably lose more than you gain.
-This applies more to the normal game than This is Sparta, but still applies: often the benefit you get from upgrading your towers (more damage, higher refire rate) outweighs the benefit from simply adding more level 1 towers, despite the fact that adding more towers may be cheaper. You want to maximize your interest rate, but doing so at the cost of letting a few enemies through is not a good compromise, in my opinion. And when you're playing the Sudden Death mode or This is Sparta, it's a terrible, unthinkable compromise.
I'm running long, so I'll do the Medium tips very quickly.
This is Sparta: Medium mode
The tips from Easy mode will also work here. The difference is that since the path is so much shorter and less circuitous, you have much less leeway to kill the enemies. You have to get them fast, or else. So you'll be upgrading your arrow towers sooner and adding cannons sooner, in order to kill the baddies at an earlier point on the path. It's important to use the top and bottom of the screen in later rounds, because upgraded towers in the middle of the screen will generally just follow the one enemy that's at the front of the pack. There's really only one place you should put your level three earthquake tower for maximum coverage. See picture.
That's it! I was going to talk about two other Tower Defense games, Zombie Attack and The Creeps! But perhaps next time.
First, I'll go over the bonus challenge mode "This is Sparta" in the game Tap Defense. I finally got around to beating this mode in Easy and Medium, and both of them rely pretty heavily on the Earthquake tower. To recap, the This is Sparta mode has these special rules:
Start with 3 lives, rather than 20
Start with 3 halos, rather than 0
Start with 300 gold (in honor of the movie "300")
9 Towers Max, as opposed to normal rules where you're only limited by space and gold
3 of each tower max
This is Sparta: Easy modeFirst, I used two of the three starting halos to increase my interest rate. You want to be in the position, in the second half of your game (round 21+) to be really racking up the money to a couple thousand. More on that later. To start, get two arrow towers along the bottom half of the map, as shown in the picture. They don't have to be exactly in those places, but preferably they should be able to reach both the bottom area of the path and the part of the path that runs through the middle. Like in the normal game, you'll want to use as few towers as possible at as low levels as possible while still killing all enemies, because that saves you money.
Anyway, this placement for your first two arrow towers should be fine, though sometimes the game throws a bit of a curveball at you and bunches up those gremlins such that the arrows can't get 'em all at once. In that case, place an arrow tower near the upper right corner of the screen. Unfortunately, it can be a bit tricky knowing whether your towers will cover adequately until it's too late, especially if you're trying to minimize your money spent. I had to restart quite a few times and use trial and error until I got a better feel for how little coverage I could get away with. The first few rounds, arrows should suffice. Since you've already used your max of 3 arrow towers, it's a good idea to upgrade them. It's truly amazing what difference a level 3 Arrow tower makes. In fact, a single level 3 arrow tower can likely handle the first three rounds of enemies no problem. But of course that would be more costly. Wait 'til you get more money, and you'll want to upgrade all three arrow towers to level two some time before round 10.
For the first round of succubi and then demons, you may want a cannon in there somewhere. Preferably it should be in the top half of the map, so the arrows can soften up the enemies first and the cannon can make the kill. Despite the game's advice, fire cats, at least in the early rounds, need not be dealt with using water towers. Your upgraded arrows and single cannon tower should suffice. I actually used my first 6 halos for interest rate. Upgrade all your arrow towers to level three when you get into the teen rounds, and you may want a second cannon and a water tower as well. That brings you to 6/9 towers. Also keep in mind that arrow towers can go up to level 4. In the first 2/3 of the game, it's not a good idea to make all three of your arrow towers level 4, though one level 4 arrow tower can be really really helpful, and often kill enemies in one hit. The downside is that its refire rate is very, very slow.
When you get above round 20, if you've been using your money wisely (more on that later), you should have enough to get an earthquake tower (of course, you will want to save two halos to research it). I'm not entirely sure on the total amount of money, but have at least 2000 gold to spend on it. At level 3, the earthquake tower has enormous range, and does 2000 damage. Since you're severely limited in the number of towers you can create, the range and damage done by the earthquake is invaluable. With the earthquake and other towers in the positions shown in my picture, you should do fine. Just be sure to use your earthquakes liberally, because at level three the recharge time is very good. Later in the game, it might be helpful to replace an arrow tower with a level 3 storm tower to quickly whittle some enemy energy down before being pulverized by the earthquake.Congrats! You've beaten This is Sparta on Easy!
Here are some more tips for money.
-Never ever create a tower right at the end of a round. You're spending money on it but not getting any utility for that round, and even worse, you won't get as much interest. Wait 'til the beginning of the next round to build towers. If you must place a tower as an emergency measure, do it as soon as you can so you can get the most utility out of it for that round.
-If your interest rate is high enough, and depending on the tower, you can try selling a tower right before the round ends, so you get extra interest from it. This is generally not a good idea for, say, a level 3 Storm tower or Earthquake tower, because you'll probably lose more than you gain.
-This applies more to the normal game than This is Sparta, but still applies: often the benefit you get from upgrading your towers (more damage, higher refire rate) outweighs the benefit from simply adding more level 1 towers, despite the fact that adding more towers may be cheaper. You want to maximize your interest rate, but doing so at the cost of letting a few enemies through is not a good compromise, in my opinion. And when you're playing the Sudden Death mode or This is Sparta, it's a terrible, unthinkable compromise.
I'm running long, so I'll do the Medium tips very quickly.
This is Sparta: Medium modeThe tips from Easy mode will also work here. The difference is that since the path is so much shorter and less circuitous, you have much less leeway to kill the enemies. You have to get them fast, or else. So you'll be upgrading your arrow towers sooner and adding cannons sooner, in order to kill the baddies at an earlier point on the path. It's important to use the top and bottom of the screen in later rounds, because upgraded towers in the middle of the screen will generally just follow the one enemy that's at the front of the pack. There's really only one place you should put your level three earthquake tower for maximum coverage. See picture.
That's it! I was going to talk about two other Tower Defense games, Zombie Attack and The Creeps! But perhaps next time.
Monday, January 19, 2009
I am the winner!
I woke up Sunday morning and checked my iPod for email, which I do every morning now. I was somewhat surprised to see a message regarding me winning some contest. My half-asleep state combined with my extensive experience with junk mail led me to believe it was just spam. But after doing a quick double take, I realized that it was actually a reply to a mail that I myself had sent. I read it more carefully and...
In December I caught wind of a contest: post your best screenshot from a computer game. It was a collaboration between the MacGamer.com website and Parallels, who makes the popular Virtualization software "Parallels Desktop" for Mac. I dug around in my hard drive to find a screenshot that I could submit, not really thinking I'd win or anything, but it was worth a couple minutes to give it a shot anyway (And yes, I keep screenshots from my gaming in a folder on my computer).
Long story medium, I won! Apparently they liked my picture enough to give me a copy of Parallels. Awesome! Please check out the site. Looks like they're trying to get on their feet, and it looks pretty good so far.
Thanks very much to both Parallels and Tom Herring at MacGamer for making the right choice ;)
The pic below is cut off, so click on it to see the whole thing.
Direct link to the story is here.
In December I caught wind of a contest: post your best screenshot from a computer game. It was a collaboration between the MacGamer.com website and Parallels, who makes the popular Virtualization software "Parallels Desktop" for Mac. I dug around in my hard drive to find a screenshot that I could submit, not really thinking I'd win or anything, but it was worth a couple minutes to give it a shot anyway (And yes, I keep screenshots from my gaming in a folder on my computer).
Long story medium, I won! Apparently they liked my picture enough to give me a copy of Parallels. Awesome! Please check out the site. Looks like they're trying to get on their feet, and it looks pretty good so far.
Thanks very much to both Parallels and Tom Herring at MacGamer for making the right choice ;)
The pic below is cut off, so click on it to see the whole thing.
Direct link to the story is here.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The Arizonas
Okay guys, another quick post. And I do mean quick.
This Thursday UCLA plays Arizona at Pauley Pavilion at 8 p.m. Pacific. If I'm not mistaken, UCLA has not lost to Arizona in three or four years. In my opinion, things should be no different this year. They did not get any new talent, and their coaching staff is in disarray. Here's an interesting tidbit courtesy of Brian Dohn: UA Motivating UCLA. It's bulletin board material, but more importantly, is shows that UCLA is now the "standard" (wink wink) of the Pac-10. How funny. Timmeh Floyd said that about Arizona just two years ago.
Two days after that game, Arizona State comes to town. Yes, the Sun Devils are #15 in the country and 14-2 overall. It's strange when the marquee matchup is with ASU rather than Arizona, but I suppose one could've seen that coming for a while now. Some are saying James Harden is the best player in the conference, and Jeff Pendergraph is somehow still there as well. If we can limit Harden we will have a good chance. Hopefully some good defensive contributions will come from Alfred and Drew Gordon on Pendergraph.
Nikola Dragovic, who started Sunday's game against U$C, will once again start at the 4 spot.
Hopefully we will have more of this from Josh and co. this Thursday.
Go Bruins!
This Thursday UCLA plays Arizona at Pauley Pavilion at 8 p.m. Pacific. If I'm not mistaken, UCLA has not lost to Arizona in three or four years. In my opinion, things should be no different this year. They did not get any new talent, and their coaching staff is in disarray. Here's an interesting tidbit courtesy of Brian Dohn: UA Motivating UCLA. It's bulletin board material, but more importantly, is shows that UCLA is now the "standard" (wink wink) of the Pac-10. How funny. Timmeh Floyd said that about Arizona just two years ago.
Two days after that game, Arizona State comes to town. Yes, the Sun Devils are #15 in the country and 14-2 overall. It's strange when the marquee matchup is with ASU rather than Arizona, but I suppose one could've seen that coming for a while now. Some are saying James Harden is the best player in the conference, and Jeff Pendergraph is somehow still there as well. If we can limit Harden we will have a good chance. Hopefully some good defensive contributions will come from Alfred and Drew Gordon on Pendergraph.
Nikola Dragovic, who started Sunday's game against U$C, will once again start at the 4 spot.
Hopefully we will have more of this from Josh and co. this Thursday.Go Bruins!
Monday, January 12, 2009
UCLA vs $UC - Quick Thoughts
if you're seeing a truncated version of this, it's because you're reading it on Facebook. Click "view original post" for the whole thing. If you like what you read, please read my past posts, and leave comments on the blog.
I don't have time for a real review, so I'll just post some quick thoughts.
-Congrats to Nikola Dragovic, who earned the starting spot in front of James Keefe. This was Drago's first start ever, and he sure made the most of it. While his dunk off an assist from Jrue Holiday was what stood out in my mind, it was only two of his career-high 14 points. He also brought down 4 rebounds and played decent defense.
-Darren Collison's 43-straight free throw streak ended last night, which is the new all-time FT-shooting streak for UCLA. Two other guys hold the Pac-10 and NCAA records. He still shot fairly well, though. Darren has been solid for us all season and has visibly become more aggressive with the ball. Darren had 7 assists and only one turnover in this game.
-Man, how long has U$C's Daniel Hackett been there? I feel like he's been there forever - which is way too long. Of course, 30-year-old senior Taj Gibson has been in school for longer. We need to bring OJ Mayo back so he can have another scuffle with Hackett.
-Josh Shipp needs to eat more bananas.
-Drew Gordon continues to show talent; now he just needs to learn a bit more finesse and to play within the Howland system.
-Jrue Holiday is not especially flashy, but he has a knack for finding the open man. He still sometimes makes overly risky passes, but when he connects, the recipient is usually in a great position to score. Near the end of the game, he really did a fantastic job on defense to prevent a late trOJan comeback.
-Josh Shipp had a quiet 10 points, though he was pretty clutch... and he like chocolate on his bananas.
-I must admit, when it was really close toward the end, I was thinking "man, I wish we still had Arron Afflalo. He won't let us give up that lead." That competitive edge seems to have rubbed off onto Darren a little bit.
-trOJan coach Timmeh Floyd almost lost it when Drew Gordon connected with Oscar-worthy Daniel Hackett with an inadvertent elbow. Hackett should pursue a career pretending to get hit by people. What a bunch of whiners. Speaking of whiners, Taj Gibson would not stop whining after every foul called.. even if it wasn't on him.
-So far U$C's "highly-touted," "top-ranked" "prep star" Percy "Li'l Romeo" Miller has played in 4 out of 15 games, seeing a total of 10 minutes of action and scoring 2 points. Anyone who said he was good is full of SHIT!
-Current rankings as of Monday, 1/12/09.
UCLA: AP: #9, Coaches' Poll: #7.
$outhern Cal: some large number.
-Pac-10 standings (apologies for the formatting. Can't seem to figure out how to do work with whitespace):
TEAM {conf. record / games behind / overall record}
California #23 {4-0 - 15-2}
UCLA #7 {3-0 ½ 13-2}
Arizona State #15 {3-1 1 14-2}
Washington {2-1 1½ 11-4}
Arizona {2-2 2 11-5}
USC {1-2 2½ 10-5}
Washington State {1-2 2½ 9-6}
Stanford {1-3 3 11-3}
Oregon State {1-3 3 6-8}
Oregon {0-4 4 6-10}
-It's ALWAYS great to beat $C, no matter how close the game is, no matter who's playing.
-Next game: Thursday vs Arizona at Pauley Pavilion, 8:00p.m. PT.
-Extra Credit: The Lady Bruins beat the woman toejams as well, 87-75, at Pauley Pavilion. New head coach Nikki Caldwell seems to be doing a fine job so far. Sophomore guard Doreena Campbell earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors.
I don't have time for a real review, so I'll just post some quick thoughts.
-Congrats to Nikola Dragovic, who earned the starting spot in front of James Keefe. This was Drago's first start ever, and he sure made the most of it. While his dunk off an assist from Jrue Holiday was what stood out in my mind, it was only two of his career-high 14 points. He also brought down 4 rebounds and played decent defense.
-Darren Collison's 43-straight free throw streak ended last night, which is the new all-time FT-shooting streak for UCLA. Two other guys hold the Pac-10 and NCAA records. He still shot fairly well, though. Darren has been solid for us all season and has visibly become more aggressive with the ball. Darren had 7 assists and only one turnover in this game.
-Man, how long has U$C's Daniel Hackett been there? I feel like he's been there forever - which is way too long. Of course, 30-year-old senior Taj Gibson has been in school for longer. We need to bring OJ Mayo back so he can have another scuffle with Hackett.
-Josh Shipp needs to eat more bananas.
-Drew Gordon continues to show talent; now he just needs to learn a bit more finesse and to play within the Howland system.
-Jrue Holiday is not especially flashy, but he has a knack for finding the open man. He still sometimes makes overly risky passes, but when he connects, the recipient is usually in a great position to score. Near the end of the game, he really did a fantastic job on defense to prevent a late trOJan comeback.
-Josh Shipp had a quiet 10 points, though he was pretty clutch... and he like chocolate on his bananas.
-I must admit, when it was really close toward the end, I was thinking "man, I wish we still had Arron Afflalo. He won't let us give up that lead." That competitive edge seems to have rubbed off onto Darren a little bit.
-trOJan coach Timmeh Floyd almost lost it when Drew Gordon connected with Oscar-worthy Daniel Hackett with an inadvertent elbow. Hackett should pursue a career pretending to get hit by people. What a bunch of whiners. Speaking of whiners, Taj Gibson would not stop whining after every foul called.. even if it wasn't on him.
-So far U$C's "highly-touted," "top-ranked" "prep star" Percy "Li'l Romeo" Miller has played in 4 out of 15 games, seeing a total of 10 minutes of action and scoring 2 points. Anyone who said he was good is full of SHIT!
-Current rankings as of Monday, 1/12/09.
UCLA: AP: #9, Coaches' Poll: #7.
$outhern Cal: some large number.
-Pac-10 standings (apologies for the formatting. Can't seem to figure out how to do work with whitespace):
TEAM {conf. record / games behind / overall record}
California #23 {4-0 - 15-2}
UCLA #7 {3-0 ½ 13-2}
Arizona State #15 {3-1 1 14-2}
Washington {2-1 1½ 11-4}
Arizona {2-2 2 11-5}
USC {1-2 2½ 10-5}
Washington State {1-2 2½ 9-6}
Stanford {1-3 3 11-3}
Oregon State {1-3 3 6-8}
Oregon {0-4 4 6-10}
-It's ALWAYS great to beat $C, no matter how close the game is, no matter who's playing.
-Next game: Thursday vs Arizona at Pauley Pavilion, 8:00p.m. PT.
-Extra Credit: The Lady Bruins beat the woman toejams as well, 87-75, at Pauley Pavilion. New head coach Nikki Caldwell seems to be doing a fine job so far. Sophomore guard Doreena Campbell earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors.
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