Boob-U-Mentary

What a fucking shame. Terrible job too. Sorry.

Update: I will concede Jamais from Blowfish one point, albiet a cynical one. Fake boobs look good under clothing. Once she's naked you're already sold, so it doesn't matter that they look like crap.

California State Open June 24-25

Update: the new ratings just came out, here are the details of my matches. I went from 395 which was adjusted to 797 and then went up to 972 (Δ577). Looks like Michael was right that if you play too much better they refactor your rating. And it looks like they use those adjusted ratings to compare players. So the under-rated players who I lost to were adjusted higher, but luckily my rating remains under 1000 for at least one more tournament (Pacific Coast Open in Santa Monica near the end of August). I'll go through this post and update it with everyone's new rating.

I played in my second tournament last weekend. This one was in Santa Monica, so I played in two events on Saturday and drove back down for another event Sunday morning. I was moderately successful, and my rank will certainly go up, but I didn't play as well as I could have. I wasn't looping, and I pulled a lot of my shots, worrying more about placement than hitting it cleanly. I also played very hot and cold, dominating one game and then getting shut out the next.

My rating going in was 395 after losing to a whole variety of players at my first tournament. For each event I'll list the people that I played along with their rank going into the tournament. The title of the event will be formatted like this: U1200, meaning "players ranked under 1200". In a week or so I'll update this post with my new ranking, as well as the new ranking of the people I played. What I learned, both from experience and from talking to people at the tournament, was that ranks under 1000 are very inaccurate. Players at that level either improve quickly or quit, and kids especially improve so fast as they learn the sport that their rank after their previous tournament doesn't mean much.

The events themselves were round robins for the first round, then playoffs for the finals. So you'd start out with a group of four and play each of them. The winner of each group of four would enter a single elimination playoff for 1st and 2nd place medals. Matches were best 3 out of 5, games to 11.

U1300 - Saturday at 11:30am

John Ezmirlian, before: 1126 after: 1109 (Δ-17)

An older guy playing pips-out, but with surprisingly heavy top and top/side spin. Also, being a veteran player he placed the ball well, and wasn't run around easily. There was something else odd, oh, I think he used a Seemiller grip. I beat him in 4 games, having choked and lost game 2. I thought I beat him by wearing him out, playing the corners, but I guess his grip might have had something to do with it.

Michael Cottingham, before: 1153 after: 1087 (Δ-66)

Michael's in a wheelchair, which makes playing him a unique experience. I learned later that he'd recently won a U1100 event, and travels from state to state gaining tournament experience. He plays pips out / anti-spin rubber. With his movement restricted to on the baseline at the center of the table he plays every ball crisply off the bounce, using everything that you throw at him against you. Serving against him the rule is that the ball has to fall off the end of the table, not the sides, which reduces the sneaky-serve options. His serves are brutal, loads of side spin. He got a disgusting number of free points. The first couple games were spent adjusting to this new challenge, and eating nearly every serve. Somehow I got up 2-1, which was lucky because he shut me out the 4th game, holding me to no more than 2 or 3 points. I don't know if he was playing better, or I worse. Probably a combination. In the end I dug out the 5th game win, being a rat-bastard playing balls high and wide.

Ann Dang, before: 718 (adjusted to 1099) after: 1126 (Δ408)

I didn't see Ann coming. She's an unassuming early middle aged asian woman, playing a no-frills pips-out game. She had next to no forehand, but a very strong backhand which she played from all sides of the table, moving to get into position. She played a lot of flat no-spin balls deep and low to the middle of the table. I had trouble finding weaknesses in her game, and probably should have just played my own game. I remembered reading that with players who are going to step around and play their forehand you should go ahead and play their forehand, forcing them into that wing and then bringing it around to their backhand with the next shot. I reversed the logic and pulled that off once or twice, but for the most part was unable to escape her backhand. Even then, I had ample opportunity to win the match, being up 10-8 for at least one if not two match points in our 5 game match. She went on to take 2nd place to her husband who got 1st. Even though this was the highest ranked event I played in, I think it was my best shot in this tournament, had I been able to put away the match against Ann. I'd played her husband before in the last tournament and think I could have taken him.

U1200 - Saturday at 4:30pm

Yoshi-Taka Moraka, before: 1021 after: 979 (Δ-47)

Yoshi plays with a penhold grip and has one of the more brutal forehand smashes I've played against. Warming up forehand-to-forehand I could barely keep the ball in play, and I have a very solid block. So when it came to game time I simply wouldn't give him that tight-to-the-body forehand that penholders so love, and won 3-0, nearly shutting him out the first two games.

Roman Gorbat, before: 0 (adjusted to 905) after: 869 (Δ869)

I'd actually warmed up with Roman before the event. He's a lefty, which always makes things interesting. We both have weaker backhands, making it a very close, if somewhat odd match. Usually when I'm playing somebody at about my level of skill I find a mental edge to beat them with (I like to play dirty, winning with cheap shots) but I couldn't find much of an edge here. I ended up serving to his backhand from the center of the table, but that's not a side or place I'm used to. Eventually I scraped together a win in 5 games, but I don't remember exactly how.

James Bae, before: 1046 after: 1128 (Δ82)

James and his brother Mathew both go to the same club that I do, and they have their private training with Dinh right before me. James beat me with his greater tournament experience, better serves, stronger forehand, etc. During class I've beaten the Bae brothers by getting into their heads, but he was having none of it. At least I scored a respectable 7 to 9 points in each game.

U1100 - Sunday at 8:30am

Keyln Roberts, before: 844 after: 784 (Δ-60)

Another older pips player, I've probably mixed up most of my memory of this match with the earlier one against John Ezimirlian. Maybe Keylyn was the guy with the Seemiller grip? I knew I should have started writing this over the weekend. Anyway, this one didn't take too long, my forehand down the line was landing properly.

Reetta Saikku, before: 0 (adjusted to 442) after: 442 (Δ442)

It was Reetta's first tournament, and I'm sure she'll step it up. As it was I was able to attack and put away most of her serves by the middle of the first game and won in 3.

Nolan Chang, before: 842 (adjusted to 926) after: 991 (Δ136)

Only fair that I'd get smoked by an under-rated kid playing at about a 1200-1300 level. I won the first game as he warmed up, wailing away but missing the table. By the second game they'd started hitting, and between his massive attack and dynamic variety of strong serves I didn't stand a chance. He won in 4.

Conclusions

I came into the weekend thinking I might stand a chance against some younger kids, but ended up picking on old men and cripples instead, while getting crushed by a couple boys and a middle-aged woman. Oh well, political correctness has never been a strong suit.

Application Independent Front-End Dev Environment

I've made significant progress in re-creating the coding environment that I once enjoyed in HomeSite (may it rest in peace), using AutoHotKey. Basically, I've set up all the HTML, JS, and CSS oriented key commands and a number of the tag completions so that no matter what environment you happen to be stuck using, anything from Notepad or UltraEdit, to a textarea in a browser (like this one on Blogger) you'll always have the same shortcuts available.

To be able to customize it for your own preferences (I use a DVORAK keyboard, so some of the keys may be a stretch on QWERTY) you'll want to download AutoHotKey and use that to auto-compile frontEnd.ahk. But if you'd just like to try it out stand alone, here's the compiled version: frontEnd.exe. Here are the key commands I've set up thus far:

Ctrl+Enter = <br />
Ctrl+Shift+Space = &nbsp;
Ctrl+Shift+. = &#8230; (ellipse)
Ctrl+Shift+- = &#8211; (n-dash)
Ctrl+Shift+a = <a href=""></a> //with all sorts of cleverness, see update below
Ctrl+Shift+p = <p></p>
Ctrl+Shift+u = <ul><li></li></ul>
Ctrl+Shift+e = <em></em>
Ctrl+Shift+b = <strong></strong>
Ctrl+Shift+l = <label for=""></label>
Ctrl+Shift+i = <input type="" name="" id="" value="" />
Ctrl+Shift+j = <input type="" name="" id="" value="" />
Ctrl+Shift+d = <div id=""></div>
Ctrl+Alt+a = <span></span>
Ctrl+Shift+t = <table class="" cellspacing="0"></table>
Ctrl+Shift+r = <tr></tr>
Ctrl+Alt+c = <td></td> //Changed do to Photoshop conflict: "copy merged"
Ctrl+Shift+/ = /* */
Ctrl+Shift+m = <!--  -->
Ctrl+Shift+h = <h*></h*> //*=user input
Ctrl+Shift+f = function *() {} //*=user input

While setting up the auto-completions of various tags I made some interesting observations that may be applicable beyond this little project. Say we're dealing with the auto-completion of a DIV tag, the resulting code will always be this: <div id=""></div> but where should I put the cursor after the auto-complete fires, between the tags, or inside the ID attribute? To answer the question I observed my own behavior in HomeSite. When I type the complete the complete tag, <div>, I am roughing out structure, not worrying about attributes yet, so I set up frontEnd.ahk to put the cursor between the tags. When I only type <div and hit the space bar my intent is to start adding attributes to the tag, so I put the focus inside the ID attribute.

The concept that may be portable to other problems is to watch for clues regarding the user's intended next action, and where appropriate facilitate that next action.

Wish list, should anybody else decide to work on this:

1. Tag Wrapping: select some text, hit a key command, wrap the tag around the text.
2. Tag Insight: When < is pressed show a list of tags, filtering the list as you type (so typing <s narrows the list to <strong, <style) and allowing you to hit Enter to complete it.
3. Attribute Insight: When you place your cursor inside a tag and hit the space bar, a list of possible attributes for that tag appears, and behaves like Tag Insight.
4. List Wizard (New): An unordered/ordered list key command that makes each line of a multi-line selection into a list item.
5. Comment Toggling (New): Highlight code that has been commented out, hit the appropriate HTML, CSS or JS key command, and the comments are stripped out.

Update: I figured out how to wrap tags around highlighted text. Moved the logic to functions (with optional parameters even) so that the code is actually getting more readable as it expands. I have some ideas for new features which I've outlined in the comments, like an exceedingly clever anchor command that searches the clipboard and your selection for a web address.

Update: June 23, 2006 The anchor key command (Ctrl+Shift+a) has been updated to become "the ultimate (PC) blogger's shortcut". It searches your clipboard and the text that you've highlighted for a web address, and then spits out a full link element complete with pre-populated href (if it found an address), link text (if you had text highlighted) and a title attribute. It also moves your cursor into the next logical place based on the information that you provided. In order of priority those are: href attribute, in between the <a> tags, title attribute. It will occasionally freak out clobber the old contents of my clipboard, but I haven't been able to reproduce this in a controlled manner, so it may be user error.

Long Awkward Pose

gotta love a good head-fuck prank.

Paper Airplane - Google Video

video on the web is mostly just porn and funny stupid shit. ok, it's mostly just porn. but every once and a while there's something insanely useful where video is just the perfect medium, here's one of them.

Gristlestick: Mudflap

My brother's on his way to Alaska now. They've been writing music on the road, and composed a song about those siloette women on trucker's mudflaps while on the way to Bozeman Montana (middle of nowhere, north of Yellowstone).

Jet Beetle

Scroll down and check out all the pictures even if you don't have time to read it. Highlights include the "big-fire" demonstration (1/20th the full size?!) and the cop trying to come up with something to charge him with.

Commitment to Footwork

Much good table tennis advice to be found over at usatt.org, my favorite quote so far being the need to commit to "moving your fool self over there to get the ball".

Other tips I want to remember being:

• The Returns You Want
• Learn to Re-Loop
• Leftys
• Staying Focused At Tournaments
• Serving Seemiller Depth
• Service Returns 101: Stroke, Depth and Placement
• Service Returns 101: Spin
• Tossing High

Said list will change as my game advances.

SolynStudio.com - a call for feedback

While at the "Skin Show" in Vegas a couple weekends ago Cybil attended a couple marketing workshops that covered menu design in some depth. We were spot on when it came to most of the advice (thanks to Jon and his help with the copy!), but one place where we missed the mark was actually the website.

This location doesn't have a "spa" feel to it, it's not fresh and green like her personal website. It is instead a cozy, earthy space, saturated with colors from red and orange to gold. Her print material matches her studio, but I wasn't about to redesign her personal website, too much energy and client feedback went into that. What we decided to do instead was to purchase a domain name, solynstudio.com, to go with her business, and provide a way for people to share her menu online (or print and fax it), as the marketing experts advised.

Have a look at the mockup that currently resides at solynstudio.com and tell me what you think in the comments. It's basically a packed one-pager conveying hours, location and contact information, with tie-ins to csolyn.com, and featuring the menu in at least a couple formats. We'll be tackling the text this weekend, though there's not much copy that isn't tied directly to the design.

I guess what I've been struggling most with in this design is information density, visual balance, visual hierarchy, and establishing some sort of visual flow though the various pieces of content. So yeah, basically everything to do with with information design. I've made a lot of progress (it was originally a 50/50 split with no sub-divisions, all content on the same background color) but there's room for improvement. Pull no punches in the comments.

Torch My Ride: Arson for Hire

Ha! Maybe the fraud would be more convincing if people made sure that their spouse/children were in the car when it was torched? Did I just imply that anybody who leases a car beyond their means, specifically an SUV, should have their family roasted alive? Well maybe I did.

Letter From the President of GiftSongs.Com - The Personalized Song Company

Hey look, it's Mark from the Northridge club.

usatt.org rankings results for: Devine, Nils

this here's the nice little hole I've dug myself into, should be fun climbing out.

Sparks: Critters

Fun! Miniatures in font format. Imagine the game designing possibilities. I've always spent too much time on production, and not enough on playtesting, so resources like this can be extremely useful.

Video: Joe Hewitt Talks About FireBug

Worth a watch, I learned a trick or two. There are a bunch of command line / search functions that aren't obvious from the interface, but are extremely useful tricks to know.

Web designer's guide to print design : Mark Boulton

Where was this a month ago? Actually, this article wouldn't have helped me too much, I needed some solid basics like this Design Guide For Print, and these Blank Design Templates. But dude, I wish I'd known about CMYK's issues with orange (from Kurt Trew's comment) when I went about designing Cybil's menu. Still have my fingers crossed on that one. Hopefully the series that this article has started will cover these basic issues (picking CMYK colors, setting bleed and safety areas, etc.) in more depth than the few existing articles about print that can be found on the web.

Wooden Tool Box - Seconds - Duluth Trading Company

Finally settled on a toolbox after my old Rubbermaid one gave up the ghost (latches having broken years ago, the handle just snapped off). I was tempted to build my own, but not having a router let alone shop I decided to stick with the cribbage board projects. Coping/hand saws just aren't the same as a router and a table saw.

Lunacore Photoshop Training - Photoshop Tutorials

I'm always bookmarking photoshop tutorials, but rarely do enough work with actual photographs to put them to good use. There is one trick I've yet to figure out, not sure if the Realistic Clouds tutorial here will help… I want to create a "difference clouds" type effect, but at print resolution, at least 300dpi. I did a small thumbnail sketch for a recent design, but it ended up having a lot more texture than the finished piece, because I had trouble getting the built in photoshop filters to create the same effects at high res as they do for screen/web work.

Six Flags Magic Mountain : Tatsu

New Coaster, and I haven't even gotten a chance to go on X yet. Next visit's going to be fun.