For inquiring minds...

Blog updates have been few and far between. Part of this is due to working on lots of stuff, and since I tend to work on things in parallel, nothing gets done timely. Working on it...

Anyway, I've been working with Pat on Sneaq/Blurt/<name still to be determined>, a fast and loose blogging engine, and spending too much time debugging all the stupid little problems I seem to encounter.

Oh, and I met an absolutely wonderful girl here in Colorado Springs. Here's a couple pics of Kristen and I while hiking Seven Bridges...


On the downside, I just found out how bad Colorado is for consulting rates. Oh well, time to write the killer iPhone application and just let the money roll in...

Jack Quinn's Runners Club

Yesterday I ran 5K with Jack Quinn's Runners Club. It's more of a drinking club with a running problem as it's sponsored by a great Irish bar in downtown Colorado Springs, with free appetizers and 2.50 Odell beers. The beer is actually really good, my favorite so far is their 90 Shilling (a Scottish ale), but in September they should have the seasonal Extra Special Red.

This club is a really big deal, at least in terms of participant numbers. 628 ran yesterday -- yes, they keep attendance, and after 10 runs you get a really nice shirt. Most people stick around afterwards, either upstairs where the food is, or outside spilling onto the sidewalk.

Out of the 627 other people, I met two: Colb (sp?) who was volunteering to bus the tables, and Sue, an English woman who's been here for 21 (23?) years and participates in half Iron Mans. Both were really nice and fun. Time for me to volunteer and meet some more people...

My two goals were accomplished: meeting some new people and not stopping to suck wind during the run. Yay for me!

First purchased iPhone app: SmartSokoban

I generally do not buy applications unless absolutely necessary and usually only the best in class. I've purchased VMware Fusion, OmniFocus (if it had support for time keeping, billing, and simple reporting I'd probably use it), and OmniGraffle.

However, for $4.99, SmartSokoban (AppStore link) is worth all 499 pennies. Sokoban is a puzzle game where you have to move boxes around a maze and set them in the appropriate place. The trick is you may only push boxes. This implementation has very slick looking and minimalistic graphics, in fact it looks better than any other implementation I've seen. It also features the option to download additional Sokoban level libraries.

Of course, SmartSokoban could use a few features like counting how many moves, concurrent level libraries, and many other obvious ones, but it is brilliant in its current simplicity.

P.S. If anyone figures out the level 11, let me know. I'm pretty sure it is unsolvable.