The Four State Challenge
Jun 05, 2013
AT Memorial Day Weekend 2013 – The Four State Challenge
After five years of hiking and camping on the Appalachian Trail for Memorial Day, for 2013 the group decided to try something a bit different: a long-distance single day hike. Since I live so close to Harper’s Ferry, WV, the so-called “four state challenge” was a perfect fit for us. The challenge is to hike the 42 miles from the Pennsylvania-Maryland border to the West Virginia-Virginia border in under 24 hours.
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A Quick Camping Trip on Weverton Cliff
May 05, 2013
Summertime is upon us, and the time was right for Tommy and I to do our annual tune-up hike in preparation for the bigger Memorial Day one. This time around we chose to head up north of Harper’s Ferry, WV to a shelter we’d passed by a few years ago: the Ed Garvey Shelter on the Appalachian Trail. The one-way distance was just a little over 6 miles and the elevation gain moderate.
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Leesburg Independence Day 2012
Apr 14, 2013
Leesburg Independence Day
Seattle Days 3 and 4
Feb 18, 2013
I was cleaning out my basement guest room when I found my notes from my Seattle Trip in April last year. Cool! Since this is such a great discovery and also a good supplement to my vivid memory of this trip, I figure that I should flush out the rest of my memories of this experience to text before they fade into the ether. Here goes.
We started off day three of the trip at 8:30, heading out in the Jeep towards Olympic National Park (nestled all the way in the upper-left side of Washington state).
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North Carolina Dreaming
Feb 17, 2013
Since we’re in the dead-middle of February, naturally it is cold as hell here in Northern Virginia. I look out the window at what appears to be a beautiful day outside only to face the cold reality of a temperature in the low 30s without wind chill. Sigh. My mind is wandering back to the North Carolina beaches we visited earlier this summer and how gorgeous they were. Having dropped off the little one with my parents for a few days, Kristin and I made full use of the beach in Kill Devil Hills.
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Walkers on Jockey's Ridge
Feb 17, 2013
Here’s another one from my Outer Banks trip this past summer. Away from all the commotion of the bigger dunes, I spotted this couple walking along. I liked how they were framed by the enormous clouds of the day.
A couple walking on Jockey's Ridge
I’ve got a few more pictures from OBX that’ll be coming along shortly, but I thought this was a good “end of a good day” post to have.
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Harper's Ferry, May 2012
Feb 11, 2013
I’m fortunate enough to live close enough to Harper’s Ferry, WV to be able to take quick hiking trips there whenever I please. Here’s a few photos I dug up of the place on the morning after a quick over-nighter.
The sun comes up over the river
A nice viewing spot
Another nice viewing spot over the Potomac
I can’t wait until spring rolls around so I can get back out there.
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Thoughts on Indie Game The Movie
Feb 11, 2013
Last night I watched the documentary Indie Game: The Movie. Made by two people from Canada, the film follows several indie game developers as they near the release of their games. As a part of a game development team, the film hit close to my heart. Even though I don’t get paid for developing like the protagonists in the film, I still empathized with them and all their struggles. A lot of the things in the film resonated with me.
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A visit to Oklahoma
Feb 10, 2013
Last month we visited my sister-in-law just outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. We had a great time hanging out. Most of the days were bone-chilling cold while we were there, but we did have one day of relief during which we went to their local zoo. It was fantastic!
Although I don’t really like birds that much, I do have to say that it was pretty impressive to see so many friendly ones around.
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Much Ado About Elo - Part Deux
Aug 06, 2012
It has been about two weeks since I talked initially about our Elo ranking system. How time flies! As that time has passed, I’ve collected lots of valuable feedback both from players as well as my fellow developers, and I’m very excited to tell you about some further tweaks I’ve made to the algorithm. There are two relatively big changes: one dealing with non-duel game modes, and another dealing with how S is calculated in the original formula.
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