Russellmania.com

The Idea That Won't Die

05.12.2011

Back in 2008 I had an idea for a medication calendar aimed at those in Hospice care. The idea has stayed in my head, bouncing to the forefront on occasion. Lately the idea has lent itself to how best to help groups of caregivers that may be spread out (i.e. not living in the same house). While researching this I cam across Lotsa Helping Hands, primarily an online calendar for scheduling caregivers along with some other nice features.

I really like this idea - plus they've been providing this service (free of charge!) since 2004. I wish I had known about it when Mom was sick. It's a beautiful concept and wonderful tool for those that need it, and for those that don't know they need it yet.

My idea is still bouncing around. Lotsa Helping Hands has a lot of what I want my idea to become, but there's still a couple of holes that need to be filled.

Permalink mom random

I Survived Fine, Thanks For Asking

05.08.2011

April 27, 2011 was the (1) the 2nd worse tornado outbreak in the Tennessee Valley (outdoing both the '74 and '89 tornadoes) and (2) the closest I've knowingly been to a tornado, albeit after the fact.

That Wednesday morning I had an ominous feeling about the weather. The severe, tornado inducing storms usually stay to the south of me, but the storms that were being tracked were going north more than normal. We were all checking the radar from work, and there were a couple times that I noticed the red blobs were going more toward my neck of the woods than I would like. The first wave of storms hit while I was out to lunch. Being part psychic, I decided to go straight home after lunch and avoid sitting in the halls of work, hunkered down for tornado warnings. On the way home the rain and wind had died down, but ½ mile from the house a tree had fallen across eastbound Hwy 72 and a couple of houses on the north side of 72 had been uprooted and felled.

As the weather worsened throughout the evening I would stick my head outside the door to have a look-see. Around 5:30 the cable went out, followed by the power sometime in the next half hour. Jer would text me weather/spotting updates. Around 7:00 I got a call from Jim. "Are you ok?" he asked. "I'm fine, power's out. It just looks bad outside", I told him. He came back with "The camera on the 48 radar just got blown away by the tornado." I've half-heartedly joked for years that as long as the channel 48 radar is working, I'll be fine since the radar is just under a mile from the house. "WHAT?" I asked. "Yeah, you better hunker down." So I went and hunkered down.

We are trained to hide in a bathtub when tornadoes come. I remember a handful of times sitting in the tub, Mom usually sitting nearby. I went and looked at my tub and how feeble it seemed, not able to withstand any type of disaster. Useless piece of fiberglass and plastic. Still, I have 1 room with no exterior walls, and it's the bathroom. I went to hunker down in the bathroom, not in the tub, but rather the floor. I'm old, so I decided I needed some comfort in my hunkering down:

Yoga mat - to give some padding between me and the floor.
Blanket - at the time for more padding between me and the floor.
Candles - not so much to set the mood, but there was no power.
About 3 pillows - to properly prop up my resting head while sprawled out on the yoga mat and blanket.
Portable DVD player - I've got to be entertained somehow. I watched Lakeview Terrace and most of the Hurt Locker before the battery died.

By 8:30 or 9:00 there was a round of "are you ok" and "it should be over" messages with Jerry and Jim. I checked in with Gina, who had power, but I wasn't sure if I could make it to her house based on how bad everything was supposed to have gotten. So Wednesday night I went to bed in the dark with no power, amazed at how quiet and dark everything could be.

Over the next 5 days I would wait for power to be restored and be amazed at the damage that had gotten within ½ mile of my house. Trees were blocking roads. Power lines were laying on the ground or wrapped around fallen trees. Houses with damage ranging from slight roof damage to being smashed by the hand of god. I stayed with Gina most of that time - using up her power, hot water, and internet. I would watch morning news conferences where the leaders of Madison County would give updates on power being returned, nightly reported burglaries, and if the dusk to dawn curfew was still in effect.

On Tuesday morning I had power back at home. It was funny, but the only thing I really missed from the lack of power was a warm shower. Had the temperature been warmer I would quickly add air conditioning, but it was relatively pleasant. Mr. I Have 1000 DVDs, Mr. Internet, Mr. Everything On A Computer, and I miss warm water. I was shocked! Granted, I enjoyed watching movies in the air conditioned house while looking up trivia on the internet, but it wasn't the necessity I thought it once was.

Permalink rambling random

Unity Beginner Tutorials

04.26.2011

So everyone should have had plenty of time to see the Wrestlemania update. There should be a Smackdown from Nashville update in roughly two weeks. But until then...

For years I've been trying to pick up and learn the Torque Game Engine as part of my goal to make my dream wrestling game. Due to a handful of circumstances at the end of last year, I found that Torque would not be feasible, which is a shame because I've spent a nice sum on the engine and assets over the years. At first I was going to go the Unreal Engine path, but thanks to 1 conversation with Joe too many I've instead opted for Unity. 2 weeks ago I finally stopped putting off opening up the IDE and grabbed my first book of tutorials and headed off into the wild blue yonder. So far, I'm enjoying it!

The book takes baby steps to get you started, and that's the way I like it. When something goes wrong, it's easy to track down to the handful of lines of code just entered. The first half of the book (I'm on page 177 out of 351 right now) focuses on 2D GUI examples. While some people scoff and complain, I think this is a fine first step. The first working game you make is the old Card Flip/Memory game. It's not a space marine running through a space ship shooting aliens, but it's a working game! There's code, there's logic, there's bits and pieces I can fiddle with, break, and put back together so I know how it works. This is great!

By the end of this book I should have a game with 3D elements, interaction, and from what I've seen a whole lot of emphasis on a clock and score keeping system. The publisher has another Unity book (which I have sitting on my shelf) that focuses on making a 3D FPS game. That book looks to be the perfect follow up for the book I'm going through now. Plus, there are tons of examples, tutorials, and videos for making FPS games in Unity.

Speaking of which, here's my follow up list of references for myself in case I delete the wrong email and have to go searching this stuff down again.

At least now you'll know what I'm doing when there's a lack of updates.

Permalink game dev

Atlanta, GA: Wrestlemania 27

04.11.2011

April 2-4, 2011. A weekend I had been looking forward to since Feb 1, 2010, when Matt and I were talking to WWE Jason after a Raw show in Nashville and found out it was actually possible for him to get us in to Wrestlemania. I hate taking advantage of Jason's good nature, but yet it seems I always do. Wrestlemania would not be an exception. I mean, it's Wrestlemania!

My Wrestlemania trip was the first time I've driven to/in Atlanta. I've flown through, I've been driven, but I've never taken the wheel. Well my Atlanta driving cherry is now popped and I lived to talk about it. Saturday was the Hall of Fame ceremony. Evil Mathias and his brother (who, for the purposes of this adventure will be called "Steve") were due in Atlanta around 4:00. Gina and I arrived the day before at her aunt's house in Newnan. I decided to let Gina have family time and left to acquaint myself with Atlanta before meeting and picking up Team Evil. It was during my drive to the Georgia Dome/Phillips Arena, where I was going to spend a good chunk of the next 3 days, that I drove around downtown Atlanta and the surrounding southern area. And during this drive I found that Atlanta is a shithole. There are nice parts, but the bad parts are bad. Not that anything bad happened to me on this trip, but I just had a weird, uneasy feeling a handful of times. But enough about Atlanta, this is about the festivities!

Day 1: Hall of Fame
I got the call from Matt that he and Steve had arrived, so I went to pick them up and we made our way to Phillips Arena and parking. We parked at the garage across the street from the arena ($20 for that convenience) and started to walk downtown in search of dinner. Half a mile away we found Jalapeno Charlies and I listened to the table next to us as British accents explained the intricacies of wrestling to some British accented women. Evidently you can wow women by explaining wrestling with a British accent. Not so much with a redneck accent. After eating we trekked the half mile back to the arena and got to our seats for the HOF. The night was being taped and would be edited for both the Wrestlemania DVD release and the last hour or so for airing on Monday night before Raw. There were a couple of interesting tidbits that didn't make the cut:

Road Dogg (Brian James) had no notes when he and his brothers Scott and Brad were inducting their father, Bullet Bob Armstrong. He reached a point where he just drew a blank on what he was going to say. "I've got nothing. I had all sorts of stories backstage. This can all be cut in the editing room, right?"
Triple H, when inducting Shawn Michaels, was talking about the comedy bits they did in DX and how Shawn would do the Google Eye, whereupon one of Hunter's eyes looked at his nose, the other looked up off in the distance somewhere. He did this 3 times and it was hilarious.
Shawn Michaels was another one that came out sans notes. The cat calls were really throwing him off to where he said it would be great tv if he had a nervous breakdown. "You guys are killing me with the cat calls" he said, which of course brought on more cat calls.

My personal favorite moment of the night was when Dusty Rhodes was inducting the Road Warriors and telling an old story. "Road Warrior Hawk, I called him Hank, Hank and I were having a beverage...". Matt and I looked at each other. Hank? The man's name was Mike, he went by Hawk, but Dusty called him Hank. "Matt, from now on I'm going to call you Billy" a said with glee.

Day 2: Wrestlemania 27
Learning part of a lesson from the joy of traffic with 10,000 fans at the Hall of Fame, Team Evil, myself, and Gina opted to try MARTA for the journey to Wrestlemania and the 71,000 fans that would be in the Georgia Dome. Compared to sitting in traffic, taking the train in was nice. Round trip was also $4, which was a lot cheaper than the $20 for parking the day before. Even if you take all 4 of us, it was still $4 cheaper than parking.

Our tickets were on the first floor risers near the entrance ramp. We ended up sitting behind the kids from the latest version of Tough Enough. I spent a good while taking in the spectacle. Jason designs the lights and stage, and I enjoy seeing how good a job he does. Although everyone else doesn't know who's responsible, I hope they appreciate the work that goes into making everything look as good as it does. The drawback of the setup was that the sound & lighting guys had there own little island of a workstation, so there would be no hanging out with Jason like we do in Nashville.

Soon Wrestlemania started, and to be honest the details of the show are kind of a blur. I watched the scoreboard monitor for most of the action - between standing fans and distance from the ring it was the best way to see what was going on. The reviews of the show have been mostly negative, complaining that it was boring. The actual matches may have been a little boring, but I was so caught up in the spectacle I didn't notice (or maybe I didn't care). After the show Jason came over and caught up a little - mostly with Gina. He always liked her best.

Now I can say I've been to Wrestlemania.

Day 3: Superstars/Raw
Monday night saw myself and Team Evil return to the Phillips Arena for Raw and the Superstars taping. Beforehand we went to Ted's Montana Grill for dinner, home of the best (bison) nachos I've ever had. Before the show was a little nerve racking as there were no tickets at the Will-Call counter. This has happened a couple of times, and the tickets always show up, but it still makes me nervous.

We got our tickets and made it to our seats which were up behind the last hard camera position. Although farther away than most people want to sit, you get a good view of the action. The only bad part was that we were too far away for Cameraman Marty to hear us cheering for him. I'm generally fairly quiet at wrestling events, but for some reason I felt the urge to hoot and holler on this night. For the opening bout between Santino Marella and (one of my personal favorites) Ted DiBiase Jr, I was calling the action using my Dusty Rhodes voice while pulling for the heel, Ted. Matt and I do this frequently on Monday nights, so maybe I was just due? Superstars and Raw went on without incident and my weekend of wrestling was drawing to a close.

After Raw we went and talked to Jason while he was packing up. I had work a wrestling t shirt each night (Saturday was a "Property of WWE" shirt, Sunday was Rock's "I Bring It" shirt, and Monday was my official "Wrestlemania 27" shirt), which only merits mentioning because a slightly inebriated fan with a championship belt on his shoulder came up to Jason, me, Matt, and Steve, and proceeded to thank us for all the hard work we put into the production. Jason smiled and thanked him, and I even nodded, and then the guy kept going on and on. He eventually shook my hand, talked a little more, and then shook Jasons hand. I patted the guy on the should and told him I was glad he enjoyed the show and tried to steer him away - Jason's got things to do! The guy thanked us again and left. "There's one at every show" Jason told us. I looked at him and said "And evidently we all work to make this show great. So.... I'm your assistant now!"

I've had 3 days of wrestling events. Since 1985 I've wanted to go to Wrestlemania. Thanks to Jason, my 26 year old dream finally happened. There was a moment during the opening of Wrestlemania when I got chills and actually felt "Oh my god I'm actually here." and for some odd reason I thought of Mom. I don't like to travel, I don't like crowds (especially of rednecks), yet here I was in Atlanta in an arena with 71,000 people. Mom would always listen to my wrestling adventures even though she didn't know who the players were. I think she would have liked this adventure.

I've been to Wrestlemania. I can mark that off my bucket list. I'm not sure if I would do it again. I wonder if I'll get an urge to visit Miami next April?

Permalink wrestling

Rocklanta on the Horizon

03.30.2011

Tomorrow after work I leave for Atlanta for Wrestlmania 27! I know it's just Thursday and the show's not until Sunday, but Gina's got relatives and visiting to do, and work won't miss me :)

I dig up and slightly updated an old Russellmania logo with a scheme reminiscent of Wrestlemania 19. I used to have an option to switch themes on the website - maybe it's time to revisit that and dig up some other old logos?

I think the actual high point of the weekend will be the Hall of Fame ceremony. Bullet Bob Armstong, who was the biggest face in the Alabama/Tennessee area when I was watching wrestling out of Birmingham back in the trailer park days, is being inducted. The man is 71 years old and still wrestles 4 days a week. Bob's an ex-marine who always came across as able to kick anyone's ass (and probably still does).Along with Bob (and others) the original Road Warriors/Legion of Doom will be inducted. The first time I saw them on tv out of Georgia that just ran in and then over everyone. Pure devastation. Although Hawk (Mike Hegstrand) passed away a few years ago, I'm hoping Animal, Ellering, and good old Bullet Bob will have some good stories to share from the old days - I love hearing those stories.

Once the actual wrestling starts on Sunday, which will roll into Raw on Monday, the Cameraman Marty Miller Fan Club will be set to make their debut. It sounds like we might have t-shirts. For those that don't know, Marty is the cameraman at ringside closest to the announce table. Marty likes to zoom; That's how we know it's Marty. On the far side on the floor, next to the entrance ramp, is Rico with the other camera. Rico is more mundane in his camerawork and doesn't zoom. As such, Rico's camera angle is much easier to watch, but it gives us no reason to cry out and participate in the match. Marty zooms in per punch and elicits cries of "MARTY!" from Matt and myself.

MARTY!