Mandy Advances to Region Science Fair

Our family is very fortunate to get a double play in Science & Engineering Fair goodness this year.

Mandy had so much fun playing with Brennan's Tic-Tac-Toe project last year, that she decided she wanted to create her own game for the Web this year as her Engineering Fair project.

She chose the game of "Dots".  You know, that game you play on paper with other nearby friends during long boring meetings like a middle-school geography class, where you vie to capture more boxes than the other players by connecting dots to make the sides of the boxes.  She opted to name her game "DotMania", paying homage to our favorite video game franchise "ManiaPlanet" by Nadeo.

It was a blast to help her think conceptually about how to teach a computer to allow this game to be played, and even more fun helping her figure out how to make an interactive board with HTML, CSS And JavaScript.

The design she finalized on was to use an HTML table, with dots absolutely positioned in each corner of every cell, then adding "Click Zone" divs along the borders of each cell, handling the event when a player clicks on one of them.  If it's a valid move, it will highlight and check to see if that table cell's square is complete, as well as any adjacent square that shares the same border.

The game also tracks score as it goes.

Whether you're already a fan of the game, or you've never played it before, please give Mandy's "DotMania" project a try, and wish her luck in the Central Utah Science & Engineering Fair in March at BYU!

Play DotMania
It brings happiness.

Congratulations Mandy!  You're "awesomesauce"!

Brennan Advances to Region Science Fair

Last school year, Brennan tackled developing Tic-Tac-Toe for 2 players using HTML, JavaScript and CSS.    It was really fun for me to help him with the project and learning 3 new computer languages.

This year, he decided he wanted to delve into Artificial Intelligence and add a computer player to his Tic-Tac-Toe game.  It was a unique and exciting experience to help him process through concepts and watch the gears turn as he tried to figure out what our minds ask ourselves when we play Tic-Tac-Toe.

The outcome is quite fun.  If you haven't seen it yet, check it out on his website, brennan.thatoneplace.net

The next round will be held at BYU in March.  We've never been this far in a "fair" before, so we're both nervous and excited.  Apparently there are cash and other prizes at stake as well; and rumor has it, there might be companies present that look to give scholarships for interesting computer engineering projects.  It would be awesome for one to take an interest in our aspiring engineer!

Brennan and I would like to thank all of you who helped "beta test" his project and provide feedback.  We are excited to see how he does at the Region Science & Engineering Fair!

Congratulations Brennan!  You rock!

Happiness is...

Gwen and Mandi
at the
Mommy-Daughter Olympics

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of these two.

I love the ladies in my life.

Shaking about Quaking?

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything here, but I thought this was worth it.
After receiving several "Breaking News" emails from CNN And FOX over the last several days, about numerous earthquakes around the globe, and a myriad of tornadoes ripping across the mid-west, I decided to hit the USGS website today to try to dig up more details:

Real-time Earthquake Map

I found a wonderfully useful real-time map that shows earthquakese that are happening all around the world, and will let you zoom in for closer inspection.

You'll be interested to know that there have been 7160 earthquakes in the past 30 days around the world... 38 in the USA in the last week that were 2.5 magnitude or greater; all of which are shown in this screenshot.

Utah (and I imagine other states) has been ramping up on Emergency Preparedness awareness as-of-late, and it's not hard to imagine why.

Today is the "Utah ShakeOut" -- earthquake simulation to ensure that communication protocols recently put in place are working and effective.

Residents are to call their "block captains" between the hours of 10:00am to 12:00pm Mountain time to "check-in" and let them know they are ok.  The block captains will then report to their team captains, who will then continue reporting up the chain until the city and state are notified with updates from everyone.

With as much activity as has been going on as-of-late, I'm surprised we're not doing this for real.  Now that's not to get everyone scared out-of-their-pants, but we all need to be aware that this is going on.

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."

Please, if you know who your block captains are, make efforts to contact them tomorrow so we can prove that this communication system will work.  Who knows if we won't be doing this for real someday.  (Did I mention the 4.2 magnitude quake in Panguitch, UT that happened on 12 April, just 5 days ago?!)

Best of luck to all involved in the Shakeout today.  And thanks to the USGS for providing the real-time map of quakes going on.

My Wife and Daughters Are Too Good to Me

So I had a really bad night tonight due to some circumstances, and my poor wife sweetly listened as I ranted about it... before leaving for an event I was helping with.

She felt bad about it and discussed it with my daughters while I was away, and they immediately took action and check out what I came home to...

Chocolate chip cookies and milk, and two of the cutest notes ever from my daughters.

I love you, ladies of my life! Thanks for bringing smiles to my face, tears to my eyes, and love to my heart.

I'm not worthy of you.