Trump claims he loves veterans but he thinks POWs are losers and lies about donations raised/given to veteran groups.

That's a strange kind of love; like spousal abuse type of love.

The other day I was driving along and a song popped up by "Sagres" called "The Tallest Man on Earth."

It's a pretty good tune but.... Well, just listen.

The music was very familiar to me though I'd never heard the song before. As I listened to the song my brain just automatically identified the music and suddenly I was siging, "My Hometown" by Bruce Springsteen and not really hearing the lyrics to this song anymore.

I don't play many video games so take this with a grain of salt. In fact, this year, I played 6; GTA V (ps4), InFamous Second Son (ps4), Star Wars Battlefront (ps4), Rocket League (ps4), Carcassone (phone), and Small World (phone).

I have enjoyed GTA V but, at times it is a real grind and gets kind of boring. If I don't have people to do heists or jobs with I lose interest pretty fast. I've certainly spent more time playing this game.

InFamous Second Son was a pretty fun game that followed a pretty normal end of stage big boss battle formula very successfully. I liked this game quite a bit. While I didn't get as many hours of play out of it as GTA V I probably had more fun playing it than GTA.

Rocket League was a "free" game that comes as part of my play station network account. This is basically 3-v-3 soccer with cars. I grabbed it a few months ago when it was offered but didn't get around to playing it until last month. This is a seriously fun game that you can play in 5 minute batches. It's frustratingly difficult at first but it does get easier. Plus, if you are watching someone else learn along side you it is hilarious to watch them miss easy shots (by missing the HUGE ball completely). Some people you see playing online are insanely good. I'm infinitely better than I was last month and I'm still pretty crappy at times. It's still a blast to play though. This is my favorite game of 2015 hands down.

Star Wars Battlefront is an okay game but not as much fun as I'd hoped. Mostly this is because I suck at it. More than half the time I'm being killed by someone I can't see at all. I rarely end up with a 50:50 kill:death ratio. I seriously suck at this game. I like the theme (duh) and the mechanics are okay. I think I'd probably like this better if I could play on a PC using my mouse and keyboard. The fine twitch stuff just doesn't translate well for me on the PS4 controller - especially strafe and mouse-look. It's also pretty limited in terms of content and it's missing a story mode which I would have really liked.

Small World is a board game that has been converted to online play. It's sort of like Risk - but simpler to learn, faster to play, and never results in a board being flipped in anger. The electronic version is a little buggy but still well executed. My co-workers and I played this to death and we haven't played much in the past few months. I imagine we'll get back to it before too long.

Carcassonne is another board game that was converted. The board game as a bunch of expansions and only some of those are implemented in the e-version. However, the e-version works very well (I've not encountered any bugs) and it is a quick way to enjoy the game without having to clean up the many pieces when you're done. It's fun with just two people even; Lisa and I occasionally play.

TLDR:

For those of you who don't want to read the entire post - my favorite game of the year was :

Rocket League

It's fun, quick, and easy to sneak in a game or two without dedicating yourself to long gaming sessions.

Updated 3 Nov 2015

I've used Easy Scorecard Pro for a long time and, while I've been very happy with it, I was convinced to shell out the cash and try uDisc+ with the accompanying cloud storage option. Now that I've used uDisc+ for a while I figured I'd give a run down of the two; their pros, their cons, and name my favorite.

Let's start with the one I've used the longest: Easy Scorecard Pro

Easy Scorecard Pro

There is a light version I think but I've had the paid version for a long time because I liked the light version enough that I felt the app was worth paying for. I've never felt like I didn't get my money's worth.

While the app did stop getting support in November of 2014 it is still very feature rich and I've never really needed it to do something other than what it does.

Pros

• supports both disc golf rules and ball golf.
• you can download course layouts if you have the pro version.
• you can back up your results to dropbox very easily.
• supports teams (doubles)
• you can define your own course layouts.
• customizable scorecard generation
• easy to share your scorecard image
• tons of stats you can slice, dice, and filter in all sorts of ways.

Cons

• the app is no longer supported so the online database of courses could go away at any time
• it's ugly
• defining your own course layout seems a little overly complicated
• not available at all on iPhone
• no disc stats

Honestly, I have a hard time coming up with solid complaints with this app. It does everything I could need a scorecard app to do. I am disappointed that the online repo of courses could go away but at least I know my backup of past rounds never will since I store it on dropbox and thus sync it to my desktop etc.

The lack of iPhone support doesn't affect me but it's still a problem for many people looking for an app.

uDisc+

uDisc+ is the big name on the block in disc golf scoring apps. It is supported on both android and iPhone. It also offers an annual subscription service that uploads your scorecards to their cloud for about $4-5 a year.

Pros

• it's actively being supported on both android and iPhone though I think iPhone tends to get features first.
• Has lots of courses built in.
• the cloud feature is nice for comparing your rounds with others in the area that also use the app.
• easy to share your scorecard
• disc stats
• easy to mark "OB"
• speech prompt for tee-order by honors

Cons

• it's ugly
• i haven't seen a way to define my own course layout; if it's in there it is well hidden. update, it is well hidden! See bottom of post for more info
• can't backup to Dropbox or anywhere else that I can see. update, it is also well hidden! See bottom of post for more info
• can't customize the final scorecard
• interface is a little clunky
• doesn't support ball golf rules or courses (not the scope of the app but I still miss it)
• distance measuring tool is pretty unreliable (dev says this is all based on the phone gps. I wonder, now that I think about it, if there isn't a helpful API that also uses cell tower positioning etc to help improve precision?)
• final scorecard is ugly
• no ability to define doubles teams

uDisc works - but it is a little cumbersome to use before you start a scorecard. Once you're in the scoring part however it's really nice and easy. I don't really use the disc stat feature - it just seems like too much effort for little reward; but I could see how some people would really like it. I'd say my favorite feature is being able to see how my recent rounds stand up against how others in the area are doing via the optional subscription service.

Conclusion

I play a lot of singles but I also play a lot of doubles. The lack of team support in uDisc+ is a real pain in the ass. I've been switching back and forth between the two apps so I can really give uDisc+ a solid try but every time we play doubles I'm forced back to Easy Scorecard.

Further, the final scorecard generated by uDisc+ is just kind of lame. On the bright side uDisc+ has a much better interface for actually entering players scores on each hole and the social aspect is pretty cool.

Here is an older scorecard from Easy Scorecard Pro (which you can customize the colors of, remove the history section, remove the holes won section, add other sections to, etc).

Meanwhile here is a scorecard from uDisc+

The Winner

In the end, however, only one of the two tools actually works for me and that is Easy Scorecard Pro. If you don't play doubles or are on an iPhone then uDisc+ is the way to go - but if you're on Android Easy Scorecard Pro is an easy choice.

It's hard to really describe how much more I like Easy Scorecard Pro. Navigating around the app is much more intuitive (though I do wish it had been updated to Material Design at some point) and the stats are so much richer and easier to filter. Finally, the scorecard at the end is vastly more readable to me. I don't have to count "tick" marks to find all my penalties and I can track our doubles rounds.

Here is a sample scorecard for a doubles round:

Updates After Speaking to the Developer of uDisc+

Defining a Course Layout

You can define a course layout. You have to go to the course info screen.

1. Open uDisc+
2. Open Side Menu
3. Click on "Find Course"
4. Find your course and click on it a couple times to get to the course info screen

The course info screen is blue, shows the course ratings and location. There is a field called "Description" near the bottom of the page.

To add a course layout or edit an existing layout for review by the uDisc folks:

1. Click on the "Description" field on the course info screen
2. A confirmation box appears, click "Yes"
3. An alert box appears, click "OK"

At this point you can either edit/fix an existing layout or create a new layout for the course. If you are going to edit an existing course read the uDisc+ FAQ for directions. Honestly, I don't really see the instructions for editing the holes on an existing layout and I can't figure out by just clicking around but the app does urge you to read the FAQ so I'm echoing it here.

Well, actually, I just found out how to edit individual holes!

Editing Individual Holes

1. Start a score card on your course
2. Go to the hole in question
3. Tap on the "Distance" box in at the top of the hole page
4. A satellite map appears
5. Tap on the Menu icon (three vertical dots)
6. Tap Edit in the Menu

It crashed when I clicked on Edit but that appears to be the process. If your app ever crashes make sure you report it so the developer gets as much info as possible which will help him fix it.

Exporting Your Data to Dropbox (or G Drive, etc).

1. Open uDisc+
2. Open Side Menu
3. Scroll the menu down to the bottom.
4. About five from the bottom is the option "About uDisc" click it
5. In the top right corner is a button, "Export" click it
6. Pick the service you want to backup to.

NOTE If you ever restore from a backup it will fully replace your existing local data; it will not "merge" the two.

Team Play

The author of the app suggested I just create fake players with names like "Team1" or "Bill+Sean" which is a decent work around at this point. He said he is working on adding real team support in the future which, to me, will be a very welcome addition.

This whole video is incredible. I think the team in all black is better but damn they all do amazing things.

Emily, her friend Becky, and I did a cool little science experiment this past weekend called the bouncy egg. Basically, you soak a raw egg in white vinegar for 20 hours or so and during that time the shell will disintegrate leaving an intact egg held together by a semi-thick membrane.

You can then drop it from 6-10" and watch it bounce. You can squish it in your hands and even see into the membrane a little bit. It's pretty neat. Heck, even without the kids present I would have had fun with the bouncy egg.

Here is a short video of us playing with the egg and then, finally, figuring out how how it can survive a drop from before breaking (I'd say it survived a fall from at least 15").

Anyone who really knows me knows I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan; particularly of the Roger Waters era. I still really loved the post Waters Floyd but the vibe of the music, and more importantly the lyrics, with Waters always really appealed to me.

My friend Oswald, whom I met in the Army, then introduced me to Waters solo albums which I also really enjoy.

Sadly, I've never seen Floyd or Waters in concert though, perhaps, I can change that next year when Roger goes on tour again. He has even written a new song (so maybe there is an entirely new album coming out).

Even if I hadn't led in with all the talk of Floyd and Waters you'd know this song was a Roger Waters song. It has his trademarks all over it. The slow piano opening, the choir ladies in the background, the emotional crescendo, and the sharp enunciation to end some sentences. It's all there. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I do enjoy this song but if it is the first song on his first new album in 22 years I guess I thought he might have changed a bit. Here it is recorded by a fan at the Newport Music Festival:

I have been reading a little bit about Omniscient.js - it looks cool; but when I see statements like this

when a value has been swapped in the immutable structure - source

I feel like, maybe, the term immutable is being misused.

I have a Galaxy S5 that I got via at&t on the first day they were on sale last year. It was the "flagship" device so it seemed likely that it would get "timely" updates. It turns out that, for me at least, this was a false assumption.

AT&T was slow at getting Android 5.0 aka Lollipop to the S5 but they did release an update in April 2015. Somehow, however, my phone was not updated. I waited, I checked, I tried to force an update, and it never happened. Months went by until yesterday when I finally decided to figure out what was going on.

I stopped by the AT&T store and they couldn't help me but they did give me a phone number. I called and got right through to a tech-support person. He couldn't really help but did try. He even tried to force the update down to my phone but it seems the AT&T phone update system didn't know anything about my phone's IMEI number so I was being denied.

The AT&T guy then pulled a Samsung guy onto the call but he couldn't help either. In fact the two of them gave me contradictory information before the Samsung guy finally admitted he had no more to offer and left the call. The AT&T guy then got a higher level tech support person involved (via chat so I didn't get to talk to him) but eventually that proved useless as well. All in all I wasted about 1.5 hours and still my phone was at Android 4.4.2 - but at least I understood why I wasn't getting the update even if I couldn't do much about it via the normal AT&T support channels.

Today I decided to take matters into my own hands. It turns out that if you root your phone you can download a couple helpful programs and a copy of the AT&T version of Android 5 for the Galaxy S5 and update yourself in no time. In fact, in less than an hour I was back up and running and now I have Lollipop.

Plus, after doing the update my baseband version was "fixed" so now my phone is able to get the most recent update from AT&T which, supposedly, fixes a few issues. However, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for the next update (5.1) and I'll probably just install that manually as well. I doubt I'll wait around for AT&T to do it's job in the future.

This site, http://galaxys5root.com/, actually has all the information you might need/want if you are in the same boat. I'll leave it to you to figure out which steps are appropriate for you.

Previously I had blogged that I really liked the simplo icon pack. I still do but not nearly as much as I like Circolium. Here is the same setup as before but using Circolium:

Here is the older one with Simplo for quick comparison: