FOOTBALL IS BACK!!!!

For those of you that have to listen to me talk about football, you know that the NFL locked out the players and we were in danger of there being no NFL football in 2011. However, the owners and the players all finally decided on how to divvy up the massive NFL pot of gold and the lockout has been lifted!

In response to this glorious announcement I have created the second iteration of the annual McLeonard Fantasy Football league on NFL.com. Actually come to think of it, were gonna need a new name soon, aren't we? The League consists of 2 Leonards (3 if Izzy joins), 5 McGowans, 2 Moores, and 2 Kremers. So were the McLeonKreMoores? Were gonna need a better name than that.

Well anyways, until someone can come up with a better name, were sticking with McLeonard. I have the league all set up and I have already sent out invites to everyone via Facebook because literally everything on the internet is integrated with facebook now. You should be able to click the link on your Facebook page and follow the instructions there to register. The league password is "trophy", but I don't think you'll need it because I explicitly invited all of you.

Looking forward to all the delightfully clever team names, though I don't think anyone can top mine: Newton's Law of Forward Motion.

*Edited to add* I forgot to mention, I currently have the live draft set to Saturday, August 20th at 8pm. I hope to see a bigger turnout for the live draft than last year, there's a chat room integrated so we can all make fun of each other's terrible choices and have a good time. I can move the date and/or time if needed, just let me know via any forum you like what days work for you.

I'm Going to Miami!

So, it is official for those of you who don't know. On August 1st I will be flying to Miami! It will be my first time ever flying and my first time to Florida. I'm super excited and will be staying with my friend Maryel and her mom when I'm down there. Also, I get to go to Disney and Island of Adventure for the first time EVER!!!!!!!!!

Frozen Pond Games Update

No one posted on here in a while, so you get to suffer through another Frozen Pond Games update!

New version of our website is live as of this morning: http://frozenpondgames.com

We are working hard at our second game... I think it is coming together very nicely. This game is an order of magnitude more complicated than our previous efforts with 9Volt. We are utilizing many feature of the Android platform and smart-phones that we have no yet touched. In fact, 9Volt only leveraged one phone feature (the touchscreen). Game 2 will leverage at least 4 features perhaps including social media features like posting to Facebook and Twitter.

The new website is based on the Wordpress blog framework to allow us to post content and begin to develop some community. Look forward to some fun things in that vein as we develop our online community and begin to tease some things about our new game project!

Not Moving In....

So as many of you know, I was supposed to be able to move in to my new house as early as tomorrow, June 1st. As it turns out, the girl who was planning to live in the house with me until August 1st failed to discuss this notion with her parents until yesterday. Her parents were not okay with this situation. As a result, I will not be moving in until July 1st. The good news is that now Breezy and Jon get to enjoy my company for a whole extra month!!

Frozen Pond Update

Made some Live Wallpapers for the market this weekend... Couple of them are free... If you have an Android device, let me know what you think!

Frozen Pond Games on the Android Market

Sunburnt in Denver

Yes, yes, everyone has explained to me that being at a higher altitude, closer to the sun with less atmosphere between me and the UV rays... blah blah blah. I don't care, my sunburn hurts! Anyway, I decided I should give everyone a life update.

I had a blast in Colorado. You have not seen a sunset until you watch it over the Rockies, absolutely stunning. One of the things I really loved was how open the land was. I'm so used to the massive amounts of trees in North Carolina, that I didn't think you could just see for miles. Turns out, you can. One night when Ludwig and I were driving back from one thing or another, we came up to the crest of a hill and I saw a huge expanse of city lights. I mentioned it to Ludwig and he said that was probably 4 or 5 cities I was seeing even though it looked like one. I'm probably not doing a good job of explaining it and/or I might be the only one who thinks it's cool, but you just wasted 30 seconds reading that paragraph... so... *sticks out tongue*

Downtown Denver

On the first day, Ludwig and I went up to Wyoming to meet his friend and to visit his workplace. Honestly I thought I was going to be bored out of my mind inside an airplane hanger, but I was extremely intrigued. They had 3 planes inside and most of them were missing parts and being cleaned, etc. etc. Then a 4th plane came in and Ludwig took me into the cockpit. I sat in the co-pilot's chair while he tested millions of different things, explaining them all to me and then he MOVED THE AIRPLANE! I thought it was so cool to be inside a moving airplane IN the CO-PILOT seat! It's okay, I know you are jealous.

I couldn't get the video of our "trip" to upload here, so it should be on my facebook, you can check it out there.


On day two Ludwig took me to Estes Park in the mountains. The drive up to the town was just absolutely breathtaking. Jon wasn't kidding when he told me Colorado was beautiful. The town was adorable as well. We stopped to get some of Grandma's cookies and almost picked up a Mexican cookbook for me and then decided I still wouldn't be able to cook. After the drive in the mountains we went to Ludwig's sister's graduation from Northern Colorado, she graduated with a master's in clinical counseling! Her family was very proud.

On day three we took Ludwig's 4 year old brother to Chuck E Cheese. After a few hours I began to think that I'm not gonna be able to handle being a mother cause I was EXHAUSTED! Maybe 4 year old boys just have a lot of energy? Anyway, to those thinking about having children in the next few years, good luck!
That night we walked around Old Town and I introduced Ludwig to Mongolian grills.

On day four, I got a sunburn, that's all you need to know. Well, I guess I can tell you how, we spent most of the day at Elich Gardens (the Six Flags amusement park in Denver). Follow this link to see some of the rides we went on http://elitchgardens.com/theme-park/thrill-rides/ But most importantly look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKHAzSpjuqw
While that video isn't of Ludwig and I, it shows a ride that we participated in. Talk about an adrenaline rush, we definitely had to sit down after that one.

We also ate this

Well that's pretty much it for my trip. But in other news, I got accepted to Portland State University's Criminal Justice and Criminology program and with a little luck and some loving help I should be able to attend in June.


Also, don't you wish you had this in YOUR house? In Home Theater!

Thanks for spending your bored moments reading this post. Love y'all!

-Britt

9Volt's First Week

We pushed the button on Monday, launching 9Volt as a paid app for the low-low price of $99 dollars. Whoops. The hit the "edit and update" buttons and fixed to the more reasonable (but still higher than we intend) price of $.99.

In its first five days of life on the market it has generated 10 (so far) non-family/friend purchases. Bryce's review remains the only one at the moment, but whatever, 5-Stars is 5-Stars. We plan on having the ad-supported free version out there some time next week so we can start legitimate efforts at promoting and growing the player-base.

I am completing work on some Starcraft2 based live-wallpapers and intend to get the finished some time tomorrow and posted to the market after that. A quick second (third, fourth and fifth) product for FrozenPond.

Once these smaller projects are done, we will begin work on a big game. We are very excited about this next project.

Frozen Pond has another iron in the fire in that we are starting the process of learning the Unreal Engine and UDK. This is the game engine that powers blockbusters like Gears of War, Mass Effect and MANY MANY others. It is also the engine that Bryce will learn in his game-development course work. Hopefully we are on track to work on something HUGE some time next year.