Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids

What an awesome game. It was good to see RSL actually looking like they knew how to play soccer, something they haven't done in the last two road games. I thought everyone played well, but I am really impressed with Will Johnson. He was running all over the field and looked very comfortable. I thought Russell played well, but I am still not convinced. I wish he would do something to convince me he deserves the hype he got. I thought our whole team played defense very well. I loved the game because it felt like we had a chance to score just about every possession. I feel we can take it to the Galaxy next game, especially since they will most likely be missing Donovan and Lewis for World Cup qualifying. Beckham will most likely be out to play for England in World Cup qualifying also. I think this game will be a good change for RSL to find their toad form against a weak LA team.

My Day with Real Salt Lake

I finally broke down and bought season tickets in the north goal section for next season and are close to the west side of the stadium, 9 rows up. The best part is I got to take a tour with my new friend, Andrew. Andrew was the guy who helped me with my tickets. We started off and went right to my seats, and I love them. Then we went and looked through some of the luxury suites, and they are luxurious. Andrew showed my Dave Checketts suite and it is way nice. The cool part is, it has a stairway which leads to his personal office. I didn't go into the office, but Andrew said the office has a tunnel which leads onto a platform above the player tunnel. The platform is so Checketts can present trophies to the team when we win them. I guess it is a European thing. We also went to the VIP Resturant which is about 15 rows off the pitch in the southwest corner of the stadium. The resturant will seat 650 and has a huge patio which people can go onto and watch the game. It was cool, but you have to pay big bucks, which I don't have yet. We went into the locker rooms and they are way nice. The RSL one has a hot tub and a cold tub. It was way nice. There are 3 lockerrooms which means RSL will never have to have anyone in their lockerroom. I am way stoked. The ironic part of the day is when I was going home and the TRAX stopped at Rice-Eccles where my car was parked and I saw a bus at the top of the parking lot by the ticket office. I thought to myself, "that is probably the Rapids." So I drove up there and sure enough, it was the Rapids. I won't tell you what followed, but I am sure you can imagine it.
Here are some pictures.

USA vs. Guatemala

I am trying something new this post by writing the recap while I watch the game. I turned to ESPN at 8 and found my Angels were beating the Devil Rays which is awesome, but then I turned to Galavision and it looks like the lights are out. I watched on Galavision for awhile then just turned to ESPN and it is dark there too. It feels like I am watching film of a high school football game. They are in the 7th minute and no goals yet.
It looks like Tim Howard is in goal, then Bocanegra, Onyewu, Cherundolo, Pearce on the back line, Donovan playing the right side of midfield, Bradley, Masteroeni and Lewis as midfielders Dempsey and Ching as forwards. Thats a pretty typical lineup which is very experienced.
17' - Yellow Card on Cherundolo for throwing the ball down after it went out.
Heath Pearce is having trouble keeping up with Mario Rodriguez who has been working the left side of the US back line.
In the 23' it looks like the US isn't comfortable and Guatemala is playing well. Rodriguez has gotten in behind the US three times. It seems Guatemala just possesses the ball around the midfield line and then boots a ball over the top.
28' Rameriez and Dempsey get a yellow card for pushing and shoving each other. I can now see why Carlos Ruiz is such a dirty player - every Guatemala player plays like him.
34' Ruiz dives causing Masteroeni to get a yellow.
37' Huge strike from Contreras, Howard has to make a diving save, which he did.
Halftime - The US started to gain some momentum towards the end of the second half. The only changes I would make is to sub one or both of the outside defenders. On another note, Real Salt Lake Midfielder, Andy Williams scored the game tying goal against Canada for Jamaica. Pretty cool.
No changes to start the second half. I think Eddie Lewis needs to get pulled, he hasn't done anything productive.
50' Guatemala almost scores off a fast break from a turnover from Lewis.
The ref is calling a strange game, questionable calls on both sides.
54' Ruiz almost breaks through, but Howard came off his line quickly and got the ball.
56' Again Rodriguez is giving the US trouble, this time he missed it far post. When is the US going to get some quality shots.
58' Another shot from Freddy Thompson from distance, just missed wide. Tim Howard would have had it if it was on goal.
60' Cherundolo commits a stupid foul and gets his second yellow. He was getting abused by the opposing player and the ref wasn't calling it so it he reached out of frustration and the US is now down to 10 men. Frankie Hedjuk is warming up.
62' Eddie Lewis collides with a Guatemala player and both players are down having knocked heads. Lewis had a huge gash on his head with blood spilling out.
The player who hit Lewis got a red card so now Guatemala is down to 10 men.
Beasley is coming in with Hedjuk. Lewis is off the field, hurt. Dempsey and Lewis were brought off.
Howard shanks a clearance, that is his second shank of the match.
68' Donovan gives a nice ball into the box and Onyewu puts it on goal, but the keeper made a save.
69' GOOOOOAAAAALLLL. Bocanegra scores off a corner kick from Beasley. Bocanegra was completely unmarked, there wasn't a single player within 5 feet of him in any direction.
77' Guatemala is playing tough, they want it bad. Howard came up with a nice save to force a corner. Edu comes in for Masteroeni
The annoucer just said that the US has not won a World Cup Qualifer in Guatemala.
A save by Howard off the corner.
81' Tim Howard is down, Ruiz kicked him while he had the ball. Howard gets a yellow for not shaking Ruiz hand.
US with a key possession, held the ball very well and led to a foul by Guatemala which means more time wasting. So far there have been 7 yellow cards and 2 red cards.
88' Guatemala takes a desperation shot, misses wide left.
Howard shanks another backpass, that is his third.
I don't remember the last time Donovan had a touch on the ball.
4 minutes have been added.
The US looks very very very tired.
US WINS 1-0. Tim Howard is the man of the match for me. He made really good saves which saved us the game. That is the US first win in Guatemala in a World Cup Qualifying match. What a great game, my heart is beating a million miles an hour. I am glad the US beat Guatemala, they are such poor sports and poort soccer players. They all dive and are cheap and dirty. If you want an example of how their whole team plays, look at Carlos Ruiz, he sits on the bench for the Galaxy so maybe you won't be able to watch him. Look at his stuff from when he was with Dallas. The US now faces Cuba on Sept. 6.

RSL Intrasquad Scrimmage

My friend Jordan and I went to Quinn's Junction this morning to the RSL Intrasquad scrimmage, billed as the "Cobalt vs. Claret" game. It was awesome, there were probably around 100 people there and the setting was perfect. The weather was awesome because the sun hid behind the clouds for most of the game.
It was a fun game, Alex Nimo scored first for the white team (I guess that would be Cobalt). Deuchar, Espindola and Williams scored for the Yellow or Claret team, who won 3-1. It was fun to stand next to the field and hear what the players are saying and how much they talk to each other. I think RSL is so good because of their communication on the field. It was awesome.
Check out some pictures I took. Also, more pictures will be on my flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timhaslam

Tools of the Trade Part 1

This post encompasses two big products which are broken up into little ones. The products are the Adobe Design Premium and Mac Products.

Adobe Design Premium
There are a couple of products I haven't even used, like Adobe Bridge CS3, Adobe Version Cue® CS3, Adobe Device Central CS3, and Adobe Acrobat® Connect™ To tell you the truth, I don't even know what they do!
I have used the following programs and I love them.
InDesign - I love this program. It is great. I took a class at the University of Utah that was heavily based on InDesign. It is a great program to edit documents. I used it to make newspaper articles!
Photoshop Extended - I have only touched the tip of the iceberg with Photoshop and I love it. It can do anything. Chances are, if you are reading this blog you already know Photoshop.
Illustrator - This is a great program too. I used it today to edit a PDF that was doing crazy things. I have seen some pretty cool stuff come out of Illustrator.
Flash Professional - I took a class at the University of Utah that was based on Flash. It was an intense class, but I survived. Flash is great for animating things, but it seems Flash is disappearing from the web because it is not search engine friendly. I think Flash is a good thing when used in moderation. People get too crazy with Flash and thats when things get ugly, but some pages uses Flash very well which really compliment the site.
Dreamweaver - This is where I learned how to design web pages. It is great for beginners but is limited which is why most professionals don't use it.
Fireworks - I think it is weird that Fireworks would be included in the same suite as Photoshop, but Fireworks is cool. I have used it and it is very capable of creating cool things.

Apple Products
I use a 13" MacBook at work and a 20" iMac at home with a 500GB Time Capsule to back up everything. I also have an iTouch which keeps my music in check and allows me to carry contacts and my iCal. I used to have an HP laptop and it was great until I started using Macs at school. I love Macs now and I love Leopard. I love the way Apple handles their programs and they way the conduct themselves. I don't run big things so I don't know how the performance compares, and quite frankly, as long as it does freeze I am fine. I would recommend any apple product to anyone. They are great.

Tools of the Trade (Web Design) Part 2

Since Real Salt Lake has a lengthy break ahead of the them, I figured it was time to start writing about Web Design. I am still an amateur, but here a few tools I have found that really help produce awesome pages.

TextMate - macromates.com
This is THE Text Editing tool for the Mac. If you don't have a Mac, this is one more reason to buy one. I love how easy it is to use. If there is a big folder, you can just grab it and drop it on the TextMate icon and it will open with a nice and neat directory on the left side of the pad. TextMate supports a variety of languages including the popular PHP, HTML, CSS, etc. I also love how you can get code snips and post code snips to Snipplr! (See next item)

Snipplr - snipplr.com
Snipplr is a site which you can store all your favorite coding snips. Then you can use TextMate (See above) to import them into your code. It will keep all your code on your free account and you can also search to see other peoples code which may help you complete your project.

CSS Edit - macrabbit.com/cssedit
I haven't used this much, but when I have used it, I love it. It is a very clean way to do CSS. There is a cool preview mode which will show you what you are changing while you are doing it, rather than switching to your browser and refreshing. This is great for people who have little experience with CSS because it has a menu on the right hand side. Once you choose something, the code will be automatically entered into your style sheet and it provides a great way for a beginner to learn.

CSS Mastery - www.cssmastery.com
This is an amazing book which helps me everyday. It provides real solutions to real problems and is written very well. It provides good guides to debug browser issues, hacks and filters. It is written by Andy Budd with help from Cameron Moll and Simon Collison. This is a must read for anyone who works with CSS.


Part 3: Wacom Tablet, Writemaps, xml-sitemaps

iPhone / iTouch Apps Part 2

Thanks to all of you who read Part 1, let's get started.

Facebook - A good little App for an App with lots of Apps. WOW. Once again, I am left wondering how useful it is because I don't have regular access to the internet.
Overall Grade: iPhone - A
iTouch - F without Internet, A with Internet

Twitterific - This is a great App for all those who twitter. It is very useful and keeps everyone updated!
Overall Grade: iPhone - A
iTouch - F without Internet, A with Internet

NYTimes - I do get wireless Internet at work and when I have tried to use this, it only displays the homepage and I still haven't been able to access the Sports page. (I try every day) This would be cool if it worked.
Overall Grade: A if you like just the front page of the news, F if you don't.

JirboBreak - This is a fun App which reminds me of old Nintendo games. This is the game where you have a bar at the bottom and the ball bounces around and you have to break all the bricks. I like this game because you can listen to your music while you play it (although it hiccups sometimes). I also like how you have to have your finger on the screen in order for the ball to move. Once your finger is off, the ball freezes until you get your hand back on the screen. Fun little game to waste time with.
Overall Grade: B

There you go. For now I haven't purchased an App because I don't want to! All of the above Apps are free. Thanks for reading.

iPhone / iTouch Apps Part 1

I will be the first to admit I don't have an iPhone because I can't afford it. But I do have a really cool iTouch (8GB) which I have used to download some of the new Apps in the App Store. This is my opinion about the Apps.

Google - This is a simple App, just like Google. It does exactly what I thought it would.
Overall Grade: A

Phonesaber - Very cool idea. I like how you can choose the color of the laser, but since I don't have an iPhone, it is annoying to wear headphones while waving my iTouch around. Could use more sound effects, gets boring after a while.
Overall Grade: iPhone B+
iTouch B

Remote - This is an awesome App which actually has some functionality as well as a "wow" factor from friends at a recent party. Again, I am limited because I don't have wireless internet at my house, so it's use on the iTouch is limited.
Over Grade: iPhone A+
iTouch F if you don't have wireless internet, A if you do.

Restaurants - This is a cool App which tells you the nutrition information about various food chains like A & W, Arby's, Little Ceasars. You can also find locations of the restaurants with the touch of a button. You can use this App without the internet if you don't need the maps. If you happen to eat out for every meal, it will show you your total intake of more than 10 factors on a per day basis. For example, if I ate a serving of Crazy Bread from Little Ceasars and Pad Thai Noodles with Beef from Pei Wei, I would have had 770 Calories, 33 grams of Fat, 25 Cal. from Fat, and various other stats.
Overall Grade: A-

Part 2: Facebook, Twitter, NYTimes, JirboBreak