By Joel Peterson on May 13, 2012
3 months ago Superbowl XLVI lived up to its booking as Eli Manning and the New York Giants marched on to their improbable, and very exciting, second World Championship over the New England Patriots.

Target Shopping Trip
The real game, of course, was the 2012 Superbowl Boxpool 50/50 Fundraiser. The competition was fierce, and the scoring relentless. When the dust settled we had 3 winners – Peter, Wing and Craig. Peter won the first quarter and first half prizes totaling $562.50, Wing took $187.50 in the third quarter and Craig knocked it home with the end of game box snagging $750. Craig invested his money in the diamond market … if you know what I mean.
Congratulations Craig!
The fundraiser was an amazing success and many thanks go out to everyone who participated. We were able to sell all 100 squares at $30 a square. This resulted in $1500 in for the cause.

April Harris
This year we raised the money for “In Jesus’ Name Ministries”. Based in Hoboken IJN provides for those in need in and around the Hoboken community. Founder and Director April Harris has been deeply involved with the needy in Hoboken for over 30 years. She receives referrals from organizations like The Red Cross and the National Urban League when crucial and critical cases come up. Often times, in these cases, April is the last hope for helping these people. April was excited and grateful to be able to use this money and earmarked it as money set aside for the ‘crucial needs’ as they presented themselves.
Here is a rundown of how April has spent the money since earmarking it 3 months ago:
| Name of Cause |
given |
| Restock the Emergency food supply |
$250 |
| Food/Supplies for a family with a baby formerly living in a Welfare Hotel |
$154 |
| A preemie baby born into trying circumstances |
$307 for preemie formula |
| A terminal woman who didn’t qualify for any sort of coverage. The daughter lost her job taking care of her. |
$50 in groceries |
| 917 Clinton Fire Victims |
$434 |
| An unemployed man who’s wife had a heart attack |
$150 |
| homeless family – Lunch for 5 kids for 1 week until the free lunch program kicked in |
$80 |
| Total to Date: |
$1425 |
April still has $75 to use towards additional crucial needs and I’ll be happy to update the above table once we have an update.
Again, thanks so much for making this year a success and I look forward to doing it again next year!
Posted in Fundraiser | Tagged Food Supplies, In Jesus Name Charities |
By Joel Peterson on May 13, 2012
The third annual 50/50 poker tournament to support three Haitian children was held on Saturday November 19th and proved to be a great time for a great cause. The tournament was a blast with Jeff B taking all the chips but the big winners were the three children whose entire cost for tuition, uniforms and books were covered. Thanks to everyone involved who made this tournament a success!
Registration is now open for the 4th annual 50/50 Poker Fundraiser – To be held on June 30th in Hoboken. Save the date and sign up today!
Reaction from the Children
Below are some pictures and blurbs sent to us from the volunteers that delivered the money to the boys:

Land Andy Theodore

Widens and Widensli
The first photograph is a single young boy of 6 years. His name is Andy, and I learned that he was under the rubble of what had been a building for 2 days, with his parents and siblings all of whom died. He is living with his aunt, Laurent and Andy’s cousins. After the earthquake people were apparently walking by the ‘building’ when they heard a sound. After digging for a while they discovered Andy. It’s hard to imagine what he went through but he seems to being doing pretty well, thanks to people like you.
The second set of pictures is of Widens and Widensli. They are twins, and their father has never been a part of the family. Their mother was killed with a knife by someone trying to take her money in a village named Vil Kalali on the mainland. It is another truly sad story, but the boys look well and loved. It was fun to see them react to the gift.
Letter from Land Andy Theodore

Letter from Land Andy Theodore

Funding the Education
I’m happy to write you today in the name of Jesus. By the way, how are you doing? How is everybody? How is everything? Please share my hello to your family and friends for me.
For me, everybody is well, my aunt Laurente and my cousins. My school is going well, I have a good grade for this period/semester: 9.17/10. In my prayers I ask God to bless you fully to give good health and to help more people/students like me.
Thank you very much,
Land Andy Theodor.
Registration for the 2012 50/50 Poker Tournament is now open!
On Saturday June 30th of this year we will be conducting the fourth annual 50/50 fundraiser. Get all of the information and save yourself a seat now on the fundraiser’s page.
Posted in Fundraiser | Tagged 50/50, fundraiser, Haiti, poker |
By Joel Peterson on April 30, 2012
There are some amazingly useful freeware applications out there and I am all for the providers of good freeware to earn their financial keep be it through advertising, affiliate links, donations, bake sales or car washes. We, the users of freeware, want the makers of freeware to succeed so their clever ideas continue to be developed and maintained.
But, like everything else, there is a line – such as placing advertisements on a download page that look like download buttons.
I happened across this gem of a download page today. Let’s play a game… Can you Spot the Real Download Button?

Download??
Posted in Off Topic, User Experience | Tagged clickjacking, Download Page, freeware, support |
By Joel Peterson on November 1, 2011
One of my favorite things about Halloween are the deals on candy the next day. Today I went into DuaneReade to see if I could satisfy my sweet tooth on the cheap. I was perusing the Halloween candy when the store manager pointed at me asking if I liked Candy Corn. “Why Yes I do.”
“I’ll give you all of the candy corn on the shelf for a dollar.”
Sold. 26 containers of candy for $1. Yesterday this same candy would have cost me $52.
As I was checking out the lady at the cash register asked if I would like to make a donation to the Charity.
“It’s for Diabetes.”
Of course it is. So I donated twice as much as I spent on candy.
Time to go reverse trick-or-treating around the office!



Posted in Off Topic | Tagged Candy, Candy Corn, Deal, Duane Reade, Halloween |
By Joel Peterson on October 5, 2011
CSS grid frameworks are a handy solution for rapid development of page layouts. One minimal CSS grid framework that I have taken a liking to is Grid – a minimal CSS Grid utility.
As pointed out in Javascript HTML CSS’s article on Grid Grid is limited to the number of columns declared in the CSS with the default maximum being 5 columns. The path to extend Grid is a task as easy as coloring within the lines.
As an exercise I wrote This jQuery plugin which eliminates the need for the CSS file within Grid. While the prospect of relying on JavaScript to maintain a layout makes me cringe – It does offer a limitless approach with customizable options. On Document ready this plugin parses the elements on the page and applies the appropriate CSS properties to the elements within the DOM based on the naming convention proposed by Grid.
Pros:
- Limitless possible combination of columns
- Customizable naming convention
Cons:
- Relying on JavaScript to write your layout CSS
The CSS Grid jQuery plugin applies Grid CSS to DOM elements based on the naming convention of Grid – a minimal CSS Grid Utility.
Usage
- Include the jquery.cssgrid.js plugin, along with jQuery
- Add a class “grids” to the container of elements you would like to apply the Grid CSS styles.
- Define your desired grid size by applying “gxofy” where “x” is the segment of the “y” whole.
- Invoke the plugin on document ready
Example
$(document).ready(function() {
$.cssGrid($('.grids'));
});
Alternative String
By default the plugin looks for the starting character “g” and the string separator “of”. These are customizable.
Example:
$(document).ready(function() {
$.cssGrid($('.grids'), {
startString: 'g',
seperatorString: 'of'
});
});
Download
Click here to download CSS Grid jQuery Plugin (33.78 kB)
Posted in CSS, jQuery, plugins | Tagged CSS, DOM, Layout, Plugin |