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Thoughts From My Life

Thoughts From My Life
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Starcraft On The Nintendo DS
2008-04-23 17:39:00
Unbelievable! This the game I would love to see come to the Nintendo DS. StarCraft is one of my favorite real time strategy (RTS) games of all time. There were rumours of it coming to the DS, but is has never been announced by Blizzard and I can't imagine them doing it now. Anyhow, a group of guys did a "proof of concept" for the game. I downloaded it from the StarLite download page. Unfortunately, they have already been shut down by Blizzard I have heard, so this will be as far as it goes I suppose. Watch the video, this is how the downloadable version plays exactly. Published on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:39:36 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Starcraft , Nintendo Ds

2007 Taxes Are Due
2008-04-21 17:08:00
It has been busy that last little while. Some of the reason I haven't posted much (other than just being lazy). The other thing I was working on this weekend was my taxes. I still have a few pieces of information I need to collect before I get them finished off by my tax person. Anyhow, if you live in Canada and didn't remember, taxes must be done by the end of the month.Published on Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:08:00 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Taxes

Twin Isles - Civilization for the Nintendo DS
2008-04-16 15:48:00
I think I found one of my new favourite games and I can't believe it has taken me this long. Twin Isles is an excellent homebrew game for the Nintendo DS. It has the basic gameplay from the original Civilization (in my opinion). I have added it to my Best Nintendo DS Homebrew list, just after Warcraft Tower Defense. Twin Isles is by far the most commercial feeling game I have played yet from the homebrew community. The graphics are clear, there are sound effects, some decent background music, a tech tree, a dozen or so structure that may be built, in game tips (which can be disabled, and just fun to play. I definitely recommend playing it if you were ever a fan of the Civilization series. The game has a number of great features: Free Play Mode where you can just practice by your self. Versus CPU to challenge a computer opponent. First to 100,000 population or destroy the other island. Scenarios where you have to complete a specific task. i.e. Grow the population to 500 b...
More About: Nintendo Ds

Calgary Snow Storm - April 10th 2008
2008-04-10 18:40:00
What a wonderful country we live in...right? Well, I woke up today to quite a sight. Calgary is getting bucketed on with snow right now. My wife's normal 20 minute drive to work is now at 2 hours and she just pulled into the parking lot at her school and got stuck. She opened her door to step out and the door was pushing snow. Apparently everything is severely backed up, people are turning around on hills and off ramps and driving back down them. City is at a stand still. I'm staying put for a bit, but will try to head in later. My truck is useless on hills when the whether is like this (and I have to go up one to get to work). Anyhow, here are a few snapshots from our house. The Street Sign on the Corner Looking South West Cars On The Street Out the Kitchen Window Looking South Out Our Back Window Published on Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:40:12 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: April , Storm , Snow

Keep Text Formatting In HTML Using The pre Tag
2008-04-09 14:46:00
While writing my OpenGL and Visual Studio Express 2008 article, I had a number of times where I wanted to include source code or error logs from the compiler. These are large sections of code that I want to display exactly as they printed out. The problem with HTML, is that browsers will not render consecutive spaces, line breaks, and other information unless it is written as an HTML tag. So it doesn't look the same as you typed it in. It won't keep the text formatting in HTML. I found a solution to the problem however...the pre tag. Just encapsulate your text with this and it will display exactly how you want it. Multiple spaces, new lines, and whatever else. The pre tag will preserve text formatting for you! One problem I found is the the pre tag would not word wrap or line wrap by default. This can be fixed in your CSS style sheet for the page. This link is where I found the solution: Forcing Long Text Lines To Wrap. This is the code I added to my CSS file to make i...
More About: Html

OpenGL and Visual Studio Express 2008
2008-04-08 13:58:00
I recently set up Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition and OpenGL on my Windows XP and Windows Vista computers. I had a few issues, but it is working now. I have a step by step tutorial below and also outlined some of the issues I had. This is also a guide on just setting up your development environment on Windows for OpenGL programming. If you are like me, I am starting out doing game programming and want to add OpenGL graphics. The OpenGL tutorials I am using are from NeHe's Website and here is a Visual C++ 2008 and OpenGL Guide I used. Getting OpenGL to Work With Visual C++ 2008 Follow each step, unless you have already done one of these steps. 1. Install Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition This is a free C++ IDE from Microsoft that is an excellent tool to start with, if you are interested in programming on a Windows environment. You can find Visual C++ 2008 on the Visual Studio Express download page on Microsoft's site. It only works on Windows XP and up. If you have an ol...

HDR Photoshop Tutorial - Creating High Dynamic Range Images
2008-04-07 13:59:00
I just made my first high dynamic range photo today. It is most commonly referred to as an HDR photo or HDR image. What Is An HDR Photo Basically, it a single image that is made from multiple images to offer a greater range of photographic detail. The different images are usually taken with different exposure settings so that more detail may be captured in light or dark areas. Why Would You Want HDR It can complete a scene by filling in areas that are too dark or too light. You can also use it to make a photo look unrealistically cool by blowing out colors and making it look surreal. The example I will show you is for filling in a scene with more details. It is a photo taken from within a house that also wants to capture scenery outside that is a lot brighter. How To Create An HDR Photo These are the steps I took to make my HDR image. I used Adobe Photoshop CS2. You need multiple photos of the exact same scene taken at different exposure settings. My example photos are f...
More About: Tutorial , Images , Creating , High

The Master Cleanse
2008-04-04 13:49:00
Just to let everyone know, if you actually care, that I am trying out the Master Cleanse I started yesterday and am still doing it today. It is interesting. The basic drink is as follows: 10 ounces of filtered water. 2 tablespoons B grade maple syrup. 2 tablespoons fresh squeeze lemon juice. 1/10 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. You drink this as much as you want or just filtered water and nothing else!. The recommend taking a natural laxative like herbal tea of a salt water solution as well. Anyhow, we'll see how I feel after a couple days. You can find more information at the following sites: The Master Cleanser Master Cleanse on Wikipedia Master Cleanse Secrets Published on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:49:50 MST. - 0 Comments

Earn Revenue Online - March 2008 Recap
2008-04-02 14:00:00
March was finished a couple days ago and it is time for the earnings report again. Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for March 2008 March's numbers and February's numbers are in brackets. Page Loads: 21,599 (20,484) Unique Visitors: 14,029 (12,907) Average Uniques/Day: 452 (445) Lowest Uniques/Day: 299 (301) Highest Uniques/Day: 630 (628) Traffic was consistent the whole month. Most of my traffic came in for the same articles as last month: Acer Extensa 5420 review Acer Extensa 5420 Black Screen On Startup Frets On Fire - Free Version Of Guitar Hero Getting Frets On Fire Working On Vista Getting Frets On Fire Working On XP Still showing very strong page views are my articles on the Best Nintendo DS Homebrew and Aeroplan Versus Air Miles - Comparing Them. I definitely need to get some new good content out there. I will be doing a few travel articles for New York. The overall New York City article was published a few days ago. March 2008 Traffic Thoughts From My Li...
More About: Earn , Online , Recap , March , Revenue

Hotel 31 - New York City
2008-04-01 13:21:00
In March of 2008, I spent 5 nights in New York City . It was a fantastic trip and I would recommend it to anyone that is any age. One of the downsides with New York City are that the hotels can be a bit pricey compared to what you may be used to. However, my in-laws recommended a fantastic little place called Hotel 31 with more reasonable prices that I would also recommend. The Price We found $110/night on Expedia, but since Expedia requires you to pay up front we thought we would phone and make a reservation (just in case something changed before we went). They were willing to go down to $120 from the higher price quoted on their website. At this price, we had a room without a bathroom, but it did have a sink in the room. There is air conditioning as well. Where Is Hotel 31 Located? Hotel 31 is on 31st Street between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue. It is on the south side of the street. Overall Quality For the price, I would say it is pretty good. We had a nice clean ro...

New York City
2008-03-31 13:31:00
My wife and I were in Manhattan for 5 days in March of 2008. It was a fantastic trip and I would recommend it to anyone of any age to go see. Where Did We Stay? We stayed at Hotel 31. It is a budget hotel on Park Avenue just a few blocks to the east of the Empire State Building. I wrote a review of Hotel 31 already. What Restaurants Did We Eat At? The Coffee Shop This is located across the street from the northwest corner of Union Square. A neat restaurant where the lighting is so dark I couldn't really read the menu. I had the Brazilian Seafood Chowder, oysters, and their sesame chicken salad was superb. It has some really terrible reviews on a lot of sites, but overall I thought it was fine. Some sites mentioned the snootiness factor which I did notice when we walked in, but it was fine after that. Elmo This is a tapa style restaurant. Probably the best calamari I have had and they serve a number of appetizer items that are pretty tasty. Check out the Elmo website. E...
More About: New York , York , New York City , City , New-York

Back From New York City
2008-03-28 12:54:00
I am back from the Big Apple now. Sorry for the gap in articles recently. It was interesting that while I was gone I had some of my highest earnings since I started this blog and tons of comments on some articles. Not encouraging me to write more. Look for some New York City travel articles upcoming.Published on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:54:34 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: New York City , Back

Off To New York City
2008-03-21 13:27:00
My wife and I are off to New York City for close to a week. Looking forward to seeing the Big Apple and trying to see as much as we can in the days we are there. We are staying in a hotel a couple blocks from the Empire State Building and we plan on walking and taking public transit as much as we can the whole time we are there. The only planned events so far are the New York Knicks and the Late Show with David Letterman. We are going to get last minute tickets for a Broadway show as well. The rest of the time will be looking at all the sites and just seeing New York.Published on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:27:23 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: New York City , New-York

Guitar Hero For Nintendo DS
2008-03-20 13:41:00
I can't believe it. Guitar Hero is coming to the Nintendo DS. It is called Guitar Hero On Tour. It comes with a the fret buttons that plug into the Gameboy Advance game slot (Slot-2) and the game cartridge goes in the normal NDS slot IGN has an Guitar Hero On Tour exclusive on their site right now. Here is an advertisement for it below. Published on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:41:23 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Nintendo Ds

Toastmasters Ice Breaker Speech Today
2008-03-19 15:25:00
I joined Toastmasters a few months ago, because we formed a club at work called the Pason Presenters. If you are not familiar with Toastmasters, it is a speaking club that is aimed at helping individuals improve their speaking and presentation skills. Our work club meets twice a month over lunch and has a meeting. The main parts to each of our meetings are: Prepared speeches Impromptu speeches Evaluations I have participated in many impromptu speeches so far, but today will be my first prepared speech. I am a little nervous, but think it should go well. My Toastmasters experience so far has been really positive. You can get as much out of it as you want to put in and there is so much to learn. If you are interested in trying it out, you can find a club locally and go sit in for a few meetings if you like. Just go to the Toastmasters International website and use their "find a branch near you" feature.Published on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:25:21 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Today , Breaker , Speech

Received My Meta Cafe Money
2008-03-17 16:50:00
I received my money yesterday from Meta Cafe . You can read about my Meta Cafe video making me money in some of my previous articles. Anyhow, despite all my doubts, I had a little over US$100 deposited in my PayPal account yesterday. I can't believe it. The video camera was taken along just to help record our trip, but there is an extra $100 out of it. We are going to use the money to go for dinner with our fellow travelers.Published on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:50:09 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Money

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