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Thoughts From My Life

Thoughts From My Life
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A* Pathfinding Algorithm Demo Applet
2008-03-04 15:35:00
I created my first version of an A* Pathfinding Demo . It is an applet further down this page, so you will need Java installed. Basically, you can draw a map by setting a start point, end point, and drawings walls. Then press Start to watch the algorithm think its way through. Keep in mind, you are still allowed to have multiple starting or end points, but it will only lose the highest grid number of each when the algorithm starts. It costs 10 units to move left, right, up, or down and it costs 14 to move on the diagonal. If you pause AStar, any map changes at that time will also do nothing to change how the algorithm will finish. Here are a few instructions: To set a wall, click on a square once. It will turn red. To set a start point, click on a square twice. It will turn to a wall on the first click, but the next sets it to a blue start point. To set an end point, click on a square three times. Just like above, it will turn to a purple end point. To clear a grid square...

A* Pathfinding Algorithm Demo Applet
2008-03-04 15:35:00
I created my first version of an A* Applet Demo . Basically, you can draw a map by setting a start point, end point, and drawings walls. Then press Start to watch the algorithm think its way through. Keep in mind, you are still allowed to have multiple starting or end points, but it will only lose the highest grid number of each when the algorithm starts. It costs 10 units to move left, right, up, or down and it costs 14 to move on the diagonal. If you pause AStar, any map changes at that time will also do nothing to change how the algorithm will finish. Here are a few instructions: To set a wall, click on a square once. It will turn red. To set a start point, click on a square twice. It will turn to a wall on the first click, but the next sets it to a blue start point. To set an end point, click on a square three times. Just like above, it will turn to a purple end point. To clear a grid square to just be walkable, click on it until it turns white again. Just click Start ...

Alberta Election 2008 - Where Can I Vote
2008-03-03 18:57:00
The 2008 Alberta provincial elections are today, March 3, 2008. If you are trying to figure out where you can vote, you might have a bit of fun. My friend pointed out that he can't find the information on the Election s Alberta website and if you go to the Alberta 2008 Elections site right now (10:30AM), it says: The Elect2008 web site is unavailable at this time. Well, if you live by me in Lynnwood district of Calgary, I know the voting is at one of the two elementary schools by the hockey arena. I sent an email to the website guys and hopefully they fix it.Published on Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:57:33 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Vote , Election 2008

Earn Revenue Online - February 2008 Recap
2008-03-03 13:15:00
February is over now. It was a bit of a shorter month, but was a leap year too so was only 2 days shorter than January was. Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for February 2008 February's numbers and January's numbers are in brackets. Page Loads: 20484 (19997) Unique Visitors: 12907 (12224) Average Uniques/Day: 445 (394) Lowest Uniques/Day: 301 (173) Highest Uniques/Day: 628 (721) Traffic was consistent the whole month. Most of my traffic came in for the following articles: 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. January 2008 Traffic Thoughts From My Life Revenue Overall, my earnings for February 2008 were $244.46. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets. PayU2Blog: $1...
More About: Earn , Online , Recap

Enchanted April - Theatre Calgary
2008-02-27 18:21:00
My wife and I went to see Enchanted April last night. It is a theatre performance put on by Theatre Calgary at the Epcor Centre for Performing Arts. The play started out a bit slow for the first few minutes, but was thoroughly enjoyable after that. Very funny and the the actors did a very good job. The Story Enchanted April is about 2 women from England who have drifting apart from the husbands of late. They decide to rent a small castle in Italy for the month of April as a getaway. To help with the costs they take out an advertisement in the paper for 2 more women to join them. Each one has a very unique personality of course and it doesn't take long for a bit of friction to ensue. Their experience at the castle is rather funny. There is the non-English speaking Italian maid, the landlord of the castle (a young English gentleman), and the husbands eventually show up themselves. All in all, it is an excellent play and I would definitely recommend. Check out the Enchanted...

A* Pathfinding Algorithm
2008-02-26 13:04:00
I have been messing around with my Nintendo DS again and trying to write some simple programs. Hello World that can be dragged and dropped on the screen somewhere is as far as I have advanced. I have been learning the A* algorithm however. I have implemented it in Java and now I am working on C/C++ versions. I think I will also try to do a demo version in javascript to what how it works visually. What Is A* It is a shortest path algorithm. It tries to find the shortest path it will take for something to go from point A to point B while taking into consideration obstacles and such. It takes a little bit to wrap your head around the first time and then it makes perfect sense how it is working. I won't try to explain it myself, since there are a few sites that already do it well enough. My main reference was A* Pathfinding for Beginners. I read on another site that they criticize this tutorial because it says you have to use a closed list and you don't. I still found it to ...

I Now Own Guitar Hero 3 For PC
2008-02-25 12:43:00
I finally broke down and purchased Guitar Hero 3. I have been playing the free version Frets On Fire for the last while, but I wanted the guitar and it was reasonable to pay $80 for Guitar Hero on eBay instead of the $60 for just the guitar anyways. You can check out my Frets On Fire - Free Version Of Guitar Hero article to find out more about it. I have to say, having both programs is a pretty good mix. The full campaign mod and animation of Guitar Hero is nice for single player. However, the way bigger list of songs for Frets On Fire make it nice for playing whatever you are feeling like. Purchased On eBay I bought the game on eBay, and I feel I saved around $15 since I didn't have to pay the tax in Canada either, so the savings aren't ideal. Another thing I didn't realize is that there is a product key in the manual (which I didn't get) that lets you register on-line to compare scores. This is free in Frets On Fire anyways, but it would still be nice to have on Guitar...
More About: Guitar Hero 3

The Ups And Downs Of FeedBurner
2008-02-21 17:31:00
I don't know what it is with FeedBurner, but their stats certainly have been going up and down lately. I was over 70 just a couple days ago and now I'm down to 44. I was going up and down by 15 a day for a few weeks as well. Maybe it is the cutoff time or they have a glitch in their system. Oh well.Published on Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:31:41 MST. - 0 Comments
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Chateau Canmore - Review
2008-02-20 16:54:00
This past long weekend, a group of us stayed at the Chateau Canmore in Canmore, Alberta. It is located just 10 minutes from the Banff park entrance. Overall, the place was pretty good. The price was reasonable and the facilities nice and clean. Check out Chateau Canmore's site. What's Nice Our room was nice. Two beds and a pull out bed in the sofa in the other room. It had two televisions, fridge, microwave, and a couple of tables to set stuff on as well. There is a hot tub and pool. They are pretty small, but not a lot of people were using them anyways, so we were always able to get in. The pool is inside and the hot tub sits on a deck outside. There is also an exercise room and restaurant. We didn't use either, but they looked nice. The main lobby has free coffee in the mornings, which is nice if you are getting an early start to the hill. What's Not Nice I couldn't complain much, but there were a few annoyances. It was hard to keep the room cool enough. It was...
More About: Review

The Lizzie - Nixon Watch Review
2008-02-14 13:17:00
I wrote about The Duke, a Nixon watch I purchased on eBay the other day. Well my wife also purchased a Nixon watch called The Lizzie. It is a nice looking watch. It is a little more casual than The Duke, but could still be worn on dressy occasions. When looking for Lizzie Nixon watches, there are a ton of different styles out there. Hers has a white strap with holes patterned through the band and a shiny stainless steel casing. There are little dot markers for the hours and the arms glow in the dark. I ended up buying it on eBay for US$45 brand new. I had a hard time comparing it for a deal. From what other on-line stores state, it looks like it normally retails for around $80, however I see it is no longer carried in some of the actual watch stores here in Canada. Perhaps it was discontinued. Either way, it is a really nice watch for that price. The specs on the eBay page are: Stainless steel Case Leather Band Case is Waterproof to 3M (Band NO) Weights 3oz Why She W...
More About: Watch , Review

The Duke - Nixon Watch Review
2008-02-13 13:17:00
I just received my new Nixon watch in the mail today. It is The Duke and looks pretty cool. It has a brown strap and gold/brown faceplate on it. It looks pretty dressy, but not over the top so it suits my work quite well. I ended up buying it on eBay for US$145 brand new. This is a fair bit cheaper than the stores. From what I have found, the Nixon Duke retails for around CA$230. It looks like the brown one is at this price and the rest of them are $280 and up. The Duke is in Nixon's Business Class line of watches. Check out The Duke product page on the Nixon site. The specs on the website are: MOVEMENT 2 HAND SUPER THIN MOVEMENT WITH SWISS PARTS AND REAL DIAMOND CASE CUSTOM 30 METER STAINLESS STEEL WITH DOMED HARDENED MINERAL CRYSTAL, AND DOUBLE GASKET CROWN. BAND CUSTOM DOUBLE TONGUE IMPORTED LEATHER WITH CUSTOM STAINLESS STEEL BARS. Why I Bought The Duke The band is nice and wide, which is what I was looking for. The second reason is that the casing and metal ...
More About: Watch , Review

Quake 2 For Nintendo DS
2008-02-12 11:01:00
One of my favorite homebrew games has been Quake DS. It has made it onto my list of the Best Nintendo DS Homebrew. Well now Simon Hall has come out with Quake 2 for the Nintendo DS. You can read about it on the Quake2DS thread. Apparently it works quite well, but you must have a Slot-2 solution card present to act as extra RAM that is needed to load the game up into. That sucks a bit for you Slot-1 only guys, but that's just the way it works. I was hoping to write a big article on how to get it working and review the game, but unfortunately I cannot get it working either. I did all the instructions, picked Auto-Detect and Slowest for settings. It counts up the memory, displays some messages that go through too fast to read, and then it displays a red screen saying: Guru Meditation Error! data abort! along with a bunch of register values. I am using a the Supercard Lite with Super Key. Some of the users on the thread have stated that it works for that scenario, but mine ...
More About: Nintendo Ds

Frets On Fire And The XBox Guitar
2008-02-11 14:18:00
I wrote about Frets On Fire a few weeks ago and about how I got it working. The one thing I was trying to get was a guitar though. I managed to get a hold of the XBox 360 guitar for Guitar Hero 2 and try it out. It works perfectly! All you have to do is plug it into a USB port on your computer, let the drivers install automatically, start Frets On Fire, and go into the Key Settings section to map the buttons. When you map the keys, you just select the function you want to map, press Enter on the keyboard, and then press the button on the guitar you want to act as that function. It works really well.Published on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:18:11 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Xbox

More Advertising - Affiliates This Time
2008-02-06 18:53:00
I wrote the other day about my increase in advertising, but I have added more in the meantime. I have signed up with two different affiliate programs. The first is AzoogleAds. This is a company that packages together various affiliate programs and facilitates the deal for you while taking their own cut. Create an Azoogle account and check them out. They have an excellent interface for searching and looking for affiliate programs that much what you need. The second affiliate network is Commission Junction. They are very similar to Azoogle, but I am finding they have a lot more selection to choose from. This is especially true for some of my search criteria which is for more specific traffic from a region. Pick Your Affiliates Carefully Remember, be aware of what kind of traffic is coming to your site. Some of my more popular articles are Aeroplan and Airmiles related. These are Canadian airline programs so 99% of my traffic is coming from Canada. Some of my other more popu...
More About: Advertising , Time

Advertising Galore
2008-02-04 17:30:00
This month is going to be a focus on advertising and increasing the monetization of this site. I am clearing 500 unique visitors a day and 800 page views a day. This isn't huge traffic, but it is fairly steady. In John Chow's January 2008 earnings, he was able to make around 10 cents ($0.10) per page view. That is huge. My January page views were around 20,000. With his rate of return that should have earned me $2,000. I have two main problems when trying to copy what he has done: He has an enormous amount of private ad sales revenue. He belongs to three ad networks that I cannot qualify for until I have higher traffic. That is Text Link Ads, ReviewMe, and TTZ Media. In the meantime, I have added BidVertiser to the bottom of my pages and I am keeping an eye on AzoogleAds to see if there are good affiliate programs that I can use. I have added links for 3 of them in my side menu bar and see if I can get any action out of them.Published on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:30:31 MST...
More About: Advertising , Galore

Earn Revenue Online - January 2008 Recap
2008-02-01 13:05:00
We are into the new year by a whole month now and I have never been happier with this blog's progress. A few different articles have generated very high traffic and I have managed to smash through my earnings records in a couple of places. Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for January 2008 January's numbers and December's numbers are in brackets. Page Loads: 19997 (9828) Unique Visitors: 12224 (5745) Average Uniques/Day: 394 (185) Lowest Uniques/Day: 173 (78) Highest Uniques/Day: 721 (766) Traffic started off on a high note because of my Acer Extensa 5420 review article that I wrote near the end of December. My traffic to that page slowed done a bit and in the meantime I had written these 4 articles which have picked up a ton of traffic for me: 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 N...
More About: Earn , Online , Recap , Revenue

Mortgage Crisis Explained
2008-01-31 14:10:00
This is perhaps the best explanation video I have seen for a basic look at the mortgage crisis going on in the U.S.. Check it out if you want to know more about it. nullPublished on Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:10:43 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Mortgage , Crisis

Our Town - Theatre Calgary
2008-01-30 20:57:00
I went to Our Town at the Epcor Centre last night. Another great production by Theatre Calgary . I was quite impressed with the performance. It tells the story of a small town in New Hampshire called Grover's Corners. It tells a story about a young boy and girl who fall in love and get married. It is interesting in the fact that they used very little for a set. A few chairs, tables, and a couple other pieces. The used no other props and would act out the motions of using them. It took a while to get used to, but then it just seemed normal. This was apparently a preference of the creator of this play, Thornton Wilder. There is also a stage manager who comes out on the stage to change tables or do something else and is actually acknowledged by the narrator of the play. There is audience participation in clapping for some actors when they speak. It makes it sort of odd as some of the actors recognize the audience is watching them while others never ever do. Popular Play Th...

Freezing It Out In Calgary
2008-01-29 19:37:00
It is seriously cold here. My temperature widget is saying -32 degrees Celsius right now. My truck had a difficult time starting this morning and had some interesting noises when I was first driving. The wind factor has dropped the wind chill int into the -40's as well. If you have never experienced it before, I wouldn't recommend it.Published on Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:37:52 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Calgary

Spike In Traffic For January 2008
2008-01-28 18:13:00
I have been enjoying a spike in traffic this month. I have been averaging 3 to 4 times the traffic each day for almost the entire month. It is interesting that it has all come from a few articles I wrote at the beginning of the month that have received a ton of search results traffic. Revenue is up as well, but it is interesting to note that it isn't exactly coming from these articles. The articles are in the Computer category with Google Adsense and the payout is not really that high for this category. I have pulled slightly more traffic for my Finance articles which were written almost a year ago and they are earning more than ever. I guess with extra traffic, you pull a few extra for other page as well.Published on Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:13:26 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Traffic , January , Spike , January 2008

Google Calendar
2008-01-25 15:52:00
If you haven't tried out Google Calendar yet, you should. Basically, it is a on-line calendar application where you can schedule out meetings, events, and whatever else on calendar. What differentiates Google from the rest though is that you can share and see other people's calendars. Some people have generated all sorts of calendars and you can search them and have them applied to your calendar if you want. For example, I have the Calgary Flames game schedule and the Calgary Flames television schedule as my "add on" calendars. You can turn them on or off if you want like a filter. There are calendars for whatever people felt like making up. I have seen open stage night calendars, television schedules for particular shows, concerts, and some people just share their personal calendar so you know what they are up to. If you are looking for an easy way to keep track of what is going on then check it out. If you already have a Gmail account then you won't even need to sign...
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Tripod Shot Of Us In Cuba - Photo Of The Day
2008-01-25 14:00:00
I had taken my handy little Optex tripod with me on our honeymoon to Varadero, Cuba . This was a shot using my Canon S50 point and shoot camera. I had set it to no flash and the exposure last a few seconds. The photo turned out awesome and this is exactly how it looked in the evening. We were staying at the Princesa del Mar (a Sandals resort at that time).Published on Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Varadero Sunrise - Photo Of The Day
2008-01-24 14:00:00
This was the sunrise from our room at the Princesa del Mar in Varadero, Cuba. Cheryl and I were there for our honeymoon in April of 2005. The sunrises were awesome, when we were awake to see them. I took this on my Canon S50 point and shoot camera.Published on Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:00:26 MST. - 1 Comments
More About: Photo , Sunrise

Elephant Video Is Getting Close To 20 000 Views
2008-01-23 22:13:00
I am getting closer to earning my $100 on MetaCafe. You have to produce your own video and reach at least 20,000 viewers while maintaining at least a 3 star rating. This was shot by my brother-in-law and I in 2006 at the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. This woman wanted a close-up photograph and got a bit too close for comfort. You can't hear it in the video, but their are guides screaming at her to get away. Elephant And The Stupid Tourist - More bloopers are a click awayPublished on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:13:24 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Video , Views , Close

Ho Chi Minh City Ferris Wheel - Photo Of The Day
2008-01-23 14:00:00
During my trip to south east asia in 2004, I went to a large park in Ho Chi Minh City , Vietnam. It was pretty neat and had a large ferris wheel that was all lit up at night. Taken on my Canon S50 again.Published on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Photo , Wheel

Wedding Invitation Reject 2 - Photo Of The Day
2008-01-22 14:00:00
Another rejected photo for our wedding invite, but I still like it. The romantic semi-silhouette shot. This was from my Canon S50 again.Published on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
More About: Photo , Wedding , Invitation

Still Looking For A Frets On Fire Guitar
2008-01-21 16:00:00
Well, I am still looking for a guitar for Frets on Fire . For anyone that knows me, I have to get something for a deal and I have had a hard time finding a deal for a Frets On Fire guitar. I was able to get Frets On Fire working over a week ago. It is a free version of Guitar Hero that lets you play all the regular songs from the game plus more. It is a cool little software program that is a bit buggy. Anyhow, I have been trying to get a guitar controller for it. I have read a number of articles and because Frets On Fire will let you map the actions to any controller, you are able to use any of the guitar controllers from the console to play it. In addition, there are people who have built their own guitars from scratch or used children's toy guitars and rewired them. eBay I have been hunting for guitars on eBay and it seems that these items are still a bit too hot to find a good deal. The cheapest guitar controller I can find is a PS2 wireless guitar, which comes to around...

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