Thoughts From My Life

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2007 Year In Review - Thoughts From My Life
2008-01-02 18:09:00
2007 has finally gone by. My first full year of blogging has past and I have written a lot of articles and learned a lot of lessons. Fortunately, I have made some money in the meantime as well. I started this blog in November of 2006. My intent was to try and make money on the internet and use the site as a diary of what I was thinking about or working on at the time. I have a variety of interests ranging from computers, finance, travel reward programs, music, photography, traveling, and you name it. So the blog has not been overly focused, but it has made it a lot easier to continually be writing content for the site. If you like any of those topics then there is a good chance you will find something of value here. Traffic For 2007 The traffic had a couple of cycles this year. I ramped up to around 200 unique visitors a day in the spring and then Google dropped me from their search results for some reason. I have since built it back up to 100 uniques a day and have just p...
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Earn Revenue Online - December 2007 Recap
2008-01-02 15:29:00
December of 2007 is now finished and Thoughts From My Life has ended on the highest note of the year. A great sign for the new year. It was the best month ever for my passive income! New records. Thoughts From My Life Traffic Stats for Decdember December's numbers and November's numbers are in brackets. Page Loads: 9828 (5754) Unique Visitors: 5745 (3016) Average Uniques/Day: 185 (100) Lowest Uniques/Day: 78 (73) Highest Uniques/Day: 766 (129) Traffic was over 100 for the first part of the month. I was happy with this and then the last week of this month my traffic exploded. I definitely have higher expectations now. This traffic came from a couple of sources. One was Stumbleupon users going to my Nikon 18-200mm VR Lens article and the second source was my new article on my Acer Extensa 5420 laptop. December Traffic Thoughts From My Life Revenue Overall, my earnings for December were $171.33. Here is the breakdown with last month's numbers in brackets. PayU2Blo...
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Floating Market Woman - Photo Of The Day
2008-01-02 14:00:00
This woman was sitting in her boat selling lychees at the floating market in Thailand. The picture is a bit out of focus, but I still like it nonetheless.Published on Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Logitech V400 Notebook Mouse - Review
2007-12-31 14:18:00
I purchased the Logitech V400 Notebook Mouse about a month ago after my regular mouse died on me. I have been quite happy with it so far. It is a wireless optical mouse made by Logitech for notebooks. It is quite compact and has pretty fine control. It retailed for around $40 when I first found it, but I ended up finding it on eBay for around $15 plus shipping so I was pretty proud of my purchase. Features Of The Logitech V400 Compact - I do like the size of it. Not too small or too big. Wireless - It come with a little USB receiver. USB Receiver Storage - It snaps into the back of the mouse and clips into place. One Battery - Only takes one battery. Page Up/Page Down buttons - They can be configured I believer. Scroll wheel also acts as a left and right button to move horizontally on the screen. I don't have any real complaints so far. Excellent little mouse with the extra features to make it handy in various situations. Here is another review of the Logitech V400 that ...
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Cheryl On Saltspring Island - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-31 14:00:00
This is a picture of my wife before we were married. I like this photo. She is staring out to the ocean on a beach on the north tip of Saltspring Island just off the coast of Vancouver Island.Published on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Floating Market In Thailand - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-30 14:00:00
The floating market an hour or so outside of Bangkok in Thailand is a very popular tourist destination. Boats fill the little canals and people boat along and can buy goods of vendors in their own boats filled with produce and other goods. Taken with a Canon S50.Published on Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Saltspring Island - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-29 14:00:00
On the northern tip of Saltspring Island off the west coast of Canada is a neat little bay. The view was fantastic and boats could be see sailing through the passage between Saltspring and the next island to the north. This was taken using the Canon S50.Published on Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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First Link Sale
2007-12-28 15:19:00
I am happy to announce I sold my first permanent link placement on this blog. I am always looking to have more passive income on this blog to increase the revenue each month without increasing my own workload and this will do just fine. The link sponsor section is in the right column near the top. If you are interested in purchasing links on my blog to increase traffic to your own site, please contact me using through the Advertising page.Published on Fri, 28 Dec 2007 07:19:00 MST. - 0 Comments
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Washing Clothes In The River - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-28 14:00:00
This boys were washing clothes in the river. I was traveling down the river from Batdambang to Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia and I originally thought the entire trip would be just the shoreline with nothing there. There were families living the entire length along the river. These boys had some sort of motorized device to wash the clothes and then they would take them out and hang them to dry back at the house along the river.Published on Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Viewsonic VA2226w Review - 22 inch Widescreen LCD Monitor
2007-12-27 19:12:00
I just purchased the Viewsonic VA2226w 22 inch Widescreen LCD the other day. There was a boxing day special on at Best Buy for $229. The monitor is pretty sweet compared to my 17 inch square LCD that I had before. It gives way more screen real estate to work with. It is a 21.6 inch viewable area screen. I don't need to run my web browser in full screen mode any more because the content fits in the browser when it is only a little over half of the screen width. I can have another screen open on the right side or even a video playing. I run the screen in 1680x1050 resolution which looks quite nice as well. With a screen that size, the icons and text are still a really good size. Viewsonic VA2226w Features It is pretty nice monitor and here are a few things I wanted it for. It is one of the cheapest 22 inch monitors on the market. There is HDCP support so it will be able to handle encryption (BluRay) in the future if I hook up another device to it. Very light. It is ligh...
More About: Review , Monitor , Inch

Vermilion Moon - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-27 14:00:00
This was taken on my parents' farm just outside of Vermilion, Alberta, Canada in the winter around February of 2004. It was a neat picture of the moon rising up from behind the hills to the east or our home. It definitely gives a sense of the cold as well. I took this photo with my Canon S50 and have taken it on trips to show fellow travelers where I am from.Published on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Ta Prohm At Ankor Wat - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-26 14:00:00
If you ever have the opportunity to visit Ankor Wat in Cambodia, it is one of the most fascinating places to see. This photo was taken at one of the "compounds" built called Ta Prohm. Giant trees blast out of he stone walls. Scenes from Tomb Raider have been filled here. There can be thousands of people visiting these sites, but it is so large that you do feel like it isn't very busy at all as you wander around. This was taken on a Canon S50.Published on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Bay In Victoria - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-25 14:00:00
Down the cliff along Dallas Road is a beautiful little stone beach along a bay in Victoria . Definitely worth a walk anytime of the day. It was approaching dusk here, but still a nice view.Published on Tue, 25 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Acer Extensa 5420 Laptop Review
2007-12-25 05:16:00
I purchased an Acer Extensa 5420 series laptop the other day and have been pleasantly surprised. I was looking for a decent laptop to handle my needs, but still be under the $1,000 price range. I ended up finding a display model on eBay for $620. I have written a couple articles on it already that you can check out called Laptop Shopping - What Laptop To Buy and I Bought A Laptop. Specifications ACER Extensa 5420 AMD Turion 64x2 Mobile Technology TL-58 (1.9GHz) ATi Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT Video Chipset(256MB Discrete Ram) 2GB DDR2 Ram 250GB (5400rpm) S-ATA HDD (dual drives) 15.4" WXGA CrystalBrite LCD (1280 x 800) DVD-Super Multi Optical Drive Media Card Reader (SD, Memory Stick, Pro, xD) Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium What I Will Use It For Just an overview of how I will be using this laptop or how I use my current computer. Internet Video (hi-def and regular) iTunes for my iPod Occasional Programming (Eclipse, Visual Studio) Web Development (Apache, MySQL, P...
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BBQ Chicken In Cambodia - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-24 14:00:00
This lovely sight was along the streets in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia . I thought I would snap a quick picture of whatever kind of bbq birds these were. They definitely give you the "whole thing". This was taken on a Canon S50.Published on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Neil and Cheryl On Saltspring Island - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-23 14:00:00
My wife had surprised me with a Valentine's Day trip out to Saltspring Island just off the cost of Vancouver Island. I had never been there before and it was quite interesting. I set up my Canon S50 on a little trip to take this picture while we were on the north tip of the island.Published on Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Thailand Coke Billboard - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-22 14:00:00
This giant billboard for Coke was one of my first introductions to Thailand and its weird alphabet. Still, I thought it was pretty neat. I took this photo with my Canon S50 as I was driving by in a minivan on my way to Kanchanaburi.Published on Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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I Bought A Laptop
2007-12-21 17:56:00
I purchased my first laptop. How exciting. If you read my article called Laptop Shopping - What Laptop To Buy from a couple days ago, you realize I was having a few issues finding what I wanted. So I decided to head onto eBay and look around on there. In the end I found a display laptop in excellent shape that was located in Calgary. I was able to win it and go pick it up to void the shipping fees and actually see it before taking it home. My Laptop Specs It is pretty decent. I ended up paying $622 for it and I can't really find a compareable one for less than $900 at today's prices. It is still warrantied through 2009 as well. It is in awesome condition too. Not even a scuff and it looks brand new. ACER Extensa 5420 AMD? Turion? 64x2 Mobile Technology TL-58 (1.9GHz) ATi Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT Video Chipset(256MB Discrete Ram) 2GB DDR2 Ram 250GB (5400rpm) S-ATA HDD (dual drives) 15.4" WXGA CrystalBrite LCD (1280 x 800) DVD-Super Multi Optical Drive Media Card ...

Victoria Legislature At Night - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-21 14:00:00
The British Columbia Legislature is quite pretty at night. It is all lit up and sits on the sound end of the inner harbour in Victoria , British Columbia. This is another shot using my Canon S50 point and shoot. I had a little mini tripod made by Optex that did the trick for stabilizing it.Published on Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Cambodian Baby - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-20 14:00:00
This baby was sitting just sitting here watching us go by. This was in a floating house along a river in Cambodia on our way from Batdambang to Tonle Sap Lake. This was taken with my Canon S50 zoomed in and then 4x digital zoomed too. The quality isn't the best, but works great on the web.Published on Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:00:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Learning Cannonball By Damien Rice
2007-12-19 19:58:00
I have been playing my guitar a lot more lately and trying to learn some of my favourite songs. Anyhow, my latest accomplishment has been learning Cannonball by Damien Rice . This is excellent song. The lyrics are a bit different, but the tune and guitar work is great. I have a few methods I used to learn this song. Listen To It This is pretty much a given. You need to know the song inside and out. Not having to concentrate on lyrics lets you focus on the music style. Get A Hard Copy Of The Lyrics and Tab This should be your reference sheet for learning the words and a place to scribble notes or chords onto. Not everyone will interpret the song the same way, so look for something that looks like your style or in your difficulty range. I went with this Cannonball tab. Find A YouTube Lesson This has been one of the best ways for me to learn this song. Here are my favourite lessons for Cannonball. riggamortus' 2 Lessons They have a lot of the detailed notes in them. The l...
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Concentration - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-19 17:42:00
My sister-in-law was concentrating on her sewing task late one night. The glow of the sewing machine's lamp was kind of neat. I took this with the Canon S50 point and shoot camera. I loved that camera, but ended up leaving it in a taxi cab in Quito, Ecuador on a holiday in 2005.Published on Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:42:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Laptop Shopping - What Laptop To Buy
2007-12-18 21:05:00
I am in the market for a laptop and it is actually my first one. Hard to believe that a computer engineer would never have owned a laptop, but it's true. Anyhow, I have been shocked by the variance in prices and features from store to store and even within a store. I have a few basic requirements for my laptop. I have found very few models that contain all of these. They all seem to lack in one area or demand a huge price to upgrade to them. The best packages for the cheapest price I have to say have been the Acer lineup so far. They even throw in an HD-DVD drive which I wouldn't even expect at this price range nowadays. A close second has been the custom configurations available with Dell. FeatureRequirement PriceUnder $1,000 ProcessorIntel Core2 Duo RAMEasy to Upgrade Hard Drive120 GB Video CardNot integrated Wireless802.11a/g and Bluetooth Sound CardIntegrated Operation SystemWindows Vista Home Premium Screen Size15 inch or less and widescreen This is a seriously ha...
More About: Shopping , Laptop , Top Shop

Calgary Saddledome - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-18 17:42:00
This is my home city. The Calgary Saddledome in the foreground with downtown in behind it. The Saddledome is where the Calgary Flames (National Hockey League), Calgary Hitmen (Wester Hockey League), and Calgary Roughnecks (National Lacrosse League) play. There are also concerts and other events here. This photo was taken with a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens and I was standing on the hill on the west side of Ramsay's residential district in Calgary. I park up here and walk down the hill when I am going to a game.Published on Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:42:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Vote For Me So I Can Win A PhotoTrakr Lite
2007-12-17 18:08:00
For those of you who read my blog, I wrote about the GISTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite the other day. It is a handy little device that records the time and GPS information of your travels. There is a software package that goes along with it that will tag all your photos with your GPS tracking data. Anyhow, my article was part of a contest to win one of these devices. And since it is the holidays and I would really like one, I'm asking everyone to go vote for my article. Just go to the The BenSpark page and there is a voting widget on the right hand side of the page called Who Should Win a Gisteq PhotoTrackr Lite. There is a little widget below where you can click the radio button for my name and then vote. Just place a vote for me please.Published on Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:08:36 MST. - 0 Comments
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Cambodian Temple Stairs - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-17 17:42:00
Outside the town of Batdambang in Cambodia there is a temple at the top of a small mountain. These were the stairs to the top. It took a little while to get up there and a lot of kids want to walk up with you in the hope of some monetary compensation, but the view was totally worth it. I shot this with my Canon S50 point and shoot.Published on Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:42:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Sheep On Saltspring Island - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-16 17:42:00
We were driving around the loop on Saltspring Island in February of 2004 and had to stop to photograph these little guys.Published on Sun, 16 Dec 2007 09:42:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Incheon Airport Window Cleaners - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-15 17:42:00
These window cleaners were working away and a hazy day at the Incheon Airport just outside of Seoul, South Korea. I think this might have been the control center for the airport but I am not sure.Published on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:42:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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Fake Trading With The UpDown
2007-12-14 20:56:00
I have always wanted to do a site for fake trading stocks and options, but I get it started and just don't take the time to polish it up. I recently found a site that does just that and has an excellent interface and layout. It is called The UpDown. Basically, you sign up and get a $1,000,000 of fake money and you can make trades. What makes this site different is the communication and analysis tools. Why The UpDown Is Great It almost feels like a real web brokerage with the various tools you can use to research the stock. It also allows you to post your analysis of the stock when you do a trade (or even if you aren't doing a trade). These short analysis articles by users are viewable by all and have a rating system. You can see the top rated ones for bullish and bearish perspectives. You also can see the other users' performance and portfolio values. You Can Earn Real Money! On the site, they describe how you can earn money fake trading. Basically, you have to outperf...
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Banff View Above The Rimrock - Photo Of The Day
2007-12-14 17:42:00
This photo was taken in Banff, Alberta, Canada. I was looking down from the hotsprings down the valley. In the bottom of the photo is the RimRock Hotel. Another shot from my Canon S50. Published on Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:42:26 MST. - 0 Comments
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