The end of November

I can't believe it's the end of November already. I entered all my monthly sweepstakes today. Yesterday I went through all the one entries ending to day and entered the ones that had prizes I want.

It's a lot of work to enter all the sweepstakes I want to enter at the end of the month, but after I am finished entering the sweepstakes I feel great.

In November I had three wins. I won 5 greeting cards at the beginning of the month. I also won a 3M race day credential holder and The Cosby show on DVD. I hope next month is as good as this month for sweepstakes wins.

I got my cosby show dvd set

Yesterday I got the Cosby show DVDs I won on November 18. I was not expecting the DVDs to arrive so soon, they arrived in 10 days, Wow that is fast.

Goal #14 Learn Synfig

Goal #13 Learn Synfig. I wrote a post about synfig on September 14. In that post on Synfig I wrote that I wanted to do all the tutorials on the synfig website, but I have not used synfig since that post so I have not done any of the tutorials.

So I want to start doing the tutorials on the synfig website so I can create some animations for this blog. I want the animations that I put on my blog to be at least 5 seconds in length.

I know learning how to animate in blender and synfig is a lot of work, but I want to at least attempt to learn how to use both programs.

Goal #13 is Learn how make animations with Blender

My Goal #12 is to make animations and video games with blender. I wrote another post about blender on June 26. I also posted two animations I created using blender. The first on is Ginger bread man walking and the second one is The first gingerbread man I animated.

I know in the Ginger bread man walking post I said I wanted to post a new animation ever week, well I have not met that goal yet, but some day I hope to accomplish that goal.

I want to make animations that are at least 5 seconds long with sound if I can find some sounds. I want the animations to be longer than the first two I have posted on this blog because those two don't show very much animation.

With blender I also want to create small games. I would like to created games that look like games for one of the big game consoles, but I am sure I can only create small games and they might not be very good, but a least I will be making games and that is something I have always wanted to learn how to do.

Goal #12 Learn Gimp

Goal #12 Learn Gimp image manipulation program. I think I have written only one other post about gimp. I know in that other post I said I want to learn gimp, but I want to make learning how to use gimp one of my goals.

Right now I only use gimp to crop photos and also scale them for my blog, but I would like to learn how to do more with gimp. I would like to be an image manipulation whiz, but that will take a lot of work, but who knows maybe I can do it.

I got my 3M instant win prize

Today I got my 3M credential holder. I wrote a post two weeks ago about this instant win. I guess I did not need to worry if I could win two prizes from this instant win. Maybe I'll get another win from this sweepstakes, I hope so.

Goal #11 Learn XML

I wrote a post about XML on October 3. I know in that post post I said I wanted to learn xml, but now I want to make learning xml one of my goals.

I have not learned any xml since the October 3 post although I have signed up for about.com's xml class, but I have not done any of the lessons yet. I am not sure what I want to use xml for I just know I want to learn xml

Goal #10 Learn Rebol

Goal #10 Learn Rebol. I have written two other posts about rebol. The first post was on June 5 and the second post was on June 6.

I know yesterday I wrote I only wanted to learn 5 programming languages, well make that number 6 because I want to learn rebol. I went to the rebol website yesterday and I got excited about rebol and thought why not make learning to program in rebol one of my goals.

I just cant get over the small size of the rebol download. I thought I would not want to learn rebol because rebol costs money to get everything I could get with something like python for free, but I think the language is interesting and there are two free versions so why not learn it.

Goal #9 Learn HLA

Goal #9 Learn HLA. I have written 3 other posts about hla. The first one was on June 7 the next was on June 8 and the most recent post was on October 28.

I am still trying to finish the book The art of assembly language. I have read the first volume of the book and I'm now going back over the material to make sure I understand everything. I want to finish the art of assembly language programming book and I am sure some day I will.

There you have it, I want to learn hla, php, javascript, squeak and python, programming languages. I think five programming languages are more than enough to try and learn and that number could be to many to learn for me anyway.

The main things I want to focus on are making a website with JavaScript and php and I also want to focus on program design. What I am tyring to say is I want to find out if I can program and if I can't then I want to find some other hobby. I think it is time I get serious or stop programming altogether.

Goal #8 Learn Python

Goal #8 Learn Python. I wrote a post about python on July 1. Reading the July 1 post again it seems like I was excited about learning python. I was probably doing the python tutorial that comes with python at the time. I did not finish the tutorial though, unfortunately.

To Learn python I want to finish the tutorial that comes with the python documentation. I also want to go through the tutorials on about.com python. Wish me luck.

Goal #7 Learn Squeak

I wrote two posts about squeak in June. The first post was on June 3 and the other post was on June 4. Since those two posts I've almost finished the book squeak by example, but as usual I went to fast and did not practice enough so I did not learn as much squeak as I wanted to.

To learn squeak I want to read the book squeak by example again making sure I practice what I have learned. I also want to do some of the tutorials on squeak.org after I finish reading the book.

I also want to use seaside to develop a web application with squeak. I am not sure what type of application I want to develop, but I am sure I will have fun learning seaside.

sweepstakes win, cosby show dvd

Yesterday I got an email saying I had won the Cosby show on dvd. I felt great because I won the whole show on dvd, not just one season. Now I have a lot of dvd's of the Cosby show to watch. What a great win. Yes!!

Goal #6 Learn MySQL

Goal #6 Learn MySQL. I wrote about Mysql in September. I have not made much progress learning mysql since my last mysql post, but I have read three chapters in the book sams teach yourself Sql in 24 hours.

To learn Mysql I want to finish reading sams teach yourself sql in 24 hours and then after I finish the book I want to find some books specifically on Mysql. I hope I will be able to learn mysql so I can use it for my website.

Goal #5 Learn PHP programing langauge

Goal #5 Learn PHP programming language. I wrote a blog post on php in September. I have not learned much php since my last post on php, but I have read a chapter of a book on php called practical php programming. I can't wait to start learning some php.

To learn php I want to read practical php programming and then I want to complete some of the tutorials on about.com php. Then I also want to do some of the php tutorials and look at a lot of php source code at planet source code. I am not sure how good I will be at writing php programs, but if I never try to learn the language I will never know how good I can be.

Goal #4 Learn javascript

Goal #4 Learn javascript. I have already written about javascript once before, but I will write some more about javascript because it is one of my goals to learn the programming language.

As I said in my other javascript post I want to use javascript for animation or games. I would also like to learn some Ajax. I am sure I will come up with a lot more ideas for javascript programs once I learn more about javascript.

To learn javascript I have a book called javascript in an Instant by: Toot Murdock that I want to read. The book is a few years old, but I have it and I want to read it. I also as I said in my other javascript post have signed up for the about.com javascript class. I want to finish the javascript in an Instant book and then do the about.com javascript class.

Since my last javascript post in September I have not made any progress leaning javascript, but now since I think I know html and css better I want to start learning javascript again so I can put some scripts on my website.

Goal #3 Learn CSS

Goal #3 is to learn CSS. I have probably written all this before, but I'll write it again. I have tried to learn css several times, but I did not practice it enough so I would forget it. But now I am determined to learn css.

So to learn css I have signed up for about.com's css class. I also want to learn from the tutorials on css help pile. Css help pile is a site I found on about.com web search and it's a great website. I know I can learn so much about css from reading css help pile.

Right now I an almost finished with about.com's css class and after I finish that I hope to move one to css help pile and other articles on about.com about css.

I like css and think it is fun to be able to change fonts and colors on websites. One of my favorite things about css is css positioning because I am not sure I would be able to layout web pages with tables. I also enjoy changing link colors.

Goal #2

Goal #2 is to learn Xhtml. I have already written a little bit about wanting to learn Xhtml. I am currently trying to learn xhtml. I am doing the about.com xhtml class. As I have written before I have taken the xhtml class before, but I did not try hard enough so I did not learn xhtml very well.

I try to read the class emails and practice the lessons for a half hour a day although I usually do not have that much time so I practice the lessons for as much time as I have. I have already done all the lessons and am now going back over them making sure I know the material. Someday I hope to pass the final exam, but I am not sure if I will ever pass it although I will try.

Setting goals

Yesterday I read an article on lifehacker by Gina Trapani about setting goals. The article got me thinking about goals so today I started writing a list of goals I want to achieve. Making the list of goals made me feel good. I don't know if I will achieve all the goals I have written, but I will try.

I need blog posts so I will also talk about some of my goals on this blog. I know I have already written about some goals, but I want to write more on the subject so here it goes. I will write one post talking about each goal.

Yesterdays post about magic would be goal number one. As I said I want to learn card tricks and some other magic tricks. I am not even close to accomplishing this goal because I have not even learned one magic trick yet. I am sure writing about it on my blog will help me get going one this goal.

Magic

Another interest I have is magic. I am not that knowledgeable about magic, but I want to learn a few magic tricks.

When I was younger I got a book from the library that had some simple magic tricks in it. I probably did not read very much of the book, but I do remember doing one magic trick from the book.

The trick involved an ice cube, string, and salt. You put the string on the ice cube and pour salt on the string and ice cube combination. The salt makes the string and ice cube stick together so you can pick up the ice cube with the string. I thought that trick was amazing.

Now back to what magic tricks I want to learn. I want to learn the card tricks that are on about.com magic plus some other magic tricks that are on the website. Now that I have written that I have a goal to learn some magic I will learn some magic.

Processing programming language

A few days ago I was reading a make magazine story written by Marc de Vinck. The story is not about processing but about something else. Reading the story I thought great a new programming language I have never heard of. I have not installed processing on my computer, but I wanted to write about it on my blog anyway. Maybe someday I will find the time to try processing.

An intant win

I was not sure I wanted to post this, but I need to write a post. Yesterday I got an instant win from the same 3M instant win sweepstakes I got a win from in april. I won the same prize as I did in april a race day credential holder.

I was not sure I wanted to post it because I am not sure if I can get more than one prize from that sweepstakes so I thought why post it on my blog if I might not get the prize because I could only win once. I read the rules after I got the instant win in april and I did not see a prize limit so maybe I can win more than once.

Well it felt great to a win again anyway.

A few articles I like

Today I have been reading my RSS reader more than usual and I found some articles I want to talk about. So here I go.

I though an article I read on digg about surfing rats was pretty cool. I mean I never thought before reading the story that rats could surf. Heck before reading the article I would have never thought about trying to teach rats how to surf. very cool!

I also read an article on Gizmondo by Dan Nosowitz about a world of war craft player. Just looking at the picture in the article makes me wonder how anyone could focus with all those monitors. I don't think I could function in that kind of envirement.

And then I read an article on Gizmondo by Dan Nosowitz about a floppy drive. I think it would be interesting to build one of those.

plants blogging

I was reading make magazines blog yesterday and saw an article by jonah Brucker-cohen about a device that allows your plants to post to a blog and I thought how cool. I thought wow that is what I need to get people to read my blog a device to let a house plant write the blog instead. I am sure the plant posts would be more exciting than my posts.

So after reading the article I stared thinking and I wondered what plant would be the best blogger? Maybe a plant that is hard to care for so the posts would be grumpy. I would rather read about a grumpy plants existence than a happy plant.

I also thought if one plant could blog what about having a couple so I would have a bunch of blogs all making money while I sat on my computer playing video games and programming. I would have my own media empire.

If the plants blogs became very famous I could act as their manager and handle newspapers and magazines requests to interview the plants. I would say the plants don't want to be interviewed or read the blogs if you want your questions answered or I could say I just watered the plants and they don't want to talk now.

Bring on the blogging plants I want a popular blog.

Sega genesis again

The only other games that I had for my genesis were 2 or three basketball games that I can not remember the names of.

I also remember one time when I had rice krispes in a cup with milk and accidentally dumped some of the rice krispies in the genesis where you put in the game cartridges, but I think it was just the rice krispies that I dumped in and not any milk although I am not sure. The genesis still worked after that little incident although I could see rice krispies in my Sega.

Well I have exhausted my memories of my Sega genesis so I will have to post about something else tomorrow.

More sega video games I had

I want to write about two football video games I had for my Sega. I have already written about these games in another post, but I want to write some more about the games. The games are NFL 94 and NFL 95.

I liked to run the ball in NFL 94 a lot because it took so long for passes to get to the receivers. I remember when I wanted to pass the football in the game I would have to let the ball go right after I got it from the center. I also remember that the game had one sound effect when you were playing that said back to pass although I think I only heard that when joe montana was my quarterback.

I don't have anything more to add about NFL 95 so I won't. I was just thinking maybe the two football games had some sounds. I think after the play was over the game would say how many yards you gained. I also think the games looked pretty good for genesis games.

More sega genesis

I had one hockey game called Mario Lemieux hockey. I thought it was a good hockey game that was fun to play even thought I never beat the game. I liked to check other players into the boards so they would fall down. I also think the game had little mini games that you could play which were fun.

I also had sonic the hedge hog which came with the console. I thought sonic was a good looking game. I was not very good at playing Sonic and never got past the third level. Although once I did get to the last level, but I did that using a cheat.

Another game I had was Mike Ditka football although I think I played the game a lot I can't remember that much about it. I think it was hard to pass the football in the game so I probably ran the ball a lot. The game I think also had on or two sound effects that I heard playing the game. I never beat Mike Ditka football and I am not sure how good I at playing the game.

Another win

Yesterday I got an email saying I had won 5 greeting or note cards. Wow what a wonderful win. I hope I get many more sweepstakes wins this month. Who knows maybe this will be my best month ever.

chaplin dvd

Today in the mail I got the Chaplin DVD I won last month. What a surprise because I did not think it would arrive for awhile. I can' wait to watch the movie.

Holloween costume

Make Magazine has a post by jonah Brucker-cohen about a Computer Halloween Costume which I thought was great. I never wore a computer costume, but after seeing the picture of the costume I wish I would have. The idea of a being a computer on halloween had never occurred to me before the make magazine post.

The costume got me thinking about other computer related costumes. I thought how cool it would be to dress up as a PS3, XBox 360, or a Nintendo wii. I think a great Halloween costume would be if I dressed up as a Nintendo game cube, I would look like one of those kids toys where you turn the handle on the box and a head pops up out of the box.

I also think it would be interesting to be a video game cartridge. I though what about dressing up as a frogger or space invaders cartridge from the Atari 2600.

My sega continued

Today I want to write about some of the games I had for my sega genesis. I had tommy lasorda baseball. I wanted tommy lasorda baseball since I first saw the game and I got it for a Christmas present one year. I did not play the game that much though, but it probably was a decent game.

Today I remembered a few more basketball games that I had that I did not remember I had the other day when I wrote my first post on my sega. I am not sure who they were published by but I know one was called Celtics vs. Lakers and I think I had a few more basketball games called some team vs. some team although I can't remember the exact name of the games.

I do remember I did play those basketball games a lot and that they were fun. If they had a season mode I am sure I did not finish it. I probably could not decide which team I wanted to play and kept switching teams which is to bad because I would have liked to beat those games.

I thought that the lakers vs. celtics and the other games I had with the vs. in the name were the best basketball games I had for the sega genesis. I thought the graphics were good looking, but I don't remember anything about the sound in the games although I do remember they did not have announcers like the new sports games.