I won 35 prizes in 2008

I won 35 prizes in 2008, more prizes than I ever dreamed I'd win this year. And I won 9 prizes last year so the total number of prizes I have won is 44 for 2007/2008. I can't wait to see what sweepstakes prizes I win next year. See you in 2009.

Make Human

On the wings 3d forum I found a link to a program called Make Human. Make Human allows you to easily make a 3d model of a human. I got very excited when I saw the make human website and could not wait to try the program, but I did not have time to downloaded make human the first time I went to the website.

A couple days ago I went to the make human website and downloaded the make human program. The download took about an hour and a half on my slow Internet connection, but I got it downloaded and installed on my computer. I tried using make human, but was totally confused as to how to use the program so I downloaded the documentation from the website and have been reading it for the past few days.

Here is an article about make human on blender nation.

Cool chess websites

Yesterday I read a post on lifehacker about chess that had some links to chess websites. As I have mentioned before on this blog I want to learn chess. But unfortunately I have not made much progress on that goal. I have not even finished the wiki book I got on chess yet because I stopped reading it awhile ago.

The lifehacker post got me excited about learning chess. The post had 3 links to chess websites, but I have only visited the flash chess website so far and it looks great. I want to play a lot of chess on flash chess so I can get good at the game.

Past win Gelaskins laptop cover

This is the Gelaskins 13" laptop cover I won in may. I don't know what else to write so I will just write that it's a nice prize. Also I had never heard of laptop covers before I entered the sweepstakes.

Past win, Book

I won the book fast profits in hard times in may of this year from a daily entry sweepstakes. It just came in the mail one day, what a surprise. I have not read the book yet, I hope to read it someday thought. I love reading books.

Bad website design

I can't think of anything else to write about to day so I'll write about Web Pages That Suck another website I got from about.com. It's a website I want to read, but I always forget to read it.

I don't have much to write about web pages that suck other then to say I want to start reading the site regularly and it looks cool. I also hope to have my website featured on web pages that suck someday.

Human Anatomy

One thing I want to learn more about is human anatomy. I like computers and learning how they work, but I think anatomy is even more interesting. I have thought about looking on the web for a anatomy website, but I never got around to it. Today is my lucky day because I read a post on make blog about an anatomy website called Think Anatomy. I hope to learn a lot from the website.

Leaning anatomy seems like a huge challenge and I don't know if I can learn that much about anatomy, but I will try.

Not doing enought programming

I feel I have not been doing enough programming and that frustrates me. As I have mentioned before I want to put up a website, but I have not been doing much programming lately, because I have been doing other things online like reading emails and RSS feeds.

So I want to cut down on the amount of emails I get and hopefully that will give me more time to learn how to program and work on a website. I also want to use that extra time to make 3D models and work with gimp.

Back to programming. I have been doing it for a few years now and I never seem to progress that much. I mean I have never designed my own program and that is something I want to eventually do. But maybe with a lot of practice I can get better I don't know.

Animation meat update

I just want to write about animation meat again today. In my earlier post about animation meat I said I wanted to do some animation tutorials on the site, but after I wrote about animation meat on my blog I looked at the site again and I did not find the tutorials I wanted to do. I did not look at the website close enough before I decided I wanted to do the animation tutorials. The tutorials probably have not been available for awhile.

I was disappointed when I saw the animation tutorials I wanted to do were no longer on animation meat and I wish I would have download them when the were available, but I got over it. I still want to lean how to draw animation thought.

I still draw every day and I still think I am not very good at drawing, but I keep drawing anyway.

Wow, I have written over 220 posts

Today I just want to congratulate myself for writing over two hundred twenty posts. When I started this blog I never thought I would be able to find ideas for that many posts. The posts may not be that good, but I keep posting and that is all that matters. I only have one hundred forty posts to go to reach my goal of posting on my blog every day for a year. I hope I make my goal.

3M instant win

Today I won another race day credential holder from the 3M performance driven instant win game. That makes 3 race day credential holders that I have won from the 3M performance driven instant win sweepstakes. I got a win in December Yay!!

Past win, One Missed call DVD

This is the One Missed call DVD I won all the way back in may of this year. May was a great month, I won 8 times in may, what great memories. I have not watched the DVD yet although someday I'm sure I will get around to it.

Past win, Mad Money DVD

This is the Mad money DVD I won in June. I have not watched the DVD yet, but I hope to watch it someday.

Leopard Programming langauge

I don't have much to write about leopard, but I will write about it anyway. I thought I had mentioned all the programming languages I have tried, but I forgot about leopard. I can't remember using leopard, I just downloaded the compiler that's all.

TCl programming language

I read an article on Dr. Dobb's and it mentioned the Tcl programming language. I think I have heard of Tcl before, but I have never wanted to try it, well now I want to insall Tcl on my computer and write some code in it. I am not sure why I want to try Tcl, I just need to.

AutoHotKey programming langauge

yesterday I read a post on lifehacker about which programming language to learn first and I saw a comment by Gina Trapani about autoHotKey. She also put a link in her comment to a autohotkey tutorial that I want to try. I don't know what I can do with the language, I just want to try the tutorial.

Scratch programming language

I first heard about scratch when it was kim komando's cool site of the day a few years ago, I think. So I went to the scratch website for a few minutes and wanted to download and install scratch on my computer, but I didn't.

A few days ago I read a post on make blog about a game someone made with scratch. I think it would be interesting to try scratch, but I am not sure if I ever will because I have other programming languages I want to learn first.

Wings 3d

Yesterday I was going thought my bookmarks and I found a blog called Linux which has a bunch of links to free programs.

On the blog there was a link to a program I had never heard of before called wings 3d. When I saw the website for wings 3d I thought wow another 3d animation program. I looked around the website a bit and then downloaded wings 3d and installed it on my computer.

I launched the program to see what it was like and it looks like it might be fun to use, but I have no idea how to use wings 3d or exactly what I can make with it.

I want to download the user manual an try some of the tutorials. I hope I will be able to use wings 3d to create something to post on my blog.

Rubik's cube

Yesterday I read a post on about.com 20th century about the the rubik's cube. I also went to the rubik's cube website. After reading the post and going to the website I remembered that I have a rubik's cube and thought I should try and solve the puzzle. But there was only one problem I did not know where my cube was so I went looking for it. I found it today.

I don't know how many years I have had that cube, but it has been awhile. I have tried to solve the puzzle in the past, but I did not try that hard. So now I want to put in some effort and solve the puzzle. It does not matter how long it takes me I just want to keep working at it.

Past win, Greg the bunny dvd

This is the greg the bunny dvd I won in June. The sweepstakes was a daily entry sweepstakes.

I had not heard of greg the bunny before I stared entering the sweepstakes for the greg the bunny dvd, but I entered the sweepstakes anyway. I have not watched the dvd yet, but I want to.

CameSpace

I read a post on make magazines blog about camSpace a program that allows you to use a web cam to play video games. I have not used cameSpace yet so I am not sure if my web cam will work. I am not sure if my web cam will work because my web cam is also my digital camera.

To make my digital camera into a web cam all I need to do is screw in a part to the bottom of my camera. The part allows my camera to sit on my computer or any flat surface. I hope my web cam works because cameSpace sure seems like it would be fun.

Game studio

On about.com c/c++ David Bolton has a post about a program called game studio. The program is used for developing video games. I want to try the program, but have not download it yet. I hope to download the free version of game studio soon.

I always write that I want to create video games, but I never think about what kind of video games I want to make, plus I have not even made a video game yet unless I count a simple game I made with blender. I need to make a video game.

A flash game tutorial I want to complete

I read this ars technica article about Kongregate Labs having a tutorial showing how to make a game in flash. I thought great I want to do the tutorial, but I don't have flash so I was disappointed until I read in the article about open source tools to do the tutorial.

I can't wait to do the flash tutorial because I have never done any flash. I am also anxious to see if I can get all the tools to do the tutorial set up right. I'll just have to do the tutorial and hope everything works.

Some perl websites

Yesterday I looked through my Perl bookmarks folder so today I want to write about some Perl links I found. So here I go. Oh yeah I originally got most if not all of the websites from about.com perl.

I found an article about developing games in Perl from ars technica. I forgot about the article until I found it yesterday. I probably was excited when I first bookmarked this article, but sadly I have not made a game in Perl.

Some other websites I have bookmarked that I think are interesting are perl name script generator, Graphical vi-Vim cheat sheet, perlMonks and Perl.org. I wish I would have learned Perl, but I didn't, Oh well.

Goal #15 Browser Bookmarks

I want to clean out my bookmarks because I have way to many. It seems like I have bookmarked every website I have ever been to. I bookmark a lot of sites because I think someday I might need the information on a website.

That system of bookmarking websites does not work so well for me. I have so many bookmarks I don't know what websites I have bookmarked. I bookmark a website and never go back to it because there are just to many bookmarks. I put the bookmarks in folders, but that does not help either.

SO I want to look thought all of my bookmarks and the websites I like I want to put on my blog, either write a post about the website or put a link to it in favorite sites.

The Rdtrocomputing Museum

I've been cleaning out my browser favorites today and I found a website I like. I knew I had the website bookmarked, but I always forget about it. Anyway the websites name is The Retrocomputing Museum.

About.com python had a link to an article on Linux Journal called Why Python and in the article there is a link to the Retrocomputing Museum, that is how I found the retrocomputing museum.

The retrocomputing museum is one of my favorite sites because of all the old programming languages it has. I just love programming languages. One of my favorite languages on the site is INTERCAL. I have not written any source code in INTERCAL, but some day I want to give it a try. The website also has some interesting articles that I want to read eventually.

C++ scripting language

In doctor Dobb's report there was a link to a post written by Christopher Diggins on Dr. Dobb's Code Talk about C++ script. When I saw the post I thought wow someone made a C++ scripting language cool, I want to try C++ script. Maybe some day I will get around to trying C++ script.

Bedroom Wall Posters

I read a post on about.com exotic cars written by Kristen Hall-Geisler called Bedrom exotics. The article talks a little bit about wall posters, that post gave me the idea to write about some of the bedroom wall posters I had.

I had a couple of posters of Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. I can't remember what models the cars were.

The sports posters are the ones I remember the best. I had a few posters of basketball players, Chris Webber when he was with the golden state warriors, Charles Barkley when he was with the Phoenix suns, two posters of Michael Jordan one poster was regular sized, but the other poster could almost cover my bedroom door it must have been 3 or 4 feet long.

I had a few wall posters of football players. One was Joe Montana when he was with the Kansas city chiefs and the other poster was of Troy Aikman of the Dallas Cowboys.

I don't have bedroom wall posters anymore. I am not sure why I took down all my posters, but I did. Maybe someday I will hang the posters back up, or even buy some new posters.

Reading

I read two articles about speed reading so I want to write about reading today. The fist article Speed Read is from wired by Emily Saso and the second article is from wiseBread and is written by Lindsey Knerl it's a review of the book The complete idiot's guide to speed reading.

When I was younger I didn't read a books for pleasure, I read books because they were school assignments. I probably finished the reading assignments, but I am sure I disliked reading those books and would rather have been watching T.V or playing video games

I did read sports Illustrated and the sports section of the news paper, but I wish I would have also read fiction and non fiction so I could learn about something other than sports.

It was about a decade ago when I started reading books for pleasure. I am still not a fast reader and I need to look up big words in the dictionary, but now I enjoy reading.

One problem I had with reading was I thought I had to remember every word in a sentence and I read very slow for awhile. Now I don't worry about remembering everything and that works much better.

I still read books although now I do most of my reading on my computer. I read blogs and websites and also some books that I download as PDF's.

Small basic programming language

I read an article on Digg about the small basic programming language for windows. Small basic looks like fun and I want to try it, but I have not had time to use it. I wanted to write about small basic on my blog so I remember to try small basic otherwise I might forget about it.

Commodore Basic programming language

A couple of days ago I saw a post on lifehacker by Jackson West about commodore basic. I want to try commodore basic, but I have not installed it on my computer yet. I am not sure if I will be able to make anything interesting once I do download and install it, but I will try commodore basic anyway because I like trying different programming languages.

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.

wow, It's the end of october already

Wow, it's the end of October already. I got all my monthly sweepstakes done today and yesterday I got all the one entries that ended on October 31 done. I never think I will get everything entered at the end of the month, but I get everything done.

I won two prizes this month. I won a coupon for a package of Hersey's bliss from an instant win. I also won Chaplin 15th anniversary edition on DVD. Not a bad month, because I consider one win a moth to be good enough. I hope I will get a win or two next month.

My sega genesis

I'm getting low on posting ideas so I will write about my sega genesis. I got my sega genesis in the early 1990's. The sega genesis came with sonic the hedge hog and one controller. I wanted a super NES, but got a sega genesis instead probably because the store was out of super NES game consoles and I wanted a new console right away so I got a sega.

I had about 10 plus games. Most of the games were sports games mainly basketball and football. Some of the games I can recall that I had were: mike ditka football, NFL 94, NFL 95, sonic the hedge hog. I also had two or three basketball games which I can' t remember the names of. I had I think one baseball game called tommy lasorda baseball.

I also got two more controllers. One was pretty much the standard controller. The other controller I got was fancy and you could program buttons. I am not sure what you could program the buttons to do. The controller had six buttons plus start and pause buttons.

Project Euler, my new favorite site

Well I had trouble coming up with post ideas and then I read my doctor Dobbs newsletter and it had a link to an article on Dr. Dobb's code talk about project Euler so I though why not write about project Euler.

I want to solve the programming problems on project Euler because I need a lot of practice solving problems and project Euler seems like it would help with problem solving and I want to challenge myself.

hide, The IDE for hla

A week or two ago I downloaded hide, the IDE for hla. I have downloaded and installed hide on my computer before, but never got it to work. I don't know why I did not get hide to compile my assembly programs before, probably after I could not get one program to compile I thought I would never get it to work and gave up.

As I said I installed hide on my computer about a week ago and struggled getting it to compile and run programs, but this time I persevered and got hide working. It took me two hours or more to get it to compile and run simple programs, but as I just wrote I got it working.

It's not that hide is hard to use it's that I seem to make easy things hard and always seem to have lots of problems when using a program that I don't have much experience with. But if I keep trying I can usually figure out how to use a program, but it takes me awhile.

I've got nothing today

I've got nothing to write about today so I will write about how impressed I am that I have written 165 posts. I mean when I started blogging in May I never thought I would have made it to the end of October. I am sure I thought I would make it a month an then run out of post ideas.

But I am still here and have come up with more posts than I thought I could have ever come up with. I am sure that most of my posts are not very interesting, but I am proud of myself that I kept posting every day. I set a post a day goal and have met my goal hooray.

I enjoy writing because it makes me feel good. I don't know why writing makes me feel good it just does. One other thing when I started I always got nervous about posting, but now I just decide what to write about and write away, how fun.

Past win sloppy joe T-shirts

I won 2 sloppy Joe T-Shirts in may. One day I was surprised to find two T-shirts in the mail I had no idea I won. I think the T-shirts are very nice, but I have not worn them yet.

I suppose I have not worn them because I think they are so nice and if I use one I will ruin it. Sweepstakes prizes are so nice I never want to ruin them. I need to stop babying my sweepstakes prizes and use them. Well maybe some day anyway.

second win in October, a dvd

Last night I got an email saying I had won chaplin 15th anniversary edition on dvd. Yay another dvd, I have lots of dvd's now. When I entered the sweepstakes for the chaplin dvd I thought chaplin is a move I enjoyed I would love to win it.

I am happy to have a second win in October because I had given up hope of winning again this moth and then the win notice shows up in my email, how wonderful. What a win!!

More NES games, Plus my favorite game

I also had teenage mutant ninja turtles for my NES. The game looked great and was fun to play, but I was not very good at the game. I think I could not get past the first level. That is all I can remember.

The last game I want to talk about was my favorite NES game, Mike tyson's punch out. I enjoyed the game and played it a lot. I think it was a great boxing game because the graphics looked good and I liked the characters you boxed against. I also liked the sound effects.

I did beat mike tyson's punch out once, but I am sure that was just luck because mike tyson could take you down with one punch and he moved fast. I wish I had some cool memories to write about playing the game but I don't, how disappointing.

Mario on NES

Today I want to write about Super Mario. The first super Mario came with my console and I liked the game and I am sure I played it often. I never beat the first super Mario video game though.

I also had super Mario 2 for the NES. I also enjoyed playing this game and beat it many times. On cool thing about the game was after you beat the game you would see a picture of Mario sleeping, I thought that was pretty cool.

I also had super Mario 3 for the NES. I also enjoyed this video game very much, but never ended up beating the game. I wish I could write a better blog post, but I cant remember much about these games other then that they were pretty good.

Contra

I'd say Contra for the NES was my second favorite game for the console. I wouldn't say I was good at the game although I did beat contra, but I had to use the cheat that gave you 30 lives instead of the three you would get without the cheat. Even after I beat contra the first time I continued to have fun playing the game.

My favorite part was the heart you had to beat at the end of the game. It was so exciting to beat that heart. I am not sure what the ending of the game was like after beating the heart, but I am sure it was good.

More NES games

I had one basketball game on my NES, but it was not very good so I won't talk about it. I like the sports games on the new consoles better than the ones I had for the NES or sega genesis.

I liked excite bike, but I was not very good at the game. I would always crash my bike on the jumps and fall way behind the computer. One of the most enjoyable things for me about excite bike was building my own tracks. At least I think you could build your own tracks in the game. I spent a lot of time building tracks and losing to the computer. It was a fun game even thought I wan not good at playing it.

One of my favorite games for the NES was Rad Racer. What a great game rad racer was. It seems to me I spent a lot of time playing the game. It would feel great when I would hit the checkpoints and get more time or was it fuel I don't remember. I did beat the game once, but I used what I think is a cheat, A start, which would give you unlimited chances to beat a level.

Computer made with Legos

Yesterday I read an article from make magazine about a computer made with Legos. I thought the computer was great, I mean making a computer with Lego's what a creative idea. I never would have thought of making a computer with legos. I think it would be a great project to build.

I remember when I was younger playing with legos, but I did not play with legos very much. I don't think I ever built anything with legos, I probably did not have the patience to spend time building things with legos.

I thought Lego mindstorms were great when they first came out and I saw them on T.V., but I've never had a lego mindstorms set. I think lego mindstorms are great because they can be programmed to do different things and if you have been reading this blog you know how much I like programming.

My favorite NES games

Yesterday I read an article by Mike Dodd at dailygame.net that he wrote about his NES. I enjoyed reading the article. I thought after reading the article, well I had an NES so I can do a blog post or two about my NES. So here I go.

I got my Nintendo entertainment system for Christmas in 1988, wow 20 years ago already. This was not my first video game console because we had an ATARI 2600, more on the ATARI in another post. I don't remember, but I probably wanted a Nintendo for awhile.

The NES came with two controllers and two video games, duck hunt and Super Mario. It also game with the gun controller for duck hunt. I don't have that many memories of playing the NES, but I do remember a few games I liked. I probably had at least 15 games for my NES.

First I'll talk about duck hunt. I was terrible at duck hunt so I would put the gun controller almost right up to the T.V screen an shoot away at the ducks. I'm sure putting the controller so it is almost touching the T.V. is cheating, but it was fun anyway although it would have been nice to put the gun controller a few feet back and play the game.

Another NES game I enjoyed was a baseball game that I can't remember the name of but I do remember wanting to play that game all the time. I would play the game for hours and would never get tired of playing.

D++ scripting langauge

D++ is another programming language I have tried. I first heard about D++ from The free country about a year ago. I saw D++ and thought wow I should try this language so I installed the compiler on my computer, but I was missing some files so I could not run the the D++ hello world program I made.

I think the files I was missing were VB runtime files. So I thought that meant I needed to have a version of visual basic and I did not have visual basic on my computer which was to bad. I was very disappointed when I could not run the D++ programs, but I got over it.

I just looked on the D++ website and found the files I need to run D++ programs. I don't know how I missed them when I first downloaded the compiler. Wonderful, now I can get D++ to work on my computer if I want to, cool. How did I miss the files the first time, Oh well I've found them now.

Yes!!, I got Lua to work on my computer

I went to the Lua website yesterday for the first time in a long time and saw a version of Lua that is for windows. The windows version was not a big download so I downloaded it and installed Lua on my computer.

I was worried that Lua wold not work and then I would be disappointed because I could not try Lua, but I did not need to worry because Lua works. I tried a hello world program and looked at the documentation. I also went to a website that has a link to a Lua book that I want to read.

I would like to learn Lua, but I am not sure if I will learn it because I want to start writing useful programs instead of leaning programming languages so I have tried to stick to learning one programming language and I worry that if I start leaning Lua I will be back to the same problem I have had before which was wanting to learn a lot of programming languages and not making any useful programs.

Lua programming language

Another programming language I recently remembered wanting to try is Lua. I downloaded Lua, but I could not figure out how to use it. I looked around the Lua website a little and then gave up never having used lua. Hopefully some day I will learn how to set up Lua so I can try some Lua code. Lua seems like it might be a fun language to programme with.

My favorite cookies

I have eaten a lot of cookies, but now I don't eat them at all. My favorite type of cookies were sugar cookies that I made myself. I think I made them at least once a month, but I might have made the sugar cookies more often I can't remember.

I had to roll the cookie dough out and cut the cookies out with a cookie cutter, I would use a cup or something like that as a cutter to cut the cookies out and then I would put the cut cookies onto a plate and roll out more dough and cut more cookies until I was out of dough. Rolling dough and cutting out sugar cookies was always fun.

After putting the cut dough on a plate I would then transfer about 12 cookies on to a baking sheet and then put the baking sheet into the oven and when the cookies finished cooking I put them on cooling racks to cool off.

Then came the best part of all frosting and eating the sugar cookies. I did not make the frosting myself. I don't know why I did not make the frosting, after all if I could make cookies I could have made frosting. I liked the cookies best when they were cold. I also liked it when the cookies were thick so they would be moist and chewy.

Favorite website ars technia

I saw the name of the website ars technica in a new york times article so I put the name into a search engine and went to the website. So anyway the other day I read an interview ars technica had of Tim Sweeney. I saw the title of the article and could not wait to read it even though I had never heard the name Time Sweeney before.

Reading the article I wished I knew more about graphics and OpenGL so I could understand more of what Tim Sweeney was talking about in the interview. Even thought I did not understand everything in the article it was fun to read and made me think what fun it is to be a computer programmer. I certainly learned a few things from reading the interview.

candy

I don't eat candy anymore, well I eat it once in a while. A few years ago I used to eat candy every day. I am tring to eat healthier for my computer because after all without me my computer would get lonely.

My favorite Candy's were Carmel's or tootsie rolls I would start eating them and I could finish a whole bag in one sitting, I did not do that very often thought. I started eating and I could not stop.

I also liked skittles and I could eat a lot of those in one sitting too. My favorite kind of skittles were tropical, the ones in the blue bag, they were so good. I also liked the skittles in the green bag I don't know what they were called, but they were sure tart. I loved taking a handful and putting it in my mouth and wow that would get me awake.

Besides candy I also liked soda. I got up to drinking 3 cans a day, but I don't drink soda anymore either. My favorite kind of soda was coca cola classic which tasted great, but mostly I would drink the the cheapest soda brands.

Artweaver/graphic software

Last night I was reading Lifehacker in my RSS reader and I saw an article about Artweaver a photo editing program like gimp or photoshop. I got very excited as I was reading the article because Artweaver seemed pretty cool.

I did not have time to look at the Artweaver website last night so I thought maybe I should not get so excited because the program might be to large for me to download, but the program is not a large download so I did not need to worry.

Reading the article made me excited as I said, but it also made me think why am I so excited I only use gimp to crop and scale photographs for this blog and nothing else so I don't need another photo editing program.

What I am tring to say is I have not made any cool graphics for my bog or website with a photo editing program. My problem with photo editors is the same problem I have with programming langauges I have used them for awhile, but I have not created anthing interesting using either a programming language or a photo editing program/graphics programs. So I think I should set some goals for photo editing/grahics software:

1.Do some tutorials instead of only reading the documentation

2.create some cool graphics for my blog and website

3.practice, practice, practice

4.have fun learning

Make magazine's blog, 8080 computer

I enjoy reading Make magazine's blog. Yesterday I was looking at my RSS feeds and make magazine had a link to a website showing an 8080 computer someone made. I thought someone building an 8080 computer how cool.

I have only had one computer and it was already built when I got it, but I have always thought maybe someday I'd like to build a computer. I don't know if I'd buy all the parts separately or get a computer kit to build, but knowing I had put the computer together with my own hands would be a great feeling as well as a learning experience.

I don't know if I would be able to build an 8080 computer like the one on the website because I've never built any electronic gadget and I am not sure I have the Patience to build a project like that or the knowledge.

one of the things I think would be cool about building a computer like the 8080 computer is that after finishing it I could write programs for it using some computer language like C, basic, or assembly or some other programming language. I like old computers and would love to program using one someday.

Past win feburary 2008

The pictures are of a DSRL training kit. The kit was an instant win from Nabisco. The kit contains a headband, shirt, two cups, and a DSRL membership card. The stuff in the kit is almost to nice to wear.

The kit is my second biggest win and my biggest instant win. A wonderful prize.

It's been a year since I started sweeping

It's been over a year since I started sweeping. I can't remember the exact reason why I started sweeping, but I have done better at sweeping than I would have ever imagined because when I first started entering sweepstakes I thought I would never win a prize or would not win very many prizes, but here I am a year later after winning 9 prizes last year and about 30 this year.

My goals for sweeping are:

1. Keep entering sweepstakes every day.


2. Stay positive even when I am not winning very much.


3. Have fun entering.


4. Retire to my own private island after having won millions of dollars in sweepstakes prizes.


5. Have a book published about my sweepstakes exploits and sell the movie rights.

SciTE editor

I leaned of SciTE when I downloaded ruby for the first time. I have used SciTE for a while, but only for writing java and other programming languages source code. I like it for writing souce code because it has line numbers and it highlights keywords.

I have always used notepad to write html, but recently I stated using SciTE to write html. I wish I had stated using SciTE to write xhtml sooner. I like the fact that the xhtml is highlighted and I can open tabs and have many html documents open at the same time. Also with SciTE I can tell if I make a mistake spelling an xhtml element or attribute name.

SciTE came in very handy a few days ago when I was writing xhtml frames. Opening multiple frames allowed me to have the names of the frames right in front of me so I would not make a mistake and write the wrong names in the frame container page.

J programming language

A programming language that I forgot to mention is the j programming language. I downloaded and installed the j compiler on my computer and probably wrote a few lines of code in j and that was it. I have not used the j compiler much at all.

I downloaded the j compiler because I wanted to try APL, and j was the only APL type language I could find on The freecountry for windows. Why did I want to try APL? I liked the name, A programming language. I also wanted to try APL because it has been around for awhile.

past win march 2008, Bedding set

The picture is a princess enchanted bedding set. I would say it is my third biggest win this year. The bedding set came in a big box. I was very excited when I saw the box because I thought it might be a T.V or some electronic gizmo.

When I grabbed the box I thought this is so light this can't be a T.V. I opened up the big box and the first thing I thought was I won a purse, but then I looked and realized it was a bedding set.

The princess enchanted bedding set was second prize in some sweepstakes I entered, but I am not sure which sweepstakes I won this prize from because I don't think the paper inside the box said who sponsored the sweepstakes.

Winning this prize made me feel great since I had not won any prizes in the month of march, but this win made me feel like I had a winning month. what a great win this was. I forgot to mention that this win was a complete surprise when it arrived at my door one day, I had no idea I had won the bedding set.

Goals for my blog

I think I have written about goals for my blog before, but I want to write some more about my blogging goals. I know I have already written that I want to post to this blog every day and I have done that so far although as I wrote yesterday I wonder how long I will be able to come up with ideas for posts.

I think I should write down my goals so I can read them and know if I am working toward my goals. Another goal I have for my blog is to make it interesting so people will want to read it. I do not think I have achieved this goal. I think most of my blog posts are not interesting, but a least I am posting every day.

Anther goal I have for my blog is to get lots of people to read it. I have not achieved this goal either, but I sure would love it if my blog were popular. I want people to say I don't know what I ever did without sillys blog or I have sillys blog as my home page. Silly we love your blog is something I hope people say some day after I am rich and famous.

My bog topic

I have been thinking about my blog topic because I fear I may not be able to make 365+ posts. I am through with all the programming languages I've tried and my sweepstakes wins are only good for 2 to 3 posts a month so I am panicking.

I want to do a blog about computer programming, or technology in general. But I think I do not know enough about the subject although I do love technology. I would have to read a lot more than I do now. Technology meaning computer programming or computer animation is the only blog topic I can come up with. It is the only thing I know something about. I just don't know enough about the subject. Maybe be doing this blog I will learn more, I hope so.

XML

Another thing I want to learn is xml. I have a book called xml by example and I have read most of it, but I think I tried to read it to fast and I also did not practice xml so I don't know much xml. I think if I practice more I will be able to learn xml. It would be great to know xml because it looks like xml can be used with a lot of programming languages although I am not sure. I hope xml is not to hard to lean.

My first sweepstakes win of october

Today I got my first sweepstakes win this month and it's only October 2. It was an instant win from Hershey's, I won a coupon for a Hershey's product worth about four dollars. It's not a huge win, but it does mean I got at least one win in October. My streak continues yes!!!

Let me be the first to congratulate myself

I want to be the first to congratulate myself on writing a blog post every day for 4 months. I thought I would never make it this long. I wanted to write a blog post every day and I have done it for at least 4 months anyway. horray for me.

I hope I can keep blogging, but I am not sure I will be able to come up with anthing to write. I think I need to do some brainstorming and read more so I can come up with some blog post ideas. I am worried that I will not make my year goal, but I might make it, I will try hard to anyway. I hope I make it, I hope I make it.

Another month is over

Well September is over and it was an OK month a far as sweepstakes wins go. I had three wins, a DVD, and a gift card. I did not win anything until the middle of the month so I thought I might not get any sweepstakes wins this month. But I was wrong. I hope I will get a bunch of wins next month too. Sweestakes are fun!!

More thoughts on programing

Also besides the programming languages I mentioned I wanted to learn in my last post I also would like to learn python so I can use it with blender, scheme so I can use it with gimp, squeak because I think squeak is cool. I hope that is not to many programming languages to learn. And also I would like to learn hla.

I also need to learn one programming languages at a time. I think trying to lean many programming languages a once was another problem. I need time to practice programming in a specific language. Practice will make me a better programmer.

If I limit the programing languages I learn I will be able to learn other things like physics or math or something I did not know I wanted to learn. In other words I thought I was missing out not knowing or at least trying every programming language, but while doing that I was missing out on learning other things besides programming. I feel better now knowing that I can only be good at a few programming languages.

Some thoughts on programming

I think I have written about all the programming languages I have tried. Writing about all the languages depressed me. All the posts I wrote about all the programming languages I have tried were pretty much, well I downloaded and installed this compiler or this interpreter and did a few lines of code and that is all. I want to make a useful program, but I have not been able to make one.

My problem is I want to learn every programming language I come across. So I end up learning nothing except the names of a bunch of programming languages. I realise now I only need to know one language to be a computer programmer and I am probably not missing anything if I do not know or try every programming language because there is no way I can learn every
programming language.

I also realise that I need to decide on a one or two or three programming languages and stick to thoes languages and see if I am any good at programming. I need to set a goal. My goal is to make a website so with that goal in mind I want to learn php and javascript and also xhtml, css, mysql so I can make a nice site.

javaScript

Like java I have used javascript more than most of the programming languages I have tried. I have read Sam's teach yourself javascript in 24 hours. I have also tried learning javascript from about.com, but I have not practiced javascript enough so I am not good at it. I want to learn javascript so I can put some scripts on my website. I think it would be fun to do animation or small games with JavaScript.

java programming language

I have used java a little more than the other programming languages I have written about. I've read Sam's teach yourself java 2 in 24 hours. For most of the other programming languages I have tried I have only written a few lines of code.

I remember when I wanted to start programming in java I went to about.com java and found out what I needed to download and then I went to sun's java website and downloaded java with netbeans and it took 6 hours because it was a 100MB download. I installed the programs, but I could not get java set up so I could compile and run progams at a command prompt so I got upset and did not try to use java again for awhile.

Eventually I did set my path up right so I could use java at a command prompt and I think that is when I started reading Sam's teach yourself java 2 in 24 hours. It took me a month or two to complete the book. I had fun reading the book and programming in java. Although I would need a lot more practice progaming in java if I wanted to write a useful program.

I am not sure I want to learn how to write useful programs in java, but if I wanted to lean java better I would concentrate on applets. I would love to write applets for websites. Applets are cool.

ALA7 Programming Langauge

I found the ALA7 programming language on Doctor Dobb's CodeTalk. I was using a search engine to look for new programming languages and I found a doctor dobb's code talk article about the ALA7 programming language.

So I went to the ALA7 programming language website and downloaded and installed ALA7 on my computer. I wrote a few lines of code in ALA7 and that was all. I think it is cool that ALA7 is a newer programming language.

Ford hot rod scale model

This is a picture of a 1930's ford hot rod scale model. Well its a picture of what is left of a 1930's scale model kit I put together. Why did I take the model apart? I think I wanted to make the doors open.

I took the model apart and sawed the doors open and probably thought it would be to much work to make the improvements I wanted to make so I threw the model into a box and here it is now.

what a shame it was a nice looking model and I had to tear it apart. I wish I had left it together instead of making a mess out of it. Instead of tearing apart a model I had put together it would have been better to get new kits and cut the doors and trunks out so I could make opening doors. Leave the model I had put together alone that is what I should have done.

I won again this moth

I won fifty dollars from GE. I got the package today. I love gift cards. Wow what a great month this is turning out to be three wins and there are still 6 days left in September. I feel great.

Scheme programming langauge

Yet another programming language I have tried a little bit is scheme. I want to read a book called How to design programs and it uses scheme. I have read a small portion of How to design programs before, but like most things I never finished it. I want to finish the book this time though. I want to learn how to design programs that is for sure.

I have installed on my computer Dr. scheme which is used for the book. Dr. scheme looks like it will be fun to use. I think I also installed another scheme, but I don't know what it is called.

One thing I like about scheme is that if I lean scheme I can write scripts for gimp. I also like that scheme is similar to lisp. I hope I read the book and learn scheme.

MODULA-2 programming langauge

Another programming language I have tried is MODULA-2. I also wanted to try MODULA-3, but I could not find a compiler for windows. There are a few compilers on the modula-2 website, but I tried only one of the compilers and it is called Native XDS. I got XDS installed on my computer OK and started the program.

I had high hopes about learning modula-2, but like most of the other programming languages I have tried I used it for a day or two and then quit. I wanted to read the documentation and everything, but never go it done.

By the way Native XDS is also an oberon 2 compiler so I did try a line or two of oberon 2, but not more than that. I love the name oberon 2 because it sounds like some programming language from outer space. A fantastic name for a programming language.

MySQL Database

I want to learn how to create databases with mysql and connect to them with php. I don't remember why I wanted to learn sql all I know is that I downloaded mysql so I could read sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 hours. That's why I wanted to learn Mysql so I could read the free book. Yes that is it.

So I tried to install Mysql, but I had problems, because my firewall was blocking a port. That frustrated me a lot. Somehow I got Mysql installed and started reading sams teach yourself Mysql, but gave up reading the book after a week or so.

Now I want to start reading the book again so I can use Mysql with php as I said before. I don't know what I can do with a database although I am sure I will find something. I hope I learn Mysql this time.

PS3 Monster Madness video game win

This is the Monster Madness PlayStation 3 video game I won at the end of last month from the HDR room. I love to win video game stuff. I don't have a PS3, but some day I hope to win one. What a wonderful win!!

TAB electronics robot kit

A couple of years ago I got a robot kit made by TAB electronics. I got the robot kit, but waited a few weeks to assemble it until I could get smaller tools to use to put the kit together because I though I needed to get smaller screw drivers. It turned out that I did not need smaller screw drivers after all, my regular screw drivers would have worked fine.

The robot kit did not take long to assemble probably an hour or less. I broke a peace of the kit, but I used my model glue to put it back together. I got the kit together and tried the robot once or twice and now I leave it sitting around gathering dust, but it is nice to look at.

The robot kit came with a CD that had assembly instructions and it also had programming information. The robot has a serial port connector on it so you can hook it up to a computer and program it. The serial connector did not come with the kit and I did not want to buy the connector so I never learned how to program the robot although I think programming the robot would be fun.

PHP programming langauge

I installed a version of php on my computer a year or so ago and tried a php tutorial or two and then I stopped using php. I was not interested in learning the language. Then I decided I wanted to build a website and my website host has php on their server so I thought I should learn php so I can put a program on the server.

I'm fired up about learning sever-side programming because I have never done that type of programming, I have only tried java and javascript client-side programming. I am not sure what I can do with php, but it seems like it will be fun to learn.

Yay, I won this month

I got the Over My Dead Body DVD in the mail today. I won it from star magazine. I was worried I would not win this month and then this prize shows up. Yay what a win. Now all I need to do is win a DVD player so I can watch the movie.

Animation Meat

I found Animation Meat on about.com drawing and sketching. I have downloaded a few of the PDFs that are on animation meat and read them, but I have not practiced the lessons at all. I think being able to draw animations would be great fun. Today I want to start learning animation from animation meat. I don't know how long that will take, but that is my goal, and I know I'll enjoy learning animation.

Synfig

Yesterday I read and article on about.com Linux about a program I had never heard of before called Synfig. Synfig is an animation program so I knew right away I wanted to try synfig. I hoped there was a synfig version for windows OS. There were 4 .exes to download for windows.

I downloaded the 4 .exes for windows and then got confused because I had looked at the synfig documentation and it talked about installing mingw and other stuff for windows so I downloaded Mingw and msys, but could not get msys installed because of an error, so in desperation I ran the 4 windows .exe and then realised I had wasted a few hours downloading mingw and msys and should have tried running the 4 .exes first. At least I got Synfig to work that is all that matters to me.

So after I got Synfig installed I stated the program up and it worked, Wow I was so relieved that it worked. I did not have time to use Synfig last night so I shut it down. This morning I went to the Synfig website and tried the beginner tutorial, using synfig was not to hard. I want to do all the tutorials on the synfig website so I can learn how to use the program.

Drawing

Another hobby I have is drawing. I have been drawing every day for over a year. I don't remember when I first wanted to draw, probably 15 or 20 years ago. I never drew much before a year ago because I would draw and what ended up on the paper would be pretty bad so I thought I did not have any talent. So I did not practice drawing.

I know now what I wish I knew 15 years ago, if you want to get good at something you have to practice, practice, practice. I don't think I am a good artist, but at least I am doing something I enjoy and that is all that matters. I may never be any good at drawing, but that's OK.

More Radio Control

I did not know anything about RCs when I got my RCs and I don't know much about RCs now. I had one little booklet with pictures of RCs and one issue of radio control car action when I got the hornet. I think the hawk and hornet came with manuals, but I never bothered to read them. I charged the battery and drove the vehicles without knowing what maintenance I should be doing.

The battery pack I got to use with my hornet got wrecked or for some other reason did not work anymore so I got another battery pack for my vehicles that was used and it still works today. I bought the used battery because it was cheaper than a new battery. I am surprised either battery lasted very long because I would run the battery down and recharge it with my charger without letting it cool down which is bad for the battery.

One thing I did not like about the Radio controlled vehicles was that the transmitter took eight AA batteries. I know I could have gotten rechargeable AA batteries, but I got regular AA batteries and it always seemed like a waste. I wanted to convert the transmitters to be able to use a battery pack, but never knew how to do the conversion.

TRAXXAS HAWK RC truck

My other RC vehicle is a Traxxas HAWK. I think I got the hawk a few years after the hornet, but I can't remember. I wanted to get the Lunch Box, but I got the hawk instead because the store was out of the lunch box and I could not wait to get another RC. I got it ready to run although I could have gotten it as a kit to build also. I wish I had gotten the kit and built the hawk myself.

I always wanted a transmitter with a steering wheel so I got one when I bought the hawk. I always wanted a electronic speed control so I got one for the Hawk. At the time getting an electronic speed control made perfect sense, but looking back I wonder why I got it. I only drove the hawk in the driveway so why get the electronic speed control. The decision makes no sense at all. The mechanical speed control would have been fine for how I used the hawk. I should mention I got the electronic speed control after I had the hawk for awhile.

Another thing I did that makes no sense now, I took apart the transmitter. I don't remember how much of the transmitter I took apart. Why I took it apart I do not know, but at least I got it back together and I am sure it works now. Taking apart the transmitter was a bad idea.

I like the hawk although I have not used it for awhile. A battery powered truck is fine, but some day I want to get a gas powered monster truck. Driving a monster truck I am sure would be great fun and I have always wanted a gas powered RC.