I spent a fair amount of time over the last couple of days and finished some work that I started on the way to Hawaii with my site.

The news system has been upgraded and moved from looking at next files to residing in an sql database. More work to implement, but nicer in the long run. Lots of other updates have been made behind the scenes.

Originally posted on 2010-02-24

Hello! First post of 2010 is here, finally.

First of all, I want to congratulate Daniel and Liz Tomcej on their marriage: may it be long and happy!

Now, I do need to pimp my photogallery here: Hawaii Photos are up in there. On the note of travel, west Maui was a wonderful change from mid-winter Edmonton and I'm glad I got the chance to go. However, while travelling I had the misfortune of flying on United.
My experience with them has been less than pleasant for the most part, though there have been a couple nice employees. I have never seen "over-booked" flights so much in my life while waiting in the UA departure terminals; though I have to thank the customer service in Denver and LA for trying to find myself and Logan a way to Maui after missing a connection.
Why it costs an extra $150 to confirm flights for the next day I'll never know, and really it shouldn't matter. Customer service in Kahalui was terrifyingly awful; and $20 dollars to check baggage for flight?! I don't care who does or doesn't do it, it's a stupid practice - same with not offering snacks in flight for free. No seat-back tvs (and microphones that blow out your ears)??! No power on long haul flights? Not flying with your company again! Anyway...

I've put up a project page for my music collection app: here.
I am also working on a replacement news system; something backed with a database and a bit nicer than writing text files, though I can't really complain that this works so easily.

Have a good 2010, maybe I'll post more often in the future. Strange things do happen from time to time afterall.

Note: The previous post, Desert Bound, was originally posted on 2009-08-29. That information was accidentally omitted.


Originally posted on 2009-10-19.

I am back. I have been back for a long time. Burning Man was a _ton_ of fun and I met alot of great people there. Pictures are up in the photo gallery. 'Surviving' wasn't too hard, we ended up being well prepared for most things except the party ;).

I started playing around with the XNA Framework for Windows (and xbox, but I haven't payed for the XNA Premium Content subscription) while learning C# as a programming language. Can't say I know alot about the language yet - it's similar enough to Java and C/++ that I can just hack away. I'm a long time eclipse user and lover of man-pages but the Visual Express 2008 IDE makes not knowing anything really easy with integrated information on just about everything. I'm practicing by trying to make a more complex version of the game Snakes (just in 2D though); however, I wouldn't be surprised if it never saw the light of day.

Fantasy Flight Games has released a new game, Rogue Trader, and is close to releasing the Ascension rule-book for the Dark Heresy game. I am extremely excited about these, especially since Rogue Trader is support to integrate almost seamlessly with Dark Heresy.

In other news, the F.E. exam is this Saturday. I'm nervous, and given the amount of studying I've done it seems unlikely that I will do well.

I am leaving in less than hour to the final packing site at a buddy's place then starting the _long_ drive down to Burning Man in Nevada. Since I don't camp often, I'm a little nervous - basically I hope I have everything I need. Of course, next to the amount of stuff my friends are packing I seem to be over-prepared. I would rather be more ready than less ready, and the middle of the desert in Nevada, even if it is surrounded (eventually) by about 60,000 people, is not the most hospitable place in the world, nor is it the hotbed of any form of "civilization" as city-dwellers know it. Desite the worrying,

I have no doubt that the trip will be alot of fun. I'll try to take a bunch of pictures and post stuff when I get back since I sincerely doubt even if I get power and internet I won't want to pay for hotel internet. Once I get back it's hard on to the books prepping for the FE Exam at the end of October.

Cheers!

Originally posted on 2009-08-24. I just rewrote most of the site to work in alot more php (for modular includes). My real piece de resistance is a news post system that I can upload posts to, and display on the most recent news on the front page - but without ANY of the complexity of a full blown blog / journal. My efforts are going to be focused towards getting ready and packed for Burning Man 2009 - leaving on the 29th of August down to Nevada. It should be alot of fun, and a very interesting experience. For those who don't know, Burning Man's website.
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I just got linked a movie by my brother. It always astounds what can be done by dedicated and creative people.