A little over a week has gone by and I thought I'd recap what little I know so far. My google ads were working as of Monday and no total revenue to date is $3.55. Not enough to retire on, let alone buy a Starbucks coffee. I think I made it from my wife and friends just going and clicking wherever the first few days.

Here is a screenshot recapping the last 7 days. My adsense has only been active for 5. I'm interested to see how these numbers change over time and based on different events. I will recap for the first few weeks on a weekly basis and then after that I will probably resort to once a month unless something interesting happens.

I have learned a few things already since my website went out, so I will recap what has happened.

1. Purchased My Domain and Hosting

   I purchased the domain thoughtsfrommylife.com for $2.99 this year and the first month of my hosting for $6.99. The account was configured and ready for me to use within a few hours. This was of course through GoDaddy. They were the cheapest and had the basics that I wanted. 100GB of space, 1TB of bandwidth, PHP, and MySQl database.

2. Created My Website

   I coded all of my website in a blog style. Basically I can post articles, login, allow comments from other users with user accounts, and organize my articles in categories. There is password retrieval ability and some other security features. I also have an "email this article" feature and your typical About Me, Contact Us, and Links pages.

3. Submitted My Site to Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ

   Google involved just feeding them my url at http://www.google.com/addurl/. They took about 3 days before they indexed my site for the first time and haven't come back since. Yahoo has my site now too (took a week). DMOZ hasn't indexed it yet at all (been over a week).

4. Signed Up For Google Adsense

   Got the account, dreamed of the money, and copied and pasted their well known code into my web pages.

5. Learned That Dynamic Links Are Bad

   When I searched for pages on my site using Google, it would only return the home page as a result. I found out that Google doesn't respond to dynamic links. This is how I built my article viewing to work. The same page would display all the articles and just look up the content in the database. So after doing some quick research, I applied the mod_rewrite functionality to my website. All the links now look like a full path name and I use the mod_rewrite to turn them into the dynamic link I want to use. You can read up on how I did this in my article Using Mod_Rewrite - Search Engines and Dynamic Links.

   I haven't had them reindex my site since, so I'm hoping they do soon so I can the difference in indexed pages in a search.

6. Used Google Tools to Submit a Sitemap

   I also looked through the Google Webmaster Tools. One of the things that appears to be important is an XML sitemap. I generated this and I update it every time I have a new article and resubmit it to Google. They seem to get around to it a few hours after I resubmit it. I wrote about this in my article Adding a Google Sitemap. Apparently Yahoo likes a text sitemap and I have also read where it is good to have an html one for users (and search engines) as well as a RSS version. I will add these soon and post an article on the best free tools I found to do the job.

7. Changed the Layout a Bit

   The banner at the top didn't go across the whole top before so I changed that. I tinkered with ads a bit based off articles I have read on John Chow's website. Basically there is a 300X250 ad on the 1st, 4th, and 8th article summary on the main page, archives, and category pages. There is 300X250 ad on all article pages. They are done inline with the article. There is also a horizontal text ad banner at the top of every page and a vertical text ad banner in the side menu after the archives.

   The ads have been set up in Channels in the Google Adsense program so I will be able to track the performance of them.

8. Wrote and then Wrote Some More

   I try to spew stuff out on a daily basis. From anything I have read you need decent content and I would like to get a lot my stuff down in writing anyways.

   I have articles sitting in draft. I build them up and proof them before I release for everyone to see. It is kind of good system right now. I have 5 basically done articles at any given time that I just need to publish and I have around a dozen skeleton articles sitting there I can work on. Anytime I have an idea, I will create the title and put into the drafts section of my site (only viewable by me). When I have a moment, I will venture in there and bang away my thoughts during some strange hour of the day.

9. Got My Links Out (just a little bit)

   I have had a couple friends put my link on their websites and put my link on my personal webpage site as well. Have to start somewhere, but I'm still unsure how else I'm going to get my link out. You always have grand visions of writing an article worthy of Slashdot, FARK, or Digg, but that isn't always a reality. I don't think my site could handle the hits if it did anyways.

   If I can really hone some of these articles down, perhaps I can post on a more popular website. I guess I'd have to learn how to write first.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

I have heard about it and discussed with many a person, but I had never played it until now. My boss had given me the 14 day trial copy of World of Warcraft and I thought I would try it out over Christmas. Anyhow, another friend of mine said he was playing it so I loaded it up on Saturday. By end of Sunday I was Level 10 and had an appreciation of why people can get addicted to this game (and I haven't really played it that much).

You are totally immersed in the experience, they make sure you always have a couple of quests in the queue and you can explore seemingly forever.

Installing

So the installation procedure took hours. I had to install the DVD which requires 6GB of hard drive space. Then it downloaded a 465MB patch and installed it. Then it downloaded another 465MB patch and installed it. When I was done I didn't even feel like playing it.

Setup

So I loaded it up the first time and joined the Echo Isles Realm (one of the servers). From there I created a character. I am a Gnome Warlock named Ogden. I picked out my look. I have the big beard and dark skin and that is about all I can really say. Soon thereafter I was on my first quest, killing boars in a snow covered valley along with all the other gnomes and dwarves too.

Addicting

Why is this game so addicting? Well lots really. I didn't realize how expansize the whole world was (well I kind of did). But when you are there you can explore and explore, but the scenery changes frequently and there are a lot of towns to visit. The mountains and valleys are truly amazing and the draw distance is cool, because it lets you see quite far away. When I first approached the city of IronForge I thought it looked amazing. When you get inside it look even more cool, mainly because of the business of activity inside. Completely oblivious to you, there are people (real people) running all over the place taking care of their own business.

Where to Go From Here

I am going to put some serious time in for my 14 day trial, but after that I will have to decide whether I am going to by the full copy or not. The problem with this game (and what is good for Blizzard, the developers of it) is that it is a subscription server of $15/month I believe. That is $180/year. Not really a whole lot, but I just hate subscription services in general (like my cell phone). Knowing I will be out the cash every month is just frustrating.

More Frustration

I am experiencing the "Server is Full" message right now while I am writing this article. Rather frustrating. I think I am the low man on the totem pole because of my trial copy too. My position in the queue fluctuates up and down and so does the time and it never seems to get even close to 0. Oh well, that can't just let a guy with a $2 copy of WOW bump there $15/month subscribers so it is only fair. Besides, this will encourage to forego the trial version and its limitations and just go buy the real thing, right?

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

I didn't know if I really needed this for my website. I don't use them personally, but the search engines appear to use them for indexing purposes. I also thought I would just learn something new and offer one more feature to perhaps one ad clicking web surfer. Since my time so far has been worth about $0.25/hour to build this site, what is another hour.

What is an RSS Feed?

Basically it is an XML file on a website that contains summary information and links for the website. It allows someone to put it into an RSS news reader program and see your summary results lumped in with other sites' summary information. Readers can skim the RSS information without having to actually visit your site. It is more of a convenience thing than anything.

How do you create one?

It has a set format. You can search google for RSS information and tutorials and there will tons of sites that pop up. If your site doesn't change very often, it might be best to just do it by hand and put on your site.

Making the RSS File Dynamic

The biggest problem with creating these files, is if your site changes frequently (which is kind of the purpose of them). How do you make it dynamic so that it changes when the content changes? I found some code on the internet and modified it for myself and ended up with a short little function that takes care of it. It is written in PHP, but I have posted it below.

# open a file pointer to an RSS file
$fp = fopen ("rss.xml", "w");

# Now write the header information
fwrite ($fp, "nnn");
fwrite ($fp, "n");
fwrite ($fp, "http://thoughtsfrommylife.com/n");
fwrite ($fp, "Advice From Someone Who Doesn't Know Everythingn");
fwrite ($fp, "en-usn");
fwrite ($fp, "http://thoughtsfrommylife.com/rss.xmlnn");

#Loop through the articles.  My query returned the most recent 10
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
  $articleid = $row["articleid"];

  $title = $row["title"];

  $content = $row["content"];
  $summary = substr($content,0,250);
  $description = strip_tags($summary);
  
  #Create the link
  $pagelink = "http://thoughtsfrommylife.com/article.php?articleid=$articleid";
		    
  #Write out the XML tags for the next item
  fwrite ($fp, "n");

  #Add a ... if the article is logner than 250
  if (strlen($content) > 250) 
  {
    $description = $description . "....";
  }
  fwrite ($fp, "n");
  fwrite ($fp, "$descriptionn");
  fwrite ($fp, "$pagelinkn");
  fwrite ($fp, "nn");
}    

#Close out the xml syntax and then the file
fwrite ($fp, "nn");
fclose ($fp);

#Create another copy as an .rss file
copy("rss.xml", "rssfeed.rss");

And that is my code segment right there. I added this code to the area where I publish one of my articles. This way it will go in and set update the rss feed each time.

What's Next

I need to add more information to the XML file. You can add a timestamp so I will do that next.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

In July of 2005 my wife an I went to Ecuador and Peru. We didn't have much time (less than 4 weeks), but we managed to squeeze in everything we wanted to see in that time. I'll outline our thoughts about this area and what we did. Same as always, I recommend seeing this part of the world.

Overview

1. The Galapagos Islands
2. The Amazon Basin - a jungle tour
3. Machu Picchu
4. Lake Titicaca

Pros:

• Lots too see in this area.
• Spanish is easier to learn than a lot of languages. You can pick it up easy enough to get around.
• Nice climate for being on the equator.

Cons:

• It isn't overly cheap to travel here. The big tourist draws will cost you.
• A lot of the things to see pretty much have to be done by tour (Galapagos, Amazon Basin, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca). These book up so you need to be reserve in advance in the busy season.

Should I Backpack or Should I Tour?

I would recommend either one here. The language is easy enough to learn and there is a fairly good public transit system to get around in. Backpackers are very common and you won't have problems finding guest houses and such in the right part of the major cities. On the other hand, a lot of the big tourist areas need to be done by tour anyways so being in a tour isn't such a bad thing.

What You Need

Be prepared. We were there in July and it was hot in the Amazon basin areas, but Quito, which is quite high in the mountains), will be cool and we were even wearing long sleeve shirts in the Galapagos Islands. Same thing in Peru, you will be warm at the lower altitudes, but it will cool off the higher you go.

Time of Year

We were there in July, I can't comment on any other time of the year. It was quite nice, but a bit busy with all the other tourists.

Getting There

We flew from Calgary to Houston to Quito via Continental Airways. They were the cheapest ticket with the best times and all-in-all were quite good. They even let us jump an early flight on the way home free of charge.

When We Arrived

We had arranged pickup from our first guest house in Quito. It was a nice little place down in the main tourist area called ???. I think the cost was $25/night, which was a bit ritzy for us, but the first night was nice. This included internet and breakfast. You'll find that quite a few places there will include both these.

Getting Around Quito

Hop the bus or take a taxi. They are cheap and get you most places.

Mitad del Mundo

This is the "Middle of the World". Kind of funny just to go see it. A massive monument that is on the equator line. You might as well go get a picture of yourself straddling the equator. One foot in the northern and one foot in the southern. You can just take a public bus from the downtown to get here. If you walk around the backside of the complex, there is another museum that claims it is on the equator line according to GPS. You need to check it out for a laugh too. They have science experiments that "apparently" only work there, because it is the middle of the world.

Otavalo

This is the "leather market" north of Quito in the town of the same name. We went on the non-market day (I think its Saturday), but it was still pretty good. We purchased some clothes and a few wall hanging things for a good price. We just took a public bus from the main bus station.

Galapagos Island

Wow, what can I say. This is a must if you are in the region. You'll find that a lot of people don't go because of the cost though. My wife and I went for 4 days, 3 nights and it was about $1000 each. The flight will cost you about $400 and then the rest will be the live-aboard boat, tips, and anything else you do there.

Basically the only way to see these islands is on a live-aboard. They don't allow you to stay on the islands, except for one. They are also hours apart from one another.

We booked on the Sulidae. Basically the cheapest one we could find with availability. It was an old, black sailboat, but it suited us just fine. Only 16 people + crew which was a fun size. During the day we would take day trips out to an island, then have dinner on the boat, and they would begin the journey to the next island, usually arriving around 5 or 6 the next morning. Temperature wasn't hot, but it was nice. Basically wore sandals and long sleeve shirts most of the time. Days with a lot of hiking I would put on shoes.

Beware. The ocean was rough and more than a few people were sea sick. When you go to bed at night I would just about roll out of my bunk a number of times and anything hanging on the walls was on the floor by morning. I'm sure a larger sailboat or the catamarans would have been a more comfortable ride.

Jungle Tour in the Amazon Basin

We did a jungle tour just a couple hours down river from Coca, Ecuador. We flew in from Quito and caugt a boat from one of the local hotels. Basically, we stayed in a "bare bones" lodge set up like a resort. Each person has their own little hut to stay in and there are group meals served 3 times a day. They had scheduled activities twice a day. This could be a walk, canoe ride, fishing for piranha, or visiting a local shaman.

I would say this is a must as well. I did here that the lodges in Peru were a little deeper in the jungle, so the canopy and stuff was a lot thicker, but there were also more bugs apparently (if that bothers you). The farther your journey into the lodge the more this is true I have heard as well. Cheryl and I did this four 4 days which was plenty.

Lima, Peru

We caught a flight from Quito into Lima with TACA and the tickets were only $180/person including taxes. We found this on Expedia and it was cheaper than anything else we were quoted so definitely check them out when booking. We were allowed to use our "printed online" receipt as well in case you want to save yourself the extra fee for paper tickets.

In Lima you will want to make your way to Miraflores. This is wealthier, tourist district of town. Lots of guest houses and hotels. A whole lot safer as well. The Larco Mar is situated on the ocean in Miraflores and is a large outdoor mall. Very cool, so make sure you check it out when you are there. If you are interested in booking tours and trips, there are travel agencies in this area as well

Cuzco and Machu Picchu

We caught a flight from here to Cuzco. This is where you will need to go if you want to do Machu Picchu, the Inca Trail, and the Sacred Valley. Be prepared for some altitude sickness. We had it when we arrived. A little bit of coca tea and just take a quick nap at your hotel will help ease this quickly.

Cheryl and I did an afternoon tour around Cuzco to see some of the sights. The next day was the Sacred Valley. Lots of history and you will learn a lot of interesting trivia about the region.

The third day was Machu Picchu. The train ride in is quite beautiful. When you arrive in the town at the bottom of the mountain, you are put in buses and then you take switchback roads for almost half an hour to get up to the top.

Machu Picchu is truly amazing and make sure you take lots of film or memory for your camera. Also, make sure you have a guide if don't already. There is lots of interesting trivia about the Incas and the science behind how it was built. The buildings have earthquake proof features, there are sun dials, and things that just line up with the sun and moon during the equinoxes.

Puno and Lake Titicaca

From Cuzco we boarded a train and went to Puno. I had booked first class tickets for us and it really paid off. We had our own table with a little lamp and big comfy chairs.

Puno is a bit of a scuzzy town. But here you will be able to see Lake Titicaca. This is an interesting lake. They say it is the highest navigable lake in the world. I don't really care about that, but the water is almost unnaturally clear and a weird blue because of the altitude.

There are also people that live on the water. They figured out how to make floating islands from reeds and a certain technique. It is really amazing. The ones living there now have been encouraged (and subsidized) to stay there from the government, but it is neat nonetheless. We also toured a large island in the lake where a whole group of people live that have their own dress and culture.

We took a day tour from Puno through some different historical places to end up that afternoon in Juliaca where there is an airport. We took a flight from here back to Lima.

Nazca Lines

This concluded what we really wanted to see in Peru. In Lima we caught a public bus to a town called Nazca about 4 hours to the south. There are interesting formations in the desert here that they have never really figured out how or why they were created. You need to take a ride in a little single prop plane so that is an experience in itself as well.

Ica

2 hours further north by bus was the town of Ica. This is very interesting. We stayed in the desert oasis just a few miles out of town. Nothing but sand dunes all the way out to the ocean, but here is a little spot with a lake and palm trees. A great place to relax, try sand boarding, and take the dune buggies out. It is also wine country. We took a tour of the bodegas (wineries) and then caught our next bus back up to Lima.

We caught our return flight with Continental and soon we were home

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

Justifying a trip is sometimes very hard for the average working individual. And taking time off is one of the big questions. The two biggest ones are "How much time can I get off?" and "How much time will it take to see the area?".

I work a 9 to 5 salary position developing software and that means I have to support it. Taking time off is always a hard one because my department needs someone around at any given time to support our product. This means that I can't just bank up as much time as I need or take an unpaid leave. I am of no use if I'm not there no matter how good I am. So I can only get a fixed amount off every year. Does this sound familiar?

My wife an I like to go far away and see as much as possible. She is a teacher so she is laughing in terms of holidays (as long as she wants the summer holiday I guess). But I am maxed out at 3 weeks plus what I can swing in terms of banking and stuff (I can stretch it to 4 if I need to). So everytime we go somewhere we have to ask, "What can we see in 4 weeks?", and, "Can we see it properly in 4 weeks?".

It is tough talking to anyone about this too. They are typically biased if they have been there already. If they backpacked the region for 6 months and "lived with the people" or whatever else, they are going to say it is too short.

Others, who do the whirlwind tour, flying from place to place, will say its fine and try to do even more somewhere else if you can.

Even more annoying, are the people that like to talk about what they would do and if they couldn't do something they wouldn't bother going (like it's a waste of their time and money). i.e. Don't bother going to Nepal unless you are going to see Everest Base Camp or Serengetti when the wildebeast migration is on. These people, quite often, never end up going there anyways. Sometimes you just have to go and make the most of it. If you can time it right then great.

I do agree with them on some points though. My wife and I had 4 key things for our Ecuador and Peru trip. We would have considered a different trip if we couldn't have made it happen. Whats the happy medium though?

Ask Yourself What You Really Want to See

Ask yourself what you really want to see. Read some websites, a few books, talk to some friends who have been there, and write up a list of must dos in that area and what would be a "bonus". Then look at what else there is too see that is conveniently around there.

My wife and I want to see India, but Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan are right there. Add these to your list in the same fashion as well, what is a must see and what is a nice extra? If you can squeeze a set of must sees for a whole region into your time frame you might be okay. If not, would it be better to go somewhere and save our pennies and time to go see that region when we have 2 months? Its a tough call.

It is a lot of money to fly somewhere as well. Your money is a lot more efficient when you have more time and you see more in the area. The problem is, this takes time and money as well so your employer and pocket book will not like this.

Around the World Trip

My wife and I are looking at our destinations with this question in mind, "Can we do what we want in a month or could this be included in a longer, round the world holiday in the future?" We are saving our pennies for when we quit our jobs so that we can do an extended trip and cover off a lot of regions.

I know this sounds like a pipe dream for most of us, but if you make the commitment, you can do it. If seriously think you have the nerve and resolve to save up cash, quite your job, and do the around the world trip someday, it will pay off in spades. You are seeing the most out of your dollar and more efficient use of your time. It also makes travel decisions a lot easier in the meantime. But you have to seriously commit yourself to doing it. Otherwise, you will be just another person who doesn't follow through with their grand travel plans.

In the meantime, we save up for a month holiday every year, and take care of those out of the way ones. Europe and Asia will be our extended holiday most likely, but South America and Central America are more the "one month" kind of destinations. Not too say you can see the whole thing in a month, but you could go back in the future to different parts if you wanted. For North American travelers the flights are reasonable and its not too far away. This is also biased on my part, because this is just how we ended up doing it for ourselves anyways. You could definitely do the big trip down there if you wanted.

We also did some of the eastern countries in Africa this summer, which you could say is really out of the way, but it worked out fine, though I could have seen more of it when we were there.

Australia and New Zealand we plan to do as a one monther as we well.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

This is always the big question when you go somewhere on holidays. How much money should I take and in what form? Each have its advantage. You can get taken advantage of on exchange rates and extra fees, but you also don't want to be out if things get stolen. I prefer to have a few options when I go.

Cash

This is my favorite. It works everywhere, which is what you need when you are in a bind. You can almost always exchange the American dollar at borders, banks, and you can even use it as currency legally/illegally in a lot of countries. Plus you don't lose exchange rates on it every time you cross a border so it is good to keep some for a multi-country trip. Exchanging all your Zambian money when you enter Malawi and then all your Malawi money when you enter Tanzania and etc, etc, can take a hit on travel funds. I usually have at least $1000 US on me wherever I go.

There are two things about cash. When it is stolen, you are screwed. No insurance on this and you can't just cancel it. The second is that it takes up lots of room (in comparison to cards). I carry all of mine in a money belt on the front of my body and at the beginning of the trip it can be a bit bulky looking. I also slip $20 US bills in a few different places for emergencies. I have little compartments in the inside-back of my main pack and day packs.

Credit Cards

This is a tough one. I carry one Mastercard, one Visa, and one American Express. If I am in a reputable (or what I think is reputable) establishment I will use it. This would be nice hotels, restaurants, and tour companies. It helps you save your cash for later and plus you don't have to pay the bill until you get back.

If you are an airmiles or points collector you will also like it. Most credit card companies are really good with theft issues and such so it makes it nice. I have heard some Visa's have flight cancellation protection on them too.

Debit Cards

I don't see why you wouldn't always take these. They are PIN protected and come straight out of your account.

Be careful, you will pay extra fees because of using an overseas ATM.

Note on Debit Cards

NOTE: A lot of overseas ATM's do not have the option to choose Savings or Chequing accounts. They have always defaulted to Chequing from my experience. So if you are like my wife who withdraws from her Savings account using her debit card, you will not be able to get money from the ATM.

Travellers Cheques

I have never used them and have never met anyone who thought they were good. They are a pain to exchange. I was in Africa and it was a special trip to find a bank that exchange them for other people on our tour. They also had ridiculous fees and exchanges on them so you were losing around 10% on them anyways.

However, the tour companies almost always recommend them. It is considered the only safe way to carry money. I can understand this point if you are really worried about being robbed, but you can take precautions to avoid this.

If anyone has a compelling argument for using them, please post a comment.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

Well I made less in my second week than in my first. In fact, I made zero, zilch, nada. I kept writing articles, but I have not done any advertising otherwise, so no more traffic has come to my site than before.

I have started to do "polish" work on my site though. I have read some articles on what else I should be doing. Having my html validated was one thing. I had 150 validation errors on my home page alone. I have started to fix them and clean up my page.

I also read an article on johnchow.com where he explains how he got traffic. He emailed around 200 websites that had similar content to his own and ask if they would do a posting about his site (a specific article I suppose). So this is my game plan. I am not going to do this right away though. My site still has articles across a variety of areas, so I will continue writing what I feel about and in January I will probably do the mass email thing. Polishing a few articles would be a good idea anyways.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

Wide angle lenses are, in my opinion, the most overlooked "next step" for amateur photographers. Everyone has the "kit" lens that was packaged with their camera and then they go buy the 75-300mm zoom and then they're done. I knew I wanted the 18-200mm when I purchased my camera, but was on a waiting list, so the first lens I bought was the 10-20mm Sigma wide-angle. Wow. It gave me the opportunity to see the awesome potential of wide angle lenses (and their limitations).

Why Do I Need One?

If you are trying to capture landscape shots or just the "size" of a scene, then wide angle lenses will help you. Think of the angle of how light enters the camera lens. As this widens, it allows more detail to be focused on the film/sensor.

Ask yourself this. Have you ever been in a room taking a group photo or photo of something in the room, but you could not zoom out enough and you couldn't back up enough without leaving the room? This is where wideangle lenses come in. They will distort the image slightly, but it still lets you take a photo that is otherwise impossible.

One of the neat features is composing a picture with a subject close up with a wide swath of detail in the background. When you first look through these lenses, everything seems far away though. The trick is getting your main subject as close as possible to the camera (sometimes you can be inches away from it) and the rest of the background will fill the frame.

Here is an example. I pointed my camera in the mirror. I zoomed in at 20mm first. I then zoomed out to 10mm, but I made sure the camera lens still maintained the same size in each photo. Look at how much more background was included because of the angle light was allowed in at. Also notice how much farther away even my head looks, though I'm looking through the viewfinder just as I was in the first photo. My hands are also distorted in a cool way.

Wow, what a difference. Look at how much more of the room is included in the photo. You will notice that it is distorted however. Lines aren't perfectly straight. This is a drawback/feature of wideangle lenses. They give cool perspective, but sometimes that isn't always wanted.

I have included some more photos as examples. Here is a cool shot of a piano at my in-laws.

My wife was preparing a beautiful buffet dinner and this was the table when just the drinks were set out. I couldn't have taken this photo without my wide angle lens.

I was staying at this cabin in Invermere, BC in February of 2006 and I wanted a picture of the front entrance. This allowed to stand in the entrance and still capture a lot of the entryway to give a feel for how it actually looks.

If you are still questioning whether you need one. Just pay attention when you are taking photos and think what photos you could take if you had a lens like that. Look at other websites. A lot of the prize winning photos aren't some zoomed in shot, but wide angle shots that really captured the essence of a scene. If you have a friend with one of these lenses, borrow theirs.

I don't own a fancy one, but I did drop $600 for my Sigmas 10-20mm lens. This is a cheap, does the trick lens you can get for any camera. I think Tamron has one too. If you want to pay more and get Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilization, you can buy the Nikon/Canon ones starting at $1000.

Post a Comment ... (0 Comments)

For those of you who want to work from you home PC from somewhere else, you have probably discovered the beauty of Remote Desktop Connection. This is a standard program in Windows XP Professional. It can be a hassle to use it, especially if you have a router. I'll explain it in more detail.

How Do I Activate it On My Computer?

Make sure Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) is enabled.

1. Right click on My Computer.
2. Click on Properties.
3. Click the Remote tab.
4. Make sure "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" is checked. If you are not an Administrator on this computer you will need to click the button "Select Remote Users..." and Add yourself as a user. See the screenshot below.

How Do I Connect If My Computer is Not Connected to a Router

You need to know the ip address of your computer. This is a value given to your computer from your internet service provider.

This is how to get your ip address.

1. Click on Start -> Run.

2. Type cmd in the text field and click OK. A black window will open.
3. Type ipconfig and press Enter. A bunch of data will spit be displayed.

4. Write down the value of the I.P. Address. You can see mine is 192.168.0.102.

You also need to have the RDC client installed on the "other" computer you will be using to connect to your computer.

To get the RDC client, it is available free on the internet or at the Microsoft site here. If this link didn't work just do a search for "rdc client download" on google and you will find a site. The program will work on all versions of Windows down to Windows 95. Simply download the client and install it on the computer.

When you are finished installing. The program usually installs itself to Start->All Programs->Accessories->Communications->Remote Desktop. If it isn't there you might have to look around to see where you installed it.

Open the program and in the text field for Computer, type in the ip address you recorded in the steps above. Then click Connect. It should bring you to the login screen of you home computer. You should be able to use your login and password to access it.

After that, you should feel like your at home!

How Do I Connect to My Computer When I Am Connected To A Router?

This is the fun one. How do you even know if you are behind a router? Well if your ip address starts with 192.168 like mine above, chances are that you will be. This stops most people from using RDC if they aren't tech savvy enough to dig around. There are 4 main steps to this.

1. Make sure RDC is enabled on your computer (the steps above).
2. Find out the ip address of your computer on your home network (internal ip). These are the same steps listed above for finding your ip.
3. Create a firewall rule to direct RDC network traffic to your computer.
4. Find out the ip address of you router (external ip).

Steps 1 and 2 are already listed above.

Create a Firewall Rule On Your Router

This is basically the way you tell your router to direct anything RDP traffic to your computer at home.

1. Open up Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you use).
2. Type the address in the address bar. http://192.168.0.1 (or whatever the address is of your router if it is different). Hit enter. If you are prompted for a login/password it might be admin/admin. If it isn't you will need to read the manual to find it out or talk to whomever set up your router for you. Note: It is not the same password as your wireless internet.
3. Find the section for Firewall rules. On my D-Link I go to Advanced and Firewall.
4. Add a rule. Call it "Remote Desktop". The source ip can be any (so use *). The destination will be LAN and the ip address of you computer that you found in the steps above. The protocol is TCP. The port is 3389. Here is the example setup for my D-Link configuration for Remote Desktop.
5. Save this firewall rule. You might have to restart your router if necessary.

Now your router should direct any requests for RDP to your computer.

Find the IP Address of My Router

This can be done by simply going to one of those "Whats my IP?" web pages. I wrote one here. Just record the number at the top of the page.

Use the RDC Client and Connect

Make sure the RDC client is installed on the other computer and connect using your router's ip address found in the previous step. The procedure is the same as the RDC client steps for the non router version above.

Post a Comment ... (2 Comments)

In 2004 I backpacked in South East Asia for 2 months. This included Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. It was my first big trip and I had to say I had an excellent time. This is just a recap of it for those interested in going. I'll summarize right away and read on if you feel like it. Remember that the names of places will not always be spelled the same. It is just the closest someone has spelled it in English so that it pronounces the same as their language. My spellings of places are from my books and maps.

Overview

If you are wondering if you should go to this area here is an overview of the pros and cons.

Pros:

• Cheap, cheap, and even more cheap. Your money goes a long way here. My most expensive guest house was $5 and my cheapest was 50 cents. Keep in mind a usually went without hot water and air conditioning ($5 got me that though).
• Easy to travel. Tourism is their industry and it is reasonably safe. Hopping public transit or finding a tourist bus is very simple.
• Weather. You can dress light and you don't need anything special.
• Lots to see within the region.

Cons:

• Being so cheap and having a lot of pretty, slight girls attracts the seedy crowd. You know, 40 year old men who can't find a girl in their own country so they come here for a "holiday".
• Things run on their own time (like a lot of tourist destinations) so you can get frustrated if you have a tight schedule and are backpacking it on your own.
• There are the occasional scammers trying to sell you jewels or take you on the "scenic route" in their tuk-tuk.

Should I Backpack or Book a Tour

I'm always going to write my opinion on this for every trip. Why? Because it is nice to know. You have the two different types of travelers and they will always beat their heads against each other in argument over which is better. I'm not going to get into that, you can read about it in my article Tours Versus Backpacking. I will just say what I think. South-east Asia would be fine doing it either way. But, if you want to try backpacking, this is the cheapest and easiest place I have seen so far to do it in. It is a lot safer and very, very easy to get around in (compared to Africa and South America). The only bad thing I will mention is that these people move at their own speed, so if you are in a hurry you might get frustrated, so a tour might help alleviate this.

What You Need

This is a tough one. Check out websites and read up a bit on what you will want to do. Get yourself a copy of South East Asia on a Shoe String, one of the Lonely Planet books. It will give you the basics of how to get around. There are lots of other good books, that is just the one I used.

Money

Each country has its own currency. Bangkok and Vietnam will have ATM's in the major cities, but take lots of cash into Cambodia and Laos because that might be all you have while you are there. I'm sure Phnom Penh and Vientienne had some banks, but we never say any that were convenient. Basic rule of thumb for me was to have enough cash to make it between Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi. Anywhere else I didn't plan on being able to get any money.

Time of Year

I went in April and May. This is the hot season. I was worried at first that it would put a damper on the trip and it was the only time I could go, but it turned out to be awesome. Warm nights and we didn't see one spot of rain for the entire 2 months. This is outside the brunt of the tourist season so it helps when trying to line up tours and transporation on the fly.

Getting There

I flew from Calgary, Canada. It was pretty cheap at that time. I paid $999 for a round trip flight into Bangkok with Asiana Airlines. This included a stop over in Seoul, South Korea for as long as I wanted. They are a cheap airline, but the service was great so who can complain.

When I Arrived

I arrived at night and I had an address of a friend where I was going to go stay. Beware!!! As soon as your walk out the front of the airport there are taxi drivers and limousines that want to take you into town (at that time for around 400 Baht). If you look around there is a booth with a couple of ladies working in it where people are lined up. They speak English and will write your destination down on a piece of paper to give the regular taxi drivers who line up there and charge you a meter rate. Was only 130 Baht for us to get into town with these taxis. My wife learned a trick too. To leave from the airport there is a toll and the taxi drivers make you pay it. Taxis who drop people off (on the second level) have already paid it on the way in, so when they leave they don't have to. She went up there and got a taxi that was leaving and saved herself the toll.

Getting Around Bangkok

Not too difficult. Learn a little bit of Thai and grab yourself a map. There BTS Skytrain is awesome. Get yourself down to Koh San Road. This is basically a backpackers haunt. Kind of creepy really. Hotels, guest houses, restaurants, and travel shops galore. If you are looking to do day trips and line up other activities you can come here and get hooked up. If you want the "au naturale" experience from your holiday I would stay away from here.

Taxis and tuk-tuks are a great way to get around. If you want to figure out the bus sytem, it will be the cheapest. I also used the BTS Skytrain. It is excellent.

Grand Palace - Bangkok

You have to go here. It will seem incredibly gaudy, but there is a lot to see. Dress appropriately. Girls need there shoulders covered and no sandals allowed in here.

Note: There are tuk-tuk drivers who will tell you that the palace is closed when you are walking to it. They want to take you somewhere else (a jewel store most likely). The Grand Palace is open every day of the week so ignore them.

View From the Grand Palace in Bangkok

River Tour and Temples

There are lots of temples and buddhas to be seen and a river boat tour is nice. We took the sky train to the river and purchased a one way ticket on the boat upriver.

Markets - Bangkok

You need to go to the markets day or night to at least see them. One of the largest is a weekend market called Chatuchak. The best way to get there is to take the Skytrain to Mo Chit station. This is basically the end of the one line I think.

Kanchanaburi and the Floating Market

I took a day trip to the floating market and Kanchanaburi by purchasing the tour on Koh San Road. Kanchanburi is a WWII historic site, the floating market is a tourist trap but interesting, and they stop at a couple other destinations on the way (Nakhon Pathom). Was interesting.

The Floating Market

Cambodia

I caught a public bus from the public station in Bangkok to Aranyaprathet on the Cambodian/Thailand border. Paoy Pet is the town on the Cambodian side. Basically a hole, you'll want to get out of here as soon as possible. Most people head on to Angkor Wat from here, but I caught a pickup truck and went to a town called Batdambang. This turned out to be one of the highlights from my trip. Cheap place to stay and I had a personal tour the whole day on the back of a motorbike to different sites around the town. My guide was named Pou (pronounced Pow) and my cousin's guide was Jay. Their English was near perfect and they had lots of useful tips. There are the Killing Caves, various temples, and a ride on a hand driven rail car.

We left the next day by boat to Siem Reap. This was a nice day, but it does take 8 hours by boat to get there. You will see hundreds of houses and people living on the side of the river. Truly memorable. You will cross the Tonle Sap lake at the end and pass by some floating villages.

Men With a Clothes Washing Machine in the River

Siem Reap

This was the big up and comer for tourist destinations when I was there. Angkor Wat had really taken off and there were guest houses and restaurants everywhere with more being built. Angkor Wat was $20 a day and I paid a driver $20 to show me around for the day. Now a lot of people get the 3 day pass and some even the week one. One day was enough for me. If you are really interested in temples and history then go for it, but I had seen enough by that point.

By having our own driver we got to go to 3 of the main destinations. The Bayon, Angkor Wat, and Ta Prohm. I thought this was a good mix because Angkor Wat is a given, the Bayon had neat architecture with the many faces engraved, and Ta Prohm had that old, untouched look to it. Ta Prohm, for your info, is where parts of Tomb Raider have been filmed. Massive trees just exploding out of walls that have crumbled. Looks incredible.

Angkor Wat From a Nearby Hill

Krati

We left Siem Reap on a bus to Phnom Penh, but we wanted to go to Krati so we hopped off at a town called Skuon. This was one of my more nervous moments since we were the only ones who did this on our bus and there wasn't much english here. The people knew what we wanted to do though and they got us on a minivan full of locals that was on its was to Krati.

At Krati there are an endangered species of fresh water dolphins living in the Mekong River. They are used to seeing a few tourists here and you can easily find yourself a motorbike ride up to the area to check it out. Still, we only saw about 5 other foreigners the whole time we were here.

From here we caught a river boat (runs every other day?) to Phnom Penh. This was one of the funniest (but serious) moments on the trip. Sitting on the top deck of this boat, the Cambodians would be drinking and eat and just throwing their plastic bottles and garbage right back into the river without thinking anything of it.

Phnom Penh

This is the capital and you can see the palace here, the Killing Fields, walk along the river. From here I went into Vietnam.

Chau Doc

This was my first night in Vietnam. A few things were different here. They wanted my passport to stay at guest houses which made me really nervous. From here I booked a tour on the Mekong Delta by boat which was nice. It finished off in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City

Toured the city and seen the different museums, the old palace, and eat some very good food. Went to the Cu Chi Tunnels as well. It is quite interesting. You can shoot an AK-47 if you want.

There is a backpackers' area here as well, but I can't remember that name of it. This is where all the tour shops and restaurants are. It is walking distance to most of the museums and the old capital building as well. You will most likely be dropped off here when you arrive.

Night Scene in Ho Chi Minh City

Heading North in Vietnam

I purchased a 5 stop bus pass in Ho Chi Minh that worked out well. I went to Dalat, a cool little town in the mountains. Very cool climate which was nice for a change. It is actually a honeymoon spot for people in Vietnam. We did a day tour of waterfalls, botanical gardens, a buddhist sanctuary, and other stuff.

We went to Nha Trang, but only stayed a couple hours. It is a beach town and we were running out of time. If you want the opportunity for beah time and would recommend you stay. Further south is Mui Ne which is supposed to be excellent as well, but we never went.

Then on to Hoi An where I bought more clothes than I could bring home. It has hundreds of tailors that custom make your clothes. So I boxed them up and paid the postage. You really need to go here and stay a couple days. One day to order everything and the next day you will pick it up and get any alterations.

Hue was the next stop where we saw the Citadel (ancient capital) and did a river tour. A lot of history is here.

I ended up in Hanoi after that. This is a cool city. You stay in what is called the Old Quarter. Lots of guest houses, restaurants, and tourist shops. There is a water puppet show and quite a few different restaurants.

From here I caught the overnight train to Sapa. This is up in the mountains close to the Chinese border. Some of Vietnam's indigeneous people live up here. Lots of colorful clothes and you can do some hiking and home stays for a reasonable price. We booked this whole trip from a tourist shop in Hanoi.

Sapa Hike

Market Near Sapa

Warning: There are not copyright laws (or they aren't enforced) in SE Asia so becareful. We were told to use the Sinh Cafe for booking our tours. But there are, like, 5 of those. If one is successful then copycats spring up all over the place.

Later, I went back to Hanoi and then went out to Halong Bay. Cool limestone formations are everywhere. YOu can take a liveaboard boat for a reasonable price. They take you into some caves and such and you can even do some swimming if you want to brave the waters.

Halong Bay

As soon as I got back I caught a 24 hour bus to Vientienne, Laos. This was probably the worst transportation experience of my life. It is such a long trip and you are trying to sleep and it just doesn't work. Part of the way I started popping gravol, but to no avail. Anyhow, it is the cheapest way to get there and you get to see some crazy mountain roads. Next time I would take a flight from Hanoi to Vientienne though.

Laos

I especially enjoyed this country. A little less touristy (I'm sure this has changed by now) made it feel a bit more like an adventure. Vientienne is the capital. Find a guest house and have dinner along one of the restaurants on the river. There is also a market here you can check out. I purchased DVD's and CD's here.

Note:With the lack of copyright laws, you will be able to buy a million different CD's and DVDs in the night markets for $1 or $2 each. Burned copies of course.

If you want to feel rich, just exchange some money in Vientienne. 10000 laos dollars to 1 US. Check out the picture after we went to the bank in Vientienne.

Our Laos Money

Vang Vieng

I went up to Vang Vieng which is kind of a funny town. Nothing but pizza shops playing movies all the time. A town for backpackers to just hang out. You can go tubing, but I just went to some caves and swam in one of the little lagoons.

Lagoon in Vang Vieng

Luang Prabang and Muang Ngoi Ngoi

I went up to Luang Prabang and from here went to Muang Ngoi Ngoi. This was hard to get to as it was not the normal path for tourists, but there were a few others with the same idea as us. We took a bus north for 4 hours from Luang Prabang and then a river boat for another 2 hours. At points we had to get out and walk because the river was too shallow and the boat would have bottomed out.

Arriving at Muang Ngoi Ngoi was awesome. Basically a little village where some of the locals have built little guest cabins off their homes. The only power is from turbines that have been put in the river that charge car batteries. They run their very, very few devices off these in the daytime and then turn the power off in the early evening. No lights, no nothing. We had the privilege of staying in the only place with a television so the locals were lined up outside every night watching some show on the television. It was quite funny to see. We went fishing with the father of the house and basically just vegged for 3 days. The guest house was the Banana Cafe and I would definitely recommend it.

The Banana Cafe Where We Stayed

Back Into Thailand via "The Fast Boat"

We returned to Luang Prabang and then caught the "fast boat" into Thailand. Now if you have traveled in Laos, there are these backpacker "stories" about how people get killed on the fast boat. I don't know if this is true, but I will tell you that it can be very scary. They basically put 8 of us into a long skinny boat. Stack the luggage in the front and squish the passengers in the middle. There is a honda engine for a car mounted on the back with a ten foot long rod going down into the water at an angle with a propeller at the end. You all wear crash helmets with visors, ear plugs because of the engine noise, and just speed up the river, narrowly missing large rocks and other things. I honestly thought I would ask to get let out right after we started. Anyhow, after 10 minutes you must get desensitized, becase I relaxed and even dozed a bit. When I say you are jammed in, I do mean jammed in. My feet were jammed so hard against the seat in front of me I had bruising for the rest of the trip.

The Fast Boat

Back Into Thailand

The dropped us off at the border and we caught a van to Chiang Mai. This is a popular town now. A lot of backpackers head up here to do the "trekking" tours. We just relaxed here since we did our trekking at Sapa in Vietnam. You can take courses (I took a Thai Massage course and my cousin took cooking).

Phuket and Koh Tao

From here we caught an overnight bus to Phuket. This was a shock. The prices were way higher than everywhere else we had been. It was kind of disappointing so we hopped a van and went to Surat Thani. Here we caught an overnight ferry to Ko Tao. This is the lesser known island of the 3 islands in the Gulf of Thailand. It has the cheapest diving, but that is all this place is about so I wouldn't go unless you're planning to dive. I stayed here for a week and then caught the catamaran back to the mainland, hopped a bus back to Bangkok, and flew out that night to Seoul.

Koh Tao

Seoul

Seoul is cool. Remember it is far more expensive than what you will have been used to. I went to see the border and look into North Korea with my own eyes. Toured the different markets and seen the celebrations for Buddha's birthday. Go sing karaoke somewhere too.

Money Changes at the Market

I was back home by the end of May and didn't get sick once so I say it was quite the success.

Post a Comment ... (1 Comments)