Been very busy as always with my studies. Developed a very intricate Drag Racing flash game with some friends, using Flash, MySQL and PHP its quite the little game, although deadlines got us, and the few minor problems it has right now, make it not available for public testing.

Although, since then I’ve moved on to some Silverlight development. Using silverlight 3, and Expression Blend 3. Been able to create a nice and easy little River Crossing game. Animal River Crossing I call it. Try it out its fun.

Not as fond of silverlight as I am of flash atm. Seems like the Blend SDK is causing most of my difficulties as it really seems they have done everything backwards compared to the mainstream software. I don’t like this, Storyboard recording is a very big issue. Not into much C# or the windows frameworks yet either, although the next month or so is All just that…

hmmm……

Game Link – Animal River Crossing

Flipslide Skateshop is the project, If the link isn’t working As of now, I’ll be getting the final thing up very soon. As I stated it’s a CMS made from scratch, including product & category entry, order completion, viewing of users, and a full user / shopping cart feature. It’s quite cool. Nothing I’d want to use for an large project though.

And then there is my other little pet project…. The Movie DB. Cataloging all of my movie collection, with box art, IMDB links, and all the good stuff you could want. It’s still a major work in progress, and only located on my local network. I’ve included the screenie for a taste.

School Is Great!

I’ve installed a LAMP server, locally on my laptop for school. We’re learning about the linux operating system and Apache servers. So, I’ve got Ubuntu 9.10 with Apache2, PHP5, MySQL, and PHPmyAdmin installed and running. Quite the adventure, and not as complicated and hands on as one would think. Great experience, but none the less I’m back to Windows. LOL

Great Resource: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/index.html
XAMPP Server: From Apache Friends! A very easy to use and manage apache2 php5 mySQL server to set up for home debugging. Available for all platforms.

Moving on to some more php coding, great old php coding. Besides some nifty school projects I’m sure to encounter, I’m finally almost done on the 2010 GBM site. Everything in place it should be launching this time next week. Going to throw the blog into the nifty main site template; Make it wild experiment. Expect the blog to go down, and maybe vanish soon.

/*Blogs are boring.. And So Are You.. xd */.

In school, we’re learning a lot about C# (C sharp) programming and the basics of programming, starting to make some quite dense programs in visual studio actually. Moving very very quickly. It’s a ton of knowledge going in the brain every day. Trying my damn’d-ness to keep it all in, and it seems to be holding up very strong

Regardless, It needs to be turned to the damn maximum level. Just doesn’t seem to be there. and…

Blogs, are lame this one doesn’t differ. ughh… FM3 and MW2 are coming!! yeahhh!

Its been a very long time since I’ve made a blog post. Almost too long it seems, I’ve had a lot on my mind as of late, and surely will have a lot more soon to come. As previously mentioned I’ve started school, and its quite an experience. Currently working, and learning Flash and Action Script 3, I can already say I’ve added a few very nifty tricks and almost what I would think of essentials to web design now.

But, with all good trails theres a gripe. A rather big one at that. Unfortuantly I’m on my forth week of classes, and I still havent received any of my software for the class. Including the training videos that we’re using right now. Which is leaving me in the dark as it seems. Keep in mind, its Monday I’m really keeping my fingers crossed all week in anticipation.

My Life has gone complete 360. From doing next to nothing; and being extremely bored ever day I now find myself working very hard, and always trying to learn more knowledge as I go. I’m led to believe its the fact that I truly do like and inspire with all this information and tools I’m adding the the arsenal. I’ve gotta say it’s a great feeling.

All the stuff I’ve done in the past years, concepts and little things all seem to be appearing like lights in the back of my head. Unfinished broken projects and Ideas are more clear, and almost visually solved as I see it. I’m learning! I’m Learning!

Going to try and get some, or maybe some modified projects up on the site for viewing, but at this moment I’ve got way to much on the go.

I’ve been working on two different projects, and have another potential client in the works. I’ve completed a photo blog for lisabella photography; which was a lot more work than I had anticipated. Teaching one how to use the back end of Wordpress can be difficult if you don’t know what that person may, or may not understand. I’ve kinda left a major project on the back burner, although very unintentional; Grand Bend Motorplex’s website is near the half way point. It really needs to pick up and get done; as the time is shortening very quickly and I doubt the free time will be available in the coming weeks.

I want to make it big. Create stunning art, and extremely functional sites. To better how, and why potential clients and viewers of the internet view sites. I want to please myself; and prove that I can do this; I am good at this; and that I can make it doing this. I suppose time will tell, but it’s starting to look very promising and I’m getting very excited to get back to school and expanding my knowledge and create a professional, and diverse portfolio.

The site itself is another Wordpress blog as you would say. Added with the Next Gen Gallery, I also use here. I was able to create what I believe is a very nice, and interactive photo blog. It’s almost self maintainable. Other than the Wordpress and Gallery upgrades. Allowing her to showcase her work to clients and schedule meetings with clients using a calendar plug-in.

The site can be seen here, in large after the break and in the portfolio. or by visiting www.lisabellaphoto.com. Check it out, and come back let me know what you think.

Give’s me an idea. If only I could control this flash game, and my whole computer for that matter with my Xbox 360 Controller? That you can. A friend led me towards Pinnacle Game Profiler. Free for 30 day trail download. Read a bunch of good reviews, and it looked real promising. Although after installation, hick-ups began. It would either crash, or just not load giving me an Not Compatible with your version of Windows. Although it did say it was Vista compatible. So the journey continued and I searched more to find a tool that would help me achieve this.

Total Game Control, from Digital Transforms. Another gamepad program, allowing you to customize, and reach my specific goal. It’s a trail just like Game Profiler, and as long as you don’t close it. Your settings and configurations stay in your cached memory. About 5-10 minutes of configuration later, and I’m using my Xbox 360 Controller, and the Microsoft Wireless Pod, and I’m playing an old favorite flash game, with my Xbox 360 controller.

Try it out!

Which brings me around to a happy state. No more damn entertainment machine, while on that side of the office. I’ve got tons of work I can be doing; getting lots of stuff done in preparation of school in august. *crosses fingers*. I’ve basically gotten the go ahead to final stages of what will be the long side on the GBM journey. Started, and have most of the information in place now; time to get it done. I’ve got a few new projects lined up already, a few definite keepers in the lines of something for my small portfolio.

if I can quote a good friend from a shoutbox..

zE bEE: on the outside I’m filled with joy as I’ll be able to get a lot of work done. However on the inside, I just want to spend the next two weeks crying for my virtual life back. FML.

If only I could play Disc Golf, in a dark forest… At 3 am.. LOL..

Where to begin? I hate losing discs. Out there on a great afternoon hucking discs, and bam. That one stray gets off and is lost, or misplaced for moments. I’ve lost many many discs in my adventures. In tall grass, woods, very thick thorn bushes and many into the creek. It makes for a very bad experience, when it’s your key driver or another favorite disc. This can be nerve racking and destroy any fun and enjoyment left in that day. I can think of at least a dozen times lately, or in the past year where this has left me feeling blah; and very uncomfortable. So I’ve advised this list of tips and pointers for myself.

• No Mulleys!
• Super, Super Cautious in unknown territories.
• Extreme Paranoia around water & any sort of water based hazard.
• Always Beware of the Lurking animals, that may steal or damage your disc.
• Most Importantly Be Very Cautious.

Doesn’t sound like much; but in other tense it sounds like tons. I’ve lost way too many discs up until now, very very key discs in my game. I’m getting a few more discs to attack the wilderness with. These new discs shall stay by my side, as long as I don’t find myself with Lost Disc Trauma.