META Generator!
Posted by Ian Gutjahr in Computers and Internet on 07 31st, 2007
First a little background on why META tags are important and why you should use them.
Meta elements provide information about a given webpage, most often to help search engines categorize them correctly. They are inserted into the HTML document, but are often not directly visible to a user visiting the site.
They have been the focus of a field of marketing research known as search engine optimization (SEO), where different methods are explored to provide a user’s site with a higher ranking on search engines. In the mid to late 1990s, search engines were reliant on meta data to correctly classify a web page and webmasters quickly learned the commercial significance of having the right meta element, as it frequently led to a high ranking in the search engines — and thus, high traffic to the web site.
As search engine traffic achieved greater significance in online marketing plans, consultants were brought in who were well versed in how search engines perceive a web site. These consultants used a variety of techniques (legitimate and otherwise) to improve ranking for their clients.
Meta elements have significantly less effect on search engine results pages today than they did in the 1990’s and their utility has decreased dramatically as search engine robots have become more sophisticated. This is due in part to the nearly infinite re-occurrence (keyword stuffing) of meta elements and/or to attempts by unscrupulous website placement consultants to manipulate (spamdexing) or otherwise circumvent search engine ranking algorithms. While search engine optimization can improve search engine ranking, consumers of such services should be careful to employ only reputable providers.
Major search engine robots are more likely to quantify such factors as the volume of incoming links from related websites, quantity and quality of content, technical precision of source code, spelling, functional v. broken hyperlinks, volume and consistency of searches and/or viewer traffic, time within website, page views, revisits, click-throughs, technical user-features, uniqueness, redundancy, relevance, advertising revenue yield, freshness, geography, language and other intrinsic characteristics.
What I foundÂ
I was searching online for different meta tags I could add to Destructive Chaos. I searched Pixel2life and found a cool little script on internet.com. How it works is, you fill in the blanks and it creates the HTML and you just add it to your <head> tag. It’s really quite a simple script. Maybe I’ll make one in PHP? Why?, because I can. And did.
You can use my script at http://destructivechaos.com/metaGen
read comments (4)Opium anyone?
Posted by Ian Gutjahr in Food, Drink and Drugs, News and politics on 07 30th, 2007
On July 27th, Calgary police raid the backyard of a 62 year old man. Under a clear tarp in his backyard, was $40,000CAD worth of 1,000 opium poppy plants. “It’s something very unusual for this part of the country,” said Calgary police Insp. Luch Berti. “I’ve never seen anything remotely similar to this.” The 62 year old man is facing charges of possesion and trafficking.
Police even called in a specialist from the University of Calgary to make sure that these poppies were in fact the opium kind. It was confirmed.
Opium from the the poppy plant can be used to extract drugs such as codeine and morphine, and can also be converted to heroin.
Duty Insp. Kevan Stuart said that since this is the first bust of its kind, it’s too soon to draw any links to international dealers or organized crime.
Glen Metzler, head of Metzler Trading Company Ltd. in Lethbridge says he has writen to the Alberta government about allowing farmers to grow opium for pharmaceutical use. He has also writen to Alberta Health about growing for commercial purposes could be lucrative for Alberta farmers, who could turn to Australia as a model.
“Australia’s been growing poppies for 40 years now and very successfully,” he said. “They’ve had up to 22,000 hectares into production. For their farmers, it does exceptionally well.”
Facchini says, Canada is the world’s no. 1 consumer of codeine, importing an estimated $100 million worth of opium-related painkillers every year. (are we all really that sick?)
My question is, what stops people from just going on to a farmers field and getting themself some Opuim poppies for illegal drug use - the farmers themselves could do the same.
Welcome to Sunscape!
Posted by Ian Gutjahr in Travel on 07 30th, 2007
 Let me just start by saying, my vacation was amazing! Going to the Dominican Republic was the expericence of a life time! I’ll start from the begining when we left Medicine Hat.
Flying out of Medicine Hat was the worst part of the flying. Not because there was confusion about the passports (that we didn’t have). It was because of the little tiny plane we got to ride in. This plane fits 18 people in it and everyone gets a window seat. Air Canada Jazz is great if you like flying in a tin can.
The Calgary Stop-n’-go!
When we landed in Calgary the landing was amazing, it was shacky and all over the place, you know it’s bad when the pilots are even laughing. It’s true, they broke out in laughter when we touched down.
There isn’t much I can say about Calgary, we didn’t stay long.
After landing in Calgary we had a 30 minute wait to hop a plane to the Toronto airport.
Toronto Here comes Ian!
 The landing in Toronto was easy because it was a normal sized airplane. The Toronto Airport is huge! We stayed over night in Toronto, we met up with my Auntie Kim, and went to the CN Tower. I stood on the glass floor and we took pictures of our feet. Mine are the white shoes!
 We got First Class tickets to the Dominican so that ment we could hang out in the VIP Lounge, in the top of the airport. This VIP area was big. I mean, you could even take a shower while you were waiting for your plane. I decided I didn’t need a shower so I sat down at their computer area and talked to Jaga for a bit.
Me, being how I am, I took pictures of everything in there. I got some pretty wierd looks from the high class business people. I didn’t care though, I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to go to that area of the airport again.
After waiting in the Toronto airport for 3 hours, we were finally on our way to the DR! The flight was pretty boring - I played my PSP and watched the in flight movie. Did you know, in first class they give you a hot towel to whipe your face?
We’re here!
 When we finally landed in the Dominican Republic it was about 9:30pm and dark - so the pictures I took in the plane might not have turned out.
When the plane door finally opened and we got to walk out - the humitity hit us like a train. Dang was it hot! As soon as you get off the plane you have to walk right on to the tar mat - and your greeted by a bunch of people shaking your hand and welcoming you to their county! And all this happened before you even step foot inside the airport itself.
The airport in Punta Cana is amazing on its own. It’s all fatched roof and open air - there are no glass windows or air conditioning like we have here in North America. The building does have some “Big Ass Fans” (name of the fan) to keep you cool though. These fans area really amazing - they are really really huge! I’m glade they were there.
When you get in the door - past security, your met by a group of people ready to take your picture (I didn’t get it though - because it wasn’t very good and cost $7.00 US).
Taxi time!
When we got our bags off the plane we had to find our bus - they had people all waiting to help you with your bags, they all stood in a huge group and when you walked up to them they grabed the bags right from your hands and took them to where the van was waiting.
We got to the van and were met by the rep for Air Canada, she told the driver where to go and then we were off.
Now the roads in the Dominican Republic are nothing like the roads here in Canada and The United States. Their roads do not have street lights and no speed limit signs anywhere. The size of the normal 2 lane road is about a lane and a half wide. When other drivers go to pass you all they do is honk their horn twice then pass. And since it’s so dark on the roads everyone drives with their high beams on - blinding me and the driver. My mom was so scared because the driver drove so fast! I watched the speed climb past 110KMPH!
It was about a scary hour drive to the resort. About 10 minutes before the resort the driver slows down and picks up some guy off the side of the road… that was a little scary. They were okay guys though. The man he picked up worked at the resort.
Only in the movies!
Pulling up the the resort it looks like something off a movie. This place was so huge and beautiful. All the floors in the main building were marbal, and the first thing you see when you walk in was my favorite part - the bar. The roof of the buildings were all thatched roofing.
When we got our rooms, we ran into a little problem - we paid for ajoining rooms, but there was no door joining them. When we called the main desk to see if we could get this fixed it was a little stressing not knowing much Spanish. But we were lucky because Rafele (our bell hop) was there and he understood what we needed and got right on the phone talking to them, within seconds we had a new room! Thanks alot Rafele!
After we got our rooms sorted out we went and got some food from the buffet and then watched a show on stage.
That was the end of our first night in the Dominican Republic. I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Day 1
Morning on Sunday we went and got some Breakfast and went exploring. You’d be amazed what kind of animals they have running a round in the resort. The first thing we saw was a chicken. Yes, just like the ones we eat. But that’s not all, they have pee-cocks! I wasn’t able to get one to make it’s tail feathers fan out, that would have been awesome!
That afternoon we went swimming, in the ocean. Then had lunch on the beach. (hamburgers). We swam most of the day. When we went up to the bar - the bar tender would always ask me what I wanted - I was afraid he might ID me if I ordered a drink with alchol but after a bit I decided to just try and see if I got some, it worked. Then the flood gates opened. I was able to get my own drinks - which was a lot of fun.
That night we ate at the Himitsu. This was a lot of fun! We got to see the cook make it right in front of us! He flipped things high, low and around his back. Flipping eggs into his hat and just doing tricks. It was really cool. The beef there was the best!
My BIRTHDAY!
July 16th, my birthday. You all know what went down. Party! This day was full of swimming and singing. We decided to walk down the beach to the shops - but we waled right past them and ended up walking threw a dead resort. It look like an old abanded resort. I didn’t get any pictures of this because we thought it might be better to leave the camera at the resort.
We found the road and walked to the next resort (they were pretty close together). We took this walk to find the bank but never did, so we took a taxi and got to the bank. It was only 3 minutes away! Going in the bank, it was very secure, taking out money from the teller was easy because their were 3 police men behind us gaurding.
We got back to the resort at about 5PM and went to dinner at the Mexican Resturaunt, El Platio. This was my very favorite part of the whole trip! Our waiter, Winder, was great! He came over shook my hand and was very excited that it was my birthday, we ordered our food they brought the mariotchy band over and they sung a song. Later on, to my surprise the lights went out in the resturant and they came out with this cake singing happy birthday! Leaving the resturant was fun, everyone was shaking my hand and wishing me a great birthday.
After that we all went to the bar and had a few drinks. Then finally went and watched the show. Dad and I went to the Casino - it wasn’t a good night - I lost my $20. I was up to $26.00, but ended up loosing it to the slots. Darn.
That was the end of my birthday, what a great day! I’ll remember that forever!
Outback Sufari!
Next day we went on a Sufari threw the country side with Franklin. When we got in the truck, Franklin says “Your now my family! If anyone asks your “Franklin’s family”. On our trip in the Dominican Republic, we saw a Dominincan cow, along with lots of other animals.
We went into town and saw a school. This was interesting because they have 3 different classes a day. They way this works is the younger kids go to school in the morning. Then the older teenagers go to school in the afternoon. Finally the adults go to school in the night.
Franklin took us to a local shop where I bought some Dominican Cohiba cigars. After the shop. We got to see how they make coffee and choclate. The coffee was amazing. The best coffee I’ve ever had! We also had a chance to try Mama Jauna!
Mama Jauna is a shot drink made in the Dominican Republic. Mama Jauna is made up of Red Wine, Honey, and the rest Dominican Rum, left to sit in leaves and wood chips (you dont have to worry about the leaves and wood, the rum kills everything) and left to sit for at least 10 days. We bought a bottle of this drink for $13.00US. You can remake the drink at home yourself. The more you make it, the better it tastes. The locals say that it’s a liquid viagra! Mama Jauna tastes pretty good. It doesn’t burn going down :P. When we went down the beach to the shops I got to try the Mama Juana that Kiko makes. That stuff was strong! But more on that later.
On the trip we learned that coco beans are really purple, not brown or green. We also learned that the Pine apple is a flower and takes 9 months to grow in the Dominican Republic. Also, if you get caught smoking a marajana cigar in the Dominican you get charged at least $2000. The second time you get put in jail for 2 years. Third time it’s up to 5 years in the Dominican jail.
Dominican Jails are not nice places. If you go to Jail here in North America you get food, showers, time out side, a washroom area, a bed. Just like at home. In the Dominican Republic it’s different, You don’t get food everyday, the government doesn’t supply it for you. If you go to Jail, you better hope someone on the outside cares about you enough to send you food everyday. Sometimes even if your family sends you food everyday, you don’t always get it. As for the washrooms, they just put tolets in. Before that, you only got to go to the washroom once a day. Laws are stricter in the Dominican Republic than they are here.
If you kill someone, you go to jail for 25 years. Not like here in Canada where as if you kill someone and say your only 12 years old, you only go to a detenion centre for 6 years and 4 years of community watch. I’m not sure what a Dominican trial is like. Franklin didn’t tell us about that.
That was the end of our Safari in the Dominican Republic.
All historical information about the Dominican Republic in this section of my artical was given to me by the tour guide - Franklin.
The End! Oh no!
We spent a few more days in the Dominican after that, but I don’t want to go into detail about that at this time. I’ll edit this post later and fill in the blanks.
Hope you enjoyed reading this! I had a hell of a time in the Dominican! I’ll be going back to Sunscape the beach sometime in my life. Everyone was so great there!
¡Viva La República Dominicana!
¡República Dominicana!
Posted by Ian Gutjahr in Travel on 07 10th, 2007
I’m in the dominican republic today! Yay for that!
I hope we leave the resort. I want to experience the culture - not american stuff - if I wanted that, we would have went to the states. I’ll be taking tons of pictures well we are there.
Things to buy in DR:
- Cigars (I’ve been told they are better then Cuban’s if you get the right kind)
- Shirt for Jared
- Dominican Flag
- Tons of clothes
That’s just a few of the things that I will for sure be buying in the dominican. We’re not sure exactly what we’re going to do when we get there. We’re staying at Sunscape The Beach in Punta Cana! If you know of any cool things to check out when I’m there, comment, I’ll be sure to check it out.