The rarely updated Blog

As indicated earlier I'm planning on taking a trip to America early next year to watch a few Penguins games. I didn't know whether I'd need to purchase the tickets through a third party, so I emailed the Pittsburgh Penguins ticket inquiries address. They told me that I would be able to purchase the tickets online from September and print off a barcode (which is good), and said they were honoured to have a fan from so far away.

So, two days later, as I was reading my source of Penguin's News, I came across the following article:

Sidney Crosby, in the, roughly, 87 hours since becoming inbound Penguins
property, already means this much to the local NHL franchise:

A guy called from Australia yesterday wanting
Penguins tickets.

A guy called from San Diego and purchased
a season-ticket package.

Now, I know I didn't actually call about the tickets - but I think that "guy from Australia" could be referring to me. Perhaps "an Australian called about Penguins tickets" was mis-communicated.

Anyway - I'll just assume it was about me :)

Pittsburgh's recent acquisition of the 2005 number 1 draft pick has made me seriously consider a trip to the US to watch a hockey game. I had originally planned to be in Pittsburgh earlier this year with the hope of viewing a game - it's lucky that those plans fell through (with the recent lockout).

I'd love to watch a Penguins game with both Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby playing, as well as my other Penguins favorites (too numerous to name). It will probably cost a few thousand dollars that I don't have - but it will be worth it, as I may never get a chance to go there again, and they may sell the team within 4 years.

There's a lot to organise (acquisition of tickets, flights, accommodation, time off work, etc) - but I'd be worth it for one more tick on the travel itinerary (I'll change Philadelphia to Pittsburgh!).

Well, my USB key wiped itself again (third time thus far) which is very annoying. I use it to store old work, and common code I'm always looking up. An example of this is VBA code required to unlock a protected Excel workbook (for whenever I want the answers to the latest Excel Quiz doing the rounds):

Sub PasswordBreaker()
    'Author unknown
    'Breaks worksheet password protection.
    Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
    Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
    Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
    Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer
    On Error Resume Next
    For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
    For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
    For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
    For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
    ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
        Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
        Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
    If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
        MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
            Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
            Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
         Exit Sub
    End If
    Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
    Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

I've decided to start posting things like that here - and use my USB key for transport rather than storage.

Going through some of my old uni work, I found my Checkers assignment. It's not very good - but I like the look of it. I've stuffed up the Game Tree Algorith though - as the computer plays good for the first half of the game, then it tries to let me capture it's pieces.

Oh well, enjoy.

After posting my travel profile a while ago I noticed how lame I have been. So, I'm going to list all of the places in this travel survey for future reference. Hopefully I'll knock off another Australian location this year, and work on a few more next year.

US
Albuquerque, Aspen, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Cape Cod, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Key West, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Martha's Vineyard, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Napa Valley, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Reno, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, Scottsdale, Seattle, Sedona, Tampa, Taos, Tuscon, Washington DC.

Canada
Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver.

Latin America
Acapulco, Buenos Aires, Cabo San Lucas, Caracas, Cozumel, Havana, Lima, Mazatlan, Mexico City, Montevideo, Puerto Vallarta, Rio, San Jose del Cabo, San Juan, Santiago.

Europe
Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Birmingham, Bologna, Bordeaux, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Crete, Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Leeds, Lisbon, Liverpool, London, Madrid, Mallorca, Manchester, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Naples, Nice, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Rome, Salzburg, Seville, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Stuttgart, Venice, Vienna, York, Zurich.

Australia
Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney.

New Zealand
Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Queenstown, Rotura.

Asia
Bali, Bangkok, Beijing, Chiang Mai, Delhi, Goa, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Java, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto, Lombok, Macau, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Sumatra, Taipei, Tokyo.

Middle East
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Istanbul, Tehran.

Africa
Cairo, Nairobi, Capetown, Zanzibar.