Naturally I was skeptical of this claim at first, but after browsing around on Google, apparently some types of air purifiers create ozone which can be hazardous to your health if exposed to frequently.  How ironic that something created to make breathing easier could actually make it worse.  That’s why it’s important to read about clean air facts before buying a purifier.

Fortunately for me, the air purifier I bought was not one of the hazardous ones discussed frequently on the internet.  The one I got utilizes a hepa filter, which is widely known as a high quality product.  As it was one of my first air purifier purchases, I decided not to spend too much on it, just so I could see how it worked and how effective it actually was.  I have noticed a slight reduction in dust, especially in the areas located immediately around the device, but I do think I could have made a better buy.  For instance, the Oransi hepa purifier is a certified device that would probably do a much better job at cleaning my entire room (up to 600 sq feet) rather than a tiny area.  Plus, judging by the design of the purifier on the websites I’ve read, it has a much better filter and it even has a filter replacement indicator so you can tell when it’s time to replace the filter.

The reason why this is a hot topic is because people are trying to argue that what went down was racially motivated. I tend to disagree, because if it was a hate crime, Zimmerman probably wouldn’t have got the police involved prior to the shooting. Furthermore, when someone is threatened by another person they may feel driven to do something radical in order to protect themselves. We don’t know the specifics of what happened when Zimmerman and Martin confronted one another, but we cannot conclude that because Martin was black that his skin color was also the reason he was shot.

The shooting was clearly a poor choice, and unless Zimmerman feared for his life, he shouldn’t have shot the young man.  And honestly, even if he did felt it was necessary to shoot him, he should have at least attempted to make it a shoulder wound or something else that wouldn’t end up killing him.  So in that regard, perhaps he should receive some punishment. It does seem like Zimmerman could be facing some very severe punishments however, especially with his lawyers bailing on him and publicly calling him for not staying in contact with him. Hopefully for his sake he’s now using a professional criminal defense attorney such as Robert M. Phillips to represent him in court.

Since we’re experiencing a tornado outbreak in the central U.S. today, it looks as if some of these warnings are already being tested.  The following is a tornado warning in Falun, Kansas:

…A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHEASTERN ELLSWORTH… NORTHWESTERN MCPHERSON AND SOUTHWESTERN SALINE COUNTIES UNTIL 630 PM CDT…

AT 552 PM CDT…A CONFIRMED LARGE AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TORNADO WAS LOCATED 8 MILES SOUTH OF KANOPOLIS STATE PARK…AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 40 MPH.

THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION.

HAZARD…DAMAGING TORNADO.

SOURCE…LAW ENFORCEMENT CONFIRMED TORNADO.

IMPACT...MAJOR HOUSE AND BUILDING DAMAGE LIKELY AND COMPLETE
DESTRUCTION POSSIBLE. NUMEROUS TREES SNAPPED. MAJOR POWER OUTAGES IN PATH OF TORNADO HIGHLY LIKELY. SOME ROADS POSSIBLY BLOCKED BY TORNADO DEBRIS. COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF VEHICLES LIKELY.

LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE…
MARQUETTE AND LINDSBORG.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

TO REPEAT…A LARGE…EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND POTENTIALLY DEADLY TORNADO IS ON THE GROUND. TO PROTECT YOUR LIFE…TAKE COVER NOW. MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF A STURDY BUILDING. AVOID WINDOWS. IF IN A MOBILE HOME…A VEHICLE OR OUTDOORS…MOVE TO THE CLOSEST SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER AND PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FLYING DEBRIS.

I guess by testing these warnings they can look back on them afterward and see if the strong wording was justified.  They just have to be careful not to cry wolf when saying stuff like “un-survivable” or risk losing the public’s confidence.

In this example, you can see both the color from the dye as well as the engraving of the logo they used, and it looks fantastic.

A coin can also be created to memorialize an event such as a wedding, as illustrated in this example:

As you can see here, color can either be added to the point of near photo quality, or not added whatsoever to present a more traditional style coin.  I prefer the traditional style as it looks more artistic.

Custom coins that bear an organization’s insignia or emblem are called Challenge Coins.  As aforementioned, they are often as a reward for outstanding service or exceptional performance of duty, typically in the military.  These types of awards are traditionally given to the recipient through a handshake.  Outside of the military, challenge coins are also commonly used by NASCAR, the NFL, the World Series of Poker, and many other organizations.

The same manufacturers for custom coins also create Custom Lapel Pins.  Though that is their technical name, they are often used as badges as a means of identification, sometimes for security purposes.  An intricate design on a custom lapel pin can be a great way to help identify people you work with.  With the same high quality design as their coin counterparts, custom lapel pins look great too as you can see here:

The last thing I should mention is that both custom coins and custom pins are inexpensive.  Each individual unit may only cost a couple dollars, and you can usually have them produced in bulk for a discount.

We’ve been fine at our house for years without internet access. My husband and I both have it at work and we get our e-mails on our phones so we felt like we weren’t missing out on anything by not having it. Now that the kids are getting older, though, it’s time to look at some wild blue plans. As they’ve made their way into the tween years, both of them want e-mail addresses to keep up with their friends. I’m not ready to buy them smartphones to e-mail and text so I guess we are going to have to bite the bullet and let them get online. I’d much rather they got online at our home computer anyway so I can keep track of what they are looking at and who they are in touch with. Plus, I think it would be a great way for them to stay in touch with their grandparents. Maybe it will even free up my phone line!

Google’s intent was to reshape the landscape of their search engine’s result pages (SERPs) in order to further enhance the quality of their search engine.  While Google appears to have intended to clean things up a bit, it appears as if they have somehow managed to do the opposite.  By somehow, I’m really referencing the two little known facts that many legitimate websites hiring SEO companies have no idea how their top search engine rankings are achieved and the reality that many of those who wield the power of SEO are also web developers.  Between the two, a considerable chunk of the visible spectrum of websites within the various search engines result pages is accounted for.  With that said, it appears as if the relevance of the SERPs have actually diminished along with the overall quality of their search.  Such is the unintended consequences of Google’s recent update.

To those of you who were slapped by Google’s recent update, it’s not over yet my friends as setbacks such as the aforementioned as merely the name of the game.  The only truth you can harbor is the understanding that this all temporal, subject to change over time, and change it will.

Why is a sushi bar’s happy hour page in the top 20 results when you query “buy viagra” without the quotes?  Where’s the relevance?

I realize that this publication is not entirely accurate and if you know what I’m talking about you should also realize why this article was published and it has little to do with the dissemination of free information.

If you find yourself compelled to comment on this article, please refrain from any attempts to inject links back to your properties as they will be removed prior to approval.

Guest Post by Victor Johnson (WP, FB)

I found a website called Employment Crossing that addresses these matters brilliantly. Though there is a monthly fee for this service, Employment Crossing brings you all of the jobs from every career page, putting them all in one place for your convenience. Normally websites like this charge the employers to put up job advertisements, and let the users browse them for free. Employment Crossing does it the other way, making it free for employers to post jobs, but charging a fee for their members to browse job listings. Since there’s no fees for Employers to post jobs, the number of jobs posted here are higher than on other websites.  It makes sense that employers will be more likely to add a  job posting when there’s no charge involved. The monthly fee is money well spent to give you more results in your search for a new job.

Lastly, to employers: there’s more features for you here than just a place to put up free job postings.  For a fee, Employment Crossing also offers a tool to search resumes, allowing you to browse through resumes that are relevant to your company.  Though I can’t really comment on it due to lack of knowledge regarding hiring processes, it definitely sounds like something worth checking out, especially if you’ve had trouble recruiting for a specific position.

Shark Professional Steam Pocket Mop

One of the best steam mops around, the S3601 professional steam mop by Shark also known as the Steam Pocket Mop has a smart design that incorporates variable adjustments at the push of a button. With three different settings, two different mop heads, carpet glider, and microfiber cleaning pads, the Shark Professional Steam Pocket Mop is definitely worth taking a look at.
Learn more -> Steam Pocket Mop Review

Bionaire Steam Mop

While the Bionaire Steam Mop is more than powerful enough to obliterate 99.9% of household viruses, bacteria, dust mites, and so on, it’s not necessarily what I would consider to be the best steam mop due to the low overall quality of the device. If you’re looking for a cheap steam mop, the Bionaire Steam Mop makes for a decent inexpensive steam cleaning option.
Learn more -> Bionaire Steam Mop Review

HAAN Steam Cleaner Mop

HAAN steam cleaner mops are capable of easily cleaning hard wood, vinyl, tile, laminates, and many more surfaces with the power of steam which eliminates the majority of allergy causes mites, viruses, and bacteria. The HAAN steam mop weighs less than 4 pounds and is extremely easy to navigate. Definitely one of the better steam mops around.
Learn more -> HAAN Steam Cleaner Review

Bissell Steam Mop

By far my personal favorite, the Bissell Steam Mop cleans hard floors with little effort. A 360 degree swivel head makes it incredibly easy to maneuver in and out of tight spots. If you need a high quality steam cleaner that takes 30 seconds to prepare, Bissell’s steam mop is for you! Weighing 9 pounds makes it a bit heavier than some of the other steam mops, however, you have a 17.5 ounce water reservoir which allows you to clean without refilling the reservoir too often. Make cleaning fun and safe by staying away from dangerous cleaning chemicals and instead opting for a high quality steam cleaner like the Bissell Steam Mop.
Learn more -> Bissell Steam Mop Review

If you would like to learn more about steam cleaners, I would suggest reading some reviews prior to purchasing a new steam cleaner.  In order to satisfy your interest in assimilating legitimate reviews, you should check out Read Real Reviews which can be found at: http://readrealreviews.com

Dell – Is it really the power to do more?

I remember getting my first Dell in the late 90′s and it was an incredible and customized PC. It’s crazy to think that less than 15 years ago they were basically the pioneer is this area. You had many different selections to choose from to custom you pc such as processor, ram, graphics card, modem, ethernet, speakers, optical drives like cd or dvd, hard drive size, the software you wanted it to come with preloaded on the pc & many more. My original dell that I bought sometime around 1998 still functions in my house as a guest computer.

Because of the way computer technology advances often referred to as Moore’s Law(where processing speed and memory double approximately every 18 months) this system is no longer the fastest. However, it still serves as a computer to those relatives who always seem to put some type of spyware on my computers somehow. This computer has been through a lot and was used for several years exclusivity and has still yet to have the need to replace a single component. Although, I did upgrade the memory at some point. This experience has made me believe Dell was an amazing quality brand for many years.

Dell was the #1 PC manufactorer from 1999 to 2005 minus a small period time when Compaq & HP the 2nd and 4th largest manufactorers respectively merged. In 2005 PC growth slowed considerable and by the end of 2006 Dell had been retaken by Hewlett Packard. Dell seems to have cut out both research and development as well as customer service. Most of the computers I purchased from 2005 onward have had some issues. I’ve had 4 of my 5 desktop pc’s have an issue with the power supply. My laptop battery doesn’t work and needs to be constantly plugged into an outlet to maintain a charge. Many of my friends and co-workers have had various issues with their Dells as well.

In 2010 I ended up building my own computer and haven’t thought about it much since. Since I’ve talked with my boss a bit about the Dell brand(he hates it and says if he gets something from Dell it always breaks) I’ve realized it a lot more about how far its fallen off. My sister’s quad core pc broke after minimal use. Another friend attempted to have their laptop replaced 3 times but they couldn’t even get the right screen for it. The cooling is often bad in their gaming laptops and I’ve heard many cases of overheating. Another friend said their laptop ran fine at around 100C until it would overheat. It seems nearly every Dell has a shorter life span now. I no longer have the faith in the brand I once did.

This post by John Hoang an internet marketing specialist created using Dragon speech recognition technology. For more information check out the dragon naturally speaking review.

Espon WorkForce 545 All In One Wireless Printer

Buy It Now For $93.99

Here are some of the positive features found with this wireless all in one printer:

• Price  – As a printer for a price point under $100 you’re getting about the best of the best.  It’s rated to print 15 PPM(pages per minute) in black & white and 7.2 PPM for color.  This seems to be pretty accurate when printing out one document.  If you print out multiple documents there is a delay with the printer queue.  So keep that in mind if you’re printing out documents from multiple sources frequently.

• Ink Capacity / Cost Per Page – The cartridge capacity is rated at 500 pages and seems to deliver around this result.  There’s still a bit of ink left in the cartridge even after it posts the “low ink” message.  The ink from an OEM(original equipment manufacturer) comes out to around $.05 / page.  This can be cut down by about 80% by purchasing re-manufactured ink.  I’m still experimenting with this before I can comment and compare to OEM.

• Quiet – It makes significantly less noise than the other printers in the office.  According to the documentation it also users 70% less power than laser printers.

• Versatility – It’s nice to be able to scan, copy, fax  & print easily from one device.  It also has photo specific setting for printing photography.  In terms of connectivity it has both wireless and USB connections.  There is no USB cable that comes with this printer.

• Setup Process – It’s very easy to setup this printer.  The most time consuming part of the process is pulling off all the safeguards off the printer.  This is probably done to ensure it’s safe to be moved during shipping.  I was setup to print wireless in less than ten minutes after I had completed this step.

Why doesn’t this product get 5/5 stars?  Well here’s a few negative issues experienced:

• Slow Scanning – There’s definitely some issues with the scanner.  It functions, but it seems rather slow.  I haven’t attempted to mess with the settings too much but as a default when it takes 2 minutes or so to scan this is just unacceptable to me.  I don’t see the quality as being overly great for the amount of time it takes.

• Jamming / Ink Alignment Issues – It seems to jam easier than most printers I’ve dealt with.  The main issue usually comes up when going to a thicker sheet of paper.  It’s also very hard to remove this issue once it comes up.  The best fix I’ve found is to make sure you don’t load a large amount of the regular white paper on the bottom of the thicker sheet.  This seems to for the most part fix the issue.  I don’t know if it was the jamming issue that lead to the alignment issue but I’ve had to do the head cleaning several times.  You run a diagnostic “nozzle check” and it prints out a page with some line boxes.  If there’s a break anywhere you need to run the head cleaning.  A few times, it was unable to fix the issue with the first head cleaning process.

This post by John Hoang an internet marketing specialist created using Dragon speech recognition technology. For more information check out the dragon naturally speaking review.

Aluratek Bump Digital
MP3/FM Radio BoomBox

Buy It Now for $50.94

Let me start off with the critical elements.  If you’re looking for top of the line perfect audiophile sound this isn’t going to be what you want.  There’s definitely some humming sound that is sometimes output depending on how many speakers you have connected and the distance they are from the source.  Also, with some experimenting, I found that it does this randomly to some degree as well.  The audio output isn’t going to be as loud more professional speakers.

All that said, I find these little speakers are an amazing.  The sound output given the size dimensions of 7x4x4 inches and weight of 6.4 ounces is incredible.  The digital boombox output seems to work well when hooked to a usb port from a computer, my ipod & the built in radio.  The charge time for each speaker seems to last a little bit more than the 4 hour battery life stated on their website on a full charge.  It can also be hooked into both a usb port as well as a wall outlet to charge at any time.

There’s a wide range and variety of sources you can use to play your audio.  It has a usb connection as well as a 3.5 mm jack.  Most mp3 devices like ipods will play through this system.  The built in radio is also an option.  Additionally, you can connect the usb port to a computer and play virtually any sound that outputs from there.

On ranging indoors through a lot of doors in an office it’s not going to achieve the same range as it would outdoors.  Although, I haven’t really done any testing outdoors the range seems reasonable indoors as it can stretch over 120 ft in any direction and still output solid sound.  Any further through multiple doors may cause some issues but you’ll be able to figure out the exact range through a little bit of testing.

Syncing your speaker with the boombox is very easy and requires just pushing the wireless button enabled the wireless than turning on your speaker. It should begin transmitting sound within a few seconds.  One small note I don’t like is unhooking the power supply on the boombox speaker will often kill the audio from the device to the boombox.  The simplest solution is to just leave it plugged into the wall at all times or the usb device(like a computer).  To turn off the signal to all the wireless speakers you can simply hit the wireless button on the boombox.

Saving the best for last, I thought since we had about 9 spots we wanted to put the speakers in our office that I would have to use two units.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the boombox device connect to all 8 speakers from one unit.  I noticed sometimes there was a bit of increased humming noise but it’s still able to do it.  I can’t guarantee you’ll achieve the same results but this is how it worked for me.

At a price point of under $300 you will get synchronized sound from up to 9 locations that can be spread as much as 120 feet or more indoors and perhaps a distance of 300 feet or more outdoors.  The battery life seems to work a little bit longer than expected at around 4 1/2 hours in my experiences on a full charge.

This post by John Hoang an internet marketing specialist created using Dragon speech recognition technology. For more information check out the dragon naturally speaking review.

If you’re one of the many folks out there suffering from allergies, the Shark Navigator Lift-Away might be exactly what you’ve been missing in your life all of these years. Do yourself a favor and read some legitimate Shark Navigator Lift Away reviews online and see if the NV356 vacuum cleaner isn’t just what you’ve been looking for all this time. Say goodbye to allergies and say hello to the Shark Navigator Lift-Away anti-allergen vacuum.

Imagine if schools were judged not by how well students achieved while they were in school, but in how well they achieved once they left. If schools saw their worth not in how many kids got accepted to college, but in how many kids went on to live meaningful and engaged lives and who would point back to their school years as the point of relevancy that was the foundation of it all.

These measurements for the most part are just impossible though. First the metrics couldn’t be collected till many years after the person had left the school institution. Next, there’s no level or gauge for a meaningful engaged life. What some people would consider a complete and utter failure others are perfectly content. Are you going to put contentment into a statistical metric? I seriously doubt it.

I think the underlying issue is the flaws with the school system. I also don’t think there’s any easy or quick fix answer. Looking back on my days at school I can only say what I wish would have been handled and done better. I remember growing up learning the same materials in math through 2nd grade all the way to 7th. This turned something I actually enjoyed into something extremely boring. It’s the same with many areas of English, history & science where you “re-learn” the same material year to year. I’m sure many people feel the same way about a wide variety of subjects.

Most individuals will go on to do something in a specialized field. I understand its rather useful to have some core skills in a variety of areas but I think its taken to a ridiculous level sometimes. If someone doesn’t excel at a subject say math…why make them take it over and over again? Does the general majority of the population that reside in this country need to use Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Trigonometry & Calculus? Think about how often you use these skills in the real world day to day. Why not have a core curriculum taught in elementary school then in middle school proceed to a more specialized analysis based upon what you’re good at and what you enjoy. High school serves as mostly a training grounds for achieving the knowledge you need to succeed in the fields you choose.

Moving on to core skills that I wish were included into the curriculum. I don’t understand why public speaking wasn’t some type of required class to graduate in high school. I remember growing up I never placed much emphasis on presentation. How you present something can have drastic effects on the outcome. I remember completely failing at one job interview project we had to do in 10th grade simply because I was too shy to interact with the interviewer properly. I think because of this learning experience I was able to react much better the next time I had to do a major interview to get into college. (Side note: Yes, I didn’t really work in high school mainly because I always found different entrepreneurial ways of making my own money.)

For the most part there’s probably about a one day to a one week period of actual real world experience in school. Maybe you shadow someone you want to be like when you grow up for a day. Maybe you prepare for a job interview which you don’t know if it’s mock or real. Spending more time in a work place which may be similar to what you want to do for the rest of your life seems like it would be a much better use of time than going over the same “core” materials over and over.

Will school stay relevant? How can we improve the public school system? I am interested to hear your thoughts. Unfortunately, this blog cannot be open for comments due to spam. But email us at:

 
and I’ll try to post / address your comment.

This post by John Hoang an internet marketing specialist created using Dragon speech recognition technology. For more information check out the dragon naturally speaking review.

This new tablet is designed to be an educational device for students in the developing world where both electricity and internet access is often scarce.  The initiative is one laptop to every child. The battery life lasts approximately 8 to 10 hours and can be recharged with both a hand crank or solar panel that doubles as the tablet’s cover.  The OLPC XO 3.0 actually has two covers one of which containers a four-watt solar panel that can be placed in the sun to recharge and then reconnected in order to provide power to the tablet.

There’s a lot of interest and excitement in the development of these low-cost tablets for many reasons.  A few months ago the $35 Aakash tablet was released and according to the New York Times received around 1.4 million orders.  The company was unprepared to meet the demand.  It has since stop taking orders and may be struggling to meet the orders already made.  The reviews of this tablet have not been overwhelmingly good.  The poor battery life of just one hour or two, the slugglishly slow software & “sticky” touchscreen seem to be the main areas of criticism.

But the OLPC project has had a fair share of struggles itself.  The inability to meet production deadlines, some performance issues with the laptops(The first attempts were aimed at providing laptops to children in 3rd world countries) & concerns that the device will not be able to meet the promised $100 price point.  According to the OLPC organization the But the OLPC project has had its own fair share of struggles — the inability to meet production deadlines, performance problems with the laptops(Previous OLPC versions were delivered as laptops.), as well as concerns that the devices would not be able to meet that promised $100 price point.

This table is also thicker than most tablets on the market.  The specifications are 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM & 4 GB of storage.  The OLPC XO 3.0 also containers a USB port, a Micro USB port, headphone/microphone jacks & a power jack.  The power jack can be used for a regular AC adapter as well as for a hand crank.  The tablet has two 8 inch display options: LCD Versions & PixelQi version.  The PixelQI is meant to make it easier to read outside.  Another issue of concern is the tablet’s touchscreen seems extremely responsive but the software appears to be holding it back / slowing it down.  The XO 3.0 has two software options: Android or a Linux operating system. Here’s a little more on the delay from someone who actually got to play around with it for a bit:

“The delay between tapping the browser icon and it opening was noticeable. The second problem is that the software doesn’t seem to be optimized for touch. When I tried to scroll in the Wikipedia program, it highlighted text; I had to select the scroll bar to get to the bottom of the page. OLPC says it is working on this and that it does work in some applications. Speaking of applications, many of the apps for this tablet are built by countries that buy the tablets or laptops, so while there are native browser, camera, word processing programs, the others have to come from the open source community.”

Another concern still is the cell phone penetration in the developing world which has reached around 80%. One has to ask the question if tablets are the right device? Or when we think of putting one computing device into the hands of every child, should we be thinking about a mobile phone instead?

This post by John Hoang an internet marketing specialist created using Dragon speech recognition technology. For more information check out the dragon naturally speaking review.

My online shopping addiction has gotten bad. I used to think it was funny, but now I worry that I am going to ruin my financial future. I started out a few years ago searching for deals on clothes and shoes, and I have now graduated to buying jewelry and appliances. I used to spend a few hundred dollars a month, and now it can get up into the thousands. I know I shouldn’t be spending so much, so I have been trying to cut back. My husband told me to find other things to help me pass the time, and I am trying. I am worried he is going to get fed up with my spending. He went to http://www.cannonsatellite.com/ and got an awesome Directv package thinking that I would start watching more TV, and go online less. I’m not so sure that is going to work. Every time I see a commercial advertising something I want, I go straight to the computer and try and find it. I actually think this might be making my addiction worse!

http://www.surveybuilder.com/s/K6aySqOpoAA

I only put in one question in my example, but though you can have unlimited questions on your surveys.

Those who create surveys here have access to a statistics panel which displays all the submitted information in an organized chart, as well as other information such as the % of people who chose specific options, how many people started the survey, how many people completed, and the average time a person spent on the survey.  Here’s a picture of the statistics panel:

I think the best part of this website is there was no advertising on it whatsoever. It was very clean and professional, even for free users. This isn’t something you’d expect on a free online survey.

If you are a business or just someone who wants more surveys completed, SurveyBuilder is offering a $100 credit to purchase an audience. Tools like this can be very beneficial to companies looking for insight from customers about what they are interested in, and what changes would have a positive affect on their product demand.  For instance, if your business created black, blue, and white t-shirts, after surveying a few thousand people you may find out that many customers would purchase red and green t-shirts if the option had been available to them, giving your business more opportunities for income.

One of the great things about the internet in the beginning was the fact it was new to everyone. Chatting with others on services like AOL in 1990s was exciting, mostly because it was a new way to communicate and get to know people.  Remember how giddy Meg Ryan was to get online once her boyfriend left for work in the movie You’ve Got Mail? That was me when I was a kid (though it was when my parents left). I’d sit there for hours on end getting to know people online, all the while having little to no social life off the computer. That was fine with me though. The other kids at school were mean, and I wasn’t a big fan of the bullying that always went on. I found that the internet was a great way for people to be judged for who they were and not for more superficial things like appearance.

Sometimes I wish I had been older during the rise of the internet, just so I could have enjoyed and understood it more when things were in development, but I am thankful that I did get to witness a glimpse of it.

Times eventually changed what the internet was and most of those changes were positive. I ended up getting off dial up and finally got dsl which improved my latency in online games dramatically. I became a significantly better player from that one upgrade alone. Mp3s would transfer in a matter of 2 to 3 minutes. No longer would my connection drop anytime my mom wanted to make a call. Things certainly were more convenient, but other parts of the internet started to devolve as well. It has become increasingly harder to meet intelligent people as internet service became more common for everyone to have. Thankfully, even though 90% of the chats out there are mindless sex rooms now, I’ve still maintained many meaningful relationships with people online, and that’s what keeps me coming on every day. It’s not the games, it’s not the mp3s, or even the fast transfer rates. It’s the people that make the internet interesting to me and I feel lucky to live in a world where such a fantastic thing exists to connect people.

In this shot you can clearly see a mountainous snow drift at someone’s patio door. This was one of the harder hit areas of Westminster, MD which is east of Baltimore, MD and north of Washington, DC. For several days following these events, home owners couldn’t even find their mailboxes when they left their homes, because the snow was too deep.

Other people were a little more fortunate as their whitehall mailboxes had been installed in areas where the wind was blowing snow away from them, rather than on top of them.

There are other whitehall products such as plaques, bird feeders, garden accents, and more. Those who didn’t think ahead to pull them inside before the storm ended up having to dig them out, as illustrated below:

All in all these were historic events that many probably will never see in their lifetime again, at least in the DC metro area.

Unless you live in the northern hemisphere, an aurora is not something you’d see except on rare occasions. This picture was taken in Edmonton, Canada, and is one reason why I’m looking to Rent Edmonton apartments once it’s time to move from Washington.

The other reason it’s interesting to me is because of the climate.

At it’s warmest, Edmonton can reach 94.1ºF, and at it’s coldest -54.9ºF. Not many places have such a tremendous temperature range for their record highs and lows. Because of it’s latitude so far north, Edmonton can get quite cold when the air from the nearby arctic blows in during the winter.

Snow can occur in all but three months at Edmonton, but with an average yearly snowfall of 48.62″, it is hardly a tremendous amount. 48.62″ may seem like a large amount to some, but consider that it is spread out across 9 months rather than most southern cities 2 to 4 months of winter weather. In many cases, some cities further south located in the U.S. receive much more snowfall on a month to month basis due to the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico enhancing the frozen precipitation when it does fall.

It’s tax season again and it’s time to file your taxes for the year 2011. If you’ve bought TurboTax in the past you would know it is the most used tax preparation software available. If you haven’t used TurboTax before and you want to do your taxes yourself this is your best option. You will save money on your taxes and get the job done quickly.

There are two versions of TurboTax blocks essentially the same product but one is downloadable the other is the actual box they’re both the same price $45.98. So if you want the product immediately you can gain access by purchasing the downloadable product:

If you’d rather have the box you will have to wait a few days but it comes with free shipping. This is the cheapest available deal for TurboTax Deluxe from a reliable vendor:

Here are some of the benefits of using TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-File + State 2011

• Guaranteed accurate calculations: Should you incur any IRS or state penalty due to a TurboTax calculation error TurboTax will pay both the penalty and interest.

• Guides you step by step through your tax return. Through some simple questions it searches for more than 350 different deductions and credits
• Handles big life changes that might be complex such as: job change, marriage, bought a home, had a baby
• Full service respresentation by tax professional; you’ll never have to meet the IRS if you don’t want to.
• Transfer last year’s tax info no retyping necessary
• Easily import PDF from prior years
• Import financial data from software such as Quicken QuickBooks 2007 higher and Microsoft Money
• Free one-on-one expert tax advice live by phone or chat. Plus you’ll have instant access to answers to commonly asked tax questions on every screen

Here are some of the potential draw-backs:

• Costs an additional $19.95 file the return with the state which is sort of hidden/unmentioned.

• Pushes the more premier version for those with investment income but you don’t need in a much situation is rather complex.
• Some issues with the mac version with both updates and password protection.
• Customer service can take a bit of time(often over half an hour to reach someone with the possibility of being disconnected.
• It probably doesn’t work well if you have the operating system Microsoft XP 64-bit

Do you have some comments, additions, opinions or questions you feel should be included in this review? Drop us an email at:

Now, when users attempt to go to MegaUpload.com, they are greeted with the standard FBI warning:

The owner of MegaUpload had an estimated 50 million USD in assets seized by the FBI (which is strange to me seeing how he’s located in New Zealand).  He was believed to have been making over 40 million USD a year in revenue from MegaUpload alone.  There are pictures floating around online showing his cars (with license plates like MAFIA, POLICE, etc.) being hauled off, as well as pictures of his very large state which even has giraffes roaming the property.

In terms of file sharing websites, there are many alternatives to MegaUpload available, and new ones will probably emerge now that MegaUpload has bitten the dust.

What I’m concerned about is if the crackdown on these types of websites will continue.  That isn’t to say I spend my time online searching for copyrighted content to steal, but one of my most frequently visited websites is Grooveshark.com, which I have written about before.  Grooveshark is a fantastic website where you can find high quality versions of almost all music and stream it free of charge.  I’m not entirely sure how they are able to financially compensate the artists or if they are even trying to, but the latter could end up making Grooveshark a target for the FBI in the future if they aren’t.

We didn’t do much for New Year’s this year. Every other year that I can remember we were out and about. We usually go bar hopping with our friends dressed in our most glittery attire. Unfortunately, my husband had to work on New Year’s Day this year because it was after a weekend. We ended up having a low key New Year’s Eve. We watched the ball drop in Times Square on directv georgia. We watched the whole New Year’s show. I made a great dinner of prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and then a glass of champagne. We went to bed by twelve thirty. Even though our New Year’s Eve was low key, I really enjoyed it. We spent a lot of quality time together. Who knows, I think that I would actually be content next New Year’s Eve doing the same thing. I just hope that the next artist that they have at Time’s Square is not Justin Beiber. I am just a little too old to be a huge Beibs fan.

With the release of 4.3, raids are now available to more casual players.  You no longer need to make WoW a job by dedicating 8pm-12pm 4 nights a week to progression raids.  The way this was accomplished was by making an alternative version of the current raid tier available for a queue (much like one would queue for a battleground).  The queue would take the person into a raid with 25 other players, and together they fight to clear a toned down version of the raid.  The raid difficulty is called LFR (looking for raid) and provides gear slightly better than what one could obtain through heroics, including a scaled down version of the currently available tier.   This type of gear was not always fully available to players in previous content.

PvP hasn’t changed all that much recently, but it still holds entertainment value.  However, I think PvP more than anything exemplifies a lot of the problems WoW faces with class balance, as certain classes hold a distinct advantage over others in a majority of PvP content.  Blizzard is slowly but surely addressing these imbalances, but probably slower than one would like if their main focus in the game was PvP.  The argument Blizzard uses against adjusting class abilities for PvP is that there would be consequences for the same classes people use in raid environments. That said, players playing ranged classes have had a distinct advantage over melee (most of the time) for some time now in both PvE and PvP so it remains unclear why Blizzard has waited so long (and continues to wait) to tweak things out a bit better.

Despite it’s popularity, convincing someone to play World of Warcraft has been seemingly impossible to me.  It can consume a lot of time if played compulsively, but the same can hold true for any game.  Lately, I find myself playing it not only for the content but for the social aspect as well.  Sometimes it’s nice to go on and communicate with some friends in a non-IM environment.

Blundstone Alternatives

If you’re simply looking for a good alternative to Blundstones, there are a number of Australian boot designers to choose from.  Here is a short list of reputable brands that are worth considering when searching for an alternative to Blunnies:

• Redback Boots
• BEARPAW Boots
• UGG Boots
• EMU Boots
• Rossi Boots

Rodeo Weed Killer, King of Aquatic Weed Killers

Did you know that you can control weeds in ponds, lakes, swamps, and any other body of water as easily if not more easily than controlling them on your land? Rodeo weed killer makes it a snap and it gets into the soil quickly making quick work of just about any green vegetation growing in the water as it is a non-selective aquatic weed controller. This weed killer is also great for ponds and swamps because it works on shrubs, bushes, and grasses commonly found along the edge of ponds and swamps. If your pond is getting reclaimed by the land it is time to hit it with some Rodeo weed killer. A word of warning however, while it is very easy to use, one must, I repeat MUST have a plan to get the dead weeds and plants out, otherwise you are going to end up with a toxic dead soup that stinks like you can’t even imagine and will be inhospitable to life.

The simplistic operation is the real standout with Volcano vaporizers. Amongst all vaporizers big and small this one is really probably the most basic, in principle and operation. Basic it may be, but all owners of this unit will stand by it as the best. Once you own this there is no reason to ever own anything else, or ever have to buy another vaporizer again. To turn on one simply flicks the heat switch and turns the sturdy dial, or press the rubber buttons to set and achieve desired temperature, then you are ready. Besides general cleaning the only real maintenance this requires to keep it going for a lifetime is internal cleaning. Over time dry bits of non viable organic matter slip down into the inner guts of the system and will make it less efficient, and potentially dangerous to use. The outer heavy duty shell can easily be removed, and the particles can safely and easily be blasted away with compressed air, and a little rubbing alcohol for the more stubborn bits. The unit can then be re assembled with minimal effort and set for years more enjoyment to come. There are even spare buttons, and thermostat adjusters available if they wear out before the unit. And for that matter there is no need to ever replace the unit itself if anything should go wrong inside, as there is a replacement part for everything. The unit itself comes with a three year warranty to cover the unheard of manufacturing defects.

The other key reason this thing is the number one recommended herbal vaporizer on the market is the level of research and care that has gone into the product. It is a medical grade device, designed for patients. Thus only the finest, purest materials have been selected for the manufacturing process of this quality device. A great deal of effort was taken to find the purest, tasteless, odorless materials to go into it. This was no easy feat, as materials tend to change their properties with change in temperature. But they found it, and it is a winning combination.

The unit also features a special peppy diaphragm pump that never falters, and always delivers a clean even flow of air no matter what the conditions of the room are. It forces the air gently over the herbs and pushes vapor into a bag that can be large or small. The mouthpiece allows for filling and then taking draws at the patients leisure, to manage pain in the perfect dose. It is recommended that the patient experiments with the several different types of mouthpieces available to find the balance between ease of use, and affordability.  If you’ve enjoyed reading this Volcano vaporizer review, please feel free to share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and whatever other social networking services you’re apart of!

I looked online for some cable tv deals so I could get extra channels before my sister comes in – I have no idea what kids like to do these days but I live out in the middle of nowhere so I thought it would be a good idea for me to have some TV channels for them to watch. Her sons are all younger and I’m not all that comfortable around kids (or her husband, for that matter) so I know it’s going to be a long holiday visit. My sister and I are best friends though so at the end of the day I know what it means to be there for each other. She’s the yen to my yang and I can’t wait to catch up with her over a glass or three of wine and really just get to spend some time together. Ever since she moved to Virginia I don’t get to see her too often so I’m just hoping it won’t take long for her to really open up!

It would be a waste to just toss the old computers out, but at the same time I don’t use them and want some of my closet space back. I’ve considered formatting the hard drives and giving them away for Christmas to friends and family, but one of the downsides to that is I don’t have monitors for them. The people I’d be giving the computers to aren’t exactly computer savvy and probably wouldn’t want to invest $100 into a monitor just to use the PC. There’s only two people that I can think of that would need these computers too, which doesn’t account for the numerous other ones sitting in my closet.

I’m thinking the next best option in my case is to consider recycling. I’ve been looking at computer recycling tips and there are companies that will take unwanted electronics and safely dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way. While some of my PCs do have decent components, some are extremely old and barely run, so this is probably how I will get rid of those.

I honestly wish I could just throw them on eBay, but because of how PCs devalue over the years, I would be lucky if I got $10 for most of them. It’s funny because when I originally purchased the computers, most of them cost over $500 (some of them over $1,500)!

Though today’s usage of the FCA is slightly different, back in the 1800′s the purpose of the FCA was to combat fraudulent activities made by the U.S. Army during the Civil War. The wise decision was made to make this law apply to all government contractors instead of just focusing military contractors, which is a big reason why the law is still around today.

If you are busted for fraud under the FCA, you are required to pay back twice the government’s damages. On top of that, you also need to pay $2,000 for each individual fraudulent claim made.

On the flip side, the person who reported the crime gets fifty percent of the total amount awarded to government. This incentive is what made the law famous as it basically encourages snitching. They aren’t called snitches however, the person who reports the fraud is actually called a “relator.” If the relators did not pursue the FCA through a “qui tam” action, it’s likely that many fraudulent activities would have gone unnoticed.

People can say what they want about snitching being bad. I think this is a perfect example of it being an effective way to keep people in check. Today, if you wanted to report such a crime, you’d look on Google for a quit tam lawyer Washington for example (if you lived in Philly then qui tam lawyer Philadelphia).

I’m still at a loss for what I should get certain people, mainly relatives I don’t see on a regular basis and even people I know online. I know most people don’t buy things for people online but I’ve come to know a lot of nice people online and I wish I had some sort of direction for them when it comes to Christmas gift ideas. The hard part about it is that even though you get to know people online in a way, you don’t really know as much about them than if you had a relationship with them in person (what their likes are, hobbies, etc.). In the past I would just not buy Christmas Presents for anyone but my immediate family, and while I may end up doing the same this year, I am at least considering a few approaches.

I think the most important part of picking a gift out for someone is getting them something that’s useful. I don’t believe it’s important to get someone something expensive so much as something that the person would actually use and not throw in their closet to collect dust. Another option is to get something thats cool, like a lava lamp or a coin sorter. If someone got me something like that, I think I’d be a lot happier than if they got me a sweater that I’d never use.

Aside from gift choices, this year a big question for me is if I’ll be getting a Christmas tree or not. Since I don’t have a car, I’d have to rent one and I’m not even sure if I want to spend the money on a tree let alone a rental car. It’s a tough choice, but I believe that the money can be put to better uses, such as bills or gifts. Christmas trees were an integral part of my Christmases as a child but now that I’m in my 20s, not so much. I haven’t made up my mind regarding the issue but thats the direction I’m leaning in right now.

I didn’t even know your credit score would be different depending on which one you got your credit score from. According to their FreeScore commercial, all three scores are important because it only takes a bad result from one of them to hurt you financially. So if you had a 793 and a 801, it might give you a false sense of confidence if you saw one of those and then your third score was a 590, ultimately hurting you if you needed to take out a loan or something.

FreeScore is an interesting service, and I’m definitely glad to see a service come out to help eliminate some of the confusion involved in credit scores and reports. Another perk of it is that you can check on it multiple times per year without it costing you a penny.

A vinyl trellis is the preferred choice if you are looking for climbing plants, as metal garden trellis can become very hot if exposed to sunlight. That heat will stunt the growth of the plant if it becomes excessive, however if the trellis is in a shady region it may not become a factor. I personally think the metal trellises usually look nicer, but both would make an excellent gift to anyone with a garden in the upcoming holidays.

Here are some visual examples of each type of trellis, in case you were wondering what they looked like:

The month of November was extremely dry in the area with barely any measurable precipitation being recorded.  According to AccuWeather, the area will be receiving rain this week.  In the mean time, efforts are going to be made to defuse the bomb.

Regarding employment, tax preparer jobs are on the rise since more and more people don’t want to be bothered to do their own taxes. They want to hire someone to take care of it for them and understandably so since it can be a lot of information to learn. With the deadlines associated with taxes, people need someone reliable to handle their taxes in a timely manner; someone they can count on. People and businesses are willing to pay a lot of money to make sure their taxes are completed properly. ]]> http://codeword.org/2011/11/a-great-job/feed/ 0 http://codeword.org/2011/11/new-aim-preview-is-lackluster/ http://codeword.org/2011/11/new-aim-preview-is-lackluster/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:48:05 +0000 Matt http://codeword.org/?p=1491 A few days ago the AIM team unveiled yet another lackluster AIM client, this time with features that leaves many people wondering if we’ll have any privacy left after AOL is done with us.  To go along with the new AIM client, AOL now logs all conversations anyone has with anyone else by default.  The logging occurs regardless if you’re using the new client or not, but in order to view the logs you must be on the new client.  AOL is known for their issues with security (their lack of it), so this means if you get hacked not only will the person be able to read your emails, they’ll also be able to see every conversation you’ve had since October 30, 2011.

To some people this may not be a big deal, but it really is.  You wouldn’t want your phone company recording every call you made or received, would you?  People use instant messages to send and receive confidential information, and now it’s only a matter of time before this feature causes information that should be private to be leaked.  IM encryption would be a solution if everyone used it, but it proves useless if only one party has it running.

The worst part about all of this is that AOL has not told everyone that their private conversations are being recorded.  It makes me wonder if there will end up being some legal ramifications once people figure out what AOL is doing.  The best case scenario will probably feature even more customers driven off the service due to privacy concerns.

On a final (and not so bad) note, along with the new client, AOL is also adding aim profiles.  They are using a separate screen name database, so you can register www.aim.com/screenname even if your screen name is jayt2352 (assuming screenname is available).  Right now a lot of usernames are, and unless the glaring security issues are fixed within the new client, I doubt many people will even bother registering for it.

The laptop I bought was a Dell, and the specs on the laptop were fairly high end for it’s time.  The specs, while maybe important back then, probably are irrelevant now since most laptops these days come with more than enough for what I’d use my laptop for.  That’s not to say I would ignore the size of the hard drive or amount of RAM, but as long as you have something decent, there are more important things to be researching into.

Battery life ended up being a huge deal for me with my laptop, as I could get maybe 60 minutes of active use out of it before it was dead.  If I was going to purchase a Toshiba laptop, I would definitely look at what the best Toshiba Laptop Batteries were available for the laptop.  I would definitely want several hours of battery life at the least, but as technology improves I could see battery life hitting 1-2 days at some point as the norm.

Weight is the other important issue that I found.  My laptop was pretty heavy, and that made it a pain in the ass to carry around.  I got a 17″ monitor so I could play games on my old laptop, but it just made it unnecessarily heavy.  I couldn’t really game on it due to the limited battery life unless I had it plugged in.  If I did have it plugged in, I’d be in my room and my desktop would be a better choice for gaming anyway.

The display was another major issue with my laptop.  It was often difficult to make out the picture, especially while outside where there was often a lot of sun glare.  It is important that if you’re investing the money in a laptop that you’ll be able to see it without straining your eyes.

Those are pretty much the important things to consider when purchasing a laptop.  I’d have problems with my laptop becoming uncomfortably hot on my lap as well, but I don’t really think that heat is something that can be fixed as it just comes with the territory.

With a ReacTable, you have these programmable boxes that can be put on the table to deliver specific sounds. By turning the boxes or the little spheres around them on the table, the sound can be manipulated by the DJ.

From the uploader:

Submixpro studio is proud to host Italy’s first and so far unique installation of Reactable. We are happy to contribute to the future of electronic music by sharing our videos, experiments and techniques with all enthusiasts out there.

SubMixPro offers 7 reharsal room where bands can play, a recording studio and a ‘reactable zone’ where people can familiarize with the such amazing innovation. This video is played by Robbo, SubMixPros’ art director and electronic musician. We hope you enjoy it!

..AURORA BOREALIS VISIBLE ACROSS MIDSOUTH…

NUMEROUS REPORTS OF A RED GLOW IN THE NORTHERN SKY ACROSS THE
MIDSOUTH REGION HAVE BEEN REPORTED. THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ARE
CURRENTLY BEING SEEN IN MULTIPLE STATES ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST
INCLUDING NORTHERN ARKANSAS…NORTHERN MISSISSIPPI…TENNESSEE
…AND EASTWARD INTO NORTH CAROLINA.

THIS AURORA IS BEING CAUSED BY A MASSIVE BURST OF SOLAR WINDS
AIMED TOWARD THE EASTERN UNITED STATES.

The following were some photographs taken courtesy of various observers on the internet:

If you are unfamiliar with the Northern Lights, it’s a natural light display that normally occurs in higher latitudes (such as the Arctic/Antarctic).  For more on Auroras click here.

We have Direct TV, which we found through directstartv.com. The thing that I love about watching TV is that we no longer have to be in front of the TV at the time of the actual show. We have our TV record our favorite shows, and we go back to watch them later. With young children, we are constantly running to practices and recitals. We have school functions and church functions all the time. It is nice to be able to lay in bed with my husband and watch a show that we both enjoy after the kids are asleep. I often watch my favorite shows after the kids are in bed or on Sunday afternoons. Sunday afternoons at our house are extremely relaxing. We have designated Sunday as a day to spend with family, and we will often go to lunch as a family. We intentionally do not plan trips or work-related appointments for Sunday because my husband and I have decided to make Sunday a day of rest and recovery with our children. As crazy as the weeks usually are, we need a day to recover.

So what do I do?  DSL is available in my area s o I’ve been thinking about that, but I’m not about to switch to dial up.  Then there’s  FIOS which is available a few blocks away from me but not at my apartment building itself.  Switching internet service providers isn’t really a great idea as I simply just want the issue at hand fixed, but what else can I do?  I’ve tried contacting Comcast a half dozen times in the past month to try and get the issue fixed, and after clearing my browser cookies and having my internet shut off countless times, the issue was fixed for a good day before occurring again.

It seems like good internet service providers are hard to find these days.  That’s why I have my eye on Copper.net.  Their DSL may be available in my area and they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.  If Comcast doesn’t get their act together soon, it may be time to try something better.

I suspect that the tradition is being carried on because of the economic boost that comes along with it, as pumpkins and chocolate candy sales probably spike considerably in mid to late October.  But if that was the case, why is it necessary to then add an evil connotation to the Holiday?  When I trick-or-treated as a child, I wasn’t doing it because I liked being evil; I simply wanted candy.  To get that candy, I had to participate in something that essentially celebrated death and despair.  It almost feels like an elaborate brainwashing technique used on children that I might actually believe if there was a motive or a person/group that would benefit from instilling negative values into our kids.

Maybe it’s just fun for some people much like the fear people find fun on a rollercoaster.  Maybe it’s just an excuse to buy certain products or even bring people together.  To me, the entire thing just seems pointless though since I don’t agree with celebrating things that are otherwise considered bad.

From the Creator:

http://thejuicemedia.com Rap News, with Robert Foster. Episode 6 of the Investigative Rap Journalism has dropped: December 2010 and Cablegate has burst open. With a steady trickle of Diplomatic communiques leaking out every single day, the Book of Revelations is expanding dramatically. In all the hubbub, the global community is forced to ask questions of its leaders. Will the world ever be the same again? Join your affable host Robert Foster, as he executes a rhyme inquisition on some of the key players in the Wiki-saga. It’s diplomatic Rhym-aggedon…

The level cap is being increased to 90 and many mechanics of the game are getting a well needed overhaul. The developers are hoping to revitalize the game and make it more dynamic, both of which were things not really present in the latest expansion, Cataclysm.

The Pandaren will be the new race of the expansion and can join either faction, which is something Blizzard has never tinkered with before.

Expansions are an opportunity to make the game feel “new” to the players and I’m hoping that Blizzard can achieve this without breaking it in the process. For now all we can do is wait and read until some sort of Beta comes out.

A number of people to tell the truth choose regular soft toe natural leather footwear for instance the classic Blundstones five-hundred boots which actually do not deliver the steel toe cap shield the Blundstone’s career footwear carry run of the mill.

Not sure just what Blundstone boots are right for you? There are a variety of variables to bear in mind when purchasing boots and thus seeing as Blundstone provides a real wide variety of footwear products. They put together numerous outdoor labor shoes to gum-boots which happen to be perfect for damp climates. Whatever ones own preference, you will find a good deal of Blundstone boots available for that reason obtain some information, view their particular collection, read through a bit of customer reviews, try any of them on, plus try whatever else you will need to find the best Blundstone’s shoes for your own irreplaceable feet.

I never finished high school, but I ended up getting my GED and eventually enrolled in my local community college. What I found was that most of my professors at my school knew their stuff very well. The only real problem with the curriculum there is that they had no budget to work with, so any learning was restricted to what we could get out of books or on the computer. There was never a lack of knowledge from the Professors, and with the help of government financial aid at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/, it didn’t cost me a penny either.

I can’t speak for everyone but while I was in high school what I really needed wasn’t the lies emphasizing the importance of getting into the best college. All that ended up doing was create stress in trying to achieve perfect grades. What they should have been talking to us about was majors. Knowing what you want to major in is such a hard decision to come to, considering many people have multiple interests and certain fields will yield more job opportunities than others. Furthermore, the emphasis on Ivy League schools tends to make people feel like they are failing if they don’t make it into one and instead have to settle for Online Universities.

The fact is, it doesn’t always matter where you go to school, it just matters that you went and finished. Plus, what happens when someone undecided on a major ends up getting into an Ivy League school to pursue a specific major, but has a change of heart after their freshman year? Not all schools have a wide selection to pick from, and their only option might be continue down the wrong path at their current school or drop out entirely. You likely wouldn’t have that problem if you were taking classes online as it would be simply a matter of looking for online degree programs in computer engineering or some other discipline.

If you need a fine pair of leather shoes exactly like those defined above, inspect some Blundstone five-hundred boots which are known as the first Blundstone footwear. Blundstone’s boots come in men’s, ladies, plus children shapes and sizes thus getting some for any family member is not an issue. Just make sure to apply the Blundstone boots size diagram to determine ones appropriate size. See you at the top of the mountain my fantastic buddies.

Until recently, I had never done it before, but I was in desperate need for new shoes so I decided to give it a go. I went with the same brand I had before (and had used for almost a decade!); ASICS, and went with a slightly larger (.5 to be exact) size, because a shoe that was a little too big made more sense to me than one that was too small. Turns out my feet had actually grown a bit and when the shoes I picked out arrived, they fit perfectly. I was so happy with the results I decided to try more online shopping.

My next task was to find some affordable t-shirts and shorts. As it would turn out, it’s much more difficult to find clothes that are comfortable and fit well when dealing with mens clothing. My plan was to buy one t-shirt and one pair of shorts until I found one of each that I was happy with. Then I would buy multiple different colors of the item and throw away my old, worn out clothes.

I got lucky with my first pair of shorts. Though they were slightly too big, I could deal with it by tightening the waist strap. They were comfortable otherwise. My first t-shirt was huge though – way bigger than I wanted/needed it to be (and I’m a big guy). It ended up shrinking some after the first trip through the washing machine so I’ll still wear it now and then, but it’s still too big for me.
My second t-shirt fit me perfectly but was uncomfortable. It was a very cheap t-shirt (about $8) and I didn’t really care much for the fabric it used. I had also purchased a cheap pair of shorts that ended up being almost identical to the first pair, with the only apparent differences being the design of the waist strap and the price (about 20% of the cost).

I’m starting to see what online clothes shopping is all about: inconsistency in quality and price. I don’t think these are reasons not to do it however, as it just seems to be a very big guess and check game until you find what you need. I also doubt quality will be much of concern when purchasing more expensive types of clothes, such as business suits and other formal outfits.

I can’t understand why no one would help her. How can you just walk by and not help someone who is hurt like that, let alone a 2 year old girl? The fact that so many people ignored the little girl in distress leads me to believe that China’s society as a whole is evil.

The girl was eventually saved by a Garbage collector, though she is currently in a coma in the hospital. Doctors do not expect her to live.

The fundamental flaw of the movie is that it tries to be too much: a superhero parody and a true superhero story; a story of a man’s unconditional love for his wife; a comedy (though there are clearly two different types of comedy in this story); and last but not least, a story of a man’s mental illness and his struggle to be a good person despite the challenges he’s faced in life. The result is a story with an unclear direction. Where you start off in the beginning isn’t even remotely close to where you arrive at in the end.

The first half of the movie is almost painful to watch. What you have here is not much more than a superhero parody mixed in with some immature humor. In retrospect, I suppose it sets everything up adequately, but I did consider turning the movie off more than once in the first 30 minutes. Half way into the movie, Libby (Boltie) is introduced and everything begins changing for the better. She’s funny, awkward, and just watching her unanticipated comments triggered my first laughs of the night.

I think what the most unexpected surprise was in the movie was both the intelligent comedy and the believable relationship that developed between the Crimson Bolt (the superhero in the story) and Boltie, who is his sidekick. The latter succeeds in making me care for the duo, and that seems to be something a lot of movies fail at, regardless of genre. This happens when two characters are introduced and the audience is just expected to believe the characters have feelings for another without it actually being proven on screen in a believable context. Here, I begin to care about what happens to the two and when tragedy strikes, I feel terrible and sad at the same time – and emotions are a great thing!

After the said tragedy strikes, a lot of blood gets shed. This also ends up being a tremendous asset to the story. It makes me wonder what would happen if we took someone as good as Batman, gave him the ability to kill people, and put him in our world as a hero. If what I saw in the final action scene of Super was any indication of that, I believe it would be incredible to watch, and I can only hope that the directors/producers of the future superhero movies realize that GUESS WHAT, it’s OKAY to kill people!

Had Super not tried to be so many things, I strongly believe it would have received much more attention. The way the story progresses isn’t necessarily unbelievable, but the dramatic change in the tone makes me feel like the director of the movie wasn’t really sure where he wanted to go in the beginning. It doesn’t break any “rules” per-se, but any expectations one might develop during the first half of the movie (while the Crimson Bolt is being portrayed as a superhero parody), can pretty much be disregarded towards the end.

Trailer:

Haha, I remember the first time I saw my mom’s cellphone in the 90′s – it was massive! Amazing how things have changed since then. I wonder if at the time that commercial was created if anyone would have believed they would become a known cause of cancer…

Renting has it’s perks, and generally the biggest perk is assurance that [if you have a good landlord] any issues with your apartment such as appliances breaking, are usually handled by a maintenance team.  Refrigerator stop working?  No problem, maintenance team comes by and replaces it.  Some places will even offer extra amenities such as a business center, swimming pool, and a gym.  While these are nice perks, I’m not so sure it justifies the large amount of money being thrown away.

When you buy a house, you have to come up with the money for a downpayment.  After that, there are monthly payments you’ll make much like you would make if renting.  You’ll be responsible for anything that breaks, but things don’t usually break all the time at least for me.  Even if something does break, when averaged out over a long period of time, the amount of money you’re actually spending on repairs will be far less than the money you’d be giving away paying rent.  I don’t consider a monthly payment on a house you’re buying to be “spending” so much as investing, because once the house is paid off you own something that’s worth a lot and could theoretically sell it for a large amount.  When renting, when will  you ever be able to do that?

There are perks to owning too.  It will vary depending on where you live, but at least in my current apartment they do not allow decorative additions to your house such as window boxes.  These hang on the wall of your window, and are a beautiful addition to any home.  Window flower boxes can be a beautiful addition to any home or apartment, but sadly they are not always allowed.

My stance on the matter isn’t based on the perks of renting or owning.  I firmly believe that renting any residence is a waste of money and that in itself makes me wish that my family had been making payments on a house for the past 20 years rather than settling for an apartment.  There are other things to consider such as taxes, but I am confident that if a house is viewed as an investment and not an expense, the amount of money that would actually be “thrown away” on taxes and repairs would be much, much less.

Broad feet, full volume, higher instep, is that often the manner in which orthopedic doctors describe your trusty feet? In this case Blundstone shoes or boots will be for you. Enable our staff at www.sugarriveroutfitters.com take you step-by-step through that fit procedure. We realize broad feet. In reality we have now a couple of suppliers, each individual one having a specialized style and design which is intended for feet exactly like yours. Australians have wide feet, so it is not really random that their brands happen to be headquartered in Australia. The two of them feature thick hides, pull on and kick off flexible sides and sturdy urethane soles.

Blundstone’s 200 Boots – This kind of boot in considered the broadest of the Blundstone group. Try to think EE, thick foot possessing a higher mid-foot ( arch ). Currently the boot, just like all Blundstone designs, includes an one-piece leather-based upper, having said that this particular look is without question primarily based entirely on a wide model. You certainly will really feel Blundstone created these shoes and boots exclusively for you.

Rossi Style 900 Boots—The boot is without a doubt in fact broader. Yes this works with that EEE foot. Obviously they’ve got the very same Aussie superior quality however these actually are super broad

Your search is over. We’ve found the actual boots for you. We realize you’ll have a tough time obtaining a quality fit. Because our company select Blundstone shoes and boots from one particular manufacturing plant inside of 40 foot container loads, we can easily sell each of these brands with all measurements. Contact us by calling right away, you will be happy you did.

Our dog wasn’t the only one who’d be wet and muddy when we’d get into the car as all of us usually had some form of dirt on our feet.  Fortunately, our car had floor mats to protect the carpeting from most of the stains.  They weren’t specialized mats so there were small marks here and there, but I think they did a satisfactory job considering the beating they went through over the years.

When we get our next car, I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it looking new.  The problem with stains is that no matter how small they are, once they are there they’re staying there unless you get some radical cleaning or carpet replacement done.  I haven’t looked into the prices for that, but I’m sure it is an expensive process, not to mention a huge hassle.

Sugar River Outfitter’s attention to detail definitely is unparalleled. As I have learned, at the company’s expenses, these people ship complete with each and every Blundstone delivery a supplementary pair of shoe inserts in addition to a test packet of Nikwax. The reason? Simply because you end up being in the position to fine tune the very fit and also take good care of those footwear. It’s an crucial step. A well educated customer translates into a happy customer. SRO has many seriously happy customers. You should join their particular family of very pleased clientele. You will be glad that you took personal advice.

Similar to a number of the Blunnies available, the very Blundstone 550s work with direct injection molding techniques. In addition, the actual Blundstone 550′s possess thermoplastic polyurethane soles having superior tread designs. A full Cambrelle footbed truly does a wonderful job regarding keeping feet dry and fresh simply by soaking up the sweat. These marvelous BL550 boots are ideal for helping to keep your toes dry and fresh, thoroughly protected, and intensely cozy for long amounts of time inspite of the circumstances.

Searching for a pair of Blundstone shoes or boots to rule them all then you need to go for a set of Blundstone 550 boots onto those irreplaceable feet once humanly possible. Remember when acquiring Blundstones to constantly make certain you are purchasing the proper sizing via referring with the particular Blundstone sizing chart in order to properly translate from Aussie footwear measurements. I hope to encounter you on all of the trails also for now, take good care of yourself.

Even though this could be fake, I’m guessing it’s probably real considering how stupid people are with their stupid social networking websites. Congrats to this winner for getting herself fired .

I’ve been putting off transferring for two reasons; cost and hassle. Cost is slowly becoming a non-issue, but the hassle of moving from where I’m at to some place I’m unfamiliar with is constantly there. For that reason, I’ve been considering WaldenU.edu. Specifically, I’m interested in obtaining a B.S. in Computer Information Systems. I’m not dead set on that though as I have some interest in the physical sciences as well (Astronomy, Geology, Meteorology) – and after looking through Walden’s Walden University’s online degree programs, they didn’t seem to offer courses in those areas.

Nevertheless, I need to learn about Walden a bit more and make sure an online degree program is really what I’m after. There are advantages to taking classes in person and in the past I’ve found that I learn better when I attend classes, but that’s mainly because I get distracted while I’m on the computer by IMs, emails, etc.

Along with their line of work shoes, Blundstone of course tends to make soft toe leather shoes. As long as guys shoes go, “The Original” Blundstone footwear is one amongst my genuine best sets with regards to men’s natural leather footwear. They’re also available in a choice of women’s as well as children shapes and sizes. For elastic sided shoes which you’ll find easier to get in and out from, all these shoes happen to be surprisingly comfy in addition to well worth every last dollar you spend. If you decide to buy your own set of Blundstones, you need to know your individual sizing. I say this just because a great deal of folks who shop for a set of Blundstone boots on the net don’t know should they have a home in the United States, the particular shoe size is completely different and also you have to know how it converts. In order to find out exactly what size you’re seeking, examine the Blundstone measurements index chart to find out which measurements Blunnies tend to be right for you.

For those who have learned that Blundstone have sent a lot of their own operations elsewhere as a consequence of increased production expenses, sadly , what you have heard is valid. The good thing is, Blundstone does still design a good number of their unique pairs of shoes and boots around Australia within their Tasmanian factory.

The video got so much attention that the family (and the dogs) were even featured with the video on Good Morning America. The owner said that the reason Denver was so sad was because “when she wakes up in the morning, until she goes to bed, all she wants to do is please us and it was like she just disappointed us.”

As a parting gift, Good Morning America gave Denver a bag of cat treats for appearing on the show.

While I was replacing the satin pillowcases on my bed the other day, I started thinking about how nice it was to have a large, comfortable bed to rest on every night.  Sometimes its the little things we take for granted, and over the years I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a bed thats not comfortable for your back.  You see, before I moved to my current residence about four years ago, I had a different bed that was smaller and of much lower quality.  I guess it was okay while I was growing up, but I eventually grew out of it without ever replacing it.

Eventually I wasn’t a kid anymore but I was still sleeping in a bed made for kids.  I started experiencing lower back pain and lower back pain is unheard of for people in their 20s.  I always attributed it to being out of shape or sleeping in a drafty room, and though those factors might have been contributing, the main reason for the back pain was the aging mattresses.

All that changed when I moved to where I’m at now.  We left the old bed behind and my parents bought me a new bed; a bunch bigger queen size bed along with sheets, a comforter, pillowcases, and bed skirts.  I couldn’t believe the difference that resulted from sleeping on a bed that was larger and provided more support for my back.  Even the new sheets felt great to sleep in, and the mattress covers that came with it had a little bit of extra padding which made the mattress feel even softer.

My back pain slowly became non-existant and for the first time in years I started experiencing a good night sleep every night.  Four years later, the bed still provides great support, though I have replaced the bed skirt and sheets a couple times (just to give the room a different appearance).  It really is something I’ve started taking for granted, but after giving it some thought I really am thankful for the wonderful gift from my parents.  I hope they know how much it meant to me.

You really have to take these long range forecasts with a grain of salt, especially from a service like AccuWeather which has a history of busting big time on seasonal forecasts in the past.

Nevertheless, it’s one take on this upcoming winter which suggests a cold and snowy winter for much of the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast U.S., with warm and dry weather for much of the south.  It also suggests a stormy pattern for California, Oregon, and Washington, and snowy weather for much of the northern Rockies (you’d be stupid to not suggest this though).

These main reason why long range forecasts like this are released is because there’s a chance that the map will verify, giving the makers of the map bragging rights.  In reality however it’s just a guess, and anyone with the capability to make a map, regardless of their forecasting experience or meteorological knowledge, has a very similar chance of making a forecast verify so long as they took the climatology of each area into account.

I learned about the modification through the fine men and women at sugarriveroutfitters.com. I love using the services of these guys, they really get their act together. They spent the time in which to send all of their subscriber base concerning the alteration Exactly how can most people identify the particular main difference? For a start, they come in a different light blue box but most importantly, carved in the bottom of their tread is a production date clock. The latest shoes will present a far more current date. The particular Sugar River Outfitters dudes are aware of dates and definitely will solve your queries. Based on their particular email’s they have already separated their items, much of the latest from the old. Currently they are willing to sell only the new version. They will simply just own a few regarding the older original versions remaining and those are going to be distributed on a special offer, 1st come 1st serve, right up until they will be no more. So now that’s the thing i call superb service and honesty. I am sure a lot of websites could well be offering both old and also new for several months before the switch is finished. Not true for Sugar River Outfitters. Inform your colleagues so as to get on the web or even call up toll-free 1 888 310 1116. SRO just received an entire container load of the modern boots from Blundstone. My own word of advice, order Blundstone’s from Sugar River Outfitters. The particular services are terrific and also you know you will receive the most up-to-date inventory. The reason why, mainly because they will sell so many they begin to rotate their own inventory usually making certain you the best boots and in addition they support their customers. If you have problems they are really there in order to help. Hey there their computer systems my own family’s record going back several years. They are fully aware more about my personal footwear background than I do. You can trust these individuals. In case you are thinking Blundstone think about SRO. You might indeed be satisfied you used my personal suggestions.

One of which is if you’re doing something illegal; credit card fraud and other forms of identity theft are a good example of where someone might want to remain anonymous online.  Hacking is another example of something illegal that the police can have trouble with if the person doing the crime knows how to Hide an IP address.  On occasion, a hacker can break into a system, do a ton of damage, and get away with everything because they took the appropriate steps to prevent anyone from tracking them down.

There are reasons why regular, law abiding citizens should want to keep their anonymosity as well.  Protection against being hacked is one reason as your IP address points to your computer.  It’s usually not enough to know what a person’s IP address is to get into their computer, but some security issues in the past have allowed people to do so.  Denial of Service attacks are another reason why you want to keep your IP address private.  A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) occurs when someone remotely commands numerous infected computers to send requests to your IP address – so many simultaneously that you lose connection to the internet.

Hiding your IP address is as simple as using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) as a proxy so that any requests your computer makes goes through the VPN before reaching it’s destination.  While almost anything can be traced, using a proxy is a good way to increase your security while browsing the internet.

Taken from Canaan, WV:

Oct 01 700PM Currently light snow and 32F. Steady accumulating snow has been falling for past three hours. New snowfall 2.4 inches. Snowboard swept.

If you weren’t in the mountains then all you got was a cold rain.

I for one am extremely happy to get out of this hot and humid weather pattern we’ve been stuck in for a while, but this was quite a radical change.  Luckily after the storm system passes the weather will begin to moderate, with temperatures rising back up into the 60s again.

The reason why I suggest Canada Drug Center is that they have a lowest price guarantee for their medication.  I was looking at their website to buy lipitor (which is for weight loss) and if you can find an item identical to what’s posted on their website on one of their competitor’s, they will “beat” their price, charging you 10% less than their competitor’s.  With how much medication costs these days, getting the best bang for your buck is essential to anyone who has a tight budget.

If you were looking to buy actonel or some other specific product, it may be difficult to find a pharmacy with it, especially if you’re new to the area and don’t know where everything is.  This is yet another benefit to buying from Canada Drug Center.  Their website has a listing of several different strengths of this medication, meaning you won’t have any problem finding your prescribed dosage.

The convenience of shopping online for your drugs coupled with the lowest price guarantee makes Canada Drug Center the best way to get your medications.  There’s no need anymore to take time out of your day to make a trip up to a pharmacy, and if you’ve just moved to an unfamiliar area you might not want to be bothered to search for the right store either.

The 2011 fall variety of Blundstone boots recently arrived and also you know what ?, that traditional 500 got much better. How exactly does a traditional progress you may well ask. Actually the brand new boots have a nice brand new sole substance which in turn lasts for a longer period and is a whole lot more secure as compared to the former. Due to the fact our team with SRO buy our Blundstone shoes by the 40 ft container loads from the Blundstone facility, we’re free to prepare. In the event you choose the traditional by means of SRO you can obtain the popular heel material. Compared with different stores which can be sure to take months to distribute of the traditional variant that should definitely not be the truth with SRO.

If you feel the next footwear needs to be the memorable Australian Blundstone give us a call toll free at 1-888-310-1116 or simply check us out using the net located at www.sugarriveroutfitters.com Do this right this moment. You with thankful you did.

From what I’ve read, weight loss is one example of where I think cosmetic surgery may be acceptable, though it should be clear that I’m not talking about someone who weighs 120 pounds and desperately wants to achieve a 90 pound physique.  No, I’m thinking more about people who might weigh over 400 pounds and/or those struggling with an eating disorder.  Liposuction can help these people experience a life without obesity.  Additionally, according to MySurgeryMD, liposuction surgery can be used in specific “problem areas” where it may not be possible to achieve results simply through diet and exercise.  This gives it some value to those who may not be overweight, but are seeking a more proportionate body.

I think the most important thing about cosmetic surgery is that you’re doing a lot of research on the topic beforehand.  This holds true no matter what you’re doing to yourself.  For example, Breast Augmentation is something many women seek, yet many are often surprised when the results or side effects are not what they expected.  MySurgeryMD has in depth articles on the subject which can help you:

• Know what to consider before breast implant surgery
• Know whether or not you’re a good candidate for it
• Understand the different types of breast implants
• Know how to pick the right size for a breast implant
• Understand the risks and side effects
• Find out how to find a reputable surgeon

If you think you’re ready for cosmetic surgery, don’t just show up at a random plastic surgeon’s office and hand them your credit card.  It’s extremely important to read about what you’re doing to your body beforehand, and MySurgeryMD can tell you everything you need to know to help keep your procedure safe.  Similarly, doing some reading prior to making any decisions will increase the chances that the results you get are what you really want.

Take a look at the video showing what the scientists have been able to do so far:

It’s pretty blurry and inaccurate at the moment, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before sharper images can be resolved. I think it will be incredibly cool to see what’s going on while a person is dreaming, but at the same time I’m not sure if I would want people to be able to go through my head like a hacked computer either. What’s next, are they going to try and read our thoughts? Our desires?

I have a friend who lives in Calgary and loves it. The snowy climate often makes for picturesque views, from the parks to the urban cityscape. It can snow nine out of the twelve months in a year, with June, July, and August being the only snowless months. The winters are often brutally cold and but not terribly snowy however, with the greatest monthly average snowfall not exceeding 10″ in a month.

I was taking a look at some of the pictures my friend took of the area, and some of them paint a very cool picture of the city:

I thought they were quite good. Calgary is often compared to areas of Colorado in terms of appearance.

As I said the cost of living in Calgary seems to be much more affordable than in my area. Additionally, the city looks well maintained, unlike cities in the United States such as Detroit which have a trashy appearance.

Since Calgary is in Canada, there was the worry that it would be a different culture, but most of those fears were put to rest by internet reviewers that claim the city is fairly “americanized.” The same reviewers also claim that jobs are plentiful in the region, which is a huge plus especially with the economy being so poor right now.

When I initially read the article about this guy, I thought “what a dick – he deserved to get fired.” Then I watched the video and found it amusing. He mentions that when they’re out of normal coffee, they’ll give decaf instead, and in my brief experience in working with food I know that’s actually common practice. Consider that when you judge this guy for his lyrics.

He made a video response to this about being fired from Starbucks saying he was “disappointed,” but I’m not really sure why he’d be surprised. Places like Starbucks are all about customer image and they grade you on how friendly and helpful you act. Even though the video is funny, it reflects poorly on the company.

Nevertheless, losing a minimum wage job at Starbucks isn’t really something to cry over, and I bet this guy will have many opportunities in the future.

The full list of factors that determine the price you pay on auto insurance is as follows:

• Age – The older you are, the less you pay.  People under 25 years of age will pay the most
• Demographics – It matters how far you got in school.  The higher your education, the less you pay.  Marital status can also have an effect on the price you pay, as well as your profession.
• Geographical location – Where you live will play a role in what you pay.  This is because theft, collision rates, and even the weather vary from location to location.  If you’re in a high risk area, you will pay more.
• Mileage – If you drive a lot, you’re putting more strain on your vehicle and will need to repair it more often.  Therefore, the more you drive the higher your insurance rates will be.
• Type of Vehicle – This is important, as a more expensive vehicle will have significantly higher insurance rates to go along with it.
• Credit Rating – If you have a good credit score, insurers will see you as a more responsible person.   Therefore, if your credit score is good, you will pay less on insurance.
• Insurance Company – Where you get insurance from will obviously make a difference in how much you pay.  This is why it’s important to keep shopping around to find the best rates.
• Number of Drivers – The more people who drive your vehicle, the more you’ll pay.

There are other factors to take into consideration, but this covers most of them.  Keep it all in mind, especially if you’re looking to change your insurance provider or are looking for something to go along with your first car.

In the apartment buildings I live in, we have a fitness center located across the street (an amenity of the complex, not separate), as well as a business center.  When we moved in, we were given a card that would give us access to both places, but I was stupid and lost it right after we moved in.

Four years later, I finally decided it’d been long enough and made a few trips down to the office to get a replacement.  And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I get the replacement, the office decides it is time to renovate the building over there.

The renovation is only supposed to last one month but I’ve been wanting to start exercising more often and I just find it weird that they’d decide to renovate at the exact same time I finally get access again.  I’m hoping it doesn’t take longer than expected so I can work towards that Beach Body everyone shoots for once winter is over.

I feel weird saying that because this summer hasn’t even come to an end technically, but the truth is weight loss is a very slow process.  Unless I decided to try an Extreme Body Workout, it might take all fall and winter to lose weight the conventional way.  That’s okay with me though because I am willing to adopt a healthier routine for my life in general.  Though I have to admit, it is very tempting to try getting quick results with a 90 Day Review.  I’m just not sure if something as intense as P90X is exactly what I’m looking for, but perhaps I’ll change my mind in the next month.

In this however, a puzzling decision was made to make a $248 billion cut to Medicare and $72 billion to Medicaid.  Reasoning aside, this is going to make it more difficult for people who depend on things like medicare part d to cover expensive prescription drug bills – which is something many elderly people rely on.  From what I’ve read, the cuts won’t come from an increase in the eligibility age, but by some other means.  I wonder why they couldn’t be direct and say exactly how?

Many people don’t like Medicare for numerous reasons; one of which being the eligibility age which I guess is why they addressed that issue.  Just take a look at this chart from 2007:

I support anything that will increase the health and lifespan of the population, and while I support tax increases for the rich (by elimination of the loopholes), I’m not so sure I agree with the whole Medicare thing.  It may have problems of it’s own, but that’s a separate issue and tax cuts in this area will only make things worse.

So how do spammers get our email addresses in the first place?

There are numerous ways ranging from security breaches within websites you may have signed up for (and provided an alternate email address), to a simple computer generated list.  Many spammers “harvest” email addresses that are posted on public facing websites, and some will hack your friends and find your email address from their contacts list.

It seems the only way to not get spam is to not have an email address at all.  I suppose if you were really careful, you could create a very random username on an unpopular service, and only provide the email address as a method of contact to trusted, intelligent people.  But it only takes one mistake for your email address to become added to a spammer’s list, which is why preventative measures for spam are futile.

The best course of action is to use a service that has reliable spam filtering, such as GMail, or install some effective anti spam software to filter out the messages you receive through Outlook or what other email client you may use.

Production Quality – The argument here is that much like WoW, Guild Wars 2 looks polished.  Production quality includes the UI, controls, graphics, and gameplay – they “feel right.”

I will wholeheartedly agree that in order to “beat” World of Warcraft, it’s replacement needs to have a high level of production quality.  If a game is done correctly, the user interface will be functional and easy to use, while at the same time configurable to be highly versatile.  It can’t be clunky or confusing or the player will be turned off from the game.  Controls are the same way – they have to “work.”  Graphics are not important in a realism sense, but they do need to flow and not look broken (ie. glitched textures).  Gameplay is the most important of these however, as the player should have control over the situation they are in, and the decisions they make should ultimately affect the outcome of their situation.  They shouldn’t just be a passenger along for the ride.

Music – Epic music draws the player in, makes them feel involved, and creates nostalgia.

Not much to respond to this with other than to disagree.  Most competitive players have their sound turned off so they can listen to their own music or talk on ventrilo or some other voice communication program.  The only thing music is good for is creating a good first impression, as it will ultimately become repetitive to listen to all the time while progressing through the game.

Content Scaling – Fantastic players should have the ability to tackle hard content, while new players should have the ability to do easy content if they so desire.

I’m on the fence with this one.  I guess I don’t see it as being imperative to a game’s success, as most games have content relative to the skill level of the player playing.  They might not be able to go back to the starting zones and play through them at the hardest level, but I guess it’s a feature that isn’t terribly important to me.

Dynamic Events – Quests can pop up at any time.  This keeps the game entertaining because you never know what to expect

Again, I’m not sure if something like this is essential for a successful game.  However, with this I suppose it would depend on how the random events were executed and if they were involved.  Now that I’ve done all this work, do I feel like the experience has been rewarding?  That’s what I’d be asking myself.  It’s not really something I can form an opinion on until I’ve actually seen it in action.

Dynamic Combat – Dodging, blocking, using skills, positioning. No “automatic” abilities means players will have to think more about what they are choosing to do  in order to be successful.
This is a pet peeve of mine about most first person shooters; players have the ability to shoot multitudes of guns and other weapons, but have little ability to avoid these attacks other than to bunny hop or move erratically.  Unreal Tournament had the ability to “dodge” which was one of the underlying things that made the game successful because it gave the player the ability to control where they were more.  If they saw a projectile headed their way, they had the ability to avoid it by dodging in a certain direction.  And though Guild Wars 2 isn’t a FPS, I think the same concept would have made something like World of Warcraft a much better game, thus I believe it will be a major plus if Guild Wars 2 emphasizes it.

No Monthly Fees – self explanatory.

Clearly this is one of the reasons why a lot of people don’t play World of Warcraft.  Monthly fees can be overwhelming and dropping $15/month just to play a game just isn’t that appealing to everyone.  It wouldn’t be a deciding factor for me, but I think a free to play game may increase the player-base a bit.  My only concern is the same concern presented in the video; will free to play mean a reduction of quality in some way?  I hope not.

The rest of the video discusses some points that I don’t really feel are terribly important such as graphics (well yeah, it does matter if the game is pretty or not – that’s obvious), PvP, and support classes (which is a lot of information that won’t be verifiable until the game comes out).  Still, the game has the potential to be a WoW-killer and hopefully it succeeds in being one.  It’s 2011 and a game from late 2004 is still the king of MMOs – that needs to change.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the game (it may be concept art, but they’re largely accepted to be nearly one in the same):

Guild Wars 2

NWS Forecast

I’m pretty confident that I’m not alone in welcoming the cooler weather.  Ever since that tropical storm from the Gulf called “Lee” moved through, it’s been muggy and humid almost every single day – and that’s following a good 5-6 days of heavy rainfall.

For me, Fall is really the only time of the year I can enjoy temperatures in the 60s and 70s.  This is because of excessive pollen in the Spring which I am highly allergic to .  Fortunately, the next six months constitute my favorite parts of the year, meteorologically speaking.  Bring on the snow!

These two memorable lines are often used for marketing purposes by diamond merchants so that people are lured in to buy diamonds or some type of jewelry with diamonds in them.  But did you know the sparkling white mineral is the hardest known on Earth?  Hardness, as defined by geologists, is a mineral’s resistance to scratching.  Diamonds cannot be scratched or cut by anything [known] except other diamonds.  Many people who have a diamond ring on their finger don’t even know this incredible fact about the jewelry they are wearing.

Still, the dazzling appearance is what most people value the most about diamonds.  I guess it’s not too surprising either, considering what a loose diamond can end up looking like when cut by a professional:

Loose Diamond

Choosing a diamond for a loved one can be an overwhelming process.  It’s important to know the size (in carats), shape, color, and cut that the recepient will want before making the purchase.  Obviously in some cases that information will not be something you can ask ahead of time (especially if you want it to be a surprise), but in these situations jewelers can help you find a great looking generic diamond that would be appreciated by anyone.  However, if you can find out what the necessary specifications of the diamond are beforehand, you should considering how much of a large investment it will end up being.  A diamond consultant will also be a great help to you regardless if you know what you want to buy or not.

Usually I’m not so direct in discussing a company or their products, but today I’m going to have to make an exception. I wanted to pass along a pretty crazy web hosting deal I came across. UltraWebHosting.com is having a special sale for their unlimited hosting package which comes with more features than I’ve ever seen with other hosting companies. Though there is more included in the package, the things that stand out for me are the:

• Free Domain Name (You need this if you’re starting up on the internet)
• Unlimited Hosting Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited E-mail Accounts
• Unlimited Websites
• Unlimited MySQL Databases
• Free WordPress Themes (Great if you’re a blogger)
• CPanel Access included

All of this comes at the rate of $2.95/month with no setup fees. If you’re just starting up on the internet for the first time, or you’re looking for a cheaper alternative with more features than your current web hosting company, you aren’t going to find a better deal on the internet. Even though I’m currently being hosted for free by a friend, I may go ahead and try these guys out.

Just goes to show the animal rights activists have something to fight for. Pigs are clearly intelligent animals, yet for some reason they are farmed for their meat. The same thing could be done to dogs and cats, yet most people would be appalled at the idea of eating them. In reality, there isn’t much difference between the animals though.

This would be easily remedied if I stopped looking for tech jobs and started taking whatever I was physically capable of. For instance, I used to work at a local Safeway when I was 16. The job itself wasn’t that bad. They even had employee lockers located in the break room if we wanted to keep our belongings safe while we were on shift. We had to provide our own lock for the steel lockers, though sometimes I doubt anyone would have stolen anything even if we didn’t use a lock. The people that worked there were genuinely nice, and I eventually quit because I wanted to start working in my field of interest instead.

The closest I can get to achieving this is through opportunities online. The cool thing about online jobs is that you can do them from the comfort of your own and at your own pace. But if you want to kick things up a few notches and start working “full time,” it is very possible to make a competitive salary. All it takes is motivation.

I love watching bowling videos, especially the funny ones. Just watching this video makes me want to purchase some BCS National Championship Tickets. I’ve never been really into sports, but something about bowling has always been entertaining to me.

Surprisingly the same place that sells tickets to this event sells Jennifer Lopez Tickets as well (my best friend loves her). I’ve been thinking of taking my friend and a few others along to a show of some sort. I personally don’t like Jennifer Lopz though, so I’ve been looking for something a little bit more generic that everyone I take can appreciate. I thought about Boston Celtics Tickets, but not everyone I know is a basketball fan (bowling is really the only sport I enjoy). I was going to settle for Jersey Boys Tickets when I saw a video of Cirque Du Soleil on YouTube. Check it out:

It looks like a lot of fun and isn’t really a specific genre of entertainment, so I think everyone I buy Cirque Du Soleil Tickets for will have a good time. I’m excited and can’t wait to see it live.

Washington National Cathedral crane

I am uncertain if I would categorize this as a fail because other than that one vehicle, there was very little damage.  In fact it appears as if the crane fell over at almost the best way possible.  Nevertheless it is an amazing picture.

As good as Breaking Bad is, I’ve been questioning from the start why anyone would want to glorify methamphetamine production (which is what the story is based around).  If you are not familiar with meth, the addictive component of the drug is widely regarded as being worse than heroin addiction.  Consider that the heroin detox programs are often very painful for users going through withdrawal.  Drug rehabilitation programs have some, albeit limited success in helping users who are addicted to meth.  To keep it short, meth ruins lives.

Yet despite this, the story is successful in drawing in a massive audience to tune in every Sunday.  Through clever editing and storytelling, the audience is tricked into rooting for the very people who produce this dangerous drug.  In real life, when would you ever hope an illegal drug manufacturer or drug dealer got away with what they were doing?

I don’t watch TV so I can’t confirm or deny this, the comments would imply that the man and his bird appeared on America’s Got Talent, but the performance didn’t go too well due to the noise and flashing lights coming from the large crowd. I guess the bird got nervous being put in such an environment (and rightfully so).

Nevertheless it is incredible. I didn’t know a bird could do some of those things!

Take a look:

Because it is widescreen monitor, I have much more space to work with on my desktop than my previous one.  There was only really one downside to the larger size, that being the larger native resolution is something I am forced into using with the games I play.  My computer was top of the line in 2007, but running World of Warcraft with a 1900×1200 puts a lot of straight on my video card.  The game runs at 30 fps (frames per second) normally which is mediocre, but anytime some intense visuals occur, the frame rate can easily drop below 10 fps.

To fix this I was going to replace the video card, but after spending a half an hour looking for the socket wrenches to open up my computer (its tightly secured with a few metal screws), I realized that video card I had purchased was pretty much as good as I could get with my motherboard.  Running the game at a lower resolution isn’t an option either because the display is blurry or distorted in some way at the lower resolutions.  I’ve been considering purchasing a new computer, but I don’t really think it’s worth it to drop $1,000 on a new gaming computer just so that I could play a dying game.  Maybe if something better hits the market I would do it, but WoW just isn’t worth it in my opinion.

Perhaps the bigger concern (that also happens to be something you can plan in advance for) is flooding. Any slow moving tropical system, no matter how strong the winds are, has the potential to drop massive amounts of rain in the areas it affects. Additionally, there’s little you can do to prevent flooding other than to set aside some money that can be used in emergencies when they arise later on down the road.

Flooding

To be adequately prepared however, money is not the only thing you need to have. You should have a list of companies picked out in advance to help repair the damage to your home. For instance, if you lived in Naples, FL, you might look for a company on Google by searching for “water damage naples.” Floodwater can do a tremendous amount of damage to your house if it reaches it. You should also look for tile cleaning companies in Naples if you have tiled floors, or carpet cleaning Naples if your floors are carpeted. I know a lot of people who live down there with carpeted basements, and basements are especially susceptible to flooding. More info can be found on the matter at http://www.tstrestoration.com.

In a hurry? Here is the Quick Review Summary:

Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 is a powerful piece of software enabling you to talk into a microphone and see your words transcribed on the screen. It has an extremely high built in accuracy which combined with a couple hours of training it to your voice will very often result in 99% or higher overall speech to text accuracy. The best price you can obtain this software for is available here:

You may want to read through the rest of the article to see which version is best for you. Or you can click here to Browse Dragon NaturallySpeaking Software

How does Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 compare with the free versions of talk to type programs provided by both Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7?

Both talk to type programs provided by Microsoft transcribed words faster. The problem is they aren’t as accurate as Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 can be mainly because of user profiles and the fact that it evaluates phrases at once before transcribing. If you’re doing any type of writing that involves a lot of words you will be able to write a lot faster with Dragon Naturally Speaking 11.

How much will I benefit from Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 talk to type?

How much you benefit from Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 will depend upon several things:

• How fast you type? The faster you type the less short-term results you have with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11. If you cannot touch type you will immediately benefit from the software especially if you’ve trained by reading for an hour or two. If you can already touch type you won’t benefit as much but you will be able to write faster very quickly. If you can type over 80 words per minute it may be a while before you see a great increase in speaking words over typing them.
• How clearly can you communciate your words? The clearer you talk and the less noise present the fewer mistakes you will see Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 make.
• How well your PC meets the Dragon computer system requirements? The more up to date your computer is the faster Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 will transcribe your words. This will also allow you to pause less as your constructing the next sentence.
• How willing are you to spend a little bit of time to work with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 so it adapts to your voice? You can see significant improvements in the accuracy of transcribed words in under an hour of reading to the software successfully.
• How much do you type articles, papers or any long passages of writing on the computer? The more you use the software to write instead of type the more value you will get out of it. For any student this is an excellent piece of software that allows you to complete your work much faster.

What are the computer system requirements for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11?

The minimum system requirements for both Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Home and Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 premium are the same as follows:

• CPU: minimum 1 GHz Intel® Pentium® or equivalent AMD processor or 1.66 GHz Intel® Atom® processor. We recommend 1.8 GHz Intel Dual Core or equivalent AMD processor. (IMPORTANT: SSE2 instruction set required)
• Processor Cache: minimum 512 KB. We recommend 2 MB.
• Free hard disk space: 2.5 GB (2.8 GB for localized non-English versions)
• Supported Operating Systems:
  • Microsoft Windows 7, SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 and SP2, 32-bit and 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and SP3, 32-bit only
  • Windows Server 2003 and 2008, SP1, SP2 and R2 SP1, 32-bit and 64-bit
• RAM: minimum 1 GB for Windows XP and Windows Vista, and 2 GB for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003/2008. We recommend 2 GB RAM for Windows XP and Windows Vista, and 4 GB for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003/2008 64-bit.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher (free download at www.microsoft.com)
• Creative® Labs Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card supporting 16-bit recording
• DVD-ROM drive required for installation
• Nuance-approved noise-canceling headset microphone (included in purchase). See details at support.nuance.com/compatibility/ (includes Bluetooth microphones, recorders, and Tablet PCs

Which version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 is right for me?

There are three main versions Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 to choose from. The first version is Dragon Naturallyspeaking 11 Home. The main limitation with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Home is that it does not support transcribed recordings. Some of the other limitations include: not working in Excel or PowerPoint, cannot import or export vocabularies or users thus effectively no backup of user training, does not play back your speech, have a smaller vocabulary so it’s not as accurate, cannot be upgraded whenever the next version arrives so in order to get the latest version you have to buy it again. The other two versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 are Premium and Premium Student edition. Essentially the main difference between these two software’s is the discounted price first students or academic people.

The Amazon.com prices of all three software is is cheaper than the price off nuance.com. By comparison Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 Home is $47.94 on Amazon and $99.99 on nuance.com. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium is $129.96 on Amazon and $199.99 on nuance.com. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 Student Edition is $79.99 on Amazon and $99.99 on nuance.com. As you can see there is a huge discount for the student version(was $17 more of a discount only a couple days ago). In order to qualify for the academic discount the following terms and conditions apply from nuance.com:

1. Full-time or part-time students enrolled seven accredited higher or further education institutions including public or private universities or college (including community, junior, scientific, technical or vocational college) that grants degrees requiring not less than the equivalent of two years of full-time study.
2. Students 13 years and older enrolled in accredited public or private primary, secondary, vocational or correspondence school providing full-time instruction.
3. For part-time faculty and staff employed by an accredited higher or further education institution, public or private primary secondary vocational or correspondence school providing full-time instruction.

Make sure you meet all of the following conditions as nuance terms specifically state that all sales are final. It may be possible to get a refund but don’t count on it.

Additionally, you can find sometimes find this software for cheaper on EBay sometimes. I would highly discourage this type of purchase as very often you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t understand that the versions aren’t the same or you will get a pirated copy that will stop working after you load it a few times. Amazon has the cheapest legitimate price.

How well does Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 work in actual testing?

I did some testing across to computers with very different specs. My laptop had the following specs:

Intel Pentium dual CPU T2330 @ 1.60 Ghz 979 Mhz
1 GB of RAM
Windows XP professional with SP3 32-bit

I found from this computer it was somewhat slow in processing talk to type sentences and phrases. Sometimes it would lag from 15 to 20 seconds or longer and I would be waiting to speak the next sentence. I did some testing and for the most part it would accurately display multiple sentences despite the lag time. Unfortunately, I don’t think many people would have this much patience to use the software in this way. Therefore I would recommend that your computer specifications would be slightly higher than the system requirements stated by nuance.com.

The other computer I did testing on had following specs:
Intel core I7 950 @ 3.07 Ghz 3.10 Ghz
3.50 GB of RAM
Tested on Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista & Windows 7

I found this computer was much faster in processing talk to type sentences and phrases. The results normally repair within a couple seconds of finishing a phrase or sentence. I feel the more you use the “improve my accuracy” tool the more accurate your results become. Although, I believe my accuracy was around 95% right out-of-the-box it was probably extended to between 98% and 99% for the duration of this article. From this computer with this operating system which is Microsoft XP professional I only did about 30 minutes of talk training.

In closing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 is an incredible piece of software that can enhance how fast you are able to write a variety of different things on the computer. If you want to purchase this software and you are a student I would recommend picking up a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium Student Edition. You’ll probably find it useful to transcribed audio at some point if you are using the software. If you are in a student and you do not need the audio transcription portion of the software then it might be in your best interest to pick up Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Home. This entire article was transcribed using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium so I would highly recommend it if you have the money to purchase it.

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Nevertheless, it’s something I am determined to do over the next couple of weeks and right now I’m trying to determine whether or not I want to stay with the same web hosting company or perhaps get a new one.  If I stay with the same company I’ll save a little bit of money, but from what I’ve been told about SEO, I might be better off using a different host.  I believe the reasoning for this is that websites linking to each other increase each other’s page rank more so if they are on different IP addresses than if they are on the same IP.  I’m no expert on the topic though so who knows.  Hosting is cheap enough now that it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a backup, anyway.

It remains to be seen what I end up doing with Stormy, but once I decide on something I’ll probably make another post about it when it goes live.

Something that happens a lot on instant messengers is a thing called “spimming.”  If it looks familiar it should, as it’s merely the combination of the word “spamming” and “im” (instant message).  As the name would imply, spimming is spamming via instant messages, which has been a growing problem especially over the recent months on AOL.  Newer versions of AOL and AIM have a feature to “report” spimming, which I’m assuming is what gave AOL the idea to do what they did that inevitably got them caught intercepting IMs.

Reporting an IM would send a transcript of the conversation you had to an AOL representative.  Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the part I’m claiming AOL can read customer IMs, as you will see as you read on.  AOL decided it would be a good idea to add a line of code into their AIM server software that monitored to see if a certain line of text was sent – a line of text deemed a “spammer line” – which if typed, the person would be automatically booted off the service and blocked from logging back on for an unknown amount of time (I’m assuming its 24 hr, but we’ll have to wait and see).

Spimmers have IMed me and it’s actually funny to respond to them sometimes because whoever is behind the scene has coded AI into their spimming program.  A long time ago I noticed that if you simply replied to their spam with the word “bot,” they would respond saying a random response.  One of these responses was “if i was a bot ..why would i be wearing this hat?? lolz.”  I thought it was funny and started tossing the sentence around chats and friends (even used it as a taunt in a first person shooter, lol).  I had also put it in my buddy info, to which one of my friends messaged me asking what it was in reference to.  When he pasted the line to me, he was instantly kicked offline and blocked from logging back in.  After signing on another screen name and trying again, the same thing happened.

It became apparent that this sentence was the culprit and because of it spreading through word of mouth, now people are using it as a DoS attack on their friends (for laughs), where they try to trick their victim into typing the sentence back to them.  Below is a picture of what you see on AIM 5.5 after being booted off the service:

AOL Error Message

While this response to spimming in itself isn’t a bad thing, the fact that AOL has the ability to read conversations between people without their knowledge has been demonstrated.  This means nothing you say to anyone on the service is “private.”  Do they store IM conversations?  I’m not sure, but if the functionality exists to tell what people are saying to one another, chances are it is being used.  This is extremely bothersome to me and I’m wondering to what extent their IM interception is actually being used for.

If I did have a bit more freedom in my household, I’d probably start preparing lunch and dinner meals for myself consisting of chicken, rice, and vegetables.  I’d have to invest in a spice rack because I enjoy eating when I do do it.  I want the food to taste good, so spices are a must.  Plus, kitchen spice racks are a nice addition to the kitchen that my parents probably wouldn’t mind.

We have limited space in our kitchen however, so I’m not sure exactly where I’d put it, but they do have a nice wall spice rack for people with small kitchens.  I’m also looking at spice racks that are wooden to match the design of our kitchen.  They have metal ones as well but I think the wooden ones look a bit more classy:

Kitchen Spice Rack

Anyway, hopefully I can convince my parents to stop yelling at me every time I set foot in the kitchen so I can start eating healthier.

I’ve written about sxephil’s channel before as it is very entertaining and rarely disappoints, but he’s created a new channel featuring all the videos he found and liked that day.  These can include just about anything, and they don’t necessarily have to be new or funny.  I think what I like most about the idea is that he’s going to indirectly help the people who uploaded the videos gain subscribers and not really “borrow” the content to support his own channel like other people *cough*rwj*cough*.  Anyway, it’s worth checking out.  If you like what he’s done, be sure to subscribe to StuffPhilLikes on YouTube.

The video below is the intro vid, just click on the banner at the top to start the “Playlist,” which is how the whole thing works.

My mom hates the idea of shopping online for three reasons:

1. Shipping costs money.
2. The risk of credit card information being stolen
3. You can’t see the item you’re buying until it arrives at your door

While it is true these things exist sometimes, most popular online stores offer free shipping now.  In fact, I was looking for rubber stamps the other day and even the speciality store I was at had free shipping.

Credit card fraud can be avoided by only shopping at trusted locations online. I guess the only reason credit card fraud is complicated since your security online depends largely on how safe you are as a person.  Do you use strong passwords?  Do you know how to detect phishing scams?  If you aren’t an idiot, credit card fraud isn’t something that will be a problem.

The third downside is really something I can’t dispute (especially with something like clothes), but in my experiences shopping online it has rarely been an issue.

There’s one other downside to shopping online, and that even with the fastest delivery you have to wait for your product.  If you use the free shipping that’s offered at most places, you will be waiting even longer.  I’m okay with waiting for my products though because they can often be found for lower prices than in stores, and I’m patient.  If I know I’ll need something ahead of time, then I can order it ahead of time.  Simple enough concept.

The benefits of shopping online are numerous.  As I just said, it’s usually easier to get a better price on a specific item online, but there’s a lot more.  You don’t have to leave the comfort of your home, for example!  A trip to a specific store might take an hour out of your day, but a couple minutes and a few clicks is usually sufficient to find the product online.  Comparison shopping is also much easier, so if you want to buy a rubber stamp, you could merely load two competitor websites up and compare features and prices.  Doing that in person would usually take a lot of time out of your day, and who has time for that now-a-days?

Not all executive business gifts make bad friendship gifts as well; laptops for example would be appreciated by all.  They are expensive though, and while I might drop a couple grand on a gift once in a while, it’s clearly way too much to get on a yearly basis.  The trick is finding technology that would be wanted and at the same time be a viable corporate gift idea.  For instance, an iPad is much less expensive yet would probably be just as useful to someone who’s always busy working, which my boss is.

I remember initially using a steel locker in 9th grade but in 10th grade I just carried all my books around with me. It’s been so long that I don’t even know what my reasoning was for that, but I think one of the problems with it was I’d have to make a stop at my locker after the last class of the day, and it made it difficult to catch the bus home in time. It’s funny how things like this stay in your mind even though they get a bit hazy, but I guess the color of the lockers metal was all over the place.

Then in gym class, even though we occasionally used lockers football players tended to use them more often since their clothes would get dirty faster. Unlike the ones we put our books in, the gym had small lockers for our clothes. This was actually kind of annoying because we’d have to leave our book bags sitting out while we were playing basketball or whatever. If we were playing inside we could bring our backpacks with us and set them on the aluminum bleachers next to the indoor courts. I didn’t really do that too often though since I’d usually tried to cram my stuff into the athletic lockers.

One of the other things that was memorable from back in my school days was that I’d constantly leave my jacket or some books in a previous classroom. Boy, I hated that! I’d have to go back to each of my classes one by one to try and find my stuff. Once in a while I’d completely lose something; not a fun experience whatsoever. I think most of the problems I had being absent minded was from being forced to get up so early everyday. Running on 3 to 6 hours of sleep got to be overwhelming at times. Still, it was a challenge that I enjoyed, and it would be fun to experience it again, even for a short while.

Though the storm hasn’t made landfall yet, it should over the next few hours so what you see in the video will only get worse.

As you can see from the radar image below, the eye is not too far away from the North Carolina coast:

The Eye of Hurricane Irene Approaching NC

The internet is filled with opportunities just waiting to be discovered, and such is the case with this ampm contest that was just recently announced.  The grand prize for the contest is a trip to Las Vegas, which is not something you see coming from ampm every day.

They also have a giveaway going on right now on their facebook page at facebook.com/ampm which features a digital slot machine flash game.  Make sure you visit their facebook page and click the “like” button.  I tried my luck on the flash game and actually won a Pepsi Max on my first attempt!  They’re going to be giving away 15,000 bottles of Pepsi Max and 10,000 corn dogs before all is said and done, so go play the game and get your free stuff while you can.

There are also several Apple prizes (iPods, iPads, etc.) that can be won through their Sweepstakes.  All you need to do is register and then win once at the slot machine game to be entered into the Sweepstakes.  It’s just Too Much Good Stuff to be coming from a convenience store!

It’s kind of funny because whenever I used to think about ampm, I wouldn’t really associate it with prizes and contests.  I haven’t been to an actual store in a while, but when I used to go there a lot it would be mainly late at night when everything else was closed.  It’s convenient to have a place open to buy food at night, especially when you’re hungry or just want a late night snack.  Their “Thirst Oasis” at my location had over twenty different fountain drinks with the option of crushed or cubed ice, and even a fresh condiment bar.

Anyway, I did take a screenshot of the game to show that I really did win a Pepsi Max which will be attached below.  Apparently all I need to do is print out the voucher at the end and I can exchange it for the Pepsi Max at the store like a coupon.

Hurricane Irene off Carolina Coast

Even with the slight weakening, the National Hurricane Center is expecting a large area from the Mid-Atlantic to New England to experience tropical storm force winds or greater.  Hurricane warnings have been issued up and down the coastline, and tropical storm warnings have been posted inland – which is definitely a rare sight.  Below is the expected winds from the system (red is hurricane force, blue and yellow are tropical storm force):

Hurricane Irene Forecast Winds

As you can see, hurricane force winds (sustained) are expected to impact the beaches from North Carolina to New York (including NYC).  Much of southern New England is at a high risk for these types of winds as well.  Because Irene is so large, sustained tropical storm force winds are expected as far west as Danville, VA, and Washington, DC.

It’s also a good idea to expect a prolonged power outage; when Hurricane Isabel rolled through the Mid-Atlantic in 2003, many were without power for a week or more, and Isabel had weakened to tropical storm status.  If for example you own a toshiba laptop, you have an opportunity to charge up your toshiba laptop battery before the storm hits.  This way if you need to get online during a power outage, you can still use your laptop to connect to the internet via 56k dial-up (assuming you have a modem).  I would even recommend keeping the laptop plugged in to the toshiba laptop adapter up until the onset of the storm at the very least, just so you can get a maximum battery life out of it.

One last tip I have is: if your area loses power for a long period of time, it’s unlikely your laptop’s battery will offer enough battery life to keep you online.  Just remember that power outages are often local, and if the power at your home is off, your family or friends a few blocks away may have theirs on.  You may even find your local library has a backup generator or something.  Take advantage of this truth and bring your laptop and a toshiba laptop ac adapter with you to one of those locations.  You’ll be able to recharge your battery back to full whenever it is necessary.

The 12z Euro would suggest a second landfall in New Jersey:

8/24/2011 12z Euro - Irene

Though many other models are predicting a track a bit further east.  Nevertheless, any location east of the Appalachains in the Mid-Atlantic and pretty much everyone in New England should be keeping a close eye on the storm.

Hurricane Irene Forecast Winds

The above map would suggest 75mph or greater winds in the red regions, with blue and yellow showing the tropical storm force winds (40mph+).  A westward shift in the track of the storm would result in a westward shift in the winds depicted in the map, and recent trends have been towards the west.

Without a doubt, the next few days leading up to the storm’s arrival will be very interesting.

The location of this video wasn’t terribly close to the epicenter and yet still has extensive roof damage. It demonstrates the importance of building codes and shows how structures designed without earthquakes in mind will fair when one actually does occur.

My favorite show, hands down, is Real Housewives of New Jersey. Ever since I got TVBYdirect.com satellite I’ve been watching BRAVO nonstop and that particular show is one of the best I’ve ever seen. The women on there are just so unbelievable and I can’t imagine having to deal with people like that in my daily life! I know the whole thing is set up to look more dramatic than it really is but I wish sometimes that they would tone it down only because I have to send my daughters out of the room when it’s on. I like all the other variations of the Housewives franchise, too, especially the Atlanta version since I live in GA but gosh, I don’t know how I would get by if I missed an episode of Jersey. I know one thing, that show makes me sure I never want to move to the suburbs of New Jersey, but don’t tell my husband I said that since he’s from there originally!

5.8 Earthquake in VA

Just a few minutes ago (around 1:50 PM EST), a powerful 5.8 earthquake struck central Virginia near Richmond.  Here in central Maryland it woke me up and my apartment started shaking pretty hard after a tame rumbling.  The whole thing lasted about a minute total.  The cool thing is I was talking to someone in NYC at the time who didn’t believe me that an earthquake was happening and then about one minute after it stopped here, it started there.  Pretty cool to accidentally measure the travel time of the quake like that.

Anyway, the epicenter of the quake was on top of a nuclear power plant in Virginia but no one important seems to be concerned about that so whatever.  Damage wise there wasn’t anything around here as far as  I know, but there are reports of some ceiling collapses in Annapolis, MD.  I’m a bit curious as to the damage where the epicenter was, because it was the shaking was powerful where I live, and I’m not even that close to the center.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Edit: Epicenter was on farmland, so there was nothing to be damaged in the area except corn.

If you do own a vehicle, make sure to have your car serviced a few days in advance of the forecasted storm.  To be safe you may want to put some money into an oil change or even have your tires inspected.  It should go without saying that a full tank of gas is probably a good idea as well.  If you make these preparations ahead of time, you’ll be in a much better position if the actual track of the hurricane is pointing toward you.

Pretty much anyone from Miami to Boston should be keeping a close eye on Irene in case it’s forecasted track changes.  A slight shift west or east could make a huge difference in where it’s actual landfall is.  If you don’t have a car but you have the money for one, use the internet to research the type of car in your area.  For instance, if you lived in south Florida and were interested in an Acura, you may be interested in http://www.westpalmbeachcarblog.com.  Many dealerships have blogs to help people find the right kind of car to suit their needs.

Getting a person something they truly need is going to show them that you put considerable thought into the gift, and didn’t make it a quick last minute decision.  I mentioned the baby blanket before because it’s almost always going to be something a person will use if they have a child.  Another good option is a front facing baby carrier.  I know if I was raising a baby for the first time, I’d gladly accept any aide in that department.  With the economy the way it is, raising a baby is a huge expense tacked on to strict budgets.  Still, it is very necessary to make your baby’s lifestyle comfortable regardless of any financial restrictions you may have.  That in turn makes baby related gifts for friends and family with newborns an extremely good choice.

Hurricane Irene Imagery

Forecasts are now indicating a strong chance of a Carolina landfall for Hurricane Irene over the next few days.  The storm, which formed recently over the Atlantic Ocean, was originally forecasted to max out at category 1 strength before making landfall in south Florida.  Since then however, a more northerly component to the storm is now being depicted on the models used to track the storm, giving Irene more time over the warm Atlantic ocean waters to strengthen.  It could be as strong as Category 3 (111-130 mph) when it makes landfall on either of the Carolina coasts.

Hurricane Irene Expected Landfall

Aside from the wind, another major issue with the storm is it’s movement speed.  Currently the models are expecting the storm to crawl up the east coast very slowly.  After the Carolina landfall, the storm center is expected to move through Richmond, VA, and then pass through Fredericksburg, VA, and Washington, DC.  If Irene is moving at a snail’s pace, these areas could experience a prolonged period of gusty winds and heavy rain.  The latter would be the more significant, as rainfall from a slow-moving hurricane can be tremendous.

One of the interesting things about this storm is that it’s still a few days away and a minor change in direction could have a major impact on where the storm ends up.  If the storm jogs a bit more to the east, it could end up making landfall as a hurricane in southern New England.  I guess it’s going to end up being one of those “wait and see” things.

To become a doctor can be one of the most rewarding experiences for a human being.  Not everyone who pursues a medical degree does it to become a doctor, however.  There are those who want to help others become doctors, and those people should consider looking into a teach the teacher course.  Others may be a little bit more interested in a medical management course to learn about the leadership qualities necessary to run a medical business.  Regardless of what medical teaching course one takes, the end result is an involvement in saving people’s lives, which is a worthwhile endeavor.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the potential benefits of Straight Talk and their appearance from a prospective buyer.  The idea that I could save money because of Straight Talk (it was almost half the price of their competitors) and not be on a contract was enough to make me give it a try.  After all, I have a lot of bills I need to catch up on and adding an expensive verizon plan on a 2 year contract isn’t really that appealing to me.

When browsing their phones I was happy to see that they were all brands that I know and trust.  Many prepaid phone services make their money by offering inexpensive service to draw people in and then sell their customers cheap phones that break and need to be replaced often.  Samsung was my brand of choice because I’ve had positive experiences with their products before, and I liked the design of the phone.  The one I got had a camera, mp3 player, and works very well for browsing the internet.  I liked the keyboard more than the touch screen because I’m so used to typing on a keyboard at home.  It has a certain “feel” to it that I’ve gotten acustom to, unlike touching glass.  Another feature I liked that I wasn’t actually looking for was the voice navigation, which is pretty neat to use when you are out driving around looking for a restaurant or business.  It also has a video recorded too, though I haven’t had much time to play around with that yet.

As for the plan I went with, unlimited was a no brainer.  I’m going to be browsing the internet on my phone almost anytime I’m using it so I couldn’t risk going over any data caps.  Really, the plans that Straight Talk offers have everything you need, so it wasn’t too hard to find the right one for me.  Some people need cell phones just to be able to call a friend when now and then, but people like me will be on the internet a lot sending and receiving emails.  There are even long distance packages at low rates available, and no hidden fees as far as I can tell anyway.

Now I’m looking into buying my mom a phone from Straight Talk.  I’m going to take her advice on what she’s looking for in a phone and then compare hers to mine to see which is better.  Though there are many positive stories about straight talk (such as the one below), I’ve learned that usually mom knows best when it comes to buying these types of products.  However, from what I’ve personally seen there really isn’t any going wrong when it comes to straight talk, as they have everything you could ask for, Hook, line and sinker.

Based on what I have read so far in my research, when switching around the foods you eat in your diet, it is important to maintain a special balance so that what you’re eating is healthier but still gives you enough energy to go about your day feeling good. You cannot go from eating burritos and burgers on a daily basis and then one day decide to eat nothing but salads. You will feel awful and chances are you will eventually go back to your unhealthy eating habits. Getting on an Herbalife Diet is one good way to tackle that problem, since diets are designed with this problem in mind.

I stumbled on Herbalife when I was researching diets on the internet. It seems simple, just a matter of finding a Herbalife Distributor in your area and then contacting them for more information on their products. This ends up being an extremely good thing because you can ask the distributor almost any question and get an answer. Many other resources for weight loss depend on their websites to answer questions, limiting you to the answers that they have already written on their webpage. Additionally, I had no issues finding Herbalife Distributors in my area, as there were over five of them within driving distance from my home.

I was admittedly a bit skeptical of rain chains at first as it seems like a strange thing to replace. But after browsing some videos on YouTube to see them on action such as the one below, my opinion changed. I think they look very classy, and very cool:

As with anything however, there are always tradeoffs to using rain chains. Because the water is not protected from the wind like it would be in a gutter downspout, whenever the wind blows the water will blow with it. Here’s an example:

It is not a huge deal in my opinion, but it is something to consider, especially if you plan on installing them near a walkway. If rain is streaming down the chains rain may blow off the chain and into you or your family if it happens to be breezy.

Memorable Quotes:
“This is the best part”
“Why?”
“It’s the ending.”

“After that terrible abomination she’s like, ‘oh well I guess I’ll write another one about how great I am and how much money I made, that’ll make me look good – right guys?’”

“Responding to the haters in a song – GOD She’s so stup – She doesn’t understand the world.”

“I think she should put out another song that doesn’t have anything to do with everyone hating on her.”

“She’s working with two retards, I don’t really know what to tell her. First she looks stupid, then she looks mean… Can’t she just find someone to make her look normal..?”

“Rebecca. You are famous for being terrible. If you continue making more videos, you’ll get more famous, but you’ll still be terrible.”

Ahhh.. Very entertaining. As you can see, these are not bullies as Rebecca makes people like them out to be, just normal people articulating their disgust for her “music.”

The only thing I have to comment on is that it could have been a LOT worse. I think five people died and one was paralyzed (more were injured), but if you see how densely populated the area is not too far from the stage where the audience is, had the winds blown the stage further it could have killed dozens more.

I personally love the color bronze and I think black and bronze address plaques look excellent in front of a well maintained house.  The cool thing about them is once you install something nice, you’ll want to keep it forever.  It preserves the memory of your home because it’s the thing you’ll always see whenever you are pulling up to your house, as if to say “welcome home!”  If you have a beautiful address plaque, when you move away it is unlikely that the new owners will replace it, and you’ll always have that something to return to and look at.

Address plaques aren’t the only objects that have this affect on homes.  Well placed and beautifully designed mailboxes and address posts are also great options to add to the front of a home.  It is really surprising to me that so many people don’t look into these things for their houses; mailboxes, address posts, and residential address plaques are all inexpensive investments one can make for their house.  It can be a lot of fun and can be very rewarding to spice up the appearance of your house.

One of the biggest issues one can encounter while gardening are unwanted weeds or other types of vegetation.  It is imperative when you are combating these weeds that you use safe weed killer products to eliminate the unwanted plants.  This is true for many reasons:

1. If you apply toxic chemicals to your garden, they can impact the food you are going to eat out of it
2. Using the wrong product to eliminate weeds may not have any affect at all -or-
3. Using the wrong product to eliminate weeds may simply stunt all growth in that area – including the plants you want to thrive.

The best thing you can do before applying anything to your garden is to read up on the products and methods of application as much as possible.  Believe it or not, there are actually homemade alternatives to eliminate weeds than what you can find in the store, and they are often safer and just as effective.

The city is more beautiful today than it ever was, but everything about it is different now. I lived in an apartment complex in heart of the city itself, and because of that I’m not allowed to go inside and visit the inside of that place anymore (security reasons). In fact, it’s not even an apartment complex anymore; from what I’ve read they are condos now.

As a child I did spend quite a bit of time at a basketball court just up the street that resided beside a school, but over the past few years the entire playground was demolished and rearranged so that construction could make the school larger. Leading up to the school there used to be an entire block of large trees and houses. I used to go trick or treating there when I was younger, but the entire block had been demolished to build the new playground for that school. Where the school got the funds to buy all of the houses on this block remains a mystery to me.

The main grocery store where I remember I used to go to two or three times a week for my mom was eventually closed. Across the street they tore down the pharmacy that was there and built a brand new grocery store building that’s very elegant in appearance (as elegant as a grocery store can be, anyway). The original building sat there empty for a couple years and eventually was demolished. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I returned a few months ago and in the place of the building was a massive high-rise apartment complex with shops on the first floor. The entire block doesn’t resemble anything from my childhood now.

Though none of these things I have talked about are terrible by any means, I still wish I could go back and revisit my old neighborhood. The truth is, it’s just not there anymore. Perhaps the only thing that hasn’t changed much over the years is the nearby residential area where my mom and I used to go for walks together. Driving down the same roads, I see the same familiar houses, with the same beautiful whitehall mailboxes in their yards. I don’t know what it is about mailbox posts, but they add a lot of character to the neighborhood. Some of the memorable address plaques in the neighborhood are always a good sight to see too.

I guess I am thankful that there’s still something to go back to, but I’ve come to realize that most of the memories of where I grew up will have to suffice in terms of any reminiscing.

Bethesda is a different place now.

Pt2:

Fortunately Dallas hasn’t been hit yet, and despite it’s location in Tornado Alley, it is one of the cities I’d consider moving to if I were to to head to the Midwest.  Tornadoes scare some people, but being enamored with Meteorology, I would love to get a glimpse at some true severe weather which I am often deprived of here in the Mid-Atlantic.  The truth is even though the possibility of an F5 tornado striking Dallas exists, the chance of that happening in my lifetime is extremely low.  Plus, Dallas gets it’s share of winter weather too, and I wouldn’t want to live somewhere that didn’t experience all four seasons.

Aside from the weather, there are two things that make Dallas Homes for Sale an interesting choice in location.  First, the cost of living is very low compared to most parts of the United States.  Utilities, groceries, mortgage payments, etc., are all significantly cheaper than most other areas in the United States.  And unlike many more “affordable” locations in the US, you do not sacrifice quality to obtain this with Dallas Real Estate.  The other benefit is that there is no state income tax, which is something anyone with a job can appreciate!

Anyway, the scumbags have been getting caught stealing and damaging property on camera, and the pics have gotten into the hands of some very talented photoshoppers.  Some of these are really funny, I’ve attached some of the best photoshopped images of the London Riots below.  The rest of them can be found at http://photoshoplooter.tumblr.com/.

Click on any of the images for a larger version:

It is just so so unfortunate that Rebecca Black is so bad!  I won’t deny that a specific audience may enjoy her material, but the bulk of her fame is a result of her being made fun of.  I do not see anyone arguing against that.  I loathe the fact that she’s making money off being bad because there are a lot artists out there who put out good material and don’t receive recognition.  It would be great if the audience she is representing could have someone to look up to, I just think someone else should step up to the plate.

I read an article about Rebecca Black being bullied in school which can be found here.  As a result, her mother pulled her out of school and now she’s being homeschooled as a result.  Even though bullying sucks, the alleged “bullying” that took place was actually just innocent teasing.  As I’ve already mentioned, her fame was a result of releasing a terrible auto-tuned song with bad lyrics, so what do you expect kids to do?  Apparently they were singing “Friday” in a nasally voice while around her and asking Rebecca what day it was every Friday.  Cry me a river already.

In closing, I’m going to leave a parody of Rebecca’s new song “My Moment.” It’s already gone viral so chances are you might have seen it already, but if not, enjoy the laughs you bully.

Many remote areas don’t even have access to high speed internet of any sort, leaving dial up as the only way to get online.  While obviously outdated, dial-up internet can also be useful in certain situations.  For instance, if you’re traveling and don’t have a constant wifi connection available for your laptop, you can plug your modem into a phone jack and get online with no problem.  It can also be nice to have as a backup in case your internet or power goes out (assuming you have a laptop).  This is especially important if you work online or take online courses.  Because I tend to push deadlines closely, a inconvenient power outage could have cost me a big chunk of my grade had it happened at the wrong time when I was in school.  Looking back, I wish I had invested in a backup internet source like dial up just in case something like that did happen.

Here’s an image of the one that caught my eye:

Vino temp also has various non-refrigeration wine storage such like their vinotemp wine cabinets for cellars.  I live in an apartment so this isn’t applicable to me, but some of them are beautiful.  If I lived in a house I would definitely invest in one, but for now the wine cooler for my kitchen will suffice.  Most people like their wine at around 55 degrees Fahrenheit but I prefer mine colder.  Also, from what I’ve read, the temperature fluctuations that occur when you open and close the refrigerator can deteriorate the quality of the wine.  That is a big reason why having a specific place for the wine is important to me.

The thing I liked about Walden is that their Enrollment Advisors stress that the cost of education is justified because it is “an investment in yourself.”  I also liked that their purpose is to help give people the tools needed to make a positive impact in the world.  I think a lot of universities lose sight of that, especially when students are pressured to pursue a higher education for the sole purpose of making more money.  While that’s always a plus, it shouldn’t be the driving factor behind your decisions.

While browsing Walden University’s online degree programs, I noticed they offer a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems, which is one path I was considering taking if I was to attend school again.  That coupled with the flexibility of online course schedule’s is what’s making me want to set aside some more time to learn about Walden.

September is when the cool days usually start rolling in, so if you want to avoid a doctor bill, it may be a good time to start checking the weather forecasts on a daily basis.  Sometimes the weather can be unpredictable, so in case you do get caught out in the cold you should make sure to find doctors in your area ahead of time.  That way, if you do get sick from some freak cold front, you don’t have to waste any time figuring out who you’re going to call about it.  If you are elderly and receive Medicare benefits, you may want to do some extra research online to find drs that accept humana insurance.

So when the cooler temperatures start coming in, remember the best protection against illness is prevention.  It will be very stressful if you get sick and don’t have a doctor to go to.

Yet somehow Emily has been a front page news story for some time now.  Even in it’s pathetic state right now, you can read about Emily on most of the News and Weather websites.  Why?  Because a few clouds from the storm may make it to the United States beaches.  Most people don’t understand how non-existent any threat from Emily is, so they keep up to date on the storm just to be safe.  What’s going to happen is people will stay apprised of the storm, and when nothing happens they’ll think they wasted their time.  Fastforward to the next tropical threat, and less people will bother to heed any warnings of the storm thinking that it’s just the media hyping again.

I’m very critical of any type of weather hype, maybe overly so, but there really isn’t any need for it.  Educate the public, don’t deceive them into thinking there’s a threat just to boost your ratings.

Tropical Storm Emily

Some classes I couldn’t get away with goofing off during class because I had to pay attention to the lectures to do well.  And while I couldn’t play something like World of Warcraft in the middle of trigonometry (ridiculously easy class), it wasn’t really a hindrance to load up some online games for a good chunk of class.  One of my favorite games was Pin Balls, a game where you try to match three balls of a certain color up to make them disappear before too many balls reach the end.  It’s difficult to explain but it’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re bored at school or work.  I have to admit though, it never really did negatively impact my grades, and it made those dreadfully long classes go by very fast.

If you are using a PC provided by your school or place of employment, you might be limited to gaming online, but if you have your own PC you can also download some cool ones as well.  Keep in mind it’s important to find a reputable website so that from so you don’t end up installing a virus or spyware of some sort.  Also, remember that if someone catches you fooling around on the job or in class, you’re probably going to get in trouble (I had a few close calls myself), so make sure that you are ready to alt+tab if someone is going to be walking behind you.

Many years ago, over 21,000 tons of chemical waste were dumped into the Love Canal by a company called  Hooker Chemical.  After the dump site was of no further use to the company, the company covered the chemicals with a layer of soil and grass and then sold it to the state of New York.  Along the dump site an entire town was built; many of the residents were unaware what lurked only a few feet below their homes.  Several years after purchasing their homes, the chemicals began to surface in their basements and backyards.  In one notable case, chemicals were appearing on the surface of an elementary school playground.  The deadly chemicals were causing cancer and birth defects to run rampant among the community.  Children that were playing outside would sometimes return home with burn marks on them as a result of exposure to the chemicals.

One winter, an excessive rainy spring combined with significant snow melt caused a lot of the chemicals to surface.  This brought considerable attention to the scenario when residents began seeing barrel-like chemical drums and strange smelling liquids in their backyard.  It soon received national attention, and the residents of Love Canal were eventually evacuated.

You might think this is an extremely remote incident, but the only thing rare about it is the community impact.  Dangerous sites like this exist all across the United States, but do not always receive much attention due to their location in remote areas.  You could be hiking in the mountains somewhere and accidentally stumble across  a chemical dump site.  The scary thing is you would be exposed to dangerous chemicals and would probably not even realize it.

There are many contaminated areas documented on the EPA’s SuperFUND site at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/.  It does not matter who you are; if you have not researched the hazardous areas in your area, you should probably go do a bit of reading.  You may find some particularly surprising hazards located closer to you than you think.  Also, consider that contaminated areas often spread to other areas if the chemicals reach an aquifer or water source (including creeks and rivers).  Just take a look at this area that’s only a few counties away from me:

On-site ground water sampling has identified various metals, pesticides, phosphorus, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and chemical warfare agent degradation products. On-site soil contamination sampling has identified various VOCs, metals, PCBs, pesticides, and unexploded ordnance in surface and subsurface soil. On-site surface water sampling has identified various metals, pesticides, phosphorus, and VOCs. People who accidentally ingest or come in direct contact with contaminated ground water, surface water, soil, or sediments may be at risk. The area is a designated habitat for bald eagles.

I saw a different site that also said that nerve agents were found all over the area.  How the HELL do you mess up the land that badly?  This is in the Edgewood, Maryland area.  I wonder if the 23,000 residents are aware of what they live next to.

While SuperFUND is a pretty good website, it seems to be conveniently missing some well known danger zones.  I couldn’t find any information on the areas that the United States used to test nuclear bombs in Nevada, for example.  The dramatic 2.6 million cubic yards of toxic sludge that was spilled from a power plant into the Clinch River around Christmas of 2008 seems to be missing as well.  The toxic sludge was thought to have both mercury and arsenic in it; sounds like a coverup to me.  Just take a look at this video:

On the other hand, if you’re just looking for a nice pair of work boots, I personally love Blundstone boots.  Blundstones make for excellent outdoor working boots as they’re lightweight, comfortable, and capable of protecting your feet from just about anything.

The plan that keeps coming back to me over and over again as viable is one that emphasizes a lifestyle where my expenses are less than my income.  If I can get away with stuff I’ve always been interested in, then all the better.  For instance, I’ve always wanted to live in a snowy climate, but near friends.  I’ve got a good friend that lives in the Chicago suburbs, and the Windy City is known for it’s cold and snowy winters.

I think the key in my search for independence (after finding a place of my own) is getting my first car.  Just having a method of transportation opens up a world of opportunities and convenience.  I’ve always made use of public transportation to get what I need done, and while it has saved me money in the long run, I have not really enjoyed it all that much.  If I were to make this dream a reality, I would probably look for a Honda Dealership in Chicago like http://www.ednapletonhonda.com.  I think Hondas are good “bang for the buck,” which makes them a good choice for my first vehicle.

Chicago gets a ton of snow every winter, so if I ever do make this dream a reality, I’m going to make sure my Honda Accord has four wheel drive.  It would just be stupid to get caught out in a snowstorm without it.  I am a bit uncertain if I’ll be able to afford a new car right away though.  In case I can’t, I’ve been browsing some of the used cars on a Honda dealership blog, and there’s some pretty good deals there too.  Gonna have to spend a lot of time thinking about it though since it is a pretty big investment.

A plastic extrusion company will perform plastic extrusion much like you’d expect; a large amount of plastic is melted down and then shaped into a continuous profile.  From there, multiple different end products can be created such as wire insulation, pipe and tubing, fence, wire insulation, window frames, deck railing, adhesive tape, and weather stripping.

A more technical evaluation of the process would describe how the resin (raw thermoplastic material in the form of small beads) is fed into the barrel of the extruder from a top mounted hopper.  At this point, liquid or pellet colorants and UV inhibitors are mixed in to the resin before the material reaches the hopper.

After entering the barrel through an opening near the rear, the mixture comes in contact with a rotating screw.  The screw is there to force the plastic beads forward into the barrel.  It’s then heated to become molten by adjusting to the appropriate melting temperature of the type of plastic.  This is usually between 392° and 527° Fahrenheit; in comparison, the boiling point of water is 212° F.  Usually a heating profile is set for the barrel in which three different independent PID controlled heater zones are used to steadily increase the temperature of the barrel from the back to the front.  As a result, the plastic beads gradually melt as they are pushed through the barrel.  It also lowers the risk of overheating which could destroy the plastic.

Now as you might expect, the intense pressure and friction inside the barrel is also contributing extra heat.  The extra heat from this is so great that you can actually turn the heaters off and still maintain the melt temperature from pressure and friction alone.  In order for this to work however, the extrusion line needs to be running the material fast enough.  Additionally, cooling fans are typically used in most plastic extruders to keep the temperature below a certain point in the event there is too much heat.

As plastics become an increasingly important part of our daily lives, use of recycled plastic extrusions is a great way to save money for manufacturers and consumers alike.  To top that off, scientific research has proven the benefits of recycling to the environment time and time again, so that’s an added perk.  It really goes to show you that recycled plastics are the future.

The internet is a great tool to find niche items.  Since I have to look for big and tall clothes specifically, I look for stores online dedicated to it.  When looking to buy clothes for another person, once you find a reputable online store, it is only a matter of figuring out the sizes of the person you are shopping for.  If you can’t figure out the sizes, remember that it’s always better to overestimate than it is to underestimate.  Shirts can be a size too big and not be a problem (for me, anyway), and oversized pants are usually still good to use with the help of a belt.  Washing machines cause most clothes shrink over time anyway, so it is not really a big deal.

Windows 95

Many years ago I was running a 66 MHz 486.  Windows 95 was brand new and I was envious of the Operating System because my computer’s system requirements weren’t enough to run it.  Hell, even AOL 4.0 was a strain on my PC, especially if I went into a chatroom back then that supported colored fonts.  I came across Windows 95 by accident on Amazon today and was surprised that it still costs almost $50 to purchase.  You’d think an irrelevant OS would be free by now.  To top that off, Windows 3.1 is being priced at $69.99 for a “new” copy!  I for one am glad the Windows 3.1 days are over.  Who would buy these things today?

Still, there is no sense in whining about the heat; it is normal after all.  The best way to cope with it is to make use of the activities you can do while the heat is on.  One thing I’ve been interested in doing this summer is learning how to wakesurf.  If you are not familiar with wakesurfing, it is essentially surfing behind a motorboat using the wave generated by the propeller to surf behind it.  This makes “surfing” possible in areas that do not have waves, such as lakes and rivers.  It seems like a fun idea; you can read more about it in Wakesurfing Magazine.

Additionally, you can check out a video of wakesurfing below to see it in action:

It is important to do research on wakesurfing before you try it because surfing behind certain boats can be dangerous. There are some graphic images on the internet of people who have accidentally come too close to the propeller of the boat and had their hand sliced up. Still, with the proper safety measures taken into account, wakesurfing can be a fun way to spice up your Summer.

Take a look at this map of the Pacific Ocean:

Hawaiian Island's Movement Visible on Google Maps

You can see that at one point, the Hawaiian islands existed near the aleutian islands in Alaska.  Over time, the Pacific plate pushed northward (or the hot spot moved south), until some global phenomenom caused the plate to jerk into another direction.  From this cataclysmic event, the Hawaiian islands moved east-southeastward until their current position today.

Interestingly enough the lava flows found in Hawaii are not dangerous, and while constant eruptions take place, they are generally known to be tame and predictable.  This is why it’s safe to invest in real estate in hawaii; the homes in the area can be built in locations that are no longer affected by lava flows.  Additionally, the volcanoes known for violent eruptions such as Mt. St. Helens in Washington are created when one tectonic plate is submerged under another plate (called subduction zones).  Because there is no subduction zone in Hawaii, there is no risk of violent volcanic eruptions.  This essentially makes Hawaii a completely safe paradise to live or visit.

Why?  One would think that if the game was so good, it should be popular – right?  It turns out that’s not always the case, and while there were a few contributing factors to the failure including harsh system requirements and a lack of updates (bug fixes), the fundamental problem with Unreal II was the lack of advertising.  Many people simply did not know the game existed; it wasn’t discussed on many major gaming websites, and if you asked most gamers at the time if they had ever played it, the most common response would be something like “never heard of it.”

What anyone can get out of this is that finding a reliable Advertising Agency to promote your product is imperative to make certain your product succeeds.  Without proper advertising, it doesn’t matter how good your product is because if people don’t know if your product exists, it won’t sell.  A good agency dedicated to advertisement will find innovative ways to reach the product’s target audience and draw them in.  I still hold fond memories of Unreal II from the very brief time it was somewhat active, but it saddens me that most people will never experience it in the same way I had the opportunity to.

Thunderstorm over City

Lightning in a Thunderstorm

Lightning Strike at Night

Huge Storm in the Country

Storm Developing in the Mountains

As I hinted at before, I’m not the person that took these shots.  They were uploaded and posted publicly on the aforementioned forums a long with a lot more.  If you’re interested, search for them on the forums linked above in the photography section.

So who should blog? The answer to that is anyone who has anything to say about anything. Your blog entries can be a paragraph long or 10 depending on what you want to say. They can be mostly graphics, videos, or textual, depending on what you want to share or discuss. I was hesitant to build this one at first because I wasn’t sure if there would be enough stuff to write about, but as time would dictate, there are really endless things to talk about on the internet. The only thing you need is the will to get it up, running, and the desire to keep it maintained once it’s up.

The next question is: how do you get it up and running? You can sign up for a free blog at wordpress.com or some alternative blogging website, though I would highly recommend avoiding those free services. Creating your own domain name at any registrar (domain names cost roughly $10/year these days, though you can get free domain names with certain web hosting companies), and pointing it to the domain name servers of your web host (prices are variable, but are fairly inexpensive as well) is the smartest choice you can make when creating a blog. Once you have found reliable web hosting, you need only install blogging software onto the host (such as WordPress). From there, it’s just a matter of configuring the themes to look the way you want it to, and adding content.

Creating and maintaining a blog is a great way to express your interests in a way most social networking sites cannot. If you’ve built a large enough website with a friendly user interface, you may even begin getting discussions from readers on the blog entries you made in the comments section. Additionally, it can open doors for potential monetization later on down the road, which is always a plus. So unless you are an empty barrel with nothing to say, you should give blogging a try.

Nevertheless, I’ve never played any of the Grand Theft Autos, but these pics make me want to try it out just to see the visuals. There are more to games than just graphics (most notably physics and the gameplay itself), but once the average computer becomes capable of running games of this high visual caliber, hopefully we’ll see some progression in the gameplay department. Take a look:

I’ve ranted about how much I hate contracts before, and for the most part it holds true for everything. It doesn’t matter if the topic is a lease agreement or a cell phone, contractual obligations are just a tactic companies use to make money. They get away with it because they offer a service that either has no competition (so people are forced to sign a contract to receive a service they need) or because their name is so big, most people don’t even bother looking at alternatives. The phrase “you get what you pay for” can be true sometimes, but for the most part is completely bogus. For instance, one might be inclined to spend $120/month for unlimited cell phone service with Verizon when they could get the exact same features from a service like Straight Talk for $45/month instead.

People don’t realize that there rarely is any difference in the quality of the service provided. Just think of all the money people could be saving by using Straight Talk instead. I for one could use the extra money help my parents pay off their debt. If you are going to be using a cell phone regularly, the money you are saving by using a smarter service is essentially money earned.

It’s funny that the $45/month plan for everything you need was so much less than Verizon’s, but it can go even lower if you use an all you need plan. Straight Talk’s all you need plan comes with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 30mb of web data for only $30/month. I wouldn’t go with this personally because I’d be using the internet a lot, but I could see this being good for someone who mainly just wants to call a friendevery now and then.

Choosing a phone can be tough for someone unfamiliar with today’s technology, and it usually makes sense for people like this to get something basic so they can learn what’s right for them. This is especially true for children who don’t take the best of care of their electronics. Fortunately, Straight Talk sells phones for as little as $10. Additionally, their phones can come with a camera, MP3 player, among other features, which are very popular today, hook, line and sinker.

Take a look at one of the customer testimony video made for Straight Talk:

I’ve been wanting to get a cell phone for months now, but one of the big deterrents is the price plans offered by most of the major companies around here. I don’t really plan on using it for talking much, so I’ve been trying to find a plan focused on unlimited data and not much else. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll even need unlimited data because text messaging and checking my e-mail will be what I mainly do with it.

I was looking at Verizon and Sprint initially because they are the big names around here, but both are way overpriced. I really can’t believe people pay $80 to $100 a month for cell phone service. After a bit more research, I stumbled on a cute NET10 commercial that discussed a plan that included nationwide coverage, unlimited talk, text, AND data, for only $50 a month. This would be the plan I’d go with, though they also have plans as low as $15 a month. These plans were offered by NET10 and to top it off, there was no contract with any of them. In fact, it is possible to switch between plans every month which is a huge plus if its possible to plan usage out ahead of time. I couldn’t even try the Verizon service that I was looking at without signing up on a 2-year contract. Ridiculous.

A quick glance at the NET10 coverage map showed that my area was completely serviced; in fact, most of the United States is except for remote regions of Montana and South Dakota, which doesn’t bother me because I’ll never be going there. Coverage is important to me because I want to stay connected wherever I go, be it the Appalachians or the beach.

Phone features are a bit of a mystery to me since I haven’t had a cell phone since 2003 or 2004. From what I’ve read, a lot has changed between then and now. Because I mainly plan on using the device for communicating with people on the internet (e-mail and texting), a keyboard is pretty important to me. I’m not really sure if I’d prefer a physical keyboard or a touch screen, I guess I’d have to try them both out and see which one I liked better. Another feature I’ve seen is a camera that can take pictures or record videos. I’m on the fence about this because it seems like something I wouldn’t use much, but something that I may eventually want. The phone I’ll probably get that includes all of these features is the Samsung T401G. While it’s NET10′s most expensive phone at $99.99, it looks stunning and has everything I need.

Though its irrelevant to me, NET10 also provides long distance service to over seventy five countries for approximately 15 cents per minute. There is also a program called International Neighbors that allows you to obtain a special phone number that your friends and family can reach you at if they live in Canada or Mexico.  I don’t have friends or family out of the country, but I can imagine this coming in handy if that ever changed.

It seems that in this day in age with expensive price plans and long contracts being the norm, going with a reputable prepaid cell phone service provider is the way to go. Since I haven’t actually decided what I’m going to go with in terms of cell phones and providers, I’m still in the process of reading reviews of different companies. Here’s an example of a NET10 review I’ve found that was made by a real NET10 customer:

You can also check out NET10 on Facebook and Twitter.

But before you know it, autumn will kick in and temperatures will plummet.  The need to cool off from the heat will be over, but maintenance for your pool isn’t over yet.  It’s important to keep your pool covered in the winter to keep it clean and protect it from the elements.  Therefore, finding pool covers for your pool is essential if you want to keep your pool looking and functioning great.  Safety is another reason why you might want to invest in a pool cover.  If you have children or pets, an appropriately installed pool cover can protect against accidental drownings or submersions.  You can even use them during the season for safety reasons, getting the added benefit of keeping the pool clean when it isn’t being used.

Introducing the big ass boat:

Caribbean Cruise Ship

Another shot depicts the cruise ship, this time from the inside out.  This is the balcony view from your room:

Caribbean Cruise Ship Balcony

Here’s San Juan, Puerto Rico’s coastline:

San Juan, Puerto Rico coast

View from the top deck of the cruise ship:

Caribbean Cruise Ship Top Deck

View of St. Thomas from Taxi:

St. Thomas from Taxi

Obligatory pristine beach photograph:

Caribbean Beach

St. Thomas Harbor:

St. Thomas Harbor

When I think of the Caribbean, I don’t really imagine lush forests.  This part of the Caribbean is underappreciated.  Take a look at the San Juan Rainforest:

San Juan Rain Forest View

Back on the Cruise Ship, here’s another view from the balcony:

Caribbean Cruise Ship Balcony View

No Caribbean photo gallery would be complete without a good sunset shot.  Here’s three:

Caribbean Sunset

Caribbean Sunset

Caribbean Sunset

Will even include a rainforest rooster for good measure:

Rain Forest Rooster

That’s the mindset of most sports fan today. What am I speaking of exactly? Well over the weekend the NFL players and owners finally came to a labor agreement which ended their lockout. So football is officially back on. As of today, teams were hungrily gobbling up all the available unsigned draft picks and lower-level free agents they could get their hands on.

While sports fan in general applaud the NFL for a relatively hasty agreement, NBA fans are forced to look upon the NFLs agreement with rose-colored glasses. See, the inherent difference between the two sports boils down to one thing: Money. The NFL locked out because they couldn’t figure out how to split their billions of dollars of profit evenly. The NBA, however, actually lost money. So where the NFL had to find a way to fairly represent player and owner equally, the NBA is trying its hardest to get their sport out of the red.

The reason the outlook is so grim for NBA fans is that the owners have said time and time again that they would actually lose less money without opening the doors to their arenas than having an 82 game season under the current agreement.

If you’re a pigskin fan, today is a day to sit back and let all the NFL related news flooding the media outlets wash over you and bask in it. But, if you’re one of the unlucky NBA fans, all you can do is sit back and sneer knowing that you’re in for a much longer lockout.

However stories like this really demonstrate the importance of maintaining your house properly.  Whether its a basement, kitchen, or bathroom, finding the right mosaic tile is important if you don’t want to have to spend a lot of time and money dealing with leakages.  Not only are they easier to keep clean than carpet, they look better too.  Properly chosen mosaic wall tiles are often used by interior decorators to complete the look of a room.  After the floor, the walls are often the thing that catches people’s attention when they walk into a room, and tiles can make both aspects of the room look amazing.

Nelson and her family had just gone shopping when they returned to their home by bus.  They had just missed the bus they were planning on taking, and were forced to wait an hour for the next one.  When the bus dropped them off, it was dark outside.  Below is an image taken from Streetsblog Capitol Hill which depicts shows how the family had to walk across the street to reach their home:

Marietta Crash Scene

You can read more about the Raquel Nelson story here.

Some key points:

• There are no crosswalks near this bus stop for 3+ blocks.
• All of the jurors who were involved in the conviction of Raquel Nelson were middle class and white – most of which had never had to rely on public transportation.

Just another example of our legal system failing.

Joplin, MO Tornado Damage

A few months ago, an F4 tornado devastated parts of Alabama and Georgia.  You may remember I wrote a few posts about it, showing the size and intensity of the twister as well as the damage left in it’s wake.  And of course, what would a disaster be in America without the worst in people being brought out?  Safety and security has become an issue in some of the affected towns, many of which are still cleaning up.  If you have access to a computer in those areas, you can use the internet to help you on your road to recovery; for instance, if you live in Trussville, Alabama, you may want to search for “home security trussville” to see what is offered in your area.

The tornado that ripped through the southeast wasn’t the only one to grab national attention.  Only a month had passed by when an F5 tornado devastated the city of Joplin in Missouri.  There was just as much coverage on the Joplin tornado as the Birmingham one thanks to advances in the news coverage on DirectTV.  Though not as big, the tornado in Joplin was stronger, uprooting trees and completely removing buildings off their foundation.  Thanks to all the coverage made by the News, aide from all across the United States was sent to the victims, and both areas are slowly but steadily recovering.

...SELECTED HIGH HEAT INDEX VALUES FROM FRIDAY JULY 22 2011...

...DELAWARE...
WILMINGTON				     124
DOVER					     119
GEORGETOWN				     114

...ILLINOIS...
TAYLORVILLE				     118
SPRINGFIELD				     113
MOUNT VERNON				     110

...KANSAS...
TOPEKA                                       108
WICHITA					     107

...KENTUCKY...
OWENSBORO                                    107
COVINGTON                                    107
LOUISVILLE				     106

...MARYLAND...
EASTON					     125
ANNAPOLIS				     120
OCEAN CITY 				     120
ANDREWS AFB				     119
BALTIMORE				     118

...MISSOURI...
ST. LOUIS                                    112
JEFFERSON CITY                               110
KANSAS CITY                                  105

...NEW JERSEY...
ATLANTIC CITY				     122
CAPE MAY				     120
TRENTON					     119
NEWARK					     117

...NEW YORK...
CENTRAL PARK (NYC)			     115
ISLIP					     114
NEWBURGH				     110

...NORTH CAROLINA...
ELIZABETH CITY				     114
WILMINGTON				     113
ROCKY MOUNT				     111
FAYETTEVILLE				     109
RALEIGH					     108

...OHIO...
COLUMBUS				     110
WILMINGTON				     107
CLEVELAND				     107

...OKLAHOMA...
TULSA					     105
OKLAHOMA CITY                                104

...PENNSYLVANIA...
PHILADELPHIA				     119
HARRISBURG				     116
DOYLESTOWN				     115

...SOUTH CAROLINA...
MYRTLE BEACH                                 111
CHARLESTON                                   111
FLORENCE				     107

...VIRGINIA...
ARLINGTON (DCA)				     121
STERLING				     116
VIRGINIA BEACH				     115
NEWPORT NEWS				     114
RICHMOND				     114
NORFOLK					     112

...ALL-TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES SET OR TIED ON FRIDAY JULY 22 2011...
NEWARK NJ 108 OLD RECORD 105 - AUGUST 9 2001
DULLES VA 105 OLD RECORD 104 - AUGUST 20 1983 AND JULY 16 1988
BRIDGEPORT CT 103 OLD RECORD 103 - JULY 22 1957 (TIED)

I wanted to save this video so I could watch it again later, especially since YouTube tends to remove copyrighted content now and then. I stumbled on this website with a YouTube to Video Converter by ImTOO and was pleased to be able to download the video to my hard drive. Additionally, the software comes with the ability to multithread downloads so that it doesn’t take all day to pull a large video off YouTube. My connection is fast so that didn’t bother me all that much, but I was pleased to be able to save the file in high definition. I haven’t seen an application that pulled videos off YouTube with that ability yet. In case the link I provided for the software changes, I found it by googling “Download Free YouTube Downloader.”

Another cool application with ImTOO is their Video Converter Software. This enabled me to take the Nero video and convert it to an MP3 so that I could toss it on to my MP3 player. From what I can see the software can also extract pictures from videos, as well as convert between different video formats which can be handy from time to time.

Whats with all the bitching and moaning over the heat wave in the US?  I hate summer heat as much as the next guy, but people are taking the crying a little bit far.  It hasn’t been any hotter than the hottest days of any other summer, and perhaps the only thing unusual about the heat wave is how many consecutive days it has lasted.  The heat should stick around for another week, but in the mean time the whine-wave on the internet will be thing I look forward to ending.  Invest in an air conditioning unit if warmth bothers you so much.

Since I’m going to be owning multiple laptops after this purchase, laptop storage is becoming a bit of a concern.  I don’t really want to throw my old one in the closet where its inaccessible.  I’ve been thinking of looking at some laptop carts if I can make some space in my apartment for one.  That way I can put my new laptop on top of the laptop cart when I’m at home, and store my older laptop in the compartment below so its there if I want to use it for some reason.

All of this is assuming I go with the laptop however.  I still may go with an iPad2 or even a cell phone if I can find an affordable data plan for ‘em.

Though in that video specifically the carpet isn’t too bad, there are other spots in our apartment that are kind of gritty. I can’t get mad at him though, he’s just being a dog after all. Besides, there are all kinds of methods to clean carpets such as the one here: http://www.thesteamteam.com/austin-carpet-cleaning/. I was actually just going to go ahead and deal with it until I realized these kinds of services were easy to find. In fact, I even recommended to a friend to search for Carpet Cleaning Cedar Park on Google once it seemed like a viable option.

There is also the option of buying your own steam cleaner, but in the past my family has purchased a couple and not only are they hard to use and assemble, but they’re not always that effective. It would be much wiser to invest money in a professional service where your satisfaction is a concern and you can see the results before paying.

Aspen, Colorado

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful places in the United States, Colorado is one of the most popular travel destinations.  If I had the money to buy a house, I’d consider moving to Colorado for sure.  One of the big reasons for that is my passion for Meteorology; I keep track of the weather in Denver periodically throughout the year.  The city can experience cool summer days, warm winter days, Blizzards in October and April, among other things that would be considered bizarre in most other locations of the US.  With how extreme the weather can be, I’d think it would be important to look for Colorado Moving Companies in specific, in hopes that they are prepared to deal with the weather.

Even though much of Colorado is wilderness, it’s not entirely out in the middle of nowhere as much of what I’d need can be found in Denver, which is the largest city in Colorado.  Colorado Springs is Colorado’s second largest city, located about 70 miles south of Denver, follow by Aurora, which is located near Denver itself.  Denver is also known as the “Mile High City” due to its elevation of exactly one mile above sea level.

Denver, CO Panorama (Click for a Large Image)

By the way, if this kind of place appeals to you and you live outside of the United States, you may want to look into Colorado International Movers.  Otherwise Colorado Movers are what you should be looking for on Google.  There’s a lot to write about Denver and Colorado, but these pictures really are worth a thousand words.

NOT GUILTY DOESN’T MEAN DIDN’T DO IT

People keep saying this over and over in regards to Casey Anthony, who was found not guilty of murdering her daughter Caylee, despite the entire nation believing she was guilty.  Then I come across news articles like this one about Daniel Self, scroll down to the comments section and see over a dozen people passing judgment on the man, calling him “vile” among other things.  In the article, Self claimed that he didn’t murder the victim and that the victim actually committed suicide.

If Casey Anthony really did get away with murder, who’s to say we haven’t locked away innocents too?  I don’t know the back story to the Daniel Self case so I don’t know if he really did do it or not, but I really have to be cautious to take any sort of stance regarding articles like this since the thought of the man possibly being innocent is in the back of my mind.

The puzzling thing to me is so many people are enraged at Casey Anthony being free now.  Where are all the people seeking justice for those wrongfully thrown in jail to rot for the rest of their lives?  Couldn’t we also say that “guilty” doesn’t mean “did it?”  You’d think this would be on people’s minds a little bit more often especially after movies like The Green Mile.  At the same, maybe movies like The Green Mile make people think of situations like this as fictional.  I don’t know where I’m going with this, but like I said in a previous post, our judicial system definitely isn’t perfect and there is room for improvement.

I had the pleasure of testing out their website, and they have two ways to create a portfolio (one for beginners, and one for advanced users).  I went with beginners and after answering only a few questions, it recommended a diversified portfolio that was right for me.  Furthermore, the Porfolio rebalancing software was informative with its recommendations of asset allocation.  There’s other perks include the links that show how much is being saved in fees by using ETFs, and the explanations of what the assets in the portfolio are for.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the Do It Yourself portfolio management was to use.  After entering all the information it requested, it took me to a webpage with a list of ETF symbols and the number of shares I needed to purchase.  From here, it’s just a matter of logging into my broker and purchasing the recommended ETF shares.

Here’s one before image:

Joplin, MO - Before the F5 Tornado

After:

Joplin, MO - After the F5 Tornado

Before:

Joplin, MO - Before the F5 Tornado (2)

After

Joplin, MO - After the F5 Tornado (2)

I think the best part about attending a community college was that it enabled me to test the waters with courses taken online to see how they could compare to the courses you take in person. The answer to this isn’t really clear cut either, because Online Courses are going to work well with some people and be horrible for others. It’s all going to depend on the type of person you are. If you are good at keeping yourself involved in the material you’re learning (meaning you read about the material even if it’s not explicitly assigned), you’ll do well. If you’re interested in the subject matter it will also help because you’ll be more inclined to stay involved in the material (or you may have some knowledge of the subject already).

If I was to ever pursue an online education for my Bachelor’s degree, it would only be with certain majors. Some Online Degree Programs in Science would definitely be manageable for me – I’m interested in Astronomy, Meteorology, and even Geology and have read a lot about these subjects already. Something like Computer Science I would probably shy away from, because with any Programming course I’d want to be able to communicate with the Professor in real time about problems. Even though you can get help with issues through e-mail, it’s much harder to get walked through a problem on the computer.

Typhoon Ma-on

Meet Ma-On, a Category 4 typhoon in the Pacific Ocean making its way towards Japan. With peak wind gusts of 160mph and sustained winds of 130mph, the storm is posing a serious threat to Japan, including the regions that were devastated by the nuclear meltdown near the Fukushima Daiichi reactor last March. To make matters worse, the storm is expected to strengthen, possibly into a Category 5 super-typhoon before threatening the Japanese coastline.

Typhoon Ma-on Projected Path

The projected path depicted in the above image is currently the forecast, and also appears to be one of the “worst case” scenarios in which the storm is close enough to the coast to produce significant wind damage and storm surge along the coast, yet the center remains over the ocean which prevents against the substantial weakening that occurs when the center moves over land. Weakening would still occur since it’s moving into a colder climate, just not as fast as if it had made a direct landfall and then hit the mountainous regions. With all that said, hopefully Japan is prepared for this, especially in the nuclear zones.

For instance, an IRA Account isn’t an investment in itself, but its more of a container that holds investments inside it.  This is limited and from what I understand, cannot include things such as rare coins, baseball cards, etc.  You can however have stocks, mutual funds, and even real estate inside of your IRA.  Even though this part is a bit confusing, making your investments is a lot easier today due to all the types of technology available.

For instance, if you were interested in Stock Trading for your IRA, there are all kinds of ways to do it.  Online Trading is one way, which is extremely convenient.  If you’re on the road alot, then Mobile Trading is also an option.  You can do quite a bit from your cell phone or mobile device these days.  Regardless of which method you use, having an Online Broker to buy and sell assets on your behalf is almost always going to be something to look for.  They will take a commission when profits are earned, but they can help you build your IRA very nicely.

The first thing your business will need is a domain name. Your goal here is to pick something short and memorable, yet descriptive of either what you’re trying to sell, or as close to your business’ name as possible. Many domain names are already taken even by people who don’t use them, but you should still try to find one ending in “.com” if you want to be taken seriously. You’ll register your domain name at any registrar which is inexpensive; usually only around $10/year.

The next thing you need is web hosting for your domain name. Depending on the amount of traffic you expect and services you need will determine the plan you’ll be looking for here. The amount of space you need, the amount of traffic you expect, the amount of e-mails you’ll be using, the number of MySQL Databases, and the number of One-Click Applications are all things you should evaluate your business on to determine the appropriate hosting package.

If your business is big enough that you’ll want the servers dedicated to your business, then managed hosting is what you may want to look into instead. You can think of dedicated servers as computers you can remotely connect to and control from your home or office. These computers are generally powerful enough to run multiple applications for your business as well as handle any of your hosting needs. I’ve used a dedicated server in the past and it came with two unique IP addresses (though this may vary depending on what you buy). Because there is so much power invested in these machines, they are a much more expensive option from normal webhosting that’s generally only useful for mid-sized businesses.

Some hosting providers even offer colocation, in which they will house your computer (the server) in their building. There are benefits to this in which your own computer will essentially become immune to fire, vandalism, theft, and natural disasters. Your computer is protected in what is basically a fortress designed to withstand these threats. Your machine is also kept online by backup generators in the event of a power outage. If you have your own server, this is generally a smart, cost-efficient decision to put the machine to use.

If I was in charge of moving a small or medium sized business to the internet, these are just some of the things I’d be looking into. When looking for hosting providers, its always a good idea to read reviews of the companies before buying from them. If you need a place to start, I’ve had positive experiences with Superb, you may want to check them out at www.superb.net.

I suck at holding the camera steady unfortunately but I’m working on getting better at it. The storm didn’t do much other than about 20 mins of heavy rain with a breeze to go along with it. Still, it was cool to see, so enjoy

I’ve never been a Katy Perry fan, so I was surprised when I stumbled on a good song by her called “ET.”  As it turns out, one of my best friends online is a huge Katy Perry fan, so we had a lengthy conversation about her music.  She linked me a few other songs that I didn’t like, but I had to be respectful and let her down easily.  One of the hardest things to do is tell someone you like that you don’t share the same interests as them.  Still, “ET” was good so I’m thinking of getting some Katy Perry Tickets for her.  I know she likes Jon Bon Jovi too, so later on down the road I’ll probably get some Bon Jovi Tickets for her as well.

Speaking of tickets, it’s actually kind of odd that I get them for people as gifts when I’ve never attended a concert myself (until recently).  I guess it’s not completely weird though, since I rarely like hearing music live (as it’s almost always a lower quality version of the song produced in the studio).  When I bought Taylor Swift Tickets for my grandparents, they begged me to go with them but I couldn’t get myself to.  It wasn’t until I got Backstreet Boys Tickets for my girlfriend that I was forced to attend the concert with her.  I know most people don’t like BSB but I thought their older material was catchy, and they played a lot of it in the concert I went to.  It wasn’t that bad live, so maybe I was just making a big fuss over nothing.   I felt bad for declining my grandparents offer to go to the Taylor Swift concert, so when I get Jersey Boys Tickets for them this weekend, I’ll probably tag along.

It’s just an April Fools joke, but the make-up used was incredibly realistic. Very funny!

How safe are the medications from CanadaDrugsCenter.com?  That was the first question I asked myself.  In my research, I’ve found no evidence to say anything negative about them in this regard.  They are a member of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association and the International Pharmacy Association of BC.  They are licensed professionals and are dedicated to providing the highest quality brand name and generic medications available on the market.  It is important to buy from a trusted source especially if you want to buy Nexium or other potent drugs online.

Their ordering and delivery policy was my other topic of interest.  I was pleased to be able to buy Lipitor online (to help with my weight loss efforts) at an affordable price.  Being able to purchase it on the internet eliminates a trip to the pharmacy every few weeks which is extremely convenient.  As I live in the United States, the delivery took slightly longer than it would have if I resided in Canada, but that was to be expected since I live so far away.  I can always plan my orders ahead anyway so that doesn’t even matter.

Overall I was fairly impressed with CanadaDrugCenter.com.  Though I haven’t had any problems that required me to contact their customer service, they do have a toll free number.  From what I can tell there really is no reason to buy drugs anywhere else.

See…I can’t help but notice the contradiction being made here – why is it okay for people to receive the death penalty when they are guilty, but if they are found not guilty for a crime they did commit – it’s bad if they are murdered?  It doesn’t make sense to me because in either case justice would be served, just in one way it would be delivered unconventionally.  I’m not sure if I should advocate murder, but I think if people truly stood up for what they believed in in this country and did at least take an attempt on Casey Anthony’s life instead of dishing out empty threats (which in my opinion, they are), our country as a whole would be in a better place.  The fact these empty threats are being made suggest that people have strong beliefs towards certain topics, yet do not act on them due to legal restrictions or other barriers that have been put into place.  Furthermore, the fact that Casey Anthony did get away with murder shows our legal system isn’t perfect and has quite a bit of room for improvement.

Will changes be made to fix these issues?  Probably not.  Americans have this thing about them where they think because the United States is better off relative to most other countries, there’s no room for improvement.  People lose sight of the big picture and become content with the way things are, regardless if it’s broken or not.  If Casey Anthony does get away with murdering her daughter, one can only hope that changes will be made in the legal system to prevent such occurrences from happening in the future.  I’d really like to think that it will happen, but I think its more likely people will eventually just “move on” and forget about the news story after a few more weeks.  What a shame if so.

This information can mean a lot of things, but what I’m getting out of it is that people who have invested in gold over the past one to two decades are seriously reaping the benefits of that investment now.  While that doesn’t necessarily mean that its still a good investment, many analysts are still expecting the value to go up (and the price of gold has since gone up since).  This quote from an investor made in June suggests that even short term gold investments can be worthwhile:

With gold settling in at $1,258.30 an ounce on Friday, June 18, 2010, I’m glad I bought in early last fall at $1,228.30 an ounce for South African Kruggerands…
I think it’s still a good investment.

With that said, from here on out the spot gold price could spike or plummet.  Gold is known for its instability in value, but it seems now still may be a good time to invest as the price of gold has been steadily rising over the past few months.

Gold Prices 2011

In a matter of 20 minutes over 2,100 responses have been made to the CNN news article, including:

how can you agree with not guilty when there are PILES of evidence against her! She may not be able to be charge with the same counts, but you can charge on different counts.

There are certainly flaws in the judicial system, as you have seen today. She killed her baby and lied enough to destroy reasonable doubt. Don’t be so naive. Fool.

“Not guilty” doesn’t mean “didn’t do it.”

She is only innocent thanks to a disgusting defense lawyer who can smile at the face of murder. Defense lawyers are probably the most horrific people (maybe calling them people is offensive to humans). Justice has not been served – here’s to the hope that Anthony meets an early end.

Without posting all 2,100, its safe to say people are pissed.

Fox News: Obama Assassinated

This attack just goes to show you that the defacements we’ve seen in the past such as the Comcast one a few years back are really quite minor to what could be done by more malicious users.  I fully believe that eventually attacks are going to escalate to the point of cyber-terrorism, and while this isn’t exactly that, it’s definitely a step up from the relatively harmless hacking attacks made in the recent past.

On the internet, it is very easy to hide your true identity, so it can be difficult to assign responsibility to people responsible for crimes.  Additionally, people in the past have always had the option to do some serious damage through hacking attacks, but not everyone took those opportunities.  In a sense, if your business website was defaced by a hacker, it might lower the public’s image of you for some time, but after their method of entry is fixed your business website is more secure than it was before.  If all they did was put up a stupid message, you’re a lot better than if they publicly posted/stole people’s credit card information, classified documents, attempted to spread a virus, etc.  In this case, it was a twitter hack and not a fox news hack, so twitter is going to have to work out the kinks on this one.

A 600-foot-long black smear of oil coated Jim Swanson’s riverfront property just downstream from where the pipe broke.

“Whosever pipeline it is better be knocking on my door soon and explaining how they’re going to clean it up,” Swanson said as globules of oil bubbled to the surface. “They say they’ve got it capped off. I’m not so sure.”

Reports have indicated the smell of oil has spread for miles downstream and through the city of Billings.

Excellent job Exxon – I’m sure the people living in this area will have a wonderful 4th of July now.

The reason why I’m talking about it today is because her video has disappeared, which until recently was around 180 million views or something crazy.  Rebecca Black decided it would be a good idea to kill her publicity and file a copyright claim to YouTube had the video removed.  Rebecca Black then re-uploaded the video on her own fake VEVO YouTube page she had made, which was subsequently removed.

Until recently, searching for Rebecca Black – Friday would only turn up parody videos.  Someone recently re-uploaded a video but Rebecca Black will probably have that one removed eventually.  I guess the funny part about all of this is that she’s been made famous by these YouTube uploads, yet she’s trying to have these videos removed.  The VEVO move (or should I say attempt) was just so she could collect royalties every time someone watched the video (VEVO = ads).  That pretty much confirms that her existence in the music scene is only a lame attempt at making money – she’s just taking a different approach and trying to gain popularity by being so bad that her music becomes viral on the internet.

Movies are one of the driving forces behind American television.  There are action movies, thriller movies, comedies, romantic comedies and a variety of other shows that entertain the masses.  Many actors only like to be in one type of movie.  Some people only reside in comedies and they seem to play the same character in every movie they make.  Will Ferrell is an excellent example of this.  The mark of a truly good actor is when they can play any role in any type of movie.  This is why my favorite actor is Johnny Depp.  Johnny Depp has been in romantic comedies, thrillers, action movies and even comedies.

The best part about Johnny Depp is the fact that he can act out so many different personalities.  He can play a pirate.  He can play a murderous barber.  He can even do voice acting.  When you combine all of this into a single person you have a great actor.  Watching him on my www.directstartv.com has been an excellent experience for both me and my family.  He isn’t crude and is generally found in very family friendly movies.  While I understand that everyone has their own opinions, I must say that Johnny Depp has all of the things you could ever want in an actor or actress.  He truly is a great actor and I hope to see many more of his movies.