On Saturday Kris and I bought some new toys. With Kris trying to go back to school she needed a laptop she could take with her wherever she went in order to do school work. She ended up picking up an HP netbook. She isn’t the only one who picked up a new toy though, I picked up a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Last year I did a few daily sketches and I am hoping to get a section up for sketches soon, but before I do I want to get more used to the tablet. I am thinking about finishing up that Superman artwork with it, or sketch something then color it and shade it with the tablet. So far I can say that using it in Photoshop is a lot easier than using a mouse.

On Sunday Kris and I are heading down to NJ for a Super Bowl party at my father’s. He has a high definition 62″ television, so add that to the fact that we will probably head down early and get Denny’s for lunch, it is well worth the trip. It only takes about two hours to get down there, so it shouldn’t be too bad, hopefully traffic won’t be too bad on the way down or on the way back. It would mean more if the Jets could have actually made it into the game though, I guess there’s always next year.

I am getting really tired of saying there’s always next year. Come on Jets, make it all the way already.

As for what I am going to do with this current section as it stands, I am thinking a mailing list for Recipe of the Day and possibly a Recipe of the Day widget like the Zen Quote of the Day widget. It all depends on how successful this section is though, as those two will be a few if I do them.

I don’t necessarily think being powerless would be a bad thing though, I think it brings people together. I know that more sex happens when there is no power with no other distractions. I also think that without power you get to know people better. Years ago neighbors knew each other, people watched out for each other, today there’s television and video games and so many other things that get in the way, I think if we didn’t have so many distactions, then we’d get closer to the people around us. It’s strange, the more technology, the more isolated we seem to get.

Now I am not saying that it is just the distractions at home, people tend to work more nowadays, so being out 6 or 7 days a week at work isn’t an uncommon occurrence, so that too plays a factor in it, but if you think about it, work is just another distraction keeping people from each other. I know there are people sitting there saying I am spitting out BS, but when I had a Playstation if I wanted to play with someone, then they’d need to be in the same room as me. Now, I can hop on the XBox and play with my friends in New Jersey. Yes, back then the distance would be hard, but back then you would go out and meet new people because you wouldn’t have anyone else, now you are simply a voice in a video game, or on a phone, or on Skype, actual human interaction seems to be a thing of the past.

Going a day without power was hard for me, but maybe more people should go days without power and go and have a beer with a neighbor, it may bring you closer to the people who are nearest to you.

Being without power is horrible. Our lives revolve around power, so not being able to play video games, watch television, or even just check emil was a real shell shock. The only thing that I was able to do was play some Lego Star Wars 2 on Kristen’s DS and sleep. I don’t know how people can live without modern conveniences, but if I can never go another day without them, I’d really like that.

I got a lot of work done today, but I am still behind with not being able to work yesterday, so I guess I should be working, but I am using a laziness excuse since I already finished up some stuff today and am going to go work on this site.

The next stuff I want to talk about is revamping existing stuff. Since I’ve put up the Previews and Reviews section I’ve stopped talking about movies and video games in my blogs. I want to revamp them and have video games and movies sections where I talk about them, give news updates, previews, and reviews. I think this will make everything more organized and provide a better opening to some other ideas that I’ve had.

There’s also going to be some new features to existing sections coming. I am trying to figure out a way to bring more content to the fanlistings, plus give members more options like subscribing to threads, uploading photos, and a profile page. I’ve gotten some inquiries on why this isn’t already up since almost all forum software come with it and the answer is simple, I coded the forum and member’s section by hand, I didn’t use a script. Speaking of the member’s section, once I do a profile page (or maybe even before) I want to do more Girl of the Moment contests, which would now require applicants to be members of the site in order to apply for that.

Of course the plans I laid out are only the beginning and anything can change. I hope you enjoy the new stuff that will be coming.

Up until the Haitian earthquake, 2010 was turning out to be a pretty good year. Not many people died, I got some stuff done on the website, and I am making a little bit more money than I previously was. I am working with a financial and business planner to get something really exciting off the ground. I have been running into snags on my end though. Between problems with After Effects CS4 and just not knowing enough Flash, it has been a learning experience, and I think I will come out of it with a lot more knowledge regarding these two technologies than I previously had.

I’ve also been doing the same old PHP stuff. Flash is all right, but I’d much prefer to code stuff through PHP rather than Flash, it makes everything so much simpler, even when it is a complex program like some of the clients I am working with. I mean, this site is run entirely on PHP and there is a lot of content and a lot more that I am gearing towards putting up, just need to figure out the specifics of it. I did manage to do some modifications to the site since 2010 started though, I changed the Myspace Adder and added some stuff to the forum. I am hoping to do a lot more very soon.

That’s it for now, I am waiting for Kris to get home so we can go out for dinner. Hopefully I will have something new up soon enough.

2009 also saw a lot of changes. We saw the first black President come to office, along with the first Catholic Vice President. This year has also brought about some personal changes. We finally were able to get our puppy’s bubble on her stomach removed. 2009 also saw me working for some great (Greg) and some other not so great (Troy) people this year. It was also sad to see a site I was working on for a few years sell to a new owner and eventually close down completely.

In terms of this site though, the changes of 2009 were huge. From a new color scheme, new sections (like previews and reviews), new readers, it really has been an up year for the site I think. I think in 2010 things will get even bigger for the site.

2009 was a down year. I really hope that things get better with 2010, they could always get worse, I just hope 2010 is better. Happy New Year everyone.

10. Halo 3: ODST- A spinoff to the Halo trilogy, this time around you are an ODST and not as powerful as Master Chief. It provides a different spin on the series, but if it weren’t for the cut scenes you’d have a hard time differentiating this from any other game in the Halo trilogy.

9. Resident Evil 5- The huge climactic (final?) battle that brings Chris together with a new partner to take revenge on the murder of his old partner, Jill Valentine. There’s a major twist in this game that adds it to the list. It was great playing as Chris, but playing as Jill with Chris as her partner like in the original game would have been much more reminiscent of the first game.

8. New Super Mario Bros. Wii- When New Super Mario Bros. came out for the DS it revitalized the 2d Mario experience. With New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it takes the 2d Mario experience to a whole new level with the addition of four player multiplayer at the same time. Would have been nice to have online multiplayer though.

7. The Conduit- I think ever since the Wii came out people were waiting for a good first person shooter on the Wii. What really sets this one apart from its predecessors is the online multiplayer, though it would have been great if they had a microphone/headset to use, and if you could add friends without the Nintendo friend codes.

6. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games- The sequel to the Summer Games, this one included many great events and was fun to play on the DS and the Wii, each adding its own way to play.

5. Wii Sports Resort- Nearly 1 to 1 hand motion with the addition of Wii Motion Plus, I think this is how many of us thought that the Wii would work when it first came out. Wii Sports Resort is much more than a training manual for how the Wii Motion Plus should work, it is hopefully a preview of what great games will support the peripheral in the future.

4. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves- Everything in this game, from the stunning visuals, great gameplay, and a great multiplayer all come together perfectly in this PS3 exclusive.

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum- The best superhero game to date. Batman: Arkham Asylum makes you feel as though you are Batman, and the voice acting from the cartoon series really ties this game together.

2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2- The latest game in the Call of Duty franchise brings a sequel to 2007’s Modern Warfare. Though it is missing zombies, special forces mode is a nice add-on, though it would be great if they had a matchmaking option for it.

1. Left 4 Dead 2- This game had a lot of controversy that it was just an expansion to the first game, but with the improvements to the director, the added weapons, longer levels, new special infected, and new game modes, this proved to be a viable sequel, and the number one game on our top 10 video games of 2009. No other game this year had the online ability, the varied game modes, or varied strengths of different classes in multiplayer.

*The games listed are just the opinion of LepsLair.com and reflect no outside data such as sales, or the opinions of others.

Some bloggers like Felicia tries to draw the traffic to her using keywords from the most recent popular searches on the internet. She has named posts and posted about some of the hot topics searched for in recent months like Sarah Palin, bees, and sex. It is a different approach, not sure if that would fall on the line of blackhat per sey, but it is definitely greyhat.

Whether we try and force keywords to our sites or we just acknowledge the strange keywords that come naturally to our site, I don’t think any blogger or site has a problem with the traffic it brings. Most keywords may be strange for your blog, some may not be considering the way the search engines puts words together, but seeing random things together may look weird and fun. Either way I think we should embrace the strange and native keywords that we each try and strive for and not try and differenciate from the strange ones because they aren’t our niche.