July 2007

Wow just wow.  Two years ago Microsoft was in second place with the Playstation 2 leading the game, my how the tables have turned.  Not only is Microsoft leading the way with games like Halo 3, Resident Evil 5 and Grand Theft Auto 4 with exclusive downloadable content, but they also have the Games for Windows set to have some awesome games out soon.  The best one looking to be Gears of War with 5 new levels.  On the market place front, Marathon and Sonic along with Golden Axe seems to be leading the way.  Along with a new partnership with Disney allowing Disney movies to be available on XBox Live.

I’m sorry if this post didn’t make much sense to you nongamers, but I will try and have non E3 posts in the next four days, but I am not promising anything.

I found a site that takes Online Backup to the next level. With IBackup you can have drive letter access to your online site. What does that mean exactly? Well you know how you have a C: where most likely your installation of Windows is located? Well now next to that you’ll have a D: that goes right to your online drive. How convenient is that? Don’t worry, though, Ibackup is still available from any browser on any computer, so getting to it is as easy as typing in a URL in the address bar. Now that is convenience.

E3 kicks off tonite with the Microsoft News Conference.   Last year, no one really thought that they had anything big, and then Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV were announced.  This year it is looking like they will most like show some Halo 3 campaign footage.  I don’t know what else Microsoft has in store, but hopefully it will be more than the Halo 3 footage.  Yes Halo 3 is a great game, but I sometimes think that that’s all people see Xbox as, the Halo machine.  We’ll see what happens and maybe I’ll report back after the press conference tonite.

Krissy and my anniversary is coming up next week. I’ve thought long and hard about what I want to do for her. At first I was thinking maybe going to a concert, but I didn’t know who she’d want to see and I wanted i to be a surprise. Next I thought what about a play? Broadway Plays are very romantic and they almost can never get a guy in trouble.  That didn’t pan out either though, as the ones I was looking in are hard to get tickets to.  Whatever I do, I need to figure it out soon, though, because it is next week and times are waisting.

I’m watching Boy Meets World, and I am thinking back when TGIF rules Friday nights on ABC. It was the episode where Cory chases Topanga to Florida. I remember when that aired and the whole night was Florida themed episodes with each show crossing over into the next, Boy Meets World had Dana from Step by Step. It just seems so long ago. I mean now Topanga is doing weioght loss commercials, its weird how time flies.

Everytime I go to a doctor, even one I had been to before, it seems like they are just starting out with all the people running around and all the paper work stacked up behind them.  One thing is for sure, the medical industry needs a big over haul.  Things like a medical network that ensures patients records go from doctor to doctor, and more efficient ways to keep track of your information are two key ones.  Another big one is taking less time in the waiting room filling out paper work.

Things are improving, however. With medicscan they can easily scan your insurance card for future purposes. Medicscan easily connects to your computer via USB port and can be saved as a file, sent to another program, published through FTP, or sent by Email.  This would cut down on time, especially if you forget your insurance card.  With this scanner, it would make it easier to email the insurance cards and information from doctor to doctor.  It will also mean less paperwork for you and the office that has one.  It doesn’t just scan insurance cards, but any photo ID.  It would take less time for them to scan your license and insurance card.  Less time waiting in the waiting room, means less time at the doctor and if you ask me, that’s a good thing.

Krissy woke up sick yesterday, so I spent most of the day in bed with her. I hate it when she’s sick, not because of reasons you might think, but because I hate seeing her in pain. Oh well, I guess I will be taking care of her for the next few days.

In America there seems to be more and more teenagers that need help. Schools can’t deal with these kids because the schools have 2000 students or more and they can’t keep track of one student whose in trouble, so that student may fall through the cracks. The fact is though that kids nowadays have more problems than can be fixed, or even recognized by schools. That’s where parents have to step in and know how and when to recognize when their child, or one of their friends have a problem.

There is a website called Teen Help that will help you to identify when a child is in need of help. They are professionals with over twenty years of experience with troubled teenagers. Nowadays far too many teenagers fall through the cracks and end up living on the street, or worse.

As a society if a teenager does something bad, we usually blame a form of media. In 1999, after the Columbine shooting occurred, there was an uproar that placed the blame on the music the kids listened to and to the video games they played. The truth is that while that may have played some factor in it, there were warning signs that went unnoticed by their parents and teachers. If someone had taken noticed and attempted to get those students help, thenmaybe we would have never heard of Columbine High School.

If you suspect one of your children is in trouble, or their friends, then please, don’t hesitate to get help. We don’t want to one day hear of Nowhereville Iowa High School because of a tragedy that could have been prevented had someone stepped up and recognized a problem before it was too late.

Thanks to Michael, there is now a version of the Leprakhauns Word Count WordPress Plugin, you can get it here. It is the same plugin, it just adds it to the sidebar and adds functionality to be used with pages as well.

[Edit] 11/8/2007 I am happy to announce that it works in WordPress 2.3.1.[/Edit]

[Edit] 7/18/2007 I have updated it so that it will work whether or not you are in the visual editor.[/Edit]

[Edit]There’s an updated version up now. It should work on most if not all versions of WordPress 2.0. Sorry if it didn’t work before.[/Edit]

I created aWordpress plugin that will allow you to write a post and hit calculate and it will tell you how many words you’ve written. It only works in the visual editor, though. I created it because every other word count script I could find was having you save, or post your entry before telling you how many words. Mine will tell you without reloading the page. All you do is upload it to your wp-content/plugins folder.

You can get it here.

Medical news is important to everyone, especially with so many people traveling from nation to nation. Well I found a medical news website that gives you information on medical news all over the world. It offers information on nutrition, vision, psychology, even plastic surgery.  Now if only they could integrate a nationwide, or a worldwide would be better, medical information system for patients.

I like WordPress.  I put off doing it for so long because I had everything integrated into the forums, but now I can see why people flock to this program.  If you want to be a member of the forums, the registration is still available, with it you can play games and compete for the high score against other people.  You also get your own photo albums, for the time being.   Anything is subject to change now though, because I am no longer using them as a blog.

In other news I haven’t heard anyone blowing off their finger so that is good.  I brought back Spiderman 3 yesterday.  I liked the game, but I beat it and there isn’t much to do after you beat it, so I am retracting my previous statement and not buying it at this time.    I will be looking into Spiderman Friend or Foe when it comes out this fall though.

Can anyone suggest some WordPress plugins?  Preferably some that adds content without much effort?  Or suggest things you’d like to see in general, not having to do with WordPress.

I’ve never been good at math. In the past I’ve had to go to a math tutor or two. That’s the only reason that I passed Algebra in grammar school. Even then it wasn’t by much, but if I didn’t have that tutor, I would have definitely failed math. I used to think that tutors and teachers had it easy, but after working in a daycare and as a tutor for college students, I see how hard their jobs are. At least now I realize just how hard these people have it, I don’t think many people understand the pressure of trying to make someone understand something that they just don’t get. It can be really frustrating.

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