2009

As I sit here and think back to 2009 the word that comes to mind is death. A lot of people died in 2009, including a very close friend of Krissy and mine and my uncle. Of course celebrities were also high on the death toll this year. Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Bea Arthur, DJ Am, Britney Murphy, are just a few of the celebrities who passed this year.

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.

Here’s my list for the top 10 video games of 2009:

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 and reflect no outside data such as sales, or the opinions of others.

I think every blogger, if they looked at their stats, will tell you that they have some pretty weird keywords getting them traffic. I mean, Kitty posted about how she has traffic coming from such random things like puffy coat fetish, CHEETAH FLAPPER PALETTE FETICHE, and pant disco spandex. To me that sounds pretty odd, and since she posted about it, I am sure it sounds odd to her as well. Mine are pretty far fetched, but no where near as that. I mean of course since I run the fanlistings I get keywords like Aria Giovanni, Sasha Grey, Cad-Comic, and others for that stuff, but then I get some pretty random ones such as laptop battery in nj, http://www.guaranteedlists, smoochcom, and a bunch for the Wolverine movie script leak.

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.

This post is really for things that I have experienced, or that I want to experience one day and that I believe everyone should experience in their life. The ones that I have done I have marked with an asterisk(*).

• Be at the Rockafeller Christmas tree lighting in New York City*
• Attend places of worship during a ceremony that are different faiths than your own to see what they are all about and how they are run. You’d be surprised how different it can be in a Church is a different branch of Christian than your own.*
• Visit New York City in the wintertime.*
• Take a road trip to someplace that you’ve never been before.*
• Live in a state that is entirely different than one like your used to.*
• Attend a Political Rally.
• Attend a live taping of a television show.
• Eat an exotic, strange food.*
• Watch the sunset or sunrise over the ocean*
• Change something in your life for thirty days (EG. quit smoking, become a vegetarian, eat healthier). You’ll find that it isn’t as easy to go back to the way you were before you started the thirty day change.
• Eat a pretzel, hotdog, or peanuts out of a vending cart in NYC. Just because it may sound bad for you, you will find it is the most delicious thing you’d ever eaten.*
• Eat food in its place of birth, there is nothing like eating a Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia, or New York style pizza in NYC.*
• Do something that scares the crap out of you. If your scared of heights, go on a roller coaster, or skydive. If your afraid of snakes, have one wrapped around you. The best way to conquer a fear is to face it head on.*
• Swim, boogie board, or surf in the ocean. If you have never been in the ocean, what are you waiting for?*

I realize this may be an odd list, but how many things that you’ve done in your life that you would you say that everyone should experience before they die? Why not make your own list?

I hate Christmas shopping. The malls are always so packed, so is Walmart and K-Mart. This year I am trying to do a lot of it online. So far we got Maureen and a few other people done completely without stepping foot inside of a store. I also got Krissy’s shopping mostly done today. Luckily for me none of the gifts has gone on a credit card, I have been working hard to get clients and I am hoping that I will have a few more before Christmas to pay bills come January and maybe pick up a few more Christmas gifts.

On the website front, I have to start commenting on more adult blogs. I’m not talking about porn or anything like that, I am just tired of reading blogs by teenagers about school and if a guy or girl likes them. I stopped commenting on blogs for a while, I am going to comment on the ones I used to frequent in the next few days I think, find some others with some software I have, but mainly go through blogcatalog and whatever else to find some more blogs where the writers are over the age of eighteen.

Well things are finally looking up. I had a meeting/interview today with a person whom I think I will be doing business with, also I have some other business prospects with an upcoming website I am working on and someone who is already well established. Now I have also made a few decisions based on this website. If I am doing good with money more money will be put into the site. More domain names will be purchased and it really will be a network of sites and LepsLair will just be a gateway. Also more money will be going into advertising, and new sections. I may hire people to write tutorials or something.

I have a lot of things I could add, thousands of things actually. I may go through them and see what is best. Right now I am thinking about a jokes section then riddles, maybe lyrics, recipes, etc. What do you think of that?

Not sure why, maybe it was because I pasted in a new list of sites to ping when I post a new post and there was like 20 Google URLs on there. I am hoping the updated list that I did will let my blog be indexed again, most of my content is in my blog.

Going to move some stuff now for Krissy’s aunt.

I am back from New Jersey. We actually came back on Sunday, but I just haven’t had much time or drive to blog. We didn’t win anything in Atlantic City, we actually lost around $1500. I think it’s okay though because most of the bills are paid and even though the network I work for is going through a rough patch, I have been putting bids in on GAF and other freelance sites to make some extra cash. Hopefully things with the network will bounce back soon though.

My car did pass inspection, which I am very happy about. I’ve had three cars, a Honda Civic with a blown headgasket that burned oil, a Subaru Legacy that needed a transmission and wouldn’t go in reverse, and my Chevy Beretta. There’s only little things wrong with my Beretta, like a leak in the frame, or windshield that I just need to get some silicon to fill, and the gas gauge is off by a quarter, other than that it is good. It’s lasted me a few years, and for the price I paid for it, I can’t say that it was a bad deal by any means, so I am very happy it passed inspection.

I realize the site hasn’t been updated, but I hope to rectify that soon. I have a lot of features coming soon that will be automatic, I just need to bang out how I am going to do it, since I don’t want everything to happen at once, I’d like to have updates happen throughout the day on their own, so I have to see about how to do that.

Okay so we have the money we wanted to have to go to Atlantic City. Right now we are over, which is good because we can get the car inspected and registered before we go down there. I still haven’t paid off Paypal yet, I am trying to get jobs outside my main job to pay that back. It’s working a bit. I have to call one client back, but my phone has been acting really weird lately so I am a little apprehensive about it.

I have a lot of ideas for my site, I actually wrote a bunch down last night that I eventually want to implement. One thing that has been ready to go for over a year is still stalled. I have to do a lot of inputting for it, so I have been putting it off. I plan on getting it done, maybe this weekend I will sit down and get a good head start on things, but it is just a bunch of inputting that it makes me tired just thinking about it.

I was also thinking about adding a news section. It would be an RSS off an AP site, but I am not sure how popular that would be. Let me know if you would be interested in having a news section here.

I still owe PayPal about $400 because Crushdollars AKA Troy Smith decided to screw me and a bunch of other people over and not pay us for the work we did. We’re not going to let that get us down for the trip to Atlantic City in a few weeks, but I guess I am going to have to pay them myself, hopefully that can wait until after we get back. I am trying to grab some extra work to help earn some money for the trip, but so far that is not working. I have a solid paycheck coming in though, so that isn’t so bad, but anything extra to get rid of the negative balance would surely help.

Speaking of the trip, we are going to be spending two nights in Harrah’s in Atlantic City and then two nights in the Comfort Suites (haven’t booked those rooms yet though) in East Brunswick, NJ. It will be a nice little vacation, but I will have a laptop with me to do work that needs to get done, so it wont all fun, but it will be fun regardless.

I am installing a bunch of updates rght now, iTunes, Safari, Quicktime, Remote Desktop Client, and Mac OS X update, hopefully none of these will break the system and render my printer useless, I spent four hours trying to fix the printer last night because of a firmware update broke it and I couldn’t print anything.

I haven’t blogged in a while, I am now 25. It really is no different than being 24, my car insurance hasn’t dropped, though I am planning a trip to Atlantic City for Krissy’s birthday.

This passed weekend I was screwed over by Troy Smith, the owner of sites like woosafe, and CrushDollars. He decided to not pay anyone for the work they were doing and just up and left. I am working on getting in contact with everyone who he screwed over and telling them what he did. I am also looking into filing charges against him and his girlfriend Nina Bronson since he paid me and a bunch of others via Paypal and then did chargebacks on the card. I have already in contact with NameCheap, his biller, his webhost, and Paypal about what they are doing and I have the addresses for everything I need to have the court secure the documents needed that I might need to file charges against him. I can’t believe anyone would try and get away with multiple counts of grand larceny when I have his full name and address.

Other than getting screwed out of about $700, I have been playing a lot of Halo 3 multiplayer and Halo 3: ODST. I haven’t really played much of ODST yet, there’s something missing with it, so I haven’t done a review yet, but maybe soon.

Everyone go check out the new Forum. It is just the beginning of what I hope will become a very active member’s area. In order for it to take off though, it needs your support. So sign up and you will be part of the greatest up and coming site in existence. I promise. Yes it isn’t a full member’s area, but we all need to start somewhere right? I chose to start with a forum and will be working my way up to a full on member’s area with photo uploads and whatnot. It just takes time to program it all in you know?