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My whole life I have wanted to be a computer programmer. Not just that, but I wanted to make games. Now I do not have a degree, I would one day like to get one, but for the time being I am content. See I have been freelance programming for the last few years. I have finally seen one of my biggest accounts to date go live this past week. Myjokecafe has been in the works for years and there is still a lot that can and will be added in the future. While I realize the site isn’t a game, it does have games on the site. They are just not under a heading called games, they are under a heading called Play Jokerino.

When you play Jokerino, you win jokerinos, which can be redeemed in the auction area for real products, like a Casio keyboard. There are a couple of Flash based games in there that I didn’t write, though I did modify them. The other games though, the ones that aren’t Flash based, I created. Yes, Flip the Joker, Black or Red, and Deal Me Out are all programmed by me. Now I realize they aren’t to the same capacity as say Halo, or Call of Duty, but it is a good start if you ask me, and I don’t expect it to be my last. I am always experimenting and learning as much Flash as I can, so Flash games aren’t totally out of the question for me, it is just going to take time.

Even though I have no extensive formal education in this, I think I am doing pretty well. Eventually maybe I could collaborate with the likes of Cliffy B, or the guys at Bungie, but for right now I am happy that my dreams are becoming realized.

I don’t think I will ever forget that day seven years ago when four planes changed the way America thought, and the way the world looked at America. It was a horrible day, the events were like something you would only expect to see in a movie, only it was no movie. Unlike most Americans, I do not believe that 9/11 changed everything, after all we had been attacked in ’93 and on other occasions that were technically on US soil. I think we need to look at what had happened and move on from that. I don’t think that there was anyone in the Eastern Standard Timezone that wasn’t affected by that in some way, some may have lost a loved one, some may have looked at that as a wake up call live each day as if it was your last, and some may have looked at it and decide to take a stand in some way.

Personally I took it as never do something that you can’t do with your whole heart and that you believe in. That is why I decided to freelance and work for myself, of course sometimes it can be hectic, but I don’t believe that it isn’t worth it. I would like the pay to be a bit nicer, but it has grown as I have gotten more experience with things, so hopefully the trend will continue and I will get more money as time progresses.

We must never forget the lessons that were put in our hearts instantly the day we saw those towers on fire, or when we saw the sky turn black, or when we saw the plane that was taken down by the passengers so no one got hurt, or when we saw what happened at the Pentagon. We must never forget those lessons or that day.

Krissy’s dad told me that they got an alert today saying that there is a potential virus going around where you will receive an email that says you got a Hallmark card waiting for you, but when you open it, the virus takes over your computer. I have been told that not all Antivirus Software is fit to handle this virus, but seeing as how it has been out since February, I don’t see how it wouldn’t be up to date.

I am pretty sure that while some anti virus software isn’t able to deal with this, Cyber Defender can. Even if they aren’t up to date, if you have one that is, the software can potentially work together in groundbreaking new ways to make sure your computer stays clean. I have never seen any other antivirus work with other security software, they usually want to be the one and only on the computer and freak out if they aren’t, but I guess that’s why Cyber Defender is better than the others.

I opened an account online for Bank of America. I didn’t realize that it would take such a long time to have the money transferred from one bank account to another and then to get the account information in the mail, along with our debit cards. This is the last time I open an account with any bank online, it isn’t worth the trouble. Honestly I thought going into a bank with Krissy was a big hassle, but waiting for everything to go through and get the paperwork in the mail is an even bigger one. If you are thinking about opening a bank account online, take my advice and don’t. It is a huge hassle, and going between bank accounts when you have bills can be very hectic.

Ever since I linked my blog to my Myspace blog, I seem to get more and more traffic every time I post. There is no writing a bulletin, or sending messages to read my site for my newest blog entry, it is all right there in my Myspace blog, that people can come across naturally just by going to my profile. I think it is a great way to get people coming back to my profile and my site, I just wish I had thought about it before when I had the account with over 12000 friends, but if I don’t get deleted then I might have that many soon, afterall it has been only a few weeks and I am approaching 3000.

I have been thinking of other ways to promote my site, I have been thinking about cross posting it to MyYearBook, MyJokeCafe when it is open for registration, and maybe even Xpeeps, but I am not sure. I know that I need something promote it well. I have been looking into Network Solutions for their internet marketing services, which I may end up doing if I can start earning enough revenue from my ads, and other private advertisers. While I think that may be a way off, it also might not be as far off as I think, or at least I hope it isn’t, this way I can have a good amount of traffic, and then expand with new traffic, and maybe then I can concentrate more on this website, while still keeping my clients, just working less hours for them.

Sarah Palin spoke tonight in her acceptance speech for the Republican Party’s nomination for Vice President. She spoke a lot about her family and how proud she was of all of them, she spoke about how she has more experience compared to er party’s rival, Senator Obama. She mentioned one key thing, one thing that makes her different than any other candidate, in either the Presidential or the Vice Presidential nominee, and that is that she would be an advocate for children who have disabilities.

Having a special needs advocate in office for children is good in theory, but we must not forget that there are millions of children who go undiagnosed with disabilities every year. I was in middle school before I was diagnosed with ADD and dyslexia, which some would say is too long to go to school without anyone noticing. Now I went to many different high schools. I started out in St Mary’s (Cardinal Mccaricks) then I went to Sayreville War Memorial High School. From there I went on to NJ Regional Day School, and finally Collier High School. After high school I went to Brookdale Community College and finally Delaware Technical and Community College. Needless to say, I went to a lot of different schools. None of the schools were alike in anyway.

In high school, the teachers will teach you something one way, and depending on how long they have been teaching, they will not even try explaining it another way. Why? Because the majority of the kids learned it that way and if you don’t then you have the problem. I guess a percentage is fine for them. I’ve long thought about becoming a teacher, the problem with that is there are so many different rules you need to follow. The students need to learn X amount of things by the end of the semester, and by that time, they are mainly studying for the finals and won’t remember anything after it is over.

I remember one of my teachers, a US history teacher who was leaving after the school year to return to Colorado, made us do some interesting assignments. One of them was a PowerPoint presentation representing different colonies. The requirements were that you used interesting graphics, sound effects and a colorful background, this way he wouldn’t be bored and neither would anyone else. He then wrote up the test for the 13 colonies based on our presentations. One of the questions was that we had to match up who gave the presentation to that state.

If I were to be a teacher, I would let him, and the rest of my teachers who wouldn’t conform guide me. Of course doing so would probably get my teaching license revoked. Granted I could probably do that in a special ed environment, but nonetheless I believe that kids, who are perfectly normal by today’s standards, need to have their minds stimulated in alternative ways. What good is it if you make them learn by the book, for the book?

Any teacher can get up there and lecture from the book, maybe even give a PowerPoint presentation from the book, but if that is the case then why be a teacher, when the book obviously has the answers? Teachers should be there to stimulate and educate. To go beyond the book, to make learning come alive, not to make learning a dull experience.

I started this out by saying that Sarah Palin would be an advocate for disabled children. While I applaud her for that, I do not believe that disabled children, should get any better an education than students in a “normal classroom environment”. Why can’t all students do those kinds of fun presentations? If you want to teach about cameras, then why not make a giant camera obscura that you can climb into? If you want to teach about weight distribution, then why not have the students make bed of nails? Reading about it and doing it are completely different things, I believe that teachers are rushed, which makes the drop out rate in this country unbelievably high.

What is the point of the Regions test, if the only thing the students learned was from a book instead of experience? Knowing Shakespeare is great, but only reading Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet because you are short on time is ridiculous. Find a different way to teach it, show the movie, go to Shakespeare in the park, put on a school play all your own, the point is teachers, find a way to make learning fun and don’t be the kind of teacher who you had in high school.

There is an old saying that the best way to learn something is to teach, if that is the case then maybe openning up the way you teach your students could help you learn a thing or two about yourself. Nine months may seem like a long time to the high school class you have, but if you think about it, it is only a short time in their lives, one that which will be gone just as soon as it had started, you may remember some of your students, but if you don’t step up as a teacher, then what is the chances that they will remember you years down the road? Maybe by teaching things that aren’t traditional you will teach them not to be conventional, maybe you will teach them not to conform, that standing out is okay and that being your own person will help you reach far greater happiness than if you conform to what people think you should be. You will only be in their lives for a moment, after that moment you can fade away, or you can stand out. The choice is yours.

Krissy is going to need a lot of dental work. She didn’t go to work twice last week because her cheek was the size of a golf ball and she was in an enormous amount of pain. I can’t blame her, but with the way things are with the economy if she looses this job, it might be months before she gets another one. If the economy was better then it wouldn’t be such a big deal, in fact next year at this time, we may have free health care and dental might be included in that so we won’t have these issues, but right now we are in a bad position.

We have been trying to figure out how to pay for her dental visits, and as much as I don’t want to, we might have to go ahead and consolidate debt by taking a large loan, paying off what we owe then use the rest to pay itself back for a while and get her teeth fixed. It might even work out where less is going out each month because of a lower interest rate, but I am not overly concerned with that right now, the most important thing is getting everything in line to be able to afford the dentist.

John McCain announced his vice president today. The Republican presumptive nominee for Vice President is Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. I have said a lot of things about John McCain, and I said that if he wanted to be President then he would need to shake things up. Honestly I thought that he would be picking Joe Lieberman, but he did something that I did not see coming, picking a female Vice President Candidate who has the same amount of experience as his rival Barrack Obama.

I am simply saying that as a government official she has the same amount of experience, of course she has more life experience and experience in general. When you compare a father of five children, one of which has down syndrome, to a woman with the same experience, a woman 9 out of 10 times will have more experience. A mother is always much more influential in a child’s life than a father, so saying that Palin has less than or equal experience to Obama would be ridiculous. She has much more life experience than Obama, she has brought reform to Alaska and might bring reform to Washington if McCain is elected President.

Hillary Clinton ended her historic bid for the White House months ago, which made another important historic leap forward, having an African American on a major party’s ticket. Today history was made again when Sarah Palin was put into the nomination as the potential Vice President of the United States of America. It will be interesting to see if Obama and his stories of his mother and grandmother raising him, along with the strides that his wife has overcome will be able to win over and keep the female vote. Of course the issues are of major importance, Palin is pro-life whereas Obama is pro-choice. If elected it is almost certain that McCain and Palin would overturn Roe Vs Wade, where Obama would hold the ruling down as is and maybe modify it to be better.

Honestly I think that the election that was all about change is going to come down to a woman’s right to choose, and if it is harder to be a woman or a black man in America today. Obviosuly I am neither an African American or a woman, but one thing that has always confused me about women’s rights was how can a woman really be against her right to choose? That is part of women’s rights, I would think, the fact the fact that as a woman you have the right to have a baby or not have a baby, for whatever the reason. It is a part of you, it is part of who you are and if you feel that you cannot handle it, if you feel that it isn’t right or the right time, then they should have the right to choose to keep it or not.

The debates will also be something of interest. Up until this point McCain has said Obama does not have the qualifications, meanwhile he will be head to head with him in the debate, and McCain’s counterpart who has the same amount of time in office will be up against his Joe Biden. Obviously Sarah Palin has a lot less time to get prepared for the debates, seeing as how Obama has already been through numerous debates in the primary season, but I think it will be to see how these newbies, per say, will stand up to the people who have been doing it for over thirty years.

No matter what the outcome is in November, we are facing a historic landmark in time come January. And even though Sarah Palin could only be the Vice President, there is a very real possibility that because of McCain’s age, he wins, he could die in the office, which would then set another historic mark, the very first woman President this country has ever seen.

I am still behind Obama 100%, I agree with him on the social issues, and I believe that he can learn from the people around him how to be better at foreign policy. I have said in the past that I would leave the country if McCain wins, but I think McCain has proven today, based on his pick for the Vice President, that he too is looking for change and reform in America. I do not agree with everything he or Obama say, but I believe that we are at an exciting time in America, and that no matter which one wins, good things can happen.

I would love to have a supercharger in my car. I mean if I raced I realize that even with a supercharger wouldn’t give me so much power that I would beat a manual car, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. I don’t race my car now, it would be an embarrassment, I have paint chipping, and it isn’t the most powerful sounding engine. I think a supercharger might change that though. If I had the money I would not only drop a supercharger in the car, but I would get a new paint job, put in a sound system, get a high end alternator, and when I need it a new engine, maybe a V-8. Right now all I can do is dream, though.

Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention has done things that Obama has not really done in the past. For one Obama laid out his plan for his four years in office, strengthening the economy, and the school system along with strengthening his plan for foreign affairs. It wasn’t just a broad overview in which he had done with Hillary Clinton, he actually had a point to point plan on how he was going to fund his programs, such as shutting down programs that don’t work or are no longer needed and redefining those that do to work more efficiently.

He also did something that he had not done in any commercial, he attacked McCain. I think this was a big step, but I am not sure it was the right direction for Obama. All along he was trying to run a clean campaign, but running a clean campaign against a man who was going to do everything he can to smear his name was not something that was going to work, so he called McCain out right then and there. He linked McCain to Bush and he even went as far as to say that McCain is ignorant as to what America wants and needs.

Obama definitely came out swinging in his speech, even going as far as saying that he is waiting for the debates so America can see how the two stand on important issues. Regarding the issues, Obama admitted that he may have different views than some people, like abortion, but that they should both agree that there should be a lot less unwanted pregnancies in the US.

I think that the DNC really got Obama’s campaign rolling, and if he found places for Bill and Hillary Clinton on his campaign and even quite possibly in his cabinet then he would win hands down. He picked Biden for a reason, he wanted a straight talker, someone who isn’t afraid to be common. Biden is that guy, and he can also be an attack dog. While Hillary has that experience, I do not believe that she would have provided the same role that Biden will provide.

Obama has to win in 2008, we have seen what Republicans do when in office, start wars in countries we do not belong in, and give tax cuts to the rich. Band together my fellow Democrats, and my fellow Americans, you do not have to be a Democrat to see how bad things are. Millions without health insurance, millions without jobs, fortune 500 companies getting richer because they outsource their work to save money. Eight years ago we entered the Millennium with what could only be called hope. Hope that in this millennium we would solve the energy crisis that has existed since the 1970’s, hope that we would be able to explore Mars, and hope to finally get affordable health care for all Americans. Eight years later we have $4.00 gas, Mars is still just as mysterious as it was back then and health care is something only the rich can afford.

America, we have a chance to make history here. For the first time in 232 years we have an African American who is the nominee of a major party in America. 2008 has already made history for having the first “minority fight” for a party’s ticket. We not only had a woman and African American fighting for their name on the Democratic ticket, but also a Mexican in the running as well. Different races, and different genders vying for the top name on the Democratic ticket, but do you want to know the thing that they all have in common? They all see a better America. One where you can be proud to live. One where you can afford to raise your family without working two or three jobs. One where you taking a day off of work to take care of your ill child or parent wouldn’t bring about you loosing your job. That sounds like an America that I would be proud to be in.

After 9/11 everyone had their patriotic hearts on their sleeves, you couldn’t mess with America without messing with all citizens. Everyone joined together to say we will not be terrorized. Seven years later and that is all but forgotten. We forgot who attacked us, so we do not stand up when the President invades another country. Did you know that after 9/11 Bush signed an order, and Republicans in Congress signed off on it too, that basically states that we can go to war with any country at anytime if we feel there is a threat there? It sounds kind of like Russia did to Georgia, only in both cases it would be illegal under the Geneva Convention. McCain would keep these ridiculous acts in law if elected. Do you really want to feel like patriots when America becomes the terrorist nation under Bush and McCain?

Barrack Obama is ready to lead us into a better tomorrow, one without terrorizing other nations, one with new ideas and new ways of doing things. No longer will we have to suffer under a war monger. I know I am not alone in this, and I know that people should no longer stand idly by as things get worse. If you aren’t part of the solution then you are part of the problem and should be held just as accountable as Bush and Cheney and the Repubicans in Congress!

I wrote yesterday (early this morning?) about how your friends and who you choose to surround yourself with helps define who you are. I was speaking about about Obama then, but now I am speaking as a more general idea. If you think about high school, you had the goths, the jocks, the nerds, the skaters, a bunch of groups that looked alike, sounded alike, and even thought alike.

Even though they may have been that way on the outside, if you think, and I mean really think about it, maybe there was one of them that on one or more occasion acted in a way that was unlike the rest of their specific clique. Now if you are in high school then you probably think that it is the worst part of your life. If you are out of high school then you probably think that too. Life after high school, commonly called “the real world” isn’t high school, but it sure can feel like one. The difference between high school and the real world is that you have more control over which clique you are in and what people you want to surround yourself with.

You can choose to surround yourself with drinking buddies, who do nothing but get drunk everyday, but if you are seen with them then you will get pushed into the general idea of what they are. If you are seen with wealthy high class businessmen then you too will be seen as that. If you choose carefully who you are seen with then you can appear to be anything you want. It doesn’t matter how you act because when your seen with a group you appear to be part of the whole. There is a way around that stereotype though, and that is clothes.

Think about it, in high school the goths always dressed the same, the jocks all wore the same jackets, that is no coincidence. Let’s assume that you are out drinking with the guys. Now say they all wear jeans and t-shirts, if you go in even a slight change, like khakis and a shirt then you would stand out from them and even though you are part of the group you would stand out. Even if you don’t act like the people you are with, visual appearance is still how you are mostly perceived, especially from a distance. In essence, it really is the clothes that make the man, just be careful who you are associating yourself with.

Say you need to find Locksmiths in Tucson, what do you do? Nowadays it costs a small fortune to use 411, so that is out. You can obviously get out the Tucson Phone Book and look up locksmiths, but did you know that you could also hop online and find exactly what you need, in the city you need?

Personally I love being able to hop online and find phone numbers. The phone book is just too thick to look through, and besides it seems like such an outdated way of doing things, I much prefer the internet for most things. I mean, even if you use the phone book, you are still limited to your area when searching, you can’t find things in different cities or states, so the internet is just better at things we used to do.