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It’s been snowing all day. I woke up at around 11 and shoveled the porch, and I swept it again around 3. It’s 10:30PM and it is still snowing. I have to be somewhere tomorrow and shoot some video, so hopefully I will be able to get out to the LIE, if the roads around here are too bad though, I am not going to risk taking that long of a drive. Luckily though I don’t have to be there until around 4:00PM, so I have time for the roads to clear.

In work news, I have been swamped trying to finish up a lot of stuff. I have stuff from months ago that I need to finish and other new sites I need to get up. I am trying to do all the old stuff and get them up, but as of right now I am swamped and haven’t had much time for anything else.

Well I better get back to work on these sites. Hopefully I can make a huge dent in one or two before I finally crash for the night.

The recipes section is doing okay for a part of the site that hasn’t been indexed by search engines yet, and I am surprised since I haven’t really begun advertising it yet. Hopefully it keeps gaining more exposure.

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.

I added the newest section of Lep’s Lair last night. I put up recipes because I had them and I think a lot of people would like them. I believe there are a few thousand or so of them in there. If you have some recipes I will add them and I would love to hear feedback on some of the recipes already up, so if you decide to cook them, let me know how they turn out. If I find some more databases filled with recipes I will put them up as well.

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.

On Monday morning, around 9:20 AM a metal awning that was attached to the building for the passed twenty five years ripped off the building and flew over it to land in the middle of the street. Within a few seconds we were without power. We went without power until around 11:30 Tuesday morning.

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.

I’ve got a lot of changes going on with the site that I’d like to talk about. First are new sections. I’ve got a lot of new sections coming with new features like getting emailed daily for daily stuff, like the Zen Quote of the Day. These sections will have a lot of content so I am trying to find the best way to implement them. I am working on the first one tonight.

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.

By now you probably know that Haiti had an earthquake which left many people homeless. My thoughts are with the Haitians and their loved ones in this time of need. It is hard to imagine that in one instant everything you have is just gone.

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.

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?