a year or so ago, google introduced their new web browser. for those of you who haven’t tried it yet, i definitely recommend that you do. i was pretty skeptical about switching over completely at first, because it took so long for them to get extensions working, but now that they have, i have converted! i started using google chrome on my laptop because firefox just seemed to take forever, and flash-based video would skip and choke when viewed in firefox. however now i use the browser on my  main pc as well.

extensions are a big thing for me. i like having helpful stuff added to my browser to make things more simple or fix things that bug me on websites. so here’s what i’m using currently:

-Adblock i HATE banner ads… i am sorry to those who make money off of it but seriously? they drive me insane… its not the normal ads that bug me. its the ones that scream at you. “HEY! YOU WON A FREE WII! BUT WE NEED YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND WE MIGHT SCAM YOU! CLICK HERE!” who in the hell decided that it was ok to have screaming banner ads on their website?? so yeah.. i use adblock. i will mention though that adblock for google chrome doesn’t seem to be working all that well yet, but it has done the job for most sites. as a companion to that, i use the browser button for adblock extension to put a small button on my browser bar so that i can click it on and off when i need to (because sometimes it blocks out things i want to see.)

-Chromed Bird this is a great twitter extension that makes a button on your browser bar which you can click and follow your twitter updates, as well as write tweets. it even drops down status updates from your follows so you can see them as you surf the web.

-Facebook Dashboard like chromed bird, this is a button on your browser bar that allows you to access facebook status messages as well as be notified when someone leaves messages, comments on your wall, and other facebook stuff.

-Feedly i have tried several rss feed readers, even the standard google reader, but feedly is by far my favourite. this extension gives you a button on your browser bar that allows you to quickly access your feedly reader. i love the way feedly is set up in a magazine style format. it makes reading my daily blogs a bit less cluttered feeling.

- Firebug Lite this little tool allows me to pick apart a website’s code and see what css goes where. its a life saver. yes i know there is an inspect element feature that comes with google chrome, but honestly i prefer the way firebug is set up. you can temp edit the css right from the firebug window and see the changes applied to the website, which is really helpful when you want to make sure you get title bars the right colour, or you need to figure out how big your sidebar needs to be.

-Fittr Flickr AND Patr both of these extensions are behind the scenes type extensions that change some things on flickr. they give you goodies such as a multi-group sender (which is very useful when you are a member of 1823927392 groups… i don’t understand why flickr doesn’t make this standard in their own website code!), lightbox features, quick links, and other nice fixes.

-Task List this is a very simple button that allows easy access to your google tasks list. i’ve been trying to use it to keep track of what i need to do for the day.

and that’s it! there’s a ton of extensions out there for google chrome now, but i am trying to limit mine because i really don’t want to bloat it like i did with my firefox extensions. its probably why firefox is so slow now honestly… you can check out these extensions and more at the google chrome website.

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those of you who are into old school gaming probably know about roms and emulators. for those who don’t, basically an emulator allows you to play console games on your computer. roms are the game images that emulators play. the legality of roms and emulators is sketchy but the rule is usually that if you own the original game, you can legally play the rom version on your computer. rom hacks are patched versions of old games, usually mario but sometimes mega man and stuff like that. these versions change things to give you a whole new game! so if you ever get tired of normal super mario, you can play a whole new world.

i love to play snes games and mario has always been a fave of mine since i was a kid, so i love the hacks that are out there for the game series. one that i am playing on and off at the moment is Super Mario World: The Second Reality Project Reloaded, which is a hack for the super mario world game for the snes. i’m going pretty slow with it at the moment, because i don’t have a lot of free time on my hands but so far its been a pretty fun trip back into the world of mario. its a bit tougher than the original but the challenge is fun!

another great place to find mario rom hacks is at smwcentral.net. they have a huge list of different ones to play, including an english translation of brutal mario, which is INSANE from what i have seen of it on youtube. haven’t even tried to touch that one yet…

i haven’t really ventured past mario rom hacks but i know there are other games that have also been altered and remade, just need to go looking for them. got any recommendations for me to check out? let me know in the comments!

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today was spent with the boring task of some very much needed organizing. my external backup drive is starting to reach its space limit and that means its time for me to figure out what needs to go, what needs to stay, and what needs to be backed up on a cd. i am a download addict. free videogame trials? got them. hacks for old nes and snes games? got them. programs, apps, updates for things, patches for WoW, addons for various games… my hard drives hate me

then of course i plunged back into the wilds of my music folder. itunes says i have 7.2 days worth of music on there! i seriously hate itunes though, and i hate that i have to use it to put music on my ipod. i tried to use a plugin for foobar2000 (what i prefer to use for music playing) and it never would see my ipod even when i followed the directions exactly, so i’m stuck with the itunes program. now its not a horrible problem. it is a bit of a resources sucker, but eh, what isn’t these days? itunes HATES my music collection… it can’t find album artwork for half the tracks, it split up soundtracks all over the place… i had to go though and click “pard of a compilation” so many damn times i was going insane. and then of course if i move music from one folder to another (because i get antsy and i reorganize my music collection all the time) i had to find the missing songs and replace them. then i found this little gem called the itunes library updater. a total life saver there… its not being worked on anymore but it still works! so if you’re having a hard time with that, check that out.

now if i could just find something that can find album artwork better than itunes! i seriously don’t understand what’s wrong with it… it finds covers for obscure bands like mors syphillitica, but can’t find a foo fighters cover? not to mention most of my sound tracks are coverless as well. ANNOYING!

ok enough ranting about itunes. i should probably get back to sorting though junk.

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i’ve been thinking of setting up a web store for my poser art. i’m still learning quite a bit but a lot of people have told me that they really like it so i might try to get something together. first i’d have to look up a good ecommerce hosting website, and then get some sort of web-store program to manage it all. sounds like a lot of work but i’d rather do it myself than go though sites that do it for you because i don’t really trust them with my stuff… i would only be selling digital versions of my work for starters. maybe on cds or something. prints would be expensive but maybe if people really like them, i can find a way to work that in as well. i’ve started to get really interested in making materials for clothing and making morphs. i’ve made a couple of my own character morphs in poser so maybe i’ll try my hand at that as well. oh and i know how to make poses! so there’s another thing i could sell.

hmm. writing all this down makes me want to get to work!

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sorry blog i’ve neglected you a bunch again :/ i got slammed with a double dose of sick the past week or so. the 15th i came down with some kind of stomach bug and that had me curled up in a ball for most of a week, then directly after that i got a cold that my brother and sister-in-law brought home from work. suffice to say i was really not in the mood to do anything but lay in bed and rot. i’m feeling better now though thankfully.

not much going on in life at the moment, which is another reason i haven’t really blogged. hard to find anything to write about.

i am totally eating up every new episode of LOST that has come on so far. i wish i had been this hooked on the show back when it was not on its last season X_x i hate that its ending now! i’m so totally in love with the story and in a way i’m kinda glad that i’m sucked in here at the end, because i am terribly impatient and now i don’t have to wait for things to be answered.

but anyway that’s all that’s going on with me. kinda boring.. yeah i know.. my life is so not blog worthy lol.

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phew! now that the paid blogging is out of the way, i can tell you guys about yesterday!

the power went out at 5pm and i was home alone. i had no clue how to get in touch with anyone because my brother was at work (and i didn’t know his work number), sister-in-law was at work as well, and they worked in the same place so i couldn’t call her either. mom was out with her best friend and i didn’t have their numbers either! so i spent 6 hours sitting around in the dark freezing my butt off under 4 blankets waiting for someone to come home.

at almost 11pm my brother and sister-in-law showed up and the power was still off. by this time i am freezing and its pitch dark outside. i used my ipod as a flashlight and almost killed myself tripping over something that was sitting in the living room. then my mom came home. we called the power company and found out that 3 power poles had been downed by the wind and trees. one of them was right up the road from us. they estimated the power would not be on until 4pm THE NEXT DAY!

so we decided to stay in a motel for the night because there was no way we could sleep in that place the way it was. it was so cold you might as well have camped outside. my brother had work in the morning so he definitely needed a place with running water and power so an alarm would wake him up early.

we found a motel and i’m glad the power was coming on the next day because we could only afford one night (and this was a cheap place!). my brother spent an hour trying to hook up his xbox to the motel tv while i got on my sister-in-law’s laptop and sent messages so people would know what happened to me.

the room was ok but the bed was rock hard and my back is not happy with me today. but still, it was better that being a block of ice, so my back can get over it. the power came back on today at almost 2pm, which is better than 4pm but its still flashing on and off a bit and that worries me. i do not want to have another freezing night!

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My brother and his wife currently live with my mother and me, but they have been talking about finally getting out and starting a family together. We talked about what they were thinking about doing and their plans to own a home and my brother mentioned something that I didn’t even think about: First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.

Did you know that if you’ve never owned a home you can get a tax credit for purchasing your first home? Up to $8,000! that’s pretty awesome for people just starting out, like my brother and sister-in-law. He still wants to take care of my mom even though he does want to own a home of his own, so he’s thinking about getting a place with enough room for her to live with them as well, and that tax credit would really come in handy paying for something big enough for her, them, and what ever family they might have in the future.

So I hope they get that figured out. It would be wonderful to be an aunt or just have more room to move around! They said I could live there too until I got a job. Hopefully with the way things are starting to go, the economy will perk up and places around here will start hiring again!

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so i’ve been planning to write this review for quite some time but i wanted to try and get somewhere in the game before hand. unfortunately this game is so hard i can’t even make it past the first couple of stages…

I Want To Be The Guy is an insane platformer indie game that i saw someone playing in a youtube video walkthough. i decided to download it and try it out and though looking at it makes it seem simple, trying to play it will make you insane. the graphics are 8bit. from what i’ve seen, they borrow a lot from old nes and snes games and a lot of old video game character sprites pop up randomly as bosses. in a way its kind of an homage to games of my childhood.

since i can’t really get anywhere in the game i can’t really write a very good review but i did want to recommend it to my readers because the challenge is kinda fun. the forums even have more games, made by fans of the original that are also as challenging.

since i can’t really get though the game, i’ll leave you with a video of someone playing it on very hard mode so you can see what you’re up against.

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its no secret, when it comes to valentine’s day gifts, chocolate is a great way to say i love you. so this year tell your special someone that you care about them, and about world events, by getting them Dark Chocolate from intentional chocolate! 100% of their profits will go straight to charities supporting hati until valentines day. so you’re not only giving a gift to someone you love, but you’re giving a gift to many people who have lost their homes, and families. i think its really a wonderful idea and hey, who can say no to chocolate?

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i ment to write on tuesday after lost but i didn’t get a chance and then i just got lazy.

i watched the season opener of lost and i must say that i am absolutely hooked now. i have no clue why i didn’t get into this show back when dad was watching it and i really hate that now we cannot share in the questions being answered by this last season. the episode was great and i don’t want to do any spoiling so i won’t write much more on the subject.

i wasn’t able to get though all of the seasons before the show started, so after half way though season 3 i just found the starter packs on hulu that give you a pretty basic understanding of what is going on. i plan to go back and watch all those episodes in full but at least i was able to be caught up for the new season.

my laptop is still borked and that’s one of the reasons i haven’t been blogging much. i forget about stuff like my blog, and twitter when i am on my desktop because i am so used to turning to my laptop for all that stuff. we still dunno what is wrong with it but my brother said he will take it to staples for me. just have to wait for him to do that.

i don’t really have anything else to write about.

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