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.

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!

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.