what do you do when you buy a new tv or a new computer? do you simply throw out the old model? or do you keep it around for spare parts? in my family, because my dad fixed electronics, we always kept our old stuff incase we needed a part or if nothing else, as a backup. if you’re the type of person who does throw out your old electronics, you should look into electronic waste recycling.

honestly i see no reason to really throw away anything electronic, even if its broken. parts can always be used to repair other items and if its not broken, you could sell it or give it to someone else who might want it. a lot of my old electronics are hand me downs. my first nintendo was from my dad’s repair shop. the person who brought it in never came back to claim it, so after a few months he brought it home to me. it worked just fine and it never really mattered to me that it wasn’t new. i guess i was a bit lucky though because my dad could fix practically anything. i’ve salvaged quite a few items with his help and i learned how to fix a lot of stuff myself as well. still, i guess after a while, stuff just cannot be fixed anymore, and that’s when you should take it to be recycled and made into things for other people to use.

i’m curious because i look at my stats and i do notice that people show up and leave from my blog rather quickly (within seconds) sometimes. now granted this might be entrecard droppers or link crawlers or maybe spam bots, but it makes me wonder.

when you go to someone’s blog, via comments link, or forum post, or any other means. how long do you stay on that person’s site?

personally for me it depends on the site. if they have one of my hated blogging peeves, like bolding and italicizing every other word, or those damn tool bar things at the bottom of their page trying to connect me to a chat server, i usually don’t stick around very long. i do always try to read the most recent blog on their page, and if i have something to say, i do take time to comment.

if i like the blog, i generally will spend more time on the site. i’ll check out the about page and learn more about the writer, i’ll read a few more entries, and if i like the overall tone of their writing, and the subjects they write on, i’ll usually subscribe to them. then i’ll move on to another blog and repeat the process.

for me i think its only good manners to read at least one blog post, before shoving off, but that could just be me. what do you do when you visit a blog?

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you can find anything from business style templates, to normal personal blog themes, with 1 or more columns and widget ready themes to make designing your site even more simple! and downloaded themes are a great jumping off point if you do feel like customizing but don’t want to write all that code. they are also a great way to learn how to make your own wordpress themes!

this is another topic from daydreamz.net’s weblogit series and its actually the one i wanted from the start however i am not on this week’s list. i’m writing about it anyway!

the internet has changed my life in good and bad ways. lets start with the good:

i am more confident speaking to people, both on the phone, and in person. i still have a little trouble speaking to people face to face but its way less now than it was before.

i have learned many useful skills! i know now how to code websites, make pretty awesome graphics in photoshop, use 3d programs to create stuff, and other less important skills but still cool to know.

i’ve made friends. one of the big problems i have in life is a really tough time making friends. sure i’ve made a few i real life but when you have a massive place like the internet, you end up finding people who have the same opinions and likes and dislikes and you end up with lots of people you can talk to about stuff, that know what you’re talking about, and that’s just cool.

and while on the subject of friends, the internet has also helped me find old friends from highschool that moved away! so i’ve been able to keep in contact with them as well.

the internet has given me something to do in a rather crappy town where the majority of people around me aren’t interested in the same things i am. of course there are also negative aspects to my time online, including:

i’m a slob, always have been, and the net doesn’t help. i get so wrapped up in what i’m doing online that sometimes i forget to toss out the 10 empty water bottles piled up on the floor behind me.

people think i’m a loser. ok i know i’m not that awesome but honestly, the fact that i enjoy spending time on the net, or in a virtual world does not make me a loser. i’m there because the real world is really dull where i live, and since i cannot drive, i can’t really get out and do fun stuff like people who supposedly "have a life".

the internet made me fat. yes i’m gonna go there. after getting hooked to the nets for as long as i have been, i will admit its catered to some of my more lazier tendencies and i have computer nerd chair butt. this is something i’m working to change, but its a hard routine to break. at least now i chug water instead of mt. dew all night.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

Summer is almost over, and I still want to go on a vacation. Right now is a great time too because so many people are going back to school, so places are probably going to be less full than if I went in the middle of the summer. I’d love to just grab Lucas and maybe some close friends, and go to a nice beach or maybe a theme park for a little weekend get away. Yes I like the beach, I know I don’t look like the type but its one of my favourite places in the whole world, and places like that are always more enjoyable when you have friends around.

Have you heard about the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes? You could win an entire hotel for a weekend! That’s 100 rooms for 2 nights for you and your friends! The entry process is very simple, just enter your information and press the submit button. That’s all! No purchases required. The contest is open to residents of the united states, as well as Canada (excluding Quebec), the UK, and Mexico!

If I won a contest like that Lucas and I would be on our way to Orlando Florida for a nice weekend getaway. We’d stay in the Hampton Inn near Universal Studios and run around the amusement park until we were exhausted! I’m really not sure what I’d do with 100 rooms, so maybe I’d have to find more friends to take with me. Any volunteers?

Anyway if you’re interested in this giveaway, (and why wouldn’t you be??), make sure to enter before September 4th! And hey, if you win, take me!

i’m pretty disappointed with my recent purchase from steam. i decided to grab grand theft auto iv since i’ve always loved the series and figured the newest would be pretty awesome what with the multi player option and everything.

much to my dismay, this game DOES NOT WORK! i know i’m pretty damn stunned. running this machine for a couple of months i’ve pretty much found that no game is too much for this thing. i run all games on full graphics ultra settings etc, with no trouble at all.

unlike other games gta IV is a stuttering mess. and the crazy part is that when i played it immediately after the steam download finished it played perfect it was smooth, and i could run around and drive around with no issues. this was on the auto config graphics settings which put me on high and very high settings.

i went to bed and when i woke up and decided to play again, the game was way more choppy than it was before. it takes 4 seconds to go from the apartment to the world outside. it should be effortless and was effortless in my first playthough after purchase.

the world outside of the apartment was even worse. i could not walk nor drive without this sticky stutter which caused me to crash several times. the game acted as if i was on a crap computer when i am on a pretty high end machine and way beyond the recommended specifics for this game.

looking for an answer to my problem has not been simple (and i still do not have a solution after 2 days of fighting with this game) most of the forums where people have asked about this game have been told that the game won’t run because they don’t have the right hardware or sometimes just jackass posturing of "oh you’re using this card, that sucks" or "this processor is shit" nothing that actually gives a solution at all. i did check official forums and found some tweeks to try and none of them worked. i have added my voice to the large base of users who cannot get this game to run even with the right kind of computer to run it.

all in all disappointment. it was so much fun to play that first night. i want my preformance back!

here are some threads you can check out if you are having similar issues to mine. some people said it helped them. so it might help you where it hasn’t helped me.

this thread comes from rockstar NYC its self and gives some console commands to try, this is also the thread i’ve posted my issue in. 

this thread gives some alternative suggestions to try. none of these suggestions worked for me but it seems to have helped others so check it out as well.

and if anyone has any advice for how to make this game work, please let me know because i’m pretty upset that i’ve spent money on something i can’t use.

i should not be allowed to have a paypal account…cause now i have money in it and now i’m spending it D:

i haven’t bought anything off the wall crazy like a howard miller clock but i did buy myself a few games! i really need to sit down and write more about my gaming because recently i’ve been doing a lot of it.

earlier this month i bought garry’s mod and team fortress 2, both are very fun and i am playing the hell out of them. last night after my birthday money reached my paypal i nabbed grand theft auto IV and oh my god i love it so far. its been a really long time since i’ve played gta, and i really need to learn how to drive in that game again lol. i suck at car chases!

no more videogames for a while though. i have plenty and i should really finish them before buying more. bad nimi, bad….

another blog from the weblogit series over at daydreamz.net. this week my assignment was to write about things i’m looking forward to in the future. this is a hard to write about topic (why do i always get assigned these lol) but i’m trying to dig my brain for something here. you see i’m one of those people who doesn’t really like to plan or think about the future. most of this is because every time i’ve tried to plan things out in advance, its gone up in a ball of flaming bad and i really just don’t enjoy having my hopes dashed like that. ok yeah that was depressing.

here are some things that i would absolutely love to do sometime in the future:

- marry lucas. yes that’s cheesy and how predictable can i get? but its true. this guy has been the most important person in my life, next to my dad, for a while now. of all the people i know, and have known, and will meet in the future, this guy is the one i want to glue myself to forever. sure people say that, and i’m sure i’ve said it in the past, but i know deep down that i’ve met someone that is truly my other half. what i lack, he has, in spades. and that keeps me going. of course there are times where we want to stab each other in the face. but i honestly still cannot fathom the idea of not having him in my life, and that’s after 3 and a half years, so that says something.

-have a kid. this is the one that scares me the most. i spent a long time in my life saying NEVER! NO KIDS! NO WAY! and the reason for this was that i was afraid i would be a bad mum to them. not to mention well… i’m just not a big fan of medical stuff. or hospitals. or needles… or doctors looking at my girly bits…but here in the past couple of years the annoying biological clock has reared its ugly head and screamed HAVE A BABY at me over and over again while banging various parts of my anatomy together. it scares me to death. but a part of me really does want to see what would happen if i had a kid. so maybe, possibly, if i can get over some things, i would like to do this.

-learn to drive. this is something i should have been looking forward to in like.. 10th grade. but nooo nimil’s brain cannot have that. we had to be scared as shit to drive for all eternity. i’m still trying to figure out how to get around the weird block my brain has when it comes to driving but i want to do this some day!!!

-go to college. this is something i planned to do once i graduated high school but then stuff happened and dad got sick and i just never went. its still something i plan to do but i’ve lost direction and i need to figure out where the hell i’m going and what i want to take when i get there. my dream is still to go to the tom savini school for makeup and special effects but i would probably be just as happy doing something on a computer as well. so maybe i’ll just spend the rest of my life in school.

-and of course the one major thing i’m looking forward to: GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! i am confident that someday i will have the guts, and money, to move far far away from this little dinky bible belt town to somewhere more interesting and lively. i don’t know when that might be or how long from now, but its something that i look forward to. i am so done with this place it just isn’t even funny anymore.

yesterday i turned 29, and while it was a quiet and at times moody celebration, i came though alright. my mother bought me the sims 3 ambitions, and my grandfather sent me 50 bucks. i spent most of the night playing team fortress 2 with lucas and had a blast. its times like that when i really see just how totally perfect we are together. he did all he could to make sure my birthday didn’t suck, even when i wasn’t really looking forward to it at all.

i really want to thank those of you who left me happy birthday messages on facebook, and twitter, and on the daydreamz.net forum. it means a lot to me especially right now.

now i’m off to sleep because i am completely exhausted!

i haven’t had a chance to write lately but i’ll try to fill in some blanks here.

-we got a new stove thanks to someone my brother did some work for. its really nice and has a glass top and heats up super fast! our old stove was the original one that came with the place and it was slowly dying. we only had 1 working eye and no oven! now we have 3 out of 4 eyes and a working oven one of the eyes on this stove would not turn off so we had the person installing it for us disconnect the wiring to that eye. the rest of it works great.

- my brother was in a small accident while bringing us the oven. he’s ok but mom’s car is wrecked. we’re not sure if it can be saved either. the brakes failed and he hit a pretty large pickup truck and it crushed the front end of mom’s pathfinder. she mentioned last night that they were saying it would cost somewhere around 1k to fix, and that’s just out of the question. we’ll probably just have to find another vehicle for her.

- mom got approved for medicaid! this is a big step. she’s been putting off going to her doctor visits because she didn’t have medicaid but now she has no reason not to go. she’s not so ill that she needs First Alert or anything like that, but i would feel better if she would go to regular checkups and make sure her sugar is ok.

that’s about all that’s been happening recently. not very eventful. the stove was probably the most excitement we’ve had in a while.