What is this?
Well, you’re supposed to bold the things you’ve done so readers can find out how you’ve led an awesome life so far.

Here’s what I have done:
1. Started your own blog Ummm, yeah
2. Slept under the stars camping when I was a kid
3. Played in a band (Rock Band: start a band, rock the world)
4. Visited Hawaii(honeymoon 2000)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland(twice)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (Rockband again)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (7-eleven, egg-salad sandwich)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables every year
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort It was quite impressive…or so I remember.
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (To Victoria)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language HTML?
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke(Rock Band counts)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater Ahh the good ‘ol days
55. Been in a movie (Return of the Lin-Kwai) I think I was an accidental bystander, running to get out of the camera angle. Does that count?
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bonestrong> leg when I was 3
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (sitting on Santa’s lap)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (trout)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (Does my wife count?)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit  I won.
98. Owned a cell phone  Still do…cool, huh?
99. Been stung by a bee too many times
100. Read an entire book in one day

Hmm, I’ve got a lot of stuff I need to do.

While there are many reasons for this long break, such as returning to school or playing too much Rockband and other videogames, the main reason was due to site issues and some frustration.  Not sure how, may have been my host, but my entire “mediaalbums” directory just vanished one day, along with all the videos and photos.  I was rather disappointed to find out that my host doesn’t backup folders containing MP3s or video files, due to size.  Without a backup I’d have to set the whole system up again and I really didn’t want to.  Aside from that I also had some issues with hackers and decided to lock down the site until I could fix everything.  Now that WordPress has a more adequate method for inserting images and media, I’ve decided to resume.  I’m still in the process of changing the look and fixing/removing dead links and images so please excuse the mess.

We had a nice, quite Thanksgiving at home this year. It was great to have a 4-day weekend to spend some time with the family and eat lot o’ turkey and stuffing. Though it still feels too early this year, I started putting up some Christmas lights on Sunday. Not much so far, just lining the driveway but this year I plan to get up on the roof to put up lights. I’ll likely post more on this in the next week or so. Also, though I swore against it after my first failed effort, I couldn’t resist building another computer. I had several components just sitting around so I bought a case, motherboard and cpu and tried again. While it appears I have a stable system, I’ll devote a seperate post to the numerous issues I had in the building process. Lastly, I’ve added a new shoutbox feature in the sidebar for anyone who enjoys making off-handed, pointless comments about whatever. Until next time…

For a writer at satirical web periodical, “The Onion”, this is purely for entertainment purposes. See it here: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52325

Perhaps in bad taste but it does raise a good question “what’s going on with the big whole?” I was in NYC last December and I wondered the same thing at the time. 5 years is an awful long time to go by for it still to be just a big whole surrounded by chain link fence. I have heard that some people wanted to build some skyscrapers significantly taller than the twin towers while others thought it better to put a monumental park in the area. Seems like 5 years would be long enough to do either but instead there’s just the same hole from right after the event. I would think that the memories of people would’ve better been honored by doing something with the site immediately. I wonder what could be the cause of this stall. Perhaps just a lot of disagreement? The same woes we have here concerning our mass transit issues? I say they just put a park in with a monument at one end or corner, then if they want to add skyscrapers later they can. Anything besides the current, depressing hole…it’s been 5 years!!