Wow does that thing come down fast with all the trains. I am so thankful! As of 10 hours ago my rank is: 28,863. I see this new rating and I just feel nothing but happy. Blogging is really a great thing! The lower ranking does wonders for your site, that is very true. However, that is not what I am so happy about. Its very nice, but what I love most is you, the readers. Its great to have an excellent rank that may bring more readers your way, but it means most to me that you take this time out of your day, stop by here, and take a look at my [2 cents]. I value you all so much and this community is really the best!

Thank you all for participating! If you ever have any suggestions, questions, comments, or nonsense on top of mine, please just post’em. I am indebted to all of you and if ever I can help you with anything that I am capable of helping with, please just let me know!

Thanks to my turn of fortune and me winning an iPod Nano via a contest held by PureBlogging.com, I get to try something out that I have been dying to try for a very long time. Back in August of 2006 I read a blog post on Rasmus Lerdorf’s toy page titled *”Nike+iPod Goodness”.

Rasmus Lerdorf is the original creator of PHP. A huge hero of mine, so I always keep an eye out for his posts although they are very few and far between. He also has his own type of “toys” blogging page [*toys.lerdorf.com] as well where he talks about little web apps that he likes to play with as well as fun tech stuff he buys. Definitely a great place to stop by and take a look.

At the time Rasmus posted about Nike+, I had never even heard about it. To sum it up quickly, its basically a very advanced pedometer. It comes in 2 pieces, an expansion for your iPod Nano and a sensor for your shoe. It tracks how far and fast you walk or run and how many calories you have burned. The sensor sends data to the expansion piece connected to your iPod Nano and the iPod Nano stores the data. All this while you are listening to your favorite songs while running around. The next time you dock your iPod it can download all that data and of which you can choose to upload it to the Nike+ Website. There you can store and track your runs as well as set goals for yourself. Rasmus even wrote a php script that processed the data so he could keep track of his runs as well and display it on his toys page. Rasmus went into a lot of detail in his first post about it, so I highly suggest checking it out if you are interested. He later blogged in January saying that he had completed *”100 runs” for a total of 620 miles and burned off a total of 80,000 calories! He basically said that he went from a 205lb fat slow geek to a 175lb slow geek. Whether it was just from the running or whatever else, that is an impressive weight loss in just 5 months!

It is important that if you decide to invest into one of these as well, be sure to not get suckered into the Nike+ shoes. You do not have to have the Nike+ shoes in order to use this. There are plenty of cases out there designed to weave the sensor through your laces and have no loss of proper sensing. The Nike+ shoe puts the sensor in the sole of the shoe, but a pair of these can run you $100! Unless you have the money to spend for the cool looking shoes, just go with the sensor case.

So David Culpepper of PureBlogging.com sent me a couple emails yesterday and today showing me that my new iPod Nano will be arriving tomorrow. I can’t wait to play with my new toy and I am really excited to try out this Nike+, after all, I’m a fat slow geek

[*note: Rasmus' website is down for whatever reason at the time of this post, however these are normally valid links. I really really hope that he has not decided to stop his personal site!].

PureBlogging.com recently held a blog review contest and my name (via a number) was randomly chosen as the winner! I am so excited about this! I’m usually not a very vain person, so if I ever buy something for myself that is nice, chances are it took months to years to save up for. I have wanted an iPod Nano for a very long time, so to win one, means so much! Its really kind of funny, at the time I wrote the review for PureBlogging, I was doing it free of charge to basically anybody that asked. David stopped by my MyBlogLog page to let me know that he was running a little contest. I jumped at the chance because it was a nice little side item on what I would have done for him anyway.

I really like this contest that David setup & I am very glad that he contacted me about it. Not just because I won, but because it helped me find his site. I think his posts are always valid and worthy content, so it is definitely in my google reader. You can tell I am truly hooked to a blogging site when I subscribe to the comments feed as well, and yes, I have subscribed to that too on David’s site. What I really like most is David did not just use this contest for linkbait, but he also took in the suggestions given to him in the reviews. He already redesigned his logo and changed his tag phrase. These are 2 things that I suggested to him in my review. He took in what we all wrote and acted upon it, that is really something! I feel like I’m on top of the world right now with this turn of luck and I have truly been honored to receive this prize so…

A New Honorary Blogroll Inductee…
In the face of danger, all he did was laugh. He showed his bravery by starting a contest where the risk was high. For this great feat of courage and honor bestowed upon me, I knight’th thou’th Sir David “PureBlogging” Culpepper of Mississippi. I honor you with this David, not because you prized me with an iPod, but because you have shown great honor. I am humbled by this great act, no matter who would of won. A permanent link on my site is all I can do to say Thank You!

My Honorary Blogroll is just that, a thing of honor. It is the way I can honor my readers and community with the greatest thing possible, a permanent linkback. I am constantly keeping my eye on all comments, actions, and linkback posts that involve this site. If I feel truly honored, than I return the favor by honoring you! Thank you all so much for stopping by!

Don’t think giving me iPods will buy you an Honorary Blogroll spot, it will not, although, you are more than welcome to try That and loads of cash will always be worth a shot…but I can not promise anything…

So as a parent, you get to say awesome things like that all the time. Over the last 2 months my youngest daughter has just become affixiated with Winnie the Pooh. So of course my Wife and I try to get a couple things for her here and there that are related to Winnie the Pooh. But I find myself saying the funniest things. I think the best one was Last night when I asked my daughter if she was “brushing her teeth with Pooh”? We purchased a Winnie the Pooh toothbrush for her this weekend. But it doesn’t just end there, you get to say things like “Do you have Pooh on your ball?” or “Is that Pooh on your sock?”. If you figure out how to say these things at the right time, you get some really weird looks come back your way if you are out in public.

*Personal Side-note:
I really love being a Dad! I could not picture my life any different. I have a level of pride that I think could never be broken, but it only grows every day. I am just so so proud! Everything I do is always about trying to make a better life for my family and making sure that my kids have a good life. I have another little one on the way and I can’t wait!