Not here! Pfew! So lets time travel here for a moment. About 2 months ago you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of your newest addition. But all of a sudden you notice a good sized lump down below on one of your boys. With this following post you are going to be whisked through my journey on what happened to me and what all I had to go through.

So first off, let me say that occasional self examination is very important. Breast or Testicle, either way cancer can spread very quickly so it is important to be on top of these things. For me, it was just by some kind of random itch that I noticed it at all. If you have any abnormalities it is very important to schedule a doctor’s appointment right away. Chances are likely that it is nothing, but because of the chance of spreading, procrastination is not an option.

So now you have gone to the appointment. After waiting in the lobby 45 minutes past your appointment time you finally get to be taken to a room where you wait another 15 minutes for your doctor. Oh well, thats the way things go. So you talk about what is going on and eventually you get the examination. This goes beyond the typical “turn your head and cough” that you would get with a physical. This will involve a lot more hands on squeezing and prodding by the doctor. Once the doctor confirms your suspicion, you must now have an Ultrasound. Yes, the very same thing they do on Pregnant ladies to see the Babies in their tummies.

So now you make a separate Ultrasound appointment that is so overbooked due to all the pregnant ladies and such that it is about another month before you can be scheduled in. Again, another very important reason to be very ahead of the game. If it is cancer, the sooner you start this process, the sooner it gets dealt with. If there is any worry at all, they Ultrasound both Testicles and your Scrotum. I know, you almost just want to sign yourself up for this just out of how fun it sounds so far right?

So the month+ finally goes by and you finally get in for the Ultrasound. This part really disappointed me. In my case, I was taken into a room. Got naked and put the frock on. Unlike with pregnancies, they do not allow you to have a “viewing” monitor. So everything is done and you get no point of reference or anything to look at while it is being done. This stuff was really interesting to me but to just lay there and have no participation other than the object being scanned, thumbs down. I know I’m sure it is just to save time and prevent a billion and 1 questions from the worriers, but come on, this stuff is interesting, show me! How often are you going to be in a predicament where your boys are getting scanned, might as well make the most out of it…

So anyway, the Ultrasound process consists of the following. You know that gel that they put on the woman’s stomach? Well guess what, you get a whole lot of it squirted down on your boys and elsewhere. In an effort to not displease the ladies that normally get it on their tummies for pregnancy, they keep the gel heated so that it will not make them cold. Well heated gel may feel okay on a tummy, but on my boys, yeah, not so much. Could have been a few degrees cooler, however, I do appreciate the fact that it was not cold. The situation is embarrassing enough so the last thing you need is shrinkage. So like I said, she sprayed that on me and then the exam started. Basically other than being asked to “bear down” a couple times, it was really just laying there for 30 minutes while she sensored me left, right, and down…she works her way all around saving images here and there for the file.

After that process is done, all of your Ultrasound images are sent off to a Radiology Expert that analyzes the images. 2-3 business days later that Expert contacts your doctor with the findings. If good, your doctor sends you a letter saying you have nothing to worry about, if bad, well, needle biopsy does not sound too good to me.

I got the letter on Friday, saying that everything was benign and that the lump attached to my buddy was actually cysts. So as cancer goes, I am in the clear! I am extremely glad that I did not ever have to describe what a testicular needle biopsy feels like. Overall, the experience was alright, I mean, it had to be done. Nobody wants to have all their “parts” touched left and right by strangers and such, well, at least in this way. But you have to set aside worry and such, better to go though this kind of stuff than have to find out you waited too long and now you have it in your lymph nodes or brain…

An FDA page I just googled real quick. If you want to do any further reading on the subject:
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/196_test.html

This post was my experience. Your experience may be much different than mine, however I did want to share mine with all of you.

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As I said in my last post, I recently purchased Half-Life 2 so that I could not only play it, but also play a Source Mod called Goldeneye Source. Goldeneye Source is based off of the old Goldeneye 64 game for Nintendo 64. Everything has been completely rerendered using todays graphics that Source makes possible. It is an online multi-player first person shooter.

Goldeneye Source is still currently in BETA release, but from my little playing experience I have found that it is free of defects. There are choppy connections sometimes, but I’m sure that is all related to the Server that is running at the time. I hear and read players sometimes talking about bugs they are coming across, so perhaps it is just that I am so new that I don’t notice anything wrong.

So I remember how crazy things would get when there were 4 of us playing on one Nintendo 64. Now, you can have loads more than that. I think the most that I have ever seen on one server at any given time was around 12. But most servers set their max user limit to around 20 - some even as high as 40! When you have that many people playing, it really no longer matters whether you are a novice or an expert, its just loads of online characters running around and shooting everywhere!

I have taken a few screenshots of my online adventures. Click any of the below pictures for a bigger size.

Picture 1:
As you can see, I set my user name to my URI. I’m not exactly trying to ‘advertise’ directly, but I’m more just taking advantage of the opportunity, after all, my name has to be something right? So live or die, it still displays it

Picture 2:
In this picture if you look to the bottom left you can see me changing what character I’m playing as. Currently the options are not many, basically just a few of the main from the old Nintendo 64 game. I hope this is something they continue to develop on, I really miss the “Scientist”. That was who I always played with. In fact, I was the “Scientist” one year for Halloween.

Picture 3:
And finally this picture shows the mic icon. If you have a mic, you can talk online while you hand out justice served up cold. I have not mic’d it up yet. But from my playing experience, I can tell you that cursing is a must. You will often see players changing their user names if they are currently mad about something. The other night I saw a player change his/her name to “_____ can suck my _____”. I will let you fill in the blanks.


I was never as good as some of the Dogs in Goldeneye, but man, I’m even more rusty now. I basically connect and have my behind handed to me on a shiny golden platter. I’m not going to hold that against the game though, its my aging skills. I’m very happy with where this game is going. Considering it is only BETA and is already such a great Mod, I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

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Today I will be writing a review about PureBlogging.com. David Culpepper of PureBlogging.com came by my site thanks to the recent John Chow post after I informed John about a problem with Brian’s Threaded Comments. When David browsed my site, he noticed that I write site reviews and requested that I write one about his site. He also mentioned that he has an excellent Blog Contest going right now where you can Win An 8GB Apple iPod Nano. I would have reviewed his site with just him asking, but still, that iPod nano is one heck of a great incentive. What a great prize offer! If you are comfortable with writing site reviews, I advise that you definitely take him up on such a great opportunity!

Okay, so lets begin the site review of PureBlogging.com.

The Good:
Wow, what a great site to obtain blogging information! Here is a couple items that I want to spotlight.

• Valid & Worthy Content - There are definitely no “fillers” on this site. Every post I read was useful and/or well researched. The writing style is exactly what you are looking for from a site directed at providing you information.
• Maximum Use of a Basic Template - Really loving it. David has really maximized the potential of his site’s “real estate”. He uses a very basic design, but everything is placed so efficiently that it all flows really well. I really like how the AdSense on this site is placed, a lot of the time you will see that it is obtrusive on most sites. That is definitely not the case with PureBlogging.com.

The Not-So-Good:
I am very impressed with PureBlogging.com. It was not easy to fill this section.

• Site Logo - although it serves its purpose, it really is unimpressive. I think on a information site you want something a lot more grabbing. Something that sticks out and will have its own associative look. Current design has elements that are too commonly used.
• Site Tag - “Make Money Online with” is being so commonly used these days. I’m not sure if this is a good angle to approach the net with so much well established competition.

Summary & Advice:
Really, please, keep doing what you are doing. Your content is great and well formed. Your site structure and setup is one that definitely makes me happy as a blog reader. I do recommend a logo redesign. If graphic design is not something you are comfortable with, many logo designing services are available. Perhaps if AdSense or anything else brings in some good income you can reward the site with a shiny new logo. “Make Money Online” is not a bad tag, just so widely used. I would go after a similar phrase that is used often in search strings and make it your own!

* My reviews are based on my own opinion of different matters. I can be very critical of some items, but that is just because I am trying to help. If you would like me to review your blog or website, now is a very good time. For a limited time I am offering my review services for free. Only requirement is that upon receiving the review, you can either review my site on yours or add me to your blog roll.

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So you want to know what really grinds my gears?
Most Online Return Policies for Defective Items and those Copy and Paste Emails!

I purchased a stick of memory online a few months ago. The memory stick finally got to me and sure enough, it was a bad stick. I contacted the company from which I purchased the stick from - ZipZoomFly.com - and told them about the defective product. I requested that they send me a replacement stick along with a prepaid return label so I could return the defective product back to them. A few days later I received an email from someone in that organization that was just a copy and paste of their return policy, other than that no real attempt at solving my issue. It stated that returns have to be paid for by the customer, the returned product would have to go through testing, and then they would send me the replacement after they found the memory I received to be bad. I repeated my request, after all, they sold a defective item and I was not wanting to pay shipping for an item that was defective and not my fault. It wasn’t the cost of shipping, its the principles I hold dear on business transactions. You sold me a part that was claimed to be a brand new working part, thats what I bought, thats what I want, so take this back and give me what I bought from you.

Now I know I’m spoiled normally when it comes to good service, the majority of the technical buying I do is for my employer. When products are for a business rather than an everyday consumer, vendors bend at every request most of the time. “Something wrong with that part, sure thing we will get you a new one out right away, please just return the bad part with the included shipping label”. When it comes to my employer, this is what happens about 98% of the time, you are a business and a vendor does not want to lose you. But as an everyday consumer, you will see that most Online Companies treat you like dirt when it comes to defective returns.

So long story short, I just kept getting copy and paste emails back from ZipZoomFly.com. The memory stick was a Corsair memory stick and had a lifetime warranty. I decided that if I was going to pay to ship it anywhere, it would be to Corsair. I didn’t want to have any further dealings with ZipZoomFly.com period. Corsair on the other hand was great. I received constant email updates about where in the process my new and old stick were. I think there were about 5 update emails all together that I received from them. All typed out by an actual person. Now that is service and I was very grateful for that. That brightened up an overall bad experience. Oh by the way, they confirmed that the stick was bad, so I was not making it up.

The Outcome:
I will try to buy Corsair more when I can, both at home and at work, that service experience was excellent. I will never ever buy another thing from ZipZoomFly.com again. If they come in cheapest on a pricegrabber or whatever, they are not going to get any further business from me. They had the opportunity to save my business, but copy and paste emails are not the way to save a customer.

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I think one of the first things you will see about MsDanielle.com is that it is more than Just another ego blog site. She has decided to start a Back Link Promotion involving blogger reviews of her site. I know Danielle is very active in the blogging community and I am happy to review her site. Blogging and Site reviews is something that I feel may be a great strong point of this site in the future, after all, I’m honest.

The Good:
Her site has a great appearance to it. All the colors mix well and basically bring you into this “Danielle World” that you can only associate with her. I can’t recall any other blogs that look similar to hers so her design and colors really do stick out on their own. Her posts are mainly focused on marketing blog tips, but she does not just stick to that. She expands into many topics but it all does flow great together. There are a couple posts of hers that I wanted to pull attention to. If you have never been to her site before, these are a couple that I have enjoyed immensely: Google Operators: What Are They and Why Do I Care? & Is There Such a Thing as Blog Ethics?.

The Not-So-Good:
Site Navigation:
This is something I am just picky about. Once I open an individual post, I really like to go straight from one post to the next or previous without having to go back to the main page. To me, having the next and previous links is something so basic that all blogs should just have. It makes it easier for the “active commentators” of your site to comment more.
Header:
“Thats a huge header!” It really looks great, I like the design of it and everything, but combining the image together with the rest of your header content and its easy to see that you are taking up around 40-50% of your opening screen space (on a standard 1024/768) with just the title of your page. Opening screen space is something very important. You want to be able to show a lot more content here to the reader as they will see this quite a bit before they scroll. Remember, the header area is the one thing you can guarantee they will see on every page load. However you have no idea if they will scroll the full length of your page. This space being used could be showing more props to your commentators or perhaps have more monetization without requiring scrolling.

Summary & Advice:
I think the layout, colors, and content of your site mixed into this wonderful recipe and became what it is! I honest can’t find a lot wrong with your site, its great! I would really throw in the navigational links, it really helps people comment more when they can jump directly to the next post. And I would also work on shrinking down the header, even if it was just width so that your sidebar could run longer. And finally, as your sites content goes, well, you have another RSS Subscriber and his name is - me

* My reviews are based on my own opinion of different matters. I can be very critical of some items, but that is just because I am trying to help. If you would like me to review your blog or website, please comment below. I am trying to get my feet wet on technical reviews and I am willing to review yours for free. Only requirement is that upon receiving the review, you can either review my site on yours or add me to your blog roll.

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