The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I was, in fact, in the hospital a significant amount of time over the past couple weeks.

Yes, I am all right now, pending final confirmation on Friday with another ultrasound.

No, I am not pregnant.

My kidneys have been having trouble- between the stones and the hydronephrosis, things have been rough.

Over the past week, I’ve been feeling pretty good, but I was so incredibly far behind in homework that when I wasn’t playing Lord of the Rings: Online, I’ve actually been working pretty hard on past-due homework.

Now for some one-line headlines:

Today was the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shootings. Can’t say I paid much attention to the news, but I didn’t hear a single mention of it. Pretty sad :\

I’ve been working on a new website dedicated to providing open source solutions for ministries- specifically through hosting and web-based apps like WordPress and MediaWiki, but also extending into the realm of the computer-building that I’ve been doing so much of.

Time Warner backed off on their bandwidth capping!

Was the first one to buy this new set of strings at Guitar Center. Forgot what they are called, but they sound amazing. (They come in zebra-like packaging)

Looks like I’m headed to Watkins Glen for the NASCAR race this year Happy Birthday to me.

It was my birthday on the 17th.

Have never gotten so much Facebook-notification-email-spam before.

It was nice getting so much email.

People really need to come up with something better to say than “Happy Birthday” and that now-lame Happy Birthday song. Yes, I know it isn’t very long. It’s not that shocking really. It’s about as long as the attention span of the average Zomgee.

I really like WordPress.

I really like Google Reader.

I really like getting replies on Twitter.

I really like this stream-of-consciousness stuff.

I made a rule that no new posts are published between midnight and 6am unless peer-reviewed.

I just set my system clock back an hour.

I’m clicking Publish.

Things have been changing a lot around Zomgee (like we’re some non-abstract entity or something). Starting the beginning of May, HT, OhYo and I will each begin our lives being the largest combined distance from each other. I suppose you could say that the three amigos have become the one amigo, one pard’ner, and one dude…

I had meant to write back in January about one of my friends that was killed in a car accident. I’ve mentioned it in a few of my digital outlets. I never could bring myself around to doing it because of the sheer … insanity of the situation. Its still so hard to believe that it actually happened.

Then along came February and my grandpa passed away from cancer- only after being told weeks before he was in the clear. It was kind of a one-two punch and I wasn’t taking it real well. Once again, I felt like writing about loss, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.

Things didn’t stop there though. HT moved in March. Sure, you might think a thousand miles is nothing when there is a thousand miles of fiber optic in between, but, I’ll be honest, I miss him and his wife. With The Office being back on and 24 around the corner, it stinks not having someone to watch and seriously critique the show with.

To make it worse, OhYo is taking off. He and I have hung out a lot the past month or so and we’ve become closer friends through various late night chats and laser tag sessions (which he epically fails at).

I suppose the cherry on the top is working anywhere between 30-50 hours a week in addition to full time school and labs. I’m hardly ever home before 10 at night and rarely asleep before 2am.

Now, at the risk of making you think I actually am doing so, I am not making a ploy to gain your sympathy or well wishes. That’s not my intent at all. I’m merely keeping everyone apprised of my situation and also why my posting tendency has been a bit subdued lately.

Now all of this is all well and good, but what’s my point? Well, independent of the input of my fellow contributors (ie, because I want to), I’m adding a tab for myself at the top of the screen. I’ll post some to it fairly frequently, but it will also be an aggregator for my other feeds, which include (but are not limited to) my twitter feed (also my new sole-source for facebook/status updates) and my shared Google reader items (sweet links to stories, pictures, and videos). If I hear enough feedback, I might even move one or both to the front page. Regardless, let me know what you think.

Its ironic that I had on my to-blog list- “Twitter: blogging devolved” when actually, I think its evolving. Gone are the ridiculously long posts such as this one while we welcome “mini blogging” such as status updates, snippets of our thoughts, and all-around material that is more interesting. I’m actually working on a secret project that has received some acclaim from some fairly prominent people I’ve shown it to. Stay tuned for that.. you might end up liking it.

Well I suppose I should start paying attention in class… have a great night all.

Over the past few weeks (and years), I’ve stumbled upon some software that is amazing. I’m going to try to point out a few of the ones that come to the top of my head

Web based

1. Firefox – Hands down the best browser. More secure than its counter parts, extensible, customizable, light weight. There’s really only one reason why you would need another browser- IE7 for services such as Sharepoint. Don’t miss: the extensions listed elsewhere in this article.
2. Gmail – The best email service EVER. It incorporates Google Chat and AIM, supports document conversion, integrates with Google Maps and other services, supports POP3 and SMTP relaying, the list goes on forever. The only thing missing is encryption support. Don’t miss: Better GMail 2 Firefox extension, GNotifier (if you aren’t running Google Talk), and Google Drive Shell
3. Firebug – If you dabble with CSS, are a top-notch designer/coder, or merely want to see the various AJAX calls that a certain page makes, look no further. I can’t tell you how many times this has saved me from headaches- or how many hours I otherwise would have lost. The nicest feature is the Inspect Element option that appears when you right click an object. You immediately see what styles apply to it, where in the page that code is, and the exact line number of all the styles that apply to it. Don’t miss: Right-click and click Inspect Element
4. BetterYouTube – Who wants to see the “Other videos from this user” widget when watching a YouTube video? Who cares about the comments? Want to download the video (at your own risk)? Look no further than this simple Firefox extension. It fixes the shortcomings of YouTube, but allows you to revert back to the original if you’d like. Don’t miss: That simple download link
5. WordPress – This is the best blogging platform around. It is, in fact, what you’re using right now. Its simple to use and is extensible beyond all imagination. Don’t have your own server? Don’t have your own domain name? For $40 a year, I can provide you with your own WordPress blog, a .com of your choice, server space to host the blog, and the support to get it up, running, and problem-free. Just ask ZePuKa. If you’d rather not spend money, but still want to make the jump to WordPress, they offer their own hosting for free (you can also pay for extended features and removal of ads). Don’t miss: Updating regularly

Chat

1. AimAdHack – Love the look and features of having the real AOL Instant Messenger client, but don’t care for the gobs of ads and “toolbars”. AimAdHack provides you with the latest version of the real AIM program, removes all the junk you don’t want, and offers some features and plugins that you would normally not get. Don’t miss: The different color themes (black/green is good)
2. Xfire – Xfire is a great way to track how much time you play games, track your stats in those games, chat with other gamers and see what games they are playing, keep track of the people in the various clans/guilds you are a part of, and chat with people in game at the same time. For games such as Counter Strike: Source, you can even jump right to the server where your friends are playing. Don’t miss: Adding acatzr800 to your friends list

Graphics and such

1. Fireworks – This is the simplest and most fully featured graphics program I’ve ever come across. Think of it as Photoshop’s baby brother and you get the idea of what it is. It’s a little less on the artsy side, but handles all ranges of image manipulation, effects, and animations. CS3 is running about $300 right now, so its still a pretty penny, but it’s a lot less then Photoshop’s $650 price tag. Don’t miss: Transparency
2. Piclens – Imagine being able to scroll through the images on google image search, facebook, flickr, or any other site with image feeds. Stop imagining. Don’t miss: The motion sickness pills the first time you hold down the arrow keys to scroll through.
3. Ript – Digital scrapbooking can serve many purposes, from just keeping track of notes, links, and pictures in a design-as-you-go way, or professional looking, print/email ready pages for a scrapbook. Ript is free, easy, and very nice. Don’t miss: Leaving the app running and dragging things over to it when you can
4. Picasa – By far the best photo gallery management software I’ve come across. It even allows you to email (via gmail if you wish) pictures, turn pictures into slideshows, or even produce movies. Don’t miss: Everything.

Games

1. Counter Strike – One of the best games to date. Although its been around for a few years now, the graphics are still pretty good and the gameplay is some of the best around. Chances are, if you know a gamer, he has a Steam account with Counter Strike installed. Don’t miss: cs_assault
2. Guild Wars – Quite probably the best MMO ever. Its simple, realistic design makes getting started fun and easy and offers content for all sorts of skill levels and age ranges. Don’t miss: Guards of the Citadel [GotC]
3. Google Earth – Google Earth? A game? It sure could be. Not only can you fly around in “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego” fashion, but press various combinations of Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and A while in Earth mode and see what happens. Then you’ll see why this is a game. Don’t miss: That key combination I just mentioned

Video

1. VLC Player – Great all around and customizable video player. Can’t play DVDs through Windows Media Player? This will, have no fear. Don’t miss: The ability to add subtitles
2. virtualdub – Simple video editing and compression software. It won’t win you any awards, but its so easy, even a … yeah, you get the point. Don’t miss: The home and end keys (see what they do)
3. Xvid – Ever have problems playing back video that has been compressed in odd formats, like DivX? Xvid will encode and decode those videos on the fly. Just download, install, and never worry about not being able to see video streams again. Don’t miss: out on DivX movies again

Computer Management

1. Hamachi – I haven’t tested this out since it was purchased by LogMeIn, but its a quick way to set up VPNs and create a faux-LAN environment. Have games that will only let you play multiplayer on a LAN? Want to print to someone else’s printer? Here ye be. Don’t miss: The chat and browse features
2. Truecrypt – Truecrypt is the absolute pinnacle of hard drive/file encryption technology. I won’t tell you any set ups I run, but it has the ability to encrypt entire partitions, 1 large file (which it then treats as another partition), and many others, including my favorite way, encrypting an entire USB drive and then prompting for a password as soon as you plug it in. Don’t miss: Preventing people from hax0ring your dataz.