What I like about the system is that it is easy to set up, and the ads are usually in good taste.
The system isn’t like Google, where people have to go clicking on the ad they see for me to earn anything (but please, click on them if you are so inclined — let these nice people who have chosen me as a venue for advertising see that the money they are spending isn’t in vain). The advertisers pay a steady daily rate. This means that they could be paying a penny a day for 30 unique views, or 300, or 3000, or even 300000, if they’re lucky to catch something like that.
The system is more of an auction system. You bid for a number of days at a maximum price that you are comfortable with, to keep yourself showing. As long as you aren’t outbid, your ad shows at the lowest price. If someone tries to bid, but doesn’t beat your bid, you simply pay per day at this point:
If your maximum bid is 1 cent per day, and no one has bid, you pay nothing for your ad to show.
If someone suddenly bids on the slot for a free two day run, then you start paying the 1 cent per day, until that person retracts their bid, or the period they wished to run it for expires.
That’s what makes it inexpensive.

Thanks to Project Wonderful, I’ve also discovered a pair of webcomics that I read now (I need to add Biff to the list of comics I read here).
It seems that you, the users, haven’t blocked them with AdBlock, and I truly thank you for that.

The question at the moment is this: Have you checked out any of the ads, or even enjoyed the material?

I’d like to share a few of the videos that I found humorous.

The first video is a parody of the old “Captain Planet” cartoons that used to air back in the… early 90’s, I believe it was. I grew up on the show, and used to (this is embarassing) sing along with the opening music.
The game of choice for this video was Sega’s Phantasy Star Universe.
Enjoy.

Captain Planet~

This second video goes back just a little farther, to one Michael Jackson. In NCSoft’s Guild Wars, this dance should take you back to the 80’s.
Enjoy.

[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pem783iENnU[/video]

And finally, an old classic that I’m sure many will enjoy, and someone will be offended by:
The Internet is for Porn. The game of choice for this was World of Warcraft, which everyone is so obsessed with, it seems.
Please, wait until after the short film to unzip your flies.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWEjvCRPrCo[/video]

180 channels, and all we get are dog shows?
We're going back to cable!

See ya later, Doggy Satellite Dish!

We sorta joked around with the dog, about his cone shortly after they neutered him. He would run into the backs of our legs with that dish on, as well as other objects. :)

Earlier this week, I spent some time upgrading WordPress, and most of my plugins to the latest versions that I could find. I added in OpenID support (there is a rant that goes with this, if I’m ever in the mood to write about it).

Today, I spent the afternoon upgrading my uncle’s computer. He’s very computer illiterate, and brings it to me every time he messes something up. While I’m flattered and honored, it’s slightly annoying, since he forgets to bring all the power cords, assuming that I actually have enough to work with.

It took him weeks to finally bring the power cord for his tower, since I told him I didn’t need a monitor. I had a couple spare monitors that I received from a local freecycler, to which I am thankful for. I had a power cord for either my monitor spare, or for his tower. I needed both. So, he finally brings me a power cord today, so that I can finish up the work I started on his computer — prior to that, I had actually unplugged my monitor, and connected it to his computer so I could plug his in, and install Windows 2000 on that.

So, this computer is sitting next to me now, in perhaps the most optimal configuration ever — Now that I have a router, I can plug him in, get it to do what it needs to do (Windows Update like MAD), and be able to tell him in a couple of hours to grab his computer. I’ll finally have that space back again. Now, of course, I have to do this without a mouse: I broke my spare mouse, and I am not going to plug my current mouse in on his computer — his USB ports are in the worst place ever, with none on the front.

At this rate, I should have him up and running at full speed, including network drivers, etc. on a CD for the next time I have to reinstall everything for him in the next 90 minutes.

Then I can take my painkillers. X_X;

First: I have been struggling with my practice exams, with the Superman class exam consistently knocking me on my arse.
It is with great delight that I inform you of my passing that practice exam on Sunday. I am currently waiting for my paperwork in the mail, so that I can move on to take the state level exam for becoming a [tag]Life Insurance[/tag] agent.

Second: This one pertains mostly to you LiveJournalers, and anyone else that participates in OpenID.
Thanks to the WPOpenID plugin, I am now able to support users using OpenID for comments.
I’ll need to update my comment form slightly to show support there, but for now, please use the sidebar to log in via [tag]OpenID[/tag]. You may comment this way, with relative ease.

I’ve been running it from Subversion for quite a while, because I like to live dangerously on the edge, and things like that.

So, I chose to jump on the WP2.1 banner and point it out instead. ;P

After that, I think I’m still allowed to take the state test, but I won’t have Saturn’s guarantee to back me.

On top of that, my car seems to have given her dying breath.
Mom and I have poured so much money into that car to keep it running, despite the fact that we both knew we should just junk the car and get another one.
It seems to be one more thing that needs to be worked on, and I can’t afford to pay for that.

This makes things much more difficult.

For a while I kept that promise, eating in the dining room, even though I chose to do it when the rest of the family was gone somewhere, or was asleep. I still kept the promise of not eating in my room then.

I’ve taken to eating in my room more often now, because she’s gone. I don’t have her here to verbally reprimand me for doing it.

I sit here this afternoon, with my bowl of phở and a mug with green tea, sweetened with only one teaspoon of honey. I neglect to locate my cameraphone, because my desk is a mess, and because this is a bit of a private image for me.

Yet, the thoughts that pop up require me to talk about this.

The bowl and mug, I noticed as I stirred honey into the hot green tea before me, each symbolize one of my late parents.

The bowl is a ceramic type deal, white, with a thick and a thin hunter green stripe around the rim. The bowl’s contents, the phở itself is white, like the bowl, and the green onions and the packet of vegetables that come with it are varying shades of green to match.

This bowl is the papa bowl. My dad loved hunter green. Whenever he bought clothing for me, he’d try to get something green, if he could get away with it. Long before he passed, he would make food, and when he put it in bowls, he would, perhaps subconsciously, color code each of our bowls. This green-banded bowl was his. I had a blue-banded bowl that was nearly identical. Mom would get the light brown band for hers.

The mug is another ceramic type deal, cream colored, with light brown circling the outside of the mug. Within the light brown band are cream colored circles that would remind you of the 5 bone in dominos. The green tea in the mug is close to the color of the band on the outside of the mug — a brownish hue.

This mug is the mama mug. When I was very young, Mom would always have her morning coffee or morning cocoa from this very mug. There was a couple of other mugs she would drink from, but those were gifts from me, and from one of her children as I grew.

Somehow, I managed to pick up each one of these while making my lunch, though it was completely unintentional.

I didn’t mean to go into this while my lunch is getting cold, but…

I think that sometimes, we as humans do things that make us feel comfortable, or invoke thoughts of past comfort to make the present a little easier to bear. The bowl and mug remind me a lot of mom and dad, whom I miss dearly, but they don’t make me hurt inside like looking at pictures. Maybe it is because they invoke thoughts, old memories of me as a child, where I felt safe, loved, and warm.

Am I the only one who sees it like this?

Time to add more honey to the tea, and eat.

[tags]Spirituality, Comfort, Past, Symbolism[/tags]

I started watching the videos this morning, to get myself going, and found myself laughing for the majority of the video. Being a gamer, and mostly an RPG gamer at that, I can appreciate the numerous references to various older RPGs, as well as a few newer ones. There’re also a couple of veiled anime references there, as well, which only made it funnier.

I recommend watching the videos for a good laugh.

You may start that by visiting CollegeSaga.com from this link.

You may also find the video in a single, continuous format on YouTube by clicking anywhere on this sentence.

If you’re into skipping the rest of the cruft (commentary, ads, whathaveye), then click this sentence for an alternative YouTube link.

[tags]CollegeSaga, Mark Leung, Humor, Video, YouTube[/tags]

The story I meant to tell you all yesterday, but couldn’t, due to my tastebuds refusing to reboot for several hours:

I was buying some ice cream from the Ice Cream truck yesterday, and I saw a sticker for this thing on the side.

The text on the left reads,
Tamarind and Chili
Frozen Treat

I had to have this thing.

The guy selling it didn’t understand me at first… and then said,
“This is Tamarindo. You want? Is spicy. You want? You sure. You want?”

I should have got the clue when he asked me three times.

Read the rest of this at Flickr, and follow the set. It’s amusing, to say the least.
I even took pictures, because I just knew it was going to be bad.

[tags]Lucas, Pelucas, Tamarind, Tamarindo, Chili, Ice Cream!?, Bad Candy[/tags]