I got the Lost season one box set for my birthday last weekend and over the course of the week I devoured it. I watched all the episodes, all the bonus material on the 7th disc and even listened to all the commentaries (wish they had more commentaries). As you can probably guess, I really liked it.

I am torn now on season two. I was just going to wait for them to appear on DVD but my brother informs me that he can easily get HDTV rips off torrent sites and I could quickly catch up.

I think I am going to wait. I got seasons three and four of 24 for my birthday as well so I have stuff to keep me busy for a bit. Season two of Deadwood hopefully won’t be too far away and there is always the Sopranos which I have never watched.

And the Shield is on tonight, woohoo.

I got most of the Groovy Banana Web Directory done last night. Need to work on the categories a bit more but I got the look where I want it.

I am very happy with the way it turned out, I think it looks quite nice.

Making this showed me one thing though. I really need to learn some PHP and a lot more CSS. I was able to scratch and claw my way to modify the existing template to what it looks like now but it wasn’t exactly easy. Plus I would like to convert Moe’s Realm to php or css to clean up the code and make updating much, much easier.

Although I don’t think anyone is actually reading this yet, if you are, can anyone recommend any books? I have heard that Bulletproof Web Design is quite good.

I have officially not had a cigarette for a year today!

To tell you the truth I actually found quitting relatively easy on this attempt. I had tried quitting cold turkey a few times in the past and had tried the gum as well and never really had any luck. This time I used the patch and it was a breeze.

There were a couple of days, where in my hurry to get to work, I forgot to put the patch on and those days were rather hellish but as long as I had the patch on things were really very bearable. If you are considering quitting (and you really should) I highly recommend the patch.

One added benefit of quitting was my sense of smell came back with a vengeance. I was shocked at how much smoking had killed my sense of smell. Walking to work and being able to smell rubber from cars tires and the smell of exhaust and other city smells was almost overwhelming. I have since become adjusted to this and don’t really notice it but I sure did in the beginning.

I do miss something about being on the patch though, the dreams absolutely kick ass. They warn you on the packages that the patch may affect your dreams and they weren’t kidding. I had some of the most intense and vivid dreams of my life when I was on the patch. It was very cool.

Bad part about quitting was that I put on some weight. I kind of willingly put on the weight though, I figured I would eat what I want and worry about quitting smoking and deal with the weight gain later. Well, the later has arrived. I started dieting yesterday and my goal is to lose about 30lbs (gained about 20 when I quit smoking).

Wish me luck.

Yep, it’s my birthday. Hard to believe I have been around for 32 years but it’s the truth. Anyway, happy birthday to me.

Have I seen it all now?

I must admit, I kind of want one.

linkity

I finally finished writing all the content and put the store together last night and decided to push it all live. I still need to have it proofread cause I am sure I made my fair share of errors. But the site is done and live and I think it turned out great.

The site is diddleforthemiddle.com which is a slang term in the dart world. Go visit the site to find out what it means if you don’t know.

This is my first site built around the idea of affiliate selling, I am doing some affiliate selling over at Moe’s Realm as well, but this site was built knowing that it would be an affiliate store. If you don’t know what affiliate selling is, it’s quite simple. I refer people to the store in question and if they buy something from them via my referral I get a cut. The affiliate program I am with pays out 10% for all orders under $200 and 12% on orders over $200. I chose darts because it seemed like a market that wasn’t over saturated and not going anywhere. People have been playing darts for hundreds of years and it’s a vastly popular sport. Also, due to the nature of the game the content won’t need much maintence and the site can remain fairly static.

I am a big believer in having good quality content and not just pushing products ads down peoples throats and I think I did a really good job on diddleforthemiddle. Looking at some other dart sites on the net I honestly feel like I have made one of the best.

Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think. diddleforthemiddle.com

Any other Shield fans out there? Is it just me or does this show just keep getting better and better. I got hooked during season one and have watched religiously ever season since. On New Years eve I introduced my buddy to the show by showing him the first few episodes from season one. I got hooked again and ended up watching all four season again, figured I would catch myself up for the new season which just started a few weeks ago.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show it stars Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey, a corrupt cop with good intentions. Vic runs a special forces unit called the strike team. Vic and his guys are constantly getting themselves in sticky situations but always find a way to land on their feet. The show is broadcast on FX which allows them some more freedom than they would have on regular network TV. They swear, there is light nudity and a fair amount of violence on the show. I highly suggest checking the show out, if the first episode of the first season doesn’t grip you I will be very surprised.

This season is especially good so far, Forrest Whitaker has joined the cast as an IAD detective who is trying to take down Mackey and his guys. Whitaker has made a great addition to the cast, I have always liked his acting and he is proving to be worthy foe to Vic and his guys (although he got totally owned last night). Last nights episodes could be one of my all time favorites, it was a real nail biter and the ending was super satisfying.

The Shield is on FX at 10pm on Tuesdays, check it out.