My two new favorite things. OnLive and Bing.

First off, I am a gamer.  I am a competitive gamer.  I play mainly first person shooters such as the Call of Duty series and Halo series.  I started out as a competitive gamer in 2005 when I got Xbox LIVE for Halo 2 for the original Xbox.  I quickly became one of the better players, racking in win after win.  Eventually the competition was little to nothing so I became an exploit gamer.  An exploit gamer is someone who relies heavily on exploits in the game and uses them as part of their tactics. 

After playing on Halo 2 for a few years I eventually had to get an Xbox 360 to keep up with the crowd.  I got a Xbox 360 with Halo 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.  I quickly rose to the top of the leaderboard in Call of Duty, being ranked within the top 10,000 out of more than 30 million players.

I have played many other games since then, ranking high in them. At one point I was ranked in the top 100 for a very popular game called Battlefield: Bad Company and within the top 1,000 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

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Lately, my urge to game competitively has died.  That was until I found this.

The service is called OnLive. OnLive is revolutionary way to game.  You can play many high quality games without the need to install them.  How does this work?

Cloud computing.  The only requirement to play high quality games is a mouse, keyboard, screen and a good internet connection (10-15 Mbps.)  OnLive keeps all their games stored on their server and all you get is the video.  When you input a command it will forward it instantly to their servers and execute it.  There is virtually no delay between you hitting the button and the server receiving and executing it.  What this means is that you can easily play a game like Crysis (unfortunately they do not offer it yet) on a low powered system such as a netbook without the lag you would receive if you were to try to install it and run it on your netbook.

Unfortunately, OnLive has been speculated not to survive.  Many people and companies see OnLive not being around for too long.  That being said, I will still continue to use it while it is around.

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Now being an Xbox 360 gamer I use things called Microsoft Points.  What these let me do is purchase things such as bonus content and additional maps. 

I lately have ran into a lack of money so I haven't been buying any Microsoft Points lately.  But I have found out that Microsoft's search engine Bing.  One thing that Bing offers is something called the Bing Bar.  When  you install it (Internet Explorer and Firefox only, sorry Chrome users) it adds a new menu on to your browser. 

With the bar, you can perform searches and complete offers (clicking on links).  When you do these tasks you are awarded Points.  With these points you can purchase multiple things (Microsoft Points, air miles, USB sticks, ect.)  But for me the most interesting thing is the Microsoft Points.  For every point you earn you can buy one Microsoft Point (in multiples of 100.)

At first, I thought that this would go slow since they only allow you to earn 20 points through searching a day, but in a matter of less than two week, I have earned over 500 points. 

I recommend this not only to Xbox players, but to anyone that constantly searches. Trust me, it will pay off.

Stop the Blacklisting

So, I am posting this because I am looking for people to sign a petition.  The petition is to stop the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA.)

This is a bill that will allow the government to censor what we are allowed to do online.  You can read more up on this bill by clicking the link above or reading any of the following links.

Huffington Post: Stop the Internet Blacklist
Examiner: COICA Senate bill (s3804) to blacklist internet
TechDirt: Tim Berners-Lee Comes Out Against COICA Censorship Bill; Shouldn't You?

If you wish to sign a petition visit this link.
Demand Progress: Stop the Internet Blacklist!
Please also call your Senator's desk telling them to stop the bill!

If you wish you can also send a message to your Senator telling them "No!"
EFF: Tell Your Senator: No Website Blacklists, No Internet Censorship!

Share The Petition

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Prologue.

Ah the joys of living a simple life.  Being able to explain the last 19 years of my life in a matter of a few paragraphs.

Well, that's not the life I live.  So instead I shall only explain what is relevant, my new life.  I have always been the son that listens to his mother, doesn't do any drugs, and barely has even been in trouble.  But, as many people ask, how is it that I came to be a father when I was 17?  No, I did not go around having unprotected sex. In fact my life just less than two years ago was a lonely one.  I rarely left my home and I had few friends.  Well this is how I turned into who I am today.

When I was 17 in my Senior year of high-school, I had a friend who wanted to chat with me on webcam, however instead of being able to use AIM, she was forced to use Meebo.com (an instant messaging service.)  So she asked me to use that.  While there I was taken by the simplicity of the site and found myself using it more and more.

Eventually I found out that they supported chat rooms, so during Thanksgiving break I decided to join one to kill time.  While in the chat room I "met" a girl named Suzi.  She was a 17 year old girl that lived in Portland, Oregon.  Oh, and she was seven months pregnant.  I chatted with her on that for a while and eventually swapped phone numbers with her.  We sent text messages back and fourth all the time.  Then in the Winter we decided to try out a long-distance relationship.  It was not a good idea, it didn't work out.  We both realized that it was hard to want to be in a relationship with someone who you have only shared words with.  We both wanted something so come May I flew out to Portland, Oregon to meet her and her daughter, Milah.  I had to return to Maryland to finish up high-school, but just that one visit was enough for us to want to try again, and this time without the distance.  So in late June, she moved out here.  We were back together and I started taking care of and raising Milah.  As for the sperm-donor,  to make a long story short, he will never be in the picture.

The bond between Milah and I grew and grew.  She would even at times want for me to hold her more than her own mother.  After a talk with Suzi we both agreed that I would be called Daddy.  I had no second thoughts, didn't think for once about how it would restrict me from doing all the things I wanted to do while I was young, all I knew was I loved her with all my heart and that deep down, she truly felt like mine, she was mine.

So that's where I am.  19 years old with a daughter.