As you can probably tell by my absence of posts lately, things have been pretty busy on my end. This is the “busy season” for hardware sites, as manufacturers are looking to get as much exposure as possible for the holiday buying season. I have been busy getting all of my staff “stocked up” with review items and have even taken a few on myself.

This is the latest item I am working on, a SilverStone FT01 Case, which features a Uni-body frame construction from the flagship Temjin TJ07.

We saw this TJ07 at SilverStone’s booth at the 2007 CES and have been anxious to check out their uni-body design ever since. Look for my review of the FT01 to hit OCIA.net sometime next week. We are also working on putting together a holiday contest / giveaway of sorts. Look for that to hit sometime right after Thanksgiving!

In other hardware news, I have started doing some freelance writing for another tech site, which has given me the opportunity to check out some really cool hardware and has been a blast so far. I have a big article in the works as well as two other reviews for that site, which I will link to when they are published.

Aside from computer work, there has been quite a bit going on lately that I want to take a minute and touch on.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we all know what that means: lots of great food!

Josh and I are going to make deep fried turkey(s) this year. I first had deep fried turkey a few years ago at Keith’s sister’s house and OMG, it’s the best food I’ve ever had! A deep fried turkey is so juicy and tender - the exact opposite of what a traditionally cooked turkey is. I will be recording the cooking process and posting the video on here and YouTube, so be sure to check that out.

Other than that, Keith’s family has invited me over once again for their Thanksgiving dinner. They have invited me the past several years and I am really appreciative of that. I don’t really have a lot of family so it’s cool to be around them around the holidays.

On a sad note, Thanksgiving time has been a bit less happy, as it always reminds me of my mom. She passed away 7 years ago today, so this time of year always brings back those memories

Hockey

The CHL hockey season kicked off about a month ago. Josh and I purchased half-season tickets for the Mississippi RiverKings and have attended a handful of games so far. As of writing, we are off to a 7 - 6 season… not the best, but it could always be worse!

If you have never attended a hockey game, I would encourage you to give it a try. I never liked hockey but was invited to go to a game with a friend nearly 13 years ago (wow, has it been that long?!) and have been hooked ever since. Being there in person is so much fun and is nothing like watching it on TV, which I agree is pretty boring!

College Football

In other sports news, my college football team, the Ole Miss Rebels, have been having a pretty good season, especially compared to last year. We are 6 - 4 on the season and gained bowl eligibility last Saturday. This is the first time the Rebs have been bowl eligible since the 2003 season. The only question that remains now is, which bowl will we be headed for?

The final two games of the regular season will determine that. We play LSU this Saturday (2:30 pm CST on CBS) and Mississippi State on Black Friday. If we win out, which is very possible, we are almost 100% headed to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. A loss or two losses and we are more than likely headed to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee.

I am hoping for a bid to the Cotton Bowl, as that is a much better bowl, but a trip to the Liberty Bowl would mean I could possibly attend, which would be sweet in itself. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out, especially the LSU game this weekend. I’m betting Ole Miss pulls out the victory - you heard it here first!

UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been putting on some pretty good events lately. Since moving to my new place, we have ordered each UFC pay-per-view and have been having parties here on fight night. The most recent was UFC 91, which pitted champ Randy Couture against the 3 - 1 newcomer Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar, formerly in the WWE, is an absolute monster and I fully expected him to be the new UFC Heavyweight champion after the night was over. He came in weighing 40 pounds more than Couture, is 18 years younger and is super quick and agile for his size.

And sure enough, Lesnar ended things in the 2nd round after catching Couture with a shot that dropped him to the mat. Lesnar capitalized and reigned down a series of hammer fists that forced the ref to call the fight. Congrats to Lesnar on this victory and I will be looking forward to seeing him defend the title against the winner of Nogueira / Mir.

Speaking of that fight, which will take place at UFC 92 on December 27, there are also two other headlining fights on that card. The first pits Light Heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin against undefeated Rashad Evans in what should be a great fight. The other main event caliber fight that night is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson against Wanderlei Silva. Jackson has fought Silva twice and both times, he has pretty much been destroyed. Rampage is one of my favorite fighters so I am certainly hoping he pulls out the victory. As they say, third time is a charm, right?

Big 3 Bailout

Oh geez, don’t get me started! Are you friggin’ serious? It totally baffles me how companies that make SOO much money, as these three do… they have one “bad” year and they are on the verge of bankruptcy! Where the hell did all of that money you made over the past several years go? Seriously. Do they simply not keep money in the company?

I certainly hope Congress doesn’t bail out these idiots. What kind of message will that send to other companies if they do?

Just because people don’t want to buy your products in flocks, for whatever reason, you are instantly entitled to have your company saved by the government? What’s next, Nikon asking for help because they aren’t selling enough cameras, Microsoft asking for money because they aren’t selling enough copies of Windows? Seriously, where does it stop?

So let’s say the Big 3 go bankrupt and all those people lose their jobs. Guess what? THERE ARE OTHER JOBS IN THIS COUNTRY YOU CAN DO! So many people tend to think that losing their job would be the end of the world. No it won’t. Go get a different job.

Sure, it would be a change of pace and you may not even like it, but it isn’t disaster. You can still survive.

Economy In General

Stocks continue to drop, unemployment is up, etc. The world is coming to an end!

Gah, whatever. Have you been to Wal Mart recently? I went last Saturday and it was a mad house. Wonder where all of these people are getting their money! And when Black Friday rolls around, I have money that says you will still see people lined up in front of all the major retail stores hours before they open!!

Sales may be down this year compared to past years, but is that a bad thing? Maybe that just means people aren’t consuming like a fat kid sitting up to his neck in skittles. It’s amazing how much junk people buy and they think that junk is going to make them happy.

All jokes aside, 90% of the economy is between your ears. If things are right in your house and you know how to control your finances and not spend like a drunken Congressman, everything will be fine and you have nothing to worry about.

There are so many people that aren’t affected in the least by the current state of the economy. Those people call in every day to the Dave Ramsey show and tell their stories. How are they able to survive this horrible economy without losing any sleep about it?

They are debt free. They have no credit cards or other stupid payments holding them back.

So yeah, that’s about all I have for today. I will try to post updates a bit more frequently over the next few weeks. Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comment section below!

Josh and I attended Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover Live event in Birmingham, AL yesterday.

Birmingham is about 3 1/2 hours away, and since the event started at 1 p.m., we decided to leave extra early (7 a.m.) to ensure we got good seats. The drive went really well and was a straight shot down the highway.

After grabbing a quick lunch at Subway, we were off to the event. The show lasted five hours with two 25 minute intermissions. The event itself was really well prepared and performed. Dave is an excellent live speaker who mixes in a ton of humor with his teachings.

The majority of the show was just a refresher for me, since I have listened to the Total Money Makeover audio book a few times and listen to his radio show almost every day. You were given a workbook when you entered, and Dave loosely worked through the book during the interactive show.

Dave also talked about the current state of the economy and how he has been preaching his “no debt” plan for ages.

In years past, the mainstream news media would ridicule him, call him a simpleton for not using credit cards and basically discredit his concepts. But now with all of the bad home loans, consumers up to their eyeballs in credit card and automobile debt, suddenly everyone thinks he is a genius!

The event was entertaining and it certainly helped to motivate me even more to follow his teachings. The great thing about Dave’s teachings are that there are no secret get rich quick schemes or other bogus information. His plan is overly simple, and it works EVERY TIME… but be prepared that it will take a lot of discipline and time on your part. As he says, it is all common sense - but most people don’t grasp this because have been brainwashed into thinking you need to build your FICO score and use credit to be successful with money. Credit is a total sham and if you want to take control of your finances and build wealth, do like myself and millions of other Americans have - DON’T USE CREDIT!

is a load of crap. There, I said it.

What’s in the envelope labeled “CCs”, you ask? Credit cards, of course! Back in March when Josh turned me on to Dave Ramsey and his common sense teachings, I emptied my wallet of all of my credit cards, put them in this envelope and sealed it up.

That’s right, I haven’t used a lick of credit in over six months. In fact, I’ve actually paid off all but one of the cards in full, following the guidelines of the Total Money Makeover.

But… you can’t “NOT” use credit, right? After all, just today, President George Bush had this to say during his speech at Guernsey Office Products:

See, when credit runs dry in one part of our economy, there’s a chain reaction. So you want to sell a desk to somebody. That person needs to borrow the money in the short term to buy the desk. And yet, because the credit has tightened, because some banks are lending, a potential customer doesn’t have the money to buy your desk, and that affects you. So a lot of the talk that you’re hearing about credit crunches applies directly to your business here at Guernsey. It hurts your suppliers. It affects the entire economy.

Am I the only one that thinks this sounds absolutely absurd? How about you friggin’ pay cash for the desk - problem solved.

I want to take a few minutes and mention some of the things I keep hearing about on the evening news, which BTW, is getting very old.

Banks are to blame for giving home loans to people who couldn’t afford to buy a house. Why / how did they do this? They simply looked at an individual’s credit score and granted the loan based on that single number. Moral of the story for banks: credit scores are retarded. Credit is built by borrowing and paying back money over and over. Any yahoo can do that. Do real work, a process known as manual underwriting, like they did in the “old days” to determine if someone can afford a home. Verify if someone has a job, a steady income and a nice down payment. Problem solved.

But, the media keeps saying that people can actually get home / car loans if they have good credit. So, there isn’t a “credit freeze” for people in good standing? Meaning, people with lousy credit can’t get home / car loans? … what is the problem there? If those people can’t afford to pay a loan, they shouldn’t be given one. But yet, the government is passing bills to pump a ton of money into the “market” to free up the “credit crunch”… for people who can’t afford to repay loans? Brilliant!

I saw a story on the news the other day where businesses, in this case, a car dealership, was unable to make payroll for the week because they couldn’t borrow the money from their bank. Are you serious? You run a business… yet, you don’t even have enough money to pay your employees without taking out a loan each week? Really? How about you revise your business model or shut down shop, because your current plan doesn’t work. Problem solved.

Credit is absolutely out of control in this day and age and really, everyone is to blame. As “crazy” as it sounds, imagine if credit didn’t exist. Imagine if people acted like adults and saved money to buy things they needed, instead of acting like a spoiled 5-year-old who wants everything now now now. Imagine if people lived on less than they made. Imagine if people actually saved money for retirement. What if you had a cash emergency fund for when something unexpected happens - it would only be a minor annoyance instead of a financial disaster.

All of these “myths” are a reality for millions of smart Americans. Americans who are intelligent enough to realize that life is much better without the hassle of credit. These people aren’t up to their eyes in credit card debt. These people realize that their income is their biggest wealth building tool. You can’t build wealth if all of your money is spent before you even get home! Open your eyes America.

In closing, life has been just fine for me without credit. I don’t need credit or credit cards. Yes, I am still paying off my stupid tax, but luckily, I got a clue before I was deeply in debt like many Americans are at this very moment.

Unfortunately, it’s too late and that silly bailout bill has already been passed. Too bad our leaders didn’t consider Dave’s Common Sense Fix.

Too cool! I’ll have to pick up a copy this week and get it signed by Hardy

WOOHOO!!!!

I got the idea for this post from Bob’s post on the same topic. I really enjoyed reading his post and looking at his past workstations and how they has evolved over the years. Call me nosy if you wish!

So here we are, doing my version of the same post. I got my first computer way back in 1998 as a Christmas gift. At that time, I barely even knew how to turn it on, but I knew I loved technology and wanted to learn as much about computers as I could. Within a year or two, I was already working on websites so I needed a workstation. Below are the photos I was able to find of my workstation then, now and everything between!

This is the earliest photo I have of my workstation, dated sometime in 2001. This was the first computer desk I ever purchased and it worked pretty well for my needs at that time. Needless to say, that audio system could pump out some bass! This was when I still lived at home with my parents.

Here we have my “workstation” in college… sorta. You can see some of my main system in the background, but the majority of my time my freshman year was spent in my girlfriend’s dorm room, so I did all of my website work on this laptop.

This is the next workstation in my photo collection. This photo was from when I lived at Stephanie’s house during the summer of 2004 between spring and fall semesters. Kim and I didn’t have a place to stay that summer so Steph offered to let us stay with her.

This was my first setup after I got married and was living in the married student housing on campus. There is a futon on the right where you could lay and watch TV when you weren’t on the computer.

I ended up moving the futon out of the computer room so I could add another table and have my own workstation again. There simply wasn’t enough space at the other desk. I also made the switch from CRT to LCD monitors, which saved a ton of space. This particular photo shots my external watercooling case that I constructed from a Silverstone SFF chassis.

This was my workstation at my old apartment in Oxford. As you can see, there is plenty of desk space, which allowed me to get a lot done. I think my days at that apartment were the most productive… of course, that could be because I was no longer in school.

And finally, my current workstation. I got this desk from Keith when I moved - my first real “computer” desk since 2001. I had been using folding tables since that first desk because they were easy to transport and offered a ton of real estate.

And there you have it. Feel free to post links to your workstations, as I love to check out other people’s setups

The University of Mississippi will play host to the first Presidential Debate this Friday at 8:00 p.m. I am not the least bit into politics, but I will be tuning in to watch the debate, since it is being held in Oxford at Ole Miss, a place I called home for over four years.

The debate will be held at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, a six story facility with floor space of 88,000 square feet. The building is being modified this week to fit the debate stage, which required workers to remove several rows of seats at the front of the auditorium.

The local news media has been talking about the event for the past few weeks, and rightfully so. This is an absolutely huge event for the university, a once-in-a-lifetime event that I am sure they have spent countless hours planning for. Security around the Ford Center has been tight from what I have heard, with Secret Service members already on campus.

Will any of you be watching the debate?

Many of us focus 100% of our marketing efforts in the online venue, but it is equally as important to build your brand and get your name known offline as well. Whether you realize it or not, there are a ton of offline promotional ideas out there. Some can be a bit more expensive than others, like t-shirts for example. But, you can still find some excellent promotional items for next to nothing - enter BICPromoPens.com.

The team over at BICPromoPens.com specialize in one thing - yep, you guessed it: BIC promotional pens! Promotional pens are a very cost-efficient way to advertise nearly anything - your business (both online and offline), blogs, or just about any other service or product that you can think of. Unlike a business card, a flyer or an ad in the yellow pages, useful items like pens and t-shirts won’t be tossed in the garbage and will be used frequently… each time, reminding the user of your business / product!

BICPromoPens.com sent over 20 of the BIC Tri Stic Promotional Pens you see above. Like all of their pens, you can customize it by specifying the trim and barrel color, as well as adding up to four lines of text. This style of pen can be had for as little as $.54 each!

Next up is the Brite Liner Grip Highlighter, again, fully customizable with four lines for your message and of course, your choice of ink color. These highlighters start at $94.each, with bulk orders receiving a nice discount!

If you have a bit of a bigger budget or want to really impress and showcase yourself as a professional, the BIC Executive Carbon Fiber Pen is what you are looking for. This is an extremely high-quality pen and it writes just as elegantly as it looks! This will certainly be replacing my current pen for use at my desk.

BICPromoPens.com even included this nice Polo style shirt! Talk about a complete package - I won’t need to purchase another pen for a very long time… well, that is until I order some for my tech site and this blog.

Founded in 1945, BIC has stood the test of time and are the most well know pen manufacturers in the world, so you know they offer a quality product. If you are in need of some offline marketing material and are on a budget, I would certainly recommend you check out BICPromoPens.com. They have literally hundreds of different models and styles of pens to choose from!

The only question that remains… is, what am I going to do with all of these pens?