How do I watch movies?

It seems that everyone has there own way of watching movies. Whether it's running out to blockbuster, renting on iTunes, watching instantly on satellite or pay per view, or waiting for DVDs in the mail, everyone has their way. Well here is mine.

There are really three parts to my movie collection. There is the Netflix part, the movie server part, and the Apple TV part.

The First thing is Netflix. I have a Netflix account and I currently get two movies at a time. When I get a movie I pop it into my MacBook Pro and start up Handbreak. Handbreak is this great free application that lets you rip DVDs onto your computer . I rip the DVD on Handbreak's "Apple TV" setting, which is really just DVD quality with a iTunes supported format. This process usually takes a little longer than the movie is, it is ripping a very high quality so it takes a while. At the end the movie file is usually anywhere from 1.8 to over 2 GBs. I usually put the disc right back in the mail so they will get sent back the next day so I get the most out of my subscription.

Next is the movie server. My Brother gave me an old computer that he didn't need any more and put Windows and iTunes on it. I went out and got a 500gb hard drive for the computer to hold all of the movies. After the movie is done ripping in Handbreak I use some simple file transfer software to send the movie file to the movie server. I throw it into iTunes once it's transferred, make sure the title is correct and give it the highest resolution poster art I can find. The cool thing about the server is it's basically unlimited space. The 500gb hard drive I have in there now can hold around 250 movies, which is way more movies than I have ever heard of in peoples movie collection. The best part is though, if I run out of space I can always add more. The rest of the job is done by the Apple TV.

For those of you that don't know, Apple TV is this little media playing device for you TV. It takes all your media from iTunes, and plays it on your TV. You can either sync your media to the Apple TV's hard drive, or stream it over your wired Internet, or Wi Fi connection. It even lets you watch YouTube, subscribe to podcast, and rent movies straight from your TV. To learn more about Apple TV watch the guided tour on it here.

I have my Apple TV set up to sync my music and photos to the hard drive, and to stream my movies from my movie server. I named the server "Movie Machine". Once I throw the movie into iTunes on the server, BOOM, I can watch it whenever I want on my HDTV. Plus, the Apple TV up converts all my movies to 720p(which is high definition) so movies look awesome on my TV, especially newer movies which are shot in HD.

So there it is. It might of sounded complicated but it's really not. I just get it, rip it, move it, and then I can watch it. The great thing about this is though I really have unlimited movies at the cost of my Netflix subscription and the hardware investment. As soon as I rip that movie I have it, it's mine forever. I can watch it whenever I want. Even if I decided no more netflix I still have all my movies, they are mine now. I have recently started ripping my own personnel DVDs to my digital collection and as of right now I have about 65 movies. That number undoubtedly grows every week as I get more movies in the mail.

By John Armour

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New Email & Photos

I would just like to take this post and tell you that I have a new email address.

It’s simple to upload Photos into your description by transport them via email. You can fix this using a few email syllabus to facilitate can assign photos to your email message and it follows that emailing persons photos to a special email deal with in Keep&Share in your Email Settings. Both you and your associates can it follows that email photos to your Keep&Share description using this unique email deal with.

everything that is sent to my old gmail account will be forwarded to this account so I will get it but if you email me send it to my new address.

I would also like to tell you that I have new web gallery's for my photos, they are quite nice. I am still working on getting all my albums on there but I am almost there. You can visit them by clicking here, or clicking "My Pictures" under my stuff on the right panel.

You can even subscribe to my photo updates now, it's pretty cool.

Hope you enjoy!

By John Armour

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Goodbye iPhone!

Say hello new iPhone.

Goodbye iPhone!

This Friday, the eleventh of July, is the release of the new iPhone. If you know me very well then you know where I am going to be this Friday morning. You can catch me in line at the Apple store bright and early. My Brother and I, and maybe my friend Matt, are all going to be there.

I know all you people are going to be all, "You already have an iPhone, why do you need the new one, why are you waiting in line?". There is one simple answer to these questions, I'm a nerd. If the new phone was the same price I would most likely wait to upgrade, but sense the price is dropped I feel like it is worth it to upgrade.

With my 8gb I have now and the over 9gb of music I have in my iTunes, I have to pick and choose about 2/3 of my music to have with me. I also have to make sure I have room for my photo albums and my data. What also sucks is I have no real room for my podcast. I feel like this is a great time to upgrade to the 16gb model so I don't have to worry about what I have on my phone or how much room I have left. I can have it all.

I will also need room for all those applications that are coming. The new iPhone comes with the iPhone 2.0 software built in and one of the main features of the update is the ability to download and install applications right to your phone, from your phone. All the old iPhones should be getting the same software sometime this week, at the latest Friday when the new phone comes out.

I think now is a great time for me to upgrade, and for anyone who wanted one, now is the time to get one.

I will be taking lots of pictures for my blog from the launch at the Apple store. This will be my first time getting an Apple product on day one of its coming out(they mailed me leopard last October, I don't really count it). I will be posting my story from the launch and lots of pictures this Friday.

By John Armour

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Foods I miss

I miss a lot of stuff, these are a few things I wish were still around....

I am not a guacamole guy. Never really had it, it doesn't sound all that appealing. These doritos are amazing though. They tasted so good. I haven' seen them in a while. I don't know if they just stopped making them or they just don't have them in my area. I miss them so much.




I loved Citra. It was a soda made by coke that was a citrus alternative to sprite. I drank it all the time, then slowly it went away. It turns out they just moved it over to there line of Fanta sodas. Citra is now Fanta Citrus flavor. I have never seen that flavor in stores where I live, it might not be popular in my area. Another soda that taste almost like Citra, is Squirt, but it's still not the same. I will miss you Citra.



Last is DunkAroos. I love them, I miss them. If you don't know what they are you are missing out. If I ever see a box in a store it will be the happiest day of my life.

By John Armour

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Reese Whipped

I love Reese's Whipped. They are the best things ever. If you haven't had one I suggest you drop what your doing right now and go get one, and eat it.



If you are wondering what the Reese's Whipped is, it's just like a 3 Musketeers. In the whipped though, instead of whipped chocolate, there is whipped peanut butter. It is amazing.

Go have one right now if you haven't had one, you won't regret it. If your hardcore, you will put it in the fridge and eat it cold.

By John Armour

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Puzzle?

Summer is almost here. It's pretty exciting I guess.

Anyways, we are working on this puzzle at my Dad's house

What is it? I don't know, I guess you will have to wait and see.

By John Armour 1 التعليقات

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Trip to Gatlinburg

Well I'm now back from my trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I had a really good time, it was nice to get away. We did a whole lot while we were up there. I will most likely write about the whole trip when I have time. What I did do while I was up there was update my photo albums. I took over three hundred pictures. That is the most I have ever taken for one album, our trip to California only had around two hundred. I have posted all the pictures in my web albums, click here to see them.

I have put together a little video of pictures and video clips of our trip. My Mom's digital camera doesn't have sound for the videos (bummer), so the whole video is set to music. Check it out.

By John Armour

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Writing From The Road

It's been a while. Well, it might be a little longer. I've left for Gatlinburg. We are on the road right now. I am literately on the road right now, my brother and I are streaming internet from his phone to our computer. We are driving through Cherokee right now.

I will be posting pictures every chance I get. I might have some tonight. We have no idea what we are doing when we get there. I know of a few things I want to do on this trip but everything else is just whatever comes up. We might go to the hard rock tonight.

On a non trip note, I have been getting great mail latley. The other day I got a package I wasn't expecting. The Guitar Hero guys sent me a free face plate for my guitar. It's actually pretty cool.

Here is my video for the week. It is one of my all time favorites. Enjoy.

By John Armour

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What a great mail day

Today was such a great mail day. Some days you look into the mail box and there is nothing at all for you. I got lucky today.

First of all, I got one of my tax return checks from the government. It was supposed to come electronically but nope, got it in the mail. Nice surprise. Then I got two netflix. They were expected but still awesome none the less. Last but not least I got my replacement Guitar Hero disc. All the Guitar Hero games that came out for Wii last year shipped with mono sound even though they advertised surround sound. Thats a HUGE difference. Well I just got my replacement disc today.

Yesterday was good too. I got the RAM I ordered for my computer. I went from 1gb to now 3gbs. My computer should be a lot faster now. Everything is a lot snappier. I still have to put it to some test though. I am also going to get an external drive soon so I can back up my whole computer. I'm scared to lose all my stuff, especially my photos and iTunes.

By John Armour

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Pollen

There has been so much pollen lately. It is spring though so it makes sense. My car got covered in it this past week, it was nasty. I keep saying "I'll just wait for it to rain, don't wash it". Here are some pictures of it.

It looks a lot nastier in person than the pictures show.

So I finally broke down and washed it. Here it is clean ^.Guess what happened later that day.... it rained. Washed all the pollen away. What a waste of time. Oh well.

By John Armour

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My Brother got a DDR Machine

Yeah, my Brother got a Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine.

Yeah, that's all there is to say. It is sitting at my Dad's house. Cool.

By John Armour

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Things I want to do this summer

I have a lot of things I want to do this summer. Every summer I always say I'm going to do so many things but never get around to them. Not this summer, I'm doing it all.

Go to Gatlinburg

I used to go to Gatlinburg and Pidgin Forge every year. My brother, Dad, and I would go I think every spring break. It was something I always looked forward to, I love it up there. We haven't really gone at all in the past four or five years, we have gotten older and busier and we just never got to make plans. Well not this year.

We have already made plans to go to Gatlinburg, this month too. We are planning on leaving April 21st. I am really looking forward to this trip, and it's just around the conner.

Visit Six Flags, a lot
One of the great things about living near Atlanta is that Six Flags over Georgia is really close. I used to go all the time. The past few years I have gone a little but never as much as I like. Well this year I am going as much as I can. I really am. I haven't been to fright fest in a looong time either. I am going this year though.

I still have yet to get my pass for this year though. I will get it soon. Hopefully I can get to go at least once every other week. I love roller coasters.

The Georgia Aquarium
This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have never gotten a chance to go, or I guess I have just never really planned it. Well this summer I am going for sure. Not much else to say, I am pretty pumped about it.

Finish my movie!Okay, it's not my movie, it's me and my friends movie. A few summers ago we put together a movie. We worked really hard on it. It turned out okay, pretty amature, but it was ours. We had an awesome time making it. You can see the trailer for it here, and the whole movie starting here.

The fall after we finished the movie we started working on the sequel. We started sharing ideas, writing the story, finding props, locations to shoot, everything. We were all so pumped. This movie was going to be much bigger, more professional. We were taking it much more serious. We even got the first two scenes shot. As time went on though we all got busy and the project eventually got put on hold.

I really want to see this thing get finished. There was so much poteinal, we had so many great ideas. This summer would be the last chance we have to put everything all together. I hope we can get it done. I hope everyone still wants to.

Here is the first scene of the movie...



What do you guys think? Look good enough to keep going?

By John Armour

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Pedometer

So I found this pedometer at my Dad's house and I though it would be interesting to see how much I walk at work.

So I tried it out today. For those of you who don't know, I work at a grocery store. I was the front end coordinator today. My job consist of making sure everything at the registered runs smoothly, their are people bagging groceries, baggers are taking people out/bring carts in. I have to make sure the lines don't get backed up and I have to make sure all the jobs get done. I'm basically a supervisor for the front end so a manager doesn't have to do it. Anyways, how that you understand my position you can have a more appropriate reaction to how much I walked.

Now tonight wasn't that busy. For about the seven hours I worked I walked about four and a half miles. I though it was interesting. I have heard from other who have tried it and they have said for about an eight hour shift they walked around six miles. Walking this much at work makes me feel better about sitting around so much at home.

For the next week I am going to keep track of how much I walk at work. I am interested to see how this all turns out...


I also have this picture of this foam cake that we had at work I though was funny

Weird huh...

By John Armour

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Funny Pictures

I decided to take this time to post some funny pictures I have taken that I never talked about...

This is pretty self explanatory, it's my borthers cat drinking out of the toilet. I though it was funny.

This is someones car. No joke. They drive around with all that junk in there. Only room for the driver.

We sold this at my work for Halloween. Haha, It just makes me laugh.

You might not be able to tell at a glance, but someone parked it the middle of two spaces. Take a good look. They actually parked that way, no joke.

Someone was driving around with this on there car after it snowed this past winter. Doesn't that just make you smile!

I added some new page elements to the side of my site. You can now see what Netflix movies I have at home and witch ones i have coming up next in my list. I know everyone is very interested in that.


Now here is my favorite YouTube video for the week. I have had this one up before but I though I would pick it again for those of you who haven't seen it. It's called "robot dance". The first guy is okay but the next guy to come out is amazing.

By John Armour

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Why are grocery stores so stupid?

This is a rant I have about grocery stores. I work at a Publix. For those of you who don't know, Publix is a supermarket chain in the southeast. We just had what is called a store reset. This is where they rearrange where everything goes in the store to make it all make more sense. Well you know what, it doesn't make sense at all.

The main problem I have with supermarkets is they have multiple spots for everything. They take any situation for a product, and they put it in all those spots. Why don't they just have one spot for everything? Here is an example. After they did our store reset they put nuts with the baking stuff, and on the snack food aisle, and in produce. Why can't it all go in one spot?!? Just because I might use it for baking doesn't mean it has to go there. Get this though, pie fillings that you will always use for baking, go with the canned fruit, not the baking stuff.

Yeah, that makes no sense. I guess nuts are more qualified as baking stuff than pie filling.

Another thing that is stupid is splitting up groups of things that could obviously go together. In my store they have this aisle for cookies, crackers, and fruit snacks. All junk food right. On another aisle is chips, nuts, and other little snacks. Why can't these things all go together, they are all snack foods? It might be the fact that 2/3 of the cookies/cracker aisle has books and magazines on it so there is no room for the chips. Wow. They should move the magazines, they make no sense being there, to make room for the rest of the snack stuff. I guess that would just make too much sense.

Another thing is the organics. We have this aisle that has organic stuff on it. Not all organic stuff on it though, just some. Some organic stuff in on this aisle and the rest is scatted through out the store right next to it's non organic counterpart. What? What qualifies the stuff on the organic aisle to be there and the other stuff not to be there? I understand they want to put everything in one spot for people so everything is easy, but only certain organics are there.

If someone was looking for something organic in my store, our conversation might go a little something like this....

"Can I help you find something today?"

"Yes! I was looking for organic things"

"Oh, we have an organic aisle, aisle 6."

"Thank you very much."

....15 minutes later....

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No, I found some stuff but I was looking for organic sugar and some other things"

"Oh, that's on our baking aisle, let me help you find it."

To me it should be all or nothing, don't have some things there but the rest through out the store. That whole half aisle could be used for something else. Something like those magazines we were talking about.

It works though. Everything is there and people can eventually find it and regular shoppers get used to it. So it does work. Anything would really work though, it's just a matter of how much sense it makes.

By John Armour

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Easter Sunday

Happy Easter everyone.

I hope everyone reading had a great easter. For me, this has been a weird one. Nothing really weird happened it has just been different. Every Easter for the past nineteen years I have always done the same thing as far as I can remember, go to my grandparents house. This is the first year I can ever remember not doing that.

We made plans and everything to go and I was laying in bed this morning, tired from being at work late, and my Mom called me up to the phone. It was my Dad, he was in the hospital. He had woke up this morning with pains in his legs so him and my brother went to the emergency room. He has been there before for about the same reason I think. He wasn't getting enough blood circulating through his legs so he got a blood clot or something like that.

So, no Grandparents house this year. Hospital though. Just a little different than what I expected.

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I'd like to tell everyone interested that I now have my photo albums up. With my other blog I never got my pictures up because if my space limitations. When I started this page I originally started posting pictures on Flickr but they have a space limit. For the time being until I can get everything up there I now have Photobucket. You can click here to see all my different albums, there is a list of them on the left side of the page. You can also click the link under my stuff on the --> right to get to them. I have albums up of my graduation, my trip to California, Christmas, and us playing with my Dad's boat. This is just a temporary solution until I can get them all onto Flickr.

Now it's time for my YouTube video. I will be trying to pick out the best YouTube video I have seen every week. I guess I will try and post it every weekend. This weeks is pretty funny. Some people will like it, some won't. It's called "Food Court Musical". You just have to watch for yourself.

I hope everyone had a great Easter. I have to be at work earlier than usual tomorrow so I will be trying to sleep.

By John Armour

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Five Reasons Why Barack Obama Will Be President

I'm not one to get political.... on my blog. I love politics. I think it's interesting, entertaining, and I think it all relates to history. I've never been one to talk about my views online though. I just have never felt it would make any difference to anyone. They don't really matter, they are are my personal views. What I'm about to say isn't really my political view though. I mean, it is a view, and it is mine, but... okay I guess it is my political view. I'm not trying to go way in depth of everything, these are just simple things that I think all point to Obama becoming president.

Five Reasons Why Barack Obama Will Be President

1) He has got the nominationBut wait you might say, Hillary is still in the race. Yes, she is, but she has no chance anymore. Obama has been doing so well, he has enough delegates now that she can't catch up. Even if she wins every state from now(which she won't) she still can't get it. Now, there aren't enough votes left to make him the nominee, and unless hell freezes over Hillary won't drop out. They will have to go to the convention.

Of course Hillary is going to keep fighting until someone has to tie her down, smack her up, and scream in her face "IT'S OVER!!", so they will go to the convention. If they do not give Obama what he deserves they will be an uproar, a tremendous one. I'm willing to say to will tear apart the democratic party for quite some time. Obama has won more states, he has more popular votes, he deserves the nomination. If they don't give it to him, I can't even imagine what the democrats will go through.

2) The Democrats will get into officeHere are the facts. The Democrats want into office. They are sick of the Republicans and the Bush administration and they want Washington back. They have proven this fact, look at the numbers. In every state in the primaries there was always more votes for the Democrats. A lot of the time they had twice as many as the Republicans. People want a Democratic president. Polls right now are showing that 80% of people this fall will vote democrat. That is where my last point comes into play. He is the nominee, people want a democrat, the presidency is his.

It isn't impossible for McCain to become president. He can do it. He came back from a dead campaign and became the Republican presidential nominee. He has a chance, but it's a slim one.

3) People love himBarack is a likable guy. He really is. As much as it might pain some people, the presidential race is mostly a big popularity contest. People love Obama. Democrats love him, a lot of republicans love him. Even the media has been so easy on him. Recently though, they have started to pick on him. They are having to dig and find bad things about him, like all the things with his pastor and what he said. They are basically saying, his mothers, cousins, step dad's baby sister once said something bad so he is a horrible guy. It's ridiculous. They are having to try and find bad things about him that aren't there. So yes, everyone loves Obama. If even the media is having a hard time not liking him, then you know people love him.

He has even got many Republicans supporting him. They are Obamacans. If a black Democrat can have such a strong following in the conservative party, you know he is a rock star. Obama can do no wrong.

4) He can speakObama is an amazing speaker, and that is a huge part of politics. If you can speak, you can get people to listen. He motivates people when he speaks. People really listen to him. I don't even know if there is much you can say about it, he is just an amazing speaker. He comes off motivated, passionate about what he is talking about, honest, and friendly. If you are a good speaker, you have a great chance to get people to listen to you, which is what becoming president is all about.

When the other canidates speak I don't feel anything. If McCain is speakng it all feels blah. Just like some pre written dribble just trying to please everyone. Their is no passion. Hillary can speak too, she is good at telling people exactly what they want to here. Thats the thing though, she will just say whatever it takes to please people. When Barack is in front of the mic you can tell he means business and he is passionate about what he is talking about.

5) ChangeWithout a doubt, this is the most important point.

This goes in part with one of my other points. People want change, and Barack can give it. Many times in history the people voted for someone because they just wanted change, that is how Clinton first got into office. People just wanted change sometimes. That couldn't be anymore true now. People are sick of how things are going in Washington. They want something new, something better. Obama can give that to people. He has already changed things up.

He has changed things with young voters. Young people hardly vote at all, but they go out and vote for Obama. He has changed things with blacks. Black people are voting like never before, they are excited. He would also be the first black president, and that is historic. He is changing how people feel about their country. People are motivated. They want a better nation. He is changing everything and that is what people want.

It's not just the voters who want change, he wants change too. He is the only candidate that I honestly think will do the most for America. Hillary is just in it for herself, and the power. I don't really know why McCain is in it, I have never heard him say why he wants to be president. Obama though, he wants a better nation for everyone. People see that, that is why they like him. He loves his country, and he just wants it to be better for everyone.

This is a change election. Another Clinton administration wouldn't be change. Having the same two families in office for over twenty years is crazy, they might as well change our name to the United States of Clintion/Bush. That is why Obama is on top.

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That is what I think at least. I think Barack is an amazing politician. I think he wants a better America, and he is passionate about his nation. I do not agree with all of his views and how he wants to do things, but I would feel confidante with him as president. Confident that things will get done, confident on where our nation is going, confident that our country is being lead by someone who wants the best for everyone.

That is what I think at least. I could be wrong. Things could be totally different. McCain could get into office, Hillary could get into office. Stranger things have happened. I am open to any ideas. What do you think?

By John Armour

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Little Fishies

 Little Fishies

My Dad has had his fish tank for a while. He has had a few different batches of fish, but something always happens to mess up the tank. Lately though, the tank has been doing great, all for one reason. Light.

Before we always keep the light on in the tank, we always had sunlight coming into it and we always had a dirty tank. Really dirty. We always tried everything to clean it up. We got algae eaters, snails, and pH levelers. Still, dirty water.

We were recently at petsmart getting some new fish and the lady there had some advice for us. Keep the light out. After talking to her we started keeping the light off most the time, keeping light away from the tank. BEHOLD! The tank is so much clearer. It's amazing how much cleaner everything is. So if you have a dirty fish tank, turning off the light is the answer.

I just though it was interesting. Here are some pictures of the clean tank.

Something else that is cool is that we got pregnant fish! I think they are called mickey mouse fish. One of the ones we got was pregnant and has had three little fishy so far. We don't know how many more it will have, but the ones it has had are really growing!

By John Armour

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Can't Sleep

Well, I can't sleep. I just keep waking up, tossing and turning, so I decided to post.

I decided to put my old site in a coffin with this post. It won't be coming back, ever. I decided to post some pictures in remembrance of the site.

R.I.P

I like my new page layout a lot. I can fit pretty much everything that was important on the old site all on this page. On the top right I have my profile. You can click it to see more. I have my favorite links and the game I am currently playing on here as well. As for my favorite YouTube video, I will be putting them on the very bottom of my page. One should be down there right now.

One problem is that I can't just post as many pages as I want, and I certainly don't want to clutter up the page with EVERYTHING my old site had, so I have a solution. Instead of having my videos page, I now just have links to my YouTube accounts over on the right. A problem I had with the old site was pictures. I never got my photo albums onto my site, but now I can. I have a link to my Flickr account over to the right with my YouTube accounts so anyone can view all my photos. Not only that, I have a slideshow that goes through all my pictures and you can even scroll through when you put your mouse over it. Pretty cool stuff.

I hope that you all like everything about my new blog. As I have said before, a lot more people will be reading it now that its on Google's network. I don't really think many people would want to read about my life but they can if they wish. I need to go to bed now. I need sleep. I still feel pretty bad. And, of course, I work tomorrow.

By John Armour

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New Blog

Well, Here it is. I bet most of you though johnisawesome.com was dead. Well.... it was, but not anymore.

I am now using a blogger.com account rather than my .mac one. There will be some good things that come out of this. My site won't ever go down anymore, it will always be here. Google is hosting it so no worries. One bad things though is that I can't just post any page I want, I'm limited to just the blog. Because of this I will be posting my Flickr account so everyone can view my photos.

Another good thing is that because I'm on Google's blog service, a lot more people will be able to find and read my post. Which, I guess is a pretty good thing. Though I don't really post that interesting of stuff.

I have been sick lately. I really have been sick for awhile. about a month ago I had a fever and felt terrible but it went away. It came back and this past week I have felt awful. My fevers peak was at 101.4. Today I feel better though. My fever is pretty much gone but I still get hot flashes and feel all achy. Tomorrow the party is over because I have to go back to work. That will be hard considering I have been sleeping for the past four days.

Here is a picture from the midnight launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl at GameStop this past week. The place was packed.





I hope you all like the new site. I will be messing with stuff to get things the way I want them. Post agian soon. I need to sleep.

By John Armour

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