I’ve been a pretty busy guy, and haven’t been updating this, or even my main site lately. What have I been up to? 

 Well, I’m still working full time, and running my SEO/Development business on the side.I’ve started a few new projects, including

Mustang Social

Which right now, is just a set of forums, but it’s building up great. I want to finish the backend on it, it will be yet another myspace-wannabee social site for mustang owners.

I’m also working on Zend Certification, and my CIW. It’s mostly a matter of time I can allot to it (very little), the material isn’t tough, there’s just so much of it.

I’ll also be starting a few other projects this year, and see what takes off. I’ll keep everyone posted.  

Certain phrases in the American vernacular are simply too wasteful. Grammar Nazis and other OCD types will tell you conversational speech in general society is not only mechanically incorrect, but loaded with fat.

Part of the art of writing is making it more concise.  You take a rough draft and slim it down to 20-30% of its original size. Trimming the fat is the brunt of the work for most writers. By nature I’m a bit of a minimalist, so I’ve learned to spit out rough drafts that are small in the first place. One has to ask: why don’t people do this with speech? Why all the extra words?

My brother and I have discussed this at length, some of the useless phrases often tacked on to sentences.

and what not. (the most annoying, due to the rising popularity of this phrase)
and so forth.
and such.

You can even prepend your sentences with things like “essentially….”. Such implicit phrases are not really essential to the sentence, so why add it on? Are you padding it up to sound smart, or disguising the fact that you have very little to say?

Here are some other examples of ways to trim up a sentence.

He’s not on time very often.
He’s often late.

Or how about this? The word “literally”. It’s used often, and usually incorrectly.

She’s literally as big as a house.
She’s as big as a house.

Or other stuff that’s  often used as padding:

She’s a sweet gal, of friendly nature.
She’s a friendly girl. 

There are thousands of examples. Don’t do it! In writing and speech, don’t pad up your words. Usually when people make a deliberate effort to sound as if they use an exemplary vocabulary in casual conversation, they sound like a moron. (See what I did there?). Often times these people are mocked on their departure from the room. I’m having too much fun with this. Good night!

While working on my car the other day, I screwed up my back, and “slipped a disk”. Also called herniated disk, or bulging disk, it’s a really neat feeling you get when the membrane in your disk breaks and the gel is pressed up against your spine.

I am admittedly ignorant about these sorts of things, but after a while I decided to go see a doctor. He educated me a bit about what I did. As of right now I can hardly walk, and if it doesn’t improve, he’s going to recommend surgery, something I’ll not likely do. Not only can I not afford such a thing, but I think it’s a bit of a rush to judgment, and I’ll have to get a second opinion.

So if you ever want to know the most painful thing a guy can endure, it isn’t a kidney stone (I’ve had two) but a slipped disk with two pinched nerves. Definitely the most painful thing I’ve experienced. Though the kidney stones were no walk in the park either.

So my recommendation readers, if you’re 30 years old and have worked some rough jobs like I have, be careful. I was lifting an alternator when this happened. It comes up on ya quick.

Sometimes, even a slow quarterback who likes he has down syndrome can be a real hero. Today was that day.

Eli Manning and the giants put on a spectacular show, beating the patriots 17-14. What made it so awesome is this was not only a giant upset, but they broke the patriot’s “perfect” streak. I was hoping they wouldn’t get the perfect season this year, simply because they were caught cheating. How can it be a perfect season if we knew they cheated in the first game, and they didn’t have to forfeit the game? I was very pleased to see justice served in this game.

The game was not won by Eli Manning, not by a longshot. The low scoring was due to strong defense on the Giant’s part, with a weak offense. The defense really made the game this time, and when it came down to the wire, the defense came through. Everything was timed just perfect to make sure that last point could not be scored, and the giants went down in history.

The only way to get the Patriot’s offense, is to get at Brady. Sure he’s a great quarterback, but he’s got great protection as well. When you have 10 minutes in the pocket to choose your receiver, you’re going to hit the mark. And contrary to popular belief, Brady can be shaken up. You just have to get to him. He’s normally very calm in the pocket, but after a few blitzes you could almost see him crack up. All in all he still performed very well in the game, but he wasn’t running full steam by far. The giants figured out quick that blitzing was the best way to slow the patriots.

It was tense viewing for most of the game. In fact, in the last half, everyone was waiting for the levee to break, and it did. The patriots surged forward, but the defense held them in place. If you ask me, Michael Strahan should have been MVP. That guy pulled off some badass moves out there. As soon as Strahan, Shockey and the gang started in it seemed like the patriots only had seconds before getting slammed again and again. You could really feel the pressure their offense was getting, they had to rush every play, not something Brady and the gang are accustomed to.

In the end, it was a prevent that won the game. It was very tense, a great super bowl, one I’ll never forget!