It’s 2010 and things have changed. I haven’t updated this blog in so long. I’ve been checking on all my domain names and social networks this week. I am planning on updating some and adding more features to others. I am liking that I can update wordpress automaticaly now. I hated updating it before because I would need to save all the plugins and themes I custom made and added it to the new update. Sometimes things would break. Just the time to backup everything and moving files all over the place made it hard to the point I hated updating.

Last year I lost some stuff I loved. I lost my favorite radio station, KLSX. I lost some podcasts I liked listening to also. My credit card decided to raise their rates which really is hurting me now. I need to ask for them to drop the rates. Sigh! The local popeyes I used to go to all the time has been closed. Arghhhh!! My non work computer decided to cause me problems so I had to reinstall windows due to a hard drive failure. I didn’t lose too much, though. Been worried about family health problems but things have seemed to be going well now. Had to go to jury duty twice. One federal and the other local.

Not everything is bad. Puente Hills mall has an Imax theater but not really a huge screen which is a disapointment. I have been experimenting with youtube videos with some accounts I have. I am getting good feedback, views and subscriptions. Some of those videos had enough views that I was offered a partnership but those videos weren’t family oriented so I was denied. I am going to try to do some videos on my personal account and see if I can get a partnership. Not sure what I want to do with it. I am not an actor, singer or comedian. I’ve been thinking of doing reviews for products or websites. Maybe making videos with second life or LOTRO can be interesting.

I don’t listen to radio anymore unless I am driving. I usually put on a music station. The only two talk radio stations I can listen to are, KFI and KABC. Recently Tim Conway Jr. moved back to Los Angeles and has his own show on KFI. If you haven’t listened to him before you really should! Frosty, Heidi and frank have thier own show on KABC in the mornings. They are hilarious!! I listen to their podcast as much as I can. I only listen to podcasts now. Here are the podcasts I love and recommend: PGP, Keri Kasem and FHF. There are some other podcasts which are good on Hottalkla but I don’t have the time to listen to them all.

This year I am going to push myself as hard as possible with my business. I really need to make more money from it or start looking for something else to do. I also want to make sure I am there for my family and friends. That is so important now more then ever to me. I don’t want to make any more mistakes or lose contact with friends again. I haven’t been playing online games as much as I used to. I love the freedom of doing what I want and being available for family and friends now. No more scheduling around raids or drama in an online world anymore.

I used to play a game called Lord of the rings online every day. My friend and I would play together and share stuff in the game with each other for almost a whole year. I really got hooked with the PVP, Player vs Player, where I can play a spider and fight other people. That has changed with the last update. It made the creep side a bit too easy and the freep side is struggling now. Not much fun when there are no fights. Maybe in the future it will get better but I’m taking a break from it.

The PVE side of this game doesn’t give me much hope too. The kinship I am in lost some good friends I had so all I do is log in for the raids so I can help out. I already lost a great friendship to this game and I’ve lost some of my new friends as well. The Kinship I am in just isn’t the same without those people I got to know these past months. I never would believe a virtual game can be so emotional and make things so difficult in real life. A break from it will be good and lot of other people have decided to do the same. I bought a lifetime membership to the game so I’ll be back just hope everything gets better.

These past months I have been playing games in a virtual world called Second Life. It’s not exactly a game because there is no goal. It’s mostly a platform where users can create anything they want with the tools provided. I signed up at the beginning of this year and have been satisfied with it. I am on their free account which allows you to log in as much as you want, use anything in the game except for owning land. If you want land then you must pay for their premium account which is $9.95 per month.

It’s hard to explain how much you can do inside the game unless you try it. Here’s an article from business week about second life. It will explain a lot to the new users. Some of the games I have played inside second life are, Slingo, Tringo, Blackjack, Slot machines, War and Quintzee. All these games have been created from regular users. There are plenty of other games that I haven’t played yet and more are being created all the time. You can also buy cars, planes, clothes, furniture and gadgets for your avatar inside the virtual world. The one thing that makes this world different than others is you can buy Lindens(game money) with real money and you can sell Lindens for real money. This brings in some business minded people. Some ways of making money in the game is creating objects that others would buy, making scripts for games or vehicles, buying lindens at a low price and selling them for a high price, buying land to place games on and making money from them when people play and escorts or stripping. Yes this is a mature platform and can be used for anything that is legal. No one under 18 can sign up and use second life unless they use the teen grid which is not connected to the mature grid at all. In  the mature grid there are PG places also so not all of it is adult.

I’ve been using second life for entertainment. There are some singers and musicians who play live in certain places. These aren’t wannabe singers. They are very professional and give a great entertainment value. I also play the games for fun too. I haven’t found a business plan for myself in the game just yet but still thinking all the time. I use the name, JohnnyRS Hoggard, in the game. Join up and have fun for free or pay for some nice privileges.
[tags]second life, games, gaming life, virtual world[/tags]

I love [tag]Role Playing Games[/tag] and free games are the best. I remember being on a boy scout camping trip and some of us played [tag]dungeons and dragons[/tag]. That was the first time I ever learned about role playing games. Then I found the Internet where [tag]MUDS[/tag] were the big things. These were text based only. No graphics at all. When I found a local BBS with a very good [tag]RPG[/tag] I knew I was hooked. This one was called [tag]Tele-Arena[/tag] and spent days leveling up my character. The best part of most of these games is the fact you can join others to play. But sometimes I like playing by myself like [tag]Diablo[/tag].

I recently found a game called [tag]runescape[/tag]. Played it for days also and have a good character now. It’s a fun game with plenty of adventures. Some of these online games have added features by paying. I like that very much. I haven’t bought a Online RPG game or payed monthly for one yet. [tag]Everquest[/tag] would probably be fun but paying monthly to play it will just make me addicted and less willing to stop. I rather play the free games and when I find one that I love then I can pay for added benefits when I can.

Here is a link to some free RPG games. I still haven’t tried all these games but I will try them soon. Maybe I’ll write some reviews of them later.

Check this link out for a funny clip of dungeons and dragons

[tags]johnramirez[/tags]

   OK, This game has to be one of my favorite games. Think the last game that I had so much fun was “Kingdom Hearts.” Half Life 2 has a great story. The graphics are amazing. The Physics of the game is astonishing. I could use almost everything in the game as a weapon or a throwing toy. I loved when I got the gravity gun. Picked up stuff and threw it at the monsters. When I got to the vehicle parts I thought this is exactly the game I always wanted to play. Haven’t finished the game yet but I am almost at the end.

[tags]half+life,kingdom+hearts,johnramirez[/tags]