Christmas 2009

Well I'm sure yall be happy to know that I got an Xbox 360 + Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

Concert at Central Christian Church

There were four bands that played at my church. Two of them were nothing special. However, the last two were great. It Hit Us http://www.myspace.com/ithitus and A Hope For Tomorrow http://www.myspace.com/ahopefortomorrowfl


Both are local bands here in Ocala. I know all of the members to It Hit Us (many of them go to my high school) and I know a few of A Hope For Tomorrow. It Hit Us is a pretty good rock band, while A Hope For Tomorrow is hardcore.


AHFT is amazing! Excellence is everything they do. They are in the process of uploading their new songs to myspace. Their songs keep getting better and better. Check their myspace for tour dates and such. Great guys as well.


It Hit Us is a little different. They ended up being the only rock band at the concert, but they were amazing. They got the crowd going more than any of the other bands. They were involved with the crowd and everyone loved them. I urge you all to check out those bands, they both deserve your time and ears.

Tenth Avenue North Dec. 2 2009

For any of you who haven't checked out this band, do so now. They are a truly amazing Christian band. They have some of the most incredible lyrics that we all can connect to. Each song contains a lesson and shows us how much God loves us and what he is doing for us.

I saw this wonderful group at Seven Rivers church in Florida. Incredible church by the way. The singer (Mike) is a talented story teller and he had some pretty amazing lessons. I have to say I learned quite a bit from him. He was pretty funny too, and had a little southern accent on some particular notes. Overall the band is great, great lessons, great maturity, and of course great songs. Just great.

Here's their website: http://www.tenthavenuenorth.com/home

You can preview all of their songs on their page. I highly recommend them. And also please, don't pirate them. They are worth the hard earned dollars you spend on their songs. They have one album (a second to be released soon), so I urge you to check it out. Buy a song. Buy a few songs. Heck buy the whole album, I would. If you're a big Christian and you love Christian music, there are few who can match the powerful lyrics of Tenth Avenue North.

God Bless,
-TJ

Recommended Free Software

Over the years I've come across several pieces of free software that is extremely helpful or just fun to have. I'll explain why I put each item in my list:


Yahoo! Widgets
-Great fun on your desktop. This beats vistas Sidebar by a mile. It runs far better on the system. There are a TON of widgets to be had.

CCleaner
-Cleans up your system. Simple as that. Lightweight program that does a far better job of cleaning your computer than Windows standard cleaning. Customizable to the extreme, this is one program I advise everyone to download.

MSN
-THE best Instant Messenger for free. Tons of great options and many people use it.

Windows Live Writer
-An excellent program for those on the go. You can write up your blogs on this desktop program and publish straight to your blog. It's easy to sync, lightweight, and simple to use.

WinRAR
-The ONLY program you should be using to open zipped (compressed) folders.

Google Chrome
-In my opinion, the best browser for the Windows system. Lightweight, faster than any other web browser, more secure than any other browser, and far more stable with separate processes for each tab. Meaning if one tab is crashing, only that tab will close, instead of all the other tabs, which no other browser has yet to do.

VistaGlazz
-Want to change your system's appearance quickly and easily? This is the program for you. It changes your DLL's to allow custom Themes and Styles.

Free mp4a to MP3 Converter
-Best program you can get to convert your MP4 audio files to MP3. iTunes automatically changes all audio files to MP4's, which is not good. My MP3 player cannot play MP4 files. If you're like me, then get this program. It is excellent.

uTorrent
-The most widely used torrent client in the world. It's lightweight and extremely easy to use.

Combined Community Codec Pack
-This is basically a pack to "teach" your computer how to read certain file types. It's something you should get if you're a graphics designer or some such.

RocketDock
-My favorite out of all of the free dock programs out there. I know many people like StarDock, but you have to pay for the plus version which has most of the more useful features. With RocketDock, you get all those features (most of them), for free. You get to apply custom skins and icons, plus you can do just about everything with it. It's very lightweight and just makes your life easier on the computer.

New Blog

Hello everyone. This is my new blog, and I'll probably be sticking with this site. It seems pretty good :). Up until now I haven't really taken much interest into blogging, but it looks like it could be fun and it is a way to share my knowledge on numerous random things.

This blog will include:

• My technology opinions and news
• Gaming news
• World news
• Stuff about me
• Lists of my favorites (including: books, software, hardware, technology, etc.)