My Little Cousin is Winning the Battle with Meningitis

Hey there. As I've mentioned before, my cousin has been battling meningitis. I am grateful to post that my little cousin is being released from the hospital today! Oh man, is that some great news of what!? I thank all of you that left comments with well wishes and I thank those that left their story in the comments. We were bracing ourselves for a long fought battle with disease but it turns out that my cousin made a wonderful turn for the best and things are looking up. The last time I went to go see her, she could not speak but was allowed to go out in the courtyard of the hospital to hang out with family. The breathing and feeding tubes did some damage to her throat so she was recovering from that. Since hospitals no longer allow children inside, they made special arrangements for her to be allowed outside to hang out with her siblings and family.

My aunt just sent me an Email inviting all of us to her place for a welcome home party. Looks like the family will not be spending Thanksgiving in the hospital this year and Thanksgiving will have a special place in our hearts this year. Thanks!

Need Some Awesome Speakers for Your iPod?

Hey there friends. We've all seen the commercials for iPods. People dancing, while walking down the street with earphones listening to iPods. The white earphones are almost iconic and once someone sees them, they instantly recognize that the user is listening to an iPod. The problem with earphones is that you cannot share the iPod with friends and you're the only one listening to music while shutting everyone else out. Well, not anymore! Check out the Yamaha PDX-60 Ipod speakers!

This easy to use and portable bad boy runs on wireless technology so that you can use it everywhere and anywhere. It uses the Yahama "Yaired" technology to ensure that your Ipod will get superior sound quality without any lag. And since the iPod can be charged at both the speaker and it's cradle, you'll never have to worry about the iPod running out of juice. Did I mention that it's compatible with the iPhone as well? Imagine watching a movie on you iPhone and experiencing rich, quality sound to go along with it?

We don't own a radio at home. All the music that we listen is music that we have on CDs or bought off of iTunes. All of which is placed in our iPod. Our iPod works as our music player at home. The downside to this is that we can only listen to it when it's plugged into our computer or for single use when my wife and I are working out. Having a device like this would greatly enhance our music experience. Since we won't have to share a set of headphones while working out, we would be able to listen to our workout mix and do exercises without being attached to each other by headphones. And the fact that it's wireless really takes the cake. No one likes wires. They can be messy and look awful all bunched up in a corner. The fact that the Yamaha PDX-60 can go anywhere really makes it the device to use for all our iPod listening needs.

The black one above is more my taste, but if my wife finds out that there's a pink one available, she may fight tooth and nail to get that one. lol It comes in four colors (pink, blue, black, and grey) so that you can color coordinate it to your iPod. Technically, it's my wife's iPod so she may end up winning the battle of the color. It's ok though. As long as we're both enjoying the music, I can't complain. Later!

Motivational Sunday - Twilight

Hey there. There's been a lot of talk of Twilight and New Moon. I'll admit that I'm not a fan of the series. It could be that it's just because I haven't read the books but I'm leaning more towards the fact that it's a love story and I think it's more of a "chick" thing. Anyways, from what I know of vampires, I completely agree with the below. THIS is how it should have ended. lol Later!

Dropped off my mother and father in law at LAX. They are off to a 3 week vacation. Hope you guys have a good time. Later.

Family Traditions

Hey here. What are your thoughts on family traditions? I may be missing some, but the only one that I can think of is that we decorate the Christmas tree together as a family every year. Other than that, I am not sure if there is anything else that we do. I mention this because I've put some thought into it and I decided I am going to give my first guitar to my oldest boy this Christmas. All it needs is a change of strings and a good cleaning and it's good to go. It's a junior size Peavy guitar that I do not use and I figured that it would be perfect for him to start learning how to play. I received it as a gift from an uncle from Minnesota and because I received that gift, I blossomed into the guitarist that I am today. I hope that my boy can continue this tradition that I am starting and pass it on to his boy one day. I also plan on giving my acoustic guitar to my newborn son when he's about 10. That way, he too, can continue a tradition of a father passing on his guitar to his son.

I also mentioned starting a new tradition for Thanksgiving. And it would be a chicken wing eating contest. =o) I know it's a little unorthodox but the men in my family love to eat so I figured this would be perfect! The problem is that my son, 10, would be no match for me and my brother. I would love to get this started but I think he needs a few more years on him before he can be competitive. lol I'm sure that some kind of trophy would be involved that one of us would be able to place in our room for the year and bring it to the table to defend the following year. My wife, is not too keen on the idea. lol It's just something that I'm throwing out there since I want to start some long standing traditions in the family.

So far, that's 2 new things that I would like to have go on in my family. I haven't put too much thought into them, but these are just 2 of what I hope are many traditions that I can share with my family. Later!

Leapfish.com - A Smarter Way to Search

Hey there friends. I strongly believe that competition is great for the consumer. A great example of this would be the battle between Google, MSN, and Yahoo for your internet search needs. Each offer their own services in order to entice us to use their search engine. Well, what if I can introduce you to one that can combine all three? Welcome, Leapfish.com.

leapfish is not only a great search engine, but a great source of all things social media. Their home page is customizable to include your Facebook or Twitter account, read up on Us Weekly (or other magazine sites), and check out Youtube's most popular videos. But the search engine is where Leapfish really shines.
I went ahead and entered Metallman's Reverie in the search, just to see what would come up. I was surprised to see that Leapfish not only gave me the search results I was looking for, but gave me the search results for the 3 search engines named above, any Twitter mentions, all blog mentions, AND images in relation to my search. What more can an internet surfer want? Especially one that is active in all things social media?

You definitely want to check out Leapfish.com. Once you give it a go, you may find yourself seriously considering the switch from one of the other guys. Especially bloggers such as myself. Check out this video, it will give you a good look at what leapfish is all about. Later!