I’m utilizing WP 2.8.2, a free theme, and a couple plug-ins (twitter, akismet, etc.). I also have Google Analytics installed to see how traffic goes. So far I’ve had 1 developer send me a code to try out their game (Flipn’ Monsters!) and so I reviewed it for them.

More to come as I have a # of games to review yet. Spread the word!

Happy 2009! Hope your Christmas and New Years days off were great. I spent a lot of time with my new boy (born in December – see allenandkaren.blogspot.com for info on this awesome experience) and when juggling time I have put this blog on the back burner.

No idea if I’ll be able to resurrect it as much in ‘09 either. Work is my #1 focus during the day and when I get home at night I just want to hang out with the family! (That and my laptop died so I can’t bring my computer around on the couch).

But I’ll try to update when I can. The best way to see what’s going on is to follow me on Twitter – my handle there is Valien. I tend to micro-blog on that since it’s a lot easier for me to output something there than here.

You can always follow our forums on Chumpmonkey.com. It’s got decent activity and I’d love to see it grow some more.

Have a great ‘09! Work hard. Save more and spend less.

On one end it’s been super great because my wife and I have found out that we’ll be having a baby boy come this November. You can read more about it on our family blog – http://allenandkaren.blogspot.com. We are thrilled beyond all measure and amazed that the life inside my wife’s tummy is our boy. I’m trying to queue up sleep but it’s not working.

On the other hand it’s been a sad week because a good friend of mine passed away last week and his funeral was yesterday. James Anthony Larsen was 31 years old and passed away from a cardiac arrest after playing basketball with some co-workers/friends last Friday. It was a shock to everyone in our church and to those that knew him from work (he worked at Nuvox Communications). I’ve known James for a couple of years and my wife and I have eaten dinner with him and his wife, Lori, in the past as well. They have two beautiful daughters who will now never get to know their dad like their mom or friends did.

The exciting thing about it all is that James is now with our Heavenly Father and we rejoice with the knowledge of that. It’s also a wakeup call to us younger people in that it’s brings the reality that our life is but a vapor as it says in James 4:14 – Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (KJV) Without the hope of Christ and eternal life we have nothing.

The other reality is that it made my wife and I think about our finances and other things should something happen. Does she know where our accounts are? How to access them? Is our insurance up to par? Some questions were easily answered as we’ve been working on this for a while, some need to be answered soon.

What about you? Are you prepared for the unexpected? Both eternally and financially?

Remember the Larsen family as they go through this time of mourning and healing.

Wanted to share some news to everyone on what’s happening around here -

• We’re expecting our 1st child come November. Yay! Grandparents-to-be, other relatives and friends have all been ecstatic. Of course we are too!
• Been a great week for me in marketing and rolling into my new role as Sales Consultant for FGP Technology. I’ve even made some great contacts and am working on turning them into loyal customers! Yay!
• BMW Pro-Am is this weekend. I don’t golf but it’s all over the local news including this new Upstate SC advertising push – Iwasblownaway.com. Very cool stuff. Shows people that this area is gorgeous, relatively inexpensive to live in, and surrounded by great people and companies.
• Parents are in town for a few days before they head to TN to visit my sister and her family. So we’re doing our best to help them relax and enjoy some downtime from traveling (they are missionaries and just got back from the Philippines a few weeks ago for some furlough/traveling). With Mother’s Day coming up my wife and I will be taking my mom to a nice restaurant on Sunday. Yay!
• Going strawberry picking tomorrow. Yum!

That got me thinking about what I want this site to be about. Do I want to post articles about nothing in particular, or post something worthwhile?

Being that there are a quite a few blogs on the ‘net now for you to have one that actually gets read you need to have content that is worth reading. I read quite a few blogs here and there and many of them are just re-hashes of the same old information. It’s amazing how some bloggers regurgitate the same old info over and over just to try to gather in new readers and increase their traffic count.

Well, this blog hopefully wont’ be one of those types of blogs. I’m sure I will probably post info that hasn’t been hashed out before. It’s hard to come up with something original nowadays but still possible. I will most likely be posting about what interests me. What might that be? Glad you asked cause here is a short list:

• Entrepreneurism – One of my passions and I’ve a decent amount of experience in this field too. I’m no expert but not a rookie either.
• Recycling trends – This is business related I guess. I’m fascinated by this market and the potential that it has for our country.
• Upstate South Carolina News -Yup. I live in Greer, SC. Quite a nice city and one that is growing quite fast. Hopefully I’ll be able to talk about what is happening around here.
• Business Trends – I’m a huge fan of Springwise and I love hearing about all these new and upcoming business trends (both offline and online)
• My life as a <insert job here> – I’m currently in the job hunt for a new field and I’m quite excited about it. As things come up I’ll try to post some info here.
• Gaming – Both web (flash, casual), console (Go Wii!), and board gaming
• Blogging experiments – one of the nice things about hosting a WP blog is that I can play around with it and break something.

So what’s the point?

• Have fun
• Learn technology
• Improve my writing skills
• Experiment with things

In the meantime checkout our family blog – allen & karen and then go order some boardgames from chumpmonkeygames.com.