So for about a month, I have been working as a stock person/cashier/any other duties as assigned for Tarlton Market - a small town IGA market/gas station in southeastern Ohio.  After working a job “guarding” a desk for so long, the physical aspects of the lifting and standing have at times left my body screaming but in all has been a welcome change!

With the funky schedule of a part-time job, my project schedule has become a bit scatterbrained.  I’m still working to get acclaimated to my schedule enough to where I can resume development of myNicheShop.  I have been laying out in my mind what needs to be done both with the API server, the plugin, and its CafePress module.  Unfortunately finding a solid block of time to dig into the coding has been problematic.  I’m hoping to knockout a majority of the coding for the server part on Monday or Wednesday - depending on which day I feel energetic enough to get out into the yard and rake up all the fall leaves and hickory nuts that are scattered about.. lol

Another thing that I haven’t done much of lately that I thoroughly enjoy is do much photography.  A good friend and fellow photographer helped me remedy that last weekend.  We spent much of Friday October 10th driving around Fairfield and Hocking counties in Ohio in search of autumn color to shoot.  We were able to see some, but unfortunately the dry weather may be effecting things a bit.  Plus afterwards I saw the weather guys on the news state that southern Ohio would likely peak towards the end of October.  So I guess there is still hope.  You can see what I shot that Friday in my Flickr albums (Fairfield County Autumn - 101008 and Hocking Hills Autumn - 101008).  We also set out on Monday 101308 and hit the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus and then up to Ye Olde Mill (Velvet Ice Cream) in Utica (Franklin Park Conservatory - 101308 and Ye Olde Mill - 101308).  Hopefully more outtings will be published in my Flickr galleries as I have time to upload them!

In addition to the above, I have also been working on a couple of new websites.  One which I will use to market photography services such as senior portraits for high school seniors and wedding photography.  Planning for all of this is still early in the works but hopefully I will be ready to publish the site and have more information in the months to come.

At any rate, things have been hectic and speaking of which I need to run to the part-time job now..  So catch yall soon!

Penguin pays tribute with visit to war memorial”

Penguin ponders a helicopter ride”

Penguins can fly… Really…

First Penguin Armor Division?

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

Are you a soldier who loves Penguin? Or are you a family member of a soldier? Get your own “US Soldier Penguin items today!

Penguin on Breaks park sign...

Penguin at Stateline Overlook sign at Breaks Interstate Park

Penguin perched on a rock at edge of stateline overlook

From one of the overlooks, we were even able to catch a glimpse of a CSX train running along the historic Clinchfield Railroad!

CSX train exiting the stateline tunnel of the Clinchfield Railroad

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

So July brought me back to internet connectivity, where I started trying to gather whatever information I could find on the development of my affiliate plug-ins. My hopes were that I would find another copy of the source someplace but I figured the reality would be having to start pretty much from scratch. Reality won out and work started on a new plug-in that would integrate all of the existing affiliate program into a single application.

As August approached, I was about to the point where I could drop my new plug-in out to my beta testers and I was in a decent groove coding when we got word that my uncle was put back in the hospital and was pretty bad off. So we picked up and headed back to Kentucky and have been here since then.

The good news is that my buddy Penguin has been having some adventures but the bad news is that my coding work has been on hold since getting here again. Well, until now… I ended up signing up with Verizon BroadbandAccess which is a cellular internet service which uses a PC Card or USB cellular broadband modem. While the service isn’t super great here sitting between two mountains, I am able to get service allowing me to keep up with email, surf the web, and hopefully get back into a development groove.. (That is if Penguin will quit making me take him everywhere!)

With that said, I’m off to prepare some Traveling with Penguin posts to show off Penguin’s adventures with me and then try to wrap my head back around myNicheShop’s development. Wish me luck!

NOTE: Verizon BroadbandAccess is a product of Verizon Wireless. For more information, click the link below and select “Wireless Internet Plans” from the Plans option.

At any rate during their celebration of 200 years as a state, the state of Ohio painted bicentennial murals on barns throughout the state - one barn per county. On our trip to Kentucky, we passed the barn in Ross County which was also the county that hosted the first state capitol of Ohio.

So here is Penguin with the Ross County Ohio Bicentennial barn! I took this photo on May 11, 2008.

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

Do you love Ohio and Penguin? Get your own “I love Ohio” Penguin items today!

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

Do you love West Virginia and Penguin? Get your own “I love West Virginia” Penguin items today!

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

Do you love Virginia and Penguin? Get your own “I love Virginia” Penguin items today!

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

Do you love Kentucky and Penguin? Get your own “I love Kentucky” Penguin items today!

Luckily a good friend of mine (or is it a Goode friend? :p) named Jen Goode sent me a buddy to hang out with me during these journeys. She said he loves to travel and see new places. I figured cool, a travel buddy may keep me occupied enough to where the time passes fast enough that I don’t miss the internet as much. Boy, was I right about being kept occupied!

So after a bit of a wait, the UPS guy shows up at my door with a little box. In getting inside the house, I tear into the box to find a couple books that Jen had offered me. I take out the books and there sits Penguin with his face covered in chocolate smiling up at me innocently. I look closer inside the box and I find the brownie wrapper of the brownie Jen had sent me.. (Jen, next time you ship Penguin with brownies, you might wanna send two!)

At any rate, now that Penguin is here we have a lot of adventures planned. I have a lot of pictures of me and Penguin from my recent trip to Kentucky where we went to visit an uncle in the hospital with cancer. No, Penguin didn’t visit the hospital, but we did take the opportunity to visit a few other places while down in the area.

With the adventures we have had and the adventures we have planned, I decided to add a new category to the site here specifically for cataloging our adventures. (Don’t be surprised to see posts from Penguin… I mean I’ve already caught him playing World of Warcraft late at night on my computer so its hard to tell where he ventures to on the internet!)

About the Penguin
Penguin is a Jen Goode creation. If you travel a lot and would like to have a plushie penguin of your very own to travel with you, visit Jen’s Etsy shop or if you just want cool cartoon penguin shirts/gifts visit The Lil’ Penguin Shop. In addition to my adventures with Penguin that are cataloged at ShawnIngram.com’s Traveling with Penguin, you can see adventures Penguin has with others by visiting his website at My Penguin Travels.

Working on the computer for hours a day, I work on developing programs with PHP, designing page layouts with CSS, managing ad campaigns on my sites, managing my photography at a bunch of different places, (and the list goes on with similar tasks). One would think the last place I would turn to for any kind of fun would be on the computer. But in addition to many of the off-computer things I find fun, I also enjoy the world of MMORPG gaming.

I was first introduced to MMORPG gaming by a consultant that I’d brought in to do some work for us back around 2000. At the time, I was playing a text based multi-player adventure game and refused to give up a game which challenged me to draw the world I was in with my mind for one that would bog down my computer with the graphics and take away my imagination. I finally caved and tried the MMORPG he had been playing towards the end of 2000. I was immediately hooked! Since then I have adventured through five different worlds (and five different beta test worlds).

Currently my family of characters live on the world of Telon (Vanguard: Saga of Heroes) where they are a mixture of adventurers and crafters. I have found that throughout the years that I have been playing MMORPGs that although the graphics are before me, the creativity of an active imagination is not robbed… There are also histories to be pondered and stories to be imagined and created even in the present. Within Telon you may find me on the Seradon server as Dartinus, Kandayael, Kitario, Kukthar, Thardon, Tordey, Domoro, or Annamael. Each has their own personality and history.. Following are snipets on a couple of them…

Dartinus Ashenblade (Dread Knight and Tailor)
As a young boy Dartinus had it rough. His family moved from their homeland of Halgarad on Telon to the deserts around the town of Lomshir when when was only a baby. The continent of Qalia was a big change for the family of lesser giants and a lesser giant boy was a BIG change to the human children of Lomshir. It is little wonder that at the age of calling, young Dartinus began to turn to the teachings of the dread knights with their dark magic and visions of war. Adorned in his mix of chain mail and plate armor, armed with his new squire’s sword and a few spells the young adventurer walked into the wilds to make a mark on the world. The question is, will the mark be for good? Or will it fall more towards his chosen career path of darkness and dread?

Thardon Ashenblade (Cleric and Armorsmith)
“What an evil place”, ponders Thardon as he exits the tomb of Lord Tsang for the fifth time in a week. Loosening the buckles on his chestplate, he lets it drop to the ground before relaxing in the thick growth of bamboo, camouflaging his presence from any wandering nearby. For the first time he notices all the blood from his comrades who, without his spells of healing, would surely have perished. He then notices for the first time since leaving the haunting tomb the continual rain as its drops begin to wash away some of the blood. “It always seems to be raining when I leave this place”, he thinks to himself. “Almost as if the gods are crying because of the desolation that is trying to take over these forsaken islands.”

Tordey(Necromancer)
Life has always been a nightmare for Tordey. Abandoned by a mother who didn’t want her as a child and not knowing who her father was, Tordey ended up in an orphanage in Tanvu. She never got along with the other children and her seething hate for everyone and everything bled through in her interviews with prospective parents. This left little to no chance for her getting away from the horrid place. Little did she know that even for the forgotten and unwanted, there was still a place for everyone in Telon’s society. Now in her thirties, looking back on those days brings a crooked smile to her face. She adoringly strokes the head of her abomination, a creature pieced together with parts harvested from the various creatures she has had to kill. Its long savage claws scrapes the huge granite boulder they are standing on as it looks up waiting for its master’s command. After she checking her quest list from the local garrison, she looks down to the forest below and after a moment spots an enraged treant. She simply points and the abomination goes off in a flurry. As she finishes the incantation of the first of many dark spells to come, she hears the battle start up in the distance. She opens her eyes and again points toward the now fighting treant as streams of complete darkness travel from her fingertips to engulf it and the powerful warmth of her spell’s energy engulfs her once again.

Tuesday’s Topic is inspired weekly by Jen Goode

Below are the MMORPGs I’ve played and/or tested… For more games or gamer gifts be sure to check out our MMORPG Gear site.