I recently retired my old Samsung monitor, and brought in a replacement.  While I work on getting a more official review in order for my new Samsung Touch Of Color 25.5-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor I thought I could at least share my unboxing photos with all of you.  Thus far I have been really impressed with it – and I’ll be sure to post more of my thoughts very soon.

There is the side of the box, giving all the geeky details. 

The box is now open, what kind of mysteries are inside? (and did I open this thing upside down?)

After digging the monitor out, I thought it would be worth it to do a side by side comparison.  New monitor is on the left and old monitor is on the right.

All plugged in and ready to roll.  Here is the Samsung Touch Of Color 25.5-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor all plugged in, and ready for work.  It also doubles as a TV too – just got to find room on the desk to plug something into it, PS3? Wii? or maybe go old school and find an NES?

There you have it.  I’ll be sure to post more of my thoughts on the Samsung Touch Of Color 25.5-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor very soon.  So far though, I would give it a huge two thumbs up.

The big reason I decided to pick up this book was because a good friend of mine, Meilena Hauslendale is the author.  I worked with Meilena while she was at Lunarpages, and she had always been a good source for advice and guidance.  Plus, if you can’t plug you friend’s creations – who’s creations can you plug?

Back to the book, Stop Complaining: Guide to Living Life Instead of Complaining About It really does help you stop and think about what it is you complain about, and if it is really worth it or not.

Through ten chapters, Meilena does an excellent job at helping you identify the things you complain about, how complaining can be healthy or unhealthy for you, and helps you break the habit of complaining about thing that you really don’t need to waste your time complaining about.

I’m not usually the self-help book type, however I’m happy I read Stop Complaining because I do think it has had a positive impact on how I look at issues, and has helped me reduce my own stress by complaining less.  To pick up the book for yourself, or to learn a little more about the lady behind it, go check out imotivate.org.

All you need to do is visit the Submit a Question page, fill the form out, and then tune in to the Web Hosting Show each time a new show is released and your question will be answered and your web site will be plugged!

What can you ask about? I’ll answer anything that is even remotely related to web hosting.  Maybe you could ask about search engine optimization techniques?  Perhaps you need to know how to install WordPress?  You might even want my recipe for poor man’s pigs in a blanket (white bread and Vienna sausages).  Give me your questions, and I will give you the answers.

Since I have both podcast #190 and podcast #200 coming up this month, I would really like to have a slew of questions to go through, so I can help each and every one of you.

Thanks to the powers of the Wayback Machine, here is the earliest layout I can find for Mitchelaneous (then hosted as a part of the lockergnome.net blogs). Actually, you could probably say that Chris Pirillo (and the old Lockergnome team of writers) played a big part in this web site’s existence.

I like to say I was a part of the last great team of writers at Lockergnome.com, before they turned it into a big social network/everybody can sign up type of mess.  At the time, I was trying to build up my own resume, so writing more seemed to be a natural progression.  So I set up a blog, start to pontificate, and the rest is digital history.

So in closing, I just wanted to take a minute to thank each and every one of you for stopping in day to day, and making this little pet project of mine a fun one to be apart of.  I appreciate your support, no matter if you just came in once or you come in every single day.

Want to make sure you don’t miss a post in the next five years?  Be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed, in your feed reader of choice.

One thing I was able to get started on this weekend, and finished up just a few minutes ago was the new layout for MitchKeeler.com.  Being the most static of the bunch, MitchKeeler.com doesn’t just serve as my online resume – oh no.  It is the place to go if you want to know more about what it is I do, and how to get in touch with me.  More updates to come to that web site (as soon as I find that mysterious 25th hour in the day) so stay tuned, and let me know what you think of the new re-design thus far!

10. Jigsaw and Billy (yes, that is the puppet’s name) from SAW

9. Pennywise from IT

8. Chucky from Child’s Play

7. Michael Myers from Halloween

6. The Freaks (yes, all of them) from Freaks

5. Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th

4. The Deadites from the Evil Dead

3. The Zombies from Night of the Living Dead

2. Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

1.  Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Do you agree with my choices, or did I leave your favorite horror movie villain off the list?  Leave a comment and let me know who you think the greatest scary movie villain really is.

That might not be bad if it wasn’t A Nightmare on Elm Street, but for such an epic movie series that was a huge part of my childhood, I am disappointed.  What is my biggest complaint?

Where is Robert England?! – I might sound like an irrational fan boy, but you can’t have Freddy Krueger without Robert England.  Want proof?  Just look at the side by side comparison:

The new Freddy looks more like the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, than a scary movie villain.

The only thing that would be more sacrilegious would be if you had an Evil Dead movie, without Bruce Campbell playing the role of Ash. 

Now, I could mention the fact that Michael Bay has something to do with this (what, is Freddy going to blow people up with multiple pointless explosions?) but I think I hit the nail on the head with my biggest complaint, thus far.

Thank you Hollywood for taking a childhood memory, and ruining it yet again.

Now why not go towards a more expensive product like the iPod line of players?  Well, I need something that is cheap enough that I don’t feel bad dropping it in my pocket, and letting it get beat up a little ‘bit while I do work outside.  I’m afraid if I got something like an iPod Touch I would be cradling the thing like a new born baby, which for my needs, it just does not fit.

Back to the Coby MP305-4G, it is not a bad little player in it’s own right.  Some of the features include:

• 4 GB of Flash Memory
• Built in USB 2.0 Interface
• Has Built in FM Radio (which will probably never be used)

It runs off a single triple A battery, which is a test really to see if I like that more, or the rechargeable battery I had with the Zen Stone Plus.  Couldn’t tell you the battery life yet – cause it has yet to run out.  Overall, if your looking for a cheap MP3 player you can slap some stuff onto and get back to work – I would highly recommend the Coby MP305-4G.  If your looking for something that has tons of bells and whistles, you might want to look elsewhere. 

For example, look at Chris Pirillo and his icon.  If you are a follower of him and what he does, you know when you see this icon:

That he is associated with it.  No matter if you follow him on his web site, his Twitter page, his Facebook page, you know to associate that with him.  Others have done this too.  BlueFur.com, a Canadian based web host uses their blue monster as their Twitter icon too.

Here are a few more tips about the process that you might find useful:

• Pick something that is unique about yourself or your company
• Try to use something that is easily recognizable
• Don’t be afraid to have a little fun with it

With that said, here is what I have currently decided to go with…

I had to update my look, since I cut my hair off – plus I threw my own favicons from my various site in for good measure. 

So as you can see – you might want to give a little more thought when it comes to picking the right picture you want to use across all the web pages you wish to frequent, especially if you want to build a brand around your name or business.

About a week ago, I picked up the FC Twin.  Now, what is it?  In a nutshell it plays both old classic NES and SNES games.  I have a good collection of old Super Nintendo games to play, and I picked up a few more old Nintendo games on eBay to check it out.  Overall, it is a pretty nice machine – if you don’t pay too much for it.

First, I will give you my complaints.

Not all games will work with it correctly.  Wikipedia has a list of a few games that you will have trouble with.  I found on Contra 3, the bullets for the guns disappear every so often.  It is also pretty ghetto when you pick it up for the first time.  You expect it to have a little more “bulk” to it, but honestly feels like a couple of pieces of plastic slapped together. 

Now, moving to the positives about the FC Twin, I really liked that this is two systems in one.  Also, it comes with you standard red, white and yellow A/V cable, so no worrying about screwing an adapter on an off my HDTV.  The controllers were a little stiff – but the system does work with the classic SNES controllers if you have a few laying around.

You can usually find these best on eBay, if you are interested in picking one up for yourself.  When push comes to shove, it is a nice alternative – however I am still going to go hunting for both an old Nintendo and Super Nintendo. FC Twin just doesn’t recapture that Nintendo vibe very well. Call me nostalgic. I would give the system three freaky Mitchelaneous thumbs up out of five.