Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Updates And Such 11/28/12

It's funny. Every time I write one of these, the theme to Unsolved Mysteries starts going through my head.

And in this case, it's appropriate, in more ways than one. I've got some updates to give here, which is where I most remember that bit of music from within the show. And another theme of the show was unsolved cases and tales of the unknown, which always had open ends and uncertain outcomes, in many cases still yet to be decided.

Probably the big thing here is what's going on with this blog itself. I've made it no secret that I've had Google's AdSense running on this thing pretty much the whole time I've been doing it, in hopes that I might one day get a little money from it. Slowly but surely I'd been getting there. My assumption that it would take time was not in error, it had seemed. But the last month or so, I've noticed a big jump in both visitors and ad clickthroughs.

It seems that Google noticed as well. As of sometime last week, my AdSense account has been suspended for what they call “invalid activities”. While I agree that their caution is warranted, I also find it concerning that these “invalid activities” are not defined for users such as myself, nor are the methods by which they are determined, and the means for appealing such suspensions and cancellations of accounts is unclear and confusing at best. At this point, I have submitted my appeal in hopes that my AdSense account will not be closed. However, the final decision on the matter remains in the hands of Google and its processes.

Regardless of the outcome of said process, I will attempt to continue this blog and my art blog in some way, shape, or form if at all possible. I have always felt, and continue to feel, that this is an appropriate hobby for me, one that helps me collect and focus my thoughts. I would hope that in the process of doing so, I entertain and perhaps even inform my readers in some capacity, and wish to continue doing so.

This continuation will include the same material it always has. I will still post thoughts, stories of days gone by, movie reviews, and, of course, the Text Plays, to name a few things. The uncertainty here comes from just how able I'll be able to continue with the Text Plays. I find now that my rather limited collection of consoles is beginning to show its age. I haven't actually been able to play a game on my PS1 for quite some time now; my PS2 is starting to have issues reading disks, and for the first time in more than twenty years, I seem to have broken a controller.

My SNES still seems to be in relatively good order for a system that is itself a good twenty years old, but even then, it's hard to say how long that will last. As I said, the unit is twenty years old. I can still remember, vaguely, when my brother and I bought it in the early 90s, which is a story for another time.

The controller and console issues are not particularly difficult ones to remedy, as there are second-hand gaming stores that sell such things in close proximity to places I frequently go anyway. Since the PS2 is backwards-compatible with PS1 disks and controllers, I'm not completely out of commission while I search the stores for replacements as needed.

I have, of late, also been having computer issues. I have a laptop that's no less than a decade old and I seem to be having what seems to be some sort of badware issues with my desktop PC. I'm looking into options to remedy this problem, but they all seem to take time and money, which are, at present, in rather limited supply.

The plan right now is to get the laptop done first, since the problems with my main PC, far as I can tell, are less severe. I will, of course, be reassessing the situation as it develops, and that may be subject to change.

And that pretty much wraps up this set of updates. More to follow as the need arises. I'll be seeing you in the very near future with more of the things I do here. See you then, folks.

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