A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for a way to have Adium show up my currently playing game on Xbox Live. Windows Live messenger automatically does this but seeing that I only have 2 buddies on that and more than a dozen on Yahoo Messenger, that feature is useless to me. I was surprised that no one has done it yet, it just seems like there is an Adium Xtra for everything now. I found out why, there isn’t a publicly available API for Xbox Live, only a select number of developers can access it.

Looking for a workaround, I stumbled upon a Twitter app by Duncan Mackenzie that kinda does what I wanted, replacing Twitter with Adium. He was kind enough to create a service that relays the Xbox Live data and make it available to those working on small sites or writing scripts.

Anyhoo, a whole afternoon and four cups of coffee later, I was able to create my very first AppleScript in the form of an Adium Xtra. I know it’s not exactly a feat since AppleScripts are very easy to write but it just warms my heart a little bit when I contribute something, even if it’s not the most useful thing in the world.

Usage instructions and download link are detailed on the Xbox Live Status Adium Xtras page.

It’s December and as if there aren’t enough stuff happening already and my expenses are not going through the roof, I remember that my hosting service is up for renewal this weekend. This site is currently hosted at Dreamhost and although I do not have any problem with them whatsoever, I have decided to switch providers just because I do not want to pay more than a hundred dollars for hosting. I originally signed-up using one of their promo codes but it’s only for one time use.

Using Google to search for hosting providers is kinda hopeless. I don’t know who to trust as there are loads of “hosting review” sites which I think are put up by the hosting companies themselves. I did found a couple which narrow down my choices. Surpass Hosting is offering a promo for a year of hosting for $12 which will start on December 15. It looks tempting as it offers almost the same specifications as my Dreamhost plan (200 GB storage, 2000 GB transfer) but the reviews for the service are not that great. HostICan, on the other hand, is offering the same specifications plus 2 free domains and has glowing reviews but will set me back $45 even after I use a coupon.

I don’t know, maybe I should just opt for the cheaper one. After all, I don’t make any kind of money for this anyway and nobody clicks on my Google ads. Ever. In more than 2 years that I’ve been running this blog I earned a whopping… wait for it… $2! With the rate of the dollar now, I can’t even afford a movie ticket with that. I don’t really mind, it’s nice having a blog and all with your own domain and everything. Makes you feel kinda special.

I haven’t been updating this blog that much because I’m still looking for my “blogger identity”. I mean, I’ve been blogging for more than 3 years now but that’s just mostly about my personal life and that was my teenage angst writing. Now that I’m planning to make this sort of like my portfolio site, I don’t think it’s appropriate to write personal stuff anymore. That’s it, I’m not writing personal stuff anymore. I don’t want people to know what I’m up to.

Having said that, I just created my very own Twitter account. Since I don’t want people to know what I’m up to, I don’t want them to visit this link.

It’s finally done! markBlog 2.0 featuring 2 all new re-designed sections. Here’s a rundown of what’s new

Home (Blog)
-If it ain’t broke don’t fix it right? I think the old design is perfect that’s why I only made quite a few color revisions
-markMix is now up and functional. It will feature songs that I think is appropriate to whatever mood I’m in. First song to be featured is Jars of Clay’s Waiting for the World to Fall from the Narnia soundtrack. It’s quite deep, dark and definitely catchy and I can’t get it out of my head for weeks now.

Photo Albums
-The online version of my iPhoto Library
-3 Albums are now up: US Trip, North Luzon Vacation and Holidays

About
-Uhmm…self-explanatory? Oh…it does not link anymore to Blogger’s about page but a custom one created by me usin iWeb.

As promised, I have a new home on the web! It’s www.markcas.com! astig! I found this great deal that Yahoo! Small Business is offering and you can buy a domain for $4.95 so that’s just around 280 pesos. Hosting is provided by Marvin’s Web and of course still powered by Blogger (better than my own PHP-written blog before ).

Stay tuned for more exciting updates like the new markMix…surprise na lang kung ano yun!