I do not have this. My ability to focus on one thing is so bad that I often tell others my attention span is about as bad as an A.D.H.D. kid on a sugar buzz. I'll begin one thing, start another, then another and continue on completely forgetting about what I was originally doing. This is why my four websites are so perfect for me - they require hardly any input from me. I have bounced back and forth between wanting to do a review website, a database of video games, writing a story, and hundreds of other things. My mind never stays on one thing and then it moves on.

Even now, writing this blog entry, I find myself struggling to keep my attention on this page and not the countless other distractions around me. Looking up the word focus for the little introduction up top led me to read about the word history, which led me to read about focal length and lenses, which led me to reading about cameras and then - oddly enough - the electromagnetic spectrum. Before I wrote the first line of this post I had jumped 4 subjects and was reading about wavelengths and frequencies.

This little bit of oddity is the reason I seem to remember such random things. Someone will just slightly mention some off the wall topic and I'll respond with a "did you know" from that subject. People seem amazed by this and have called me all sorts of adjectives like" intelligent" and "smart". I wish I felt this way about myself but in general I do not find this to be some sort of gift bestowed upon me. My inability to keep my concentration on one thing at a time is my curse. A horrible curse that has resulted in me being unable to even study for a class I was enthusiastic in taking a few years ago. Even something interesting to me was unable to hold my attention.

After doing a bit of research - and by a bit I mean 10 minutes - I discovered that my quip about A.D.H.D. may not have been far off. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV says that people with six or more of the following symptoms for at least six months may be diagnosed as having a subtype of A.D.H.D. called A.D.H.D. Predominantly Inattentive.

• Often does not give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities.
• Often has trouble keeping attention to tasks or play activities.
• Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
• Often does not follow instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions.)
• Often has trouble organizing activities.
• Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn't want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time.
• Often loses things needed for tasks and activities.
• Is often easily distracted.
• Is often forgetful in daily activities.

Also given is a list of examples of observed symptoms.

• Often making careless mistakes when having to work on uninteresting or difficult projects.
• Often having difficulty keeping attention during work, or holding down a job for a significant amount of time.
• Often having difficulty concentrating on conversations.
• Having trouble finishing projects that have already been started.
• Often having difficulty organizing for the completion of tasks.
• Avoiding or delaying in starting projects that require a lot of thought.
• Often misplacing or having difficulty finding things at home or at work.
• Disorganized personal items causing excessive "clutter".
• Often distracted by activity or noise.
• Often having problems remembering appointments or obligations, or inconveniently changing plans on a regular basis.

The items in green above highlight issues I have. This list  describes me to such an incredible degree that I'm surprised I hadn't run across this before. The general description of A.D.H.D.-P.I. is "characterized primarily by inattention, easy distractibility, disorganization, procrastination, forgetfulness, and lethargy."

As I continue to read about this, I see here that children who have this are often branded as lazy, not trying, irresponsible, and having a lack of showing effort. I was told this countless times as a kid growing up.

The more intelligent inattentive children may realize on some level that they are somehow different internally from their peers; however, they are unfortunately also likely to accept and internalize the continuous negative feedback, creating a negative self-image that becomes self-reinforcing. If these children progress into adulthood undiagnosed or untreated, their inattentiveness, ongoing frustrations, and poor self-image frequently create numerous and severe problems maintaining healthy relationships, succeeding in postsecondary schooling, or succeeding in the workplace. These problems can compound frustrations and low self-esteem, and will often lead to the development of secondary pathologies including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and substance abuse.

I see this, and it is me in text. The crazy thing is that I don't know what to do about this. And this post, writing it, has drained me which is something else I've also noticed about me. When I do need to put my attention to one thing and force myself to push through I find myself physically and mentally wore out.

10 - The Legend of Zelda

Native name: ゼルダの伝説 (zeruda no densetsu)
Original release: February 21, 1986
Units sold: 59 million

The Legend of Zelda series is games typically in the genre of Action RPG; that the game uses real time battles (as opposed to turn based such as most Final Fantasy) and typically requires dexterity to move your character about to avoid traps, etc. The Legend of Zelda series is also well known for its puzzles, the triforce, and the well overused trope called Save the Princess. The action usually takes place inside a dungeon where solving the aforementioned puzzles allows one to delve deeper until meeting the dungeon boss. There are 15 games that make up the official Zelda series. The series was created by Nintendo's world famous Shigeru Miyamoto (宮本茂).

9 - FIFA

Original release: December 1993
Units sold: 65 million

FIFA Soccer/FIFA Football is a series of Electronic Arts soccer/football games released under the EA Sports label. This series of soccer games were the first to have an official license by FIFA. Globally, FIFA is EA Sports most popular sports game.

8 - Grand Theft Auto

Original release: October 1997
Units sold: 70 million

Grand Theft Auto can be seen as having two distinct game eras: the first two games in the series were done in an overhead birds-eye view, and 3D sandbox style game play from the third edition on. The idea behind GTA is you are either a small-time criminal looking to make your way up through the ranks of organized crime or a person who has been wronged by someone and looks to seek revenge.

Grand Theft Auto is well known for its portrayal of violence and other criminal activities. The principal behind the game is you use vehicles to explore an urban (and in San Andreas a large open country side) to further the story along.

7 - John Madden Football

Original release: 1988
Units sold: 75 million

Originally known as John Madden Football and since 1994 as Madden NFL Football, the series is named after the Super Bowl winning coach of the Oakland Raiders and long time commentator on CBS, Fox, and ABC.

The Madden series is currently the only series using the NFL license since an exclusive rights deal was signed between the NFL and Electronic Arts in mid-December 2004. This license agreement has recently been extended to 2012.

6 - Final Fantasy

Native name: ファイナルファンタジー (fainaru fantajī)
Original release: December 18, 1987
Units sold: 92 million

Final Fantasy is an ongoing series of fantasy role-playing games (recently science-fiction fantasy role-playing games), anime, merchandise, and motion pictures. The original release of Final Fantasy in 1987 was an attempt to save Square from bankruptcy and the title reflected that situation. Director Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口博信) knew he was better at telling a story than creating an action game and so created Final Fantasy as a fantasy RPG with many ideas now mainstay of Japanese Role-Playing games but was at the time unique and unseen. One of the most enjoyed aspects of Final Fantasy is its music. Famed video game composer and self-taught musician Nobuo Uematsu (植松伸夫) was the main composer for most of the Final Fantasy games up to Final Fantasy X.

5 - Need for Speed

Original release: August 3, 1994
Units sold: 100 million

Need for Speed is a series of racing games published by Electronic Arts. The original game was released on the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, 3D0, and could be played both on Windows 95 and MS-DOS. It was unique in that it contained real cars with commentaries on each, was partnered with Road & Track to make sure sound effects were as real as possible, and had races in which you could get pulled over and ticketed by police officers.

After the initial release the games built upon the success of the previous. Many titles focusing on a particular theme such as Hot Pursuit where you attempted to outrun the police or played as the cop arresting speed violators and Underground which focused on street racing. There has been a total of sixteen Need for Speed games released.

4 - The Sims

Original release: February 4, 2000
Units sold: 125 million

The Sims is a life simulation developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright, who originally developed the Sim City line of games. The Sims focuses on living out the lives of Sims where the player controls nearly every part of the family's life. The game is the most successful PC game of all time.

3 - Tetris

Native name: Те́трис
Original release: June 6, 1984
Units sold: 125 million

Tetris is a world phenomenon and is possibly one of the most played games of all time. Tetris was developed and programmed by Alexey Pazhitnov (Алексей Пажитнов) while he worked for a computing center at the Academy of Science of the USSR. I can't imagine there is much I can say about this game that hasn't already been said. I'll just drop this tidbit: he never received any money from the licensing of the game until 1996.

2 - Pokémon

Native name: ポケットモンスター (poketto monsutaa)
Original release: February 27, 1996
Units sold: 193 million

Pokémon is a series of video games developed by Game Freak and Creatures Inc. A large media franchise, Pokémon has had its games released in pairs for the Game Boy handhelds with an enhanced version released a few years later. Pokémon consists of many different generations with a new generation heralded in by a release of a main RPG sequel in the official line of games which introduces new monsters, characters, and game-play ideas.

1 - Mario

Native name: マリオ (mario)
Original release: 1981
Units sold: 222 million

The Mario series is highly acclaimed and extremely popular. Mario has been the mascot of Nintendo since the mid-1980s. Generally the Mario games are platform games where the player must navigate a play field littered with platforms on which to jump to and from while avoiding enemy attacks. Mario defeats his enemies by either jumping on them or launching a fire ball. Later games gave Mario and increased arsenal of attacks. The character of Mario was developed by legendary game producer (and creator of the Zelda series on this list at number 10) Shigeru Miyamoto and was the hero of the Donkey Kong game (then the character was known as Jumpman).

Typically a Mario game in the past was a launch title for a Nintendo console: Super Mario Bros. for the NES, Super Mario World of the SNES, Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64. However, in the last decade only 5 main-line Mario games have been released: Super Mario Sunshine (2002), New Super Mario Bros. (2006), Super Mario Galaxy (2007), New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009), and the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MILITARY CROSSES BEING REMOVED

I AM HONORED TO DO THIS

Did you know that the ACLU has filed a suit to have all military cross-shaped headstones removed and another suit to end prayer from the military completely. They're making great progress. The Navy Chaplains can no longer mention Jesus' name in prayer thanks to the wretched ACLU and our new administration.

I'm not breaking this one. If I get it a 1000 times, I'll forward it a 1000 times!

Let us pray...

Prayer chain for our Military... Don't break it!
Please send this on after a short prayer. Pray for our soldiers
Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands
Protect them as they protect us
Bless them and their families for the selfless act they perform for us in time of need.

In Jesus Name.
Amen. '

Prayer Request: When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world. There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.
GOD BLESS YOU FOR PASSING IT ON!

Crazy. I find it funny how the ACLU helps the Christian's fight for their rights yet attack them for defending the rights of others. Hypocrisy at its finest. I can only hope this family friend keeps supplying me with winners like this.

Oh, and like many of the things that come out of Christian mouths: this is a bold face lie. See the article on Snopes.com.

Statement as of 5:38 am CST on February 12, 2010

... Greatest all-time calendar day snow on record set at Dallas Fort
Worth...

... Record daily maximum snowfall for February 11th set at Dallas
Fort Worth...

... Greatest all-time 24-hour snowfall total set at Dallas Fort
Worth...

... Record 24-hour snow for February set at Dallas Fort Worth...

Dallas Fort Worth Airport recorded 11.2 inches of snow for February
11... 2010. This breaks the greatest calendar day snow on record.
The old record was 7.8 inches set on January 15... 1964 and January
14... 1917.

Obviously... .this shatters the record daily maximum snowfall for
February 11th... of 1.4 inches which was previously set in 1988.

The greatest all-time 24 hour snowfall record was also broken from 4
am Thursday to 4 am Friday. The new record is 12.5 inches. The old
record was 12.1 inches set January 15 through January 16... 1964.

This also breaks the record 24-hour snowfall for February which was
7.5 inches... set on February 17... 1978 and February 25... 1924.

They also released this notice:

Statement as of 4:10 am CST on February 12, 2010

... Snow event one for the record books...

At midnight on February 11th... dfw Airport had recorded 11.2 inches
of snow. This breaks the previous daily record for February 11th of
1.4 inches set in 1988. This also breaks the previous 24-hour record
for February... 7.5 inches on February 17, 1978 and February 25, 1924.

At 4 am on February 12th... dfw Airport had reported a 24-hour
snowfall total of 12.5 inches. This breaks the previous all time
24-hour snowfall total record of 12.1 inches set January 15-16, 1964.

The snowfall total on February 11th is the greatest calendar-day
snowfall total on record for Dallas/Fort Worth. The previous record
was 7.8 inches on January 15, 1964 and January 14, 1917.

This brings the seasonal snowfall total to 15.7 inches... which is
the 2nd highest seasonal total on record for Dallas/Fort Worth. This
is the snowiest winter in 32 seasons (since 1977-1978).

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dallas/Fort Worth - snowiest seasons

1 17.6 1977-78
2 15.7 2009-10*
3 15.3 1963-64
4 13.5 1923-24
5 10.4 1976-77
6 9.5 1909-10
7 9.2 1916-17
8 8.8 1947-48
9 8.1 1937-38
10 7.3 1965-66
7.3 1941-42

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dallas/Fort Worth - most snow in February

1 13.5 1978
2 12.5 2010*
3 7.5 1924

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dallas/Fort Worth - greatest 24-hour snowfall totals

1 12.5 February 11-12, 2010*
2 12.1 January 15-16, 1964
3 8.2 January 14-15, 1917
4 7.5 February 17, 1978
7.5 February 25, 1924
6 6.0 March 13, 1924
7 5.5 December 9, 1898
8 5.0 November 22, 1937
5.0 January 5, 1910
10 4.7 November 13, 1976

--------------------------------------------------------------------

And yes, it is very unusual to see this much snow. However, this does not disprove climate change no matter how much your little republican conservative heart wants it to.

My problem with critics - when it comes to reviews - is they seem to take up a position where they expect everything they experience to be a life altering event and anything less than that leaves them in dismay as they look back over their career and wonder where it all went wrong.

I, on the other hand, enjoy giving people my opinion on many things - games, movies, music, food, toilet paper, etc. - without expecting these things to be earth shattering events... well, except for the toilet paper as I expect my toilet paper to pleasantly pamper my ass into making it believe it is the Queen of England!

I'll come from a different perspective: as the Unprofessional Reviewer! (Said in booming echo voice.) I will tell you if I liked it or not based on nothing more than if I found the item entertaining, useful, or worthy of my dollars, or if my anus now is a monarch.

PLEASE go to PRIVACY SETTINGS, then click BLOCK LIST and type in AUTOMATION-LOG. If a name pops up, PLEASE BLOCK HIM and PLEEEEEEASE PASS ON!!!

The exact wording varies but the idea is the same: you go to your block list and type in something. When you type a name into a Facebook user field it finds names that are similar to what you've typed in or content from within their profile. Any names that pop up have something to do with the words you're typing in. Typing "automation-log" will find people who have key words in their profile dealing with automation or log. None of the users you see listed have any sort of access to your Facebook account and are NOT able to view anything on your profile that you have marked as private-for-friends-only.

This rumor is the same as the Facebook will make you pay to use it unless you join _____ group, not true.

Source: Snopes.com

The Lancet statement is a bit bloodless… but they are a professional research journal and not a blog, so it’s not appropriate for them to call out Wakefield in more emotional — and utterly deserved — terms. It’s up to the blogs to call out Wakefield for his tireless efforts in creating of the modern antivaccination movement, which is becoming so successful that measles, mumps, pertussis, and other preventable diseases are on the rise again. And to note that not only was his research wrong, but that he may have faked his data. And to say that he has a huge conflict of interest here, since at the time he was involved in creating an alternative to vaccination that would make him very, very rich if people became scared to vaccinate their kids. And to inform peoplethat Wakefield was in the pocket of lawyers trying to sue the vaccine industry. And to basically call out the entire antivax movement for the incredible damage they have done and continue to do to public health.

Do read his full article at Bad Astronomy - And now, the antivax failure is complete: The Lancet withdraws Wakefield’s paper.

While the paper that he and 12 other doctors published stated that there was no causal connection, Dr. Wakefield sounded the alarm and requested that the MMR vaccine be suspended and that more research be conducted in a separate video news release.

From this point a large number of ill informed people, though most likely acting in what they believe to be good intentions, began withholding vaccines from their children and proactively telling others to do the same. This resulted in the obvious dip in the number of people vaccinated from diseases and especially the MMR combination of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. Herd immunity is the process in which a vaccinated majority protects those who are unvaccinated. The threshold for measles is at 83-94%, mumps at 75-86%, and rubella at 80-85%. When the percentage of the herd, or this instance the community, drops below these percentage points the likelihood of those who are not vaccinated of acquiring the disease begins to rise.

Incidence of Measles

The effectiveness of the vaccine can not be questioned by any logical thinking human being. Prior to vaccines for measles it was felt to be an inevitable part of growing up with the peak being in the late 1950s where nearly 800,000 cases were reported. The graph to the right shows clearly the numbers of cases dropping like a rock after the vaccine was introduced.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield was investigated by reporter Brian Deer of The Sunday Times in 2004. During this investigation it was discovered that Wakefield received funding of 55,000 British pounds from Legal Air Board. They were looking for evidence against vaccine manufacturers. Wakefield did not inform any one of the conflict of interests. Another source of conflict was that Dr. Wakefield was in fact possibly developing a vaccine that would be a competitor of the MMR vaccine and it was alleged that he was applying for patents for such a vaccine. When these reports came out ten of the twelve co-authors of the paper retracted.

Five years later in 2009 The Sunday Times reported on Wakefield again finding that he had manipulated patient data and that the 1998 paper was published with misreported results. They concluded that the misreported results were what caused the appearance of a link to autism.

The General Medical Council investigated and charge that Wakefield and two others acted dishonestly and unethically in their research of the MMR vaccine. The prosecution began presenting its case in August 2007 and finished that October. The General Medical Council came to a conclusion last week that Wakefield had acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly." The Lancet publication today announced they have "fully retract[ed] this paper from the published record."

It has been shown time and time again that there has never been any links to autism from vaccines. Studies upon studies have proven that they only negative effects that are commonly felt with vaccines are typically rashes and egg allergies. I would love to imagine that this would end this debate once and for all but does anyone honestly believe the quacks that have so much invested in this sham are going to give up?