My nomination:
Mommies are a different breed of human that need to be bowed down too… Especially this one. She has been a 1/2 stay at home mommy with the privilege of taking our daughter to work with her to take on a bigger task of raising other peoples kids. Usually we all wake up together in the morning unless the dogs need to go out sooner in which she gets up, lets the dogs out, feeds the cats and begins her morning. Some mornings she has to work before we all get up, that’s right, she’s out the door at 6:15, up at 5:30 to get to her first morning job of getting twins and a teen ready for school and driving them there. She’s back by 8:30 to take Hayden to Gymnastics while I go to work. On the days she isn’t going to gymnastics she does a school co-op for the first part of the day. After lunch she organizes meet ups with other moms for parks, play dates and any other fun activities they can plan.

During nap time she goes to school full time online getting her teaching credentials so what would be a break for most her nap times are spent researching different kinds of psychology and writing papers on top of getting the laundry done and doing the dishes. After nap she is off to work again and takes Hayden with her to pick up Allison. Allison is a 21 year old mentally disabled girl who has the mind of a 12-14. So now the task of battling a 3 year olds wants, needs and break downs with a 21 year old who has a hard time dealing with every day life. After about 6pm Leah gets home, makes dinner, sets the table and gives us a yummy hot meal to come home to and enjoy. Once I get home I full on take the roll of Daddy and let her get back to her school work. By 830ish its time for our nightly routine…. Jammie’s, Sponge Bob, brush teeth, read books and of course mom needs to fall asleep with Hayden. By about 930-10pm her day ends. Sometimes. Depending on how much more school work she needs to do she stays up till midnight to get her papers in.

I know no one else that takes on so many hats and just makes it happen day in day out. She’s strong, she’s confident and best of all she teaches Hayden everyday about the world around us through explorative play. When here mommy hat is on its on lock and there’s nothing to stand in her way, except our 3 year olds tantrums! =P She deserves a MoTM award every month in one shape or form but to feel proud and accomplished she only needs to turn and look at her family. Thanks for considering Leah and best of luck to all moms!

The most awesome part about this mouse is its configuration. There are 5 physical parts that you can adjust to make the mouse fit your needs. Included in the build of it is a tool that screws into the back of it. This is like a size 2 allen wrench. Now behind the screw you will find another nob to release and behind it you will find a set of 5 gram weights. It comes with a total of 5 and you can adjust the weight of it. I love this so much… I enjoying feeling something in my hand and before even driving it knowing that its build with quality and some durability. The weights give you that as well as the additional pressure to make the movement of the mouse the smoothest I’ve ever seen.

Next is the palm rest. It comes with 3 different palm rests in different heights and and grips. Also the place that the grip slides onto has different notches to adjust its positioning to best fit the length of your own palm. This was the only thing I had to get used to. My current mouse is the Razer Mamba. That mouse is curved to fit the shape of your hand as it rests on top so there’s no  gaps and the erganomics are sculpted gracefully. It might actually be the only thing that would make me rate this mouse a 4 out of 5 star mouse. Now if you keep your fingers totally straight on the R.A.T. 7 its a really clean fit.

I never really think about this but now that I have options I pay attention to other mice that don’t have this and that’s pinkie support. Yup. It comes with 3 different plates that you can interchange. One is more smooth and plastic like. The second has a rubber grip and it feels a lot better in terms or resting as well as finger placement. Its the one I use. The last one is like a bucket seat for your pinkie and or ring finger. I had to try it out but I don’t think I have long enough fingers to make it feel like a seat I could hang out in all day long.

The last two things you can change are the the button placement and rest area for your thumb. Using the tool you have a screw that you can loosen and it gives you a pivot point to push the buttons further out or in. Really great for people who have a wide hand or even long fingers. The last part is a screw that your loosen or tighten and it slides the whole side into your desired position. This was my second favorite option to be able to customize as I like my buttons a little closer to home and I could rest my thumb and not have to move it anywhere to push my browser navigation buttons forward or back.

You might be wondering what the knob in the middle is… Well thats a side scroll wheel. Someone finally made one! I’m so annoyed by the fact that you have to press you scroll wheel side to side and most of the time you end  up pushing your middle button or what ever the case and its been a faulty design IMHOP. Being a DJ this knob felt right at home!!

The scroll wheel has a click to it but its more of a soft rounded click between positions vs. the harsh big stops that a typical mouse has. I’m very used to using my middle finger to right click and scroll but this mouse has so much realestate for the buttons that you can lay three fingers down with room for company and have it feel like a landing pad for your fingers. The click of the buttons is fast… precise and short. If you are slamming down on a FPS this mouse is super tight and has great control.

Now I didn’t get a chance to play as many games because of mothers day weekend so I am going to have to test drive it on Call of Duty or our new FPS at work to really get a feel for it. There’s this button that they call the ‘Precise Aim Mode’ for the mouse and its supposed to help you steady shot and get best accuracy for any FPS you play.

There’s also a sensitivity button right behind the scroll wheel with 5 levels of adjustment that let you speed up and slow down your cursor on the fly. This is great for multiple reasons. Right off the bat you don’t need to get into your system options for your mouse you can adjust your speed as it suits you on a day to day. Level up for a FPS this is fantastic because you can instantly go form quick pan and scan to a slowed down precise head shot if you can train yourself to use this tool.

So my overall review is that if you are a gamer… get his mouse. If you are a designer… get this mouse. I have an amazing mouse to compare it to and even though the ergonomics are not as amazing as I would like them to be all the other features outweigh that slight flaw in the design. I’m actually selling my Mamba and I’m going to get this mouse. It’s way cheaper too. I’ve found it for $75 – $100 vs. the $130 I paid for my Mamba. You might be asking yourself “well is it wireless?”. No it isnt but it comes with like a 5 ft cord that’s not your typical rubber its made from a high quality braided cable that’s light and flexible. I thought that I wanted the wireless option but at home my Mamba is wireless but I have it plugged in for best communication and accuracy when I game. Do they have a wireless option? Yes. The R.A.T. 9!!

If you want to spend some money on a great mouse don’t go looking at your consumer level Logitech device. They are ok, I’ve used them for a long time. If you want to raise your own bar and feel what its like to use something built with real quality get yourself a gaming mouse. You will instantly feel the difference.

Thanks for reading!

The truth is out there…

Halo Dance Central TrailerStarCraft Coming to Kinect

(Blizzard) A World of Warcraft Dungeon Helper

(Blizzard)World of Warcraft’s New Pitch-Black Dungeon

(Blizzard)Diablo’s Horadric Cube iPhone App (Blizzard)

3D Glasses for 3DS (Nyko)

Harmonix Trades CEO in at GameStop (Harmonix)

Portal 2 Single-Player Demo (FilePlanet)

Star Wars: The Old Republic Translated for Wookiees (BioWare)

King Arthur Headed to Vietnam (Paradox Interactive)

An Unusual New Guild Wars 2 Profession (NCSoft)

Copernicus Qwark’s Very Own Game (Insomniac Games)

Duke Nukem Forever Lets You Fling Feces (Gearbox Software)

The New Social Network, My.Face (Splash Damage)

The Killzone 3 Cloaked Edition (Guerrilla Games)

Super Monkey Ball Now a Cube (Sega)

Monday Night Combat as an Overhead Shooter (Uber Entertainment)

The Witcher 2′s Follow-Up, Two-Hour RPG (CD Projekt Red)

Angry Birds Pork Rinds (ThinkGeek)

“The Gold Edition” Line of Accessories (Astro Gaming)

Resident Evil Creator Action Figure (Tango Gameworks)

Minecraft Gets Microtransactions (Mojang)

The First Gaming Bio-Exoskeleton (Razer)

Forsaken World’s Twilight Crossover (Perfect World)

City of Heroes is Running Out of XP (NCSoft)

Bungie’s New Facebook Game (Bungie)

The Million Dollar Controller (Evil Controllers)

A New Total War Game Set 65 Million Years Ago (The Creative Assembly)

Envelotech, the Truly Immersive Gaming Experience (Telltale Games)

Gus Johnson the Permanent Voice of EA Sports, and More (4th String)

The Handwritten Game Site (Destructoid)

Chess Gets Patches (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

No Post-Game “GG” Earns StarCraft Players a Loss (Blizzard)

Tilt to Live Easter (One Man Left)

GameStop’s Exclusive $9,000 Game (GameStop)

The PlayWrite Gaming Tablet (Big Fish Games)

#PotatoFoolsDay (Valve, et al)

Control Your Pets with Pet Pal (Gameloft)

Foo Fighters have really taken the next level of Grunge and brought an album that was not only recorded with pure analogue everything but it was also recorded in Dave Grohls Garage!! This album brings me back to childhood… and it’s the only album since then to touch the sound of Grunge. If you want to check it out in FULL go here:

http://wastinglight.foofighters.com/

- Hair Evade (Passive) — A 20% increase to evasion against females
- Socialite (Active) — 100% chance to stun any females within a 5m radius
- Wolfsbane (Passive) — Any wolf or werewolf creatures will automatically turn aggressive to you
- Sparkle (Passive) — Sparkle effect will automatically activate in any well-lit areas

01 The Glitch Mob: “Derezzed”
02 M83 vs. Big Black Delta: “Fall”
03 The Crystal Method: “The Grid/Game Has Changed”
04 Teddybears: “Adagio for Tron”
05 Ki:Theory: “The Son of Flynn”
06 Paul Oakenfold: “C.L.U.”
07 Moby: “The Son of Flynn”
08 Boys Noize: “End of Line (Boys Noize Remix)”
09 Kaskade: “Rinzler”
10 Com Truise: “Enron Part II”
11 Photek: “End of Line”
12 The Japanese Popstars: “Arena”
13 Avicii: “Derezzed”
14 Pretty Lights: “Solar Sailor”
15 Sander Kleinenberg: “Tron Legacy (End Titles)”

They are calling it “2011 – The year of the iPad 2”.  They really pushed the envelope of technology and served up a tasty piece of tech that the world will get to get their hands on starting March 11^th.

They started off with some stats…

100 Million Books downloaded last year.

200 Million Apple ID’s

$2 Billion paid out to apple developers

Lastly… the 100 millionth iPhone was shipped.

“Our most advanced technology in a magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”  The original iPad sold 15 million copies in 2010, more than any tablet ever. They made $9.5 billion in 2010 and took 90% of the market share! Currently there are over 65,000 apps for the iPad… Honeycomb – 100. Ouch!!

The iPad 2 has an all new design. Starting with the processor, the all new ‘A5’ is what they are calling it. Dual-core processors, up to 2x faster CPU and up to 9x faster graphics! It has the same low power as the A4 and it’s the first dual core tablet to ship in volume.

They  iPad two now has a front and rear facing camera. Attached with home made software to really make it shine. From photo booth to, of course, Face Time.

The iPad is now 33% THINNER than the iPad, its even thinner than the iPhone 4! What’s to come with the new iPhone is my real question… Its now at an astounding 8.8mm thick and weighs in at 1.3 pounds! I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. Did I mention that they have a white version?!!  Its also going to have the same 10 hour battery life and over a month of standby.

Here are your prices… Wifi Only: 16gb $499, 32gb $599 and 64gb $699. WiFi + 3G: 16gb $629, 32gb $729, 64gb $829.

The HDMI out is mirrored video output. Scales up to 1080P and it works with ALL apps. It supports rotation and no setup or configuration is required! Plus… you charge the iPad at the same time at the cost of $39.

The case they designed is pretty amazing. It has 4 flaps that cover the front of the device. It can be folded in various ways to support the iPad in various positions. There are no screws, glue or clips to hold this on. They are using magnets! The magnets grasp and auto-align it. It has a micro-fiber lining that cleans the screen and when you put in on it sleeps the iPad and when you take it off it wakes it!

With the new iPad comes the new iOS. iOS 4.3.  They upgraded Safari performance with Nitro JavaScript Engine, iTunes home sharing lets you share all your content over wifi. They have also included AirPlay improvements and a preference for iPad switch to either Mute or lock rotation.

I’m pretty excited about this… the iPad two now has video editing!! iMovie will be available for $4.99 and you can edit all your movies and show them off in full HD right on the iPad 2.

GarageBand is the next greatest app to hit the iPad with Touch instruments, guitar amps and effects, 8 track recording and mixing, 250+ loops and you can email the AAC file of your song . Its 100% compatable with the Mac version.

I’ve only really touched on all the features but regardless… its going to be an amazing product and getting your hands on one of these is going to be a delicious treat!