The following is a letter from a friend of a friend who is living in Los Angeles, Chile. He and his family survived the massive earthquake that rocked that country a few weeks ago. His description of what happened is vivid and chilling.

To our extended family and many friends,

To paraphrase Mark Twain, "The rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated".  Our family is alive and well and living perhaps 150 km from the epicentre of one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded.

We are so thankful to be alive and uninjured. It is truly astonishing to me that so few people died during this massive seismic event. Our best wishes and condolences go out to those who lost family members and those who suffered serious property damage. It is said that some 2 million people have been affected by this massive earthquake. Many have lost their homes. Others still have no water and electricity, although this situation improves daily. The ones who appear to have ... Read more ...

For the past several months, many of us, including myself, have been pissing and moaning about not getting our eRep prizes.  Well, I finally have some good news. You have been told the truth; erep prizes are actually being shipped.

I ordered a Garmin Nuvi back and November and have confirmation that it will arrive on Tuesday.  Yes, it took too damn long, but it has confirmed that there are good people at this site fighting to get what we deserve.... and apparently winning.

Special thanks needs to go to Pepper Peanut. Hes always here and has been one of few willing to address the constant bitching.  The guy is currently putting in 12 plus hour days just to help get prizes shipped. 

This blog is not an ass kiss... I just think we need to acknowledge people at eBaums like Pepper Peanut who are going beyond expectations to help us out. Thanks man!

I have no idea what the f ... Read more ...

I am a time thief. I am not proud of this, but like a drinker standing up for the first time and admitting to being an alcoholic, it's a first step to change.

What is a time thief? It's someone who steals time from others and uses it for their own pleasure. The fact that I am typing this blog on my employer's computer during normal working hours is time theft. When I am home ignoring my kids and wife while I surf porn or this site, is a theft of their time with me. Even if I was alone and home, every hour I spend drifting about the internet is stealing valuable time from me. Thats time that could have been used to improve my mind and body.

I am betting you are a time thief as well. Perhaps, like me, you sneak on this site when no one is looking or have rearranged your desk so co-workers cant see your monitor. Hey, look at Mike typing away on his computer again, that guy sure is working his ass off. HA! Or maybe you race home and spend the rest of the evening at your computer behind a closed ... Read more ...

Thank you eBaums for bringing back the Caption contest. I am sure I am speaking for many here when I say the effort is appreciated. However, your execution repeats the mistakes of the old staff. The problem is that this contest was allowed to run too long and the resulted in 290 pages of comments. That shows people love the contest, but it is far too many pages for most people to want to read them all. In addition, people lose interest and comments become repetitive or just complaints after too many days.

The old staff used to leave this contest up for 10 days or more at times and then pick 3 or 4 of what they considered to be the best for a final vote. However, it was very clear that these were just random picks that had nothing to do with votes. As a result, people never took these contests seriously and it ended up with everyone voting down one and other. In one of the last contests before the change, the winner was the comment with the least number of thumbs down votes! That s ... Read more ...

I just read M_wright's blog where he expresses concerns regarding the numerous security flaws and vulnerabilites within this site. As a senior user, it troubles me greatly and I share his disappointment in management's apparent lack of response and inaction. However, his statement If the deadline passes. I will post the 112+ vulnerabilities and exploits I have personally discovered and written here on this website for educational purposes. These exploits will include scripts that can alter your erep point values, hijack other accounts, etc causes me great concern.

Clearly M_wright is frustrated, but the threatening manner of his approach may expose him to significant legal action. While some may dissagree, I do have some experience in these matters and I thought this would be an opportunity to provide some free legal advice that I hope everyone, including M_wright, will take very seriously.

Publication of truthful information is prot ... Read more ...