TrackMania

F-Zero Meets Hot Wheels

TrackMania Nations Forever is a fast-paced in your face racing game that will have you doing loops and corkscrews all night long.

There are three different activities that you can choose in TrackMania.

Play Solo where you test your speed and control to achieve the fastest time possible and win Gold, Silver, or Bronze Medals. These medals you acquire give you tokens which improve your Medals World Ranking (comparing you to your individual state, nation, as well as the rest of the world). Faster Times = Better Medals = More Tokens = Better Ranking. There are five difficulties in Solo Play starting with White being the easiest to Green, Blue, Red, and Black being the hardest. Total Solo Play has 65 different tracks. Fifteen per each difficulty, excluding Black which only has five. Since the majority of the tracks are relatively short you should be able to beat Solo Play within a day. The real challenge will be getting Gold on each track.

Play Online is where the true value of TrackMania Nations Forever is. You will be able to join servers to race against people from all across the world. Now while the gameplay will remain the same as Play Solo it is more fun to be racing against real people rather than racing against a set time. One significant addition that Online Play has over Solo Play is that there are hundreds of custom tracks that are created by other players and can be a blast to play.

Play Party is similar to the first two, except it is intended for Local Area Network play. Play Online is easily the best activity out of the three, because you can race against people internationally on custom tracks and pwn n00bs.

TrackMania Nations Forever also has several user friendly Editor Options. You can create your own tracks from scratch or edit any pre-existing tracks. While there is only one car model you can edit the colors, apply stickers, and add textures to personalize it. You can edit replays as well as even edit your horn!

The overall interface is clean and easy to navigate. The controls are incredibly easy to learn. The graphics are standard, not too spectacular but nice. The audio gets the job done. I’d recommend this to anyone, except those who have motion sickness. One of the best racing games I’ve ever played. Oh and it’s legally free! Here’s the link so you may install and enjoy this masterpiece. http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=app&AppId=11020

Winamp Shoutcast Radio

So lately I have been wanting to listen to some radio streams to help pass the time when I am doing work. I have found some good website alternatives like AccuRadio (http://www.accuradio.com/) but haven’t really been able to find anything specifically that meets my needs. After doing some searching around, I realized the answer was right under my nose, because Winamp, my regular media player, supports shoutcast streams.

Shoutcast Radio

Even the free version of Winamp will allow you to stream radio (Satellite radio style) onto your PC. I say “Satellite radio style” because the quality of these streams is extremely good, as well as, very little interruptions with the station itself. Every now and again there will be a DJ who will get on the channels and give a little blurb about the station you are listening to, otherwise its as good as gold.

I have been extremely impressed by how well this works and since it is free you really can’t go wrong. With hundreds upon hundreds of stations to choose from you can search for a specific artist to see if they are playing a song at that time, or you can search in that genre, for instance “Alternative Rock”.

Search: "Alternative Rock"

Once the search is complete you will have listings of the stations found under your search specifications. You will see the quality at which it is streamed as well as the current listeners. I would recommend staying on the MP3 type channels at 128 bit for the best quality. Not to mention you can also “Right Click” and Bookmark your favorite stations for later listening.

If your lucky, you may even find one of your local stations under a stream, in which you can get the same quality as if you were to have your radio running (Maybe even better). Unlike regular radio you CAN pause the stream, but as you resume the shoutcast the song will play for about 15 seconds and then skip to it’s current part in the stream.

After using this for about 5 days straight now I have been hooked on it and can’t seem to stop listening, as most of the DJs have a very good since of what songs are popular and you really won’t run into a station that is playing outdated music except if your looking for an “80’s Hits” station.

You can download this free version of Winamp from the Winamp website (http://www.winamp.com/player) [Full Version], which alone is worth the download as just a media player. The stream is already setup for you so all you need to do go into the “Media Library” under “Shoutcast Radio” and listen. I would advise that during installation you uncheck the “Winamp Agent” as it is completely useless, and on later installation options the “Winamp Toolbar” and look for some of the other things they have added with it to uninstall as well; these extras won’t harm your computer they are more or less worthless addons.

Remember this is a free service so they will add little things to get their money’s worth, but luckily you can uninstall them ahead of time to save you any hassle.

Anywho, good luck and happy streaming!

New Routine

I need a new routine. I really do…I’m tired (not sleepy of course) of waking up in the afternoon. Staying up til six o’ clock in the morning researching what gear I want for my character in World of Warcraft can’t be healthy. In fact my nutritionist said that you shouldn’t stay up past two o’clock, because there’s actually a protein or chemical your body releases in your sleep during those hours. I really have no idea how that works, but I’ve also read a survey that said people that work the Night Shift live on average ten years less than people who have a regular day and night cycle. So now, not only am I not healthy or shortening my life expectancy by staying up late, I’m also fed up with waking up in the afternoon…I need a new routine.

It’d be ideal if I could go to bed earlier and wake up before the afternoon. Since I’ve gotten out of school for the Summer I haven’t needed to stick to any routine, but I should. I also need to get back into a regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner routine. I’ve been having a lot of brunches where I reason to eat two meals in one, because I missed breakfast due to sleeping in. That and having dinner past nine o’clock at night is obviously not healthy either. I’ve actually noticed that I’ve gained some weight. I need to add some times into this new routine where I can get some exercise and weight lifting in. I believe if I can accomplish these goals that would be a great start to getting my life back on track.

Planet Smoothie

Mmmmmm… Ever look for a healthy alternative when it comes to drinks, but never have time to  make a healthy smoothie or shake for yourself? You should give Planet Smoothie a try.

There are a ton of options to choose from for each type of drinker. For the sugar/energy boost they have a list of energy smoothies which are created with that special sugar rush in mind.

They have a list of weight loss smoothies which keep the calories down, but still give you the punch of a smoothie and not some kind of watered down shake.

There is even a great list of  cool blended smoothies, for those that live in hot and humid areas such as Florida. And for those looking for that healthy protein substitute they even have protein smoothies, with portioned servings they can even be a great lunch alternative should you be in a hurry.

http://www.planetsmoothie.com/

Finally, they have a selection of low-carb shakes for those that don’t want to chance their current diet practices.

LOW-CARB SHAKES
For the Low Carb folks out there, Planet Smoothie’s got you covered.

Each Low Carb Shake has as few as:

• 5g net carb
• 25g protein
• 150 calories
• 2g fat
• 1000% daily allowance of taste

And they come in 5 Bold Flavors
Cherry, Pineapple, Grape, Chocolate, & Pina Colada

Yummy...

Energy Smoothies™

• Spazz™
  Strawberries, bananas, & booster blast™
• Chocolate Elvis™ Highly Recommended
  Chocolate, peanut butter, bananas, yogurt, & booster blast™
• Grape Ape™
  Grape juice, strawberries,  & booster blast™
• Road Runner™
  Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, orange juice, & booster blast™
• Frozen Goat™
  Coffee, bananas, chocolate, yogurt, & booster blast™
• Berry Bada-Bing™
  Peaches, raspberries, bananas, yogurt, & booster blast™

Weight Loss Smoothies™

• 2 Piece Bikini™
  Strawberries or Chocolate, bananas, & fat burner blast™
• Mediterranean Monster™
  Strawberries, bananas, fat burner blast, with a splash of orange™
• Rasmanian Devil™
  Raspberries, bananas, & fat burner blast™
• Billy Bob Banana™
  Bananas, bananas, bananas, & fat burner blast™
• Leapin’ Lizard™
  Peaches, strawberries, & fat burner blast™
• Lunar Lemonade™
  Lemonade, strawberries or raspberries, bananas, & fat burner blast™

Multi Vitamin Smoothies™

• Thelma & Louise™
  Strawberries, pineapple, and women’s only blast™
• Werewolf™
  Strawberries, bananas, and anti-oxidant blast™
• Yo’ Adriane™
  Peaches, strawberries, yogurt, and women’s only blast™
• Hangover Over™
  Strawberries, bananas, yogurt, & anti-stress blast™
• ZeusJuice™
  Strawberries, bananas, and immune blast™
• Screamsicle™
  Pineapples, peaches, orange juice, yogurt, orange sherbet, and anti-oxidant blast™

Cool Blended Smoothies™

• Twig & Berries™ (Highly Recommended)
  Strawberries, bananas, & yogurt
• PBJ™
  Peanut butter, strawberries, bananas, & yogurt
• Vinnie del Rocco™
  Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, & orange sherbet
• The Last Mango™
  Mangos, peaches, bananas, & orange sherbet
• Captain Kid 12oz.™ (Highly Recommended)
  Strawberries & orange sherbet
• Shag-a-delic™
  Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, & yogurt

Protein Smoothies™

• Big Bang™
  Strawberries, bananas, & protein blast™
• Chocolate Chimp™
  Chocolate, bananas, & protein blast™
• Mr. Mongo™
  Strawberries or Chocolate with bananas, yogurt, & choice of workout or protein blast™
• Merlin’s Planet Living™
  Full meal replacement packet and choice of two fruits

1. Strawberry
   Calories 413, Protein 49g, Carbs 54.4g, Fat 1.3g, Dietary Fiber 3.6g, Vitamin A 41%, Vitamin C 1009%, Calcium 50%
2. Pineapple
   Calories 342, Protein 49g, Carbs 34.4g, Fat 1.2g, Dietary Fiber 2.5g, Vitamin A 41%, Vitamin C 873%, Calcium 50%

*Menu items current as of July 18th, 2008

Serving Sizes

(Left to Right) Large, Small and Medium

Not only do you get all these great choices, but you also get some REAL serving sizes. The small size is good enough for a quick drink, equivalent to about a medium McDonald’s cup. The medium would be ideal for the lunch time serving as its bing enough to last well through the lunch hour. The large size, is huge… I would recommend it to if you are REALLY hungry, or just want something to sip on throughout the day.

Even if there isn’t a Planet Smoothie in your area, maybe put in a phone call to your community requesting the service and maybe they can get on out your way. There are alternatives like Jamba Juice (http://www.jambajuice.com/) They are no Planet Smoothie, but the will most likely be the best choice in their place.

Batman Marathon

Wondering what to do…past midnight…no friends…boredom commence…/wrists

I’m going to have a Batman marathon. I’ll watch the first Batman as well as Batman Begins today to prep myself for The Dark Knight on Friday. Mmm…Nachos and Cherry Cola sound good…I’m fat…Anyways…dot dot dot…I really hope The Dark Knight prawns. There haven’t been that many great films this year, and from what I’ve heard this may actually be one of the best of 2008. Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) may actually be up for winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He’s hyped to have outdone Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the Joker. Can’t wait…Search for ‘batman robin worst movie ever’ on YouTube for a good laugh.

Skip the Welcome Screen and Login Automatically

Isn’t it annoying when you have to sit there and click your little icon on the Welcome screen just to get into Windows everytime or have to type your password in? Well there is a way around that where Windows will automatically log you on.

Windows XP Login Screen

NOTE: You MUST be a Computer Administrator to carry out this function.

• Click Start > “Run” and type in control userpasswords2

Start > "Run"

• Once you have clicked OK a dialog window (User Selection Screen) will appear showing you the user accounts on the computer.

User Selection Screen

• You will see at the top of the dialog box which says “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer”.

• Uncheck that box when you are selected on the user you wish to disable the feature for.

If at a later time you want the password back on your system, follow the same steps to where you select “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” and recheck the box.

Widescreen in Games

Widescreen 16:10

Standard 4:3

This is a widescreen screenshot in 1400×900 (16:10) of de_cpl_mill compared to an 1024×768 (4:3) screenshot of the same area to see if there is a difference in viewing distance because of the aspect ratio.

As you can see there is a big difference in the horizontal viewing area, as the widescreen settings allow the user to see much farther on either side.