Pinball Mania

Have you ever played pinball? It comes free with Windows, since its Win98. You have? Whats your high score?
Beat these - and comment here - and post me the pics.

You don't want to know how much time I played to get thse scores! :P
Enjoy!

Billy Blanks: Billy's Bootcamp: Basic Training Bootcamp

In my ongoing quest for a better physique, I tried the above mentioned workout. Its awesome. Sure its just the beginners level and the later levels might be even better, but right now, at whatever stage I am at, I could not do all the exercises for as many repetitions as he encourages you to do.
The best part of the workout is that he keeps talking and pumping you up, pushing you to the limit. The workout is, as I said earlier, really neat and works almost all your major body parts.
Though he does recommend using the 'Billy Blanks Restraint Cord' during the workout, you can do without it. There is one girl in the background who does not have the cord and you can watch her move if you don't have one either.
You don't realize you spent 55 minutes working your body out at the end of it. (Unless your sweat speaks.) I still do not feel the complete post-workout effects as its just been about 4 hours and I am sure about those coming in tomorrow.

Thinking about getting the next dvds in the series once I can get all the exercises on this disc under my belt.

Warning : Its Billy B'L'anks not Banks! Googling the words 'Billy Banks' is not what you want to do in public.

Helium - pays you to write your stuff

I just heard of this site called Helium that pays you for writing and publishing your articles on that site.
They have quite a few topics or 'channels' as they call it on which you can write. Or you can start your own. Your posted article is then ranked by peers and the editors(?). I don't really know if this rank affects what you earn. But hey, I just stumbled across it like 2 days back and I certainly don't know a lot about it.

If you are interested, let me know and I can send you an invite to join the community.

Happy posting.

Adding Google Sitemap to your blog

This is for all those who want to increase the chances of their blog being shown in relevant Google Search results. Adding Google Sitemap to your blog (or any of your websites for that matter) is a good way to increase chances of getting more traffic. What it means is that, Google's search robot gets a map to navigate around your website and keep track of your sites contents, where it links to, what links to it etc. If the robot remembers this (which it is supposed to), the next time anyone uses a search query relevant to your blog's content, the search results will have your blog in it.
So, essentially, you inform the search engine of all your current pages and updates to help it search.
Here are the instructions to add a sitemap to your Blogspot blog - (Though there are 15+ steps they are real easy and will take you 5 mins max).

1. Go to Google Sitemap. [https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview?hl=en]
2. Login using your Google account. (Blogspot account you dummy!)
3. In the Add Website box, add your blog's address http://{yourblog}.blogspot.com
4. Click OK. This will bring you to the Verification step.
5. In the combo-box select 'Add a meta-tag'. {The other is only useful if you have hosting rights. So if you have your own website that you host with some web-hosting agency or web-server that you have access to upload files on, you might want to take that path. More on that in a later blog.}
6. You should now see a box with some crappy 'meta-tag' looking something like -
"< 'meta' - name =" blah" content =" blah">"
7. Copy this message. Do not close this window or tab.
8. In a new browser window, open Blogspot.
9. Login to blogspot.
10. Go to the Blog Settings.
11. Go to the Template.
12. In the html type code that is shown, scroll to the "<>" section. Generally around the 10-12th line in your template code.
13. Paste that meta-tag dude right after the term "<'head'>" and definitely before "< / head >".
14. Save your template (button below).
15. Republish, just in case.
16. Go to the window/tab with Google Sitemap.
17. Click on the button that reads 'Verify'.
18. You will get nice check marks saying 'Webpage added' etc.
19. Click on the Sitemaps section.
20. In the text-box provided type in http://{your-blog}.blogspot.com/atom.xml
21. Done!

Easy eh? I wish I had the time to actually take screen-shots of each step and paste them along (atleast those where I refer to text boxes etc.) Well, I believe you are smart enough to not need them :)

random thoughts

What makes you, you
differentiating you from every other chimp
is not how you look
but what and how you think.

no, not when some1 says
'add 2 + 2'
but when you think
when theres just you.

most world says 4
(you would too!)
but its when you say 5
not just with plain eye
but also convincing yourself why
thats when you are you
the guy who can't add 2 and 2 !

- Tanmay
6th-7th June, 07

My first 'Tai Chi ' attempt

I decided to try my hand at the acclaimed Tai Chi way to physical and mental health. To check it out, I got the 'Tai Chi for beginners' DVD and went through the 24 forms that Dr.Lam showed and explained via the videos.
I really liked it. The smooth fluid movements did not seem difficult to watch or perform individually. But once I started doing the various forms in a rythmic motion, I literally felt my muscles being worked out and the 'Chi' as it is called. The best part of it was the control on the breath.
The DVD introduces the Qigong (pronounce ' Chi - jong ' ) style of Tai Chi.

I have watched a few other excercise routine videos and discs before and this one is totally different. There are no glamorous bikini clad models here (helping you concentrate on the excercise hehe.. ). But the development team certainly has thought about what they are doing. While explaining every excercise, they have atleast one person facing the camera and one facing the other way. This prevents you from forgetting whether you were doing the right or the left side. It also , kind of takes you into the group making it easier to follow the steps.

I certainly would suggest taking at least a peek at the disc before ignoring it totally. Hey, if its not your style, you can always switch it off :D !

I am not sure if Tai Chi can improve your muscle mass, but I am certain that if done correctly and consistently, it will improve the form of both the body and mind. Its breathing techniques are quite similar to those in yoga and the overall philosophy idea behind the excercises also feels the same.

Shape your abs

A recent DVD I viewed. Its quite good. The instructor, Tracy York, has done a great job of putting together some great excercise routines and more over, explaining them nicely.

Its not advertised as one of those 'lose 90 punds a day' workouts. But after about a month since I started following Tracy's tips, I certainly feel (and see) the difference.

I would recommend this to all of you who seriously and consistently are trying to improve your mid-section. Happy work-outs!

Unreal II : The Awakening

Just completed Unreal II : The Awakening. I played it on the XBox. One of the few Atari games I played I have played recently.
Considering the game was released quite a while ago (4th Feb, 2003), the game has decent graphics and physics. The characters are well modelled, but their movements are not. There are various points in the game where I have appreciated the thoughts the developers have put into so that I could not cheat (:D). (One of these is in the level Avalon II where if in co-op mode the game actually waits for both players to move up onto the tower not allowing one to stay down to kill the Skaarj too easily.)
It took me about 30 hrs of game play to get done. There were times when one of my room-mates, Pranav played in the co-op mode.
The story-line is fine but predictable. The voice-artists seem to be completely disinterested to put emotions in what they are reading and that kind of makes you skip quite a few of the animated scenes between stages. These animations are not great pieces of art themselves but coming from a graphics stint I certainly appreciate every little movement on the screen.

But overall I would give the game a 6.5/10. Though I did point out the bad points that hit me most, there were various others. But the game-play is quite good and the weapons are pretty cool too. I especially liked the Shotgun and the alternate fire on the Rocket -Launcher. Neat thinking.
I also liked playing the defensice levels where we go around setting a perimeter and ordering the marines on their guards and placing gun-turrets and plasma walls.

Will be starting a new game soon. Any suggestions?