In a post-apocalyptic world, cheap auto insurance will be the last of your worries

Sure the apocalypse may be coming but you can't just prepare for the worst. You have to keep looking forward. yes, I'm talking about the post-apocalypse. Are you truly prepared? When was the last time you checked your auto insurance on that land behemoth? You wouldn't want it to be repossessed before the coming post-judgement day scenario. It might be worth it to go check freecreditreport.com or some other auto insurance website to make sure you aren't in danger of losing your future home, transport, and first line of defense.

There are many things that you will want to take into consideration as you prepare. The first question you will have to ask yourself is what kind of conditions you will be in. For brevity, I will just go with three of the most discussed scenarios: zombies, robots, and nuclear fall out. Then I will go through some different vehicles and how they stack up against the threats.

For the zombie scenario, you are going to need a vehicle capable of fending off the undead hordes while staying on the move. For the robot scenario, you will be in a different game as fighting is not your best option so you will need to be more discreet and able to go off road in order to help disrupt their (hopefully) mal-adapted all terrain sensors. For the nuclear fall out scenario, you will mostly need a contained area that can store extra food and hold out against the harsh climate and possibly mutated animals/people.

Here is a list of a few examples of good automobiles and their respective categories:

1. the Track T-800CDI
The only motorcycle on the list is this Track T-800CDI built by a Dutch company named EVA. They managed to cram an 800cc turbodiesel engine built for a small car onto the frame. They also modified it to run on any vegetable type oil you can throw at it. So once the gas stops flowing around the country you can just fill up with french fry oil at any one of the 20,000+ abandoned mcdonalds all across the U.S.
Zombie score: 3/5 sustainability is good and it is quick but it provides no shelter or storage
robot score: 5/5 ability to get around tight spaces fast and offroad ability are a big plus against the mechanized scourge
nuclear score:1/5 this isnt the auto for you unless you plan on wearing a radiation suit all the time but lets face it, that would just look silly

2. Sandcrawler
Equipped with magnetic cranes, energy furnaces, workshops and lots of living and or storage space, sandcrawlers were perfect as mobile headquarters, shops, and homes for the diminutive junk scavengers.
zombie score:5/5 you can roll over anything that gets in your way
robot score:1/5 you are the biggest target around. Sure it can survive against the elements and some tuskan raiders but if this cannot survive an attack by a small squad of imperial soldiers, what chance do you have against the robot hordes?
nuclear score:5/5 you can hole up inside for years

3. Landmaster

The Landmaster from Damnation Alley is a perfect example of post-apocalyptic ingenuity. A twelve wheeled monster that is steelplated, 12 tires that only need to be rotated if one goes flat, machine gun turrets on the front, rocket pod on the top, and it can operate fully submerged in water. This bamf is too good for conventional steering so it has to have a hydaulic midsection that twists when needing to make it around corners.
zombie score:5/5 Its the Landmaster
robot score:4/5 while a big target, it can defend itself well enough to escape into water where most likely a new set of robots will have to be organized to try to go after it
nuclear score:5/5 come on, its the Landmaster
4. EM-50 Urban Assualt vehicle
The Urban Assault Vehicle from the film Stripes, this unnassuming motorhome can pull down the metal shutters in the blink of an eye. It has a cannon, machine guns, flame-throwers and many other infantry weapons. Its blending in ability is a plus when discreet might be your best bet.
zombie score: 5/5 You could park this near any group of undeads and unleash hell before they knew what was going on and slip away discreetly back into the jungle of abandoned cars
robot score: 3/5 it is well equipped for a battle but is still a sizable target
nuclear score:4/5 space to carry supplies for a while.

5. El Camino
Gentlemen, we're forgetting the one vehicle that says "rugged individualism" with a firm undertone of practicality. A car that'll get you laid AND carry a mattress in the back. I give you America's forgotten freedom. I give you the El Camino.
zombie score: 5/5 This won't look remotely enticing for a zombie
robot score: 4/5 It can be moddified to be taken offroad the only problem is you might lose the mattress in the back :(
nuclear score:4/5 chances are that you arent going to stay near the cities or high risk targets if this is your choice of car so you arent in direct danger as long as you have a permanent shelter

Depending on your needs, you will look for different vehicles in the coming troubled times. Just as extra insurrance, I would recommend picking up a copy of autotrader sometime and glancing over what they have to offer. Maybe if you will get lucky then you might find a Landmaster. Or even luckier if you are able to grab that el camino before anyone else does.

potential hard drive recovery tool that might save your life

So you went off to college, congratulations. And you decided that you might need a new state of the art computer(cheap laptop) and it has been working just fine. That is, until the night before that big paper is due. You do something seemingly innocent like restarting the computer.

BIG MISTAKE.

All of a sudden, your computer tries to start and BAM! Fail!

Your computer won't boot up anymore and you absolutely couldn't have done anything to cause it (Its all your fault). But its ok since you backed up everything on a regular basis right?

...

For those of you that believed it would never happen to you, don't you just feel silly? But fear not! there might just be hope. I'm going to walk you through the back door of turning your hard drive into a secondary or slave drive (temporarily) the easy way so you don't have to take out that tempting eloan you have been eyeing for a while to splurge on a brand new computer (another cheap laptop).

1. you will need a linux live cd. My favorite two are from both Mandriva and Ubunutu. All you do is download the disc image from their website and burn it on to a cd.

2. As soon as your computer starts, you must open up the cd drive and put your newly (or oldly) acquired linux live cd before the windows splash screen appears (lets face it, you probably aren't having this problem on a mac and you definitely aren't having this problem if you are already using linux).

3. Hit the F8 or F12 key, whichever allows you to go into different boot options.

4. Tell your computer to boot from the cd and once you are in the linux options, choose to try out the operating system without making any permanent changes.

5. Once it loads up be sure to notice how clean looking and aesthetically pleasing everything is. Don't you wish this was your operating system to begin with?

6. Now plug in your novelty pez drive and open up the C: computer files and move whatever documents over that you want to make sure you have.

7. There is even a microsoft office compatible program on each form of linux called open office which you can use to finish that paper thats due tomorrow.

It is always good to have a cheap insurance plan that could potentially save your data in the result of your computer failing to boot. Now that you have backed up and possibly finished the paper, you can actually contact those nice people in India and ask them how to fix your state-of-the-art (p.o.s.) dell computer.

The animal of the day is... LLAMAS!

Perry, OH (AP) -- A northeast Ohio farmer who died of cancer has been laid to rest with the help of some of the llamas he raised on his farm. Two of Terry McCrone's llamas made up an honor guard at his funeral Friday at Perry Christian Church. Four others from a statewide drill team joined them, wearing purple ribbons as they lined up outside the church. The llamas also escorted a hearse to Perry Cemetery. The 61-year-old McCrone died Feb. 7. The Rev. Bob Ladygo of Bible Baptist Church says McCrone's llamas would visit him at his window after he became sick. The ribbons the llamas wore were given to McCrone's wife and daughter."

Go llamas.

This is a very inspiring story I must admit. It is not too far off from my dream of owning my own llama or alpaca farm like from I love alpacas

So majestic yet so wicked awesome.

here are five reasons to own llamas and/or alpacas:

1. Free clothes - Although coarser and heavier than alpaca fiber, there is a market for the fleece of both. Llama fleece is lightweight and warm and has little lanolin which means that it barely shrinks and is more hypoallergenic than sheep wool.

Think of all the money you'll save!

2.Brains as well as beauty - These animals are intelligent and easy to train. In just a few repetitions they pick up and retain many behaviors such as being led, loading in and out of a vehicle, pulling a cart/carrying a pack, practicing kung-fu, being ridden by children, rebuilding a 1967 mustang, or even go to trade shows.

Go llama!

3. The more the merrier - These cuddly creatures can live 3-4 on a single acre and require the same amount of food as a deer. Sociable and shy until they've had time to loosen up, they are the perfect party animal.

Sup dude, we brought brewskies!

4. homeland security - llamas are cheaper to maintain, larger and more intimidating to smaller animals, and they spit when they feel threatened.

LLAMAS! ATTACK!

5. more huggable than a teddy bear - I mean come on, how can you say no to this face

Don't make llama cry :(

but don't get mixed up with jello llamas either...

More llama/alpaca information:
ok state llama
fun facts

The noble ipod killer strikes fear into the hearts of few

The picture above shows a Creative Zen Vision M stabbing an lowly ipod touch in the face.Time for a (slight) history lesson.

What is a Creative Zen Vision M you ask? It was the Ipod killer of 2006! I got mine that year after I was looking to upgrade from my 5 gb zen micro. It had won the CES design of the year award and had a scroll bar which is something I really like about most of Creative's mp3 players because lets face it, I will be caught dead before I submit to the almighty click wheel. In comparison to the ipod, it shows 200,000 more colors, accepts almost any video format you want to throw at it like avi, mpg, divx, xvid, etc..., it acts like a drag and drop device so that if you don't want to use Creative's software then you can use windows media player, real player or any other windows song organizer to add or TAKE OFF songs or you can simply drag and drop things into the different media folders like a flash drive, it has a video out function that works with any standard a/v cable, it has an fm tuner and microphone built in, 4 hour battery life while watching movies, it is made by the company famous for speakers so the music quality is much better, there is no DRM and it does not have a silly "click wheel".

What does the ipod have over it? oh yeah, its a little skinnier. Woooooo

But really, there have been ipod killers for several years now ever since the rise of the hip and trendy ipod. I would like to credit Apple for really popularizing the digital audio player market even if they stole some of their ideas from Creative in the first place Apple pays 100 Million in Creative patent lawsuit settlement.

So why has this mp3 player not become the great ipod killer many people thought it was going to be and was actually discontinued? Apple was the first and only one to over-saturate the the mp3 player market and so their market share is 72%. They have so much share that only if every other maker out there (Archos, Creative, Sandisk, Microsoft, etc.) pulled all their resources together in a coordinated effort, then maybe, just maybe, ... no. Its not going to happen. They would need a player with three times the features (which would be impossible with a new ipod coming out every 3 months) a quarter of the price and the biggest ad campaign the world has ever seen.

So maybe my picture at the top is but the fevered dream of a madman. But I'm going to keep on dreamin' of a world where the hip and trendy aren't the majority and open source is more common place.

Fat chance.

What's in a name? answer- just words

Right now we are going to play a game, you take a shot each time I mention stop motion animation. You will understand soon enough.

For those of you that don't know me, I like b-movies. The more terribly cheesy the better. I always end up watching at least 1 or 2 a week and have a pretty sizable list going as to how many I've seen. On some I have even recorded my own running commentary (the blob was my favorite for that). This all brings me back to why I named the website wizard of speed and time. First check out this clip:



First you have to realize that many parts of the movie are done like this where you take a picture, move everything an inch, and take another picture. That entire clip was done like this which it is tedious enough trying to do this with inanimate objects but with a person in most of the frames too? thats just crazy. As you can see, I had no other choice than to name the site that in honor of the greatest stop motion film ever made(take a shot).

If you are wondering what the heck the greatest stop motion film ever made could be about then wonder no more! It is about a stop motion animator(go figure) trying to make it as a stop motion animator(already at shot # 4). Mike Jittlov's whole life is a special effect. I don't mean fake, I mean things happening around you which would dumbfound the casual observer. Anger causing light to flash across your eyes, objects bounding into the air at the beckoning of a finger, and any number of other unexpected occurrences. Such is the life of Mike Jittlov. If anyone is familiar with his work then you know to expect lots of energy. Insane and completely unpredictable energy; the sort of thing that makes women with short hair kicking and punching seem lazy in comparison.



When Mike isn't making a stop motion film in order to make it big in Hollywood, he is either living at home with his mom(who is constantly getting attacked by his toys and appliances via stop motion), running at mach 5(the worst thing to encounter when running that fast is a banana peel), or macking on some innocent girl trying to become an actress.



The film is cheesy, goofy, and silly. Just too be clear, it is a movie that is about a man trying to make it as a stop motion animator while trying to make a film about special effects(really only stop motion animation) while the actual movie is stop motion animated in itself.

I think the count is up to #9 now to those that are still playing. 10 if you want to get picky and include the video.

the future of solar energy

The sun is great. It gives us the most energy on earth bar none. The problems really get when people start trying to use photovoltaic cells and convert the sunlight into electricity.

Well thats just silly I say.

Sure the efficiency of those cells gets better every few years but lets face it, until carbon nanotubes become commonplace enough to mass produce them to funnel the sunlight into the cells, our efficiency won't get drastically better anytime soon.

I'd like to bring to the table an additional concept to pair with solar energy-

batteries

No no no, we shouldn't use photovoltaics to charge some duracells. We need to bring in the mac-daddy of "rechargeable batteries" that doesn't wear out over time, I give you the molten salt batteries. All you need to do is arrange simple mirrors in a a parabolic fashion to heat and melt a tank of salt. The salt is now a fluid that can be pumped anywhere else and generate electricity or it can just be put in a tank underground to store the energy for offpeak use.

But what about all of us that want to live further off the grid until power companies actually try such a crazy scheme? you say. I have an answer for that as well my friends.

Solar Death Ray

Now you may think that was a joke but he actually has the right idea. Using a thermo-acoustic sterling engine, you can use the same type of solar death ray model of mirrors or you can use a parabolic mirror like a chromed satellite dish. An example of this can be seen here. People could rather easily set these up at home and provide some other their own energy during the peak hours of the day. It might eliminate some of the other forms of power generation perhaps?


In short what have we learned today:
1. photo-voltaics: LAME
2. living entirely "on the grid": MEGA-LAME
3. melted salt: COOL
4. solar death ray: MEGA-COOL

Solar energy is pretty cool(anti-pun?) but we just need more efficient ways to harness the real power.

Like the solar death ray.

how to earn FREE wii points, gift cards, ipods and other free stuff

No doubt you have been all around the google search results looking for different ways to get free things like ipods, video games, and of course, wii points. Many people will say that you cannot get free things. It was not long ago that I was in your shoes my friend, out in the cold, cruel world, no money to buy any video games or music. And then a shining star came into view across the desert that is the wasteland we call the "internet." A friend of mine jumped out of the dark abyss and cried out "FOOOL! you do not need MONEY to get those things you desire!" I said "do what now?" he said "a little time here and there is all you need if you really want to get things for the charge of free!"

He went on to explain that he has gotten itunes, best buy, and target gift cards, a few video games for his xbox and some wii points to buy virtual console games. All for doing nothing but filling out surveys.

I didnt believe him at first even though he showed me each of the things he received and his online receipts from prizerebel.com to prove it so I joined the website and sure enough within a few days I was able to get my first prize, a wii zapper with links crossbow training. I even received it within two days of ordering it. I have since turned several other people on to the website and they have gotten things like itunes gift cards, xbox games, and another one of my friends is working on a xbox elite right now. If you get people to sign up with your referral code then you get a percentage of their points as well as the ones you earn yourself.

Here are the things you need to know in order to cash in on this website.

1. You MUST to create a new spam email address. My personal favorite is gmail but you can use hotmail or any other free email site. You will give this email address to prizerebel and you will get spam from every offer you sign up for so you dont want to use your normal email address. Sometimes the offer will require you to click on a validation link in the email in order to acquire points. After that then you can clear out the inbox and work on other surveys.

2. Create an alias. This will be your name for filling out surveys.

3. Many times, the surveys will ask you for an address and phone number, I picked an address that I knew no one lived at so that if they ever sent out spam snail mail then it wouldnt bother anyone.

4. the completely free surveys are going to be the least amount of points. anywhere from .2 points to 6 points last time i checked. This is not a bad thing, you just need to remember that it will take a few more to get the items of your choice while doing the free surveys. I only did the free surveys and it wasn't too long before I got my wii zapper, 2000 wii points and a 4 gigabyte sd card.

5. Once you get set up and get going, then you can start to turn your friends on to it because you get 20% of the points that they receive on the website. Please use my referral code to join. my referral code

how to make a novelty flash drive - pez edition

I decided not too long ago that my super*talent flash drive while functional(not to be confused with funk-tional) it lacked the luster that I desired. So I quickly scanned my surroundings and lo and behold, my ninja turtles pez dispenser lying half empty(half full) on my night stand! that gave me the idea of turning my wimply flash drive into a faux refill of pez! Exciting right? well it was to me running on 3 hours of sleep procrastinating my 20 page paper due in 6 hours. So here we go

Step 1: grab yourself a super*talent or comparably sized flash drive.
I got mine at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609011


step 2: choose your pez wrapper that you want to use as a shell for your flash drive


step 3: use a knife to carefully separate the glue wrapper so that the delicate paper does not tear

step 4: VITALLY IMPORTANT - eat the pez or load them into a dispenser for later

step 5: use glue or tape and wrap your pez wrapper around the flash drive and cut the space between the cap and the body if you extended the wrapper over the cap like yours truly did.

step 6: show it off to your friends or hide it in a stash of pez and no one will suspect where your flash drive filled with valuable porn plans for the death star

Uh-oh, I can't remember which ones the secret flash drive!


Oh right, there it is. I'm glad I didn't lose those "death star plans"

Super bowl spontaneously breaks out

TAMPA BAY, FL—In what started as a midfield photo opportunity between opposing team captains and ended as a hard-fought 60-minute competition to become the NFL champion, Super Bowl XLIII was suddenly and unexpectedly played Tuesday during media day at Tampa Bay's Raymond Jones Stadium.
Enlarge Image TS Super Bowl R

Newly crowned world champion Arizona emerged victorious over the Steelers 24-21 in a tough impromptu defensive battle.

"Did we just win the Super Bowl?" asked an exhilarated and somewhat confused Kurt Warner, who played only three quarters after spending the game's first 15 minutes answering Deion Sanders' questions about his spiky hair. "And, if so, am I going to Disneyland?"

Super Bowl XLIII was originally scheduled to take place on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1.

"I think we just figured, 'Hey, the Cardinals are here, we're here, that weird guy from the Japanese media brought a football for some reason, so why not play the Super Bowl?'" Steelers running back Willie Parker said. "Believe me, both teams just wanted to get it over with, anyway."

"If it was up to me we would have played it last Sunday," added Parker, who never quite found his rhythm in what ended up being the most important game of the season.

According to sources, the game's impetus was reportedly a coincidental midfield meeting between team captains. Hines Ward and Karlos Dansby later confirmed, however, that at no point during the initial encounter did they have any intention of playing the Super Bowl.

After exchanging pleasantries, Steelers inside linebacker James Farrior removed a coin from his pocket and asked Arizona's Reggie Wells to call heads or tails—a move Farrior identified in the postgame conference as nothing more than a joke. However, NFL-appointed lead official Terry McAulay, who had dressed for the day in full referee attire for reasons that still remain unclear, rushed out to the 50-yard line to conduct the toss.

Steelers return man Santonio Holmes, noticing through the viewfinder of his personal camcorder that Cardinals kicker Neil Rackers was setting the ball up on a tee, sprinted to his own five yard line, shouting, "Hey, everybody, I think we're starting the Super Bowl."

"If Santonio is going to receive, we're going to block—it's just that simple," said Pittsburgh's Patrick Bailey, explaining why the Steelers special teams unit decided to rush the field. "I just said to myself, 'Come on. It's about fucking time we started this game.'"

After Holmes was tackled at his own 33 by a hard-hitting Aaron Francisco, Super Bowl XLIII was under way. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took the field with his entire offense, head coach Mike Tomlin appeared already wearing his Motorola headset, and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians sprinted up to the press box in an effort to beat the play clock, which alert timekeepers had already started.

"I thought we might quit after the first quarter, but it ended in a 7-7 tie, so we figured we would just keep playing," winning Super Bowl coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "Also, we would get the ball to begin the second half, so continuing play was certainly to our advantage."

Other highlights from Super Bowl XLIII included a pregame flyover by US Airways flight 743 bound for Charlotte; the jubilant Cardinals hoisting up the first thing they could lay their hands on, sportscaster Bob Costas, instead of the Lombardi Trophy; and, because Bruce Springsteen was late for a 3:30 p.m. sound check, a halftime show consisting of various Max Weinberg drumbeats from "Born to Run," "Glory Days," and "Born in the USA."

No fans were in attendance to hold up the pieces of paper that would have formed two giant American flags in the east and west sections of the stadium.

"The game is never as good as people want it to be, anyway," Roethlisberger said. "So maybe it was better that it was played without all the TV cameras and everything."

Though league officials have yet to release a statement confirming whether another game will be played this Sunday, the NFL rulebook clearly states that a contest played between two Super Bowl teams constitutes a Super Bowl.

"No excuses," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. "Sure, we didn't have pads until the second half, we were undermanned because some players had already gone back to the hotel, and Hines didn't have his knee taped properly, which probably led to his career-ending ACL injury. But we all played under the same conditions. Next time we'll just make sure we show up at media day ready to play."

"Damn it," Tomlin added. "It's just now hitting me that we lost the Super Bowl."