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So far on this blog, I have focused on tech. Specifically, Nintendo and Apple. However, the technology world has seen a recent lack of news. This is typical for January. The tech industry usually has an extremely busy Christmas season followed by a relatively slow couple of months in the new year.

So, I figured I would write about something else which I find interesting. With the new year comes many resolutions. Some promise to quit smoking while others pledge to quit watching TV eight hours a day. Even more people resolve to lose weight. Gym memberships see a huge fluctuation in membership during January. I have seen it myself this month in the gym. Many resolve to lose weight with little knowledge about the subject. These people tire out after no loss in weight over several weeks.

I used to be one of these people. My sophomore year in high school, I suffered a knee injury in soccer which made it difficult to exercise. I had been a larger kid before the injury. However, this injury forced me into a sedentary lifestyle. This caused me to gain about 15 pounds until my weight jumped up 210 pounds. After I recovered from the injury, I remained at this weight for a little over a year.

Now, only two years after weighing 210 pounds, I proudly announce that I weigh 170 pounds. I managed to lose 40 pounds while keeping the weight off for good. I am often asked about how I managed to lose this relatively large amount of weight. I figured that this time of resolutions would be the perfect opportunity for explaining my secrets.

I must first state a small disclaimer. This diet worked for me as a 17 year old male. I would only suggest this to men between the ages of 16 and 25. In fact, it could be considered the perfect diet for geeks and gamers. I am not sure about how this diet would effect women or people of an older age. If you attempt to diet, I must suggest that you see a physician in order to learn your specific dietary needs.

My diet was very low maintenance. I often tell people that I amazed myself by losing the weight. It was almost as if the weight lost itself. I say these things almost as a joke. The truth is, it required several drastic changes in my diet and lifestyle. However, I think the key to my success involved the path in which I took to achieve these changes. I found several easy ways to change how I ate. Here is my list of keys for those who wish to lose weight this year.

1.) Eat breakfast. - When I was heavy, I would never eat breakfast. I thought that this helped my body with weight by taking in less calories. Good idea, but the body doesn't really work like that. A lack of breakfast will only cause hunger later in the day. That hunger only leads to purging on later meals. Eat something for breakfast, even if it is only a granola bar or apple.

2.) Cut fast foods. - Quite simply, you must stop eating fast foods. This was my first resolution when I began my weight-loss. I was a typical American fast food customer. I would regularly eat fast food meals about 4 times a week. After I eliminated fast foods from my diet, I saw a loss of 10 pounds in only several weeks. If you must eat while on the run, find a Subway or Jimmy Johns.

3.) Eliminate fats altogether. - After eliminating fast foods, I realized that I was still taking in a rather high amount of fats from foods around the house. Chips, cookies, brownies, and ice cream are notorious for their high fat content. I decided to cut almost all fats entirely from my diet. I would not eat deserts or mid-day snacks with fat in them. The key here is to find foods that you enjoy as snacks that are fat-free or contain low amounts of fat. Bagels are great for breakfast. I found myself often snacking on Twizzlers. Twizzlers helped me have some sort of treat that was tasty while I ditched the fats. I began to drink fat-free milk over 2% milk. I also used fat-free salad dressing. Mayonnaise no longer had any place on my sandwich.

4.) Start a work-out routine. - No one likes this part of the diet. You must find time in your schedule for exercise. I suggest checking out a couple health clubs until you find one that suits you. This is the most expensive part of the whole diet. I found a gym close to my school. A gym and workout schedule can totally depend upon your personal preferences. Start by doing basic exercises and find several that you enjoy. I suggest at least three workout session per week AT LEAST with an hour given to each session. If you really want to work on weight loss, get any cardio in several times a week. If you are looking for specific exercises, I suggest a lot of bench press and ab exercises. You won't see a six-pack over night. You will see a big improvement to your core muscles which will lead to an overall better physique. You might notice that if you cut fats from your diet that many of those fats are replaced with carbohydrates, another typical diet "no-no." Don't worry about this at all. Carbs are just dense forms of fuel for your body. If you work out regularly, you should use the extra energy from the carbs anyways. Besides, more carbs is always a better alternative to more fats.

5.) Walk more. - This is a relatively easy change. Try parking in the last row of an aisle at the grocery store or Wal-Mart. Get rid of your television remote and walk to the TV when you wish to change the channel. Little changes in habit make all the difference.

6.) Spend a half-hour less on the computer/video games per day. - Not a big sacrifice. By making this commitment, you will find yourself participating in activites which force you to get out and burn calories.

7.) Spread out snacks and meals evenly during the day. - Many people feel that small snacks throughout the day cause obesity. However, small snacks here and there are much better than pigging out once a day. Your body actually becomes better at digesting food if you spread out your meals and snacks. Many dietitians often recommend up to 5 small meals a day.

I hope these tips are of help to somebody. Working toward better health has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I have never felt better physically. If you have any questions or comments about my diet, feel free to e-mail me at TeenageFanboy@gmail.com

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We are nearly a full month into the year 2007 A.D. With eleven months left on the calendar, a whole lot could still happen in the world of gaming. 2006 was a great year for Nintendo. The DS was a huge seller and the Wii saw an unbelievable launch. That being said, we should expect a huge year from Nintendo in 2007. Here are some things to keep an eye out for this year in the world of Nintendo. This list is only speculation, however it should give you a fairly good idea about what to expect from the Big N in 2007.

1. Revised Wiimote to simultaneously launch with a new system color. - Revised Wiimote rumors have been all the rage on the internets. Expect to see a slightly revised Wiimote sometime around August or September. The revision will feature some sort of rubber grip to prevent controller throwage. It might also feature the plus and minus buttons in slightly different positions in order to make them more accessible. This new Wiimote will be paired with the launch of the Wii system in blue or platinum.

2. Release dates finally revealed. - Nintendo has been keeping the release dates of their big releases secret for quite a while. Everyone knows that we will see Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl released this year, it is only a matter of when. Metroid Prime: Corruption will be announced with a June release and take the majority of summer sales. Super Mario Galaxy will follow in September to rave reviews. Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be released in mid-November in order to go up against Halo 3.

3. Multi-player games take gaming by storm. - 2007 will be known as the year that brought back off-line multi-player. While XBOX Live might be the on-line king, Nintendo games will remind gamers that real life friends are still cool too. WarioWare, Wii Play, Mario Party 8, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Soul Caliber 4, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and several unannounced projects will remind us how much we enjoy gaming with friends.

4. DS to Wii capabilities will finally take off. - Pokemon Battle Revolution and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers will help get us in the DS-Wii mood. This year, Nintendo will announce a new game series which will focus on DS-Wii networking. Imagine a Mario Party-like multi-player game in which each player used a DS as a controller. WiiConnect24 will also begin a DS demo download service.

5. Great new games in old series. - We might not see these games released this year, but we will see them announced. Expect Pikmin Wii, Donkey Konga Wii, Star Fox, F-Zero, Wave Race, Mario Golf, Donkey Kong Jungle Beats, Earthbound, and 1080 Snowboarding games announced this year.

6. Nintendo to gain sales ground. - Just how many systems will Nintendo sell in 2007? This is a tough question to answer. Let's look at some numbers. The XBOX 360 sold 10 million units in just over a year. The Wii has sold about 3 million units in 2 months and the PS3 has sold about 1.5 million in 2 months also. I see the XBOX 360 selling about 6-7 million systems this year. The PS3 will most likely ship 7-8 million, but only sell 5 million. Nintendo should see an advantage this year because of strong sales in all three major territories. The XBOX 360 has seen horrible sales in Japan and the PS3 has seen lackluster sales in the United States with no European launch until March. Expect the Wii to sell about 11 million units worldwide this year, leaving Nintendo in 2nd place slightly behind the XBOX 360.

7. Virtual Console to have a great year will plenty of great releases. - The Virtual Console has already sold 1.5 million games. Expect to see the release of many great classic games this year. Nintendo will also announce a new service which allows for independent developers to release new games for download through WiiConnect24. Expect to see some solid N64 games released this spring and summer when the release schedule is thin.

Anyways, I hope that this list gives everyone a good idea about what we should expect from Nintendo in the next year. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail if you feel like I have left anything out.



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NOTE: If you are looking for more great tips and tutorials for OS X, check out my new website, www.appleinfive.com

We are about 5 months away from the launch of the iPhone. I feel like I have gone on about the subject long enough and no longer need to discuss how great this phone is. Today, I am actually going to discuss what improvements the iPhone needs. It is never too early to start speculation about the second version of the iPhone. Here are a few things that could really revolutionize the revolutionary iPhone.

1. Vibrating Touch Feedback - One big complaint I have seen about the phone has involved the lack of feedback when a button is pressed on the phone. When you press a button on your current cell-phone, you feel the button press in. You have some sort of feedback. A touch-screen doesn't have this. What if the phone contained a small rumble motor which would vibrate when a button is pressed? It might sound odd, but you can imagine how well this would work if you own a Nintendo Wii. When you hold the Wiimote, the controller vibrates when you move the cursor over an on-screen option button. This would be a similar feature which would allow for a great sense of feedback whenever a button is pressed.

2. Hard-drive based - Battery life is a big decision behind the decision to use a flash-based player. Today, news has been floating around the internet regarding a new type of battery which would last about ten times longer than current batteries. That story can be found here. If that kind of battery would work on a cell-phone, I think it would make sense to make the phone hard-drive based. It would allow for 30 GB or even 80GB worth of space for holding songs and files.

3. GPS built-in - Or at least as an add-on. The Google Maps integration looks amazing. However, it would be a better if GPS was used so that it was not necessary to type in current location while on the go.

4. Homebrew - Apple has gone on record to say that this device will not run unauthorized 3rd-party applications. Apple needs to open the device up so that small communities can develop homebrew applications. This powerful machine could produce some amazing applications if independent developers or basement programmers were given free reign.

5. VOIP support - The phone has WiFi capabilities. It would be great if the phone had some sort of ability to run something like Skype. This will most likely never happen due to agreements with Cingular or any other future carrier. The ability to use Skype would be amazing with how wide-spread WiFi networks are becoming.

I hope everyone enjoyed these five ideas. While the second generation of the iPhone could be a year or two away, it is fun to speculate. If you have any comments about my suggestions or if you have suggestions of your own, feel free to post it in the comments section, in the message board, or e-mail me at TeenageFanboy@gmail.com

Here is the first official vidcast for the blog. We will hopefully be bringing weekly episodes that will give you all the important tech news that you need. This page is brought to you by... If you love wikis, the web has millions of informative wikis. These awesome little tools are an easy way to create fun things to do on your site. You can create a video game wiki for your website! Additionally a wiki can be specialized for any niche so add one to your site!

It's hard to believe that the Macworld keynote was only a mere 10 days ago. We now know all about the iPhone, a release date for the Apple TV, the 802.11n capabilities of the Core 2 Duo Macbooks, and we are only three weeks into the new year. If you have been living under a rock or on an island for the past three weeks, you might of missed out of some of the big announcements. Hell, if you have been on the internet constantly for the last three weeks you still might have missed some announcements. I have decided to put up some news summaries and a time line of the next few months for Apple users.

1. iPhone announced - It was the most popular story of all-time on Digg.com. During the Macworld keynote address, Steve Jobs revealed a cell-phone that could revolutionize the way we view cell-phones in the same way the iPod revolutionized the way we view MP3 players. The phone features a touch-screen, a video iPod, a full-fledged Safari web browser, and the ability to listen to any voice-mail without listening to previous voice-mails first. The phone will be released in June with a $499 price-tag for 4GB of flash memory as well as $599 for the 8GB model.

2. Apple TV to be released in February - You could also call this the forgotten announcement of Macworld 07. Steve Jobs announced that we will see the Apple TV ship in February. It is now available for pre-order at Apple.com. The Apple TV will feature a 40GB hard-drive to keep programming on the device. The device also has the ability to stream songs, TV shows, movies, and podcasts from up to 5 computers in any household. The Apple TV will retail for $299 and will see a release in February.

3. New build of Leopard seeded to developers - This isn't news that will catch the eye of a typical Mac user. OS 10.5, also known as Leopard, should see a ship date sometime this summer or late spring. No announcements from Apple on an exact date yet, however the new OS seems to be coming along nicely.

4. 802.11n has been already been shipping on new Macs. - 802.11n is a new WiFi standard that allows information to be transfered over a network faster. The speed boost means nothing if you only use your router for the internet. However, if you plan on transferring long video files to your Apple TV, it would be beneficial to have a faster transfer speed. This new technology solves this problem. Apple didn't tell users that any computer shipping with a Core 2 Duo processor can already handle this new technology. This nice bonus for recent Mac buyers will be enabled after the user pays a small $2 fee. The download to allow this feature should be available by the launch of the Apple TV.

5. Beatles available on the iTunes Music Store - Many critics gripe at Apple due to a lack of the Beatles on the iTunes Music Store. This problem seems to have been all but solved in the last two weeks. Beatles album art was shown at Macworld and several sources have claimed to have seen new iPod ads featuring more Beatle album art. Beatles fans can now rejoice and put out money for digital Beatle downloads.

6. The Super Bowl commercial. - It seems that Apple Inc. has bought a chunk of commercial time during the Super Bowl in which they will reveal a new product. The internet is running rampant with rumors of a touch-screen video iPod. The announcement of the Beatles on iTunes is much more likely.

7. Apple is not a monogamist. - The Macworld keynote brought up several interesting partnerships. Cingular and Apple reached agreements for exclusive rights to the iPhone as well as a couple other projects. Apple also announced partnerships with Google and Yahoo! to bring great features to the iPhone.

8. Paramount to add movies to iTunes. - Macworld also brought an announcement about movie content on the iTunes Music Store. Paramount will be adding movies to the store which should double the amount of videos currently available on the service. This will be great for when the Apple TV is launched and users are looking for new movies to watch. If only Apple would announce a subscription or rental service...

9. Office 2008 for the Mac. - Microsoft recently announced Office 2008 for the Mac which should see a launch later this year. Take that PC users who just got Office 2007. Microsoft loves us more. I'm just kidding, don't kill me! Anyways, Office 2008 should bring Mac users the features and functionality which PC users will enjoy with Office 2007. This announcement is important because it shows that the Mac user base is important to big developers like Microsoft.

Here is an abbreviated time-line. If you don't have time to read the whole post, which I guess you might have already done if you are reading this at the end of the post, check this out.


I hope you all enjoyed this little news summary/ time-line. As always, feel free to leave your opinions by sending me an e-mail at TeenageFanboy@gmail.com or by posting in the comments section. I also invite everyone to register for our message board to post opinions here.

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When we started our marathon gaming on January 11th, 2008, we had a goal to beat four Zelda games in 48 hours.

We originally started taking donations to pay for pizza, since we are all hungry college guys. After receiving over $100 in an hour, we decided that we couldn't just keep the money everyone was sending. There was no way in which we deserved it for just playing games. Right before we almost took the PayPal link down from our site, we received an e-mail from Sam Switzer with what was easily the best suggestion we were given the entire weekend. Sam asked that we give everything over what it cost us to pay for pizza to charity.

After 48 hours, we were able to collect over $1200 for charity, which we have decided to give to Penny Arcade's Child's Play. And thanks to all the support we received over 48 hours we played, we decided we couldn't stop after one weekend.

After some discussion, the entire team agreed that we would continue with weekly game marathons to help support Child's Play. Every Saturday night at 10AM CST, we will play through a video game with a challenge in mind. We'll also continue to take donations to benefit Child's Play. Our philosophy with donations is to pay for pizza and donate the rest to Child's Play. Each week after all donations are cleared through PayPal, we donate the proceeds to Child's Play. It's that simple. You watch us play games and if you enjoy it, we hope you donate a buck or two raise money to help bring toys to children in hospitals worldwide.


If you have further questions about donating to us, we would love to answer any questions you have. With questions regarding donations, feel free to e-mail us at Donations@CameronBanga.com.

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Through work with Four48, we've gotten tons of great e-mails with pictures, stories, limericks, etc from people across the world. We're going to try to post it all here for everyone to see, so definitely be sure to comment on which pieces are your favorite. Click on an image to see a larger version of it.












































































































Limericks and Sonnets by Kohan

Limerick #1

It seems it's time to write you a letter
I don't know if for worse or for better
It must be so cool
To hear "Man, you rule"
And if the chick's not taken, man, go out and get her.

Limerick #2 (Directed toward Dillon)

It's nice to be here on such an occasion
And watch you rock on your Zelda invasion
Keep reading our mail
Play 'till you're stale
It'd be nicer if people didn't think you were asian

Limerick #3 (Directed toward Dillon)

A jew, an asian, an arab, a dude
Boy these people sure are crude
You can tell by your skin
The places you've been
Guess we'll be needing you nude

Limerick #4

Into the first real dungeon he goes
Will he beat it in time, who knows?
He'll finish the crab
With a dramatic stab
But if he dies, then hell, that blows

Limerick #5

A dangerous mountain bursting with fire
A great red dragon aperch on its spire
Seconds wasted
Brimstone tasted
If Link isn't quick, things'll get dire

Sonnet #1

It's been requested I write a sonnet
By the people in the channel
I will have to think much on it
Before it goes to the panel
These poems come with a reputation
With luck, I might inspire
I'll get these guys to make a donation
I'll write 'til I perspire
The grappling hook has been acquired
It will lead you on your way
Keep going even though you're tired
I guarantee we'll pay
Mash some buttons, kill some bad guys
A greater man you shall arise

Limerick #6 (After Matt told me to stop writing poems)

I once was having fun
Writing poems by the ton
Though Matt is cool
He then was cruel
You know, that really stung

Limerick #7 (Just recently, when I woke up)

I have slept for a good ten hours
Now it seems you're back at the tower
I know the task
But I must ask
Have any of you taken a shower?

Limerick #8

It's pretty tough to fight such a blade
Without a nice fairy to come to your aid
Scythes are a pain
But you'll be his bane
There's no need to be afraid


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