Remember that Christmas present as a kid, the one with the remote controller, 4 AA batteries, and a plastic car with four hard rubber wheels? Well, you can just forget about that relic and feast your eyes upon this beast to the left. The S-Maxx is one of many Nitro (racing top fuel, the same that Indy cars use) RC Cars that Traxxas offers. When I say these things are serious, I mean their serious.

I bought mine about three years ago after I test drove a friends. I had never really thought much about gas powered rc cars back then, I knew they existed, but I had no idea how sophisticated they were. 2WLD or 4WLD, gas or electric, pull start or EZ Start…these are things that never even crossed my mind, all I knew of was the Kangaroo battery powered buggy that I had gotten as a gift as a young kid. That thing used to cruise pretty good, maybe with a top speed of 20-25 mph on the road with a full charge. That seems great until you compare it to one of these beasts from Traxxas, most of them powered by the TRX-2.5r or TRX-3.3 engines that boost these cars and trucks up to 45+ mph! It seems ridiculous, I know, but ridiculous has never been more fun.

After a quick engine break in period, the Traxxas RC car or truck (S-Maxx for the sake of this article) is ready to rip. Load in the 20% top fuel, adjust the idol speed, mess with the carburetor’s air to fuel mixture to get peak performance, pull the throttle on the remote, and watch your toy soar down the road at unbelievable speeds. The control is outstanding as well, these things drive better than the real thing, and they are a heck of a lot more durable too.

The most fun thing to do with these besides driving them as fast as they can go of course, is doing tricks and racing them against other enthusiasts. I never raced anywhere besides the woods behind my own house, so I don’t have much input on that subject, but I can tell you that, against even just one other RC car, it is actually quite adrenaline pumping. As for the tricks, I have jumped my S-Maxx over ten feet in the air, landing it on its wheels perfectly with no broken parts. The suspension that comes on the S-Maxx is outstanding. You can adjust it with spacers to make it more or less dampening, more for extreme off-road terrain, and less for street riding and hard turns.

Most of the parts on the S-Maxx are a composite plastic material, pretty strong, but in many cases not strong enough. Be prepared to be buying replacement parts and screws as much as you buy fuel for these things, one wrong turn and your flying into a tree trunk or parked cars tire. The good thing is that the replacement parts are fairly cheap, depending on what it is you broke of course. Ebay is a great place to find these parts for a great price.

Upgrades are everywhere too. You can swap out many if not most of the plastic parts for metal. Although this does make the RC car more resistant to crash sustained damages, it does also make the vehicle significantly heavier. A trade off, one that you need to decide upon based on how you plan to drive it. Personally, I bought a set of metal skid plates for underneath which I do not regret one bit, because in a head on crash, that and the bumper take the most damage. I went through about 5 plastic skid plates before I purchased the metal version for around $20. The next metal swap I will most likely perform is the front and rear bulkheads, these things seem to break or wear out just as much as the skid plates do.

The S-Maxx is a 2WD model with the ability (with optional 4WD package purchase) to add a four wheel drive gear box to the RC car. I know, it sounds like I am talking about real rally car racing, it’s crazy, but so much fun. I personally like the 2WD feature of the S-Maxx because it allows for a drifting effect around loose turns in dirt and gravel. You can pop wheelies fairly simply with the 2WD cars, and donuts on the baseball field are unbelievable addicting as well. Although you can probably do some of this stuff with 4WD models, the extent to which you can push the car too doing such tricks only goes so far. I would recommend the 4WD drive featured T-Maxx from Traxxas more for those who are interested in racing, where 4 wheels on the dirt track at all times is essential to maintaining control and speed to power through the turns.

All in all, great weekend fun, and if you have sons, this is a great way to teach them some basic mechanics on a 1/10th scale.

I never really had a solid mountain bike as a kid growing up; a red bike for Christmas, then a hand-me-down from the neighbor a couple years later. These did the trick, don’t get me wrong, I rode until the sun came up, and loved every minute of it. Then, between the ages of say, 16 and 22, as I began to rely on my car, I did no riding at all. Once you start driving, the necessity of riding a bike quickly disappears as you hit the road with four wheels instead of two.

When I was about 21, I began working out pretty seriously with weights, which I still continue. Of course, I also like to do cardio to stay in shape but find running to be a real drag. So I figured, mountain biking is the way to go. It’s fun, fast, dangerous, and intense, all the things that the average sports guy loves. I took a trip to the local Bike Depot in town and walked out with a receipt for a Giant Boulder mountain bike 30 minutes later. Here’s whats cool about this bike:

• This bike is a hard-tail, which means only a front fork suspension with 3″ of travel. This bike has just enough shock absorption to tame the dangerous rocks and roots on the trails, but not enough to do some serious downhill jumps.  For what I use it for, this is more than enough.
• One step below the Boulder SE model, this bike has a solid steel frame which is tough and rigid, but packs a few extra pounds when compared to the aluminum frames of its big brothers. However, it still is extremely light, and if you ghost ride your bike into a tree by accident, it should make it out with just a few scratches.
• Shimano trigger shifters and Shimano Altus rear derailleur. Only top of the line components, were not talking the K-Mart special here. I love the trigger shifters, it’s like panel shifting a rally race car, easy, fun, and quick enough to get you in low gear for the fast approaching hill.  The derailleur almost never spits out the chain, which is a plus, especially when dropping gears rapidly for ascending and descending.
• Alloy direct pull breaks, rims, and hubs. Light, durable, and effective.

Do I recommend this bike to my readers? Absolutely. It is a great bike that handles the trails as easily as it handles the roads. With 21 gears, you’ll have enough power to get up the treacherous terrain, and go to high gear quickly for the trek back down. At an average seller price of $275 dollars, this bike is a great fitness investment because its fun, durable, and adds excitement to your workouts. For those more serious riders with more serious needs, Giant offers all kinds of bikes, mountain and road, that hit prices as high as $6300!  But for local riding enjoyment and fitness, the Giant Boulder is a worthy contender.

The 5lb tub of ON whey protein gives you 77 scoops of high protein, muscles building powder. Its extra filtered too, which means no chunky shakes that are hard to swallow (as long as you mix it right of course). They have a bunch of flavors too, Double Rich Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla, all are delicious, but my favorite and most versatile choice is the Double Rich Chocolate. Here is one of my favorite muscle building protein shakes that can be enjoyed not only after a workout, but also for any other meal or snack during the day, its just that filling.

Combine the following in a blender:

• 1 Scoop ON 100% Whey
• 4-6 ounces low-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
• 1/2 or 1 whole banana
• 4-6 ice cubes

Blend on high for about 45 seconds depending on your blenders capabilities, poor into a glass, and enjoy. This shake is filling, full of nutrients, and perfect way to enjoy Optimum Nutrition - 100% Whey Protein Gold Standard

See what I mean? Outstanding. Another thing I really like about the Skeletool is its appearance, Leatherman really went above and beyond the conventional multi-tool here, and created one slick looking tool. I found myself a few times looking for an on/off switch to see this tool come to life, but I think we’ll have to wait a few more decades before we see robotic multi-tools. At less than $70.00, the Leatherman Skeletool is my current top pick for essential tools that every man, or woman, should have in his/her arsenal.

A smart man, and a prophetic quote. I often think deeply for ways to be successful in this life. What is my purpose here? Is it just to live on earth, going day to day with what is handed to me? Do I play out my years on this planet each day the same as the last, or am I here for a reason, a purpose, to change something, someone, or everything? I’d like to believe I am here to leave an impression, regardless of how big or small, other than the inevitable grave that awaits me many years from now. I would like to look back on my life and smile with satisfaction that I lived everyday to its fullest. If people put as much time into being productive as they do thinking about it, then perhaps John Hancock would have never come up with such a quote. Be good to yourself and to others. Maybe being successful in life isn’t even about money. Maybe it’s about being happy and making a difference, correcting something wrong in your own life, or that of another. Before our time is up, we should earn the life we were given, so that when our judgment day finally comes, we can look back with a smile and satisfaction, knowing we’ve made a difference.

The Latest With Apple.

Apple is working out a new deal that would allow them to sell a device at a fixed price that includes a pre-programmed selection of music. It’s not certain if Apple would come out with a new specific device just for this service, or if they would begin to sell their Ipods and Iphones with the pre-programmed tunes. Either way, the device would be similar to Nokia’s “Comes with Music” to be released in 2008, which is a device that, when purchased, comes with a free years subscription to music from Universal. Of course, Universal will be scooping some profit off the top of these devices which gives foresight into the fact that Apple, and others alike, are not going to be making ridiculous profits off of music sales for much longer. If Apple pushes these devices to market, it is very likely that they will not be doing so without sharing some of their profits with the major record labels in turn.

Columbus Would be Proud.

SkySails has found a way to cut fuel consumption of its

MV Beluga cargo ship by about 20 percent. How did they do it? By bringing back something that was used in discovering America…the Sail. Although that 20 percent may not seem like much, when your pushing as much weight as a cargo ship does for two months, the addition of a sail saves about 2.5 tons of fuel. Per day, that’s $1000 dollars, not bad right? SkySails will continue to improve upon their sails, making them bigger and tweaking them to make them more efficient. The company claims the sail can save anywhere from 10-35 percent of fuel consumption depending on sea and wind conditions.

In today’s hi-tech, hi-def world, the idea of buying a so called “old” technology may seem completely silly to some people, perhaps even most people. I thought I was one of those people until I was given an “old” technology product as a gift.

Behold, the Aiptek MPVR 6MP MPEG4 Digital Camcorder with 4x Digital Zoom. I’ll call it the ‘MPVR’ for short. Although it may not be the best option for some people with more serious needs, the MPVR has some really great flexibility in the ways it can be used.

My MPVR has up to 6 mega pixels in still camera mode, and three video settings; QVGA, VGA, and D1 recording modes. These are different quality settings that allow you to fit more video on an SD memory card in exchange for loss of video quality. I would steer away from relying on the MPVR as your main source of a digital still camera. The ‘shutter’ lags a bit, so when you want to capture that funny picture quickly, your most likely going to get the aftermath of what just happened instead. It can’t compare to Canon, Sony, or Olympus.

The MPVR can also record TV shows or movies through its RCA cable inputs to use for long road trips or flights. A voice record mode allows you to capture only sound such as to record a professor’s lecture. The MPVR comes with software to manage files on the camera as well as to put files such as web videos, onto the camera.

The video quality is not great, and the sound is delayed a bit from the picture, which is a bit frustrating when playing back the clips. If you buy this camera expecting a professional level piece of equipment, you will be disappointed. However, this camera is perfect for taking along to the ski mountain, or to take out to the bar to capture your friends going nuts on Irish Car Bombs. Its very light weight and fits comfortably in a pocket, and at a reasonably low cost, its not something that you have to guard with your life and 3 body guards. It is replaceable, although the better option is to just not break or lose it. Last thing, you can also use it as a web cam. Neat! All in all, the Aiptek MPVR 6MP MPEG4 Digital Camcorder with 4x Digital Zoom is a convenient and fairly inexpensive way to capture your memories.

The secret to staying healthy and maintaining a great body? Proper diet and exercise. I give you… Bill Phillips’ “Eating for Life”. This book is an outstanding source that provides about 77 pages or so of general health information, and about 125 pages of great meals. Included are recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and also for mid-meal snacks, and desert; two things that Bill Phillips says are essential to achieving your fitness goals. The recipes in Eating for Life are phenomenal, I must admit, and most of the dinners take only about an average of 30 minutes to prepare. The dessert recipes in Eating for Life frequently include Myoplex packets (product of EAS, of which Phillips was the former CEO). Myoplex is a nutritional supplement of essential vitamins, protein, and carbohydrates. I recommend the Cookies and Cream smoothie. At the end of the book is a helpful glossary of terms related to the meals and general nutrition as well as a “kitchen essentials” section that provides the basic tools and utensils needed for most cooking. Check out this book and many others by visiting amazon.com.