How Will New Healthcare REALLY Affect You?

How will the new healthcare bill really affect you?  Ask the Right and they'll most likely tell you it's the "End of America!" but if you take the time to rationally look at what this historic step is all about, you'll soon realize how much is changed for the better.  While I don't think it's perfect, it's a step forward and at least gets the ball rolling which is more important than sitting around with our thumbs up our collective asses which has been the approach America has taken for over 3 decades.  Yahoo! has a great article titled 10 Ways the New Healthcare Bill May Affect You which breaks down some of the major points and shows that everything is not all doom and gloom as certain people who have you believe.  In the years to come, things will be refined and improved but the most important thing to remember is that we finally have a starting point.

Important Stuff With Annie Leonard

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Annie Leonard
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

The Story of Stuff is a breakdown of how obsessed our culture is with the acquisition of disposable junk and in turn, how unhappy we are.  Annie Leonard has created a brilliantly simple website that is a real eye opener to anyone who's willing to actually watch her video, "The Story of Stuff" which already boasts more than 10 million views.  She takes things further and explains needlessly complex subjects like Cap & Trade which is nothing more than corporate sleight of hand.  I urge EVERYONE to check this out and pass it on to as many people as possible. 

The Story of Stuff

Treon's Game of the Week - The Legend of Princess

The Legend of Princess is a slick single level freeware game that clearly takes its inspiration from the classic Zelda series, specifically Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.  You can set up the difficulty by changing the weapon selection before playing which makes this a very simple but fun experience.  Nintendo should take a look at this game and hire the developer to create a simple Zelda spin-off game for WiiWare or DS.  In the meantime, click on the link blow and have some fun seeing what a new side scrolling Zelda might be like.

Download The Legend of Princess

Free Software You Can't Live Without Vol. 3 - VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player

Video formats are a dime a dozen and with video having become such a major part of the computer scene, I'm thrilled to finally be able to throw off the bonds of running multiple video players for my viewing needs.  Having grown up with computers, nothing irritated me more than have to deal with multiple video players to watch videos on my computer.  Granted, with the advent of Youtube and the integration of video and web, this has become less of an issue but when you want to watch video directly from your machine, nothing beats VLC Media Player from VideoLAN.  Quicktime, Windows Media Player and all the other players can go to hell, VLC plays everything and does it better than any of those proprietary players.  Best of all, it's FREE! 

Run over to VideoLAN and download this now and if you like it, please donate to the developer so they can continue to upgrade and expand this wonderful software.

Free LIT Soundtrack

LIT is one of the better, more unique offerings on WiiWare and I urge everyone to try it.  It's a mix of horror and puzzle with a slick art style all its own.  Wayforward has created an excellent game and has taken things a step further by offering a free download of the creepy game soundtrack on its official website.  Lit has successfully taken the puzzle aspect of survival horror and created a compelling and fun adventure for the excellent price of $8 (800 Nintendo Points).  Play the game and enjoy the free music!

LIT Official Website

Amazing One Man Legend Of Zelda Medley!

The Legend of Zelda series has some of the most memorable and recognizable music to ever grace a video game but this is just amazing.  This phenomenal medley of music from Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was created by one man, Diwa de Leon.  The whole piece showcases some real talent but his violin work is what really stands out.  You can download the song in MP3 format and I urge you to check out his website featured on his You Tube posting where you can sample some of his other music which is quite good.

Treon's Game of the Week - Cave Story

CAVE STORY

Cave Story is an excellent independent game that comes to WiiWare today.  It originally came to PC in 2004 and has gathered a large fan-base as well as critical praise.  Although it sports a retro look and feel, Cave Story has the same scale and depth as the Metroid and Castlevania series.  The WiiWare version features updated graphics and soundtrack as well as all new modes such as time attack and boss rush.  To celebrate the launch of this classic indie game on the WiiWare, here is the site for the PC original.  I urge you to experience this classic and support the creator, Pixel, by purchasing the WiiWare version for 1200 Wii Points.  Click on the link below to experience the original PC version for free.


Cave Story for PC

Free Software You Can't Live Without Vol. 2 - Gimp

Gimp

When you think of professional image editing programs, everyone immediately thinks Photoshop.  It's a great piece of software but it's not very cost effective for the average user.  Lucky for us, the world of Linux has brought us a wonderful alternative that runs on Windows and best of all, it's FREE.  Developed for Linux users as a powerful alternative to Photoshop, Gimp is the image editing software of choice for people on a budget.  Taking things a step further, Gimphoto is a customized version of the original Gimp made to look and act just like Photoshop in order to make the transition easy and painless.  It supports everything from layers to filter effects and can even use a variety of Photoshop plugins if you need them. 

If your looking to make the jump to Linux and want to immerse yourself in software built for the system, check you the original form of Gimp

If your like me and want the power of Gimp in a familiar package, check out the modified version known as GimPhoto

Free Software You Can't Live Without Vol. 1 - ImgBurn 2.5

ImgBurn 2.5

DVD burning has always been a problem for me.  Trying to find a quality burning programs caused me countless headaches and created more coasters than I know what to do with.  After trying almost every commercial level piece of software (Nero sucks big time), I stumbled upon one of the finest and most complete burning programs ever conceived.  ImgBurn allowed me to burn disk images, video discs and even has the ability to burn Blu-Ray Discs which is great for people into that sort of thing.  The software has an impressive list of features for freeware (version 2.5 and earlier).  Recently, the software has gone Adware for version 2.5.1 but it's still a small price to pay for such a powerful piece of software.  I personally reccomend sticking with version 2.5 to avoid the Adware.  It supports every version of Windows and even has Wine support for the Linux fans.

Supported environments: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, 7 and 2008 R2 (including all the 64-bit versions). It also officially supports Wine for Linux.

ImgBurn Official Website:
http://www.imgburn.com/

Free World of Goo Soundtrack Download

World of Goo is one of the greatest indie games ever produced earning many well deserved awards and ending up as one of the best games of 2008.  The guys at 2D Boy have shown their appreciation of the fans by offering the World of Goo soundtrack as a free download.  The soundtrack was created by the game's composer, Kyle Gabler who has crafted a deeply original soundtrack that's as charming as the Goo Balls who inhabit the game world.  The soundtrack features 27 tracks clocking in around 50 minutes.

For those of you  who have yet to experience this game, you can download World of Goo on WiiWare for 1500 Nintendo Points which is a steal.  It is also available for PC, Mac and Linux through 2D Boy's website and yes, this game is good enough to buy it twice.  I personally have it on my Wii, Desktop PC and Linux Laptop.

World of Goo Soundtrack Download