Down the road life will be full of memories and trust me a ride down the whitewater rapids at the USNWC is something you will remember for a long time.

USNWC Activities

Mountain Biking

The USNWC offers some of the best mountain bike trails in the area. With 14 miles of trails there is something for all skill levels from beginners to experts. The scenery is great with woodland trails and river views.

Kayaking

Whether you want to slowly paddle your way around the 1.5 miles of flat water along the Catawba River and enjoying the scenery or take a thrill ride in the whitewater you will enjoy every moment.

Climbing

If you enjoy rock climbing or have always wanted to do it the USNWC offers a huge outdoor climbing facility with their 46-foot spire to challenge you. If you are a beginner don’t worry the staff will guide you. You can always do the kids rock.

Whitewater Rafting

This is where the real fun is! The USNWC offers three types of rafting. Family rafting is a more relaxed trip for those of you who may not be up to a wild rapids ride. For those of you who are they offer adventure rafting that takes you down their class II-IV whitewater channels.

For those thrill seeking types (you know you are) try rodeo rafting. Their guides take you through the most aggressive whitewater where you will be lucky if you can stay in the raft. It’s definitely a wild ride.

Want photos of your wild ride so you can prove to your friends and family that you really did it? You can purchase photos in a variety of packages. Visit the USNWC Photo website to see them.

Trails

Whether you are a walker, a runner or a hiker the USNWC has trails for you. There are 14 miles of scenery to take in along the trails. The green trail is nice since it is mostly flat and you can see kayakers and rafters along the walk. For you iron men and women the black trail offers steep elevation changes to put you to the test.

Other Activities

Want to take a 40-foot free fall and come to a safe landing? Try the mega jump. The adventure course is an aerial rope obstacle course that will test your limits. It’s all safe though since you are secured with a harness. The zip line (oh yeah!) is a wild ride, but it is currently not available. When it is you have to try it.

River’s Edge Bar and Grill

The River’s Edge Bar and Grill is a great place to eat, drink and just sit back and relax taking in the scenery. They offer food, beer and wine. You can sit outside on the patio that overlooks the whitewater area and the food prices aren’t bad. They also have a walk up area where you can get drinks and snacks if you just want something quick.

River Jam

Each Thursday and Saturday night they offer live music near the entrance. You can sit about anywhere and enjoy it. Sitting on the River’s Edge patio is a great place. Visit the River Jam website for more information and a schedule. There’s no charge so if you want you can just pay the $5 for parking and enjoy the live music, scenery and fun.

A Whole Lot of Fun!

There is much more to do at the US National Whitewater Center. The best thing about it is the environment. Even if you only pay the $5 parking fee you can have a good time. Watching all of the activities is cheap outdoor fun. There’s plenty of places to sit, even right next to the whitewater area.

All of this fun comes with a price, but maybe one day they will offer a break to poor college students. Depending on what you want to do and what time you come passes range from $49 to $15. You can also get a season pass for $149. It is good until the end of the year.

You don’t have to pay more than the $5 for the parking pass to come check it out. It will be the most fun you’ve had for $5 and you can see if you want to do more or make plans for a return trip. The park is dog friendly so you can bring your four-legged friend along.

Here is a video of what you will find at the US National Whitewater Center.

For more information visit the US National Whitewater Center website.

Looking for directions from UNC Charlotte? MAP-IT!

If you do go come back and share your experience in the comment.

Photo credit: Zevotron

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Part of my Sunday always includes some time for reflection and connections. A time to calmly sit back and look at the past week and to the week ahead. Sunday is also a time when I like to make connections with people who matter to me or those I have lost touch with.

30 Minutes For Reflections

Grab a pen and a journal and take 30 minutes each Sunday to look back at the past week. Write down what went right and what went wrong. Write down memorable moments. Write down your hopes and dreams. Write down anything that has meaning to you at this time.

Reflect on where you have been and where you are going. See if you are on the path you need to be on or if you need to make changes. Sunday is also a good day to start changes. Look back in your journal and your past reflections. Then sit back and think. You may find one of the connections you lost is with yourself.

30 Minutes For Connections

Take another 30 minutes of your Sunday to make connections with people you care about. Family members would love to hear from you. Send an email to an old friend you lost touch with. Go visit someone you care about, but do not get to see much. We need to take the time to remember to appreciate one another.

Taking pictures is a way to make connections that last. Take your camera out and explore. Take pictures of places you want to remember and people you never want to forget. Video is even better since it captures real life and memories better than a picture.

One Hour to Put Life in Perspective

The other six days of the week we are wrapped up in the frantic rush of life. To keep yourself grounded it is important to take some time each Sunday to reflect. To gain a perspective on your life and connect with others for your well-being. Call it a mental walk about. A time to look at your past, connect with your present and dream of your future.

After a hard week one hour of reflection and connections will help put your life back in perspective and get you ready for the next week. Do this each Sunday and later in life the journal, pictures, videos and memories will be some of your most cherished possessions.

Photo: swimparallel

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TubeMaster++ allows you to capture and save multimedia files. Captured files can then be saved to your computer or converted to many popular video and audio formats such as AVI, MPEG, MP3, MP4, IPod, PSP and more. These can then be transferred to portable devices. Best of all TubeMaster++ is FREE.

Setting Up TubeMaster++

If you run Windows Vista or Windows 7 you will need to start TubeMaster in administrator mode. You will need to right-click on the TubeMaster icon and select Run as administrator. When TubeMaster starts up capture is enabled. Be SURE you start TubeMaster in administrator mode on Windows Vista and Windows 7 or it will not work!

You should set the options before you start using it by clicking on the Options icon. You can stop capture from automatically starting when the program starts. This stops it from capturing everything you run across before you get to what you want to capture.

You will also want to set the folder where your captures and saved files are stored. I like to have a folder specifically for captures and then when they are complete I move them to a media library folder. You can change the MP3 bitrate (Kbps) from 64 to 320. You get great sound at 224, but if you need files smaller files 192 sounds good.

Using TubeMaster++ To Capture and Convert to MP3

Say you want to capture Jay-Z’s new Blueprint 3 from Imeem. Locate the playlist and click on/off the tracks you want to capture. Then click the Enable Capture icon on TubeMaster and start playing the songs on Imeem.

TubeMaster will capture the stream and save it as a FLV file. You have the option to change the title of the file at this point. Take advantage of this to name your track when you are recording it. The program will capture the entire song before it finishes playing, noted by a green check next to the captured file.

When the next song begins TubeMaster will start a new capture. In capture mode you have options to convert the file or play the file. To convert the file to MP3 that you can play on your computer, IPod or other MP3 play click on Convert File and select “Audio MP3”.

Using TubeMaster++ To Capture and Convert Video

Capturing video is as easy as capturing audio. Disable capture until you read the video you want to capture and convert. Let’s stick with the Jay-Z theme and capture the official D.O.A. (Death of Auto tune) video from the Jay-Z channel on YouTube.

Enable capture on TubeMaster and click the play button on YouTube. TubeMaster will start capturing the video file. It takes longer than the audio file because video is larger. Still before the end of the video TubeMaster has captured it.

Click in the “untitled” box and give the video a name. Now you need to decide what format you want to convert it to. If you have an IPod you will want to click on the Convert File icon and select Video MP4. If your portable media player needs another format select AVI 320×240 for your portable devices, AVI 640×480 for your computer, or DiVX.

If TubeMaster captures an advertisement in the process you can always click the red X and delete the captured file. If you are not sure what the capture is click on the play button to view it.

MORE Conversion Options

TubeMaster can convert your captured files to many different formats. Nearly every phone format is included. You can save as DVD format including HQ full screen and wide screen. Here is a shot of the available formats.

Built-In Video and Audio Search

TubeMaster comes with built-in search capabilities to help you find specific audio and video files. Select video or audio, then type in what you are looking for. TubeMaster will search for active live streams which you can capture. You can preview the stream by clicking the play button (disable capture first) and if it is what you want click on download.

I did not find this feature very useful. Bing is really good with video search.

Get TubeMaster++

Visit the TubeMaster++ web site for more details and to download. It is available for Windows and Linux and soon for the Mac. There are many stream capture programs and convertors out there. Most of the better ones can run you close to $80. For what it does I think that TubeMaster++ is a pretty good for free.

TubeMaster++ works on video sites that display video using HTTP FLV steams. Popular sites like Hulu and most major TV sites use secure RTMPE flash video .FLV streams. TubeMaster++ will not capture these streams. I am still looking at FREE options for those sites. If you know of one please post a comment.

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Breaking news story….. The NYPD  first ruled the fire was an arson, but after looking at nearly 43,000 pictures taken at the scene during a dorm party they have determined that the fire was an accident.

Hilarious fake news!

Police Slog Through 40,000 Insipid Party Pics To Find Cause Of Dorm Fire

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The CD entitled “LeftRightLeftRightLeft” contains tracks recorded live over the past year. The files are in MP3 format so you should have no problem playing them on any device or computer. At a 192kbs bit rate the songs are clear and have good sound quality.

There are 9 songs on the CD and the download weighs in at around 55 MB.

It does require you to enter an email address and select what country you are from. If you do not want updates from the Coldplay.com web site be sure and uncheck the box. After you click submit it will take you to the page where you can download the CD. If it goes to a blank page or does not go to the download page, just come back and try later.

Visit the this Coldplay LeftRightLeftRight link and download your FREE music!

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The CD entitled “LeftRightLeftRightLeft” is available as a free download from their web site Coldplay.com.

The album was recorded over the past year in various cities around the world on the Viva La Vida tour. Its track listing is as follows:

1. Glass of Water
2. 42
3. Clocks
4. Strawberry Swing
5. The Hardest Part/Postcards From Far Away
6. Viva La Vida
7. Death Will Never Conquer
8. Fix You
9. Death And All His Friends

According to the band, the give-away is meant as a recession-busting mark of gratitude to everyone who’s supported them: “Playing live is what we love. This album is a thank you to our fans – the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen.”

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The site is broken down so you can easily find what you are looking for. For beginners try the 15 part series that provides you with guitar lessons in a logical order so you can quickly master the skills you need to start playing songs. You will learn about the parts of a guitar, how to change your strings, how to tune your guitar, how to read tablature, and how to play all of the basic cords.

Categories include:

1. Video Song Lessons – these teach you how to play specific songs.
2. Beginners Lessons – learn the basics you need to start playing
3. Intermediate Lessons – teaches you styles and scales
4. Cool Guitar Videos – both entertaining and inspiring
5. Most Popular Videos – the best of the best

You can also request songs if you do not see one you really want to learn how to play. You will not find tabs on this site, but they do offer links on the same page as the song to other web sites where you can find the tabs.

If you want to really become a guitar hero check out Video-Tabs.com.

Here is an example video of “Save Tonight” by Eagle Eye Cherry

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MediaFox has been customized with various extensions such as AutoHide which adds a full screen button to the toolbar, FoxyTunes for controlling music and Cooliris which displays videos and pictures in a cool cover-flow style scrolling wall. Other extensions are included to maximize the media experience and to make viewing more enjoyable.

You will find built-in bookmark folders for NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, the CW, Comedy Central, MTC, FX, USA, Sci-Fi, Movies and Tech Videos. Each folder contains bookmarks to popular TV shows and other online media access sites. You can easily add your own favorites.

To fill your music taste the FoxyTunes is located on the bottom of the browser with links to many popular online music sites. All controls are right there in the browser. Just select your player, select Controls and click on play.

Currently MediaFox is available for download via a DropBox site. Download MediaFox.

It was good while it lasted, but the link no longer works. You can still create your own version of MediaFox by adding the addons mentioned.

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You will easily be able to search for movies by genres with 15564 titles currently available to search through for streaming. You can also filter results, search by actor or if you are not sure what to watch check out their list of best, worst, new or just try random.

For more information visit the Instantwatcher web site.

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Green said:

“Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen for grass, trees and leaves. Without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority.”

Blue interrupted:

“You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing.”

Yellow chuckled:

“You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun.”

Orange started next to blow her trumpet:

“I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes, and papayas. I don’t hang around all the time, but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you.”

Red could stand it no longer he shouted out:

“I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood – life’s blood! I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy.”

Purple rose up to his full height:

He was very tall and spoke with great pomp: “I am the color of royalty and power. Kings, chiefs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey.”

Finally Indigo spoke, much more quietly than all the others, but with just as much determination: “Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for prayer and inner peace.”

And so the colors went on boasting, each convinced of his or her own superiority. Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down relentlessly. The colors crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort.

In the midst of the clamor, rain began to speak:

“You foolish colors, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest. Don’t you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me.”

Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands.

The rain continued:

“From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The Rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow.” And so, whenever a good rain washes the world, and a Rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another.

-Author and Source Unknown-

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