If you pre-order three copies of Jorge Cruise’s Belly Fat Cure book, Jorge wants to send you a free Audio download you can put on your iPod or other MP3 players or even burn to CD that will explain the program and help you get started right away. The book doesn’t hit stores until right after Christmas, but you can get the download right away. There is no official Audiobook version being recorded for the book, so the only way to get this file is by buying three copies of the book.

When you buy three copies of the book, you get one for yourself and two that you can give a couple of friends or family members that may also be interested in losing some weight with the program. Trust me, when the weight starts to come off, people will be interested in what you’re doing and it’ll be handy to have an extra copy of the book to give away. It’s the one thing that frustrates me most about having done so well on the program is that when I get asked about what I’ve been doing, I can’t help people get the book right away. They have to wait until the end of December.

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I recently decided to try the Sirius XM iPhone application with their free seven day trial, and I quite liked being able to use my iPhone as an additional Sirius radio in addition to the Stiletto 100 I already use for Sirius. So naturally when the free trial expired, I decided to give Sirius a call to add on the Premium Internet access which is required to take advantage of the iPhone application.

I didn’t really want to pay more money, so I asked the customer service agent if she could just cancel the added on Best of XM package I had added on. I mainly got to hear Oprah Radio from the XM lineup of channels, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t like the channel very much. I wasn’t listening to any of the programs and none of the other XM stations that were added were of any interest to me, so it was kind of silly to be paying $4.04 a month extra for worthless stations. As the premium Internet add on is only $2.99 a month, it essentially means it should be no problem “downgrading” my account. Since it was all prepaid I wasn’t expecting a refund on the extra already paid.

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The release of Benny Andersson’s latest album entitled “Story Of A Heart” earlier this year featured a very pop like song also entitled “Story Of A Heart” this song was released to radio stations to promote the album. With the song being the most ABBA-like song, Benny Andersson and his lyrical partner in crime Björn Ulvaeus have written in more than a decade, it was really just a matter of time until some home made remixes of the Benny Andersson Band’s “Story Of A Heart” got made.

One such remix that has popped up that I’ve actually been quite addicted to listening to over the last week is one by someone who just simply goes by the name “DJ Matt” The Matt Mix of “Story Of A Heart” speeds up the song a little bit to give it a bit of urgency, additionally a really well done drum beat has been added to help set and maintain the pace, and just for some fun at the end, the final time through the chorus, the Swedish language version of the song is used to close out the mix. The mix is really quite fun to listen to. Whoever this DJ Matt is, he’s done some really good work. If the number of times I’ve played it hasn’t already cracked the top 25 most played songs on my iPod, it soon will. I’ve really been enjoying it on repeat for hours at a time. Who knew Helen Sjöholm’s amazing voice would sound great on a dance mix? (She is mostly known for show tunes style songs.)

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Having hit a little bit of music boredom with the more limited selections on my iPod Touch, I decided to bring out the iPod Classic which is loaded with over 11,000 audio files. I let it play on random and one of the things that came up was “Hooked On Classics – Part 1 and 2″ from the original “Hooked On Classics” album by Louis Clark and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

I ended up taking the iPod off random and played the full album. It’s been a very long time since I last listened to it. I don’t remember when exactly I added the Hooked On Classics albums to my iPod as the last crash of my iTunes wiped out the date added for every track I added prior to December 10, 2008. In any case, I was happy I had it on my iPod to enjoy without having to dig out the CD.

I remember having worn out two cassettes of this album back in the early 1980′s. I loved it. To me it was all the good parts of classical music without so much of the really boring stuff. And I suppose a disco-esque drum track didn’t hurt either for helping keep those classics going at an upbeat pace. I remember Hooked On Classics being very popular when it was originally released in Canada. It was released on the K-Tel label which I always had some collections of popular music from them. Probably my favorite of which was “Raiders Of The Pop Charts” which capitalized on the Indiana Jones theme which was current at the time.

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To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sony’s introduction of the Walkman which forever changed how personal music was defined, the BBC thought it would be an interesting experiment to have a 13 year old child trade in their iPod for one week for a classic Sony Walkman without any instructions other than to say the Walkman was the iPod of it’s day.

It was interesting to read the child’s insight into the whole thing, my personal favorite comment was it took three days before he realized there was a second side to the cassette. He also missed the shuffle feature of his iPod but decided he could simulate it by randomly holding down the rewind and stopping at random spots. It was also a great laugh to read how big and clunky he thought the device was because it’s huge compared to the iPod, but back in the day it was cutting edge small technology.

I still remember my first Walkman, I don’t remember the brand of it but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a Sony one. I used to listen to it all the time, even took it to bed so I could listen to my music to fall asleep, a habit I still have. I have a hard time falling asleep without music playing. Yes, the buttons were big and clunky, and for that matter so were the players. I always wanted one of the Walkmans with a built in speaker but never did ever get one of those. Cassettes weren’t a perfect medium, but they are what got me through the 1980′s. I didn’t get my first CD player until 1989.

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May was a very similar month to April so it didn’t have the same surprise factor when looking at the end results. In fact, the improvement seems almost minimal. I did have to take a break for a few days because I simply wasn’t home with access to the treadmill for a period of three days which I feel hindered a little of my progress this month. It was definitely the longest stretch of time I’ve done without running since I started doing the treadmill work at the end of November.

The new shoes bought in April were wonderful in May, it’s such a welcome relief to be running without pain and giving me the chance to work on building my speed. I spent most of the month just working on trying to get two mile runs done in less time and I’ve managed to shave some additional time off my average pace per mile.

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Take advantage of a significant discount offer on Invisible Shield device protectors made by Zagg that’s available for the Memorial Day weekend through to May 27th, 2009. Just remember the discount is not automatic, you have to apply the code “memday09″ when you check out to get the discount.

Get your shields for all the various portable electronic devices you carry whether it’s an iPod, iPhone, mobile phone, mp3 player, gaming device, GPS, PDA, laptop computer or even the face of your watch. These incredible shields are made from military grade film which was originally designed to protect helicopter blades, so the film has to be strong and extremely thin. It’s designed so that no other protection for your device is needed. It allows you to be able to use your device and plug it into charger bases or use plug in ports without the need to remove the film. This is especially the case for iPods in that you will have no trouble putting your iPod into a dock with the invisible shield applied. The film is extremely resistant to scratches so its a one time purchase for your electronic device unlike the generic screen protectors you can buy in electronic shops which tend to need frequent replacement once they’re all scratched up.

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I’ve had a few days to test drive the new iPhone Operating System (OS) on my iPod Touch and it’s been fun and interesting trying out the new software. I am currently on the Beta 4 version of the software which was released about a week ago.

So far, the new features like the search and being able to cut and paste have been pretty cool but for me seems to be of limited use my iPod Touch is primarily an iPod. I don’t manage a contact database on it, and I use it for rather limited Internet use, like some web browsing and checking e-mail. A detailed list of features being added can be found by clicking here.

I’ve really been impressed with the new and improved maps application. It now provides turn by turn directions and can even map you routes for a car, walking, and bus routes. Granted the bus routes have some limited application in terms of distances covered. They even allow easy access to Google’s street view images. I’ve been playing with that a little bit. Really nicely improved tool. Also the music player has been improved slightly in that the slider for the position in the song works a little more easily and they’ve improved how it handles audio books, such as a feature to repeat the last 30 seconds in place of the Genius logo.

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April was a phenomenal month, much better than even I could have expected. The month did get off to a slow start with a couple of really painful days that cause a few days off from the running on the treadmill and getting my taxes finished took a couple of days away from the running as well, but the second half of the month, I just stepped it up a notch and finished the month exceeding even my expectations.

As my blog readers already know, I purchased some new Nike running shoes in the last week and they’ve make the biggest difference in the world in my running. I never would have believed what a difference it could make had I not experienced it myself. A friend of mine, Antonio Roderick, recommended getting sized for running shoes and I picked Road Runner Sports to get sized for new shoes. Their evaluation of my feet determined I have high arches and and overpronate when I run, so I should pick shoes from the “Stability” category of running shoes and $70 bucks later, I had some new shoes that feel so much more supportive of my feet, and having done a few runs in them now, have relieved me of all the pain I’ve endured the last couple of months. Sounds like $70 well spent to me.

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Like many other Star Trek fans, I am anxiously awaiting the relaunch of Star Trek that is set to happen on May 8th, 2009 with the new film by Director J.J. Abrams. The new filmed version, simply called “Star Trek” with no other subtitle or even a number (it’s the 11th Star Trek film for the record.)

The new film features a band new cast of actors playing younger versions of the Original Series cast. Only Leonard Nimoy from the original cast makes an appearance in the film. My best guess so far is that the story somehow involves some time travel allowing both Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto to play the role of Spock in the same film. Oh course, this is speculation on my part, so please don’t read into it that I have any insider knowledge. For the most part I’ve been avoiding press about it as I really want to enjoy it on the big screen and I may even go see the IMAX version as well.

To get ready for the release of the new film, Paramount in association with IDW Publishing and iVerse Media to create an interactive comic book prequel to the film. The prequel comic sets out to bridge the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” universe we last saw in the film “Star Trek: Nemesis” with the new “Star Trek” film by introducing the character of “Nero” who appears to be the Romulan antagonist of the new movie played by Eric Bana.

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