I was born in 1976, so video games were a huge part of my life. I don't have as much time to play them now, but I do have a Wii, which I enjoy, but miss that feeling of opening the newest, best-graphics-ever, can't stop playing, games. It occurred to me recently that many of the games I played as a child, and teenager, changed my life in many ways.

Here are the 7 games that changed my life, and how they did it:

#1 - Mattel Electronic Football (1977)

I still remember my neighbor getting this amazing creation. I was about four years old, but I remember being blown-away by the cool noises it made. I didn't understand it, or have a clue how to play it, but I carried it with me as often as I could.

How it changed my life: I don't know if Mattel branded the units, but my neighbor's had a Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo (yeah, the orange and white one). The day I saw this game, I became an instant Bucs fan. Continue Reading

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From theXBroker:

What are your three tips to someone wanting to become a real estate agent today?

Hi Im Rudy at Trulia, a social media guru, inspired this post with a question on Twitter last week.

My initial reaction was ‘Why would anyone want to enter the real estate sales industry today?’ but the prevailing thought became: It would be a great time to enter if you knew how to play the game with new rules and better tools.

The information below is nothing new to the experienced re.net professional, it’s meant to be a simple guide to help a new agent put their feet in the re.net pool without inundating them with too much information.

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Zero tolerance: It's the only way to break a bad habit. So don't indulge - scratch that itch mentally. Here's how.

#1 - Wear a Rubber Band

When you feel a craving coming on, snap your wrist three times quickly. Scientists and torturers call this negative reinforcement: Craving equals pain. It's akin to smacking yourself on the nose with a newspaper.

#2 - Pour Yourself a Glass of Cure

When it comes to nervous habits, water is your secret weapon. When you feel a craving coming on, chug at least 10 ounces. It's amazing how well this works.

#3 - Switch Sides of the Bed

If you're a consistent habit former, you should overhaul your routines - what time you wake up, what you eat for breakfast, what route you take to work, and so on - every 3 months.

Source: Men's Health magazine, May 2008

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From Lifehacker:

It may be the year 2008, but a whole lot of sucktacular software still rears its ugly head on PC's everywhere, even when better-behaved options are freely available. Whether it's molasses-slow bloatware, shameless adware, anemic default apps, or "Your trial period has expired!" nagware, it's time to replace stinky Windows software with its superior (but lesser-known) alternative. Last week we asked what software you should never install on your PC, and over 200 comments later, you compiled quite a list. Today we're going to take a walk down the Crapware Hall of Shame, point and laugh at the worst offenders, and highlight some better choices. Photo by chelseagirl.

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From the Site:

This must-try list contains a great collection of fun and useful websites that I think everybody should be familiar with, and to try at least once. Keep these on hand for everyday use.

I believe that once you try these sites, you won't be disappointed and some of them may even become favorites that you will use everyday. There are sites here for the office, sites for the music you love, a fitness site, and some just for fun.

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From Cracked:

On May 22, 2007 Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to summit Mt. Everest. This 71 year old former school teacher has since joined the ranks of Bear Grylls and Lance Armstrong as "People Whose Achievements Invalidate Your Pathetic Existence."

This is the stuff of a worthwhile world record, a moment highlighting the richness of human potential. Of course, as any quick study of the Maury studio audience will attest, that potential is rarely exercised by the masses. And the folks who put out the Guinness Book of Records (GBR) have a lot of blank pages to fill ...

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Few foods are as delicious as they are guilt-free. Below are six hidden treasures we discovered on the shelves of our local supermarket. These low-cal treats have become grocery-list must-haves, whether we're dieting or not.

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How well do you know your body? Let's find out.

1. All parts of the body grow as we grow except for one. The moment we were born until we grow old the size of this human part doesn't change at all. What is it? The answer- the eyes.

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From ProBlogger:

1. Create link clusters within your blog

A link cluster is a group of links that you can point at a post or page to improve its search engine ranking. Let’s say you have a post that’s ranked for ’stupid business ideas’. Edit 10 of your other posts to create links (using ’stupid business ideas’ as the anchor text) to the ’stupid business ideas’ post and you will surely move up in Google for that keyword. This process can be implemented in about 10 minutes and can be used for any keyword your site ranks for or is trying to rank for.

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From Cracked:

EDITORS' DISCLAIMER: Cracked does not endorse eating the below foodstuffs for the express purpose of getting high, as the side effects are usually horrible enough to make you forget you were high in the first place. Thus the information in this article should only be used for scintillating chitchat at cocktail parties and around the office.

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