Over the past few days I have been redesigning my Extreme-Days banner. As you can see it’s up now, but we we were having some server troubles so that is why it took a few extra days. Anyway, if you have a WordPress blog and you have designed your own banner, or are in the process of designing one then I have a tip for you!

First off, I designed my banner as a .png file and when it was done it came out crystal clear just how I wanted it, but then when I re-saved it as a .jpg file, it came out blurry after I uploaded it to the site. So I did some thinking and then decided to mess around with it a little bit. I took the .png file and renamed the file extension to .jpg and then uploaded it to the site that way. Low and behold when I looked at it, it was nice and clear, just how I wanted it to be.

Some of you may not know what I’m talking about and thats ok. That is the reason that you’re reading this post, to learn how to do this. So I have a video that I made to help you along.

If you don’t want to read the instructions below, you can also watch the video which teaches you how to do the same thing.

To change your file extensions you must first have this option enabled. Double-click My Computer, and in the Tools menu, click Folder Options. Now click the view tab and look through the list untill you fine the “Hide file extensions for known file types”. Once you have found this, uncheck the box next to it and click ok. Now you should be able to see what type of file your files are. Now that you have done this you can change your .png or other file into a .jpg without it really being a .jpg file. This way you don’t have to mess around with the code of the template.

Now, you should already have an image that you want as your banner and a blog that is hosted on WordPress, but I think that this will also work with Blogger. Now you must set up your blog with an FTP client. I am just going to go over the basics of this because this can get very complicated. If you have a WordPress blog that is hosted on your own domain, then this should be a lot easier for you. So download an FTP program from somewhere, or open one that you already have. Next you need to configure your FTP program to have access to your blog. Go to configure or connect or something else along those lines and fill in your ip address. Next fill in your user name and your password. If you don’t know what these are you probably shouldn’t be doing this. Make sure the server type is FTP and that the port is 21. Then the rest just leave at default and you should be all ready to go.

Once you have done those things, connect to the new account you have just made. If it works, then you did it right, if it doesn’t you did something wrong. The most common thing that you will do wrong is use the wrong ip address, or the wrong user name and or password.

Now that we got all that working, you need to navigate through all of these files to find the file that needs replacing. In my case I need to go into the folder called “wp-content” and then “themes”. Now here it will show you all the themes you have downloaded for your blog. Choose the one you have installed on your site, and open up that folder. There should now be a bunch of files and a folder called “images”, just open that up and ignore the rest.

The easiest thing to do from here is to just import everything onto your desktop or somewhere easy to get to. Then you just need to open up all of the images until you see your header. Now just copy the name of that file and paste that banner name on yours, then just upload your banner with the new name onto your server in the same place you got the original one.

When you check your page don’t be too worried if you don’t see it right away, just refresh the page a few times and it should show up. This method can be used to replace any image that shows up in the template, but be careful because you can really mess up the template in here. If that does happen, just re-download it and everything should be back to normal.

. Delicious Digg This Post Stumble This Post

The jump from medium to hard is the biggest jump you will make in Guitar Hero. When you are making this jump I think that the first two sections are the hardest because you are getting used to the faster pace of the songs and using the orange button.

If you are losing your fingering during this time, try hard to pay attention to the groove on the yellow button because it can be a lifesaver! At first this is going to be really hard and you will probably just not pay attention to it, but after a while when you have gotten used to it a little more, you will find yourself using it.

Another important thing when you get towards the end of hard is your star power. This is a very important weapon and helps a ton! The best time to use it is when you find a spot that you just can’t get past. Usually this will be towards the end of the song, so you should have full star power by then. When you feel the time is right just pull up on that guitar and try your hardest to hit those notes! Most of the time this will get you through that part and you should be able to finish up the rest of the song.

There is no special exercise or some kind of way to get by a song. The only way is to practice! I know you probably practice and are about to throw your guitar against a wall and maybe yourself as well. Trust me, don’t do it! You just have to use practice or play the song a ton of times in a row. Just take it part by part on slow and keep repeating it until you get 65% accuracy. Then if you haven’t guessed already, just do the same on full speed. Once you’re done with that, move on to the next part and repeat the process.

You will know when you are ready to play the song for real because you can just feel that you can do it. I usually go through the tricky parts in groups after I have gone through the whole song in parts just for a little extra practice. Then I usually end up playing through the song in career mode a few times before I finally pass it, and that is a really good feeling!

Even with all this applied there will still be some songs that are just ridiculously hard and seem like you can’t get past them. I happen to be stuck on Knights of Cydonia at the moment, but I keep trying and getting mad and trying again. Even with all the practice and the star power used at the right time, I still can’t get past it. Sometimes you will come across these kinds of songs and is all I can say is to practice harder! Obviously I haven’t gotten up to the point of practicing hard enough, otherwise I would be past this song.

I want everyone reading this that has guitar hero to be able to participate as well. So if you have guitar hero 3 for ps3, xbox 360, or any other system that has the song “Knights of Cydonia”, I want you to register here if you haven’t already, and leave a comment on this post linking to a video of you trying to beat, or beating Knights of Cydonia on hard. I don’t care where this video is hosted just post the link and maybe a little input on this post.

I really hoped this inspired you to keep practicing until you don’t ever want to hear that song again!

. Delicious Digg This Post Stumble This Post

Hey guys! Each one of you that are seeing extreme-days right now have been specially selected to give all of your input on what you think should happen. If you have any electronic related questions, just contact me in the way you like best!
Here at Extreme-Days, we would like to service the public with any information you need to know. We would like to have you be as involved as possible and we want you to help make this site welcoming! As you can see we have just launched this redone version of this site so we would like your full input on what you want to see here at extreme-days.
I am going to be doing my best to be posting at least twice a week, hopefully more. The more questions you ask, the more I answer and post about.
Hopefully we will be offering our own selection of electronic goods such as, the iTouch, iPhone, PSP, and hopefully more. This is also going to take some work and I would like you to also give your feedback on what you would like to see offered here as well.
Everything that we are going to be selling here that is customizable, we will have instructions on how to customize it. We want this to be your number one spot for tips, tricks, and everything else related to technology. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, let us know and we will do our best to get you an answer!
We want this to be the best experience for you and that is why we want your feedback! There is no such thing as a stupid question, or a stupid piece of advice. Anything you think should happen will be considered. So now is the time to input your ideas so that things will be changed when this is released to everyone else!
I think this covers everything and hope you continue to come back to extreme-days for all your electronic help!

. Delicious Digg This Post Stumble This Post