Over the years...going on five now, whenever we had a potential member on trial, I could hardly wait til the final day when we finalized the deal.  It wasn't so I could congratulate them - oh no, not at all lol.  My enjoyment stemmed from whipping out this page and slicing the new recruit to pieces, then take their profiles and butcher them beyond recognition.  If it was a really good day I'd practice a little character assassination on a few long-time team members as well lol.  Sure, it typically got big laughs, and if lady luck was on my side, I'd make someone cry as a bonus (usually RAZ, MUDDD, SCAT, Jump...or that pain in the neck kid, Scrooch - sissys lol).

Well, with the holidays upon us, I was thinking maybe a different approach was in order.  Ok that's not really true.  Actually, my conscious sometimes bothers me lol, so this time around I thought I'd try to say...well, "nice" things.  Shocking, I know...and it's going to be tough, but I'll give it a go.  Hopefully the Pepto Bismol I just took will help me through it lol.

We were already a group of friends prior to establishing our team on March 11, 2000, and mind you, "friendship" was the centerpiece of our existence back then just as it is now.  After five years it still serves as the primary reason we're still here, that we still play the game.  Make no mistake, this is a great game - unlike any other, but for us the people, the experiences we've had from playing together, talking to one another, helping each other, and when possible, actually meeting face-to-face is what makes us tick.  To preserve the values and ideals we've embraced over the years, we take great care in how we choose new members to bring into our "house".  How fast you are or how many points you can amass on some platform in 10 minutes means absolutely nothing to us; it never has.  Personality, how well you function in a team environment, a willingness to help promote this game and our team...those are the characteristics we focus on, and thus far our approach has served us extremely well.

Having said that, please join us in a HUGE round of applause as we welcome two outstanding new members... 

»»SLO_Kathy_301««

&

»»SLO_CLC««

Kathy - CLC (citieslostchild - he's not really lost, & he's definitely no child lol.  Word has it he's in a city, however.)  We would like to actually thank you two for agreeing to be  members of our team.  It's people like you that makes the process of acquiring new members something we get pretty excited about, and of course, have so much fun doing (still).  On behalf of the entire gang, once again - welcome to Team SLO!!!  We sincerely hope you enjoy being apart of this "family" as much as we have.

NIR_Charles just released a new track called "NIR", and in my opinion it marks his best work to date.  Here's a guy, who by his own admission, cranked out tracks like they came in a box, and all you had to do was connect the pieces together lol.  In other words, not much time and effort was put into his work, especially in terms of quality.  That's all changed, however, and in fact, he's been churning out great tracks all year.  His track making "career" centers around short tracks, and here's a little trivia for ya; he's the one who came up with the idea for our Short Track List.  

Charles, you've done one heck of a job with this track,  partner.  No one can refute the fact you've put out some very good tracks, but I for one consider this one to be your masterpiece.  At this point we don't know what list NIR is going to end up on, but it'll definitely find a home on one of them.  Superb effort, bud - excellent work!

It seems that SLO isn't alone when it comes to supporting the CNR format.  BLS_ONaN recently completed a track entitled, "BLS_CNR/Rumble, and I'm here to tell ya, it's one very nice piece of work by the track master & long-time veteran of the game.  Furthermore, the timing is perfect because this weekend we'll be kicking off a CNR & RNR event, and Nick's (ONaN) new track will be definitely be the feature attraction.  

If you have our CNR track pack, all you need to do is download BLS_CNR/Rumble and the updated .ini.  If you need the whole sh-bang, to include the truck pack, check out the CNR page on our site.

Last year CH_2005 created a utility he called PODSwap.  Although he never finished it (wimped out lol), we loved it nevertheless.  It's on par with NIR_Knarf's MTM Starter in that it allows the user to quickly and effectively swap track lists.  One is not necessarily better than the other; it's simply a matter of preference.  MTM Starter has quite a few bells and whistles, whereas PODSwap is mean & lean. 

Since PODSwap is growing in popularity, we figured the least we could do was write a tutorial for it.  Additionally, we've made provisions for people who prefer to print the instructions and read them as they go thru the setup process. We included a link to a .pdf file (compliments of SLO_PaPa) that includes all the pictorials used in the tutorial.  If you have any problems or a question, by all means drop us a line.