I’m not usually the type to reply to chain letters and such, but I’ll make an exception for the sake of the evergrowing blogosphere. I just got tagged by Ed Lau in a bloggy kind of way. The game is a little different than in the school yard, however, as I must disclose five things you may not know about me (because Ed did it before me, and John before him). So, uh, here they are:

1. Despite the “street racer” image that my car (a lightly modified Acura Integra) may have with some people, I have a squeaky clean driving record. If you head on over to the DMV (or I guess “Driver Services Centre” as ICBC calls it) and ask for my driver’s abstract, you will find that I have never had my license suspended… heck, there’s not even a speeding ticket on there. That’s right. No tickets. The only “mistake” on the record is a single at-fault accident. And that was a super minor fender bender

2. I’m known to be a gamer, but some people may be surprised to hear that I am almost obsessively Nintendo loyal. Through the years, I have gone through the following systems: NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Game Boy (original with puke green screen), GBA SP, and DS Lite. Maybe I should have bought the Virtual Boy to collect the set. The only non-Nintendo machine I’ve ever owned is my Sony PSP, and I rarely play that anyways.

3. I’ve been to Las Vegas at least five times (I lost count), but only one of those times was I actually of age. Family friendly entertainment, right?

4. This probably isn’t all that much of a secret, but I agree with my dad’s mantra that there is no better way to spend money than to please your stomach. Good food will always make you happy, and I have no qualms about going out to somewhere nice to eat. Gotham, Morton’s, C… I really should try West and Lumiere.

5. Late bloomer = me. High school was a little tough because I was the shortest guy among all my friends all the way up until grade 11. And then, as if overnight, I shot up quite a few inches during the summer before grade 12. Today, I’m probably the tallest guy among my (Asian) friends.

Okay, so it’s time to get some other bloggers out there to reveal themselves. Dylan, Darren, and John, you’ve just been tagged.

It’s been a tough battle with the almighty search engine for me, but it seems like I’m finally starting to make some progress. I got an unsolicited email the other day that I was just going to delete thinking it was spam, but it turned out to be a potential client who (I’m assuming) stumbled across my website advertising my freelancing writing services. So, I went on over to Google and, well, I saw something darn near miraculous.

Let’s preface this story a bit.

MichaelKwan.com has been around since March 2006, so it’s understandable that the first few months would go by relatively unnoticed. Eventually, I made it onto the first page of results for when you use the search term “Michael Kwan” without the quotations. Great. But below the first three results, inevitably Google asks if I really meant to search for Michelle Kwan (professional figure skater, no known relation).

So, being on the first page just isn’t good enough. I want need to be in the top three. And today, that happened. I am officially the second result for “Michael Kwan”, lagging only behind some Chinese pop singer of the same name. His site at HKVP Radio is still the number one result. Grr. Not sure how this lowly freelance writer can overthrow an apparent pop idol out of Hong Kong with a cult-like following. I guess I have a better chance than if I were a graphic artist named Justin Timberlake.

The next frontier? Let’s get Beyond the Rhetoric on the first page, or better yet, as the first result for “beyond the rhetoric”. Happy holidays!

I am posting this entry from my Wii and it is wicked awesome, though the on-screen keyboard is a little cumbersome to use. It does have an option for predictive text, which is quite nice. I think I’m doing about 10 to 15 wpm.

Anyone that knows me knows that I’m very big on video games. Heck, I’ve grown up squishing goombas and shooting hadoukens out of my hands. Luckily for me, I’ve also parlayed it into a career of sorts, writing for LoveToKnow Video Games, SpinTop Games, and — most recently — VirtualReality.ca. That’s why it’s with a little nostalgic tear in my eye that I present to you, the top ten worst ways to die (in a video game).

You would think that such a compilation would include Doom. Nope. There are some rather strange choices in the list that I wouldn’t have considered (being killed by a weiner?), and a few that are included for reasons that wouldn’t dawn on most people (check out Halo bit in the clip). Anyways, here’s the vid. Agreements? Disagreements? What about Kitana’s kiss of death from Mortal Kombat II?

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I’ve written on something similar in the past, but it is a fairly prominent issue in my life (and in the lives of many 20-somethings in the Greater Vancouver area). Real estate prices are just too high for the average Joe (or Michael, as the case may be) to make their first foray. After all, a decent one-bedroom condo is going to run well over $200,000 if you want to stay in Vancouver / Richmond / Burnaby area.

Of course, that’s not where the expenses end. Above and beyond mortgage payments, home insurance, and all that other jazz, you’ve still got to furnish the bloody place. Sure, they may provide you with appliances, but you need a bed, don’t you? And I wonder how much customization is available. Can you opt to not take their default drapes and get the blinds on your own? What about carpeting? Hardwood floors? Interior design can get pretty pricey.

I really don’t want to wait until after the 2010 Olympics to get into the real estate market, but I want to stay in the Vancouver area. Maple Ridge and Mission aren’t exactly the most appealing options (to me). Then, where is my window of opportunity? If I wait too long — to take a poker analogy — I may be blinded out, so to speak.

Sigh, the housing market is fierce. Maybe I need to move to Edmonton or something. After all, I work from home anyways, so the cheaper the living expenses, the better. Maybe Prince George.

It’s the answer to a question that no one ever asked: What if you could put Apple’s music player on a stick? What would you call it? Luckily for Saitek, the name iPhonic is not taken by Cisco, unlike that other term that we thought was going to be something else.

The iPhonic, other than its fairly unique form factor, isn’t all that different than other iPod-centric speaker docks we’ve already seen on the market, but you’ve got to love that hub-like styling. And let’s not forget about the iPod being impaled on the side. It gets its power from a quad of AAA batteries or, alternatively, you can plug into the wall with the optional DC adapter.

By the way, the Saitek iPhonic is “also great for mobile phones” boasting an “active stereo speaker with extended bass.” No word on pricing, but you can keep on top of things by checking the official product page.

Source: Gizmodo