Recently, my coworkers pooled together to pay for a ping pong table.  They managed to get over twenty people from the company to chip in.  The table was an instantly success.  People really got into the game, they started to bring their own paddles and change into shorts before playing.  Soon a tournament was formed to determine the best player at our company.  To my surprise it was the most laid back person at the company who won the tournament.  It turns out they use to play for a pro junior league back in their old country.  How crazy is that?  I am always amazed at people with hidden special abilities.  What are you guys hiding?

Danny

Personally, I would keep playing the demo even if my sword got smaller. I’ll just pretend I’m playing a rogue class or that I some how managed to compress my awesomeness. Therefore this patent is stupid.

Danny

Hey

Nyoro~n.

– Alex

Recently, someone I know received a collection call for a credit card debt that was 6 years old. This card was not something she was even aware of and because of the high interest the amount had tripled. The collection agency threatened her with legal action, and conned her into signing some documents that stated she acknowledged the debt.

If only she knew that in Ontario, if the debt is older then 2 years and you don’t acknowledge it, they can’t take legal action against you. As her debt was older, it had a 6 year limit, which she reached. So if she had just hung up, and ignored them completely, they could do nothing. But because she had signed a form asking for more information the 6 year limit is reset.

Thankfully we found out she emailed her signature to the wrong place

Danny

Jesse Schell gave a talk recently at the DICE summit about gaming and the recent trend of games like Wii Fit, Mafia Wars, and Guitar Hero.

He says “We live in a bubble of fake bullshit, and we’ll do anything to get to what is real.” The small sense of connection with a real tangible artifact in the real world (like a plastic guitar) is such a gratifying and novel feeling, versus the six degrees of separation we normally have with the things we do.

Why cook food when you can buy pre-packaged TV dinners? Why have real friends when you can have celebrities you can use to fill in your Dunbar number? Why purchase stocks and bonds when you can invest in exotic mortgage-backed securities, which somehow are related to a house that no one really owns? It’s almost enough to make you wanna go all Salinger and call everyone a big fat phony.

(Schell then goes on to talk about achievement points, and how companies in the future will turn everything into a goddamn slot machine for fake money.)

– Alex

We were talking about Wizard of Oz game, and we though wouldn’t it be cool if they decided to make video games of other classics, such as Oliver Twist?  My goodness they are running out of ideas…

Danny

This burger sure beats eating at OWL’s (Korean restaurant).  I ate at 3 separate locations of this stupid chain and had STEEL WOOL in my pork bone soup every time.  For those that don’t know what steel wool is click here.  Serves me right looking at my food too carefully.

Danny

This comic accurately reflects my attitude towards graveyards. Huge waste of space. If you want to leave a trace of your presence on the world after your death, upload a pornographic torrent with your picture embedded in it. It’ll be on the internet forever.

Also, the title is sort of misleading; a tombstone is actually a bad birthday present. It makes people think that you want them dead. But, you might be thinking, “isn’t your birthday the time of year where you contemplate your ephemeral existence in the face of the swirling maelstrom of darkness that is eternity?”, to which I say, cheer up buddy.

– Alex

I’ve been reading the headrush blog lately, and have learnt a lot about how humans learn.  Basically, if the content isn’t meaningful to the user, you will have a hell of a time keeping focus.  Things like TIGERS are very high on the focus list. So when Winnie asked me for some advice on how to study her boring CGA material.  I told her to imagine the accounting book is a TIGER, who will eat you alive if you don’t finish reading it.  Unsurprisingly she has stopped asking me for studying tips.  WIN WIN!

Danny

I always get so excited when I watch the Olympics, especially when Canada (or China) has a chance at the medal.  I find my sell yelling at the TV, <ACTION> FASTER, HARDER DAMN YOU!  This response of mine maybe a side effect of being a curling Skip.

On another note, I thought the stage for the opening games was pretty bad ass.  Especially when they had the whales swimming through. I’d include a link, but the Olympic committee has removed every source from YouTube.

Danny

I hate Google Buzz, as I really don’t think we need another status update from everyone for a 3rd time (facebook/twitter). The name Buzz reminds me of this terrible movie http://www.beemovie.com/.

Danny