How to Eat With Chopsticks

Chopsticks. A part of Chinese culture that the folks in the Far East are just not willing to let go. Seinfeld hit it on the head, though. You gotta respect the Chinese. They’re hanging in there with the sticks. They saw the fork — they’re hanging in there with the sticks.

I’ve always despised the posh crowd who eat all year long with a fork — except of course for the time when they visit P.F. Chang’s. Now all of a sudden they’re connoisseurs of fine dining and feel the need to eat with the fancy wood and make the rest of us feel like we’re not getting the full experience. Well, for those folks that are up to the challenge, your prayers have been answered. The folks over at Wiki How have posted an article where they claim to be able to teach you the proper way to eat with chopsticks.

This post may help some folks. But I’m hanging in there with the fork. Unless you’re of Asian decent, chances are you’ll come across as one of those posh yuppie kids who are so cool they can’t even stand themselves. The type of soho yuppie who’s too cool to even drink Starbucks anymore. “Everyone knows that Seattle’s Best has lattes to die for.” Tree-huggin’, messenger bag wearin yuppies kill me.

Post courtesy of WikiHow.com.

Useful Application of Technology Item for the Day: Light-Up Caller ID

“Aw what do you need all those gadgets for?” “All this technology doesn’t add up to a hill of beans!” Well, for all those who doubt tech and its usefulness, here’s an application of technology that even my mother can’t question. A caller-ID box that illuminates different colors based on the calling number. Looks like you can assign 100 different numbers in one of four colors (red, blue, purple and green). It holds 30 numbers in the missed call queue. And looking at the photos, it’s quite stylish. Looks like an attractive addition to almost any bedroom or family room.

Brookstone is carrying the box for $50. Brookstone. …I do love gadgets — this is true. But let me just say I’m not in love with Brookstone. They seem to put an 80% markup on every item in the store. This one is no different. The box probably will cost $30 once it reaches a different production company. Even worse is the Sharper Image. They may have some great gift ideas, but the prices are just ridiculous. And without the quality of Brookstone. Totally not related to the story, but just had to say that.

The story is courtesy of those incredible kids at Gizmodo.

The item can be found over on Brookstone.com.

E3 Possibly On the Way Out? Is It Such a Bad Thing?

Since this past Sunday, the ‘Net has been buzzing with rumors of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) possibly being cancelled. Thankfully the rumors changed from “cancelled” to “downsized”. Initially I was all up in arms over the announcement. But then I thought to myself, “you’ve never been to one of these things — why do you care?” I always had plans to someday make my way to E3 to see all of the new games planned for the holiday season. Unfortunately it’s an industry exclusive event, so unless I was able to get one of my friends who works for Sony to get me in, the closest I’d get would be that picture on the left. However, every year I’d watch footage on TV and it just seemed like the place to be. Hands-on demos of upcoming games for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, etc. I’d probably suffer from sensory overload.

But after considering the possibility of a world without E3, I wonder if it would be such a horrible thing. For one, game companies are still going to ramp up their schedules for product releases in the 4th quarter. Perhaps instead of a three-day event with lots of expensive booths and lights instead we get well spaced-out press releases from May until October? Certainly all of the gaming press is loving the prospect of not having to carry their entire operation to the expo for a few days of mindless running from booth to booth — only to look back on all of the lower profile games that they didn’t get to cover. I listened to several podcasts and read post-E3 coverage on gaming sites and the press was pretty adamant about the fact that they couldn’t properly cover games because of average joes (like me) trying to get their hands on the games.

I can’t help feeling a bit saddened at the prospect of an E3-less May. It was something to look forward to. It was the one time when you could pretty much count on hearing whether your favorite companies had plans for sequels of your favorite games. Or, my favorite — looking through the 3d Realms press releases to see if Duke Nukem Forever was on the list. Not having E3 might have negative implications. For one, if you were a gaming company and you’re E3 offering was pretty lackluster or, even worse, if you didn’t have that many game releases at all, usually that in itself, conveys a message to gamers. It’s a time for the gaming press and gamers all around to invite their favorite game companies to the table and ask, “so, what you been up to for the past year?” It was a time when getting an answer was as telling as not getting an answer.

Desktop Claw Candy Machine

Oh boy….this is one of those items that makes me wish I was a kid again.  But even that might not stop me from putting this on the Christmas list!  This replica of the claw machines that you see at the movies, in restaurant waiting areas and all other places not work!  It has three joysticks (forward/back, left/right, up/down) and comes with coins (read: slugs) to make it work.  On the downside, the ad says that it “plays fairground music”.  Ugh.  This sounds as if it can become an annoyance.  Also, you have to supply the candy.  And at 17 pounds (about $33 in U.S. dollars) this isn’t a bad deal, but maybe not quite appealing enough to spend the cash.  Also since the makers appear to be British, you’ll be paying a pretty penny to have it shipped here.

Story courtesy of the kids over at Gizmodo.

Product available for sale at  www.iwantoneofthose.com