At this week’s Dot Com Pho After Hours we welcome some familiar faces back including John Chow who is back from answering war crimes against Pandas in China, and Michael Kwan, who is happy to not be freezing his ass off in Edmonton. We get a look at the Kindle 2 for our gadget segment, we discuss the Segway and why Michael should not ride one (but he could ride the new GM PUMA).

We also engage in banter with Ed Lau about why he thinks the Subaru STI sounds like a car the Swedish Chef built?! Also uncovered is the Mystery of John Dory on Hells Kitchen and we recite many quotes from the Fast and Furious movie franchise and give away some posters. Enjoy!

If you’d like to win my last “Fast and Furious: New Models. Original Parts.” poster, just like the one Ed Lau and Michael Kwan got, make a comment in this post with YOUR favourite Fast and Furious quote from any of the movies in the franchise. I’ll randomly draw for it sometime next week.

Hopefully if this Interweb connection stays stable, I can continue blogging from the airport till my flight leaves. The conditions are still pretty bad right now and I know that a lot of planes have been diverted to Spokane due to the weather. The planes are just sitting on the tarmac, waiting to take off to SeaTac and some of the planes can’t land, so they are just circling the runway. The passengers are just sitting in the planes waiting. That’s gotta suck. 

Hopefully my flight is able to land (currently ON-TIME) and we can take off as soon as possible. In case I do end up becoming “Interweb Impaired”, I’d like to wish you all a Happy Holiday…in advance

Closer to home, it started raining lightly this morning as I was on my way out to drop Scooter off at the clinic for his 1000 KM check up. Scooter was a little nervous today but I assure you that he’ll be fine after the scooter doctors are done giving him his physical. I should be able to pick him up in a day or so. While there, he’ll also be getting a variator weight transplant to give him some more zip and have his restriction removed so that he’ll get some more top end speed so that stupid drivers don’t keep trying to pass us on the right on a single lane road.

After dropping off Scooter, I headed out to Delta to meet up with Tejpal Singh of 1234Pens for a real Dot Com Tandori at one of the finest East Indian Restaurants in the lower mainland. Stay tuned for the post later today. Although my trip out was pretty uneventful, the trip back proved quite a bit more hazardous…

Somewhere in New Westminster…

Right at the corner of 10th and McBride, on my way back from Delta, I saw two cars turned around in the wrong direction…

I can’t really tell what happened, but at least four cars were involved. Funny enough, all of the cars were white. Even more funny was that none of my people were involved in this incident. I was only able to snap a shot of the Dodge Pickup and the Honda Civic. Perhaps they consumed products laced with Melamine and lost concentration?

Somewhere in Coquitlam…

Once I got out of that little mess, I ended up seeing another accident in the middle of North Road near the Korean Mall. Although it wasn’t actually my people, some would say close enough. There were four cars stuck in the middle of the intersection with a little damage on each one. This area is notorious for indecisive drivers that can’t make up their mind which direction they are going. Also possible that Melamine was at fault as there is a large Korean SuperMarket in that plaza.

Further up North Road near the end that turns into St. Johns, I spotted this…

It looks like the driver of the Blue Dodge Pickup (another Dodge Pickup?) tried to change lanes into the SUV that is now pinned underneath a tree. However, it is possible that the SUV (looks like a Toyota 4-Runner) was trying to pass on the right when the Dodge clipped it and sent it into the ditch and then up the embankent into the tree. The lady in the cab of the Dodge Pickup was still in the car and crying. It didn’t look like there was any way the driver of the 4-Runner could get out. Scary stuff for sure.

With the change in the weather, make sure you pretend everyone is a moron and drive accordingly. Use your turn singles, cruise in the right, pass on the left (and make sure you get back in the right after you’re done instead of milling around idiots) and quit using that brake pedal like the kick drum in RockBand, screwing everyone behind you up. Stupid people, do us all a favour and stay home or take the bus. Stay safe everyone.

…but it would suck if you were stuck between old and wrinkly ones for the rest of your days…

At first, I thought it was a joke, but apparently, it ain’t no joke. If someone has actually ordered one of these, please let me know. It’s one one of those, it’s so funny, it can’t be real things that I have to have an answer to.

It was a Segway kind of day today as Michael Kwan, John Chow and I travelled out to Langley, BC Canada for a private test ride of the new Segway x2. The test ride was setup by Larry Runnalls of Segway BC, the sole distributor of the product line this side of Canada. Larry has setup quite the business renting and selling Segways to the movie industry as well as ambulance and police forces across the BC. We were very thankful that he took time out of his day to deal with a group of misfits like us.

The Segway x2, unlike the tamer i2, features large knobby tires that make it useful for both trail and turf. It comes in an adventure version with super knobbies, while a Turf and Golf version use a less environmentally impacting fat tire pattern. Compared to the original models, the new versions, both i2 and x2 use Lithium Ion batteries vs the old NiCads and have increased its performance to a range of 40KM’s per charge. The new Segways also carry a top speed of 20KM/h. The steering has also been greatly improved, using a yoke that tilts left and right versus the old twist turn system of the original Segways. This makes the turning more intuitive.

Unfortunately, this would be the last time you’ll see Michael Kwan smiling as there is a reason this is called the “PWN and FAIL” Edition. Check out the video…

Poor Michael. He’ll never live this or the “Spooning” thing down. Not only did he run over my FLIP Mino, but he ran over himself as well.

Fortunately, the FLIP Mino survived to tell the tale and to film another day. I was surprised that it didn’t crush under the pressure of Michael and the Segway x2 running over it. I guess Pure Video really did do their homework when creating this device as the metal ring protected both the lens and the body from harm with just a few scratches.

Overall, everyone had a lot of fun today and even though a Kwanye and a Flip Mino were harmed in the making of this video, at least both will live to ride again another day. I’m sure we’ll be sharing our war stories at this weekend’s Dot Com Pho.