Take Dot Com Pho Out of Richmond? Yes We Shall!

Two weeks ago, when we moved Dot Com Pho out of Richmond and brought it to Vancouver, we had no clue what we had started. We only wanted Pho to be more accessible to people by bringing it to a more central location in the lower mainland. As it would appear, we have somehow set in motion, the wheels of a Dot Com Pho Revolution.

This past weekend, we had another out of Richmond experience but came back to our Pho roots and tried a restaurant known as Pho Thai Hoa. This also marked the return of John Chow from his long hiatus at the boring Top Affiliate Challenge where he was kicked out for mischief. Based on the glowing posts from attendees like Michael Kwan, Leo Chiang, Tyler Ingram and myself, it would appear that Pho Thai Hoa is now our favourite Pho place. This was not only motivated by the far superior service and pho, but because of the central location to all Dot Com Pho attendees.

As we celebrated our potential new location, there were evil forces at work that would impede our march towards our liberation from Richmond. John Chow has tried to downplay the success of our move by posting a bitter response to our sweet victory. He continues to deny that Dot Com Pho has moved anywhere and has decreed that Dot Com Pho will still take place at Pho Lan this week, as he doesn’t want his five minute drive to Dot Com Pho interrupted. However, his whines will only grow more irritating and dissonant.

He says that we “peons” won’t be going anywhere and that we should pay him to be in his presence. Well I think the people have already spoken. Take Dot Com Pho out of Richmond? In the words of Cobra Commander, I say “Yes We Shall!”…

Although Pho Thai Hoa is an excellent location, we would still like to audition more places to see if we can make this regular gathering even more accessible. If you know of an excellent Pho establishment that can handle 10 - 20 rowdies every Saturday at around 12:30PM, that is easily accessible by transit, car and even scooter, please let me know either by posting a comment here or by twittering me.

I would also like to invite any restaurants or eateries that meet our criteria, and think that they can deal with us to contact me so that we can come check you out one of these Saturdays. All you have to do is put up with us for an afternoon, maybe give us some great food discounts (I’m Chinese. Have to ask.), and you might end up with a bunch of publicity from grateful local bloggers.

It’s time to “Give You Up” and “Let You Down” Richmond. Dot Com Pho in Vancouver? Yes we shall folks. Yes…we…shall!

Dot Com Pho - The Insult [Ed] Edition…

The move out of Richmond has been a great success, attracting people who might otherwise not come to Dot Com Pho at all. For example, even the elusive Jeff Kee came out this week and we’ve had interest from “The Buzz” himself to attend, thanks to the more convenient locations that we’ve started choosing. Hopefully he’ll be done building his deck in time for the next one. Richmond is a scary place to drive and there’s really no good reason to go there anymore when Dot Com Pho can be had in a much safer, and more convenient, location. Not to mention, nobody lives there anymore…except John Chow.

Last week, we took that first step by heading out to the Pink Pearl Restaurant for a Dot Com Dim Sum. This week, we go back to our roots by checking out one of Vancouver’s best Pho places, Pho Thai Hoa. In attendance this week was John Chow, back from his daily whining about Nebraska, Michael Kwan, Leo Chiang, Greg Morgan, Jeff Kee, Tyler Ingram, Ray, and Bonnie Sainsbury.

Highlights of this weeks’ episode include a look at the spread at Pho Thai Hoa, a generous ribbing of Ed Lau, and we even get to see one of the first MSI Wind’s in Canada. Oh, and something about John Chow doing another giveaway with Market Leverage. Enjoy the Video!

See you all next week for another exciting episode of Dot Com [fill in the blank]. We don’t know where we’ll be, but it won’t be in Richmond that’s for sure! Stay tuned to this blog for our SECRET LOCATION or just follow me on Twitter.

If Matt Dances then What Does Matt’s Girlfriend Do?

We all know that Ed Lau likes beautiful girls. But apparenlty, he likes dancing with dudes too. I’ve never seen Ed Lau so excited to dance with another guy. But apparently, that’s what floats his boat and his boat was floated when Matt Harding came to town. If you don’t know who Matt Harding is, he’s the white guy that dances funny all over the world in various excotic locales. Sponsored by Stride Gum, he travels the world seeking places to dance like a white guy dances.

Back at home, Matt seemed to have left someone behind. Someone that feels forgotten as he gets down around the world. That someone is Matt’s Girlfriend. So what has she been up to? Well, it looks like she’s been visiting exotic locales of her own…

I guess that’s where Matt learned how to get around the block. Women have needs too…and three…and four…and five…and six…

This Week’s Dot Com Pho Location Revealed!

It’s time to move Dot Com Pho out of Richmond. This week, we’re not only changing the geographical location, but we’re changing the venue. We’re going to be heading to the Pink Pearl Chinese Restaurant in Vancouver for some Dot Com Dim Sum.

We’ll be there at noon today and if you can make it, well, you’re going to have to direct Twitter Me to let me know so I can up our reservation count which is currently set at eight. Here are the location details…

View Larger Map

Since John Chow is making mischief at the Top Affiliate Challenge somewhere in Nebraska and Ed Lau is eating sushi in Japan, there is no reason for anyone to have to drag their asses out to Richmond this week. Besides, only those two live in Richmond so we might have to stage a coup and make them drive from now on. See you soon!

What’s Up Stephen? - Lazy Edition

I guess it’s been a few days since I’ve given you guys a real post. Where to begin…

Thanks For Entering My Contest!

I’d like to thank everyone that participated in my contest to win an iPod nano and of course everyone’s favourite cybernetic plant, Flip Flap. I sort of let that one drag out an extra day or so, so if you entered a day or two late, don’t worry, but yes, the contest is now totally close, no refunds. Unfortuately, there was no decisive winner because everyone was trying to be Swiss. Come on! You know John would offend you in a heart beat.

I didn’t expect a lot of people to enter, which is a blessing because now I don’t have to cut out a million names to draw out of the bucket, but I actually expected a few more than this. I mean, you didn’t really have to do anything to win, just watch a video or two and weigh in. Do I have to make it more difficult? Do I have to make you sign up for some affiliate program so you can make me money? Do I have to brand the iPod with some company’s name so you can never sell it again or give it away? Or was it as simple as, I made it too easy. Very strange indeed. I would love to hear what you guys think about this.

Stay tuned for the winners. I’ll probably draw them at Dot Com (Pho/Dim Sum) this weekend. Just FYI, we’re not going to Richmond. We’re going to move it by force so hopefully we’ll see more of you there. If the turn out is good, we’ll just leave John in Richmond. Stay tuned for location details later today. We haven’t decided where.

If you want to win more stuff, I see that Michael Kwan has been cleaning out his junk as well and he wants to give it to you. He’s got a box of it and you can win it. All you have to do is make fun of John Chow. Photoshop skills may be required, though I’m sure if you did it Perez Hilton style, you might get a good chuckle or two.

Canada Day…

Well, I hope you all are well recovered from Canada’s 141st Birthday. I didn’t do anything special. In fact, I was busy cleaning out my office. All these gadgets don’t put away themselves you know. However, I did go down to Tim Hortons for a couple of apple fritters and a thermos full of coffee. While there, I discovered that they would refill my whole thermos for the price of a large coffee. My thermos is at least TWO large coffees! Nice! I just hope it isn’t a being nice on Canada Day thing as I do intend to refill again!

How’s That Scooter Treating You?

I love how I filled my Subaru Impreza up for $71.16 on July 2nd when gas hit $1.52/litre after the new Carbon Tax. I actually let the tank run close to empty just to see how much of a shock at the pump I would get and shocked I was. I don’t think I’ve ever paid that much for a tank of gas. That’s just crazy! But what I love more is how I filled up my scooter on June 29th for $5.14 and put about 60 KM’s on it, and the needle hasn’t even moved. It’s also breaking in quite nicely, starting to get a bit quicker and more responsive with every trip. It’s actually quite surprising how much zip it actually has and I’m told it gets zippier after the 600 KM break in is done. You can be sure that I’ll be scootering a whole lot more as long as gas stays silly.

Oh, and I discovered that my coffee thermos along with lunch from Timmy’s and a couple of fritters all fit no problem under the storage compartment on my Scooter. Nice! I’m actually really looking forward to modding this thing up once it finishes the break in. I’ve already replaced the horrible stock grips and ordered a few things from BattleScooter. I’m sure I’ll have a post about that once I install my goodies.

It’s Damn Hot!

Although it is substantially cooler today, the last few days had been unbearable. It would get so hot, that my office would get up to 34C degrees and hover around 30C at night. Not to mention, the hot temperatures made product testing a nightmare because stuff would keep crashing if you pushed it too far. I went out and bought a 9000 BTU portable Air Conditioner. At full blast, it has managed to keep the temperature at a more reasonable 25C. For extra laziness, it comes with a remote control. Nice! That was pretty much the only time I drove my car besides getting gas because I wasn’t strapping that thing to my back and hopping on my scooter with it.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Do you have a post that tells me what you’ve been up to posted today? Leave me a link in the comments so I have bathroom reading. I cancelled my newspaper so you’ll be the next best thing