2009 LG Canadian Texting Championships – Vancouver Media Challenge

Yesterday, I headed out to Richmond Center Mall with our favourite background extra, Leo Chiang for the Vancouver stop of the LG Canadian Texting Championships. This special event was put on for local media and a prize of $1000 was put up for grabs. The winner would get to donate it to a charity of their choice. Also competing was John Chow, Buzz Bishop from Virgin 953 and April Smith from Aha Media. Check out the video below for a taste of the excitement:

Our friend Buzz Bishop returned to win this year’s event with a time of 13:454. The fastest time in Canada was 5:67 so it’s like being the best of the worst. But then again, a win is a win and LG owes Buzz a 10 second car…or that check for $1000 to his charity which is Team Diabetes. Here are the official results from the Vancouver Stop…

As Leo said, he also came to challenge for a spot in the Kam Do Mixed Grill Challenge Hall of Fame. It is true, I am the only one of the Dot Com Pho Crew that has survived and conquered this meal not only once, but twice. Stay tuned for the video to find out whether or not Leo lives or dies.

OMG! It’s the “Will It Blend?” Guy!

Tom Dickson of Blendtec has made quite the name for himself and for his company by blending all sorts of things. From iPhones to Chuck Norris, there doesn’t seem to be anything left for him to throw into these crazy powerful and super loud blenders. I met up with Tom at the Lunch@Pieros press event across the street from the LVCC during CES 2009 to ask him a couple questions about blending stuff…

Initially I was kind of star struck but after talking to him for a little bit, it’s pretty clear that he’s a big gadget geek like the rest of us and really loves what he does. I mentioned to him how Kelly has broken my blenders with her weird protein shakes. Of course, I had to tell him the reason why she drinks these blender wrecking concoctions.

After hearing that Kelly can easily throw my 80 kg frame over her head and that she was on track to compete at the 2012 Olympics for Olympic Weightlifting for Canada, Tom immediately hooked us up with a Blendtec Blender which should be arriving soon. A powerful little female Olympic Weightlifter vs the world’s most powerful blender. Now there’s something that blends well together. I can’t wait to have this thing in the house!

Some of the things he blended at this event included…

A Tape Measure which put up a really good fight…

A few cellphones including the legendary Nokia 5190 which went down without much complaining…

Michael Kwan tried to blend too, but we all know that he doesn’t do so well with things with motors. He seemed to take the task very seriously though. Why so serious Michael? More pictures after the jump.

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Dot Com Pho – The Sort of HD’ish Edition

The Dot Com Pho Crew has made treks to many different Pho restaurants in the lower mainland of BC. Well, at least most of us have. We’ve been to the happiest Pho Restaurant to the angriest Pho restaurant to the fakest Pho restaurant.

This past weekend, John Chow, Leo Chiang (back from banging chicks on set), and Ed Lau (after he woke up), joined Rory Hansen and Ray (who shall remain last-nameless) for a bowl of Pho. Also joining us this week were Dot Com Pho n00bs Parm and Moneca. we headed to a Pho restaurant that none of us had ever been to. Pho Trang An is one of the newer Pho establishments to pop up on the busy Pho Insterstate of Kingsway. With dozens of restaurants in the same block, let’s see how it stacks up…

The verdict on Pho Trang An? Well, it’s definitely expensive. At $7.25 for a small bowl (a VERY small bowl), there’s definitely a price to pay for going to the cleanest Pho restaurant in the lower mainland. Also, we didn’t particularly find the broth to be the best. Despite a weak hint of “star anise”, a load of MSG, and way too much ginger, the only saving grace was that it was hot. The noodles were done right though and the meat was indeed very fresh (sliced per bowl).

If Pho Trang An wants to survive, they are going to have to lower those prices and work on the speed of the service. They were pretty slow and forgot our orders during our visit.

This week’s Dot Com Pho was filmed using the new FLIP Mino HD. Instead of full HD, it was merely HD look. Stay tuned for a review at Futurelooks coming up shortly.

So who’s Pho chops do we bust next week?