3DS Streetpassers!

Hi Streetpassers! If you reached this page through my Streetpass link then my evil plan worked. Nintendo doesn't seem to like their users to pass any information of use to one another, but I if you use the same trick I did and use Bitly.com I love my 3DS, maybe one of the best things I bought for myself ever. I'm eagerly awaiting Kid Icarus Uprising's release on March 23rd. If you came here through my 3DS you're awesome!

Mardi Gras

Awesome day of drinking and partying in St Louis today! This was my first Mardi Gras experience and I had so much fun!

Stepping It Up

Dear Blog Readers, I have neglected you, and I shall neglect you no more. I realize that I have been inconsistent with my blogging, I want to state that from here on out I will contribute fresh content to you. That being said there have been a few things I have blogged about before that I will keep an ongoing interest in blogging about. Topics that you can expect to see more blog posts about new products and trends that I think are going places. Since I started being more interested in Muay Thai I have seen the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and Ultimate Fighting explode, which really heralds Muay Thai as being a key striking style. I've always been interested in computers and the world of gaming; this is a huge area of and for growth in the current market. Innovators like Razer's Min-Liang Tan have realized the opportunities in competitive gaming for market growth and have developed new products to give gamers an "edge". Riot Gaming has become one of my favorite companies to watch, mostly because their business model is incredibly unique for a free to play game, this game being League of Legends. I have been lucky enough to have been playing this game since it's beta stage and my love for the game has only grown with its popularity. I wrote a little bit about a favorite game of mine by the name of Borderlands, which has had enormous success as well as numerous DLC (downloadable content) packs since release, each of which upping the difficulty of this great game. I was happy to see that Borderlands 2 is currently in development, not just as a DLC, but as a completely new game complete with new characters and with further improved artificially intelligent foes. A new game that I haven't blogged about yet which I'm excited about writing about is Star Wars The Old Republic. This game is the WoW killer that gamers have been hoping for, an MMORPG (Massive Multi Player Online Role Playing Game) that is beautiful in every aspect, and yes, I was able to get in during the beta stage. Another F2P (Free-to-Play) game that I'm pretty excited about is the FPS (First Person Shooter) Blacklight Retribution which my friend DJ Hobo from Nordrassil Radio got me a beta key to. This game is intense, offers a hard-core multiplayer experience, and has some great thumping dubstep music as well as a futuristic environment which is well designed for balanced gameplay. So, all in all, I'm really excited about what I'm going to be bringing to this blog, and I hope you are too!

Razer Blade Unveiled

After a media blitz that started 5 days ago with a dramatic newspaper "manifesto" by Razer as well as multiple cryptic tweets, the Blade has been unveiled. What most people expected was the release of the SwitchBlade" which is sure to follow, this move by Razer takes one of the worlds' most gamer recognized and respected peripheral companies and puts them square into the computer market. Teamed with Intel, and using the i7 processor, Razer's first laptop offering is a serious one. It's exciting to see what price-point they will have this quality machine at, some are saying that it will retail at approximately $2700.

Thai Kickboxing

It's 5:30 in the morning and I've been up for the last half hour listening to this rooster outside of my window. I want to go outside, chop him up, and add him to my pad thai, but I digest. Yesterday I did my first Thai Kick-Boxing (Muay Thai) lesson within Thailand. I was at Chang (Elephant) Gym in Kata Beach Phuket. Truly an experience for a westerner, I stuck out like a sore thumb, yet everyone at the gym was encouraging and eager to get a chance to train me. When I arrived at 4 o'clock I sat down and joined 6 other boxers in doing stretches. To do Muay Thai you have to be very limber and stretch your leg, back, arms, (hell, everything man) at very least twice a day. I was definitely the least flexible of the bunch, and there were even two other falangs (white folks) there too. We stretched then went for a run across the beach. While running I talked to a really cool and very heavily tattooed Aussie about Muay Thai. He said "I'm 36, here on holiday, if I was 10 years younger, I would be training for fights, but I just like to do this for myself". That being said, I am exactly 10 years younger. What would this mean for me and what I should aspire to do with this sport? Having already run about 6K that day I was lagging as the group pulled ahead of me into the gym. I walked in, pacing myself, knowing that if I over-exerted myself I could get heat-stroke, dehydrated, and ruin my lesson. I took my shoes off and joined the rest of the men who were bouncing on some large tires which had been laid flat to practice footwork. The sweat was literally pouring off of me and as I moved my feet in boxing footwork which I had some previous experience in I started to feel a rawness developing in my left toe. I did the exercise for 5 more minutes and then we were told to take a 2 minute break for water. I used this time to tape up my toe, which was time well spent, because the lesson had not even truly begun.

Goodbye Kata/Karon, Hello Rawei

We have moved to a secret abode in Rawei which a relative has been very kind to allow us to stay. I'd give more details, but don't really feel like the whole internet should be privy to every bit of information on my whereabouts all the time. I will say, none of it would be possible without the kindness and generosity of David Sr. As always, I find it easier to write in the past tense, meaning, I can never seem to write well about a place while I'm actually there, I am too busy exploring. Last night Sina and I met a really fun couple on their honeymoon who hailed from Dubai, but were originally both from South Africa. Their English was perfect, so I thought nothing unusual about their speech except for a slight accent which sounds maybe Australian to the typical American, then while we're sitting having a beer (one of many last night, they turn to one another and speak a language I had never heard before - Afrikaans. So I asked more about it and learned something new; it's a language related to Dutch - I had no idea. We had such a good time with them, and today they invited us to their hotel, which made for a fun day of us swimming and playing at a private beach. It is nice to meet a cool couple while traveling. Following soon are some pictures from the last 24 hours of the good times we all had. Rassi and Adelle, we hope our paths cross again soon! Cheers!

How to Work Out While Travelling - Ask a Jailbird!

The best thing I ever learned about fitness and training is that the best methods for developing strength and true power in your body take NO equipment. You don't need to hang out in a gym to get a good work out. Read Convict Conditioning, do wall-sits, bridges, push-ups, pull-ups, isometric exercises. One of the strongest men I know, and the most intimidating, is an ex-Hell's Angel who taught me that you don't need to use fancy equipment, just get your hands dirty, set some goals for yourself, and always eat your veggies!