This post from Treehugger.com caught my eye – check out how Alapacas look like when they’re soaked to the bone and catching a gnarly wave!

Have a great weekend

While I was walking to the parking lot, I opened up this YouTube video that a good buddy of mine sent me (@davekrupp).

Totally hilarious.

It’s a tribute to today’s internet entrepreneurs who have changed the way we live and interact. I don’t know if it’s the guys bouncy dreadlocks or dance moves, but whatever it is, he makes this vid cool to watch. Well done pantlessknights.

YouTube – THE NEW DORK

I was catching up on blogging and emails in the CBD this morning and decided to hit ChinaTown around lunch time to scope out the Chinese New Year scene. To be honest, I was also looking to satisfy my chinese food craving. Instead of seeing miles and miles of food stalls, I was met with a rowdy crowd following the lion dancers in front of the Spicy Fish Restaurant.

Here are some of the moments I captured [Melbourne, Chinese New Year 2010]:

Buddhist recruiting

The Dragon arrives...

Prepping the firecrackers as the dragon takes a breather...my ears are still ringing...

Dragon Attack! Poor guy just wanted to be friends...

Rearing its ugly head. Help!?

The Chinese New Year Band. Play us something funky guys, those cymbals are killin' me!

Look at that poor man about to be devoured by the dragon >.<

Dragon at the door presenting lettuce leaves (He prefers meat)

What is this strange ear-piercing magic!

Tick Tick Boom! I got hit in the head by firecracker-schrapnel

Where's Wally?

Enhanced library greens

Looking up through the Melbourne Central cone.

One of my favorite blogging places. Come visit me sometime please

It’s slightly overdue but wanted to express my gratitude to LG Electronics Singapore especially Wayne Tang for being kind enough to send my LG 1 TerraByte External Hard Drive which I won for being team MVP when we were designing our own dream mobile at the LG Blogger Forum in Seoul.

Here’s the LG 1TB HDD before we were separated (I still have to review this btw):

I left on the top shelf of this bus.

Again thanks to Wayne and LG Electronics Singapore for shipping to Australia so fast!

This February 14, 2010 marks one of the most important days of the Chinese calendar and this of course is Chinese New Year!

This post especially goes out to all my chinese readers and friends.

2010 also signifies the Year of the Tiger – Rawwwr

Here’s some information on Chinese New Year from Wikipedia:

…sometimes called the “Lunar New Year” by English speakers. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu).

In countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Australia Post, Canada Post, and the US Postal Service issue New Year’s themed stamps.

Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of Huangdi. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year 2009 “Chinese Year” 4707, 4706, or 4646.^[2]

Here is the second last post on my trip to Seoul, Korea courtesy of LG Electronics.

LG Blogger Forum Day 3 Schedule
On this day, we were shepherded into the LG GW620 bus, bound for LG Offices in Seoul.

Our schedule for the day included:

• discussing LG’s first Android phone
• designing our own LG dream device
• Q&A time with LG tech heads
• cultural show in the city (Nanta)
• some good ol’ fashion Korean BBQ for dinner
• then late night shopping.

Yes all of the above in one day. Amazingly, some of the guys went out for Karaoke afterwards too. Not me. I hit the sack to catch up on some much needed rest – maybe I’m just getting old…

If you haven’t had the chance to read the others you can find them here:

- Seoul LG Blogger Forum – Day 1
- Seoul LG Blogger Forum – Day 2 – N Seoul Tower
- Seoul LG Blogger Forum – Day 2 – Amazing Race

Singaporean Bloggers ready for a big day at LG Offices

Bottom perspective of one of the LG Office Buildings

This is Mr.Chang Moon who was the one who made sure we felt welcome in Seoul and to the LG company. Superb work sir!

Would be grateful if someone could translate this for me. As far as I know it's the mini-graveyard of the LG guinea pig mascot...

Had to include this girlie girlie pic amongst all the tech / serious shots. Soooo purple!

Yes yes, we had our own LG GW620 Bus to make sure all onlookers knew were here in Seoul for some serious business! Eat your heart out Partridge Family!

Never underestimate Wooly-capped Canadian photography bloggers...

Yannick who is a tech blogger from France - Bonjour Monsieur!

The United Nations Conference Room at LG - not the real name but you get my drift...

Invading LG R&D Campus section at LG Headquarters

Commencing the LG GW620 Discussion Forum where we would give our feedback on LG's first Android phone. I was impressed at how open LG was to our feedback - signs of a company that will succeed.

Beatrice, capturing the moment on her Canon

This was supposed to be the Confidentiality Agreement that we were ALL supposed to sign. It was obvious that some didn't with secret LG news hitting the web later that afternoon. Pretty poor form considering the hospitality that LG gave all of us.

These little screens were really useful considering that I left my glasses in the hotel room.

I like how these Starbucks Thermoses were strategically stationed outside the meeting rooms. We were all very grateful for their presence

Here's Mr.Chang Moon giving us an overview of what to expect for the day.

A LG Product Manager gives us a matrix to consider when creating a new device. Reminds me of university.

I love how the Korean's think. Every meeting room should have these condiments readily available

Thinking of what to put on the blank piece of paper set before us...once we got going though there was no stopping us!

See what I mean.

Another group decided to put their post-its on the glass wall! Showoffs...

Voila! This is our device. We named it "King Kong" because it was big, powerful, was banana-shaped and could kick T-Rex's ass.

Sun glistening off the LG Building - good omen?

Lush green fake bamboo trees line the outside LG meeting rooms - the analogy of entering a jungle with wild animals applies many times in my meetings...

Danijel, a prominent tech blogger from the Netherlands, gives us his input.

Here's Karin from Sweden who did the funniest and most engaging presentation of the day. Her team's device incorporated a social-physical-touch concept which meant that the power of devices increased when they touched eachother. Interesting...

Nick from Gizmodo.com.au asking the final question at the LG discussion

Once the workshops were all done we headed into town for some R&R. If you're ever in Seoul you must see NANTA! It's a traditional Korean live show. Awesome beats, dancing and all-round entertainment.

This show is spectacular! They also get the audience involved which makes it doubly fun.

Outside the theatre where Nanta is being shown.

I had some very cool people on my table...

This was the winning team for the day. They all received some LG goodies.

I got an LG 1 Terrabyte Hard Drive!!

Here's the Aussie LG Blogger Team - Me, Tim Scanlon from Gizmag.com and Nick from Gizmodo.com.au.

Then LG give us all a largish LG Photo Frame!

Singing the Russian National anthem!

After dinner we head out to the Dongdaemun Market area for some late night shopping.

Place where guy tried to sell me kid's Panda cap for 50,000 Won. Inside the shopping centre it sold for 10,000 Won. Beware if you don't look like a local!

Tarot Reading place that I didn't go into because I don't believe in it and always seek future advice from a higher authority.

More buildings around the Dongdaemun Market area.

Back at the hotel after a long long day and we're greeted by the weather board telling us it's going to be another chilly one the following day.

After getting some decent rest, it was time to start touring the beautiful city of Seoul. (In case you missed Day 1, click here)

Adjusting my sleepy eyes to snow flakes carelessly floating past my window was captivating given I haven’t seen snow for 10 years or so and that I had come from Melbourne which was in the middle of summer.

Isn’t modern travel amazing?

Our schedule for Day 2 of the Seoul LG Blogger Forum included (bold items are covered in this post) :

• City Bus Tour
• N Seoul Tower
• Ginseng Chicken Lunch at Korea Samgaetang Restaurant
• Amazing Race (will be covered later)
• Dinner at Samchunggak
• Welcome Part at Gangnam Night Club

Here are my favorite snaps from the day : -

Seoul from room 1801 at the Ibis Hotel

It's snowing!

Australia represent! Nick (Gizmodo.com.au), Me (MrGadget.com.au), Tim (Gizmag.com)

We're on the LG GW620 Bus! Thank goodness the heater was working

Here's a pic of me with Canadian-Filipino Photography Blogger @photojunkie This guy is so good he won a brand new car through his blog!

French Tech Bloggers happy-snapping in the cold

N Seoul Tower rising up from the trees

An icy cool shot

Swedish tech bloggers discussing how cool the Aussie bloggers are

A comparison of the world's tallest towers. N Seoul Tower seems to be eclipsed by all bar one.

I can see you from this tower!

Eagle view from N Seoul Tower

Of course I had to try the N Seoul Tower coin making gadget!

Toilet with a view - thanks to Nick from Gizmodo.com.au for being so kind to take this...

Flying wired man - seems very angelic / heavenly

Locks of love. People in relationships traditionally declare their undying love by using a lock on this fence.

Just in case...

Fence perspective.

Famous Korean Chicken Ginseng Soup - Samgaetang! Perfect for a chilly day. Kelly from LG Australia telling what to do and what not to do

Voila! Samgaetang (Chicken Ginseng Soup)

Frank from LG Canada making a toast. The trip wouldn't have been the same with this bigger-than-life character.

Link for Seoul LG Blogger Forum, Day 1

Happy New Year to you! Thanks for supporting our website through subscribing to our RSS feed, commenting on our posts, sharing with your friends and of course buying our gadgets

We wish you all the best in 2010 and hope we can make this website even better.

Today I will be spending most of it just reflecting on what I did in 2009 and how I can improve it in 2010. I’ll be laying out goals for all the major areas in my life so I have something to shoot for rather then wander around aimlessly in 2010 with nothing to show for at the end of it.

What is a Goal?

A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.

A desire or an intention becomes a goal if and only if[citation needed] one activates an action for achieving it (see goal-oriented).

It is roughly similar to purpose or aim, the anticipated result which guides action, or an end, which is an object, either a physical object or an abstract object, that has intrinsic value.

Ref: Wikipedia.com

Goal Setting Websites To Help You

To help myself and hopefully you guys, here are some websites dedicated to helping you create, monitor and achieve your goals:

• JoelsGoals.com : Free Online Goal Tracker
• Goal-Setting-Guide.com : Tips and Advice on Goal Setting
• Goalscape.com (14 days free trial)

At the end of the day, if you’re not used to goal setting at all, start really simply and just have one or two realistic goals for the year.

Sharing Some Of The Mr.Gadget Website Goals

Some goals that I have for this websites are:

• Break into top 25,000 Alexa Websites Ranking
• Attend more cool gadget events like the LG International Blogger Forum later this month!
• Write more helpful posts like How-tos
• Launch new template by June 2009
• Do more unboxing videos on our YouTube Channel
• Continue to interact with all our readers as much as possible
• Have a Gadget Giveaway at least once a month

So there. It’s public and in writing. Remind me to see how I went with these later this year!

Here are some personal goals that I can share:

• Spend more time with my two daughters and take them to Disneyland (LA)
• Commence (mid year intake) MBA at Melbourne Business School (part-time)
• Learn to say “No” more

I have more but they’re personal and relate to specific things and people in my life.

I’d love to hear any of your goals that you have.

Again, have a blessed and prosperous New Year – go go 2010!

Christmas is almost over in Australia, but just before it passes for another year, here’s a humorous YouTube clip of Santa being interrogated by Jack Bauer (from one of my favorite TV series, 24).

Poor Santa looks like he’s had a tough night of deliveries and questioning…

Merry Christmas guys

Been a bit jet-lagged from my recent Japanese trip, hence the lack of blog posts over the last couple of days. Apologies.

I hope you’ve done all your shopping and now ready to enjoy all that Christmas is – a time of spending good times with family, friends and remembering God’s gift to the world

Isaiah 9:6 - Bible
⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Thanks for all your support of the blog and our webstore. We would not have experienced much success without you.

We wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here’s another one of my favorite Christmas songs to get you into a festive mood: