Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded inVince Chan's LiveJournal:

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I read from Steve Rubel, that theres one last great blog meme left in 2006. The blog meme spreading right now is called Which Superhero Are You? You should also know that Im a big comic geek, so I couldnt resist taking part in this one! Im pretty happy with my results because it might explain my self-deprecating personality. Wheres my Mary Jane Watson to save me?

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Christmas is upon us again, and Id like to take this opportunity to wish all my family and friends the merriment of the holiday season! Have yourself a Merry Christmas! Like Charlie Brown, I may not have the most things to offer, nor am I the cheeriest of people during this time. But like good ol Charlie Brown, my wishes for you and yours are the most sincere and true from the bottom of my heart.

To me, it doesnt matter what religion you practice or what your beliefs are. I hope everyone can agree that this is a time for peace on earth, and good will to all men (and women)!

Before the year ends, I hope to write a review of how 2006 has been for me! Thats when you might hear me complain, good grief!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I can strike one thing off my karma to-do list. On Wednesday night, I popped into the Irish Embassy where the Mesh Meetup was held and offered my personal apology to ProBlogger Darren Rowse. What most impressed me was Darrens approachable personality and humble demeanor. Ive read all about those qualities before, but to experience it is definitely a worthy learning experience to improve myself.

There were many others in attendance and I got to shoot the breeze with a few of the B5 Media founders, the Mesh conference founders, fellow bloggers (I met Tony Hung and will be reading his blogs more often!) and Web 2.0 enthusiasts. I fully intend to make the 2007 Mesh Conference to extend my involvement in the community. This little frog needs to climb out of its well once in a while and realize the sky is not just a small circle!

Well, I guess this would be the appropriate time to also announce that Ive become a four-figure blogger in 2006. Its really not that much and most of the pie were due to my investment blogging on Investorial.com, and my involvement with the financial blogging community such as AOL Blogging Stocks, InvestorGeeks, GuruWatch just to name a few. I past that milestone revenue mark a while back and slowly, steadily hope to improve on those results. One of my remarks to Darren was that its amazing sometimes where the roads we choose takes us. I began to blog because I became addicted to the writing process. Many bloggers I met at the meetup also echoed the same sentiments about being to vent, or release their thoughts and opinion on ideas and memes that are absorbed from all forms of media.

One of the things I hope to do is improve my research and writing process. My syndicated reading lists are overwhelming at times, and I need to strive for a happy medium between Yaro Staraks figure of 20 feeds and Darrens figure of 400 feeds. Its time for an RSS spring cleaning!

To all the really nice people Ive met at the meetup. Im sorry if I didnt get to mention everyone. But I hope to write more follow-up posts once I visit all your sites. And I will! My internet connection has been spotty lately. Im also looking for a solution to put my vast collection of RSS feeds online. I usually use Thunderbird as my offline syndicated reading application, but there are times where I have to do this work outside of the house because of the internet connection issue. Any suggestions for online / offline solution comparable to Thunderbird would be welcomed! Especially if its a solution that can work in sync with Thunderbird as I dont wish to re-read any feeds that have already been read.

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Earlier this month, I was approached by AOL Weblogsinc associate producer Sarah Gilbert to blog on BloggingStocks. BloggingStocks is a blog that obsessively follows the eight most followed stocks in the U.S. market. Now that the contracts are signed and my first post is up, I thought Id share the good news with you!

How Did It Happen?
I discovered AOLs new blogging venture early during its launch and wrote a post on my investment blog. Since Investorial (my investment editorial blog) was about investing / financial media information, I decided to keep tab on what I believe to be an emerging force for the industry. I answered a Craigslist ad in May a call for investment bloggers by AOL. I applied and got a second look, submitted a few sample posts but the experience did not bear any fruitful results.

I kept reading BloggingStocks articles and being my very opinionated self, I wasnt agreeing with how that they were delivering investment information. In particular, I had issues with one of their bloggers Sheldon Liber. But while I was giving my harsh constructive criticisms through the many comments on his posts, Sheldon contacted me numerous times for rebuttals. I stood by my assertions everytime but made sure I backed them up further. From those interactions, I knew that Sheldon is a really intelligent person and may have chosen his own way to express the information.

In retrospect, I believe Sheldon had a lot to do with my inclusion into the BloggingStocks roster! I am currently in the same team with him. And his writings have steadily improved while gaining popularity since our paths crossed. So I want to publicly thank Sheldon and Sarah for giving me a voice, and an opportunity to interact with fellow investors and blog readers out there!

What Am I Hoping To Achieve?
This development means to me, a validation of my passion to blog about investing and finance. I hope to continue evolving as a writer since I have no formal training, and also to keep blogging with integrity. Its very easy to become hypocritical when I blog about the good, the bad, and the ugly in investment media at Investorial if I dont follow my own standards when blogging at AOL.

Im currently developing my craft in this niche through a trinity of blogs. I dissect media and news at Investorial. Im a proud member of InvestorGeeks and focus more on technical and investing principles there. Now, I get the opportunity to blog specifically about stocks with a well-known blog network in Weblogs Inc.

I will still actively comment on BloggingStocks. You wont see me shying away from my opinions either. Thats how I started, and theres no reason for me to act differently now that Im also writing for them. Though Im now paid for my writing, I refuse to churn out quantities of material to pad my bottom line if those material are rushed and not of quality. Blogging about investments is a passion first and a part-time income second. My income on Investorial has also steadily risen over the last year of blogging and my first anniversary for that blog is coming up soon. (Watch for the anniversary post!)

What started out as a passion, has turned into a good opportunity for me. Blogging can potentially get you an income. But is that really what matters? Blogging can be educational, social and cathartic. Blogging can help you make new friends, new contacts. Blogging can open doors. And so can commenting! Its all about the community!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Wow, Ive gone two months without a post on this blog. My last one was dated May 29th, 2006. Lots of things have been happening so this is a catch-up post. Hopefully Ill build up a new rhythm to incorporate into the new routine in my life, that allows for more frequent writing!

Ive added a few new photo albums so be sure to check them out. Most of them were from my vacation back home (Timmins, Ontario) during the first week of July. Imagine when you meet your parents after a while and the first thing they say to you, is Son, youve grown fat!. How would that make you feel?

Of course it doesnt feel good, but its definitely the wake-up call that I needed. I tried to deny it, But its only been 6 months since you last saw me!. The reply was simple and brutal, Yeah, but 6 months ago, you werent fat!

Its true! I hate to admit it but my tiny 5 foot 6 inches frame loves gravity to the tune of 178 pounds! I was self-conscious through-out my entire vacation and made sure that the first thing I did when I got back was to weigh myself! Ive taken steps and set a goal to get back down to 155 pounds by the end of this year. Thats why Ive signed up a membership with a near-by YMCA and making regular visits (more important than the sign-up)! Thats why I havent had the time to blog as much as I used to. Update: Im hovering around 170 pounds as of this writing

Besides that, weekends were spent at different BBQs. Though it only meant that I had to be more diligent in working that food off! Michael and Allison also came down one weekend and got me to attend a WuShu tournament organized by an old friend of my father, Sunny Tang. It was the Pan-American Wushu tournament. Michaels company, XS energy drinks, was a major sponsor of the event. I had lots of fun sitting at the booth, catching up with Mike and helping out.

If you want to know more about XS energy drinks, all I have to say is that it tasted really delicious. Heres the kicker NO SUGAR, and NO CALORIES! Not too many energy drinks can claim that! Michaels the man to contact if you are in the Eastern half of Canada and want to know more about this company. You can visit the company webpage at www.xstraenergy.com using the following:

Username: northbay
Password: sports

Be sure to tell Michael that you heard about XS from me, hell be sure to hook you up! Disclosure: Im not affiliated with XS, I just think the energy drink is great!

Finally, Ive been hobbled by severe back-pains during the last few days. Must be working out too hard! Ill have to be more careful. Thats it! Youve been caught up with whats been happening! Stay tuned for more things to come!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I received the invitation from Dennis a month ago but was still fashionably late when the Saturday came around. It must be in my asian genes! The group was already drinking, eating Marys delicious appetiziers and chatting away when I showed up, but thankfully I wasnt the last person!

The weather was simply magnificent. I wished all the summer days could have been like that - warm and bright with a gentle breeze. The food came and more were on the grill, and everybody was digging in to their hearts content. I bet even retirement is not this good everyday.

The Main Event
Finally, we got down to the purpose of our gathering. Everybody had been trash talking and it was time to show your skills! Sheila had her poker hardcard (written on the back of a chewing gum package), and everybody was ready to ante up and start the poker tournament.

6 of us played 2 freeze-out sessions that night with Dan winning the first tournament. I dominated the second tournament and won that round. I was the first to bust out in the first round when I tried to catch Richards bluff. To my dismay, he showed 2 pairs and I didnt catch my semi-bluff straight-draw. But redemption was mine in the second session when I knocked out Richard by catching my open-ended straight on the river. The poker gods were smiling on me.

The Hand Of The Night
Since I busted out early, I dealt all the remaining hands of the first tournament. The bad-beat of the night had to be Richard vs. Sheila. Sheila covered Richard and was in command at the flop. Richard was all-in with Ace,10 vs. Sheilas trip-kings. Richard needed a runner-runner QJ to win. The Queen of hearts came on the turn and everybody waited in anticipation. I forgot to burn the top card and pulled out a 4 of hearts.

So I put the 4 of hearts aside and the next card was a Jack of diamonds. What a suck-out! Richard completed his straight and stayed alive. The atmosphere was charged with excitement and everybody was having a good time.

Reflection
Ive put up the photo album for you to enjoy. Im just glad that I could back up my trash talking by winning the second tournament in dominating fashion being the big stack bully the entire night. I had no doubt that Dan could do well with his experience, but its been a while since I played poker. Im just blessed with having wonderful friends who know my way of having fun eat, drink and play!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 2078122

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

We spent a lovely afternoon yesterday at Mirjanas downtown condo. Mirjana and Svetlana has a really nice place that was right beside the Rogers Centre. Ive put up the new photo album so you can see all the fun we had that afternoon!

There were lots of food, fabulous desserts, turkish coffee, and of course many laughs througout the day! It was a great day to just relax and enjoy with friends. Thanks for organizing this, Mirjana! We have to do this again soon!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I must say that Im shocked at the way things have developed in the last 2 weeks. First, Blue Security gets heavily attacked by a heavyweight Russian spammer. Then, it defiantly restarted operation until now.

BlueSecurity.com is now documenting its last days on its home page. Ive re-posted their surrender here for you.

When we founded Blue Security in 2004, we believed that if we automated a way for users to rise up and exercise their rights under the CAN-SPAM Act, we could reduce the amount of spam on the Internet.

Over the past few months we were able to leverage the power of the Blue Community and convince top spammers responsible for sending over 25% of the worlds spam to comply with our users opt-out list. We were making real progress in eliminating spam from the lives of our users.

However, several leading spammers viewed this change as a strategic threat to their spam business. The week before last, these spammers launched a series of attacks against us, taking down hundreds of thousands of other websites via a massive Denial-of-Service attack and causing damage to ISPs, website owners and Internet users worldwide. They also began a relentless campaign of email intimidation against many members of the Blue Community.

After recovering from the attack, we determined that once we reactivated the Blue Community, spammers would resume their attacks. We cannot take the responsibility for an ever-escalating cyber war through our continued operations.

As we cannot build the Blue Security business on the foundation we originally envisioned, we are discontinuing all of our anti-spam activities on your behalf and are exploring other, non spam-related avenues for our technological developments. As much as it saddens us, we believe this is the responsible thing to do.

You need not do anything as a result of this change. We will continue to protect your names and addresses and honor all privacy commitments we made to you.

We have concluded we should not take Blue Security to the full deployment stage we originally planned to achieve, but we are proud of what we have accomplished thus far as a young startup company.

We are extremely proud to have had the chance to work with such a devoted and dedicated community: thank you for the vote of confidence you gave us over the past few months as well as the particularly vocal support you have shown over the last two weeks.

We will be innovating and building our technology in new, other directions and will continue to give back to you, our Community.

Thank you for your support,

The Blue Security Team.

Has the Blue Security homepage been hacked? If not, then it may explain why my BlueFrog software has not been able to connect the past few days. When did they offically give up? Im truly dissappointed that a good idea did not gain more traction. I want to add that I did not condone the methods that they employed to combat the spammers DOS attacks. Every war, even those on the internet, must have its casaulties and unfortunately, email users will still have to put up with spammers. Thats where I dont like the message to end up being.

Update: Wired News seems to be the first of the major internet publications to write about this story too. They broke the news 4 hours before I made my surprised visit to Blue Security.

Update 2: As far as I can tell, Guardian Unlimited was the next one with their copy. Im glad to feel that blogs can break stories with the best of them!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Sometimes I get the feeling that popular blog, Thought Mechanics, has more Canadian readers than Americans! Of course, this can be attributable to one of its bloggers, the famous musician Matthew Good. Matthews latest post is provoking some thoughts in my head, but not having received my census invitation yet, I dont have a chance to apply some of the goofy, funny and ingenious ways to minimally co-operate with the mandatory 2006 Canadian census. More information and details can be found at CountMeOut.ca!

I believe that a census can be of use to the nation, but I can appreciate the sentiments of those who wish to protest in their own harmless way towards the outsourcing of the census data processing by US defense giant Lockheed Martin. If you received your census invitation, what would you do?

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

This is the first meme that I am featuring on this blog. A meme is an idea that is spread quickly among media and people alike. On some level, it resembles a chain letter (if the meme asks for you to pass the idea to someone else).

I chose this movie meme as it is non-intrusive, and engages people in a topic where I enjoy discussion. According to movie critic Roger Ebert, this are the 102 films you need to see before you can be considered movie literate. The highlighted entries are movies that I have seen!

My current movie literacy score is only 26/102. This will give me an excuse and a homework list to watch those other movies that Im missing! However, I need to comment about the cultural bias that this list exhibits. Yes, the are works of Akira Kurosawa, but what about the early works of Ang Lee that are not represented at all? I will keep updating this list with any new developments. Would you like to share your movie literacy score base on this list?

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

BlueSecurity is an innovative way to give spammers a taste of their own medicine. I joined the network in hopes of reducing my spam one day. Many people have been critical about the idea; indicting BlueSecuritys tactics as vigilante actions that border the edge of ethical practices. However, after reading a thorough intelligent evaluation of BlueSecurity, I was more convinced than ever that the movement will work.

BlueSecuritys sevice can be summed up in three stages:

BlueSecurity is also making progress. They documented on their blog whenever a major spamming network that have agreed to comply with the Do-Not-Email list. However, other spammers are not as quick to admit defeat, or respect our wishes to be emailed. I received several emails today threatening to take agressive action against BlueSecurity. BlueSecurity identified that one major spammer was taking on a vendetta to discourage the anti-spam community. Heres the email I received:

Hey,

You are recieving this email because you are a member of BlueSecurity (http://www.bluesecurity.com).

You signed up because you were expecting to recieve a lesser amount of spam, unfortunately, due to the tactics used by BlueSecurity, you will end up recieving this message, or other nonsensical spams 20-40 times more than you would normally.

How do you make it stop?

Simple, in 48 hours, and every 48 hours thereafter, we will run our current list of BlueSecurity subscribers through BlueSecuritys database, if you arent there.. you wont get this again.

We have devised a method to retrieve your address from their database, so by signing up and remaining a BlueSecurity user not only are you opening yourself up for this, you are also potentially verifying your email address through them to even more spammers, and will end up getting up even more spam as an end-result.

By signing up for bluesecurity, you are doing the exact opposite of what you want, so delete your account, and you will stop recieving this.

Why are we doing this?

Its simple, we dont want to, but BlueSecurity is forcing us. We would much rather not waste our resources and send you these useless mails.

It is hard not to sense the desperation in this spammers response.

BlueSecurity is hoping to do more than just deter spammers by letting them know that we wont read their emails. In addition, Blue Security reports stock and securities-related junk E-mails to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and also reports sites that sell counterfeit software to the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

As of this writing, BlueSecurity.com is unaccessible. I guess this particular spammer is launching massive denial-of-service attacks on the site. I should also disclose that I have not seen a significant decrease to my spam level yet. Nobody said that this would be an easy war, but I hope more people can see through the short-term pain for the long-term gain.

Update: Just discovered that this incident was SlashDotted! Woot! Looks like I blogged the story before SlashDot!

More Update: BlueSecurity.com is back up and details the exploits of one desperate spammers (PharmaMaster) attempts to discourage the community.

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I was reviewing my blogs Technorati rankings only 2 days ago. To my surprise, I checked again today to see that VinceChan.net has broke through the top 100,000 mark! In fact, you can see from the screenshot that I am positioned at 59,065.

Now, I am not Guy Kawasaki and could not possibly hope to attain his popularity. But it feels really nice to see one of my blogging goals reached. I am coming up to my second year of blogging and looking forward to many more years to come!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Results could be mixed if you paired a bad student with a good teacher. But pair a good student with a bad teacher and the student could make things work out on their own. Tonight’s episode was an exploration into this phenomenon.

If there was some method behind Ken Shamrock’s madness, he certainly had not divulged it. Ken gave another pep talk after their team’s recent lost in the middleweight division. Ken was not winning over any fans this season nor was he winning back his team with speeches that failed to motivate. Team Shamrock’s laid-back approach got on the nerves of a few of its members. His team was envious of the intense training and hands-on coaching that had been the modus operandi of Team Ortiz.

Tito had been grooming his fighters for a career by showing them the skills, training, discipline and work ethic that a professional fighter needs to succeed. Ken had been focused on keeping his fighters fresh to win this tournament. It was a contrast between a long-term vs. short-term vision.

Regardless of whether or not Ken was pushing them, Team Shamrock did not stay stagnant. Every fighter on the team found ways to keep active, whether it was running stairs in the backyard, sprawling and shadow boxing. Who could sleep when the opponent is training hard to bash your head in?

Fire Water aka Lip Lubricant
Since the UFC reinstated alcoholic beverages in the fighters’ residence for season three, there had been more interesting and revealing conversations. When the contestants had some fire-water in their bellies, their lubricated lips loosened up. A few episodes ago, it was Ed Herman. This time around, Michael Bisping proclaimed freely that he was tired of Team Ortiz and Team Shamrock; that he was only looking out for himself. The sympathetic ears of Team Shamrock fighters shared his sentiments. Michaels apologies the morning after were merely a drunkards remorse that did little to hide his true feelings.

The Fight Announcement
It looked early on like a vendetta was brewing between Mike Nikels and Michael Bisping. Bisping was annoyed with Nikels impersonating him. Everybody felt that it would be a good fight. However, we have to remember that these people were in a contest. Michael Bisping felt that he could best exploit a match-up against Kristian Rothaermel. Michael was a striker going up against Kristina’s jiu-jitsu grappling skills.

The Fight
Michael took control of every aspect of this fight. He sprawled beautifully and defended Kristian’s takedown attempts very well. On the second sprawl, Michael realized he was pushed up against the fence and beautifully jumped out into the center of the ring. Every time both fighters stood up from a clinched position, Michael had the presence of mind to let fly heavy punches, elbows and knees.

The hard shots stunned Kristian and cut him up on the top of the head and a few other spots. When Kristian was able to keep Michael on the ground, Michael was still the aggressor sending up punishing elbows, and hitting Kristian flush on target. Michael was getting the best of every exchange and it was apparent that Kristian was slowly giving up. On a few occasions, Kristian did not seem willing to get up to resume the fight. Finally, the referee John McCarthy stepped in and stopped the fight when he realized Kristian was not defending himself anymore.

Team Ortiz retained control and went up 3 – 1 against Team Shamrock. I wondered what kind of pep talk Ken will have in store for the next episode?

An Uninspiring Episode
The reality series seemed like it hit the wall as excitement is slowly dwindling away from The Ultimate Fighter 3. The downside to the fast matches was that the filler footages failed to captivate the television audience. Previews for the next episode revealed some sparks between Tito and Ken. Sadly, the most exciting thing this season could be if and when will Tito and Ken slug it out, since Tito had recently [Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('a [...] http://www.mmanews.com/article/147850530.php”') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

p style=border: 1px solid black; padding: 3px;bOriginally published at a href=http://vincechan.net/weblog/review-the-ultimate-fighter-3-episode-4-hitting-it-hard.htmlVinceChan.net/a. Please leave any a href=http://vincechan.net/weblog/review-the-ultimate-fighter-3-episode-4-hitting-it-hard.html#commentscomments/a there./b/p!-- ALL ADSENSE ADS DISABLED --pResults could be mixed if you paired a bad student with a good teacher. But pair a good student with a bad teacher and the student could make things work out on their own. Tonight’s episode was an exploration into this phenomenon. /ppIf there was some method behind Ken Shamrock’s madness, he certainly had not divulged it. Ken gave another pep talk after their team’s recent lost in the middleweight division. Ken was not winning over any fans this season nor was he winning back his team with speeches that failed to motivate. Team Shamrock’s laid-back approach got on the nerves of a few of its members. His team was envious of the intense training and hands-on coaching that had been the modus operandi of Team Ortiz. /ppTito had been grooming his fighters for a career by showing them the skills, training, discipline and work ethic that a professional fighter needs to succeed. Ken had been focused on keeping his fighters fresh to win this tournament. It was a contrast between a long-term vs. short-term vision./ppRegardless of whether or not Ken was pushing them, Team Shamrock did not stay stagnant. Every fighter on the team found ways to keep active, whether it was running stairs in the backyard, sprawling and shadow boxing. Who could sleep when the opponent is training hard to bash your head in?/ppstrongFire Water aka Lip Lubricant/strongbr /Since the UFC reinstated alcoholic beverages in the fighters’ residence for season three, there had been more interesting and revealing conversations. When the contestants had some fire-water in their bellies, their lubricated lips loosened up. A few episodes ago, it was Ed Herman. This time around, Michael Bisping proclaimed freely that he was tired of Team Ortiz and Team Shamrock; that he was only looking out for himself. The sympathetic ears of Team Shamrock fighters shared his sentiments. Michael#8217;s apologies the morning after were merely a drunkard#8217;s remorse that did little to hide his true feelings./ppstrongThe Fight Announcement/strongbr /It looked early on like a vendetta was brewing between Mike Nikels and Michael Bisping. Bisping was annoyed with Nikels impersonating him. Everybody felt that it would be a good fight. However, we have to remember that these people were in a contest. Michael Bisping felt that he could best exploit a match-up against Kristian Rothaermel. Michael was a striker going up against Kristina’s jiu-jitsu grappling skills./ppstrongThe Fight/strongbr /Michael took control of every aspect of this fight. He sprawled beautifully and defended Kristian’s takedown attempts very well. On the second sprawl, Michael realized he was pushed up against the fence and beautifully jumped out into the center of the ring. Every time both fighters stood up from a clinched position, Michael had the presence of mind to let fly heavy punches, elbows and knees. /ppThe hard shots stunned Kristian and cut him up on the top of the head and a few other spots. When Kristian was able to keep Michael on the ground, Michael was still the aggressor sending up punishing elbows, and hitting Kristian flush on target. Michael was getting the best of every exchange and it was apparent that Kristian was slowly giving up. On a few occasions, Kristian did not seem willing to get up to resume the fight. Finally, the referee John McCarthy stepped in and stopped the fight when he realized Kristian was not defending himself anymore./ppTeam Ortiz retained control and went up 3 – 1 against Team Shamrock. I wondered what kind of pep talk Ken will have in store for the next episode?/ppstrongAn Uninspiring Episode/strongbr /The reality series seemed like it hit the wall as excitement is slowly dwindling away from emThe Ultimate Fighter 3/em. The downside to the fast matches was that the filler footages failed to captivate the television audience. Previews for the next episode revealed some sparks between Tito and Ken. Sadly, the most exciting thing this season could be if and when will Tito and Ken slug it out, since Tito had recently a href=” http://www.mmanews.com/article/147850530.php”pulled out of the July pay-per-view fight/a against Ken Shamrock due to a a href=http://www.news1130.com/news/sports/article.jsp?content=s042645Arecent knee injury/a./ppemUpdate: Tito Ortiz recently a href=http://www.insidefighting.com/betweenRoundsDisp.aspx?uid=2967changed his mind/a and would like to find Ken Shamrock at UFC 61/em/ppOriginally Published on April 27, 2006 on a target=_blank href=http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/28/033624.phpimg valign=middle alt=Blogcritics src=http://vincechan.net/images/button-blogcritics.gif / //a./p Sunday, April 23rd, 20068:00 pmReview: The Ultimate Fighter 3 Episode 3 - Team Dagger

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 3 suffered its largest week-to-week ratings drop in the series’ history. Episode three sought to prove that the blip was not a downward trend by having a great lead-in show, UFC unleashed. UFC unleashed showcased five classic fights of the legendary, Royce Gracie.

Ken Shamrock gave his team a break after losing the last battle to enjoy venting their frustration at golf balls on the driving range. There were no lessons to be learnt here; just a show played out for the camera in my opinion. Tito Ortiz played the contrary style by drilling his fighters through a hard cardio workout running the stairs, and doing fireman-carry relays.

Tito Ortiz vs. Ed Herman
Ed Herman’s story was further developed this episode because Tito realized his mistake of not picking the red-headed fighter. Ed was an experienced fighter who wanted to be on Tito’s team but felt slighted being a late pick of Team Shamrock. In a drunken stupor, Ed boasted that he was the best fighter this season. What ever happened to the saying “action speaks louder than words? Ed Herman obviously never heard of that quote before.

But Ed was not a fighter who could not back up his words. Tito knew this and upped the gamesmanship on Ed Herman. Tito knew that Ed was itching to fight and prove himself. During the fighter selection, Tito deliberately stared down Ed before revealing his choice for Ross Pointon to go up against his middleweight, Kendall Grove. The anguished-look on Ed’s reaction was priceless!

A Well-Conceived Alliance
Alliances had been attempted in previous seasons, and I had been skeptical that any alliance would work in this reality series. Team Dagger, comprised of Kendall Grove and Solomon Hutcherson, certainly proved me wrong. What an ingenious idea to plant a “mole” in the opposing team, while helping each other to advance in the competition. This alliance worked because the members were from opposing teams!

In a competition where you faced off against your opponent, it made sense to have an “inside man” giving you tips on who you should face, and how you should approach the fight. You can be sure that Solomon perceived Ross as a weak target and influenced Kendall to pick Ross this week. Solomon also gave Kendall insights on how Ross liked to fight and what were his weaknesses. It was enjoyable to have my assumptions decimated this episode.

Your Ground Game Sucks
While Kendall was getting lots of help, Ross was basically left on his own to prepare for the fight. It was not that his team wanted him to fail. Ross was not receptive to his teammates’ input. He had decided to not deviate from his original game plan. Ken Shamrock warned him bluntly that his “ground game sucks.” Ross was a brawler through and through but being one-dimensional could land you in heaps of trouble in the octagon.

The middle lull of the show got interesting as we joined Ross on a quest to drop 15 pounds to meet the pre-fight weigh-in requirements with a little over 12 hours left. Ross displayed an eerie calm attitude while his teammates were betting for him to lose the fight. Ross’s tough guy image was validated as he wore a sauna suit, and sweated the weight off in the sauna. We had seen other fighters totally crumble while cutting weight in the past. Ross continued his unorthodox pre-fight routine right after the weigh-in. He immediately bulked back up with sushi, pizza, garlic breads and ice cream; pre-fight food that most fighters conscientiously avoid.

Kendall Grove vs. Ross Pointon
The tale of the tape gave Kendall the discernable reach advantage, since Kendall was a tall, lanky 6 foot 6 inches. Both fighters meet in the center with Ross delivering cut kicks. The tactic showed that Ross was wary of Kendall’s punching range. After a brief stand-up exchange, Kendall did not mess around and shot-in for the takedown.

Ross valiantly stood up many times because he was simply not comfortable being on the ground. At times, Ross looked like a panicky fish out of the water. Kendall was the fisherman that kept Ross in his nets. Kendall held Ross against the fence, scoring takedowns each time Ross stood up. When they were on their feet, Kendall was the aggressor swinging elbows and punches and landing quite a few.

However, Ross had a good chin, and a knock out was not in the cards. In the end, Ross’s inexperience with grapplers forced him to expose his back twice to Kendall; who seized the second opportunity and forced Ross to tap out with a rear-naked choke.

Team Punishment In Control
Team Punishment (Ortiz) was now 2-1 against Team Shamrock. I wondered if Tito would use this to antagonize Ken. Season three fights still have not gone past the first round. Therefore, the producers had to focus a lot more on the private life invasion of the fighters at the residence. The camera mans quality on this episode were shoddy in some spots; especially the part where Ross was heading out the house to go to the sauna. You have Derek Hoffmann to thank for that!

Originally Published on April 21, 2006 on .

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

As Ive reviewed previously, I was born in Singapore and lived 11 years of my life there. I am currently a dual citizen shared between Singapore and Canada and I really needed to get some things done with a Singaporean Embassy. My search for it revealed the bitter truth - only 1 Singaporean embassy exist in all of Canada!

Which cities are internationally known in Canada? Most people would agree that Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all come to mind. My research showed that Singapore used to have embassies in both Toronto and Vancouver but the Toronto branch had been closed down for a while now. The nearest embassy to my location is now located in New York!

Whats stopping me from going to New York? Thats not the point because of the sheer inconvenience. But if I were to go to New York now that the borders between Canada and United States have tightened regulations, I would have to get my passports in order first. More delay!

This is just a rant, so you can ignore it. But if you are Singaporean-Canadian or know of any who have had the same problem as me. Do you have any advice? Much appreciated!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I missed episode two but was lucky to catch the re-run tonight prior to this weeks upcoming episode three of The Ultimate Fighter 3 on Spike TV.

Episode two started flying out the gate. On the last review, I wrote about the changes in the fighter selection format. The change meant that it only took a few minutes into the show before we knew who would be the next pair of fighters. Removing the time spent on silly challenges freed up more time for viewers to get to know the fighters and their training regiment. Episode three featured the light-heavyweights as Team Shamrock kept the pressure on Team Punishment by choosing Jesse Forbes to fight Noah Inhofer.

Team Punishment (Ortiz)
To prepare for the fight, Tito Ortiz gave Noah a basketball training aid to keep his guard up. The basketball played a bigger role later in the show; so much that this episode was named after it. With some clever editing, it looked as if the basketball was gifted prior to the fighter selection. But it did not make any sense for Tito to focus on helping Noah if he did not know about Noah entering the ring that week.

Viewers got to appreciate more of Tito Ortizs hands-on coaching. But members of Team Punishment did not appreciate the fact that Tito had been giving deaf competitor, Matt Hamill, more attention. Tito even hired Matt a sign-language interpreter who signed 92 words-per-minute to ensure that Matt was not missing any instructional opportunity.

Being the father figure that he wanted to be, Tito visited the house and cooked a spaghetti dinner for the team - a first for any Ultimate Fighter coach. I wondered if the fighters cared about a low-carb, high-fiber, high-protein diet, or did they simply eat anything given the amount of energy they expended throughout the trainings.

Team Shamrock
On the other team, Ken Shamrock decided that it was best for the team to take two days off from training. His philosophy aligned with previous coach, Rich Franklin, who did not believe in over-training prior to fights. However, Ken was the first coach to encourage recovery by doing nothing. Rich Franklin got his team to at least keep active through enjoying other sports.

What happened during the days off? And what happened to the basketball? Well, when you have a bunch of testosterone-filled men in a house with nothing to do, pranks ensue. At the fighters residence, Jesse Forbes was portrayed as an immature and destructive youth who broke vases by shooting pool cue balls through them. This attribute perfectly raised the tension between Jesse and Noah when Jesse punctured Noahs basketball with a steak knife. Noah displayed tremendous maturity by turning the other cheek, and not confronting Jesses mischief.

After the days off, Kens coaching became a tug-of-war between the contestants and his my way or the highway style. Ken was disappointed that the intensity dropped and pointed the finger to Kalib Starnes lack of effort. Kalib defended himself strongly by stating that he did not want to risk injury since he had reached the semi-final round.

The Fight
On fight day, Noah met Jesse in the octagon while nursing a slight ankle-roll injury. Noahs pre-fight game plan was not to face Jesse on the ground because of Jesses wrestling background. The battle wrote a different story as Jesse quickly took Noah down and worked his way into a dominating side-mount position. Noah was fighting his own fight and not listening to his corners instructions. Jesse pushed his advantage, cornering Noah into the fence. While Jesse was working the ground-and-pound game, Noah sneakily heisted his hips, pushed off the fence and scored an arm-bar submission win.

I really appreciated the new feature showcased in this episode - the Ampd Mobile replay. Dana White and the two coaches broke down the final moments of the fight and broke down the elements of the hip-heist that eventually gave Noah the victory. Ken Shamrock saw it coming and Tito commented that Jesse had done the worst thing possible when facing an arm-bar - trying to pull away instead of driving towards the opponent to keep his arms bent. This replayed was informative and helped fight fans further their knowledge of the sport.

Prelude to Episode Three
Team Punishment had wrestled the control of the fight match-ups from Team Shamrock. I look forward to checking out Titos strategy in the upcoming episode. Some fans have commented that season three was surpassing season two, but had not lived up to the high bars set by season one. I had a different opinion after watching the first two fights of this season. The fights thus far had not gone past the first rounds because the fighters brought more intensity and were more technically sound. If this trend continues, I expect the semi-final rounds to host the best fights that this realty TV series had offered thus far.

This article was also posted at .

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Season three of The Ultimate Fighter reality series premiered tonight. Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) is one smart guy. Tweaking the series with feuding coaches, Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz, may have been the smartest move to spice up the third season after a lackluster season two.

Don’t get me wrong! Season two ended on a strong note, but it was too little, too late. The season two DVDs low sales figures certainly proved this. In the past two seasons, the opposing coaches had been very cordial towards each other. Ken vs. Tito was a legendary rivalry that promised to translate itself onto the television screen again. Like a worrisome parent, Dana made sure to sit both coaches down and appealed to them to leave their personal grudges for an upcoming July pay-per-view event. But it could all be for naught, since the first segment ends with a Shamrock-Ortiz face-to-face stare-down with so much tension in the air, that a knife (or a commercial) could have cut it!

The New Blood
The new fighters appeared very skilled, and more importantly in shape, during the coaches’ separate evaluations. The evaluations were held jointly in the past, but Ken and Tito could not stand to be around each other’s presence. Tito and Ken evaluated the fighters over the first two days to help them determine who would be drafted onto their teams.

On this first look, this season’s contestants seemed like a bunch of levelheaded fun-loving fighters. The UFC had done a better job scouting and filtering who got picked to come on the show and there was an increase in international flavor. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. As Ken Shamrock declared, “[the show] IS about Tito and me”. The new narrow personality focus should do wonders for the show’s ratings. The audience got to see the sides of Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock that are usually reserved for the people who trained with them. Personally, Tito did the better job of winning me over on this episode.

The Draft
Tito won the coin-flip to pick his team first. After the obligatory verbal stab at beating Ken Shamrock yet again (for the coin-flip), Tito made a surprising first pick with inexperienced deaf fighter, Matt Hamill. The draft then went back and forth with Ken strategically picking fighters he felt would defeat Tito’s choices.

The training camp officially started with Tito’s team, Team Punishment, going through strenuous conditioning and sparring to prepare them for their would-be professional careers. Tito displayed a hands-on attitude, boxing and sparring with his fighters. The polar opposite was Ken Shamrock as his brought his “Lion’s Den” philosophy where the strongest survive. Ken’s coaching style was to oversee the contestants’ development. The contrast in coaching styles gained Tito more points in my book.

The New Competition Format
Dana White proceeded to drop the atom bomb on this season’s competition format. Gone were the silly physical challenges to determine which team would decide the pair of fighters to compete. This decision would rest simply in the fate of a coin toss. The winning team of the fight would retain the decision control of the next fight. The contest also adopts a tournament format to ensure all fighters fought at least one bout before advancing in the competition. The fights had also been shortened to two rounds and one over-time round instead of the previous three rounds. This modification would inspire fighters to go all out and not leave anything to chance.

I wonder whether fans of the show will react positively to these changes. I know that many Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fans have written in forums and online bulletin boards and these changes had been the result of the UFC listening to its fans. My opinion is that it’s about time that Dana and the UFC made it right!

The Opening Fight
Back to what this show was based on, the season-opening bout pitted Canadian Kalib Starnes against Mike Stine. Kalib took control right away in the opening minute, scoring a slam, and a full mount. Mike Stine tried rolling Kalib to reverse the bad situation, but Kalib proved too much of a veteran for such a move. With a gentle arm hook under the legs, Kalib leveraged the roll’s momentum and carried himself back on top. Mike could do nothing but duck and wince as Kalib launched punch after punch at Mike’s head. Team Punishment suffered the first setback and would look to wrestle the fight control back in the next episode

Will You Submit?
It’s finally started again! I really enjoyed blogging about the past 2 seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. The reality series was quite unique in its genre because, like The Amazing Race, the contestants were in full control of whether or not they get eliminated. There were no votes, no judges, and alliances made little sense. You fought to stay off elimination. It was as simple as that! I hope you will join me as the season progress and also share your thoughts about each episode!

This article was also posted at .

Extras!!
Now that youve read my review of episode 1. Get a feel of how The Worlds Most Dangerous Man, Ken Shamrock, feels about his involvement in season three!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I want to extend a welcome for anyone of my friends who came across this site via Jenny Wangs email. Thanks Jen! For my regular readers out there, did you miss me?? Ive not been blogging on this site for quite a while now. My focus has been divided among the many Blogs that Im running. This is also good time to introduce you to some of the Blogs Ive been working on!

Investorial - This is where I blog my thoughts and editorials about the investments and financial media, and industry.

Babe Theory - I started this venture by thinking that I could put a classy spin on a topic that was bound to attract traffic. One of my earlier works that Ive pretty much semi-abandoned. I may restart it one day!

AmBlogger - I read a lot of other blogs about blogging and the Web 2.0 phenonmenon. This is my home for sounding off and hopefully contributing back to the blogging community

Banana Smoothie - One of my latest blog, no links yet because I havent officially launched it. This is a blog I used to motivate myself to keep fit and stop being a fat pig!

???? - Im creating another Blog.. this one has to do with a life-long passion of my to do some meaningful charity work where Im in control. I will let you know when Ive finalized how I want to approach this!

By the way, you can also check out my web traces on line, Web traces are information about myself scattered all over the web, such as my FlickR photo albums (I also host my photos here!), my 43 Things etc.

P.S. I will have the pictures from tonights dinner uploaded soon!

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

Originally published at VinceChan.net. Please leave any comments there.

I recently saw the Asian version of Fearless (aka Huo Yuan Jia). This movie is billed to be Jet Lis last movie. I grew up watching Jet Li portray many legendary Chinese heros from Fong Sai Yuk to Wong Fei Hong. In his final epic, Jet Li is Huo Yuan Jia, the legendary founder and spirited guru of the Jing Wu Martial Arts School.

Wait a second? Doesnt Jing Wu sound famililar to you martial art movie fanantics out there! Yes, Jing Wu is the name of the school in Bruce Lees Chinese Connection and Jet Lis remix years later in Fist of Legend. Huo Yuan Jia is the master that Bruce and Jet were avenging in their respective movies. Does it tickle your viewing fancy yet to see the historical account of a true masters life and death?

Jet Lis once boyish good looks now show the wears of aging. Unfortunately, the version I watch looks to be an edited version, because I heard that Michelle Yeoh was supposed to appear. As well, an encounter with a thai-fighter described on the website was also cut from my version. Huo Yuan Jia reintroduced the Mizong (missing) Fist, a style that was more open to combining different martial arts styles in favour for a lighter, fighting technique. Sounds like an early 1900 Bruce Lee and his Jeet Kune Do to me!

I wont go into too much of the movie, but I hope to do a Blogcritics review of Fearless in the near future. Theres nothing I like more than watching movies that I enjoy again and again!

But Whos Next?
For action movie enthusiasts, dont fret! New bloods are always on the rise in the martial arts movie industry. The brightest of these stars has been Tony Jaa. Many in the western world were stunned after watching Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, to find out what Asia already knew. Tony Jaa is a phenomenal action star that remains unmatched by any talent in the western hemisphere.

I recently watched another Tony Jaa film that is probably scheduled to arrive on western shores anyday now - Tom Yum Goong. Tony is much more rounded and polished in this movie than Ong Bak and I enjoyed the fight sequences much more. In particular, I wanted to highlight a uncut, unedited scene when Tony goes from ground floor to the top floor of a 4 or 5 storey buildling, fighting every minion in his way without stopping! He looks visibly tired towards the end, but I thought it was a very innovative fight scene. The continous no-edit scene is comparable to a similar fight scene in another favourite movie of mine - Chan-Woo Parks Oldboy!

Jet Li remains a sentimental favourite of mine. But innovative newcomers like Tony Jaa will keep it interesting for many years to come! What are some of your favourite Jet Li or Tony Jaa moments?

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