I'm a writer interested in technology culture: video games, personal technology, mobile phones, and even karaoke. I'm the author of Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide To Karaoke Domination (Chronicle Books, 2008). It's a strategy guide on how to sing the best karaoke (ever!) with tips and recommended song lists from a lifelong … more
Love the idea of a large social game via mobile, love that's it a way to let you know where your friends are. Love that you can compete with friends to show off how often you go out to cool places and what a scenester you are! But I don't like that many places (at least the ones I frequent) haven't been added to their database of establishments. … more
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Mame-shiba isn't well know as Hello Kitty, but with all of these fabulous branding commericals he should be! He's little known character from Japan, with the name meaning bean (mama) dog (shiba, as in shiba inu). He's one of many quirky Japanese characters that are part animal, part food. What? Yes, animal characters that look like edible food. There's … more
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As a kid, I used to be OCD enough to plan out my outfits a week in advance so I wouldn't repeat. I had a rule that I couldn't reuse entire outfits within three weeks and would horrified at myself for wearing an item twice in a week, worried that the junior high fashion police of suburbia would come bust me as a "repeat offender."But after I went to … more
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If you're a fan of ginormous, long haired, mischievous dogs like I am, you also know it's a pain to get your dog squeaky clean. You home bathtub doesn't hold your monster Fido, AND even if it did, you'd be spending the next day extracting dog hair from the drain and wiping down your bathroom walls from all the suds and dog-infused water he's … more
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I have to say I'm a bit of a supersnob when I come to comics and comic bookstores. I die a little bit when people ask me if I love Superman or what I think about the latest X-men. There's a whole universe of brilliant independent comics out there, and the best and most creative ones can be hard to find. Which is why Family Bookstore on … more
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