My totally unpredictable flatmate has created a scene in Singapore once again. Right now X-08, the X-Box 2008 convention is going on at at Marina Square, and my flatmate was particularly excited about the demo for the unreleased, upcoming game Gears of War 2.After playing in multi-player mode for fifteen minutes, my flatmate looked at the Chinese guy who had been playing with …

On my twitter feed I follow a guy who goes by the alias of Coffeecup. He's studying psychology and according to his twitter reports he just helped save the life of a guy preparing to commit suicide. Coffecup's profile reveals that he lives in Singapore. The man that he was helping lives in Florida.I am thankful that this man was able to get help, but it also causes me to ask …

(Caution - this post may seem kinda gross.)My first food service job out of college was working at the coffee kiosk in Mizzou's Memorial Union. At that time, before the big Starbucks boom, it was the only place that served Starbucks coffee in mid-Missouri. In my boredom, during the mornings and evenings when I worked there I'd spend free moments during the shift reading the …

The center of all life in the quiet Nagoya suburb of Nagoya, Japan is the Apita department store. For no apparent reason, the third floor hosts an alien (from the Aliens saga) guarded by defunct Coke and candy machines. If you've got a story as to why this is here, please leave it in the comments section. By the way, I once found a giant paper mache ET in the upstairs of a …

Takayama, Japan, located in Gifu prefecture, is famous for the beauty of the Miyagawa River, its quaint narrow streets, and its exciting festivals. A niche industry that thrives in this four hundred year old community is Japan's plastic food market. Nearly all Japanese restaurants display plastic food outside of their stores in order to entice those that pass by. I can tell …

Dates should be formated as MM/DD/YY except for the years 1990 through 1992, which should be denoted in 'Hammer Time.' From Fake AP Stylebook