While in Vegas this trip, we went to the Price Is Right Live show at Bally’s hotel. I had a feeling before I went in that I was going to be picked. Well. I was.

They try to maximize the winners so you only get one round to go up, get to a stage game and then you are done. So different people are selected every time for contestants row, the Showcase Showdown and the Showcase. The prizes are of course not as luxurious as the Teak Dining Room set that you see on TV but they do allow you to take money instead of the prize.

So we were ready to play the first Contestant’s Row and who was called fourth? Me! Steven Ishiwara, come on down! So I ran up to contestants row and was ready to play. Although I was a little shocked that I was picked… but like I said… I had a feeling.

So what I had to bid on was a beautiful no-name digital camera. I guess we all thought it was more expensive then it was (which was a common theme throughout the night). So we had to do another round of bidding. This was funny… I said $139. The guy next to me said $99 and then the woman next to him said $98. It  was so funny. I was turning around the boys to mouth how stupid that was!

So the actual retail price of the camera was $150! So I won. I got to go up with the host… who is the same host of Supermarket Sweep fame… a show I have never seen.

He asked me a few questions, I answered, as you will hear in the video. So I had to play this game where I had to run and put the price tags on four beautiful items. Then whatever I got right, I won! After placing the items I pulled a lever and it will tell me how many of the prices I got right. So I put the tags on the four items ran back… and I got 2 right. I then ran back swapped two ran back and got 0. So through my powers of deduction, I figured that I needed to swap back the two I changed and then change the other two. I was quickly running out of time… so I made the swaps just after the buzzer sounded. During which I tripped over my foot and twisted it. But when I pulled the lever that last time I won all 4 items!

When he was going over the game I was trying to figure out the prices, but when I got the tickets in hand to start, I blanked out and basically dropped them wherever. People were yelling, and I tried to turn to the audience, but you really can’t hear anything. You just hear a lot of people yelling.

So I won! They give you the option at the end to take the cash, so of course I did ($775 minus $250 for taxes) . I really didn’t need pots, a vaccum, an exercise bike or a small TV so the cash was the best option.

I actually wasn’t the only one who was lucky at the table! David got called to spin the wheel. But he didn’t win. He got a t-shirt, that is actually quite hideous.

So the show was quite fun, and the fact that David and I got to go up totally made the night even more enjoyable or we would have just been sitting there watching others win.

Before you watch the video… we really weren’t supposed to be taking video. So the iPhone camera had to be hidden and the lighting was not great but at least you can hear everything. And thankfully, my slip was not captured… phew.

I like games. Any kind of game, mind game, puzzle game, and simulation games especially. That is why it wasn’t smart for me to buy the newest simulation game: Spore.

I don’t follow the gaming industry and the first time I heard about Spore was from my friend Eric,  he was pretty excited about it. So late Saturday night I went to www.gametreeonline.com and ordered my copy of Spore for the Mac. I got the license email mid day Sunday as September 7th was launch first day and I was playing after the 3.5GB download at around 4pm.

Now why wasn’t it good for me to buy? These games suck the time away. Before you know it two hours are gone and even though you had fun, it probably wasn’t the most productive two hours. So I have to exercise restraint and make sure I play for a limited amount of time. Since having my own business, the work doesn’t stop at 5pm, I normally work into the evening. And since we are going away next week I have a lot of work to do! Hopefully I can balance work life and get it to a regular Monday to Friday work week so I can play guilt free. But everybody needs time away from work right?

So what is Spore? Well it is my kind of game. I have always loved the Sim games, Civilization, Sim City, The Sims, even games like Rollercoaster Tycoon. The type of games where every time you play it is different and your actions dictate how the game progresses.

Spore is no different. You start as an organism and your main task is to eat vegetation if you are a herbivor and other organisms if you are a carnivore. Once you have proceeded through a couple of levels of that, you evolve into a being where you can walk on land.

What makes this game so cool, is that you create your character as you go. You can select what kind of feet, body type, defense weaponry, colour etc. that your creature has. So really no two characters will ever be alike. And your characters get uploaded to the EA server and others will see your characters in their games. How cool is that?

I really like how this game doesn’t take itself to seriously either. When you meet new characters you do a little dance or a pose and if they like you they will become your ally. Or of course you can fight them and gain DNA points that will take you to the next level.

So this game turned out to be great. I’ve have never played before, I don’t know any history of the game, but I’m enjoying it thus far. Hopefully it doesn’t get to hard where I get bored and give up to start again… a normal thing for me to do in games like Civilization.

So below is the evolution of my current character…

Hurry up and finish your games! Looks like Scrabulous may disappear and Scrabble users will have to move over the Scrabble by EA and Hasbro on Facebook.

I have used the EA version of Scrabble, and though it is very pretty it is very sluggish and the fact you have to wait seconds for it to load actually annoys me. I think they need to either fix up the code so it runs better or take away some of the fancy animations and graphics that are most likely slowing it down.

Read about it here: Hasbro Threatens Facebook’s Scrabulous.

So we just hooked up our new Wii Fit exercise board and it looks like it is going to be quite fun! First of all you have to do a BMI test where it calculates your BMI using your weight and your age. Guess what? I’m OBESE!!! So with that result coming up, to the right is how my Mii looks… Chunky! I better get on this thing daily. Doesn’t help I ate way too much in Vegas… Anyway, back to the game.

So it turns out it is quite fun. There are 4 different areas of exercise. Aerobics, yoga, balance and strength training. You stand on the board for all of them and I guess it uses the pressure in each foot to measure what you are doing, be it swinging your hips to spin a hoop, or moving your head right to left to head butt a ball. (See our silly movie below…)

Everyday you have the opportunity to do a body test where it will measure your BMI and provide you with your Wii Age. My Wii age is 33 (I guess I’m fit even though I’m obese) and Brad’s was 47… obviously less fit than me! Even though his BMI is perfect.

So hopefully in a couple of months my Mii will look nothing like it does above… maybe a little thinner? I hope so. Looking forward to many days of fun on the Wii Fit!

Here is a parody of the Wii fit that is quite funny….

So my stress release, and before bed ritual is sometimes a good race on Wii Mario Kart. If you have it, hook me up as a friend… so we can go head to head. License: 1032-1864-3139.

If you don’t have this game…but have a Wii, I highly recommend it. It is a blast, tonnes of fun, and easy enough with the steering wheel that anyone can play! See you on the track!