matt dash low dot com

I gotta say, I love me some Chinese food. I can never get enough of fried rice noodles with beef. Most of the Chinese restaurants that are half decent or better are in Richmond or Vancouver. My dad introduced me to this one recently. It’s one of those “hole-in-the-wall” type places in Burnaby here. It’ just blends in with the environment and you won’t see it unless you look hard for it. Actually it’s a bit closer towards New West.

It’s called Chong Lum Hin seafood restaurant.

7604 – 6th St, Burnaby. Right across from Peter Julian’s office. Hit the 106 and it should cross into that area.

They’ve got some pretty good dim sum during the day. That’s what I had when I went there. Retrofitting windows at home is tough work. Work up a good appetite if you know what I mean.

All you guys that don’t speak an ounce of Chinese but still want to enjoy dim sum anyway, there are about four words you should learn for ordering.

Those words are:

Ha gao and siu mai.

The former is shrimp dumpling and the latter is either pork or chicken dumplings wrapped in some sort of flour. Might have a few mushrooms in it to boot.

Absolutely delicious.

Anyway, I went for lunch there with my dad and his friend. I glanced at the dim sum menu (and surprise, it has the English translation right below so that you have an idea of what you’re ordering). That’s always great because I go to some of these Chinese places out in Vancouver. Now I can’t read shit for Chinese. I can speak enough to order food and all that but I can’t read. I have to have pictures. English is the second best thing. A lot of those Chinese places have their dishes purely in Chinese so I don’t have a freakin’ idea what I’m ordering. It is something I do appreciate.

Overall restaurant atmosphere is okay. It’s not outright dirty or unhygienic or messy or anything. Tables are like quadruple wrapped with cloth and plastic up top. Walking in at around 1230, I can see that it’s half filled. Lots of families in there and several couples. A few Caucasian people around along with Asians to help the restaurant diversity helps too.

Pro tip: If you see a fairly large number of Asians in an Asian restaurant, it’s either good or cheap. Or both.

Alright. Enough with the small talk. Did this restaurant meet my standards in Chinese cuisine?

The order

Three hungry guys. This is what we ordered.

Prawn Dumplings

Siu Mai

Rice flour rolls with prawns

Fried prawns with salt and paper

Yeah that’s 3 dishes with prawns.

But that’s not enough. Dim sum dishes are okay. We needed a bit more sustenance. May as well add some noodles to the mix.

Shanghai style noodles

Fried beef rice noodles

Singapore style fried vermicelli

Total: A little over 30 bucks. That’s about $10 a person. That’s a pretty decent sized meal right there. It just hit the spot. I was left not too full but not still hungry either. I’m tired of places where I drop like 15 bucks for a meal and I still end up unsatisfied and hungry after.

Dim sum dishes ranged from $2.50 (ribs in black bean sauce as an example) to $5.50 (chicken wings or deep fried prawns, but who the heck goes to a Chinese restaurant to order just chicken wings?)

Perfect place for a student with a budget. Good sized amount of food that’s relatively affordable. I would come here again in the future with several friends in tow.

Should I start a fifth one? Maybe one on a smaller scale.

A food blog! Maybe I’ll strike it big as a food critique. I can start with Japanese food and work my way around all the Japanese places. 8 years of sushi eating experience has to be good for something!

So some of you may know this and the rest of you don’t. I’ve managed to score me tickets to Blizzcon. It’s a really big gaming convention by Blizzard. They created the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo gaming universes. A lot of people think that because of my blogging status I was able to secretly get in. It can’t be mere coincidence that me and some of the folks from my team all managed to get tickets. They sold out in a matter of minutes. All I did was keep refreshing for a few minutes leading up to the actual sale time.

Hate to break it to you, but it was all luck.

At the very least I’ll be going alone if I have to. Figures I get called a nerd, geek, loser and loner. Hah! Sigh. What do they know? Don’t hate on something you don’t understand. And people wonder why I get so annoyed.

Seriously.

Hands on Diablo 3? Yes!
Hands on Starcraft 2? HELL yes!
Hot chicks dressed up in Night Elf revealing brass armor? I am so all over that.

I may be making the trip down alone but I’ll be meeting up with some great people and having a great time. I get to finally meet players who’s voices I’ve only heard. I get to meet the developers who created the games I enjoy. So take your hate and shove it, okay? For the past several years, I’ve endured my own friends telling me to get out of the house more and explore. I finally decide to do something and I get railed for it? What the hell. The convention is down in Anaheim, California.

Something Ken told me a few weeks ago is that we should all do stuff while we’re young. As we grow older, we’re going to have less time. We’re going to have more responsibility and more expenses. We’re only young once. I’m not one for wilderness treks. I don’t give a crap about churches or architecture. I’ve always been a city guy. I’m not interested in going to temples or statues or any of that other stuff. For once in my life, I’m going to go to places that I want to go, see stuff that I want to see, and do stuff that I want to do.

I say screw that. I’m going to go now just so that I can say that I’ve actually gone some where and didn’t waste my summer. Who knows when I might have an opportunity like this again.

Am I scared? You bet. I’ve never travelled alone before. I’ve only travelled across Canada or overseas to Singapore. There’s so much to do and so much to learn.

I might just end up extending my stay a bit longer and explore the area further and just play tourist. Disneyland’s right across from the place. I apparently need to explore this fine American cuisine called “In and Out”. Maybe I’ll check out the walk of fame or sit in on a taping of Jay Leno. A friend told me that the Comedy Store is the best investment he ever made. It’s where the careers of comedians were born (Tim Allen, Jim Carey, the Wayans, Seinfeld, Robin Williams, etc). I heard the San Diego Zoo’s quite the experience.

The trip’s not until the 3rd week of August. I’ve already reserved a room and everything at a hotel nearby. For travel options, I think I’m going to bus down to Seattle and catch a flight on Southwest down to Anaheim ($40 for the bus, $90 for the flight). Flying out of Vancouver, it would have set me back around $250. For the return trip, I think I’ll try going back on a train. Ride the Amtrak from Anaheim through LA and up to Seattle. Take the aptly named scenic route. That’s about $120. The time it takes to train from LA to Seattle is around 35 hours.

No friends, eh? With the reactions I received, they’re certainly no friends of mine that’s for sure. I doubt there’s a lot of interest from other friends who’d want to travel south into California anyway. I’ve got at least one who’s thinking about joining me on the way down and making a week out of it.

I’m looking forward to the trip and there’s no doubt I’ll be writing about my experience as often as I can. I still have several months to go. No matter what happens, I’m committed and determined to have a good time this summer no matter who decides to tag along.

No Stock UI’s been open for a little over a month now. We’re barely able to maintain our 3 post a week schedule. Real life likes to bite all of us at once.

Writing for NSUI’s much different than writing for World of Matticus. The ideas are much easier to come by. I attribute that to a lack of posts and blogs about the User Interface that WoW offers. Writing a post on NSUI can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several days.

Let’s use the recent tooltip post as an example

What’s the topic?

This is the first question I’ll ever ask. What am I going to write about? Ideally, I want to answer that in ten words or less. Anymore and I’ll deem it too complicated. That’s when I either scrap it, simplify it, or divide it (into two or more topics for the future). The thing with the idea question? Ideas can come at any time. I know I’ve lost my share of ideas in the past and I’ve started walking around with a Five Star mini-notebook so I wouldn’t lose track of it anymore.

What’s the post type?

Once the topic of choice has been determined, it’s time to figure out what post type to use. Lists have always been my most favored of post types. Why? They’re easy to digest, easy to write, point-by-point, and a lot of fun. I won’t shy away from opinion pieces, news, reviews or straight-up image only posts. Do I want a micro-level, in-depth post or a macro-scale, broad spectrum post?

As an example, when I decided on tool tips, I could have gone in extreme detail about one specific addon or list the different ones available related to tooltips.

I opted for the latter. Specific addon posts can be filed away for the future. In the end, the purpose of the post was to expose readers to new tooltip addons that they might not have known about before.

Research

Welcome to the longest part of any post. Heading over to Curse and WoW Interface, I’ll look up and browse tooltip addons that are available. Any hits not tooltip related are off the list. Not updated for 3.1? WOn’t bother. From these, I’ll start inserting links and quick feature highlights into the post. As I’m doing this, I’ll start retrieving and installing the different addons into my client.

This is an extremely painstacking process. I have to continuously log on and off in order to enable and disable addons. At the same time, I try to vary up any screens I get in game by placing myself in different situations. Often times, addon authors provide shots that explain the addon capabilities far better than I can and I’ll resort to those instead.

Such a process takes several hours to several days depending on the topic. Something like raid frames would take considerable more time since you have to be in a raid group and in a raid situation. By contrast, a post about achievement addons would be a little different (and quicker).

Writing

Now the post writing actually begins. Notes I’ve gathered become expanded as I inject my own voice into them. Screenshots taken during the research phase are added in. I start with the body before writing the conclusion. The introduction is written at the very end. Writing introductions has always been difficult for me. It’s akin to writing the intro paragraph or thesis for a term paper. My formula for introductions usually involve what I’m writing about and why I decided to pick that topic.

Polish

How does this post sound? Is there anything that can be done to explain things better or easier? A lot of stock is placed on reader experience. If I get bored of reading or start losing interest, something is wrong. I’ll look at every aspect of the post and see what I can do to make it more appealing. Would a table make a comparison easier? What about a quite with something revolutionary or relevant? If the reader is going to skim the post anyway, what few lines should stand out the most? Would a diagram help or hinder this particular section?

By nature, NSUI posts are designed to be quickly scannable for easy digestion.

Post-production editing

Once I’m satisfied, I’ll wire the draft into the system. Tags are inserted and categories are set. At the same time, I’ll alert a team member and ask for an extra set of eyes. They often catch more errors than I do. The ones I spot for are factual and grammatical errors. Maybe I used the a certain feature or description for the wrong addon. It happens. Most of my errors are grammar or spelling related. If it sounds right in my head, I’ll leave it in. This isn’t an academic term paper after all.

When they’re happy, I schedule the post for the next time slot save.

All in all, it is a fairly length process. A lot of guest posters underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes. Those that want a place on the team are asked to write one or two guest post trials so that they get an idea. This is a process more important for them than it is for me. It’s especially true of people with little to no internet writing experience. It ends up being a big eye opener. About 9 out of 10 guest post writers who do submit something end up deciding that it’s just too much work and writing for them and proceed to opt out. And I understand that.

There’s a difference between blogging and blogging well. Not everyone comes with the skills (which can be taught) or the desire (which can’t be instilled) to write as often as I do.

The advent of Twitter, Facebook, Google Talk, MSN and other forms of communication have made contacting and socializing much quicker than it was ten years ago. With all of these advances, e-mail continues to be the staple when it comes to business. As a blogger, I experience a high volume of e-mail and most of these I toss in the trash or don’t even bother responding for a variety of reasons.

How do I write effective, efficient and eye-catching e-mails?

Write a subject. Unfortunately, I still get e-mails without having an idea of what I’m about to read. Your message should be written as though it’s specifically for them. Examples: “Great blog, Matt!”, “Guest post proposal for World of Matticus”, or “Need your pro goalie skills on Sunday”. Notice the subject indicates what the body of the e-mail is going to be about in further detail.

Short and sweet. Four sentences. Ten at the most. Most people aren’t interested in reading your entire life story followed by your two line question which has absolutely nothing to do with your life story. If what your asking isn’t too much, there’s no reason to drag it out. If there is a reason to drag it out, then it’s probably not worth asking. Respect the time of others.

ALL CAPS is not cool. You wouldn’t yell at someone when you’re face-to-face. Typing in all caps signifies it as such. It’s also a little harder to read all caps. Just use the standard methods when it comes to capitalization. I spent all those years in grade 5 circling letters and words that weren’t grammatically correct. May as well make it worth something.

BCC is the way. I’ve sent my share of mass e-mails. I learned early on as a courtesy notice that it’s best to use the BCC option especially to people who don’t know each other. By contrast, carbon copies are good as it “signals” to other recipients who else received the e-mail. Good for party invites and knowing who got it and who didn’t. Great way to prevent those embarrassing instances of “Oh, <name> didn’t invite you to his party?”

Use a signature. It’s basically a bunch of text that’s attached to your outgoing messages by whatever e-mail you’re using. It should include your name (or handle), a title, organization, web site and anything else that you deem essential. Save time for your recipients if they wish to look you up or check out your credibility.

Example:

Regards,

Matt “Matticus” Low
World of Matticus – Lead writer
WoW Insider – Columnist
No Stock UI – Editor

If done right, these tips ought to help you become more focused when writing e-mails (especially the business correspondence type).

When I first started blogging, I was the only one involved. Whenever I had an opportunity whether it was in class, on the bus, at Starbucks, I would sit and write as much as I could. A reputation was established where I was able to write a post every day. Approaching this time last year, I knew I could no longer maintain that pace. Not without help.

I launched a new community. It now has over 2500 registered users.

A second blog was launched a few days ago. Already it has 100 subscribers and will have been viewed 10000 times in under 48 hours.

You know what I realized?

I’m not just a writer anymore. I didn’t realize it at first. But I was going through my email and responding to other people on Twitter and I’m answering all these questions and throwing in suggestions to people I don’t really know.

I’m collaborating with the other bloggers on the team. We’re all bouncing ideas and suggestions off of each other. I’m having loads of fun working in a team environment. They all like to write. I can’t help but be worried. Writing and working with me is volunteer gig. I want to teach them what I know and what I’ve learned. Syd and Lodur were both excited because they knew they’d be able to work with one of the best. Everything about writing, about marketing, promotion, public relations, blogging, and so forth all taught by one guy.

In return, I offer them a place where all they can focus on is their blogging and writing. Everyone gets a thrill when someone reads something they write. It means that someone cares about what you actually say! They’re not quite building from the ground up. They’ve started at the mid level and have shortcutted the other technical steps along the way (which is good because those are boring).

I’m not just a simple blogger anymore.

I’ve become an editor, a mentor, and a teacher now.

At what cost, however? I’ve stopped caring about school. I’m 3rd year. Most of my friends are graduating within the next few months. I’m behind the curve. My GPA’s in the crapper. It’s 2.25 to get into the program and I just declared. I’m tanking my two courses this semester. One of them’s an online course. My GPA will probably drop as a result. I’m going to become undeclared. I’m running out of courses to take. Every upper division Crim course at SFU is online. The seminar courses require 2.55 GPA to get in.

I haven’t spoken to my former best friend ever. I still think about her every once in a while. She doesn’t seem to know or appreciate what a huge influence she’s been. Ever since we stopped talking, I’ve stopped caring about school. I had someone who could hold me accountable. Now I have no one. I work better with other people. I study better when I’m with other people.

I feel like I’m standing on top of a roof with my back against the edge.

Being a D-List internet celebrity isn’t all that it’s made out to be.

Some call me insane. Others call me unbelievable. I’m apparently not human.

I decided to start another blog.

This would give me four major projects that I’m heavily invested in. World of Matticus has grown from a Priest blog to an overall healing blog. I’m a regular columnist for the powerhouse WoW Blog WoW Insider. Lastly, Plus Heal is a community forum for healers to discuss their craft.

What is it about?

User interface. Two words that reflect how people interact with stuff. Good design is what separates people apart from each other. Heck, a great interface can even decide elections.

Obviously what’s done is done. But had a different type of ballot been used, the past 8 years might’ve been different.

The new project I’m working on is a WoW blog. But unlike 99% of the WoW blogs out there, it won’t be about classes. It won’t be about PvP. It won’t be about raiding. You won’t find stuff about RPing.

No, this will be a blog catered towards how players interact with the game.

Where did you get this idea?

Two posts sparked it:

• 33 Raid Healing UIs
• Introducing the LilUI Compilation

Not only that, I’ve noticed that in other WoW blogs, UI posts or addons traditionally get a lot of views. So there is some definite interest out there.

Why not start a section for it on your blog?

One thing I’ve learned in my experience online is that a blogger cannot afford to stretch themselves thin. I’ve seen good writers, good personalities scramble and wonder why they don’t get many hits. It’s primarily because their blog doesn’t have a focus. Unless a blogger is amazingly sexy, it’s unlikely they’ll get a massively large following. Focus is the key here. World of Matticus is defined as a healing and raiding blog. It’s what its known for. That’s it’s identity and niche. Adding a UI section would just further saturate and turn it into a mess.

Plus starting a brand new project from scratch is always invigorating and re-energizing.

What topics will you cover?

The beauty of this blog is that it won’t be restricted to one type of player. I can ask contributors from any background to add their thoughts. This is going to be a different type of blog then what I’m used to. I’m much more serious and analytics on World of Matticus. I’m the same way on WoW Insider. But with this, I get to be a lot more fun with it. I can be as creative as I like. It’ll be much more visual with lots of eye candy. It’s going to be a completely different type of blog then the style I’m known for. It allows me to tap into the more fun side of Matt which doesn’t happen very often.

Current topics of interest include:

• Addon reviews
• Macros
• Player interfaces
• Addon configuration
• Comparisons
• Screenshots
• Recommendations
• Unheard of addons
• Design

My one glaring weakness is that I’ve never really written an addon or anything like that before. And it’s something I hope to address with another contributor. The perception to me is that writing an addon is hard and that someone has to be extremely intelligent or talented.

How often will you update it?

I have to be very careful here in juggling my workload. I will not commit to more than two blog posts per week for the time being. I will also try to ensure that I have a stable buffer. I think the days that posts will go up are going to be Tuesday and Thursday.

What goes into starting a blog?

When I started World of Matticus, it was my first blog. I had no idea how to get started. I didn’t know anything about writing, or promotion. I wasn’t great at networking. But slowly and surely, I started to read more. I started to apply what I learned. I mimic’d what other people did because it was one of the few ways I could learn something. And using the skills I learned should make starting up another blog easier.

Name

The name of the blog is very important. This is your brand. This is who you are. It took a long time for me to come up with a name. It can be short, it can be long, it can be English or it can be Latin. It can be whatever you want. But your name has to be memorable. I personally try to infuse it with a bit of style. I try to keep it short so that it’s easy to remember. And you definitely want to check to see and make sure that no one took your name. Otherwise it’s back to the drawing board.

Design

A blog layout is as much about looks as it is about functionality. What kind of information is this blog designed to convey? Too little information and readers will leave out of boredom. Too much and they leave because its overwhelming. Not only that, but how readers go from page to page is essential. What draws their eyes? What’s the first thing they read? How does the blogger plan to capture their attention?

A lot of thought is placed into things like where the comment link is or how to contact the author. These things are seemingly minor but it’s what separates mediocre blogs from really good blogs. Everything from text size to what shade of the dominant color is crucial because these aspects shape the overall feel of the blog. I’ve seen blogs where people hide their subscribe button in the footer. That’s just poor design. Why would you make it difficult for someone to subscribe to your blog? Catch their attention and hold it.

Content

It makes my blood boil when the first thing I see is a “Welcome” post. I know, I used to encourage people to do this before. But that’s for newer bloggers. I said that to make them get their feet wet and build up their confidence. It’s a post they can write to show themselves off and get readers to know more about them. I don’t think I’ll bother with an introduction post. Everything that needs to be known can be placed in the about or footer section.

I have much work to do. But boy do I feel energized.

So I was at the Paddlewheeler Pub in New West today catching the Canucks game. And every game they have a drawing. Everyone in the pub gets a slip of paper where they can fill out their name. There’s these three lockers in the corner and they’re filled with random stuff. The manager loads up things like tshirts, hats, free beer, and so forth.

Anyway, I’m chillin’ there with my friends and we’re watching the game that’s going on. I wolf down a massive burger along with 20 chicken wings (I have a weakness for wings and they’re cajun to boot).

Couple of hours later, the game ends and Vancouver loses in a shoot out. The pub manager grabs his microphone and starts heading out in front of everyone and signals that its time for the draw. He grabs the box, hands it to some patron and tells him to stick his hand in there and pull a name out.

“Matty Low! Come onnn dowwwwn!”

Realizing that it’s me, I stand up and start heading towards him amidst the numerous amounts of boos (they’re all jealous!)

I pick a random key off the table. I hurry and pull the other names out of the box and 2 other pub patrons join me. I go ahead and open the first locker but the manager tells me to wait.

He wants to make me a deal. He reminds everyone that one of these three lockers has a pair of Canucks tickets to an upcoming game.

“I will give you two free beers in exchange for whatever’s in that locker.” *pulls out 2 plastic cups*

“Nah.”

“Okay, well how about three free beers? For you and your friends over there!” *pulls out another plastic cup*

“No thanks, the locker for me!”

“Hold on, hold on! I’ll add 10 free wings. I know you love wings. You must’ve devoured like 80 tonight!” *pulls out a small basket*

I laughed and shook my head again.

“How about a box of Kraft Dinner? Can’t argue with macaroni!”

I raised my eyebrow and said no.

“THREE boxes of KD! Three times the cheesiness!” *pulls out 2 more KD boxes*

“No man, I’m goin’ for that locker!”

“What about some Vodka? Do you like Vodka? And a Kindersurprise egg!” *whips out one of those small, dinkey tourist sized bottles of Polar Ice along with an egg*

“No dice.”

“Okay, go ahead and check out that locker.”

I look inside and sigh. I extend my arm out and grab…

…a box of Kraft dinner and a plastic cup for a free beer!

I am a winnar!

Value attribution: Tendency to imbue someone or something with certain qualities based on perceived value instead of objective data.

It’s a cold, brisk January morning. You’re in Washington, D.C. heading off to work. You get off the bus and enter the subway station. As you jostle your way through the morning rush hour traffic, you hear the sweet sounds of Bach’s Sonatas (one of the toughest pieces to play). A quick glance shows a man in jeans and a baseball cap playing with his violin case open. Passerbys drop pennies and dimes. You even notice someone dropped a generous $10 bill.

The man is obviously nothing more than a street performer trying to make his way in the world.

Except he’s not.

That’s Joshua Bell. He’s a world-class violinist. The Washington Post managed to convince him to act as a street magician for 45 minutes as a part of a study.

Out of 1097 people that walked past, only 1 realized who he was and 7 stopped to enjoy his music.

You see, the early morning subway goers attributed Bell’s value to his appearance. He didn’t look like a world class performer. Instead of hearing a really cool concert, they just heard normal, ordinary street music. Since other people walked by without giving him a second look, others around him did the same.

Bell went virtually unrecognized. But he did make 32 bucks and some change.

(“Pearls Before Breakfast,” Washington Post, April 8, 2007, p. W10)

Here we have a jello cup from Taiwan. It is plum flavored. Still perfectly sealed.

No flaws, no cracks, no nothing. But there is a problem.

In order to eat jello out of a cup, you need a spoon. But what if you don’t have a spoon handy? You could be out in the mall and you have a craving for jello. Are you going to buy a spoon? No. No you’re not. It’d be a waste. And plastic spoons come in bulk.

Ah, but what’s this? Unlike the Matrix, there is a spoon. It’s attached directly to the lid. The designers of this product must have thought the very same thing. They included a spoon as a part of the lid knowing that there would be occasions where there is no spoon around. An example of brilliant product design!

And now our hero can enjoy his cup of Plum Jello without having to worry about finding an eating utensil.

The end.