So, since I last posted here I turned 27 years old and atteneded Anime Weekend Atlanta 2009. Both fun times! Planning to get a PS3 Slim next week.

It's been a long time since I updated this blog. things here are going well. We're moved into the new apartment and still doing our small podcast--now monthly rather than weekly. I plan to write more in the future.

Lots of stuff is taking place in my life right now. We're preparing to move out of the house we're in now and relocate to an apartment. It should make things interesting, no doubt about that. I've lived in this place for over TEN crazy years... I grew up here and in some ways, I'm sad to see it go but given family tragedies and issues that have taken place in recent years, in some ways I'm also glad to leave this place behind and start over.

Next year is going to be busy... but I'm ready to be busy so it's all good. I'll be heading back to college to either become a Social Worker or a Human Resource Manager. I think I'm more than capable of doing either of these jobs but I'm just not exactly sure which one is the best fit. This of course means less times for video games and movies but having money to buy these items I so cheerish is quite nice.

My birthday in on September 5th and TNA Impact hits September 9th (Happy Birthday to me). I'm just planning to go out to eat with my family for my birthday. It should be fun.

The rest of the year for video games for me is filled up. In October, we've got Fable 2 (and MAYBE Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD... maybe...) in November we've got Fallout (I think that hits in November anyway), Smackdown vs. Raw '09, Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content and Left 4 Dead. The wonders of the Holiday season, right?

Then early next year we've got Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter 4. Yep, no shortage of games anytime soon, my friends! :)

Check out RareDrop.com and give our podcast a listen if you find the time. I'll see you guys soon.

-Yuen Fei Lung

Yep, I've been watching the Olympics from Beijing. I have to say, it's pretty cool this year. I've always been big into Chinese (and Asian) culture. Besides that, I've still been working on Rare Drop. I've got two additional sisters sites up from Rare Drop as well--Huracanrana Pro Wrestling (a pro wrestling blog/podcast site) and The Fighting Spirit (a review site for martial arts cinema). Hm, if you think about it, with the Olympics going on in China it really is the perfect time to re-launch The Fighting Spirit.

So, that's what I've been up to the past few days. Even though I'm still unemployed, I've been keeping busy. Anyone want to hire me? *L*

IGN had a ton of new footage of the TNA Impact video game late last week. For a long time, I've wanted to get excited about this game but knowing how wrestling games have been I decided not to get my hopes up. However, I can no longer hold back my excitement for Impact. It looks REALLY, REALLY good and the gameplay LOOKS to be just what I desire of a pro wrestling game--fast paced and action packed. The storymode looks pretty silly and the voice acting sounds awful (though I only saw a small portion of that)... but hey, it is pro wrestling and at the end of the day the things that really matter to most pro wrestling fans are the gameplay and the create-a-wrestler mode. From what little I saw of the create-a-wrestler mode I don't think it looks as customizable as Smackdown but there again, it's hard to tell from just a few seconds of video.

I'm sure I'll be talking a lot more about TNA Impact in the coming weeks. Until next time, everyone!

-Yuen Fei Lung

I've never had the aspirations to be as big as a site like Giant Bomb, GameSpot, GameTrailers or 1UP but I've always felt that the gaming industry is so big that there's plenty of room for educated fans of video games like myself to have to a successful income just by being able to write and talk about our favorite pass time. It's no different than sports columnist or sports radio shows. So, because of my crazy thought process, my friends and I created Rare Drop--a podcast video game website. The site launched earlier this year and I'm proud of what we've accomplished in such a short amount of time. I see Rare Drop as an Underground alternative compared to sites such as a GameSpot (and by the way, I have no problem with GameSpot but like most people I question choices that the financial department has made in the past...). Like lots of other gamers out there I'd love to be able to just write about video games all day to make money. Is this realistic? I’m not really sure but I guess I’ll be finding out in the coming months.

Rare Drop version 2 is probably as far as I’ll be able to take the site from a design point doing it by myself. I’m not bad at HTML and web applications but being a legally blind guy, I fully realize that there are some things I just cannot see when it comes to designing a website. Even so, I’m really happy with how version 2 looks (by the way, I didn’t actually design the WAY version 2 looks, just how it navigates—someone else designed the skin of the site).

Right now, the main focus of the site is still (and probably always will be) the podcast itself. I’m hoping to be able to sell advertising space within each show. But in order to do this, we’ve got to have a solid user base… and that’s something that we’re sorely lacking right now.

So, the next few months will be interesting. No matter what’s going on, I still intend to continue running the site. I plan to return to college later next year and finish up a journalism degree but I feel confident that I can balance both the website and school. My dream would be for Rare Drop to take off big and just continue to do it as a full time job but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. Still, I’m excited about the future and very proud of the website itself.

So, check it out! http://www.raredrop.com.

-ExtremeBlade (AKA Yuen Fei Lung)