Day 3 was even better. SPH gave us these little notepads to give away.

I stood a few meters away from the booth and gave each passer-by 1 brochure + 1 notepad. For the first time in five years, I witnessed Kiasuism in Singapore. A few aunties tried to snatch the notepad off my hand. Some who had already grabbed one pulled their children towards me aggressively to grab a notepad each. I was shocked!

Then, those who have received the freebie started reading the brochure and after reading the brochure, they looked for our booth to sign-up for membership on their own. I didn’t even need to say a word.

On the morning of Day 2, two men who were wearing official SCOGA T-Shirts came to the booth and asked if they could use my HP Mini Netbook for a while. I said yes, they sat down, inserted a USB thumbdrive, clicked the mouse, removed the thumbdrive and placed the netbook back in my hands. They were done within a few seconds.

I opened up my netbook to check for new mails and saw – a lumpy grey booger sticking to my monitor screen. YUCK! DOUBLE YUCK!  TRIPLE YUCK!

In case you don’t know what a booger is, here’s one for sticking on your own screen.

YUCK!

I felt like one of those frogs in my garden during the mating season – the males have to croak ever so loudly for so many hours during the mating season. They must have been worn out too. I started from 9am and a few hours into this, felt as though my throat was running a marathon and the Finish Line is so far away, it is not even in sight. I felt like quitting but had no choice but to press on until I get to the Finish Line at 9pm at night!

Thankfully, at 5pm, I was able to change location to a new cybercafe at Iluma. Iluma is a new shopping mall in Bugis. I still had to talk a lot at this new place but it is so much quieter, I didn’t have to strain my voice. It turned out to be quite pleasant after all.

I’m now about to set out for another day of talking out loud at the original location yesterday and to tell you the truth, I am dreading setting out. It’s like climbing Mount Kinabalu in Sabah and every day, you find yourself back at the starting point. Meanwhile, check out the new cybercafe on the Sky Floor (fancy name for top floor) of Iluma.

It has over 200 computers. Notice the amazing project screen above all the gamers.

On June 19th 2009, the Video Games Live Gaming Concert will be performing in Singapore. This year alone, it has performed at Burlington, Seattle, Taipei, Austin, Oakland, Kichener, Kalamazoo, Austin and Loveland to sold out crowds.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtaWmn6Xac

Find out more at the official Singapore Video Games Live website.

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This afternoon, my friend tried to convince me that cyber-gaming should be an athletic sports. I say, why not? If a ridiculous game like ping-pong can be considered sports, computer gaming should be as well!

• You might argue that computer gaming is fun.

But isn’t ping-pong fun? Isn’t basketball? Isn’t any other sports? The only sports I can think of that isn’t fun is running marathons, but then again, some people get a high from that.

How two men convinced us that their playing ping-pong is really sports

• You might say that people move a lot in those activities.

Well, every sports require a different level of physical activity. If you ask a badminton player, he will probably tell you, ping-pong players are slobs who hardly move at all. If you ask a ping-pong player, he will probably tell you, cyber-gamers are slobs who hardly move at all!

Who are we to be so high-and-mighty and decide just how much movement is enough to be considered as sports?

Besides, have you considered the level of fitness needed to sit upright for hours and click on the mouse and the keyboard until your fingers are sore? Unlike casual gamers (and casual ping-pong players), professional cyber-athletes are genuinely fit.

• You then say, gamers skip school to play games.

Oh? So gamers’ attitudes must change. Make cyber-gaming a legitimate sports. Teach our cyber-gamers the discipline and tenacity that is required to succeed. I bet the sexiness of cyber-gaming will slightly fall as well. *grin*

Now, Singapore’s top cyber-athletes who have won the National Finals are not supported to compete at the cyber-olympics a.k.a. WCG Global Championship in Germany

What should you do? You should help cyber-gaming be legitimized as sports so that future cyber-athletes can proudly win medals for the country.

Start by supporting the cyber-athletes who have already qualified to compete in Germany - blog about the sad situation of cyber-gaming in Singapore and donate your money to their cause.

Support them because otherwise, this kitty will be sad,

and this doggy will cry.

Help SCOGA raise funds to send Singapore’s top cyber-athletes win medals at the WCG Global Championship. We have very little time left, there is only two weeks to gather enough money to fly these athletes to Germany!

Images from http://allposters.com

UPDATE: Check out the video of me and a friend raising awareness for this cause.