As soon as I saw the “10 Things you didn’t know” meme start back up again, I knew immediately that I needed to write one up for myself. Actually, this will be the second one of these I’ve ever written. If you’re really interested, you can read the original 10 Things You Don’t Know about Dragons blog that I wrote three years ago. That blog was mainly video game related. I’ve decided instead to make this blog a little more personal. I hope you enjoy.

1) I actually started the original “10 Things you don’t know about ..” meme.

Yeah I bet you didn’t know that one did you. I wrote the original blog entry that kicked this entire meme off. To my misfortune, I decided to do this on a weekend when I was doing the Cblogs recaps. I had to recap the majority of the meme myself. It took forever to do, but was so worth it. You can find the original meme recap here.

2) The thing I want most in this world is to have a big family of my own.

I grew up in a huge family, with lots of uncles, aunts, cousins, and second cousins. Ever since I was a kid I always knew that I would want to have a big family of my own, with lots of kids and grandchildren. That might seem a little sappy, but I don’t really care. It’s a dream I’ve always had, and hopefully one day my wife and I will be able to make it a reality.

3) I’m obsessed with working out and I’ve lost 30+ pounds in the last 3 years.

When I first met my wife I weighed the most I ever had in my life. Going out to nice lunches everyday and not working out will do that to you. When I met her though, I decided it was time for a change, so I stopped going out to lunch and started working out and bringing in healthier lunches instead. I now work out 4 days a week, which includes weight lifting, running, and playing basketball, and since then I’ve lost 30+ pounds. It’s something I’m extremely proud of.



4) My favorite TV show of all time is Babylon 5.

I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m a complete Babylon 5 junkie. I own every single episode on DVD, including all the made-for-TV movies, and I think I’ve seen everyone one at least 4 or 5 times. The characters and the story are just so incredibly good. Other shows like Deep Space 9 and Battlestar Galactica have come to close to what Babylon 5 did, but neither of them could top it.

5) I had a chance to meet Felicia Day at E3 2010, but I chickened out!

She was standing 10 feet away from me with a couple of her friends and all I had to do was walk over, say hello, and tell her how awesome I think she is. Instead I pussied out like the chicken I am. It was a low moment in my life that could have been an awesome one! There’s a lesson to be learned from this kids … I think.

6) I own every episode of Sex and the City on DVD.

It’s a good show damnit and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

7) I’m the longest running Cblog Recapper left.

I started doing the CBlog recaps back in 2008, and I haven’t quit since. That’s almost 4 years for those of you keeping count. Destructoid has changed a whole hell of a lot in those 4 years, and lot of great community members have come and gone, but I still love this place. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be a recapper, but I’ll keep reading them if you keep writing them.

8) My wife is better than me at Mario Kart.

I’ve never admitted this to her, but I need to admit it to someone. We actually played Mario Kart together on our very first date, and I lost to her badly then. I’ve only continued to lose to her since. I’m good at games damnit, especially racing games, but she is just better at me at Mario Kart. It’s time to stop denying the truth and just admit it to myself.



9) I collect dragons.

I bet this one comes as a real shocker doesn’t it. If I’m out shopping and I see a cool dragon statue, or a cool stuffed animal dragon, I buy it. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now, and while my collection isn’t gigantic, it’s getting larger every day. I’m really picky though, and I’m not willing to spend tons of money, so it has to be a dragon that really catches my eye for me to pick it up. The picture above is of the collection of dragons I have in my office at work.

10) I play the bagpipes.

No I’m not Scottish, but I have been to Scotland. I started playing the bagpipes when I joined the Boy Scouts. My troop leader always had this dream of starting his own pipe and drum band, so he decided to turn his Boy Scout troop into a band. We all started out playing when we were only 10 years old, and the band just blossomed from there. We toured all over the east coast, performing at community events, in parades, at Boy Scout camps, churches, weddings and private parties. Our biggest performance was playing in front of 100,000 people at the 1994 National Boy Scout Jamboree. If you must know … I do own a Kilt, which I would wear proudly today if I could still fit into it.

Three years ago I sat down and wrote a Christmas song dedicated to the entire Dtoid community which I entitled “The 12 Days of Destructoid Christmas”. It's a spin of the famous Christmas song we have all heard many times before, but my version has a Destructoid inspired spin to it.

Next, I got the crazy idea to actually record myself singing this song. I’m not sure what I was thinking, because I do not have the best singing voice. Well afterwards I took the song and turned it into a music video and presented it to the entire community.

Ttwo years ago I made a few slight changes to the song and posted it again for all to see. Well it's once again Christmas Day, so I’ve decided to bring it back one more time to share with all of you once again. Since a lot of you weren’t around the last three years, this will be your first time hearing and seeing it. I really hope you all enjoy it. I put a lot of love into this song to give back to a community which I enjoy so much being a part of.

MERRY CHRISTMAS DESTRUCTOID!

***The contest signups close today at 12pm EST***

This year I’ve decided to resurrect the Unofficial Destructoid March Madness Tournament Bracket Competition that I originally started two years ago. Last time I threw this together at the last moment, and it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Well this year I’ve taken some additional time to plan the competition, and it should run a lot better. Also, I do have an official prize this year for the lucky person who wins.

Now some of you might be asking while I’m throwing a basketball contest on a video game website. While I know we all love video games, this is an opportunity for those of us who love college basketball to share another passion with members of this great community. It’s also an opportunity for people who aren’t big basketball or sports fans, to maybe become fans.

How do you Sign Up?
I have set up a Dtoid group on the Yahoo Sports tournament bracket site. Click this link to sign up for the tournament and create and submit your own personal bracket. You’ll need to sign up for a Yahoo account if you don’t already have one, so make sure you do that first. I don’t think it should ask you for a password to enter the Destructoid group, but if it does, the password is dtoid. Please note that the last time to sign up will be 12pm EST on Thursday.

Everyone is welcome to enter. Only 1 will win.

Scoring System
You earn points by picking the winners of each matchup. The farther into the tournament you get, the more points you get. You also get bonus points for picking lower-seeded teams correctly. If you correctly choose a lower-seeded team, you will earn a bonus of the difference between the seeds. For example, if you choose a 10th seeded team over a 6th seeded team, you’ll earn 4 bonus points. See the chart below for the regular number of points you get for picking the correct team.

Round 1 - 4 point for a correct pick
Round 2 - 4 point for a correct pick
Round 3 - 8 points for a correct pick
Round 4 - 8 points for a correct pick
Round 5 - 8 points for a correct pick
Round 6 - 16 points for a correct pick

Bonus Points - Correctly choosing lower-seeded teams will earn you bonus points equal to the difference between the seeds.

The person who has the most points in the end wins

What do you win?
This year the winner’s prize will be a blu-ray copy of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Please note that I can only ship to people in the continental United States, so please do not enter the competition if you live out of the country.



So please feel free to join and compete. Everyone is welcome. If anyone has any problems signing up, or any questions let me know. Please note that the last time you can sign up is 12pm EST on Thursday (that's TODAY!!!)

This year I’ve decided to resurrect the Unofficial Destructoid March Madness Tournament Bracket Competition that I originally started two years ago. Last time I threw this together at the last moment, and it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Well this year I’ve taken some additional time to plan the competition, and it should run a lot better. Also, I do have an official prize this year for the lucky person who wins.

Now some of you might be asking while I’m throwing a basketball contest on a video game website. While I know we all love video games, this is an opportunity for those of us who love college basketball to share another passion with members of this great community. It’s also an opportunity for people who aren’t big basketball or sports fans, to maybe become fans.

How do you Sign Up?
I have set up a Dtoid group on the Yahoo Sports tournament bracket site. Click this link to sign up for the tournament and create and submit your own personal bracket. You’ll need to sign up for a Yahoo account if you don’t already have one, so make sure you do that first. I don’t think it should ask you for a password to enter the Destructoid group, but if it does, the password is dtoid. Please note that the last time to sign up will be 12pm EST on Thursday.

Everyone is welcome to enter. Only 1 will win.

Scoring System
You earn points by picking the winners of each matchup. The farther into the tournament you get, the more points you get. You also get bonus points for picking lower-seeded teams correctly. If you correctly choose a lower-seeded team, you will earn a bonus of the difference between the seeds. For example, if you choose a 10th seeded team over a 6th seeded team, you’ll earn 4 bonus points. See the chart below for the regular number of points you get for picking the correct team.

Round 1 - 4 point for a correct pick
Round 2 - 4 point for a correct pick
Round 3 - 8 points for a correct pick
Round 4 - 8 points for a correct pick
Round 5 - 8 points for a correct pick
Round 6 - 16 points for a correct pick

Bonus Points - Correctly choosing lower-seeded teams will earn you bonus points equal to the difference between the seeds.

The person who has the most points in the end wins

What do you win?
This year the winner’s prize will be a blu-ray copy of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Please note that I can only ship to people in the continental United States, so please do not enter the competition if you live out of the country.



So please feel free to join and compete. Everyone is welcome. If anyone has any problems signing up, or any questions let me know. Please note that the last time you can sign up is 12pm EST on Thursday.

Two years ago I sat down and wrote a Christmas song dedicated to the entire Dtoid community which I entitled “The 12 Days of Destructoid Christmas”. It's a spin of the famous Christmas song we have all heard many times before, but my version has a Destructoid inspired spin to it.

Next, I got the crazy idea to actually record myself singing this song. I’m not sure what I was thinking, because I do not have the best singing voice. Well afterwards I took the song and turned it into a music video and presented it to the entire community.

Last year I made a few slight changes to the song and posted it again for all to see. Well it's once again Christmas Day, so I’ve decided to bring it back one more time to share with all of you once again. Since a lot of you weren’t around the last two years, this will be your first time hearing and seeing it. I really hope you all enjoy it. I put a lot of love into this song to give back to a community which I enjoy so much being a part of.

MERRY CHRISTMAS DESTRUCTOID!

So … I have really BIG news I wanted to share with everyone here in the Dtoid community. I took that next big step in my life this past weekend and asked my girlfriend Nicki to marry me. Unfortunately she was crying too many happy tears to answer me when I asked the first time, but after asking again she said “YES”, which means I am now officially engaged. You can just think of her as the future Mrs. SilverDragon. :-P

If you’ve been readying my community blog, or any of my weekend recaps, over the past 2+ years, I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about Nicki. We’ve been dating for close to three years now, and I have to admit that video games have actually played a pretty important role in our relationship. When I first met her, probably 7 or 8 years ago, I attempted to impress her with my awesome Super Mario Bros. skills by playing the game while she was studying with my roommate for a test. Unfortunately that didn’t work, and it would be a while before I could actually convince her to go on a real date with me.

When we finally did go on our first date, we ended the night by going back to her place and playing Mario Kart: Double Dash on the Gamecube. I bet her that I could beat her, and if I did I would get a kiss. Well she actually kicked my ass, but somehow I ended up getting my kiss anyways: our first kiss. I had to admit that I was pretty impressed to find out on that first date that she had played and beat quite a few video games. She wasn’t obsessed with the hobby like I was, but she enjoyed them enough to understand why I played them so often.



Well it’s been many years since Nicki and I first started dating, and we’ve had a lot of good times together. There have been some bad times as well, but we’ve always worked through those as a couple and come out stronger because of it. I now know without a shadow of any doubt that she is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. That might sound a little sappy, but I don’t care, because love makes the most manly men sappy, including me.

Unfortunately, I do have some bad news. As I’m sure many of you know, getting engaged is not exactly cheap. Because I did it so close to PAX, I’ve had to cancel all of my PAX plans and cannot afford to go this year to meet you all. I really wish I could, as I was really looking forward to seeing and partying with everyone, but it’s just not going to be possible. I’m really sorry guys. Please don’t hold it against me! I hope you all have fun though, and hopefully we can meet at PAX 2011.

So now it’s time to plan a wedding. Somehow I have to convince Nicki to let me put Sonic and Mario on the wedding cake. Not sure how that’s going to go over with her, but we’ll see. Wish me luck ….
Thanks for listening guys. I’m really happy to be able to share this news with you all!