magic2

Jun 21, 2008 at 10:56 o\clock

Dragon Boats

Hello everyone. It's me, writing the blog again. You can call me Finn in English. How are you all?

I hope you enjoyed Feifei's last post about Bank Holiday plans. As she said, she went to the seaside town of Brighton to celebrate her birthday. Once again, happy birthday to Feifei.

And what did I do? Well, mostly I relaxed and saw friends. One of my friends is a musician – a singer-songwriter who plays modern folk music, so I went to see him perform in a bar in London.

Now – my topic for today is dragon boat racing.

Last week I was invited to take part in a dragon boat race. I was quite surprised to be invited as I didn't realise dragon boat racing was popular in Britain, though I had seen it before in China. I must say, it does sound like hard work, but I would like to try it!

The Dragon Boat Festivalis only a few weeks away - so I imagine lots of teams around the world will be training very hard for races.

But I want to ask for your cultural advice about the history of dragon boats.

I heard the story that people from the ancient state of Chu loved the poet and politician Qu Yuan very much. When he heard that Chu had lost a battle, he committed suicide by jumping into a lake. The people of Chu didn't want the fish to eat his body, so they threw in parcels of glutinous rice to distract the fish. People say this is why they still eat zongzi today - to remember Qu Yuan.

So – I understand the reason people eat zongzi, but I'm not sure why people race in dragon boats. What is the significance of the dragon here? Is it to scare the fish?
Have you ever taken part in a dragon boat race?

Or maybe you have eaten zongzi?

Here is a video report by BBC journalist Mike Bushell which explains the sport of dragon boat racing to people in Britain.

Listen carefully. He says – the emphasis is not on individual power instead it's on _______?

Ok, here are my questions again:

1) Why do people race in dragon boats during ?
2) Have you ever taken part in a dragon boat race?
3) Do you like zongzi?
4) What does BBC reporter Mike Bushell say is most important to being a successful dragon boat team?

Ok, that's all from me today. Speak to you soon!

Finn ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Jun 13, 2008 at 12:18 o\clock

Report: 'World of Warcraft' fan site sold for $1 million

by: magic2

Posted by Daniel Terdiman 5 commentsEditor's Note: This blog originally implied that Wowhead trafficked in the secondary market for World of Warcraft gold (WOW Gold). But the company says it does not.

There's a lot of buzz in the World of Warcraft fan site universe this morning, with reports and rumors flying about fan sites being sold, about $1 million sale prices and even scuttlebutt about the uber company in the business of selling WOW Gold, IGE, having been sold.

According to a report from the blog, TechSoapBox, the WoW site Wowhead has been sold for $1 million.

Another blog, meanwhile, claims that, in fact, Wowhead was purchased by IGE's ex-parent Affinity Media.

Getting away for a second from the complexities of what it all means in the WoW, that's a pretty impressive number if it's true.

Whether or not Wowhead is involved in the WOW Gold business--the company says it's not--it's huge business, and it's changing with the sale of IGE, and other recent developments. I don't know any exact numbers--nor does anyone else since the buying and selling of WoW virtual assets, and those of most online games, is prohibited by the games' publishers. But by some estimates, the so-called secondary market for these virtual assets (of all online games) is approaching $1 billion a year.

And if Wowhead doesn't traffic in WOW Gold as it claims, then $1 million for a fan site is a lot of money.

More interesting, perhaps, is the fact that IGE has been sold.

When I was at the Virtual Goods Summit at Stanford yesterday, I had a talk with Brock Pierce, IGE's founder, and he didn't say anything about it. It's true, he was wearing a badge from "Affinity Media," and admittedly, I am not entirely up to speed on the latest news in this industry, but rather than suggesting IGE had been sold and Affinity was getting out of the secondary market business, he hinted he wanted to get out.

This is all very interesting, and confusing. And as I hear more, dear readers, so will you. WOW Gold

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