*sigh*

1 ) Unlike Kaulus, who only mildly gets annoyed, I truly do hate getting tagged. Thank Kaulus, for this. :P

2 ) Despite hating this whole tagging thing, I somehow feel obligated to participate, and to pass it on. My apologies to the victims.

3 ) In the last year I've had to buy four bookcases to hold all the DVDs/Blue-Rays that I've purchased. Don't even get me started on how I'm storing all my games.

4 ) I also spend more on Lego than I do on clothes, shoes, beauty products, and other entertainment combined.

5 ) I have two cats, but I wish they were dogs.

6 ) I have a common-law partner whose preference for cats somehow outranks my preference for dogs.

7 ) I'm so allergic to any metals other than gold that I have to paint the buttons on my jeans with clear nail-polish.

8 ) I'm Canadian

9) I like really campy movies

10) Pokemon: Like the shows, Hate the cards, Love the games

Now I choose five people to tag.

1. DarkEclipse533

2. gamemasterwow

3. luke01999

4. Crushmaster - No idea who this is, but aparently he's never been tagged

5. Lansdowne5 - Because he seems to be responsible for Kaulus getting tagged, and since I adhere to a very loose no-tag-back sence of morality, I gotta get my revenge somehow :D

Last week I received a Nintendo News email, which mentioned Club Nintendo. I have an account with Nintendo so that I can register my games, but I had actually only ever registered one game with it.

For those who don't know, the way Club Nintendo works is by offering "coins" for activity, such as registering a game published by Nintendo for the Wii or DS and by completing very short surveys about the games after you've played them. You can even link your Wii Shop account with Club Nintendo and get Post Play surveys for some of the WiiWare/Virtual Console games you download. All these coins you get for doing this stuff are points that can then be used to buy swag. Most of the swag are items like game cartridge cases for holding your games, Wii Remote holders, and some Playing Cards with Nintendo themes. Oh, and if you earn a certain number of coins in a year, you get Gold or Platinum status, which gets you additional rewards on top of the stuff you can buy with the coins.

Yesterday I figured, what the heck, free swag, I might as well...

So I transferred my old Nintendo account to a Club Nintendo account, and filled out the Post Play Survey for Pokemon Pearl, the only Nintendo game I had ever registered. Because I had registered the game before I had the Club Nintendo account, I didn't get coins for registering.

So it turns out it's a good thing I never registered my Nintendo games. I went to the shelves housing my game collection, and found a big stack of Nintendo games that qualify for the rewards that are offered. After registering them all, I have enough coins for Platinum status, and some neat Nintendo items.

I even have a few games that I downloaded which qualify, but if you download them before you link your Wii Shop account to your Club Nintendo account, you have to contact Club Nintendo and get them to add the games to your Club account to get your coins.

Now I'm just waiting a few weeks before the Post Play Surveys show up in my Club account, so I can get even more rewards. Who doesn't love swag?

...So, after being a member of GameSpot since '04, never posting a single message to the forums, never adding any games to my lists, and likely never logging in, I've created my first blog and actually added all the games on my shelves to my Games List. Maybe one day I'll rate them.

I have no idea why I registered. Don't get me wrong, GameSpot is an awesome place. I frequent it regularly to check game news and search for other users who have asked the same questions I have when I want to toss a controller through the television screen. I've just never been socially active on this particular gaming site.

However, after spending some time at the Lego website, playing around on MLN (My Lego Network), and finding the message boards they have to be sorely lacking in ease of use, I stumbled on The Lego Union, where Lego fans, both of the Video Games and of the little plastic bricks themselves, have been gathering at GameSpot since Aug 19, 2007.

So here I am. I was surprised to find I even had an account, so I figured it was time to finally do something with it. Ta Da!