Blog / February 2012

Encyclopedia Of Magic On Prank Patrol!

Published: 28 Feb 2012 by Jeff | Comments: 6

That's right!
Today we got to feature in an episode of Prank Patrol Down Under! The Australian version of the original Prank Patrol.

Wow, it was such a great experience! Still can't believe we're going to be in an episode of a TV show!
A really massive Thank You to Scott Tweedie (Scotty), Hannah, Verity, and of course to Bettina and the entire ABC3 production team! Everyone was fantastic and we all had such a great experience. It was the first time we got involved in a production like this, with a great director, epic cameras, lighting and sound crew. I hope we did alright on screen! It's kinda scary thinking about what the episode is going to look like, but exciting at the same time!

We featured in a little segment where they meet us and we teach Hannah and Verity some simple magic tricks they can perform in tomorrow's show. The girls were really switched on and picked it all up really quick. We all have our fingers crossed that it works out great tomorrow!
It would've been great if we could've done a few more things there, but time was limited and there was a lot of footage the team needed to shoot. A bit of a shame, but oh well! I mean, how cool would it have been if we could teach Scotty something too! Haha! Maybe we'll be able to meet up with the team again sometime!
Speaking of Scotty, that guy has so much energy its amazing! He can re-shoot the same segment over and over again and keep up the high energy every take. It is so tiring shooting for hours on end, but he really pulls it off well. Props to him!

To be honest, before we got invited to be a part of the show, I didn't actually know about Prank Patrol. Shows how much I know about children's TV..! It turns out that Prank Patrol is actually a top rated show on ABC3, and after looking it up, it is really amusing!
The strangest part is probably when I discovered a number of my friends actually watch the show occasionally! I can only imagine how bizarre it would be if they are watching a random episode, and it happens to be the one that we feature in! Hahaha, but in all seriousness, it is great to be able to be a part of a children's TV show to provide entertainment for so many children all over the world and give them a good laugh!

Go team! Keep an eye on the upcoming episodes, because Encyclopedia Of Magic has officially been a part of Prank Patrol! Woo! xD

I am very curious to know whether anyone here has watched Prank Patrol or Prank Patrol Down Under and what your thoughts are?

LINSANITY!!!!!

Published: 25 Feb 2012 by Lenny | Comments: 1

To Linfinity and beyond! 

(Ok ok...I will spare you guys. I think we've heard enough of all the 'Lin' play on words)

For those who didn't know, basketball is a huge hobby of mine and there's no way I could lie to you guys...I caught the Linsanity bug. But what do I really think about Jeremy Lin?

Ok, if you don't know who Jeremy Lin is or you're wondering why you keep hearing all these play on words like 'LINSANITY', 'all he does is LIN LIN LIN', or 'FOR THE LIN', then let me give you a very quick summary.
Jeremy Lin is an Asian American basketball player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent, a Harvard University graduate who VERY quickly rose to stardom in the NBA. There are a couple of reasons for this sudden hype: 

• One - he is the very first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent.
  Ok I will be completely honest...he is getting alot of hype for the simple fact that he's asian. Period. If an African-American player made the same stats as he has been getting, it would just be a normal thing. Black players do what he does every night but not many are singing praise for those guys. It's unfortunate but part of the hype is because of race. 
• Two - he unexpectedly led the New York Knicks to a winning streak and was promoted to the starting line up.
  What Jeremy has done on the basketball court and how the New York Knicks have benefited from him is the true story here. This is what's most important. Not many people know, but Jeremy started at Golden State Warriors (his hometown), then moved onto the Houston Rockets before the New York Knicks picked him up because they simply needed to replace their injured players. He was competing for only a backup spot and even considered himself the 12th to 15th guy on the roster (that's pretty bad considering there's only 5 players on the court from one team). 
  The beautiful thing is...Jeremy was given an opportunity and he took it with both hands and look at where he is now. Don't get me wrong he didn't get to this point without hardwork. If you check him up, he has gone through ALOT to get to this point and he will continue to face problems. Like right now, there's a huge thing about the media commenting on his race. 

To me, Jeremy isn't a flashy player. There's nothing fancy about him. He's not a LeBron James, Dwayne Wade or a Kobe Bryant. He gets the job done on the court. He played amazing and very inspiring basketball in the Knicks winning streak but after a few losses and turning over the ball alot, people are starting to be very critical of him. I've been seeing headlines like "Lin fails to lift Knicks", "Lin and Knicks overwhelmed by the Heat", "Heat gives Lin, Knicks a reality check". Cut the guy some slack! I'm sure he's not the only player on the Knicks. What about Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire? Did they play well? Well....no they didn't and the Miami Heat's big 3 Wade, Bosh and James were just too good. To be honest, they are in another league at the moment in the whole competition.    

Ok I can talk FOREVER about basketball but what I'm trying to say is, Jeremy is a prime example of hardwork, focus and passion for the game. If you genuinely love what you do, you will excel in it and that's that! Hopefully Jeremy can become a 10 year NBA player. I will leave you guys of a clip of Jeremy Lin's Highlight for those who have no idea what I'm ranting about and also for the basketball fans who wanna appreciate some good basketball =P

Talk soon guys!

ps LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS THINK OF JEREMY LIN. I am very interested to know =)

Lenny (aka Frog)  

How To Make Money With Magic - Part 04

Published: 23 Feb 2012 by Vinh | Comments: 1

Ahoy hoy guys!

haha I thought I’d change the greeting up a little to keep you guys on your toes! (Clearly lame..)
Since the last post I went back through some of our old youtube videos and started to look at what kind of comments surfaced most frequently... So today we’re going to talk about criticism!

If we all lived in the perfect world and every one always praised us for what we did wouldn’t that be great? WRONG!! lol (I don’t mean to be so dramatic!) Guys think about it, if we are never criticised that just means that

1. people are most likely lying to us and

2. we will never improve.

Sometimes we forget that criticism is what we need in order to move forward and become better. Now having said this there is such thing as constructive criticism and destructive criticism, if it is constructive make sure you take the time to listen to the criticism and take everything on board. Where as if it is destructive then just ignore it! I am sure you guys will know the difference between the two when you see it or hear it.

Every time someone criticises me rather then thinking OM%$^^^&$!#@% WT@#%$. I think to myself “Hmm is this constructive?” if yes then I do an honest no BS analysis of the situation to see what I can learn from their comment. We have to learn to look at criticism as our friend not an enemy. It is only then that we can truly become great at what we do.

On the same point, how many times have you all been told “That’s impossible!”, “You can’t do that, John Bob tried it and failed”, “You’ll never make it, don’t waste your time” etc etc
Let me tell you guys something right now, we are only limited by our own our mind set. Do not let others influence you in a negative way, be determined to be who you want to be regardless of what people say. Don’t ever forget that you are the one that is in control of the choices you make in your life. I just want to boost all of you in the best way I can. Everyday there are people out there who are constantly putting us down, they tell us we can’t do this and we can’t do that... Well I am here to say YES YOU CAN period.

I need you guys to watch this video! I promise it will inspire you :)

Blending Chicken Breast!

Published: 21 Feb 2012 by Jeff | Comments: 9

Today I went and got myself a new blender! A pretty decently powerful one at that! It was way more expensive than I would've normally paid for a blender, but seeing as I had a voucher from a long while back, I thought I may as well use it!

For many people, eating is one of the most difficult parts to body building. Even more so than the training itself, because it is easy to remain focused and train hard for 45 minutes or an hour. Being able to eat well is something that needs to be managed all day every day. A number of people have told me that blending chicken breast is a great easy way to get quality protein, as an alternative to having to eat the same amount. Personally, I find it very difficult to eat the amount of protein that I should at every meal, because chicken breast tastes remarkably bland and uninteresting. Even more so if it is cooked in a way to maximise health. Because of this, it would obviously be much easier to drink the contents down in one hit and be done with it.

Now blended chicken sounds terrible... but I put it to the test tonight! After boiling the chicken until it was cooked, I put it into my new blender and let it work its magic! The first round came out looking much like sawdust :P so I figured I needed to add water to it. After adding water, it turned out much smoother, and I tried some of it. To be honest, it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It literally just tasted like boiled chicken breast. Bland but not particularly repulsive.

Next I got to adding a few more things to it to make it taste significantly better. I added some garlic, onion flakes, onion salt, some all purpose seasoning, and some carrots. Surprisingly, this time around when I tried it, it was much like drinking chicken soup, albeit a thick and chunky chicken soup. After adding a little bit more water and giving it another whirl, the result actually turned out quite good! It was almost just like a pasta sauce! I have to say I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. It is probably still something that I will get sick of after having it too much, but for now, I think I've found a great way to get my required protein intake without having to choke down chunks of bland meat!

I guess I will also have to see whether or not this actually works in terms of improving body composition. All a work in progress! Can't wait to see the results in a couple of weeks. We are all actually thinking about doing the P90X workout program as well, the reviews for it have been awesome! If we can train to look like spartans in 90 days, then we are all keen to give it a go!

Has anyone tried drinking blended chicken juice? Or maybe tried the P90X workout program?

Animal association

Published: 17 Feb 2012 by Lenny | Comments: 3

Ok....so it's not rocket science.....

If you think of Australia, you would immediately think of kangaroos. Right? And if you think of burgers, you will think of McDonalds. So if you say Jeff.....I would say ....MONKEY!!!! IT'S A NO BRAINER!

Poor Jeff has been called a monkey for a while now, I feel so bad for him....well you know what? I take that back....he puts it on himself with the way he does his hair; the way he waves his arms around as he's walking and not to mention the throwing of the poo onto the walls. It's no secret....we're proud of our endangered animal friend here at EOM and we will promise we'll continue to feed him all the right stuff and will train him well....if he doesn't behave then we have no choice but to tranquilise him.

Ok enough of that! So you guys would have heard of 'animal association' and that was an example right there. Do your friends 'animal associate' you? DO THEY SAY YOU LOOK LIKE AN ANIMAL?

One day, Jeff just randomly goes to me...'hey man, with your new glasses....you look like a FROG!' Now.....I'm a frog and I'm actually being called Kermit. Do I even look like a frog? Guys...be honest...DO I?  Or is Jeff trying to just add a friend to his animal world?

Ok Vinh was hard...after me....Vinh just HAD TO be associated with an animal....it was actually quite hard....but my girlfriend hit the nail on the head. Vinh's a RHINO!!!!! What do you guys think?! Well it's sorta too late about what you think because for Vinh's birthday late last year, I bought him a rhino. Check him out in the photo! Cool right?

hahaha there's a little peak into EOM.....this animal association is sorta our inside joke we have going on. So EOM consists of a Rhino, a Monkey and a Frog. There I said it...it's out there now D:

We're even thinking of making our animals into merchandise with our logos on them. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THAT? Would you guys want one? 

Lenny =D