So, a lot has been written and said about last night’s post-hockey game riot here in Vancouver. Some insightful, some emotional, some ignorant, and some satirical. I won’t even begin to pretend I have the wisdom to assess the why’s and the how’s of the insanity that took over Vancouver last night, nor do I really wish to share my disappointment and shame in the events and my fellow Vancouverites.

Instead, I want to focus on more awesome things: Game of Thrones. I haven’t been keeping up with fantasy novels since I was a teenager so I never heard of the books until HBO’s television series started. But what an amazing show this is. I’m completely obsessed with the plot, the dialogue, and the characters. And the production value is amazing. I think the Lord of the Rings films set the bar pretty high for all following fantasy productions, but Game of Thrones really steps up to the plate and kills it. Amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Sunday is the Season One finale, which has me both incredibly excited but a little anxious knowing I won’t have my weekly Game of Thrones fix until next season (and who knows when that will be?). The last episode was pretty crazy, and the preview for the finale promises a lot more developments. I can not wait.

Want to say ‘thanks’ to someone quickly and easily online? Still in beta phase, giftee is an online service that works with Twitter to send real-life gifts to show your appreciation. Small tokens of thanks such as redeemable virtual gift cards for drinks or snacks at participating stores and restaurants can be bought online through giftee, and then tweeted to the recipient.

As the purchaser, you can browse through nearby participating retailers to select an appropriate gift, and pay online using a credit card. When finished, it’s as easy as tweeting a message to your friend with the giftee link, which the recipient can then access and show to the retailer to redeem their gift. Best of all, unclaimed gifts will be donated to various charities, including Coffee Kids, which helps support families of coffee producers in Latin America. Unfortunately, giftee is currently available to people in Japan — although, really, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a huge success all over the world.

giftee is truly one of those projects which make me think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” What a simple, amazing way to expand on the ‘social’ aspect of social media and combine the offline and online. It’s quite the contrast to ultra popular Groupon which encourages impulse spending on yourself for things you normally wouldn’t buy anyway. (Though I am highly suspect of the long-/short-term popularity of Groupon and how sustainable its current business model is…) It’s essentially a literal realization of Facebook “gifts” which are purchasable but are just virtual icons — really kind of pointless, if you ask me.

I’ve seen a few tweets on my Twitter feed already with people I follow sending giftee presents to each other, and it makes me happy. Here’s hoping giftee makes its way to North America soon.