It started with an impromptu dinner party at my friend’s apartment, still inviting friends over the phone while chopping garlic.  We planned to make salmon with salad and garlic bread.  Of course with our scant cooking experience my friend and I had no idea how to actually make the salmon.  What can I say, my desire for eating good food usually trumps my desire for cooking mediocre-at-best food.  Naturally we turned to the Google.

And stumbled upon this video from YouTube:

Thanks Rita! We didn’t follow the recipe at all, except for the oil, garlic, salt and pepper part and to cook each side about 5-6 minutes.  We really made this “Simple Salmon recipe” bare bones simple.  Half expecting to cut into a stiff piece of overcooked salmon you’d find at a third rate casino buffet, I was delightfully wrong.  It was actually pretty great.  Simple and delicious.  And totally within my limited culinary prowess to make again.  Our friends loved it and thanks to YouTube and some improvisation it was a hit.

My awesome plating skills honed from years of watching Iron Chef and Top Chef.

After dinner we accompanied another friend to Panda Inn in La Palma.  She used to work there back in college and needed to pick something up from a friend.  Most people compare it to PF Chang’s.  We didn’t dine there that night but we went back last weekend to see how it compared.  Here’s a diagram showing how I would describe it.

Just shy of the real deal.

It is what is is, Americanized Chinese food but they do it well without taking it to the extreme.

Panda Inn is best known for their white chocolate dipped fortune cookies.  They are wrapped in various bright colors of foil.  It got me thinking about how fortune cookies are truly an American creation, served in Chinese restaurants all over the country, but not in China or Taiwan.  And the irony that they chose white chocolate, which does not even contain real chocolate (cacao), was amusing. While I much prefer dark chocolate, the cookie was still good.  We swapped fortunes and laughed at the most ridiculous ones.

While driving home, my friend got a call from her sister who had been notified via Twitter (@kogibbq) that one of the Kogi taco trucks was going to be in our neighborhood.  Yes, our bellies were full and it was 11pm- bedtime for working folk- but we could not pass up the opportunity of trying the much-hyped Korean bbq style tacos.  The fact that the Kogi truck had mostly eluded this food-loving group of friends since its rise in popularity in early 2009 was surprising enough.  Los Angelenos had been chasing these trucks down in impressive numbers (with impressive lines-1 to 2 hour waits!) as documented by LA Times, Newsweek, and NPR.

That night the Kogi truck was parked on a side street in an industrial park, next to Toyota headquarters.  The line was a mish mash of diverse patrons, young and old, some already prepared with lawn chairs for a taco picnic.  Others were content to plop down on the curb and chow down.  The taco truck experience is definitely a social one.  It’s best enjoyed with a group of friends while you wait in line.  I probably wouldn’t visit the Kogi truck by myself unless I had a killer craving.  There are those who complain about the long lines, but I think it’s all a part of the social experience.  You might see some familiar faces in line or even make some new friends.  It also gives you an opportunity to decide what to order, talk enthusiastically about the food inside out which is like foodie foreplay.  I think its a perfect marriage for Kogi to use Twitter, a social media tool, to engage people to meet up for some social eating.  After about an hour wait, our group chose to have our goods to go since it was so late.

My goods: one spicy pork taco, one Korean short rib taco, and sliders (basically the short rib taco on mini buns with special sauce):

Had the spicy pork taco for a late night snack over the kitchen counter.  Packed the rest up for lunch the next day.  The anticipation did not disappoint me.  Spicy pork taco was my favorite, a good amount of spiciness and great crunch and flavor from the cabbage slaw.  A perfect late night snack to round off my foodie adventure 2.0.

Kogi means meat in Korean.  If you know me, how could I be disappointed? 

But some of the old school TV shows have already been available on You Tube’s CBS channel since October. My nostalgia led me to explore the other aspects of the CBS site where I tried out the Watch & Chat where you join social viewing rooms and watch a show with other people.  They rolled this out in October as well.  You’re able to “comment” which is basically chatting with the other people in the same viewing room as well as play trivia games while watching your selected show.  You can also shoot an arrow or throw a tomato anywhere on the screen, accompanied by a cheesy sound effect.

It’s a really interesting idea and brings a new level of interaction to video.  It’s a bit ironic actually, since watching television has grown into more of a solitary affair.  Some families still watch their favorite shows together, but it seems more common to have a personal TV in every room of your typical middle-class family.  This is what comes to mind on a typical weeknight: Dad’s in the living room watching CNN, Mom’s in the master bedroom catching up on the daytime soaps she DVR’d, kids in the family room watching Hannah Montana.  Sounds stereotypical, I know.  But the point is this: people have the tools today to watch what they want, when they want, whereever they want.  Especially with TV available on the internet.  This leads to more solitary activity.  With more access, you won’t have to clear your schedule Monday night to watch 24 when you could record it on DVR, or catch it on Hulu or Fox.com.  Or for those so inclined, you could search for a torrent and download it with bittorrent on your computer.  It’s not as big of deal as it was before these tools.  So I’m not sure how much social viewing rooms will catch on when people are used to watching TV alone.

When things are a big deal however, people want to share the experience with others and that’s when interactive video can take advantage.  People tend to go to the movies with their friends and rarely, if ever, go alone.  There’s limited access to movies compared to TV so it feels like more special, more of an event.  And special events are meant to be shared experiences.  Like the CNN/Facebook Connect showing of the inauguration.  A historical event watched live, discussed live with live people over the internets.  And you could share this experience with people you actually knew, instead of the random anonymity that is more characteristic of live chat and commenting.  That’s definitely an exciting direction video is going.  I’m interested to see what other kinds of events this can be applied to.  Maybe sports.  Definitely the Olympics, that would be a great way to watch it.

Well, I’m off to indulge my nostalgia and watch the Pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 on CBS Classics. 

At first I thought this might be too personal to blog about since I have been trying to distinguish a line between professional and personal online (which can be a very slippery slope!).  And a political topic to boot.  But then I’ve never been one to adhere to the latest politically correct standards.  I really don’t care to meet any kind of standard set by any powers that be.  What I will strive to do here from this point on is to speak plainly and honestly, whatever topic it is.  There are enough time sinkers out there.

Today is the day I will remember forever.  There aren’t many of those.  The one where I will recount exactly what I was wearing.  What I ate for breakfast.  How I felt standing at work, watching the inauguration being projected onto a screen.  Whose historic magnitude I won’t fully know until I’m older, maybe much older.

But in our hearts we know.  You know if you’ve ever feared deportation or even internment.  You know if you’ve ever had to explain that you are American.  You know if you have ever had discrimination and prejudice erode your self worth.  You know if you have ever been treated like a second-class citizen.  Then you know the feeling.

Obama said in his speech, “This is the price and the promise of Citizenship.”

It is the most simple and complex emotion I’ve ever experienced.  To be a real, engaged American citizen.  To know what it is worth and how much it costs.  It is never easy.  It shouldn’t be because it should never be taken for granted.  I wish everyone to know this.  To really know this in their hearts.  And today I can actually say that MY President, knows this like I know this more than any other American President we’ve ever elected.  This is not a political or liberal thing.  This is a kind of unshakable human connection that shapes my American experience.

Aside from politics, the recession, global warming, the war, larger-than-life expectations and everything in between, today I am grateful to be reminded of the price and the promise of my citizenship and making me think about how I might be able to fulfill it.

My shopping behavior followed a recent Martiz Poll pretty closely, though my budget’s a bit tighter this year.

It reported that Gen Y (53% of respondents ages 18-29) shoppers are more likely than any other generation to shop Cyber Monday instead of Black Friday AND is the only generation planning to spend the same amount this Holiday season as they did the last.  Martiz says this could be attributed to the fact that this particular generation has never really experienced a recession.

Good for retailers, bad for a generation that is very ill-equipped to deal with what could be the worst recession since the Great Depression (the newspapers are printing it!)??  Gen X shoppers (ages 30-42) still plan on spending the most out of all respondents though it’s a decline from last year.

UPDATE: (12/3/08)

Online shopping did alright after all according to ComScore.  This year’s Cyber Monday turns out to be the second heaviest online spending day on record.  If only the same could be said for brick and mortar stores…

I’ve been in several short-term, non-committed relationships with photo sharing sites with lackluster results.  Consequently I’m behind on the times in regards to photo sharing.  I went from Webshots to Sony Imagestation (this site no longer exists but the print quality was great) and then reluctantly back to Webshots (that desktop upload app is horrid).  Fiddled with Picasa.  Shutterfly and Kodak had no viewing options for resolution.  (For some reason I missed the Flickr wagon altogether.)  And then gave up and just uploaded on Facebook because it’s super easy to upload and share photos (as evidenced by their milestone of a total of 10 billion photos posted.)  Call me a snob, but a 600 x 400 snapshot might be fine for coy poses at the bar, but it just doesn’t do Dave Grohl’s rock pose justice.  Or snow capped mountains or something majestic-like.  And can we really be bothered to upload photos to multiple sites just to share and just to print?  Apparently I’ve succumbed to that for a while but have become very disinclined to make prints.

Mashable’s suggestion that Facebook should look at acquiring/partnering with Smugmug sounds great to me.  I finally checked it out and it definitely scores high on the sexy factor.  It has easy adjustments to view photos at different resolutions, quick thumbnail navigation and one of the best slideshow layouts I’ve seen – BUT for $39.95 a year.  Flickr seems like the only other worthwhile option at this point and looking pretty good.  Versatile organization features and built-in Picnik editing kind of win me over.  Especially if I can intergrate it into the blog with a wordpress plug-in (winner!).  The everyman’s blogging platform and photostream working together. Until the day Facebook actually integrates photo sharing and prints, I’ll be on my laptop uploading photos to multiple sites.

UPDATE: (12/23/08)

The basic and FREE Flickr account didn’t keep me satisfied for long.  Due to my large photo collection I had to be able to organize my photos into more than 3 sets as well as upload over the free limit of 50 mb per month.  I was fast approaching my 50 mb quota within a month and before Christmas no less!  Understandably high volume during the Holidays.  Since I’ve had my digital SLR (a Nikon D40 starter) and become the house photog for many family/friends’ events it’s definitely been high volume.  And what kind of aspiring photographer would I be without a Flickr pro account, right?  So I went for the one year pro account for $24.95.  Which comes out to be about $2.08 per month.  Not bad for unlimited uploads and sets.

I’m really excited to explore all of the Flickr groups out there.  After some perusing I realized that’s the reason why Flickr has been so popular and will continue to grow its base – community.  In Web 2.0 community bonds foster longevity.  The community makes Flickr what it is, not the other way around.  As an outsider I had always thought of Flickr as a place to store and share your photos.  Now I see that it is first a social networking site based on photo sharing, which is a much more interesting concept.  After I get my back catalogue uploaded I’ll be ready to further explore the community and start connecting!

FF played Thursday and Friday night at the Hard Rock Hotel, but I went to the Friday night show. Both nights were sold out. I was thrilled that the venue was small, with a capacity of about 1,400.  Adding to the excitement was the recent announcement that FF would be taking a long break, meaning this would be the last show I could see for a while.  I was hoping for something like 2003’s secret show at Las Vegas House of Blues.  Nostalgia for the old days if you will.  The last time I saw FF was this May at The Forum which holds a ridiculous 18,000 (according to wikipedia).

This was again a very different show experience for me than the brace yourself craziness that I’m used to.  It was the tamest crowd I’ve seen at an FF show probably because people there were generally older.  They were also the nicest fans I’ve encountered for a while which was a breath of fresh air.  But still, I miss that intensity of the crowd even if it comes with bumps and bruises.  To me it somehow completes the whole experience.  It becomes both mental and physical, which relates to the correlations between religious and concert experiences that are often made.  The crowd is just as important as the live music at a show.  The interconnectedness between people for something you feel is larger than yourself is what keeps me coming back whether it’s a show at The Forum or the Troubadour.  How amorphous and irrational…

Of course FF and Dave did not disappoint despite a tamer crowd.  Highlight of the show was Aurora and New Way Home which I haven’t heard live in several years.  I was was able to catch Taylor before the show for a photo.  My friend also caught a used but fully intact drumstick after the show and gave it to me.  That’s really the best memento I could have gotten since it was a part of that show.

With the grip still partially on the drumstick…

Here are some of my shots from the night.  Click here to view the full album (you’ll have to wait until I fully complete my upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 plus enhancements – coming very soon).

Home Depot Center was the last stop on the tour. It was a lot of fun, and I had the unique opportunity to partake in a bit of a behind-the-scenes, industry experience. Tagged along with Hopeless Records friends on stage to see All Time Low play an acoustic set and later that afternoon the main plugged set. It was a completely different experience than being that kid standing elbow to elbow with a hundred other kids for hours in heat waiting for the band to come out, and then fully exerting myself by singing, jumping and shoving through the crowd. This time I actually had a completely unobstructed view of the band and even the crowd. My favorite part of the vantage point was seeing the crowd of a couple hundred kids undulating and going crazy for the band. Observing mob behavior from the stage is very entertaining. I even witnessed a girl fight break out during the set in which fists were thrown and faces were punched.

I’m probably near the tail-end of the warped tour demographic now, which is probably a good thing. It’s interesting to see how much the scene kids have changed in only 5 or 6 years. Whereas then you’d see a sea of monotone black shirts, now it’s oversize prints as pop art on tees. Clothing companies catering to this aesthetic have become much more prominent at warped tour. Their booths and labels are intertwined with the bands and the music. Sponsorships are everywhere. But they’re not in-your-face and that’s probably why they’re working. But that’s another post topic altogether.

Album with pictures from the Warped Tour After Party can be found HERE (you’ll have to wait until I fully complete my upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 plus enhancements – coming very soon). Here are some fun ones:

3OH!3's finale on stage

The crowd dancin' away...

It was a pre-warped tour party of sorts with numerous industry folks, musicians and fun-loving people. Free red bull vodkas, colorful cocktails and an assortment of domestic/import beer all night = fun night. Entertainment included Shwayze, Millionaires and 3OH!3 (on warped tour right now). And you could also rock out on Guitar Hero on the Xbox located next to the bar. I know, it was awesome.

with Hopeless Records friends Melissa, Ian, Erin and my friend Mindy

Open Bar

Patio Area

Hopeless Records' new artist Anarbor was there!

...and Zach from All Time Low!

Performances by Shwayze...

...Millionaires

...and 3OH!3.

I took many more photos.  To see the album in its entirety, (you’ll have to wait until I fully complete my upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 plus enhancements – coming very soon).

Thanks for a great time Hopeless kids!