Review: El Cotixan - San Diego

Ever get a craving for something that you have to have or else you just might die? Well, I had a craving like that for some good burritos. What better place to get burritos than in San Diego, right? And so at midnight, I (accompanied by two equally starving friends) left Irvine to fulfill these hunger pangs.



Our mileage at the start of the trip. These numbers were significantly higher by the time we got back to Irvine.

About an hour and half later, we arrived at El Cotixan (affectionally referred to by locals and college students as Coti's) where we ordered three large California burritos with french fries and no potatoes, thank you.


Oh the glory. This bad boy is stuffed with cheese, french fries, carne asada beef, onions, cilantro, and most important of all, Coti's famous orange sauce.


CJ and I are extremely happy, regardless of the fact that it's almost 2:00 AM. Burritos make everything better!


KG and the orange sauce. Rumor has it that this sauce goes bad after one day...to prevent people from replicating it (?). Not sure if this is a legitimate rumor, but this sauce is good nonetheless.



And as if we weren't crazy enough, we went down to La Jolla Shores to look at the seals, listen to the waves, and contemplate our existence in the context of the grander scheme of life. Deep stuff for 4:00 AM.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend El Coti's for a good California burrito. Regardless of where you're at or what time it is. Because El Coti's is so worth it.

El Cotixan
6785 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 552-8280

Review: Honey Pig - Buena Park

If you love Korean food and you haven't heard of Honey Pig yet...where have you been?! This restaurant, located in a small plaza just off the 5 freeway in Buena Park, has been growing in popularity. Though the locale is small and crowded, the food and experience here is definitely worth the wait.

















I had dinner today with a few friends from school (both non-Korean, as you can see). The great thing about Korean food is that they always bring out banchan, or small appetizer-like dishes (kind of comparable to Spanish tapas) right away. While we munched on those for a while, the waiter took our order and about ten minutes later, brought out a heaping plate full of kimchi, spiced bean sprouts, and MEAT. Oh. My. Goodness. And as if this isn't glorious enough, just wait till I tell you what they do to the meat!

















First, the waiter arranges the kimchi and beansprouts around the perimeter of a large metal pan. The point is to let them cook for a bit so the juices get flowin'.



Then, you add the meat and feast like you've never feasted before! There are several different cuts of meat you can choose (kalbi, daejigogi, samgyupsal, etc.). We ordered the chadolbaegi (thin slices of beef), kalbi (beef short ribs), and samgyupsal (like a thick slice of bacon).





























Just when you think you can't eat no mo', the waiter comes over with a pot of rice, some greens and mixes it to make bokkeum bap, a Korean-style mixed rice dish. Korean food is great, in that there are never leftovers because you can add rice to anything and get a whole other meal out of it.






















This picture pretty much captures how we felt at the end of the night.

With great service, great food, and a great atmosphere, this is one hotspot you should definitely check out.

Honey Pig
7212 Orangethorpe Ave
Buena Park, CA 90621

P.S. Project 2 for my Arts 60 class is due soon...we have to make a stop-motion animation clip at least 1:30-2:00 minutes long. I've never done a stop-motion anything before...I hope this turns out okay!

Note to Self:

When eating dimsum or any other foods that are equally rich in oils and carbs, drink LOTS and LOTS of hot tea. Otherwise everything will build up in your system and give you massive food coma. Like I'm feelking reigjht njow.....imd sxo trireddd........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It's been a long time, long time

I shouldn’t have left you, left you
Without a dope beat to step to

I'm sorry, dear Blogspot. After finals ended, I completely neglected you. I've gone snowboarding, hung out with old high school friends, went to some Christmas/New Year's parties and started Winter Quarter of my junior year, and I haven't even told you about it once! Even though I have multiple blogs going on at the same time (one for my friends and family to read, one for my ARTS 50--well, now ARTS 60--class, and a private one for my eyes only), I promise you are my favorite blog of all. It's about the quality of these entries, not quantity...right? Yeah.

So anyway. It's the end of Week 3 already! I'm taking Arts 11 (Media: Foundations), Arts 60 (Media: Video/Audio), LJ101A (History and Theory of Literary Journalism), and English 105 (Asian American Literature/Film Adaptation). Two Digital Arts courses, two LJ courses. A nice balance.

For my Arts 60 class, I just turned in my first project. We had to choose a non-fiction article and make a 1:00-1:30 minute video clip based on it. I chose an article about this couple (clickity click) who has been living in a hotel for 22 years, primarily because it shadows my life at the moment and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunities I would have to capture the shots I need. You see, I've been living in a hotel for about a week now because the drywall in my apartment got wet from a leak, and now my apt. complex needs to demolish that sucker so they can repair it and prevent mold from growing. Pretty much this means we get free room + board at the Residence Inn in Irvine, with complimentary breakfast buffets, pool access, a tennis court, wireless Internet and cable TV. Who wouldn't want to live here for 22 years or more?

Check out my website (www.christineherakim.com) to see the video I made based on my personal experience and the experience of Mr. and Mrs. Davidson, the couple featured in the BBC article I chose.

DIY: Make your own Internet buddy!

I uploaded the photos of my project to my computer, so that you can get a visual of the process behind the creation of my final project. Enjoy!



In order have a stable base to put my laptop on (to keep the weight of the computer from collapsing into the box I would use for the body frame), I took two container lids and inserted a roll of cardboard in between. After applying lots of glue at both ends, I painted the surface a happy yellow (it was the only paint I had at the moment) and voila! A "neck" :)



A sheet of cardboard wasn't going to be strong enough to support a laptop, so I took an old hardcover book that we never read anymore (it was a Where's Waldo? book, except my baby sister had circled where Waldo was on each page...), taped down the sides and the binding, drilled a hole through the book, and using a screw, attached it to the container lid. I also added a few globs of glue for good measure.



To make the body, I took an empty cardboard box and cut it so that it would fit properly on office chair I was going to use to transport "Prairie" to class. (Sorry about not rotating the pictures...will edit these pictures after I finish my final paper for tomorrow.) This is the front view.


Side view


Back view



I made a few holes in the other end of the container lid and marked each hole with red paint, so that when I stamped the surface onto the "body," I would know exactly where to insert the screws to attach the neck to the body.



Once the neck was fully secured...



...I took the chair...



...and set the body on the chair to make sure it was secure. And it was!



I had accidentally put away most of my materials and the yellow paint by the time I took this picture, but this is a glimpse of what my workstation looked like. Messy and fun.



This was the last step. I took some of my clothes, stuffed it with newspaper to give it shape, and gave my project a computer mouse for a hand. I wish I had taken a final picture of my project, with the laptop screen and everything, but for now you'll just have to imagine Prairie's face sitting on top of that yellow platform, streaming live to the class via iChat.

Did I mention the mouse was fully functional? I simply strung the usb cable through the arm, up the neck, and into the laptop. The armrest on the chair was wide enough so that the mouse could have a surface to move. I was pretty excited that it actually worked!

So that's how my project came to life. Of course, for most relationships forged through the Internet, sometimes this is as real as it'll ever get. You can imagine all you want and piece together an image of your new friend with the information they provide, but unless you meet them in person and go beyond the computer screen, that genuine human element will always be lacking.

Telestai

If you, dear reader, were at my Arts 50 final project presentation today, you should know that all of this was in fact a fabrication.

In continuation with my critique of the Internet as a flawed resource for building communities, albeit successful and wildly popular, my dear friend "Prairie" does not actually live in Queens, NY...in fact, she is a fellow student at my university who lives just a few minutes away from me. The tricky thing about the Internet is how easily disbelief is suspended, and how many people can so easily believe anything they wish to believe.

In my presentation, I created a "human" model of a friend who I had met through the Internet. Using a cardboard box, an ordinary office chair, my clothes, newspapers, a glue gun, nails, house paint, and LOTS of duct tape, "Prairie" was born--except she had a laptop for a head. Through the Video Chat feature on Mac computers, I was able to introduce her to my entire class in real-time.

Initially, I was afraid that something would go wrong. With something as fragile and risky to rely on like time, I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes. Prior to hauling my project to class, I made a mental note of the possible worst-case-scenarios I could face, and prepared alternative means to continue with (should something happen during my presentation). Of course, right as I finished loading the project into my car, the base that served as the "neck" I would rest the laptop on snapped off. With t-minus twenty minutes left until my presentation, I couldn't afford to go back to my apartment and glue-gun the pieces back together. I crossed my fingers and hoped desperately that after re-assembling the neck on to the body frame, the structure would hold my laptop for at least five minutes. Five minutes, that's all I asked...

I came to class early to make sure that everything would run through smoothly, technologically speaking. As an audience, I know how frustrating and time-consuming it can be watching someone fumble with blocked websites, delays in downloading, etc. Fortunately, I only needed to bring up this blog site and make sure that Prairie was logged on to her computer at the same time I was, so that we could Video chat at the same time. Everything was good to go until two minutes before class, I got a text message that made my heart sink down to my ankles:

"Got a flt tire. Im running L8 but Im close to my apt so Ill be there asap!"

Of all the days, right? Luckily, I was third in line for my presentation, so I had a good 10 minutes to hope that she would get to her computer in time. About five minutes after class began, I got another text message:

"Im here!"

I had told the TA, Marc, of my dilemma, and warned him that I might have to be moved down the list so that Prairie could have time to set up the webcam...but praise God! Everything worked out and with just a few minutes to go, I was set.

I'm not a very good public speaker, and tend to get nervous very easily. Sweaty palms, red ears, the whole nine yards. With all of the silent chaos that had happened in the span of half an hour, my level of nervousness was multiplied, resulting in me talking like one of those announcers at the end of medicine commercials who can say a paragraph of information in 0.265 seconds: "Serious risks associated with this drug include glaucoma, increased body temperature, tingling in arms and legs, fatigue, seizures, and occasionally, death..." It was a good thing my professor told me to slow down in my speech, because I was so nervous I didn't realize I was speaking so fast!

I enjoyed making this project, and it was even more fun having the class interact with Prairie as though she really was someone that lived somewhere far from California. Initially, I had planned to use my friend in Paraguay to do a real-time video chat with, but with the time + language difference, it was more practical to simulate an Internet relationship with someone I knew I could count on 100% to be available between the hours of 1:30 and 3:30 on December 12, 2007. On this blog, all of the activities we did and times we "hung out" are fabricated and slightly exaggerated, although it is a small example of the thousands of people around the world who do begin online friendships--whether it be through gaming (in such group-based computer games, like CounterStrike or World of Warcraft), sharing images on a public photo-based community, or other social networking sites like Facebook.

Last week, one of my classmates presented a blog in which he made up different comments by random users, and challenged the class to discern which users were real and which users he had created. The majority of the class believed that half of the users were genuine...when in reality, my classmate had invented ALL of these different personas, pouncing upon the critique of how easily people will believe what they read on the Internet. To my understanding, much of my classmates did believe that Prairie was someone I had never met in person based on the information they read on this blog and what I told them. Beneath the murky waters of the Internet lie millions of untold secrets and bits of information about who is really on the other side of your computer screen.

I hope that my presentation wasn't too misleading...but at the same time, if it was, then I suppose it was a success :)

Web 2.0

According to Tim O'Reilly, founder of the American media company, O'Reilly Media:

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")

And to use a Web 2.0 medium to define itself, Wikipedia says:

The phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.

Basically, the Internet is changing the way society interacts with each another, resulting in a redefinition of the human relationship.

Cool huh? Now I have to go post pictures on my Flickr page so I can show Prairie the cake I ate yesterday for my friend's birthday, then I'll probably check my Facebook, Myspace, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and school Webmail. It's going to be a busy night so I'll update more tomorrow!