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Yup…I’ve finally converted to the iphone. Seems like everywhere you look, everybody has an iPhone and now I’m one of those people! Oh well.. I have to admit though that after playing with it for a few days, I’m totally loving it. It really is as cool as everyone is saying!! Of course the biggest complaint is the keyboard (I had the sidekick before which was a phone texter’s dream) but I have to admit that everything else you get makes up for it. It’s very annoying for me to type on the iPhone but I spend more type flipping and reading with the iPhone now anyways. Now onto my iPhone mods and apps that I’ve dled.

First off, I changed my wallpaper to this:



Seriously, it makes me smile every time I turn on my phone now!! hehe.

Oh and I saw Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist on Friday (cute movie!!) and totally fell in love with Nick’s ringtone. He was using The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry…so I instantly knew I had to get it as my ringtone too!!! heheh.

Create free ringtones using Itunes 8

This makes me so happy because I could never get free ringtones with my old phone!

Apps I recommend (All free!):

Aim - a must for me… aim functionality on your phone
Wordpress - I’m excited to try this out…blogging on my phone! I’ve read great reviews though.
Movies by Flixster - Find movie showtimes, read reviews, and watch trailers…great for movie buffs like boyrobot and I
Yelp - I like to read reviews of places before I eat somewhere
Facebook - I’m a facebook addict so I had to have this. Too bad you can’t access all of the features like facebook apps
Pandora Radio - Put in a song or artist you like and Pandora will start playing a personalized radio based on your taste. Pretty sweet.
CheckPlease - A tip calculator with a few features that beat out the others I read about. Very handy for eating out.
EasyWriter - This app lets you write your emails in landscape mode
Evernote - let’s you do voice notes, text notes, and even picture notes! They are all searchable too. There’s some crazy things you can do with this app. It’s awesome.

Games: I didn’t think playing games on the iPhone would be that great but these were pretty fun

Trace - this game is SO addicting. It’s hard to explain but you draw lines to move your character from start to finish. Believe me it’s fun!
Dots Free - I used to play this game on paper. It’s the one where you draw sides of a square and if you draw a complete square you get a point.
Tap Tap Revenge - It’s like guitar hero for your iphone!

I’m just amazed at the amount of apps you can dl for the iPhone. It truly makes the phone’s capabilities seem limitless. I never thought I could have so much fun with my cellphone! Please tell me if you have any apps you can recommend, free or not!

I haven’t done one of these in awhile…

Lusting: the new Dell Inspiron Mini 9
Small, low power, and inexpensive. It’s a portable blogger’s dream! And did I mention it’s only $350? And weighs less than 2.5lbs? And boots up in 45 seconds? It’s no Apple, but at that price….who cares? I’m sold!

Listening: You Don’t Know Me by Ben Folds Ft. Regina Spektor
I forgot how much I loooove Ben Folds!

Buying: Cherish Mary Jane Flat in red
I never thought I would buy red shoes but these mary janes were calling me. It didn’t help that they were only 21.99 from Payless!

Playing: Wii Fit
I finally got the Wii Fit from my awesome sister. I’m hopeful that this will help me become more fit as I’m the biggest couch potato ever. So far it’s been pretty fun! And I actually am a bit sore!!

Watching: Dark Knight
I think I’m one of the last people to see this but I finally did. After all of the hype, I thought it was good but not that good. I was disappointed with the ending and I don’t remember Christian Bale’s gruff voice being so….gruff. It was kind of annoying. Also, I was hoping The Joker would be a little bit more senile/scary. I did love the part when Heath says “why so serious” though.

Eating: Blackberry pie from the farmer’s market in Solvang
omg! this was the best pie ever. I wish I had taken note of the stand I bought it from

Remember how I blogged about night hiking awhile ago? Well, I finally went!! I went with the hiking group at work and I’m so glad my first time was with experienced people because I can totally see myself getting lost if I went with my small group of friends. All I can say is….IT WAS SOOO FUN!! I loved it!!!!

The best parts about night hiking:

- It’s not hot…it’s nice and cool! Probably my favorite part hehe
- It adds an element of surprise and scariness. The hike we did (Mt. Lowe) had some pretty narrow paths next to steep cliffs and if I did not have a flashlight, it would have been PITCH BLACK at some parts. Have you ever been in the wilderness in the pitch black? It’s especially eerie hearing all of these night time animals around you.
- The destination. When we reached the summit, you can see all of the city lights and it’s just such an amazing view. When you go during the day, sometimes it just looks blah.

I really can’t wait to go again with my friends. I wouldn’t even mind doing the same hike! It was a perfect first hike. It was only 3.2 miles with 500ft of elevation. There was even a tunnel you walk through that had bats!! I highly recommend this as a first night hike if you’re in the LA area. But just make sure you go with somebody who knows where they are going or you might get lost! hehe

Here’s 3 websites/tools that I’ve recently started using and highly recommend!

Catalog Choice - this website will let you find catalogs that you receive and opt out of them. It makes delisting yourself from unwanted catalogs very easy! Man, I get SO many catalogs too.

Songbeat - I was really surprised how easy to use this was. Songbeat basically lets you download any song that was played on seeqpod…so pretty much everything! Love it.

Cha Cha - If you get free text messaging, this website is so useful. You can basically text them any question you can think of and a real person will text you back the answer.

As some of you may know, I’ve been in Florida for a few weeks. At first, the weather was pretty unbearable for me since I’m from perfect-weather-LA but I think I’m finally used to the humidity. Gosh, I’ve really enjoyed my time out here. Everything seems so much more laid back and relaxing out here. It’s wonderful how much more peaceful you feel when you don’t have to deal with traffic everyday. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera this time around. The drive into work was SO relaxing every day for me. I actually enjoyed going into work!

For the most part, the people seem friendlier. I do notice and hear stories about the “old South” which is kind of scary and something I’m not used to but I haven’t had direct contact with any racism. Just the other day, I was at Walmart and you know how people set up shop in front with their charities. Within a span of 5 minutes, every single person who was coming in or out from the store handed money over! I’ve NEVER seen that in LA. I was waiting for a person to not donate money, and it never happened. I was in a more small town area so maybe it’s one of those everybody knows each other type places. It was still nice to see though.

The food. I love trying foods that I can’t try back home. Besides the Colombian hot dog, I’ve also had some Grimaldi’s chocolate covered potato chips (this is a lot better than it sounds!!), argentinian steak (there is a huge south american presence in Florida) and my favorite….

JEREMIAH’S GELATI. o.m.g. I’m so sad I couldn’t take a picture of this most wonderful dessert. It is soft serve swirled with italian ice. I had the strawberry-lemon and it was SO SO SO good. I can’t even describe it. Why isn’t there anything like this in LA????? I almost drove back today to have some more, but it is an hour away and I had no other reason to go out there.

Lastly, if you’re ever in the area of Melbourne. You have to check out their quaint little zoo. It’s small but they have swamps that you can kayak through the different exhibits including giraffes (only $5!)! Very cool. Just remember to bring your bug spray as they boast of having more than 44 different types of mosquitoes and naive me didn’t know they didn’t mean behind a net. ugh.

Anyways, I really like Florida. I can’t wait to go back here one day when I have a family as it’s a great kid-friendly place with so much to do including Disney World! And I really hope Jeremiah’s is still here!

Wow, this is totally my new favorite show, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelpha…and I’ve finally jumped on the Hulu bandwagon which is where I’ve been watching every episode. BTW, this show is not for everyone…it’s highly offensive and many parts are very immature. So don’t watch this show if you are very politically correct. It’s about a group of friends who own a bar together and the different shenanigans they run into. I’ve never seen a group of actors with such chemistry. It’s like they are all best friends off of the show too! I also have to give props to Hulu as well. They make internet tv viewing SO easy and fast. The quality is great and I don’t miss watching tv at all.

So if you haven’t watched it, check out It’s Always Sunny In Philadelpha - the ANTI friends show hehe

OMG I have never cried so much watching a tv show. If you enjoy documentaries, you must check out A&E’s award winning series called Intervention (It’s now on it’s 5th season but this is the first time I’ve watched it). Each episode chronicles a person who faces an addiction and how it affects their family and friends. At the end, the families and friends write letters to the person and plead that they get help by going to rehab.

A&E is having some kind of marathon. I just sat through 3 episodes!

The first one was a teenager who is addicted to opiates, oxycontin, and a variety of other drugs. He pretty much has lost all motivation in life and only lives for the next hit.

The second one was a world class discus thrower (#1 in the US) who gets tested positive for drugs the week before the olympic qualifications. From that point on, her life goes downhill to the point she has to steal money for drugs.

And the last one I saw was about a bulemic alcoholic who has been binging and purging for 11 years. Since he was 8! Can you imagine?

The saddest part about these documentaries are the families. All of the main people were at the point where they just couldn’t see what it was doing to their families or themselves and actually thought nobody even cared about them. At the end of the film, the letters are really heartfelt and touching. Especially when you can tell for the last few years, probably the only feelings they’ve expressed towards each other are anger and resentment. They finally get to say how they really feel. In the end, they all choose to go to rehab but not all of them stay. Just goes to show just how hard it can be to beat some of the addictions.

Anyways, check here for a schedule if you want to catch the next one!

When I really like a place and I find myself going there often, I grab their business card. Here’s a few business cards I carry in my wallet:

Brodard Restaurant - I eat here almost everytime in Orange County. I never get tired of their nem nuong rolls. YUMMMMM! Just don’t go to their Brodard Chateau branch…it’s the same food, looks nicer, but costs more!
9892 Westminster Ave., Suite R
Garden Grove, CA 92844

Gyu-Kaku - They have many locations but I love the Huntington Beach one because they always have deals going on. If you love korean bbq and haven’t tried japanese bbq, you must!! It’s the best. Better quality meats.
7862 Warner Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Thailand Plaza Restaurant (aka Jinda Thai) - my FAVORITE thai place hands down. Forget the thai elvis place, this is the best one in thai town.
5321 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

The Counter - What do I love more than a good burger? When I can add all different types of toppings to it!! It’s a design your own burger place. Note: It’s not the BEST burger but I just like the selection of toppings.
2901 Ocean Park Blvd Suite 102
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Gaja Japanese Restaurant - When I lived in the South Bay I looooved going here and would take anyone willing to go with me. Don’t eat their okonomiyaki, eat their noodles/udon instead! Trust me! Everyone who goes always wants to eat that but then they are disappointed. The noodles never fail.
2383 Lomita Blvd. #102
Lomita, CA 90717

Ok, now I’m hungry.

Ok, when I asked people to critique my site awhile back, some people mentioned that it didn’t have enough “depth.” I can totally see that, but to actually update this thing everyday, it’s hard for me to find time to write original, lengthy posts. I sort of think of my website more as a portal to cool things around the net. And a lot of people actually told me they like the fact that my posts are short and to the point. But, I also see this website as a way of expressing myself and the things I like. So taking into account their feedback, I’ve decided to start Brain Dump Mondays! Every monday I will post commentary, pictures, etc to the things I’ve been doing offline or maybe an opinion piece on some current event. This way, you guys can learn a little bit more about me and my personality and the things I like to do when I’m not surfing the net. You’ll also get to read my opinions on the links that I post about. For the people who enjoy reading the short posts, those will continue Tuesday-Friday. :)

To start off Brain Dump Mondays, I’m going to post a movie review of Cloverfield (with no spoilers) which I saw this past Friday. Chances are, you probably saw it as well since it’s looking to be #1 at the box office with an estimated $41 million for the 3 day weekend. This beats out even the re-release of Star Wars which has until now held the January box office record! Pretty impressive for a movie that only cost $35 million to make.

This picture sums up what I thought of the movie:

hehe jk. Actually, after I got in “the zone”, the shaking didn’t bother me too much but everybody else I went with felt pretty nauseous afterwards. The weird thing is everyone still liked the movie a lot. I REALLY enjoyed it. I thought it was highly entertaining. The “monster” looked cool. The acting wasn’t too cheesy like other movies in that genre, and at times it was even cute and funny. I thought Hud’s character added the perfect amount of humor in spite of the dire situation they were in. Sure, there were some scenes that were a little unbelievable but overall I found the movie quite fun to watch and highly recommend it if you don’t think you will mind the camera shake. (Think Blair Witch Project if you ever saw that).

As I was reading through my RSS Reader, I noticed a lot of bloggers blogging about the movie and the crazy things they found:

Rachel at ThatNight, discovered a ring of Myspace pages of the characters from the movie which have not been logged in since the premiere of the movie. Smart!

Grrl Still Kickin’ has a link to the whisper at the end of Cloverfield (what, you mean you didn’t stay til the end!!). Well now you can hear it online. She also points us to the Cloverfield Clues blog

Over at FilmSchoolRejects, they present us with drawings of the Cloverfield monster drawn by fans

Boyrobot pointed out some interesting facts about Cloverfield to me. Interesting note about a possible sequel.

Also, Kottke points us to people complaining about how similar the Cloverfield imagery is to 9/11. I have to admit that there were scenes from the movie that did remind of 9/11.

For the ones who saw the movie, what did you think? Any interesting clues/fact you noticed or discovered? I’m such a puzzle lover that I love things like this!

PS: I can’t wait for JJ Abrams version of Star Trek!!! There was a short trailer for it before Cloverfield.

I’m such a fan of Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) and his blog that I can’t help but give a shout out to his new book which is based on the best of his old blog posts (which have since been removed from his archives). His new book is called Stick To Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain and he is holding a contest on his website right now. If you’re a fan of Scott Adams, you’ll love the prizes he has:

1 Grand Prize: A framed and signed original Dilbert comic selected by Sponsor in its sole discretion (worth $1500!)

25 Second Prizes: one autographed copy of the book Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain.

All you have to do is submit a humorously over-the-top book blurb in the comments to this blog post.

$16.47 at Amazon.

He’s also holding a book signing on Nov 7th at his restaurant Stacey’s at Waterford. Ahhh, I wish I lived up north so I could go!

I’ve written about Zappos before and how they have really awesome customer service but this blog post just blew me away.

I Heart Zappos

Basically the gist is a women orders 7 pairs of shoes for her mom but then finds out only 2 of them fit. During this time, her mom passes away so she ends up exceeding the maximum number of days allowed to return items (15 days) so Zappos calls wondering where the shoes are. She tells them the situation so that she can have a few extra days to return them. Instead of letting her worry about it, they send UPS to come pick up the shoes for her (normally you have to take it to the post office yourself to mail it back) AND send her a bouquet of flowers.

Talk about above and beyond! I seriously wish more companies cared about their customers like Zappos. They should learn from this…it’s such an easy way to get free publicity as I’m sure more people will be posting about this story on their blogs.

I have to talk about this old, but great show. I just recently got into it after a few people kept telling me I would love it. They were right! I can’t believe I missed out on this when it aired in 1999-2000, but that was probably because I was in college then and hardly ever watched tv. This show is pretty much near my top all time tv shows. The first couple of episodes were hard for me to get into but with each episode I started growing more attached to the characters and now I looooove them! I’m almost done with the whole season, I’ve been trying not to watch it too fast because I don’t want it to end. For such an awesome tv show, it was very short lived! (There are only 6 discs)

The show mainly focuses around a brother (Sam) and sister (Lindsay). Sam is a total geek and has two very geeky/quirky sidekick friends who are the best characters ever! Lindsay is your typical honor roll, proper girl but suddenly decides to start hanging out with the school “freaks”. Basically, the show is about them growing up and trying to fit in in a high school setting.

In case you don’t know, the creator of Freaks and Geeks is none other than Judd Apatow whose films include Knocked up, Superbad, etc. Though the show is not as vulgar and immature as his movies (which I loved hehe), there are moments of dialogue that are very reminiscent of his movies. Plus, a lot of the people in his movies appear in the show including Seth Rogan, Jason Segal, and Martin Starr.

I just found out that Martin Starr was in Knocked Up yesterday. I couldn’t believe how much he has changed!!! Check this out, here he is as a geek in Freaks and Geeks:

and here he is now in Knocked Up (the beard guy!)

The show also had a lot of now famous actors in it including James Franco and cameos by Jason Schwartzman among others!

Anyways, I highly recommend this tv show if you at any time ever felt like you didn’t fit in, especially in high school!

PS: I saw that this show made it on Time’s Top 100 TV Shows Of All Time list!