there’s a new mongolian restaurant called gobi mongolian bbq near work. i went there yesterday to try it out and it was completely empty. i did go off peak hours, though, so i guess that it to be expected. it’s an all you can eat $8 lunch and the food there was pretty good.

what surprises me about this place is just how clean it is. i don’t know why i equate mongolian bbq with dirty, greasy joints, but i do. the other thing that strikes me about this place is just how big it is. pretty good food, i’d recommend it if you are in the area.

i ended up going there again today and meeting up dardy and his co-workers for lunch. they all got two bowls of stuff to be made, but i opted to go with two trips of 1 bowl each. the one thing that i really like about the place is that they have a soft serve machine with good ice cream. on a hot day like today, it was a great dessert.

dardy told me that after lunch he had bad food coma. i guess it was a lot of food. the only thing i don’t like about the place is that they are not air conditioned. how can the cooks stand it? standing next to an oversized grill all day long with no air conditioning! crazy.

• It is unbelieveably hot this morning. Severe weather alerts have been issued. It’s too bad the office isn’t at the beach. #
• 6:09PM and it is 95 degrees?! The worst part is that when I left work it was 94. http://twitpic.com/3oujw #
• Still over 80 degrees after 9pm! http://twitpic.com/3p6l6 #

• Just spent the night compiling ffmpeg and converting video files to other types of video files. Exciting Saturday night, eh? #
• Country crock: expanding your offerings into real food is ok, putting it in the tubs that look like butter is not. http://twitpic.com/3l44b #
• Just got to thw shark tank. Go sharks!! #
• At the shark tank tied at 1-1 http://twitpic.com/3n169 #

• Finally had ramen for lunch after a week of distractions. #
• Just had to cancel dinner plans because we are dogsitting and I have a conference call later tonight. Now what am I going to do for dinner? #

i thought it would be a good idea to add a new post per tweet, but once i enabled it, i saw how spammy it looks and i immediately disabled it. unfortunately, all of the posts were already imported from twitter, so it looks like i’m stuck with the ones that are already there.

maybe in a different life, i would have cared enough to delete the posts, but i’m too lazy to do it now. =P

anybody have any suggestions for who to follow on twitter? surprisingly, one of the most entertaining people i follow is ryan seacrest. !! i know, who would have thunk it?

so after a lot of heartache i’ve decided to build a HTPC. the choice wasn’t easy as i have been using the PS3 for a long time as my media center, but after too many codec woes, i’ve finally decided to demote the PS3 and build a proper HTPC. i’m not sure if i’m done with the HTPC, but for now i’m pretty happy with what i’ve made. details after the jump!

Continue reading the new HTPC →

for my birthday, christi got me the insane canon 85mm f/1.2L! insane, i tell you. definitely a lens that i would never have gotten for myself just because the price tag itself just seems ridiculous, but as soon as i put the lens on my camera and gave it a go, i see now just how sweet it is.

but first, let me start with the cons. the lens is HEAVY. there’s a huge hunk of glass in this fast prime lens. the lens is fat, short, and heavy, but feels fantastic in my hands.

the lens is the slowest focusing lens i have in my collection of lenses, by far. the lens hunts and is poor in low light conditions, which is ironic because the lens performs FANTASTICALLY in low light once focus is achieved.

the pros: the lens is SO FAST. the bokeh is SO smooth. the images are SO sharp. it’s amazing. i’m doing a portrait photo shoot this weekend and it will be my first run through with the lens. let’s see how it works out.

our dog is a very excitable dog who loves to play. whenever someone new is at the door he very eagerly tries to make friends with them. the UPS guy came today to deliver a package and koda snuck past me and darted towards the guy.

i have never seen a guy run SO FAST before. he ran all the way back into his truck and koda thought it was a game and chased him. i chased koda and finally got him, but man, we really need to work on his commands when distracted. next time, i will be sure to keep him on a leash before i answer the door.

looks like everydns.net DNS servers have stopped resolving hostnames at around 4:30PM today. talk about an epic fail, how do redundant systems like DNS fail like this? i hope it’s a massive DoS attack and not just someone making a really big mistake. =P

it’s too bad that all of my hosting for my domains is done through them and now i’m completely down too.

grrrrr.

maybe i should run my own DNS server…

man, how hard must it be to be a salesperson in this economy. i was at fry’s the other day and while perusing the blu-ray section, i was approached by a directv salesperson. she told me that she was invited by fry’s to pitch their services. i told her politely that i was not interested and she left me alone.

then a few minutes later, a different salesperson approached me from the directv group and asked me if i was interested in their services. i told him that someone already approached me and i was not interested. he then asked me if i was informed about their special in-store only promotion. at this point, i was really annoyed and told him i hate directv and i’m not interested.

a minute later, a fry’s associate approached me and asked me how i was doing. i thought he saw my interaction with the directv salespeople and so i told him that i was annoyed at the directv salespeople who were harassing me while i was shopping.

the fry’s associate told me that that was too bad and i told him that they started their pitch by informing me that fry’s had invited them to the store. i told him that i thought they were annoying and he replied that it was his manager’s choice to do so. i told him that he should tell his manager that i thought that they were annoying. he said ok.

then he has the audacity to ask me if i was interested in a fry’s electronics credit card. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? i looked at him and said no. he started his pitch, but you can save 20% off your first purchase. i told him that i didn’t like saving money and walked away.

i know they are just trying to do their jobs, but man, that kind of aggressive sales pitching in-store is enough to turn me away from shopping there.