WELCOME TO THE CLUB

Louis (Tikko Studios) upgrades to Apple... finally!





Congrats.

EL AYE

Hodori

















Meeting





























4am traffic





Upper Echelon.

THE GREAT UNKNOWN

Less than two weeks and counting. Probably one of the riskiest things I have ever done in my life.



Are you ready?



Are they ready??



Are WE ready???



The first step.

EBONY & IVORY

YouTube - David Sides

FRESHEST MOMENTS

"FRESHEST MOMENTS" is a little section I added to the blog. You can find it on the right sidebar underneath my contact info. This area will feature anything I consider worthy of checking out. All those "Damn, this is dope!" moments now have a home on my blog.



This week: ANTENNA MAGAZINE







In the past few weeks, I have frequented lots of bookstores to read magazines and look up stuff for the business and ANTENNA always ends up on the table. ANTENNA isn't your typical magazine. Currently on its fourth issue (quarterly), ANTENNA is more of a catalog of everyday items grouped in categories beginning with A and ending in Z. I found myself looking through every single page to see what items were featured throughout the whole alphabet... once you start its hard to stop. There are also a few written articles from the staff which I found pretty funny. Definitely a good addition to any coffee table.



antennamag.com

UNDEFEATABLE

Can't go wrong with $1.50 combo... OK, $2.96 including yogurt





Gotta round up the guys for a Costco Challenge someday. It's been talked about and hyped up at parties amongst the homies. Basically you order 1 of everything off the Costco menu: Choice of hot dog or polish with soda, group decision on pizza slice, a chicken bake, a salad, a churro, and group decision on one dessert (bar or yogurt)... ok ok not EVERYTHING on the menu because that would be too wild (possibly dangerous). But yea, your typical "who can finish first" showdown.



Less than $10 buys you a shot at becoming COSTCO CHALLENGE CHAMP!









BIG LOTS MADNESS





IZ S'NICE!





No comment





$60 down to $5? Can't beat that!





Familiar faces





My roommate Steph hates mayo. Crack Meal!





Reminds me of my Rambo one





Tish hates Peeps





Best Buy had this ON SALE... *scratches head*





I love Saturdays.

BAD FOR YO HEALTH

Drove up to LA to take care of my passport for the trip. I read up on some of the procedures and how to obtain a passport but I still had some questions about the expediting process since I needed one ASAP. Found out the best route would be to wait until I'm within 14 days of travel to apply for a special expediting process or something. Ah, government says so... but definitely cutting it close. Too close for comfort.



Starting to like LA the more I visit













Dropped by Khai/Jo's to see my favorite furry friends...









The view





Awesome neighbors... FIDM :)





I was hoping to get the whole passport deal out of the way but I came out empty handed. Didn't want to waste a drive and didn't feel like sitting in traffic so I called up Tish (SheKnows/Gorilla Nation) and she was down to have dinner after work. Sweet. Meanwhile, I hit up The Grove to do some "business research" at Barnes. As we all know, parking in LA can be a total bitch. Paying for parking sucks... losing your validation ticket is even worse. Luckily the attendant was kind enough to let me through without paying the max $22 penalty... it went something like this...



Attendant: Hi, ticket please.

Me: Hi... um... I kind of lost my ticket...

Attendant: Oh man... thats $22 dollars man.

Me: No, I have proof of the time I was here (pulled out my BlackBerry)... I was talking to my girlfriend when I parked... see? 3:40... I was here at 3:40...

Attendant: Oh, only 30 minutes!? (NOTE: first 30 minutes are free)

Me: (knowing he totally misunderstood my explanation) Ummm... yeaaaa...

Attendant: OK, no problem. Have a nice day.

Me: Thank very much, sir.



I knew all those times of opening doors for people in public and being a nice driver paid off. Good karma came my way. Just gotta be more nice to people and you shall be rewarded.



Too much GARLIC is bad for yo health!









Seriously, not only did dinner equip my breath with the ability to survive a vampire attack Will Smith status... it made me feel almost sick and left an uneasy sensation in the back of my mouth. Oh well, my fault for putting even more garlic on everything.



Proceed with caution.

PHANTOM PHRESH

Sent to press this morning... Attic's latest sale.











www.attic2zoo.com

PLAN & EXECUTE

Met up tonight since Khai and Jo can't do Wednesday. Went over travel arrangements/accommodations and touched upon some business logistics... seems like theres a forever long list of things to do and watch out for. It never ends. Constant looking over your shoulders and making sure all bases are covered. Its a good thing we have four pairs of eyes and ears to keep things in check.



Meeting place: Cha for Tea, Irvine




Partner/Co-founder





Partner/Co-founder





Partner/Co-founder









Slideshow time. iPhone = cleanest photo presentation hands down





You'll know where we're headed if you can make out that picture :P





We dropped by BZ Community Class next door where Wobz (Sheroes) was teaching so Louis could promote the Tikko x BZ campaign. I talked to Elm (brainchild of Boogiezone) about taking the campaign online. Oh yea, Khai and Jo both dance for Boogiezone's Community Dance Team - Breed. Khai is artistic director/co-founder.











Perfection!

VISITATIONS

Khai was in the area early Monday morning so he swung by and we all went to have lunch with Louis (Tikko Studios)... who unfortunately had work on President's Day. Headed to Spectrum which was a nice trip down memory lane since I frequently lunched there when our office was minutes away... now we're next to Angel Stadium aka Orange aka lunch hell.



BlackBerryin...




Ru-bio's... RU-bio's... RU-BI-O'S!!!




Afterwards, we dropped Louis off at his work and went down to The Lab and South Costa Plaza in Costa Mesa just to see wassup.











BLENDS OC









ARRREE Apple owners snobs??? :P




Haters.

PROOF POSITIVE

Dropped by some magazine stands during the weekend and found this...




















an ad I did for Jon over at Jonari Corp. published in both Modified: Luxury & Exotics and HH: Heavy Hitters Magazines. Definitely nice additions to the portfolio. I'm currently doing some catalog work for them.



Always looking to work with new clients... contact info on the side.

OC TO SD

Life in the OC and sometimes be a drag... so we went down to my hometown of SD to spend a Sunday afternoon roaming the streets of the Gaslamp Quarter. Downtown rocks but I dread driving in any downtown area... one way streets, traffic, no parking, mean people... added stress. Luckily SD wasn't as bad as say... LA. Good times.



Horton Plazzz




So I hit up TK (Wildboyz/Victory/King of SD) to see where a good place to eat would be since I am so disconnected from the SD life. SD native living in the OC for 8 years! He recommended Neighborhood on 8th and G.











Refreshing cucumber water




Dope ass SD skyline mural




Neighborhood burger!




Verdict: Good food, good service, clean presentation, reasonable prices, nice atmosphere!



Walked around...








ATTIC SD!




On the way home, we stopped by Mission Valley Best Buy to get a car charger for my BlackBerry and look what we drove by...



a very unique Jack-In-The-Box. Hmm...




Had to stop by JV's Taco Shop for a California burrito. This is a must for any trip... gotta end it right. JV's has been a favorite ever since I was in high school. Any burrito I eat elsewhere will get compared to JV's... its the standard in my book. I'll let the pictures do the talking...















California Burrito Dreams.

LIKE NBA JAM

Jerald (Apple) graciously invited us to go see the Harlem Globetrotters on Saturday night. His friend, Hollywood Turner, plays on the team. I've never seen the HG before and judging from the size of the crowd... looks like they are still quite popular.



Grabbed a quick dinner at Alberto's... too expensive btw.

























BOOMSHAKALAKA!









Globetrotter victory!









Jeff, Jerald, Jish





Hollywood Turner!

FLOWERS AND CANDY DAY

Hope everyone had a nice V-Day (Vietnam Day) or S.A.D.!

OC TO LA

Another meeting... so much to talk about before take off.











The golden tickets...









I barely had dinner so it was off to the Shell gas station right next door. If you guys remember clubbing back in the days... UNION at Grand Avenue hosted by 21XL! There is a nice view of the Shell and the club (which is now Crash Mansion) from Jo and Khai's loft.







Taco Taco inside... there's a Subway too!




































I kind of miss my iPhone camera. The pictures came out so much clearer than the BlackBerry I have now. Oh well, can't have it all!



Tish sent me this picture the other day... how appropriate!

READY... SET?

Locked and loaded.

SHE SUCKS

So I'm sitting here watching MTV reruns when I should be sleeping. Anyways... America's Best Dance Crew. Props to Kaba and Jabba for representing our scene. Now on to the point of this post... who made Lil' Mama and JC Chasez judges? Shane Sparks is the only one who brings credibility but who are these other two to judge this competition? Worse comment by Lil' Mama on Jabbawockeez set... something along the lines of... you guys are funny... thats what makes you the best. Die. She sucks. I bet Shane Sparks is mad.



I found the clip on YouTube (go to 4:00)





Oh and for kicks... Kaba kills it.




Vote or Die.

JIVE TALKING

All you BlackBerry owners out there... unsatisfied with your IM client? JiveTalk is here! Probably one of the best IM clients I have used on a mobile device (Sidekick AIM is hands down the best). Give it a shot and thank me later!



Oh, Leopard update 10.5.2 came out today... go download it if you've been experiencing wireless problems (ahem) and hate Stacks.



While we're on the topic of GEEK, all you photo heavy bloggers, whats your method of uploading and posting... I have yet to discover an efficient process. Please do share (e-mail).

SUPER SONIC

Gracing Fullerton with our presence and in return... SONICS!




Weird system... you order "drive thru style" minus the car. Took 10 minutes for someone to answer through the intercom. Imagine being hungry AND drunk. We are already getting cranky.







Janana (Promotions), DTM Nate (Automotive), HINtern Randy

















Don't believe the HYPE.

THE BLACK IS BACK

On Friday I said goodbye to my iPhone of six months and welcomed back the BlackBerry... in 8320 form (aka Curve). I had a good run with the first-gen iPhone and felt that going back to BB was a better choice for my current and future needs. After getting a chance to play with it over the weekend, I must say its one slick ass phone... no regrets yet. Mobile messaging at its best: real time e-mail, text, AIM, BB Messenger, Google Talk... and one of the best features: placing calls over Wi-Fi.



I'm hoping the 3G iPhone (coming out later this year) will address the current iPhone's shortcomings and introduce some business-related features... aka the ultimate BlackBerry killer. We'll have to wait and see.



I love gadgets.

BB PIN: 243356AE



Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. Ryan Chong!





VEGAS 2006

THE OFFICE

... has been Jan-ed!

























Friday lunch at The Block...

SETTING A HIGH STANDARD

Meeting was actually in Irvine tonight. Pleasant surprise. So it was off to 25 Crestline to regather, rethink, reevaluate, and most importantly REACT.























































Empty streets...





Its gonna be March Madness!

THIS IS ATTIC

Have yet to hear about the Attic?

This video is quite a proper introduction.



www.attic2zoo.com

WHOPPER QUEEN?

HUMAN HORSEPOWER

Had a good surge of creativity while I was on my way home from work and I knew I needed to get to a pen and paper quick. Ideas are only good if you can remember them. I've had a lot of ideas during these brainstorming sessions and some of them end of being lost, forgotten forever... and it pains me every time I try to figure out what it was that was so great. I try and avoid those as much as possible.



Anyways, I have several projects on my plate and in the horizon. I've started working on a t-shirt program for HIN... something I've been wanting to do ever since I got a job there. It is something that I believe can be a great success and I'm quite surprised it hasn't been implemented into our tour. We currently have a company that does "merch" for us and quite frankly those shirts are horrible. I'm not sure how sales are but I can't bag on them for trying. I believe what I have in store will appeal more to our target audience. Meeting with them next Wednesday so hopefully I'll have my stuff ready to present.



Heading to LA tomorrow to continue meeting with Khai, Louis and Jo. We've been putting off our meetings for quite a while now (a month almost). Things definitely need to start rolling again. For the head scratchers, we have decided to keep our project under wraps until launch... even if things weren't this way we wouldn't have anything concrete to share with you all. Just know its something you wouldn't expect.



Pictures from last meeting

























Its gonna be a very busy February.

WHIRLWIND WEEKEND

Blogging sucks when you don't update... so I will attempt a quick fix, hit and quit, shoot em up style, end all masssive post recapping a full weeks worth of events starting with...



Friday, January 25th

CADC Alumni Dinner at Beach Pit BBQ in Old Town Tustin





Pre Grand Opening: Friends & Family Eat 50% off (Thanks Eunice!)









One damn clear iPhone picture!









Eunice hookup: FREE beer & appetizers!





























Alumni traditions

















CADC VIBE XIII PREVIEW NIGHT













Constructive criticism









Saturday, January 26th

Last minute 911 video project for CADC





Posting up. Khai editing.
















Represent...





Sunday, January 27th

VIBE XIII Dance Competition at UCI

















Buncha dancers...




Monday, January 28th

Monday mountains




Tuesday, January 29th - Thursday, January 31st

Sick. I don't get sick often but when I do... its bad and because I'm not used to taking medicine or taking care of myself during illnesses... I was a mess. Thanks Steph for keeping me in check. Shit was hell.



Friday, February 1st

I really didn't get to eat well, more like not at all, while I was sick. I can only remember one decent meal (I probably lost a lot of weight!). Anyways, as I got better I started getting hungry so Tish and I went to Spectrum for some Subway and fresh air. A welcome retreat from my hot mess quarantine of a room.



She got a Blackberry 8800 from work. I'm jealous!











Images courtesy of Apple Inc.





Hit up Apple Store (other reason we were at Spectrum) to check out the MacBook Air which arrived in retail stores earlier that week. It is definitely an impressive feat by Apple. Got to play with the new bigger track pad and lift the little sucker up for inspection. Mostly amazed at its thinness but other than that... its just another Apple laptop to me. I'm more interested what the future holds for the MacBook Pro which is due for an update/redesign sometime soon.



Saturday, February 2nd

Renourishment continues at L&L (my favorite!)




They raised prices... boo!





After L&L, we went shopping and discovered some funnies. I hate it when other companies ride the current trend or whatever is hot at the moment. But what I especially hate is bad execution. Don't fool the parents or kids who don't know better. Maybe I'm just a hater, but this is just plain wrong...











Bean Dip Clothing. Are you serious???



I can't believe thats the best name they could think of. Worse name ever. If they go and sell like hotcakes and become the next L-R-G or Orisue (BTW, Vietnam coming up!) then I'll eat my words... but seriously. I'm not saying I'm a know-it-all when it comes to branding. They do have a decent tee in the ad but the name just ruins it all for me.



Sunday, February 3rd

Headed over to 25 Crestline to take in the Super Bowl festivities. Doing it the right way... grilled burgers, hot dogs, Cheah's awesome dip, cold beer and some homies.



































Rooted for the Giants (even though I dislike pansy Eli for the time his rookie ass refused to sign with the Chargers). Plus I believe its my nature to root for the underdogs and oh was this a classic David and Goliath battle. One of the most exciting comebacks I have seen in a while... last 3 minutes of the game = GOLDEN. Can't wait for next season though... excited to see how my bruised and battered Chargers will shape up.



Annnnnd I'm all caught up! Thanks for reading. Time for the real posts!

POUND FO POUND

I have a pounding headache right now and the kids from the upstairs apt are running around as they always do most hours of the day. So I guess I'm kind of experiencing a headache within a headache? I hate those kids. I have spied on them doing their little skateboard tricks in front of my apartment just to put a face to all the upstairs ruckus. They look like troublemakers for sure. Where are the parents... geez. One of these days, definitely one of my healthier days, I will climb up on the our building and stomp the yard on their roof.



There they go again. Time to go pound my fist on the walls... pound fo pound.