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Justin from Justin.tv on Today Show

2008-11-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

Justin on Today Show

Justin's Response to Today Show Interview

Emma 08/08/08

2008-11-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

Emma 080808

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Watch live video from Baby Emma 08/08/08 on Justin.tv

Is It Remarkable?

2008-11-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

As expected, the work-life-school balance is getting hectic for me. So many changes going on at work, the new baby, and following through on my class assignments are. I'll just take note of the remarkable items I noticed in the past 24 hours.

Godin The Godsend - I've been watching the videos, and reading the blog of marketing hero and guru. I can't thank my instructor enough for sharing this person with me. I can imagine countless number of individuals he's inspired. As for myself, it took one blog posting to make me feel that i'm on the right path, and that i'm not totally insane in the way that I think. In the posting he talks about the kind of person he would hire, and I was pleased to see that for the most part, I am the type of person that he looks for. Of course this is a self-proclamation, but the posting 86'd a bungload my jaded attitude.

A Daughter's Smile - I can't enumerate the value of a child's smile. Especially when it's your own child. Emma's smile alone sends my heart aflight, and can turn a grown man into a kid. She makes me think of all that is good in the world.

San Franciscan Idol - Working in the city has afforded me the chances to see some of the city's greatest street performers and street talent. As with most entertainers (or so we'll call them), the disparity in talent level is great, however the ones at near the top are absolute pleasures to see. Best of all, it's all for free. I only donate to the ones I deem worthy. That said, check out my favorites here:

-----> Need to finish post... <------
#1

#5

The Secret To Getting In Good w/ the In-Laws

2008-11-09T20:45:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to one of my nephew's birthday get together for the family. As with most families, the food is my favorite part. They say the way to a man's heart is thru his stomach. This is true, but I also think it's true for mothers. By that I mean, the way to a mother-in-law's heart is to cook for her. When I began dating my wife, her mother wasn't sure on what to make of me. Months later I decided to take the time and actually prepare something for the family party instead of showing up with a bottle of wine. I'm pretty sure this was when I officially became part of the family. The dishes I chose to prepare... Hawaiian Cherry Ribs, and a Coconut-Lime Ceviche that I saw Tyler Florence make. I'll admit my ambition was a bit lofty, but if nothing else, I knew the presentation would deliver. It ended up going over better than expected, and now the only thing is trying to outdo whatever I did last time. At any rate, food is a good way to connect with the loved ones. My only word of advice, if you're gonna do this, is to practice cooking your dish a few times. The results could turn for the worse, if you aren't careful.

If anyone out there has any knock-your-socks-off recipes, feel free to share with a brotha.

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Here's the ceviche recipe, I scored with:

Ingredients

1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, halved
3 bay leaves
8 peppercorns
Sea salt
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled
2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup lime juice (about 6 to 8 limes), plus more for drizzling
1 red onion, sliced thin
2 serrano chiles, sliced thin
1/2 bunch freshly chopped cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish
4 coconuts
2 cups rock or kosher salt, for serving
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Directions

Make the ceviche: Put a large pot of water over high heat and add the lemon, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and salt, to taste. When it comes to a boil add the shrimp and turn off the heat. Let the shrimp poach just until they are cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the shrimp to a sheet pan and refrigerate. When they are cool slice them in half lengthwise. Combine the coconut milk, lime juice, onion, chiles, and cilantro in a large bowl and season it with salt. Add the cooled shrimp and let them marinate, refrigerated, for about 1/2 hour.

Prepare the coconut shells: Take a hammer and hit the coconut repeatedly (not too hard) around its equator, turning the coconut in your hand. It will eventually split into 2 halves. Drain the liquid from the coconuts.

To serve: [the kicker] Pour the salt onto a large platter and nestle the coconut halves into the salt so they stand upright. Divide the ceviche among the coconut halves; garnish with drizzles of lime juice, olive oil and cilantro.

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I hold the recipe for the Hawaiian Cherry Ribs close to my vest, because I use some secret ingredients. I definitely recommen all ye chefs and wannabe chefs (like myself) add a Hawaiian-fusion dish to your culinary arsenals.

Thinking Outside the Box (that is my cubicle)

2008-11-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

For this post, I promised myself I wouldn't make any work related references. Well at least not my day job. I have two blogs other than this, so I figured i'd blog about similar subject matter.

These days, spare time is a rarity. My wife (at home with baby) has been spending her time on facebook, shopping online, and planning her friends weddings. Last night, she mentioned she had nothing to do. Granted, her life is now scheduled in 3 hour increments according to the baby's feeding times, but I nearly turned over in my skin, as I have so many projects being requested, or that I need to finish. I am infamous for spreading myself way to thin, so ontop of all the projects i'm trying to finish, I (idiotically) took on 6 fantasy football teams. I guess i'm no different than my wife, just that my spare moments are spent doing fantasy football research, and working on big trade deals, and waiver wire acquisitions. After all, I just have to be better than all my friends at the things I do.

If there are any fantasy buffs out there, please help me with your Week 10 booms or busts, starts or sits.

Here are a couple of my week 10 not-so-likely heros:

DeAngelo Williams - Aside from Asomugah, Raiders are about as lifeless as bowling pins (owner included)
Tim Hightower - New beast of the west, should get plenty of chances against struggling 49er DEF
Steve Slaton - Put up 100+ total yards vs better Titans DEF. Ravens reeling with injury.
Lavarneus Coles/Jerricho Cotchery - STL not good vs. posession receivers
Derrick Mason - Pretty much the only receiver on the team.

On tap for this weekend, sister's baby shower, son's basketball game, and finish work projects (i know, promise broken). Stay tuned!

WTF is a "mash-up"?

2008-11-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

It seems the word "mashup" is a word that re-surfaced, reinvented itself as a buzz word and a definite sign of the times. It is used in a plethora of connotations.

Wikipedia.org describes it as:
Mashup (digital), a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.
Mashup (music), the musical genre encompassing songs which consist entirely of parts of other songs
Mashup (video), a video that is edited from more than one source to appear as one
Mashup (web app), a web application that combines data and/or functionality from more than one source

Dictionary.com describes it as:
mash-up or mash·up (māsh'ŭp') n. An audio recording that is a composite of samples from other recordings, usually from different musical styles.

In my opinion, mashup is any two or more items that are compounded that result in achieving a desired effect or outcome. Whether it's real or fiction, it doesn't matter. For instance, to me the ideal mashup for a vice president would be physical aspects of Sarah Palin, mashed in with everything else of Joe Biden. Another ideal mashup for me, would be the cartoon mashing of GI Joe & the Transformers. Wouldn't you agree?

I bet you're thinking.. wikipedia shmickipedia... dictionary.com bleh-ictionary, right?
Well I brought this up because i'd like to do some footwork and find out what mashup means to you readers. I'd like to see kind of mashups would be ideal for others. Got a mashup idea? Post a comment ;)

Bound By Brackets

2008-11-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today, I noticed that my life is bound by brackets. I should probably say dollar signs, but for the sake of the blog, it's gonna be brackets.

1. Tax Bracket - I'm 3 months old as a father, and with the wife on FMLA, i'm the current bread (crumbs) winner. So far, becoming a father helped me by forcing me to start budgeting. No more frequenting Woot, and buying things I never use (ie. a 3rd mp3 player, a drawing tablet w/ software, or a tv show to dvd burner.) The overall hunger to break out of this bracket is what drives me to further educate myself, or pursue further education.

2. Playing Tag - Everyday, I slave over a hot CPU viewing textpads and textfiles of ad tags and code. JavaScript, Iframe, XML. It's amazing how the worlds most amazing ads look on the back end. To see how fun my day job is, hit CTRL+U if you're using Firefox. View > Source if you're using Internet Explorer. Most of what I know about tags, code, design, or the various web interests has been primarily self taught. Having had to beg, borrow, and steal the tools, or scrape for resources has convinced me that, yes, it is possible to make a dollar outta 15 cents.

3. Tag You're It - When in a time-crunch, I find myself frequently communicating by sharing tags & links. As a matter of fact, I seem to organize, categorize, or remind myself through the use of these types of tags. I take tidbits of info, and email them to myself, then classify each using tags.