Are hikers stereotypical jocks or something?

The stereotypical jock is not the smartest fish in the sea, and I wonder about some hikers. Not all hikers, of course, as I have several friends that hike and are super smart. But I have my questions about others...

I was just reading this article about a hiker "Man with broken leg survives 4 days in Utah desert" by Josh Loftin (Full Article Here). When is aw the title, I thought, Wow! What a survivor! Then I read the article and changed my opinion to Wow, what an idiot. I mean that in the nicest way, of course. Here are a few highlights, with commentary.

"A North Carolina man crawled four days across the Utah desert after breaking his leg on a solo hike, inspired by a Hollywood movie about a man who cut off his own arm to save himself after being trapped by a boulder in the same canyon."

So...he decided to hike a canyon based on a movie where the hiker almost died and had to cut off his own arm to save his life...THAT is the model you want to follow? Seriously?!?! 

"Without cellphone service and only two protein bars to eat..."

Really? Even I, a girl who hates hiking and the outdoors in general, knows to bring a lot of non-perishable food if you're going to go off hiking or camping in a remote area because if something happens, you're in bad shape. I'm beginning to think that he wanted to injure himself and have a story like the guy in 127 Hours. Attention seeker, anyone?

"he went hiking alone and without telling anybody about his plans."

Do people never learn? I may be bad about telling people where I'm going if I go to Starbucks or the store or something, but if I went into the woods or anything I would for sure tell several people, put it on Facebook, SOMETHING! By now, I'm super sure that he wanted media attention. He achieved it, and accomplished it without losing his arm! Congrats, man.

Goin' Food Truckin'

So, after getting back from Vegas, I went to the Lime Truck for lunch on the way home from Long Beach. 

[ooh! Short story. I flew out of Long Beach for my Las Vegas trip (Jet Blue). I had never driven to the Long Beach airport before, so I plugged it into my GPS. It was taking me in an opposite direction than I knew Long Beach was (As the name suggests, LB is by the ocean, but my GPS was taking me inland), but I thought that maybe it knew a shortcut or something. But I kept seeing signs that said "Riverside" so I got increasingly more suspicious. Once I crossed the line into Riverside County and my GPS claimed that I'd be at my destination in 15 minutes, I knew that my GPS was somehow leading me astray. I don't know how it changed my destination or what happened exactly. Fortunately, I still made it to the airport in time, and had a nice scenic drive seeing all of the mountains and stuff. Seriously, out there along that toll road it looks like the landscape in Cars. I love it, seriously. Landscapes with green trees and everything are great, but I must admit that after a beach scene I love seeing bare rock mountains- seeing all of the crevices and the shadow and all. Love it.]

For the past few weeks, I've been watching the Great Food Truck Race (Food Network), and the Lime Truck is on it and from Orange County! So, I looked up their website and saw that they were going to be in Aliso Viejo (closest location to where I live that their truck stops) and so I decided to try it. It was also on the way back from Long Beach (when one goes to/from LB correctly ;) LOL).

At that site, there were 2 other food trucks that I meant to visit too, but the line for the Lime Truck was so long that by the time I got my food and ate it, the other trucks were closing.

 In line for the Lime Truck

 The menu

I got the Ultimate Taco (the pulled pork one) and the Sweet & Spicy Steak Taco (on the right). They were SO GOOD! Worth the long wait. Seriously. No wonder they are doing so well in the Great Food Truck Race!!! I will be seeking them out next time they are in Aliso Viejo (or south OC in general)

Vegas in a day

So,  I was just in Vegas. It wasn't a long trip, I was there for literally less than 24 hours. The CEO of the company that I work for also founded the Internet Marketing Association, which had an event at the Mandarin Oriental on Thursday evening, and I went to help out and to see the event. I stayed at the Mandarin Oriental (there was special pricing for the event attendees) which was SO NICE! So, I arrive and the doorman comes and gets my bag out of the taxi and greets me as "Miss Beverly" (so probably he looked at the tag. Or they were watching for me...hehehe). Then I took the elevator (all of their elevators have lounge chairs in them, which is cool but really I doubt anyone is in the elevator long enough to use it) up to the lobby on the 23rd floor. Funny, because all of the rooms are on lower floors! =D But everyone was super nice and friendly and it was so luxurious that I felt super weird in my jean skirt and t-shirt =D They had the type of room key that you hold in front of a reader (vs. inserting it into the reader like a credit card). Then I opened the door and the room turned on, so to speak. the shades all raised and the TV turned on and everything. The room was also big and very well designed. Here are some pictures:

Super nice. And there was a tablet-style controller by the bed that controls everything - the lights, the sheer & blackout curtains, the TV, everything. The wake-up "alarm" turned on all the lights, which was nice and I'm glad that that woke me up because there was no sound. I had set my cell phone alarm too, just in case, but I didn't need it! I really should get one of those light alarm clocks! (One's sitting in my Amazon cart right now!)


So, I after settling into my room and everything and sitting there relaxed for a while (I'll admit. I was sort of waiting for direction, and sort of resting). Then I went down and helped, but it was mostly under control by then. So the event was pretty cool. There were speakers from several big companies Adobe and Facebook. The presenters from Adobe and Google were definitely the best. The Adobe presentation was very creative (using Adobe flash, of course) and the Google one was informative and interesting. Not much else to say really, so here are some pictures:

Then there was the after party.! Clearly I forgot to take a picture of the desserts, but there were lots of mini desserts from cupcakes to lemon meringue tarts to chocolate espresso mousse...yumm. But the view was spectacular and was really nice. It was on the top floor of nearby Veer East.

(These sofas were actually inflatable, but the pillows were real)

Afterwards, a lot of us went over to this place called the Chandelier Room or something like that and it was really nice. I had a raspberry martini and it was so good. They used real raspberries and everything.

Drop eggs on pigs?

So, I was bored and finally gave in and bought Angry Birds for my iPhone. You see, I never really knew what the game was about or what the point of it was or anything like that, but it's so popular that I gave in. It is doable for someone like me without quick hand-eye coordination (such as action games, racing games), but it is SO FRUSTRATING. Ok, I might just be bad at all games other than the Sims (by which I mean the whole family of Sims games), but still. I just finished level 2, I think, but it's more frustrating than it's worth, in my opinion. But I guess it's another option when I'm bored. Less intellectual than Scrabble, but ...a game.

Oh! The post title. In case you haven't played it, what you're essentially doing is using a slingshot to fire birds at pigs. No, really, I'm serious. One of the birds drops egg bombs (vs. actually shooting the birds directly at the objects protecting the pigs or at the pigs themselves). I kinda wonder about the creator of this game...but he/she/they (not sure which) is making bank, so a little crazy is allowed.

Also, they came out with a new line of Starbucks clothing. They have had Starbucks clothing before (did I ever tell you the story of my short time with my own Starbucks shirt? It was a super cool shirt that had the word "coffee" written on it in several different languages.  I bought it, and it arrived the day that we left for some sort of trip, and I took it into the car with me. Mistake #1. Then I took it out of the box and had it in my lap for whatever reason. Mistake #1. I think that when we went somewhere to get something for lunch I just got out of the car without thinking about the shirt on my lap and it fell out onto the parking lot, and it was late so I didn't notice it. I think that's what happened, because I never saw the shirt ever again), but they stopped selling them for a while. So I was on the website, and this is part of what I found:

So....I like the idea behind them and they are super creative. I like how you could totally spill coffee on the left shirt and not worry if it stained permanently because it would just go. But at some point I noticed the price: $85!!! There is no way on earth that I'd pay $85 for a shirt at all. Not at all. It was hard to spend approximately $30 on a super cute fashionable Disney princess shirt, so almost thrice that?!?! Well, we shall see how this does...

More Music

Here's another song that I really like. RED played this at Fish Fest, and it's actually a really nice song. It's supposed to be God singing to us, and I love love love the bridge:


"Not Alone" by RED

Slowly fading away
You're lost and so afraid
Where is the hope in a world so cold
Looking for a distant light
Someone who could save a life
You're living in fear that no one will hear your cries
Can you save me now

I am with you
I will carry you through it all
I won't leave you I will catch you
When you feel like letting go
Cause your not, your not alone

Your heart is full of broken dreams
Just a fading memory
And everything's gone but the pain carries on
Lost in the rain again
When will it ever end
The arms of relief seem so out of reach
But I, I am here

I am with you
I will carry you through it all
I won't leave you I will catch you
When you feel like letting go
Cause your not, your not alone

And I'll be your hope when you feel like its over
And I will pick you up when your whole world shatters
And when you're finally in my arms
Look up and see love has a face

I am with you
I will carry you through it all
I won't leave you I will catch you
When you feel like letting go
Cause you're not, you're not alone

And I will be your hope
And I will pick you up
And I will be your hope
And I will be your hope

Slow fading away
Your lost and so afraid
Where is the hope in a world so cold 

More Pix from the 5K

So, I got some pictures from the 5K! They are all on this website called brightroom and are expensive. I bought the one of my dad & me, but these are screenshots. Now you can see me booking it....in my Cars 2 shirt (well, you can't really see that, but you know what I'm talking about it. I made it for the midnight showing)...

We totally owned it. Then sat back with our free bananas and protein bars and watched the slackers cross the line. =D

We are so cool in America

Why are we so cool?

1- PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE!!! It returned today, and I went and got myself one. Yummmm

2- Because among 30,000 people surveyed around the world, most said we were. Read this article:

The world still thinks Americans are "coolest": poll

LONDON (Reuters) - They may be witnessing their global superpower influence decline in the face of challenges from other emerging players on the world stage, but Americans have been voted the world's "coolest nationality" in an international poll.

Social networking site Badoo.com (http://www.badoo.com) asked 30,000 people across 15 countries to name the coolest nationality and also found that the Spanish were considered the coolest Europeans, Brazilians the coolest Latin Americans and Belgians the globe's least cool nationality.

"We hear a lot in the media about anti-Americanism," says Lloyd Price, Badoo's Director of Marketing. "But we sometimes forget how many people across the world consider Americans seriously cool."

Of course, not all Americans are cool far from it. Some like Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Depp and Quentin Tarantino are way cooler than others.

Americans, however, are the dudes who invented cool and who still embody it in many fields from music to movies and TV to technology.

"America," says Price, "boasts the world's coolest leader, Obama; the coolest rappers, Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg; and the coolest man in technology, Steve Jobs of Apple, the man who even made geeks cool."

Brazilians are ranked the second coolest nationality in the Badoo poll and the coolest Latin Americans, ahead of Mexicans and Argentinians. The Spanish, in third place, are the coolest Europeans.

The French are voted cooler than the British, and Canadians cooler than the Belgians. This may come as a relief for Canadians, who are sometimes viewed as chronically uncool.

Or, as Michael Ignatieff, the Canadian politician, once put it: "Paris, Texas stands as a metaphor for broken dreams; Paris, Saskatchewan just sounds ridiculous."

THE 10 COOLEST NATIONALITIES 

1. Americans

2. Brazilians 

3. Spanish 

4. Italians

5. French 

6. British

7. Dutch

8. Mexicans

9. Argentinians

10. Russians

FIVE LEAST COOLEST

1. Belgians

2. Poles

3. Turks

4. Canadians

5. Germans

Run like a Princess...or R2D2 ?

This morning I walked the Disneyland 5K Fun Run. It was Star Wars themed, unfortunately. I mean, I have nothing against Star Wars I just think it would be cool if it were more Disney themed, personally, but it was AWESOME! Seriously, the best 5K I've ever done. True, I've really only done the Dallas Turkey Trot, but this one has that one beat by a landslide for several reasons:

1) A lot of people are in costumes or themed running gear. I really liked the group that had put the Incredibles logo on red running clothes. Super cute. But some people were really in costume like Tinker Bell with the wings or Princess Lea. It's a really cool atmosphere

2) You not only get to go through Disneyland and California Adventure, but you also get to run/walk through areas that are normally crew-only and hidden from visitors. That was especially cool. You see "cars" for the rides that are out of service, things that are being made, part of the new Cars Land attraction...awesome

I guess those are the main reasons, but it was so fun. My dad didn't expect to like it (and wasn't originally going to go, but he took my mom's spot because she isn't feeling well. No one seemed to really care I guess that his bib had my mom's name on it (because the race bibs had your number AND your name on it)), but he really enjoyed it. I totally plan on going again next year. So worth it.


Here are some pictures.

The two above pictures are of the starting point.

 The beginnings of Cars Land - open Summer 2012!

 Mile 3 check point - almost done!

 Star Wars-themed Mickey & Minnie cheering you on when the finish line is in sight & close.

 DONE!!! When looking at the time, please keep in mind I was in the last wave so it took a while to get going because of all the people. From Mile 1 to Mile 2, I took 15min. From Mile 2 to this point (as in, a little further than Mile 3), I took 14 minutes. That's about what I do on the treadmill. Yesssssss

I'm too lazy to go flip this image and come back, so just look sideways. This is my race bib.