“Healthy” Foodie Friday: Pure Energy Cafe

Starting this past Monday, I decided that it was time for a food consumption makeover. For the past few months I’ve indulged in tons of unhealthy food, such as lots of processed foods, red meat, dairy, fried foods, etc. And my body’s finally given me a signal that it’s “No Bueno” for me. With that in mind, I’ve forced myself to eat more fruits and veggies, less red meat and dairy, and basically more “healthy” choices. And just within these past 5 days, I actually feel like I have more energy and feel less “bloated” (because of all the sodium I’ve consumed) than the past few weeks! Now the challenge is keeping this up…

So for today’s Foodie Friday lunch, I wanted to spread the healthy eating with my coworkers and opted for the Pure Energy Cafe located next to the Spectrum Gym across the street. This place offers fresh made salads, sandwiches, soups, and many grilled dishes. They even offer fresh made juices with health boost powders.

This is the second time I’ve had lunch from this place. Now I can say both times have been excellent! The rest of the office had a similar opinion, giving this place a 4 star rating. Eating healthy doesn’t mean sacrificing taste quality!

Today I had the Salmon Over Greens, which was part of their daily specials. It was delicious! The salmon was cooked and seasoned well! I also got a little daring and tried one of their “Healing Organic Juices,” which was the Potassium Drink. This was definitely a daring drink because it consisted of spinach, celery, parsley, and carrots. Needless to say, it tasted like exactly what was in there. I wouldn’t quite recommend this drink unless you’re a health nut…

Other highly recommended dishes from the team included the Grilled Chicken Chipotle Quesadilla, Grilled Chicken Jalapeno Melt, Tuna & Avocado Melt, Garden Veggie Burger, Southwest Turkey Roll Up, All Natural Sirloin Burger, Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, and Rosemary Turkey Burger. As you can see, a lot of highly recommended items!

The only items that got a below average rating were the Turkey Sandwich and Tomato Basil Soup, just because “they were nothing special.”

However, for the most part, this place is an excellent health food cafe to check out if you’re ever around the Howard Hughes Center!

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A Sunny Summer Day With Mendocino Farms…

TGIF!!!

It’s Friday, July 20th, and it’s finally looking and feeling like summer in Los Angeles! Just a week ago, the sun seemed to be hiding in fear of the dreaded “Friday the 13th” date. Seemed like the weather and date correlation was a little too coincidental…yikes.

Well today’s definitely more like the southern California summer that I’m familiar with. And in celebration of the good weather out, we chose one of the office’s favorite lunch spots, Mendocino Farms, an excellent gourmet sandwich shop!

It looks like they’ve made a couple adjustments to their menu, which I’m personally happy about, such as making the Spanish Chicken a regular menu item! One of my faves! And yes of course, that’s what I ordered today, but as a wrap, plus bacon, and a side of the Summer Squash Soup, yum!

With the exception of a couple of peoples’ sandwiches that were a little off today, everyone gave their order a 4 star and above. Not surprising since we were basically weekly regulars at Mendocino Farms at the previous office.

Well as I mentioned earlier, there were two orders that were a bit off today. These were the Vegan Shawarma and the Chicken MBT on Rustic White bread. The Vegan Shawarma didn’t fare so well because the vegan tortilla wasn’t able to hold all the fillings well and became soggy and fell apart. Maybe go for a bread option if you ever give this item a try. As for the Chicken MBT on Rustic White bread, the bread seemed to be a bit oily from the sauces and dressings this time around.

On the other hand, two people actually gave their orders 5 stars today. These items were the Sandwich Study of Heat and the Prosciutto and Roasted Chicken, and were quoted to be “Excellent” sandwiches. And they weren’t the first ones to say that from our past experiences.

Well this time around there were actually a couple of new sandwiches, which were on the summer seasonal menu, that also received high ratings, the Shrimp Po’Boy and the Summer Cubano. Definitely give these a try while they’re available! I’ve tried the Shrimp Po’Boy before, and I agree, it’s quite tasty!

Well, since there were a few people out of the office today, the 2 lower rated items kind of skewed the rankings a bit more than usual. Therefore, this week Mendocino Farms received a 3.8 rating. But don’t be quick to judge just from one off day, check out our past review of this place, read up on our suggestions, and then try them out for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!

Is there a Mobile App equivalent to Snagit?

After intense searching and testing, I have found one mobile app that reigns above all others to compare with Snagit‘s unbeatable screenshot educational sharing tool. The winning contender is… PicSay! For those of you who like to engage co-workers and audiences with the wonderful tools offered by Snagit, I knew I had a hard task on my hands to find anything remotely comparable.
For those of you who are wondering why I’m raving Snagit here is a montage of just a few of the cool tools I love in this browser application:

As yet, Techsmith have not yet released a mobile app version of their Screengrabbing tool Snagit. So in the mean time, I was forced on the hunt to find the best available solution. And for anyone that’s vaguely involved in writing and explaining technical content, especially whilst on-the-go, I’m sure you’ll agree there’s a gap in the market for this software.

A search for picture editing and screen capture brings up hundreds of apps for your iOS or Android Mobile device, but they are all geared towards picture effects not ‘in-picture’ frame and layering effects.

With a little work around you can compile just the technical explain it material you need from a screen capture on your mobile device using PicSay:

It can layer objects, but unfortunately not additional segments of screenshots which I would say is the major portion missing from this app that would otherwise make this a near perfect competitor to Snagit.

There are all the usual tools such as rotate, cursor effects, re-framing or canvas resizing. I Particularly love the export feature which is more versatile than Snagit; being able to share to virtually any other app loaded on your mobile device is pretty ingenious!

Overall if you’re looking for a technical explain-it bit of sharing software for screen capture and graphics from your mobile device, then until Snagit comes up with a version, PicSay is the closest app I’ve found.

Foodie Friday: Freaky Friday The 13th Edition

It’s Friday, the 13th of July, and it’s gloomy and damp outside. This is quite unusual weather for southern California during this time of the year. The weather strangely seems to be connected with this superstitious date because the last time it was Friday the 13th, the weather was the same! Well, I hope it goes back to normal summer SoCal weather after today.

Well here in the office, to add to the eeriness of this day, we’ve been having a Friday The 13th movie marathon playing on our projector screen! Hmmm, and the guy sitting next to me’s name happens to be “Jason!” …ch…ch…ch…ha…ha…ha…

FOOD TIME…

Hah, okay, on to Foodie Friday…

Today, we opted for another round with Ekkamai Thai. This time around we gave this place 4.2 stars! This is about half a star higher than the last time. I think this time around, everyone had a better idea of what to order from this place.

The majority of the office ordered noodle dishes such as Pad Ekkamai and Pad See-Ew, which were given high ratings. I myself ordered the Pad Ekkamai with combination meat (chicken, beef, pork and shrimp). I personally found all of the types of meat to be a bit under-seasoned, except for the shrimp, which was very tasty! Next time I’ll know to stick with the shrimp option for this dish. But overall, the noodles were excellent and full of flavor.

For the rest of the InMotion Hosters, there were some different items this time around that were also given high ratings, such as the Sesame Chicken Salad, Garlic and Pepper Chicken, and the Shrimp and Crab in Curry Sauce. These were all given 5 stars, so definitely give them a try!

On the other hand, there were a couple dishes that just received average ratings, such as the Chicken Pad Thai dish and the Spicy Mint Noodle with Tofu.

It seams like this time around, most dishes were very well received, which leaves me to the conclusion that Ekkamai Thai definitely has more to offer than just their noodle dishes. So next time, I’ll venture out on their menu a bit more!

Oh, and one last thing I forgot to mention, if you haven’t tried Thai Iced Tea before, definitely try it from this place!

WordPress App – Essential tool for remote blogging

I need to have connection at my fingertips to check in at ease on several of my websites. In fact this has only become a feasible option very recently, and made especially accessible with WordPress Blogging Platform. For my mobile tools, I use a mobile tablet browser, a wifi hotspot, and an iPhone. Each of my browser devices has various apps installed to connect to the websites, including my favorite of course, ‘WordPress’.

You can find and install the free WordPress by Automattic App in both the iTunes App Store, and Google Play. Once installed I keep it handy in the immediate wallpaper on both of my devices.

Before you can configure the app, you have to enable remote blogging from your WordPress installation:
Go to Settings >> Followed by ‘Writing’ and scroll down to check the ‘Enable XML-RPC’

Now your mobile devices should be able to connect to the administration of your WordPress, and you’re ready for configuring your mobile client for posting directly to your blog! The difference between using WordPress Client App for remote publishing, is that you avoid the extra steps of logging in via your browser WP-admin page. The App retains an API permission with your administrative back-end, so getting on with productivity is simply faster and skips a lot of navigational clicks down into the system. I have advised many clients to get onto this system, and since they rarely access full administrative interface, I tend to feel a lot more secure that they are not interfering or tweaking with the actual PHP code and site structure.

The WordPress App is very simple to set up:
I select the ‘self-hosted’ for my client’s blogs, it’s pretty useful even for those managing multiple sites.

Now that your WordPress app is configured for each of your blogs, I tend to use the tablet for note-taking and constructing articles on the go, and the smaller screened device for keeping up-to-date with incoming comments:

The downside to having this level of connectivity is that you do have to be fairly organized with your time management, your productivity can increase, but not if your addiction to checking in on your hosted blogs takes over your focus for your own relaxation time!

Website Freebies – Website highlight of the week

I mainly go to Webneel.com when I need some good freebies. It’s a blog website mainly for graphic inspiration but they have a lot of good resources too. I come across some good quality typefaces and icon sets on here.

You can also find some Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials, and free downloads for brushes, layer styles, vector illustrations, and so on. They provide a lot of examples of work to get you thinking about your next project for things such as logo designs, website designs, and type treatments.

Besides being a good source for designers, the blog is also geared towards other fine art professionals such as illustrators and 3D animators, so you’ll find a lot of artsy imagery on here too.

Tablet Picks: iPad, vs Microsoft Surface, vs Asus Transformer

This week I had to fulfil my need for filling in ‘downtime’. Hours where I’m travelling, waiting, and just have to satisfy my urge to stay productive.

Mission: Blogging on-the-go, Off-Site Event Admin behind the scenes..

Personal Must Haves:

Touch Screen for multiple email inbox navigation and speedy filing.
Keyboard for responsive typing.
Tablet like screen for ease of reading.
Extra long battery life for those times when I can’t plug to a wall.
Tweetdeck or multiple twitter profile client.
Browser with full flash capability for those out of date sites…
WiFi connectivity / 4G
As little outlay as possible!

iPad 3 w/ Retina Display	Microsoft Surface 10.6″ Slate	Asus TF300 Transformer

All the tablets boast lightweight fast applications. But upon testing out the ipad, I found the responsiveness for my speed typing just didn’t cut it for making newsworthy note-taking on the go.	The Microsoft Surface is yet to be launched but with the eye-watering price tag up there with ultrabooks I thought I’d look elsewhere than wait to part with ~$999	The Asus Transformer was indeed my final choice, only because it came separately with the keyboard docking which doubles it’s battery life to a handsome 15hrs!

The retina screen of the iPad whilst awesome wasn’t a ‘need’ factor for blogging. I could certainly see the use for photographers. I wanted to focus on my productivity tools for the moment, and wondered whether it was worth the wait for the anticipated Microsoft Surface. Faster processor, bigger price tag, and that’s ultimately what put me off. The Asus Transormer was the first to launch a quad-core processor in it’s android operating sytem, but this precurser was soon discontinued because the Asus Transformer Prime (Quad Core Version) would soon get hot and later cause funny bugs in reliability. Asus are re-releasing the Transformer Prime with a Quad Core later this month, but this will be launched with the Windows Operating system, and the first in a generation of touch screen ultrabooks.
No doubt the price tag will match, as we are anticipating the Microsoft surface being bracketed in the range $599~$999 depending on spec. It occured to me that for mobile blogging, and away from the desk, the small apps offered on the android require less memory and processing than their full counterparts on the Windows system. This alone saves on power consumption and overall battery span.
Finally what won me over was the keyboard docking designed by Asus. A must have for it’s feel and responsiveness with my level of writing, with the ingenius bonus of being that spare battery pack, as well as protecting the screen in a handy ultrabook format. The detaching is a little clunky and not as sleek as the magnetic Surface keypad, but it serves to protect the screen of my slate when it’s in my purse.
Total Spend: $650

The Asus Pad $399, loaded with features and google connectivity for my pre-occupation of Doc Sharing.
The Docking Keyboard $149, Stretching out the battery life up to 15hrs, responsive keyboard and trackpad.
Clear WiFi Mobile Hotspot $49, plus $50 a month unlimited. The Asus doesn’t have 4G like the iPad, but with a mobile hotspot, I can maintain connectivity wherever I go, whenever I want.

A Hidden Foodie Treasure

As a foodie, I’m always open to new suggestions and trying new things. So it’s always great to get a suggestion that you would’ve never thought of to try, especially if it was one of those “whole in the wall” places that turn out amazing!

Just the other day, one of our Marketing team members was looking up new, healthy places to try out in our area (somewhere in between Westchester and Culver City), and came across Aliki’s Greek Taverna, which one of our other coworkers has tried in the past and confirmed that it was good. I was really skeptical of trying this place because of it’s location, which is connected to a Super 8 Motel! Not the classiest lol.

So when we got there, I went straight to the front of the restaurant to check out their health department rating, which I was glad to see that it was an A! Phew!

Well, to my surprise, I was very pleased to have given this place a try. It’s one of the best Greek restaurants I’ve ever tried! I was given the recommendation of trying their Gyro Sandwich with a side of Greek Lemon Potatoes. It was absolutely delicious! I also had a try of one my coworker’s orders, which was the Moussaka. It’s basically like a Greek lasagna, and it was AMAZING!

Well now onto our Friday’s lunch order. I figured I’d try something a little different, so I opted for their Chicken Gyro instead. This was actually quite a bit of a miss this time. Definitely not as good as the regular Gyro made of beef and lamb. Funny thing is that the majority of the IMH office ordered the same, so unfortunately we didn’t have the best experience with the quality of their food with the Chicken Gyro choice.

Chicken Gyro Sandwich

On the other hand, I also tried another dish that another coworker ordered, which was the Athenian Chicken. Now this is the quality that I was expecting. It was another amazing dish!

Well, since the majority of the office didn’t get the best item on the menu, we gave this place 4 stars. I’m sure if we order the right dishes next time around, we’d give it a 5! So, yes we WILL be trying this place again and give it another chance because the few people that ordered the regular Gyro Sandwich and other dished gave this place 5 stars.

So in conclusion, definitely check this place out and don’t be quick to judge a book by it’s cover. We recommend the beef and lamp Gyro over the Chicken Gyro. And I’m sure the majority of their other entrees are excellent!

Athenian Chicken

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