Dragon’s Breath Dessert in Japan Town

/ Cali, Food, Me, Photo

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Julia demonstrating her dragon breath skills.

On our tour of SF, we stopped by Japan Town and tried out the dragon breath dessert from Chocolate Chair. It’s definitely a gimmick, but everyone should try it out at least once.

The colourful dessert is made up of liquid nitrogen coated ice cream cereal balls.

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Annie anticipating her first taste of dragon’s breath.

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Annie’s dragon’s breath game needs work.

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Dragon’s breath dessert, freezing everything it touches.

It just tastes like cereal. The best way to create the smoke is to take 2 or 3 balls and chew them quickly while breathing out.

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Liquid nitrogen being poured into the mixer.

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Japan Town Peace Pagoda.

A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa; a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. –Wikipedia

After walking around in Japan Town, we headed back to the apartment. For some reason SF was hot as balls, and everyone was drained.

Shopping for a Jacket at Uniqlo and Eating Corn Dogs

/ Cali, Food, Me, Photo

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Uniqlo in San Francisco.

I never heard of this store until Annie and Julia told me about it. Their clothing is a rare combination of sportiness, utility, style, quality and value.

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Poofy vests and jackets that can be compressed into tiny bags the size of your fist for storage.

Uniqlo has failed in previous expansion binges. In 2001, the retailer set its sights on capturing customers in the United States and the United Kingdom, but a year-and-a-half of dismal sales later, it shut the doors on most of the new stores. –Huffington Post

Apparently, the CEO tried launching his company several times with different magnitudes of failure. Now Uniqlo is on its way to the top. Seriously, the quality is up there with North Face, but for 1/3 the cost. You can read more about the company here.

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I’m definitely going to shop here once I need to update my cloths. I’m really digging the style and practicality… and most of all, the price!

After a little shopping, we went to grab some fresh corn dogs. Yes, there is a restaurant called Hot Dog on a Stick, and it’s amazing. You’ve got to try it out—you have no idea what you’re missing.

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Apple Store in the mall.

No mall visit would be complete without visiting the Apple store.

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New Apple Watch Nike Bands.

I’m really liking the watch bands made by Nike. I’m not sure if you can order them separately, but they look aiiiiiiight!

Twin Peaks at Night

/ Cali, Me, Photo

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Long exposure of San Francisco from Twin Peaks at night. This photo was created by stacking 9 images together.

There’s been a crazy heat wave in San Francisco over the last two days, so night time photography seems to be the best solution to stay cool. We drove over to Twin Peaks to snap a couple photos.

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Annie and Julia posing in front of the San Francisco skyline at night.

I didn’t have a flash on me, so I used my iPhone light to create a little fill light. It turns out that the iPhone flash light works pretty well.

By the way, there were so many people smoking weed up there that I was probably getting a second hand high.

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Annie and I posing in front of the SF skyline.

The Twin Peaks are two prominent hills with an elevation of about 925 feet (282 m) located near the geographic center of San Francisco, California. Only 928 foot (283 m) Mount Davidson is higher within the city.

If you like these photos, you can check out some of pics I shot years ago with my old Nikon D200. Also, for a similar night time view, check out pictures from my hike at Mt. Davidson.

Fort Funston with Annie and Julia

/ Cali, Me, Photo

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Julia and Annie standing on the edge of Fort Funston.

Annie and Julia decided to take a trip out to Cali for the week. As always, we like kicking off things at Fort Funston.

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Sun touching down on the pacific ocean at 7pm.

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Julia and Annie showing off their freshly manicured nails as the sun sets.

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Photo of the Fort Funston precipice on a clear afternoon.

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Close up of Julia and Annie enjoying the view.

What an amazing afternoon. No matter how many times I come out here, I’m always blown away by the view (as long as it’s not foggy).

Here are some photos of when I visited Fort Funston with Tiffanie. And here’s another time when I went with Patrick.

On a side note, I was thinking about doing a series on the dogs of California, similar to The Humans of New York. What do you guys think? Would you read posts about stories of dogs in Cali?

Razer Gear

/ Cali, Gaming, Me, Photo, Tech

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A complete set of Razer products at the Razer store in San Francisco.

So, I’ll admit that I secretly really want some of the gear made by Razer. The lights really don’t serve any purpose other than looking really cool. You don’t need be a Twitch streamer to appreciate this stuff—LED color changing lights are bad ass.

Foo, I thought of you when I saw this. I’m surprised you don’t have your entire home setup decked out with this stuff. The Razer mouse pad retails for $51.99, and their Mamba mouse is $79.44.

Ps. Check out that bokeh in the photo above. Rainbow bokeh! It doesn’t top my christmas tree bokeh though.

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The Razer store hosting a game tournament on Friday afternoon in the mall.

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The Razer store located in Westfield Mall in SF

This is a really cool store. I’ve been there a couple of times. I may actually try to compete at the next Hearthstone tournament. ^_^

Street Photography in SF

/ Cali, Me, Photo

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Homeless man with a sign that reads, “I need $24 for bus so I can make family court hearing on time and not lose my parental rights to my daughters”.

On my way back to the Apple store, I snapped a couple of pics. this is my attempt at some street photography in San Francisco. I need to read up more about street photography—it seems that SF could provide an incredible canvas to explore.

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Photographer taking candid portraits of strangers walking by.

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Photographer taking a picture of a woman and offering to show her his work.

This is probably some famous street photographer… or he could be a creepy old man taking pictures of random people—I’ll let you decide. He snapped a picture of an asian woman walking by and offered to show the photo to her.

Oh yeh, he’s using a pretty serious telephoto lens. I’m going to take a wild guess and say he’s using a Canon 200mm F2. That lens retails for $5,699 on B&H.

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The sun setting between the streets of San Fancisco.

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Man preaching religion and his faith in the busiest part of Mission St.

Everyone here has some sort of story. One of my buddies (Aram Taghavi) recommended to check out Humans of New York. This photographer captures candid stories told by individuals living in New York. It could be a good inspiration point for some of the stuff I’m working on now.