I was contacted through Stringr to go and capture the conference on video, so I did. Now, as I was cleaning up my storage space I found the footage and decided to publish it and do a quick update on the story.

I could not find the press conference in its entirety anywhere so I think this is helpful.

It is puzzling to me that such a high profile case in a city with virtually no violent crime has not been resolved. This morning, I received confirmation from the Irvine Police department that the case remains unsolved and the $10,000 reward is still up for grabs.

During the press conference, led by Kim Mohr form the IPD, several city administration, religious and business leaders came together to speak about this and other related incidents.

I believe this incident was enhanced from simple vandalism to a hate-crime due to the nature of the incident.

In no particular order, these are some of the people that were in attendance: Kim Mohr - Irvine PD, John Wagner - Mayor of Irvine, Christina Sea - Councilmember, Melissa Fox - Councilwoman, Lynn Schott - Councilwoman, Rabbi Yisroel Ciner - Beth Jacob Synagogue Irvine, Tim Jamal - President board South County Community School District, Chief Hamel - Irvine Police Department, Alison Edwards - OC Human Relations, Sheikh Atef Mahgoub - Islamic Center of Irvine, Reverend Mark Whitlock - Christ Our Redeemer Church, Peter Lee Levy - Anti Defamation League, Orange County.

I don't know everyone else that is standing there, so if you'd like to point them out and tell me who they are, I'll be happy to add them here. Just leave a comment below.

Remember, there is a reward of $10,000 if you have information that leads to the arrest (and I assume conviction) of the perpetrator.

And if you want to take the opportunity to capture footage for re-distribution, check out Stringr. I've talked about it before on another video.

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Be it golf, cocktail hour, dinner parties or simply lunch. This is why we meet for lunch every week. To bring people together so that we can talk and see what we're all up to.

So this time the Dot Com Lunch meeting took place at Urban Seoul. Urban Seoul, like many of the places we frequent, is located in the Diamond Jamboree Plaza in Irvine; one of the newest outdoor shopping malls in the city.

It is a small place tucked away in plain sight. This is one of the reasons we never noticed it before. It is very easy to miss if you don't know where it is. But with that aside, once you find the place then you are in for a treat.

The reason we went there is because I've been on a Korean Taco craving mood lately. Las Fajitas near Pho Ba Co had Korean tacos for a few weeks but then they stopped serving them.

I also had some great tasting Korean tacos at Mochilato, but they took forever to come out and weren't worth the price.

The tacos you can make at home like you can see in this video are really the best because you can put whatever toppings and seasoning you want. If you know how to cook and want to spend the time doing it.

But back to Urban Seoul. Let me show you some pictures first.

[envira-gallery id="49017"]

The manager on duty was really friendly and quickly explained the menu. I had an idea about what to expect but it was nice to get a proper explanation.

If you have never had fusion cuisine, then you're missing out. This combination is Korean/Hispanic.

The pork belly is used in a lot of the dishes here and with good reason. It is unbelievable. I probably haven't had pork belly this good before, ever. And I've paid some fancy prices for pork belly. Here? It's just part of their everyday fare.

Here is why I came to Urban Seoul. Their Korean tacos. I went with the pork belly order of three. They have other choices and I really wanted to try one of each but you have to order them in sets of three unless you come in on Taco Tuesday.

They were damn good, the perfect blend of flavors with a spicy flare. Squeeze a little bit of lime and this is as close to heaven as you'll get during lunch on a Monday.

If I had to describe Urban Seoul in one word, it would be: Amazing. You gotta go try it, and now they have a second location, Urban Seoul 2.0 at the Irvine Spectrum.

The post Orange County Food Review: Urban Seoul appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Sooo good. And if you're into spicy, try the crazy feta. It's a "secret" recipe for a spicy feta cheese you can add to your bowl or salad. I didn't realize that Mediterranean food could be spicy.

Just shows what little I know.

Really, go check it out. It's one of those BYO build your own restaurants so you'll get to pick every ingredient. How can you go wrong with that?

View on Instagram

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Zion has these ready to go all the time in the hot shelves. Just like any food you get from the hot shelves at a supermarket, it isn't the best, but when you have a craving and don't want to go and sit at a restaurant and wait this is the next best thing. You can always count on Zion Market to have a fresh batch of these waiting for a craving tooth.

Zion also has a lot of other Asian foods and spices that my wife uses. She's Vietnamese, and the store is Korean but they carry a lot of the same spices and produce that are used in Vietnamese cuisine. They sometimes have young coconuts and if they have them at a good price, I'll pick some up since I have the Coco Jack at home to crack them open.

I really like this place so I thought I'd give you a quick glance into it. If you've never been to an Asian supermarket, you should. They're fun, they have interesting stuff and really great deals in some things like you'll see in the video.

The post Tour of Zion Market in Irvine appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The Irvine farmer's market has been around for a long time now and if you want to meet some of the region's best food producers, farmers then you should visit this.

avocado-oil-seller avocado-oil grapes terranium lemmon-irvine

The vendors as much as I know...

• Spring Hill - delicious cheese. I tried them all! - http://www.springhillcheese.com/
• Awesome Terrariums $15 to $50 - No website found, but they are pretty cool!
• Arnett Farms - http://www.arnettfarms.com/
• Papidaddy. (me) http://papidaddy.com/
• Anita Lau (Mad Hungry Woman) http://madhungrywoman.com/. I ran into my friend Anita, foodie extraordinaire.
• Avocado Oil. Amazing! starts at $15.00 for 1/2 liter. You can use Avocado oil like olive oil or any other cooking oil. It's healthy and stands really hot temperatures before it burns.
• Baba Food. Awesome we bought three things. Khalid will take you on an amazing hummus tasting tour.

You can find the new location here:

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When I think about it, I'm lucky to be around all these companies. Small and big and everything in between, you'll find it in Irvine. But Powercrunch is more than just a company.

Powercrunch makes protein enriched foods. Things like protein bars, protein shakes and protein powders to name a few. These are the kind of products you don't usually buy, but you should. Why? Because if you're like most Americans, you are probably not consuming enough protein or enough protein that can be processed by your body.

You should listen (in the video below) to Kevin, the founder of Powercrunch explain this a little better. I understand how proteins work and why they're so important. This understanding is why I've been able to lose about 40 pounds in the past few months, but I'm not the right person to explain it to you.

I had a chance to listen to Kevin, the founder of Powercrunch talk about BNRG, proteins and the history behind Powercrunch. The story is fascinating and I can relate to it as a parent.

I must admit, It wasn't Kevin's night, he seemed a little bit tense having all these bloggers and social media folks around, he even forgot his balls. #Truestory, but his talk is excellent.

Kevin told us the story of how he had to have a better protein than the one that was out there at the time. This happened back when I was two years old, in 1982. Now, 32 years later, Kevin is still working on bringing the best possible protein available.

Why did he have to develop this protein? Well, I'll let you watch the video for that, but if you're a parent I know you'll relate.

So that's Powercrunch. That's what they do and why they're here. I know protein is very important and many people completely misunderstand it, so take some time today and learn about it.

As for me, I'm hitting the sack. Part of doing all we can to #stopdiabetes is getting a good amount of sleep, staying active and having a healthy diet. I've done two out of those today, so it's time to get some sleep now.

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Quiet. Big. Old.
 

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Maybe it's because we were going at 60 mph, or more likely I just don't know that much about older cars. So I took some video of it and posted it on Youtube. I wonder if you know what kind of car it is?

Let me know in the comments:

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I woke up the other morning and the entire neighborhood was covered in a fine yellow powder. If it were white and I were Tony Montana then I wouldn't be writing about it but it was not. I figured it was pollen but I couldn't think of what could create such a massive quantity of it. Come to think of it, I should have taken some pictures. Even my mother pointed it out when she came to visit Claire.

As I went about my day, I noticed it wasn't just my neighborhood but the entire town, everywhere I went I saw cars covered with it, parking lots and shopping malls. I got to thinking, and figured I had to find the common denominator. What plan in Irvine has the capacity to cover the entire city with it's pollen. And I thought that it could be one of the big trees that are often in the median dividers or one of the evergreen type of trees you see everywhere. So I found out what it was and instead of writing more about it I just made a quick video. That is my vlog for the day.

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This time, Steve, William from Piety Project and my sister Ursula from travelingmango.com - Steve's two sites: MegatechNews and Futurelooks.

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What's #Foodiechats all about?

I found #FoodieChats by accident while I was working on one of my other accounts @incentivegifts. FoodieChats seems to be as the name suggests a Twitter chat for foodies and food lovers. Lots of good stuff went on, here's their official website:

http://www.foodiechats.com/

Below is a recap of the tweets I found would represent the chat well. Thanks for reading and visiting!

By the looks of it, @steveGOgreen is the host of the twitter chat. He's another person I invest in at the time-sucking ever-growing Empire Avenue. Find Steve here http://empireavenue.com/STEVEGOGREEN.

What do people talk about on #Foodiechats

Maggie Rupel - @MaggieRupel
Choux full of vanilla pastry cream #foodiechats http://t.co/0MqnSUoP

This little pastry reminded me of #mochilato in Irvine. So tasty!

Mary Kay - @MKinChiTown
Bacon wrapped scallop @drinkingbirdchi. It's HUGE. #TWSS #foodiechats http://t.co/NyAT3Mgu

Totally different than the previous picture, but this is an absolute favorite of mine. I love scallops, bacon wrapped? even better. It's making my mouth water just thinking about it.

Shirley Lum - @ATasteofWorld
Next: "burger" flavoured potato chips;-) @kingofthenerds I mean really, who the hell wants "hot dog" flavoured potato chips? #FoodieChats

Meh, I'd say who the hell wants a "burger" flavoured anything other than burgers? burger-flavor isn't like bacon-flavor. One does not simply make something "burger-flavored".

Steve Green - @steveGOgreen
I am editing #Foodiechats 1-Year Video & U R in it @seamless @ramon_deleon @eatatunion @chi_dmb @NickCanHelpU @mommacuisine

One of the things regular #Foodiechats members have to look forward is a video that @steveGOgreen is putting together.

Steve Green - @steveGOgreen
Love your segment in #Foodiechats 1-Year Video @mafiahairdreser

O apparently the video is up already? I just don't know where it is... must investigate.

Michelle - @browneyedbaker
Nothing better than a blackened hot dog fresh off the charcoal grill! Pass the ketchup!

Delicious food, not the healthiest, but who cares? I'm imagining a good grilled hot dog just because of this tweet!

#Foodiechats - @FoodieChats
Spicy Tina and avocado go great together. #foodiechats http://t.co/Jd0tpJsK

Spicy Tuna & avocado, yes, a great combination. Avocado goes well with everything, including bacon. Sweet, sour or savory Avocado is the man!

Green Global Travel - @GreenGlobalTrvl
RT @myschatheriault 20 Cost-Effective Cucumber #Recipe Ideas #foodiechats

This was a great post with a lot of good ideas. I love cucumber, but didn't think about all these options before.sd

In Closing

It seems that I joined #FoodieChats at an odd time. The 25th should be much more active as it appears that there is a real life meetup for this in San Francisco I think. Well anyway, That does it for testing out more "live blogging" with Dashter.

The post FoodieChat on Twitter 6-20-2012 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks automatic social media is good and if you manage it properly it should work well. Not everybody is the same way and it seems that the majority of the people want to be consumers of information, much more than active participants. This was a video taken a few weeks back at Dot Com Pho in Irvine after our SMMOC meeting (actually I missed SMMOC that day).

You can find more about John Chow and Chris Voss at their respective websites.

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But at the same time I'm also limited to just what I want to do and places I've been to. I tend to guide myself towards other similar places and maybe I'm missing out on something. When I joined foursquare I found that I would be able to see where other people are checking in. This has helped me find new restaurants, parks and places I didn't know existed. I thought that was pretty cool.

I have close to 1000 checkins now and I'm hoping to have 1000 checkins or more by February 15th. Besides the fun that I'm having in 4sq, I believe that foursquare is a very important tool that businesses can use. I'm having a lot of fun with it personally but there is a lot of benefit to having your face and your name be out there in the community that you serve or that you work for. It's all about how many people see your face and recognize you when they want to do business with you.

For example, if you are the owner of a store at a mall it is to your advantage to be the mayor there because when you're in the store, people will recognize you if they check into foursquare (don't forget to remind them with a sticker!). You can also offer a perk for checking in. A discount is a good incentive, but also, people like checking in when the Mayor is in the house, as they get extra points. So I don't see why a business wouldn't want to join foursquare.

I've set a small challenge for myself; to get up to 2000 chickens by the end of the summer. I think I can do that easily. I also want to become the mayor of 45 places. Currently I am the mayor of 11 places, and I try to check into every one of those at least a couple times a week, daily when I can.

I'm also discovering a lot of applications for foursquare besidse foursquare itself, I'll talk about those in another blogpost. So what are your thoughts on Foursquare?

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We went to The Counter the other day, there is a new location in Irvine. If you've never heard of it, I recommend you give it a try. Their thing is "Custom Built Burgers", They are the best non-fast food burgers I've ever had. I think this is largely in part because you can put whatever you want in them. Everyone is bound to have different taste preferences so it fits everyone. If you don't like onions, don't get them! Maybe you like pickles olives and bluecheese with a one pounder all beef patty. Who knows? you have so many combinations to choose from. The burgers in this picture and the ones in flickr are the 1/3lb size. They also have 2/3 and 1 pound. I can't imagine eating 1lb burger. They have a small notice in their menu... the weigh of the burger is *after* cooking so you truly get 1 pound of meat.

You can always make a classic burger if you want, beef, tomato, lettuce and american cheese. Or you can mix it up with other ingredients like red bell peppers, crumbled feta cheese, olives, sprouts, grilled onion, mushrooms, avocado, etc. If you don't like beef then they have other meat choices as well, like chicken.

I will probably make my way over to The Counter again at least a few times in the next year. Its one of those places that you'll want to go back again and again, just to try a different combination each time. Cheers.

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In any case, It was a great game, and I don't even like football that much, but there's something about those amazing comebacks. Last minute and score! I think part of why I enjoyed it so much was because of the party. Probably the best Superbowl party I've ever been to. Dan and Michelle, thanks for hosting! That was the bomb.

Also, on Saturday I got to go to Cars and Coffee, a local car show where anyone can bring in their car and show it off. There seems to be no restrictions, so anyone can join in. Apparently this show was held in Newport beach before, near Crystal Cove. Something happened with the location where people unusually met up and now they meet elsewhere. I could give you my thoughts on the whole Newport Beach thing and why they aren't allowed to meet over there anymore but I would only be speculating so I'll keep those thoughts to myself.

In any case, if you're a car fan, a car buff or simply like to check out awesome cars then head over to the show next chance you get. There are a lot of cars there that are well within everyone's limits... if you're willing to take out a second mortgage or sell a kidney. The show is free, you just have to park across the street and walk over. Check out some of the pictures.

I also got a chance to check out the new Lexus F. Lexus, being the smart company that they are decided to send a couple of reps to the car show and with them, 2 brand new Fs. One black and one burgundy. It looks really cool, pretty much like the IS250/350 but it has a few subtle differences, and oh yeah, and it pushes 416 hp.

If you want to see more photos, head over to the Cars and Coffee album.

There are also other pictures up by my buddy Steve.

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