Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Yvonne Lau, a professor at DePaul University invited me to appear on her show, ConversAsian that shows in Illinois. Before you mess with it’s name, know that it’s been around for years. It’s fairly free form, it’s Yvonne and a subject sitting across from each other in a simple room. It’s what you’ve seen on cable access, but this one focuses on Asian Americans. Rare actually, isn’t it? I made it through two segments easily, each being 28 minutes. There’s no editing, so if you decide to melt down, you can’t take it back. This is what the control board looks like. I’m sure it’s not brand new, but it works. We talked about the beginnings of GR, where it’s been, where it’s going, Asian America, and what I think about it all. It’s fun to be able to air out your mind, especially when I’ve been thinking about things for a while. After the interview, Yvonne thanked me and said it was inspiring. If you see the broadcast, give me a shout.
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So I’ve finally had some time to go through the photos I took from this South Africa trip. There are a lot so I’m gonna have to break this blog about my trip into three parts. This is the Safari part and will probably be the most interesting to animal lovers, Discovery Channel freaks and carnivores(you’ll see why in a sec).So the first stop on the trip was the Tanda Tula Lodge in the Timba Vate private game reserve on the edge of Krueger National Park. I have been on Safari before but this time I wanted to get the real bush experience. Tanda Tula puts all of their guests in tenets rather than an actual lodge. This way you are right in the bush with all the sites sounds and smells right there all around you. Animals can literally walk right up to your tent if you’re lucky enough. We were taken on two game drives a day, one at 6 am and another at 4pm. These are optimal animal viewing times because they hide away from the heat of the day.What surprises most first time safari goers is actually how close you can actually get to the animals, especially the predatory animals. My Mom almost crapped herself a couple times as Lions and Elephants passed within feet of the jeep. The rangers’ explanation is they see the large topless jeep as one large and harmless entity so they do not feel threatened by them. Also these animals have grown accustomed to these jeeps following them around. That said, if you step out of the jeep,you’re looking to become mince meat.I guess the goal of every safari trip is to see the big five. The big five are Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo, Leopard and Lion. My last safari I didn’t see the Leopard but I did see a kill, which was a pride of Lionesses catching and killing a large Kudu, which is like a big deer. I filmed this but haven’t had time to put it on the site. It was gruesome but fascinating at the same time. I’ll post it when I get a chance. Here’s a Lion we saw the first evening eating a buffalo. The buffalo must have been dead for a couple days because the stench of rotten meat was horrible. This photo was taken from about 20 feet away and in low light thus the blurriness.Last time we missed the Leopard but this time we saw one the first day. He was sleeping on the edge of a dry river bank. When we came back the next morning, he was eating this gazelle breakfast.His spots were so amazing and I was lucky to get some nice golden sunlight to enhance the photo.Elephants are amazing creatures. Usually you only see them in the Zoo or shackled down for tourists to take a ride on. But when you see them in the wild in their natural environment eating, playing and bathing, you really get to see...
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Hot Doug Part 2 - it doesn't stop. The food in Chicago is pretty good. I've written about Hot Doug's before, which is perhaps the best dog place around. It's open only during the day, and it's right by the folks at Midway who makes the Chow Yun Fat video game. Eat dog seems be well crafted. The above two are the veggie dogs, and maybe some of the folks who read this blog can tell me what the heck...
Hot Doug Part 2 – it doesn’t stop. The food in Chicago is pretty good. I’ve written about Hot Doug’s before, which is perhaps the best dog place around. It’s open only during the day, and it’s right by the folks at Midway who makes the Chow Yun Fat video game. Eat dog seems be well crafted. The above two are the veggie dogs, and maybe some of the folks who read this blog can tell me what the heck the bottom one is. I forgot. I added the image above, and that’s Hot Doug himself. I sneaked photos of him before, but this time I asked, and look at that smile. If you’re in the business of making great food, and making people happy, I hope you can smile like this man can. He’s always there working. When he’s out, the spot might be closed. Rumor has it, that Hot Doug is a culinary student of sorts, and went through the rigors of being at high end restaurants, and now makes the best dogs he can. That’s really cool. This is the Dave Kingman. I do remember Mr Kingman, who hit a ball in the Astrodome that went so high, it didn’t come down. The Chicken sausage dog is the Dave Kingman. I got it Italian style, which has those special herbs that mama would put in the sauce. The technique of opening this dog is a bit freaky. If you hit Chicago, you should check this place out. Here’s my last post about Hot Doug’s.
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Talking at a the University of Illinois Chicago, which is a state school that's supposedly not among the better institutions, it was a a great chance to talk to the people-the regular kids-which is pretty much how I got my education.
1) The school is 25% Asian, and even with that, there's no Asian American studies as a major. There's a student Asian American office, but it ends there. One office,...