"internet famous"

Pretty awesome news, an app that Chris Witte and I made for our Mobile App developing class has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. I'm very excited becuase this was probably the best class I have taken in college.

Here's a link to the story Google Brings app-making to the masses

and my class portfolio

and a picture

Taken by Brant Ward/SF Chronicle

If I would I could. so I hope I can.

Saw these Jeffrey Campbell shoes while walking through Nordstrom. I thought they were pretty awesome.

Agur Bakersfield

Oh bakersfield,
thank you for allowing my to stay in one of your many wonderful castles. Though it seems that some of your residents may have a tanning bed addiction, they were pretty welcoming. Thank you for stuffing me with lots of lamb and sausage it was all very delicious. You sure know how to throw a good Basque festival though I'm sad there was no sheep to herd. Here are some pictures from this weekend trip to Bakersfield/The Castle.






Hope to see you next year!

xoxo,
Gossip Girl (aka Elisa)

damn you kaiser!

I'm pretty sure I have asthma but for some reason I don't think my doctor believes me. I went to another doctor and even she thought I had asthma. I can't even walk up the stairs to my apartment without feeling like i'm going to drop dead. DAMN YOU KAISER!

Andale at SFO

I finally made it to the Andale in SFO and it wasn't all I thought it would be. First of all my poor little Andale is all the way in the back of the small food court. It sits there with such a sad face and it's sort of disappointing compared to their other locations that always seem to be so inviting and festive. There was no one there, it was just my boyfriend and I sitting in a corner looking like burrito thieves. The supremo burrito was good but not as great as the Palo Alto location (RIP) or the original Los Gatos restaurant, but it did fill the spot I have for Andale in my heart.

Mi casa es su casa

View Larger Map

Here's a google map that outlines some of the places that I've taken pictures for my Digital Media Production and places that have inspired me to write a blog. Through this map, you will be able to learn about the places that I enjoy visiting.

blogging oh blogging, I hate (and love) you , you stink.

Oh blogging, one of my favorite past times since 2003.
I've been blogging about my trials and tribulations since the summer of 2003. I was in the midst of my high school teenage angst years and was looking for an outlet where I could let off some steam. Sometimes I hated it, sometimes I loved it but overall, I think we've been good to each other. Back then blogging was all the rage and was easily facilitated through Xanga and other various programs. It was one of the ways that my friends and I could communicate after school ( I still did not have a cell phone). From 2003 to 2005 my first blog, presents a chronicle of the latter years of my high school life. But after 2005, blogging took a back seat and I guess you could say I became a "slow blogger". I only blogged when I had something important to say and had thought about it over and over again. Back then my very small high school followed each other's blogs and commented on one another's writings. Now, my blog has become a lonely place, rarely visited. Those who use to follow me, are no longer close to me or have just disappeared into the thin air of the college years. I really enjoyed blogging, it was a great way to express myself and not really have to worry about everybody looking at you. (At least here, when everybody was looking at you, they were miles away and behind a computer screen) Even though I stopped blogging after high school and during the first year of college, I decided to begin blogging again in 2006. I don't think I was blogging about anything important that would change anyones life, but I always felt that blogging was a way of recording one's life.

Though blogging disappeared from my life momentarily, it always seemed to have kept a hold on me. In my most recent years, I have been following a variety of blogs from fashion to technology and have gained a great deal of knowledge from each of them. It disappoints me when I read an article that says blogging is dying because I feel like a good amount of my time on the internet is spent reading blogs. I hope that blogging does stick around and make it through this ever evolving technologically savvy world because through blogs I have opened my eyes to the multitude of knowledge that is hidden in every corner.

I will now leave you with one of my famous blog posts from the teenage years...

"hey its thursday hahahahah. Stimpy has nice hair thank you sonali for pointing that out hahaha. well im here at luch its borning and i dont want to to go get lunch becasue theres a hell big line damn i saw stimpy in the hall haha he looked at me
so happy ahhaha well thats all maybe ill write later ok well bye"

Dos Americas at the USF Human Rights Film Festival

Dos Americas, director David Zlutnicks’ fourth film, touches on the topic of migrant workers in New Orleans and their aid in reconstructing the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The film focuses on the way that Latino migrant workers have been abused by those who contract them and have become easy targets for violence. These issues cannot be brought forward to the police because of fear of deportation and the fact that many of these crimes are being committed by the police officers themselves. Throughout the film, you see interviews with many of the migrant workers that have left their country to follow the American dream, and have been met with horrible living conditions, meager wages and all kinds of abuses. To change these conditions, we learn about a group of migrant workers who have come together to help the victims of this abuse and give a voice to this hardworking group of people. The films interviews with the migrant workers, gave us a first hand account of the tough lives they must lead in order to make little money, to support themselves and their family. The film opens our eyes to issues that are not brought up my the mainstream media. The creation of such a film has given a voice to the voiceless latino migrant workers of New Orleans and those around the country.

The Q & A that followed after the film was very interesting and added a lot to the film. The director David Zlutnick, Jorge Aquino and Ron Sundstrom really informed the audience about the background information of New Orleans and some of the issues that are going on there at this present moment. The director gave some more background information about the film and the audience seemed to have really enjoyed the film and the subject and opened their eyes to a situation that has never really been touched upon in mainstream media.

Here you'll be able to find more information about the films that showed at University of San Francisco's Human Rights Film Festival

"Taxi to the Dark Side" at USF's Human Rights Film Festival

Last night, I attended the final night of The Human Rights Film Festival here at USF. I watched the Academy Award Winning documentary directed by Alex Gibney, Taxi to the Darkside. The film dealt with the murder of Dilwar, a young Afghan Taxi drive accused of helping to plan an attack on the U.S base. He is put into the prison in Bagram and is tortured with variety of torturing “methods” that will make him talk. Eventually, Dilwar dies within his prison cell. Throughout the film, we hear testimony from the men who tortured Dilwar and government officials who knew of the torture that was occurring in Bagram. The film did a great job of shedding light on the subject of torture. Though this wasn’t the first to die from the extreme torturing methods used and approved by the U.S. government. It did a great job shedding the light on such horrible acts. The testimonies of the soldiers that torutured Dilwar, made it that much more powerful. One of the surprising scenes in this film is the press tour of Guantanamo Bay. The soldiers made it seem as though Guantanamo Bay was a summer camp. The guide at one point says, that on Sunday they get ice cream and they even have half a basketball court.

The film definitely shed some light for on how serious the torturing of these prisoners (who may have nothing to do with any terrorist) really is and how Bush’s administration wiped their hands clean of any blood that was shed because of them. There was a large audience at the presentation of the film and audience was horrified by some of the scenes that were presented to them in the film. This film definitely had the audience and I very emotionally involved. This film definitely made me think about the torturing of ETA prisoners in Spain. Spain has denied that they have tortured anyone and that those that have been captured have lied about being tortured or inflicted the injuries themselves.

If you are interested about one of the most recent cases of torture in Spain here is a a link to an amnesty international article.

tech with the fu?

So my children, I have decided to finally fulfill my dreams and am about to embark on a great journey. After thinking long and very hard about it, I will be starting a video podcast about technology and other such delicious topics. At the moment, I am developing the concept of the show and would really enjoy any comments or suggestions on what you would be interested in seeing. I would welcome all the help that I can get to make it as successful as possible.

i love my mamacita!

my mom is the most hilarious person in the world! We went to dinner on saturday night to the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco. My mom thinks they have the best bread, very rustic looking and it is really good, but all of a sudden I see my mother pull out a plastic bag. I start to think to myself, "Is she really going to kidnap the bread ?" I see her hand reach across my plate and she grabs the bread, I look at her face and she is smiling like she just won a million dollars. SHE KIDNAPPED THE BREAD! I started to laugh uncontrollably. This is why i love my mother so much.

Can you see me?

In my Digital Media production class with professor Silver we are creating digital media content with different programs, like facebook, twitter, flickr, etc and using our real name when we create it. But the fact that we are exposing our true identities has caused some controversy with other professors. Here's the link to my professors blog and all the comments that he has received about allowing us to create the content with our actual names . I also left a comment defending the fact that we are using our real names when creating content through these programs and how it actually is benefiting us.

"I'm also a student in this class and I think it's great that we get create something with newer technologies like facebook, twitter,, Flickr, etc. We all consented to using our real names and had the choice to leave if we were not comfortable with the idea of exposing ourselves to the public.
Yes we are putting our personal information out into the Internet exposing it to the public but we obviously are comfortable or at least becoming comfortable with idea of doing this. We are taking the risk that everything that we are putting out there can come back and haunt us later on but I don't think that what we have produced through this class and will continue producing will hurt us professionally or personally, if anything it will help our careers and allow us to become even more comfortable with exposing ourselves and our work to the public"

Reminiscing of flowers

When I was about 10 years old I became obsessed with Doc Martens. When I would go to Spain for christmas, we would go to Irun and there I found a store that sold the most beautiful shoes. I would admire all the shoes in the window and want a pair for my feet. I finally asked my dad if he would buy some. My first pair were flowered Doc Martens that I thought were the most beautiful thing in the world. I eventually gave them away and wish I would have kept them, if just to admire them. I've been contemplating buying a pair again and I'd love to find the flowers ones again but I believe they were limited edition. Hopefully soon I'll buy a pair that I'll admire as much as those.

señorito is eating my money

I have an issue with Outtakes making candy so expensive and I read the yelp reviews and others agree, but I never really realized how expensive it was until yesterday. I bought chocolate covered raisins and gummy worms and it cost me 7 dollars!!!!!!! Those 7 dollars can go to something else. so please please please make it 4 dollars because it will save me 3 dollars.

I'm a big kid now

Now that a new year has started I have tons of things I'd like to do this year and here is my list, just so I have it written somewhere and I don't forget

1. Learn how to take semi-good pictures
2. Get chris to teach me how to use the 4x5 camera
3. Continue work on my first documentary
4. Hide from the world less
5. Talk more
6. Attend concerts that I buy tickets for (last year I bought a lot of tickets and went to only 2 concerts)
7. Learn to get over my fear of picking up the phone
8. Call my sister more often becuase I sure do miss her sometimes and her crazy stories
9. Play more video games
10. Write in this blog and not delete what I've written.
11. Start writing again
12. Stop wasting time and get a job
13. Stop buying things I don't need (becuase I did not have to buy the peticure for my cats nails, plus it would have probably sanded their poor paws off)
14. Get an internship (prefferably at Revision3 but i'm not going to be picky)
15. I'd like to start two kung fu's and a persian podcast again.

yawning

I can't standing the noise a yawn makes. no sir.