Lately, Mia has been able to sleep through the night. Unfortunately, she had a rough night sleeping last night. She woke up crying around 1:40am. This alone wouldn’t be so bad. But then she woke up crying twice more, once at 2:40-ish and then at 4:20-ish.

Each time she wakes up you go through the checklist: Is she hungry? Does her diaper need changing? Is she cold? None of these seemed to be the case last night. I think it came down to her not wanting to be alone, perhaps a night terror attack. Mia was only comforted by having her back and head rubbed while we stood next to her crib.

I’m sure she’ll have a few rough nights in the future. I imagine a time when she’s older when she finds the dark corner in her room scary, or an unfamiliar noise outside will startle her awake. She’ll scream or cry, come running into our room and ask if she can sleep in our bed. We’ll say OK, but only for a little while. She’ll fall asleep in between Farrah and I. We’ll pick up her little self and place her back into her own bed. We’ll rub her back and her head, making sure she’s comfortably asleep.

I know there will be a time when she will no longer come running to our room. But I can imagine a time when she still will, and I smile. I smile because she’s our little girl who’s coming to mommy and daddy for reassurance that everything is OK. And it is OK, even in the middle of the night.

I smile because she’s our little girl.

This week I had the opportunity to eat lunch at Mobowl. MoBowl is a food truck serving Chinese cuisine with a twist. We’ve tried MoGo, a similar concept involving Korean cuisine, and we’ve enjoyed what they had to offer. Would MoBowl be the same?

To find out where MoBowl will be on any given day, you need to either look on their homepage or their Twitter stream. They only serve food on weekdays during lunchtime. On this particular day, they were only three minutes away from my workplace.

On to the review.

Atmosphere

Well, it’s a food truck. The truck is clean, with available drinks and plastic utensils available upfront. The menu is written in chalk and is easy to read.

Service

They were a half-hour into their lunch service. I only saw one customer in line. I wondered if this was a bad sign, but I walked up to the truck and ordered. The order taker – possibly the owner – was friendly, giving me several options for what I ordered. I had the Five Spice Pulled Pork bowl. There were two additional options with my meal, a fried egg, and brown rice. Each would cost an additional dollar. I opted only for the fried egg. The meal came out to nine dollars total.

They were able to make my dish in less than five minutes. I took it to go, as is the case with these food trucks, and took my meal back to the office.

Food

The food comes in a sturdy plastic bowl. Items in the bowl are segregated into three areas: a salad, rice with a fried egg on top, and pulled pork. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like that much food. Then you realize the bowl is deep, and the contents of the bowl make up a hearty meal.

The salad was a normal regular green salad with a light dressing. The egg was fried medium with a slightly runny yoke. The rice was perfect, not too soggy or too dry. The meat, at first taste, was extremely tender and flavorful. I enjoyed it for a while. But after some time the five spices, which I’ve had before in other dishes, became overwhelming.

Verdict

I enjoyed my meal, though again, the five spice was a bit heavy-handed in my opinion. I think I’ll go back to try another offer. But for now, I give it 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

I’m trying to invest in a cross-platform note-taking system. What I’d like for this system to do is:

• Be available on whatever device I’m on - primarily a Windows machine, a Mac, iPhone, and an iPad.
• Have the ability to take notes offline, then upload them for later access.
• Have the ability to access notes while offline, somehow storing a local copy on each device.
• Easily export all my data - just in case the company or system goes under.
• Be easy to use and secure.

I like the idea of Evernote. I’ve tried to use it before when it first became available on the iPhone. For some reason, I haven’t taken to the system. But now that I have the application on all my devices, I’ll take the opportunity to take it for a full run. I’m going to try using the free version of Evernote for all my note-taking (e.g. blog posts, blog ideas, longer personal projects, etc.) The only thing the free version appears to be missing from my list above is the offline abilities. Those can be had with a premium account. Let me set a 30-day trial period, ending on February 25th. Let’s see how that goes.

So what am I using now?

I’m trying to get by with Elements. It’s a cool little iPhone and iPad app that syncs with Dropbox. But that’s the limitation, the availability of the app on those two platforms. I know I can use a simple text editor to access the Dropbox-created file or create a text file and put it into Dropbox for editing in Elements. But it seems laborious at this point. But it might be the more elegant solution if the Evernote software on the Mac and Windows machine proves to be cumbersome. Who knows.

I’ve also been trying out Scrivener for writing. Again, the problem is it only resides on my Mac. And again, I suppose I could export the file to Dropbox to make further edits, but it seems too much work to accomplish this.

I’ll let you know how it progresses.

Angelina Jolie as Salt

Netflix Synopsis:

After she's accused of being a Russian sleeper spy, rogue CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) goes on the run, using every tactic, accent and disguise she knows to elude her pursuers, clear her name and protect her husband. Her supervisor, Winter (Liev Schreiber), buys her story, while counterintelligence officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) decidedly does not and will do anything to stop her in this fast-paced, intrigue-filled spy adventure.

My Take:

I really wanted to like this movie, and I did for about the first third. But then it took a sudden turn down when the movie changed direction from plausible to unbelievable super-action hero. I mean, I believe the Jason Bourne movies more than Salt. Granted, the film was well shot, and the chases and stunts were well choreographed. I know, it’s a movie, and things don’t have to be realistic. Perhaps it was my mistake going into this film hoping for an actual action/espionage film, as opposed to pure cartoonish action sequences. I prefer Angelina Jolie’s in Wanted than in this film.

For me, any empathy for “Salt” was lost, as the story failed to support her actions or motivation. But I guess this isn’t a movie about character motivation, but of the momentum of action.

Rating: Cable TV Worthy

• I just earned the Pro badge on #Yelp #
• Photo: View from the London Eye (Taken with instagram) http://tumblr.com/xsr12c1z3m #
• I just earned the Domestic badge on #Yelp #

• I’m happy I no longer host the blog on tumblr.com. Imagine, they’ve been down for 12+ hours. What’s up @tumblr? #fumblr #
• I swear, tumblr was working a few minutes ago. Did it just go down again? #
• Pearl Harbor. The anniversary of my father’s death. A friend’s birthday. These are things I think of every December 7th. #
• Mia - December 8, 2010 http://instagr.am/p/f1ni/ #
• \When was the last time I used a stapler? http://instagr.am/p/f4yo/ #
• Things on my desk - ketchup packets http://instagr.am/p/glZo/ #
• Mia at Starbucks http://instagr.am/p/h3gE/ #
• Today’s to do list, item 1: put up outdoor Christmas light. Check! Onto item 2 after lunch. #

• Trying out Seesmic 2 Desktop. Not sure if it’s the right program for me. I’ll give it a go for a couple of days. http://bit.ly/9jMisw #
• @michellebranch Always wanted to buy ‘Broken Bracelet’. I’m happy it’s now finally available! in reply to michellebranch #
• If @directv doesn’t start offering BBCAmerica in HD, I’ll be using Airplay from my iPad to watch Dr Who, etc. http://j.mp/f8IWL4 #
• I’m finding it difficult to work from home, especially when my daughter is staring at me wanting to play. Is it time for a break yet? #
• ♫ Listening to Ready Or Not (Cillo Remix) by Fugees on exfm http://ex.fm/s/nst7V #

Mia had her first immunization shots yesterday. Oh, the pain! But she’s a trooper, a tough cookie, like her mom.

She was given three shots and a sweet liquid that was taken orally. Farrah readily volunteered to hold me, though she didn’t really know what to expect. As she tightly held Mia the nurse gave the first shot into Mia’s right leg. When the needle entered Mia’s thigh, and the plunger was pressed down, Mia let out the biggest cry I ever heard from her tiny mouth. The scream was heartfelt and piercing. The nurse then gave Mia a few drops of the sweet liquid in an effort to soothe her. It calmed her for a brief moment until the other two shots were administered to her left leg. She was given the last of the sweet liquid to calm her down a bit. But you could see the tears streaming down the side of her face. It’s heartbreaking not being able to do anything but say, “It’ll be all right. You’re fine now.”

She cried until she could cry no longer. Exhausted, she fell asleep on the drive home.

Mia was quiet for a few hours. But then she awoke screaming, most likely from the pain in her legs. I was on my way home when Farrah told me 0.8 ml of acetaminophen, as dictated by the doctor, helped Mia through the next rough few hours. I don’t think we ever heard her cry so badly.

I’m extremely late in posting this, but it’s time to say goodbye to Vox. I hosted this blog there for a while - from July 2006 to June 2008.

The appeal of Vox, to me, was the community that was created during its inception. I found it easy to connect with people who shared common interests from various places around the world. Vox also allowed a user to post privately or to a specific group of people you designated. Unfortunately in order to comment on any post you had to be a Vox member.

Vox’s other limitations - lack of customization, lack of exporting data, lack of using a personal domain, and displaying of advertising you couldn’t control - made Vox not worth the trouble. People I had connected with started to drop off, going back to their personal websites (e.g. WordPress, Movable Type, etc). Thus ended my time at Vox.

I plan to import the view posts I have from Vox into this blog. They’ll be tagged appropriately, probably something as simple as “Vox”.

It was good while it lasted.

• What generation do you belong to? Here’s mine: http://projects.usatoday.com/news/generations/results/#id=97529,share=true (@usatinteractive) #
• Does anyone have an invite to share for @hellobar, the little toolbar that get’s noticed? #
• Mia Sleeping on Kaleb’s Mickey Mouse Bed http://picplz.com/zSqR #

• Listening to Mia over the intercom. She’s trying to talk herself to sleep. At least I hope she’s going to go back to sleep. #
• It’s fun to do things together as a family, like being sick all at the same time! #

Wow, a post other than photos and Twitter updates! Yeah, I’ve been a bit behind in reviewing movies that I’ve been able to watch the last couple of months. Yes, even with Mia, work, and all the things life has to throw at you, there is still a little time to enjoy a movie. Well, I enjoyed some of them. Others were not so good.

• Karate Kid (2010) – Why remake this movie? They should have just called it “Kung Fu Kid” considering that’s what Jaden Smith is learning. Jaden Smith overacts and Jackie Chan doesn’t get enough screen time. A valiant effort to not use the same script, but it falls short.
  Rating: Rental

• Robin Hood – Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett aren’t bad in this movie. It’s just that the story isn’t compelling at the least.
  Rating: Cable TV

• Inception – This is the last film we saw in the theater. I thought it was great, not realizing it was a long film. I would have liked to have seen some of the scenes in IMAX, but overall I was satisfied to watch it on the big screen. If you get this on Blu-ray, I hope you have a large screen to watch it on, to get the full effect.
  Rating: Full Admission

• The Losers – Action-packed movie, but no characters to care about. Zoe Saldana was the only thing going for this movie.
  Rating: Rental

• The Blind Side – Likable actors and characters. Good solid story. I can see why Sandra Bullock was nominated for an Oscar (not sure she should have won it though).
  Rating: Matinee

• She’s Out of My League – A predictable movie with a few funny moments. The shaving scene, and the outtakes of it, were a bit disturbing.
  Rating: Cable TV

• Killers – An awful movie. A waste of time. I’m not sure why I bothered renting it. Oh, I know why. I rented Mr. & Mrs. Smith at the same time. I wanted to compare the two films. At least I watched one good film. Avoid Killers at all costs.
  Rating: Cable TV

• Date Night – Tina Fey and Steve Carell are hilarious in this film. But I thought it would have been funnier than it turned out to be.
  Rating: Cable TV

• The Book of Eli – Strong performance by Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Not sure if Mila Kunis worked in this film for me though. The ending was a surprise, but not enough for me to watch the movie again.
  Rating: Rental

• Shutter Island – Well told story. Solid acting. Looks gorgeous in Blu-ray. I wouldn’t mind watching it again, though I don’t think it holds up with repeat viewing.
  Rating: Matinee

• Hot Tub Time Machine – Good funny movie that reminds me of the teen movies of the 80s.
  Rating: Matinee

• Kick-Ass – I was expecting funny/violent, which it started off as. Then it turned serious/violent. Action sequences were nice, but the overall tone of the film didn’t work for me.
  Rating: Rental

• Zombieland – Another solid funny movie. Even though zombies scare Farrah, she sat through this film and enjoyed it. Worth a repeat viewing.
  Rating: Full Admission