The tiki bar was called False Idol and it is actually tucked away inside of a place called Craft & Commerce. Basically you can just look up the address, go inside and at the hostess stand say you are there for False Idol and they will take you back. They do say to make reservations, but we strolled in on a weekday and we didn’t have to wait or anything.

Once inside you are transported to another world! You sort of feel like you at a tiki bar on an island somewhere, but you are in the middle of Little Italy in San Diego. There is wall to wall decor and it is not tacky at all, it really adds to the whole experience.

I was with two friends and we all ordered different drinks. Keep in mind tiki drinks contain far more alcohol than your normal cocktail so they are priced as such. Prices there range from $13-20 per drink, but you definitely feel it after one drink! The drinks were great and being in that atmosphere is definitely a nice break from the typical bar / club in that area.

I featured False Idol in my one of my San Diego Vlog’s which you can see below.

The post The Hidden Tiki Bar in San Diego first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

Strings is located in the heart of Chicago’s Chinatown, which you should check out anyways if you have the chance. You’ll find Strings right across from New Chinatown Square. It is a very small Ramen shop, which most good Ramen shops tend to be.

The menu is pretty simple, you have the choice between Shoyu Ramen, Shio Ramen, Miso Ramen, Tonkotsu Ramen, or Hell Ramen. Hell Ramen is of course spicy ramen and they actually have a challenger for it, but we will leave that for another day. The menu actually helps you learn about ramen if you are new to it. It has sections like Ramen Guide 101 and Ramen Terminology. Also all of the staff were extremely friendly and guided us through the menu.

I decided to go with the Kuro Buta (pork) Shoyu Ramen. When it came out it look amazing, but after digging in it tasted quite amazing too!

The ramen noodles were cooked perfectly and the broth was very rich in taste. Besides the pork the ramen was topped with Menma, nori, scallions, and red ginger. The bowl of Ramen is definitely enough for one person, but if you are with a group I would suggest everyone ordering something different and sharing.

The post Possibly The Best Ramen Of My Life At Strings Ramen first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

Before I get into my summer check out the video below from Casey Neistat about summer. I feel the same way about summer. Summer for me was a time where I felt anything was possible, where I would wake up and each day was a new adventure. I think that as we get older some people forget that, but summer, at least for me is always this magical time.

I love the ending, “You can sleep in September”. So one big thing that was different about this summer was I was able to document a lot of it because I have a new camera. Earlier this year I bought a Sony a6300 and it has to be one of the best investments that I’ve ever made. We’ll get more into that in another blog post, but creating films from my experiences has been a new way to express myself instead of writing. I don’t think that I’m ever going to stop writing, it’s something that I feel I’m very good at, and it is actually something that relaxes me at times.

Summer for me is always being on the water. There is just something about it that I love. The highlight of this summer definitely has to be the trip to Lake Norman in North Carolina. It was a straight 7 days on the lake with some amazing people. Check out the video playlist below.

Since YouTube wouldn’t let me use the music in day 7 here is that video as well.

One awesome thing that happened this summer was the Red Bull Flutag was held here. It is basically an anything that flies type of event and it was pretty cool they brought it to Pittsburgh.

You can check out my full gallery of photos from the Flutag and the Regatta here.

Summer wouldn’t be summer without a trip to end it all and this year it was a boat trip to Tygart Lake in West Virginia. I had never been to this lake before, but it was a fun little day trip.

It is always good to end summer on a high note like that and with some of your best friends.

While this was just a recap of some of my summer I do have to say, like I do after each summer, that it was a blast. Summer is short, maybe that is why many of us feel the way we do about it. Maybe it’s because we get to do what we love (be on the water). Or maybe it’s just when you and all your friends can get together for good times. Whatever the reason summer is magical to me and this summer was no different.

The post Another Amazing Summer first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

The John Hancock Center is the 4th tallest building in Chicago at 1,127 feet high with 100 floors. It is the 8th tallest building in the United States and was actually the tallest building in the United States in the 1960s. It was also the first building outside of New York City to rise at least 1000 feet.

At the John Hancock Center you actually have three options, first is 360 Chicago, which is the actual observatory on the 94th floor. This will cost you about $20 and does have the Tilt Experience, again it just seemed like a tourist trap. Next you have the Signature Room on the 95th floor. This is the restaurant and from everything I read the food was just ok, you were more or less paying for the view. Finally there is the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor, which is the bar / lounge. I ended up choosing this, and it ended up being the best choice (the restaurant was almost completely empty when we walked by it!).

I had read the best time to get to the Signature Lounge was 4-4:30PM to secure a table with a view for the sunset. We ended up getting there right around that time and got a table right as someone was getting up! I would suggest this time because after 5PM the place gets packed! Our table was right on the corner so we were able to enjoy views both west and south.

Now drinks are overpriced, just like the food at the restaurant (from what we heard), you are paying for the view not the quality of food or service. But you can easily sip on a drink, relax and enjoy the view. Mixed drinks where anywhere from $12-18, not bad considering the view. We actually ended up staying through the entire sunset until it got completely dark.

I think I took over 100 photos! If you want to get some amazing photographs for Instagram this is the place! I also took a few time lapse videos with my older iPhone using Hyperlapse, I still need to edit them though.

If you are in Chicago the John Hancock Center offers some of the best views of the city, and in my opinion the Signature Lounge is the way to go. It is a great place to grab drinks before dinner and enjoy an amazing view! After the John Hancock Center we ended up at Primehouse for dinner, which was amazing!

The post Having Drinks On the 96th Floor Of The John Hancock Center first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

Primehouse is located on the first floor of the James Hotel. I ended up going with a friend around 8pm and we had no reservations. It was a weekday so it was not that busy, we were immediately greeted and brought to a table. We were then presented with the menu.

The menu mainly focuses on their dry-aged prime cuts of beef. All of their dry-ages cuts are aged in-house in their dry-aging room which has a blocks of Himalayan sea salt lining the walls. Our server Devlin explained the menu quite well and answered any questions we had. Looking at the appetizers the thing that really caught my attention was the Miyazaki beef sashimi ($21). Devlin explained that Miyazaki Beef is 100% purebred Japanese Wagyu from the Miyachiku co-op. I’ve actually never had beef sashimi before so I was excited to try it.

The sashimi comes out on a block of Himalayan sea salt with truffles on top. It was explained to us that the longer you let the beef sit on the block the more intense salt flavor you’ll get. The beef flavor was amazing! The sashimi is also served with mushrooms. The best taste was to get a piece of the sashimi with truffle on it and then add mushroom and eat it all in one bite! I could have ordered 2 or 3 more of these appetizers they were so good!

To our surprise another plate came out, which was the Panisse ($14). Devlin said that we had to try it.

Panisse is just chickpea flour mixed with an egg yolk, it was served with greens and gouda cheese. It was actually really good, and a nice surprise for sure!

Next was the main course, which I had a hard time deciding on. Devlin definitely said if we were at Primehouse we wanted to get a dry-aged steak. I had the choice of a 28-day Ribeye ($54), 40-day Ribeye ($64), 55-day Ribeye ($70), 75-day Ribeye ($81), 30-day Porterhouse ($130), or a 35-day Kansas City Strip ($68). After thinking about it I went with the 55-day Ribeye.

You can have the option for them to cut it at the table, which I did. I got the steak medium-rare (the only way to get a steak!), it was perfectly cooked as you can see from the picture above. This has to be one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. If you’ve never had a dry-aged steak before you are going to be surprised by the rich flavor of the meat. Every time I think about steak this steak is now what I think about! I can only imagine how great the 75-day Ribeye tastes! Also with dinner I got the basil whipped potatoes ($9), which were also very good.

Looking over the dessert menu we really wanted a lava cake (do it for the gram!), but sadly they did not have anything like that, believe me we asked! Without hesitation Devlin brought us out two red velvet cupcakes, another nice surprise!

At the end of the night with drinks my bill came to $139.38 without tip. With the amazing food, and amazing service by Devlin I would gladly come back to Primehouse. They really made you feel at home there, explained the menu quite well, and answered any questions we had. If you are in Chicago I suggest you check out Primehouse, you won’t be disappointed! Be sure to ask for Devlin, he’s awesome!

The post The Primehouse Experience first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

I arrived in Chicago on a rather nice day temperature-wise (for February) so it was the perfect day to go exploring. There are so many great buildings in Chicago. I walked all the way from the Near North Side area to Millennium Park where Cloud Gate or “the bean” is. It is actually cool how most of the lake-front area of Chicago is all parks or museums.

I love architecture and just walking around a big city like Chicago is a real treat. One it is cool to see such large buildings, something we really do not have a lot of in Pittsburgh. Secondly, seeing all of the different building styles and learning about their history is really interesting. You could spend hours shooting the different and unique buildings in Chicago.

The next day it was much, much colder so I took an Uber out to Addler Planetarium, where I could get a shot of the city…well part of it! I was really surprised at how blue the water of Lake Michigan was.

If you have the chance to go to Chicago or are even there on a business trip take a few hours to walk around the city, you’ll see quite a lot! Stay tuned for upcoming posts from this trip including some awesome restaurants I was able to go to!

The post Exploring Chicago… first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

I stayed in one of the Park View room which has a great view of Kowloon Park. Other rooms include city view and courtyard view, but I think the view of Kowloon Park was great.

The room itself has a pretty open design and they have really taken advantage of all the space. When you walk into your room immediately to your left you have a large closet, then a vanity and sink. This area is more than large enough to get ready for the night or day ahead of you. Moving over to the left you’ll see a large tub and if you go around the corner you’ll see the rest of the bathroom. It is pretty awesome that you get both a bathtub and a full-size shower. The shower was quite relaxing with its rain shower head design. It is the perfect thing after a long day of exploring or that long flight. If a rain shower head is not your thing there is a traditional shower head as well.

Moving into the rest of the room there is a massive bed! Since space is such a commodity in Hong Kong it was surprising to see such a large bed. It was extremely comfortable as well! I easily fell asleep each night I was in Hong Kong. Across from the bed there is a desk and TV mounted to the wall. The desk was perfect for me to get some work done and edit video for ThinkComputers. For those wondering the internet was plenty fast enough.

Talking about the internet the room comes with a free WiFi hotspot that you can take with you all around Hong Kong. This is great because I do not have international calling on my phone. So with the hotspot I could still use iMessage and all of my favorite social media apps while walking around Hong Kong. The room also comes with two free bottles of water each day.

Our room came with free breakfast each morning, which was setup sort of like buffet style. It was actually pretty good!

If you are looking at a place to stay in Hong Kong I can definitely recommend The Mira. It has great rooms, is in a great location, and having the WiFi hotspot is awesome!

The post Staying At The Mira Hong Kong first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

All of these bad habits come down to getting distracted. For example if I made lunch I would sit in front of the TV and end up watching a couple hours of Netflix! That is a total waste of time and just down right lazy! There were other distractions like video games or doing things around the house like the dishes or laundry. When I didn’t feel like working I would end up doing something else. This led to many very unproductive days.

Recently my friend Tom got an office downtown and asked if I wanted to work out of it. I was a little hesitant to the idea, for one like I said I had been working from home forever, and two the office was downtown. So that means I would have to pay to go to the office (parking, uber, bus, etc). Well I decided to give it a try and see how working from an office would be. I was pleasantly surprised that the first day I was there I was super productive. I felt like I accomplished more work in one day that I did in an entire week at home!

I think that the big thing was that I was less distracted. Instead of watching TV when I eat lunch I am now reading books or watching something on my phone, but there is no being lazy sitting there for hours. There are no other distractions like I encountered at home either, I only have my laptop there so no video games or things to do around the house. By eliminating those distractions and solely focusing on working I am getting so much more done.

Besides just eliminating distractions working downtown sort of puts me on a schedule. I take the bus into work each day so I know I have to be up at a certain time to catch the bus and obviously I have to be done with my work in time to catch the bus as well. While I always said I didn’t like being on a schedule, this type of structure is really helping me be more productive. Finally it is good to just be around other people. I wouldn’t say it isn’t healthy, but working from home everyday without much interaction with other people is not a good thing.

Being more productive and working from an office has brought a totally different dynamic to my days. Now I get all my work done when I’m in the office so when I’m home I can relax and do other things. I’ve never really had that separation of home and work before and so far I am really liking it. Working in this office has been a game changer for me, I am getting more done, I am less stressed, and I am making more money.

If you are currently working from home you might want to try working from an office. I would suggest trying out a shared work-space if there is one in your area.

The post How Working in an Office Has Made Me More Productive first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

Zotac products are made at the PC Partner Factory, which is located in Dongguan, China. So to get there we had to leave Hong Kong and go into mainland China. For those who do not know Hong Kong is seperate from mainland China. For instance as a U.S. citizen I do not need a visa to enter Hong Kong, but to enter mainland China I do. The bus trip from Hong Kong to Dongguan, China was 2-3 hours and was actually quite interesting as it gave us a chance to really see mainland China and not just the big city that is Hong Kong. Looking at Google Maps I believe we took the “G4” up to the factory. Here are some photos I took along the way.

 Once we arrived in Dongguan we were taken to the HJ International Hotel for lunch, which happens to be a 5 star hotel. It was sort of interesting that this area of China seemed to be a little run down, but there were a few massive 5-star hotels right in this area. For example right across the street was the Sheraton Dongguan Hotel, which is also a 5-star hotel. Obviously a lot of computer, electronic, and other goods are made in this area so these hotels serve businessmen coming in to check on the factories etc. The HJ International Hotel was very nice, we were taken up to the 43rd floor to Nihon Japanese Restaurant. Sort of ironic right, going to China to eat Japanese food! Nihon was quite good, they had sashimi for us, which was pretty amazing! I also ordered Ramen. Being on the 43rd floor we had a great view of Dongguan and the surrounding area.

 After lunch we were taken to the PC Partner Factory, which was very close by. To get on the floor of the factory you have to wear an anti-static suit, etc. I think I looked pretty funny!

 We were given a full factory tour showing just how graphics cards are made! If you are a computer nerd like me you know I was totally geeking out! Its pretty cool to see how something you use everyday is made! Here is a video I put together of the process for ThinkComputers.

After the tour we had to take the long trip back to Hong Kong. On the way back we took the “S3” which took us a long the coast. It made for some really cool photos and again was great to see what mainland China really looks like.

 It was a really great experience being able to go to mainland China and see how graphics cards are made. It was also really cool that we had that long bus ride were we had the chance to see what China is like outside of the big cities. If you want to learn more about how graphics cards are made check out my post over at ThinkComputers!

The post Seeing How A Graphics Card Is Made In Dongguan, China first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.

If Possible Go To The Show Floor Only 1 Day – Lets face it, the show floor is a mess. As someone who is covering CES I personally hate the show floor. With all the people it is hard to get 1 on 1 time with company reps and if you are doing an interview people will just walk right into your shot or interrupt you. Believe me it is really annoying. What I do is schedule 1 day to knock out all of my show floor meetings.

Uber Everywhere – Since most of my meetings are actually in hotel suites I am going from hotel to hotel most days. The fastest, least expensive and easiest way to get from hotel to hotel is Uber. Before Uber it was Taxi’s, but those ended up being expensive and the taxi lines during CES were the worst! With Uber I can just go on the app, get a ride and be on my way. Also Uber drivers tend to be far more pleasant than taxi drivers.

Monorail is the best way to the Convention Center – Now if you are headed to the convention center the fastest way to get there is the Monorail. Even if you take an Uber to the convention center the traffic that way is just horrible. The monorail can get busy so I would suggest taking it after 10AM and before 4:30PM on show days. I believe its 6 minutes to the convention center from the Bally’s station.

Cheap & Fast Eats – One of the things you need to make sure you do during CES is eat! Some days get so busy you barely have time to eat. If you are in the Venetian or any major hotel they should have a sort of “food court” besides the larger more expensive restaurants. Eat here, it will be quick and get you back on your way. Also in the Venetian as well as the Palazzo (this one is less busy) is the Grand Lux Cafe. It is very affordable and they have lunch specials which are around $15.

Come Up With A Plan Before You Go – Covering CES is a task in itself, with only 3-4 days to meet with and covering quite a lot of companies and their new products. Before you head to the show you are going to want to make sure you have a plan in place as to when and where your meetings are going to be at, how you are going to get your coverage up, etc. Coming to Vegas without these things in place will just make your trip so much more stressful.

Make Time To Network – The show floor as well as your meetings is not always to best time to do deals and network. The show floor is just crazy and talking business just does not work here. During meetings most reps have a full schedule so they need to go over their products and move on to the next meeting. The best place to network are parties or dinners. So be sure to make time to make an appearance at the parties or if you want to do business with someone invite them to dinner during the week.

This year was a great one for ThinkComputers covering the show, hopefully these tips will help you cover the show better.

The post Tips On Covering The Consumer Electronics Show In Las Vegas first appeared on BobBuskirk.com.