Lou MC Yelps a Lot

Before my trip to California, I had to do a little soul searching with my loyalty programs. Who gives me the most wins. I have AAdvantage and Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards. This is a nerve wracking challenge Late June, I received an invitation to join a 5K Challenge. Here is how it goes.  Earn up to 5,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles when you register and complete these qualifying activities in any order through September 30, 2018: Make any purchase with AAdvantage® eShopping℠ Dine-in or carry out with AAdvantage® Dining℠ Book and stay at a hotel at bookaahotels.com Rent and drive a car at aa.com/cars Fly on an American Airlines marketed and operated flight Waiting on 2500 miles from hotel stay But here is the tricky part. The points are accumulated by steps. · 1 activity = 50 bonus miles · 2 activities = 250 bonus miles · 3 activities = 1,000 bonus miles · 4 activities = 2,500 bonus miles · 5 activities = 5,000 bo...

This review was originally posted at  UYE: Korean BBQ & Sashimi . I've decided to take it down because I felt my experience should have no rating. It's not fair to impact the event host's hard work organizing such gathering in short notice. I deleted this review voluntarily What? No one mentioned me? Yeah. I was there visiting not eating. Since it was close to my office, I decided to stop by to say hello. This must be a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Come on Il Me Jung, put a sign out there. I parked across street hoping not to get towed. At least the street wasn't busy.  I couldn't believe so many people could fit in a room like a wash closet. I couldn't stay to join because I'm agoraphobic, not particularly favor of big crowd in small space. I also don't like communal style eating. Sorry.  If you are interested to watch the full video, here you go https://www.instagram.com/p/BihVGNnHDM7/ . See all photos from Lou C. for UYE: Korean ...

I tried to like this Local Guide Houston on Google+ Community. It has over 19k members with too many spam messages and unrelated topics. The worse part was my question on meetup was unanswered. Everyone seems disinterested with everyone else. I felt like it's a bot world. So I tried localguideconnect.com, a little better but still many unrelated replies. It seems people just want to get badges. I sent a message and never had high hope for a response back. But it has to depend on how they receive notification. For me, I receive updates on gmail. I get instant alert on my phone. Now, they want to know how my meetup went  Here are my answers to the survey: Any other feedback you’d like to share? The meetup event on LGC site is useless. Only 3 out of 9 showed up from there. I would rather use Google+ Events to be my only source for RSVP.  Please link to a photo album from your meet-up I tried to use Google Photos app. But it uploaded all unrelated photos on my ...

After weeks of searching and conversations, my passion for meeting Yelpers in SF Bay Area has diminished. I have reached out to CM in San Francisco, East Bay and South Bay. There isn't any UYE or OYE or YEE during my visit. That's okay. I'll find another way to meet Yelpers - go virtual. Thanks for a fellow Yelper John D of San Jose. I followed his specialty in poke - Hawaiian fish salad. I had no idea the concept of "California-style poke bowl" is in. No wonder we don't have any in Houston, unless someone come up with the idea of "Texas poke bowl". Ah, I don't think so. We may get away with Texas BBQ. Not sure we can get fresh ahi tuna and salmon in sashimi quality in Houston. My goal of one poke a day has met. This " Let's Catch some Poké, man! " was a note-to-self event. I was not intended to invite anyone to join me like an UYE, but I wanted to be able to share locations on the fly. My goal was to have a daily dose of r...

Lai Lai Dumpling House is one of my favorite restaurant from the northern cuisine choice. Since the new owner took over in 2016, I have been more interested to try their new specialties. For one, I have to try all of the items on  the Breakfast Menu . I don't think any wait staff is able to explain what they are in English. So, here. Let me help them to help you pick one to try. All in Chinese. Read below before ordering. Here is the translation. 煎餅果子 $3.50 savory crepe 煎 蛋   $0.60 Fried egg 油條   $1.50 Chinese Donut 茶蛋   $0.60 Tea egg 豆腐腦   $1.99 Northern style tofu soup 豆漿   $1.50 Sweeten Soy Milk, hot 大米粥 $1.50 Millet Porridge  油炸糕   $1.25 Fried rice cake with red bean  鍋巴菜   $3.50 Pancrust soup 大蔥油餅   $3.50 Chives pancake 雞湯餛飩   $3.50 Wonton in chicken broth 牛肉夾餅   $2.50 Beef slice sandwich 鹹菜   $1.50 Appetizer Side dis...

All of the sudden, my Yelp friend list got so big. Wait, who the #%$* and that *#@$ from my Facebook are now my Yelp friends. Then, I went checking on my settings. Oh, no, I don't like this idea. I want this feature to be permanently un-checked. Not everyone on my Facebook with a Yelp account is Yelp active. In fact, my Yelp friends on Facebook is more active than those Facebook friends with Yelp account in general. I keep my Yelp friend list small is because the ease of sending invitations to my UYE's and other events. The current process is very time consuming, unless HQ changes the invitation style. I created a  step by step instruction on my blog . I guess HQ was responding to some people complained about they still having trouble to invite FB friends. Then, I noticed the request screen has changed. Below is a capture from desktop compared to the app, The request from Facebook appeared differently. I'm happy to get my control back.

This is about a biz page I added 2 years ago - Melita's Restaurant . One day, I was driving to James Lee Park and saw this untapped treasure. I thought they should be on Yelp. I started to take photos and the bartenders got nervous. I told them I just wanted to share my dining experience with my friends. I think they were nervous because they never seen Asian guy speaks Spanish and eat Salvadorian food. I grew up in South America and this ain't nothing new to me. I don't remember how I told the owner Melita about Yelp. It might be after I took a photo of storefront or after I wrote the review. I also added photos to Google Places. I was over there few months ago. Upon check in, I noticed 4 more reviews and a "From the Business" section on the bottom. I think her daughter may have claimed the business. Not bad. They are catching on. I'm going back this spring after daylight savings time start. I got my Fitbit. I will walk the park and eat pupusas at M...

Wait. What is this? Is it a math problem for me to solve? No way, who put this thing in the middle of my profile? This is a new feature for app users only - Last 90 Days. No worry. This is a new tool to show how your Yelp contribution being viewed. It's like a website counter for each element: reviews, photos and profile. So, I captured the images from iPhone and Android to share with you. It appears the website has same info. Woohoo! I captured some Q&A from my Beta App Group: It updates once a day. Only shows other users' views, none from me. Everyone can see it. Yes, everyone. Here is how the number crunches: Someone looked at your profile multiple times within the 90 day period counts. But someone looked at your content repeatedly in a short time won't count. HQ has a blog to share  http://officialblog.yelp.com/2016/01/how-many-views-do-your-reviews-get-find-out-now.html So far, I only find one news helpful. I think we are going to hear more about i...

I downloaded Waze app as recommended by many people. I liked it on the first day. But I gradually hated it. I will only use it when I have to. You can post a warning, check in, get gas info, be warned, and etc. One day I was driving on Beltway. There was a car won't leave me alone. He drove on the right at the same speed as I was. Then, I looked at my Waze app. Ooooh. That's another Wazer stalking me. I quickly turned it off and sped away. Adding a biz page takes forever. The app won't let me save photo I took locally. There are very few local biz on Waze. They depended on Wazers to help them add biz. This is worse then Foursquare. I tried to add biz like I do with Yelp. But it's very time consuming. There is no computer version. When I made a suggestion for biz update, it says "300 feet is good enough" or "it's probably your app." My biggest complaint is the distractions - ads and too many icons. Whenever there is something happe...

This is a question for business owners. If you had a business recently relocated, do you change the address on Yelp page or tell the world that you moved to a new address? It prompted me to this blog. I recently go contacted by a business owner in Chinese: Subject: 百利中医皮肤科 ( TCM Acupuncture & Herbs Clinic ) Mr lou  您好!谢谢您在yelp帮我们!我们现在搬到新址所以­还得麻烦您帮我们把旧的照片删掉!多谢多谢!   杨晓娜 (Hi, Mr Lou! Thank you for helping us on Yelp! We moved to a new address. Please delete the old photos you posted. Thank you. Xiaona Y.) I got very curious and found out the storefront  and store hours  photos were removed. I suspected that the biz page owner already removed them. My first expression was, "oh no. They did it all wrong." I was a little pissed off at first. But then, I realized Chinese are getting more adoptive to new methods of advertising. That's what Yelp is about. I drove by to see the old location. It is occupied by a massage therapist and TCM is still on the wall. ...

Taco La Bala #6 located at 5515 Gessner Dr, Houston, TX 77041 in the Carverdale neighborhood is the cleanest restaurant of the Taco La Bala chain. Not because it's newest, but the customers kept this place orderly. And, best of all, this is my favorite spot for dinner. Here is my review . De Trompo = hard to say how it tastes, because it was all mixed up ( photo ) Fajitas beef = highly marinated but mostly dry beef pieces. ( photo ) Deshebrada = Shredded beef is juicy and tender. ( photo ) Chicharron = Pork skin taco has a unique texture. ( photo ) Barbacoa = slow cooked beef ( photo ) Pollo = Chicken fajita taco - a little dry, but still tasty. ( photo ) Lengua = tender beef tongue with mild flavors ( photo ) Tripa = Tripe ( photo ) Vegetarian variety - all avocado. Tasty with a squeeze of lime. ( photo ) Cochinita Pibil = slow-roasted pork with zesty seasoning ( photo ) My favorites are Deshebrada, Cochinita Pibil and Lengua

Once I asked HQ if "ass hole" was appropriate in a review. I got a reply from Yelp HQ, "We realize that different people have different tolerances for strong language, but our bar is pretty high so that we can allow reviewers to tell their story in their own words even when things get colorful." I found this review helpful, even with F-words.