Lou MC Yelps a Lot

Profanity is not allowed in my family. I don't know about yours, but we were taught not to swear in any language. What if you start watching a silly movie on TV, you noticed lots of beeps at the beginning of a profanity word. I would flip the channel to watch something else.  Some people have different tolerance level when it comes to profanity. You are not supposed to swear in class, at work or at church. But people do. Some people even swear in reviews. Not clear why they had to use F-words at Arirang I have seen Yelp bypassed a few reviews with loaded F-words, B-words and A-words. I reported few reviews. They all came back with "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. With that said, we've decided not to remove the review after carefully assessing it against our Content Guidelines, but thank you...

Here is a newfound strip mall that resembles a strip mall in Chinatown. It's called North Golden Sun Plaza ( Google  |  Yelp ) in North Houston. The zip code should be 77014, but many still using 77068 because it's separated by a street. The street address is 3645 Cypress Creek Parkway, aka FM 1960 W, between TC Jester and Walter Road. According to an article on  Chron.com , North Golden Sun Plaza was established when Sun's Club moved in 2015 after Wal-mart moved across street (zip code 77068). Then, the lot owner expanded from one building to this horseshoe-shaped 3 buildings. Thanks to the Facebook folks who live around this area for the history and the proper street name of Cypress Creek Parkway. FM 1960 was renamed within last few years ( article on ABC13.com ). Therefore, you'll see some newer businesses are using Cypress Creek Parkway on their business cards. Either way is correct. However, not many business owners attach their suite number on their marketi...

2017 was a thrilling year for me. I spent a lot of time on taking better photos and sharing more with the communities. Not just Yelp, I also Google a lot.  Funky YES! Here is my status on Yelp : Completed 111 reviews in 2017 Updated 14 reviews in 2017 Uploaded total of 8025 media files (7549 photos & 476 videos) since the day I started Yelping, March 2011.   As of December 30th, I had 6 Baronies. Somehow, it's no longer visible in 2018 (Android). I could never broke my record of 300 reviews from 2016. Due to reviews disappearance, I've included a counter at the end of each review. I also saved the direct link to each published review with my archive. This process was extremely time consuming. I completed my 111 reviews in 2017. You can only see 110 reviews because 13th review was removed. Here is my story .  As of January 2, 2018, before I added more stuff. As for Google, I joined Local Guides sometime last year. I am currently Level...

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 I upgraded my Samsung Note 4 to Android version 6.0 - Marshmallow, I noticed significant change on Yelp app. Whenever I want to get direction on Yelp, the only choice is to get to Google Maps. It used to have more choices. (See the image on  Send to car with Yelp  from last year.) Once I get there, Google Maps took the opportunity to capture my interest. The app kept hinting me to upload a photo or answer a few questions, because it knows I was there before. Eventually, it lured me to become a Local Guide. It was nice to know half million views on 9 photos I posted years ago. Just to be fair, I don't post same photo on Google Maps and Yelp. Since I don't know who is reading the reviews on Google Map, I don't share much details like on Yelp. I never find reviews are useful on Google Maps. Besides, it should stay as a map app.

Do you have issues with GPS location of a biz? I have an example of this dilemma. I stayed in Hyatt Regency Houston last June. Google Map said I was at the correct address on WiFi. But when I asked for direction to my destination, it told me my current location was 2 miles away in Buffalo Bayou. Not sure if the satellite signal was weak in this crowded downtown buildings. GPS discrepancy  I have confirmed with a technical person at Yelp. It uses Google Map to support the map portion. If Google Map says go right, Yelp app will tell you to go right.

Really? I want some Poké. The raw fish kine from Hawai'i, right? Please tell me this is real. After I checked in at Church's Chicken, I saw this question on local knowledge. I busted out laughing. Few days ago, I clicked on a Google Map link just out of my curiosity on this Pokémon Talk thread . Look, my map is filled with weird stuff every time I search on Google. This is absurd.  Give me a moment. I don't know what to say. I need to regain my composure first.

It's been in my wildest dream to host a Cross+Cities UYE with a road trip. I always want to try something exotic, exciting and unique to link Yelpers across the Lone Star state. From Houston to San Antonio takes about 3 hours. After reading a blog  Seattle & Portland Yelpers Swap Cities Road Trip , I posted my idea on a  Talk thread . I found Phillip B of Austin hosted a BBQ Crawl UYE in Lockhart on July 26, 2014. Yelpers from Houston, San Antonio and Austin (maybe Dallas) met at the center of these major cities. That was an epic. ( Reviews ) I am not able to pull something like his scale without Yelpers from other cities. In November 2015, I hosted a  Cross+Cities UYE - Austin Edition . Since I didn't have many Yelper friends in Austin, we had a small party. ( Reviews ) After my recent trip to San Antonio, I saw the city's beauty and tourism opportunity. I want to revisit the idea. I am hoping the Yelpers in San Antonio could help me put to...

Know where you parked is important After my HoustonRodeo visit last year, I wanted to try  HoustonRodeo on a Budget , I decided to go even cheaper - Value Wednesday. The admissions are at half price for both ground and rodeo/concert every Wednesday. Kids carnival and wine garden were not affected by this change. I have never thought there was so many people around NRG Stadium on a Wednesday afternoon. I blame it on Spring Break. I had no problem finding parking at a nearby lot. However, I paid $15 at Medical center. It's very close by and only available after 5 pm. Afterwards, I learned there were other cheaper lots a little further out. From the moment I entered the lot, parked my car, walked to shuttle stop and to the bus taken off, it took around 45 minutes. During the afternoon commute hours, travel time was about 20 minutes on a 5 minute route. All of these are compensated from daylight savings time - I've got one extra hour of sunlight. I had to buy admission t...

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...

July 2014, San Antonio I drove from Houston to attend a reunion near Ft Sam Houston. Once I arrived at the city limit of San Antonio, I started to plot my route to the hotel. The location and address contradicted each other. I had no choice because I wanted to arrive during daylight to meet people I haven't seen for decades. I'm anal retentive when it comes to location accuracy. This could help Yelpers only depend on map apps.  As soon as I arrived at the address, the Apple Map app quickly changed the target to a 12-mile away location. So, I couldn't use Yelp app to check in. After the event, I decided to explore that mysterious location. Finally, I reported this error to HQ. I'm very fortunate to have GPS built into Yelp app. I use the GPS marker religiously. It's paramount to have accurate location on the map, hours and a storefront photo. Not just for the out-of-towners to find the business, but the locals need to identify the correct business in order ...