Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of light dishes served alongside Chinese tea. It is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants and at specialty dim sum eateries where typical dishes are available throughout the day. Dishes come in small portions and may include meat, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. Yum cha (literally "tea drinking") is the term used to describe the dining session, especially in contemporary Cantonese.
Today I joined the OC Vampire Meetup at their monthly Dim Sum gathering. For me its akin to brunch with my family... since most of them are considered family to me.
I know... you're thinking, Vampires? In the daytime? Wha haha? Yeah, a bunch of daywalkers... just barely. Though some of them are so white they practically burn walking from the car to the front door, they're pretty nice people.
I arrived "fashionably" late only to discover we took up two large round tables and there were a cluster of individuals I did not recognize who were not eating, but sitting at the table.
They were students. No, not vampire students! College students, from a local art college and conducting interviews with the members to write a paper. I never found out what the paper was about though. In fact, they informed me they were students in a product design class. I began to wonder if they were attempting to get a leg up in the tough marketing industry by obtaining experience in new, fairly untapped niche markets like the vampire consumers. I'm fairly certain if they were to design some vampire product it would look great for their resume, provided they did a good job.
So I got to thinking about that niche market. With True Blood and Twilight being so heavily talked about, I wondered if anyone thought about gearing more products specifically for the vampire community. But then I remembered I live in Southern California which can tend to be a bit of a marketing bubble. We're unique in too many ways compared to the rest of the country, but we are also pioneers for trends.
Melissa and I got to talking about True Blood as a potential energy drink. We're both rather surprised no one has latched onto that idea and genuinely run with it. I could totally see it. And instead of regular flavor names they'd have to be A+, O+ and all the different blood types. Wouldn't that be fun?
I apparently missed it, but they did a huge marketing campaign for the drink in the tv show. It was geared to be a viral marketing campaign and worked so well that some folks thought it was for real and were asking for it!
In the tv show TruBlood is a synthetic blood the real vampires can drink instead of feasting on people.
It seems that enough momentum from the marketing campaign and the tv show seems there to help promote an actual drink product. I'm just sayin'...
But then I began to think about the stupid people and thought about why we have so many warning labels on things. I was thinking about some idiot trying to give themselves a blood transfusion using the drink. Of course, then that would put them in the running for a Darwin Award!
I also pictured more ignorant idiots, like the folks picketing for Yes on 8, protesting the drink saying its making people (insert stupid behavior here).
After we finished we did as is custom with all Meetup groups, we hung out in the parking lot and talked more. However, as I mentioned before, we have a few really pale people in the group so a couple of the girls brought out their parasols. It was cute.
Our conversations range from silly, to obscene, to highly political. I guess that was kind of redundant, huh? Anyway, we began talking about someone's mom saying she was supporting Yes on 8 and her reason was... ignorant, and totally incorrect. She thought a yes on 8 means the government won't be able to define what a marriage is and keeps it properly Christian. Lemme tell ya, a few of us got irritated right away.
Following on the heels of that story came another regarding the overall ignorance of many Americans who think we live in a Christian nation. Uh, hello? Folks, did you ever really read your history books in school? I guess not. A good place to start... read the Treaty of Tripoli.
The first treaty is cited as historical evidence in the contemporary controversy over whether there was religious intent by the founders of the United States government. Article 11 of the first treaty (1796) has been interpreted as an official denial of a Christian basis for the U.S. government.
Eventually the sun became too much for us so we dispersed. Most went to the Library... a place with lots and lots of books that clearly, many of Americans don't bother going to... and I came home to bug Sean, who went and bought himself a new computer. Lucky bastard.
It was a delightful afternoon with good friends.
Today I joined the OC Vampire Meetup at their monthly Dim Sum gathering. For me its akin to brunch with my family... since most of them are considered family to me.
I know... you're thinking, Vampires? In the daytime? Wha haha? Yeah, a bunch of daywalkers... just barely. Though some of them are so white they practically burn walking from the car to the front door, they're pretty nice people.
I arrived "fashionably" late only to discover we took up two large round tables and there were a cluster of individuals I did not recognize who were not eating, but sitting at the table.
They were students. No, not vampire students! College students, from a local art college and conducting interviews with the members to write a paper. I never found out what the paper was about though. In fact, they informed me they were students in a product design class. I began to wonder if they were attempting to get a leg up in the tough marketing industry by obtaining experience in new, fairly untapped niche markets like the vampire consumers. I'm fairly certain if they were to design some vampire product it would look great for their resume, provided they did a good job.
So I got to thinking about that niche market. With True Blood and Twilight being so heavily talked about, I wondered if anyone thought about gearing more products specifically for the vampire community. But then I remembered I live in Southern California which can tend to be a bit of a marketing bubble. We're unique in too many ways compared to the rest of the country, but we are also pioneers for trends.
Melissa and I got to talking about True Blood as a potential energy drink. We're both rather surprised no one has latched onto that idea and genuinely run with it. I could totally see it. And instead of regular flavor names they'd have to be A+, O+ and all the different blood types. Wouldn't that be fun?
I apparently missed it, but they did a huge marketing campaign for the drink in the tv show. It was geared to be a viral marketing campaign and worked so well that some folks thought it was for real and were asking for it!
In the tv show TruBlood is a synthetic blood the real vampires can drink instead of feasting on people.
It seems that enough momentum from the marketing campaign and the tv show seems there to help promote an actual drink product. I'm just sayin'...
But then I began to think about the stupid people and thought about why we have so many warning labels on things. I was thinking about some idiot trying to give themselves a blood transfusion using the drink. Of course, then that would put them in the running for a Darwin Award!
I also pictured more ignorant idiots, like the folks picketing for Yes on 8, protesting the drink saying its making people (insert stupid behavior here).
After we finished we did as is custom with all Meetup groups, we hung out in the parking lot and talked more. However, as I mentioned before, we have a few really pale people in the group so a couple of the girls brought out their parasols. It was cute.
Our conversations range from silly, to obscene, to highly political. I guess that was kind of redundant, huh? Anyway, we began talking about someone's mom saying she was supporting Yes on 8 and her reason was... ignorant, and totally incorrect. She thought a yes on 8 means the government won't be able to define what a marriage is and keeps it properly Christian. Lemme tell ya, a few of us got irritated right away.
Following on the heels of that story came another regarding the overall ignorance of many Americans who think we live in a Christian nation. Uh, hello? Folks, did you ever really read your history books in school? I guess not. A good place to start... read the Treaty of Tripoli.
The first treaty is cited as historical evidence in the contemporary controversy over whether there was religious intent by the founders of the United States government. Article 11 of the first treaty (1796) has been interpreted as an official denial of a Christian basis for the U.S. government.
Eventually the sun became too much for us so we dispersed. Most went to the Library... a place with lots and lots of books that clearly, many of Americans don't bother going to... and I came home to bug Sean, who went and bought himself a new computer. Lucky bastard.
It was a delightful afternoon with good friends.
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