April 2015 – Page 3

100 Days of Blogging

April 10, 201530 Day Challenge, Inspiration, Life2 Comments

I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging for 100 consecutive days in 2015 so far! It’s a goal that my best friend and I have both achieved together. In past years, we tried blogging for a month but always failed. Now to reach 100 days is definitely an achievement. We’re not quitting either. Let’s see if we can hit 365 (or more)!

I’ve learned a lot in these 100 days. I’m now less critical about what I put out. Having to post things occasionally leads me to take a bit more risks, and not be so worried if others will think it’s dumb or stupid. I’ve also become quite efficient at writing. The written posts don’t take more than 10-15 minutes. That’s not to say they are hastily done or sloppy by any means. The words have just come easier. I second guess myself a lot less. This skill has also translated itself when I sit down to write album reviews on Ride the Tempo.

I love blogging and I don’t think I could ever stop. It’s a diary. A place to air my thoughts. A place to experiment. A world that has helped me through some hard times. To know that one person is reading means the world, let alone the fact I now have over 400 subscribers. Thank you all.

Now let’s continue exploring the world together.

OROGOLD

April 9, 2015Beauty, ShoppingLeave a Comment

I bought these OROGOLD products 6 months ago. It was October and we were celebrating something at the end of the work day so I had had some drinks. For some reason I decided to go shopping afterwards at Yonge & Bloor. The sales lady outside the OROGOLD shop handed me a sample and I took it. Before I knew it, I was taken into the store and offered a demonstration. I was there for at least 30 minutes and I really needed to pee so I told her no thank you to the price she offered. Then she gave me a final offer of $60 for the 24k Deep Peeling Mask and Renewal Night cream so I said FINE. Whatever. I just really wanted to leave and pee. According to the prices on their official site, I actually got a decent deal.

I’ve been using the products twice a week for 6 months now so I’ll give you an honest review despite their semi-annoying sales tactics.

Both products came in little spheres in a fancy box with a certificate of authenticity. They definitely looked like they were luxury products.

The 24K Deep Peeling mask had the consistency of glue with little gold flakes. To be honest, I don’t really know the advantage of having gold in facial products but it looks nice. I used it mostly in my T-zone, and around my lips. It did a good job of rubbing off dead skin and my face did feel smooth immediately after. The trick is to leave it on for 45secs-1 min before rubbing it off. The sales lady recommended I only use this once a week, but I decided to use it twice a week and it seems fine. I think any more would probably dry your skin though.

Each time I used the peeling mask, I would immediately follow with the night cream. On the box it says you can use this every day but I also have other products at my disposal and did not want to waste this pricey cream. It also had gold flakes and a smell that was faint and not too strong.

After each OROGOLD routine, my skin did feel softer and smoother but it wouldn’t last more than a day or two which is why I decided to use it twice a week. Another thing I have noticed is that I used to have occasional breakouts but have experienced a lot less since using this. I can’t if it was OROGOLD or a combination of different products though.

Would I recommend this? While I like the feeling of my skin after the peel, I don’t know if I would purchase again at regular price. I would also stay away from the store as the sales people are way too aggressive!

What If?

April 8, 2015Books, EntertainmentLeave a Comment

My current reading the book version of XKCD’s What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. The website and the book is a gold mine for those who’ve always had curious questions they were too embarrassed to ask out loud. Face it, we all have had those.

Take this one:

If you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die? Would you freeze or suffocate first? Or something else?

While you can find the answer here, I really enjoyed that Randall Munroe used giraffes to illustrate some points.

What type of hypothetical question would you ask a scientist? I think mine would probably be: How much bacon could I eat and still live?.

Video Round-Up: Mammoth Cave Haul, Turtle Bath and Pork Chops

April 7, 2015Life, VlogsLeave a Comment

Been a while but here’s another video round-up!

First I show you my Mammoth Cave Records haul:

Then I found these weird turtle bath things:

Lastly, I cooked some pork chops:

How to Have a Long Distance BFF

April 6, 2015April 8, 2015Inspiration, Life, RelationshipsLeave a Comment

Recently, someone asked me how I have such a great relationship with best friend who is in another province. We actually didn’t even see each other for almost 3 years prior to her wedding in October. While it feels almost natural for me, I’d like to offer some tips for people who’s friends are moving far away and how to best keep that connection.

Talk frequently, in whatever channel works conveniently for both you. It might be a phone call, text message, FB chat, Snapchat.

Be willing to listen. Just because you’re far away doesn’t mean you can’t listen and talk your friend through life’s problems. Don’t wait until everything is fine and dandy to chat.

Be there when they need it. This sort of relates to the last point but a friend will always value those that make an effort. Also if they really want you there for a serious life event like a wedding, you do whatever it takes to get on that plane/bus/whatever.

Take challenges together. Do you have a mutual goal you’d like to achieve? For Laura and I, it’s currently blogging everyday. Having a common goal can help strengthen the bond because you can also talk about that goal or hobby together.

Make sure the feeling is mutual. Long distance friendships aren’t for everyone. An important question to ask is why the other person is moving away. Some people just want to move away for a fresh start. In that case, the friend may not want to keep touch. But you can always offer them the chance to connect if they change their mind.

Spring is Such a Tease

April 5, 2015April 5, 2015Life, Photography4 Comments

It’s Easter Weekend here in Toronto. The weather was quite nice Good Friday and Saturday leading us to think Spring was coming.

Even Teddy was out enjoying the weather.

But surprise! It snowed during the night:

When will Spring finally be here to stay?

Brunch @ Queen Street Warehouse

April 4, 2015Food, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

This morning I had brunch at Queen Street Warehouse. It is the second restaurant in Toronto to be offering a menu where all food items are $4.95 all day everyday. Interestingly they sustain this through company sponsorships. A Redbull logo could be seen in the corner of the restaurant but I actually didn’t feel like I was being blatantly advertised to that much. The servers were all dressed like 80s rockers and the sign to the bathroom said “Free Air Guitar”. It was corny but worked for the type of establishment that catered to young university students on a budget.

I ordered the Fried Chicken Wafflewich (pictured above). The sandwich had buttermilk fried chicken, an apple coleslaw, bacon, mayo and a side of maple syrup which I happily drenched everything in. It was served with a side of “fries” which were really more like tater tots, but crunch and delicious. Everything in the wafflewich paired nicely together but I wish it was slightly bigger. Considering it was $4.95 I couldn’t really complain.

Nash ended up ordering two things because he was hungry and had a hunch that the portions would be smaller than normal. The first thing was a Baked Fritata with egg, roasted broccoli, carmelized onion, cheddar cheese, greens, pickled vegetables and green onion.

The second was The Chorizo Hash. He added extra hash for $1. It had a chipotle hollandaise, chorizo, onion, green pepper, scrambled eggs and more.

To drink I ordered the Warehouse Espresso which contained vodka, Toronto’s “Cut Coffee” beans, kahlua and cream. It was like an iced coffee with a zing in it.

I couldn’t resist getting dessert (since again it was $4.95) so I ordered the Fried Apple Pie which was served with a side of vanilla ice cream. The shape made me think of what it would look like if someone took a MacDonald’s Apple Pie and fried it. The filling was way better than a McDonald’s pie though, it was hot and fresh. The outside was crunchy with a thick breading. It was a bit messy to eat but worth getting my hands dirty.

All in all, we had a great meal at Warehouse for the price. If you’re looking for cheap eats in Toronto, this is definitely the place to go!

Bye Meerkat! Hello Periscope

April 3, 2015iOS, Social Media, TechnologyLeave a Comment

Whenever there’s a new social network, I often rush to become an early adopter. To me, it doesn’t really matter if that the general public hasn’t seen the value of them yet. I like to learn the value of each myself for my own interests as well to keep up to date on what’s on trend for professional reasons.

Recently, I talked about new live streaming service Meerkat. A little while after, Twitter bought and launched a very similar service called Periscope. While I see the advantages of Meerkat, I soon discovered that Periscope was a better fit for me. It was connected to Twitter and streams also saved so that they could be rebroadcasted. Often when Meerkat streams were over, the tweets led to dead links. These two reasons alone were enough to convince me to make the switch. I also believe it will take an even larger marketshare once it hits the Android store.

So if you’re a Periscope user and would like to find me you can find me under my usual username “@tianafeng”! I’ve been having a lot of fun showing people my fridge so far (of which I still don’t understand the obsession).

Are you part of the live stream craze? If so, which app are you using?

Photos: 85mm Teddy

April 2, 2015Pets, Photography, Teddy1 Comment

Tested my new Canon 85mm 1.2 on the dog. Wide open aperture is hard to get used to on a moving subject. Despite these photos, he does’t really stay still!

April: The Month of No Complaining

April 1, 2015March 31, 201530 Day Challenge, Inspiration, Life2 Comments

In February, the Complaint Restraint project took place. For 28 days people signed up to simply stop complaining. Jessica Hullinger of Fast Company wrote about this experience and provided some great tips.

I missed the month of the originally challenge because I read about it after the fact but I really wanted to take this challenge for a month and learn from it. I’ve had a hard couple of days and this will be very difficult to start and keep going but it’s worth a try to change my current (and future) mindset.

I will start by defining what I consider a complaint to be.

Observations will not be considered a complaint. Ex “It is cold.” Exempt also will be reviews of restaurants and music etc that make it onto blogs. These are considered observations/constructive criticism.
A sentence that contains the following words will be consider a complaint: “hate”, “don’t, fuck, shit, jerk” etc.
A statement that ruminates beyond a simple observation. (Telling 10 people it’s cold)
Gossip, (non-constructive) criticism, whining, grudges, hurtful jokes

This might seem like an impossible task as complaining is inherent in our nature and sometimes we do it subconsciously. It’ll also be difficult depending on the people I surround myself with. Other people love to complain as much as I do. I will do my best to reconstruct negative “complaining” thoughts into more positive and productive ones or simply drop them if they are unimportant. I hope to be more mindful of each situation

Example of looking on the bright side:

View this post on Instagram

Forgot my lunch but then I found this at work #vscocam #easter

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Mar 31, 2015 at 5:38am PDT