Month: March 2016

Twitter Turns 10 This Year

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Twitter turns 10 today. Though it wasn’t publicly released until July of 2016, today was the anniversary of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet. I joined in April 2009. I think I may or may not have deleted some of my first tweets because they were probably really stupid or something along the lines of, “just joined Twitter!”.

I can’t believe I’ve been on the social network for more than 7 years. It still feels new and exciting and the people and experiences I’ve gained through it have changed my life. I live and work because of Twitter. I have a social life because of Twitter. I’ve done things and been places I never could’ve gone because of Twitter. It’s still the one social network I don’t think I could part with. I could give up everything else, but not Twitter.

Thanks for the adventures. Here’s to another 10 years!

Cresta Tasting

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Last week, I attended a tasting party for Cresta located right beside St. Lawrence Market. Cresta is an Italian restaurant with an open kitchen and specialize in wine pairings with their cuisine. Enjoy some photos from the party below!

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The Cresta Negroni: bombay sapphire gin, campari, dolin dry vermouth, sparkling brut, grapefruit

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Amaro Express: amaro averna, frangelico, espresso, aztec chocolate bitters

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Brussle sprouts: crispy in a balsamic glaze.

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Beets: roasted, lemon thyme marinade, sautéed beet greens.

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Black Tiger Shrimp: empty ravioli, red onion, tomato salsa

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Scallop Crudo: coriander, garlic chips, citrus

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Steak: Tenderloin, roasted potatoes, cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, beef jus

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Heirloom Tomato Pizza: tomato reduction, red onion, shaved parmasean, basil.

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Octopus: grilled, fingerling potatoes, braised cipollini onions, harissa

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Mushroom Risotto: truffle oil, shaved parmesan.

All the bite-sized foods packed punches of flavour. The most memorable for me was the beautiful jus in the steak.

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When we left, we were given delicious muffins to take home. I ate my caramel one the next morning and it was delicious!

Cresta Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

I Went To The Dentist

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For the past 3 years, I’ve ignored going to the dentist because I was in that limbo period between being cutoff from my Dad’s insurance and figuring out what to do with life. Even after I was hired full-time, I had no idea how to go about finding a dentist that was friendly and clean-looking in the city. That is until I was reading fellow blogger Casie Stewart’s personal blog and she happened to be writing about a relatively new place called NOWsmile that opened up in the past year on Bloor & Bathurst.

It checked off all the boxes, and most important of all it was opened on a Saturday! Clayton gave me a thorough check up and tooth cleaning while I watched Cash Cab and Much Music on the TV! Now my teeth are beautiful again and I already booked my next appointment.

We Find the Photo Booths

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.@sarahrix and I found the photo booth

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My friends and I will always find the photo booths everywhere we go. Printed photos still find a special place in my heart (or all over my work desk). I even ordered another set of 36 Instagram prints from Origrami. There’s something magical about having candid shots of life to look at in physical form that has more emotional impact than stalking your own Facebook photos.

Photo booths on location are even more fun because they remind me of the random event I was at, so I will continue finding them.

Fooled By Randomness

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I just finished Fooled by Randomness, a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. For some reason I didn’t expect it to delve so deep into stock markets but I gained a lot of interesting perspectives on probability and the role of randomness.

It made me more critical of what I read in the media. Often scientific articles skew facts by reading data in a way that suits their topic.

“Expect the unexpected” is one takeaway from the book. For example, we always read that murderers “were nice people” or that the success rate of something is 98%, but don’t forget someone has to be in the 2%, so don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you don’t see something, does it mean it doesn’t exist?

 

 

I’m A Polaris Music Prize Juror

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I’m happy to announce that I have made the Polaris Music Prize jury! I’m excited to represent Ride the Tempo and promote well-deserved Canadian records who I think should be eligible for the prize.

The Avocado Dilemma

Categories FoodLeave a Comment on The Avocado Dilemma

Today I got confused by this avocado at Sobeys. There was the valid argument that this could give people with disabilities access to avocados (like the peeled orange debate) however I thought about it and I don’t think it does. If anything its price gouging those people. $3.99 per avocado is not affordable (that was the listed price). I can usually get 5 avocados for that price.

Plus, what these cut avocados came plastic wrapped and in a box. Have you ever tried to open something in a plastic wrap as an able-bodied person? It’s not the easiest thing in the world. This product was definitely not made with accessibility in mind but rather the lazy person with ripe avocados need. Plus, who knows what preservatives they are pumping into the thing to keep it a “healthy green”.

For now, I will stick to real avocados.

Vinyl Me Please- March 2016 Edition

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March’s Vinyl Me Please pressing is my favourite so far. It’s an exclusive white vinyl edition of Lapsley’s  Long Way Home, which is one of my favourite non-Canadian albums this year. Plus she’s only 19!  It also comes with an art print, and a special poster with a note from the artists.

Super excited to have this as part of my collection. I would’ve picked up this one eventually in store but I always love having exclusive colour editions.

Modern Love

Categories Life, RelationshipsLeave a Comment on Modern Love

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People like to talk to me about relationships. I don’t know why. Nash and I have been dating for almost five years so it’s not like I have anything valuable to add about what it’s like to date in 2016.

I don’t think I would know how to be single in 2016 with internet dating, especially Tinder being the norm.

I did read Aziz’s Modern Romance, as I wrote about earlier and I am observing a lot of the same trends. Everyone wants perfect right away. If there is something wrong with the person, even a minor insignificant thing, than it’s done with on the first date.

The funny thing is. If I only had to judge Nash on first impressions we would’ve never dated. In fact, we were in the same class for over a year without it even being a possibility in my mind. Don’t wait until you can picture some imaginary perfect future with someone before you take a chance and just wait to see what happens.

It wasn’t until the end of the year where everyone started hanging out together that I thought, “hey, this dude might be kind of cool.”

Then we spent more time together. We went to a movie together. We played video games together. We talked. We listened to each other. We are different people in a lot of ways but somehow we made it work. It wasn’t love at first sight, but we’re madly in love still after all these years.

 

The Most Dangerous Writing App

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Can you free write for a full 5 minutes? The Most Dangerous Writing App aims to help you do just that!

The concept of this app is that if you stop typing for more than five seconds, the entire thing will delete itself. If you erase stuff, it counts as you are wasting 5 seconds. So use the delete key sparingly.

It’s a frightening way to write. You can set it for 5, 10 minutes or even an hour. But who would torture themselves like that?

We all get writer’s block and this would be a useful tool to get everyone writing with less thinking. Often when we have unlimited amounts of time, we also have unlimited amounts of thoughts that lead self-editing, and less words on paper.

When I tried this app, 5 minutes seem like the longest amount of time ever. Every second is being counted down in the top right corner as you type. It’s legitimately insane. As five seconds near, the words become transparent, so it does have some warning that there has been some idleness in the production of words. Sometimes you just need to stop for a second.

I am currently taking the test by writing this article. This is scary. Will I make it to the end? If you ever see this published as a blog post than that is a confirmation that I have successfully made it to the end of 5 minutes. Oh my god I have 51 seconds to go. There are over 1330 words now in this document. The crazy part is that I actually can type 90 words per minute and am typing slower than normal just so I don’t run out of ideas. I type them faster than I can think of them and that is making this countdown clock even harder than it should be. I win. Yes. 5 Minutes have passed. Will you make it to the end of this writing test?