I went to a party the other day where there was a photo booth! There were physical copies to take home but I lost mine over the course of the night. Luckily, they were all digitalized too so here are some fun photos from the weekend of my friends and I!
I am currently having a chill weekend on Toronto Island at Camp Wavelength! The internet is a little spotty here so I will report back to you soon.
My sister grew these beautiful cherry tomatoes at home that are finally ripening.
Mmm look good enough to pick off and eat.
Teddy wants some too!
Back when I was young teenager, I created the moniker “teepoo” so I could play online games, go on forums and just for general anonymity. Those aren’t things I really care about anymore and I’ve become more open and transparent about the person I am. I’ve slowly been dropping the username from everything, claiming my own name as bi-line for everything I do on social media.
So, you may have noticed that my main tumblr account is now tianafeng.tumblr.com as opposed to “teepoo.tumblr.com”. I was previously using my name for my photography tumblr but for general copyright reasons, I decided that Flickr (and partially this blog) will be the home for my photos. I’ve gotten to the point where uncompensated exposure isn’t something I need anymore, plus it takes time to post photos in so many different places. I love having one (tumblr) account that accumulates all the content I create and collect, so therefore I decided to make the relatively painless switch.
I’ve already changed Ride the Tempo to show real bi-lines around 2 years ago. I became comfortable with my own writing enough that I no longer needed to hide behind a fake name, and I encouraged all my contributors to do the same. Now it’s relatively normal (in the past few years anyway) to have your real name everywhere and if you don’t, people can figure out your true identity if they really wanted to. I’m not ashamed of the things I post, nor do I post anything that I wouldn’t want certain people reading. If you google my name, it’s all things I’m relatively proud of or I would have never hit publish. There’s nothing wrong with filling up the Google Search with things that highlight positive things about me when people search my name!
What do you think about names online? Do you use your own?
A few months ago, someone made a Facebook event asking all of Toronto’s music industry to gather together at Trinity Bellwoods Park for a photo. Well, it happened yesterday and hundreds of people showed up. The result is above!
My friend Stephen and I pre-shoot.
The lovely Rochelle Latinsky also took this lovely headshot of me.
Although there was a great turnout, I do wish that there was a bit more diversity in the photo. I’m 99% sure that I am the only Asian and I don’t see many people of colour. This is somewhat reflectant of how the industry is, but not what it should/could be. I do know many different types of people in the industry, let’s hope that next year they show up!
Lately, I’ve been loving any time that I can spend home in my apartment. My summer’s been so crazy busy with events that any time at home is so relaxing. I’ve also been consciously trying to spend less time on screens while not at work. Of course I’ve still been blogging but I’ve also been finding hobbies that solely take place offline like building things out of Lego or Playdoh. It’s amazing how relaxing both these things are when you get into it. You don’t have to think much but about the project at hand.
It’s a great way to also to encourage my other art projects again. I do still wish I drew/painted/doodled more and I do want to make my way to those eventually. It’s shocking how much time you do have to do things when you spend less of it staring into (space) a screen.
I recently celebrated my 4 year anniversary with this dude. Life has been amazing ever since he entered my life. We’ve gone on so many adventures (many food related). Looking back 5 years (you can do so on this blog even), I was a different person with stupider priorities. I’m confident being 100% me around him and that is the most important part.
Find out what we ate to celebrate soon!
I’m an early adopter of social media. I often join everything only to find out that things fall out of trend later. The “new Facebook” pops up every so often and everyone jumps on the ship only to fall overboard a few months later. Then there are the ones that do survive. What do you use? Should we be on all of them? I consciously decided that I don’t need to be.
If you asked me last year, I’d probably tell you that you should be on everything. In fact, I tried to be. It was exhausting. I even stuck on ello for way too long. I used chimed.in until it was dead. I saw the death of digg. I even used the “new Myspace” for longer than anyone else.
I’ve decided to trim a bit of my online fat. I can’t be on everything it is exhausting. I decided to use the platforms that work best for me. I keep trying to make Snapchat work for me, but it just doesn’t make sense in my life. I love Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr and those will be my main platforms for now on. You’ll occasionally see a Periscope (I chose it over Meerkat) or a Vine. Google+ makes an appearance from time to time (I still get a ton of interactions there), but I feel like Google’s (or should I say Alphabet’s) recent changes will put the nail on that coffin soon.
It still looks like I post on many platforms, but most of those can be synced. Focusing on specific platforms now allows me to focus on creating better content and spend less time on my phone/computer and more time living.
Today I read an article about people who were so addicted to the internet they needed to go to rehab for internet addiction. It was an extensive article and by the end of it I started to wonder if I have a type of internet addiction.
4 years ago, I wrote a post where I admitted that I wouldn’t give the internet up for $50 million. I still think that way. In fact, social media has become an increasingly big part of our lives. It’s hard to make any changes unless we decide collectively as a society. It’s now legitimately part of my paid full-time job and a tool that has helped me with opportunities, friends and adventures.
Despite this, I’ve made an effort in the past year to put the phone down whenever I’m with other people (except for the occasionally Instagram with food). I try to not to check feeds when I’m out and enjoy the company around me. I think working with social media as a profession has changed what I do personally in my off hours. I relish the time where I’m occupied with other things. At the same time, I do feel the urge and the obligation to be writing and publishing (at least this blog) every day.
What’s important though is that I know I don’t have a serious addiction and there are two main points that rule out if your internet browsing is problematic:
1) Is it affecting your school work or job?
2) Is the time you are spending on the internet affecting your relationships with people in a negative manner?
3) Does using it/not using it significantly affect your mood?
If you said yes to any or both of these things, you might want to evaluate and control how much time you are spending online.
When I was a kid, I didn’t have much lego. They were expensive so it wasn’t something my parent’s prioritized in buying us. As an adult, I love to build (and collect) things and Lego appeals to all ages. We randomly bought some Lego Simpsons mini figures (I love the Simpsons).
Nash and I ended up with date night Marge and Smithers! But now this has started an addiction and I actually compulsively ordered the Lego Simpsons House on Amazon. I can’t wait to build it. Building things together is an awesome date idea and my order can’t come soon enough!
Tiana Feng 