Life – Page 33 – Tiana Feng

Looking Forward Not Back

January 18, 2015Family, Inspiration, Life1 Comment

By the end of last year, I accomplished many personal goals. I got a new job, I took a trip to the East Coast, bought a new laptop, and finally moved out and got my own place in downtown Toronto.

I’m determined to keep the momentum going and remain optimistic about the future. However, there are always emotion hurdles to face. I’m technically on contract for my job and my parent’s still say things to me like “Don’t buy a couch in case you have to move back home”.

So I bought a couch. Failure is not an option for me. Neither is looking back and moving back home (at least to me) would be seen as moving backwards. I will work my hardest to either have extended employment or create a new opportunities elsewhere. Though well meaning, I will not let less than positive thoughts affect me. In the wise words of Yoda: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

Let Yourself Do Nothing

January 16, 2015Books, Inspiration, LifeLeave a Comment

I’m a workaholic. I’m guilty of glorifying busy. I rarely let myself truly do nothing. I read on my commutes to and from work. I take my lunch breaks at my desk (so I can blog or get my work done) and when I get home I manage all my blog e-mails, edit photographs or write some more.

If I take the time to watch TV (without actively doing something else), or play video games, I feel a bit guilty inside. I feel like there’s always something more important I could be doing (including the newly added responsibility of household chores) or going (shows, friends etc). By the time I get to bed, I’m exhausted. Sleep is the only time I’m truly doing nothing.

This is a habit, I want to break. Recently, I read Jeremy Dean’s book Making Habits, Breaking Habits and in doing so I became more aware of the pattern of actions I take every day. I also learned that there’s only so many habits you can force yourself to do at once without a break, or it lowers productivity. Therefore, taking appropriate breaks are important and may lead to better output.

For now on, I’ll let myself have those mental breaks, watch an episode of something on Netflix, go for walks or literally sit in a chair and do nothing. Sometimes my best work happens during those types of events. In fact, I pretty much wrote this post in my head while showering.

Learning to Declutter

January 13, 2015LifeLeave a Comment

I recently moved downtown Toronto into my own bachelor apartment. It’s a tiny but a perfect place. Plus, it’s finally my own place.However, I’ve had to learn to downsize, in order to keep my place tidy and not clusterphobic. Here’s a few tips when downsizing to a smaller place:

Take only the books you need:
Back home at my parent’s house, I have so many books. Many of them, I’ll probably never read again but I linger on the possibility that I might reference them.

Throw out the packaging:
I’m a sucker of cool packaging and am guilty for keeping it all. Sometimes for this reason, I’ll leave things in their packaging for too long and they don’t get used. Open everything (if not than give it away), so there’s a greater possibility it will be used. Recycle the packaging if possible. This will also prevent you from buying future things with cool boxes.

Find Multiple Uses For Things:
My little sister bought me a miniature Christmas tree that’s been sitting on my windowsill. Instead of throwing it out, or taking up space in my closet, I think I will keep it on the windowsill and call it the “Occasion/Theme Tree” where we will decorate it with different things year round. If you really want to keep cool packaging, make use of it. They can be storage boxes for loose art supplies or a environmentally friendly way to wrap gifts. I also re-used this Christmas chocolate wafer tin to hold my pens.

Have you ever downsized? I’d love to know your tips.

Ride the Tempo Redesign

January 10, 2015LifeLeave a Comment

Today I was busy redesigning my music blog Ride The Tempo. It finally has a fresh new layout that looks like it’s from 2015 and a new logo designed by my friend Paula Lafleur.

Check it out at: ridethetempo.com.

Wavelength Pop-Up Gallery

January 8, 2015Life, PhotographyLeave a Comment

I’m really excited to announce that some of my concert photos will be featured in Wavelength Music’s upcoming Pop-Up Gallery!

The gallery features posters, installations, talks, intimate concerts as well as photos. My shots will be featured in the photo show deemed “PRESENT” featuring images from 2013-14 Wavelength events.

Date: January 22nd – February 15th
Place: Huntclub Studios (709. College Street)

There’s a free opening party on January, 22nd at 8pm! See you there :)

Vlog Round-up: Rich Aucoin, Christmas, Apartment Tour

January 6, 2015January 7, 2015Life, VlogsLeave a Comment

I started Vlogging again and I will be continuing (just not daily). My life isn’t interesting enough for me to have adventures everyday. I’ll try my hardest to make them somewhat regular and do a round-up after every three. So here are 3 for now!

See my clusterphobic Christmas tree and what’s in the first Birchbox Canada!

Tour my new apartment!

Relive Rich Aucoin’s NYE show and we also try the chocolate beer.

Reliving My Teens

January 3, 2015LifeLeave a Comment

In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase of boy-band reunions and the 12-year old inside me was giddy with joy. Most recently, I saw O-Town, what I thought was a 1-2 hit wonder but I knew all their older songs.

As soon as they started, I was lit up with excitement and laughter.

My friends and I belted their encore “All or Nothing” together.

We reacted the same last year when we saw Aaron Carter. Both these concerts are super lame if you view it from an outsider perspective but the fact that we were kids when these artists were famous made it all the more magical.

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This is for you @kawaiiathy

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Sep 22, 2013 at 8:04pm PDT

What is it about our childhood memories that makes reliving them so much more special? I still love the things I loved when I was a child and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

This Year I Want To Blog More

January 1, 2015Inspiration, Life1 Comment

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Actually dressed up for a show #selfie #nye

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Dec 31, 2014 at 3:48pm PST

Happy New Year!

Every year, I seem to have a new opinion on the whole idea of New Years Resolutions. Last year, my new year resolution was to have none. And it was awesome. I wasn’t disappointed for breaking promises to myself. In fact, I had a pretty great year and finally achieved a few milestones that I’ve been struggling to reach for a few years.

I was finally employed (twice) and for the first time ever, moved out of my parent’s house. I travelled and attended my best friend’s wedding in PEI. I took on more collaborative projects and forced myself to leave the house and make new friends. I was truly really busy for the first time. This led to putting a lot of blog posts on the backburner. I have plenty of content in the queue that is my mind, but I just haven’t put the pen to paper (or I guess the fingers to the keyboard). My excuses were plenty. I’m too tired after work. I don’t have time. I could be watching more movies on Netflix. The problem is they were all stupid excuses. The more I pushed writing, the harder it was to get back into it.

That’s why for 2015. I want to blog more. Blog more here. Blog more on Ride the Tempo. I’ve already pushed myself to start over the holidays. As much as I can, I will blog everyday. Whether it is a photo blog , a drawing, or a piece of longform writing, I will hit the blue publish button and send something into the interwebs. It will encourage me to find time for a bit of time everyday to be creative. Afterall, to improve at something is to do it every day and here on my personal blog, there are no boundaries.

Hi, people of 2015, you will be seeing much more of me.

Bits & Pieces from PEI

December 27, 2014Life, VlogsLeave a Comment

I haven’t vlogged in a while but here are some bits and pieces from my trip to PEI. I ended up taking more photos than video.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

December 25, 2014Art, Life, Pets, Photography, Teddy2 Comments

I’ve got some crazy catching up to do on blog posts but thank goodness for the holidays! Since it’s Christmas I thought I’d share some photos of my day with you.

Teddy waits for his turn to open presents: