I feel like I haven’t posted photos of Teddy in a while, though I could totally be wrong. Despite what it looks like, it’s actually impossible to get him to look at the camera. A lot of shouting and waving things around is involved. Here are some shots of him basically blending into the basement carpet.
Curating Awesome On Tumblr
Recently, I made a personal Tumblr page. Obviously, I’ve used Tumblr before but they were all for clients or themed websites like photos of my dog, music, pokemon chibis, elegant books and of course my photography blog. I previously never saw the value of having a page for reblogging or sharing whatever tickled my curiosities. Then I made one.
Interestingly, I’ve gained a modest following in the short time I’ve had it. I didn’t think people would find my content curation that interesting, but apparently they do! I mix in both original (that I’ve created) and things others made that I find interesting, inspiring or just down right entertaining. I’m also going to be venturing into the world of graphic design and creative photography projects I’ve been wanting to attempt for a while. Don’t worry I’m not leaving this place! Tumblr is just quicker and easier for sharing things instantly. I’ll probably share the projects here, once they are more refined (don’t want to bog you guys down!).
Looking at other people’s Tumblrs, I find it fascinating that even blogs with a huge reblog ratio have a certain personality and character. Now in using it, I totally understand why the network is popular, beyond humour blogs.
You can find me on Tumblr at teepoo.tumblr.com.
My Thoughts on the Google+ Integration on Youtube
There has been a lot of chatter about the recent Google + integration with Youtube. Personally, I’ve been using the social network on and off ever since it first went beta. Right now, it is mostly auto-publishing feeds from my personal blog and Youtube channel.
In contrast, I haven’t actually been an active Youtube user until recently. Obviously I have watched countless videos on Youtube but since I wasn’t an active contributor I didn’t find it that necessary to leave comments. I did find however that I started to comment more after the Youtube name-change to connect ourselves with our Google+ identities. Maybe I wanted more followers on a network I had an iffy relationship with.
There’s a lot not to like about the integration though. For one, if you have separate Youtube pages for different things, you have to manage different Google + profiles. In my case, Ride the Tempo has a channel for occasional live videos. However, I find that the general music fan or listener isn’t highly active on Google+ (as I’ve tried managing a page in the past) so I wish that it could also be connected to my personal page, which people seem to follow. I do believe that there are plenty of users on Google+, as I am in more than 300 users’ circles. That’s more than the followers most people have on Twitter.
Another issue is the publishing of comment to the poster’s Google + feed. Although this can be an asset for users (as their content gets shared), it is somewhat of a nuisance when I want to leave a quick comment on something I don’t want to necessarily share (or share again if it’s my second comment on the same video). Since, it is Google+ based there is no longer a character limit on comments. As a new Vlogger, this seems quite intimidating and scary. Troll heaven. Or right now Bob and his stupid tanks world.
Instead of forcing Google+ on us, Google should have done a much better job explaining what it is for in the first place. It has some snazzy features (hangouts, photo editors) but the original marketing as a better Facebook or Twitter when those existed is comparable to Microsoft’s attempt to sell us the Zune.
12 Days of Holiday Bullshit by Cards Against Humanity
Uh, I totally signed up for this. As you learned from being a Loot Crate subscriber, I’m a sucker when it comes to receiving mysterious junk in the mail. Well, the makers of Cards Against Humanity will send you 12 presents for $12 ($22 if you live in Canada). There are only a limited number of slots left and as I write this, only 5327. You can sign up at 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit. Don’t worry, I’ll be documenting my gifts.
I Met Chris Pirillo!
This weekend was Buffer Festival in Toronto, the city’s first ever Youtube film festival. Personally, I haven’t participated in the Youtube scene until recently, but when I found out Chris Pirillo would be in Toronto I jumped on the chance to meet him.
I actually found Chris originally on Twitter in the social network’s early days. He was a recommended follow (and he followed me back!). I checked out his social feeds and was enticed by his wacky personality and had been watching his videos ever since.
His Buffer Festival panel, which took place inside the CN Tower’s Maple Leaf Theatre, was about tech on Youtube. The main point to take away was that tech is an enabler, not a destination. He also did a Youtube livestream review of the new iPad Air right in front of us. It was cool to see how the whole process worked and how reading comments could be rather addictive.
After the panel, we met in the meetup room at the Metro Convention Centre and he signed my GoPro. I figured that would be the most appropriate since he was the one who had influenced me to vlog in the first place. The real fun started when the planned meetup was over and a few of us gathered together to have lunch with Chris! We all had different stories of how we discovered his videos. It was fascinating to learn how his videos had touched all of our lives in some way. He actually shared this in his vlog (life goal achieved)!
Through Chris I learnt that when creating content (Youtube or elsewhere), to always be myself. He’s made a living through just being himself and I hope that’s something I can achieve too, to just do what I love.
Of course, here’s my vlog of the day:
Disposable Project Toronto
At the first edition of this year’s Long Winter, I took part in the Disposable Project. It’s an on-going interactive installation that aims to re-purpose everyday forgotten and thrown-away items. Participants were encouraged to draw on coffee cups in hopes of provoking dialogues for consumption. On my cup, I doodled me thinking about a burger.
Wings @ Game Day
Buffalo Wings
Jerk Chicken Wings
Nash had a craving for chicken wings, so we Googled around until we found a place we haven’t been with good old American-style wings. We ended up at Game Day in Little Italy. It was a little dark in there so my phone photos aren’t very good but you can watch our adventure in this Vlog.
We ordered Jalapeno poppers (not pictured) to start and gobbled them up right away. For wings we opted for one dry, one sauced. Nash chose the grilled buffalo chicken wings and I chose the jerk wings. The wings themselves were big and far from dinky ones (like you’d get at Kelsey’s). They were also very flavourful and the jerk rub was generous.
The atmosphere of the place was very sporty. There were jerseys on the walls and tons of big screens to watch whatever sport you wish. They actually asked what we were there to watch, but we were really there just to eat food. The name of the place must also come from the fact they have a board game at each table. We had a faux Connect 4 but I looked over and saw Operation on another table, and a bunch of Jenga sets. It’s definitely a cool place to chill, watch the game and eat some comfort food.
Loot Crate- October 2013 Edition
I finally received my October Loot Crate yesterday. Since it was the month of Halloween, the theme for October was “Survive”. You can check out my unboxing video on Youtube and check out the contents below.
Like the past crates, there was the official guide to all the box’s contents. Loot Crate also made these temporary tattoos so I could pick sides in the zombie apocalypse.
Online card service Open Me provided this adorable gut-loving card. The service which is affiliated with T-shirt Threadless allows you to send cards to people for only $4.
Oh and if you actually like guts, they’ve included some in candy form. I got a heart.
Loot Crate Labs also created these 8-bit game inspired buttons. I received two sets somehow!
My favourite item from this month’s crate was this T-shirt. It’s a mashup of Walking Dead and the Ewoks from Star Wars. So adorable!
Graphic Lab, the maker of the tee provided a $5 discount code and I’m now an official Zombie Hunter with this ID.
Since I am a Zombie Hunter now, this guide proves quite useful. I’ve seen this around in stores before but was never interested in zombies enough to buy it. Now that I own it, I’ll definitely read it out of curiosity.
Loot Crate has definitely outdone itself with these crates and the value within. If you use the code NEXTGEN: you ca save $3 on next week’s crate: http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/176357
Niagara Falls in Autumn
We had a guest stay at our house from Chicago over the weekend. What do you do when you have guests from another country? Take them to Niagara Falls. I made a vlog of the day and check out some photos below! The full set is available on Flickr.
Taken with my GoPro Hero 3+ Black:
Taken with my Canon 60D:
Burgers and Truffle Fries @ Holy Chuck
Last year, for Nash’s birthday, I started the tradition of taking him to a ridiculous burger joint. We do burgers all year, when they’re in the vicinity of where we happen to be but on birthdays we’ll actually travel for the next wacky thing. Anyway, this year we ended up at Holy Chuck at St. Clair Station.
Their menu has a variety of interesting creations. Nash ordered The Village Cow ($12.99), which had two patties and seared, melted kefalotiri cheese, red onions and greek olive oil. We’ve never heard of that cheese before, but it was deliciously fried and creamy. He also had a side of fries which came in a generous portion.
I went for the Le Croissant Du Paysan ($12.99), which was egg, pancetta, fries and burger on flakey croissants. The croissants were soft and sweet. Altogether the burger was like a very complete breakfast.
Ok time for the star of the show! Since it was his birthday, I totally splurged on the Black Truffle Fries. Real truffles were always a thing I dreamt about after watching too much Food Network but Holy Cow had actual shavings on their fries (and one of their burgers that we didn’t order)! There was also a nice aged cheese on the fries but we were more intrigued by the unique wood-like taste of truffle. It was really addictive. To top it off, it was also served with a truffle mayo. So much truffle, but so much delicious. These are fries I’m still thinking of a few days later.
Related articles
Tiana Feng 