Tiana Feng

Youtube Helped Me Fix It

May 8, 2013Technology1 Comment

The dusty insides of the front of my laptop

I have a 4 year old Dell Studio 1555 laptop. It is still running perfectly smoothly. However, whoever designed this thing didn’t think about longevity and stupidly put the power button on the screen’s hinge. The most moved part on the entire computer.

Anyways, a few weeks ago I dropped my laptop and everything seemed fine except for the lost connection in the power button. It would take me 3-4 attempts to turn the computer back on and I avoided turning it off since then. The past few days I was bringing the laptop outside to work and today on my way out bumped the battery and it turned off. It wouldn’t turn back on after about 100 attempts at fidgeting with the hinge. My warranty has been up for almost a year and I knew a repair was going to be costly for something that probably took 10 minutes.

So I Youtubed my problem, took my laptop apart and 10 minutes later I am writing this blog post to you about it. It’s amazing how much of our life problems can be Googled, and how much you can learn from Youtube. No need to “call the guy” when you can “be the guy”.

Kariya Park

May 5, 2013Art, PhotographyLeave a Comment

The weather was gorgeous so we headed to Kariya Park to see if we could catch the cherry blossom trees in bloom. It’s a lovely little spot in the core honouring the twin city relationship with Kariya, Japan. We were probably a week early because not all the trees bloomed yet but still managed to snap some colourful photos.

Photos: Teddy Enjoying the Sun

May 4, 2013Pets, Photography, Teddy4 Comments

This weekend the weather was beautiful, so I let Teddy out in the yard and snapped some photos.

Pho @ The Guava Hamilton

May 3, 2013May 3, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I spent some time this week in Hamilton visiting grandma. Me and my sister Livia decided to head to find some Pho in the area and found The Guava. Inside it looked like it had been recently renovated.

We shared an order of shrimp summer rolls. Presentation wise they were very beautiful but the giant lettuce was a bit impractical. When you finished the roll you’d be left with a chunk of lettuce.

We both had different vermicelli. I ordered the shredded pork and Livia chose chicken. The portion sizes were generous and the fish sauce was flavourful. The pork itself was flavourful and the vegetables well pickled.

The prices were a bit more expensive than similar restaurants in Toronto, but the quality of the food was great.

Steal Like An Artist

May 2, 2013May 2, 2013Books, Inspiration, Life, Thinking5 Comments

Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist has been sitting on my desk like a paperweight for quite a while. Today I decided to read it and discovered it to be the most invaluable paperweight to have in times of inspirational need.
Kleon, an artist and illustrator, stated in the beginning of the book that all advice is autobiographical. The book focuses around 10 things he wished he had heard when he was younger. It’s advice that to a reader may seem obvious, but is often forgotten.

The book is small and around 150 pages, half of which are artistic scribblings and brainstorming of Kleon’s points. There’s even a “deleted scene” page at the back with images that didn’t quite make it.
One of my favourite quotes from the book is

“You don’t put yourself online because you have something to say- you can put yourself online to find something to say”

. This resonated with me as an online writer both on this blog and over at Ride the Tempo. I never knew what I was doing when I started, but I haven’t stopped and never seem to be running out of ideas.

There’s a page in the book for everyone. There’s a page about embracing obscurity, productive procrastination and more. Everybody can use a bit of creativity in their lives. More pages from Austin Kleon’s book are available on his website.

Lunch @ Northwood

April 30, 2013May 2, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Yesterday I was at the Exclaim! office helping out and for lunch I was looking for something sandwich-y. I remembered Northwood opened up close-by. I went in and asked if they served food. Although they didn’t have a formal menu yet, they gave some sandwich suggestions.

I had a turkey sandwich with a mini edamame salad. It was only around $5 ish. I enjoyed the light seasoning on the beans. The sandwich had an interesting dijon mustard, cheese and lettuce.

It’s a cafe, so I had to buy some coffee. I had a mocha.

I heard Northwood is also a great night-time hangout with cocktails and draft beer. It’s hard to believe this cozy little new place used to be a dingy Chinese restaurant.

Crochet Dog Bone

April 27, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/Knitting, Pets, TeddyLeave a Comment

My practise ball of white yarn never seems to disappear so I made Teddy this crochet bone with a pattern I found on Pinterest. I didn’t make it quite as long because of my dog’s small size.

I added a ribbon made out of an old T-shirt to hide the seams.

I think he approves.

Crochet Short Sweater

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/Knitting1 Comment

For my first major crochet project, I made this short crop sweater sweater. The pattern came from The Happy Hooker book I mentioned earlier.

Understanding how to read the pattern was a confusing at first, so the sweater is a tiny bit disfigured, but still wearable.

It pairs well with a bright coloured tank top underneath.

It was a little thicker than I wanted. I used black wool I had but I threw out the label was unsure about the needle gauge. However, I’m proud that it actually looks like a sweater (and not a blob of yarn).

Fried Chicken @ The White Brick Kitchen

April 25, 2013April 25, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

The White Brick Kitchen is nestled in the middle of Koreatown. It’s the perfect place to go to if you’re in the area and looking for something that is not bibimbap or pork bone soup. They serve American comfort food. The menu includes things like burgers, salads, fried chicken, mac n cheese, chilli and more.

On Foursquare their Buttermilk Fried Chicken ($17) was highly recommended so that’s what I went for. For my side I chose the mixed greens in a lemon vinaigrette. It also came with two scallion biscuits which were nice and moist. Nash loves green onions, so he was a huge fan.

The fried chicken, was probably the best fried chicken I have ever had. It was also literally half a chicken, so quite worth the hefty price tag. There was a honey mustard dipping sauce with it but I accidentally thought that was salad dressing. Silly me, but it still worked in the salad. It didn’t matter because the chicken batter was so delicious (and strangely creamy) that it didn’t need any dipping.

Nash ordered the Brisket Burger ($13) with a side of BBQ kettle chips. They reminded me a lot of my home-made potato chips. The brisket burger had some lovely pickles (which they brine in house). The burger itself was very light. Additional toppings were a bit expensive, but I had enough chicken to feed the both of us.

We’ll definitely be back soon for brunch where they have housemade beef bacon and deep fried eggs!

Frankie’s Burgers

April 24, 2013April 24, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I saw Frankie’s on Restaurant Makeover but I didn’t know it was right at Queen and Ossington (an intersection I frequent). The new signage bravely deems it “World’s Best Burgers” and as a burger lover, I had to try it.

I had the Smokin’ Hot Honey with a side of fries. It had jalapenos, crunchy onions jalapehno havarti, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and smoke mayo. It was pretty much the meat lovers type of burger. My favourite part of it was probably the sweet BBQ sauce. The fries were homemade with sea salt. The portion sizes were very generous

Nash had the Aristotle burger which was a lot like a Greek salad on a burger. His sweet potato fries came with BBQ sauce.

While the burgers were pretty good I don’t know if I’d consider them the “World’s Best”. They’re not particularly unique or special but they definitely don’t disappoint.