Tiana Feng

The Curse Of The Spermagotchi

April 22, 2013April 22, 2013iOS, Technology, Video GamesLeave a Comment

As a kid growing up in the 90s, I was really excited when the Tamagotchi L.i.f.e app came out. I had a million virtual pets when I was little including the nano sumo fighters, babies, pikachu pet and of course the original Tamagotchi.

When I first got the app, I had all the notifications turned on and took care of the virtual pet’s every need. I even played games instead of feeding it candy to increase its happiness. I ended up with this guy:

The infamous Spermagotchi. My least favourite one of the pets. So I killed him.

This time I opted for a more neglectful approach. I fed him candy instead of played games and did not heed to it right away.

I GOT THIS GUY IN ANOTHER COLOUR. I killed it again.

The third time I had no strategy, but I switched it over to classic mode.

I deleted the app.

Tacos and Nachos @ La Burrita

April 20, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

La Burrita took over the spot near Christie station that used to house an Ethiopian restaurant. While it is only a block a way from our beloved Tacos El Asador, La Burrita does a more Mexican style of taco. There is even a huger variety of meat fillings you can choose from and at $2.90 the price is low enough to keep coming back to try them all.
I had a Shrimp Taco and a Fish Taco. Both were battered really nicely with avocado and salsa fresca. It was moist and full of flavour that you didn’t need to ask for any additional salsa or hot sauce. Unlike some other places, there wasn’t any offered.

Nash had the Chorizo and Chipotle Pork tacos. Both had rice, cheese, green sauce, sour cream and salsa. The chorizo was better than Al Asador’s because it was really moist.
For some reason we couldn’t resist trying the nachos. They were a lot lighter than the usual nachos, mostly because we didn’t expect to finish them but we did. I enjoyed the freshness of the salsa verde with the fresca.

Klout Perk: The Red Bull Editions

April 18, 2013April 18, 2013Design, Drinks, Food, PhotographyLeave a Comment

Klout sent me an e-mail a few days ago saying my Red Bull Editions perk was finally on its way. I didn’t expect it to show up expedited at my door yesterday. Who knew free samples would be so damn efficient. They even came in a cute little box with a tag.

I have too much expendable energy to drink them right now but I thought they came in nice bright colours. I like this design much better than the regular Red Bull. It’s streamlined and simple. I played around with some manual focus photography with my f1.8 lens.

Maybe I’ll save these for when music festival season comes along.

Crochet Ball

April 17, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/Knitting, Pets, TeddyLeave a Comment

I learnt how to crochet a ball for Teddy from this Youtube Video via Crochet Geek. It wasn’t too round because I didn’t have stuffing so I used a plastic bag. It added a little extra noise for Teddy to enjoy.

Balls are the basis for a lot of Amigurumi projects so I hope to make him so cuter toys in the future.

My First Purchase on Etsy! Rocky The Zombie Cupcake T-shirt

April 16, 2013Fashion, Shopping2 Comments

As you may or may not know, I wear cupcake t-shirts to concerts. It is something I started a few years ago with Johnny Cupcakes T-shirts but I’ve been trying to add other kinds of cupcake attire to the collection. I hope to support more independent designers.
My latest edition is this adorable Rocky the Zombie T-shirt from Etsy made by Ranon. It is pretty difficult to find cupcake clothing that aren’t made to fit children. This adorable t-shirt has a slash neck so I could do an off-the-shoulder look if I wanted.
The T-shirt came in only a week and was wrapped in a cute silver ribbon with a random piece of candy! Ranon who is from Southsea, UK is the original creator of the adorable Rocky the Zombie character. You can read more about her on her blog.

Have you seen cute cupcake clothing anywhere? I’d love to know!

How To Create A Mind

April 15, 2013Books, Entertainment, TechnologyLeave a Comment

Fascination in the mind led me to read Kurzweil’s How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Though Revealed. The first part of the book goes into compelling detail about how the human brain stores and analyzes information.

The later half philosophises artificial intelligence. It questions and eloquently investigates the ethics behind the artificial mind. If a computer had the same power as human brain, should it be considered conscious? Kurzweil thinks it should be and makes many references to the Jeopardy winning robot, Watson.

He also questions free will, making allusions to the fact that not all human decisions are done of free will. Often we confabulate to make it seem like something was done on our free will. For example, our decisions are often made based on our past experiences. Therefore our past is influencing our decision and free will is one devoid of influences. It thought this was a quite perplexing thought.

Kurzweil explained that Watson (and even iPhone’s) Siri is able to learn from the environment and as technology grows they will be able to learn things the same ways as humans do. If that happens, would we treat computers like humans? Only in time can we truly answer that question.

For anybody who’s interested, here is a lecture Kurzweil did at Google on the topic:

Someone’s Spying On Me

April 14, 2013Art, Pets, Photography, TeddyLeave a Comment

I was trying to read over the weekend. However every time I retreat to the couch in the other room this happens:

Learning to Crochet

April 13, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/KnittingLeave a Comment

I decided to teach myself how to crochet (again). I had started last year but then I became busy and forgot all about it.

I purchased a set of crochet needles from Ebay, where you the entire collection cost $5 with shipping included! It’s ridiculous how cheap you can get supplies like yarn as well.

I inherited Debbie Stoller’s The Happy Hooker from my best friend when she moved out of Toronto. It’s been sitting on my shelf for quite some time. This is a test ball of white yarn I bought at the dollar store ages ago. Half of it I used to learn how to knit.

I made these square coasters with the yarn as I learnt how to do some of the basic stitches; double crochet, half double crochet, and single crochet. I’m hoping to eventually learn how to make some adorable Amigurumi animals!

We Remember The Sound Of Our Keys

April 10, 2013April 10, 2013Books, Inspiration, Life, MusicLeave a Comment

People are able to distinguish between songs through earworms. However, there’s also a whole world of sounds and soundscapes we are exposed to on a daily basis. In Murray Schafer’s A Sound Education, he explores these every day sounds through 100 exploratory exercises.

I had the pleasure of meeting Schafer in my third year of University. Our class delved into a few of these personally with Schafer. The most memorable was this particular exercise involving keys. A group of five people put their keys into a pile. Schafer then jingled all of the keys behind their backs and asked the participants to identify their own. Everybody had the right keys.

The sound of our keys is not something we really think about but we hold them every day, listen to them jingle in our bags and pockets as we look for them and open our doors. Personally, my keys are pretty boring. I don’t own a car or a bike so I only have one key on my chain with a Dine Alone beer opener and a Johnny Cupcakes oven mitt. Instead of nice jingling, I hear simple clanking.

What do your keys sound like? I dare you to try this exercise with a few of your friends and I’m sure they will guess the right keys!

Side note: This book seems to be hard to find, so if any of my Toronto friends want to borrow this I have a hard copy!

Come and Get Poutine

April 9, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Come and Get It is a pop-up restaurant located in a little space on Spadina (close to Queen) where Ackee Tree used to be. The restaurant is very temporary because soon it will disappear to condo developments. This could be a few months or years, so who knows.

The place itself has a very 90s-punk atmosphere with graffiti style bathroom stores. They also love vintage 90s stuff like lunch boxes, N64 and New Kids on the Block.

The menu has four options that can be prepared as either a sandwich, salad or poutine. Besides the herbed-crusted green beans, it was really hard to choose.
I opted for the Hawaiian Pork Belly poutine. I really liked the BBQ sauce and the pork belly. There was even crispy pork crackling that reminded me of the skin on Chinese roast pig, the ones you see hanging in the windows in China Town. That was one of my favourite things growing up as a child.

Nash really wanted the jerk chicken, but they ran out so he tried the Chipotle Short Rib as a poutine. There were crispy onions on top. The meat was melt in your mouth, but I didn’t really find it spicey which I would imply in something labeled Chipotle.

The serving size was very large (maybe twice the size of Poutini’s regular), and quite worth what you paid for. I hope this place remains at the spot for a little while. It is great pre-concert food and I would love to try all the options!