Blood Moon Fail

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Remember last weekend when everybody was super excited about a Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse that wouldn’t happen again until 2033? Well, I made my way down to Humber Bay, Park in Toronto only to find out that it was way too cloudy for any glimpse of moon. I stayed there for a good hour and a half.

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While I didn’t get to shoot the moon, I found a secret quiet secluded spot where you could see downtown Toronto beautifully from afar and it was super relaxing to just listen to the waves crash the shore. In 2015, it’s nice to have moments where we are disconnected and to just enjoy nature.

Ramen Raijin

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There are so many ramen places in the city that I could not possibly try them all! Recently, I stopped by Ramen Raijin, a casual dining place. Inside there were separate tables as well as a big square bar thing with a buddha in the middle.

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The ramen comes in 3 different sizes: Small, Regular and Large. I opted for a regular bowl of the Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen. Shoyu is a soy-sauce flavoured ramen. It came with pork shoulder, an egg, bean sprouts and seaweed. The broth was very flavourful and there was a decent amount of noodles, though I found them quite chewy compared to some other places.

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For dessert I refreshed myself with a classic green tea ice cream.

I thought the ramen was decent but there are better places in the city.

Ramen Raijin Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Let’s go 

  
Yay it’s Friday! Always remember to leave some time to yourself and not always stop your life from someone else.

Have something you wish you did on your spare time? Just go for it! 

Lego Simpsons House

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My first lego set ever was this limited edition Lego Simpsons House. Prior to this I’ve never owned or built any set from start to finish. I’m a huge fan of The Simpsons so when I found out they were releasing the house I was super excited.

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I ordered it from Amazon and the box was huge!
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Here’s the back.

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There were 7 parts to the house and 3 booklets worth of instructions. It took me around 3 weeks to build, mostly because I don’t have a lot of time to do it consecutively. It was a super relaxing process though, and took my mind offline.

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It’s so super detailed and looks exactly like the house on the show!

Here are some photos of the inside details in order of how they were built:

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Stay tuned for more Lego posts when I finish the Kwik-E-Mart!

 

 

Living in Toronto

I found this adorably funny Instagram account on what it’s like to live in Toronto in illustrations! Check out some of my favourite below:

Anybody who’s lived in Toronto will relate to these.

 

Thoughts on Apple Music

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Tomorrow is exactly 3 months from the day Apple Music first launch, so it means that those of us who signed up on the first day for the free trial will realize that it comes to an end and be charged $9.99/month if you don’t unsubscribe.

I decided to unsubscribe. To be honest, the only reason for my unsubscribing is a big one. I can’t use it in a browser. What both Spotify and Rdio have going for them are browser versions that I can use literally anywhere, including at work. To keep up with Apple Music means I have to keep an updated version of iTunes, which results in fighting with IT to let me download something that they might not deem worthwhile.

The interface and selection were great. Beats One has some interesting artists as guests, but all this goes to waste if it remains inaccessible to people who don’t have wifi at work (waste of data on phones and devices) or can’t download iTunes on their computer.

Scarborough Bluffs

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Instagram has helped me discover places that I didn’t know existed in Ontario. One of those things was Scarborough Bluffs park. It’s a beautiful area with cliffs and beaches that looks like you went to some tropical location. A few are dangerous and out of bounds but people frequently hop the fence to take photos anyways. It’s also by a water-treatment plant so not all the water is super clean.  We stopped by for some quick photos when we were coming back from Woofstock.

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When we were driving back the sunset was a beautiful pink:

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It’s fun to have adventures and explore the nooks and crannies of the places in cities nearby!

Moved Ride the Tempo to the Cloud

Moving to the Cloud

Over the past week, I moved Ride the Tempo to a Cloud. I don’t fully know what this means as I was hosted on a shared server on Bluehost before. I’m still on Bluehost but I made the switch to their Cloud service with not much variation in price.

I always thought everything hosted on the internet in general was already “on the cloud”. From what I understand, cloud hosting means that your stuff is mirrored on multiple machines so that if it goes down somewhere it will still be live elsewhere. That seemed like a plus to me as any downtime detracts people away.

It also allows for more files to be hosted on the server (unlimited is never really unlimited) and the load times are bit faster. There were a few glitches and 403s I had to work through that were a bit frustrating but now that it is finally up I can definitely see an improvement in speed.

I now welcome the Cloud!

 

Woofstock 2015

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This year Woofstock got moved to September, maybe because the weather is much more comfortable for dogs than the 30 degree weather we experienced in the past.

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There were a lot of vendors but we found that there were fewer than in the past years. I think a few might have been skeptical about the fall move.

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It was still an awesome time for dogs with activities and things to buy everywhere.

DSCF4927We took our annual photo from President’s Choice.

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We also found this funny photo-op with a truck.

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Teddy went for a ride too!

DSCF4898I was hungry so I totally stopped for a crawfish poutine.

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We found this adorable doggy water fountain at the park.

Teddy also made a bunch of doggy friends!

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It was a fun day! Teddy did too and is warming up to the idea of a billion dogs in one place. He welcomed them all by sniffing their butts!

A Taste of Market 707

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Market 707 located at Dundas & Bathurst is full of pop-up shops in what used to be shipping containers. It’s a great place for local entrepreneurs to have a store front for an affordable price in the city. There are clothing shops, a barbershop, nail salon, jewellery and of course food. Besides my friend’s stand at Petit Nuage I hadn’t had any of the food until recently.

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This indulgent dish is from Filipino stand Kanto, which specializes in a street take on tradition foods. I ordered the Sisig fries which was Offal meat that has been boiled, then grilled and chopped into fine pieces. It was marinated in lemon, vinegar and spices. The dish was topped with Lechon Kawali (pork belly) and garlic lemon aioli on a bed of crispy fries. I loved the crispy pork pieces and the fries were super crunchy.

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My friend showed me her regular order at Cookie Martinez called the Patacon Pisao, a classic Latin American dish from the Colombian coast. Patacon starts by warming unripened green plantain to flatten, then fried until crispy. Hers had beef, avocado and a delicious sauce.

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I also wanted to try the shrimp ceviche from Cookie Martinez. It was served with plantain chips was a bit of a weird (mostly inefficient) receptacle for ceviche. The ceviche itself was very fresh and flavourful.

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To wash it down I had an iced matcha from Petit Nuage, the best in the city (Disclaimer: I know her personally but it really is the best in the city)!