Been a while but here’s another video round-up!
First I show you my Mammoth Cave Records haul:
Then I found these weird turtle bath things:
Lastly, I cooked some pork chops:
How to Have a Long Distance BFF
Recently, someone asked me how I have such a great relationship with best friend who is in another province. We actually didn’t even see each other for almost 3 years prior to her wedding in October. While it feels almost natural for me, I’d like to offer some tips for people who’s friends are moving far away and how to best keep that connection.
Talk frequently, in whatever channel works conveniently for both you. It might be a phone call, text message, FB chat, Snapchat.
Be willing to listen. Just because you’re far away doesn’t mean you can’t listen and talk your friend through life’s problems. Don’t wait until everything is fine and dandy to chat.
Be there when they need it. This sort of relates to the last point but a friend will always value those that make an effort. Also if they really want you there for a serious life event like a wedding, you do whatever it takes to get on that plane/bus/whatever.
Take challenges together. Do you have a mutual goal you’d like to achieve? For Laura and I, it’s currently blogging everyday. Having a common goal can help strengthen the bond because you can also talk about that goal or hobby together.
Make sure the feeling is mutual. Long distance friendships aren’t for everyone. An important question to ask is why the other person is moving away. Some people just want to move away for a fresh start. In that case, the friend may not want to keep touch. But you can always offer them the chance to connect if they change their mind.
Spring is Such a Tease
It’s Easter Weekend here in Toronto. The weather was quite nice Good Friday and Saturday leading us to think Spring was coming.
Even Teddy was out enjoying the weather.
But surprise! It snowed during the night:
When will Spring finally be here to stay?
Brunch @ Queen Street Warehouse
This morning I had brunch at Queen Street Warehouse. It is the second restaurant in Toronto to be offering a menu where all food items are $4.95 all day everyday. Interestingly they sustain this through company sponsorships. A Redbull logo could be seen in the corner of the restaurant but I actually didn’t feel like I was being blatantly advertised to that much. The servers were all dressed like 80s rockers and the sign to the bathroom said “Free Air Guitar”. It was corny but worked for the type of establishment that catered to young university students on a budget.
I ordered the Fried Chicken Wafflewich (pictured above). The sandwich had buttermilk fried chicken, an apple coleslaw, bacon, mayo and a side of maple syrup which I happily drenched everything in. It was served with a side of “fries” which were really more like tater tots, but crunch and delicious. Everything in the wafflewich paired nicely together but I wish it was slightly bigger. Considering it was $4.95 I couldn’t really complain.
Nash ended up ordering two things because he was hungry and had a hunch that the portions would be smaller than normal. The first thing was a Baked Fritata with egg, roasted broccoli, carmelized onion, cheddar cheese, greens, pickled vegetables and green onion.
The second was The Chorizo Hash. He added extra hash for $1. It had a chipotle hollandaise, chorizo, onion, green pepper, scrambled eggs and more.
To drink I ordered the Warehouse Espresso which contained vodka, Toronto’s “Cut Coffee” beans, kahlua and cream. It was like an iced coffee with a zing in it.
I couldn’t resist getting dessert (since again it was $4.95) so I ordered the Fried Apple Pie which was served with a side of vanilla ice cream. The shape made me think of what it would look like if someone took a MacDonald’s Apple Pie and fried it. The filling was way better than a McDonald’s pie though, it was hot and fresh. The outside was crunchy with a thick breading. It was a bit messy to eat but worth getting my hands dirty.
All in all, we had a great meal at Warehouse for the price. If you’re looking for cheap eats in Toronto, this is definitely the place to go!
Bye Meerkat! Hello Periscope
Whenever there’s a new social network, I often rush to become an early adopter. To me, it doesn’t really matter if that the general public hasn’t seen the value of them yet. I like to learn the value of each myself for my own interests as well to keep up to date on what’s on trend for professional reasons.
Recently, I talked about new live streaming service Meerkat. A little while after, Twitter bought and launched a very similar service called Periscope. While I see the advantages of Meerkat, I soon discovered that Periscope was a better fit for me. It was connected to Twitter and streams also saved so that they could be rebroadcasted. Often when Meerkat streams were over, the tweets led to dead links. These two reasons alone were enough to convince me to make the switch. I also believe it will take an even larger marketshare once it hits the Android store.
So if you’re a Periscope user and would like to find me you can find me under my usual username “@tianafeng”! I’ve been having a lot of fun showing people my fridge so far (of which I still don’t understand the obsession).
Are you part of the live stream craze? If so, which app are you using?
Photos: 85mm Teddy
Tested my new Canon 85mm 1.2 on the dog. Wide open aperture is hard to get used to on a moving subject. Despite these photos, he does’t really stay still!
April: The Month of No Complaining
In February, the Complaint Restraint project took place. For 28 days people signed up to simply stop complaining. Jessica Hullinger of Fast Company wrote about this experience and provided some great tips.
I missed the month of the originally challenge because I read about it after the fact but I really wanted to take this challenge for a month and learn from it. I’ve had a hard couple of days and this will be very difficult to start and keep going but it’s worth a try to change my current (and future) mindset.
I will start by defining what I consider a complaint to be.
- Observations will not be considered a complaint. Ex “It is cold.” Exempt also will be reviews of restaurants and music etc that make it onto blogs. These are considered observations/constructive criticism.
- A sentence that contains the following words will be consider a complaint: “hate”, “don’t, fuck, shit, jerk” etc.
- A statement that ruminates beyond a simple observation. (Telling 10 people it’s cold)
- Gossip, (non-constructive) criticism, whining, grudges, hurtful jokes
This might seem like an impossible task as complaining is inherent in our nature and sometimes we do it subconsciously. It’ll also be difficult depending on the people I surround myself with. Other people love to complain as much as I do. I will do my best to reconstruct negative “complaining” thoughts into more positive and productive ones or simply drop them if they are unimportant. I hope to be more mindful of each situation
Example of looking on the bright side:
Starting now… no complaining!
(This is not an April Fool’s joke)
One Month of Drawing
I did it. I sketched 31 things in 31 days, doing sketches daily (for the most part) during March as part of Articulations Filler Up sketchbook challenge. While not all of the drawings were particularly great it taught me many things:
- Not to be so self-critical. The reason I used to not draw much was because often I would trash everything I started because I didn’t like it. I also erased often leading to many unfinished works. Having to finish many in a short time left me less time to be critical
- You can make art with anything. Living the example of my grandfather who made art on literally anything I also didn’t limit myself. Some days I drew with fancy pencils, other days ball-poit pens or lead pencils
- Making time. My excuse for not drawing (or any other thing for that matter) was that I didn’t have enough time. Time is always available if I make an effort to try to set some aside.
- Ideas come from anything. Don’t know what do draw? Draw the glass you are drinking out of, the beer you’re drinking. Literally anything is a subject.
Brunch @ Saving Grace
On Saturday I had brunch at Saving Grace. I had previously heard that it is usually packed but we were luckily to be seated right when we arrived by a dude that looked like he hated life. There was a line immediately behind us waiting outside the small space.
I ordered french toast with gruyere, onions, mushrooms. I actually didn’t realize it was a sandwich until I received it. It also came with a side of salad and flat crispy potatos. While the sandwich was good, I felt the “french toast” part of it didn’t really add to it. It lacked sweetness for one, and the softness wasn’t my favourite for use as sandwich bread.
The price was around average for a brunch place in Toronto but elsewhere I could’ve got a fancy eggs benny for the same price. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing but I don’t know if I’d be back if I wasn’t lucky and had to wait in line!
What I Saw During Earth Hour 2015
Last night the annual Earth Hour took place from 8:30-9:30 encouraging people around the world to turn off their lights and devices for an hour. I decided to turn off all the lights and go for a walk.
Originally, I planned to take photos of my journey with my new gear. I packed it with me and decided it would be exempt from the “no devices during earth hour” thing. However, I realized that it wasn’t a good idea to be flashing expensive equipment around on a particularly dark night (since i was walking alone). Instead, I took a mental note of the things I saw and when I got home immediately jotted them down in a notebook.
I had not taken many walks at night in my neighbourhood, but I discovered so many things:
– There’ s a coffee shop that also fixes guitars
– There are many places opened later than I thought, and are very lively
– a giant walnut in front of a nut store
– very creepy mannequins in some store windows
– a space-themed cafe
– many out of place phonebooths
– places that are beautiful to look at but I have no idea what they sell
– antique shops (tons of them)
– the fortune teller is very popular
– many popular places that don’t seem to have names
– people wondering where the ATMS are
It’s amazing how many things can go unnoticed. I definitely have to venture into some of the places sometime!
Tiana Feng 