Have you turned yourself into a Powerpuff yet? You can do so here. I think mine is accurate if I do say so myself.
Tag: internet
Moved Ride the Tempo 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!
Trimming the Fat (of My Online Presence)
I’m an early adopter of social media. I often join everything only to find out that things fall out of trend later. The “new Facebook” pops up every so often and everyone jumps on the ship only to fall overboard a few months later. Then there are the ones that do survive. What do you use? Should we be on all of them? I consciously decided that I don’t need to be.
If you asked me last year, I’d probably tell you that you should be on everything. In fact, I tried to be. It was exhausting. I even stuck on ello for way too long. I used chimed.in until it was dead. I saw the death of digg. I even used the “new Myspace” for longer than anyone else.
I’ve decided to trim a bit of my online fat. I can’t be on everything it is exhausting. I decided to use the platforms that work best for me. I keep trying to make Snapchat work for me, but it just doesn’t make sense in my life. I love Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr and those will be my main platforms for now on. You’ll occasionally see a Periscope (I chose it over Meerkat) or a Vine. Google+ makes an appearance from time to time (I still get a ton of interactions there), but I feel like Google’s (or should I say Alphabet’s) recent changes will put the nail on that coffin soon.
It still looks like I post on many platforms, but most of those can be synced. Focusing on specific platforms now allows me to focus on creating better content and spend less time on my phone/computer and more time living.
The Strange Things People Search To Get Here
One of everybody’s favourite things about having a blog is looking through the stats. Specifically, the Google searches that have landed a person on their own blog. Most them here are quite normal. I get a lot of people who were looking for Adventure Time or specific restaurants.
But sometimes searches can be bizarre. Here are a few weird ones:
“Tiana disgrace”
How the hell did this lead you here?
“Asian stereotype”
I like to think I don’t live according to stereotypes
“What dog looks like a lion”
I don’t know. Do you?
“Elmo word”
Tickle me?
“How to draw nash”
Why would you want to draw my boyfriend?!
“Draw something cheat/nash”
Again a bizarre reference to boyfriend.
“I think I’m a hoarder”
That’s nice.
“Stress soup”
I don’t think you really need a recipe for this.
“internet pictures”
This could be anything?!
“What used to be cool”
I’d like to think I am still cool.
Hitting Unsubscribe
The new year is a perfect time to do some cleansing, to have a fresh start on all the information you receive online. We’re constantly subscribed to receiving an overload of information. Now is the time to delete them. Here’s where you can get rid of some junk:
• E-mails: Unsubscribe from e-mail lists of stores you don’t go to, musicians you don’t want to follow or just lists you’ve pressed delete on the last few times. Don’t kid yourself, the one time you unsubscribe, you aren’t going to miss out on a deal you actually want. It’s also a good time to realize what lists you didn’t actually subscribe to. Since last July in Canada, it’s actually illegal to continue contacting someone if they unsubscribe from your list.
• Apps: When was the last time you checked your phone to check what that Hay Day notification is saying? Turn off those notifications if you don’t listen to them or better you delete the apps you don’t use.
• Social Networks: Is there someone who really gets on your nerves on every Facebook status update? Maybe it’s time to unfriend them, or at least unfollow them. Clearing out Twitter feeds of information you don’t find interesting can make way for things that are more valuable to you.
We’re inundated with so much information that it’s important to look back at what we’re subscribed to in order to regain some sort of sanity.
I Finally Have My Own Internet!
I don’t think I mentioned this previously, but last month I made a big leap and moved out of my parent’s house for the first time (going to University didn’t count). It was also the same month I had the important trip out East to my best friend’s wedding so I decided not to hook myself to internet until I returned.
That explains why I haven’t been posting as frequently as I used to here (and elsewhere too). My sister also somehow used 95% of our phone data in 3 days. I had access to the internet at the boyfriend’s place and when I was out east, but I find it hard to write and generate ideas when I’m hanging out with other people. It was interesting being slightly disconnected for a month. I found myself doing more household chores, cooking, going for walks, reading, doing the things that I would have normally thought I had no time to do. It’s amazing how much time I can waste staring at a screen just because it’s available.
I finally became connected again with Teksavvy. As a first time user, I can honestly say that I was very happy with the customer service I received. They were able to accommodate the fact that I was only available on weekends for installation and I have a Mac Air with no ethernet ports. Within 10 minutes, I was connected. I love having 24/7 access to the internet again, but that doesn’t mean I won’t occasionally drop it to appreciate other things in life a little more.
Anyways, I have a backlog of delicious and pretty things to post, so lookout!
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.
What Was Your First Ever Screen Name?
I had a long conversation with someone recently about how stupid our first screen names used to be. Even when I was little, I liked to have all my internet identities fall under the same pseudonym in the off-chance that I might run into someone I knew in a game or IRC chat room. Yeah yeah, I was a nerd as a kid, still am.
Due to my innate desire to have some sort of personal branding as a kid, I actually have not gone through that many reincarnations of nicknames. However my first ever screen name was pikachu12345.
This was probably due to the fact that it was grade 5 and Pokemon was very very popular, and the first time it was introduced in North America. Yahoo mail was actually a thing people used back then and the e-mail was also attached to my beloved Pokemon gifs website hosted on the now defunct Geocities.
After a while, I got bored of the Pokemon gifs site. Well no, I found out too many gifs on a website back then made your computer freeze so I stopped. Hotmail was becoming a popular alternative for Yahoo! and so I switched my username to anime_angel28 because my 13 year old self thought this was cute. I also might have been obsessed with Anime.
Embarrassingly (even though I became less obsessed with Anime), I used this e-mail/username until I went to university when it became commonplace to use your name for things. And so future employers would not think I am some strange Asian freak. In addition, sometime in high school one of my friends gave me teepoo as a nickname, and I begun using that for screen names in games and the newly rising social media networks.
The other nicknames no longer exist (nor do most of the networks I used them on) but I still use teepoo sometimes. When googled, it brings up a few things that are associated with me. An ex.fm account, this WordPress blog and probably some of my past work making anime wallpapers.
Only in the past few years, with the rising of Twitter did I really start using my own name publicly for things. In the era of social media, hiding behind a screen name is a thing of the past. If you’re afraid of people making a connection between your online/offline self than maybe you shouldn’t be on the internet. So, what was your first ever screen name?
Update: After writing this post, I decided to change the logo of the blog to reflect the future.
Unplugged For A Day
As my previous post mentioned, I went to my uncle’s cottage last weekend. It was 3-4 hours up north, and a boat ride across the lake. I was surrounded by nature and 3G was sparse.
I previously wrote a post, Could You Give Up the Internet for $50 million? where I admitted that I could not give it up. However this weekend unplugged for a day I learned that I was able to (at least for a day). I also realized that there were benefits to it. It was stress-relieving. I didn’t need to constantly check my e-mail, think of what to tweet or give a damn about what my friends were posting on Facebook. I didn’t even have the urge to instagram photos of our BBQ’d food.
Instead I taught Teddy how to swim, went hiking and took some breath taking photos of my surroundings. The only time I did use my 3G was to download Sky Map, an app that names all the constellations in the night sky.
Though I will probably not quit social media or the internet, sometimes I wonder how much of the real world we’re missing as we sit in front of blinking screens.
It’s a big and beautiful world out there.
An iPhone Without 3G Is Like Popcorn Without Butter
I went over my 1GB data plan today. I decided to turn my phone off instead of incurring any more fees. I’ve only had a smartphone since Christmas but I already feel like a cripple without it’s data-eating ways. Having an iPhone without 3G is as pointless as popcorn without butter.
Here are some things you can’t do without 3G:
iMessage: By default, iPhones running iOS 5 and higher send iMessages. I couldn’t receive messages from any one with an iPhone or send any without manually clicking “send as SMS” first. In addition, without data you can’t sent people pictures of your dog.
Social Networking: Can’t tweet, Facebook, Pinterest, Chime.in, Tumblr or Foursquare what I’m eating.
Find Out Where I am: I had to go pick something up in an area I’m not so familiar with. I took a streetcar, but didn’t get off on time. I even turned on my 3G (getting lost seems like a valid reason to). However, the service must disable itself after you too much over your data plan, because it would not work. I was stranded and had to ask Nash where exactly I was in relation to where I wanted to go.
Without internet to distract you, here are things you end up doing:
Looking at people on the bus: Since my head is not down and immersed in some sort of social network, I have to focus my eyes somewhere. Looking out the window resulted in a lot of sand in my eyes so I started looking around inside the bus. There’s a ton of funny looking people in the world.
Reading other people’s things: I ended up accidentally reading part of someone’s erotic novel.
Listening to brown people talk in circles: “you know?” They seemed to be having something delicious for dinner though.
Thinking to yourself: Sometimes I write blog posts while I’m on the train, but today I thought this one up in my head.
Thank goodness my cellphone billing period restarts tomorrow. One day of this nonsense was enough.
Tiana Feng 