random – Page 3 – Tiana Feng

Comfortable Silences

November 11, 2012March 10, 2013Life, Relationships1 Comment

There is a famous quote from Mia in Pulp Fiction that goes something like:

Don’t you hate that? Uncomfortable silence. Why do we feel it’s necessary to talk about bull in order to feel comfortable? That’s when you know you’ve found somebody really special. When you can just shut the hell up for a minute and comfortably share a silence

I’m surprisingly (or not really) a semi-awkward person. Are’t we all? When I’m in an uncomfortable situation I tend to feel obliged to talk , blurt out something even if it ends up being really stupid because silence as the alternative is just too uncomfortable.

Luckily, I found someone who I can have comfortable silences with. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk (hell we can talk for hours), but we can appreciate quiet moments. Whether it’s staring into each other’s eyes and smiling or sitting in the same room on separate laptops, talking is not a requirement.

What I Learned from Wreck-It Ralph

November 6, 2012March 10, 2013Entertainment, MoviesLeave a Comment

Wreck-it Ralph was a highly enjoyable movie and worth it for the tidbits of nerd gamer references including the Pac Man kill screen at the end of the credits. The character building was fantastic and I particularly loved the Candy world.

Since this is a Disney movie so there were lessons to be learned:

– Just because you’re somewhat of a clutz, doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy
– Society as a whole matters more than your own happiness
– Speak out and do something if you’re not happy, things will change
– It’s okay to get thrown off of a building as long as you get cake afterwards
– If you tell someone they’re “one dynamite girl” enough times, they will fall in love with you
– If you ever need some light the mixture of mentos and hot diet cola results in a very bright explosion

Board Games: Blokus 3D, Q-Bert and Formula D

September 14, 2012Board Games, Entertainment1 Comment

Here’s another round of interesting board games from Snakes and Lattes.

Blokus 3D Game was 3 dimensional take on the original game of Blokus. The difference was that in this game you had to touch the sides of one of your blocks (where as in the original you can’t) while building the required 3D shape.

The game comes with a few templates of 3D things to build and diagrams of how they look depending on the amount of participants. The object of the game: to get rid of all your blocks. The challenge came when building the 3D object, not all pieces were the right fit.

Next we found this Q-Bert Board Game. It dates back to 1983, and totally looks that way.

The goal of the game was to take turns being Q-Bert and getting more pegs than your opponent. Your opponent played all the nasty characters such as Coily, Slick, Ugg, green and red balls. The game was complete with flying discs that would take Q-Bert to safety.

I grabbed a random racing game called Formula D.

The game worked like a regular roll-the-dice and move type of game except with cars on a road. It also involved shifting gears and protecting your car parts from dying. There were enough pieces for up to 8 players. The first one to get to the finish line, or the last to be destroyed was the winner.

That’s all for now, I’m sure I will explore some more board games soon!

An iPhone Without 3G Is Like Popcorn Without Butter

August 7, 2012August 7, 2012iOS, Life, TechnologyLeave a Comment

willitblend — Without 3G you might as well blend it.

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.

Pacman, Spaghetti, Logos and Dexter Board Games

July 23, 2012July 29, 2012Board Games, EntertainmentLeave a Comment

Since the discovery of Snakes and Lattes, I fell in love with it and want to go all the time. They have so many board games that I can never get, well bored.

We saw another table playing the Pacman board game. The great thing about this place is that you can see so many interesting games going on at different tables. We politely asked for the game after they were done. The board looked exactly like a level of the video game. There were plastic “Pacman” pieces in different colours and 2 ghosts.

The way the game worked was there were 2 different coloured dice. One moved your Pacman across the board and you ate the marbles that were along the path. The other dice moved the ghosts in any direction you wanted. Ghosts were used to send your opponents back to start and steal their marbles. There were also coloured marbles that allowed your Pacman to eat the ghosts along the path. They effectively integrated the classic parts of the video game into a board game!

I was looking for some ridiculous looking games and one of them was Ready! Set! Spaghetti!. The goal of this game was to roll the dice and remove ingredients on the board so that your spaghetti could be perfectly curled up in your spoon. It was a silly but fun idea for a game.

We also dove into the Logos Board Game. The interesting thing about this is I watch a lot of TV but I actually sucked at this game whereas my boyfriend who doesn’t watch TV knew way more about random companies and their products. I guess he is way more affected by marketing than I am. This game isn’t actually too exciting otherwise though.

I didn’t even remember to take a picture of it

If you’ve ever played Clue, we found a Dexter board game which was like the opposite of clue. The objective was to get all the weapons, find the suspect, kill him and head to the marina. We kind of changed the rules a bit or it would have taken hours to play. Despite this, it was a decent effort to turn the idea of a TV show into a board game.

The majority of the games we played so far have been short length games, but we’ll definitely be back again and I’ll share all my board game adventures with you.

What strange games have you played? What are your favourites? I’d love to know!

Snakes and Lattes- A Board Game Cafe

5 Ridiculous Was to Reduce Tears When Cutting An Onion

July 4, 2012Food, Life3 Comments

Are you one of those people who cry when cutting an onion? I am when the purple ones are involved. I decided to google up ways to lessen the tears when chopping onions and this is some of what I found.

1. Cut onion over an open flame.

2. Chill your onion in a freezer.

3. Wear gas tight goggles or a mask

4. Stick your tongue out

5. Whistle

These all are seemingly ridiculous. I’d like to know if you’ve tried any of these and if they work!

How To Tell If You Should Throw Away Those Clothes

June 4, 2012June 4, 2012Fashion, Life1 Comment

If your closets and drawers are bursting like mine were, that would be a good enough reason to reach into them and see what things you can donate to the closest shelter. Believe me, it’s hard sometimes to chuck something. There are memories attached to them or even the tiniest feeling that you might use that tied-dyed shirt for something.

However, if you want to do some cleaning, here are some reasons you should throw out that piece of garment.

1. They are broken. Maybe it’s the hole in the armpit, or zipper that won’t zip. And you won’t find the lanyard of that sweater. It’s been eaten by the dryer.
2. There’s a giant stain on it. No matter how many times you put it through the wash, it isn’t coming out.
3. They belong to somebody else. Perhaps it’s an ex’s shirt, unless you’re actually going to turn it into a dress, I’d burn it or give it to someone in need.
4. They are too big for you. If they’re too big, you’ve probably lost a ton of weight and throwing your larger size clothes away is the last step of the process. There is no need to turn back. Or maybe you bought some clothes on boxing day last Christmas that were a bit too wide. I bet you don’t wear them.
5. They are too small for you. Face it, we all grow up. I have grown out of pants. My high-burger diets probably don’t help, but I’m pretty sure the dryer magically shrinks them by an inch every time just to mess with me. Make sure you have clothes that are right for your body type.
6. When was the last time you wore that? If it hasn’t been since Halloween, maybe it’s for a reason. If you’re going to keep things that are to be used as costumes/props, don’t keep them in your closet.
7. They are no longer in fashion. This rule doesn’t need to be followed as closely, as things do come back in fashion once in a while. However, if they aren’t following current trends, why not just hide them away in a while? They can be a treasure chest to come back to later when you’ve forgotten about them.

It’s nice to make room in the closet of our lives. I no longer how to stressfully shuffle through a puddle full of stuff to get to the things I want. Plus, it makes room (and an excuse) to do some more shopping again!

The Grimms’ Fairy Tales Taught Me Nothing

May 23, 2012Books, EntertainmentLeave a Comment

The past couple of months before bed, I’ve been reading The Brothers Grimms’ fairy tales. I had never read the real stories as a child, and I am glad I never did because I haven’t taken away anything useful from the 210 stories. The majority of which were vastly repetitive. Some were just down right stupid. Here are some recurring themes:

The princess always marries the first tolerable person she meets. The kings and princes always must marry a princess.
Inanimate objects such as beans can run away and have conversations.
The majority of the time there is no lesson to be learnt.
Ugly people always lose.
The youngest brother is always the best.
It’s okay to gruesomely kill animals.
You can steal from people who are evil.
Parents frequently abandon their children due to poverty or to teach them life lessons.
Cutting off parts of your toes might win you a prince.

No Coffee Challenge: Half-Way Point

February 14, 201230 Day Challenge, Drinks, Food, Life5 Comments

February is a short month, therefore I’m already half-way through my challenge of giving up coffee for a month. I can tell you that time didn’t pass by fast at all in the beginning. The first few days were highly dreadful. I would wake up with headaches and quite nauseous. This all happened because I did not drink my usual cup of morning coffee.

I began to find ways to help my body feel awake and refreshed. Some things worked and others didn't. Here is what helped me:

Splashing Face with Cold Water
This sounds almost stupid, but the cold water on your face really does refresh and wake me up.

Walking the Dog
There’s nothing more refreshing than fresh air. Walking the dog became a good way to activate all my joints and muscles as well absorb some sunlight. Sometimes I think my mood is directly related to my weather and seeing the sun really does brighten my mood. I also love it when Teddy meets a new friend along the way!

Tea/Hot Chocolate
It’s really hard to give up caffeine entirely so for those times when I needed a bit of a jolt tea helped. I find green tea makes me sleepy though. Black tea works best. Hot chocolate with a hint of cayenne pepper and cinnamon is also a great way to spice up the morning!

15 minute naps
Sometimes you just need to nap and taking a little 15 minute power nap can be what I need. It’s a great way to rest the eyes and get them away from the a billion screens that make up my life.

I hope I can continue to ignore coffee for the month. However, I have a business meeting on Friday at a coffee shop called the Roastery. Would it be too pretentious to order a tea?

Photoset: Heart Potato

February 13, 2012February 13, 2012Art, Food, PhotographyLeave a Comment

Maybe love is in the air because it’s almost Valentines day, but I found this potato that looked like a heart while I was making chips. I decided to tell a mood story with a potato. It goes from rather light and happy looking to pretty dark.