Tag: life

THREE DOGS IN MY LIFE!!!

11 Comments

Today, I got ridiculously happy when my boyfriend told me that he’d have two dogs sleeping over. He also has a dog, so there would be THREE dogs in my life today.

I knew I had to go get dog treats for them somewhere. I happened to recall a dog bakery along Main, so I headed there right after work. This place was Three Dog Bakery — WHICH NOW I REALIZE IS SO PERFECT. Because there’s three dogs at our place today. Only now do I realize this. Sigh.

IMG_1076I ended up getting a bunch of goodies. I got three rawhide braids for them (beef flavoured), three donuts, and an extra cookie for my boyfriend’s dog because I heard he was getting a little jealous from all the attention that now went to the two other dogs. I couldn’t have little Rascal feeling left out. The guy who worked there was really nice and also gave us a little baggie of their oven baked treats as a sample 🙂

IMG_1078

I cannot believe I wasn’t buying this for myself. There’s no chocolate here, just carob. They look so good!

IMG_1084

LOOK AT THEM ENJOYING THEIR TREAT (I didn’t get a picture of them eating the donuts because I was too excited watching them). I have no idea if the treats were any good, but they pretty much gobbled it up. Like the guy at the store’s response of “basically all of them” when I asked which of the treats were fan favourites, I think dogs will eat anything.

Anyway, a little later on, we took them for a walk so they could do their business. Ollie (the brown & black dog) was quite a handful, but she was my responsibility because Tommy (the jet black one) would be too strong if he bolted after something, so my boyfriend took his leash. My boyfriend’s mom took Rascal…and I didn’t want to compete with her because Rascal would get hurt if she walked somedog else.

SIT

SIT!

IMG_1093

I need more dogs in my life.

– Karen

Maker Faire Vancouver 2015 at the PNE Forum

2 Comments

Hello all,

Last Sunday I was at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire! It was the first time I had been to a Maker Faire, despite it having been ran in Vancouver for quite a while now (the last five years!). For the fourth time, it was held at the PNE Forum.

IMG_0943 copy

I was actually there on behalf of Pinshape, the startup that I’m currently working at. It was a great experience and I got to check out budding tech and inventions! I also talked to lots of people who were interested in 3D printing— which is what Pinshape is associated with. Although we don’t sell 3D printers, nor do we print out models for people, we’re a community marketplace for 3D designers and makers! There were lots of 3D printer companies there, and 3D604 was also there with great makers showing off their printed stuff, but we were the only 3D marketplace there 🙂

IMG_0971

I met lots of interesting people, mostly through those who approached the booth to talk to us. I was surprised to learn that quite a number of people own 3D printers, and that they varied vastly in age. Some other startups talked to us, I walked over to the 3D604 peeps to meet some of our community’s designers (John Biehler, Dan Steele, amongst others)— it was basically a day with lots of talking.

Around the faire, crazy stuff was happening. It wan’t the biggest of faires, but there was plenty to look at. Classes were going on (learn to solder, build your own motorized race car, etc.), you could buy neat stuff from stalls, and look at new inventions.

A brother and sister duo came up to our booth, and I had great conversations with them. They were unbelievably talented. Don’t trust me? Google them up: Jessi and Joshua Langager.

IMG_0980

I ended up visiting them at their booth too, where their recent creation was displayed. They had made a lego NXT robot, and demonstrated how it was programmed so that it did all sorts of fun things! They were probably my favourite people at the faire.

IMG_0981

At the Vancouver Maker Faire, there was also an outdoor area where more makers displayed their arts, and you could also grab some food at the food trucks! I ate a whole pizza because I was exhausted.

Hoping I get to go again next year! Have you ever been? If not, pen it down in your calendars for next year! Especially if you have kids. There’s so much learning going on, and I know for some (like my boyfriend), it was the Maker Faire that inspired them further on down the road 🙂

– Karen

Short Getaway: Victoria for Victoria Day! Pt. 2

Leave a comment

Hey all,

So…continuing from my last post.

Early the next morning (okay, not that early. We finally managed to leave the hotel at around 11AM), we set off in search of breakfast. We were done with walking, so we experienced Victoria’s public transit.

Remember how we had a list of restaurants we wanted to visit in Victoria? For our Sunday breakfast, we had chosen Blue Fox Cafe. According to everyone, it was the place to visit in Victoria, and we were pumped! Sadly, when we got there, the line-up was an hour long. We just couldn’t afford to wait that long (it was about noon when we got there) since we had other plans for the day. So we quickly googled up another place to eat. Floyd’s Diner came up in our searches and we walked two blocks north towards it.

We were starving by then, which made Floyd’s perfect. Their portions were HUGE. They were also on the Food Network show You Gotta Eat Here, where one item on thier menu got featured: The Mahoney. If you didn’t already know (I certainly didn’t until I read the menu), the Mahoney’s is a bit of a gamble. For $15, you get a mystery plate of food prepared by the chef. It’s different every time. If you and your friend both got Mahoneys, you’d get two completely different dishes. The fun part is this: you can choose to pay the $15, or flip a coin. If you win the coin toss, you get your Mahoney for free. If you lose, you pay double the amount, making it a $30 brunch. We didn’t get the Mahoney because we both craved other things on the menu, but it’s a cool concept!

When our bellies were full, we walked to the Royal BC Museum. The last time I was here, I must’ve been 9 years old. I didn’t remember any of it except for the woolly mammoth. I brushed up on my history and I think my favorite part was walking through these fake streets depicting what settlements would’ve looked like. The special exhibit they ran while we were there was on the gold rush. It was pretty cool to learn about the rise and fall of B.C’s Barkerville. I really want to give that town a visit now!

We stayed at the museum until closing time, and realized we had quite a few hours until dinner. We wandered around downtown Victoria, quenching our thirst with dollar drinks from McDonalds and slurpees. We spent a good hour or two at Chapters, devouring new books. And then came the moment we were waiting for: Il Terrazzo.

Il Terrazzo is supposedly the best Italian restaurant in Victoria, and although I can’t attest to that because I’m not an expert, the food is pretty good. My bf’s duck was so great he’d compliment every bite. The service was excellent, and the restaurant itself was very nice. If you’re looking to splurge a little, or want to take a date out somewhere fancy, go here. Also, their free bread was warm and delicious, and boy they were generous.

We were so full we ended up walking back to the hotel again. That’s when we started to watch Fresh Off The Boat. Best. Show. Ever. We knew we had to wake up early the next morning for the parade, but we ended up doing a small marathon of it. I was literally crying at some of the episodes. Happy, laughing crying.

The next morning was exhaustion. We woke up early because we didn’t want to miss the Victoria Day Parade nor the free pancake breakfast our hotel was hosting. We were right on the street where the parade passed by, so we could sit outside under tents and watch the three hour long parade. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t think we’d stay for the whole thing but we stuck through almost 2 and a half hours of it. There’s just something about parades where you want to see what is going to come next in the long line of floats, dancers and performers!

We spent a while at Mayfair Shopping Centre, but it wasn’t super interesting. We eventually started to crave Asian food, so we Googled up a nearby Korean restaurant..which turned out to not exist. Then we searched up a Japanese place…but when we got there, we found that they take a break from 2PM till 5PM. We got there at 2:10PM. So eventually we went to Swiss Chalet. So Asian. So satisfied. Not. But nonetheless, our waiter was super nice, and the ribs and chicken wings weren’t bad. Just not quite what we wanted when we were craving Asian food.

IMG_0806

And that was it. Our little weekend getaway that was relatively inexpensive as far as going away goes!

Hopefully, there’s more summer adventures to come 🙂 Short getaways are pretty refreshing!

– Karen

Free Comic Book Day 2015!

9 Comments

Hey all,

Went to my first Free Comic Book Day!

I first heard about this about three years back, but I have always been too intimidated to actually go to comic book stores during the event. I had no idea how it would go. Was it awkward if I just took books and left? Do I just grab free books? How do I know which ones are free? Why are they free? *suspicious glare*

Well, now you can learn from my experience. It was positive, and one word of advice, go early. The earlier the better.

Why are stores giving away free comic books? The aim is to get comics back into the hands of the people. You get an issue to get you started, and hopefully you discover your love for comic books. For me, it mainly gave me new reading material to discover, allowing me to stray from the usual comics I would read. It’s also a great way to get people to visit their local comic book stores. Free Comic Book Day happens every year on the first Saturday of May. Make sure to check the official website to see which North American comic book stores are participating! Don’t show up at a random comic store expecting free comics.

For the actual free comics, let’s look at Golden Age as an example.

The line up was out the door, and when you got in, you loop around the store. It’s nice in that you get to look at their merchandise and books as you lined up (great idea to get people to buy their stuff! I don’t blame them at all!). The whole line took about 40 minutes to get through. At the back, you get to an island of free comic books. Most of these have “Free Comic Book Day” printed on them by the publishing company, so you know they’re safe to take. If not, and the store has extra overstocked comics they don’t think they can sell, and they’re nice enough to give them away as well, it’ll be marked.

At Golden Age, they limit you to 4 comic books per person, and you should be taking different titles so there’s enough to go around. There was a huge selection. You grab your four, and then make your way to the front to get a bag for them.

Again, go early. My friend and I had a whole route mapped out for comics, but we eventually found that stores run out pretty fast.

My haul!

My haul!

If you didn’t go this year, I suggest you go in 2016! You do have to put up with the lineup, but hey! It’s free stuff!

-Karen

Contingent Contemplation: Summer? No thank you.

4 Comments

Hey all,

One thing I’ve realized since growing up is my view on summer. Let me start with what summer used to be:

Summer was one thing I always looked forward to. Once I returned to school in September, I started a mental countdown towards summer in my head. What would I be doing once it gets here? Basically what I’ve always done since the first summer vacation I can remember: do nothing.

There’s something amazing about being gluttonous, filling up on food, and mindlessly spending all your time watching TV or gaming the days away. It just felt right to not do anything.

Here’s my problem: I’m no longer happy with doing nothing.

opening in trees

My dilemma since January when I returned to school after working for two school terms was wondering what I would do this summer. I applied for a few jobs I was interested in, but I didn’t land a position. Then there was the idea of starting my own project, or developing an idea for the summer. But that seems so un-concrete and not satisfying because I did not know where that will lead. I guess it’d also help if I had an amazing idea I could pursue, but right now, I don’t.

Then I thought about traveling. Broadening my horizons, and getting inspired through learning new cultures. Quickly another roadblock came before me: I didn’t have money for travelling.

I liked last summer when I knew I was working on multiple projects at TrojanOne. I liked the summer before, when I spent it interning in Hong Kong, allowing me to travel and work. What in the world am I going to do with the four month break ahead of me?

It’s weird how something that I used to see as paradise now looks haunting and ominous to me. I want more experience, and I want to do something productive with my time. I want to throw my heart and soul into something for the next four months. I WANT TO DO SOMETHING!

I guess we’ll see where I end up?

– Karen