April 16, 2013
Rando
My friend Eric was here this weekend and showed me a new app he discovered: Rando. Upon first glance, I dismissed it as another social photo sharing app. Why would I use something other than Instagram? But after him saying, “Hold on, I need to Rando this” for the tenth time in five minutes, I decided to download it myself and see what was so cool about it.
One thing I love about it is its simplicity. There are only two screens. The first is your camera with an upload button beneath it, and the second is your photo stream which I’m assuming has infinite scrolls of all the photos you receive. There’s no menu screen or help screen or anything. Another interesting design is that all the photos are round.
What sets Rando apart though, is that it’s not really social. The premise is that you take a picture of anything and upload it. A few minutes later, you’ll receive a notification that your photo was sent to Russia or Brazil or Seattle and then you’ll receive a photo from someone from somewhere. That’s it. You can’t “like” anything, you can’t comment on anything. Once you exchange photos, that’s the end of it. The mystery and disconnect is what makes this app so great.
The first question anyone asks is, “Well haven’t you gotten hundreds of boobs or penises?” I’m not quite sure how it works and if there is someone filtering out all the body parts (which is how Eric thinks it works), but the most inappropriate photo I have received has been a roll of toilet paper. You can mark photos as inappropriate, but I just like to send more Randos out in hopes of receiving an interesting photo. I have gotten Randos of people, but all I know about the person is their approximate location. I don’t know their interests or relationship status or age.
But try it out for yourself! You may find yourself trying to take tons of interesting pictures and excitedly waiting for a photo from somewhere in the world. And unlike other apps, I can’t tell you to find me or follow me or like me – we can only hope that our Randos find one another.
April 11, 2013
Strandbeest
Theo Jansen, a Dutch artist, has created this magnificent creatures called “Strandbeests” which means beach beasts. What makes them more incredible is that they have no electronics and “survive” on just wind power. Some of them have jugs for detecting water and one has a barometer of sorts which can detect if a storm is coming, causing the beast to hammer itself into the sand.
He eventually wants his beasts to be completely self sustaining so he can release his them in herds on the beaches of the Netherlands where they will migrate back and forth with the tides.
February 26, 2013
Robot Love: Tea Infuser
I may love tea a little too much. I go through at least five cups a day. I grew up with green tea and jasmine tea as my staples (iced barley tea in the summer!) but recently I have been branching out. A few years ago I started drinking genmenchai (roasted brown rice green tea) which I instantly became addicted to, and so did my friend Tassi.
About a week ago, Ben and I went exploring and found David’s Tea. It was such a cute tea store with fantastic branding. Instead of going for the “zen” and “spiritual” atmosphere, it was fun and colorful like an ice cream shop. I was a little wary since I am not a huge fan of fruity teas, but I got the Banana Dream Pie and was sold. Their pitch is that the tea is like dessert without the calories and they were right! I still am drinking my green tea everyday since I still feel like dessert tea isn’t really tea, but I definitely want to try more flavors.
I of course, could not resist but buy a bag of their Red Velvet Cake. Because the tea was loose, I had to buy an infuser. This Kikkerland robot one was perfect. Not only is it adorable but it fits perfectly in my mug. Name suggestions welcome!
February 15, 2013
Happy Friday: Stay Young!
AMG, someone photoshopped Calvin & Hobbes covers, replacing the comic backgrounds with real photographs. These make me feel like I could wander into the woods and see Calvin screaming up at Hobbes who is in their treehouse.
Have a happy Friday!
February 14, 2013
Valentine’s Day
So I have decreed this an eating day when I was single. Now that I am in a couple, not much has changed. I still plan on eating something yummy. I stumbled across this funny and accurate article on couples, and I try very hard not to be that kind of couple (although I do think trying to cook a new recipe with my boyfriend “adventurous.” But hey, on the other hand, I went to Coachella last year!)
Here’s a round up of my favorite Valentine’s related posts from the blogosphere. Hope you all indulge in some good food! =)
February 6, 2013
the best day.
This past weekend my birthday, was once again, eclipsed by the Superbowl. (At least the Pats weren’t playing this time!) But despite that, I had a wonderful weekend.
I got a new birthday dress (from Modcloth of course) which really pumps you up. I think whenever you get new clothes, you want to take them out and show them a good time. This dress definitely had a good time. Everyone told me that the dress made them hungry.
Last year I had a huge joint party with my friend Eric whose birthday is the day before mine. We picked a place with a good DJ and danced the night away. However, it was such a big, loud party, that I didn’t get to spend quality time with my friends (not that dancing the night away isn’t quality time). Some friends I only saw for two seconds.
So this year I wanted the opposite of that. I know it was my first birthday in another city and a part of me still wanted a wild, crazy birthday, but I really just wanted all my friends in one place hanging out. So I had my my birthday here (also mentioned here).
All my friends made the trek to Queens (I even had a good friend trek from Boston!) and we all drank good beer, chatted, and even attempted a round of the best game ever.
I also received cards and even presents from friends that now live far away. It made me feel extremely grateful and loved to have such wonderful, thoughtful people in my life. I’m even more determined to be better about keeping in touch.
I wish I had more pictures to post but unfortunately most of my phone photos are blurry. The memory of the night will live in my mind! Thank you all who came out and celebrated. And thank you, Mosaic for being awesome!
BONUS CELEBRATION: My awesome friend Sara who is the hilarious student chef behind Fork Adventures, just got an internship at Saveur Magazine. Congrats!
January 31, 2013
Wrath of the White Witch
My friend just informed me of a PS3 game animated by Studio Ghibli and scored by Joe Hisaishi. I got so excited I almost bought a PS3 online.
From what I’ve been reading, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an RPG about a boy named Oliver who trains to be a magician so he can attempt to bring his mother back from the dead. What a sad but beautiful story.
The images I’ve been seeing are classic Ghibli. Kind of reminds me of Howl’s Moving Castle.
I’m not great with controls since I’m used to playing games on my computer, but I would seriously consider getting a PS3 just for this. Being obsessed with Studio Ghibli and a lover of RPG’s, there is no way this game would disappoint me.
Has anyone played this yet?
January 25, 2013
Illustrator Crush: Video Games and Books
Now that I’m commuting again, I’m reading so much more. Even though I had so much more spare time before, I filled up my time watching TV, going on walks, or playing computer games. AJ Hateley combines my love for books and video games. I love the Portal and Katamari ones.
January 21, 2013
A Full Weekend
I don’t have the holiday off, and I’ve been feeling worn out from my new sleeping schedule, so Ben and I decided to have a very low key weekend.
I’ve been rereading Anna’s blog (remember when I discovered her?) and it really inspired me to cook all weekend (get the blog post title now? FULL weekend? Badum-chhhh!), and in particular, Asian food.
Cooking in a small New York apartment is not an easy, pleasant task. In fact, one of my roommates has commented that I have cooked more than anyone who’s ever lived in the apartment – and I’m not sure that was a compliment!
(I don’t have a fancy camera so I apologize in advance for the poor phone picture quality.)
Friday
I have a tub of miso leftover from a recipe I made a while ago, so we decided to make some miso soup. Unfortunately I did not have dashi stock so it did not come out as yummy as it should have. I had some wild rice, so we made fried rice with that. It was weird – I don’t think I’ll be making fried rice with wild rice again. The color was unappealing and the texture was off. (It still tasted pretty good though). Then we attempted to make this tofu dish that my mom makes, which didn’t come out pretty but tasted pretty good. We paired dinner with Sapporo. Check out this small oven!
I was exhausted from the week so I was lame and fell asleep early.
Saturday
It was gorgeous weather on Saturday and my only regret is that I didn’t wake up before noon to fully enjoy the sun. For brunch, I recalled a recipe on Anna’s blog that used rice and eggs (Ben and I are obsessed with eggs). I used the leftover fried rice and spicy sweet & sour sauce in place of ketchup/worcestershire sauce. I added some leftover Kimchi from Milk Bar and a side of greens. It was delicious!
In the afternoon, we went on a walk and searched for Japanese mayonnaise, which is what my mom used when I was little. Ben and I wanted to make croquettes for dinner and wanted the mayo as dipping sauce. We picked up an Anderson Valley IPA to cook beer soaked brussels sprouts as well as our new favorite beer. To round out the meal we cooked ravioli we picked from Stinky.
I was too nervous to deep fry in my apartment, so we baked the croquettes in the oven. I mixed tuna, peas, and carrots into the mashed potatoes and used the mayo and BBQ sauce as dips. These came out absolutely delicious and were so easy to make! I want to make more as work snacks.
We watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with my roommate (the other one!) since I haven’t seen any of the MI films. I enjoyed it even though it’s hard for me to take Tom Cruise seriously in a movie now. After the movie and dinner, it was BL2 time with our friend before bed!
Sunday
Not wanting to miss out on the good weather again, Ben and I woke up early and made breakfast sammiches. I used a brioche bun which was incredible and he used a bagel. These filled us up for a good six hours or so.
Then we put on our sneakers and embarked on a journey across the Brooklyn bridge to Chinatown. We went to supermarkets and bakeries on a search for Ghibli feast ingredients. I mostly wanted to find the steamed red bean buns. We got fish from the smelly fish mart and had leftover brussels sprouts and croquettes. But the highlight of the meal was definitely the buns! We ate them at the same time Chihiro did in the movie. These were a lot prettier before our trek back over the bridge.
I’m glad we walked 6+ miles yesterday because we sure did eat a lot! Don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a “look at what I cooked” blog because I’m really not a great chef, but a lot of my attempts this weekend (mmm croquettes) were successful. (It also helps to have a perfectionist cooking partner.) Head to Anna’s blog for a great food blog. She also was kind enough to tweet me some of her favorite sushi spots in NYC! Homemade sushi is next on my list when I feel this adventurous again.
January 17, 2013
NYC thusfar
So a NYC post has been way overdue, and I figure now is a good time to get one up. I still have so much more to discover and explore but here are the highlights to what I have been up to so far!
1) I first heard of Heart Parts on Bri’s blog and ordered them the minute they became available. I have used them on a picnic at The Cloisters and for packed lunches. (The picture below was taken by my boyfriend when he used a Heart Part for dinner!) The Cloisters was a long trip from the city but it was very beautiful (probably even more beautiful in the spring!). I’m not that into medieval art but I enjoyed the outside garden, the architecture, and seeing the first deck of playing cards.
2) I’ve been drinking lots of beer! I live near Bierkraft and have been trying a lot of new things. Maybe it’s because of the cold weather, but I’ve been drinking a lot of stouts lately. I tried Butternut’s Moo Thunder at Mosaic and really liked it. Goes well with a delicious veggie panini!
3) I checked out the Ann Hamilton exhibit at The Armory. It was very cool. The program was a newspaper and the room was full of swings that controlled this giant white drape in the middle of the room. Ben and I had fun trying to outswing each other and then sitting under the moving drape. I took this picture with the panoramic option on my iPhone camera.
4) There are lots of things that I hated but forced myself to like such as olives, eggplants, and white wine. It sounds silly to force yourself to like something you don’t, but I wanted to like these things. I was always upset that I couldn’t eat the olives from a martini or drink a lighter wine in the summertime. Now I prefer white wine over red. Bloody Marys was another thing that I always wanted to like but didn’t. Thanks to KTCHN’s Bloody Mary bar, I am now even more obsessed with brunch just so I can drink one. My favorite combination: Russian Standard, Bull Mix, a dash of tabasco, a spoonful of sea salt, a lemon, two olives, and a pepper! (KTCHN bonus: If you go on Sunday, you can catch this.)
5) Went to the roof of The Met and saw the Cloud City exhibit. When we went, there was a huge concert in Central Park and we got to hear The Black Keys.
6) Broadway! I haven’t seen many stage performances, so when I do, it’s very exciting. So far, I’ve seen Cyrano De Bergerac and Once and they were amazing. Both very emotional. Live performances always get to me more.
7) The search for the best ramen in NYC! I LOVE ramen and was disappointed with the choices in Boston. However, I have a long list of places to try in NYC and will probably make a separate post for that down the road.
I think those are the highlights so far! If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment! NYC has so much to do, sometimes all I want to do is stay in and watch a movie or play games.
