The Future is Here

Sit, discuss, engage. Future Camp is finally here, and as I sit listening to my classmates, one common theme is emerging...social media is much more powerful than any of us ever expected.

In January we all wanted to know what we could get out of social media, "why care?" we asked. Four months later and we've changed our tune...now we wonder how we can add value to the world of social media. Adding value, hopefully we've all done it at least once by now. I think I've learned how to "tweet responsibly" by connecting with fellow tweeters and providing an interesting article or link.

Also, adding value is much easier when you're being authentic. At first I was blogging about what I thought I should be blogging about. When I embraced blogging about what I actually wanted to blog about...I was hooked.

Because we’re at Future Camp I suppose I should share some of my future social media plans:

I’m going to really make an effort to connect with people. I know how to do it, but I haven’t gotten up the courage to actually put myself out there. After all I need to remember to always talk to strangers.

Add value. Be authentic. Talk to strangers. Woo.

Check out these related posts

#HumberPR Looking Forward
HumberPR's Future Camp

This soup is on fire

I've been crazy busy this past week. But as always, I'm never too busy to eat. So I've posted some pics taken at Miga, a Korean restaurant that my mom and I had dinner at tonight. I will definitely elaborate A.S.A.I.H.A.L.A.(As soon as I have a life again)!


Accompaniments served with traditional Korean meals (Includes: kim-chi, seaweed salad, corn "salad", potatoes in sweet sauce, cucumber salad, and bean sprout salad)

This is what my mom had...seafood with udon-type noodles

My fiery tofu and kim-chi soup


Red bean ice cream... so good.

Sharing is caring

A classmate of mine raved about Nazareth on Bloor. I trust his opinion on such matters, so off I went. The restaurant is tiny. Three of us got there at 5:30 and got a table after only 4 minutes, but a group of 5 was waiting for quite a while. I don't know about others' experiences at Nazareth, but I suggest that you dine there only if you have a good chunk of time to spare. The service wasn't the fastest, but we weren't in any hurry. We ordered the beef tips and the assorted vegetables. So two orders for three people was more than enough. Each person at the table gets their own injera (Ethipian crepe-like bread) with which to eat.
Beef tips on the left, veg on the right, salad in the middle.

It was so good. The meat is cut up small enough that you don't have any trouble picking it up with your piece of bread. The beef was tender and well seasoned. The veg was good too, but the beef was definitely our favourite.

The three of us ate from that big platter and I really liked that idea. We were all eating the same thing and experiencing the same flavours. Of course we all had our opinions about everything on the plate, and it was fun to get other people's take on what you're eating. I've just had an idea...there should be a scale rating how social certain foods are...popcorn 8, popsicle -1.



The meal plus three non-alcoholic drinks came to $21.78. I will definately be returning to Nazareth.

Guest Blogger: Carmen Plus

I don't think I've ever been this busy in my life since school started in January. It has definitely taken a toll on my body as I'm always tired. The worst thing is that getting more than 10 hours of sleep over the weekends doesn't ease the fatigue anymore. So the last thing that I should be doing is eating and drinking crap. But that is exactly what I'm doing.

Because time is of the essence, I don't make the effort to go grocery shopping and make my own meals. I end up buying the most affordable things I find at the school's cafeteria. They usually consist of chocolate croissants, breakfast sandwiches, pasta and basically any other items that would surpass my calorie requirements for the entire day.

I've also been drinking a bottle of Diet Coke every day for the past two weeks. It's my breakfast because I usually have it before 10 a.m. It's basically my fuel. I get so much energy to the point where I become a different person once I have that caffeine. Giddy would be the word to describe me. That is until the sugar crash takes over. I would also be fidgety and antsy. My hands would shake like a mad man and my heart would beat so fast that I question whether it would implode.

I've lost weight. I'm convinced it's because I'm not getting enough proper nutrients, so I'm going to say it here and now that I will try to be healthy from now on. Kara can use these words against me if she ever sees me go near a chocolate croissant or a Diet Coke. Deal?

Thirsty for more? Check out my blog!

Cupcakes and clean transit

The Clean Train Student Coalition (CTSC) is an organization dedicated to making Toronto's transit clean. Make no mistake about it, we are not against public transit, we love clean public transit!

Blue 22 is the nickname that has been given to the air-rail line that will run from Union Station to the Pearson International Airport. The CTSC acknowledges the need for this service, but disagrees with the decision to expand on diesel technology.

My friend Katie and I spent Monday night baking up a storm for our CTSC bake sale. We used baked goods to encourage traffic to our petition signing table. Nothing gets people's attention like affordable baked treats. We merely borrowed a tried and true strategy.



The CTSC bake sale team: Mike, Catherine and Casey

We got a lot of signatures that day which is great because our main goal was spreading awareness about the cause.

Sign the online petition here

CTSC on Facebook
CTSC on Twitter
CTSC on YouTube

Beef-to-bun ratio

Food weakness #3...IN-N-OUT burgers



I don't know what it is that makes in-n-out so damn good. The combination of fresh beef, buns and processed cheese perhaps?

When you walk into an in-n-out you'll see very few items on their menu. The "secret menu" that you just have to know about includes treats like: animal fries, 4X4 burgers, an the dump truck. Your burger isn't made until you order it, so your burger is always fresh. But perfection takes time, so bring patience along with your appetite.

If you're ever going to be on the West Coast, you must find a location and drive directly there from the airport. Nothing cures a little jet lag better than a double-double. Oh and never get a single patty...the meat to bun ration is just wrong if it's not at least a double-double. I'm no burger fanatic, but I love me some in-n-out.

Egg hunt at 24...

HAPPY EASTER!

In my family Easter is always spent at my aunt's house. This year, she thought that it would be fun to have the older kids (19-24) do the egg hunt as well.

Like any worthwhile occasion celebrated by my family (Christmas, Thanksgiving, a Saturday) Easter involves a lot of good food. Easter isn't as formal as the big two....Christmas and Thanksgiving, but we still have turkey. Food really does bring people together... if it weren't for the food at our family gatherings, we'd all be in different parts of the house doing different things.

This video was shot at the "kids table" during Easter dinner. My cousin tried and succeeded in distracting me with his obscene chewing (the vid is cut off on the right for some reason). Good times.

On my plate: homemade bun, lasagna, caesar salad, mashed potato well with gravy inside, cauliflower, squash, spanakopita

Moist Easter turkey

Smoked salmon is always a favourite

Spanakopita is another family fave...I could eat that whole pan

I'm normally not a huge fan of cauliflower, but I'd eat just about anything smothered in cheese sauce and brown sugar

Really good lasagna

I know what you're thinking...wow that's quite a random hodge podge of dishes. And you'd be right, but hey...we give the people what they want.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you had as much fun with family as I did. I think 30 is a good cut off age for egg hunting. Yea egg hunting at 30 would just be ridiculous... 24 is fine.

Taffy, poutine and....oh yea, skiing

Last weekend I left the city behind for some real skiing. We stayed at the Ermitage du Lac in the Mt. Tremblant village. I didn't have too many a foodie adventure, because as everything else in that touristy village, food was ridiculously overpriced. Our first night there no one was in the mood to cook up a storm in the condo, so we ventured out for a quick bite to eat. A small slice of pizza and a pint came to $14.00. Madness. Luckily we did our grocery shopping in town before heading up to the village. On Saturday after a full day of skiing Sean prepared chicken teriyaki for everyone.


It was really good, especially after a long day out on the slopes!

At sometime during that weekend, poutine was brought back to the condo...bad poutine. 1.5 out of the 3 essential elements were present...cheese curds and o.k gravy, but the fries were your standard frozen variety. Ew. Plus the poutine was from a chain restaurant (Casey's).


I know good poutine, and this just wasn't it.

Pretty much right where you get off the lower gondola there is a store selling all things maple and maple taffy. Of course I had to have a go. The nice man who poured the syrup onto the snow told me to wait for forty five seconds.







I think I only waited 20 before I got too excited. This would explain why my taffy, instead of being a taffy-like consistency was way too gooey. Whatever, it still tasted good.

I had a great mini-vacation! Not too much to report on the foodie-front, but still I had a great time! Next year's mission in Tremblant....find some decent poutine.