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Hi lovelies,

Trying to consolidate all my writing into one place so please catch me at www.themediamaid.com!

Loves and huggles!

My Adventure Traveling to the LA Travel+Adventure Show (aka Homemade Handstamped Business Cards Tutorial)

I had been driving past this billboard everyday on my way to work.

The words, "travel" and "adventure" called out to me. I like traveling and I like adventure.

Finally I read what the billboard was and turns out it was for a TRAVEL + ADVENTURE show that was coming to LA. In a week!

On a whim, I decided to buy tickets to the show to see what it's about and to hopefully network my way into some press trips. I'd heard stories of a 12-year-old Steven Spielberg sneaking past the Universal lot in a suit and empty briefcase to watch movie shoots and of a 14-year-old Mila Kunis boldly exaggerating her age to land the part in "That 70s Show" and I wanted to do something bold and daring to chase my dreams! My travel blogger friend Brandon had wisely advised that this would be a good way to meet people so I decided I was going to go to the convention show by myself and introduce myself to all the booths, seeing if there were any that may want to invite me out on press trips and in return, I will write and vblog about it. Watch out, Samantha Brown, I'm coming for your job! (Actually, I would never want to take her job, I think she does a very fine...job... of it.)

First up, I needed some business cards. Being on a budget and time crunch, I looked up some nifty how-to guides on making homemade business cards out of handstamps.

All you need is a $40 kit from Staples. (This was generously borrowed from my dear chum, Helen)

I was planning on buying some pretty business card papers from which to stamp my info on but my mom had some leftover cards from back when she made her own business cards and...who can say no to free paper?
After spending over an hour sticking the letters I needed onto the stamp (I have fat fingers), I ended up with a fine, simple collection of cards to hand out!
I then slid the cards into a professional-looking business card holder and was ready to rock and roll!
The cards were passed onto quite a few booths and I'm hoping some of the trips will take place.
Nonetheless, gonna pat myself on the back anyway for trying something out of the ordinary in order to attempt to get closer to my dreams. Hope you will all be inspired to do the same as well!

--

After attending the event, for which Samantha Brown was a guest speaker, I became even more of a fan of the blonde travel host. I can see why she is so good at her job. She's lovable and charming, oozes humility and can describe the heck out of a room. Inspired! (with a hint of a girl-crush)

This was also posted on The Media Maid

Short Arboretum Trip

Though I live in California, there's still a lot of hidden gems I've yet to explore.

Like this Fullerton Arboretum visit my family and I paid one winter afternoon!

Due to that dratted thing called "closing time," our visit was a mere 15 minutes long. It was still fun though! Take a look.

Chow

After all that walking and more walking around Vancouver, we needed something to fill our bellies.

Luckily, Vancouver is chalk full of great places to dine at.

Unluckily, my aunt really wanted to cook for her daughter that she hadn't seen in half a year and half our meals were eaten at home.

Luckily, they say that having 5 meals a day is healthier for you (what?).

Japadog

I didn't know what all the fuss was but there were plenty of these Japadog stands around Dowtown Vancouver.

I think the novelty lies in the Asian-Western fusion as well as the generous dollops of Japanese mayonaise served on top of these babies.

Average dog: $5 each

Rodney's Oysters

I freakin' love raw oysters. I could slurp these babies up everyday. I was adamant about trying Vancouver's well-known amazing seafood and oysters were at the top of that list.

So after a full dinner at home, my cousin and I treaded out to try some of Rodney's Oysters. I love the ambiance of the restaurant-- something that looks like a house in the Hampton. (And I know what those look like because I've been watching Revenge obsessively.)

Average oysters: $1.95 a piece.

Average wine: $9 a glass.

Public MarketIf only all supermarkets looked like this one, I would go grocery shopping more often. (Ah..who am I kidding, I still wouldn't.)

But I did enjoy looking at all the fresh produce!

Gahhh... blueberries!

Mini-looking grapes!

This is called "Indian Candy" and it's basically smoked salmon jerky.

Poutine
Saving the best for last, I finally got to taste the amazingness that is poutine--which is everything I most love rolled into one. A dish of french fries and fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce.

I loved it so much I recorded my first time trying it.

Praise the Lord for giving us the senses to enjoy food and to try different types of food and the joy of eating with good company.

MMMM!!!

Geekaleeks

Who knew that science centers would be such a hotspot travel destination?

It sure seems like it by the way my last few trips had been going. I geeked out with Kel B while visiting San Jose late last year and stopped by another science center on the Vancouver trip.

Lucky for me, both times, I had a blast.

No, like literally, it was a blast of electric current

One of the coolest things we did at the science center (I know what you're thinking, "but EVERYTHING you do at the science center is cool, Janice!) was this machine that lets us see how we may look in 50 years.

I look like an older version of my mom. Hot stuff!

This was my favorite picture from the trip. It would make a lot more sense if you could see what we were "running away" from. It's dinosaurs! And not that teeny weeny bird to the right of the picture.

Talking about science and technology got me thinking about Steve Jobs, a man who's made tremendous advancements in both fields in the mere 56 years he'd been alive.

It's been pretty public that Steve passed away yesterday and his death made many people remember, over their Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and Tumblrs of all the great technology that he's given us that have changed our worlds.

As I sit here typing on my Apple laptop, it's hard for me to dispute that fact that Steve has altered my life. However, I think that even if Apple products weren't around, I would probably still be using a laptop and toting around a cell phone. (In fact, this is only the first iPhone I've owned.)

Rather, the bigger impact that he has had on my life is the Essence of Steve Jobs.

It is the main image, the big idea that Steve Jobs represents.

It's an impersonal word, but I think of it in terms of the Steve Jobs Brand. Not necessarily the Apple Brand but the two go hand in hand together. The Steve Jobs Brand is that of the Innovator. The man who dropped out of college to become a Great Success Story. The man who rocked one hell of a Comeback. The man who cared deeply for Customer Satisfaction. The man who envisioned the sleek, clean, minimalistic, futuristic aesthetics that is Apple. The man who famously makes commencement speeches and gives interviews encouraging others to chase after their dreams, to be less fearful, to be your personal best, to live like you were dying. That's the Steve Jobs I will miss and the Steve Jobs I will remember.

Some amazing quotes from an amazing man:

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993]

“I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television — but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.” [Rolling Stone, Dec. 3, 2003]

We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. [Wired, February 1996]

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

{Quotes thanks to WSJ}

Ding Ding Ding

The biggest reason I made the trek up North was this girl:

This is my cousin, Ding.

Ding is one solid lady. (I know that's a really weird description of someone but if you knew my family, you'd know that we can be kind of floaty sometimes) She's mellow and chill, like a cool glass of Cabernet Sauvignon (if you think I know my wine, hah! I just wrote down the first one off the top of my head.)

But she can also be the dorkiest, silliest gal to pal around with.
She played hostess with the mostest during my Vancouver vacay. Just wanted to shout out to her for all the awesomeness that she is.

Thanks for housing, feeding, and nourishing me in all the physical, literal, spiritual, and emotional ways!

Walk the Walk

When you live somewhere, it's hard for you to really play tourist in your living locale.

Usually, traveling just entails going from one place to the other-- you're not really stopping to stare at the people, observe the local sights, wander aimlessly from place to place.

Because my aunt and I were in town visiting my cousin, Liz, the three of us took a brisk stroll through the little square footage of ALL OF DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER one day. No big deal. (Tell that to my legs.)
That awesome building behind my cousin and auntie is a LIBRARY. Compare with the lovely library in my hometown:

Hmm...

It was nice to spend the day with my aunt and cousin. Liz even got to explore places she doesn't normally visits.

I learned that when I finally toured LA that us locals can really miss out on some real gems.

Gems like this beautiful Vancouver wall with a giant Heineken ad! Truly a treasure.

We really liked that wall. :) It made for great picture-taking.

After miles and miles of walking through downtown Vancouver, we finally hit our destination: the Science World (apparently, I enjoy science centers when I travel)
Post on our fabulous time getting our geek on coming soon!