My confidence boost for the day, straight from the man himself: 

This upcoming weekend, I will have the opportunity to attend the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) summit as a NextGen Scholarship winner. This is my first TEA summit and I am really excited to be meeting professionals in my industry. The entertainment industry has always been my biggest motivator to succeed so it is a dream come true to be able to pick the brains of some of the veterans in the industry. 

As a scholarship winner, the website Entertainment Designer, interviewed me with some questions about my goals for the TEA Summit and Thea awards. The write up can be found here: 

http://entertainmentdesigner.com/news/calling-all-young-theme-park-enthusiasts-check-out-the-2013-tea-summit-and-thea-awards/

Look out next week for a summary of the TEA Summit!

Lately, there has been a lot of pie talk in my life. At work with the credit-card sized computer Raspberry Pi, tasting Key Lime Pie for the first time now that im living in Florida, The Life of Pi winning at the Oscars, and of course the recent official Pi Day occurring on March 14 (3.14)


With all this pie talk, I decided to bake a pie! This past thursday, I went on a run and half way through I came to the decision to continue my run all the way to the grocery store. Sweating and out of breath from my 3 mile run, I proceeded to shop for pie ingredients.


The type of pie: raspberry!  First off because it is absolutely delicious, as a person not fond of very sweet pastries, raspberry pie is a good balance of tart and sweet. Secondly because of all the computer raspberry pi talk at work. It just seemed like a perfect fit. With all my ingredients bought i continued my walk back home to bake my pie. 

The recipe comes from my Newfoundland trip back in 2010, where I first learned how to bake pies from my friend's aunt in the 200 person town of River of Ponds. The whole pie is baked from scratch from the filling to the crust. 

Here are some notes and what I found out from my recent pie adventures: 
1) Frozen raspberries produce a more watery consistency for the raspberry filling then fresh berries when boiled. Usually I use fresh berries but frozen was all that was available. 
2) With no rolling pin around to make my crust, a large beer glass also does the job. 

Recipe for 1 Pie:
Not really exact since I play with the consistency of the batter as I make it. Like most things I let my intuition and gut feeling be my guide.  But for the most part these portions work. 

Crust: 
4 Cups flour
1/2 cup butter/margarine
1/2 cup shortening 
1/2 cup sugar 
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
1/2 cup milk 

Filling: 
Bag of frozen or fresh raspberries
sugar 

Boil the raspberries and add sugar to taste. Let the raspberries filling cool off. Best if left in the fridge for a day.

Preheat oven to 350. For crust: Mix all dry ingredients then mix in all the wet ingredients until the batter becomes soft enough to roll out. Make sure its not too watery or too "greasy" from the shortening. Add more ingredients accordingly to fix the problem of it being too dry or too wet. Make the bottom pie crust and place onto the pie pan, add the filling, roll out the top crust and place on top of the filling. Make sure to poke air holes in the top crust to let the air get through while baking. Put in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, until crust is nice, brown and crispy. Take out of oven and eat!!!

My pies, with Mickey ears and all! Delicious!

Its been a busy semester and we had a lot of fun working together to create this visualization of future technologies. Hope you all enjoy it! 

Check out our latest promo videos for project Xenon. 

A behind the scenes look at what we've been up to these past couple months. It was a lot of fun to go on set and film. We are now in the full post production phase hard at work. Check back to see the final piece! 

After a recent trip to the Redwood City Library, I learned something about myself. Without even thinking about it, I grabbed numerous books off the overstocked shelves, sat in a hard library chair consumed by the ideas and knowledge that these books contained. Hours past while I sat there learning about Switzerland, new knitting techniques, small engines and re-visiting the magical world of Harry Potter. It dawned on me that I just love and enjoy learning. I am curious and like asking questions to how things work, why we do certain things, and exploring unknown worlds, a trait that often had my mom going crazy when I was a child since I had the tendency to touch everything! Safe or not, keeping my mom on constant watch. Luckily all this learning taught me a thing or two about safety and common sense.

I have lived in many places these past years London (Ontario), Ajax, Vaughan, Pittsburgh and now Redwood City, California, and one of the things I do in each city is visit the local library. Libraries bring me back to the countless hours spent as a child with my dad, reading sessions, and even book clubs to see who could read the most books in a summer. Looking back through old report cards, as the top reader in my class are proof that I just love learning and exploring.

Libraries were my escape; we never had money for gaming consoles or cable so books were my way to spend the long summers. In one of the houses we lived in, the library was right across the street and I would often sneak away to get books. These books taught me how to knit, the wonders of cats cradle, the adventures of King Arthur and my first introduction of quantum physics.

While the Internet is great for information and even feeds by need for learning, there is still something about going to a library and reading from a book. Through these books I can go anywhere and be anyone. It is a break from the crazy hectic world, a little bit of quiet among the world’s great teachers, past and present.

One of the things that has surprised me in my education as of late is my sudden interest in business, entrepreneurship and investment finances. This sudden interest has taken me aback due to the fact that growing up, business was just a word adults used when they were off to the bank, dealing with money, and doing other adult responsibilities, which at the time seemed uninteresting to me.  Learn finances or play? The latter was a much more intriguing option at that age. However I was pleasantly surprised a few years back when I turned on CBC’s Dragon's Den: a Canadian show in which aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to venture capitalists in hope of partnering up and making their ideas into reality. The excitement of making smart quick decisions and the risk involved soon had me excited in this world that I knew little about. I loved seeing the creativity people had in modeling their business products and services and how they were presented in unique not normally thought of ways. The intensity that the Dragons had in dealing with these new entrepreneurs was something I had never seen before. They knew what it took to be a success and their no bullshit attitude was something to revere.

That is why when the opportunity arose to take an entrepreneurship class I quickly jumped to the chance. Carl Rosendahl’s class at the ETC-Silicon Valley campus is a way to sink my feet into the crazy world that is the start-up business. His knowledge of the business world in the entertainment industry as the founder of Pacific Data Images is unmatchable and I know I will learn a lot. His class allows us to pitch an idea for a start up business and with his guidance we maneuver the various phases of the business model canvas. From how to pitch a product, to work culture and financial statements to partner relationships, this is just the start and I feel like a sponge ready to learn all that he has to teach!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love a good quote and any life experience I can relate to a quote from someone who has lived before me. Two of my favourite people to quote are Mark Twain and Hunter S Thompson; Two men who had extraordinary lives. Therefore I'll let them do the talking....

If you ever want to analyze and reflect on your life I suggest looking for a job. Now that I am on the job hunt once again, I find myself asking what the heck have I been up to for the past couple years! Between countless hours studying, daily bus rides, and bill payments; it’s hard to see all the life that is actually packed among these monotonous tasks. We get consumed in the rush of things and feel that we have nothing to show for it. However upon closer inspection I think you will find special moments and events that over shadow those often required life responsibilities.