Dannie’s Blog of Random interests

Dannie's blog of random interests: web clips, design tips & photography. Always stay curious and defeat bordom

Welcome to my blog. Here are six quick facts about me to break the ice:

1. I'm fluent in English & Mandarin Chinese. Maybe there is a room for one more in the future ...

2. I'm a passionate workaholic designer. If my job only involves button pushing I'd be very depressed.

3. What I do for fun? I love photography, my dream is to attend photography workshops in different countries with unfamiliar settings.

4. My second favorite is food, also a self proclaimed foodiaholic

5. The most memorable trip, was a road trip from Boston, Mass to Las Vegas.

6. I live to stay always curious, I carry a list of things I want to try, every few month I take out the list, cross off some & adding some new ones.

Contact me: hello@danniegao[dot]com

Get Updates

 

screwed up posts!

Sigh scheduled posts leaked ... time to break the geek machine. 

Anywayz, I'll be more careful checking post dates in the future, so there won't be any double posting going on.

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Cuteness overload!

     

Love Zara kids new fall collections >> great usage of flash with photo space >> oh yeah the models aren't that bad either :) check it here

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stressed? a quick way to help you relax

Skipped a few days of blogging, let's see what's new. 

a) Work, to say any company that's doing great I think most would agree with me ~~ it's a lie. I've worked for enough people to know that we really all need a little cheering up, a lot of faith. ~~ so here is my cheer ~~ HAVE FAITH & BELIEVE. WE CAN DO IT! 
b) Life, over all pretty good ~~ good health, no body parts missing, everyday laughs a ton, I think i'm very blessed, the credit really goes to everyone around me, thanks for all your support & love :)
c) Money ~~ emmm, let's just say that I invested it in merchandise :D heehee! 
d) Random advice from my uncle: it doesn't matter where you stand now, it is where you are going that's important.  ~~ emmm, I guess he knows i'm GOING to make a sandwich & prob. wants one as well ... :P

On that note, in preparation of our next year's trip, my uncle told me he is studying Chinese ... le sigh, my dream of becoming a tour guide just met it's "FIN" ... so he said he could already pick up most of the Chinese characters ... hahaha cheater, it's mostly Kanji, but I did forget about Kanji, which is Chinese characters used in Japan, heehee, I guess he didn't need too much translation from me after all! 

That's great! more fun time for meeh. YAY Happy Day!

------ okay enough updates, blog content below ------

stressed? a quick way to help you sleep ~~ pick up a boring book and read it, it works very well for me, everyday on the train just reading 2 lines i'd be passed out, hahaha I really love the train rides, good place to catch up some Zzzz, now I understand why baby likes the rocking motion. 

Okay for realz the secret weapon is ~~ Lavender ~~ 

Last few days of rushing out a near deadline project I worked till 4am almost everyday, then the days since the project deadline it became a routine that I couldn't get sleepy till 3 or 4, which is really bad ~ so I googled & found an old  home remedy that really works: every night before bed pour a few drops of Lavender onto a cotton pad then sniff it a few times, I have been knocked out by it so well ~~ my mom said it worked so well, that's because my brain contains only air ... heyyyyyy, is she calling me an airhead? I do creative & stuff, it's not all air ~~

Anyways, if anyone feels stressed or couldn't sleep, the Lavender remedy is worth a try :) 

---------------------- I can haz LOLz ---------------------

My grandma always considers herself trendy, likes to use a few drops of English every now and then, her vocb. is so adorably funny, wish I could record them all.

Q: what does my grandma call Mr Obama? 
A: Mr Bahama

drop that it into her regular Chinese convo. that one took us a while to figure out who she meant by Mr. Bahama(s). 

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Cleaning up the closet for fall & what does fire have to do with me

Today I was dusting off old things & making way for fall. You know, it's funny how our taste change from season to season, and oh boy, I do have too much clothing. 

A lot of girls likes to eat or chat with their GFs when they are unhappy or troubled, but when I'm unhappy I like to shop ~~ ALONE! from a mini skirt to a new Apple product, if I like it I'll buy it but you can bet I'll forget all about the troubles once I get home :) some people call it short term memory, hahaha ~~  who says "money can't buy happiness" ~~ I know I know that's not what that sentence means :P

~~ well my closet (or what makes of it) is the long term headache one, he has to put up with overly organized boxes & boxes of clothing, last year when I was living in a small one room apartment, I had to stash my clothing boxes every little corner I could find ... feels like some drug lord hiding his stash ... sigh, I'm glad these days are over, I now have two closets fully dedicated to 'em clothing, tho some seasonal ones are still in bins & boxes ~~ WHAT! can't a girl have a hobby? ... of ... collecting!

My mom always tell me that I need to downsize my closet, "who is gonna put up with you & two closets", so I always tell her "guess I'll just have to find a guy who doesn't own too much of clothing" hahaha ... first date question "so, do you wear the same thing everyday?"

Oh something terrible, today I was trying on a dress I had years ago (found it lost in some bin). People always tell me I look great and such ... but after I tried on the dress it was really tight ... gaaaaaa  ... it was all a lie, I gain weight ~~ by alot!!! ... ok that's it, I'll get back in the dress before the end of this month.

This reminded me ~~ last year, I was talking with a co-worker, he told me his wife is also Aries, he said once he just mentioned that he loved how she fitted in a dress she used to wear. She dropped weight in one week to fit into it, at the time I thought that's sooo not Aries at all, then again I don't know too much about that other than the sunday papers ... but slowly, I shockingly noticed IT IS TRUE, did I miss something about astrology that can better teach us about ourselves? Maybe who we are overall (as a group) can be categorized into a few main categories? So I went online to google up Aries, the result ~~ tearful :(  ~~ read here ~~ while you read I'll cover my ears in disbelieve for five min. ~~ i'm not like that i'm not like that i'm not like that .... or am I? are we just a bunch of fiery sheep? ... baaah!

Alright Monday heading into Boston I hope it doesn't rain.

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Girl crush for eye wear.

I don't usually like geeky eyewear, (heehee I'm a geek too), however the Warby Parker frames are just so hot, it'd give any guy a perfect excuse to show the world "i'm hot & smart!" hahaha. 

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The secret weapon for my good fortune in shopping

I know most girls doesn't like to go shopping with mom, but if your mom were one time fashion boutique buyer in Manhattan, would you give spending a day with her another thought? 

I take shopping very seriously, clothing are investments on your self image & life, if food are what makes your body healthy then clothing are what makes your feel great ~~ see, mind & body!! ~~ my fashion design teacher always told us "if a woman can't dress up for her job than she must be lousy at what she does, if a woman can't dress up to fit her man & his career then she must be a lousy wife, if a woman can't dress up for herself, then she must be lousy at dealing with her own life ... we should always dress up than dress down, because ... it's better to let others gossip about how good we looked than bad ... never spend money on something that's going to make you look less than who you are! ~~ yes! teacher I still remember & will always remember your beautiful words :)

So here we are, mother & daughter shopping, yay! ... Her opinions are always true to her vision, sometimes the truth aren't so great to hear than fake "compliments". but I do know with her i'm always getting a honest feedbacks & I love that!

I know I know, ever since I moved here a few month ago I decided to cut budget, but I've been so bored and cooped up, this Monday I finally announced, that, I'm going shopping & nobody can stop me! ~~~~ I think at the time my eyes were red ranging fire ~~~~ heehee

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keyboard officially, messed up by water

If I suddenly starts to type in oa bunch of aaaaa or ooooo just keep in mind my keyboard was all soaked in water ~~ poor baby! ~~ and p\p\p\p\p\p\ "P" typ\es like this :(

Now to think about it, the cute sales at Apple did mention something about keyboard and mouse been protected in my Apple Care Plan, hum I wonder if I bring in my watered board and tell them it has "connection problem" (*cough bullshit cough*) I wonder if they will give me a new board? ... GREAT! let's bring my 'puppy face' & give this plan a try, my reasoning: if the answer is yes, then great I have a new keyboard, if the answer is no then I'll throw the p\roection p\lan in their face and call them a lier! either way I'm not lossing anything ~~ only gaining (if succeed) ... last time my 'puppy face' got me a brand new laptop charge wire for freeeeee! ... see ~~ the advantages of cuteness & brain :) mwuahahaha ... 

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Okay let's see what interesting things happened today, Oh yes this morning on my train ride I did meet two guys from Canada ... I wonder if lumberjack shirts originated from there ... no I didn't ask them THAT! ~~ just a thought. 

Oh tomorrow is shopping day, yay! & am also looking forward to next week ~~ renting a car to drive to NYC, yay! first stop ~~ Barney Greengrass for a bagel & lox 2go!!! 

oh BG u have no idea how much I miss ur B&L!  ~~ keybard really F'ed up/, can't tye

~~ night!

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blast from the past, trust me photo add weights

I think I looked older there than I am now ... maybe the feeling of hungry all the time does make a person age faster :D ~~ forever young! ~~

Since I've been through a period where I 'really' cared about my weight, then follow by a period of afraid of dying (from starvation) ... I believe now I'm at a super healthier mindset.

As for now I eat normally, since I never like to exercise (afraid it's gonna make me look manly, haha, really, don't ask me why), I've decided to stick to 60-90 mins of yoga before bedtime ... okay more on the 40min side, but still, I think it's working great!

PS: can anyone guess my age on that photo?  *I'll reward a kiss to anyone that guessed it right* ~~ tho, that's gonna be a tough prize to win, most people can't even guess my current age :P ~~ yeah ~~

 

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Vanilla calms your mind

I never had the need for a bbs on the web. So mostly my knowledge of them are just brush pass the surface. 

This week I had to get a bbs, two came to mind: phpbb & vanilla ~~

~~ Arck! another decision making task, which one should I pick? ~~  

I could google & compare statics, but soon I decided to give up that idea ... it really doesn't matter which forum are more robust, which one has better rep, which one is more beautiful ... those are just numbers, what I need right now (since I have never met these two forum apps) I need to personally go on a little 'date' with them both, to download, install & run the backend ... sometimes something that's popular with everyone doesn't mean it will be a good fit for me.

So I decided to install both phpbb & Vanilla, to test their backend, I want to know, as a complete forum (admin) newbie, which app will give me less headache, which one will make me feel comfortable enough to go with long term, which one has more room to improve ~~ 
 
.... and the winner is .... Vanilla Forum

From installation to simple to understand labels, plus a huge library of addons to improve. I know with him on board this forum will generate less hair pulling.

Now that's pretty Zen

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