Welcome back! I missed you. Is that too needy?

Yea like, whatever. I didn’t miss you… *yes I did*

I’m always excited for the fresh start that a new calendar year brings but I’m even more pumped because it also marks the reveal of this shiny, new site! This is not only is this the first blog post of 2019 but it is also the inaugural blog post of TeriakiTalks!

Cue the deafening, introductory trumpet blasts. Dun un un naaahhh!!

As an admittedly shameless overshare-er and avid journal-keeper, blogging always seemed like a natural extension that combined all the things I love to do – storytelling, writing, and design. That’s not to say that I wasn’t plagued by fear at the prospect of starting a blog.

I didn’t have the courage to even imagine starting something like TeriakiTalks until a life-changing trip to Nicaragua 4 years ago. I was surrounded by people from all walks of life who were doing whatever it took – turning their lives upside down – to chase the things that made them come alive. It inspired me to live more purposefully, boldly and unapologetically even if it scared me, and boy, did the idea of blogging scare me.

What if I suck at this thing I really want to do? How will I find the time or motivation to complete a post every week? What if no one reads it? What if people DO read it and hate it? What if I fail horribly?

I started small and quietly – attaching an ambiguous “ETC” section to my portfolio site with the modest goal of writing a post every week. I just wanted to test the waters before I cannonballed in.

Every spare minute I could squeeze in before, in-between, and after seemingly endless mundane responsibilities – a full-time job (so I don’t live on the streets), working out (so I didn’t get obese)…that kind of thing –  was dedicated to creating content.

Before I knew it, I’d written over 100 blog posts!

I was filling in the cracks of an already bursting-at-the-seams life with brainstorming and writing posts, editing photos, and putting my performance anxiety aside to pose (like an idiot) for pictures abroad.

You know if I’m taking the time to photograph food (versus immediately shoving my snout face into the plate) I must really LOVE doing it. And what follows a revelation of love? Akin to an engagement ring, I purchased the domain name as a symbolic gesture of my commitment to making TeriakiTalks a reality, branding it separately from my portfolio site.

And that brings us to this momentous occasion –

the unveiling of TeriakiTalks!

Let me walk you through a couple of my favourite improvements:

Navigation

TeriakiTalks is SO MUCH MORE ORGANIZED!

If I can’t find what I’m looking for within the first minute, I get frustrated and leave. Sadly I think I’m on the patient end of the spectrum in today’s culture of instant gratification.

With that in mind, I made sure the search bar was in a prime spot and that the blogs were listed under clearly stated categories.

Going to Morocco? All the content I’ve created for the country is on one page for your convenience with related content propagating after each post for continued reading pleasure.

The serial killer organized part of me is very relieved for the new site improvements. Whew.

New Platform + Custom Site

To say highly technical tasks like coding is not my forte would either be a massive understatement or a boldfaced lie.

Luckily for me, my generous and supportive roommate Jordana is a coding unicorn – a full stack developer who not only recommended that I move my blog over to WordPress, but offered her precious free time to help me create a custom site.

It made tedious undertakings like migrating 2+ years worth of blog posts to a new platform and re-sizing hundreds of photos much more seamless. If When I have a technical issue with the site, all I have to do is knock on the bedroom next door!   

Designer Influence

When I attended OCAD University for a Bachelor of Design, I never suspected how versatile those skills would be. Not only do I have a 9-to-5 working as a graphic designer/ art director at an agency but I get to express myself creatively and apply those design sensibilities to TeriakiTalks.

Was it a pain in the ass to design for myself? So much more than you’d think but the result  – from a logo and colour palette that reflects my whimsy to font selection for subheadings to my exact aesthetic tastes – is that much more satisfying.

About Page

More than anything, the About Page is the first place I go on a site but you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to succinctly distill everything you are in a couple of sentences. It gets very angsty and existential – Who am I? What am I doing? What is the purpose of it all?

As impossibly tedious as it was, after a lot of fist shaking and banging my head on my laptop keyboard, the articulation of my (excuse my pretension) “brand” has provided more focus and direction for how I go about creating content for this digital space.

Plus it’s informative!

YYZ Content

If my curated IG feed was a reflection of my daily life then you’d think I was always travelling. Just to give you a peek behind the curtain, most of the time I’m at home in Toronto….and I love it!

With my encyclopedic knowledge of the food scene, I’m practically the human equivalent of Yelp. It’d be a shame to let all that information – the best places to eat, the coolest bars to get black out in, unique things to do in Toronto – go to waste.

This is why I’m planning on expanding my content into the YYZ moving forward so follow along as I eat my way through the city.

Interactivity

Sometimes the lack of interaction with readers makes me feel how I do when I talk to myself when I’m alone. I don’t even have the comfort of saying “My mom reads my blog” because I don’t think she has reached a level of internet proficiency for her to reliably find my site.

TA-DA! Now there’s a comment function at the bottom of every blog post where you must can write feedback and whatever other observations you’d like. So long as they’re positive (see: flattery only).

Obviously, you will love my content so much that you will feel compelled to share it. Fortunately I’ve also incorporated a function that allows you to tweet, pin, and email posts to your family and friends to improve their day.

So there you have it: New Year, New TeriakiTalks!

Speaking of interacting, let me know what you think of the new digs in the comments below! What are you excited to unveil in the new year?