Geek Life: A Toronto Lifestyle Blog for Tech, Travel & Sci-Fi Geeks
Augmenting Reality. Nerding it up over all things Geek Lifestyle, unapologetic oversharing on gadget and smart-home technology, pop-culture, and travel.
augmenting reality
New in Geek Life:
Menu
Life of a Geek
A Geek Girl Exploring a Geek World
Living in Toronto, ON Canada, eager to explore my hometown for its nerdy atmosphere, and on the hunt for more during my travels.
I grew up learning to hide my inner-geek.
I was afraid to give anyone a reason proving that I didn’t belong.
It was just as hard earning my geek-cred the few times I had tried. If I didn’t know all the characters of a random, imported anime, well, that just meant I was pretending to be something I wasn’t.
Now? It’s exciting times to be nerdy. It’s freeing. Geek Lifestyle is a thing!
Celebrate your strengths. Enjoy every moment. 100% refuse to live with one arm tied behind your back.
In your travels, in your day to day, live long, and prosper.
XOXO,
Aeryn Lynne
* Complex Female Character tee available at JORDANDENÉ
Check Out The Four NEW VR Experiences at the VOID Toronto
Enter the VOID at various locations across North America, including The Rec Room in downtown Toronto (just south of the Rogers Centre.) Walk through all four virtual reality games now available at the VOID, that
January 28, 2019
Beakerhead: Calgary's STEM / STEAM Festival
September 7, 2018
Calgary’s citywide Beakerhead STEM / STEAM festival is a must-see all-ages event, celebrating the need for creativity, engineering and science combined. If you’re in the area September 19 to 23, make sure you plan to take in as many of the free installations as you can, and budget for tickets to a few of the wild and exciting STEM events happening around town. Jump To: Last Year’s Favourites – 2018 Beakerhead Must Sees & Dos – Calgary Food Tour A Look Back at Beakerhead 2017 Last year’s Beakerhead was chock full of awe-worthy installations and events. Here are some of
Epic Smart Home & Decor Technology Finds: The Bedroom Edition
April 13, 2018
When was the last time you made a trip to Best Buy to browse the epic smart home technology that is available on the market right now? It’s exciting how fast the “internet of things” market is exploding to interconnect every aspect of our life digitally into a near fluid method of living. Do you ever think back to grandma’s house, or perhaps the home you knew as a child, and suddenly stop to realize how truly insane technology advancements are these days? I still remember the day that dad brought home our very first VCR and my not fully
Is Your Android TV as Secure as You Think It Is? Here’s a Super Simple Fix!
March 19, 2018
Having Android OS available on your TV is amazing right? So simple to access your favourite apps, games, movies, and music from the Google Play store on your big screen for epic entertainment. But are you safe? Is your TV safe from viruses, and abuse? Chances are, you may be part of the 90% of Android TV users that haven’t protected their TV from fraud. Luckily ESET’s FREE & PREMIUM TV security software can fix this in a matter of minutes. It’s the first app fully dedicated towards protecting your Android TV, cognizant of your TV’s controls and user interface.
Celebrate International Women’s Day by Learning to Code and WIN with Booking.com
March 7, 2018
Did you know International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th? Booking.com is all over International Women’s Day this year. In fact, they’ve chosen to celebrate barrier-breaking women in the technology industry throughout the month of March, instead of merely the one day. Details on how you can WIN a $500 Booking.com credit by learning to code in HTML & CSS are found below! #BookingFEMpowers Booking.com kicked off their celebration on the evening of March 1st with a panel on Women in Tech. The #BookingFEMpowers panel was a night filled with experiencing the life of four fantastic role-models that are making waves in
Black Panther Experience AR Teaser Coming to Toronto
January 29, 2018
To celebrate the upcoming release of Marvel’s Black Panther in theatres on February 16th, Disney Canada is rolling up to Toronto in style with an augmented reality (AR) adventure experience that ties Black Panther to the Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel fans can go check out the AR Black Panther Experience in Toronto just days before or after the movie premiere. Find the Black Panther Experience at one of these three locations: Cineplex Cinemas Queensway and VIP – February 13 CN Tower – February 17 & 18 Cineplex Cinemas Scarborough – February 20 And, if you can’t make it to Toronto, you also
Gift the Code 2017 Charity Hackathon in Action and Hack Day
December 19, 2017
Capital One Canada hosted its second-annual Gift the Code charity Hackathon in November, followed by Hack Day in early December. More than 165 participants were called upon to volunteer for 40 consecutive hours on a late fall weekend to help create solutions to solve digital challenges faced by six of Toronto’s charities. One of the ways that this year’s Gift the Code Hackathon was “bigger and better” was that it happened right inside Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. Hackers walked into a welcoming atmosphere, encouraged to build to the best of their collective abilities as developers and designers. Hackworks was
Visit the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Pop-up in Toronto
December 8, 2017
Greetings, fellow Jedi! We’ve received news from a Rebel Alliance spy, currently embedded deep within a Star Destroyer, who managed to relay a troubling message to us. We are unsure of their fate. They felt it crucial to send us the coordinates for a rebel-friendly planet centrally located within the Milky Way galaxy, called Earth. A meeting is meant to take place in its northern hemisphere, a large metropolitan city, known as Toronto starting today! Rumors suggest that Kylo Ren himself may be in attendance, or worse yet, Supreme Leader Snoke. Go, now! It’s imperative that we learn the importance
Review of The VOID: Ghostbusters DIMENSION VR Game at The Rec Room
November 28, 2017
You HAVE to go to Cineplex’s The Rec Room in Toronto, so that you can go try out The VOID’s Ghostbuster VR game while you’re there. It’s a must. THE VOID at The Rec Room, Toronto I’ve been to The Rec Room on multiple occasions over this past month, and recently, I brought my good friend Deanna of Maple Leaf Mommy fame to try out the food and games while she was visiting Toronto for the day. The food was good, the games were great, and after shooting down aliens in the arcade we had decided on a whim to
Avengers Endgame Survival Guide
Are you all set to see Avengers Endgame? Marvel continues to send out teaser trailers on Twitter, ramping up the excitement, the anxiety of what will happen to a whole slew of superheroes that we’ve
April 8, 2019
Finally, The Joker Will Have His Spotlight
April 3, 2019
With incredibly big clown shoes to fill, Joaquin Phoenix is front and centre this fall in a portrayal that explores exactly how Gotham becomes home to one of the creepiest villains in comic book history. While many still mourn for Heath Ledger and his awe-inspiring portrayal of the Joker in Batman’s The Dark Knight (2008), we’ll be treated to a movie focusing solely on the clown, answering a question that Batman fans have been wondering for 75+ years. Who is the Joker? Joaquin Phoenix has adamantly refused to don a superhero cape, but, perhaps fittingly for his wheel-house, Phoenix is
Best Kept Secret of Toronto ComiCon - Sketch Duel Panels
April 2, 2019
Okay guys, I have discovered the best kept secret of Toronto ComiCon — the sketch duel panels. Back in 2018, I attended Toronto ComiCon for the first time. I had come into town mainly for Breakout Con (a super fun, super welcoming, tabletop gaming convention), but also wanted to spend time with my friend Aeryn (you know, the Aeryn, the one who runs Geek Life) and since she was going to ComiCon so was I. Though to be honest, she didn’t have to twist my arm too hard to get me to buy a pass to ComiCon, as I’ve been a comic collecting geek
Banksy's Haight Street Rat is Here in Toronto for a Limited Time
June 6, 2018
The Saving Banksy Toronto Exhibit, featuring the Haight Street Rat, along with inspiring works from local street art talent, and Los Angeles’ graffiti icon RISK, will be open to the public from June 6th to 11th, at Yorkville Village Lane. When I heard that Banksy’s Haight Street Rat would be making an appearance here in Toronto, one of the most controversial and sought-after contemporary art pieces in the world, I may have got a little overly excited. I haven’t even seen Saving Banksy on Netflix yet to get the full story, but… I love graffiti. I would tour the world
We Can Fly! A Wrinkle in Time & Peter Pan Blu-Ray DVD Giveaway
June 4, 2018
Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time and Peter Pan are being released to Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs this week. Two fantastical movies about time that are sure to inspire the creative minds in your family. 65th Anniversary of Disney’s Peter Pan Walt Disney Studios opened their vault to release a 65th Anniversary Edition of Peter Pan! This new edition, part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection, is packaged with two hours of never-before-seen bonus features, including: Stories from Walt’s Office (a study of Walt’s love of flying, and a look at Disney’s company planes), a nostalgic reunion interview with Wendy and John
Grab Your Copy of Marvel's Black Panther on Blu-ray/DVD Today
May 15, 2018
You’ve seen the record-breaking MCU movie in theatres five times since it first launched, and now you can own a copy on Blu-ray™ today! If you need a reminder of how awesome this movie is, check out the Blu-ray™ trailer: I’ve loved the concept of the Black Panther for years, but never truly appreciated the character in comics (and Saturday morning cartoons,) as much as I wanted to. For a Geek, an advanced, hidden civilization, an Atlantis on land, was all kinds of delightful eye-candy. I always wanted to see more. Eager to find out what Wakandans have designed
Check Out Free Comic Book Day This Saturday!
May 2, 2018
It’s Free Comic Book Day this Saturday, May 5, 2018! Every year, on the first Saturday of May, comic book stores across North America hand out an incredible assortment of free comic books from a wide range of publishers, both for kids and adults to read. How awesome is that? Check out What Comic Books Are Free This Year! Every year we’re treated to an amazing selection of free comic books, and this year is no different. Check out all the cool comics on the list. From Power Rangers, DC Superhero Girls, and Disney Princess for the young ones, Doctor Who,
Avengers: Infinity War Movie Review: The I'm in Impossible
April 25, 2018
I can tell you right now that the bottom line of this review is, “GO. Go see Avengers: Infinity War on April 27.” The bigger question is whether you’ll go see Infinity War more than once in a matter of a week’s time. If you know you’re the type of movie-goer that will watch your favourites repeatedly in theatre, you might as well book your tickets now for both (or more) viewings. There is SO MUCH that I want to flail over with you right now, words that I would love to use to exclaim about how this movie will
An Infinity War Sc’AVENGER Hunt In 10 Canadian Cities
April 20, 2018
In celebration of Avengers: Infinity War, in theatres April 27, Marvel Studios Canada is calling on Canadians to find 10 Avengers that have popped up across the country! Through a series of clues or sightings over April 20 -22nd, participants are tasked to find and comment on which Avenger is tied to their city on Marvel Canada’s Facebook page and they will have a chance to win an Avengers: Infinity War prize pack. SPOILER ALERT: Here are the heroes that have been found across Canada so far! Infinity War Avengers Found Across Canada TORONTO: Iron Man #IronMan is in Toronto! @MarvelEntCA #AvengersXCanada
- Treasure Hunting North America
- Destinations
Say No to Single Use Plastic: Time to Get Reusable Travel Straws
Plastic straws are becoming a thing of the past. That straw that you threw away yesterday? It will be in a landfill for up to 200 years! Considering how many straws you can easily go through
July 16, 2018
Go Explore The Heart of Boldt Castle
July 6, 2018
Are you familiar with Boldt Castle? It lives amongst the 1000 islands running along and on top of the US/Canadian border in the east of Ontario, within the St. Lawrence River. This castle has everything any castle-enthusiast could hope to explore. Massive structures, underground tunnels, its own island, a tragic love story, and likely a couple of ghosts. The Making of Boldt Castle Imagine this… You’ve fallen in love with the most awesome, fabulous, intriguing, beautiful person in the world. You happen to have banked a boatload of cash and want to use it for that grand gesture. The one that will show
7 Exciting Things to Do in the Quebec Maritime
June 15, 2018
If you find yourself road tripping across the Quebec maritime region (which you totally should do), here are seven fun things to do while you’re in the area. Things to Do While Road Tripping Through the Quebec Maritime Region Whale Watching To be honest, I didn’t have a clue that whale watching was a thing to be done in Quebec, and yet there is a major whale population to be found throughout the year in Quebec’s maritime region, along the Saint Lawrence River. Beluga whale pods, which are unfortunately now on the endangered species list, frequent the area. As
8 Unique Places to Stay While Visiting Maritime Quebec
June 13, 2018
Looking for unique and unusual places to stay while visiting the maritime area of Quebec? Here are eight adventurous places where the fun begins the moment you unload your bags. The highly forested areas of the Quebec maritime and Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean is simply gorgeous. Take a deep breath of clean, fresh, woodsy air. Get your adventure on by kayaking along the fjords of the Saguenay River, become BFFs with a wolf or two, watch whales, or simply enjoy hiking the rugged terrain. And, if you happen to live in an area where the weather forecast frequently includes the humidex, you’ll
Adventure Awaits: That Time a Wolf Ate My Boot in Quebec
May 25, 2018
If you’re looking for an adventurous kind of experience for your next vacation, I wholeheartedly recommend visiting the maritime area of Quebec. Embrace the rugged terrain, epic places to camp out, hike, kayak, and don’t forget the fjords. Didn’t know Quebec had a maritime? Yeah, me neither! Who knew? The answer is Europeans. Apparently the tourist demographic for this area of the Quebec region is 80+% Europe, largely from France. I can’t wait to go back out north-east with Jay as soon as possible! Living in the city that invented the Humidex (a measurement of humidity), going to an area
Treasure Hunting North America: The Secret in Montreal
March 21, 2018
We all love a good treasure hunt, don’t we? Many will flock to second-hand stores, hoping to find that one item that everyone else overlooked. Garage sales are still a thing here in Toronto. Kijiji is accessed daily, on the off-chance that someone is selling a yet unidentified precious antique that is doing nothing more than collecting dust. And you just might find your neighbour creeping around your backyard to find a Pikachu. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game that is all about hunting down bits of virtual treasure. Did you know that there are real treasures of gold and precious
St. Pete's Beach: Full of Sun, Sand and Famous Art
November 22, 2017
For a week, near the end of October, four of us went on a wild road-trip across Florida. Our destinations included Jacksonville, St. Augustine and St. Pete’s Beach & Clearwater. Thanks to the trials and tribulations of flying by air, we missed a day of our trip to St. Pete’s, which was tough, but we handled it by ditching our flight tickets and kayaking our way down to Florida. That’s absolutely the story I’m sticking to. TradeWinds Resort, St. Pete’s Beach Florida It took us a day, but we finally made it to our first destination, St. Pete’s Beach, and I
Girls Getaway Road Trip Visit to St. Augustine, Florida
November 20, 2017
St. Augustine is a magical place to visit. The history, the architecture, the food, the weather. It’s all gorgeous! The Epic Roadtrip with Friends St. Augustine was the final destination during the epic, whirl-wind road trip I went on with Margarita, Paula, and Sandy. I swear there was this weird frisson of excitement that rippled through our car the moment we drove into town! Within minutes we drove by the Old Jail House, the Fountain of Youth, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! while on our way to the tourist center as our first stop into the city. We could tell
Road Tripping with my Girlfriends Across the State of Florida
November 8, 2017
While road tripping across Florida with three of my gal-pals, for a girlfriend getaway, I came to realise something that I totally did not expect nor fully appreciated of Florida before. Every city is wildly different. Wildly different. Like, alligators vs dolphins kind of different. Thanks to 1000s of hours of movies and TV, I could safely say that Miami was the place to be to party. And that Orlando is home of the mouse. But I didn’t expect Florida’s tourist destinations to be so individually unique. Like all of my girlfriends, Florida is filled with personality. Thanks to a
- SEO
- How To...
Five Ways the WordPress Gutenberg Editor Will Make Your Blogging Business Life Easier
If you’ve updated your WordPress blog to 4.9.8 recently, you will find a new option that, for better or worse, will absolutely change the way you manage your blog post structure. Depending on what newsletters,
August 10, 2018
Five Signs That Your Web Developer Knows What They're Doing, and Has Your Best Interests at Heart
July 17, 2018
Does your web developer truly know what they’re doing? Did they study their craft, or are they relying on tech support themselves? It’s true that even a “full stack” web developer can’t know everything there is to know about coding websites. There’s just so much involved in the WWW (world wide web, or wild wild west, your choice,) that it’s almost impossible to know absolutely everything. Like people, servers come in all shapes and sizes, and software, like WordPress, doesn’t fit exactly the same for every website. So your developer might come across an issue that they haven’t seen before
10 Ways to Improve Your WordPress Blog In 30 Minutes
January 6, 2018
Our websites are ever-changing virtual extensions of ourselves. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the ways you can make your blog easier to find through Google Search, or we might forget how to make it easy for our users to navigate to our latest list of posts. With those basic needs in mind, here is a list of 10 simple ways to improve your WordPress blog in 30 minutes. 10 Easy and Quick Ways to Improve Your WordPress Blog Unintentionally, a good portion of these improvements requires the Yoast SEO plugin. I would suggest installing Yoast if you
Increasing Pageviews, Here's How to Get Better At It
November 1, 2016
“If you build it, they will come.” What a load of horse manure, right? You’ve built it, and built it again with probably better colour theory, and three years later you’re staring at your web page views that tell you something smells as bad as that quote on your site. At this point, it looks like you’re the proud owner of a Winchester House, and no one is willing to come. It’s time to put down the Febreeze, and actually figure out where the stink is stuck, and maybe even fix the front porch light, so that people know you’re
How to Actually Improve Your WordPress Speed
July 4, 2016
Everyone wants a faster website. Whether it’s due to their own impatience and need for perfection, or wanting to keep the Google gods happy, we’re all looking for those secrets to improving page load time. If you’re just beginning your quest in faster website speed, I’ll forewarn you right now, that you will go absolutely nuts trying to appease the score keepers. Even the strongest of will have been known to break. They’re harsh, and every millisecond counts. Alternatively, if you’ve been researching faster site speeds for a while now? I might not actually tell you anything new. I can
How to Set Up Facebook's Instant Articles and Why You Should
June 14, 2016
For over a year now, Facebook has had popular sites, such as Buzzfeed, testing out “Instant Articles”, a new feature for Facebook pages that primarily promote personal writing. If you’re a blogger, trying to promote your own articles/blog posts on your Facebook page, you may have noticed that it doesn’t get as many views or engagement as your other posts do, especially those that are not trying to encourage your audience to leave Facebook’s website. Facebook has attachment issues. Somewhat creepily, it never wants you, nor your audience to leave its domain for anything. Facebook wants to be the web.
Best Way to Watermark Photos for Your Blog
June 2, 2016
If you’re a pro-blogger, chances are you’re also an amateur photographer with great photos that you should consider watermarking. You go to events; you take a bucket full of pictures of last night’s lasagna (for me it was handmade perogies, heh;) your kids are uber cute and you need to get that one perfect moment for your blog; you have moments to share, but you also need to keep those moments safe from those who think that any image online is fair game. You also don’t have Getty Images’ funds for copyright technology and lawyer retainer fees, so right now
Safe, Sane, and Consensual: When Not To Use Google Image Search For Photos
February 11, 2016
The quick answer to this question is, almost never. Seriously, honestly, well and truly, don’t use Google Image Search when you’re looking for the next perfect image for your personal or business project, be it a blog post, a logo, a website header, or what have you. No matter how perfect that image you’re looking at is, it’s not yours to use. At all. Not even half of it. There are hundreds of both free and fairly affordable subscription service sites that will give you access to millions of just-as-beautiful images available for your use, however you please (as long
How to Get Your Site's Logo on Absolutely Everything with New Favicon Code
January 7, 2016
So, I’m not entirely sure when adding a favicon to your site was more than just adding <link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”/favicon.ico” type=”image/x-icon”> within the <head>, but boy have things changed! The hardest thing, even just a year ago, about loading the icon was getting your tiny 16px X 16px image to look anything remotely like your site’s logo, or at least something that referenced your subject matter. And it wasn’t always easy to get the .ico favicon format needed for your icon outside of online generators, unless you wanted to install 3rd party plugins into your art software. I recently uploaded a stack
AS SEEN IN
Blogger Tech Support
Are you a blogger? Join my Blogger Tech Support community for free on Facebook! Learn of new plugin recommendations, as well as tips & tricks to simplify your blog work.
Kids Should Code
Community support
Here are a few local projects that I’m eager to support all year long.
Help food get a second life with Second Harvest. Let’s not waste food that easily can go to those in need.
Send a well thought gift to a woman living in a shelter. Remind her that there is hope and respect, when she needs it most.
Sometimes, all a person needs to get their right foot onto the path of a promising career is proper business attire. Donate your gently used clothing to someone who needs a bit of help to a better future.
- Full Disclosure & Privacy Policy
- Copyright © 2011 - 2019 · Geek Life (previously Geek with Style), a division of Geek Speak Media · All Rights Reserved
- Contact for Personal Data Inquires
