If you’ve been reading for a while, you know one of my favourite events of the summer is the annual Blog Out Loud Ottawa event organized by the irrepressible Lynn. She has managed to make this event better every single year since its inception in 2009, and I can’t wait until this year’s edition.

We won’t have too long to wait, though, because BOLO has been bumped up from July to a new earlier date this year, with a new location, too. Here’s the skinny on BOLO 2012:

What: 20+ bloggers read their favourite post of the year; photo bloggers display their art
Who: Anyone who likes to hear good stories or see amazing images is invited to attend
When: Thursday, June 14, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: The Arrow and Loon, 99 Fifth Avenue

Want to be in the BOLO spotlight this year? (It’s way, way fun! Trust me!) Lynn and her crew of acolytes are accepting submissions until May 14. That’s only a couple of days away, no time to dither! C’mon, you know you want to be like these cool kids! (I’m praying the Arrow and the Loon doesn’t have an evil deep red background wall like last year’s location did!)

If you’d like to be considered for a spot on the roster, here’s the deets from the BOLO blog:

Want to read? Here’s what you do:

1.Pick out your favourite post from the past year (May 2011 through April 2012). Note that you must have blogged at least 10 times in this time period.

2.Send the link to your selected reading to lynnturtlehead@gmail.com by Monday, May 14, at midnight.

3.Wait to be notified (via email) on May 21st if you are a selected reader. That’s it!

What kind of post should you pick? We like posts that tell a story, express an opinion, argue a point, capture a moment, inspire passion. All types of topics and subjects are welcome. Just pick something that has meaning for you.

Your selected post should be able to be read out loud in about three to five minutes (I’d suggest no more than 1200 words as a good guideline, but we’re flexible).

How will the readers be decided? Half the spots are selected by a panel of judges (to a maximum of 11 spots). The remainder of the spots are selected by random draw. So don’t be discouraged – everyone has a chance! Everyone is welcome – small bloggers, famous bloggers, new bloggers, bloggers that have been kicking around forever. Come one, come all.

We did a slide show last year, too, with some great shots from our local photography community. If there’s enough interest, we’ll do that again, too, so please let Lynn or me know if you’d like to submit some photos. You’ll have to speak up by May 15 and have your photos to me before May 31 if we’re going to make this work.

In prior year at BOLO, I’ve laughed so hard my sides hurt and wept in empathy and felt every emotion in between. This is a great night out for the Ottawa blogging community and I can’t wait to see what surprises this year’s BOLO might offer.

Will I see you there?

(And speaking of great community events: PS, just a quick reminder that Kym Shumsky’s Les nôtres vernissage for her 100 strangers project is this Wednesday at Irene’s Pub!)

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I am seriously addicted to Pinterest. I am a natural hoarder, and so I love collecting things that take up no physical space. I love pinning photographic inspiration, crafty ideas, recipes and inspiration for future home renovations and decoration. I found the Star Wars family stickers that so delight me via Pinterest. I’ve got an amazing collection of Photoshop tutorials and ideas to furnish the photography studio I’d like to build in the garage. I truly love surfing and collecting pins on Pinterest.

And yet, as a photographer, I feel conflicted about Pinterest. I had mixed feelings when I saw Lucas’s “puddle jumper” popping up on the site (and the worst part was that the attribution, when it appeared, was usually back to the I Heart Faces site where I’d entered it in one of their competitions before I started licensing it through Getty.) Some photographers are happy to share their work on Pinterest, some are probably ambivalent like me, and some consider it an egregious copyright infringement. I’m happy that people like my pictures, and I share them because I love showing them to you — but when they wander away and become separated from me, from my little “property” here and on Flickr and Facebook, that makes me increasingly anxious.

As Pinterest has started to set the Internet on fire (it’s now getting more than one billion monthly page views, with 10 million registered users) there have been more articles written about how ethical the business model could be that encourages people to share without explicit (or any) permission. Responding to the backlash, Pinterest recently offered a bit of code that website owners can put on their sites to prevent pinning, and Flickr just announced that it has disabled the ability to pin Flickr images for which the user has not explicitly enabled sharing.

What really got me wondering about whether I want to continue to participate as a pinner, though, was this article and a few similar opinions I’ve read about copyright infringement. The author of the blog post (long, but definitely worth reading), who is a lawyer and was inspired to look into the legal aspect of Pinterest’s Terms of Service from a copyright perspective, said:

From a legal perspective, my concern was for my own potential liability. From an artist’s perspective, my concern was that I was arguably engaging in activity that is morally, ethically and professionally wrong. [...] Even in light of all of the above, what finally sealed the deal for me as I tried desperately to talk myself out of deleting my gorgeous inspiration boards, was when I thought of some of the photographers whose work I had pinned from other websites. Would they want me posting their images? My initial response is probably the same as most of yours: “why not? I’m giving them credit and it’s only creating more exposure for them and I LOVE when people pin my stuff!” But then I realized, I was unilaterally making the decision FOR that other photographer. And I thought back to the thread on Facebook where the photographers were complaining about clients posting photos without their consent and I realized this rationale is no different than what those clients argue: “why can’t I post them – it’s just more exposure for you.” Bottom line is that it is not my decision to make. Not legally and not ethically.

Aside from the ethical question, the author of the blog post also opines that you as a pinner could be held legally liable for any damages arising from copyright infringement:

[I]f some photographer out there decides that he or she does not want you using that photogs images as “inspiration” or otherwise and decides to sue you and Pinterest over your use of that photog’s images, you will have to hire a lawyer for yourself and YOU will have to hire a lawyer for Pinterest and fund the costs of defending both of you in court. Not only that, but if a court finds that you have, in fact, violated copyright laws, you will pay all damages assessed against you and all damages assessed against Pinterest. OUCH. Oh, but it gets better. Pinterest reserves the right to prosecute you for violations. Basically, Pinterest has its keester covered and have shifted all of the risk to you. Smart of them, actually since the courts are still deciding whether the site owner or the user should be ultimately responsible. Rather than wait for the decision, they have contractually made you the responsible one. And you agreed.

Now I’m no lawyer, but the argument against copyright infringement speaks to me. After seven years of chasing down blog scrapers, and almost as long keeping a watchful eye out for unwarranted use of my photographs, the idea of participating in – of gleefully perpetuating — that kind of infringement is somewhere between distasteful and downright disgusting.

It’s true that some site owners clearly encourage sharing by the use of a “pin this” button, and I’ve seen other arguments that *any* kind of social share button pretty much obliviates the copyright argument (which kind of gives me pause, as that’s certainly not my intention on my own site here – but my poor brain can only handle so many of these arguments at a time!) But do I have the patience to pop over to the originating site of each pin to see if the original creator has indicated that the material is available for sharing? I’m not sure. And you can only click back to the source material about half the time.

I’ve paused my obsessive pinning until I can get this sorted out for my own conscience, if nothing else. I’m flattered when people like my work, in words or in pictures, enough to share. And I love Pinterest as a way to share and collect interesting bookmarks on the Web. But do I have the right to pin someone’s work who feels like I’m violating their copyright in doing so? Doesn’t that put me on the same level as people who think that just because something is posted online it makes it fair game to take and use without permission? A few times I’ve wanted to blog things I’ve found on Pinterest but hesitated for exactly these copyright questions – just because I found it on Pinterest doesn’t mean I can use the images there freely. It is a colossally slippery slope. (Edited to add: And here’s yet another concern, this one finding in the Terms of Use that Pinterest claims the right to SELL any content uploaded to it!!!)

My friend Sue, the erstwhile Mad Hatter Mommy, tweeted a list of ten reasons she’s not a Pinterest fan last night, and I found myself laughing and nodding appreciatively at her criticisms, including: 1. Home decor is not all white, light, airy and devoid of brown. and 3. Life cannot be lived according to aphorism no matter how many aphorisms one collects. and 5. Pinterest lets people feel entitled about web use–like taking home all the shells from the beach. and 9. Don’t even get me started on the appropriation & deprofessionalization of the word “curate.” Clearly, Sue has been perusing my pinboards!

What do you think? Are you a Pinterest fan? Does this make you think twice about using Pinterest?

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1. Social sharing of photos – are you giving away your rights for free?
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So February is definitely birthday season in our house — Simon last week, Lucas this week, and my mom a couple of weeks from tomorrow. But there’s another birthday squeezed in there — SEVEN years ago last week I wrote my first blog post. Who could have ever guessed where it would lead? I can’t even begin to enumerate all the great things that have happened in my life due to this crazy little blog, but who would have guessed it would have lead to a career in social media and a part-time photography business? Those are no small potatoes!

A few of you have been here from the very beginning, when the blog lived on blogspot and the wayback machine says blog looked like this:

(I don’t miss that design, but it was fun to see my little footprints I loved so much back then!)

If you joined the party a little later, you might remember this design:

I’d almost forgotten about the crayons! And funny, that was my ‘look’ for two years. Tempus fugit, eh?

Speaking of fugiting tempuses, I try to update this “time traveller” meme every couple of years, just because it’s fun to look back and see what a lousy prognosticator I am.

15 years ago today I would have been:

• Living in sin with Beloved in our tiny two-bedroom attic apartment in the Glebe.
• About a year away from finishing my degree.
• Driving an antiquated but dearly loved little black Mazda 323 hatchback everywhere

.

10 years ago today I would have been:

• Fatly, blissfully pregnant and already on my maternity leave in anticipation of Tristan’s arrival one month hence.
• Fresh from an assignment with Industry Canada, my first official job in communications with the government.
• Busy teaching myself HTML and building our first family website on Geocities.

5 years ago today I would have been:

• Trying very hard to get over the loss of one pregnancy and just a few months shy of discovering another.
• Just about to find out that I would be creating a social media team for the CRA.
• Blogging about dead iPods and stomach viruses and the search for decent daycare

.

1 year ago today I would have been:

• Working with the Army and becoming increasingly unhappy.
• Turning my toe anxiously in the carpet as I tried to decide if I was “good enough” to officially try to sell myself as a family and portrait photographer.
• Blogging about photography and Ottawa and our quirky home in Manotick

.

This year I am:

• So very happy to be back with the CRA where I belong, and extremely happy to be leading the social media team. Again!
• Still a little overwhelmed by the success of the whole photography thing — did I tell you I got FIVE bookings this week? That’s almost a third of all the jobs I did in all of 2011!!
• In shock that Lucas — my baby! — is off to junior kindergarten later this year

.

Today I:

• Feel like I’ve got the world by the tail.
• Am toying with the idea of a blog redesign.
• Would like to lose about 10 lbs before summer

.

Next year I hope:

• To continue to grow all facets of the photography business.
• To be planning a vacation for somewhere that involves an ocean.
• To get back to blogging more like I used to back in the day

.

In five years I hope:

• To be within a decade of (gasp!) retirement.
• To stop being freaked out by the idea of being within a decade of retirement.
• To have all three boys in school full time (gasp! with one in high school!) and free of the daycare dilemma forever!

(You know what I learn from doing this meme every couple of years? I am really good at setting and pursuing short-term goals, but I continue to be a lousy
at making any sort of long-term plan. ENFP anyone?)

This is a fun meme, and it’s fun to look back on where I’ve been and how far off my expectations and ambitions have been! And hey, can you believe I’ve been doing this for SEVEN YEARS?!?

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Mommyblogger, a photo by Dani_Girl on Flickr.

Cuz yanno, sometimes a picture does say it so much better than a thousand words could.

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When I was in Toronto for the Blissdom Canada conference, I had the chance to speak to CBC’s Ira Basen about mom blogs, sponsorships, advertising and working with brands. It was an interesting conversation, especially as I tried to mentally juggle my relationship with Fisher-Price and Mom Central Canada (the sponsors who brought me to Blissdom Canada) and my own strongly held opinions on the matter. You can tune in this Sunday to CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition to see how it all turned out. Here’s the aperçue from the Sunday Edition web site:

There are four million mommy bloggers in North America, women sharing with other women the trials and tribulations of bringing up babies and making more and more money at the same time.

In the past decade, social media for mommies has gone from a nurturing, supportive, chat-across-the-back-fence virtual village to a massive marketing vehicle for everyone from toy companies to the makers of minivans.

On the site you can also hear a quick promo of the show, featuring one of my biggest bloggy crushes and the woman I coincidentally befriended on the shuttle ride from the airport to Blissdom, Bonnie Stewart. Thanks to Judy Gombita on Google+, here’s a list of some of the others featured in the documentary:

PhD In Parenting – Annie Urban http://www.phdinparenting.com/
5 Minutes for Mom – Janice Croze http://www.5minutesformom.com/
Common Cents Mom – Hollie Pollard http://commoncentsmom.com/
Crib Chronicles – Bonnie Stewart http://cribchronicles.com/
Mom Central Canada – Cora Brady http://www.momcentralcanada.com/
Fisher Price play panel http://www.fisherpriceplay.ca/moms/
Child’s Play Communications –Stephanie Azzarone http://childsplaypr.com/

Judy also quotes Ira Basen’s summary of the 27-minute documentary:

“It is basically about the pros and cons commercialization of the social media space, and mommy blogs are the best example of that. On the one hand, the bloggers who have chosen to monetize their blogs by hooking up with brands via sponsorships, sponsored posts, compensation etc., are being rewarded for the work they do and are providing a service that many readers must find valuable. On the other hand, as one person (Bonnie Stewart of PEI) says in the piece…

‘There are people now who are perceiving that social media is a great way to build platforms so that you can get a corporate job being a brand spokesperson for Kraft Foods, but they are not necessarily as interested, and possibly not even as aware of the creator/consumer model on which original social media was based. I’m not sure that the “I’m here as a consumer of opportunity, in a space that’s crowded with marketers” is social media. I have a feeling that that might just be an interactive way of getting eyeballs and shilling for traditional corporate interests. And if enough people allow that to become the norm, then I think a lot of the power and potential of social media goes away.’

Heh, you can totally tell why I have a blog crush on Bonnie after reading that, eh?

I’d almost forgotten about this and was pleased to hear that it wasn’t relegated to the cutting room floor. If you’re curious, tune in this Sunday to CBC Radio One. It’s currently scheduled to run at 9:13 am, barring interference from pesky world events and breaking current affairs. You can stream it from CBC Radio, too, or catch the full-length podcast after the fact.

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Here’s an interesting theme that has come up more than once in recent conversations and I thought it would make a good question for the bloggy peeps. I was taking pictures of a family recently, and the client mentioned a particular photo of the boys that she’d admired. She then said something about how the boys always seem so well-behaved and willing to pose for my camera, and how did I get them to do that?

I laughed. I might have snorted. It was hard not to guffaw. I was thinking about that particular photo, and the day we took it, and how just a few minutes before I snapped it, I’d been harranguing them, nearly growling with frustration. “Honest to goodness, I ask so little of you, could you not for JUST ONE MINUTE behave yourselves and STOP TORTURING EACH OTHER?” By the end, I was definitely using my shrieky voice, the one you try not to use on the front lawn. Yeah.

Would you have guessed it?

And then there’s this one. See that expression on Tristan’s face? I think I threatened him with a time out until he was forty if he didn’t smarten up and get that look off his face. (The great irony is that even though I was ready to blow a gasket with frustration at the time, I’ve come to love this picture and it’s now one of my favourites. But I was on the dark road between exasperated and furious at the time.)

So the snapshot is a carefully constructed illusion, really. It shows what I want you to see, not the reality of the situation. Which ties really nicely into a conversation I had via e-mail with someone who has been lurking on my blog (and a few others, from the sounds of it) for quite some time. She was wondering about the way bloggers filter our lives for online consumption, and whether by not addressing or glossing over the ugly bits (I love how she called it “the yelling and tantrums and defiance and moments of sheer bad parenting”) we bloggers might be painting an idealized version of family life — one that is not only unattainable but also unrealistic. She was careful to say that she liked how I do address those frustrations and bad times, and other bloggers do, too, but that many do not. In fact, she said, she’d almost stopped reading some blogs because of this. She said that of course bloggers have no responsibility for the mental health of our readers, but wondered if I’d ever had the sense that some people might idealize our lives.

Again with the snorts of laughter. Idealizing THIS? Ha! It’s especially snort-worthy since I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a bad place as far as my own patience levels are concerned lately. But it’s such an interesting question, don’t you think? I have noticed that some bloggers do only blog about the good stuff, and there’s a whole lot of blogs I avoided especially a couple of years ago when blogging about what an awful parent you are was chic.

This ties in really well with a theme I’ve been considering recently, which is the idea of the identity we portray online and how accurately that matches the person we are. I think that over the years I’ve actually become more like the character version of me I created online: more confident, more outgoing, and generally a better version of me. Is that weird? I wonder how much of that is just maturity, and a direction I would have gone anyway, and how much of that is a kind of “fake it ’til you make it” sort of development, where I’ve actually convinced myself that I am less of a geeky dork than I really am.

I also find this an interesting topic because I’m still struggling to find a comfortable place in my blogging between disclosure and protection. As the boys get older, I’m finding their stories are less mine to tell, and while I’d absolutely LOVE to tell you the story of the conversation I had about reproduction recently (it ended with one boy exclaiming “AWKWARD!” in a singsong voice when he got an inkling of what the actual mechanics were, and gosh I’d love to tell you more!) but– I’m not sure I can tell those stories with same blissfully ignorant abandon I used to, back in the day.

Anyway, there are half a dozen themes in here I would have liked to explore a bit more, but I want to know what you guys think. Do you think there is balance in the parenting blogosphere? Do bloggers paint a realistic portrait of family life, or do they idealize it? Should we be cognizant of how the stories we tell might be perceived and internalized? Have you ever been self-conscious about how you portray your family — or yourself? How closely does your online persona reflect who you are offline?

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Better late than never, here’s my third (and final!) post-Blissdom Canada post. (If you missed them, click for posts about how I reconnected with my blog and day 1 takeaway messages.)

The first session of the second day was, for me, one of the highlights of the conference. The session was called “Taking your craft to the next level” and was a panel discussion that featured one of my first bloggy friends, Karen Green, along with Aidan Morgan and Angella Dykstra. I loved a lot of this session, including the fact that they went beyond simply blogging/writing and also talked about photography and videography. Dear Blissdom Canada organizers: More like this next year please!

I was completely endeared when Karen started off by stating why she got into blogging in the first place: because she wanted to be a magazine columnist and nobody was hiring her to do that. Me too!!!!! Later in the session, Karen made my day by saying that mine was the first blog she ever read, and I was flattered nearly to death when I tweeted that and several others confirmed that mine had been the first blog they ever read as well.

Here’s a few of the best messages I heard during the rest of the session, once again pilfered more or less verbatim from my own twitterstream. (Parenthetical comments are my after-the-fact editorial asides.)

• Nobody will judge you for the size of your dash but you do need to learn to spell. (Can I get a hallelujah on this?)
• When asked how to find inspiration, Aidan Morgan said, “I thrive on dissonance.”
• Talk to the people who inspire you and learn from them.
• Know your audience — and then try to ignore them. (This is so true, and so hard to do. I’ve lately lost the ability to forget everyone is listening, and have been struggling to overcome this. I miss the candidness of oblivious blogging.)
• Don’t get hung up on the metrics. SEO won’t help you improve your craft. Also, don’t lose your joy.
• What you are doing is bigger than the sound of applause. (I need to print this out and stick it on my monitor.)

At the end of the session, there was a really amazing and way. too. quick set of tips to improve your SEO from Aidan that I can’t find now but will try to dig up and share with you.

Can you see why I left the session (and the conference) vowing to blog like it is 2006? So much of this is exactly what I want to do, what I’ve always strived to do as a blogger. I can’t tell you how much I loved this session — it made the conference for me.

The next session had a lot less practical information, but my sides hurt from laughing by the time it was over. It was a panel discussion called, “What’s in a brand? The art of defining yourself and your creative work” featuring Kimberley Seldon, Gail Vaz-Oxlade, Dee Brun, and Patty Sullivan, and moderated by Mabel’s Labels founder Julie Cole. It was nice to see the session start with one of my friend Justin’s “extreme family portraits” of Julie Cole’s family.

I didn’t tweet a lot of takeaways from this session largely because I was laughing too hard. Who knew Gail Vaz-Oxlade was such a cut-up? She’s also an amazingly strong woman and I loved her basic theme of doing what’s important to her, staying true to herself, and not giving a &#@ what others think. Except, instead of &#@ she said pretty much every swear you could think of. I loved all of her anecdotes, including the one where she told her editor at the Globe and Mail that she writes his column while she’s sitting on the can, and that she turned down a TV show three times until they came back and completely capitulated to her terms. Clearly, the only person influencing Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s brand is Gail Vaz-Oxlade!

The few useful tweets I did manage to get out included:

• Know yourself, know what you’re willing to walk away from, know what you’re willing to do.
• Be true to yourself and be real or others will see through you and you will lose credibility.
• Don’t try to create a personal brand without knowledge of yourself and where you want to be.
• Every 140 characters comes back to you, for good or bad.
• Your bio is a powerful tool and all your social media sites should have one, but “PR friendly” in a bio says “send me free stuff.”
• If you don’t like how I raise my kids, that’s your problem (from Patty Sullivan, host on CBC Kids.)
• Use the filter of “what am I putting out there” before you press send.
• Don’t be so set in your vision of your brand that you don’t adapt based on the feedback you get through social media.
• If you want to work with brands, you have to be cognizant of your behaviour regarding swearing, oversharing, etc.

The final panel of the conference was another highlight for me. It was a discussion called, “To Publish Or Not To Publish: Taking Your Writing Beyond The Blog (Or Not)” featuring more of my oldest bloggy friends, including Ann Douglas, Jen Reynolds, Theresa Albert, and Nadine (Scarbiedoll) Silverthorne. This was the most practical of all the sessions I attended, with professional and concrete insights into a lot of various publishing options open in the Canadian marketplace.

Jen Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Family magazine, said a pitch to her should be succinct at 300 words, but don’t spill your whole story. She wants to build it with you.

She also noted that Canadian Family is still paying the same rate as 15 years ago, approximately $1 per word.

Nadine Silverthorne, online editor for TodaysParent.com, says online rates are approximately 50% less than print rates.

Jen Reynolds also said to know your strength and match it to a medium.

Nadine, who was a personal blogger long before an online editor, asked the poignant questions, “How much do you love your blog?” and “Are you willing to give up your voice for money?” (This is one of the reasons I’ve never wanted to overly monetize this blog!)

Ann Douglas, author extraordinaire, offered these tips on book pitches: a book pitch needs an executive summary and a sales pitch on why YOU must be the one to write it. Address the competition, and explain why you stand out. A pitch also needs a complete bio, and a marketing plan that showcases your creativity. (Clearly, writing the book is only half the hard work! I had no idea.)

And how exciting is this? Jen Reynolds surprised everyone with a spontaneous offer of $700 for a 700 word article on finding your bliss that she’ll publish in Canadian Family.

The panel also put together a handout that Ann posted on her blog: To Publish or Not to Publish.

I should really go back and put in links to everyone’s blogs — but I’m clean out of time. Maybe later? But you can find them all online, I’m sure.

After all the years of wondering whether I’d find any value in attending one of these blog conferences, I think the answer is a resounding yes. I got to meet so many people I have admired for years, and connect with many others. I learned a little bit, but I was hugely inspired and reminded of the things that I love about blogging and how most of them revolve around connection, community and storytelling. That’s why I’ve been saying that Blissdom Canada 2011 inspired me to blog like it’s 2006.

Here’s three quick suggestions to the Blissdom Canada organizers for next year:

1. Hashtags for each session would make it a lot easier to follow the sessions in progress and/or catch up on the ones you missed.
2. Donation bins for food banks or something similar would be a great way for people to share swag items they can’t or won’t use. There was no room in my luggage for a loaf of bread and box of crackers, and Fisher-Price gave away a lot of diapers that might not get used but could be great to donate to someone in need.
3. More debate would be good. Most of the panelists seemed to all be on the same page. I’d like to see a “I only blog for social good” voice take on a “I blog for the freebies and I’m proud of it” type of debate, or something similar.

I hope these notes were helpful! And if you’ve never been to one of these social media conferences before, you absolutely should go — at least once.

Karen, I will never use an m-dash again without thinking of you!

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In my post yesterday, I mentioned that I left the Blissdom Canada blogging and social media conference feeling newly inspired. There were a lot of things that didn’t engage me at the conference, but rather than gripe about those, I’d like to tell you about the things that did inspire me, and motivate me, and remind me of the potential magic of blogging.

Blissdom Canada had two “tracks” with congruent sessions going on in different rooms: the art track and the commerce track. Of four time slots and eight sessions, I spent three-quarters of my time in the art track, which coincidentally (or not?) is fairly representative of the blog itself, I think.

The first session I attended was called “Finding Your Muse: The Art & Science of Finding Inspiration – And Using It.” I have to be honest, I might not have attended this session if I weren’t such a fan of the brains behind it: Bonnie Stewart, Elan Morgan (aka Schmutzie) and Tanis Miller (aka The Redneck Mommy), people I have admired in a bloggy way for many, many years. But here’s the thing – the conversation quickly evolved way beyond finding your muse and into a discussion on inspiration and identity, and I found that absolutely fascinating. I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about online identity and personae and how they reflect and affect your IRL identity.

As the session went on, I tweeted some of the more salient sound-bites and messages. Here’s the best bits, copied more or less verbatim from my own twitterstream:

To find your muse, start with your goals. Where do you want to go?

Social media and identity are deeply integrated to our sense of self, but don’t let that completely dictate how you see yourself.

Don’t let the metrics, comments, klout score, etc affect how you see yourself. They are not reflective of who you are as a person.

Take yourself seriously if you want others to do so.

Twitter is crack. It’s great for community but way too easy to let it sidetrack you from your goals and make you think you’re doing something when you really are not.

You are more than the sum of things you’ve blogged about.

Turn your sense of inspiration into a change for good. Educate, amplify the message of others, create community.

If you are feeling uninspired, reach out and elevate someone else.

Look outside yourself when seeking your muse. Find it in connection and community.

And this, something I must really work on and kind of wish I’d had tattooed on my forehead the first time I ever hit “publish” on the blog: don’t shy away from blogging in tough times, but wait until you are through it and have some perspective.

Great messages, eh? Can you see why I was reminded of the power of the blog? The next session, while completely different in tone and topic, speaks equally to the power of blogging. It was called “She Works Hard For The Money (And So Do You): Why And How You Should Be Making Money From Your Blog,” and featured my old friend Andrea Tomkins, as well as Janice Croze, Susie Erjavec Parker and Corinne McDermott.

Andrea started out with a message that I totally love, which is that blogs have many kinds of value, including as a family scrapbook, a way to earn ad revenue, a portfolio, and a stepping stone to another career. What’s missing from the list, IMHO, is simply the value of community and connection, which is what I’d say is the key value of blogging for me. And, erm, the value of a captive audience!

Like the session before it, I went in not sure exactly what to expect or whether there would be a lot of value in the session for me. After all, I’m already quite comfortable with my sponsors, I know how to solicit more if I want them, and I have a professional understanding of both the inherent marketability of the blog and its PR value. But like the session before it, the session evolved into something different and something extremely interesting for me, with a lot of simple but valuable business tips. I think this is particularly relevant for me now because while I never really saw myself as a small business when it was just the blog, now that I have the photography business bringing in more significant amounts of money I’ve started thinking in these terms.

The most interesting one is an argument I’ve seen recently about the value of a blog versus a presence on Twitter and/or Facebook. The problem with both Twitter and Facebook is that they’re transient in nature. The conversations on Twitter disappear almost instantly, and Facebook is capricious. Once you own a domain, however, it’s yours. It’s your property, which is a powerful tool. Facebook fan pages can disappear overnight if you inadvertently break one of Facebook’s many rules (or even if there is the perception of a broken rule) but that will never happen on your blog.

Here’s some of the other tips I found interesting from that session:

For a personal blogger, each time you hear a message about protecting your “brand” substitute the word “reputation”.

There is a place for working for free, but “booty calls rarely turn into relationships”.

If a PR firm contacts you and wants to “pick your brain” ask them “what’s your budget?” Your blog and your time are worthy of compensation.

Think ahead to how you want to end your business. Do you want to be able to sell it to someone else? This will help you set your goals.

Buy your first and last name domain (ie danielledonders.ca) as well as your business or blog domain name and redirect it to your main site. People will search for you in many different ways, make it easy to find them and make it difficult for competitiors to subvert or undermine you.

In the social media world, value is “cost per influence” not “cost per click”.

The last session of the day was a panel called “Canadian-ish: Being Canadian In A Borderless Digital World.” I have to admit, the direction of the conversation in this one annoyed me more than inspired me, as tired old stereotypes about Canadian identity (Tim Hortons and poutine, for example) were trotted out. Even more troubling, though, was an assumption by some panel members that the Canadian identity doesn’t really matter, and doesn’t really inform or influence who we are. In fact, I’d argue (rather passionately, in fact) that being Canadian is a huge influence on my online — and offline — identity. The first word of my twitter bio and third word of my Flickr profile is Canadian, for goodness sake!

It was interesting to me, too, that Catherine Connors (aka Her Bad Mother) stated that blogging helped her “escape the local.” For me, blogging helped me “discover the local.” When I first started blogging, I had to go outside of my community and mostly outside of my country to connect with other bloggers. Way back in 2004-2005, there were only a couple dozen of us, and I found my likeminded community largely populated by American academic parents. As the blogosphere grew, so did the Canadian community. It was really only through comments on my own blog and later through Twitter that I felt I was connecting with the strong local community here in Ottawa.

You can see why I felt like my brain was ready to explode by the end of day one, with so many new perspectives to consider. And I didn’t even tell you about the amazing chat a few of us hard-core CBC fans had with Anna Maria Tremonti (of Radio One’s The Current) after the final session. Hers was the voice I respected the most throughout that session, and meeting her afterward was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. I’m not in this picture, but I took it, and that makes me equally happy! (She’s third from left in the picture below, with @zchamu, @scarbiedoll, @bonstewart, @AlisonJette, @capitalmom and @ottmomgo.)

So what do you think? Were you there? If so, I’d love to hear what you think on my take of the highlights. And if you weren’t there, I hope this is helpful and interesting. I wanted to go beyond some of the “lookit the cool swag I got and all the people I rubbed elbows with” kind of messages I often see coming out of some of the big conferences.

I can’t wait to share my day 2 observations – that’s when things got really interesting!

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Wow.

You know how I said last week before leaving for the Blissdom Canada blogging/social media conference that I’d never attended a BlogHer or a Blissdom before, largely because I just couldn’t figure out what the value for me would be? Now I know. It’s not about the branding tips, or the inspirational moments, or the swag, or the celebrities — although there were plenty of those.

Really, it was about the connection. (Which, ironically or perhaps not, is the whole reason I fell madly and deeply and obsessively in love with blogging in the first place.) It was about realizing that the people who have been living in my computer all these years are real three-dimensional people, living and breathing people, not just talking avatars. It was about connecting in person with people whose words and brains I’ve been in love with for years. It was about finding new people to admire, and to engage with.

All of that was great, and I pretty much knew that was going to happen. But there was this other, unexpected benefit from going to Blissdom Canada: it was like a couples retreat for me and blog. I mean, blog and I have been together a LONG time, and we’ve been through a lot together. And lately, well, you’ve probably noticed it as much as I have. Some of the magic, some of the sparkle, some of the joy has been missing for a while. Blog and I had started to drift apart. Oh, that’s not fair, blog is blameless in all of this — it’s me, not blog. I admit it, I’ve been completely infatuated with this sexy young thing called Mothership Photography, and while I was lavishing affection and attention on it, dear old blog only really got the leftovers.

But this weekend at Blissdom Canada, listening to people like Karen Green and Elan and Aidan Morgan and Bonnie Stewart and Ann Douglas and Nadine Silverthorne reminded me how far I’ve come, and how powerful the act of blogging can be. And spending time with the wonderful women from Ottawa (I’m looking at you Julie and Lara and Becky and Vicky and Sara and Karen and Barbara and the rest of you!) and the amazing people behind Mom Central Canada, I’m newly reminded of that power of community, and of connection.

Looking back over the last seven years of blogging, the purpose and goal of the blog have never really changed. It’s about storytelling, and it’s about connection. For the last little while, other things have been chipping away at my attention, and it became more about obligation than joy. But I feel like through the last four days, blog and I have reconnected. We’ve found the love again!

I feel like Blissdom Canada charged up my bloggy batteries. We had a fantastic breakfast with the Mom Central team and Fisher-Price, and I’m feeling all rah-rah, go-get-’em about that – can’t wait to share some of that information with you. But really, I’m just feeling like the fog has lifted and I remember how much I really love the act of blogging, the blog community and even the blog itself.

Over the next couple of days, I’d like to share some insights and observations from the Blissdom Canada sessions I attended. There are some practical tips on SEO and branding, and some more philosophical questions about identity and inspiration. And maybe a few random celebrity sightings as well!

More to come!

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I read an article this morning that said a survey commissioned by Primus Canada found that almost half (46 per cent) of Canadians would give up their television before giving up their Internet access, and 35 per cent would give up their phone to keep Internet and television access.

The survey also found that 20 per cent of Canadians would turn down $1 million in cash in exchange for never accessing the Internet again. At first, I scoffed. A million bucks? I love you guys, truly I do, but not that much. Bah. Then I started to think about it — giving up the Internet forever. I wouldn’t just be giving up Flickr and Twitter and the blog. I’d be giving up g-mail and google, and (gasp!) Pinterest! The million dollars began to seem less valuable the more I thought about it. I mean, what good does a million bucks do if you have to actually drive to a bricks and mortar bank to deposit it and actually visit a mall to spend it? The humanity!

I have to ask, what would tempt you to give up the Internet, bloggy peeps? I’d happily give up folding laundry, eating liver and country music for life, in exchange for the ability to solve arguments about actors in bad 1980s movies and to check the weather of places I’ve never visited nor likely ever would.

What about you? What’s the Internet worth to you?

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Did you hire your babysitter and mark your calendar? The bloggy social event of the season is only a week away!

Yes, next Thursday is Blog Out Loud Ottawa, and you don’t want to miss it! Lynn has been teasing us for weeks by releasing details of each of the 20 local bloggers who will take to the stage to read a favourite post from the last year, and I’m beyond delighted to be one of them!! (Isn’t that description about the most lovely thing you could ever imagine reading about yourself? I’m still blushing!)

This will be the third year I’ve attended BOLO, and I can tell you that they get exponentially better and more fun each year. After seeing who my fellow readers will be, I can barely stand to wait seven more sleeps. BOLO 2011 is going to blow the doors off the Prescott!

Will I see you there?

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I’m sure you can imagine my delight when I saw that this week’s I Heart Faces photography challenge: Let’s hear it for the boys. The problem, of course, was narrowing it down to just one of the dozens (hundreds?) of pictures that express how much I love the boys in my life, and boys in general for that matter.

There is something about this picture from earlier this week that captures something lovely about the essential nature of boyness, and something entirely different that this one captures. (Sorry for the links, but under the challenge rules I’m only allowed to post the actual submission in my entry, and I can only enter one photo!) And I thought the photo of Tristan loving Buttercup from the weekend was a great choice, too.

Sadly, I had to choose just one. Since it was a challenge inspired by Father’s Day, and since this picture hangs as a canvas in a place of honour in the living room, it seemed like a pretty good choice. (Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to photoshopping Lucas in there, too!)

Check out this week’s entries, and if it’s before 9 pm CDT on Tuesday, you can play along, too!

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Are you interested in Ottawa’s social media scene? If you are, you’re going to want to clear your calendar for the month of July! There are at least two don’t-miss events happening, and they’re both promising to be fantastic experiences.

First, we have the perennial and amazingly fun Blog Out Loud Ottawa (BOLO) on July 7:

BOLO is one of my favourite social events of the year! Would you like to be one of the 20 bloggers who takes the stage to read a favourite blog post from the past year? Here are the deets from the official BOLO blog:

Here’s the basic idea:

* There’s a due date for declaring you want to read – Friday, June 10. If you’d like to read, I need to know the exact blog post you have in mind – please don’t send me an email saying you want to read, but you don’t know what. It should be something from the past year (or so) and should be able to be read aloud in less than five minutes. Pick something you really love, that represents who you are and what your blog is about – and that will be sure to come across when you’re standing at the microphone.

* All entries received by June 10 will be read and enjoyed by me and a panel of bloggers (who are not submitting a post for reading). Our favourite 10 entries will be selected for reading at BOLO.

* All other entries will go into a random-draw pot and the final 11 readers will be picked at random.

If we have 21 people or fewer interested by June 10, then you’re all in, and that would be fantastic. I’ll definitely announce it when all the spots are gone, so if it’s after June 10 and you haven’t heard anything, and you’d still like to read, we probably have spots left.

If you are interested in being on my judging panel, please let me know. Note that if you are on the jury, you can’t submit a post for reading.

I’ve thrown my hat into the ring, although I’m not sure I could top last year when I exposed my innermost soul and my favourite bra to a packed and sweaty house.

And!! As if that weren’t enough excitement for the Ottawa social media scene, there is a fantastic new social media “learnathon” that will be the other don’t-miss event of the summer: the Social Capital conference, taking place on Saturday July 23:

If you consider yourself a social media ‘buff’, then Social Capital will be the place to be in Ottawa on Saturday July 23rd! Social Capital is your opportunity to learn from and network with Ottawa’s most connected and knowledgeable people! When it comes to social media, this is the conference you won’t want to miss.

Ottawa has an active and passionate social media community. A community that is craving opportunities to learn, continue to grow and to share knowledge. Social Capital is a one-day conference that will fill this need.

Participants will have the opportunity to meet and network with like-minded social media enthusiasts. A combination of panels, roundtables, and single-leader sessions will cover topics of interest for newbie and experts alike.

I really like how they’ve devised three potential streams of sessions, one for fundamentals, one for more experienced users, and one for business. Whether you’re a social media noob or an old hand, whether you’re a dabbler or a business owner, I think you’ll find something useful in the proposed lineup!

I think the organizers have done an amazing job of making this an accessible, affordable event jam-packed with interesting presentations and speakers. And I don’t say that simply because I’ll be one of them! Come on out to hear me, Lara Wellman and Vivian Cheng talk about choosing the right social media tools for your business.

That’s a lot of excitement to pack into one month. July is going to rock Ottawa’s social media scene!

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I‘ve mentioned before that although I’m an early-adapter on a lot of social media platforms, I’ve never really warmed up to Facebook. I signed up for an account when it was first opened up, but aside from an early addiction to Scrabble when I was pregnant with Lucas in 2007, I never really found a lot of reason to spend time on Facebook. I’d even set up a page for the blog back in 2009 or so, back in the rush when everyone was setting up fan pages for everything, but I never hit the publish button as I really couldn’t see the point of having the same content in two places, especially when I was already pushing my blog content through my personal FB account.

Even at work where I manage our Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube accounts, Facebook was always my problem child, the one I knew we had to deal with but just couldn’t warm up to. Until now, that is. Cuz apparently I need yet another place to spent time on the Internet.

Oh dear. I’ve discovered Facebook.

It started when our school council decided to try setting up a Facebook page to communicate with parents. (At first I was cool to this idea, thinking a FB page for an elementary school seemed somehow wrong, but it’s the school council’s page for communicating with parents, not the school’s page. And I found some really excellent examples out there, and almost no reasons why we shouldn’t go ahead.) I’d set us up a blog earlier this year, and we’re using Constant Contact for e-mail news distributing newsletters, but Facebook is such an easy way to deliver quick and concise messages to a wide audience.

As I was setting up the FB page for the school, an idea was percolating in my obsessive-compulsive brain. A Facebook page for a blog seems a little too meta for me, but a Facebook page for a photography business — now that makes more sense! And let me tell you, it was waaaaaay easier to set up a FB page than it was to set up my portfolio website.

Ta da!

Mothership Photography

One of my mantras in the presentations and courses I’ve given on social media is that you should match your social media tool to your goals and your audience. Facebook works really well for my intended purpose of sharing my obsessive quest for more! more! more! information about all things related to photography.

I see it as a place not just for potential and current photography clients, but as a hub to share quick photo tips, articles I find on the Internet, and other things that may be of interest to other photographers or just people who are interested in taking better pictures. I’ll still post longer articles here, but Facebook is perfect for quick shares and conversations about links and other treasures found online.

I put the page together over the course of a rainy weekend, and was instantly gratified to see a few “likes” piling up even before I’d told anyone I set up the page. (And let me tell you, for an approval-seeking ENFP, there is NOTHING more delicious than having overt confirmation that someone “likes” your project. You like me? You like me!)

I hope you will both like and “like” my Mothership Photography Facebook page, especially if you’re interested in taking, sharing or discussing how to take better pictures. I’ll try to keep the duplication of content to a minimum, and I’m even considering some Facebook-only promotions.

Do you have any experience (pro or con) in setting up a Facebook page? Any tips to share or pitfalls to avoid? Suggestions for me to keep my online empire from imploding? What say ye, bloggy peeps?

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There was a social event a month or two back. To be honest, I’ve completely forgotten what it was for, but it was one of those “invite a lot of local bloggers and tweeters out for a night” type of things. Someone asked me if I was going, and it was the first I’d heard of it, but then over the next hour I saw tweet after tweet after tweet about it, and it seemed like just about everyone in my social media circle was on their way.

I have to tell you, it was a little too reminiscent of high school. My first reaction was a visceral, albeit short-lived, pang of rejection. “Everyone else got invited and I didn’t?” I didn’t even particularly want to go to whatever it was, but I sure as hell wanted to have been invited.

On the other end of the spectrum, I do get invited to some wicked cool events, like the Marksover and the Fisher-Price playpanel. I feel an obligation whenever I get invited to one of these events to talk about it, to tweet about it, to photograph it and to blog about it. I’m no fool, I know that I have been invited less for my outstanding array of knock-knock jokes for all occasions and more for my influence in social media circles.

And of course, there’s the annual run-up to big conferences like BlogHer, which I have never seriously considered attending. Even though I don’t particularly want to go, it’s a little bit painful to watch my friends tweet about getting their tickets, heading to the airport, meeting new friends and, last year especially, getting boatloads of swag. I wouldn’t mind not going if I weren’t hearing in real time how much fun everyone was having without me.

I was thinking about all this when I read a couple of recent articles online. One was a NYT article called On Twitter, ‘What a Party!’ Brings an Envious ‘Enough, Already!’ It’s about people’s reactions to tweets from the recent SXSW festival in Austin, Texas:

Twitter users are tiring of it: the sharp pang of envy that comes when someone they are following on the social networking site is clearly having a better time than they are — right now.

Recent tweets from attendees at elite conferences like TED and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have prompted bitter ripostes, accusing the authors of showing off rather than sharing. (From @davewiner: “can’t breathe their air, don’t want their tweets.”) Even those tweeting from warm weather spots have felt the jealous wrath — or “jealz,” in Twitter shorthand— of followers stuck in frosty climes. (@Courtni_ROSE: “I get it already!!!!”)

And this week, as thousands of the nation’s Twitterati gathered at the annual South by Southwest technology and music festival in Austin, Tex., their exhaustive, real-time accounts of barbecue, beta tests and Jake Gyllenhaal sightings have prompted a backlash by those not in attendance.

And then this week, there was more backlash against a recent Disney Social Media Moms conference where the majority of tweets seemed to be about the swag participants were getting on an already deeply discounted trip to Disney. The article notes:

Now that the conference is over, it’s clear that what stung SXSW also stung the #DisneySMMoms conference — that is: the high prevalence of Tweets about goodie bags and private parties contributed to a culture of exclusivity at the expense of information sharing.

It’s a fine line, isn’t it? If someone is providing me with something, be it a product or a service or an experience, I feel obliged to acknowledge that online. I get it, that’s part of the deal. But when does promotion end and bragging begin? How do you write / tweet about your excellent experience without alienating the very people who made you someone worth inviting?

This is a tricky one, and I feel like I have to step carefully through the minefield every time it comes up. I love sharing our experiences with you, but I don’t want to brag. I want to offer unbiased opinions and express my gratitude without alienating my friends who didn’t get the same treatment. I think the answer lies more in tweeting about the conference or event itself — the information you gleaned, the lessons worth sharing — and less about the awesome *stuff* you got.

I’m kinda all over the place here, aren’t I? And no time to go back and edit it into coherence either, so over to you bloggy peeps. What say ye? As tweeter, have you ever been self-conscious about tweeting your swag? As a reader, have you ever rolled your eyes at the good fortune of the chosen few? Should we be striving for inclusivity and if so, how do we do it?

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Here’s three great links for people who love Ottawa as much as I love Ottawa. (And for the record? I love Ottawa A LOT!)

First, mad props to the Ottawa Public Library. I love the library and I really love their website and new interactive features. I love the ease of popping over whenever the mood strikes me or a bit of information catches my attention and requesting a book online. If there’s no other requests, the book gets shipped to my local branch in Manotick within a couple of days, and I get an e-mail notification when it’s ready for pick-up. Even better, I get another e-mail two days before it’s due. This is a smashing good system.

You know what just made it even better? I can now do all this on my iPhone, thanks to a new Ottawa Public Library iPhone App. How awesome is that? And best of all? Totally free. I love this!!

Second, mad props to Ottawa Start and two excellent new resources they’ve published in the last couple of weeks. First, check out their wicked-cool Ultimate Guide to Tobogganing in Ottawa and Gatineau. Not only is it a map of all the best sledding hills in the city, but if you click on one it gives you information about the kind of hill, special features and any potential perils. Really, this is outstanding.

Last but not least, also from Ottawa Start, here’s an update to their 2009 list of essential blogs in Ottawa. This year, they’ve listed 26 essential Ottawa blogs, and I’m very proud to see I’ve been included. (Thanks Glen!) Some of my favourite blogs are here, and a few I must now check out, but I really like this list because of its diversity — it has a little bit of blog for everyone who lives in or loves Ottawa.

Ottawa rocks!

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While I love my camera and taking pictures, I’m not a huge gear junkie. I’m mostly happy with the four lenses I have, and the small bag of accessories. I have the kit lens, which I use when I know I’ll need a wider angle and for TtV. I have a telephoto zoom, so I can get in close from a distance. I have a 50 mm f1.8 that I wanted because the kit lens only opens up to f4.5 and I’m a fan of a very narrow depth of field, and I have a 35 mm f1.8 because I got a great deal on it second hand and it will autofocus on my D40 while the fiddy will not.

This is pretty much enough of a lens repertoire for me, with one small exception. I really, really (no, really!) want a Lensbaby Composer. You know how I said I like a really shallow depth of field? The Lensbaby line of lenses goes one further than that, giving you a ‘sweet spot’ of focus while distorting rest of the image. The more you stop down, the larger the sweet spot. It produces fun, dreamy images with amazing bokeh.

Since I don’t yet have a Lensbaby of my own to play with (yet?) I’ve had to borrow some amazing Lensbaby shots from the talented Ms Angela Auclair of “From the Dock” fame. Here’s what a Lensbaby can do in the hands of a talented photographer:

Aren’t they just breathtaking images? So yes, the Lensbaby and a D90 are the only two things left on the list of gear I covet.

I like Lensbaby so much that I follow them on Twitter. Every now and then they have giveaways, and I was super excited to see earlier this week that they were sponsoring a winter photography contest with @plywerk, offering a chance to win a Lensbaby Scout.

Now, if you’re Canadian like me, you know what it’s like. Whenever you see a contest or a giveaway, you know you have to go straight to the eligibility rules, and more than half the time you’re out of luck — contest is open to USA residents only. Sigh. It’s tough living under the shadow of the giant who is oblivious to you! I’ve had to pass on more than a few excellent blog promos that were open to US residents only, and you could say I’m a little sensitive to the issue.

So when I read that the winter photography contest was open only to residents of the 50 United States — seriously, who knows winter photography better than us Canadians?! — I sent a quick reply via Twitter saying that I was disappointed that I couldn’t apply. And guess what? Less than 24 hours later, Lensbaby replied to me and said they had reconsidered, and the contest is now open to everyone.

How awesome is that? I’m so chuffed that Lensbaby and Plywerk opened up their contest that I thought they deserved props for it here. I love it when companies actually *listen*!!

So now I have to choose a winter photograph to submit. Oh the angst! And by the way, none of you talented photographers out there are allowed to submit an entry to this contest — I can’t stand the competition!!

Edited to add: awwww, and lookit Angela’s reply. It’s a bloggy love-fest!

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Today I’m writing my first-ever post with the Kids in the Capital team! (It’s about time, isn’t it?)

Head on over and read all about Simon’s excellent seventh birthday party at the Putting Edge!

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Six years ago today, on February 2, 2005, I wrote my very first-ever blog post:

Okay, so I’ve been reading about blogs for quite some time now. At first, the idea was quaintly geeky, which of course immediately appealed to me. But aside from generally knowing what they were, and stumbling across a few here and there, I never really realized what a universe unto themselves blogs have become.

So I started really thinking about it. To blog or not to blog? Note the insecurity in each of the questions I pondered: Am I funny enough to blog? (because if I don’t have humour then I don’t really have anything at all.) Does anyone really care what I have to say? What would I talk about? What if nobody reads my blog? What if somebody reads my blog? And the real biggie: do I have the resources to commit to a blog right now? Well, the last one is the only one I can answer right now. Since I’m back at work for the first time in a year, I can at least probably find an hour or so a week (on my lunch hour, bien sûr!) For the record, it took me about 15 alt+ combinations before I could get that û accent right.

If I could just type instead of editing and playing and getting lost in the friggin’ thesaurus I could probably do this in about half the time. If I only had an attention span…

So what would I blog about? Well, my kids of course. What else is there of significance in my universe? So does the world really need another soccer-mom wanna-be sending dispatches from suburbia, trying to strike a voice somewhere between Erma Bombeck, Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby, but in the 21st century, not Jewish, not male and not black? And potentially not really funny?

Well, why the hell not?

So here we go. I’m so self-conscious as I type away, wondering if you are rolling your eyes at me or thinking cruel thoughts about my writing skills or (worst of all) have completely lost interest and have not even made it this far. What if I install a hit counter and I have to spend all my free time hitting refresh so it looks like somebody is reading my blog?

So, are you still reading? Should I publish this, or banish it to bad-idea heaven?

Ah, what the hell. Here we go!

I’m both charmed and, truth be told, vaguely disturbed at how little has changed. Still toe-in-the-carpet insecure, still unable to complete a thought without interrupting myself, still chasing that precious laugh.

Fast forward six years, 1,870 posts, 24,701 comments and nearly (eek!) half a million page views. I couldn’t even guess how many words I’ve plowed through, nor how many hours (days? weeks??) I’ve spent here glued to my keyboard instead of doing some *real* work like scrubbing sink grout or alphabetizing my soup cans.

And yet, I will freely admit, the blog is one of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself. If I could fly back through time and tell 2005 me of the crazy ride I was about to launch, never in a million years would I have believed me. And you, my bloggy peeps, are at the heart of it all. You make it all worthwhile!

So, are you still reading?

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2. Blog is five years old today!
3. Pick-yer-own blog post day

I was in a committee meeting of the boys’ school council recently, and one of the other members presented a letter of some import that would be going home with each child in the school on behalf of school council. It was a very serious letter with a significant call to action (we’re raising funds to equip each classroom with a SmartBoard), and the author finished his presentation by saying he was open to the committee’s comments on the content, the layout and ‘even the font.’ At which point I pulled my tongue out from between my teeth and said rather timidly, “Well, since you asked? I hate Comic Sans font.”

It’s true. I’m a font snob. I could spend a day or three simply poking around in free font download sites, leaving the children to run feral. Fonts are like the icing on a cupcake — they can make it exquisite or awful. My personal preference runs to classics like Times New Roman and clean sans serif fonts like the Helvetica you’re currently reading, but I’m also a fan of a well-constructed and playful handwriting font. You’d think that since it more or less intersects all of the foregoing, I’d be a bigger fan of Comic Sans — but I’m not. In fact, it pains me to do this, but in the name of objective reporting I have looked up the necessary coding to turn a part of this paragraph into said Comic Sans font. Are you loving it? I’m not, I have to turn it off now!

I don’t know why people use Comic Sans. To me, it’s the font equivalent of turning every statement into a question. It undermines your credibility. It’s the open-fly and lipstick-on-your-teeth of the font world. In my very humble opinion, you should graduate beyond Comic Sans about the time you stop dotting the letter i with a heart or a star. And apparently, I’m not the only one.

To his credit, my co-committee member took my comments in good humour. In fact, he laughed that I carried such a burden of distaste for Comic Sans. And just a few days later, he e-mailed me this article from the Globe and Mail, which claims that Comic Sans will “will improve your memory retention, help your kids do better in school and make your wife love you more.”

There you go. Different keystrokes for different folks. And for all of my sweet friends who now think that I think poorly of them because of their font choice I will concede that for personal e-mail, it’s not a bad font choice — but it’s not a good one, either.

That’s exactly the sentiment that infuses this long and geek-a-licious article that had me at its title: “Why you hate Comic Sans.” It moves through a designer’s analysis of the stroke and weight of the font, goes on for quite a while using terms like stroke modulation, aperture and anti-aliasing, and then moves on to the bit that really intrigued me — the history of Comic Sans.

His conclusion:

So, the story of Comic Sans is not that of a really terrible font, but rather of a mediocre font, used incorrectly on a massive scale. Windows 95 was the first operating system to really hit it big. Just as computers were starting to pop up in nearly every home in America, Windows 95 was finding itself installed on all of those computers, and with it, the font Comic Sans. So now, nearly every man, woman, child, and bake sale organizer find themselves armed with publishing power unlike civilization had ever seen; and few of them really had any design sense.

He also notes:

So, you see, Comic Sans is an archetypal enemy of the Graphic Designer. Its not only an unattractive font, but it also represents the invisible, evil force that is making the “print” designer less and less relevant. A natural reaction to being threatened is violence, and the hatred for Comic Sans is arguably violent.

A good old-fashioned smackdown between classically trained graphic designers and sixty million DIY publishers — how can you not love this stuff? (I have to admit, I have a vested interest in this one. In my day job, I’m a Web manager but Beloved is not only trained in graphic arts but a teacher of them as well. Apparently we’re the Hatfields and the McCoys of the digital world!)

So where do you fit on the continuum? Need a little help to find out? Take five minutes to take this clever and entertaining quiz from Pentagram: What Type Are You?

Apparently, I am Archer Hairline - emotional, understated, progressive and disciplined. I love it!

And you?

Edited to add: props and bellows of laughter to @sproudfoot on twitter, who sent me the link to one of the most hilarious pieces I’ve ever read on the web, “Short Imagined Monologues: I’m Comic Sans, Asshole”

It opens with this:

Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

and ends with this:

I’m not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery. Enough of this bullshit. I’m gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

And the middle bits are even funnier than that. Really, go read it!!

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