Life – Page 15

Sponsorship Questions

August 28, 2011 by koalateagirl

I’ve been invited to attend the She’s Connected Conference in Toronto in September. I’m really excited to go because I want to learn how to make my blog and Twitter and Facebook accounts more relevant. In the last few days the excitement has started to be co-mingled with trepidation (yes it’s a $20 word but I love it so I’m using it). I’ve seen a lot of the other attendees actively seek wardrobe, travel, or shoe sponsors for the event. Lord knows I’d love to have someone pay for the hotel room for #SCCTO – Money isn’t a luxury I have a lot of right now, but I’m wary because I’m not sure I want to sell myself to do it. Right now, whenever I endorse something on Twitter, Facebook, or here, it’s because i use it and genuinely like it. I won a new Blackberry Bold 9900 on Twitter in July. I entered the #BB7FanNight Contest and won. I got to go to a really fancy launch party and play with all of the new devices that use the BB7 OS and choose one. I received it on Friday an tweeted that I love it. I really do love it. It has a touch screen and a keyboard and it’s really easy to use. There were no terms in the contract that said I had to tweet about how much I loved it – I gave Blackberry PR the right to use the tweets I entered the contest with in their advertising campaign, they liked one of the entries, I won a new Blackberry. If I hated the device I would say that, but I don’t.

Incidentally I also won a pair of Skullcandy ROCNATION headphones at the BB7FanNight event and I love them too. I’ve been looking for a new pair of headphones for awhile, and the ROCNATIONs in addition to looking really cool (they came with a cloth to make sure the outside stayed shiny!) are incredibly comfortable too. The only problem may be that they’re TOO good – when I tried to do some transcription off of a cassette tape they conveyed every hiss and crackle of the tape! I had heard of Skullcandy headphones before but figured they were too ‘hip’ for me – now I don’t care – I just love them.

I have an iphone that I got from my best friend. I like it a lot too – but there are some things about it that drives me nuts. I’m sure after I use the new Bold9900 for a year, there will be things that drive me nuts about them too. If I were to be offered a sponsorship by Blackberry, would I be free to voice any concerns I had about my device?

I’m afraid that if I enter into a relationship with a brand to get sponsorship for a conference, it will force me to not be honest about my opinions of products. I like to support local companies and failing that, Canadian companies. but I’m not willing to support a company that has crap products. I want my friends to know that when I recommend something (like I did with the Adult Essentials vitamins this week to a group of friends) that I actually use and enjoy the product. I’m still pretty new to the whole brands and blogs thing, but I’m not sure I’m willing to sell my soul for the price of a hotel room.

Swimming with beavers

August 28, 2011 by koalateagirl

This post got eaten. I’m going to blame the beaver at the cottage. Maybe he’s shy and didn’t want the notoriety that being on my blog would bring. I’m not sure why it got deleted but I’m trying to recreate it from memory.

I was at the cottage last weekend for my dad’s birthday weekend. It rained most of the weekend. On Sunday evening, during a break between rain storms I glanced out of a window at the lake and saw what I thought at first was a log floating in the lake. Upon closer inspection, however, the log moved! It was a beaver, swimming about 5′ out from shore! The beaver in question didn’t seem to care that there were people in the cottage, he swam around the bay and returned about 25 minutes later. (this time both Mum and Dad saw it – at first they thought i had just seen a log or something in the water). We tried to take some pictures which really do look like a log in the water due to the fact that beavers swim mostly underwater with just their nose sticking out at the front. It was a cool piece of Canadiana but I put it out of my head as one of those one-off things you see at the cottage.

Monday, Dad left early so he could make it to work relatively on time, leaving Mum and I to stay and clean up the cottage. Tidying the cottage is hot and sweaty work, mum can’t get down to the lake anymore, so she got the shower and I went for a swim. The air was cool and the lake was warmer than the air – which made it a very refreshing swim. I had been swimming for about 10 minutes, had taken a few dives off the raft and was swimming between the raft and the shore when I heard a noise that gave me pause. I looked towards the shore and there was the beaver again. They look a LOT bigger up close and personal! This thing was at least 2 feet long (not including the tail which looked huge!) and about 30 lbs. It raised its head out of the water a bit and wow are the beaver’s teeth prominent. It didn’t seem to care that I was in the water and kept on swimming. I, however, wasn’t taking any chances. I swam over to the dock (the beaver was swimming away from the dock) and got out of the lake as fast as I could. The fact that I got out on the dock demonstrates how nervous I was about the beaver – I never get out there – I use the beach because the dock has dock spiders and I really hate dock spiders! I have since read that beavers don’t attack humans, at least not in the water, but there’s a first time for everything right?

Bye Week

August 28, 2011 by koalateagirl

So it’s the bye week for my team the Toronto Argos – I’m going through withdrawal even though there were 2 very good teams playing football this week. The Bye week means that we’re halfway through the CFL season – It feels like it just started yesterday. I’m not ready for the regular season to be over in 8 short weeks! the CFL season is so short compared to the off-season. Pretty soon it will be November and November means PLAYOFFS. I dearly hope that my Argos turn things around and make it into the playoffs! There’s nothing better than playoff football. And while I root for the Argos, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good game no matter who is playing. This week was a prime example of why I love the CFL – Both games went down to the final two minutes, and both of my picks were right (but boy was I nervous!).

I was rooting for Winnipeg primarily because of the flak Tina LaPolice got for daring to express an opinion. I don’t believe that anything is different because she is the wife of the Head Coach of the Bombers. I think she has a right to cheer for the team and not take crap from certain loudmouthed players and fans on twitter. It even says in her twitter bio that her opinions are her own. I LOVE her twitter bio Football wife, mother of 2 gorgeous babes! Opinions are my own, not that of my husband! It’s not the 50’s..I say what I want! Still!! I think the whole situation got seriously blown out of proportion. When Dave Stala commented about wanting to take the swag out of swaggerville, she replied “We’ll see hacky sack boy!” – the Hacky sack boy comment refers to a touchdown celebration in which Stala plays hacky sack with the football (how this doesn’t run afoul of the non celebration rule still boggles my mind). That’s it. That was the comment that got everyone riled up. Seriously? Don’t you people have better things to do with your time? Tina is a strong woman who has strong beliefs – she was a Bomber’s cheerleader too so it’s natural for her to stick up for her team. I know I’m in the minority here, but I salute her and hope that she continues to show confidence in her team. They are one of the best stories of the 2011 CFL season to date – Yes Calvillo breaking the passing records is a great story but it was expected. I’m not sure that anyone expected the Bombers to be 7-1 at the midway point. Instead of making a twitter tempest in a teapot, let’s celebrate the great season the Bombers are having – and this despite the untimely death of their Assistant Head Coach Richard Harris earlier this season.

I will also add to the twitter follower who told me after I tweeted in support of @tinalapo … “Of course you’d defend her your (sic) a mouthy broad too”. Thanks. I will take that as a complement.

Cottage

August 18, 2011 by koalateagirl

I love heading to the cottage. Not the drive but just the act of actively getting away from it all. It’s not that I don’t love life in Kitchener but I feel more relaxed at the lake. I’m generally doing as many (if not more) things up there than I am in the city but I can drop any of them and go for a swim if i feel like it. Now that’s freedom. I generally get chewed by the mosquitoes (and if I’m really unlucky, the deer flies), but other than that I enjoy hanging out with the local wildlife – the chipmunks, minnows, and even Snappy – the 60+ year old snapping turtle who teaches people not to leave fish on the dock by eating them.

My grandfather built the cottage 50 years ago this year. A lot has happened there. I have spent time almost every year of my life at my beloved cottage. Yet, times change. Mum’s growing mobility issues will soon force us to sell the cottage and find a more level lot. I will be sad to say goodbye to the cottage but also happy to have one that the whole family can enjoy.

Only Children…

August 17, 2011 by koalateagirl

Some recent news articles have made me think about my status as an only child. My mum, asked me a few months ago whether I felt left out because I was an only child. I didn’t then and I don’t now. I loved being an only child. I’m sure I would have loved siblings too but being an only gave me advantages I wouldn’t have otherwise had. That’s not to say that I was spoiled. My parents took great care to avoid that. For starters I had a bunch of cousins within a 10 minute drive from my house who were over a lot and tortured me like siblings. They took my stuff and roughhoused and generally had a good time.

I was also involved in Guiding, hockey, and swimming lessons plus occasionally other things like a little chefs course. I was well socialized and I’m not sure that I could have done all those things if there was a sibling in the mix.

I wasn’t lonely. I was the type of kid who was happiest reading a book, and in books I found all sorts of wonderful people and stories. I also had a lot of friends who I could go and call on and play with after school or on weekends. Yes… go out and play – around the corner or, when i got a little older, down the block and through the walkway. I played with my friends, got annoyed by their siblings and returned to my cozy home.

I am both my father’s daughter and my mother’s daughter. Mum and I would sit and do crafts and she would patiently teach me how to knit day after day when I forgot. Would we have had all that 1 on 1 time if I had siblings? Dad treated me like one of the boys – I got to watch sports with him. Hockey, Auto racing, and football. Dad loves football and as he put it, they were pretty sure they were only going to have 1 kid, there was 1 tv, mum tolerated football but didn’t love it and he wanted to make sure the vote would be 2 vs 1 FOR football. Hence my beginnings as a football junkie. I wonder if I had had a brother, if my dad would have spent as much time explaining all the nuances of football to me? I’d like to think so but I’m not sure.

I know i missed out on things by not having a sibling. Mum’s big worry is that I won’t have family to support me when they die. I told her that I have friends and that just because people are related by blood doesn’t necessarily mean that they can stand each other. I feel loved and supported by the friends I have made and that is enough for me.

I wouldn’t have minded to have had someone else to blame things on either, come to think of it. When there was trouble in the house or something got broken, it was almost always my fault and I took the blame. If I’d had a younger sibling, I could have blamed them. There’s only so much you can blame on a dog.

Overall I feel like I had a well-rounded, happy childhood. I don’t think that I missed anything huge by not having biological siblings, I have a few friends who are as close to me as they are to their biological siblings if not closer.

I know quite a few only children, and none of us feel like we were deprived in any way of part of our childhood. I’ve had friends worry that they don’t have a sibling for their child yet. Relax, I tell them, even if you don’t ever end up with another kid, your firstborn won’t be horribly scarred. I may not get the mushy “sister” cards, but that’s ok with me.