So today is the last day of The Great Write-Off of 2009! I think it’s safe to say that if there was a “winner” for this challenge, it’s me. Dan kind of dropped off the face of the earth for a little while and hasn’t recovered since. Sorry you suck, Dan. :(

Nah, in all fairness, I think Dan has a lot less free time than I. Still, I’m a busy girl and I’m proud I did my absolute hardest to post every second day, on-time. It’s been fun and hopefully I’ll keep writing here.

One of the reasons I came up with this idea for a blog off was that I knew I needed to populate my website with more content and I also needed a promotion of some kind. I needed new eyeballs. Coming up with a challenge was the solution to forcing myself to create content but approaching Dan and baiting him into a blog off was my solution to getting new visitors to my site and hopefully new readers.

I’d say it worked, wouldn’t you?

In case you can’t see that very well (silly narrow content window!), traffic is up 532% over same time period last month (though it should be higher because, as you can see at the beginning of my month, I changed the layout and as a result my GA code got dropped). I have an increase of 524% in pageviews, and average time on site rose 28%.

Who doesn’t love statistics like that?

As you can see, my biggest spike in traffic was as a result of my interview with Zephyr of CollegeFashion.net. She posted a link to the review on her Twitter account, which has 3,950 followers, so of course some of them wandered their way over here.

I think my favourite post however, was the one about moving to a new city and trying to start over. It’s definitely a subject that is close to my heart (having done it in Toronto and then Sydney, Australia) so I feel I can talk to it with some conviction. Plus I do love Eric’s photo – it’s definitely one of my favourites of all of his.

In any case, it’s been fun and I’m surprised I’ve had enough to talk about, really. Some posts fell flat but some were well recieved and on the whole, I think I came out with some quality content!

Thanks for playing along, folks. It’s been grand!

We’re almost at the end of The Great Write Off of 2009! Tomorrow is the official end date and I’ll be posting then as well. Until now, onto today’s topic: Unsolicited Spam.

Was I ever angry when I logged into my gmail account today to see an unsolicited e-mail from a real estate agent. I rarely hand out my gmail e-mail as a preventative so I am angry and sad that I’ve been blasted. My question is really, “How did she get it?” I wish I could know.

The e-mail in question:

Ha! She left her Twitter account at the bottom – GREAT! I quickly Tweeted at her with this:

Well, I can’t undo the fact that she has my email address now but damn, if I don’t feel better about yelling at her. And who knows, maybe she’ll respond to me and I can figure out how she got it. One can dream…

So I was looking up lyrics today and came across some great Scientology ads on a song lyrics website, Sing365. Just thought I’d capture these for my lovely readers and share them with you! Really not sure why a song lyrics website is the best place to capture potential Scientologists: anyone have any ideas? What’s the demographic of these sites?

In order to answer my own question, I turned to the internets to find out. And according to Google Ad Planner, 60% of the visitors are female, 41% don’t have a high school diploma, 37% are 0-17 years in age and 67% make between $25,000 – $75,000 a year. So basically they’re targeting young, rich kids? Sounds about right. Way to go Scientology!

And here are the great ads for you!

Square Banner Ads

Vertical Banner Ads

How great are these? “Love! Hate! What is the answer?”

Hmm. Tough one. I’ll let you guys decide! Feel free to comment with your ideas on what the answer should be? Love? Or hate?

(Via weheartit)

Today is a monumental day in Canada, or a day of laziness, dependent on how you celebrate. That’s right, it’s Canada Day! As for me? Well, I slept in and have been enjoying doing nothing but finishing up Season 2 of Six Feet Under.

I thought in honour of this day, I would post some history of this day, plus my favourite Canadian-historic comic, done by the fabulous Kate Beton.

Did You Know?

• Canada Day was formerly called Dominion Day.
• Canada Day is a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the enactment of the British North America Act, signed July 1, 1867.
• This act united Canada as a single country of four provinces: the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada (which was divided into Ontario and Québec).
• Up until post-World War II, many people did not celebrate Canada Day (or Dominion Day, as it was called then).
• However, beginning in 1958, the Canadian government made a conscious effort to organized Dominion Day celebrations on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa.
• After Canada’s centennial in 1967, Dominion Day became more popular with the average Canadian as the country began to be seen as maturing into a distinct, independent country.
• After 1980, the Canadian government began to promote Dominion Day beyond the national capital by helping fund local Dominion Day activities across the country.
• On October 28, 1982, Dominion Day was officially changed to Canada Day, a bill that passed in the House of Commons in five minutes and without debate.

(Source.)

And without further ado, I give you my favourite Canadian History comic by Kate Beaton:

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Night Begins by Eric Hacke

A while ago, I did your typical thing: Small town-girl packs up and heads to the big city to make it and become a rockstar. Or whatever. For me, it was hopefully to be an advertising rockstar, but rocking the stars was definitely in the plans.

Starting over in a new city can be tough. Even when you’re lucky enough to know a few people, there’s something so indescribably scary and exciting about leaving the place you grew up, the place where you know all the streets backwards and forwards and heading off into the Great Unknown.

I admit, the first few months of my time in Toronto were lonely. I might even go as far as to say I was depressed… Though due to circumstance. Generally, I am a very social person and was used to having a great group of friends around me. Suddenly, I listening to all my friends talk on the phone about all the fun they were having back home. It really hit me hard.

I still remember one Saturday I woke up around 11am but didn’t actually get out of bed until 7pm. What was the point? I had no where to be.

And so it took a lot of work on my part to bring my social life up to where it is today. Which is to say, I am a busy and very, very happy girl. I have a really great group of friends in my life; people I am grateful to know, who make my world a better place. I’m involved in many things as well. But, like I said, it took a lot of work. So I thought I’d share some of the things I found helpful when you’re starting out:

ONE. Join a Sports Team. Even if You Don’t Play.

Sports are a great way to meet new and interesting people! It’s a lot more natural to make friends with people you see once or twice a week for a common purpose. And it doesn’t seem weird or creepy to ask if anyone wants to grab a drink or food after a game, because most people enjoy extending the team camaraderie beyond just the playing time on the field.

Plus there’s just something about playing on a team together that brings people together. You can laugh over failed attempts, funny falls, the other team being a whiny little… – ahem. It really is good fun to play together, win together, lose together. There’s just something about bonding over moments like that, that when you add in a dash of team spirit, you suddenly you have your Saturday night plans, boom, like that.

Quick Tip: If you aren’t very good, or haven’t played many sports, I highly recommend just signing up for a beer league, or joining any available recreational level. Seriously, people in competitive leagues will be more of an enemy than a friend if you can’t play and sign up for competitive. Something about all that skill and ego just makes them a little crazy.

TWO. Be Socially Awkward.

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be play it cool. Playing it cool might not get you the results you want. In these cases, you got to just go for the alternative: being socially awkward.

In these cases, it is perfectly acceptable, when meeting new people and liking them, to explain your situation. “Hey, I just moved here, x months ago, do you mind if we hang out again? I really don’t know that many people here in the city…” Most people will understand, having been there themselves. Those that still live in the city they’ve grown up in and have their pre-made set of friends, may not understand but can probably sympathize. It can be tough out there. Meeting new people isn’t easy. And I truly believe that most people are nice. They’ll get it and agree to hang out.

Quick Tip: You can’t ride on this coat-tail forever, though. Eventually, a real friendship has to form and bonds made or soon you’ll just be the annoying, nagging “friend” who constantly wants to do something. Don’t do that. Try to form a real friendship, and if it just isn’t happening, don’t force it. Cut your losses and move on.

THREE. Hang Out with Friends of Friends.

One of the things that has really helped me make friends is going out with a friend and their friends. Sure, you may feel like the lone man in the group, only knowing one person. But this is where the “trying” part comes in. If you’re not outgoing normally, do your best to speak up, to start a conversation. It can be scary. You’re putting yourself out there, potentially. You might even slip up a time or two, making a joke that no one gets or doesn’t find funny. But that’s ok. Keep trying. Eventually you will find a group of friends who get you and who are excited to have you join them. Then the real fun starts!

Quick Tip: Make sure, first, that’s it’s ok with your friend that you want to be friends with their’s. Some people get weird about their social circles mixing and interacting. Some just get jealous. Make sure you get the “All Clear” signal before proceeding, if only to avoid future drama.

FOUR. Take Risks.

Sometimes, you just have to do something that makes you incredibly uncomfortable. I still remember the day I took what I perceived to be a very scary risk. It was the summer of 2007, and I had just moved to Toronto. As I wrote above, it wasn’t exactly the best summer for me. I was lonely. And I had been invited to this random party.

It was kind of weird how it worked but I had been invited to a house warming party for this house people were moving into. It was actually a house I had been thinking about renting when I was first looking for an apartment in Toronto. The guy that had found the place who was looking for roommates had invited me to come to the house warming party he was throwing with the people who HAD decided to rent with him. I remember I had nothing to do that night, and had been lying around all day, with no plans for the evening so I thought, well, why not?

I showed up to the party alone, knowing absolutely no one – not even really the host himself. But I knew his name and what he looked like from Facebook. I ended up finding him and we chatted. And then I chatted to some other people were there. I actually made some pretty cool connections that night and had a blast – something I didn’t even expect. I even met a future boyfriend there. So you know what? It really worked out for me.

Quick Tip: When I tell people this story, they usually comment how much guts it took to show up at the party. But really, when you think about it, what do you have to lose? If it doesn’t work out, you will never see these people again. And if it does – well, you may soon find yourself talking to a guy you will eventually fall in love with. So, take the risk. It could work out better than you expect.

FIVE. Use Social Media to the Fullest Extent.

Social media can be really handy when you’ve first moved somewhere new. It’s not weird to add people to your network after meeting them at a party or messaging them now and again. This is one place where I would recommend keeping it casual, however. You don’t want to message them every time they’re online or you’ll look desperate and no one really wants to hang out a person like that.

I’ve met some great people by using social media. In fact, I only sort of knew Dan before I added him to Twitter and we got to talking. I’ve met some other great people through Twitter as well, like @KevRichards and @Myogis (she’s a Haligonian – who I started talking to when I was in Australia. Ah, the power of the internet!).

Sometimes someone you only know through hearing about them from a friend, or met very, very briefly are great Facebook adds. For example, my now-roommate and I met briefly at a party, joked about how we were totally BFFs, added each other on Facebook and now she truly is one of my closest friends and the most awesome roommate ever. (Perhaps it was love at first sight?)

Quick Tip: If they don’t add you back, don’t take it personally. Again, maybe they’re just not the kind of friend you’ll want in your life. Keep trying and leverage social media to meet people and get involved in your local social media scene. It will definitely be worth it in the end.

—

So there you have it! Five not-so-quick ideas on how to meet people in a new city. I hope any newbies to a city will get some value out of this. It’s tough, and you can get homesick pretty easily but bear in mind it usually takes 6-8 months to really, truly begin to settle into a new place. Give yourself some time and keep working on it. I promise the rewards are DEFINITELY worth the effort.

Friends rule!

—

Admin Stuff:

So Dan missed yesterday’s post due to… ? I’m not sure. I’m sure he had a good excuse though, because who likes to LOSE? Apparently Dan does.

Anyway, as per rules, because he missed posting it is now time to come up with a suitable punishment. Would readers like to chime in with any suggestions on what we could make Dan blog? Any and all ideas welcome.

Edit: Okay, so I guess Dan had sunstoke plus a 12 hour workday. Should we go easy on him, ladies and gents? Or follow the rules to the full extent? Let me know.

Ode to My Last Day

O, last day of a job!

Tho I was here but a dob,

There was good, there was bad,

It was in a pretty cool pad.

But the day came, oh darling employment,

Where I couldn’t make my rent,

And I understood why our love went away,

When I met my new job the other day.

This new job, O! this new job,

So fancy, so pantsy, quite a snob,

–But! A snob of awesomeness, so swish,

I took the contract & gave it a kiss.

So sorry, old job, but I must move on,

Our love -  so strong! – is all but gone,

And I see my future so clear,

And saldy it is not with you, my dear.

- Emma Brooks (1985 – ?)

This isn’t in the form of an ode, which eHow.com tells me is written as a 10-line stanza of iambic verse using an ababcdecde rhyme scheme. However, this is what I call creative liscence so you’re just going to have to deal, mmk?

For Day 17 of the Great Write Off of 2009, Dan asks us, “Is saying, ‘It’s just not the right time’ a valid argument?” He writes:

However, I had the decision to make. While I made the “it’s not the right time” argument, it was completely under my control, and I could’ve chosen to do it if I wanted to. It’s important to recognize that timing won’t always be ideal, but that alone shouldn’t rule out making a decision one way or the other. Whether it’s with your business or with your personal life, it’s important that you make what you perceive to be the best decision in your life.

As I wrote on his blog in the comments section:

I think everything happens for a reason. We just generally aren’t aware of these reasons until we can look back with the knowledge of how things have turned out… which can sometimes take years.

Timing, I find, is actually a very good reason. Think of all the people you could have dated/might have, but didn’t, because the timing wasn’t right. People use that excuse all the time.

Yes, we have control of our lives, and if you had REALLY wanted that offer, Dan, you would have made it work. I think timing can be a big part of a decision, but it always comes partnered with other reasons and factors. It’s just the easiest to explain :)

This is definitely one of those questions you could ask and end up talking about philosophy and views on life until the wee hours of the morning, and folks? I’m a little too sleepy right now to even attempt anything beyond my comment above.

However, if you have anything to share, please do so here or on Dan’s blog.

So yesterday, Dan blogged about his attempts to cut down on the carbs in his diet by cutting out two big staples he has been over-indulging in recently: pasta and bread. A very noble effort and Dan is doing well so far.

So I’m a girl, in case some of you may not have noticed, and girls are usually a little more obsessive about their weight than males. Fact. And up until 2005, I really hadn’t cared that much about my weight. I’m a small girl, coming in at 5’1 1/2″ (that extra half inch is very important to my emotional well-being) and I’ve always been petite. I never really paid too much attention to what I ate because, hey, I’m pretty small and I also play soccer a lot. I figured it would balance out.

But in January of 2005, I was at my parents place visiting and decided to weigh myself. I stepped on and looked down and was instantly shocked. My weight had never been that high before! I couldn’t believe it. When did this happen? How did I not notice this? Right then and there, staring at a number I had never been before, I decided to take action.

I came home and started looking online for ways to lose weight. I stumbled across a site called MyFoodDiary.com. The name sounded familiar; someone on a blog post earlier that month had mentioned how it had really helped them lose weight. I immediately signed up.

For $9 a month, I had access to all of MFD’s tools. This included being able to input and track every morsel you put in your mouth, by either entering the nutritional label into their database or searching their over 50,000 food items available. It also had the option for you to input any of your favourite recipes, and by telling their system how many servings it was for, it would output the nutritional information.

But the thing I really liked about this service was how they weren’t simply focused on your daily caloric or fat intake. They were concerned with the whole picture. This meant they tracked your Vitamin A intake, your Vitamin C levels, Iron, and Calcium as well. They wanted you to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Wanted you to get some form of exercise – every day!

They rank your days, when you’ve hit the ‘Day Complete’ button at the end of the day, with a series of smiley and frownie faces. The maximum number of smilies you can get is 11: For not having desert, for getting your necessary fiber intake, for going for a walk, hitting your water goal and more. Frownie faces could range from too many alcoholic calories, to not exercising, for too much desert or too high a saturated fat intake.

It quickly became a game. Could I plan and rearrange my meals so I can get as many smilies as possible? Oh, I really wanted a two-bite brownie, but if I entered it, I’d get a frownie for going over my maximum calorie intake. Oh, but wait! If I skip rope for 20 minutes, I’ve burned enough off to earn that brownie. As you can see, this really appealed to my competitive streak.

Soon, I understood whether 4 grams of fiber in a product was really good or not good enough. I knew right away from looking at label whether I should eat this food or not. Uh-uh, put that back, the saturated fat is way too high. Oh, but this has 50% of my daily intake of iron – yes, please!

In a sense: I taught myself good, proper nutrition.

And what followed was a slow and steady weight loss over the next four month. It was slow, yes, but it was steady and that’s what I needed. As I explored more and more of the site – beginning to read and participate on the forums, I learned more and more about how I could eat better.

After four months, I had not only reached my weight goal, but I dipped below what I had set for myself (in a healthy way). I felt great. My body was happy and I was happy. I decided I had learned enough and canceled my membership. This time though, I wasn’t scare of  going out without this crutch I had been leaning on for months. Instead, I felt armed with the knowledge of what I needed to do to keep the weight off and to continue to eat well.

It’s been four years since my initial experience with MFD. In this time, I’ve re-joined the site twice. Usually only for a month or two. I do it as a way to check-in. To make sure my eating habits haven’t slipped too badly. Usually I need to make some tweaks but generally I know what I need to eat if I want to lose weight and get all the nutrients I need. It’s nice knowing I am capable of doing this on my own.

My weight, at this point, isn’t bad. It isn’t the best it could be either. I was at my lowest weight a couple months ago, when I returned from traveling, than I had been since my stint with MFD in 2005. But it wasn’t healthy; I hadn’t played soccer in 6 months and my muscles had wasted away. I was less toned. My weight reflected the loss muscle mass. So now I am working on bringing that back up by playing soccer 3x a week. Then once I have got the muscle mass back to its original state, I will focus on the numbers again. And make changes where I need to.

Here are some of the main lessons I learned from MFD throughout the years:

• Because I’m so small, my “weight loss” caloric intake is really not much lower than my “maintain” caloric intake. This means I have a lot less room to play with when I’m trying to lose weight compared to when I’m simply eating a regular diet.
• Measure, measure, measure EVERYTHING! You think you’re good at eyeballing portion sizes? Think again. That cup of cereal is definitely not 1/2 cup. Try again, but this time with measuring cups or a food scale. We, as humans, suck at eyeballing weight and volume.
• Even though the site pushes for you to drink 8 cups of water a day (not liquid, pure water), my body is simply unable to handle that much water. Everyone on the forums say, “Oh, after a few weeks you don’t even notice that you’re drinking 8 cups.” I did it for four months and it still wasn’t a comfortable amount of liquid for me. I’d literally have to chug a cup or two of water before bed if I wanted to make my 8 cup goal. My body very much prefers 6 cups of water. That’s fine. This is not an absolute system – tailor any diet or eating regime to your body. Listen to your body and learn.
• Every little extra you add on? Adds up! Avoid butter whenever possible. You don’t really need to salt the water you’re going to boil pasta in, trust me. It’ll be fine without it. In fact, you generally don’t need to add salt to anything. Once you cut back on salt, you really begin to notice how salty every thing is naturally. If you do your best to avoid those little extras, you’ve usually saved yourself 100 calories a day.
• If you bake? Mix up the oil in your baking recipes with non-sweetened apple sauce. I swear, you can’t tell the difference. Also, add in vegetables wherever possible. I used to make brownies with about 2 cups of grated carrots in them. Couldn’t even taste it!
• Having a “day off” from your food regime can actually be beneficial to your weight loss goals. Many forum members found that when they took one day off from tracking and ate what they wanted (within reason – no all-out gluttony here), their weight loss sped up. This is probably because your body gets used to a certain caloric intake and if you mix it up, it sort of wakes up from a snooze and starts working harder. Taking a break every now and then does not have to be detrimental to your goals and can save you a little sanity as well.
• Slow and steady wins the race. It took me four months to lose 18 pounds. But I kept that weight off for a long time and I felt healthier – which was the most important thing to me.

Anyway – I hope some of these tips helped someone. And if you’re contemplating joining a food diary site, there are many others out there besides MyFoodDiary.com, including tons of free ones. I just happen to like MFD’s set-up best but then again, I am biased!

For Day 16 (is it really Day 16? It feels like it’s been nowhere near that long and and eternity all at the same time!), Dan talks about trying to cut out bread and pasta out of his diet this week.

He says:

So, what’s the result? While there aren’t likely any noticeable physical results yet (let’s face it, I am still fairly skinny), I’m feeling a LOT better. Salads and parfaits are surprisingly more satisfying than I remember, and I have more energy than I should, given that I’ve been up at 5:45 every day this week. I’ve also avoided the mid-afternoon lull…

So, yes, definitely too early to probably to see any physical difference but I’m glad Dan is feeling more upbeat and better. That’s always wonderful!

It’s funny, I was actually contemplating a write-up of my own about weight and my history of success and failures, so perhaps I will follow up with more of my own thoughts here, tomorrow.

In the meantime, Dan, keep it up and I hope to see a blog post in the future to see how much progress you’ve made in a few weeks and if you see any physical changes. I’m not a huge believer in cutting out carbs as a good way to lose weight, especially considering how much soccer I play but I’m curious to know how it goes. Good luck!

For Day 15, I’d thought I’d add in some photos to the mix, considering I just got my camera back in order last night. Hallelujah! I had lost my Canadian Sony battery charger and was left only with my Australian one. Luckily, FutureShop had the adapter I needed to make it work so I could finally charge my batteries. It’s only been out of order for 2 months. That is a record for me!

Anyway, I thought I would do a Day in the Life (to steal The Beatles song so aptly), starting with waking up this morning at 7am and going until I posted this tonight, so 10pm. I did a picture an hour. I took over 129 pictures today so let me tell you, it’s actually been a little tough whittling them down to just 16 photos. But here they are:

7am: Morning light through the window. Waking up!

8am: Walking to the subway station

9am: My day starts, contains and ends with Excel

10am: In need of tea.

11am: I figured 8 pictures of Excel wouldn’t be very interesting.

12pm: Time for lunch! I got a schwarma which wasn’t pictured because I ate it way too fast. Oops?

1pm: Back to Excel!

2pm: Listening to the song I’m obsessed with Demon Host – Timber Timbre

3pm: I am so witty. Aha.

4pm: Email break to get away from Excel for a minute.

5pm: Almost quittin’ time! The ceiling hard at work.

6pm: Jules waiting for our game to start.

7pm: Eglington Flats! Our game was not canceled due to strike which was AWESOME.

8pm: Taking a break; watching the game. We won 4-2.

9pm: Walking home after soccer.

10pm: My kitten dislikes the flash oh-so-much. Hee.

And there you have it. My exciting, exciting day boiled down to 16 photographs. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed doing it!