just realized I didn't blog today
guess that's the downfall of working on projects all day and then meeting up with some sweet tweeps in the evening.
@cdnbeer was in town so we met up with him for a while and after having a few Half Pints Tyrone and I are back at home and I learned a few things today:
- I look like Lisa Loeb (I don't)
- shorts and tights are warm as long as you wear a wool sweater
- white nail polish doesn't look as trashy as I thought it would
- hugs from @nicolerudge are awesome (I got four!)
and now it's time to order pizza and drink imported beers and watch movies so happy Friday to you all.
got a phone call just now
while I was sitting here freezing in our apartment with no heat (it's not that cold out but apartments are weird like that and I have circulation) and this weird phone number came up as calling me so I picked it up and it was this lady asking me if I was still interested in breast reduction surgery which obviously I'm not. then I remembered that she was calling from an office I had visited two months before I even got in to see my surgeon and they (the office that just called) had told me that my surgery wouldn't be able to be booked until probably July or so and as a result I'd kept looking because at that time it was March or something.
anyway I told her I'd already gotten it done and she got really snooty like 'why didn't you call and tell us?' and I didn't know what to say because it's not like I was on some schedule or something and frankly I forgot because that was seven months ago and my surgery was in early May and wow it seems like a whole lifetime ago looking back. also wtf was this surgeon doing all this time where it took them three months to after they'd told me I'd be in surgery to call and see if I wanted to book next month? seriously.
I can't even imagine being that size anymore. I just re-watched that vlog I did the day before my surgery and woah they were like the size of my head.
I love/hate when people bring up reductions like they're implants because I can argue about them because getting your boobs removed/reshaped is different than getting more put in and doesn't mean I buy into any of the crap about how heterosexual women's self-images are shaped by the hyper-sexualized media dominated by male perspectives it means I had huge boobs and my back hurt a lot and now I can wear a button-up shirt for once in my life.
in case you haven't noticed I am kind of crabby today. I blame the cold apartment.
dude on a bike asked me for money today
I was sitting at the bus stop going to class and he rode by me and asked as he rode past "do you have any change??"
and I realized that I've been in a lot of weird situations that involved someone asking me for money and on the bus on the way to class I made a list of the weird ways in which I've been asked to give someone change and here they are
- by two guys who tried to get me to drink out of the bottle of straight whiskey they were sharing which I declined to do
- by a woman in a clown suit (I didn't ask)
- by a woman who was so drunk she fell head-first over the waist-high railing of the patio I was sitting on (she was okay)
- through the window at a coffee shop
- by a little kid who yelled "can I have a dollar?" at Tyrone and I as we rode past on our bikes
- on the bus and then he sat next to me for the entire 20-minute bus ride asking for change from everyone around me
- in the waiting room of a walk-in clinic once when I was sick
in other news I'm dressed like a big hipster today and this is what I look like
following up on the CreComm bloggers round table
it's taken me a while to sort out my feelings about this topic, and I feel like last Thursday I said a lot of things that were insightful, important and hopefully useful to the students I was speaking to. however being part of a panel of bloggers who do a decidedly different form of blogging than I do -that is, blogging that is extremely focused on a specific set of topics and targeted at a very specific audience- I felt like maybe my voice and the relevance of writing a 'personal blog' fell a bit by the wayside.
maybe the students I spoke to will read this, maybe they won't. however for those of you that I know read this (hello new readers! I see you) I just want to make the distinction between something that perhaps I didn't articulate properly during the round table:
this blog isn't my 'online portfolio', it is my personal brand.
I do a lot of things. I'm a blogger who is obsessed with social media and The Internet. I'm a Joint Communications student. I contribute at squarepegcity.com. I'm the Social Media Manager for the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition and I'm an unprofessional photographer who does freelance consulting. I live a rich and interesting life full of people who admire and respect what I do and it's all because of this stupid blog. because when people visit my blog they don't just see some schmuck who has a 'blog on The Internet' but someone who spends a great deal of time thinking about and crafting their online image and their personal brand.
there are others like me that I can say the same thing about: Tony Pierce (of course), Lauren O'Nizzle, Kyla Roma, Christine Estima, Zach Bussey, to name a very select few. all of these people have extremely interesting and unique personal blogs that not only highlight their mastery of their field and ongoing accumulation of knowledge/experience but also provide insightful, funny and sometimes shocking peeks into their personal life.
the reason people want to work with these individuals is because of who they are, not just what they've shown that they know.
because let's be honest, people aren't hiring what you know, they're hiring who you are, and your portfolio blog could be the most knowledgeable and on-the-ball blog there is, but if you're not engaging, open and interesting nobody's going to give a shit about what you have to say.
don't get me wrong, topic-specific (portfolio) blogs have their place. The other participators in the Blogger's Round Circle (Erica, Liz and James) are extremely good at what they do. but I'm here to tell you it's not your only choice.
I'm here to tell you that you can be weird
that you should give insight where it isn't wanted
to read how to blog every day and do it
that it's okay to wear like a fucking sailor if you want because having a squeaky-clean image isn't always what employers/collaborators want (in most cases it seems cheap and fake, and in most cases it is)
that it's okay to share stories about your dog, your summer vacation, or your sweet thrift store finds with your audience because it means you're a real person and that's so hard to come by in 'the industry'
that you need to realize that the people worth working for will both respect your blog and appreciate it. I haven't worked with a single person, ever, who hasn't said "I love your blog, it's why I got in touch/was recommended to you". seriously.
but you can't take yourself or your blog too seriously. then you just become some asshole trying to manipulate your audience and you'll lose everyone who cares enough to read what you have to say, no matter what you're saying
and finally if you can't or don't want to share your life, don't feel bad. there are untold numbers of blogs that are centered around a specific topic that are wildly successful and entertaining. just look at the people on the rest of the panel with me.
however that being said social media is just that -social. living your life (or part of it) online not only demonstrates your expertise with drawing an audience, keeping them engaged and interested, and creating a positive brand image for yourself but it shows fearlessness and accessibility. both to potential employers/collaborators as well as your audience.
if you want people to care about what you have to say, you have to make them care about you.
however you choose to blog about it is your choice.
Tea Party audience cheered for letting the uninsured die
this is probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in a 'civilized society'
the amount of ego, ignorance and selfishness involved to
cheer about letting an uninsured person die
is something I can't grasp
whatever happened to being a good person
looking out for your fellow man
basic human decency
remember that Jesus guy in that book all the Tea Partiers love so much?
what would he have to say about this
don't you think he'd be disappointed in the way these people think?
I want to be in a Soap Box Derby
like the one we saw at ManyFest yesterday.
if I were competing in a soap box derby we'd have a theme which would be "Yellow Submarine" and we'd decorate our soap box to look like the Yellow Submarine and we'd all dress up as the psychedelic Beatles and push it since we're in #Winnipeg and there are no hills to compete on down Broadway and I would be dressed up as Ringo of course
I'd do a horrible shop of my face over his but I have mega schoolreads to do tonight and to be honest I just don't have the time so you're spared me mutilating this lovely piece of Beatles art
and speaking of The Beatles and speaking of Yellow Submarine and speaking of doing acid (because they're all related, right?) Tyrone picks me up from my evening classes and tonight as we were walking home this extremely cheerful dude asked 'the preppy guy' (Tyrone) for a lighter and as he was getting around to lighting his smoke he offered to sell us some 'really wicked' acid because he was 'flying high wish us guys' and though we didn't take any it was nice of him because who sells 'really good acid' to complete strangers?
that guy, I guess. it was weird.
almost as weird as seeing a giant box of Chinese take-out coming up the street
ManyFest photo essay
today after doing a photoshoot with @djdanthrax who is one of my favourite people ever he took off on his amazing new bike we wandered up the street to the weekend-long party known as ManyFest
which is a silly name I know but last year was Lights on Broadway and you can't really top that. plus this year was a mishmash of tons more stuff so the name kinda works.
as the name suggests we saw many things
and classic car-b-ques
and giant chess
and a Soap Box Derby which I'll blog about tomorrow
and took pictures of me with chess
and sweetheart that he is, he's making me dinner to boot.
Hip Hop Sunday #15 - k-os - I wish I knew Natalie Portman
busy Hip Hop Sunday
photoshoot right away, street festival after, studying after that
happy HHS, xoxo
working on a big post but it's not ready yet
I don't know how to end it.
so instead you get to read about how we went and hung out in the North End today which was nice because it was 32 degrees, sunny, slightly windy and I wasn't hungover from the at-home wine party Tyrone and I threw ourselves last night because it's been a rough week and it was friday so why not?
we shot a bunch of vid of the neighbourhood around Mountain and McGregor which is where my Grandma's old house is. she lived there from the time she was two to when she was 77 can you believe that? if you aren't from Winnipeg let me tell you that parts of the North End ain't what they used to be, and even though someone was shot in a gang fight two nights after my Grandma moved out I didn't get scarytime vibes walking around today. at least in the St John's (park, school, street, etc) part of the North End it seemed really nice and I felt 100% safe.
and yes I know I shouldn't write off an entire neighbourhood based on the fact that it's got a bad reputation and I'm not trying to. in a roundabout way I'm trying to say that not every part of the North End of Winnipeg is somewhere to avoid. everywhere's got bad neighbourhoods and if you go a few streets over in my neighbourhood (West Broadway) there's some sketchy ish that goes down.
like last night when we saw a dude get arrested!
Tyrone was out having a smoke outside and he ran upstairs and was all "omg they're arresting someone RIGHT NOW!" so we peeped over the sills of our front window and sure enough two cop cars were arresting some dude who, according to Tyrone who saw it happen (someone else was already calling the cops) was all wasted and trashing the porch of the house across the street. so of course we rubbernecked hard and watched it go down and I've never seen anyone get arrested before and it was weirdly interesting? I'm not sure why, maybe it was the wine.
so today while we were walking around shooting video these kids (seriously, like ten years old or younger) were walking past us and one kid as like "hey you wanna buy some kush?" and later at Machray Park we saw him working out a deal with some chick who was maybe twelve. it was ridiculous she was standing by the fence on the corner and he was on the swings yelling his prices to her. ridiculous!
anyway it's time for perogies and some Alfred Hitchcock Presents before we go out to ManyFest in a bit.
so busy.
thought I wasn't going to blog today eh?
sooooo wrong. this vid is amazing and MGG is zexy tamz
and don't worry, there's a big post coming tomorrow
