My Name is Kate

Olympic Fever - I Haz It

With less than 100 days to go til the Olympics officially kick off here in Vancouver and the Torch Relay finally underway, there have been a lot of Olympic-themed campaigns that have started around the Internets and beyond.

The Canadian Olympic Committee launched their "Paint the Town Red" program.  If you need ideas on how you, your organization or your town can Paint the Town Red, you can download their idea booklet (pdf). Some of my favourite suggestions (tongue only occasionally in cheek here):

• Hang strings of red Christmas lights from your porch or balcony (note to self: stock up on red lights - these will go fast at Canadian Tire, I bet)
• Have a ‘wear red to work’ day, with roving facepainters (the idea of roving facepainters scares me - yet, it's the kind of thing I would like to do)
• Bake red cookies and give them out at your community centre, senior centre or sports club
• Create a ritual every time a Canadian athlete wins a medal eg. put another Canadian flag up in the lobby (or eat another red cookie)
• Sign all correspondence in red ink (I feel like there are some weird legal ramifications to this - but if I change my email font to red, you'll know why)
• Free parking for customers in red cars (this one is pretty clever)
• Switch the company logo to red (for celebration days or opening ceremony) [the parenthesis on this were actually in the booklet - I'm trying to imagine the argument between the creatives and the brand police on this one "Oo .. have people change their logo" "OMG - you can't change the LOGO" "Well, what if they did it just for the opening ceremonies?" "Oh, ok then".]

The COC also created this facebook app - PodiumPals - where you can stick your face on different cartoon sports representations and use the pic as a profile app.

Disclosure: the COC's PR firm sent me a "Paint the Town Red" paint can kit as part of the launch of this program.

And as you could expect, National Olympic Partners are also starting to launch their promotions. Petro-Canada has re-launched their iwilldreambig.ca site.  It now includes a very cool "Longest Wave in the World" - you can take a series of 5 shots with your webcam, mimicking you doing the wave, and then upload them.  The website animates them and joins your pic in a wave across Canada.  It's a neat idea.

As part of the iwilldreambig relaunch, LintBucket Media (my company) worked with Petro-Canada on a blog to promote their Canadian Athlete Family Program (CAFP).  The CAFP takes care of two family members of Canadian Olympic Athletes who are competing at the Vancouver 2010 Games.  Once they arrive in Vancouver, Petro-Canada's CAFP houses them, gives them great swag, gets them tickets to their athlete's competition, transports them to the competition and provides other support during their stay.

Finally, my own personal Olympic fever stems from my recently caught pin obsession.  Olympic pins.  This month is my birthday and Rosemary kicked off my birthday month celebration with these four pins.

Cute, huh?  (Mukmuk, with the foam finger, cracks me up every time I look at him.) And then I entered a pin contest on Twitter from Atos (an awesome "100 days to go" pin - and they are still doing the trivia if YOU want to enter) and then I entered another pin contest from Cold F/X and I read Andrea's 2010VanFan blog obsessively and have been entering her draws. Oh, AND I donated $20.10 to Molson's podium fund to get their pin. It's a sickness.  But I can't stop. This is my pin collection goal.  

So, if you have any Vancouver 2010 Olympic pins that you have kicking around that you don't really want, I know where they can find a good home :)

Michael, Sookie and Don - 2009 Halloween Costume Trends

With Canadian Thanksgiving behind us (or that rockin' holiday in the US, Columbus Day), it's time to start thinking about Halloween costumes.  Halloween is on a primo Saturday night this year, so I would think there are going to be more folks out than usual and that means more ghosts and zombies to compete with for best costume prize.

I had the opportunity to check in with Karen Bard, eBay's Pop Culture expert. Apparently it is the year of the celebrity costume.  Between the death of the King of Pop and the rise of sexy vampires and their associates (think Edward Cullen (played by Robert Cullen) from Twilight or Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin) from True Blood), celebrities are hot this year as Halloween choices!  And while vintage costumes have been popular in past years (think 1920's gangsters and their molls), vintage is even more in vogue with the popularity of Mad Men characters like John Draper and Peggy Olson.

I was also pleased to hear from Karen that the celebrity wig is a hot item.  Last year it was "The Palin".  This year, "The Gosselin".

Karen advises that eBay can be a great boon for folks who want to be star of Halloween this year and offers the following tips for finding the just right look for Halloween:

• Search for both the name of the show as well as the character or the name of the celebrity.  This way, you'll cover more bases.  Also, using words like "style" (e.g. "Mad Men style") will help focus your search.
• Shop early. Costume purchases on eBay peak in mid-October. (So get on it!!)
• If you don't find the precise costume you're looking for, you might be able to someone to MAKE you the perfect costume. A number of the costume sellers on eBay are also makers.

I was also able to get a few more "Halloween costumer trivia" bits from Nazia over at Environics (she provided trivia about Valentine's Day earlier this year).

• ‘Halloween costume’ is the most popular search in the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories category on eBay.ca
• One of the most watched items on eBay.ca is a Michael Jackson Billie Jean sequined jacket and matching pants.
• There are 80 sequined gloves available on eBay.ca. Prices range from $2.33 to over $100.
• Which MJ do you want to be? eBay.ca has costumes based on Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller, Smooth Criminal, Bad and other iconic MJ “characters”
• There are over 50 Sookie Stackhouse/Merlotte’s waitressing costumes on eBay.ca – some even come with a bottle of O+ blood beverage.
• According to the National Retail Federation (US), vampires will be popular costumes (think True Blood and Twillight). There are over 1700 vampire costumes and accessories on eBay.ca
• To recreate that Gossip Girl look, there are close to 300 blouses, dresses, headbands and other accessories inspired by the hit show found on eBay.   
• The average price for a Halloween costume on eBay is $27.63

In addition to finding elements for a costume, you can also find patterns to sew your own.  Both eBay and Etsy are great sources for vintage patterns.  I found this great Amidala and Princess Leia pattern set on Etsy.

I asked Karen what she was going as this year for Halloween - she is trying to decide between a character from Saturday Night Live and Cher from the Sonny and Cher days.  Rosemary and I have been discussing our costumes.  I think we're going to eschew the celebrity trend and go as bees.  Like these rappin' Honey Bees.

What are your ideas for a Halloween costume?

Getting My Label On - Review of the Brother PT1230-PC Labeler

I have long been a big fan of Clean Sweep.  It is no longer in active production, but we PVR the syndicated episodes to watch on Sunday mornings as inspiration for the rest of the day.  Ahh, the organizing mastery cum pop-psychology of Peter Walsh ("this dirty sewing bag IS NOT your mother - you will still have your memories of her, even after we throw this away").  The extreme perkiness of Tava Smiley. The make-it-look-so-darn-easy carpentry of Eric Stromer.  The racing-stripe designs of Angelo Surmelis.

I am totally addicted to this show and always wanted to be one of those couples who was "Clean Swept" (Side note - I appreciated that Clean Sweep always treated GLBT couples like any of the straight couples they had on their show. Heck, the fact that they even HAD GLBT couples on their show - very cool.)  Not so much for the clearing of the clutter or the nice new rooms.  Well, it was for one specific aspect of the rooms.  One of the rooms was typically a home office and as part of his organizational contribution, Peter would tidy up the couple's files and paperwork, put it all in shiny new boxes and folders, and then label those boxes and folders using some handy dandy label maker.

I've never had a label maker.

Until now.

I believe that Brother must have heard my psychic longing for nice, neat labels.  They sent me one of their P-touch® Labellers (PT-1230PC) to try out.

My Short Passionate Affair with the HP Dreamcolor LP2480zx Display

I have always loved a big screen.  I mean, who doesn't.  It was one of those things I always negotiated at my various workplaces.  "Nah, I don't need one of those fancy Aeron chairs, but I do need a 21" monitor!"  So, when, a few months ago, HP offered to send over a Dreamcolor LP2480zx display for me to try, I was quite excited!  Especially since it was developed in collaboration with the DreamWorks Animation team.  I LOVE their movies! :)

Now, I'm not a designer and generally the most I do in Photoshop is add a texture or text, maybe crop a picture or two (oh, though I did just learn how to use an inverse selection to make circular photos!), so I was concerned that I might not have a full appreciation of the Dreamcolor monitor.  But I thought, hey, even I can appreciate how seeing a billion colours can make a difference!

Unpacking and Setup

The Dreamcolor arrived in a GIANT box. As you would expect.  And it included every video cable known to humankind.  Because it has 6 different video outputs: DVI-I (2), DisplayPort 1.1, HDMI 1.3, Component (YPbPr), S-Video, Composite.  I'm on a MacBook Pro, so I'm using the DVI. It also comes with a USB cable because the monitor itself is a USB hub with 4 USB ports.  SWEET!  All the ports on my MPB are full w/ keyboard & mouse. 

The setup was pretty easy.  I definitely needed someone to help me attach the monitor to the stand.  But once that happened, I just plugged that baby in, attached the DVI and turned it on.

Yay, it worked.  We have display!

Take Control of Your Technology - Christina Tynan-Wood Tells Women How To Be a Geek Goddess

I have a hard time reviewing books that are aimed at "the novice".  Because I'm a total geek and have gravitated towards anything techie since I was in 7th grade, I usually read these books with the mental soundtrack "Well, what about .." and "omg, I can't believe they didn't mention THAT" and "I just can't take this book seriously".

However, I didn't really experience that with Christina Tynan-Wood's new book How to Be a Geek Goddess: Practical Advice for Using Computers with Smarts and Style.  Yes, there were a couple of times at the beginning of the book where Tynan-Wood was discussing computer setup, file structures or other software that I bit my tongue (plus, I'm a Mac girl now and she favours PC's) - but once I got to Chapter 5, my noisy brain stopped chattering and I settled in for the ride.

My favourite chapters were the ones on safe surfing and geek parenting.  Now, I don't have kids (which may make it surprising that these were my fav chapters), but if I needed to learn about kid safety in the Internet quickly and have a really good sense of my options, I would definitely read this book.  In fact, these two chapters alone are worth the price of the whole book.  Tynan-Wood writes from a great combo of experiences with her own kids and her friends' kids, plus a love of technology.  She tempers what could easily turn into paranoia for some parents with the realisation that the Internet and technology are essential to a child's education and wants to help you be smart about it.  Really great stuff!

The chapters on social networking and online dating were fun to read and full of great content.  I'm glad that Tynan-Wood included the chapter on online dating; she evaluated a number of sites and it's this experience, tempered with her general common sense approach, that will give single women the confidence to go online and explore some of these sites.

Oh, and if you know that digital cameras, plasma TVs or a new mp3 player are in your future, the chapter on gadgets offers some easy-to-understand descriptions of the technology plus some questions to ask yourself before you buy!

How To Be a Geek Goddess covers a wide variety of topics for the woman who wants to be a thoroughly modern (techno) Millie.  They include:

Chapter 1: Get a Smooth Ride, New or Used
Chapter 2: Housebreaking
Chapter 3: Getting In Touch With Your Software Side
Chapter 4: Hook It Up
Chapter 5: Shopping!
Chapter 6: Hello, Operator
Chapter 7: The Wireless Home
Chapter 8: Keeping It Safe
Chapter 9: Geek Parenting
Chapter 10: Groovy Gear and Gadgets
Chapter 11: Social Networking
Chapter 12: The Sexy Geek

Check out the full TOC plus a sample chapter over at the publisher's site.

Tynan-Wood's companion blog. Geek Girlfriends, is a great resource for ongoing practical tech advice and some delightful giveaways :)  How To Be a Geek Goddess is available on amazon.ca and amazon.com.  Thanks to the folks at No Starch Press for sending me a review copy!

Anti-Valentine's Day Trends (and why I like Environics)

The content of this post is about 98% due to a fabulous consultant at Environics Communications, Nazia.  The pitch and follow-up response I received from her was interesting, fun and pretty relevant to what I write about.  Other PRs take note!  Also, did you know that Environics has a blog?  I didn't.  Nice.

A lot of people have pretty strong feelings about Valentine's Day.  Personally, I'm pretty ambivalent.  I didn't HATE it when I was single and I don't LOVE it now that I'm in a relationship.  It's nice that people acknowledge the significant-other in their lives, however, I do think it is extremely commercial and, in these economic and environmentally-aware times, a little wasteful.

Apparently, the tide of public sentiment - especially the sentiment of single folks and jilted lovers - is flowing more towards the practical than the romantic. eBay – an oft-used barometer of pop culture – expects to see a number of interesting trends this year and offers some useful tips for those without a sweetheart.  (Confession - it never occurred to me to use eBay as a trend barometer - very smart.)

One of the trends eBay expects is a spike in typical Valentines Day junk paraphernalia listed AFTER the Big Day. Which goes to show that if given a choice, no one really wants another plush bear. Canadians feeling the economic crunch are re-selling their Valentines Day gifts online for the sweetest gift of all – cash.   Nazia is going to get back to me after V-Day with some stats, but she was able to tell me a few Valentine's related tidbits about what's up there now:

• Total number of listings with “Valentine” as keyword in either title or description: 129,318
• Most popular Valentine category:  Jewellery and Watches with 16,750 listings
• Number of listings for Valentine lingerie: 2,931
• Priciest item suggested for Valentines Day gift: Hermes Crocodile Birkin “ROSY” at $116,867.76
• Total number of “love spells” for sale: 991 listings
• Oldest valentine: 1862 Lacey (sic) Victorian Valentine
• Tallest valentine plush toy: 8 Ft Tall Valentine Teddy Bear
• Number of heart-shaped food items: 11 (frosted flake, potato, soy chip, clementine, Lays BBQ- and regular-flavoured chips)

“Love’s Hangover” sales are another trend eBay expects this year in which jilted lovers re-sell keepsakes from relationships gone sour to men and women who are more deserving. Have you left personal items at an ex’s? Watch out – it might find its way on to eBay.

Win a Family Holiday from Club Med

Just got a notice from the folks over at NVI .. their client, Club Med, is having a contest.  You can win a one week family holiday at a Club Med resort.  Here's what to do:

• Become a fan of the Club Med Page on Facebook
• Leave a comment on the discussion called Club Med's Family Vacation Photo Album Contest

OMG  - that's it.  Just go do it.  Right now, there are only 53 fans and only 35 comments.  Those are good odds!!

Here's the thing though - you have to do it by end of day (presuming EST) January 15, 2009.  Tomorrow.

Here's some inspiration - it's a picture from our swim up suite on our honeymoon in Cancun in 2007. (Note - not a Club Med resort). Oh, you can get extra entries by uploading a picture and by blogging about it - so a total of three entries.

You can read the full rules and eligibility requirements over at NVI.  Sorry US readers - only Canadians are eligible!

So, hey, spend 2 minutes and get a chance to go to Cancun Yucatan and Ixtapa, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; or La Caravelle, Guadeloupe!

Disclosure: I was offered a $100 gift certificate to the store of my choice to blog about this. That gave me a bit of pause; I'm often offered products to blog that I can keep or return at my discretion (which I always disclose) - but this felt more like "pay for post" which I'm a little less comfortable with.  So, I decided to give the gift card to a charity.  So for 15 minutes of my time a charity gets $100 - not bad :) 

Just curious - is that an issue for my readers?  What if I hadn't disclosed?  Would it matter to you?  Is it "better" that I'm not keeping the $100 for myself?  Do you care?

Also - ideas on which charity?  Want to do local.  I was thinking BC Humane Society.  What gift certificate would be good for them? 

Picture Credit: rose

Icon Credit: fasticon

Pssst, buddy, want to win a Fujifilm camera? Get on the F list!

This is one of the reasons I love being a blogger.  Because cool companies give me cool technology to give away to you.

So Fujifilm Canada has created the "F list" - a fun program to get the word out about their digital cameras along with getting visitors to share stories about the Best and Worst gifts they've received and some other holiday themed activities.

Plus they're giving away some Fujifilm digital cameras!

So, there are a few ways to win ...

First, the F list Scavenger Hunt!  The F list team has hidden two Fujifilm S100fs (valued at over $700) in both Vancouver and Toronto.  One of them has been found in Toronto, but neither have been found in Vancouver!  Get on it!  I'm pretty sure I know where location #2 in Vancouver is - see pics below.   Race ya?! 

Second, the Best Gift/Worst Gift photo contests.  Have you had an awesome gift?  What about a less than awesome (some might say, craptastic) gift?  Here's your chance to share your joy or, uh, your un-joy.  You can win a Fujifilm S2000HD (valued at $300) for submitting a photo and getting your friends to vote.  There are winners each week.  Weekly contests end on Saturdays.  Get the deets at the links below.

Enter the Best Gift contest  Enter the Worst Gift contest

Third, instant win! Yeah, I know. Sneaky, eh?  Here's the secret link.  Shhh.  It's just between you and me.  The link takes you to a page where you register for the F list.  Copy the secret code on the page.  You then paste it into a box on the reg page.  It should tell you if you've won or not.  The instant win is for a Fujifilm J100.

Finally .. and you've waited long enough ... you can win a Fujifilm S2000HD from me!  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me your favourite Christmas carol.  I'll give you one entry into my draw. 

If you're really keen ... upload a video somewhere of you singing your favourite Christmas carol (just a line or two, not the whole thing; and if you're camera shy, hide behind a poinsettia).  Work the word "Fujifilm" or "digital camera" in there too.  Then come back here and post the link.  I'll give you 10 entries into my random draw.

You have to leave a comment and/or a video link by NOON PST on Dec 23rd.  I'll do a random draw sometime after that.  I'll post the winner here by Christmas eve.

Winner Update: Well, exploiting your children (and a little extra effort) goes a long way.  DaniGirl's name was pulled out of the jar last night.  Congrats to her!  And many thanks to all of you for playing and to Fujifilm Canada for the prize.  I learned about a number of new holiday songs.  I hope you did too.  In fact, I even made a playlist (many thanks to @digitaljoy who told be about awesome Grooveshark!)  It's below.  It, amazingly, has every song that was mentioned.  I am particularly delighted by the Italian Christmas Donkey song.

Disclaimers: Eligibility - if you read my blog, you're eligible.  If you live outside of Canada and happen to win, we'll figure out how to get you the prize.  By entering you agree to the following: My decision is final.  If my childhood friend Binky happens to win the draw, you can't complain.  You agree that neither I nor Fujifilm are responsible if your comment doesn't get posted or if your video disappears or for any other computer glitch associated with this contest.  You also acknowledge that if you win, you will not receive the camera in time for the holidays so you won't plan on giving it to someone.  Also, if you do win, you agree that I can post your name  here.  And finally, you agree that if you DON'T win and you decide to FREAK OUT about it, Santa WILL put you on the Naughty List.  Permanently.

So, that's it! Try 'em all to win!  But mainly mine b/c I think it will be AWESOME to see a bunch of videos from my friends singing their favourite Christmas carol!!

By the way, aside from all this camera-y goodness, there's actually a bunch of great content over on the F list site.  They have a gift finder (and no, it doesn't recommend JUST Fujifilm cameras).  They also have an F list expert blog where they share cool gift ideas and other gift-related tidbits.  They profile some very cool stores in Toronto and Vancouver as well as the weekly best and worst gift winners.  Plus, they are pretty witty over at the F list.  I leave you with these gems from the post, The Costly Crime of Bad Gifting:

• 8 in 10 people receive gifts that they don't want
• 17% of those people return their gifts just because they don't like them
• the top 2 groups of bad gift givers are parents and spouses
• 38% of bad gift recipients hide their bad gifts
• 31% of surveyed people admitted to re-gifting
• 65% of gifts men give women are returned, never used, or stored in some obscure random location never to be seen again.
• 60% of re-gifters are women
• European research suggests that we give the worst presents to the people we love the most mistakenly believing our tastes are theirs.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Disclosure (for folks who think that product bloggers have hidden agendas): I am not being paid to post about this.  I happen to know the folks who are working with Fujifilm on this promo and they said "Hey, want to give away a camera on your blog?" and I said "Yes.  Yes I do!"

Pitches That Made Me Smile This Week

These are a few that made me smile and not hit the delete button :)

Sun Microsystem Startup Essentials

Alex sent me a note to let me know about Sun's very cool program for Canadian Startups:

Sun Microsystems' new "startup essentials" program which offers its members 75% discounts on Servers, Storage, Web Hosting, workstations etc as well as free software and tech advice to all members. Sign up for the program is completely free, as long as you are a Canadian Startup. We have now signed up over 90 new Canadian companies, and all are very pleased with the program and the deep discounts it offers.

Read more about Sun's Startup Essentials!

Wi5Connect Debuts Social Learning 2.0 Strategy

Josh emailed me about Wi5Connect's LearnSocial product.  He apologized for not having a link and chocolate (he read my pitch policy and gets bonus points for that).

Wi5Connect today announced the formal launch of its LearnSocial™ online community platform that integrates social networking with a state-of-the-art Learning Management System (LMS) that Wi5 calls “social learning communities.” Wi5Connect has created these social learning communities for organizations such as FranklinCovey and Steven R. Covey who use the LearnSocial platform to harness the power of social networks to train and retain employees, improve client loyalty, and better engage their audiences. Since its beta launch in February of this year, for example, Steven Covey’s online community has attracted more than 32,000 members and has already been featured on Good Morning America and the Today Show for the success it has given participants and also for the business results it’s produced.

There is, of course, a link for more from the press release.

Angelsoft 3.0 Launches

Jason sent me a brief overview of Angelsoft 3.0 the "ecosystem for early-stage investing".  What I really like about Jason's pitch is that is was friendly, brief and had a link to a great video.  I'm not really a startup or an investment gal, but I can totally see the value of Angelsoft 3.0 through the video.

Angelsoft 3.0 Introduction Video from Angelsoft on Vimeo.