Manda Rambles - Geekdom, Marketing and Puppies!

“82 per cent of the Canadian population live in large and medium-sized cities across the country”

Why does Canada have such an avoidance to allowing people to Work From Home? Last year I went to a conference, and one of the workshops was specifically about Home Offices and working from home. It was hosted by a company that is completely remote from the US.

I networked and have been watching more and more US professionals in my industry transition to working from home, and more and more companies going remote. But not in Canada.

It's interesting seeing the difference between what I experience and what I see them experience. Now people can work at the ‘big city’ jobs while staying close to their family, friends and places they like to be and want to call 'home'.

I’ve never been a big city girl, I love walking out and seeing green, I love biking from place to place without worrying about someone texting and driving, I love knowing my neighbour and being with all the friends I’ve spent my lifetime making. I like going to my mother’s after work and helping out, or making dinner.

But I can’t do these, because I live an hour outside of Toronto, and hours away from ‘Home’.

Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are home to more than 1/3 of all Canadians with a combined population of 12.5 million... and almost HALF of that is in Toronto.

It doesn’t look like Toronto is going to get any less populated, or any less ‘Big-City’. I've always had the dream of owning a house, but in Toronto that dream has to shift to  owning an apartment in a shared building with no yard. Welcome to 2017, where we all live in small boxes that cost more than most homes in small cities ever will. We don’t pay for size, we pay for location. But what if you don’t like that location?

It’s not that Toronto is a bad city, it’s that there are so many different types of people in the world. With so many different desires and wants. So many different ideas of what 'Home' is. And with a push in the modern culture to have a work-life balance, and you can't just work to be happy, it's shocking how many people aren't.

What is your dream home?

Is it living in a Condo, close to downtown where you can walk anywhere you want, and are always around the hustle and bustle of the big city? Close to art museums, bars, and all the live events that come to the city? If so, than amazing, but save up!

And if it isn’t that, and you’re more like me, and you would prefer to live in a a small house with a open backyard, garden and bike around town feeling safe, and enjoying as much of the beautiful scenery as possible... you might need a new career path?

I went into Digital Advertising, I love Marketing, I love being a project manager, and working with a genius team that can solve any problem. I love working with my clients, having slack conversations, video conferences, and brainstorming new ideas.

But I wasn’t made to live in the city, and as I work hard to make a life here I can feel how unhappy I am. And I wonder how many others are like me, how many people have to move for their jobs, and how many being DO move for their jobs but SHOULDN'T have to.

We live in an age of access. We have high speed internet, cell phones, video calls, messaging systems, project management and ticketing systems. It's not that we should all be hermits and not make human contact, but why does your job dictate where you life instead of you family, hobbies and desires?

Why am I writing this than? Because as Toronto and the other big cities get larger, where are we all going to live? Do we need to be in an office at from 9am - 5pm Monday-Friday? Do we need to sie next to each other with headphones on in silence to finish the same tasks we could be completing at home?

Do we all need to live in the biggest city in Canada, and do we want to?

Does Canada not work from home because we CAN’T, because we don’t trust our employees? Or because we think everyone wants to be here?

Working from home isn’t easy, if you don’t have drive and discipline and objectives it’s easier to fail at it. But for those that can, that want to, and whose personal (and hopefully also career) life would be better for it, why are there so few options to do so?

Toronto - The loneliest over populated city of opportunity and sacrifice

Five years ago I moved to Toronto and I was optimistic, scared and excited!

I used to live in a small town, moved to a larger town to go to college right out of high school and then moved to Toronto for an internship that would thankfully become a job right out of college. I thought that life was going great, I thought that I was doing what was expected of me and that I was succeeding in the career world and nothing could be better than that.

It’s been 5 years and I’ve failed at making a life in Toronto, I’ve lost more friends than I’ve made, and any I do have that ‘live in Toronto’ are a 2+ hour drive (and NOT on the TTC line) from me. I’ve come to realize that Toronto is the loneliest city I’ve ever lived in, and it has the highest population of all previous ones.

In the past year I’ve lost my best friend and drifting from my main friend group, I tried to focus on work and though I adore my job and team, I’ve never really felt like I’ve belonged here. Since losing my best friend and realizing how lonely I really was in Toronto, I’ve attempted to branch out, I’ve gone to card nights at local comic book shops, I’ve attempted meet-ups with other Pokemon-Go players in the city and I’ve even attempted joining work mates in Spin Class just to find somewhere that I can feel apart of a group.

Yet we visit home, the small one Starbucks town I used to equate to the Hellmouth and I feel safe. It’s effortless to reconnect with my previous friends, I’ve gone to Magic Card tournaments there and have felt myself lift out of my depression. I’ve learned and taken up new hobbies to try and find my group and so far outside of the Card tournaments in a city hundreds of kilometres away I’ve only found one other group activity that makes me happy… an Online MMORPG where most of the people I play with are NOT from Toronto.

So with the struggle of the last 8 months of trying to find where I belong, and get myself out of the dark hole I’ve fallen into, I’ve just realized that Toronto, the city that sparkles from the outside and has so many opportunities is the dullest and loneliest place I’ve ever lived. Nothing is actually close enough to not be an expedition to get to, I can’t afford to live in the downtown core, I travel the streets and take the Streetcars and Subways just to be harassed and assaulted on a way to regular basis.

I’m not overly interested in culture or art, or large gatherings of people that I don’t enjoy, I’m an introvert that wants to feel belonging to a group I trust, and not just another sheep in the herd. And the longer I’ve stayed in Toronto the more I’ve felt like the lost lonely sheep.

With the recent personal struggles, the loss of our car and reduced trips to go back home to see family and the few friends we still have, I’ve been stuck in my lonely world spiralling around the idea that because of the career I chose, I have to give up everything I thought I was working for.

I felt like if I went to school, got great grades (highest GPA in my class and Dean’s List), and got a great job and worked up in the company that one day, not too far in the future I could buy a house, with a cute yard, have a kid and a social life and be happy. I truly thought that getting my career in Toronto would allow me to have all of those, but I was wrong. Because Toronto is where I need to be to work, but I will NEVER be able to own a house, I will not be able to afford to have more than one child, and as I’ve attempted for the last 5 years… I’m not going to have the fun social life I dreamt of and now I’m stuck. I’m stuck at a job I adore (yep I’m complaining about loving my job!), I’m stuck wanting to move up in my career and be at a job that has done nothing but support me and help me grow… and it’s the ONLY thing that keeps me here. I’m stuck doing what I thought I needed to do to be happy.

And now I look over at my family back home, a sister with a house and 1.5 children, a husband who loves her and a 10 min trip from her friends and family. I look at my friends going to Friday Night Magic together, going to movies together and feeling like they belong to a group because they do. And then I look at me, I did everything society told me I needed to, I went to school, I got great grades, I got a job (a career even) and now I’m here not knowing how to move forward, falling deeper and deeper into a hole I don’t know if I can crawl out of.

With all the internet access in the world, with all the voice and video communications, we have, with all the cities with wonderful communities that aren’t Toronto… why is it that so much of our population is cramped up in tin can condos in a cement coloured prison. Why, because I wanted to work at a job that I’m really good at, do I have to change my goals? Why can a factory worker being a sole provider of a household afford a beautiful 2 floor, 4 bedroom house and I’m scrounging to afford my roach-infested apartment on the outskirts of Toronto?

The Lure - A review of a Polish Musical about Mermaids!

I walked into this movie really not knowing what to expect. It had been a crazy week and I ended up not watching the trailer or reading anything about it. But I was excited to finally start enjoying what this cement city had to offer. 

This was my first trip to The Royal, and I was pleasantly surprised to find this adorable old-fashioned theatre in the middle of an otherwise ugly city. I walked into the movie, got some amazing seats and watched the title scroll by and turned to my husband… “Is this going have sub-titles?” He looked at me with wide eyes and started to panic that I would hate this very artsy movie and our night was ruined!

When you google The Lure the description is; “Two mermaid sisters become caught in a love triangle when they fall for the same man.” Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth of the actual plot. In reality and according to IMBD The Lure is actually about “a pair of mermaid sisters are adopted into a cabaret. While one seeks love with humans the other hungers to dine on the human population of the city.”

This Polish movie, originally called Córki dancingu which means Dancing Daughters captured my interest from the get-go. The beautiful art used in the initial title sequence set the stage that this fairytale about mermaids was NOT going to be your typical good-feeling American movie. Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska and written by Robert Bolesto, this movie was magical in a way that most movies we see anymore could never touch. There was no ‘written by committee’ feeling and the movie didn’t talk down to you like you were an idiot that couldn’t catch on to its subtleties. Though this was one of the first movies (5th?) and had some narrative and plot issues that many early movies often have, it was enchanting all the same.

Michalina Olszanska played Zlota (Gold) and Marta Mazurek played Srebrna (Silver) two mermaid sisters who are intrigued by human performers and then adopted by them. They are new to the world and excited about all it has to offer, and the first musical scene is amazingly stylized and reminds me of New York, New York or Hairspray… but that shines and bright excitement will soon dull as the movie becomes more serious and Gold can’t fight her mermaid instincts while Silver falls in love with a boy who doesn’t understand anything about mermaids. 

The movie pulls from the original Little Mermaid story (not the Disney one but the Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid", published in 1837.) and used all of his mythology along with it. For example, if a mermaid falls in love with a human, but that human marries another the mermaid’s heart will break and she will become sea foam and disappear from the world. Gold and Silver know this, and though Silver is certain it is just a fairytale and that her love would never leave her, Gold is not so easily convinced and begs her sister to not change for this boy. This, of course, leads to the main conflict of the story but it’s not as simple as that before Silver can be with her love she will need to become human…

The musical scenes are mesmerizing, my personal favourite is Lozko by Gold that she sings while realizing the hell she is living in and the truth of the family she is living with. As with most mythology, the siren song of a mermaid is hypnotizing, as it has famously crashed many boats and taken many sailors lives, it is no different in this movie where the songs entrance the humans as well as the audience. Between the body language, silent emotes shared between the two sisters as well as the stylized practical effects used on the mermaids and the world around them I was deeply impressed by this entire movie. One of the best examples of how stylized this movie is would be when Silver is becoming human and singing through her surgery, disgusting, horrifying and beautiful!

I highly recommend this movie to anyone that enjoyed Repo! The Genetic Opera and can appreciate Poland’s first musical fairytale. I was reminded of my love for Troll Hunter and other foreign movies when watching this and can’t wait to own it in the future.

The Witch-hunt vs Hero-worshipping in Sex Scandals. Though she is not the first, nor will she be the last female to be hacked and/or have their personal photos and videos shared online in order to shame her, when Paige from WWe had some videos and images released of her and I saw how the Twitter (and other online communities) reacted to the situation I was reminded that our society fucking sucks.

We’ve come so far, women are in every office building, they are working up in the workforce and being represented more and more in different industries. We have honestly come SO far from when my grandmother was my age or a great aunt who had to hide the fact that she was pregnant or risk losing her teaching job.

We live in the first world, we have basic human rights and we should be happy because at least we don’t live where female genital mutilation is still common practice, but I expect better from us. We’re so divided and there really are SO many double standards on all ends. I’ve seen how gender roles, feminism and misogyny have affected all sides, no one is in the right currently. But lately, I’ve been paying a little more attention to everything from the freak out online about Emma Watson’s Cover shoot and now to Paige’s deep violation of privacy.

And since our world is fucked, and we have all of these double standards, when images and videos of a sexual context are leaked we can see two very polar sides. Paige is put up on a post so everyone can watch her burn, people are bending over backwards to ensure her pictures and videos stay up, and others are scouring the internet trying to find them. And all so she can be shamed an humiliated. She is a victim of an actual crime! People hacked her and shared nude and comprising photos and videos without her consent, and now people are spreading them like wildfire… but there are men in those videos! And those men have just as much to loose, Xavier Woods is part one of WWe’s best Tag Teams right now and instead of ANY worry of a witch hunt for him or the other guy in the videos, they are being Hero-worshipped.

Why is it that in our ‘progressive’ society where women should be equal to men that we still have this? Because Paige is a female it’s okay to shame her for the same or similar behaviour as a guy? Just because a guy got to fuck her he is a hero? Woman are still prizes?

It’s disgusting that this happened to her, and what the online community is continuing to do with that content and the content of all women that have been hacked! It’s sad that our society is one that would even allow this to be a problem? We know that people have sex, we sexualize men and woman on television and in movies all the time, but yet our society is so terrified of the act of sex that we can watch people be murdered and attacked on a PG-13 show, but if you show full nudity or are too explicit with your sex scenes it’s rated R? This is the same mentality that encourages people to seek out these images and share them online. When we make sex taboo, we allow it to be used as a weapon, and since men conquer in sex and woman are the prize, when something like this happens it can ruin a women’s career while Xavier will likely be cheered on RAW tonight.

I’m sick of this world and our inability to actually move forward faster than a sad crawl.

The Super Bowl for the 'Cable-Cutter' generation.

In 2015 the Pay TV Industry lost over 385,000 subscribers, they are terming these people ‘Cord Cutters’. And the ‘Cord-cutting’ trend isn’t declining as Netflix and other broadband television companies continue to make their own content and make deals with networks to show their programs within a one week window of debut dates.

As the number of people unsubscribing from cable services increases, the number of people subscribing to new cable services continues to decrease and more and more people either Stream or subscribe to broadband services like Netflix, it’s only a matter of time before the television commercial market will need to find new and better ways to reach their audience.

The main areas that are feeling the subscriber decline the least is the live sports events such as the Super Bowl that just passed. Though I didn’t watch it, since I don’t have cable, don’t have friends that have cable and don’t follow most sports, many of my coworkers did, and so did most of the internet.

This year during the Super Bowl, 84 Lumber added some additions to their commercial, in order to watch the conclusion of the spot the viewer needed to visit Journey84.com. This was a neat additional to be able to easily pull how many people did see your add, and actioned on it.

The idea of people going to a friends house, to watch a sporting event, in order to see the commercials will always be an alien thought to me, especially as you hear complaints about being over marketed too, and too many commercials on television.

The one saving grace I’ve found for the trailers that are shared during the Super Bowl is that within hours they are live on Youtube and being shared around every social medium I touch for the next week. For those that didn’t go to watch the sports for the commercials, don’t worry marketers spend their nights putting together the top 10 lists of the best, worst and weirdest commercials. 

So without the spectacle of the Super Bowl, how well recieved are most television commercials? If they aren’t a trailer for your new favourite movie or Netflix show, do you remember them, what product they are for and do you care?

Randoms thoughts from a digital mind.

I became a ‘Cord Cutter’ in 2010 and am always interested in the differences that makes in my life, and how marketers will need to reach me in different ways.

I’m online, I’m always online, so I’m not hard to find… but TV Spots still get such a large part of the marketing spend. As the cord cutting trend continues, will the spend decrease?

The ‘Girly Girl’ Problem and how it affected me...

I've grown up in a really weird place.

Am I just a product of my generation and upbringing?

I hate ballet, pale pink, cooking, sewing and most of the 'female' gender norms that I've been exposed to over the years. But why do I hate them?

I love WWe, UFC, Gaming, Rock Music and anything I can find that I identify with being a 'macho' male gender norm, as long as I don't also see it as a negative.

Do I like and dislike these things just because?  Or is it because I was raised in a world were a female being female was bad? I almost feel like I have a similar mindset to how I imagine guys do when they are afraid to cook or learn baking because it's the 'female's' job. Which normally I would roll my eyes at, no jobs are specific to any gender, so when male's say something like that I get defensive and angry. BUT...

If I am asked why I don't like ballet, gymnastics, dance, cooking, sewing or anything that I'm internally identifying as female, I have the same fear and opinion as the guys I roll my eyes at.

When trying to get back to the gym and trying to find a way to get some flexibility added to weightlifting I had to be told that even Terminator did gymnastics and ballet exercises. 

So I need a strong super 'macho' man to have done something to make it okay for me to do? What have I missed out on because I was afraid to be labelled as a 'girly girl'. Who have I insulted and pushed away because I looked down on woman who were okay with falling into gender stereotypes?

Am I really who I should be? Should I have gone into gymnastics as a kid instead of karate? Should I have learned how to cook, bake and sew when I was young so I would have those VERY handy skills now? Am I so contrary that I've screwed up?

Gender stereotypes don't just hinder men and women in the way I had originally thought, it is not just enough to break those stereo types and to try to be someone you are not. They just need to be forgotten. 

I should be able to like cooking, and sewing, and still like UFC and other 'male' style hobbies. I should be able to be a 'homemaker' no matter my gender and I finally realize that doesn't just mean that men should take on female roles, and females should take on male roles... But that we should just be us, we should do whatever we're interested in, and learn all the helpful skills regardless of gender.

Woman should be able to do 'female' labelled jobs, chores and hobbies without being looked down upon and being labelled as un-feminist. We're all just human, and the gender stereotypes started out terrible and putting people in a box, but I feel like the fight against them is almost doing the same thing. We need to remember that sensitive women and sensitive men are equal and just as 'normal' as men and woman that are more 'macho' (For lack of a better word in the moment). And that you don't need to be labelled a one of the other, because in the end, regardless of gender, we're just people.

This was my realization that I am a symptom of a bigger problem and I'm sorry to anyone I've made feel bad for being too feminine, because being female should NEVER be a negative thing.

Be you, be who you want to be, and try to realize what you want versus what society wants you to want.

Time to open up to my 'girly' side!

Is this the future of Video advertising? 

When is the last time you saw a commercial on Television? 

You might be like me and won’t be able to last night - I haven’t had cable since 2011. I am subscribed to Netflix, I watch many shows online and recently over the holidays when visiting family I realize how many commercials there are in a single show and I was reminded how lucky I am to not have to sift through them. 

So when watching videos online I am always taken back when I see an add before my video. Weird to think that you pay for cable or satellite and are still bombarded with advertising, but I have access to Youtube for free and rarely get ads - yet still when I see the video pop up and the ‘Skip This Ad Now’ button I seem to always click it... always... 

So is this the future of advertisement? For the marketers, how much money is that television commercial worth? Who are you trying to reach? Is it me? Cause I’m not listening. 

For the consumer what is the cognitive different between a television commercial and the annoying video that stops me from seeing the video I purposely looked for?

Why is the free service showing me an add more intrusive to me then a paid service getting more money buy peddling multiple products to me per episode?

Or maybe I’m just shielded from commercials and ads so often that the one time I do see it I feel interrupted and annoyed.  Odd to say I work in advertising, and to KNOW that video consumption on the internet is increasing but not feeling strongly about the pre-roll commercials as a viable option, at least for my demographics. 

What was the last commercial you watched? How did you feel?

“13 Million Kids get bullied every year. Today, take a stand with me and @BullyMovie to stop Bullying #BullyMovie”

If you saw this or a similar tweet on Tuesday you weren’t the only one. 

March 27th was "Anti-Bullying Twitter Tuesday" where the filmmakers of the new documentary Bully asked Twitter followers and celebrities to speak out for the millions of kids that are bullied and to protest the R rating the movie received from the MPAA.

It wasn’t just the filmmakers that wanted their documentary available to their highschool target market, but the highschool students themselves. Katy Butler, a 17 year old Michigan highschool student, was moved by the trailer. It resonated with the bullying she herself had experienced. She knew that this movie had the potential help. But when she found out that the movie was to be rated R and unavailable to her and her peers she created a campaign on Change.org and helped spread the word about the “Anti-Bullying Twitter Tuesday”. The campaign swelled to nearly 500,000 petitioners by late March.

The campaign reached out to Twitter celebrities as well and quickly received responses from celebrities such as; Ellen DeGeneres, Channing Tatum, Ryan Seacrest and many others. The result, Bully now has a PG-13 rating. Check it out this Friday and let me know what you think - worthy of a PG-13 or R rating?

This campaign makes me wonder...

Is the rating system still needed in a society with unrestricted access to content online? Children and teens are able to view much worse than the Bully Movie on sites like YouTube and Google, is the rating system too barbaric for digital society?

I have never really respected the rating system, I trusted my parents to stop me from watching movies that weren’t appropriate but now that I am older I don’t understand the system at all, giving a movie a PG-13 rating just means that it is going to suck and play down all important information or lack in believability, giving a movie an R rating means limited viewers and thus a short in sales.

Have we as consumers become too social? 

As I look down at my iPhone - connected to GPS and with a camera + voice recorder built-in - and then at all my social apps; Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc...I realize that I have the ability to share my everything with the world. Thankfully, I don’t. But the point is I could and some people do. And what happens when the consumers are too social? Can they be too social? I think so – but what’s the response?

Some companies decide to bury their heads and pretend that social media is a fad that will go away. Some barely accept it into their lives by creating a Facebook page that is never updated and adding ‘like’ buttons to their website, while some jump right in and engage with their audience through live video chat, online events, social promotions, online customer service, etc. But can too much social engagement become detrimental to the brand?

Earlier this month, pro wrestling's Vince McMahon brought his social media event of the year to the screens – emphasis on screen(s) – of millions of wrestling fans! With the pay-per-view event on TV, exclusive content available on YouTube and Facebook and super star interactions on Twitter, it isn’t surprising that Wrestlemania had 110 trending topics in 5 hours, received over 3.9 million views on YouTube, plus an event hashtag that was mentioned more than 600,000 times in less than 24 hours. 

But are all these social add-ons a good thing?

I still remember years ago, when I was sitting with family laughing, screaming and reacting to the matches on TV. I enjoyed every moment of it and became emotionally attached to my favourite wrestlers. And guess what - I wasn’t Tweeting or posting on Facebook while I did it. Sometimes I’d wiki-search for a wrestler’s bio if he was new, but I was experiencing the show with real people and acting like the perfect fan, falling for every stunt and becoming angry when the heel would cheat - and now it’s all changed.

Flash forward to present day. To understand the full story lines of a weekly show, I now need to watch the YouTube channel and listen all week on Twitter to catch up on the latest feud between the Bella Twins and Kelly Kelly. Even when I’m watching on television, there are constant references to something on Twitter that I should have paid more attention to and the experience, as a result, becomes a lot of work. Relaxing with family and friends is hijacked by another 2 hours spent on my mobile screen trying to find out everything I need to know in order to follow the plot. 

So, what happens when a company becomes TOO social? Can a company cross the line of usage when it comes to social media? Or, are fans like me just being a little too resistant to the future of entertainment?

Like so many others, I recently disappeared into the addictive world of Pinterest! I'd heard a ton about this new social platform - first when I was at the bridal shop trying on dresses, where my lady informed me that I could plan my entire wedding on a "Virtual Pinboard". I honestly had no idea what she was talking about, so I just smiled, nodded, and tried on some more dresses. But then I kept hearing about it at school, at work, and from my friends. Eventually, I just had to check it out.

"INVITATION ONLY!"

Well fine, using my Twitter and Facebook network I eventually found a friend on Pinterest and asked them to send me an invite to this elusive site. Is it really worth all the hassle, you may ask? Well, moments after receiving the invitation and linking it to my Twitter profile, I realized...YES! It really was.

From the first time I signed in to the moment I began "pinning", the entire interface was very intuitive. The layout was clean and simple; very Google-esque and inviting. I spotted an outfit I loved and clicked on the photo. An enlarged version popped up with interactive buttons. I could pin it to my own board, like it, or comment on it. Well, I wanted to buy it later (when I have money), so I decided to pin it to my wish list. It came with pricing and a URL for easy purchase on pay day. After that, I was hooked. For the next two hours my roommate was a little worried as I hadn’t left my screen or said a word - I was too busy pinning. Pinning what, you ask? E-vv-erything! Gift ideas for friends, home decor, and anything else that inspired me or that I intend to buy. But mostly, I was pinning clothes, shoes, accessories and outfits I wanted to own. I mean, come on...what woman doesn’t like to shop?

I started to notice a trend: all the outfits were conveniently priced out for me AND they all linked out to brand sites where I could buy them. This was easier than window shopping! It was all running through a site named Polyvore - a platform that allows users to drag and drop images of clothing to create unique outfits using items from different retailers. Once again, everything linked out to e-commerce sites where you could buy your custom design. And they didn't just offer impractical runway outfits like most fashion magazines; there were many beautiful and practical styles for teenagers, business casual, formal attire, and the occasional Halloween costume.

This is an amazing example of retailers utilizing an emerging platform to enrich and expand the shopper experience. So, what else can retailers do to capitalize on sites like Pinterest and Polyvore?

5 Ways For Retailers To Be Successful Online and on Pinterest

Make your website user-friendly and make all products available to purchase online with high quality photos for previewing.

Have store managers create Pinterest accounts where they put together their top outfits of the week, new features, lines & items, etc.

Make sure all merchandise is not only available online but that it is easily shippable with a return policy for sizing (people are still wary about purchasing clothes online, make it easy and worry free).

Have Wi-Fi in stores and the ability to take a picture, or scan a QR code to "Pin" outfits and articles of clothing online while physically in-store.

Use Pinterest/Polyvore outfits on your mannequins, take pictures, "Pin" them and share them back with the users to create buzz, deepen relationships, and connect your online presence with your in-store promotions.

THE DIGITAL APARTMENT HUNT:

I don’t know how my mom looked for apartments when she was my age, but I realized while I was searching through ads on Kijiji that I didn’t know where else to look for apartments. Then I thought - Craigslist and I googled “Toronto Apartments” and was a little embarrassed at myself when I saw that all these sites were similar. The point isn’t that I don’t know what other websites to look at, but rather that I didn’t know where to search outside of the web.

I really started to think about how much the apartment hunt had changed over the last few years and started to analyze my apartment hunting process:

- Pick a website/directory – My choice is Kijiji for user friendliness- Decide on a central location for all searches – I decided that my workplace made the most sense- Limit/personalize the search by number of bedrooms, pet friendly, etc.- Start the vetting process o Only look at locations with pictures o Utilities included & parking available o Google Test – yes Google Test

So the Google Test works like this, take the address from the ad, plug it into Google Maps and get the TTC directions from work to the apartment, anything over an hour commute or more than 3 transfers was too hard for a Monday morning commute and was disregarded in the search. If the commute is doable, I used Street View to determine if I trusted the location.

THE DIGITAL DRESS HUNT:

Trying to plan a wedding is ridiculous and for anyone looking for advice…elope! 

But the one thing I am really looking forward to is the shower - the one event where you can see everyone before the wedding that YOU DON’T HAVE TO PLAN!  The only thing you need to worry about, or should worry about, is getting there (knowing the date in advance) and picking out a dress/outfit for it – WAIT….I don’t have a dress yet!

As a full-time working woman, I don’t have time to comb through the malls and stores of Toronto to find the right dress. So I asked myself: how do I normally look for a dress? Well, I usually go to the stores where I know I’ll like the fashions and search the racks. But I don’t have the time for that.

I get home Monday night, take Paige (my dog) for a walk, make dinner, do laundry and hopefully get to the gym before my roommate gets home, so I don’t think browsing is going to work. Instead of wasting my time doing nothing while I do laundry, I grab my laptop and start rifling through the digital racks. I Googled all the stores I know and trust, pull up mall directories, and start looking through the dress selections. I take the ones I like (that are in my price range) and pin them to a special Pin Board on Pinterest. Once I’ve compiled a sizable selection to choose from, I head to my Pinterest page for a final vetting stage before sending the link off to friends and family for their feedback. I ask them to ‘like’ or comment on the dresses they suggest and tell them I am heading out Friday to try them on. 

While I’m on my way to work Friday morning, I pull up my pin board, where I’ve also allowed a few friends the ability to add items. When all is said and done, I see I have three stores and 5 dresses to check out when I get off work. Why is this important?

Well, because I vetoed stores, dresses and whole locations before ever stepping foot outside my door. I had decided what dresses to try on, what store to choose, and what location to go to. The Yokdale Mall didn’t have a chance since I knew the same dresses were available at the more conveniently located Eaton Centre. The sales staff didn’t influence whether I came in or not, just whether I purchased in the store or checked eBay when I got home.

My advice:

1. Make sure I can find your website on Google; search words for this particular hunt were “blue dress”, “Alice inspired dress”, and the company name if I knew it.

2. Have your products professionally shot and easily searchable/sharable online, prices listed, and display location-by-location availability. 

3. And have the most user-friendly site you can manage. Some were so difficult to navigate that I gave up and went somewhere else.

Last thought – the traditional shopper isn’t dead, and as much as I love window shopping and wandering the mall, sometimes I don’t have time and still have a need to buy something specific by a certain deadline. The online vetting process works best for my lifestyle, especially when the mall isn’t open at midnight when I’m finally free to browse.

Ever wish your consumers would fund your ideas?Zenescope did, and it looks like it's working! With a combination of fan loyalty, an interesting product and exciting incentives, Zenescope has raised $20,000 in less than 72 hours!

The Challenge

Some quick background: even though fairy tales are extremely popular at the moment with Once Upon a Time, Grimm, and the Snow White movies coming out this year, Hollywood decided there was no room for an animated series. Zenescope - one of the top independent comic book and graphic novel publishers in the world - disagrees, and so do their fans. 

With the support of Kickstarter (the world's largest online funding platform for creative projects), they've teamed up to create a 46-day campaign between March 16th and May 1st to raise $175,000 towards the creation of the Grimm Fairy Tales: Animated Series.

With a tough goal to meet and no backup funding, Zenescope must rely completely on their fans to not only pledge money but to spread their message. Now that's fan loyalty...and company trust. And what’s the best part about this campaign? The fans actually WANT to donate!

So, how did they do it? How has Zenescope tapped into their loyal fanbase to generate funds for a project that is, at this point, merely a POSSIBILITY?  

How'd they do it?

Zenescope has a very niche segment in the market, attracting not just comic book enthusiasts, but also the devoted fans that specifically want to support independent companies. It's allowed them to create a strong and personal relationship with their fans, which is key to their success with this project. Crowdsourcing like this only works when you have a well-established relationship with your customers - one that’s strongly focused on trust and open communication (kind of like a healthy marriage).

Larger companies with a broader fan base may have a more difficult time gaining and maintaining this type of dedicated support. When operating on a massive scale, it isn’t as easy to relate and communicate with your target market on an individual level – though social media is certainly making it more possible. Larger consumer bases with less loyalty to the brand are more likely to interact with a company because of offers, cost, location, and not because of personal connection.

Zenescope, on the other hand, has done a great job of connecting with their fans and not only listening to them but also responding and adapting to their collective feedback. They allowed their followers to feel like a part of the team and by taking their advice and sharing behind the scenes material, they were able to lean on them for support when the need arose.

Thanks to a combination of blogger outreach and posts by Zenescope, as well as articles on comic news sources, they were able to quickly spread the word amongst their key communities and influencers. They also reached out to their Facebook and Twitter communities to connect with and inform their loyal fans who quickly responded with startling support. After only a few days, they had made significant process. Using targeted incentives, open communication and a common goal to bring these fairy tales to life, Zenescope had received over $20,000 from less than 200 supporters.

They didn’t stop there. Following some fan suggestions, they created an HTML widget that can be posted on the sidebar of any personal blog. It created awareness and linked to a pledge page. Talk about ROI; the time they put into this small web app will be rewarded with increased share-ability and more media/blogger exposure. It also simplified the donation process, which is a key to successful fundraising. After all, the easier it is for a potential supporter to donate, the more likely they are to pledge.

The word was spread, the fans were excited and Zenescope is that much closer to bringing their fairy tale to life. Anything’s a possibility when you have a tribe of believers supporting your brand. Could your company benefit from crowdsourced fundraising? Is your fan base loyal enough to help push your business forward?

I understand how Trump was voted in. I can see how he won. 

I don't agree with it, but I do understand why. The feeling of 'I'm the bad guy already so fuck it" is so strong today. 

We should be respecting all people, and judging them by their character, actions and who they are individually, which is how I was raised. I was raised in a world where I should never judge someone because of the colour of their skin or race. 

Yet, people are constantly looking at 'white people' and making us the bad guys as a group. No white people are not oppressed, I'm not trying to say that white people have it worse off or bad or etc especially compared to any other race. I am just pointing out that I was raised to NEVER judge someone by their race, yet I'm CONSTANTLY the bad guy because of my race. I should be proud of who I am because of what I've accomplished in life and for what I do with my life, but instead I'm silent. Because when I speak up about anything I am wrong. Because if I agree with the 'oppressed' party I'm looking for attention, because if I disagree, or even just want to point out facts to have a better discussion I'm 'racist'. 

I shouldn't feel ashamed and guilty for being a white person. I should just be happy for being Amanda. Attacking me anytime I speak or want to join a conversation because I'm white and 'If you're white you can't speak on representation or oppression" is not a way to keep your allies. 

When helping support gay rights I wasn't pushed out for being in a heterosexual relationship, I was welcomed for being an ally and trying to help in any way I could, but if I want to help or understand something when the 'race card' is being used I'm just automatically the bad guy, even if originally it was obvious I was an ally or trying to understand. 

So I don't want to fight, I AM NOT EVER SAYING that white people have it worse, I'm not trying to imply that my life sucks because I am white... but instead of making the 'white person' the enemy... Let's just judge people by their actions and character for everyone! Just being rude and dismissive and calling any white person that speaks up a racist or worse is how you turn allies into enemies. 

We are all just people. Let's try and respect each other and start listening and talking about the hard things instead of just shutting everyone up. 

Recently we found this neat older movie from 2012, I didn’t watch the trailer and just jumped in knowing nothing about the show, I didn’t know what type of horror movie it was until part way though and that may have helped how I experienced the movie.

So quickly, before I ruin it, feel free to check it out cause I did deeply enjoy this movie!

Now - Bad Kids Go to Hell is a dark comedy thriller, and it does not take itself too seriously at all. It’s based on a graphic novel of the same name that I really want to try and track down next time I am at a shop or con.

The storytelling is non-linear starting at one of the last scenes, and then showing each characters backstories through flash back. It takes place at high school with a group of students that are spending their weekend in the school library for detention and as you can assume everything eventually goes to shit!

Native American curses, teenage angst, hilariously over the top gore and questions left unanswered to leave you wanting more.

This movie is by no means a blockbuster horror, or something that will stick with you when you walk home at night, but it knows what it is and it plays to its strengths. I would highly suggest this movie for a small group of friends to watch while snacking and laughing at these students terrible luck!

I give Bad Kids Go to Hell 4 cockroaches out of 5 for a good time and rewatchability!

SPOILERS:

Another found footage supernatural horror…because they are the ones I love most. Starring Clif Prowse and Derek Lee, childhood friends also Directed this Canadian film together. Added bonus all the pictures and videos shows of Cliff and Derek as children are actually them to add to the realistic feel of the story.

Best friends decide to film themselves travelling the world after Derek is diagnosed with AVM, which is cerebral arteriovenous malformation an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain. Cliff and Derek travel throughout Europe until one night Derek is attacked… from then on Derek is acting weird and might be turning into a superhero. Super strength and speed lead them to decide to document his transformation even after everything goes a little too far. I won’t give it all away, but this movie gets dark and sad.

Again, as with most movies I watch this is a ‘Horror’ movie but it is not scary but more like a monster of the week Supernatural episode…without Sam or Dean there to fix it. Don’t expect to be afraid or have nightmares, expect an emotional rollercoaster as you care for these characters and watch everything spiral out of control for them.