Entries Tagged 'Writing' ↓

ScribeFire is a plugin for Firefox which integrates my web surfing and blogging in a very easy way.

It’s integrated right into this blog, so when I see an interesting web page I can get an editor up and running without leaving the web page. I can format the post, assign categories and publish with one click. Easy!

There are also some really neat integrations with popular social media sites so I can stumble, digg, etc all without leaving the page.

Even the picture on this post was inserted with ScribeFire. One button and I’m searching Flickr or YouTube and inserting images and videos with a click.

First impression is that this is a way cool plugin. If you blog, it’s a must-have!

I’ve been cajoled into doing some fundraising for my son’s Japanese exchange program. So this email went out to some work colleagues at noon today.

I went for the cheesy Make Money Online website look. Close?

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Hi and Happy Monday!

I’m sending this email to a small and select group of colleagues — people who share a passion for good times, friendships, good health and great food. People who I’ve really grown to love and respect over the years. But you are also friends who struggle at this time of year, and I can help.

You “get it” — you’re willing to go the extra mile for that special flavour.

You “get it” — you’ll take the time to grow your own fruits and vegetables, or plant a tree for the shade, or plant some flowers for the simple beauty of the bloom

And fellas, if you’re married, you “get it” too — you know that on Mother’s Day the last thing she wants is to get corralled into the buffet line for an over priced “Thank You Mom” lunch buffet, with the full complement of screaming babies, whining toddlers and the mother-in-law. Noooo…thank you honey!

I know you get it because, in this way, I’m just like you. I love food. Hell, I don’t carry a purple daypack with “lunch” every day for 15 years by being indifferent to the stuff. And I don’t take Cindy to brunch for Mothers Day either (anymore.) I’ve found the secret to getting through the Hallmark Holiday season. I figured it out, and now I want to share my knowledge with you.

I’ve got three ways to make next weekend a Weekend to Remember!

#1: On Saturday May 10, on the eve of Mother’s Day, there is an excellent steak night being held at Bonzzini’s Brew Pub. For a mere $15 per ticket, you can enjoy a steak, potato, salad and a beer. Yes, you heard me right. A BEER! Steak and Beer for $15!! I didn’t think it was possible anymore but the rising Canadian dollar has its advantages.

Fellas — she wants to go. Your wife wants to go to this more than you know. She’s complaining about the brunch thing to her girlfriends. She’s moaning about your darling mother right now. She wants meat, potatoes and a beer. Really she does. She’ll eat your salad, so don’t worry about that part.

Ladies — Guys are dim. He’s not hearing your little hints. He’s not comprehending ‘the look.’ You need to buy the tickets, put them in his pocket and say “I want this for Mother’s Day.” Make it really simple for him and get what you want!

Single Folk — why are you still reading this? It’s Steak and Beer. It’s Saturday. ’nuff said!

But Mark! She’s a vegetarian with a barley allergy!

No problem. I’m here for you. Besides, while the Steak Night will guarantee you a weekend to remember, it’s a quick hit. Maybe your looking for something that lasts longer. A lot longer! I’ve got special access to gift certificates from some of the best greenhouses, florists and garden centres in the Greater Regina Area to get you some slow-release love and affection.

#2 is from WP Gardens on Grant Road (by Tumblers) They’ve got a wide selection of bedding plants and vegetables that will keep your yard and garden colourful and flavourful all summer long. The word on the street is WP has a cult following in SW Regina that is quite protective of their plants. The existing customers don’t want to dilute the plant pool, but too bad! With these gift certificates you’ve got the inside track to healthy eating, but for a short time (they have to be used by the end of June 2008) The gift certificates come in multiples of $20, and you get full face value of the certificate.

#3 is from Unique Garden Centre / Unique Florists. The best selection of herbs, vegetables and bedding plants in the city. The best selection of trees and shrubs. Garden ornaments. Seeds. If you have Black Thumb instead of Green Thumb, you can get cut flowers from Unique Florists instead. And the GC’s last till October. They’ve got all your bases covered. Again, multiples of $20 and you get full face value!

Face it — cash is a lousy way to say “I Love You, Mom!” It’s kinda cheesy, really. Now a gift certificate from a garden centre, maybe with an offer to, oh, drive her to the garden centre and now you’re talking!

But Mark! Is there a catch?

No! No Catch!

Well, maybe. Yes. You see, Mothers Day is fast approaching. The time to act is now! Tickets are limited. The steak won’t keep. The beer will evenutally get warm. It’s time to start planting.

So here’s the catch. You need to commit to purchase by Monday, May 5. It gives me time to get the right number of tickets / certificates and gives you the time to design the perfect moment to give the gift. So call me or email me [heck, or comment on this blog] but take action!

OK, Mark. I’m ready to Take Action. But why are you helping me like this?

It’s easy really. I care. I really do. I want you to give the best darn Mothers Day gift ever. I want you to enjoy lovely flowers all summer long. I want you to eat the best fruits and vegetables. I want to be your friend for a very long time.

But there’s something in it for me too. Proceeds for the steak and garden centre GC’s go to the Regina Fujioka Student Exchange, which is hosting 25 Japanese students (age 11-12) this summer. My son Ben will be going to Japan in 2009 to complete the exchange.

I hope you enjoyed this email. If so, it’s a win.

But I hope you buy some tickets too. You get good food, Ben goes to Japan and I am still able to put food on my table. If so, it’s a win-win-win.

Your friend,

Mark

PS. Well, I hope I’ve done my job. I’ve given you the three ways to make this the Best Mothers Day ever. You can change the game in your relationship with your mother, spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. you can take it to a Whole. Other. Level. But are you willing to stop there? I know you all have other friends that are facing the same issues. The same challenges. The same stress over the Hallmark Holidays.

If you are as caring and giving as I know you are, then forward this note with my blessing. Share the joy. Build on the passion. Peace.

ARGH! I can’t write anymore. I don’t know why. It’s pissing me off.

I think it’s the return to corporate speak since baking school. Too many long, crappy, meaningless sentences which frustrate rather than educate.

When I’m riding or out for a long walk the ideas flow easy. I can frame out four blog posts and three presentations while walking along Wascana Creek. But when I sit down to write it turns out as “bargle, bargle, bargle, blah, blah, blah.”

But there’s hope, I think. Naomi and James are helping me out. Go read their stuff. It’s clear. It’s direct. It’s concise. And for someone with a blockage between brain and fingers, it’s damned inspiring.

Jeff Jarvis writes about how newspapers are laying off excellent reporters as they stop coverage of national topics to focus on local news. He offers an excellent alternative which preserves the great work the reporters are creating.

Within the post he links to an earlier post which really struck a cord with me. Jeff asserts that a key principle of blogging is to “Cover what you do best, and link to the rest.”

I really like that. It ties in well with the “hyper-local” reporting idea I was kicking around last year — forget talking about what’s happening in Regina and focus in on my neighbourhood, or my street, or my front yard. I set up a first prototype on Wordpress but it’s a little stagnant right now.

I can apply Jeff’s ideas in 2008 blogging two ways:

• linking to other blogs a lot more
• figuring out what I’m “best at” and covering that

So what am I best at? I’ve got a few ideas, all involving what’s going on in my local community.

What are you best at? Please share!

It’s been one year since my foray into blogging and I have mixed feelings about my results. I’ve spent far more time reading other blogs (I consider myself a ‘whiz’ at Google Reader and am progressing to full ninja status) than actually writing. I’ve also spent far too long worrying about the focus of the blog than getting my thoughts in print.

So this year I resolve to worry less and write more. My goal is two posts per week. Warning in advance that the topics are going to cover a pretty wide range:

• observations about my family: growth, change, stirring victories and sad losses too.
• what it’s like to build a business: as we slowly build the Orange Boot Bakery I’m fascinated by the process of starting and growing a business. I want to put everything I’ve learned in business and life into the bakery and share the foibles. I’m going to write about the process here. The Orange Boot Bakery site (now here but soon to be here is for our customers and I don’t want to clog it up with weird ramblings about being a small business owner.
• the joys and struggles in building community, be it our local community association, the kid’s minor hockey teams or the various groups I’m involved with online
• What’s new and exciting (to me) in internet technology. My professional career has been about helping people through the learning curve when it comes to new technology. I spent the early part of 2007 thinking I had fallen way behind the times but I’m still ahead of the curve compared to 90% of people so there’s likely lots to learn here.

My only fear is that the variety of subject matter will turn people off. Well it can’t be worse than not posting at all, right? I’ll make judicious use of tags / categories and if I do find a Voice in all of this, I can adjust later. But the goal for now is to write — two per week, come hell or high water.

Wow, I’m taking the day off in celebration of receiving my first ever blog comment from a “stranger.” And Footie Fool has been added to my Feed list too. Thanks for the comment and I’m looking forward to digging through your site!

Now for the update: I spent the better part of yesterday bragging to my coworkers about scoring U20 world cup tickets on July 7 in Victoria. Once I spent a couple minutes explaining what the tournament was all about and that Canada was the host nation and yes it was legitimate, they were excited too. I think.

Even though soccer is becoming more mainstream, comparisons to the world junior hockey or curling championships are still required here on the flatlands.

For added enjoyment, try telling your friends (in an excited voice) that you’re going to see Uruguay-Zambia and Japan-Nigeria. Take a picture of their discomfort and then watch them relax when you explain that three of the four teams are borderline regulars in the ’senior’ world cup.

That’s OK, they’re trying. In 1998 I actually got teased when I let on I was taping and watching all the world cup matches from France. “What, are you waiting for a goal or something?” Har Har. Things are much better now…

Anyway, I’m expecting big things in Victoria. Maybe not dancing in the streets, but flags and horns perhaps? Maybe I can pick up a Zambia scarf or rising sun headband? That would be way cool.

I just found out about wordpress’ mobile blogging feature. This post is being written from Wascana Park via my Blackberry.

There have been several times when I’m at the pool, etc. with an hour to kill and I can use that time to write now.

I’ve been checking out The Fresh Loaf over the past week and it looks like a pretty good site. There are a couple bread bloggers and some decent forums. The forums have RSS feeds which is nice. I can’t seem to track back though…

My post rate has been abysmal. I’m still adding to my list of things to blog about without actually blogging, which kind of defeats the purpose. Thanks to my readers (both of you) for sticking with me during the lean time.

In the meantime I’ve been reading a tonne! 6 book plus several thousand blog posts in the last month. I’m using Google Reader to aggregate everything and they have an excellent ’share’ feature. Check out the “I’m Reading” section in the sidebar for the recent posts I’ve read that are worth sharing.

They’re also worth commenting on, which is something I need to do more of. Starting tonight!

This blog is now available as an RSS feed thanks to Feedburner. If you don’t want to come back to this blog day after day, just hoping against all hope that there’s a new post, you can click the little ’subscribe’ chicklet on the right [over there ---> ] and subscribe to the feed.

If you’re using a useful browser like Firefox, it’ll create a live bookmark which will show new post titles as they are published. If you use multiple computers, or just want to manage all your blog subscriptions, Google Reader or Bloglines will make blog reading easy.

It makes me giddy just thinking that one of my posts may one day show up on the same screen as Seth Godin or Doc Searls. OK, it’ll likely only be on my own reader, but I can dream, can’t I?