Just hit a personal low
I polished off the rest of a container of yoghurt directly from the container while standing in front of the macbook in my underwear looking at Pinterest and listening to the Backstreet Boys. Don't be too jealous of my fabulous lifestyle, now.
Cyclist of the Day
Dutch PM Mark Rutte, who apparently showed up for his meeting with President Obama on a bike and is my personal hero.
From Google Translate: Four armored limousines for President Obama. Mark Rutte addresses are rather typical Dutch steel horse
Amazing day
Had a fantastic meeting this afternoon. One of those really great meetings where you totally connect with the other person you're talking to. Where you part ways with a smile and you find yourself feeling empowered. I love those.
Met up with Mum & Granddad to pick up my Nan from the airport. She's been in the UK (which is where my family is from) for the past month and though we teased my Granddad about his "bachelor life" ending, it was really sweet to see how much he missed her.
Made a fancy weeknight dinner for two complete with home-brewed apple wine. Also featured: balsamic chicken stuffed with goat cheese, pesto penne, and arugula salad with lemon and tomato. I am spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!
Here's to a wonderful rest of the week!
xox yr Shaner
How we should react to Fred Phelps' death
Since the news broke of the death of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church I've seen countless Facebook posts, tweets, and Reddit comments, and images about the subject (see below).
People have posted about picketing his funeral, harassing his family and desecrating his grave.
Reactions like these, so vitriolic and cruel, make me sad.
Because I know we have the capacity to be better than this as a society.
I know that we can take the pain and confusion that the members of the WBC made us feel and let it go. We can understand that these people, however much they may have tried to hurt us or people that we love, don't deserve anything but our sympathy.
If we feel the need to react at all (and honestly, most of us shouldn't) we should make a point to be thankful that someone who was clearly so hateful and spread such sadness doesn't feel the need to do so anymore, and that whatever was raging inside him that caused him to lash out at the rest of the world in the way that he did is now silent.
One of my favourite quotes on the matter is from the always-wise George Takei:
"Today, Mr. Phelps may have learned that God, in fact, hates no one. Vicious and hate-filled as he was, may his soul find the kind of peace through death that was so plainly elusive during his life.
...
I take no solace or joy in this man's passing. We will not dance upon his grave, nor stand vigil at his funeral holding "God Hates Freds" signs, tempting as it may be.
He was a tormented soul, who tormented so many. Hate never wins out in the end. It instead goes always to its lonely, dusty end."
In the end, it is our actions that define us. They defined Fred Phelps, and they will continue to define the members of the Westboro Baptist Church.
It is at moments like these when many of us are able to make a defining choice: do we engage in hate-speak, condemning a man that most of us have never met? Or do we take the higher moral ground, and act like members of a civilized society?
I'd like to think that most of us will do the latter.
Dear Metric Marketing
I'm writing to you because I think we should be friends.
(and by friends, I mean you should hire me to be your Social Media Marketing Associate -let's not mince words here)
I feel like I embody some of the core values that make Metric what it is. That is to say, I'm a super-driven gal who also happens to be completely obsessed with social media marketing.
Thus far I've managed to turn that drive into a ton of personal opportunities: I have a crazy-strong presence online, I speak regularly at Red River College about Social Media and Personal Branding, I was a panelist at the 2014 Manitoba Blogger's Conference. I've also worked with the Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition, Vine Multimedia, and Direct Focus Marketing Communications.
I've been able to create these opportunities for myself because I'm passionate about what I do, and I don't believe that it's possible to succeed online unless you're passionate about succeeding.
When I think about social media marketing I tend to refer to the 36 Social Media Rules of Engagement, from t2 Social's blog:
Because that's the thing about online marketing -your audience can tell when you don't care. When your Facebook page hasn't been touched in weeks, your Twitter responses stagnate, and your LinkedIn profile never goes anywhere, people won't see the value in connecting with you online because, obviously, you aren't online.
(At least not in the meaningful way that brand need to be in this day and age.)
I believe in creating and maintaining interesting and valuable social media presences, and I think I could do a wicked job of it at Metric.
So give me a shout (alyson.shane@gmail.com works best) because I'd love to have a chat about how I can be a valuable asset you, and to your clients.
Sincerely,
Alyson Shane
aka 'The Queen of the Internet'
PS I also promise to never do this:
Things I've learned so far while reading 'Ulysses'
- Apparently the proper way to read the book is with at least one guide book which essentially deconstructs the chapters for you and explains what's going on. Which seems a bit backwards because isn't that the point in reading the book, anyway? To figure out what's going on?
- Apparently a lot of people find it to be an incredibly challenging read and have trouble getting to the part of the book that I managed to get to in a single sitting. Which means either I'm a genius, or I have no idea what I'm doing. You decide.
- Apparently I'm not going to understand what the f is happening until I reread all 700ish pages of it again at some point in the future. Great!
- Apparently skipping back to previous chapters is totally normal and accepted, which I didn't realize was unique to Ulysses because I do that with basically every novel I read.
- Apparently reading the introduction, the errata, and the notes to pages sections are basically useless, which is good because I don't usually read that stuff, anyway, and didn't this time.
- Apparently every time I pick up the book I'm going to think of this via Kate Beaton:
and also this:
Thomas the Dank Engine
Is exactly what it sounds like.
It's weird the places on the internet I can get to when there's a crazy blizzard happening outside and I'm slowly going stir-crazy waiting for winter to end.
Also here's a helicopter with arms:
Things that I rocked today:
- Baking midnight cupcakes
(because why the f not)
- Grooving out in my living room to Robyn
- An interview at a really exciting prospective job
(people like when you give a double thumbs-up, right?)
- Taking care of Tyrone after his dental surgery
(as per usual)
- My CodeAcademy lessons
- Home-made chicken noodle soup
(boom)
- Totally not falling in a single puddle at all
- This blog post
(obviously)
So I've started learning HTML & CSS with CodeAcademy
Pretty sweet, amirite?!
