That Kathryn Girl

The great bathroom renovation of 2008

If we've exchanged more than 10 words in the last 6 weeks you've probably heard about the great bathroom renovation that turned into fixing the roof, kitchen ceiling, and my future office. Everyone says you should plan on 50% more time and money than originally estimated when you start these projects. Our estimate for the bathroom itself isn't far off the original...it's all the other stuff we decided to do while our house was already pulled up that adds up!

I've been taking photos along the way and finally got around to uploading them - http://www.flickr.com/photos/10531718@N08/tags/bathroomreno/

(they aren't in order as I can't seem to change the display order in flickr and I'm too tired to read the help forums at the moment. I have included descriptions so I'm sure you'll get the gist)

Word from the contractor is that the toilet, sink, and possibly even the tub will be functional by end of day tomorrow. After 8 weeks of showering at the gym I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

Second Skin at Toronto's Hot Docs Festival

Saw my first "Hot Doc" last night. My Name is Kate told me about this film, Second Skin, and then graciously offered up her ticket since she wasn't able to make it to Toronto for the screening. (I owe ya a martini next time you're in town Kate!)

"Second Skin takes an intimate look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest allow millions of users to simultaneously interact in virtual spaces."

Based on the above, I had expected some discussion about Second Life. But other than a quick logo displayed on the screen, Second Life was not part of the discussion.

The documentarians followed and interviewed various people over what I think was 2-3 years. In a very "When Harry met Sally" format, they included interviews from couples who had met in the game, fallen in love, and hooked up in real life. One girl gamer summed it up by recognizing that single male gamers don't leave their houses, so meeting a fellow gamer kinda has to happen online.

I found the reaction to a new version of World of Warcraft being released eye opening. We saw 4 friends prepare by shopping for supplies: water, pop, and anything that was quick to make and easy to eat.  Pizza pops were a popular choice. Then they joined about 1500 others who lined up outside the game store for the special midnight opening.

With their new game in hand they went home and played day/night with the goal of getting to higher and higher levels (at least that's what I think the numbers stood for). Many of the gamers were unemployed but the one who did still have a job took vacation time to participate in this marathon. (His wife, pregnant with twins, didn't seem overly thrilled at this). They played until they fell asleep.

There was a lot of talk about addiction and I'd agree that gaming does seem to be an addiction very similar to alcohol or drugs. While a lot of screen time was spent looking at the negative aspects of gaming there was some discussion about the positives.

I particularly liked how they explored the idea that everyone starts at the same level with the same assets in a virtual world. There is an equality in that idea. Of course there are "goldfarming" businesses that hire people to play the game and then sell off the characters or assets they've attained. So although it's not sanctioned, you can buy your way up.

It was also interesting to hear from people who have found it challenging to find their place in the real world. Their place in the virtual world provides self esteem, confidence, and community.

The film did a great job of taking us into the lives of gamers and providing good discussion about the role and impact of virtual worlds. I would have liked to seen something about the lives of non-extreme gamers included in the discussion. I have to think there are people who play without going to such extremes as the people featured throughout the film. Maybe?

Do I really need to learn another language?

I was very interested to read about real time IM translation in a recent Springwise newsletter. The article highlighted Speaklike, a company that uses a combination of machines and humans to translate instant messages. From the Speaklike website: "You type text in your language, and others see it in theirs."

I'm no palm reader and rarely make predictions. But this does make me recall a conversation Kirk and I had while travelling in 2005.

Every time we landed in a new country we tried to learn common greetings, thank you, water, food, and one-ten in numbers (very helpful when buying the water and food!). Many of our travel experiences reinforced how much we rely on communication. We could scrape by getting the bare necessities but being able to connect with people and share stories is what made the experiences so much richer, and led to greater cultural understanding all around.

I don't remember where we were, but at some point Kirk and I talked about the importance of language and the idea that in the not too distant future we'd be able to speak into a gizmo (ie. fancy technology) and select what language we'd like the gizmo to use when repeating our words. Or perhaps a gizmo that could pick up words it hears and translate into the language of choice for whoever is at the other end of the arm holding the gizmo.

Suddenly this doesn't seem like an outlandish idea. Maybe Speaklike is the first step towards removing language barriers. Or perhaps I'm just looking for an excuse to get out of learning for myself!

The Joy of Polyfilla

I could do an infomercial for polyfilla. We've been in our house just over 4 months and so far we've painted 2 rooms and a hallway. We're dealing with old plaster walls so before we can even touch a paintbrush we have to fill holes, cracks, and seal wallpaper seams. (Our expert at the paint store told us not to remove wallpaper that has been already painted over since it's probably the only thing holding the wall together!)

At first I used a squeeze tube of polyfilla but then we found the mac daddy of filling compound. It comes in a tub and it goes on pink. As it dries it turns white to let you know it's ready to be sanded or have a second coat. I'm filling some pretty big holes and at times I've applied 3-4 coats and the whole thing has held strong.

We're about to embark on our biggest polyfilla project yet...the pantry. It started as a project to replace the shelves. But when we took the shelves down the plaster came down as well. At that point we figured we might as well put up drywall. And if we were going that far we might as well insulate the room and put in a light. I now understand what people mean when they talk about how little projects can escalate quickly.

Installing the insulation and drywall was...well...interesting. But it's up...more or less. And the 'less' can be filled with...you guessed it...polyfilla!

You might wonder why I'd write a whole post about a pink tub of goo. Well it's like this. I've been busy, too busy to write much and when I sat down tonight it was the only thing I could think of writing about. Well that and the mountain of snow outside, but the world does not need another post about the weather.

I took a few pics of Kirk working in the pantry. I particularly like the one of him wiring the new light with the Home Depot 1-2-3 book on the stool beside him. Either the book has very good instructions or my husband is a genius because he's also rewired a lamp we brought home from Egypt (to the disbelief of the lighting guy in Home Depot) and installed new plugs in the rooms we've painted.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10531718@N08/tags/homereno/

The return of second breakfast

Back in the summer of 2002 when I was riding my bike across Canada (yeah I still like saying that), second breakfast was a daily meal. Up early with 50KM under our belts before 10am we needed the sausage, toast, and 2 eggs over easy. Even when we started leaving camp at 10am and arriving at our destination at dusk we still stopped at a diner for the all-day breakie.

Today I was wide awake at 5am and decided I might as well get up and do something. And the hallway project I started on Saturday was waiting for its second coat of paint. So by 8:30 I'd made many trips up and down the ladder and my arm could feel the effort (partly because I'm slow at cutting in the ceiling line freehand and partly because I'm too much of a scaredy cat to get on the 3rd step of the ladder!).

After all the exertion, my stomach was a noisy grumbling complainer when I sat down to start my work day. And then it hit me...second breakfast was in order!

So today I'm reminiscing about country diners. Good artery blocking food, bad coffee, and interesting people always willing to chat with a bunch of lycra clad noisy cyclists. Of course now that I'm a keyboard tapping paper pusher, second breakfast is a bagel, coffee, and catching up on reading marketing blogs. Not so bad considering it's minus 10 and blustery out there!

Where did December go?

I was so busy doing fun stuff in December that I didn't have any time to log-on and catch up with my blog. Warning: I expect this post will get lengthy and it's a random mishmash of what's been going on the last month or so. If you're only semi-interested I suggest clicking on the links to photos and making up the story as you go.

We spent the first weekend in December celebrating my aunt's 50th birthday in Naples. Highlights include:

• Watching the sunset over the water while enjoying a beer with my family
• Hanging with the girls for lunch and driving around town in the convertible rental car
• Winning the unofficial air hockey tournament

Here are some pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/10531718@N08/tags/florida07/

The weekend after we had Laura in town for a visit. No photos for this one but many grilled cheese and wine was consumed and lots of good convo.

The following weekend we packed up and went to Boston for what was supposed to be a quick overnight trip to attend the PTO Today holiday party. Two back-to-back storms (the second arriving while we were in town) meant Air Canada was backed up 'till Tuesday (we were supposed to fly home on Sunday). Neither of us really felt like spending 2 days in the airport fighting to get on standby lists for any flight going anywhere remotely close to Toronto. So we rented a car and drove home. And that's where the adventure really began.

In the rental car agency we discovered Kirk's license had expired, so he couldn't do any of the driving. We also discovered that we might not be able to cross the border with a rental car (we figured Buffalo was close enough that we could always drop the car and find another way home from the border). And in the spirit of the finding the perfect trifecta of adventure we would be driving home through the storm.

We left at 4pm and arrived home at 7am the following morning. We sang many xmas carols, ate junk food (gotta love the constant service centre's on toll roads in the States), and napped for about 45 minutes in a Burger King parking lot.

Christmas was a lot of fun with 3 parties in 24 hours. Some pix:

- Xmas eve

- Xmas morning

- Xmas dinner

And boxing day we started painting our nicotine stained ceiling. Well actually boxing day we prepared to paint. We had to tape off all the wood, remove wallpaper, and get real acquainted with the wonders of polyfilla. On the 28th we stopped painting and Kirk took me to a surprise mani/pedi appointment. Full service as they also used nail polish remover to remove the paint splatters on my knees.

That afternoon Kirk gave me a suitcase and a list of what to pack. I love a good surprise! It wasn't until we arrived at the airport the next morning at 4am (gulp!) that I discovered we were on our way to Miami and a cruise to the Bahamas. We were on the chaise lounger by noon soaking up the sun.

Great time relaxing and hanging out after all the activity in December.  We did a bit of snorkelling and took the local bus to the fish fry (a local hangout) in Bahamas. The next day was reading, music, and napping in the shade (sun for kirk). The evenings found us at the shows, disco, and casino (where I finetuned my blackjack skills and walked away $140 up!)

Some Pix - http://www.flickr.com/photos/10531718@N08/tags/cruise2007/

After arriving home at 2am on the 1st we got up at 10 and got a coat of paint on the walls before heading out for another holiday dinner. The next day Kirk finished the painting (I was working) and that was the end of the holiday season.

Definitely one of the busiest months of our year but a lot of good fun. And now we begin the new year. Happy 2008!

My 'Big Brother' experience with Facebook and Epicurious

Some interesting stuff going on with Facebook these days. Today Media in Canada has a story about how Facebook has been 'spilling the beans about who bought which holiday gifts".

I had my own 'big brother' experience with Facebook a couple of weeks ago. I'm also a member of epicurious.com and I saved a recipe that I wanted to make for my dad's birthday dinner. (As an epicurious member you can save recipes in a virtual recipe box which is a really useful feature.)

A few days later I noticed that the recipe I'd saved was in my Facebook newsfeed. I had a prolonged WTF moment as I tried to figure out why two very separate communities I belong to are suddenly talking to each other without me.

I don't really care that my Facebook friends know I saved a recipe for "Beef tenderloin steaks with smoky bacon-bourbon sauce" (although I really don't think it's newsworthy). But I am very concerned about my online privacy and what else might be published about me and my internet behaviour.

I discovered that Facebook and Epicurious do have an affiliation. I also discovered that I'm supposed to see a notification before anything is published to my Facebook newsfeed. Like most people, I'm often surfing, talking, eating, and tagging all at the same time. Figuring I'd just missed the notification I decided to save another recipe to my recipe box and actively look for the notification. I didn't see anything on the Epicurious site and I can't find anywhere in my profile to turn this feature off.

I flipped over to Facebook and this time I noticed the notification on the top of my homepage. Usually when I log in to Facebook I go straight for the link to my Scrabulous games and barely glance at my homepage updates. I really don't think I would have inadvertently approved the Epicurious story into my feed but I'm not entirely sure how the beef steaks recipe made it through. Thankfully the recipe I just saved is waiting for me to approve it first. And it's easy to change my settings and stop Epicurious recipes from being published to my feed.

It looks like Facebook is changing its MO. According to the Media in Canada article, "Now users will be required to opt in to this part of Facebook's new social ads program, rather than automatically being enrolled if they don't opt out." I think this is an excellent step in the right direction. I always expect the default behaviour to allow me to opt-in to the features and services I want, instead of asking me to opt-out of features and functions I don't want.

I don't really have sketchy internet behaviour but bottom line is that I'm still very wary of what I do online these days.  After all, as Mitch Joel says in his blog post about protecting your personal brand on Facebook, I gotta think about what my newsfeed says about me.

How much automation is too much?

Awhile ago I wrote a post about the fork that automatically twirls your spaghetti for you. I saw 2 ads recently for products in the same realm. And it made me wonder why we seem to be on a path of automating everything possible.

The first product is an automatic twirling duster. You know those long feather dusters that come with most maid costumes (not that I would know of course!)? Well now you can push a button and it will spin...and apparently cut your dusting time in half. It's like an electronic toothbrush for your furniture. The thing I can't figure out is where the dust goes. It looks like it would just fly up into the air and settle back down again. But then I'm more of a damp cloth type of girl. Check out the video of the Go Duster in action.

The second product I've seen recently is an automated version of the good ol' Spyro Gyro. All you have to do is hold the pen and it oscillates creating shapes in whatever colour you've chosen. I can't find a video of the pen in action but in the commercial the kid (and parents) just held the pen and made slight up and down movements on the page. And out came beautiful spyro gyro artwork. Of course there is still some creativity involved as you need to choose the colours and move the pen around. But I wonder if creativity in general is diluted as it's all just so easy. Or maybe I just think it's unfair kids don't have to work as hard these days on their refrigerator art.

Will Peel N' Taste samples replace the real thing?

Every Sunday I spend the last part of yoga class thinking about the fresh bread and coffee that I'll pick up from EPI Breads, the local bakery, after class. The distraction does not help my quest for bendy muscles and world peace but the bread is THAT good. And the best part are the samples sitting out on the counter. Assorted bite size breads with homemade spreads.

Today I discovered that changes are afoot in the world of 'sampling'. You know those breath strips that look and feel like pieces of thin plastic and mash up into a gummy mess inside your mouth? Well it seems that some smart people have figured out how to use this technology for all sorts of different tastes. According to this Springwise article, putting flavours on the Peel N' Taste strips is a cost effective way to provide samples to the masses.

In the fall issue of Rolling Stone magazine readers could enjoy a rum mojito taste strip. And according to First Flavour, a company that provides these taste strips, the samples can be used in print publications, direct mail, instore, events, etc.

Personally I find the tactile experience of samples as important as the taste. Stirring up the mint in the bottom of my mojito, experiencing the crunch of a potato chip, and feeling the texture of a toothpaste are all important parts of sampling for me. And of course the aroma is also important. Although I guess the taste strip companies could partner up with the 'scratch and sniff' sticker makers to provide a double-sense experience.

I can see the allure in reaching masses of people with your flavour but once the novelty wears off I'm not sure these Peel N' Taste samples will be enough to significantly affect purchasing behaviour. For the sake of my yoga I hope the local bakery doesn't find out about this new method of product sampling!

10 highlights from the Stanford Publishing Course

I spent a few days last week in Monterey, California attending the Stanford Publishing Course. An interesting 3 days of sessions and talking to other publishing companies about their web properties. In the spirit of top 10 lists, here are the 10 things that stuck with me...

- California in November is not as balmy as a Canuck might expect. Light coat is necessary

- Publishers aren't held liable for user generated content if they designate an agent to handle copyright claims and move expeditiously to remove copyrighted materials after receiving notice from the owner of the materials.

- Writing titles is more important than ever as you don't know where your content will be pulled and how it will be displayed. With all the widgets and APIs pulling content automatically and serving it up in various formats, it's more important than ever to keep titles straightforward and descriptive instead of writing copy that is catchy and designed to pique your readers interest. Ideally we could do both but it's definitely better to err on the side of boring and descriptive.

- New York Times considers the google bot a user of its website. Smart way to think about this so you develop a site that considers Google's needs along with your human audience.

- Video is hot! I think every single speaker talked about video and it's certainly becoming prolific all over the internet. We saw examples from Men's Health Online and Cnet showed a hilarious video debunking the hype about restless leg syndrome. (unfortunately I can't find it on their site using their search feature).

- In his presentation about blogging, Scott Karp talked about the fear many bloggers have of linking to other blogs and thereby 'sending people away'. Great point to note that Google is the 5th largest company (in US I assume) and has made their entire business about sending people away. (Scott also posted some video from the Guy Kawasaki and Robert Scoble discussion)

- Lots of news outlets have twitter feeds. I didn't realize how many news sites were using twitter. I’m now following cbc, truemors, and wired. (You can find me at www.twitter.com/klagden, although I'm a sporadic user at the moment. Once I get the facebook/twitter application going I might use it more)

- Search engines are driving 50% of traffic to publishing websites. (I made this note but didn't jot down the source).

- Stanford has a home in Second Life and there might be some video on there from the conference. Unfortunately I can't find the location at the moment. Will investigate more later.

- The New England Journal of Medicine uses a very smart search function. It gets smarter the more people use it. I need to learn more about this 'learning search' as I can really see some good applications for niche publishers (like PTO Today).

- Sea otters bark all night long and it means they're looking for a mate. update: it's sea lions that bark, not sea otters. Here's some info - http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/default.asp?inhab=406. Thanks Teen!

Well for those counting you'll notice that was 11 bullet points, not 10. I didn't number them and lost track myself.