People, Places and Things

Online Buying

I am fairly certain our Canada Post carrier wonders what, or why I order so frequently from Chapters online. If he gives it any thought to it at all, that is. He must. Too frequently, his job requires him to lug my small cardboard boxes around his route.

This week, the following items arrived.

• Soundtrack to "Juno" (love, love, love Moldy Peaches. Thanks Ellen Page!)
• "Property" by Valerie Martin (I came across her name in "Four Letter Word" and again when researching websites with the name Valerie in them, and when searching for a book on Chapters website.)
• Eckhart Tolle's book (just because I want to see how it compares to "Sacred Contracts" by Caroline Myss.)

I am going to need a full-time assignment soon, just to pay off my book buying bill. Then again, with a 9-5 gig, when would I have time to read all this stuff?

What's book have you read lately?

P.S. Today is the last day of February and I have not yet finished reading "Consolation."

Paulo Coelho's walk towards destiny

More often I see articles about Santiago de Compostela, most recently in profiles in East of the City and the Toronto Star (February 26, 2008), so I though this might be of interest to some readers.

Review of "On the road again" and "A walk towards destiny" by Paulo Coelho. I related to both articles by Paulo Coelho for his spiritual journey. The writer presents an engaging story of a spiritual journey. I particularly noted his technique to transition the reader in of out of the past in the opening and closing of the essays.

Paul Coehlo draws in the reader from first paragraph. "I am sitting in a garden in Leon, Spain, looking at the river flowing by. It is the 27th of March, 2006." This sentence immediately takes the reader to time and place. The river, as well, may be symbolic of the "going with the flow" as Coelho does when he follows the guide. Later, his guide tells him the opposite is true: "making choices" is how "the gates of Paradise are to be found." 

Read the entire article here: Download Paulo_Coelho.doc

*images from Paulo Coelho's website.

Sympatico email down. Again?

If you're a Bell customer and your email is down again, visit www.canadianisp.com and read the comments posted there.

Before long, you'll feel better about your inability to get good service. No matter your personal connection challenges, someone seems to have had it worse.

Is anyone pleased with Bell's service? Surely not the customers forced hour-long conversations with clueless technical support staff because Bell switched all secondary email accounts to new servers. They've added fees and decreased service ... so what?

It's a tough gig finding an alternate ISP because we live in a Rogers-free home.

An Extended Thought About Plagiarism

I had one of the stubbedmytoegettingoutofbed mornings, though I didn't actually jam my foot into anything, except a slipper in which one of my orthotics was missing. Our puppy Tucker came into my bedroom three times - once to bark, once to lick my face, and as I later discovered, once to remove an orthotic and high-tail it downstairs with his new, $600 chew toy.

By 9:03 a.m. my mood had lightened considerably. I'd returned half a dozen emails, created a hockey fundraising spreadsheet, and received an email from the editor of Bread 'n' Molasses. One of the online magazine's readers commented on a recent article of mine. My mood elevated to above normal. The editor knew I'd appreciate hearing from a reader who enjoyed something I'd written. Editors/writers understand how much a little encouragement means.

In using Google to find the source of the comment, I came across Susan J. Douglas's article at In These Times. I found the article remarkably interesting as copyright infringement is of great concern to all creators of intellectual and artistic material.

More than a few years ago, I read Simple Abundance and could not believe the number of similarities between the Daybook of Comfort and Joy and The Artist's Way.

In 2000, Download bean_SBB_cancon.pdf I wrote about it. Then, regretted writing about it and asked to have the article pulled. In a letter to the author Julia Cameron I mentioned the similarities. Then I regretted mentioning it. guested on Oprah to hawk her book, which to my mind was based on "morning pages" she'd written. (Since the concept of writing three pages long-hand everyday are not Cameron's invention, what was I on about?).

Julia, herself, remarks briefly on the similarities in her 2002 book Walking in This World, though she does it with more generosity and grace than I offered. In retrospect, I was more irritated that the author

Yesterday, I wrote about Francine Kopun's Toronto Star article and concerned myself over how to properly attribute the line "Aeriol Nicols, an agent for Keller Williams, uses GetFriday to keep her real estate blog updated."

All this reminded me of something that happened in the workplace a decade ago, when I had a job at a tech support desk. A clueless coworker, with the help of another colleague, searched through my computer files for a document I'd written. She pilfered its content and turned in the work as her own. When I called her on it, she said I "should be flattered" that she deemed my work worth copying. I stared at her, speechless, then fired off an email to our boss.

In the end, it didn't matter, really. The young woman who once asked a caller to spell "reboot" took a short-term leave of absence not long afterward and was spotted by other employees at social functions looking, well, healthy enough to be at work.

That was then. Now, I have only one question for In These Times. Who owns the uncredited photo of that "thieving wench" Ann Coulter?

*donkey courtesy of: http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/photos/data/media/3/donkey.jpg

Call for Submissions

By coinicdence, I've been working on a piece about outsourcing and one appeared in the Toronto Star this morning. The article, "From offshore to off chore" by Francine Kopun, is about the burgeoning business of personal assistants - remote personal assistants.

I've been mulling around the idea for a while now and I've actually invited writers I know to guest blog here with me, though not one of them has taken me up on the offer.

The primary benefit for me is obvious: I get a break from blogging. But, I also get the opportunity to edit, which is not as commonplace as one might expect in technical writing contracts, or blog writing. What's more, I'll gain a deep satisfaction from helping out a peer. For the guest host, the blogging experience can be worthwhile, not to mention he/she ends up with an online article, with byline, to add to his/her writing portfolio.

Maybe Aeriol Nicols, an agent for Keller Williams, who the Star reports "uses GetFriday to keep her real estate blog updated" is on to something.

Maybe I'll outsource the entire blog. That way, I'll have more free time to pursue paid work.

Negotiating the Dead

In her book Negotiating the Dead, Margaret Atwood offers this: 

"You can have money of your own; you can marry money; you can attract a patron ... you can have a day job; or you can sell to the market."

That's all.

A Crooked Man

A Crooked Man opens on Friday, February 22, 2008 at the Theatre Centre (1087 Queen Street West).

Read about the show's director and lead, Hrant Alianak, in the Toronto Star. My friend Carlo Essagian is also in the play, along with Araxi Arslanian, Garen Boyajian, Michael Kazarian.

The Theatre Centre blog says this about this play by American playwright Richard Kalinoski:

"this timely and powerful drama previews from February 20, opens Friday, February 22 and runs to March 2 at The Theatre Centre. Tues-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2.30pm Tickets: Previews & Sunday Matinees $10, Regular Run: Tues-Fri $21, Sat $25 (Discounts for Students, Seniors, Arts Workers & Groups)."

There's a group on Facebook, too, with Hrant Aliank at the helm. In his announcement, Aliank says:

"If you haven't purchased your ticket yet, please do so by calling 416-504-7529 or by purchasing online @ www.artsboxoffice.ca."

He also mentions that Richard Kalinoski will be on hand for a Q&A period.

Strong Canadian Dollar, Strong US Magazine Prices

Like you, I sometimes like to read glossy magazines in front of the television having already read the morning newspaper and not yet ready to retire to a novel waiting for me bedside.

While, I know it's been a couple of months since US magazines scrubbed their US prices from Canadian magazine covers (read CBC coverage here, or Quill & Quire's article), it bothered me enough to reconsider future purchases.

I wanted to see the price differentials, so I checked subscription prices at a few magazine websites.

• Vanity Fair: 12 issues for $15 USD; 12 issues for $38 CAD
• MS Living: 12 issues for $24 USD; 12 issues for $38 CAD
• Ms.: one-year subscription for $25 USD; one-year subscription for $42 CAD

The best is this:

• "O" The Oprah Magazine: 12 issues for $18 USD; 12 issues for $18 CAD, plus $22 CAD for shipping.

It's laughable.

I have enough reading material around the house to stop buying magazines at the newsstand price and rely on subscriptions to a few favourites:

• Canadian Geographic: 6 issues for $28.52 CAD
• Canadian Living: one-year subscription for $25.18 CAD (ON) [$27.10 CAD (MB, QC, NB, NS, and NFLD).]
• More magazine: one-year subscription for $20.00 CAD
• Our Canada: one-year subscription for $14.97 CAD

Still, I wonder why it costs, on average $10 in shipping and handling to go to the US, but double that for deliveries to Canada?

Who's profiting? a) The publishers?  b) The booksellers/magazine vendors?  c) The Canadian government through duties and taxes?  d) All of the above?

In the end, I suppose, I doesn't really matter to me; I'm not buying any of it.

Good things on the Internet

Like many good things on the Internet, we tend to stumble across them. I've discovered and bookmarked dozens of webpages and useful blogs over the years and return to a handful of them regularly. This morning, I found a blog on Playback's career page and a subsequent link that now resides in my favourites folder.

The blog, Career Media Management, is written by Ron Rogers of Media Intelligence.ca Inc.

Just the other day, Kate posted a comment on this blog asking for tips for new grads trying to break into the magazine writing field, (though, maybe she was referring to journalism).

So, Kate, here's a place to start. Check out the blog, write your goal statements, and let me know how it goes.

I'd post more about this, but I am busy writing 12 Goal Statements to find a theme.

Career Meter: 8

I've written about Works by Nicole Williams before and I have to say, my horoscope at work gave me a dash of hope AND a chuckle today. Best kind.

Apparently, my goals have "shifting incrementally," but thankfully, they "forward in a new direction" because something I've been resisting will be "made available" suddenly.

Action. And quick. So far, so good.

Then this:  A notation about being qualified a "key position." Cool.

Then the really good stuff that gave me a hearty chuckle: "... you could make more money than you're currently earning." A job hovering the grill at a fast food restaurant will give me more than I'm earning right now. Let's hope this revenue potential refers to my last corporate writing gig, not my freelance career.

Quick, give me those touchstones - black spinel and emerald.

What do you call a room filled with writers?

When I started writing this blog last April, I planned to write more about the local and regional goings-on in terms of writers' events and writer profiles and such, but I have not. One of my NYR's is to get out from behind this desk and meet other writers. This morning I did just that.

I headed to Whiby to WCDR's breakfast meeting, primarily to listen to Cobourg's Richard Scrimger speak, but also to meet former DRMG blogger and WCDR volunteer extraordinare Janet Boccone and the delightful Katherine Hobbs, a freelance and fiction writer from Ottawa who was in town visiting friends.

Admittedly, it's been a while since I attended a morning breakfast; I'd forgotten how much fun they can be.

You'd think a room filled with writers might be, well ... (it is if you're at an STC meeting. Seriously.) Not this group. This group is a dynamic bunch.

The Humber School for Writers' Antanas Silieka is the guest speaker at next month's breakfast meeting. I've already booked my spot.

News Programs: A 90 Degree Angle v. 360 Degrees

More often than not, I tape CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (yes, using one of those old-fashioned VCR tape machine thingies) and watch the program the next evening. When the program starts at 10:00 p.m. I'm already in bed. Plus, this way, I can fast-forward to The Shot of the day segment.

To avoid shovelling snow this morning, I flipped on the television to watch last night's show. To date, thanks to the producer's(?) credit, coverage of Ms. Britney Spears has been conspiciously absent. But, last night there was a short segment to air her parents' statement, supposition about whatever illness ails her, and footage of a pack of rogue photographers mobbing her car in traffic.

(Note to guest booker: It's okay to book an expert who does not exploit actor/celebrity/famous folks in various states of inebriation to gather ratings under the guise of addiction recovery. )

When the VCR clicked off Canada AM was on and guess what they were covering? Yes, Britney Spears.

It was interesting to compare the differing coverage; CTV took a more journalistic and less sensationalistic approach. The morning program coverage focussed on the paparazzi swarming the singer's car as she drove along a California street. The ensuing discussion, too, was about the paparazzi's dangerous and intrusive practice of converging on a person/vehicle enmasse.

... also posted at http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/ but the moderator refused to approve the post.

Finding Creative Inspiration

This article first appeared in slightly different form in the Summer/Fall 2003 issue of Durham Council for the Arts

This summer, after 18 months of working on the script, Ruba Nada filmed “Coldwater” in Toronto.

This time around, she secured a distributor and Atom Egoyan as executive producer and his wife, Arsinee Khanjian to star. She also obtained grant money, making it possible to quit her day job to concentrate on her film.

Last week, I received an email message from the director announcing the launch of her updated Web site. I was honoured to be included in her distribution list because she provides me with creative inspiration, despite the fact I am not familiar with her award-winning work.

... continued Download ruba_nadda_fullarticle.pdf.

What's with the fake job postings?

Freelance and contract writers have much to deal with - late payments, crazy deadlines, unreasonable project managers (enforcing aforementioned crazy deadlines). But lately, I've noticed a trend and I'm not sure if I'm ahead of the trend, or behind it.

Yesterday, I tested a theory I have about postings on "community" job boards. I submitted my resume based on a job ad, which looked suspicious to start - as if it was a fake website with a pseudo posting - and waited. Nothing.

(I'd meant to send it under a pseudonym and attached the wrong one. Ugh.)

My theory is that there are individuals posing as employers in order to get their hands on legitimate resumes, though I haven't figured out why; it could be that they are creating resumes for others and don't have the talent to write the content, or they are using the information to pad their own resumes, or that of their clients. Or, perhaps they are outright falsifying documents.

I'm not sold on this whole community job board thing as I've only ever had one assignment and well, I'm still awaiting payment for the 1,000-word article I submitted.

For example, check out this: http://officetempsolutions.com/Technical_Writer/Technical_Writer_Job.html.

Hopefully, employers run resume checks by searching the Internet because they’ll soon find that the applicant isn’t who s/he says they are and/or that their résumé content has pilfered content from a legitimate source.

Editor's note: You're a little late to the party, Val. Check out these articles:

• http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/02/28/monster.theft.ap/index.html
• http://www.skatingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-6815.html
• http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2003/02/57852

Waiting for Georgios

Last night I waited by the telephone for my boyfriend George Stromboulopoulos to call. He did not.

As you might imagine, I was disappointed.

Why George, why? Why didn't you call to tell me I'd won the Coronation Street contest? I watched you every night for three nights in a row. (I stayed up late to catch the 11 p.m. version, not the 9 p.m. time-shifted/western feed.) I promptly emailed the answers to all three questions. I gave you my home address and telephone number.

As you might imagine, I am disappointed that you didn't call.

George, I have a sister living in England that I could have visited. I could have gone to a Man U game and visited the Corrie St. production set. I could have flown with the CBC's "The Hour" crew overseas.

Someone else won my trip. George is taking someone else across the pond. I am heartbroken.