I’m pretty behind on a lot of bloggy things and since we’re up to SO much within the next week I’ll compose a little list below of links and activities.

Taken at the Fogg on Friday. I got home from work so aggravated I told John we were heading out to watch the game. At some point I commandeered his cell phone and this was the result – interesting.

I met today with a student from a university back East that is writing her thesis on blogging (along the lines of a why do you blog kinda thing). She’s looking for a couple more bloggers to interview so with a lack of a list off the top of my head I pointed her in the direction of my blogroll. I’m sure she’ll gather some really interesting perspectives on the medium and I’m pretty excited about being a part of something like that.

Thursday is my father’s birthday so I’ll be posting the mandatory sappy, cheesy, dedication to the man that taught me so much including knowledge of local history and how to kick ass in rugby.

As previously noted, John and I were thinking about attending Northern Voice. We’ve been able to purchase his admission for both days, and I’ll just be going on Saturday. We never did hear back about volunteering, but splitting it up like this helped us save a little money at least.

Sunday there is a podcaster meetup [audihertz], a highlight being that a host of the Canadian Podcast Buffet will be in attendance. Unfortunately, we’re not sure if we’ll go – even though we run our share of podcasts. February 25th is our 1st wedding anniversary and the reason why I’ve also taken Monday off work. I’m really interested in going but since the first part of our weekend is being monopolized by a blogging conference… so an afternoon of watching hockey, drinking wine, having a nice dinner and celebrating alone with my husband seems a little more appealing.

On a side note, lacking a laptop of my own, I have the feeling that I’ll be the only person at Northern Voice with a note pad and paper. Also, the following weekend I’ll be in Victoria for a girls weekend. Hopefully I’ll be able to have some access (local internet cafe or hijacked hotel computer) to do a blog post and post some pics of the hijinx. I promise, neither my sister or I will be shaving our heads.

A staple of Canadian television when I was growing up were those short Body Break spots featuring Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod – brought to us by ParticipACTION. The catchy little Body Break tune would chime in and you’d see Hal and Joanne eating right, power walking and telling us what we can do to live a healthy lifestyle. They were always cheery and wore matching pastel coloured track suits.

Starting in the early 1970s, the non-profit agency encouraged Canadians to get fit. The program included a series of television ads that encouraged people of all ages to “keep fit and have fun.” The program ran for three decades, until its funding was cut in 2001. [CBC]

It was announced today that the Federal government pledged $5 million (over 2 years) to renew ParticipACTION to help Canadians develop healthier lifestyles.

Not sure if the two are related, but when we were in elementary school we had the Canada Fitness Program. It was a check-list of tasks to complete including (but not limited to) long distance running, push ups, sit-ups, and of course, the all-time most-feared – the shuttle run.

Recently in an episode of Corner Gas one of the cops, Davis, was tricked into thinking there was a fitness requirement for the force so he got Brent’s dad to whip him into shape. Oscar went old-school and used the Canada Fitness program to get Davis going. It brought back so many memories, especially of the dreaded shuttle run.

Once a year the older grades would have a list of fitness activities to complete. Depending on the level of difficulty you were able to accomplish, you were given a Canada Fitness Award. They were little badges ranging from bronze, silver, gold and the BEST you could achieve was ‘excellence’. This was a most-coveted badge and in my grade 7 year I reached it. Unfortunately due to a teachers’ strike in the spring, I was never awarded my badge. Go figure.

Not that I wouldn’t want to claim these smart little cuties. John and I were just visiting with the kids this afternoon. You know that show on Life Network called Crash Test Mommy? Yeah, my sister would LOVE to sign me up for that. She raises her 3 little ones (who are 6, 4 and 2 years old) day in and day out, on top of working part-time.

John and I had my niece and nephews for a couple of hours this afternoon. If we had them tomorrow I would have taken them to the Chinese New Year Parade but we still had a pretty good time. We ate lunch, went for a walk, coloured, watched a movie and baked some cookies. They’re such well behaved kids (although don’t let their cherub-like appearance fool you) it still is challenging.

I discovered a little something about my husband’s potential parenting skills. He was around when his nieces and nephews were growing up back in Iowa and I gotta say, he’s got that whole ‘say your name once in a stern tone if you’re doing something bad, it will make you freeze in your tracks and PAY attention‘ thing down to a tee.

I also found out that I need more colouring supplies in my house. A couple of highlighters had to suffice since the only other drawing tools we have on-hand are sharpies and, well permanent marker and little kiddies just don’t mix. I printed a some pictures off a couple kids colouring sites and also discovered PBS has online colouring – perfect for my niece who knows more about computers than half the people I work with.

My sister’s probably laughing at the fact that I’m a little tired right now. Yes, she has my respect, a lot of it. She also can’t wait until I have kids so she can a) play with a new baby b) watch me lose my girlish figure c) load my kids up with sugar then send them home to us.

Ever since I was introduced to Airtoons about 6 years ago, warning signs just haven’t been the same.

We have boxes of candles floating around our house as a result of my Partylite candle affair a few years back. A couple of days ago I noticed something on one of the boxes. Two warning images that made me giggle and think of a post by Matt from Onomatopoeia

There was a recent episode of Corner Gas [wiki] where the Karen, one of the two police officers in town, purchases a hutch from the giant Swedish furniture store. Of course it’s supposed to be Ikea [wiki] and it plays on the whole concept of taking home your pre-packed merchandise and putting it together yourself with an allan key. The instructions amused Davis, the other cop on the show, because he was reading them as a cartoon. This is easy to do since Ikea’s don’t have words, just images to help you assemble your coffee table, bed or chair.

Matt’s post features images that came with a recently purchased Ikea stool. The pictures on the instructions are pretty vague so he decided to add some rather clever captions. Click on the pic to view the rest, I didn’t want to spoil it by featuring all of them on here.

Now I just have to think of some for my candle box warnings, I’m afraid I may need some help, cause I’m just won’t be as clever.

Recently, a local blogger was in the news because he’s able to rake in a comfortable sum via the ads he puts on his website [JohnChow.com]. Sometimes ads work on the site, you barely notice them or maybe they’re interesting enough and you click them. With that click, you are putting a couple cents into the pocket of the blog owner and that’s how the game is played.

I’ve often contemplated putting Google Ads on the site, for the purpose of making money, but I’m not sure how annoying that would be. I’d want them to be non-intrusive but then again, if people don’t notice them how are they supposed to click on them? It’s a vicious circle isn’t it.

There are various kinds of ads. The ones that fit snuggly between blog posts, the ones that float in front of your screen that force you to search for the “close” button but not until it’s thoroughly annoyed you, there are sidebar buttons, banner buttons etc. Or there’s the massive site-wide background commercial plastering that apparently showed up on Beyond MySpace Robson this morning (pictured above). Despite their look or feel, we all come to live with ads.

If I started putting them on my site, I’d probably want to support a local business or site. When Matt Good had his adverts up they were for Discollection and Workspace. That totally works for me and they were tastefully placed at the top of the page with an option to turn them on or off.

I’d love to be able to make money off my site but I don’t want to be annoying about it. I still want readers to be able to enjoy the site (erm, which I hope you already do) but have a little bit of income flowing. It’s not selling out, and I don’t want it to look gaudy, so I suppose I just need some help.