a false start. let’s try again

have not written anything since march.

school / personal life kind of took over at that point; with the fundraiser and whatnot, maintaining my internet presence became less of a priority!

spent the summer interning at MediaProfile in toronto. best job i’ve had yet. although some of my work was a bit monotonous (cleaning up their media contact database) i really enjoyed doing morning media monitoring, producing media reports, attending brainstorming sessions / lunch&learns,  and wearing the dairy queen curly top costume to drum up enthusiasm for miracle treat day!

not me, but it may well have been the same costume :(

returning to ottawa was difficult after such a satisfying summer but susanne gossage has promised me a place at mediaprofile again for summer 2009 so i am not sweating it.

back at algonquin part time, working almost full-time hours at third avenue spa. most recently-completed school project was a case study on the communications efforts of Exxon during the Exxon Valdez debacle. they were piss-poor, as we all likely know.

omg

this came via Ads of the World

the idea is that kids are running out of school supplies. others include

“the eighth plague of egypt was grass”

and “john was born in Virginia so he is a virgin”

general consensus (according to comments) is that these ads suck but i really think the humour value packs a pretty big punch. it got the point across to me and made me giggle!

try drugs

i thought this was really cool. frankly i don’t know how accurate it is, but the weed part seems scarily true. kind of a fun tool to show how scary being out of control can be.

via osocio

more water-related things

“bad water kills more children than war.”

via Social Ads

on water awareness

i’m a PR student and our class is putting on a fundraiser for the Ryan’s Well Foundation. they build wells and sanitation points in developing countries. our campaign’s page is here.

here are some of the cooler campaigns and initiatives i’ve seen while looking at this topic on the internet. these cover water in developing countries, but also conserving water at home.

world water day stickers

solidarité

imagine a life with water

proaging by Unicef

hippo rollers

never so precious

a luxury for millions

taptips

typography joke

this joke is only funny within select circles, but was so cute i had to share it.

via ironic sans, via adgoodness

transport for london road safety campaigns

take this test

i failed the test and laughed at myself. but it freaked me out too.

a friend i had in highschool recently passed away after crashing his motorcycle in Thailand. apparently this is an extremely dangerous pursuit; kit was always kind of reckless though. the really scary thing was that he almost predicted his own death in his “blog” five months before. i was angry when i read that. that this could have been avoided.

all i could think about were the most asinine stories from highschool. inappropriate, juvenile shit. one particular incident comes to mind. my first boyfriend and i were taking the bus with kit from the rideau centre, i believe. kit was too drunk and vomited on the bus. nobody saw so we just rang the bell and got off. kit fell down the stairs and rolled out onto the street, where he proceeded to hug a hobo and try to convince him to “give kyle and i aids.”

like i said, a pretty inappropriate way to remember my now-dead friend. but that’s all i’ve got. i didn’t get a chance to remember him any other way

these Transport for London ads are really scary and effective.

via osocio

first post

i intend to write here about a variety of different things. topics will range from practical to esoteric. crafts and snacking to politics and philosophy.

i’ve recently realised that i am extremely ill-informed, turning again and again to the same friends to answer my questions about what’s going on. as such this blog serves as a sort of exploration of pop-culture, the media, the world around me. it’s time to start paying attention. if any of my opinions are half-formed or subject to change, (and they likely will be) please excuse me. i’m going through these growing pains.

those without a sense of humour likely won’t enjoy themselves here. i have a tendency to err on the side of whimsy, and facetiousness. please, for my sake and your’s, imagine that my tongue is placed permanently within my cheek.

while i’ll mostly focus on pleasant, digestible topics, stumbled across during my media meanderings, i may go off irrationally on things that i feel strongly about. i will try to keep this sort of self-indulgence to a minimum, however.

here are some examples from the top of my head, of things i might someday talk about:

clinical strength deodorant. you don’t need it; you smell fine. there are a select few women who need a product like this, but how many sad women will erroneously think that they do?nothing about this product pleases me. i hate that it just adds to the constant barrage of “you’re not good enough / not pretty enough / not nice-smelling enough,” messages that people are assaulted with daily. your house isn’t clean enough, your teeth aren’t white enough, you should be ashamed of yourself.

ibot mobility systems. i want everyone to have one, but i’m totally baffled as to how it balances. they provide more video footage of it in action here, balancing happily away, but i am still terrified by it.

i always worried about how people in wheelchairs (mobility systems?) would meet other people and date. how awkward would it be for your boyfriend or girlfriend to reach only your waist? this video shows people having a walk holding hands, seeing eye-to-eye. the girl at the school dance made me mad for every girl before her who didn’t have an ibot!

dove’s campaign for real beauty. i’m buying it. i know it’s all a bunch of bullshit anyway, trying to sell me stuff i don’t need, by any means necessary, but i feel like it’s a step in the right direction. i support it because if it works, more companies will take the same approach. oops, we just solved the problem! this is old news but i still feel strongly about it, and i remember it when i’m buying my…deodorant.