Archive for January 23rd, 2007

23 Jan 2007 Kermit Meets Parker
Author: Gail |  Category: Family, The Ms  | One Comment

Kermit meets Parker

I took the older three kids on Sunday to Mike and Tosca’s place so they — and Kermit — could meet baby Parker and Darcy the dog. Parker was born on August 23, the last time I was in Vancouver — actually, the day I flew in. I got to see his debut, the day he arrived home from the hospital and two days after he was born, and boy has he ever grown! At 19lbs and five months old, he’s a bouncing, happy baby cutting his very first tooth.

More photos of Parker and the Ms after the cut:

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23 Jan 2007 Why Do I Blog?
Author: Gail |  Category: gailatlarge.com  | 4 Comments

I just finished Darren Barefoot’s blogging survey for his talk at Northern Voice in Vancouver next month:

Why do you blog? Why do I blog? Why does anybody? As the medium enters its pubescence, it’s a question that I wonder about all the time. I’ve talked about it with a lot of different bloggers, and everyone offers a different reason.

In February, I’m giving a talk called “Why We Blog” at Northern Voice here in Vancouver. In preparation, I’m launching this ad hoc survey to gather more opinions and voices from the blogosphere.

The survey is 16 questions, and hopefully won’t take you more than 10 minutes. I really appreciate the time you might take to complete it. As a token of that appreciation, I’m giving away a few prizes:

  • One randomly-selected person who completes the survey will win an iPod Shuffle.
  • Another randomly-selected survey completer will win two Lonely Planet books–Micronations and Experimental Travel
  • I obviously want to promote the survey, so I’m also giving away one CAN $50 Amazon or iTunes gift certificate to a randomly-selected person who blogs about it. Just link to http://www.whydoyoublog.com and you’re qualified to win.

A quick disclosure and disclaimer: For my day job, I’m a partner at Capulet Communications, a company that does a lot of online marketing. While this survey might informally inform (heh) my work there, it’s not in any way associated with Capulet or our clients. I’m passionate about the online world, which is why the topic is of both personal and professional interest.

For something like this where I write more than a sentence or two in an open comment field, I normally take a copy of my answers — but I didn’t this time, for some reason.

This website has served so many purposes since its inception nearly five years ago that it’s taken on a life of its own. There is a question in Darren’s survey that asks if I would like more readers, and I said yes, but not so much for people to read my writing for its own sake, but to raise awareness about cancer issues, terminal illness, and other major life events. And to an equal, if not greater extent, I hope people get inspired to enrich their lives — to go flying, take photographs, travel and see places for themselves, write, and love deeply.

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