No More Junk Mail? (and when's the last time YOU used a phonebook?)

I had never heard of the Red Dot Campaign until just recently, and we've decided to try it. Apparently only two percent of Canadians take advantage of a little-known Canada Post policy that allows people to stop unaddressed junk mail arriving in their mailbox or dropping through their mail slot.

I am highly skeptical about how much this will help our (currently ridiculously huge) volume of print junk mail. What about all those not associated with Canada Post, paid to stuff advertisements in people's mailboxes?



Anyway, today's our first day trying this...I'll report back to let you know if the Red Dot sign makes any difference in our print junk mail volume.

I've already registered our home number and my cell phone on Canada's Do Not Call Registry and added my info to IOptOut.ca (the latter's website looked when I checked it just now; hopefully the problems are temporary).

I was also intrigued by all the info on the Red Dot Campaign site about related services. It never crossed my mind that you could opt out of getting paper phone books delivered, for example. So then I got thinking...do we really NEED a paper phone book? I always use the Internet to look up info.

So here's a survey question:

When's the last time YOU used a print phonebook?

Chocolate, snowbound Toronto and ergonomic snow shovels

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated.

Lots of snow in our part of Toronto yesterday! Here's the view out our back door this morning:



Doesn't look like much at first glance, but the snow drift on our deck is so high that you can barely see the benches (the bit of brown in the top right corner).

Jeff has been doing a ton of snow shovelling lately but last night he came home to find our entire driveway already shovelled clear by our next-door-neighbour.

I know I've said it before but I'll say it again: I love our neighbourhood.

I've been investigating a snow shovel that I could use. I've been paranoid about regular shovels because my tendinitis has been good lately and I've been able to type normally for quite a while -- I really REALLY don't want another setback.



This is a great article about types of snow shovels which lists several types that would probably be good for me since they involve pushing rather than lifting. Some of them wouldn't be great at moving heavy snow, but fine for light to medium snowfalls, or at least to reduce the amount of shovelling Jeff has to do when he gets home. I like the push-shovels (esp. the ones on wheels).

Survey O' The Day: Notebooks!

I've posted a "writers and notebooks" survey in Inkygirl today plus photos of the fabulous notebook I recently bought from Erin's Etsy shop recently.

Links O' The Day

Color Pencils Reviewed: Very funny "review" of colored pencils done from the viewpoint of a techie. (Thanks to Ray for the link)

Cat Rackham Gets Depression: Wonderful webcomic, complete on one page! (Found via Drawn.ca)

Squirrels: Nature's Little Speed Bumps: Heh. :-D (Thanks to Larissa or pointing me to the bumper stickers with this saying!)



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DearToronto.com

I just found out about the launch of Dear Toronto, a new independent videoblog site by Adam Schwabe, Ryan Couldrey, and Rebecca Black. I enjoying meeting Adam and Rebecca at a blogTO get-together when I was still working for the site (I met Ryan soon after that), and I was excited to hear that they were doing a project together.

I love their first video, posted yesterday:



And when I saw their second video, I was immediately wished I had been able to attend the event. Video Games Live is an interactive concert showcasing some of the best music in video games:



(Speaking of one of the first games shown in the above video, how many others out there actually remember playing PONG when it first came out?)

The Tororontoist recently posted about Dear Toronto's launch.

And IMHO the name of their site, Dear Toronto, is brilliant. Looking forward to future posts!

Blushing

So yesterday I actually talked on the phone with Mark and Alison of Blush Publishing. As wonderful as electronic correspondence may be, it's always so great to occasionally be able to put a human to an e-mail address. We had to figure out the time difference first; it turns out that Wales is about five hours ahead of Toronto.

Both Mark and Alison sound as easygoing and friendly as they do in e-mail, and I could hear their infant daughter burbling cheerfully in the background.



Anyway, it looks like I'm going to be doing bunch more cards for the "Debbie Ohi" line; there are going to be 12 designs in total. Apparently my card designs did well at the Spring Fair in Birmingham, and I believe that in addition to the UK, they've also found at least one distributor in Canada, the U.S. (Texas) and Australia.

I'll post more info about where you can buy cards when they're available. And if you're a distributor interested in carrying these letterpress cards, please do let Mark and Alison know!



I recently got a cheque from Cafepress. Up to now, I haven't really been paying much (ok, ANY) attention to my Cafepress shop. The cheque wasn't a big one but hey, it was a cheque. :-) Apparently people were finding my shop from the general Marketplace area of Cafepress, not from my blogs.

So I've revamped my shop and, as I've mentioned before, I'm going to be going through my illustration archives (including comic strips like Waiting For Frodo and My Life In A Nutshell) and selecting images to put on greeting cards. Possibly other items as well, depending on what image resolution I have available.

I like the idea of putting something in a shop and not having to worry about re-stocking it or having package it and mail it.

B5Virgin update

I'm continuing to update Babylon Five Virgin, for those interested. My most recent post: Season 1, Episode 5: The Parliament Of Dreams. I'm definitely hooked.





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Help put Toronto onto the new Monopoly board!

Only 18 days left to vote Toronto onto the new Monopoly board! If you're on Facebook, you can join the group devoted to this effort. Here are the instructions, from the Facebook page:

"1. Go to: http://www.monopolyworldvote.com/en_CA/world
2. Register by clicking "Log In" then "Create your log in now". (You only need to Log In when you return tomorrow).
3. Add Toronto to your favorite cities by clicking "Add to My Cities."
4. Add any other favorite cities of yours. (Although, at this point you may want to vote strategically). ;)
5. Click "Vote"
6. Enter the Number code that is hard to read.
7. Go back tomorrow, rinse & repeat (until Feb 29th).
8. Very Important: Don't forget to validate your registration by following the link Monopoly send you in the mail. Otherwise your vote will not count!
9. Optional: Post this facebook group on your homepage to remind people to join and/or vote.""

More on Babylon Five

Rather than bore non-B5 types and also for fear of spoilers, I've decided to post any B5-related remarks in my Babylon Five Virgin blog instead of in Blatherings. No guarantees on the frequency of posts. You can subscribe to the RSS feed or to the LJ feed (thanks to Joseph Abbott) if you'd like to find out when I've made updates. So far, I've posted up to Season 1, Episode 4.

Cartoon of the Day:

Thanks to Rob Wynne and Shane McEwan for pointing me to this XKCD comic, which was clearly made for ME. :-D

Chocolate of the Day:

Thanks to netcrimes for the green tea Hershey's bar! It's fantastic. By the way, do check out J.A.'s Net Crimes and Misdemeanors site to find out how to outmaneuver web spammers, stalkers and con artists, plus more about J.A.'s book on the topic.





I'm gradually revamping my Art By Debbie Cafepress Store, by the way. I'll be putting more of my cartoons on art on greeting cards and other Stuff over time, including filk-related greeting cards. At least I've cleaned up the layout a bit for now.



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