Dougall Swimming in the Grand
He can’t really run anymore, but Dougall, at 12, would swim forever if we let him.
Galt Collegiate Institute at Dawn – again I’m up to take this, for whatever reason.
Okay, I love my current contract. It’s with a cool startup in Waterloo called aha insurance – that allows you to get a quote and to buy your insurance online in five minutes. Amazing really. But honestly, these working hours are taking some getting used to. They aren’t overly long. They just start just sooooo friggin early. Who needs to be in an office at 7:30? What is the point? I’m in marketing, not an emergency ward or some shit. There…
Shot over our house at the crack of dawn – for whatever reason
Morning shot over my neighbour’s houses – and ours. The only good thing about having to get up so friggin’ early. Early morning bosses, in my opinion, are strange. Yet, this picture… hmmmm.
Thanksgiving with a man who is sad…Except in this Picture
One way or another, all of us will end up alone, and in Keith’s case, to most folks surprise, as Mary was considered to be immortal, it is him. Thanksgiving was us bringing up a ton of oysters and a fresh turkey from St. Jacobs and the end result was three full bellies and lots of tears. Thanksgiving is a strange time this year. There is no previous context for Leslie.
Grand River Living
We’ve now lived here for 10 years and every day we’re so happy we are. Where anyone chooses to live is up to everyone. However, after living here, we have come to the conclusion that, beyond who you choose to live with, or if you choose to live with anyone for that matter, at least as important is where you chose to live. We chose to live here, and we chose wisely.
Is a Stress-Free Thanksgiving Dinner Possible?
Nope! It’s not. Unless you choose to self-medicate, and heavily, there will be stress, simply due to the nature of the beast. Preparing a meal for a large number of people will always be stressful. Have you ever met a professional chef? Were they in any way calm? Point made. So, what can you do, to at least take the edge off and get to the point where you’re not contemplating finding a nice dark spot to hide and assume…
We Don’t Speak Insurance-ese
For aha insurance: We’ll never make you feel as though terms like All Perils or Risk Location are words that we all use in our everyday communication. This insurance jargon is what we’re calling “insurance-ese”. Some industries have jargon that is fairly well known and can even be used in a fun and playful manner, like when we say “10-4” which is the stereotypical police term for affirmative. When it comes to insurance, we haven’t seen too many people (besides…
Mary Cameron as told by Mary Cameron
My Mom-in-Law, Mary Cameron, passed away this week, and everyone is devastated, even though we had been preparing for a while. As a member of Probus, Mary was tasked in 2001 with telling her life story to the group. The following is the text from her speech she made in April of that year. It opens with her expressing her horror of the prospect and how she would just quit and “join another Probus club if asked.” But she was…
Donald Trump – The Marketer-in-Chief
As a marketing guy, I can’t help but apply that lens when observing the shitstorm that is sweeping our southern neighbours, and that is the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. While everyone is trying to figure how it is possible that a disastrously spray-tanned xenophobic, misogynistic racist is leading the GOP field, it’s pretty obvious why. It’s all about marketing. More specifically, Trump is a direct reaction to a remarkably effective, all-encompassing branding strategy run by the Republican party for…
It’s All Just Marketing, at Least Now It Is
TechCrunch writes a great article for today’s tech companies letting them know, what is old is new again, finally. But, not really. The premise is a simple one. Regardless of new terminology like “inbound”, “content” & “social media” marketing, what they all mean, is what they have always meant… and that is, it’s all just marketing. “Imagine that it is the year 1996. What did traditional marketing departments think about? The four Ps. The promotion mix. Communications strategies. SWOT analyses. The five forces. Building…