#LoveAHeart Redux

As you may or may not recall I was involved in the #LoveAHeart Auction last year benefiting the Heart & Stroke Foundation. This year’s event is tonight and it is once again at The Hideout on Queen Street West. You can find all the details for it at the Facebook event here Pretty much the details are available here: http://www.facebook.com/events/304662309569250/

Zach Bussey published a Bachelorette’s buying guide as well as a Bachelor’s buying guide. In his Bachelor’s buying guide Zach says he thinks I will go for $120 but I am intending on beating the crap out of that number.

You can follow along from home all the chatter on Twitter with the hashtag #loveaheart.

A number of other bloggers blogged about it including:

• Val @ValTorontoGal Stachurski blogged about it
• Casie @CasieStewart Stewart blogged about it
• Raymi @RaymiTheMinx The Minx blogged about it

Local musical darlings, winners of Indie Week 2011, and personal friends of mine Tiny Danza are going to be playing a free show and there will be an auction after the Guys and Girls are auctioned off for a intimate show with the boys from @TinyDanza.

Barefoot Wine will be sponsoring and giving us all FREE WINE!

Check out the video from last year:

Here’s the blurb from the Facebook page mentioned/linked above with the full list of bachelors and bachelorettes on auction.

Need a Valentine’s Day date? Why not guarantee yourself one and donate to The Heart and Stroke Foundation in the process?

On February 9th 2012 we’ll be gathering at The Hideout once again for the city’s hottest Bachelor & Bachelorette auction.

First Auction is at 9:30 second auction is at 11:30 MC’d by none other than Shannon Kelly aka @ShanKell host of The Toronto Rock and the bow tie king himself @ShawnHawaii!

And because we want to be absolutely sure you have a blast; in between the auctions you’ll be treated to a performance by indie week champions, Tiny Danza!

And here it is, the final list of bachelors & bachelorettes:

Girls:

• Casie Stewart, @CasieStewart
• Raymi Lauren White, @RaymiTheMinx
• Danielle Baker, @Danny_MB
• Regina Sy, @FragileHeart
• Christine Estima, @ChristineEstima
• Lisa Marie Chen, @SciontistLC
• Michelle Beilhartz, @MichelleHartz
• Meg Button, @MegButton
• Sofi Pa, @sexytypewriter
• Kat Stefankiewicz, @MatterofKAT

Guys:

• Matt Roik, Starting Goalie for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League
• Brock Mclaughlin, @BrockMclaughlin
• Yours truly! Me! Dan Levy, @TheDanLevy
• Scott Cavalheiro, @ScottCavalheiro
• Jeff Cole, @iamjeffcole
• Sheldon Levine, @40deuce
• Kerry Morrison, @kmore
• Wilder Wier, @wilderweir
• Mike Bradwell the Toronto Argonauts Wide Receiver
• Richard Scott, NHL Alum & former New York Ranger
• Julian Brass, @JulianBrass

Each date will come with a date package! So you’ll be buying a hot date that’s completely paid for!

All proceeds raised will go to, The Heart and Stroke Foundation.

#LoveAHeart

#HatTrickWineLaunch & Contest For My Readers

Tonight I have been invited by the fine folks over at Diamond Estates Wines (on Facebook and on Twitter @DiamondEstates) are launching a new kind of wine along with the NHL Alumni called Hat Trick.

From what they have said in the press release they sent me they tell me that the wine is the result of Diamond Estates bringing together three distinctly Canadian elements for the launch of “Hat Trick’ Wine. Toronto, Hockey, and fine Niagara wines come together to create the perfect hat trick of distinctly Canadian elements to host the launch of Diamond Estates newest vintages “Hat Trick White’ and ‘Hat Trick Red’.

Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Ltd, one of Ontario’s leading winemaking facilities, has partnered with the NHL Alumni Association to come up with the new hockey-inspired VQA wines. Each three-varietal wine blend has been specifically crafted in collaboration between former NHL stars and the winemakers. $0.50 from each bottle sold goes to the NHL Alumni Association to support various charitable causes and promote the game of hockey. Charity is always good in my books which is why I am all the happier to be supporting this event and this wine.  The event will be talked about on the Twitters using the hashtag #HatTrickWineLaunch.

Also, something which sounds just awesome, NHL Alumni Members will be in attendance to comment on the development process of Hat Trick. Attending members include: Johnny Bower, Rod Gilbert, Mark Napier, Lou Franceschetti, Troy Crowder, Dennis Maruk, Ryan Vandenbussche, Jason Zent, Dave McLlwain and more!

CONTEST!

But, I have also decided that it isn’t enough to just tell you guys about an event I am going to because what the heck is the point of me telling y’all about an event you can’t or didn’t attend? This is why I contacted the folks over at Hat Trick Wines and they have graciously agreed to hook up one of my lucky readers with a prize pack! I can’t say what is in the prize pack because, I honestly don’t know right now but I have been told it’ll be damn good!

CONTEST RULES

So here’s the deal: All you got to do is comment on this blog post below about your favorite NHL experience.

You can only comment once and have it count BUT you can get an extra entry per day if you tweet something like this:

I want to win a  Hat Trick Wine prize pack in honor of  #HatTrickWineLaunch from @DiamondEstates & @TheDanLevy http://wp.me/pVpvJ-1eO

The tweet has to have my Twitter handle, Diamond Estates’, a link to this post & the hashtag to be a valid entry.

Contest is open to GTA residents and is will be open for entry until Saturday afternoon at 5 P.M. Toronto time (as evidenced by my blog’s comment system – if it says you posted before then and you followed the rules you’re good to go!).

UPDATE: WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!

Thank you to all who entered and I wish I could give you all prizes [...except the Habs & Sens fans I kid, I kid!]. I hope to do more such contests in the future and hopefully I will be able to include a further reach than just the GTA.

How I chose: I went through all the tweets that had been tweeted since the contest opened and wrote down the names of the tweeters going back from oldest to newest and assigned them a number starting with (duh) 1. I then went to the comments on this post that fulfilled the requested info – even if it was a Habs or Sens memory – and wrote down those names while continuing the count from the Twitter list. I again started with the oldest and went to the newest. I then went to http://www.random.org/ and used their “True Random Number Generator.” The random number it spat out was matched to the above mentioned list and I had my name.

The winner is….@annecayer with this tweet.

I will be contacting you shortly to get details so I can send it on to the people at Diamond Estates/Hat Trick Wine.

Tips For WordPress Blogging On The Go (From Your Phone)

WordPress for BlackBerry app screenshot

I have used both a BlackBerry and an Android for blogging on the go especially during my Post-A-Day Challenge. I found it especially useful to do when I was pressed for time. However, there a couple of limitations I have noticed with the apps which should be noted before you go to try and do it for yourself – assuming you want to make your blog post looks as awesome as it can.

Before I go on, I have to mention that although I have not used the WordPress for iPhone app I have heard that many of the same issues exist and so I assume these tips are just as relevant for you iOS users but can’t confidently tell you one way or the other.

WordPress for Android app screenshot

The key thing I have found was to do some planning before you try to blog from your phone. Why? Because it will make your life way easier if you set up certain aspects of the post on a computer beforehand.

There are a couple of reasons for this which will be laid out below.
 

• Pictures (Inserting): It is way, way easier to insert an image on your computer. Mainly because the WordPress app only likes to put images on the top or on the bottom of your post then you have to move them around manually. As well, you can make sure the picture resizes correctly, and it will, of course, upload quicker. Pop the pictures in your blog, name them, and put fragments of thoughts…or even “blah blah blah” between them to show yourself where to stick your content.
• Pictures Resizing: Chances are the pictures you take on your phone are going to be too big for your blog’s theme. Because of this it will end up looking horrible til you get to a computer and fix it OR feel like figuring out the math and manually resizing it by constraining it with HTML code. The image settings within the WordPress app don’t necessarily reflect your theme’s so your best off taking one of your phone’s camera pictures already on your computer and seeing what the length of it gets resized to when you resize it to the width of your blog’s theme. Now go into your phone’s WordPress app’s settings and set the “custom” image length and width to reflect your findings.
• Links: They’re a pain to add in correctly on your phone I’ve found relative to doing it on your computer. Best thing is to, again, plan it beforehand. As well, the WordPress system on the full web gives you a helpful pop-up box which lets you easily reference previous blog posts by just clicking.
• Tags: While links are a pain to add in, technically, tags aren’t. However, if you want your posts to be able to link back to each other and you plan on using tags you’ve already used for a topic make sure you add them in beforehand. Again, the full WordPress gives you a drop down of all the tags you’ve previously used so everything stays nice and neat whereas the mobile app doesn’t do this. It sounds like nothing but wait til you’ve been blogging for a while and have hundreds of posts and have to remember what the exact tags you previously used were: not fun.
• URL: The URL of your post is an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). WordPress online allows you to edit the last bit of your post’s URL whereas the mobile app just takes the title of your post.
• Bullet & Numbered Points (aka ordered and unordered lists): These are just annoying to set up and so I again, recommend setting it up beforehand and then loading the very fragmented, nonsensical (to everyone but you) post on your phone and edit from there filling in all the gaps.

In case you are wondering, yes, I used my own tips to write this post. The words “blah blah” were actually used quite frequently in this post before it was fleshed out on the subway and streetcar where I am now. I guess you can sort of accuse me of breaking one main tip (plan ahead) into a bunch of little ones but from all the bloggers I’ve spoken to, not many have considered this method for blogging on the go and ask me how I’ve managed to do it on numerous occasions and still make the post look as good as if I’d blogged from a computer. Now my secret is out.

Anyone else out there try any similar methods? Anyone know any better methods? Let us all know in the comment section below!

The Book A Fortnight Update

Thought I would do some thoughts on reading and this 26 Books A Year or Book A Fortnight Challenge for 2012. You remember, the one inspired by Dave Fleet & Erin Bury I mentioned in a previous post a few weeks back.

I have read a  large number of books already putting me well ahead of schedule but the bulk have been novels. The books I have read thus far are:

1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
2. TimeRiders: Day of the Predator by Alex Scarrow
3. The War That Came Early: West and East by Harry Turtledove
4. TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow
5. The War That Came Early: The Big Switch by Harry Turtledove

I have already begun a sixth book but I am finding myself wanting to stick to novels more and more. I can say it is because they are all parts of series which makes it more desirable to do but I really have to push myself for more mentally stimulating reading in my opinion. Problem with that, of course, is it is way, way harder! One thing I am really finding out though is the massive amount of importance there is for the more hard data kind of books, or books that make you think, it is all the more important that you find the author with the right writing style. Then again, maybe that’s just me. Have you found this yourselves?

“Made To Share.” That’s Great! Where’s The Mention Of Sites We Should Be Sharing On?

I am sure most Canadians who are reading this blog recognize the logo above. I have taken the actual brand name out but I am aware that most of you will recognize the brand that made these commercials.

The brand name, however, is the only thing I have taken out of this screen shot. As I discussed in my previous post on removing barriers to engagement I have to wonder how it hasn’t occurred to this brand to include some links or information to their social media presences or even their website. Nothing, nada, not a word written. The campaign is called “Made to SHARE” for crying out loud! How has no one suggested to this brand that they actually make things sharable!

Before I go on let me make clear that, yes, I understand the campaign’s point is to encourage people to share the product amongst their friends but the word share has taken on a whole new meaning. As well, the actual ad that prompted this post was based around the idea of a picture of a guy being shared around by his family and friends on different mediums (phones, tablets, and computers) so it is obviously being done via some sort of online sharing even if it is only being done via email (unlikely as that is in this day and age).

This kind of makes me want to bang my head on the wall over and over and I am not an advertising professional. Maybe there is something here I am missing something that is obvious to anyone actually in the business but to me it seems like a massive miss. Not only isn’t any information listed on the advertising spot as shown above, they don’t have a YouTube channel where they can put up for ready access all their “Made to share” advertising spots so people can….wait for it….SHARE THEM! 

Why? Please. Tell. Me. Why. It makes absolutely zero sense to me that they wouldn’t be attempting to convert this campaign by encouraging it go viral. Seems like a pretty obvious move to me but, again, maybe I am missing something.