The Unknown Studio

A few of my dub5 colleagues and I regularly give Mack the gears for the way he signs off from Twitter every night. “Sleeping,” he says, and we’re meant to believe that this is actually what he’s doing. Mack’s a pretty neat dude, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know him a bit better over the last six months. That’s why I’m fairly confident in saying that he’s probably a cyborg (not to be confused with a Cylon). Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

John K Samson on March 20th in Halifax | Photo by Ryan Heise

There are worse ways to spend a Thursday night. My typical Thursday evening involves wine and 30 Rock. But I received a reminder earlier last week that I was meant to attend the Weakerthans concert in Edmonton at the Winspear Centre (on April 23). Two of my dear friends from elemenatary school, some beer, and some music. I didn’t feel bad for missing Liz Lemon and Tracy Jordan’s antics. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve been sort of passively paying attention to the constantly moving deadlines that CanWest Global keeps being granted to shore up its debt. However, I really lack the technical savvy to understand why CanWest keeps getting a stay of execution. So I asked my business partner — who most people know only as @WanyeGretz — what the deal was. What follows is the conversation we had about it over email Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

The Power Trio with Gord Steinke

Over a year ago, my business partner and I went to an Oilers game, as we sometimes do. It was there, after several crack-powered Rexall beers, that we happened upon Lynda Steele from Edmonton’s Global News. Lynda was selling copies of her book the Laptop Diaries. Having just launched OilersNation.com, we were looking for prizes to give away, and since the proceeds from Lynda’s book went to charity, we thought we’d buy a few and have her autograph them. A few means, like, seven, by the way. I had three left over, and being the random idiot that I am, I decided to give them away today by asking my Twitter followers trivia questions. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

I wasn’t going to write about this… Didn’t see the need, didn’t want anyone to reassure me, don’t need it. I STILL don’t need that. So if you’re reading this, please, immediately realize this: I know I’m not the only person to go through something like this, and I’m not writing about it to elicit sympathy. I’m writing about it to sort out my own thoughts and feelings about it. This medium just happens to be public, and I happen to be OK with that.

This is for me, not you. Just count yourselves lucky you get to peer through the looking glass into my life. Yes, I’m being tongue-in-cheek. Seriously, I’m OK. Read and be entertained or horrified. I expect nothing more or less. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5% [?]

About a month ago, Nissan Canada undertook a rather unusual marketing strategy for the launch of the Nissan Cube. Rather than access their typical advertising channels — TV spots, radio ads, etc — they set out to do try and build buzz in a rather novel way: entirely by word of mouth. Viral marketing using social media tools like Twitter, Facebook and other social web tools isn’t entirely unusual. However, it’s the scope and scale of this campaign that’s really remarkable. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3% [?]