final rebuttal- why falling in XO with TO should win

most people you asked about me would first say "she's incredibly competitive" followed by "she's cutthroat" and then "she'd throw you under the bus if she could get ahead".

rest assured, none of that has changed in my campaign to win the torontoist's new slogan contest.

so here's the deal.
as it is down to the wire (the contest closes Friday) i have decided to pull out the big guns and go ahead and call this a two horse race.

with Forever Yonge and i (Fall in XO with TO) playing a delicate first and second place dance, many of my arguments about why mine is better than the competition (i.e. this isnt the arena to promote the diversity of the city - here) don't necessarily apply to this particular contender...

in fact, determining which of these two choices would best serve the defined purpose (intriguing potential tourists to visit our fair city) is a pretty straightforward role-playing process. like so:

take a moment and put yourself into the shoes of a pedestrian, commuter, backpacker or any person of the world (just not a torontonian's shoes) and sit down at a bus stop somewhere outside of the GTA (ottawa, halifax, belleville, napanee, regina, etc). and then look up. there, in front of you stands a poster inviting you to fall in XO with TO. two seconds. you get it. its simple. you realize you havent been to toronto in awhile. you wonder whats new there. you realize that there could be things there to fall in love with. you decide to visit and stimulate the local economy promptly.

alternatively, in the same shoes at the same busstop, you look up and see "Forever Yonge". you think "Rod Stewart.. whats he doing these days?" oh wait, is that the street in Toronto? that really long street with all the dirty tshirt stores where the Sam the Record Man used to be? i think thats the street all my friends from Toronto always tell me to avoid when visiting the city. weird that it has a poster...

do the right thing.
VOTE XOTO

xoTO is mine, yours and ours - and it works.

it's been a tough week for a girl who was excited about her slogan being a finalist for the torontoist TO slogan contest.

after being selected as a finalist the comments field on the FALL IN XO WITH TO page was filling up with both props and criticism. so i took to my blog to address the concerns of skeptics suggesting my phrase was not a viable candidate and i think i addressed most criticism. ( here)

turns out, that was just the beginning of the arduous defence process (#firstworldproblem). thanks to the city of toronto.

on saturday, this post at the torontoist revealed that the city of toronto was unveiling a surprise XOTO campaign to launch at nuit blanche and noted the similarity of their messaging to my submission. ugh, a slogan writer's battle is never ending.



as such, i feel the need to address this coincidence and explain why it is not "unfortunate" but should instead be complementary and only strengthen my campaign.
so in 3 points, here we go:

1. it's not the same idea - they complement each other. the XOTO idea is something that we can build on as a city and its residents. it is a sentiment that current TO inhabitants can engage in. FALL IN XO WITH TO is a complementary and natural extension of this. even Lauren Oneil, a popular toronto blogger @Lauren Out Loud, took note of the city's campaign and then used the poster of my submission in her post supporting the campaign.

2. i didn't steal it from them, they stole it from me! see my "you know what's the bomb? this city! that's right TO i'm talking to you" post from last february

3. it employs modern language. there has been some criticism around the use of "XO" when referring to "love", and "TO" for Toronto -some saying it is misleading. the reality is this texting, sexting, tweeting shorthand is the language of today. and toronto has a reputation for being "cutting edge"* so it just makes sense.

so that's it.
i feel a little silly spending so much time on this but i cant have you thinking i am slogan-plagiarizer (i clearly don't mind if you think that i can't spell)

for more reasons why i think FALL IN XO WITH TO is pretty great, see my original justification here


* "XO" is sooo cutting edge ;)


Tweet

a Better Toronto Slogan: Fall in XO with TO

when i heard that the torontoist was looking for submissions for a new slogan for toronto tourism i had to share mine and, it turns out, some people liked it (obv - its genius).
but upon looking at the other contenders for the competition i feel i must legitimize my short and simple submission.

- firstly, our citys tagline needn't promote or highlight individual tourist destinations within this city. People know that the CN tower is here, and if they want to see it, they have to come here. we dont need to convince them.

- some of the other slogans highlight the multicultural nature and diverse population of this city - something i embrace, celebrate and take pride in as a torontonian and a reason to move here for some - but this is not something that tourists come to the city for.

- and i have to say that i think its a stretch to say that toronto speaks your language. i challenge anyone to find a restaurant in the downtown core with one staff member who speaks french.

my suggestion (seen here on right) gets right to the point:
we (me and the people i talk to at dog parks, coffee shops and on the streets around this city) XO TO

but take one step outside of the 416/905/647 and venture north, east, south and particularly west in this country and its another tune all together.
remember the anti-toronto campaigns of years past?! they hate us!

and if you ask why the root of every answer is just that they dont know what this city has to offer.
rather than checking out the St.Lawrence Market, High Park, any number of parks along the waterfront, our new AGO, grabbing a bite in little italy or heading to the beaches for an ice cream on the beach, these outsiders fly into pearson, take a cab to the delta on gerrard and spend the rest of their weekend taxing between the CN tower, the ACC and the Eaton Centre.
of course they hate this city!

what XO TO does is opens their eyes to the chance that there is something to love about this city. a reason why more than 5 million people call it there home.
so put that in your pipe and smoke it...
or just vote on Oct 6th.

i posted a defence part II here XOTO is mine yours and ours and it works

you can see the post on torontoist here

first world problems

as everyone i know, myself included, endlessly evaluates their choices made thus far, and seeks answers about the present and more importantly the future, this particular hashtag really strikes a cord (...the title of this post was a recent twittosphere trending topic...)


products of a generation where self-esteem building and confidence were emphasized and strengthend during our primitive years, we (the "can do anything we put our minds to" generation) appear to be overwhelmed by the possibilities and opportunities that lie ahead.

entitled to all things and capable of anything, the list of prospective career and life paths is daunting and terrifying.
this is indeed a #firstworldproblem.

do you think that the kids growing up in zimbabwe or in other struggling/developing parts of the world are asking themselves: should i stick it out in my cushy government pursue my passion for creating art out of old fans OR should i go to law school?

i'm so creative...
i'm not intellectually satisfied by my friends / partner...
i don't find my work challenging...

as a coping mechanism, we deem ourselves deserving of a reward for making it through our trying and stressful weekly existence, in the form of a THURS, FRI and/ or SATURDAY night escaping into the bottom of a bottle of moderately priced vodka or a magnum of local organic wine with a clever label.

the funny thing is, all that this "earned indulgence" does is add hangover to our never-ending list of problems.

it has happened again and i cannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnot

i found myself staring (for what seemed like an unnecessary and inappropriate amount of time given what had occurred) at my glistening white blackberry sitting in the bottom of the toilet.
i assure you it was seconds...SECONDS! before i was elbow deep in toilet water and retrieved it. but those mere seconds were long enough.
she's gone.

i cannnnnnnnnnnnn't!

i cannot go through this again:
- the frustration with the warranty i purchased that doesnt cover being addicted to your blackberry so much so that you must bring it into the washroom with you every single time you go and thus the inevitable porcelain swims it takes (being a water/ tea/coffee addict - these trips are ridiculously frequent)
- the thought of buying from craigslist without a warranty
- the temporary loss of contact and fear that some contacts may be lost forever
- the actual expense, like the multi-hundred dollar transaction that will inevitably happen in the next 6 hours.
- the nightmare of going to a rogers store and explaining to the 9 year old at the counter that i bought my phone on craigslist cause i'm cheap and that i need him to make everything work again because he is smarter than me
- re-requesting all my bbm friends (like 3)

and then, following the brilliant advice found on most shampoo botttles (rinse and repeat), doing this all again in 3 months when i take my new phone into the bathroom to see what @badbanana is tweeting about at 3am.

soooo longboarding...

in an effort to help michael understand skateboarding - and by understand i mean stop barking like a maniac and trying to take down every skateboarder he sees - i am taking up longboarding.
stay tuned for news of cuts, bruises, and eventual success, or more likely, failure.

continued quest for the answers

it turns out i am not the only one looking for the answers.

recent research shows that all of my twenty and thirty something comrades are on this same search and so far, all have come up empty handed.

although each is looking for answers to a unique kind of query, there is consensus around what the book would contain.

quite simply: the answers to all of lifes questions.
re:
- impulse purchase decisions
- matters of the heart
- suicide

like an easy reference coffee table book to reach for in those moments when you are tempted to utter the words "i just don't know what to do".

if any of you have, or know where i could find such a book, please advise.
thanks

dearest blackerry,

just a shell of what you once were.
please, show me a sign.
a glimmer of an intention to return to the technological wingman you once were.
your fogged up screen and these occasional flashes of your red beacon are foreshadowing something more like a slow and deceitful affair... like you have chosen another (the bberry-afterlife or bafterlife)...
say it ain't so.

remember when i needed you and you were there?
like every minute that i have been awake since we were connected?
and even when i have been asleep? like a guardian angel.
you: the gatekeeper to my communications in all of its various tricky little forms.
you would take these emails, texts, bbms, updates and inquiries and file them away for safekeeping while i shut-eyed with the security of knowing you were storing the worlds communications for me until the next business day?
remember?
remember when i became obsessed with foursquare two days ago? checking in periodically in an effort to start a series of mini-mayoral campaigns. beaming my gps from your little hard-drive to the world. our exact location pinpointed and broadcasted through your connection to the satellites so far off in space. that was teamwork. you and me and the ever-evolving-social-network-innovators.

yes i realize that going to spice route was a bad decision.
but you and i and foursquare know that that is not something i do often. and, in fact, shouldn't that be a feature of yours to send me a note, knowing where i am, that says

"sarah, out of character decision, bad idea, please divert to WIDE OPEN on spadina"

?
but where were you then? you're always there with the "convenient" alarms when i am late for an appointment and reminders of unpleasant obligations, but never a preemptive suggestion like that.

one that would have likely resulted in a few too many stiff vodka sodas and a slightly longer walk home BUT with you safely nestled in my pocket.
instead.
staring at you lying still at the bottom of the basin...
deep in the porcelain abyss in that dark boutique-bathroom stall, i sensed the end was near.
and now look where we are...

i will buy you a new skin.
i will charge you nightly and not let you run into the red zone where your precious lil'light turns green begging to be plugged in.
it could be just you and me.
like old times!
what do you say?
bberry?
hello?

farewell rings... but not good bye

what a games.
having been fortunate enough to attend these olympiad in beautiful BC i have to say, as i sit in the sparsely populated terminal (contrary to predictions of mayhem) about to board my chair in the sky back to the centre of the universe, my heart aches a little.

when the sun rose over vancouver this morning it brought with it eerie and lonely silence signifying the sad reality that the olympics are over.

what a games.
walking through the streets of van today, as the echoes of weeks of escalating cheering and honking fades in my ears, memories of the crowds of red plaid blanketing the city from the shores of the pacific across to the false creek inlet bring about some nostalgia for an energy that was impossible to contain not 24 hours ago.

there are few experiences that i have had in my life where i felt so connected to strangers and neighbours alike.

but what a games it was. canada you rocked the hizouse and we are so proud.

the medal count, the records broken, and personal bests aside, these games represented so much more than simply the importance of high performance sport, they let us show off our canada.
and to some it seems that this exhibit of national pride was not appreciated. this article boils my blood.(this one too)
of course it was about canada and why shouldn't it be?
the olympic games are a celebration of sport AND culture, awarded to world class cities in countries to showcase their athletes but more importantly to welcome the world into their identity. and that's exactly what we did.

we apologized as things went wrong (unnecessarily).
we stood behind our athletes as they won medals, broke records, expressed disappointment and exhibited excellence (especially in the face of adversity and criticism from the media - but that's a whole other story)
but most importantly we cheered.
and we cried.
together.

we showed the world that we may be dispersed longitudinally but we are united when it comes to the important stuff.

since feb12th it has been impossible to find a seat at any bar in this city, walking two city blocks in any direction from granville and georgia was a joke, and you couldn't turn your head 90 degrees without seeing a roots or HBC toque.

the sun rose this morning and revealed the pavement now diffused of the crowds that once flowed over it. and as i walked through these seemingly vast corridors of the city, i was met with thousands of teal-clad VANOC volunteers with that vacant boxing day look on their faces. that disbelief that after all of that, it's over, and life goes back to normal.

it took 25 000 of these passionate volunteers, 2 600 world-class high-calibre athletes and the patience and hospitality of a city with a population of 600 000+ to pull this off.
so, to you 627 600 plus individuals, from lil ol me, i say thanks.
i will never forget it and i don't think anyone will.
so bye bye for now rings....you have given us memories to last a lifetime. let's do it again sometime.

a tip of the hat and a wag of the finger - the legacy the rings leave behind

as much as i would like to avoid tagging colbert to these games any more than he already is, i must adopt his TIP/WAG system for a moment as i offer a most genuine tip of my hat to our athletes who knocked VAN2010 outta the park and to our friends in countries around the world who were such gracious guests, embracing our culture, our silly songs, our love of plaid and beavers, and all the while cheered as loud as they could.

alternatively, i assign a stern and pointed wag of my finger at the eager media and the opportunistic and trigger happy sports funding critics who became deafeningly vocal with criticism of the OWN THE PODIUM program only a few short days into the games.
the glory of the first few medal wins overshadowed by this preemptive and unjustified smear campaign.

before they even hit the slopes or took to the ice, while our athletes struggled with the already immense pressures of performing on the world stage on home turf, they were forced to bear witness to this mushrooming multimedia debate questioning the ROI of the minor funding they currently receive and the validity of the programs assigned name. not to mention suggestion of prospective cuts to that funding based on predictions of meager and unimpressive results in the athletic endeavors that they had not yet embarked upon!!! for shame.

unfortunately, the preemptive apology for predictions of PODIUM OWNING seems typical of the cndn persona. that we would apologize (to whom?) for setting such high hopes before the results are in. wag. wag. wag.
well, i hope that it has taught us a lesson.

certain media personalities should be applauded for avoiding the discourse and opting out of conversation altogether; recognizing that the discussion was both unnecessary and disrespectful at that juncture.

after the most successful games of any host nation ever, where are the critics now? oh, applauding our athletic accomplishments and assigning credit to the financial support of the own the podium initiative? what a short memory you have.

i am the first to say that we need to be accountable to our taxpayers and ensure that money is being spent effectively and on results driven programs.
but if these games have taught us anything, it's that we have an incredibly talented roster of athletes on whom we should be spending more money for training and services and paying better attention. we should be fostering communities where sport and recreation are celebrated and encouraged all at levels fostering a breeding ground for capable and champion athletes.

so once again i say, bye bye les rings.... here's hoping you leave behind a legacy of renewed and active appreciation of athleticism and lessons in not speaking too soon.

you know whats the bomb? this city! that's right TO, i'm talking to you!

i may have been born and raised in our nations capital, but its the provinces capital that has my heart.

TO i love you.
as a token of my affection and in an effort to continuously fuel this lovefire, i have a weekly ritual/ date with this city booked into my calendar.
every saturday when i awake to a full weekend on my plate i GMST and head out to the st lawrence market.


(meat shop picture)
beyond the obvious need for local produce and all things tasty, this trip, 45 minutes on hoof in each direction, is primarily an excuse to see whats new on the streets of my favourite ville.
i call it "checking it out with a weekly check in"

a key component of the weekly check in is route variance.
every saturday a new maze is woven across the core of the city as i meander eastward.
no matter the route, there is one consistency:
the evidence of 905ers gone by mark the cityblocks from bathurst to university on every avenue from queen south.
the silence they have left behind fills with smiling locals. urbanites taking back their city for the daylight hours before the next swarm funnel off the gardiner and DVP.

eventually i merge into the denser pedestrian traffic radiating in all directions from the market.
the buzz of those recently fed and watered at a handful of local brunching venues as they excitedly scurry into the market building makes me smile.
we dont need to come here for our produce. we dont need to pay more (sometimes double) for our olives and antipasti.
we come here because we can. because this city offers us tourist-like entertainment and services every day. because the st lawrence market and nathans phillips square, high park and little italy, kensington market, trinity bellwoods, the danforth and queen west, queen east, and the beaches are gifts our city keeps giving and we use our precious spare time to take them in.

an hour later i emerge onto front st. arms weighed down by overpriced produce and an unnecessary load of jams and jellies (considering i dont really eat bread) i sigh with satisfaction.

on the walk home i pass a woman preaching about the end of days and daring armageddon to "just try". but as i approach her preaching slows and stops. as she falls asleep standing up.
and it warms my heart.


until next week... XO XO TO

welcome to 2010

oh yes, and happy new years tutts.
its going to be a blowout for the bobasaccord.
so hold on to your bandhas.

duhhh

Hey the internet is making us dumb

I have sat down to write this out like ten times. But every time the blank page opens I have forgotten what it is I wanted to write about.

I know that the general idea is that the internet is making us dumb.

the oyster theory

so, i have a theory.
actually, it's not just mine.
my buddy phil also subscribes to, and is cofounder of, this theory. thus making it a School of Thought I suppose.

so, there is a school of thought, to which i subscribe whereby the whole idea of "the world being our oyster" is revised to be more relevant to myself and phil and peers of our "demographic" -young, educated and relatively healthy (and let me quantify that first adjective by saying that as "middle age" has now been claimed by the 60plus baby boomers, all generations below are rebranded accordingly, so i AM considered young.)

for those lucky enough to find themselves in this fortuitous position, the freedom to choose (everything from your life path to what you want for lunch) is entirely yours.
and if the choices we make are all steps in our search to find our part of the oyster, then simple logical deduction inevitably leads to the mantra of the School:


subscribe or don't, but either way: until you find your personal piece of the pearl package, enjoys some oysters and get frisky

enhancing conversational capabilities

If you haven't been making any new friends lately, you might be getting tired of what your current entourage has to say.

After years of sticking with the same crew, your interests and knowledge become a communal well. A meld of all your histories, memories and a peppering of the more resonant lessons ingested through some form of higher education or training.

There is something romantic about this melding experience. You will likely not be caught off guard by friends wine induced rants - political or otherwise - but you could just as easily have these conversations and debates in your head because, you are that familiar with the opinions and contents of your compatriots minds.

In this age of customization - where you can create your own cell phone plan and design your own jeans - can we customize our friends?

Being that the winter is coming and therefore that we wont be going outside as much to get a new batch of friends I think its time we explore options for making existing relationships more interesting.

So firstly, the big question is, what makes people interesting? And why do we run out of new things to talk about?

I often look back at the years of one off projects and independent studies and wonder where that information went.
For an entire weekend, a month or a semester, your whole life revolved around -insert completely random noun here - eg Jupiter.
Suddenly an astronaut. Fluent in the language of the solar system. Jupiter is the largest planet , 5th from the sun, and belongs to a subset of planets referred to as "Jovian" (the gas giant planets).
Then you handed in your report, gave your presentation, and immediately replaced that expertise with an equal or greater amount of information about the African snow leopard, muscular dystrophy, Fiji, or Che Guevera.

Later in life we seem to lose our enthusiasm for knowledge for the sake of it.
But its these very kinds of projects, and the substance and insight they provide that make some people more interesting than the rest.

So how can you broaden the scope of knowledge, and thus conversational capabilities, your current playmates represent to better resemble that of the crew you rolled with in elementary school? Well short of heading to your local PS and risking arrest when striking up conversation with tots at recess, you are going to have to force feed em content.

The way I look at it, this can be achieved passively or actively.

A more covert approach would be littering ones coffee table with books on an array of topics that you find interesting and want to know more about. Rather than read them yourself (as you are clearly too busy on the interwebs than to spend any time self-improving) the strategy is to leave them on the table - topics of highest interest at the top of the pile - and ensure that whenever a friend pops in, they are left waiting. I am confident curiosity will prevail. From down the hall the delicate sounds of pages flipping will signify the likelihood of new and shared conversational content for your rendezvous.

Although a seemingly passive approach, provided distractions like TV, blackberries or iphones( who on earth could read a book with an iphone within reach) are removed from the environment, this experiment will likely bear fruit in the form of periodic fact injections into your otherwise predictable repartee.

This will likely yield noticeable results faster than enduring the lengthy process of encouraging companions to go back to school or take up a hobby and then hoping that those experiences will translate into captivating conversation.

Alternatively, a more active strategy can be applied.

Start setting parameters and expectations and be vocal about it. A la “ I am going to need you to learn a little more about how airplanes work” or “what is it about yoko onos work that classifies it as art”. Explain specific objectives and expectations and ensure there is no doubling up - or you will just end up where you started.
These kinds of parameters are difficult to justify and some might say beyond reasonable expectation. So, if this doesn't alienate, you know two things right away. 1. you are a dick . and 2. your friends are already awesome so stop trying to change them.

No matter what strategy you apply, I think its fair to say that everybody wins. Your friends will be smarter and hopefully so will you. But if not, at least nobody loses. Except maybe you as you sit friendless and dumb.

Perhaps you should take stock of the quality of your personal contribution before implementing...

explaining garbage

I am beginning to worry about the things our kids are going to ask about some of the commonplace practices of our generation and blind acceptance of their impact on the future?

Looking at the clear lack of foresight and long term impact analysis in the way we behave, I bet there are going to be some pretty serious questions for which we may not have the answers.

As elementary curricula begin more actively engaging students in their carbon footprints and understanding the effects of their consumption on global warming and the environment.

- I think we should all get on the same page here.

Likely the most confusing practice these future generations will question about is our approach to waste.
Questions about garbage specifically will be one area that we are going to have a tough time explaining our way out of. Although the practice stems from before our time, we will inevitably have to answer how we actually bought into this concept. Because once you break it down, it is illogical.

I envision this conversation starting somewhere like:
K: Whats garbage?

And ending somewhere around:
K: So it all ends up in a big pile? But then it’s just there. Its not going anywhere… There is no away……

Uhoh.
Eyes wide, mouth agape, this is where we need to insert our incredibly wise and excusable explanation for how we justify our unwavering faith in such a seemingly illogical practice.

Having had this discussion in my mind a few times now, there really is only one option when answering to this inquisition. this is of course ignoring the tempting and cowardly "we didn't know any better" because yes we knew that it would sit there forever and rot and pollute and shorten the lifespan of our planet. and we did it anyways.

I suppose the choice answer will come to me on the day of reckoning.

But until that, as I sit in mental purgatory I am repeating one thing to myself as I make purchase decisions.

There is no away.

What on earth we were we thinking?