Elaine authors Greens & Berries, which has been nominated in the Gardening category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

Over the past three years I've been writing a blog, I've used blogging as a tool:
1) To collect, organize & share information.
2) To connect with others who have similar interests.
3) To get things done (e.g., if I don't sow the seeds, I won't have anything to write about.)
4) To document my everyday discoveries and experiences.

Greens & Berries is both a gardener's and a dietician's journal with a noted lean toward vegetarianism. What is your food philosophy?

I'll quote Michael Pollan's new-classic, seven-word manifesto as a starting point: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." To this I'd add: "Grow your own. Organically." And, "Enjoy eating & the art of food."

Is gardening an activity that you manage to maintain year-round despite our Canadian winters? If so, how does your annual gardening schedule play out?

I garden in Vancouver, which is zone 8. Yes, twelve months of the year I'm working in the balcony garden, except on the chilliest, wettest, greyest days in winter. If I can feel the cold through three layers (hoodie, fleece & Gore-Tex®) I simply enjoy the violas, heuchera & rosemary from the warmer side of the sliding glass doors. This year, though, January and February have been unusually mild. Nearly every day of the past 8 weeks I've found another reason to neglect indoor chores in favour of outdoor pottering. I've also been more extravagant than usual with primulas & daffodils, which certainly aren't edible crops. Next weekend, I'm going to begin sowing cool-weather crops outdoors (kale, lettuce, Oriental greens and radishes) and herbs indoors.

What aspect of gardening keeps you inspired?

Certainly reading about gardening and connecting with fellow gardeners on their blogs and Twitter inspires me to keep growing. But I think above all, it's the activity itself. Many times I do get discouraged because I work in a small space. And I've lost more plants than I care to count. Yet, as soon as I begin mixing soil and compost, filling the pots and touching the plants, I enter a flow state and lose track of time and place. It's something I can't explain. It just feels right and good.

Being that I am an apartment dweller, do you have any specific tips for aspiring small-space gardeners?

To start, I would recommend reading Gayla Trail's blog, You Grow Girl and her new book, Grow Great Grub. Gayla is THE best at urban gardening in small spaces and is my gardening mentor/guru/sage.

Though I've been growing plants on my balcony for 20 years, I'm a relative novice at year-round (or at least, 3-season) edible gardening. A few tips I can share, based on personal successes & failures are:
1) Have fun, experiment, and try new things, but also,
2) To avoid disappointment, know your growing conditions (e.g., growing zone, hours of sunlight/shade during different seasons), and
3) Match plant with place.
4) Use high-quality organic soil and soil amendments.

What are your must-reads?

I'm regularly adding new books to the shelf & links to my blog, but if forced to limit myself to a handful of "must-read" resources for information and inspiration, it would be these four sites & three books:

You Grow Girl
The Balcony Gardener
Life on the Balcony
Heavy Petal

Gardening at the Dragon's Gate
Tending the Earth, Mending the Spirit: The Healing Gifts of Gardening
Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces

If you were to impart some knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Be true to yourself and truthful with your readers.

Labels: Gardening, interviews

Kate Inglis authors sweet | salty, which has been nominated in the Best Written, Life, and Family & Parenting categories of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

This question has me wanting to yell 'diplomatic immunity!' from the deck of an illegal freighter after I've ordered three of my goons to tackle the word 'blogging' to the ground and beat it unconscious.

It's probably unfair for me to get squirmy around the word 'blogger', especially given all the metadrama and politics and reactive blogging pride out there. It's got nothing to do with the writing I do for clients, or for fiction. I don’t mean to devalue the communities and friendships that spring up from all these people writing and sharing over the internet. It's just a goofy word.

I've also never thought of blogging as an end-goal. It's writing. So why writing? Because I suck at math.

Where does your weblog fit into your creative portfolio? Is blogging your primary outlet, or do you publish elsewhere?

My blog accelerated the process of getting published by helping me bypass the slush pile. It wasn't necessarily mass exposure — plenty of people get more traffic than I do. But my writing caught the eye of the right person the same week I'd finished my first manuscript. She's now my editor. I am shocked. She is relentless.

I'm not inclined to syrupy overstatements, but this is the truth. The past year has made me feel like the home of my writing might make anything possible. It's a channel, an idea bank, a spiritual practice, friendships, a resource, a discipline. The past year has been a lesson in how profoundly storytelling — and clarity of voice — matters.

How has your blogging style, content, and attitude changed since you first began?

I remember the first and last time I got wound up about the futility of blogging. It was sometime in 2005. I was wandering one night, trying to find ‘good blogs’. I had no idea how it all worked, how you’d ever find similar voices or interests, let alone readers. From blogroll to blogroll I landed on a blog that featured a whole series of posts detailing several days of one woman’s constipation. Ooof! Hard poop. Big poop! Waiting. Pushing. Ow! Oof. Oatmeal. Prunes. Urrgh! Water. More water! Ouch. Squat! A downed tree, a chorus. None of it meant to be funny. She might have had a ticker in animated gif format. Hers was some seriously earnest shit.

30+ comments on every post led me to the conclusion that people like reading about artless shit. I didn’t just want to quit blogging. I wanted to trade in my entire generation.

Choosing not to delete my blog at that moment was a turning point. To keep going, I had to shrug at the rest of the internet. The trolls, the bickering, the melodrama, the need for validation, the exposure fetishists. The shit. I had to make the internet into something else, at least in my corner, and not internalize the rest of it. I made an effort to find kind and interesting people for whom blogging was just a platform for something else. Good writing, ideas, photography, art.

Then the twins were born, and Liam died, and everything changed, but far beyond blogging. I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not so doubtful and unsure and awkward and wracked. I don’t worry as much about what people think of me. I feel bigger than I was, more calm. More cemented in how I feel about the act of public writing.



Which of your weblog entries from the past while was the most cathartic/interesting/nerve-wracking for you, and why?

The answer most people might expect would be any post written inside the NICU. When something like that happens to you, the world doesn't stop. People keep running for the bus and flipping the bird in traffic and it's just impossibly strange. My kid is dying and you're eating a hamburger, you stupid fucker, and you've got ketchup on your chin, and I can't decide if I want to punch you or tell you how rare you are.

The world doesn't want or need to see the suffering that consumes you. In fact, most people turn away from it. So I had to keep writing. I needed to make people pause and consider the vividness of what we couldn't escape. And I needed to make it hopeful, somehow. I was forcing my imagination out-of-season. It was sado-masochism on all fronts, but it didn’t take courage. I had no choice. The writing of those posts came easily.

The difficult, knuckle-biting posts have been those that preceded the release of my book. I've never felt so exposed in my life. I had no idea it would feel so terrifying to put those pirates where they could be seen. They're brutes and thugs but they were kind enough to run away with me when I needed fresh air. For people to respond to them (or my expression of them) with indifference... for a few weeks there, I was out of my head with how raw it felt.

Ramble a little bit here about whatever you like. We think you're a stunning writer and just want to listen to you talk some more.

Poop! LOL. OMG. TMI. WTF.

What weblogs are your must-reads?

Bon of Crib Chronicles, Sweet Juniper, BHJ, Maggie Dammit, and so many others. I read my friends, so it’s really tough to answer this. Some are photographers, some I’ve hung out with at BlogHer [conferences], some totally bogarted the last box of chocolate weetabix. I trawl Pioneer Woman for free photoshop actions but beyond that, everyone I read is someone with some personal connection. They’re all must-reads.

If you were to impart some knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Only flash your boobs if somebody pays you.

Labels: Best Written, Family and Parenting, interviews, Life

Suzie Ridler authors Suzie the Foodie, which is nominated in the Food & Drink category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

I left the world of blogging for three months last year and tried to write my foodie book and felt so lost and alone. I missed the blogging community, their feedback, support, and comfort and, yes, even the mean comments I get now and then. My blog had been about a sacred life and, well, my life just no longer felt sacred. I followed the energy and found that I wanted with all my heart to be in the kitchen and write my foodie adventures and hope that someone would care and, maybe, just maybe, pick up a wooden spoon and make something themselves. That is the power of the blogging world. Day after day, people come and see me, a woman with a disabling illness on the brink of insanity from pain and exhaustion, pick up my wooden spoon and try again. If I can do it, they must know they can do it, too.

How did you arrive at being a foodie? Is it a passion from childhood, or have you come across it more recently?

Heck no! When I left university I did not know how to boil an egg. I did not grow up on my mama's knee in the kitchen. She shooed us out of there, and I went and played outside.

Food was a complete and utter mystery to me, and I was always so picky, nothing was good enough. Once I moved out on my own and moved from Toronto to Ottawa and lived with my future husband, who accidentally poisoned me a few times with his questionable cooking techniques, I realized if I wanted to survive I had to learn how to make food.

What a learning curve! I had no TV, no cookbooks, no internet. It was horrible! I had no natural ability for it, it was all trial and error, and I started to get easy cookbooks from my family as presents. I never thought I would like doing it. I wanted to, but I had no mentor. I was alone and learned everything the hard way. The great thing is, after a while, you can figure out how to make stuff up and take risks and figure out what you like and what you will hate FOREVER! When I realized I could make everything I wanted the way I wanted, well, that was so liberating! I could not even experience that in restaurants. I was hooked. Baking came later, living on a mountain in BC with no money and no way to get to a store, I realized, if I wanted cookies, I had to make them. I had never had homemade cookies before; my mom never baked. Well, there is no comparison between store-bought and homemade. Then we got The Food Network, and I became like Neo in the Matrix, absorbing EVERYTHING, and I went from being hooked to having a lifelong addiction to making everything in my kitchen.

Are there any dishes that you have yet to prepare that you would love to try your hand at?

I have still yet to find an authentic Pad Thai recipe that I love. I have had many recommendations thanks to a recent disappointment and think it is time to make it my own way based on all the recipes people have sent me. I love doing that, studying recipes, finding the commonalities, omitting what I am wary of and adding my personal touches. I am still on the hunt for that super moist homemade macaroni and cheese recipe, but I will find it. I always like a challenge.

If you could spend a week cooking with any one chef, who would it be?

Alton Brown. He is someone who wants to know every element of food, including the chemistry, which I have a passion for. When he makes a dish, he strives for perfection and authenticity, which I love! He is willing to wait all day if it means having the perfect dish, and I can relate to that. I am not interested in fast and easy dishes if it means compromising flavour and, honestly, he is one of the coolest foodies ever!

Food can be difficult to make look good in photographs, but you take beautiful images of the food you prepare. Do you have any tips for good food photography?

Oh thank you! That is so nice. OK, the key is natural light, of which my home gets almost zilch! I snuggle my food right up against my living room window to squeeze every ray of sunlight onto that dish. Do not think it is easy for me, it is very challenging. I suggest a point and shoot camera for the kitchen photos and a DSLR for the final "money" shots. I like my photographs to be real. This is really my kitchen, and, yes, I may move a dishrag out of the way, but I leave the mess where it is. Kitchen shots are the reality of the food making process. The final photo I spend more time and energy on, shooting at many different angles (while my poor back says, "Enough already!), and I always check the white balance. If you do not know what that is, go look at videos on Youtube, there are fantastic tutorials for visual people like me who find manuals daunting.

What are your must-reads?

Unfortunately, due to my health, I actually can no longer spend a lot of time online, but I of course visit both the Canadian version of The Food Network and the American one.

I know the chefs very well from the shows and from their recipes have figured out whose palettes are similar to mine and who might be best to avoid. This is not a judgment call. Different people like different food flavours. I do not have a lot of energy to waste in the kitchen, nor do I have a lot of money to risk when it comes to food. I strive for perfection every time, and so I take on recipes from people I trust and then change them mercilessly!

If you were to impart knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Be yourself. The blogging world is for real people, and people are drawn to authenticity. Do not be afraid to share your mistakes. Celebrate your disasters. Conflict is fascinating. Tell your story. Even if it is pathetic and boring, you have a story. Take that tension, the problem, the issue, and try and do something with it. My life is a constant struggle against my physical challenges, and yet I pick up my wooden spoon and create something out of nothing. What can you make? What are you drawn to? Show us. Tell us. Find your story.

Labels: Food and Drink, interviews

Alison Dunn and Perdy (Perdita) Andrews author 365 Fashion Rehab, which is nominated in the Fashion & Style, Group Weblog, and People's Choice categories of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

We both have always had a passion for writing and thought that blogging about our experiences would be a great way to share our thoughts with each other and the rest of the world. We also thought that it upped the ante of the project by holding ourselves accountable and being accountable to those following our journey. When we launched 365 Fashion Rehab, over half the people polled said that they thought we wouldn't make it past three months! We showed them, right?

You have committed yourselves to give up shopping for clothes or shoes or other pretty things for an entire year and are more than two-thirds of the way through. Was it your ridiculously burgeoning closets that pushed you to do it?

Partially, yes! And, at this point in our lives we thought we would have more traditional assets (a home, a retirement fund, etc...), but we realized that so many of our hard earned dollars were found hanging in our closets. When we lived together in Toronto, we used to have "Shopping Saturdays" every week so we would have something new to wear that night.

We love shopping so much, but between buying duplicate items and excessive bingeing and purging, we knew it was time to put our credit cards on ice!

Surely you have not given up on buying everything altogether. How do you decide which shopping is necessary?

The rules of the project are no buying clothes, accessories, make-up, or frivolous home decor. This includes basic items like underwear and lip balm. We just have to make do with what we have and be creative. It's extreme, but, for us former shopaholics, it had to be. The rules and regulations don't include supplies and services; we can still get our hair cut, and if our toaster breaks we can buy a new one.

What have you learned about yourselves now that such a large part of your lives has been effectively removed?

We have learned that we don't need to own the latest pair of jeans in order to feel good about ourselves.

When you can't shop, blogging about it is almost as good! Most of our free time has been spent building our site and learning how to become multi-media experts, but we still allow ourselves time to catch up with each other, as old friends should.

Is this shopping diet going to continue in a less severe form when the 365 days are over, or are you going to go on fashion bender?

On May 15th (the end of the project), we hope to meet in New York to celebrate our year of not shopping, but we don't know yet what our first purchases will be. At this point, after all of our hard work and self discovery, we are hoping that we will be more conscious shoppers. Otherwise, this year of misery will have been in vain!

What are your must-reads?

For a laugh we read Dooce or Go Fug Yourself, for financial tips we love Fabulously Broke in the City, and for style we go to Oh So Coco and Who What Wear.

If you were to impart knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

It can be a lot of work, so you need to be committed. Try to give something back to your readers, whether it is advice or a laugh. As long as you know your audience, you will do great! And even though it's a cliche; have fun! It's a cliche for reason!

Love, A&P

Labels: Fashion and Style, Group Weblog, interviews, People's Choice

The 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards has discovered the twibbon, and it has deemed the twibbon good.

What is a twibbon, you ask?

Twibbon is the easiest and most powerful way to promote awareness of your cause on Twitter. The service overlays a small icon onto supporters’ profile images to create a 'Twibbon', making an impactful online statement.

What this means for us is that we can affix a twibbon to our avatars to declare our affiliation as supporters and/or nominees of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

For example, here is my original Twitter avatar:


And here is my Twitter avatar with the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards twibbon:


See? It just adds a little logo in the bottom right corner of your avatar to show your support and/or awesomeness. If you are so moved, head on over, grab a twibbon, and keep spreading the CWA word!

Labels: outreach

Don Mills authors The Problem with Young People Today Is..., which is nominated in the Humour category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

I grew tired of sitting idly by while young people wreaked havoc and decided that the time was right to say something about it. I figured the only way to get my message out to young people was to blog, tweet or send them sext messages. Blogging seemed the least offensive of the three options. Barely.

Who do you write your weblog for? Is it to educate the young people, grouse along with the old people, or just to make us all laugh?

A bit of each. I write the blog to blow off steam and commiserate with other sensible, like-minded seniors, but I'm also trying to get the word out to young people that they need to shape the Hell up and fast. When having the word "bootylicious" written across the ass of your sweatpants becomes an acceptable custom, it's time for us to take serious stock of who we are as a nation.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Unfortunately, everywhere. On the bus, at the mall, congregating on my front lawn. You can't swing a decent cane around here without hitting some ill-mannered, poorly-dressed young person. And they seem to be thinking up new affronts to common decency on a daily basis.

What are your must-reads?

I enjoy a number of blogs but my current top 3 would be:

Fancy Plans and Pants to Match
Bschooled
Nag on the Lake

If you were to impart knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

That would depend. If it was a young person who wanted to do little more than include off-colour photos and links to moronic youtube videos I’d tell him to do himself a favour, turn off his damned computer and go crack a book. If it was a senior looking to provide some decent commentary, pound cake recipes or links to Angela Lansbury fansites, I’d tell them to have fun, stick with it, speak their minds and send me their link.

Labels: Humour, interviews

C.J. Koster authors Mr. Teacher Man, which is nominated in the Ex-Pat, Life, and People's Choice categories of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

Truthfully, because I there was a point in my life when I had absolutely nothing to do. Coincidentally, that time coincided with my university finals, and there was a whole lot to do. Basically, blogging started out as my excuse to procrastinate. It was something I was convinced I had to do every day, no matter what else had to be done, and so when something came up that I wasn't particularly keen on doing, my answer usually was "Sorry, can't, gotta blog", and my friends would be like, "You gotta do what?", and I'd be all, "Oh, right, you're all still on MySpace", and they'd be all, "MySpace is the shit!", and then I'd go write about how my friends were tools because they were all up in MySpace's business. I used to write about daily stuff that was easily exaggerated, like the time when my buddy Jon, who actually convinced me that blogging was the wave of the future and I should get myself a surf board, bet me $35 that I couldn't eat twelve rabbit turds. That was an exaggerated story. Because the bet was only $20. But I'd putter around the net, read other people's stuff, and then try to fit into whatever niche I thought was missing.

Eventually, when I moved to Korea in August 2007 to take up a gig teaching English, I became more dedicated to blogging – not particularly about life in Korea, but I found that being out of my motherland's bosom opened my eyes to a lot of different things and made me more perceptive to the human condition. But not in any way more empathetic. And so, that's what I kind of use blogging for now – as an outlet to explore the fact that I, by natural evolution, am an asshole. It's been very rewarding, and I think if Hemingway would have had a blog, he might had the same revelation. And might have shot himself sooner.

What is the thing you like the most and what is the thing you dislike the most about running your weblog?

"Running [my] weblog," that's very interesting. Almost makes it sound successful. Donald Trump runs The Trump Organization, Steve Jobs runs Apple, Tiger Woods runs around on his wife, but I'm not sure if I run Mr. Teacher Man. It's probably more accurate to say it runs me. I suppose the thing I like most about it, though, is the fact that it gives an outlet to my perfectionism. I'm a details kinda guy. I like being nit-picky about little things, and maintaining a design that makes me happy is a challenge. I'm very much a follower and a copy cat, so if I see someone else's blog and theirs looks better than mine, or they have an interesting way that they've designed theirs, I don't have any qualms about assimilating and implementing. It's definitely the fact that I can give free-reign to my perfectionism through maintaining what is now Mr. Teacher Man (which in itself was a victim of my anal retentiveness, because it used to be called 'C.J. in Korea' and then it was 'Traveling Circus' and now…) that makes me trudge on with it.

I have always disliked the idea of commenting. I mean, I understand the point behind it and the value, but I hate the nepotism that goes along with it. I hate posting something and then wanting to go back every half hour to see if anyone has read it yet and then actually seeing that first comment, and all it says is "Nice!". Though I say, "Thanks for reading!", what I'm really saying is, "I JUST SPENT TWO HOURS TRYING TO BE FUNNY AND ALL YOU’VE GOT IS 'NICE?' WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? A TOKED OUT MINIMALIST? PLEASE!" So, I'm trying to convince myself that comments don't really matter as much and it's all about the writing.

How has your blogging style/content/attitude changed since you first started?

Wow. How hasn't it changed? I used to write long, droning posts that could have been read by Ben Stein at a Ferris Bueller convention. At one point, I realized that blogging isn't something that should be taken seriously, that there are some people who use blogging as a way of conveying their lives to people who want to read about them (which is all fine and well), but I just wasn't one of those people. Nobody, aside from maybe my mom, wanted to read about my life. So, I started looking at bloggers who take their lives, turn the shit that happens inside out, and who make shit funny. And I've always been a fan of a good shit joke, like – What's brown and sits on a piano bench? Beethoven's First Movement. Yeah. So, I figured that instead of being serious about blogging, I'd go at it from the angle that I can be just as funny as any other jerk on the street, and I was right. I actually started to enjoy what I was writing. And shit jokes are funny, don't care what anybody says.

How many of your waking hours are spent on the Internet each day?

What an embarrassing question. Basically, my entire day is spent on the Internet. When I'm not teaching, I'm on the Internet. When I'm not drinking, I'm on the Internet. When I'm not making lame shit jokes, I'm on the Internet looking up lame shit jokes. Truthfully, as a teacher in Korea, there isn't a lot of prep time needed. It's all wham, bam, thank you ma'am from the text book, and so when I'm not actually lecturing, I'm sitting at my laptop watching viral videos, reading the news, and checking Facebook. Facebook. That is the worst thing to ever happen to humanity. My theory is that the Bush Administration created Facebook. Wiretapping, surveillance, no no no, it's all Facebook. Everything you need to know about someone is a friend request away, and anybody who resembles someone you may or may not have gone to elementary school with twenty years ago can see it.

Short answer, eight or nine hours on a slow day.

Since you are living abroad, it only seems fitting to ask you about your favourite town or place in Canada.

Being a Canadian in Korea does give me a very unique perspective on the Motherland. The world community has a very defined opinion of what Canadians stand for: they see us as maple leaf toting, peace loving, multi-culturalized, bilingual, international misfits, America's little brother. But they're just jealous that they don’t have Harvey's. That’s what I miss. Harvey's. I would give all the kimchi in Korea for a charbroiled original burger with nothing on it but a big, huge, enormous, glob of Heinz ketchup and a side of fries. But not the new fries. Harvey's used to have amazing French fries, but then they changed the style, and they're not as good any more. But Harvey's is the kind of place that you don't actually appreciate until you can't have it anymore; McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and KFC, they're all in Korea, but there's no Harvey's. I think my second favourite place is definitely the section of Price Chopper that has the shelves full of cheap macaroni and cheese. I also miss mac and cheese. If it's not out of a box, it's just not the same.

What are your must-reads?

Not only are they "must-reads" but they’re "must-worships." I am consistently and solidly blown away by the sheer genius of Jenny the Bloggess and the really messed up chick that does Hyperbole and a Half. I love anything that shows a distinct perceptiveness. These ladies aren't only FUCKING HILARIOUS, but they present a picture of their lives that is so unique to their personalities that I'm almost jealous of their ability to write the way they do.

If you were to impart knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Three things:

1. Don't blog every day. Or, at least, don't tell yourself you will. Because you won't. And if you do try to blog every day, chances are you're doing it just for the sake of having continuity on your site and not because you have something creative to show the world.


2. Recognize that blogging is a community. This took me a long time to figure out. I was counting on my writing to sell itself, but the reality is that the Internet is an enormous block of cheese, and everybody's trying to get a sliver. To be acknowledged, you have to go out, read other blogs, leave comments, make contacts, and participate.


3. Never use relationship problems as writing fodder. You can say to me, "But, C.J., dude, I use an alias, nobody knows who I am and my relationships are so fucked up that I can't help but write about them, they're gold, man, if there was a Pulitzer Prize for blogging about fucked up relationships, I'd get it!", and I would say to you, look, at some point that relationship is going to resolve itself, and, regardless of how messed up it is, what would the person you're writing about think if they actually did recognize that you were the author? Food for thought.

Labels: Ex-Pat, interviews, Life, People's Choice

One thing that I really wanted to see for the Canadian Weblog Awards was a more bilingual presence on the website. Although I had grades in the mid-90s in my high school French classes, my actual ability to speak and write the language remained embarrassingly limited, and so I am thrilled to announce that Lynne Faubert has stepped forward to offer up her translation services.

When Lynne e-mailed me to suggest her services, I literally whooped out loud. Let me introduce her to you through her bio from our slowly growing Who We Are page:

Lynne Faubert is a freelance food writer who works with Québec ad agencies and national food manufacturers. She was the French ghostwriter on several books (Des kiwis et des hommes and 100 recettes, 100 vedettes, Centraide) and magazines, most notably for the TV show "Les Saisons de Clodine". She is hard at work preparing her first food blog about the making of a book on feeding picky eaters.

While not every weblog entry here will be translated from English into French, Lynne has translated the majority of our static pages: About, Criteria, FAQ/nomination form, 2010 CWA categories/nominees, and Buttons. On each of these pages, the French text appears in italics following the English text. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know.

Thank you, Lynne, for all your hard work, and welcome to the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards!

Labels: CWA business

As the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards have moved along through their first forty days, it has become apparent that the original Humour & Comics category needed to change.

Humour is always humourous. It's ha-ha funny. Comics? Not always, and comics are always illustrated in some manner. Humour? Not always. So, humour weblogs are now in the new Humour category, and webcomics are now in the new Comics category, and we can all stop being confused about how to judge drawings against knock-knock jokes.

If you were in the old Humour & Comics category, there are now two new badges to choose from:


And now the Comics category looks like this:

Everyday People
A Softer World
Weregeek

And now the Humour category looks like this:

A Blog Named Soo
Eject
Mr. Teacher Man
One Thing I Did Today
Postcards from the Mothership
The Problem with Young People Today Is...
@sween on Twitter

If you know of any excellent Canadian weblogs that fit into either category, nominate them in either the Comics or the Humour category in the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards!

Labels: categories, Comics, Humour, Humour and Comics

Sadie Shih Tzu authors Hi, I'm Sadie Shih Tzu, which has been nominated in the Life category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why do you blog?

I started out on Twitter before I had a blog. I loved talking about the mischief I got into, but 140 characters was never enough space – I get into a lot of troubles. Also, in the winter here in Manitoba I have to stay indoors, because outside it's too cold on my feets. I'm energetic, and blogging seemed like a good way to burn off some of my puppy energy.

The first stuffs I wrote were a bit silly, really. I was just warming up to the blogging thing. Then I realised I could write about important doggeh stuffs such as getting spayed or the dangers of eating rawhide. Because I knew other anipals read my blog, this seemed like a good way to put important words in front of them.

The other side to that is that I can make peoples happy. I'm a cute doggeh, and cute doggehs look good in photos. I like putting smiles on faces.

Between your mischief-making and your blogging, you are quite a busy shih tzu. How do you manage to keep all your balls in the air?

Sleep is important to any busy doggeh. I make sure I get plenty so I can meet my blogging and mischief head-on. Also, I'm very good at playing fetch and can even find tennis balls in the snow, so I think I'm quite experienced with the ball thing.

Has anything embarrassing ever happened as a result of your blogging activity?

Recently, I met a nice boy doggeh called Millo – he's my boyfriend now. His person is a photographer, and they both came to my house for a photo shoot for my blog. I don't meet a lot of boy doggehs. Millo was very playful, but I was wary of him. Then, he did something that would make even a person blush (see this photo: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2700/4331770527_5d85a08532_o.jpg). That’s the first time a boy doggeh has done that to me. I was very embarrassed. Then, he tried to kiss me (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/4331771175_029858b9b9_o.jpg). I had to have a good rest after that.

How has celebrity changed you?

Honestly, I don't think celebrity has changed me. I like treats, playing, sleeping, and belly rubs. I'm just a dog with a blog living in Manitoba. I don't go to glamourous parties or ride in limousines. I do like to be the centre of attention, but I was like that even as a puppy. I think the biggest shock of all was finding out that Ellen DeGeneres from The Ellen DeGeneres Show was following me on Twitter. It didn't change me, but it made me realise how far my words can travel on the internet.

For a tech-savvy pooch such as yourself, what weblogs are your must-reads?

I don't read the technical bloggehs. My person does that. One of my very favourite woofsites is written by my Twitter pal Trixie. She's a Papillion, and her blog helps persons understand doggehs: http://www.itrixie.com/. Trixie is funny and cute and always makes me laugh. Another site I like is BZTAT Art Studios: http://bztat.com/. Mrs. Vicki is an artist person, and she does nice pictures of animals. She did one of me: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5128839&l=7a96d645c2&id=624455559.

If you were to impart some knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Having a passion is important if you want to write a bloggeh. If you don't have passion, it will show. Write about stuffs that you love. And if the words don't come easily, just write something. Anything. I started off writing about snow. But the more I did that, the easier it became. If a dog can write a blog, then so can any person.

Labels: interviews, Life

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day are from the French Language category.

French Language will prove to be a category with great diversity between its nominees, because the one binding commonality between them is that they are expressed in French, and the diversity is already proving itself true despite the fact that there are only two nominees at this early stage in the game: one is a weblog about cuisine, and the other is feminist weblog. Check them out and leave a comment to let them know you came by:

2Capricieux
jesuisféministe.com

Do you know of another notable Canadian French weblog? Nominate it in the French Language category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards!

Labels: categories, French Language

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day are from the Music category.

Canadian music is the shiznit, and don't you forget it.

Check out our, as yet, small collection of Music weblogs, and give them a shout to say hello:

i(heart)music
Viper Pilot

If you know of a good Canadian-run music weblog, share it with the rest of us and nominate it in the Music category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Labels: categories, Music

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day are from the Military category.

Military weblogs are written by military spouses, military veterans, military personnel, civilian contractors, reporters, military parents, civilians, and other groups whose writing is primarily related to the military. Check out our Military weblogs and leave comments to let them know you dropped by:

Celebrating Phil Tripe
The Torch

Do you know of a noteworthy Canadian military weblog? Nominate it in the Military category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards and let it shine.

Labels: categories, Military

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees, ahem, nominee of the day is from our Writing & Literature category.

This is our newest category, and it resides way down at the bottom of the list alphabetically, so I can kind of understand how it might have been overlooked so far, but, come on, this is Canada. We have writers and publishers and people who know about writing and publishing lying around all over the place. Our writing culture runs deep, and it will be exciting to uncover more of what we have to offer. Thus far, we have but one lonely nominee:

Red Clover Literary Studio

I know that there are scads more just begging to be included, so if you know of an excellent Canadian weblog that fits into this group, nominate it in the Writing & Literature category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards and share the wealth!

Labels: categories, Writing and Literature

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day come from our Travel category.

One of our intrepid travellers discovers that her weight is equivalent to that of 3.5 million ants, another learns about expectation and creativity in Kenya, and yet another puts the rental of Necker Island on her life list. Travel has always been a dream of mine, and I can do a bit from home, if vicariously, through travel weblogs when the urge hits me. Check out our Travel weblogs and leave a comment to let them know you were by:

Coffee with Julie
PixelatedImage Blog
Walk Facing Traffic

Let us in on your favourite Canadian travel weblog and nominate it in the Travel category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Labels: categories, Travel

Lauren White authors Raymi the Minx, which has been nominated in the Life, Lifetime Achievement, and People's Choice categories of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

You have been blogging for so many years now that your answer to the following question has probably changed several times. Why blogging? Why when you began, and why now?

I blogged then because I had grandiose visions of scholarly fame for myself and since then, nothing has changed. I prided myself on being a little online rebel dick then realised I could and should manipulate 50% of my audience with my looks. Funny how now I only care what the other 50% think about my image. The statement girls dress for girls is so hyperly true it kills me. Fuck dudes, sorry guys. Now I blog because if I stop I will become irrelevant, unloved, and forgotten. I'm writing a book, so I'd like there to be an audience around for when it hits stores. I am still as compulsive if not more so than I was when I first began blogging. I guess I'm pretty competitive, too, so there's that. I'm not the only blogger anymore, so I have to keep my wits about me. In actuality though, I know what miniscule talent I have is unique unto itself, so I don't feel very threatened. Hopefully I age well, otherwise I gotta get a new racket.

Which one of your posts from the past while was the most cathartic/interesting/nerve-wracking for you, and why?

When I wrote the guide to dating a drug dealer for Street Boners (which eventually will be published in their first print mag), I got a taste of how sick the internet really is and how far things can go. I stupidly timed revoking commenting from my blog that week, so all my psychotic detractors had a good show of sticking it to me for a week. They eventually closed the thread. I have to steel myself in the future for similar attacks. I'm too sensitive. It's not a case of dishing it out and not being able to take it. It's more of an I don't fucking do that to others, so what the fuck? I was ridiculed in the comments for divulging that one of these dealers burnt my face with hot pizza. Seriously, how is that even remotely funny? People really hate me that much? Very twisted. The funny/exhausting thing about it is, there are so many possible reasons to hate me, but they're also the same reasons to be really into me, too. At the end of the day, though, I get to check my stats and just grin about it, because numbers don't lie (advertisers, now is the time to make contact). Total tangent there sorry. Just the possible (definite) side effects of being a big mouth on the internet.

How do you deal with negative comments or reactions to your posts?

All dependent upon my mood at the time of consumption and how busy/stressed I am. Sometimes I'll have a go with them, but that usually leads to long drawn out crap that I don't have time for. They have their mind made up about me, I don't care, and they don't deserve my time to try and switch it around. How lonely and bored a person are you that you feel compelled to engage in a tete-a-tete with a blogger that you allegedly despise? It takes so much more balls to just stand up and say hey, I like something, and defend it. So much easier to just be a hater. Getting caught up in the ego flame war of it all is such a magnificent waste of time. I'm here, I have all the audience I need, it's good. I'm just living my life like everybody else.

Many bloggers who achieve a certain internet celebrity status have an "aha!" moment when they realize the extent of their reach and influence. Was this true with you and, if so, do you remember what brought that moment about and what it was like?

I have those moments constantly but then get over them, and then I have another one. It can come from an email or seeing my name in the paper, being invited somewhere schmoozy, whatever. When Sex TV interviewed me when I was 19, I then realised, ok, I have something here.

What is your personal blogging philosophy? What will you and what won't you write about?

Right now I'm being more secretive than I typically am/was. The Globe & Mail article taught me a lesson. I was with someone for five years and charted the entire relationship on my blog. We were very much a unit. Now the unit is breached, so the question is, what crazy shit is she going to get up to next? I'm still overshare broadcasting, but I'm holding many cards to my chest, despite knowing that if I wanted to reveal the whole she-bang, I could likely benefit from dirty laundry truths. People really love that stuff, but at what cost to me? If I tell you what I won't write about, then that would be telling you what I won't tell you. A-ha moment.

If you were to impart some knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Buy my book. It will tell you everything you need to know. I can't dole out free advice anymore. I don't have the time for it, and you could actually just skim my archives, cos I've given out plenty of Blogging According to Raymi over the years. Basically just write what you feel, make it interesting, be consistent and concise. Get a camera. Be funny, endearing, artistic. Try to be good looking, and make as many stirs as possible.

What are your favourite weblogs?

Too many to mention, and if I say one then 1200 others feel pissed and dissed.

Labels: interviews, Life, Lifetime Achievement, People's Choice

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day are from Sports, Fitness, & Recreation.

Our five nominees cover things like the personal side of good nutrition, gym etiquette, the Boston Red Sox season roster, Peter Pocklington's bankruptcy, and the banning of balls on the playground at a school in Ottawa. Take a look around and say hello!

Aqufit Blog
The Joy of Sox
Living Healthy in the Real World
mc79hockey.com
Obesity Panacea

Do you know of good Canadian weblog that fits into this category? Nominate it in the Sports, Fitness, & Recreation category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Labels: categories, Sports Fitness and Recreation

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day are from the Science, Technology, & the Internet category.

Here you will find out how to transition from a traditional journalist to a web writer, the possible use of the iPad in the field of medicine, about accessibility and videos on the internet, about e-book readers, and how to use social media effectively. Drop in and leave comments to let them know you came by:

Canadian Freelance Writing Jobs
Constructive Medicine 2.0
Do It Myself Blog
JordonCooper.com
Reactorr

If you know of a fantastic Canadian weblog that fits, nominate it in the Science, Technology, & the Internet category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards and share the knowledge.

Labels: categories, Science Technology and the Internet

Curtis Brown authors Endless Spin Cycle, which is nominated in the Political category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards.

Why blogging?

Why painting? Why bird-watching, or stamp-collecting? That’s a good question, and honestly, like any pursuit, it’s something you dabble at a little bit and then find out before long you’re hooked on it.

In my case, I came to blogging a little bit differently than most people probably do. I started out as a journalist who wrote about politics quite a bit. Right around the time my newspaper started asking me to write a regular column, which my editor James O’Connor suggested we call “Spin Cycle,” I was starting to read blogs about politics. A few things struck me about them. First, they were not subject to things like word counts or deadlines, so you could write something long or short, or publish something at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday night, and not be constrained to having a column in the can on Friday afternoon by 6 so it could be published in the next day’s paper. As a writer, I thought this was really liberating and interesting. Second, the form of blogs – and the instant feedback from people leaving comments – allowed you to speak to your audience in a much more personal way, and I really enjoy that. Five years after I started Endless Spin Cycle, I’m still coming across people I’ve never met who will introduce themselves by saying “Hey, I know you – I read your blog” and it still astonishes me because you don’t realize how many people actually do read it, and feel they know something about you. Third – and this goes against the idea that blogs are these great tools for giving every citizen a voice and blah blah blah – it was also started as a shameless vehicle for self-promotion. I can admit it. And to a certain extent, it’s worked.

What have been your greatest achievements/setbacks so far in your blog quest?

I don’t know that I could point to any single thing I wrote and say it was some great triumph or terrible setback. I think the coverage on my blog of the NDP leadership race last fall does stand out a bit, though. In a lot of ways, I think the blog became a real go-to source of information and dialogue as the campaign unfolded. The real coup, I guess, was that both of the final two candidates, Greg Selinger and Steve Ashton, agreed to be interviewed for the blog, which I found rather remarkable since I would expect the vast majority of people who visit the blog – and we’re talking in the dozens or hundreds of people a day, not the thousands or tens of thousands who read the paper or watch the TV news – were either not members of the NDP or already knew who they were voting for in the leadership race. To me, that said that blogs have achieved a certain level of importance in the overall communications landscape if candidates for premier are granting as much time to a small website with a relatively small and incredibly politically engaged audience as they are to a broader media platform with a higher number of “persuadables” reading or tuning in.

What keeps you blogging, and how do you fight writer's block?

The audience is really what keeps me blogging. It is their comments, their support and their encouragement that kept me from shelving this thing for good not that long ago. There have been many nights when I’ve thought to myself “Why am I spending so much of my time doing this?” and I remember that it’s the dialogue with the people who enjoy it and derive some sort of intrinsic value from it that keeps me motivated. At the same time, it’s also a personal outlet and I am sure that if I didn’t blog, I would be frustrated every time I read about something interesting or heard something that makes me want to vent about how stupid or infuriating it is. For the sake of my fiancée and the rest of my family, I guess it’s good that I quietly type away on my blog rather than rant at them for hours on end!

As for writer’s block, it happens, and you have to work through it, I think. Part of the problem for me – and I think this is true for others – is when you go back to the same sources looking for something to write about and you come up empty. For people who blog about politics, the real danger is you go to the CBC or Globe and Mail website, or to another blog, and you don’t see something that really inspires you to write, so you gin up some outrage over what you find because you feel you have to post something. Fortunately, your readers are usually pretty good about telling you when you’ve made a stupid, half-baked argument just for the sake of making it, and you learn to be a little more selective in what you post about.

If you were to impart some knowledge to an aspiring blogger, what would you tell them?

Notwithstanding what I just said, write as much as you can. You can always save the draft if it’s not worth sharing with the rest of the world, and at least you get into the rhythm of working through your thoughts, building arguments and coming up with good material. I’d also highly recommend you read as many blogs as you can to see what works and what doesn’t. Also, try to establish a bit of a niche – there are a million people who blog about “politics,” or even Canadian politics, and it’s pretty hard to stand out in that crowd. Focus on bringing a perspective from your neighbourhood, or the town you live in, and build that out to the other levels of government from that lens of your local community. Also, if you’re just starting out, share what you write with your family, friends, co-workers and contacts, as that’s the best way to establish an audience and build a network of people who will engage with what you have to say.

Which blogs are your must-reads? Are there other political blogs that inspire you?

It depends, really, on what I’m looking at. Obviously I read what other bloggers in Manitoba are writing all the time, so I would point to some excellent Winnipeg and Manitoba-based blogs like Policy Frog, West End Dumplings, Anybody Want a Peanut? and The View from Seven. As an pseudo-alumnus of the Winnipeg Free Press, I read their staff blogs all the time, as well as the blogs written by Winnipeg Sun columnists Tom Brodbeck and Kevin Engstrom.

When it comes to blogs about federal politics, there are thousands of blogs that I hardly ever get a chance to look at. The three biggies, for me, are Warren Kinsella, Paul Wells from Maclean’s, and Calgary Grit. These were the blogs that I started reading five or six years ago that got me hooked on the whole political blog genre, and I keep going back to them because after all this time, they still do what they do incredibly well. I also turn to the blogs being offered now by the CBC and The Globe and Mail, though I am a bit selective about some of the items I read, with a bias towards the thoughtful analysis over inside-baseball stuff.. And of course I read American stuff all the time too, ranging from the stuff on the right, like National Review’s The Corner and David Frum, to more left-of-centre writers like The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait. I also read a lot of sports and gossip blogs, mostly for their irreverence as well as because it gives me ideas for how to do good writing without the inherent seriousness and partisan argumentation that comes when you engage with people who look at things with a very critical and often very partisan perspective.

And of course I can’t forget my friend, fellow nominee and former co-worker from Brandon, Grant Hamilton, who writes Absurd Intellectual with Amy Breen and T. Keith Edmunds.

Labels: interviews, Political

Today's 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards nominees of the day are from Religion, Spirituality, & Philosophy.

Neil Kramer wrote about the Canadian Weblog Awards a couple of weeks ago, and he summed up the Religion, Spirituality, & Philosophy category quite nicely:

[The Canadian Weblog Awards don't] divide the religious, the secular, and the new age into three categories. [They look] inward — at the common attitudes and interests of these seemingly disparate individuals – and [put] them all in one category. Those who write about Religion, Spirituality, & Philosophy — the religious Jew, the religious Muslim, the vehement atheist, the philosphy professor, and the New Age guru — might all disagree with each other, even hate each other, but in reality, they ponder the same BIG issues – life, death, and ethics.

Take a look through Religion, Spirituality, & Philosophy's weblogs and leave a comment to let them know you came by:

Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice
The Eagle & Child
JordonCooper.com
randallfriesen.com
Whatever He Says
White Hot Truth

Do you know of an excellent Canadian weblog that fits into this category? Nominate it in the Religion, Spirituality, & Philosophy category of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards!

Labels: categories, Religion Spirituality and Philosophy