Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts

Sunday, September 14, 2014

10 Hashtags That Describe Me

Photo Credit: Théo La Photo via Compfight cc
It's been a while since I participated in Northwest Mommy's listicles--I've just been taking it easy with the blogging over the summer, in case you hadn't noticed. I can't resist this week's topic though: hashtags to describe myself? Awesome. I've adjusted the topic slightly (surprise!) to hashtags I use a lot too.


  1. #Mombie I thought that having one baby affected my brain power, but having a second kid around too? My brain is toast. At first, I blamed sleep deprivation, but now I think there must have been some brain damage... (only sorta kidding)
  2. #Argh My most uttered word, probably used at least several times an hour, usually when Bronte is getting into or onto something she shouldn't.
  3. #Ack Second most used word.
  4. #NormalizeBreastfeeding I didn't spend anywhere near as much time on social media with my firstborn. I didn't even have a smartphone until he was nine months old or so. However, smartphones & breastfeeding pretty much always go together nowadays, & I'm no exception. This also means a lot more selfies while breastfeeding, so after I posted a few of them, I noticed this hashtag making the rounds & started using it myself. I've personally never had anyone criticize me for breastfeeding either of my children wherever I chose to do it (& I breastfeed them anywhere & everywhere). However, I know a lot of women are still uncomfortable about it & outside my little progressive, pro-breastfeeding world of East Van, people still get shamed for it publicly.
  5. #BikeYVR I think I use this hashtag more than most others, all as a part of my agenda to promote bicycling for transportation, not just sport. If you don't live in YVR (aka Vancouver, BC), there is probably a version of this hashtag in your city, like #BikePDX, #BikeYVC, #BikeNYC
  6. #CarFreeFamily Okay, this one's sorta serious too. It's the hashtag I use on social media when I post pictures of us biking or carsharing. It's a way to easily show what living car free looks like. Head over to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, search for #carfreefamily & check it out!
  7. #365FeministSelfie If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen this hashtag. Daily. I joined the project back in January & blogged about the reasoning behind the Feminist Selfie Project & why I joined here, if you're interested. 
  8. #Fraserhood I use this one once in a while to showcase the awesomeness that is my neighbourhood, but also the not-so-awesome. This area (near Fraser Street in Vancouver, BC, if you're not local) has a history of poverty & all the social ills that go along with that, but also incredible diversity & creativity, plus a fascinating history. It's undergoing gentrification at a rapid rate, but there is still a lot of contrast between the old Fraserhood & the new.
  9. #AddictedToSocialMedia see previous items. ;)
  10. #UsesTooManyHashtags Want evidence? Go visit me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to see proof...


So what hashtags would you use to describe yourself? Leave me a few in the comments below!






Join in the fun yourself--enter the link to your list here (click on the Listicles button to the right), or just browse the many other entries on Northwest Mommy.
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Saturday, December 7, 2013

Feeling judged about using your smartphone when with your kids?

Instagramming.
Do you ever feel judged for using your smartphone while you're with your children? I haven't ever had anyone say anything to me, but it comes up in conversation & I feel like people are judging me for it. There has been a bit of hoopla online about it, plus I have heard a few things recently about technology preventing us from really connecting with each other. But I really think it's just another round of mother-shaming & here's why.

When I'm at the park, my thumb poking at my smartphone as my three-year-old plays, I'm often talking to my husband, a friend or someone in my family via text message or chat. Sometimes I'm grocery shopping or reading an article on parenting or checking work-related emails. At least once a day I'm taking photos or video of something my kids are doing that I want to share with their grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins. I'm not sure why using my phone to do these things is bad.

What I am sure of, is that I would not be bonding with my children if I had to drag the both of them to the grocery store instead. Letting my kid play in the playground & his sister nap in her stroller while I shop, right there on the park bench seems like a much better alternative.

Since we are not independently wealthy millionaires, we can't afford childcare, so I squeeze in some blogging & writing work here & there while I can. Which means me being on my phone (or tablet, or netbook) while my kid plays or while breastfeeding.

My mom, sisters, cousins, aunts & uncles are on Facebook &/or Instagram. We get to see each other's children & hear about what's going on in each other's lives way more since we've started using social media regularly. I think me being connected with my family is good for my children.

Sometimes I'm just surfing Facebook while my son plays, it's true. But I feel that even that is a valid thing because it's what enables me to connect with other adults, but maybe more importantly, give & get support from other parents I know about this incredibly difficult role we're all playing. Dishing or commiserating with other moms in person is always awesome, but not often possible with everyone's different preschool, nap time, work & other schedules factored in.

Another response I have to the criticism of moms being on smartphones is to ask how is this different from things that existed for our parents & previous generations. For example, how is it different if I'm reading a novel on my phone--because I do use it as an eReader--rather than holding a real, paper book in my hands? How is chatting with my mom via Facebook different to talking to her on a landline? I'm sure that if I was having a conversation with another mom at the park, nobody would look askance, so why is it different if that other mom is chatting virtually, perhaps from another park in another city?

Obviously having a phone between a parent & her child literally ALL THE TIME would be bad & impede attachment, but who does that? All the moms you see with their smart phone in hand aren't using it 24/7. They're just trying to get one more thing done.

What's your take on this? Do you use your smartphone when you're with your kids? Do you ever get any flak for it?


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Sunday, January 6, 2013

10 Things I Have No Intention of Changing in 2013

Comfy cotton dress for a work Christmas party
This week's Listicles topic, from Stasha of Northwest Mommy, is Ten Things I Have No Intention of Changing in 2013. After reading post after post about resolutions--tis the season, right?--I love this topic. Definitely a good antidote to all this self-improvement hoo-hah.

So, without further ado, here is my list:
  1. Eating pretty much whatever I want. Oh, sure, I'll try to cram in my daily fruit & veggie quota, plus whole grains as I've been doing for years, but I have no intention of dieting this year. I'm still going to eat that cheesecake. & the poutine. Probably the chocolate too. 
  2. Using social media every day. I will keep posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Pinterest & sometimes even Google Plus. & I'll be doing it while I'm at the playground with my son or having lunch out with a friend. So ppphhhthhllt!
  3. Staying in my pyjamas & bathrobe well into the afternoon on lazy days. I don't do this every day--I wear normal clothes when I go out. But when it's chilly & raining (sadly this is from October through June in Vancouver) & I have nowhere I need to be, you'll be likely to find me in my jammies at lunch time.
  4. I'm going to keep trying to exercise an average of 40 minutes a day. Not more. I hate going to the gym & I'd much rather get my exercise with the occasional class (but it has to be social with people I know or I won't stick to it) but mainly just from walking & biking where I have to go. I've got no fitness or weight loss goals for this year. Just status quo in terms of my activity.
  5. My hair colour. It's been years since I've dyed my hair--nearly five, I think. I stopped out of concern for what the chemicals in the dyes might do to my health. As I get more grey hairs, I revisit this decision, but I'm still resolved to stick with my natural colour.
  6. Eating out.  I know we probably spend a lot of money each year at cafes, restaurants & for the occasional takeout meal. But I like going to restaurants. There is such a huge variety in my neighbourhood & so many of those places make things that I can't easily do well at home, like sushi, artisanal bread & poutine. We only eat a few meals a week out, including lunches & I don't see that changing anytime soon.
  7. Wearing whatever I feel like. Even when I dress up for events, I still wear things that are comfy (see above photo). As soon as the weather warms up a bit--usually in April or May--my Birkenstocks come out & don't go back into storage until at October. I like to look good, but what I wear has to be comfy. I'm no slave to fashion & I have no resolutions based on looking more stylish this year.
  8. Watching crappy reality TV. I consider nearly all reality TV to be crappy, but that won't stop me from watching a four-episode-straight run of HGTV home improvement/real estate shows on their website or my other guilty pleasure: Bones. Yes, it's soooo predictable. Yes, it's completely unrealistic forensics. But I don't care.
  9. Having a fairly disorganized house. I grew up in a home that was pretty neat & orderly, but I guess that trait isn't genetic, because my house is nothing like that. I have some intentions of divesting myself of a lot of old, unneeded clothing, kitchen stuff, games & other assorted crap. However, I don't plan to start any kind of campaign to turn our bungalow into a showpiece of orderliness. (See above photo background for evidence)
  10. Writing Listicles! I'm not going to make any promises that I'll do it every single week--been there, done that already--but I'll definitely write my fair share of them in 2013!
Disclaimer: this list is by no means a criticism of those of you who are resolving to change any of the above in 2013. Go for it! Good luck! More power to ya! I just won't be joining you. ;)




What are you NOT planning to change this year? Got any bad habits you just feel like keeping around? Share them with us in the comments!


Click the button over there to the left & head on over to North West Mommy's Listicle Linky if you'd like to read more lists like the one above. You can even join in the fun & link up your own list too!









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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Monday Listicles: 2012 in Tweets

After a short hiatus from Listicling--that's a verb, right?--I'm back! I just couldn't stay away from the lists after doing it weekly for over a year now. This week The Great Stasha had three options for us to choose from:
or

For me, it was down to a choice between 80s or ten tweets. As we're in the very last hours of 2012, I decided to choose ten of my tweets that sort of summed up the year. Using All My Tweets, I pored through nearly 2200 tweets from 2012 to find the best ones. Narrowing it down to ten was near impossible--sorry--so I present to you my list of 14:


I spent hours & hours commuting to university by bus last spring, while finishing off a speech sciences certificate. I do actually like taking the bus most of the time. Sitting  there reading, tweeting or playing games on my phone sure beats paying attention to traffic, finding a parking space & all the other crap that comes with driving. But seriously, could all the MP3 player users of the world just get better headphones so I don't have to hear your shite music?!?


First bike ride of many this past year!


Unless forced to get up in wee hours of the morning (I consider any hours 'wee' if they're single-digit) for work or something, my schedule slowly shifts to semi-nocturnal.


I finally got back into performing on stilts after a lengthy hiatus due to belly-full-of-baby, etc. Happily, my first few gigs involved roomier dresses. For this gig however, I needed to wear my clown costume: pants. Not long before my screen test, I confirmed that, sadly, my pre-baby bum was slightly smaller than my post-baby bum. Being a metre taller than your average gal brings with it some wardrobe difficulties, I can tell you. Nothing the addition of a bit of fabric in the back seam couldn't fix!


Getting picked to help promote the Vancouver International Children's Festival via social media was awesome. I loved helping get the word out about Kidsfest & getting to go for free (not to mention some of the preview events & soirees) was really just the cherry on top. If you want to see photos of what fun Kidsfest is in Vancouver, check out my posts on our first day at Kidsfest & Kidsfest: Day Two. This event is definitely a highlight of the year for us & I can't wait to go again in 2013!


Thanks to some of you (I assume), I was nominated as one of the Top 30 Vancouver Mom blogs. Winning a spot in the top 30 came with a lot of perks, like getting to go to the big soiree for free, not to mention prizes & a fair bit more attention for The Sprog. An unexpected & far better benefit was the camaraderie that developed among the other top 30 bloggers. We've kept in touch via Facebook & had several get-togethers in person. I've learned a lot about blogging from this group of women.


We took Sprout to three of Vancouver's outdoor movies this summer: The Princess Bride, Monty Python & The Holy Grail, then Labyrinth. He loved them--well, the first & the last one, anyway. Riding along the Seawall on a mild summer evening, bike valet parking, popcorn, blankets & a movie on a giant inflatable screen--all FREE: what's not to like?


I got a stilting gig as background in a Huggies commercial (this is what I did the aforementioned screen test for). I was part of a circus troupe featuring acrobats on trampolines, stilt walkers, fire breathers, unicyclist, horse riders & the fabulous East Van institution that is the Carnival Band. Doing extra work for TV or movies generally ends up being a whole lot of "Hurry up & wait!", aka, boooo-rrrringgg. However, hanging out with about  two dozen circus performers for two days straight? So much fun! Oh, & if you want to actually see the Huggies commercial, it's here on YouTube. You can see me in the background for a second or two--look for red pants, black jacket & yellow shirt.


This road trip featured a subcompact car, hours of my father-in-law driving us around, temperatures over 40 celsius & a skin infection requiring two separate prescriptions each for Oli & Sprout. Not one of my favourite trips, I have to admit. I'm hoping that we'll be able to do some slightly more successful travelling with Sprout this coming year.


Over the last summer we spent a few afternoons trying to track down bourbon caramel bacon brownies from our friends' bacon-based food cart, Pig on the Street. When we found out that they would be participating in a weekly gathering of some of the best food carts in the city at the Waldorf Hotel, we were justifiably stoked. This is also the event where I found (food) love at first sight: pupusas from Guanaco Truck, a Salvadoran food cart.


In the summer I was whining that a kid-friendly cafe needed to open up in my neighbourhood. I wrote a wish list of sorts here in An Open Letter to My Dream Cafe. Four months later, Sweetsalt Bakery appeared & fulfilled nearly every item on my list. I'm still waiting for a place that has good beer AND a play area though. :)


I got the opportunity to go behind the scenes for Vancouver's We Day to video blog for Telus & then sat in a reserved box for the big event. It was pretty cool, though not knowing who most of the musical acts were made me feel a bit old. You can check out my post about We Day if you want to know more. Here's the final cut of the Telus for We Day video I contributed to.


This is better than TV--we look out the living room window & see all kinds of birds eating, flying, doing bird stuff every day. I've even downloaded an app to help me identify which birds are which. (I know, I'm a nerd)


Once I got a phone upgrade (thanks Telus!) & actually had a relatively recent Android operating system that could run it, I joined the dark side: Instagram. It's been, "Sprout! Freeze! Mama needs to Instagram this!" on a daily basis since then. When we had our Vancouver Inspiration Pass (free admission to over a dozen musems, galleries & other attractions in the city) I became a total Instagram-a-holic.




Click the button over there to the left & head on over to NorthWest Mommy's Listicle Linky if you'd like to read more lists like the one above. You can even join in the fun & link up your own list too!







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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

What I've been reading lately

It's been a while since I've put out a link-stuffed list of things I've found interesting on the interwebz. This time, I decided to just throw my last ten bookmarked pages at you, with a little explanation about what makes them worthy of a read.

This is the under 8 size swimwear on www.elizabethhurley.com
  1. Do you have a young daughter? What do you think of Liz Hurley's new line of bikinis for girls? Huffington Post has a video.
  2. Another HuffPo piece on why the third trimester is actually kind of awesome, just for all you preggos out there, or those who want to reminisce.
  3. I'd never thought of making snack food like these cinnamon almonds in a crock pot. Might just have to try this soon.
  4. My friend Leigh penned a brilliant article for Jacobin Magazine about the real reason why the space program has fizzled.
  5. Have you seen any news articles on the recent study on sleep training methods & their impact on babies? Annie of PhD in Parenting takes a closer look at the actual methodology of the study & discovers what the study actually proved.
  6. I found an online service that helps manage your Twitter account, specifically to filter by who's not following you back. Unless it's a Twitterati like Margaret Atwood who can't possibly keep up with all her followers, or a service like Translink Information, I think it's poor etiquette not to follow back & perfectly reasonable to unfollow those who don't reciprocate.
  7. The results (en francais, for those of you who can read it) of an interesting study in France looking for the sociological reasons behind the huge variation in breastfeeding levels among French women.
  8. I love nearly every Tyee piece I read, I have to admit, but this one is stellar. 'The Parable of the Textbook', by Henry Yu, an exerpt from the first chapter of "Too Asian?": Race, Privilege and Post-Secondary Education. This new collection of essays is a response to "Too Asian?", an article published in Maclean's magazine nearly two years ago on race in Canadian universities.
  9. Yet another study that adds to the mountain of evidence that there is safety in numbers for cyclists, this time in Philadelphia. Check out the article here.
  10. Not only to we need more bikes on the road, we need more on our walls. Bike art! Get some here. 


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