Tag: Air Miles

Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts

The Life and Times of Casey Palmer—The State of the #BloggerLife, August 2019—Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts (Featured Image)

Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 12:53 am

“I’m not even trying to win—I just want to get by without struggling too much.”

— VV

As the great Marie Kondo put it, if something doesn’t bring you joy, then you shouldn’t keep it in your life… and I think that’s how I’m finally feeling about blogging.

The Life and Times of Casey Palmer—The State of the #BloggerLife, August 2019—Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts—Casey's Done Blogging

Now. I’m not quitting. I’m not announcing the death of the blog for the millionth time. But what I know is that I’m ready for something else, because Dad blogging just isn’t cutting it for me anymore.

Casey Palmer, Canadian Dadfluencer 2.0

If you told me about the wild roller coaster ride ahead back when I was tweeting about my lunch in ’08. There’s no way I ever could’ve seen it. The blog’s given me so much—it’s let me travel across the continent. Play with all sorts of toys. I’ve made countless friendships and opened my eyes to a bigger world than I’d ever imagined… but it’s time I start striving for whatever comes next.

The Life and Times of Casey Palmer—The State of the #BloggerLife, August 2019—Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts—Casey Peering Into the Future

The writing’s been on the wall since forever as the opportunities dried up and the world’s attention moved elsewhere.

It means that the average blogger can’t make money from their work as quickly as they did before. The world continually asks more from the content it consumes, and despite tens of thousands of years of history, the written word can’t keep up anymore.

But for me, that’s okay. I mean… I never really meant to become a blogger anyway.

Why Me Blog?

Back in the day, all I ever wanted to do was draw.

As a kid, I’d read Nintendo Power and sketch out the levels for video game sequels I dreamt up in my head. Year by year, I kept drawing up ideas, so much so that I believed it’s what I’d do for the rest of my life.

However, life had some very different ideas in store. Business school. Finding a career. A post about sandwiches that established me as a writer for several years to come.

But I never intended for writing to be the only thing.

CONTINUE READING about my latest update for The 2019 200 and where all my effort is going! “Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts”

AIR MILES | Father’s Day Special!

How to win at Father’s Day the AIR MILES Way! (Featured Image)

Last updated on March 30th, 2021 at 03:42 pm

People often forget about Father’s Day. You know—that day between Mother’s Day and summer where we celebrate dads with their ceremonial dress shirts and ties.

Well… not anymore.

See—Father’s Day doesn’t have to fall short in the effort department. It doesn’t need to be so routine or predictable. You might think you know everything about dad after all these years, but the man might surprise you! Part of agreeing to do this gig is giving up some of the man you were before, and you eventually forget that guy as you get used to your new normal.

But you can do better – and I have the solution! You can get a gift that truly matches dad, and get some benefits for yourself along the way. Friends—let me introduce you to the world of airmilesshops.ca and the curated Father’s Day Gift Guide that AIR MILES has created to help find that perfect match.

The AIR MILES Father’s Day Gift Guide

Let’s face it—everything’s online these days. You can buy just about anything from one of a million places out there, but that’s also kind of the problem, isn’t it? You use all this time visiting sites. Making comparisons. Trying to find the perfect place to buy from that won’t charge an arm and a leg for shipping.

But with over 200 online retailers to shop from with all sorts of unique gift ideas, the airmilesshops.ca Father’s Day Gift Guide lets you find just the right thing while getting Miles on gifts you’d buy anyway! That’s right—while shopping for others you can get Miles for yourself! I got spoiled with some of these gifts this year, ones that are both practical and personal.

HP Tango Printer

The HP Tango Printer is an all-in-one device that prints whatever you need, whenever you need, wherever you are – you don’t even need Wi-Fi!. I’m a dad constantly on the go, so being able to have the luxury of last minute prints from my phone is life changing. Not to mention the fact that with a young family, free space in our home is a commodity. So having a more compact tool that makes my life easier is a win-win!

Lenco L30 Turntable

The Lenco L30 Turntable has stirred up feelings of both nostalgia and curiosity in my house this Father’s Day, letting me revisit all the records I’d forgotten about while introducing my sons into the world of vinyl. Music is a big deal to me, and being able to share this new experience with my children is better than any gift I could have imagined.

So if you’re on the hunt for something unforgettable this Father’s Day, make sure to check out airmilesshops.ca—trust me; your dad will thank you!

Good luck, fellow shoppers, and until the next, I remain,

The second logo for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad

The 2016 100 Wrap-Up, Part 1: The 26 Things I MANAGED To Do.

The 2016 100 Wrap-Up, Part 1 - The 26 Things I MANAGED To Do. (Featured Image)

So in some parallel universe, I somehow imagined I’d be able to do this all in one post, since my writing generally lends itself to really brief work.

?

When I woke up and smacked some sense into myself, I scaled my voluminous tome down into pieces people could actually consume, and today I bring you the first instalment!

The 2016 100—The Things I Did

Tales from the 2.9—Casey Palmer (Featured Image)

I know longtime readers are wondering whether I’ll put out another list of 100 resolutions for 2017, but 2016 and I have unfinished business.

You might remember The 2016 100—it made a brief appearance at the beginning of the year and then never showed up again. But that year was busy, man—we added a new son to the family. Five days later, I started putting out Tales from the 2.9 and surprisingly filled 29 days of content straight with minimal notice. Two radio interviews. A TV panel appearance. One national news feature. A piece in The Globe and Mail for Father’s Day. I had to part ways with a few clients and gladly took on some new ones. I manned up and handled my business at home, which meant saying “no” to a half dozen trips away from home. 2016 did not hold back—and that’s probably why I didn’t pay The 2016 100 as much mind as I thought I would’ve when I wrote it.

I’ve been saying it for years the more I do this—maybe I’ve been writing these lists for the wrong reasons. As I scribbled away at The 2017 100, I realised that no matter how much I tried to be my own taskmaster, that just isn’t my style.

But let me address what I’ve learned when The 2017 100 gets its proper release. For now, let’s focus on The 2016 100 and what became of it all!

CONTINUE READING: The 26 things I accomplished from The 2016 100 and how! “The 2016 100 Wrap-Up, Part 1: The 26 Things I MANAGED To Do.”

The 2016 100

The 2016 100 — or — How to Build a Better Casey

Last updated on April 5th, 2021 at 10:39 pm

I can’t even lie, guys—coming up with a list of 100 goals for the fourth year in a row was hard — ridiculously so. I’m a very different me than I was when The 2013 100 came out, back when free time was still an abundant commodity I didn’t even know I was taking for granted, trying to fill it with countless things that’d keep life interesting.

A problem I most definitely don’t have in 2016!

As I work at surviving the upcoming year—especially with our second child’s imminent arrival—I needed to make the list a lot more realistic; I’m all too skilled at chasing ambitions that exceed my lifestyle’s capacity, and I’ll need to keep wary of that in 2016 if I want to see myself make it out the other side!

So without further ado, The 2016 100. It took a couple of days to polish off after recovering from the gauntlet that was 2015, but I feel like it’s a list that will really make waves in this life o’ mine should I see it finished!

But hey—that’s what I say every year 😂

Thanks for reading!

1) Write an amazing series for Black History Month
2) Win a vacation for my dry cleaner
3) Watch Creed; Mad Max: Fury Road; The Martian; Ant-Man
4) Take Eric to a sporting event so he can stop complaining about getting left from sporting events
5) Phase my old 3.5″ hard drive out
6) Get rid of my old electronics
7) Stop biting my nails
8) Get rid of the wedding thank you cards I never sent
9) Clean out the basement crawl space
10) Build shelves into the crawl space
11) Give my FWD Powershot 2 to my old manager the hockey coach
12) Do the CN Tower Edgewalk
13) Sort out my old TD employee RSP
14) Consolidate everything down to a single notepad

Though a chiropractor I started seeing late into 2015 told me I’d developed some mild sciatica in my back, I didn’t need him to tell me I carry too much STUFF. In a digital age where we can pack mountains of information into a single device, there’s really NO NEED for me to carry all the draft posts and note that I do—save the fact that working from hard copy’s the way my brain’s WIRED.

In 2016, I need a little more focus to keep all my ideas stored in one place so I’m not constantly carrying EVERYTHING in my house made of paper, knowing that I probably scribbled SOMETHING on ALL of ’em.

15) Sort out the Internet situation at home so I can stop relying on tethering to LTE data
16) Learn enough Spanish to understand my sister-in-law’s Mexican wedding in May
17) Find time for date nights, which will involve finding someone who wants to babysit two kids… how about we just find more awesome things to do at home, just in case?
18) Try Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake
19) Get to 0 drafts on CaseyPalmer.com by converting everything into live posts
20) Install the growth chart for my kids that we got at my office baby shower
21) Update all the old content on CaseyPalmer.com
22) Upgrade the site infrastructure to better support contest traffic
23) Redesign the heck out of the blog (Twenty Sixteen, what up)
24) Find the time to pack more lunches for work
25) Clean up and optimize my Pinterest account (I still have that copy of Pinterest Savvy lying around somewhere)
26) Shave more regularly
27) Hand out my remaining business “cep” cards so I can put in a new order (wait—do we still do business cards?)
28) Clear out the bookshelves to prepare for Baby #2
29) Replace the lost key to our 2011 Ford Edge
30) Figure out what I ACTUALLY need to run my site and invest in THAT.
31) Replace our bathroom sink
32) Meet with the people who I never seemed to schedule in through 2015 (Aaron, Emma, Ria, Adrienne, Dianna)
33) Get a Brookhaven Computer Cabinet

The 1% of the Casa de Palmer workspace I use to do all the things isn’t the best—in fact, it’s falling apart. As I get older and start formalizing my #BloggerLife, Sarah and I agree that my workspace should evolve to show that. It’ll take some saving to make it happen, but it’d be a nice addition to the home.

CONTINUE READING: That’s just a THIRD of the list. Click here for the REST! “The 2016 100”
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