So unless you’ve been under a sizeable rock for some time, you’ll know that Starbucks is back with their #StarbucksForLife contest, rewarding droves of java junkies with chances to win several prizes if they complete the contest challenges!
My buddy Zach and I spoke recently about #StarbucksForLife, thinking about the most efficient route to scoring the contest badges in a race to catch ’em all! (Because, you know, who would I be without an obligatory Pokémon reference?)
So, using the information we have so far, here’s a look at how I’d go about getting the maximum impact from the #StarbucksForLife campaign for my fellow Canadians!
The full list of #StarbucksForLife Challenges—likely an early prototype, as Afternoon Coffee Break seems renamed to BRB and This One’s On Me is absent from the current board.
When I started on Twitter back in June 2008, I was under a handle that made sense then—@doomsdayblaze. It was the screen name I’d used since my first email address in 1998; the name of the website where I ran Fish ‘n’ Chimps; the screen name for my LiveJournal—back then, it was what anyone who knew me online knew me as.
When I hit 2010’s HoHoTO—my first Twitter event of that size—Diana Pronosher was flabbergasted at the length of my Twitter handle, suggesting I change it. Since @doomz was taken in 2009 by a rapper I’m trying to track down, I tacked “TO” for Toronto on the end and @doomzTO was born (as referenced in the ever-infamous “HoHoTO Rap”)!
For the next 40 months, I had a shorter Twitter handle, but not one that really reflected who I was becoming.
After moving from doomsdayblaze.com to caseypalmer.com in 2011, “Doomz” was becoming more of a shadow behind me than a name I’d associate with. I was signing my blog posts with a shortened version of my name, “case p.”; I was sharing with my real name all over the Internet—with the days of anonymity coming to a close and Facebook tying everyone to a “real identity”, why not have a Twitter to match?
And after a friend helped me connect with @CaseP’s former owner on Google+, he was gracious and me the handle, since he’d only tweeted 4 times since 2010 and didn’t use it much.
So goodbye, @doomzTO. Goodbye to an era of partying, getting to know Toronto’s social media scene and building a name for myself. Here’s to a future where I get that much more professional, that much more grown-up—ready to handle whatever lies ahead for Casey Palmer. The opportunities and challenges that Doomz never had.
As I stood outside, chipping away at our icy walkway with a spade borrowed from our in-laws (because remember, our garage is still frozen shut from the ice storms), I suddenly recalled that February started with a surprise visit from my parents.
Having missed out on seeing DoomzToo for the entire month of January, they came to Casa de Palmer to see a scruffy Casey Palmer in his house clothes, a relaxing weekend planned with his family and sister-in-law, who was visiting from Ottawa.
Lesson learned—always dress like you’re ready for anything.
Regardless, another month’s come and gone, much of it spent seeking refuge from the harsh Canadian winters we face each February. Many of my Canadian peers likely read this with disdain—after all, what does Toronto know about the cold?—but while we don’t share the massive snowfalls or the extensive swaths of black ice you endure while commuting to your destinations, we too know freezing winds that chill you to the bone. We too know the misery of days all too short, sun blotted out by snow, hail and all manner of projectile falling from above to ruin our days.
I made it this morning during the Canada vs. Sweden game for the Men’s Hockey gold medal game at the 2014 Winter Olympics, when the score was up 3-0 for the Canadians in the third period, making it rather clear that our boys were coming home with gold medals. Despite the nation being up earlier than they likely are on a Sunday and glued to the TV, the tweet performed better than I could’ve imagined, with 31 retweets and 12 favourites, one from none other than the head of Twitter Canada, Kirstine Stewart!
Couple that with a second-place finish among the 24 nominated in the Canadian Blog Awards’ “Best Personal Blog” category, and it’s been a pretty good day!
It’s the third of 10 posts for my end-of-year wrap-up for The 2013 100, where I tell you all about the past 365 (or so) days, what I managed to pull off, which plans were a flop, and what I’ll try to do again in 2014.
In retrospect, 2013 was insanely busy. It isn’t until you sit down to do a series of posts like this that you really start to understand just how much you try to cram into your days.
There’s probably a lesson in here somewhere about overachieving, but I’m too busy to learn it!
21: Merge my past 10 years of blogging into one site
Few people know I’ve blogged since August 2002, jumping sites until I landed here at CaseyPalmer.com in late 2011.
Though my writing’s grown since the days on LiveJournal, Blogger and Posterous, there’s still some gems in my past decade of blogging that deserve re-visiting.
Over 2003, I went through more than 2000 posts and 8000 comments, leaving only stuff that was still relevant and/or entertaining. It’s sitting on the development site now, as I add tags, featured images and other SEO-friendly elements.
Expect to see some of my blasts from the past next year!
STATUS: On to the next year!
22: Start a tweetchat
While I’m not done with Twitter, I don’t use it like I used to. Over 3 years, I’ve seen people move on, move away, move to smaller social circles to evade unwanted attention—the allure of Twitter was good as long as I wanted to party, but as the party grew increasingly virtual, having my life revolve around being at the computer at a specific time each week eerily reminded me of those whose lives revolve around their TV shows.
Life’s too short.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
23: Start a podcast
One thing that’ll set you apart from others when you share content on the Internet is the quality of your work. With blogging, it’s how well you write and the image quality behind the photos you use. And with videography, getting a high-definition camera will do wonders for your video’s appearance. With podcasts, though, a solid microphone is what stands between amateur hour and repeat listeners.
I hit Canada Computers’ Black Friday sale and got Blue Microphones’ Yeti USB mic, complete with three condenser capsules and four directional modes to help you get the most of any recording situation you’re in!
I’d love to push the envelope with content in the coming year—I actually considered starting a podcast later into 2013 à la Zach Bussey Show (but, you know—with less swearing and more interviews), but between finding a venue, shifting priorities and an insane workload at the 9-to-5, I decided to ease off.
Oprah didn’t land her own show ’til she was 32, though, so I’m not giving up yet!
STATUS: On to the next year!
24: Dabble in Video
Nothing can tell a story like a video can.
Though I only got halfway through the month, I participated in August’s VEDA—or Vlog Every Day in August, by recording with my Canon 60D and sharing on YouTube!
Definitely enjoyed it—We Blog, We Vlog is a fun group, and I’d love to do it again in 2014. It’s also made me think about how to do video better than just sitting in front of the camera and talking to my audience.
Video’s an interesting realm—Justin will be the first to tell you that more vloggers get rich from YouTube than any blogger ever did from their blog. So since the blog’s not doing so well as a medium these days, I look forward to experimenting with other ways to get my ideas across.
Gotta spend money to make money, but I haven’t gotten to sitting down and really sorting my options out for playing in the stock market. Sarah and I invest in a number of mutual funds, but dabbling in pure stocks is a plunge I haven’t seriously considered yet.
I’d like to do it with my “play money”—anything I earn in the 9-to-5 is “kid money”, the money to give him everything he needs; any extras from birthdays, contests, etc. is “play money”, i.e. the money I can use to do whatever I want.
My Mom has an interesting idea, though. She’d mentioned wanting to choose some penny stocks for DoomzToo—something that could potentially pay off for him in the future.
I’d never even thought of it.
So in 2014, I get organized and see about starting to invest in the great stock market game.
STATUS: On to the next year!
28: Get ahead of schedule with the Man Lessons
With Mansformation’s hiatus came a hiatus for my daily Man Lessons. After several months, I found I just couldn’t write unique content anymore—in what may come as a surprise to my female readers, men only have so many problems.
In a similar fashion, I started posting a Question of the Day on my Facebook for a while later into 2013, but it only lasted so long before I felt compelled to do something else.
What did I learn? That with a constant, steady stream of content you can build a great audience—if the content doesn’t suck. In the event that your content does suck, please stop creating it immediately. No one’s going to look at it, and the Internet’s full of enough crap already.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
29: Create a schedule for regular website maintenance
While having your own Internet real estate gives you the freedom to do almost whatever you want with the space, it’s a huge pain in the butt when things aren’t working right! Even now, I’m sorting some load balancing issues out, as CaseyPalmer.com grows in size and complexity.
Part of making your site run smoothly is doing regular site maintenance. Websites can get bogged down with junk data all too easily, and making sure to clear out unnecessary files and that everything’s running right will save you from later headaches.
Facing major site issues in December, I got rid of some unnecessary test sites, cumbersome WordPress plugins and automated processes that had my web host ripping their hair out. While I didn’t adopt a maintenance schedule in 2013, here’s hoping I can get on top of it in 2014!
STATUS: On to the next year!
30: Start the SHEvolution
One of the main arguments I got while developing Mansformation is that men weren’t the sole reason for all the issues out there in the relationship world—there are plenty of problems stemming from how our female counterparts can interpret situations.
So I started working on a program to help women better themselves called SHEvolution.
The plan was to get other prominent female writers in Toronto’s social media community to help pen “Daily Lady Lessons”, and eventually be regular contributors at a sister site to Mansformation.
But ultimately, I wasn’t passionate about Mansformation and its associated properties, and will leave this project for someone who wants to do it. Like Cosmopolitan or something.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
30 down, 70 to go! Join us next time when we talk Toronto, why I haven’t got off of my butt to run a 5K race, and curbing the hoarding tendencies which seem to run in my bloodline.
Adios amigos,
Tell your wife, tell your kids, tell your husbands:
