John Chow has started a great little contest to which I thought I would throw my own hat into. While I can’t win, as I won’t subscribe to his newsletter (as I am already subscribed to his RSS feed), I will throw in an entry, nevertheless.

The idea is simple:

Just post your messed up childhood picture on your blog or a messed up picture of your own kid. Then write a little blurb about what the hell your mom was thinking or what you were thinking.

Since Family.com forgot to add a very important item to their prize package - I will be giving away a new Flip Mivo and 20″ Monitor to the best/worst/funniest post I notice in my Google Alert.

The winner will be announced through an email blast to my newsletter subscribers, so if you want to know who wins this thing in September, you’ll want to subscribe to my newsletter.

Here are mine:

Okay, the last one I did myself… it was a Star Trek pin from California that I had, and I added it to my shirt. My mom was mad, but I enjoyed showing my Trek fanboy self.

I really dislike changing jobs, but I understand that I have to change my career with the ebbs and flows of the currents that control the online trends, and so I have moved on from PicApp, leaving behind a Community Manager position, and I am taking some time to reflect on the last few years of working.

I started out three years ago as a full time blogger, then I became the Communication Manager at Bloggy Network, before moving to being the Head of Marketing at Splashpress Media, and then finally the Community Manager at PicApp. I have had some very interesting titles, most of which might have pointed out the main focus of my job, but didn’t really describe my overall experiences and day to day roles.

I never felt comfortable in any of the titles I was given, except for Problogger. I enjoyed writing full time. I enjoyed crafting words, talking to people, and learning the business of writing online.

I have to admit though that I really don’t like freelancing. Currently, I am between jobs, and as such, I am taking on side projects here and there. While the projects don’t pay as well as I am used to, nor are they the most consistent jobs, they are giving me some much needed variety.

The next job I will be doing gets me back to my writing roots, and so I am pretty sure I will enjoy it. I will also be learning new things, which is always very exciting to me as I am a knowledge junkie sometimes.

I don’t yet have a title for my new job, but I don’t really feel like titles are all that important, except for on a resume. Wish me luck…

So, Rogers has stated that for twenty days after the iPhone is released, people can get a 6GB data plan for $30. Add on the $25 or so talk time plan, and then all the fees that go along with it like the system access fee, 911 fee, and whatnot, and you are looking at close to $75 per month for what will end up being around two hours of talk time and six gigabytes of data transfer.

To be honest, I don’t need or want the talk time, as I don’t really need a cell phone, but even at $75 for 6GB of data, that could be a very reasonable amount of data transfer, at what I consider to be an almost reasonable price.

I have been watching how crazy Canadians are getting about the Rogers iPhone situation, and while I agree that something needs to be done, I must also concede that $30 for 6GB of transfer is fair and more than enough for more than two thirds of Canadians that would buy an iPhone.

Even if you only browse pages that are 1MB each, that still provides you with over six thousand page views in a month, or two hundred a day.

I think that Rogers shouldn’t put a time limitation on this deal, and I think that they should make the barrier for entry as low as possible because they will have each iPhone user in a three year contract deal. At seventy-five dollars a month over three years, Rogers looks to earn $2700 per iPhone, and that doesn’t include the $199 or $299 cost to purchase.

I don’t think Rogers should complain about giving their users a break, and if this $30 for 6GB deal makes sense for a limited time, why not forever? Also, I think Canadian consumers have to give Rogers some slack. They won’t create an unlimited access account level, and so we have to be reasonable within the rules that they set.

I go back to what I have said to others before. Rogers either needs to reduce their plans by upwards of $30 each, making their most inexpensive plan at $30 per month for 150 minutes of talk time, and 400MB of bandwidth, or double all bandwidth on the plans, which would make their heavy user plan for $115 provide users with 4GB of data transfer.

It still wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be much more competitive when compared to what the rest of the world is doing with regard to the iPhone.

I think Canadian consumers should continue to push for fair plans from all cellular providers, but I also think that they should be reasonable in their goals.

As of yesterday, I have been married for a year to Sabine, my college sweetheart. We had a really nice day yesterday, starting with me providing her breakfast in bed with a dozen roses, and then moving on to a relaxing morning where we did very little.

At lunch time, we had a picnic in the park, and walked around looking at the trees, river, and paths. It was a beautiful day for being outside, and so I am glad we didn’t waste it. After lunch, I had to do some work, and spent most of the afternoon stuck behind the computer before having a light supper with Sabine at home. She had cleaned up a few things, making the house look nice, and had taken some time while I was working to go out and buy some plants for our front yard, as she really wants it to be nice for when my family comes.

After that, we spent the evening watching videos and retired to bed fairly early. I spent a lot of time reflecting back on the nearly six years we have known each other and the first year of marriage we have had and suffice to say, I couldn’t be happier. Here is hoping for an amazing second year.

Being in Toronto reminds me of a game of Sim City. Things are in the strangest of places, and the development of the roads, apartments, restaurants, power stations, and other facilities almost seem to be placed at random, with the newer areas showing a more organized design. The older you go in the city, the more convoluted things appear to be.

b5media’s offices are on Spaldina Ave, a street that isn’t right on the main roads, but has an interesting and diverse culture. You can see many smaller shops, as well as old brick buildings right across the road from new fancier brick, glass and steel buildings. IT is an interesting site, almost like the road separates two different towns.

With WiFi permeating the entire city, you would think I would feel more connected, but because the service is a pay service, and isn’t everything these days, I find myself looking around feeling like a tourist from another area of the world.

It is so much busier in feeling than Ottawa. Such high traffic levels, in the early afternoon, is insane to me.

There also feels like there is a strong dichotomy here. There are many people that don’t look well off, and then there are people driving around in the latest Audi’s and high cost BMW’s. Where are the middle class people? Maybe I don’t notice them as much as the poor and the rich.

There is also a strong odour in this city. It stinks like a big city. Pollution, cigarette smoke, and a bit of what smells like the paper factories of Cornwall, Ontario. That bitter, burning smell that many of the largest cities seem to have. Is it pollution as well, or smoke from a factory, I am not sure, but it isn’t the clean air that I am used to in St. Thomas.

I wouldn’t mind working here, but living here for an extended period of time feels like something I am less and less interested in doing.

Update: So we ended up having a miscarriage, and we are waiting to try again. Thanks to everyone for the positive thoughts. We appreciate it.

So, in case you haven’t heard yet, Sabine and I are expecting our first child. Sabine used to say she wanted four, but since she has found out that she is a month and a half along and already uncomfortable, she doesn’t want any more than one.

We are both very excited and are looking forward to everything that comes along with being parents. The due date is expected to be November 25th. I am pushing for the 24th so that the baby keeps going with the “4″ tradition for birthdays in my immediate family.

Wish us luck. Here’s hoping we have a healthy, bouncing baby boy or girl come November.

So 9rules is going back to its roots a bit, removing the social aspect of the site and placing it somewhere else to become its own brand: Chawlk.

Some people have complained about this move, and others are excited. I fall into the latter camp. I think the power of the 9rules brand was its membership and exclusivity. I used to chase 9rules membership in hopes that one day they would let me add the leaf to one of my sites.

As I was passed up for each subsequent round, I got more and more frustrated with the 9rules brand, wondering what was wrong with me. What wasn’t I doing that made me not fit what they were looking for. I even tried to structure my blog to fit what they needed.

I doubt you would see too many people doing that today with their current social network slant. Right now there is no real exclusivity, nor do they feature member content heavily enough to be doing a good service to those that are members.

When I found out they were going back to their roots, I almost leapt out of my chair. I feel that this will be the first step in the road towards the 9rules leaf becoming a highly sought after badge of respect and an honour for those blogs that get to display it as a member.

I really didn’t think Scrivs, Rundle and Tyme had it in them to steer the ship a full one-eighty. But they are doing it, and I am super impressed. Will I be chasing the leaf again? While Xfep is part of the Grand Effect network, started by Sarah Perez, it really only “fits” for one of my sites, and so I might start working hard to see if I can earn the leaf. I have great respect for the owners, and their ideals. Kudos to the 9rules team, and members.

It is usually considered a sad state of affairs when a blog drops down to less than one post a month, but for me, that means I am working hard on other things, and haven’t really had time for a personal blog. I won’t be getting rid of this blog any time soon, as I enjoy writing here, and it is much more open than any other blog I write in, but to keep track of everything I am doing online, you should all be subscribing to my Super Feed.

It is an RSS feed you can subscribe to that will alert you to posts I am making on pretty much every blog I consistently publish on. It is pretty interesting that I can do this, as it wasn’t as easy as I first guessed.

This post is also to let you all know that I am going to lose weight. I know I have said it before, but this time I am adamant. I even started a new blog on the subject in hopes that everyone will continue to help inspire me, and hold me accountable. It is also great therapy for me in dealing with my obesity, how I got here, and how I am going to change it. You can check it out at BloggingWeight.com.

I am sure some of you are rolling your eyes, but I have always been a very open person, and I enjoy letting people into my life, and hopefully I will inspire others, or at least help them feel like they aren’t the only one going through a rough time battling obesity.

Work
So what’s new with me and work? Well, I continue to work at Splashpress Media, and while you might have thought it has been pretty quiet on that front, I have been doing some behind the scenes stuff. I hope to continue to work on some behind the scenes stuff, though the company would really like me to be their front man. I don’t have a problem with that, as I love meeting people and I have no shortage of things to say, but I have been at odds with myself lately regarding what I want to do with my career.

eXtra For Every Publisher continues to grow and change. I am really enjoying writing on there and seeing it develop. It has been a slow month though for me as I concentrate on a myriad of other things, but the site is doing really well. While its traffic continues to beat my expectations, the monetization efforts aren’t reaping the rewards I had hoped. Here’s hoping I can change that around over the coming months.

In less than five days, I will be flying to Vancouver, British Columbia for the Northern Voice conference. I am looking forward to seeing Nick, a good friend of mine from High School, as well as James Cogan, a good friend of mine from Ottawa. I am hoping the conference will be great too. During the first day, called Moosecamp, I hope to pull some people aside and talk about Blogging for a Network, as well as Blogging for Money. That is, if anyone is interested.

Family
Sabine and I are doing well. Currently, she is on a trip in Belgium for her grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. A huge congratulations to them for the milestone. I really can’t wait until Sabine gets home though. Shame that two days after she gets back, I leave to go to B.C..

Other than that, things are the status quo, with little deviation in our lives. Sabine and I are working away, trying to pay down debts, and get out of rut we are in financially. We were really hoping to put some money into RRSP’s before the closing deadline, but as of yet, it doesn’t look like we will be able to.

It is definitely difficult to pay yourself first when doing so would mean not paying for the car or heating the house. I am sure things will turn around eventually, but until then, the lack of money is always a nagging stress.

I hope everyone that still reads this blog is doing well. Drop me a line sometime. I am pretty much always home, alone, talking to myself. Though, a big shout-out to my cousin Mark for helping with that lately as I really appreciate the time you’ve been taking to hang out with me on Skype and just chat about life, its far more interesting than the voices in my head.

So it has been a while since I have posted anything, and while that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been doing anything, it does mean that I have been neglecting this blog.

Here is a quick update on everything going on in my life, for those of you still following this blog.

Work
Working with Splashpress Media is going really great. They are keeping me busy with a variety of things. I assumed that moving to a larger company would mean more organization than Bloggy Network, but that hasn’t entirely been the case. I look forward to helping Splashpress get more organized, though at the same time it makes me laugh since I am not the most organized person in the world.

I have been writing as much as possible on Splashpress sites, and have been working on moving the sites from Bloggy Network’s old servers. The other interesting thing going on in my work life is training the advertising sales person now on our team, also named David. He is a smart cookie, and quick to take in any advice I give him. I am really glad we have added him to the team, and it reminds me how much I enjoy teaching people.

I have also realized that as much as I love writing, I also enjoy dealing with server stuff, files, permissions, missing libraries. It is fascinating, and I hope to push my way into doing a bit more of that as things progress.

On the marketing side of my job, I haven’t had too much time to do anything, but I have a feeling 2008 is going to mean a fair number of conferences for me, and thus Splashpress Media.

I am still working on my own personal projects as well. eXtra For Every Publisher is doing really well, and that is where I spend most of my personal time blogging. I am also working on trying to get into a groove with AltSciFi, and I want to launch another blog that I have sort of on the back burner right now.

Other than that, I have a project that is slowly being developed. I really hope it works out as well in the real world as it does in my head/imagination. It should be launching in the summer of 2008. A big thanks to Corey and Ryan for their continued support.

Family
Sabine and I are doing really well. We have been insanely tight on money lately, to the point where a gift from my dad for Christmas helped us get through the month without raking up too much more debt. Thanks Dad!

Mostly our money issues stem from Sabine not having a full time job, but to be honest, despite the stresses of having no money, it has been working out alright education wise for her, as she continues to get the courses she needs to go to College or University for Nursing. (That’s the goal anyways…)

So right now we are trying to keep everything as inexpensive as possible so that she can focus on her education and her goals in that respect. Hopefully, it will all work out for her, as she really deserves to get to do this.

On Boxing Day, Sabine and I are going to make the trek to Kingston to visit with as many people as possible. Hopefully, everything will go well. I miss my family, but I would rather see a few of them at a time and spend real quality time with each than being part of the craziness that is a big family Christmas.

Hopefully, everyone out there is doing alright and I hope you all have a safe and happy holidays.

I just wanted to thank everyone who wished me well on my birthday yesterday. I am no a quarter of a century old.

One thing I thought was interesting is that I received about ten times more birthday wishes from Facebook friends than through any other form of communication, be it e-mail, phone or otherwise.

Also, a big thanks to my Grandma, Mom, and Dad for the wonderful presents. I also can’t forget to send a huge amount of love to my wife, Sabine, who made the whole day amazing.

To everyone that messaged me, I really appreciate it. Living so far away from everyone can be very lonely, but it helped to know you all took the time to think about me. Big kudos to you all!

Now, back to work with me…

Update: A big thanks to James Cogan as well, for helping me celebrate my 25th. You really didn’t have to, and I appreciate it.