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The Apprentice Blog - Season 5

Yes, in the midst of all this craziness, Season 5 of the Apprentice launched last night.  When I checked my email this morning I already had over 8000 ApprenticeBlog readers, including one asking why I hadn't published my opinions of the first episode... it had been 12 hours already and he was waiting.

Some days I wonder exactly how I get myself into these situations... and then I remember - "oh yes, I'm a complete nutbar!"

Off to continue building those press kits (Yes, Miss Carol even I leave my press kits to the absolute last minute, and pray my printer doesn't give out. Mine won't be nearly as pretty as yours were ;->)

Link: The Apprentice Blog - Season 5.

Intensity

Growing Glowing
Photo courtesy of LexnGer.

Okay it's a list day.

• Book Launch on Wednesday


• Over 180 people confirmed with a bunch of people I know are coming that haven't confirmed... @ our average of 2/3rds attendance that's still 120+ people... luckily capacity is 200.  It's going to ROCK!


• 2 more days.


• More than slightly crazed over here.


• First error in the book has been identified - wait for it... by a member of The Canadian Press.    ARGH!!!!
• Luckily it's a mislabeling on the map for Richmond Hill, where there is only 1 restaurant (which is in the real Richmond Hill), but still ... ARGH!!!!
• We've already sold almost 300 books!
• I am unbelievably pumped about the launch party!
• CityTV camera crews will be in attendance, as will a CTV reporter, someone from dine.to, and well... a world full of fun and fascinating people.  Which is strikingly more important!
• Guaranteed the food and wine are going to run out early, so make sure you come closer to 7pm than 9pm so you don't miss out!
• So many cool people, so little time.  So much fun to be had... now, what to wear?

Ed Burtynsky's World Changing Wish

I got the following email from my friend Anna.  It's something I think more people should know about, so I'm posting it verbatum.

I have something stunning to show you... and an important favor to ask.

Last year TED Prize winner Ed Burtynsky made a powerful wish at TED. He wanted to find a way of using his landscape photography to make people think harder about our planet's future.

Now you can help him do that very simply - by watching this incredible slideshow, and then sharing it with your friends and colleagues. Forward it on, link to it from your website, post it on your blog. (Yeah, I know... this isn't the first viral email request you've ever received... but this is a great opportunity to share with the world something both beautiful and important.)

Ed asked a really smart question when he was preparing his wish. How do you turn the emotional impact of his pictures into action? His solution has been to nudge his audience toward the fastest growing home on the web where people discover how we might create a sustainable future.... a site that, with financial help from TED and from Ed, is becoming an exhilarating force for good. That site is worldchanging.com, whose co-founder Jamais Cascio is speaking at TED next week...a site which is now an official TED partner.

So please switch off email and phone for 90 seconds, and click the photo at the top of this email. Then share its power as widely as you can... and tell me what you've done.

If the link doesn't open, navigate directly to: www.worldchanging.com/campaign

Many thanks,
Anna Withrow

Edward Burtynsky's Worldchanging TED Wish

Fat Tuesday - Love Your Handles!

Strawberry & Nutella - YUM!

Next Tuesday is Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, or as I grew up knowing it Pancake Tuesday.

I never knew when exactly it was, or even why exactly it was, but mom always made me crepes! She'd slice up the nicest fresh fruit she could find, whip up cream, and make sure we had a little duster filled with powered sugar. It was a great surprise, especially since I never knew when it was coming. Was it Februrary? April? March? Who knew? Mom did and she kept it secret. (My mom rocks!)

Since then I've acquired some Roman Catholic in-laws who have edumicated me in the whole Lent-thing and the fact that Pancake Tuesday is actually Shrove Tuesday. Though they didn't know what I was on about when I started asking about Pancake Tuesday and Hot Cross Bun Friday. (I still don't know when that is.)

However, while I love Pancake Tuesday, I've realized that the world really needs Fat Tuesday. At least we need it the way I see it.

Fat Tuesday is an excellent opportunity to recognize the impact of societies negative view of being fat. Now I'm not pretending that there are no health issues with carrying weight. Nor am I advocating people zipping off to their local Timmies for a 40 pack of timbits for lunch.

However, Fat Tuesday can serve as the perfect reminder that no matter how much you hate the fat, there is a person in there who doesn't deserve to hate themselves. Creampuff explains it better.

So, next Tuesday, on Fat Tuesday, why not:

• strive to cut yourself a little slack
• complement someone who looks good, whether they are big, small or in between.
• Wear something sexy no matter what size you are.
• try not to talk about calories, weigh-ins, and how "fat" you are. (Especially around someone who is bigger than you.)
• love your love handles.

So, why not celebrate Fat Tuesday by throwing a little love around? And what the hell - buy yourself a crepe too.

It's Time To Celebrate!

Yup, it's time to celebrate... we worked our asses off (or on.) We ate, we wrote, we proofread 'til our eyes crossed. We typed and typed and typoed. We edited, we fact checked, we called and called and called.

Now it's time to PARTY!

Please try and come and join us at the Rivoli on March 1st, cuz we are going to have a really good time and it would suck if you missed it!

Go ahead RSVP now either via evite or to rsvp (at) plethorapress (dot) com... or check out the more PR-esque invite on the

CETOblog: cheapeats toronto restaurant guide blog: You're Invited!

They're here and they ROCK!

cheapeats toronto 2006 has arrived!

After much heavy lifting, we opened the first case, and they are beautiful!

Mondo did a great job on the new cover, Michael's photo is wonderful, and the contents... well, while we may be biased, we think it's the best ever.

Congrats to everyone who worked SO hard to make this photo possible!!!

In bookstores on Feb 24th, but you can preorder directly from the ceto blog and Plethora Press will pay the shipping.

Booklaunch details to follow soon! (hopefully later today, fingers crossed.)

EgoCentric or just Self Centered?

Do you ever wake up in the middle of a conversation and realize you have nothing to say that isn't about your current obsession/project/career?  Or, for those of you with a different focus your love life/health/family life/pet?

No functional observations about the news, sports, or even the weather? "oh... did it rain yesterday? Flooding? Really? I must have missed it."  Sure, it sounds absurd - but I actually said that once in the middle of book production.

These 4 Things.

Wooo Hooo. My first official "tag"... I feel so honoured.
Of course I had to nudge Istocia a bit to tag me. (and I don't even know them.)

Four Jobs I've had:

1. Geological Survey Camp Cook
2. Aupier
3. Senior Technical Manager
4. Recruiter

Voice Mail 1 week old

[Warning - heavy duty sap ahead. Prepare to evacuate this posting if your cynicism levels are at or above average today. Seriously, think "my dead cat" postings.  Proceed with caution. And don't say I didn't warn you!]

When I picked up my voice mail, this is what I heard:

Happy Birthday to you           ("Hey it's Dad!" I said to myself)

May you never suffer from hunger

may you always have a birthday one month late

so you're always one month younger.

Now... it may not seem like much to you, scansion is a bit whack (a "bit"!?!) and the rhyme is a bit lame. And it is a full month late (because about 2 years ago dad decided to move my b'day to February so I'd stop whining about the whole Xmas/B'day issue.)

But after his stroke I never thought my dad would sing me another birthday song again.

[Warning - it gets worse below the fold. And there's bad doggeral too. This is not for the faint-of-heart, or anyone that ever, ever believed I was hip in anyway. Turn back. The bridge is out. Stop reading. Seriously.]

Come 'N' Git It - part 2

Hi guys,

cheapeats toronto 2006 is coming!  (And is a big part of why there was little to no activity on this blog for the last couple of months.)

It will be available in most independent bookstores on February 24th like Book City, the Cookbook Store, and Pages. Indigo, Chapters and Coles will have it on their shelves sometime in March. (They are slower to get independent publications.)

However, we set things up so you can preorder your copy of cheapeats toronto 2006 directly from Plethora Press.  Plethora will pay the shipping on any copies ordered from February 8-15th.

Link: PreOrder Your Copy of cheapeats toronto 2006.