Freak'in Clean!

Today I experienced my very first clean from cleanfreaks.org, a Toronto based company that uses all natural and environmentally friendly products to make your home sparkle.

At first I was a bit embarrassed bringing two strangers into my home to deal with the filth we've accumulated this summer due to 30 hour coding sessions and running around without hardly any time to vacuum, but owners pink haired Danielle and purple haired Rob, quickly put me at ease about my messy abode, assuring me they'd seen much worse.

They whipped our place into shape in about 1 1/2 hours laughing and joking with me as they cleaned.

I loved the fresh smell of Danielle's home made teatree oil, lavender and water cleaner that she used on the mirrors. Teatree and lavender are natural cleaning agents, she explained, and you can easily make your own! She also uses micro-fibre cloths, which are more effective at removing bacteria and dust than anti-bacterial cleaners.



So what's the best way for a gal on the go to keep her place from turning into a dump?

#1. "Pretend your mother is coming over in 15 minutes" Danielle suggests. Do a quick tidy for 15 minutes every day putting stuff away. Clutter in a small space makes things look messier than they are.

#2. Keep your faucets shiny. Nothing says clean like gleaming faucets - even if they aren't that clean.

#3. Purge! If you have a lot of stuff, there are more places for dust to collect, which is largely responsible for allergies and musty smells.

#4. Get a small bin for papers, bills and other clutter that find their way out of the study and onto the dining room table. Chuck your papers into the bin and you can easily take it to the appropriate room.

Check them out on our deals page for an exclusive discount!


www.cleanfreaks.org

15 Minutes of Fame With Red Canary

Since we launched ChickAdvisor on September 2nd, we've been getting a lot of attention on the web. We got some nice feedback from Mashable, Amanda Congdon (formerly of Rocketboom), been featured on runningwithfoxes, tagged on Del.icio.us, and gotten a bunch of cool new members and reviews from many other great sites.

Last week, we had our first official interview with Red Canary, a website about startups. I was also asked to write something to go with our piece. "Write about whatever you want” he said.

Well, I read the posts from other startups he'd featured and they all sounded really serious and educational. I didn't want to even attempt to write anything like that because A: What do I know, and B: Who cares? I'd rather talk about where to buy designer stuff for cheap or which pastry shop sells the best croissants or who in this city can give me some decent highlights?? That plus, truthfully, I didn't want to even try to compete with the smarty-pants* already featured on the site.

In the end, however I attempted to sound intelligent talking about the difficulties of being a woman in the biz... yada yada yada, but honestly, I'd rather not talk about that. I wish I didn't have to. But as I've been learning in my PR class, women are still paid $.76 to the dollar (to this day!) compared to their male counterparts, and I think it's complete nonsense. I'd like to see the day where skin color, gender, etc, don't matter and we all just see each other as people end of story.

One day, perhaps!

*No disrespect intended to any of the smarty-pants. You're all very interesting intelligent people, and I'm sure we'd all get along fabulously.

Oprah for President?

Where do these people come from? I read an article on my Rogers Yahoo about a man who is campaigning for Oprah to become the President of the United States by 2008.

He's created the strangest little website to promote his cause complete with an un-authorized photo of Oprah and a home made theme song that you can listen to by clicking on the theme song link.

His main reason for promoting Oprah? "She wouldn't bomb anyone."

You can sing along with the backup vocals and oooh-e-oooh's at the end.

Surviving the Sample Sale

You're in a nightclub at 2:00 in the afternoon. The music is thumping and the lighting is dim. You've elbowed your way through the crowed, plowed through piles of designer jeans and quietly mooned each other in an open change room as you squeezed into one pair of ill fitting jeans after the next.

Welcome to the Sample Sale.

This afternoon the club was Republik, the event was a D.C Sample Sale, and I was one of the mooners. I sweat, I struggled, I squinted in the darkly lit change room trying to determine if what I was trying on was flattering or not, but everything looked terrible... from what I could make of it in the dark anyway.

What I really wanted was to walk away with a pair of Rock & Republic jeans for $225 or the cute 7's for $150, but I looked like either a stuffed sausage or like I was wearing oversized hand-me-downs, and nothing in between.

One heavy set girl trotted out in front of me and asked my opinion on her Citizens. "Does this make my butt look big?" (Crap!) Yes, I'm afraid it does, but who am I to judge? After all, I was wearing heavy winter boots over a worn looking pair of Buffalo jeans that really didn't do me justice. I was a walking billboard for What Not to Wear. (It looked cold out, ok??)

"I'd probably try another size", I suggested. "Right", she said, "I guess my butt's too small for these ones."

Bless her. I hope she had better luck than I did.

My Dirty Little Apple

I joined the Apple bandwagon this spring when my old refurbished IBM laptop was put into forced retirement. I needed something to do presentations with that had a battery that actually worked, and could do more than send emails and word processing. So in June, I bought my first squeaky clean white Apple Notebook.

Well, it's not looking so hot anymore. What was once a pristine white keyboard now has black marks from the palms of my hands that don’t wash off (and I'm a very clean person, thank you very much!), the mousepad is looking worn, and my computer clock thinks it is two days ago.

I realize I use my computer more than most and hardly ever turn it off, but I didn't think I'd be seeing noticeable wear in just 3 months.

I've heard this is a problem for many Mac users. So... my dear Mac People, may I suggest that you focus a little less on your cutesy commercials and a little more on ensuring your product doesn't look like crappola after a few month's use?

Mucho Gracias!

Feeling Like a Person Again

Alex outside Le Gourmand earlier this week for breakfast with computers (sad, I know)

I must say this has been a really fun weekend! Alex and I basically shut down our social lives for the past few months because we were busily working on ChickAdvisor, but this weekend we decided to breathe a little easier and have some fun!

On Friday, to cap off our busy week, we headed to Schmooze (think: cheap drinks, and a lot of bald heads), to help a friend celebrate her birthday. Despite the fact that we were exhausted we enjoyed being away from our computers and watching the bartenders light the bar on fire with lighter fluid. Who hoo!

When we came home, we quickly deleted the entry some thoughtful soul had put on ChickAdvisor for Anal Lube... thanks a lot buddy!

On Saturday we took in the Queen West Art Crawl where I tried to find an artist I met this summer at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibit. I discovered this jewelry maker who made gorgeous chainlink silver necklaces with chunky glass pendants. I fell in love with a heart shaped one that was all swirly with pink and red, but was too cheap to buy it at the time. Fool! I took her business card, then promptly lost it, and have been trying to track her down ever since. Anyhoo, she wasn't there so I didn't get my coveted necklace and I don't know if I'll ever find it again.

But, I did discover Hoi-An, who I'd heard of from a contestant from our first contest on RedFlagDeals, who makes the most adorable mini badge buttons, magnets and greeting cards with cheeky pictures and swear words that are sure to get a reaction. We bought one of her skull cigarette lighters for one of our coders, to remind him that smoking is bad.

Sunday we went to The Meeting House. If you ever want to be enlightened at the movies, you must check this out. It's a church that meets at movie theatres and displays the message via video (from Oakville). The lead pastor who delivers the message has long hippy hair and dresses casually, but I've never heard so much common sense in my life. Check it out - even if for nothing else than curiosity.

Tonight we just got back from hanging out with a group of dear friends at Lago where we made fun of each other, laughed and drank dirty martinis.

It's so nice to feel like a person again.

I'll try not to get used to it.. Back to computer land!

Share Your 2 Cents!

Don't you hate it when you take your car in for an oil change and the mechanic takes advantage of your woman-ness by attempting to convince you that you should also get a brake job? Or you spend $200 on highlights you aren't satisfied with or you buy a new miracle cream that gives you a huge mafia zit? *

Up until now, women have had to make purchasing decisions on products and services by trial and error. I personally have about 15 bottles of half used beauty products in my bathroom that just didn't work. Well, not any more! The whole point of ChickAdvisor is to create a place for women to share advice and opinions on what matters to us - and by extension, help each other save time and money!

It's been almost two weeks since we launched, and we're getting a lot of traffic and some cool reviews from places like mashable and the TechCrunch people. We have a big push ahead adding a bunch of new cities and doing some new cool and exciting stuff!

Please give it some love for me, k?

Thank you!!

*Mafia zit, for those of you who don't use this term, is a painful underground pimple that takes a long time to come out and causes a lot of damage... Eww!

Shopping or Tuition?

Thanks to the generosity of the Canadian Millennium Excellence Scholarship fund, I've just received notice that I've been awarded a $4000 scholarship! I'm a huge fan of this scholarship because it is based solely on marks - they don't give a hoot about my skin color, orientation or financial status.

But now I'm faced with a huge dilemma: I have to decide between "doing the right thing" and applying it towards my outstanding tuition fees (oopsies!), or take that puppy shopping! See, even though I dragged Alex out shopping all last weekend, I still have no boots or shoes for the fall/winter. How fantastic would a cute pair of Puma's be or those elusive slouchy boots? Come to think of it I still don't have diamond earrings and I desperately need a new gym membership...

Who am I kidding? I'll use it for school.. Though that does mean that the money we put aside for tuition can now be used for clothes! Oh, err, and the servers for ChickAdvisor.. And the legal fees for the incorporation... and the staff...Oh bugger!

Regardless, I am very grateful to the lovely people at the Millennium Excellence awards. You've definitely made my day!

If you are a student with good marks looking for an award that doesn't discriminate, apply here!. Applications for 2007 will be available shortly.

Stalking The Perfect Slouchy Boots

I met the slouchy boot in June when I was in Italy and fell in love on the spot. They were gorgeous round toe cowboy inspired boots in soft supple leather with beautiful cut-outs at the top. All the Italian women were wearing them, and they looked incredible with mini skirts and summery dresses. I was a fool to have not purchased the creamy pair I saw in Florence for 80 Euros right then and there.

This weekend I decided I would find Toronto's best version of my coveted boot. I stalked Yorkdale Mall, Queen Street and the Eaton Centre but came up empty and with sore feet. Aldo had a cute pair that were pretty comfortable, but they looked too trendy. I wanted to find a more classic take on the slouchy boot so I wouldn't have to donate them in a year from now.

Store after store, and several lattes and blisters later, still nothing compared to my Italian boots. I did, however stock up on loads of basics like the buy 1 get 1 50% off v-neck sweaters at Smart Set, and the $9 fitted t-shirts at Club Monaco. I bought a couple of Biotherm eyeshadows, their spf foundation and a few accessories, then remembered I was supposed to be buying boots and soldiered on (with my hubby carrying my bags. Hee Hee! )

It is now Monday and I have failed at my one task of buying boots this weekend.

Before I do any more credit card damage on spontaneous distracting purchases, does anyone know where my perfect boots are hiding? (Pretty please!)


Boots Pictured above are Dior Cannage Slouch Boot on eluxury.com

Sample Sale: Vancouver

What: Lacoste Shoes and Club Monaco Warehouse Sale, up to 80% off!

When: Wednesday Sept 13 - Sept 17 (Wed-Fri 11am to 9pm, Sat&Sun 10am to 6pm)

Where: The PNE North Forum Building
2901 East Hastings Street Vancouver, BC

Acceptable Payment: Visa, Mastercard, Debit, Cash

Where did I hear about it? www.styledemocracy.com

Back to School...

But this old lady's not feelin' it. While my classmates are comparing their summer tans and latest internship adventures, I'm trying to fight the Totalitarian system.

I'm one of the older students with prior professional and life experience, but went back to school to get a degree for something that really interested me. My old life in Insurance was not my bag and after being forced to take a photo of a man's bruised hiney for a grocery store claim, I knew it was time to move on. Thus two years ago, I went back to school and entered the Totalitarian regime we call University.

So far, I've been short changed on transfer credits, received the same grades from certain professors regardless of the quality or amount of effort invested, did a 1.5 year internship I didn't receive credit for - even though that's a credited course in 4th year, and recently, been told that despite the fact that I launched a company this summer the university does not offer work credits. Hello, I'm in a media program! Though they teach courses totally applicable to what I did this summer, it somehow it does not apply (but you can buy an honorary degree if you donate a bunch of money to the school or someone else does on your behalf).

The fees are structured so that you pay a flat fee for a block of 5-7 courses. So the person with 5 courses is paying the same as someone with 7. The person who takes 4 courses or less gets dinged with a reduced course load fee. What?? Who ever heard of paying extra for NOT taking a class? That's just some of the prevailing logic that students are forced to deal with.

I often hear my classmates defending the regime saying with wide-eyed wonder, "This is how it will be in the REAL world!" Not so, people. In the real world, most human beings are capable of making decisions on a case-by-case basis instead of one list of universal rules that apply to everything.

Don't get me wrong; I believe a university education is critical to get ahead in life. Without that piece of paper no one will take you seriously, and it will improve your grammar.

All I'm asking for is a little common sense.


P.S Yesterday I received a letter in the mail congratulating me on being in the top 15% of my faculty/major program. I was pretty excited until I read further and found out that all I was getting was an invitation to join the Golden Key Honour Society for the low, low price of $90.00 plus $25 for a Lapel Pin (Gee, that'll come in handy!) and $4.50 for a Certificate of Membership. So the reward for all of my hard work is that I get to pay more money!

I think I'll pass...

ChickAdvisor is Live!

I finally get my apartment back...
After many long hours, all nighters and turning my place into a crowded little make-shift office with giant post-it notes as wall paper, we officially flipped the switch at 5:43am this morning! She's ALIVE!
The reviews currently showing are from our first contest and we are actively collecting data to populate the entire site. You will notice that some categories have a lot more information than others, but that will soon change as we are about to launch another contest. Watch for it here or on ChickAdvisor.

Toronto is our first city, but we are working to expand as quickly as possible. If you'd like to get your city on ChickAdvisor, add as many reviews in the different categories as you can and get your friends to do the same!

The more you make it your own, the better it will be!