Category Archives: Web

Made me smile: The Never-Ending Mahna Mahna Phenomahna

23 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Mahna Mahna

I’ve been a huge Muppets fan straight since childhood, so needless to say, I’ve been more than a little excited in these past couple of weeks leading up to the release of The Muppets tonight. I’ve been doing some excellent prep work, too:

And now today, while preparing to do a rather generic “made me smile” post about the Muppets, I came across something that seriously made me smile. In conjunction with the official Muppets site, Disney has created a website for an online video project called The Never-Ending Mahna Mahna Phenomahna. It invites viewers to record their own version of them saying/singing/shouting “Mahna Mahna”, which it then adds to a never-ending loop of people singing “Mahna Mahna” with the original muppets spliced in between. The loop currently includes lots of average folks, and some fun celebrity drop-ins, too, including Jason Segel, Sarah Silverman, Bret McKenzie, Ken Jeong, and more. Oh, and me, it includes me.

I can’t embed it, unfortunately, but click here to see me make a fool of myself singing “Mahna Mahna”. AND, if you want to waste 3 minutes doing something fun, click on the button below my video that says “Join This One” and join my Mahna Mahna chain!

Want something to tell me in the comments other than how dorky my video is? Tell me about your love for the Muppets, your favourite Muppet, or your favourite Muppets song!

Introducing my latest blog project, Picturing Postcards

16 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Cape Cod postcard

Those of you who know me well, likely know that I love postcards. What you might not have realized yet, however, is that I really like to start new blogs. It’s a bit of a strange habit, considering that so many people have trouble keeping up one blog, let alone multiple ones. But as I said to a friend recently, I often think of things in terms of “how can I put this on the internet”, so running several blogs makes sense for me.

But back to the postcards. This love was definitely fostered at a young age as my parents are avid postcard collectors, as well. For as long as I can remember, my parents’ fridge has been covered in postcards sent by family and friends on trips all around the world. So, naturally, I’ve begun to collect postcards on my own fridge, and now that my parents are retired, the majority of the cards I receive actually end up being from them! So since I’m fortunate enough to have a rather solid archive of postcards (and since I like to think about how I can put things on the internet), I recently decided to photograph my postcard collection and post them online, through a new blog I’ve called Picturing Postcards. In addition to posting the photos and a brief bit of information about who sent the postcard and where it’s from, I’m also adding each card to a public Google Map so that we can see where all my postcards have come from. I’ve only posted six cards so far, but the map is already looking really cool, if I may say so myself.

Currently I’m planning to post at least two new postcards a week – I’m hoping that once I finish cataloguing my archives, I’ll still be receiving enough new ones in the mail to maintain that schedule! And if you’re going a trip, why don’t you send me a postcard? Friends, don’t forget to email me and ask for my address!

Interview with Torontoist about Ladies Learning Code

13 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in Toronto, Web

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Ladies Learning Code

Bonus points for anyone who can find me in the above photo! Photo by Jon Lim.

Ladies Learning Code, “a collective of women working to empower everyone to feel comfortable learning basic, beginner-friendly technical skills in a social, collaborative way” has run two workshops so far in Toronto and I’ve happily attended and loved both. So far I’ve learned about HTML/CSS and JavaScript, and I just love the concept and atmosphere of learning about web development amongst other brilliant and fascinating women. I loved it so much, that I eagerly agreed to chat with the fantastic Bronwyn Kienapple last week for an article she was writing for Torontoist. The article came out this week, and here’s a sneak peek of what I had to say:

Two-time attendee Suzanne Gardner, a writer, editor, and social media marketer by trade, has no background in coding. She pins herself as a typical Ladies Learning Code workshopper: grateful to have a friendly space to test out the world of tech.

“Not that I would be against working with men, but I like that [female-only] aspect of Ladies Learning Code,” said Gardner. “I am a somewhat feminist so I like that it inspires women to enter this industry and educate themselves about web development.”

Clearly I write a bit better than I speak, because I would’ve sounded way less awkward if I had said “I consider myself to be somewhat of a feminist”. Honestly, self. Anyway, go read the rest of the article over at Torontoist. And if you’re in Toronto with nothing to do tonight, why not join me at the Ladies Learning Code Launch Party?

Suzanne, the Book Blog Queen

05 Tuesday May 2009

Posted by in Books, Web

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This post isn’t exactly commentary on the publishing industry, but rather an update on my own role within it.

bookshelfAs of May 1st, I am now the editorial intern at Quill & Quire and will hold this position until the end of August. I’ve been kept quite busy so far by blogging (three posts today, one yesterday, and my first one on Friday) and writing some short round-ups of awards and bestsellers for the subscription-only section of their site, Q&Q Omni. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to write for the print magazine as well, and I have a few ideas of other new jobs to create for myself here which I will divulge more on as they happen.

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Online author directory FiledByAuthor launches amidst controversy

10 Friday Apr 2009

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filedbyauthorlogoA new author database site has hit the web in a public beta and already it’s not without controversy. FiledByAuthor claims to be “the most comprehensive directory of author pages anywhere. It’s also a place for authors to showcase themselves and their work, a place for readers to search and discover new works and a place for everyone to connect and discuss our favorite subject – authors and books, of course.”

So, basically, it’s Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Shelfari meets IMDB — but with a few hitches, all of which are discussed in this Los Angeles Times blog post. One of the biggest issues surrounding this site’s release is the fact that it seems like a not-very-well-disguised cash grab. The FiledByAuthor site has catalogued information for approximately 1.8 million authors so far, with each page including a bio, a list of works, and links to purchase the books online. Once these pages are created, the site then invites authors to “claim” their pages. And while the claiming process is free, if the author wants to gain anything more than minimal control over the content on their page they’ll be paying a fee of either $99 or $399 (!) per year. A full breakdown of the different membership options can be found here.

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