Happy December 25th

Hey Everyone, Happy December 25th. Hope you had a lovely day off ... kinda.... H.

Scared.

There is something in the basement. It sounds like it is trying to get out. Cassie is home for the holidays. If I don't blog again.... it is because whatever is down there.... has gotten out. H.

Googling Yourself.

have you ever tried it? it's a pretty interesting exercise.... but it's highly addictive, i warn you in advance. I did it the first time, because i wanted to see if anyone actually read this magazine... or too see if anyone was slagging us in the press, which seemed more likely. Anyways, some good, some bad... mostly good i will say. You should try it - everyone's doing it. H.

Snow.

Sucks when you're all psyched to have a productive monday and then you go outside and there's 200 ft of snow on your car. safe travels. H.

Like, Dislike, Love pt.2

like: -finding money in jeans pockets -people who are passionate about something (jodi koberinski) -seeing someone on the street with one of our mags dislike: -waiting for responses -ordering over easy and getting uncooked whites - yuck -false assumptions love: -hearing a song that makes you think of something and smile -getting something in the mail, other than a bill -seeing potential in things -laughing. hard. c.

Like, Dislike, Love

Well, it's that time of the day where i don't want to work anymore.... so I thought i would post a little something. Here are some things I like: getting coffee in small coffeeshops cutting things out of thick paper with scissors walking on really icy sidewalks with heels on and not falling imagining qatalyst in 2 years Here are some things I dislike: people being impatient in small coffeeshops running out of stamps people you want to hang out with being busy not having any money to treat people to coffee Here are some things I love: new magazines that you find by accident passing someone you know on the street working with your friends and not some idiots that you are forced to work with Vicki - our Mac - telling me what time it is Wolly Mammoths If you have some likes, dislikes or loves that you'd like to share. please post them here, H.

monday... today hilary and i met at symposium for $15 coffees and talk about our magazine. big changes coming in the new year. less fluff, more stuff. (genius, i know) way more editorial content. i'm really excited. maybe we'll even make like a dollar or something next year. probably not. but hey, money's for suckers....well, at least that's what i'm going to write on my christmas cards this year. sorry dad, no socks for you. oh a happier note- i had a super fun weekend. the little bird craft sale was really good. lots of organic products / raw food / patchouli. i picked up something extra special to send to someone extra special in south korea. hello shipping. i will try to get some websites & links of good vendors that were there. i also did my fair share of dancing. met some really good people. took a picture with a guy with a long dangly earring. STITCH N KITSCH show coming up this saturday the 15th. i recommend it for unique, inexpensive gifts for the holidays. also- website has been updated. check it out. qatalystmedia.com (thanks alicia :)) C.

Update and Guilt Trip... perfect for a monday morning.

Hello there everyone that is avoiding doing work on a Monday morning, Hope everyone had a lovely weekend - It was busy for Qatalyst.... Saturday was a little crazy - Cassie hit up the "a little bird told me... craft show and sale" I'm sure she'll post a little recap for you soon. And I went to Luci's Mudhouse Open House... it was PACKED! Basically, if you took a wrapped bar of soap, or toothbrush to the open house, you got to paint an Ornament for FREE!!! It was too much fun, but honestly, painting this tiny little star ornament the size of my palm took about 2 and a half hours, so i can only imagine painting a bowl or a mug or something. There was snacks too.... mmmm... chocolate fountain. They collected quite a bit of stuff by the time we left, and it was all being donated to MCC - a charity that helps provide for refugees. I get my ornament back on Friday i think - so i'll post something funny when it comes back, hopefully it doesn't look like a 3 year old made it. Then, I headed to a christmas party at David Marskell's - he's the chairman of the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum. It was a really cute little get together at his place... funney enough, there was a a bunch of people watching "Planet Earth" in the family room - the episode on Jungles. I think everyone at the Museum is a little obsessed with Chimps lately - check out my post later on today about their big announcement ;) Anyways, The Marskell's were collecting Hygiene Products, Toys, Hair Thingys, and anything like that - instead of christmas gifts - because they're taking a family trip to Honduras this season - and they hand them out to all the little kiddies they meet along the way. There's so many people out there trying to make a difference... what are you doing to help someone this holiday season? If you're looking for a way to up your good karma over Christmas week - email me at hilary@qatalystmedia.com. We're putting together some teams to help at the Out of the Cold Shelters. Have a great day - check back for more posts this aft. H.

thursday is the new friday

hilary is soooo bitter right now. i was having such a pleasant afternoon, this is what it looked like: slept in went out for breakfast had coffee made for me listened to james taylor updated our website. then, like a bat out of hell (meatloaf reference, thank you) she storms in and covers my desk with a grey cloud. hahaha this is super mean. she's downstairs making me hot chocolate so i should really watch my mouth. anyways- the point i'm getting at is that the reasons she is so frustrated is because our ISP (internet service provider) is not letting her check her email. therefore, TECHNOLOGY = DEPRESSION i'm just putting it out there. beware of your laptop/ipod/digicam. they'll get you in the end. ONE MORE THING: last night i saw a few random clips from the outtakes of superbad, that movie that could quite possibly be super bad, i haven't seen it, BUT the outtakes were HILARIOUS. i will watch it and let you all know how it was. oh, hot chocolate is ready. tiny marshmallows and all. -C.

Today is the Day.....

So... it's delivery day.... it's f'ing freezing out... and there's snow everywhere... should be interesting. Check out the December issue - it's FREE and in stores today. Here's a couple drop points: UPTOWN WATERLOO - Gloss Clothing - Whole Lotta Gelata - Princess Cinema - Orange Monkey - State of the Art Supplies UNIVERSITY PLAZA - HMV - Williams - Pita Pit - The Tea Shop DOWNTOWN KTOWN - Working centre - Just Between Us - Earthwinds - Williams - Civilian Clothing GUELPH - Planet Bean - Daydream Nation - Gloss - Ground Floor Music - Art of Denim CAMBRIDGE - Caesar's Closet - Home NTT - MacAulay's Music - The Groove Kitchen - FAD Hair Salon Happy Reading, H.

still not done

i decided that my new blog thing is that i'm going to start each post with some type of tip or motivational something or other because i'm obviously the most positive person that works here. so, for today.... remember that when people are sending in late ad material its not a personal attack against you. i realize my tips may not be useful to everyone, but try to apply them in a way that fits your life. on another note- it's monday again. i can't wait to sleep in tomorrow. i hope i'm allowed. tonight i'm going to drink at least a case of beer and 3 mickeys of spiced rum just to celebrate the completion of this issue. anyone want to join? if not, thats okay. i'm used to being alone. i hope the people who read this (hilary and i, and VDK thannk you :) ) realize that i'm joking. i'm not quite that sad yet. heres a pic that will give you a preview of the next issue due out dec 4. its a test shot from the shoot with adam sachs. also, has anyone noticed that theres nothing interesting to read on the internet anymore? take this blog for example... or do i just not know where to look..?. send me some good links people. teach me something new. ok... happy trails. C.

it's that time of the month again...

So... it's Sunday nite, and we have to send files to press tomorrow afternoon. if i were to say we were ready - i'd be an even bigger over-exaggerater than usual. but it's that bad time of nite, where i can't be of much help, except for moral support and writing a headline here or there... so i've gotta be typing something so cassie doesn't feel like i'm slacking off while she is so stressed she wants to quit. But, all that aside, it's a good opportunity for me to load a couple things up here and a couple shots to our facebook ... behind the scene shots from the past 7 photoshoots mostly. check'em out there. I know you will sailboats and butterfly twinkles.... H. listening to: cassie crying, and the Garden State soundtrack.

excuse me

i didn't realize this was turning into blog wars C.

the robotic chair - my side of the story.

Ok - i may see Cassie's point about it being long, but honestly people. THE CHAIR BREAKS - AND REASSEMBLES ITSELF! That's fucking unbelievable. Go tell your grandparents that there is a chair that busts into 6 pieces and then puts itself back together without the help of a human! What do you think they'd say? So yeah, it could spead itself up a bit, and maybe hum a little tune while it's doing it's thing, but really... if you don't have A.D.D, i think you'll really like watching it. I sat there for about 30 minutes, with my mom, watching it put itself back together a couple times... it's cool. Especially the part where it uses it's legs to push itself off the ground... it's like a baby deer standing up - come on - where's your goddamn sentimentality??? Really though, machines are taking over the world, i give them 7 years. Watch out. H.

if this is the future, i am very disappointed.

The other night at the children's museum there was a showing of the robotic chair. I was pretty excited to see it. I had heard really good things, and i've had a thing for robots ever since i felt a strange bond to the heartless tin man in wizard of oz. Honestly, i found it to be the most frustrating thing i have ever seen. it's really hard to talk about it to anyone who hasn't seen it, so i'm going to attempt to post a video of it. HOWEVER. all the videos i can find of it are only 3-4 minutes long. IF in actuality the whole process from start to finish was only 3 minutes, i probably would have thought it to be pretty f'ing sweet. it was more like 15-20 minutes. i just want to point out that that was favourited 507 times on youtube. the robot was malfunctioning and could not reattach its legs. it would go to do it and then psych everyone out and not attach. it did this like 40 times. the first couple of times it was kind of cute, like, "aww look, the robotic chair is trying to be funny". there was a woman who was like the curator or somethng and by the 5th time the leg didnt attach everyone just stared at her and was like "what the F is this things problem??" me being one of them. FINALLY, what seemed like hours later, the legs attached (half the audience had left by this point). the whole thing was really anti-climatic. so, basically, here are my suggestions for the robotic chair. 1- speed up. a super sonic-robotic chair would REALLY sell tickets. 2- add some music. music makes everything better. im thinking some really techno beats, maybe some futuristic laser beam sounds. 3- practice makes perfect. this kind of goes with the first tip. but, robots are supposed to be efficient. i would never wait 20 minutes for my chair to reassemble itself. i would go sit on a regular chair. thats all for now i guess. oh, i should mention that hilary really loved the robotic chair.

hilary is out, so i can blog instead of work.

hilary is out in guelph, i just returned a couple of things to gloss that we used in our shoot last night, and now i'm here, alone, with music, avoiding the inevitable. this issue hasn't quite come together like the past few have, and I personally think it's because whenever things start going smoothly for us here at qatalyst, some type of higher power magazine god shoves a huge knarled branch into the spokes of our tandum banana seat huffy and then laughs as we try to patch the skin on our knees back together and get the gravel out of our foreheads... asshole but, as we are getting closer to deadline, i am starting to realize that this equation is arising: late editorial + artwork + a good photographer = love i have some photos to post from the fashion show the other night. they aren't very good. but, it's not like we have a resident photographer, okay? we have a 21 year old girl who works for free, and uses a digital camera that her parents probably got her for christmas 2 years ago. but thats okay. because it makes us "indie" or something like that... maybe it just makes us cheap and unprofessional, but who cares. hilary, veronica & 1, working the door. the show our newest intern, Veronica ( i want to call her ronnie so bad) erin from inception i need to write a whole new post about the robotic chair. i have some serious issues with it. i'll do that after i get some actual work done. and, just for good measure... something completely offensive: (everyone who knows me knows i love animals and i would never hurt one. i'm sure this polar bear died from natural causes.) C.

2 girls, 2 desks... no cup.

Hey there.... So, today was a little crazy for everyone here at Qatalyst. We illustrated, picked up random stuff for the fashion section, tried to find weird addresses ... we did a very cool shoot with adam sachs.... and figured out a lot of final stuff for the december issue. also - veronica gave Cassie a disc of all the inception fashion show pics... so it's up to her to post a blog with photos... you'll probably see something AFTER we go to press on Monday. AND - MOST IMPORTANTLY. I moved another desk into the design office, which i am typing at now, so we no longer share a desk! So Exciting. Qatalyst must be moving up in the world. Friday then Saturday then Sunday and then Press....

Inception Show TONITE. 7:30pm

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 20th

(Inception Clothing) + (Qatalyst Magazine) + (The Children's Museum) So - Inception is having a fashion show for their 2nd anniversary (Congrats Erin & Andre!) and it's on Tuesday.... at the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum. It's gonna be amazing. why? - their clothing is fabulous. - the museum is unbelievably cool - and not just for kids, do not be fooled by the name. - we'll be there. - there will be delicious food and drink. - it's 25% off Inception Clothing AND there's a showing of the Robotic Chair at 9pm sharp. Please - how can you resist. The Show is free - but bring a donation for the Museum.... See you there? 7ish? H.

WFAC

So it was the 7th annual Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema - or WFAC this weekend. I'm not sure how the whole festival went overall - but i know some qatalyst staff saw The Pixar Story on Thursday nite... and said it was amazing... the underdog succeeding... all that good stuff for us crazy people trying to make a living fighting the corporate giants... and I saw RH+ the vampires of seville - it was an animated film from Spain - rated PG, so definitely not as intense as i had hoped for... but still very cool. It's nice to go to see a movie and not know what the hell is gonna happen in it, cuz you haven't been exposed to any of the hype. If you didn't catch the festival this year - i'd definitely recommend marking it in your calendar/cellphone/outlook/blackberry for next year. What else? Caught the On the Catwalk Fashion show for the Humane Society on Thursday nite... it was at the St.George Hall in St.Jacobs. Man, who knew that place was out there? It's a pretty amazing place for an event... especially considering it used to be a barn or something. Veronica - our brand new intern, sweet i know - was at wintersleep and the sourkeys on Wednesday at Starlight... i met with her the next morning and she was done for... so i'm guessing it was a pretty good show. lol. Have an event you want me to list...review... send someone out to or just want me to list? you can send it to me at hilary@qatalystmedia.com. Back to sending emails... H. listening to: Cat Stevens. Fuck yeah.

Tapas = heaven

Man, Who has been to Hannah's in Waterloo on a Wednesday nite? It's pretty much the best buzz ever... Tapas... $4 import pints... good vibes all around. It's Wednesday. We should go. (a word of warning though - watch out when you click on the link above, it definitely sounds like a porn site) H.

Something cool....

Hey - You should check out this magazine called Orange Life. It's wicked. and Independent = even more wicked. www.orangelifemagazine.com Enjoy. H. Listening to: Radiohead... and the furnace making some creepy noises.

tic toc tic toc

So.... it's the 6th of the month, and it's right around the time that i start to freak out every f'ing month. It's the point where i'm pretty sure that a lot of mags have been picked up from their locations around the region, but i haven't really heard much feedback from anyone yet... good or bad. so i start to totally freak out... and then continue to be paranoid for about a week... and then i'll get some random emails... and then everything goes back to normal. hahaha. Many thanks to those who have sent through their comments already - they are much appreciated! But... this week isn't all bad - it's also the week that i start pitching new customers ad ideas. which is always interesting. We also have editorial meetings, start talking to contributors about our theme... which is "THE FUTURE" by the way... how ominous. lol. Anyways, lots of cool stuff coming up for December... one of which will hopefully be an interview with a full-on psychic! anyone know anyone good in that line of work? H.

November is OUT

So go pick it up. It's pretty crazy... The Abstract Issue. I'll post some photos of the insides soon... and a couple behind the scenes from the photoshoot. special thanks to Heather Frtiz at Boulevard Photography www.boulevardphotography.com Post your thoughts... i'm sooo curious what you think of the 6th issue~! Q. listening to: Radiohead - in rainbows

new intern

Yael started today - she's our new artsy high school intern. she is fabulous. already, she is doing most of my work for me... soon i will be retired. meet me at the country club for cocktails at Noon. New issue out tomorrow. PICK IT UP. Q. listening to: The Doves

Page 4

Alright, the November issue is officially done. We've sent revised pages and now are going to sleep for about 3 days straight. we only had to revise page 4 about 12 times. goodnite world. Q. listening to: the leafblowers making too much noise outside.

the last thing i should be doing

right now is writing our first blog entry... we are on deadline. but i think cassie's pretty much got things under control. (pan over to C typing frantically and squinting at her computer screen). the november issue goes to press later today... and is available on november 1st in most locations. some might say it's the best issue yet - well, dylan groves will... but he says that everytime. Q. listening to: wintersleep