June 26, 2013

What in the... Wednesday.

Here's some things I'm shaking my head at...

Grocery shopping:  I spent so much time pining away for cool grocery stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods over the last couple of years.
This is my current Trader Joe's situation.
I am the red star. 

Blog shilling: situation in which you use your blog as a platform to shill products you don't care about because someone will send you a free sample if you do.  And/or recommending a product you don't know much about.  Or a product no one really cares about.

If you post in this way, I usually don't read them.  If someone asks me to shill a product (I love that word), I don't do it anymore unless there's specifically something in it for me. I know that sounds bad, but think about it: I'm not going to wax poetic about your product if you're not willing to exchange goods/services.  

A perfect example was Firmoo.  They wanted me to give away a pair of sunglasses.  They wouldn't send me a pair to review because I didn't have enough followers. But they wanted me to recommend them, talk about how great they were, post all kinds of links tracking back to their website...but I wasn't allowed to try them. Why would I recommend something I've never tried? That'd be like saying, "Go to this restaurant because it's the best ever!" when I'd never been there myself.  

I would think that anyone who takes the time to read this blog would deserve and expect better from me.

Weather:  You've all heard, I'm sure, about Alaska's recent heat wave.  The news has not stopped talking about the fact that people in Alaska can wear bathings suits now for, potentially, the first time ever.  (So untrue, actually, because Alaskans go on more tropical vacations than anyone else I've ever known.)
However, I've been getting a lot of, "Wish you were here to enjoy this, Kristin!" in regards to the warm weather there.

.....to where exactly do these people think I've moved?

Notice the cool-down on Sunday :(

A lady was staring, with great fascination, at my Alaska license plate when I came out of Target yesterday.  She said she was looking for where in Alaska it was from.  I said, "Anchorage", she just looked at me, and then I said, "Oh, it's mine".   It took her a minute to realize that I was the Alaskan car's owner...not some person stopping to examine a random car.  Like her.  

I'm drinking the Robin Thicke Kool-Aid.  This might be the catchiest song I've ever heard.  Oh well.   

Oh, and my brothers are turning 24 today.  That's older than I was when I got married, which now means that I'm *officially*-officially old.  

27 comments:

  1. OMG I thought I was the ONLY one that firmoo kept asking to do a giveaway on! And did you see the fine print? The giveaway had to have a certain amount of entries for it to be valid... just like that OASAP one I did! I think all the bloggers are starting to be smart. I haven't seen one firmoo giveaway at all. There is nothing in it for us!

    That song is catchy as hell!! I love it so much and my kids dance to it like crazy!

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  2. Holy Firmoo giveaways! I know what you mean, I've stopped reading the emails, but if they did offer me some to try I might consider it, but I 100% side with not reviewing something you can't even try! Happy Birthday to your brothers!

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  3. I have the same Trader Joe's situation - I am 2-3 hours away. I always stock up when I go.

    I am also on that Robin Thicke Kool-Aid - Blurred Lines is my summer jam!

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  4. Can we make a group of bloggers against Firmoo? I feel the same way! I would never promote a product unless I had tried it before!

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  5. I agree with you about blog shilling. I honestly wouldn't giveaway or recommend something to my readers if I hadn't tried it first!

    Also, I rather enjoyed the story of the random woman checking out your license plate. I would expect that behavior at WalMart, but not Target! lol

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  6. Stopping by the Walkabout Wednesday. I had no idea companies actually asked you to do that. They are dumb! Makes me not want to even shop there!

    And awesome about license plate stalker! I would have asked her to go ahead a take a picture if it's that amazing!

    Happy Wednesday

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  7. I think the Trader Joe's situation is hilarious! Hopefully they build one by you soon! We have two Trader Joe's within 4 miles or so, and I practically live there. (I got cookie butter again yesterday!)

    Hope you're enjoying the heat!

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  8. Hi there! New follower from Walkabout Wednesday :)

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  9. So Firmoo sent me a pair for free and I have way less followers than you. Weird. Everytime I go into Trader Joe's I leave with $50 worth of snacks. (although I do really like the vegan mayo...)

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  10. Man, although I do like Robin Thicke, I'm just not so into that Blurred Lines song. Might have to give it ANOTHER listen ;-)

    Funny about the license plate... Maybe she was looking for a county sticker? Kansas license plates have county stickers on them (MN doesn't, does AK?)

    Oh, and I hear ya on the blog shilling. Not my thang either :-)

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  11. Firmoo giveaways got out of hand, I stopped reading those posts.

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  12. I think Firmoo has gotten a little out of hand. I really like their glasses and they used to do a great job with their sponsorship program and giveaways and such, but asking people to review things they've never used doesn't even make sense. They're not an American company, I wonder if it's just different cultures.

    I had to laugh when you said your brothers are turning 24. My "little" sister turns 28 this fall. SHE IS ALMOST THIRTY.

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  13. I get really annoyed when people are constantly hosting giveaways and just post product reviews, for me that's not what blogging is about.

    That's so sad that TJ's is so far away!

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  14. I hate it when companies do that shit. And how many followers do they want you to have cause it's not like you're in the low 100's or something.

    Omg, Blurred Lines. Ive had to ban myself from watching or listening to that song because in the last month I'd play it every freakin' hour. Its so damn catchy!

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  15. I so agree on the shilling. Why would you give away something you've never tried? What if you hate it? But I suppose that's not allowed. :)

    Congrats on winning my giveaway. I'm going to start putting it together today.

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  16. Just so I'm clear your TJ's dilemma is WHICH one to go to? I agree about the shilling (fun word). Firmoo keeps sending me e-mails about doing a giveaway with them. Granted I was sent a pair and reviewed them months ago, they're ok, if you need glasses. For someone who would just want sunglasses (me) it wasn't a great fit. I've had to tell them 3x now that I'm not interested in the giveaway. That's not cool.

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  17. I like getting free stuff for my blog... but I don't peddle stuff I haven't tried out yet!

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  18. Damn that Robin Thicke song... Over and over I listen to it... Can't help myself...

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  19. That Trader Joes situation is rough! It's almost as bad as only having Food Lion or Piggley Wiggley when I lived in NC. And why do they need more than one it those other towns? Spread the love! Geez, lol.
    I didn't know it was called Shilling till I read this. It's ridiculous that they would expect you to write about it without trying it out.

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  20. My two cents: not only should they have sent you glasses, they should have paid you too. I won't do free reviews anymore - we deserve to be paid for our work!!

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  21. i agree that if you haven't tried a product out, it's hard to get a real review of it!

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  22. My little sister is now a few months older than I was when I got married...and she's living in Israel. It's definitely weird when your younger siblings start doing grown up things. It's even weirder than Angel's (6 years younger than Angel) little brother and his wife are having a baby.

    On blog shilling: Amen! Of course, I'll shill for Shabby Apple and eShakti all I want because I was buying Shabby Apple dresses before I even started blogging. And so far I've accumulated 3 free eShakti dresses...plus I love wearing unusual dresses that have sleeves. It's a good fit for me. I think reviews can be done well, and when you do really, really like a product, it's worth it. But I've gotten proposals from companies to review or promote their dog food. I don't even like dogs.

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  23. Have you ever gotten requests from people to write a blog post for you, but who don't have a blog of their own? I got two of those recently and thought it was so odd. The only other product review I did was for Shabby apple and I got my free dress (awesome) and then they followed up offering a $50 gift card for my readers (giveaway coming soon). I agree that just random product placement is bad!

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  24. Yea, I got free glasses to do a review but chose not to do the giveaway with Firmoo. ANd since they were free, I didn't really take care of them and promptly lost them. Ooops.

    And Blurred Lines is my JAM! I put it on our must play list for our wedding DJ and during our final consult he was like OOOO Awesome song!

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  25. A lady stopped me the other day as I was standing outside our truck that still sports Alaska tags and said, "Y'all from Alaska?" "We were stationed there once upon a time" I said. She replied, "Oh yeah? Well, if you head back up there, take him with ya (pointing at her husband). I want to be as far away from him as possible."
    So that was something new.

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  26. Maybe I'm dense, but why was someone wondering where in Alaska it was from?

    I love Blurred Lines! It just makes me want to get up and dance. When it comes on in the car, I turn the radio up and start bouncing all over the place.

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  27. I have the same issue with Whole Foods! Technically there are two out here, and it is a relatively small island. But, both require me to drive all the way through Honolulu. The city with the worst traffic in the entire United States. Ugh. Commissary will have to do. I think I've made it out to Whole Foods twice in 3 years. I hope TJs and WF are closer in Colorado.

    Firmoo totally did something similar to me. They wanted me to write, multiple posts about them, their company, how awesome they were for literally Ethiopian minimum wage. Umm, no thanks. I have no problem writing about companies I love, and if they want to pay me to do it, that's even more awesome. But, me do tons of work for a company I know nothing about, and get nothing out of it? Yeah no thanks. I would much rather write about my dogs. lol

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