Last weekend, my human flew to New York to attend the BlogHer Conference. I’m not sure why she went — she did not seem to enjoy herself that much. She didn’t feel like she had that much in common with the bloggers there. After all, how many of them are assistants to cat bloggers? At least she got to meet Scrubby Ruettimann’s human and say hello to Skeezix’s Food Lady. One of the big things about these conferences, besides the networking (which my human didn’t do much of) is supposedly the “swag” — stuff that sponsors give the attendees in hopes that they will promote them. Most of the BlogHer swag was geared towards housewives and mommy blogger types. My human is neither of those so she didn’t keep much, but she brought home a few things she thought we cats might enjoy. Ha.
For some bizarre reason, my human believes that since we cats have the intelligence of young children (which is weird, because that means that young children are smarter than adult humans), that we will enjoy their toys. Mostly we don’t get them. Like these, uh, “Weeble” things.
What are they supposed to do anyway? They’re heavy and just sort of sit there. They are pretty useless. My human wound up tossing them in the trash.
Then there was this Play-Doh package. It came with all these attachments and containers of soft stuff that did not smell like it was edible — or if it were edible, it probably didn’t taste very good. What was I supposed to do with that?
Then there was this cat-like thing called a “Petz.” I have no idea what that was meant to do, and I did not like the fact that it was wearing a cowboy hat. I don’t want my human getting any more hat ideas. She tried to show me how much fun it was by putting it on some Play-Doh. I’m glad one of us was entertained.
So in my estimation, not just my human’s, BlogHer was a bust. I think there needs to be a conference called CatHer. My human would have more fun networking, and I would get lots better swag.
See all of Summer’s merch at her Designercat Shop, available on Zazzle.
I wondered about that with Blogher. I don’t feel like I’m in that category of “mommy” blogger or stay-at-home blogger because I am neither. Okay, so I write about my kids every so often, but I feel like I write about other stuff more. I’m kinda glad I didn’t go. Although I wouldn’t mind sitting down with some playdoh. I always liked playing with that stuff. 🙂
Sparkle – I agree that a CatHer would be a blast and very much more educational for the Hers. Fun people, too. OK, my staff says she will mark it on her calendar and has a whole year to save up for it. What a great idea! I vote you for the spokesperson. Oh boy! I can’t wait for that bag of goodies.
I don’t think my mum would have like BlogHer either, even though she is her own blogger besides my assistant.
We’ve never heard of BlogHer – but TOTALLY agree there should be CatHer!! We would totally send our Mom there & we bet if all the kitty blogger’s assistants went they’d have a great time – swag or not!
We agree about the weirdo toys, though. Our Mom says those remind her of her childhood (you know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth… hehe!!)
Have a great day!
~Nico, Simon & JayJay 🙂
I will have to check out this BlogPaws deal. Sounds like a lot more fun.
Your mom brought home the super huge weebles. They might be fun to push off tables and things. The cats here love to push things off tables. (Graceful, not.)
Smaller weebles are great kitty toys. They don’t break, they don’t have fur to tear off (ok, maybe that is more of a plus for humans,) they don’t make scary sounds.
Your mom can make paw casts of you in playdough. Then she could have more reminders of you around the house.
It is a good thing your human did not decide to take you along, Sparkle! from what I hear there was humans running willy nilly, they could of stepped on a pretty kitty like you and maybe even (gasp) smooshed your beeyoutooful tail! maybe the next one will have bags of catnip and liver treats! play doughs? I think your human must a got smooshed by them willy nilly others.
I think CatHer would be a great success. You should tell your human to try to start it herself.
A cather conference would be lots of fun.
We agree there should be a CatHer conference instead of one like your human just went to. It was nice that she tried to find toys for you but I’m sure you are all just glad she’s home again!
Blogher is sure not getting very good press but lots of bloggers are getting a lot of mileage out of the very lame swag that was given out!
We hope she gets better swag for you next time, sweetie; btw we agree, we are sooo much smarter than kids :)…kisses…Calle, Halle, Sukki
Well, maybe on a smooth hard floor the weebles would have slid around if you batted them, but the rest we don’t understand (though our mom thought it looked fun for her to play with). We didn’t know too much about BlogHer except that we see the ads – it does seem like a mom kind of thing (not that we don’t like moms – we love them). We think BlogPaws is probably the pet equivilent, but we like Fuzzy Tails idea of a conference for those of us who blog just for the fun of blogging!
Sparkle – Like your human says, cats are SO MUCH more smarter than babies! Cats don’t poop themselves, drool, or choke on random plastic objects.
Actually Micky loves to play with Weebles. They remind him of the good old days. It’s funny what ppl give cats to play with. Jake’s old parents used to give him Hershey kisses to play with. Isn’t that dangerous? But if Jake saw that silver foil he’d get all excited and toss them around! Micky loves to play with plastic eggs. He had a plastic yellow egg at his old house that had a face on it. Mommy thinks it was actually an easter egg but a Weeble would work for him too! I think she’s gonna look for one for him now.
Purrs,
Fionna
Looks like your human had more fun playing with the toys than you did. Tip: when inheriting toys you do not desire, drop them off at a Salvation Army bin or store. They may bring great joy to a needy little kid. 😀
I’m sure if I had attended BlogHer, it would have been more fun. 😉 Maybe next year. 😀 I’m a pretty fun gal, and I’m not exactly a Housewife nor Mommy Blogger. I’m not a cat blogger, tho, so…
One of our owners is a child she would like that! (She said”expesally the playdough”) she thinks the cowboy cat looks more like cowboy lion cub to her tho. And the webles are fun to play if you are bord. Oh, Sparkle, this is how you play thos my little owner taught me but I never did try it, so you knock them over and they move and stand up again it never really falls. And she LOVES Playdough it works like clay but it never gets dry and when it does you add water to made it pliable again. We guess the “cowboy lion cub” came with it to stick to the playdough and help the creativity along.(my little owner don’t really like thos either and plus,she is already creative anough!) P.S. I’s a good thig that she under stands cats and ink don’t mix because you should of seen the todler house’s cat down the street!( We think you know what that means! ART CAT!!!!)
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down. What fun is that?!
We’re sorry your Mom didn’t have much fun and that the swag wasn’t good. We think BlogPaws will be pawsome. Mom hopes they have one closer to home that she can go to.
Thanks for purring for Sniffie.
Sniffie and the Florida Furkids
That is too bad, it could have been really fun if done right!
Those supposedly toys do look like a bust. That is too bad the Mom went all that way and didn’t have a good time. Glad you didn’t try to eat the Play dough. Might not agree with your stomach so very much.
Have a great day.
We agree, A CatHer conference would be TOTALLY an improvement. You got bad swag.
I agree a CatHer conference sounds much more fun! Too bad your human did not have a very good time. At least she was thinking of you while she was there. Sad you don’t like anything she brought back for you.
Looks like BlogHer wasn’t much fun…we hope she has more fun at BlogPaws!!
The conference made the news up here in Ontario and our human wondered how it would be, figured it was geared more toward moms of humans/stay-at-home wives. The person the reporter was talking with was mentioning the huge marketing potential via these blogs.
We think it would be more fun to have a conference for animal-lover bloggers who do it just for fun!
BTW, our human loves the smell of Play-Doh. At least she did before she lost her sense of smell. LOL!
Fuzzy Tales! There IS a pet blogging conference! It’s called BlogPaws and I am one of the founders. The event is September 9-11, 2010 in Denver, Co. You can learn more here: http://www.blogpaws.com.
Sparkle’s mom is coming!