Scriffles: How easily perceptions change.

Took my dog Meg out to get a new collar with glow-in-the-dark spikes yesterday.
Her first public appearance since she went blind in one eye.
Used to be, everywhere we'd go passers-by involuntarily would exclaim: "Oh she's so cute!"
Yesterday it was: "Oh she's blind."

Scriffles: Luck's just around the corner.

I left home to do grocery shopping thinking: "I have nothing to more to write. Ever. I have nothing to say. I will blog no more. I will not take my camera. I will not take my Flip. There's nothing out there for me any more."

I hop in the car and weave my way through my little crossroads puzzle to the main road where a certain "tolerance" factor is introduced. 
Game on. 
Suddenly everything is interesting once more.
Some white-haired geezer glares at me as I pull in behind him - my blood starts to boil.
"Watch yo'all lookin' at? Are you lookin' at me?"
I keep my distance giving him no excuses.

</object> </object>

Don't worry no one got hurt. 
Astounding how intense people are on the road - death stares in rear vision mirrors "just because".
I tell you it's a powder keg when combined with PMT.

I can hear these words falling out of the mouth of a defence lawyer in a courtroom now: "What did she say?"
" 'Just because', Your Honour...."
"Just because" is the equal and opposite force to "Whatever"!

You might not think of a parking lot as a haven but it is for me 'cause the Parking Fairy is my friend.
I found a park beside a post right at the entrance to the ramp that goes up to Coles!
I have the knack, I am charmed when it comes to parking. Luck.

Guys don't get PMT but some of them are in a constant state of PMT I think.
Like the guy on the weekend who happened to glance round just at the moment that I got too frustrated with his girlfriend standing with the door open so I couldn't pull into the empty car park space beside them.
So I threw my hands up in the air in frustration.
He wasn't supposed to see. He was facing the other way.
The cars behind me start beeping because I'm holding up traffic and this loser wags his finger at me!
He's ready to get out of the car and tell me off except his girlfriend is trying to understand why he's all upset and is trying to calm him down.
Finally she gets into the car and closes the door and I'm scared to pull into the car park for fear of retribution but I've got to get out of the way.
So I decide to pull in and I wind the window down.
"What's the matter?" she says.
"I don't know your boyfriend's a nut case," I reply. "I didn't do anything."

You know those nights when you lie awake terrified that nothing will ever be right again - the long, dark night of the soul or something like that.
Well, stretch that out over a period of a few days and call it PMT.
It feels like nothing is right or will ever right again.
"Just because" - is the overriding force that takes over if you're not talking yourself down at these times with soothing thoughts like:
"Give it a day before you react. No, it's not a good idea to eat the guy in the car in front."

On my way to Coles I saw a beautiful African girl dressed to the 9s in her school uniform.
Luck comes before everything in the game of life.
This country gives her the opportunity to live peacefully and prosper.
That's lucky isn't it?
She has the perspective of two cultures - that's lucky too.

Thinking lucky is something parents can pass on to their children.

And maybe some people are born with it.
If it doesn't come naturally then it may take years to develop - if you're lucky.

One thing's for sure it's damn near impossible if you never hear a voice raised in your defence.

My theory is that everyone needs just one person to tell them that they are worthy, they are talented, they are beautiful, they are lucky...

If just one person truly believes in you - a teacher, your grandma, your friend, your husband - you start to believe too because everyone really wants to believe they're OK.

Everyone needs someone to believe in them - especially at that crucial point when you think there's no hope.
I read a tweet the other day: A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and sings it back to you when you can't remember it."

Luck comes in many shapes and sizes.
He's just around the corner. 
She's sitting beside you.
He's smiling.
She's in your heart.
You are someone's Luck.

Design should be a compulsory subject. (Scriff-File 238)

I've gained a new appreciation of the importance and difficulty of design as I've wrestled with digital design problems over the past few years.
These days I marvel at the little flatpack I can assemble into a cute little filing cabinet.
I look at the manholes in the busways and think "Wow, someone had to think of how maintenance would be done in the bus tunnel."
I look at a html page and think "Wow!"
"WOW!"
I see the structure, I pick up some phrases, I so want to read the document but the next thought is "No!"
It's a problem for me.
One of my major goals is to learn how to make a WordPress blog myself.
I keep making bookmarks and putting it off. I've been putting it off for three months now.

It took me months to master the simplest html - it was like learning shorthand all over again.
It took years to learn Flash, mainly because I didn't have access to the program - and then I was confronted with Design!
I've learned to make do.
I do what I can, accept any advice that might be forthcoming but given my shortcomings and the constraints of time - if it works I'm happy.
I know "It's just like that record player."
It plays records, CDs and FM radio and you can make MP3s off records.
But the layout of function buttons is quirky and it takes long way round.
The Power Button is where I expect the eject button to be.
Push "Power on" and it defaults to the CD player.
The CD player has to initialize before the function button works to flip to the record player or radio.
The CD eject button is up one from the other CD buttons.
What the heck was the designer thinking?
All the toil!
Am I mad? I'm grasping for things far beyond my reach.
Can I do better?

I'm going to a master class by tomorrow by Information Architects Tokyo CEO Oliver Reichenstein who has a pretty impressive CV.
It's a X Media Lab workshop on News and the Spectrum of User Experience - he's also speaking at the XML Media Update for 2010.

The reason this former newspaper journalist started thinking digital is because she heard Richard Titus, the co-founder of Schematic speak at the Screen Producers of Australia Association's conference in 2004-2005.

Titus, formerly the BBC's Controller of Future Media and the Controller of User Experience and Design is now the CEO of Associated Northcliffe Digital.
I'm really looking forward to hearing what he has to say this time.

When I first heard him speak future trends (TiVo) and long tails (Amazon), I didn't know what a content management system was and I had no desire at all to learn programming - I was interested in writing.

I taught myself Photoshop in between migrating a ton of content under tight nightly deadlines.
I took leave to attend Flash courses which I paid for.
I listened to Australian business people producing mobi-sodes and webi-sodes talk at AFTRS and SPAA Fringe.
I continue to learn and at the same time I'm trying to figure out writing I'm trying to figure out design.
So I'm baulking at programming.
It's so unforgiving. One little " out of place and KAPUT.

This is so not right in my way of thinking.
But then is this the kind of thinking that leads to doom?
I'm thinking of the former general manager of Chile's Mint who lost his job after the Mint issued thousands of 50 peso coins with the name of the country spelt: C-H-I-I-E instead of CHILE.

Blind dogs stay home. They don't read copy.

Ever seen a blind stray?

No. 
They stay home in familiar surroundings to avoid turning a corner and being hit by a bus - no nasty surprises.
I feel like a blind stray sometimes - wandering through job adverts that ask for "miracle superhuman knowledge and skill sets" - management experience, coding experience, design experience, social media experience and "impeccable" communications skills (that's one job!).
Freelancing would be easier - don't you think?
HellO! Do these people you seek exist?

Doing a lot of assessing between working casually and investigating options like blogging, freelancing and rewriting my book - again!
That always takes me a while to work up to.

A few weeks ago, I responded to an ad in a shop window asking for someone to work in the shop - they sell photographic canvasses.
I rang the number. The woman's response to my croaky voice (I was quite sick at the time) goes something like this: 
"We are looking for someone bright and bubbly who can work in the shop, take studio photos, airbrush glam photos, photo stitch to customers needs, and bring in trade work from the interior design industry."

Quite took the wind out of me because I kept seeing that tacky little hand-written, faxed note in the shop window, in the shop with all the tacky art.
"Does that sound like you?" she intones.
I croak: "I'm actually looking for something somewhat less intense."
I don't think Miley is available either.

I know I'm not the only person trying to navigate this wonderful digital revolution that makes retailing such a nightmare!
There are parents trying to find their way around so they can guide their children into an uncertain future.

Teachers literally being assaulted from all directions: new curriculums, new technology, kids with knives.

What the heck?

^^^^
* *
* • • *
* ^ *
)≥(

I've been evaluating all the supposed positivity and "self-help" hype on Twitter, in blogs and books. 
I've listened to podcasts about blogging and inbound marketing and maximising SEO and how to "make it" in the digital space.
It's all a bit overwhelming - like the first day at a new school.

I'm wearing the same skin today as I wore on my first day of school when I sat at a desk listening to the teacher speak English unable to understand a word - just like a blind dog stumbling down the road.
I spoke only Russian until I was five, even though I was born here in Brisbane.
Have you had an experience like this? 

I think it enables you to tolerate change and uncertainty for longer than most people.
It also enables you to learn a new language as fast as practicable.
But you need good information to go on to succeed and learn how to make decisions that lead you where you want to go.
It's constant trial and error.
This doesn't appear in your CV - it may appear as stubbornness though.

People who aren't afraid to fail learn technology faster - they jump in with both feet, click all the buttons until they find a pattern and they learn how it works.
What's the worst that can happen? You stuff it up and start again - just don't use html! You think YOU are going to break the computer? There's an induction right?
You might break the Tamagochi. Thank goodness I didn't! Despite my niece's skepticism.
Sometimes it's not the fear of failure but the lack of faith that breaks you.
I can see lack of faith.

There's another favourite saying: "Do or do not. There is no try."
I fear that we are creating a fairly frightening scenario for mere mortals - we are not Jedi.
Well, except you of course!

I only did one psychology subject at uni: Psychology 101 where I learned the theory of two kinds of people risk takers and risk avoiders.
This experiment identified this dichotomy by dividing people into those who use the footpath and those who cross the grass.
What do you think "blind dogs" who need paths feel when someone tells them: Fail fast?

There is no success without risk - doomed is everyone who takes the way of "the path".
We're all wearing the same skin we wore when we were born - all pre-programmed.

Wouldn't it be great if you could edit video, photos, text and audio in the one program?
Programs usually have strengths.
Photoshop to edit a photo and something like Word to edit a document?
Don't you like to play to your strengths? 

If we are going to talk about taking risks then organizations need to take as many risks as individuals and create new paths because most people need a path - come to think of it even Jedi follow a path.
Are we going to abandon all paths? I think not.

You know I've decided that there are actually four kinds of people: risk takers, risk avoiders, those who are pushed, and those who decide when to change and when to take a risk.
Which brings me to my point: the greatest need now is to be well informed.

People go on about how the internet grants individuals unparalleled opportunity and power to reach their greatest potential without the help of a path or an organization - free agents!

This thought is like extinguishing the "eternal light with which childhood fills the world", like telling 8-year-old Virginia to go buy her own Christmas present because there is no damn Santa Claus - to all the people who never want to run their own business.

AND, after trawling for months I've discovered something really important. 
There is a well-worn path that bloggers and Twitterers and social media folk follow - they are publishing respectable books on the subject of these paths.
Conferences are devoted to sharing these paths and figuring out new ones.
So don't let them pull the wool over your eyes.

Here's the beware: there's copy and then there's copy.
Until now I never thought much about "copywriting" - that's what they call advertising scripts.
It's what they call the content of blogs.
It's also the term used in journalism - why don't we have different words?
Do other languages have different words to differentiate between advertising copy and editorial copy?

So disappointing. I thought all of this copywriting stuff was exciting until I started to hear the same line regurgitated over and over again in different blogs.
It's like someone starts singing..."Row, row, row your boat...
And off they go, round after round.... like the murder of crows outside my window in the morning.

This digital world is not so very different from "traditional media" - they're struggling to fill space, lots and lots of space.
They're all feeding off each other just like newspapers feed off TV and TV sponges off everyone - the internet is even worse than TV!
The same bloggers who blurt about "authenticity" and "success" and "fail fast" are actually marketing personal brands, personal empires.
It should be compulsory to declare affiliate deals - off-line there's a law against Collusion.

As a journalist I tried to be "authentic". 
Tell it how you see it. 
Collect the facts. 
Communicate as impartially and simply as possible. 

You need to appreciate the difference between copywriting and journalism - don't you think?
That line is blurring faster in the digital space than in newspapers I think.
You need to be able to identify copy from copy.
It's crucial - as crucial as understanding that when you hit that "update" or "send" button you are PUBLISHING to the web.

Otherwise you might as well be waiting for the Cat Bus, a fantasy character out of my favourite animation Totoro:
It's about two little girls coping with change and uncertainty who meet a tree spirit.

</object> </object>
Now clear off because I'm waiting for the Cat Bus, he takes you where ever you need to be. Listen to the music and you may understand: 
</object> </object>

Glasses allow you to read the fine print but aren't much good for reading people.

My eyes deteriorated in the past year to the point that I must wear glasses to read.
These days if I want to do simple things like read the labels on the backs of bottles in a store or read a menu I'm in quite a pickle without glasses.
Really in a pickle if the store assistant doesn't feel like reading the ingredients written in 1pt out - probably illiterate, maybe needs glasses too.
As for menus, I have to hold them at arm's length to read them - if the print is big enough.
Really makes me wonder how children with glasses learn anything in school at all!
Makes me wonder how nerds, you know all the smart guys and girls are supposed to wear glasses, I find it hard to believe now.
How do they concentrate?
Without glasses my temper reaches boiling point within a few minutes of sitting down at a computer.
Am I to spend the rest of my life looking for my glasses so I can sit down at the computer and work?
Go on say it. You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

But what about things you never have?
I recently set eyes upon a grumpy old so-and-so who wrote me off years ago without so much as a second glance.
Never had a chance to discover a reason - what had I ever done to a person I had never even met?

To be really honest I think this guy is really up himself. I believe he thinks that the world has never paid enough mind and respect for his talent and mere presence.
Well, I'm sure he's a great husband and father. I've seen it before.
Just because people treat you like crap doesn't mean that they treat other people that way - it's just that you aren't "one of them".

I was young when I encountered him and I did not really understand basics of human nature.
I bounced up to him like a big old dog and introduced myself because I knew who he was and I wanted to talk to him.
He looked down his rather long nose and glared through crossed brows: "Who do you think you are?"

I don't know why but you know I can still feel the way my heart sank.
Those were his first and almost last words to me.
I never approached him again. And he still has the same air today.

Considering I was a journalist who was ready and willing to write about people like him it was not a great move - but then he probably thought he was in with the in "right" people who weren't ever interested in writing about him.
I never earned his respect.
He has always worn glasses.
Maybe he lives life at boiling point.
But I've seen him laugh - so I think it's something to more to do with a matter of judgement.
This event is a reference point in my view of life - he is an example of the kind of person I've never wanted to become.

People think of themselves as understanding and fair-minded human beings because they are generous to others - I've always judged people on the way they behave towards people who aren't "one of their own".
That's too easy. But then for some people, even that is too hard.

Easter chickens speak to the universe but it's all clucking to me.

I have the most bizarre experiences of coincidence.
I'll be driving along listening to the radio thinking thoughts and it happens.
An unspoken word from a sentence (TV: sentence) in my head is spoken over the radio.
Right. Sure. I'll bet you're dubious.
But the words are not ubiquitous they are words like silver or blocked.
Last week it happened three times. Tonight it's happened three times.
I downloaded this image of chicken buttons and fabric.
The TV blurted the word chicken at the very moment - the very same moment.
Now ... there it goes again ... I wrote the word "now" and the TV blurted "now"!
I'm sure it's happening to others because its such a common device in the movies - coincidence.
Perhaps this is the opposite of confabulation.
"It's the universe speaking" ... as one of Jim Carrey's crazy movie characters would blurt.
Perhaps you are better at confabulating plausible responses which you actually believe.
Currently, I'm ignoring it. Cluck-coo!

We will look back on the 20th century as the Dark Age. That means we've entered a Medieval Period.

They burned fossil fuel in the 20th century and blew a hole in the ozone layer - that's what they're gonna say about us in 3000.

Humans are so cocky - do you think that's gonna change by 3000? I'm being cocky writing this. Do you think we'll still be here in 3000?

I've been watching a few episodes of V - Jeez!
I'm insulted watching that trash - imagine how the aliens must feel watching that stuff!
No wonder ET's not interested in making contact. Why would aliens come to us as people? Why not as butterflies? We'd make them locusts. They might choose to join the dolphins. Why not?

Do you really think that a stupid iPhone or whatever the latest gadget is - iPad da-da-da - makes us so up with the times, so modern.
Gutenberg probably thought that. I don't think he even got the profits of his movable type.

So at least Apple has one up on Gutenberg - it's making a profit.

If you put yourself in the shoes of someone living in 3000, or even in 2050, or even 2030, then looking backwards at 2010 all of this is laughable - isn't it?
Keep buying stuff. Like that's going to make it all better.
DOOMED! We're all doomed. That's the thought that goes through my head when I take the plastic wrap off the plastic covered Easter egg.
Yeah it did taste good but did I need it? I ate it yes. Would have been wasteful to throw it out! ;)

Is social media good? Will newspapers survive? Doo..doo..doo.... Do you buy a first generation iPad or wait for better Wi-Fi? Do you convert existing content or purpose-build iPad content from scratch? Good questions.
But they won't define us as a race in the end. What will is culture: philosophy, literature, arts, architecture ... what will remain of this Medieval Period?
What's your perspective?

The iPad will be in a museum. Will Apple or Microsoft or Facebook or Google or Twitter still be around in 3000?
Exciting isn't it? I think so. I want a macro-telescope to zoom in for fine work close up and detail in the distance - on our timeline.
Anyone got any ideas on that one?

The flourishing of Athens happened after the human race got agriculture down pat and started to diversify into the arts: pottery, painting, thinking, writing ...

We ain't there yet kids. No where near there yet.

The new CULTURE is just a sparkle in the eyes of children - and the unborn.
The thing that we're involved in here is the formation of an economy - the digital economy.

Culture is not only unproduced it's not even imagined yet - we don't have the technology, we don't have the economy.

Which is why I like to spend a little bit of time passing on the things I learn (video editing, audio editing, music composition, writing) to my nephews and nieces.

I'm fueling the fire - it's all I can do.

Spent some time teaching Alex and Emma how to use the Soundtrack program - making music using loops.
You think kids today can't focus? Think again. HOURS of focus.

Here's the results:

My Samsung e3310 phone post is the most popular post on my blog. By God this phone's become a headache.

1 was so chuffed with this $150 pre-paid phone that I posted this photo when I bought it almost six months ago. 
Perhaps it's nothing but the smug trainees and salesperson who served me today that have me set against it now.
I think people should know that the support for this phone is totally unreliable - and perhaps this phone is not reliable.
It's broke and not six months old. It went flat a month ago and I couldn't charge it up. 
I took it in to Optus. They sent it away (for 3 weeks).
What really got me wild is I got a call from a chirpy girl from Samsung asking me if I got my phone back.
Unlike other sales reps who ring you at home she had no time to take a complaint - the phone still doesn't work it needs a new charger.
"That's not our problem" - or words to that effect - was her response. I need to see Optus.
Purple - no there's not colour in existence to describe my response.
WORSE this morning when I went back to Optus with a flat battery! 
A snotty-nosed boy who wears a "trainee" tag stood by watching as I complained to a salesgirl - he served me last week.
 
This sales girl lingered with another customer to try to avoid serving me - the longer she took the more upset I became.
 
I explained the problem - it's been sent away, I picked it up last week, the charger still doesn't work, the trainee got it wrong, I had to make another trip, I've brought the charger back.
She tests the charger.
I complain that trainees should be supervised a little closer.
The snotty-nosed trainee and this galling salesperson exchange smirks.
She looks down on me and, with amusement, tells me that my charger needs replacing.
DER! Darling! (That's not what I said to her)
 
What I did say is: "Are you laughing at me?"
She barely refuted the assertion at first. The trainee stood by defiantly. 
I asked to see her boss - then she realised she had made a mistake.
 
Her boss is one of the more competent managers I've encountered, a young man named Michael. Polite and helpful - faultless.
So was the young woman who sold me the phone.
She patiently waited for me to decide whether I'd buy this phone.
 
Last week, it took two trainees and a sales person longer to do the paperwork for a $50 refund than it took the sales girl who sold me the phone to take all the ID and stuff needed to buy a new phone.
This snotty-nosed trainee would have let me walk away without the refund had I not asked for it. They take a $50 deposit to send the phone away to be fixed.
After they got through the trauma of the refund - without any apologies or politeness - it was as if it was all my fault - they sent me on my way knowing that my problem had not been fixed.
These trainees sent me home with the advice that it's probably my charger because the techs could not replicate the fault - they told me that I may need to buy a new charger. 
They didn't want to test it. They weren't interested at all in helping me and I didn't want to spend a moment longer with these "little darlings".
I hate to be a whinger but there's no excuse for this kind of service - I'd call it bad behaviour not service. 
I feel like some innocent by-stander in Yes Minister.
 
 
I've been an Optus customer for over a decade I'd say but I'm on the verge of changing to another provider.
They got it wrong and until I asked for the manager I got no apology or no satisfactory help. 
They failed to inform me that I could borrow a replacement phone while my phone was being fixed.
They failed to correctly diagnose the problem.
They failed to address the problem when the phone was returned.
I think that's called giving them enough rope to hang themselves.
OH and best all all - they failed to tell me that Samsung will replace the charger for nothing because it's less than six months old!