da Scriffles

In the coastal rural district of Gladstone is a little service station with driveway service. I haven't seen driveway service since my father sold his little service station way, way long ago. And Mort doesn't even call it a service station, he calls it an "auto-port". I took photos because service with a smile is so rare - let alone driveway service!
We stopped to fill up on the journey home from Pearl Beach after Christmas.
The old highway runs all the way along the river - it's cattle country nestled in National Parks which are adjacent to surfing spots like Crescent Head.
This road runs straight through green grazing land. Open the car door and the smell of cow dung wafts in as well as annoying tiny flies.

It's like that scene out of Lost in Space where Dr Smith sees a gorgeous alien girl singing outside the space ship (here it's the gorgeous view begging to be photographed).
Dr Smith opens the door for the alien girl and she drinks all their fuel - "Woe is me!".
The flies are definitely a downside of this Garden of Eden. But you'd never know from a pretty photo.

I've been thinking about packaging lately.
I've been thinking about what people look like and how "life" packages us - as opposed to how we try to package ourselves.
No money. No teeth. Do you ever see young people with toothless grins?
No money, no dentist, no teeth, no teeth, no job - no money, no health.
Once upon a time I'd think something along the lines of: "Disgusting! They don't take care of themselves properly."
That's what teachers, employers, strangers think ... so how do they make friends?
We're always comparing our packaging.

I open my eyes Christmas Eve morning and my eight-year-old niece hops up and peers into my eyes and tells me: "Your eyes are like slits and your nose looks like a mushroom."
"Really?" I reply annoyed and half asleep and feeling like I was back in Grade Eight when girls are so-o bitchy (believe me, most of them never grow out of it either!)
I don't have a perfect button nose like the dear one who was addressing me - I'm old and therefore when I laugh my eyes are like slits.
She tells the truth. But she's judging my worth by my packaging.
I'm strong enough to endure this but I worry about how or if she'll learn not to do this.

Every time I do my shopping I have so much packaging to throw away it's annoying.
Strange contradiction this. We throw away the packaging of everything else but LIFE depends on our own packaging.
Packaging is everything - EVERYTHING! Our appearance, our body, our work, our careers, our families, our car... everything except the soul.
The soul is the content of the packaging and some people don't even believe in it.
I don't have the answers I seek but these questions I ask myself as I dress up stories I want people to read; as I think about websites I want to make; as I listen to people go on about "content being king".
I put the coffee into an air-tight jar and throw away the packaging.
I drive into the auto-port and Mort comes out smiling and asks: "How much do you want?"

Throw away the packaging. It's about service. It's about the content. It's about being the real deal.
Be that so that children have something else to measure themselves by.

In a big clean up of my home I found a box full of old cards that I'd been sent as a child.
In one from my grandma I found this note which no longer in circulation.
It was generous of my grandma who wasn't well off to post me a little something.
I don't know what year I received it unfortunately.
But if was before 1984 when this note was replaced with a coin.
So I Googled what an Australian One Dollar Note is worth and found it could be anything from $30 to $3000.
Knowing my luck it's the first and this note is not in mint "crisp" uncirculated condition.
What it's worth
It's crinkled - though it's been stored flat - and torn and folded and bent a little.
Just like me. :)

Radio National breakfast says in four days since it's release this single sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

 

Sold 200,000 copies in first two days

 

Celebrity single released January 7. 

Got a letter in the post this week which wasn't a household bill.
The 5th Annual Conference on Happiness and Its Causes is on in Sydney in May.
And Edward de Bono, Dr Robert Thurman (that's Uma's dad), Naomi Wolf (Author of The Beauty Myth), Hugh Mackay - even Natasha Stott Despoja (the former leader of the Democrats) are speaking about how are we to live.
It's a great question. I was thinking about this as I flew over my beautiful city at night.
Flying over Brisbane always makes me happy and sad - because you see all the sprawling chaos.

At night, all you see are roads and buildings and electric lights.
All the electricity being burned on a Saturday night just for security purposes in empty warehouses.
Lovely to gaze down upon. All taken for granted. But can we afford it?

The financial woes pressing down on world economies are tied up with scarcity - the scarcity of bare necessities.
If people aren't working - there's less taxes, less money for health and infrastructure.

Everybody's tied up with details on the ground too busy to pull back and see the big picture.
Maybe this conference would be a great opportunity to do just that.

Happiness seems to be a recurring theme for me at the moment.
Coca-Cola is also seeking to associate itself with Happiness.
I went through the motions of creating a digital campaign which I had intended to enter in the Content 360 competition that MIPTV.

MIPTV is the famous Cannes (as in South of France) annual gathering of the world's TV industry for a huge trade show - if you want to buy or sell TV to the world this is where you come.
But in recent years they've been interested in digital content and this year Coca-Cola and the ad agency Ogilvy lay down the challenge to create an idea for branded content that engages teenagers: a TV show, a web movie series, a mobile application.
I came up with: Discover the H-code.
The code for Happiness.

But I didn't submit it because it really disturbed me.
It was like I was Anakin Skywalker flirting with the dark side.
And in the end I abandoned the project - I could not turn.

This whole concept of branded entertainment is something I've been interested in for a while in story design.
At the Media 2010 conference last Friday I listened to the aspirations of top companies in this regard:  
Richard Titus, CEO of Britain's Associated Northcliffe Digital, is a very clever and creative man.
He's been at the forefront of digital media since the beginning.
He has his people now creating a single user profile for their customers across the group which includes The Daily Mail newspaper, jobsite and many other data and content businesses.

If you look for a job on their jobsite website they can cross reference the data they have when you start looking for real estate on their other website and they build a whole profile on you.
It's not new - everyone's doing it.
And they do want to install a prompt to pop up and allow you to edit the profile on you - if you wish.

The reason they want to know all about you is so they can "create an experience to delight the customer" in order to sell you stuff.
In other words it's all ADVERTISING - making a world that fits you like a glove, allaying all your fears so that you feel comfortable with buying stuff - their stuff.
Much more powerful advertising than we've ever seen before.

Now, if people are fully aware of what's going on and they can factor that into their thinking (ie they are educated and the process is transparent) then that seems fine.
But if we're marketing to teenagers who just go along for the ride (like the slug humans in Wall-E who spend their lives glued to screens and consuming) that's not fine.
It's not so much about government regulation as it is about education and awareness.
It's like technology is moving so much faster than governments, education and a lot of parents - who are probably even more vulnerable than their digitally literate children.
Don't take my word for it go to talk to an informed pediatrician who deals with kids whose lives have been jumbled by media consumption:
i-Kids: Children & the Media

Happiness is tied up with social and digital media these days: the mobile phone, the internet, Facebook.
We need to look at ALL the angles.
Just like big business is doing.

What do you think?

Joseph Pine identifies a paradox in the act of giving a customer an "authentic" experience : All business is about providing a man-made product in order to make money.
"You Americans!"
So how can you be authentic in business?
Joseph Pine says think Shakespeare: "And this above all to thine own self be true and it doth follow as night the day that thou canst not then be false to any man." (at 7 minutes into video).
Ask yourself: Are you a Real fake or a Real real or a Fake fake or a Fake Real?
Is a Fake fake the same as a Real real?

Lisa's snide remark: "And they question the value of ART!"

Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said: The flag is moving.

The other said: The wind is moving.

The 6th patriarch happened to be passing by. 

He told them: Not the wind, not the flag, mind is moving.

Page 61:
Chicken enters the gate.

One day, as Chicken stood outside the gate, the farmer called to her, "Chicken, chicken, why do you not enter?"
Chicken replied, "I do not see myself as outside. Why enter?"

Lost Horizon Pose:

The orientation of this pose speaks not only to the natural contradictions around us - the rising of the sun in the East, the setting of the sun in the West, for example - but also to the spiritual contradictions of the wisdom of Eastern philosophies with the Western search for the new. This pose increases the stamina and focus necessary to find balance in these contradictions.

"Do I know you?
"I'm sure I've seen you."
This 20-something dark-eyed, curly-topped Latino lad has been to the George Clooney school of charm - he's not shy at all.
His personal space is obviously a little narrow because he's standing close - not quite face to face but close - and his gaze is unflinching.
This is a rare quality - an unflinching but relaxed and interested gaze.
"Don't worry I don't bite, not at work anyway," he coos making direct eye contact.
Irresistible - and he knows it. He's not even trying.
He's half South American-half Canadian but his parents met in Israel so you can't pick his accent.
He makes his job look easy as he throws a line out and reels customers in.

He hovers, casually leans against the counter of the stall where he sells skin care products.
He doesn't smile those gaudy toothy grins that most sales people think are so attractive.
No. He raises his dark brow and his eyes sparkle as if he's really interested and then he acts as if we have already met.
And he makes you feel as though he's pleased to make - not a customer - but an acquaintance.
His art is seduction and he's a master.
He sold $2000 worth of product to a guy at Christmas.

I thought I'd reward this bravura performance but then he spoilt it.
As I handed him my card he turned and said, "I like you so," as if the thought had just occurred, "I'm gonna do this for you."
As if I was something special. And off he goes reaching for another product - that's right he's doubling his bet.
Buy this as well and I'll throw in this ... neat. If you buy this .... I'll throw this in for free.
It reminded me a lot of social media actually - that's all I'm gonna say.
Blasphemy is my middle name - if I had one.

Apparently, Edgar Allan Poe was not popular because he dared to challenge the optimism of his Age.
I'm not comparing myself to Poe - I'm just saying to question something is to assert your right to know the facts.

I'm reading Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a book of Poe's short stories. Really quite interesting. But that's another blog.

Did you know that the human being stopped evolving as a species 50,000 years ago.
(The Turning Point: Science, Society, and The Rising Culture, by Fritjof Capra)
The human brain (it's the same size!) and body basically are the same as the BC model - FACT!
Only the power of scientific knowledge and technological skills have evolved. That's a worry isn't it?
(I've held this theory since high school when ancient history was my passion.)

What would Aristotle do with Twitter?
What would Socrates do with Facebook? He-he.
There's a thought.
Socrates, the Gadfly who was put to death for challenging the morals of his fellow Athenians.

I've been thinking that the most amazing special moments in life are few.
There aren't that many and that's why we remember them, even when they are seemingly insignificant.
In real life there's data flying in all directions in a hundred variations and formats.
What's posted online is finite (contrary to belief) and filtered. Kinda = not the same.
But don't let someone else tell you what those moments are or should be or where they should be conducted!
Is it possible to be more than entertaining online?
Being entertaining is bloody hard after all.

Ah well. One o'clock and all's well!
But wait! GIANT! There's a giant washed up on the shore of Liliput.

The online reality is being written minute by minute.
We're all in a Jonathan Swift adventure.
New media is Gulliver and we're the little people.

Are you still here? The End.