fail better

researchers love rainbows

2011-03-09T15:36:00.001-08:00

I read this article on Nielsen's blog and then later on a friend of mine linked to it, lavishing layers and layers of praise upon it being an Android fan generally. I'm very anal about charts and infographics generally but am totally biased towards data porn. I like big data sets and cannot lie.

The one thing I usually worry about is that research helps you prove or disprove anything you want - conveniently enough. Which is why we shouldn't always rely on it, but on other things such as intuition and common sense and perhaps persuasion. Given that not many possess all the qualities or do not want to bother with persuading others of their own intuition (or just can't), well, we research. The chart in question:

They say it's mean to show that Android is gaining popularity among young people. Great! It fits with what Android want people to think about their phones - that they're for the young, hip and future generations. First off it should come with a warning against epileptic shocks but thankfully it's not so big.

The first thing you might pick up is that all the 'big' operating systems have almost equal market share in the United States (29, 27, 27) but if you look to the right hand side, the 1% boxes have varying sizes. One is taller than the other, even on the same column. What gives when they're all meant to represent 1%? If you put together two 1% boxes they sure don't look as big as the 2% box either. But let's assume this is for the trained researcher or agency eye - it can tell something interesting that's not immediately obvious, like the fact that about 16% of 18-24 people have a smartphone as opposed to 27% of those between 25 and 34. Almost HALF the people in the market for a smartphone are over 25 and under 45.

Now if the graph looked any different, you'd realise it's not so good for Android necessarily because the iPhone is popular with ALL age groups while Android does better in younger ones but worse than iPhone in 55+ and worse still than Blackberry in the 45-54 area.

These blocks remind me of lego a bit but as far as utility goes they're pretty rubbish. And still obscure the fact that this is the United States, Symbian is still the most widespread worldwide operating system and so on and so forth. What did I say about them being good at proving or disproving anything?

BT's other big event of 2011

2011-03-04T03:17:00.001-08:00

I heard news of the "other big wedding of 2011" a few days ago when BT launched an advert to get readers to help their two fictional characters organise their wedding. To me this is a combination of both scary and creepy because BT is the sort of company that makes me want to retreat to a buddhist monastery for the rest of my life just so I can avoid getting on the phone with anyone when something about my internet doesn't work. It's reminiscent of ye olden days when internet above 56k was a novel thing to offer people yet no one knew how to get it right.

Sadly for me, BT's recipe seems very successful as some 1.6 million people actually cared whether the female character was pregnant or not and it's probably a combination of our controlling nature (The Sims or Simcity are games that feed our idea that we can always do better, so long as it's not our life we are trying to improve) and love of soap operas and films as mini-stories that provide us with subtlety, anger, drama, romance, irony and everything else so long as they end at some point. It was Hitchcock I think who said that horror films and not only are successful if we give people relief after all the suspence. An emotional cry or a scare are only good if we feel relief at the end and films should look real, but not actually be real because none of us could stand that.

Part of me wants to like it because:

- it's a "modern relationship" and I can appreciate that when it's done like in shows such as Misfits, Skins but not Glee (who stereotype more than he average)

- people have actually participated in quite large numbers when the first poll ran and the format has proven to be successful

- the client must be really happy with the fact that every advert takes you through their entire range of offerings in a way that's feels (almost) natural within a home and day-to-day life environment

The other part of me hates it because:

- it's becoming a bit too much and I get this feeling that you can only do something for so long (aka all good things must end)

- it's tempting to call it a crime against participation (As Richard said here & here and Nick started indexing said crimes here & here - Subway & McCain's chips, namely) or what Tom Morton describes as a doll tea party thingie: but 1.6 million people love a good tea party. I like tea but they're kinda ruining it.

- I really do believe that if something isn't broken, you should break it anyway. Otherwise someone else will do it for you sooner or later and it won't be pretty. Or it'll break anyway, eventually.

Interesting times ahead nevertheless.

save the flowers

2011-02-23T03:05:00.001-08:00

This year's Valentine's Day hasn't been such a hit with the flower buyers although 5PM on Monday there were lots of guys emptying the flower stands in Tesco before they headed off home to wives, girlfriends and other such. So a lot of flowers have been left behind, especially daffodils (grown in Britain as they hasten to add). They used to go for about £2 in a big bunch of about 9 and post-14th of February they were down to just £1 and left to wilt in big boxes.

Now I've lived in a house where flowers were sort of the norm - unfortunately not many potted ones but just fresh field-picked flowers (I did not live on a farm, just close to a market) that would last ages and sit there prettifying the room by just a bit. So part of me learned that it's better to buy flowers that were picked and intended for fast consumption but were left to die. They'll have been left with so many more anyway, all in all it makes me wish they'd stop picking so many and selling them to supermarkets.

Anyway. Much better with a bit of yellow - both for me and the plants.

today's awfulness

2011-02-22T08:02:00.001-08:00

PHD released an awful video that's worth two facepalms, not just one.

They did apologise in the comments but what with YouTube and all it got buried due to all the negative votes it received. Why not apologise in the video description? Well, at least they didn't take the video down. Some things worry me indeed. Like these visions of the future - more like visions of hell.

pop-up life

2011-02-20T10:36:00.001-08:00

We haven't invented pop-up planning yet but we sure fell in love with pop-up shops, exhibitions and other things that come and go in a world where high street shops went under in less time than it took me to write this sentence. My favourite one so far was a Penhaligon's that closed down and made way for a few days of Muller giving away tiny pots of Mullerice. Ever since, anything that closed down only turned into a fish pedicure spa or mobility scooter shop. If the new businessess were anything to go by, pop-up shops seem hardly worth the trouble unless there's something really good in them as far as experience goes. Fish pedicure must be a good on but can't say I've tried.

I'm not sure if Rob picked up on a Facebook video of mine involving a dubstep remix of the Halifax ads but he's got an interesting post about the pop-up ad: the rogue ad you see once or twice and then never comes back but (possibly) confuses people with an interesting twist in the ad break that it's shown. Essentially "expressing a different side to the business at a cost that is low enough to allow you to keep your usual campaigns."

I think it's interesting but not necessarily a strategy of its own, perhaps just something a brand could do if it a) had the balls to and b) found someone to remix their ad into something that still makes sense for them and doesn't cannibalise it. However most people "remixing" these days are having a laugh (see below) and forcing anyone to please, please remix the ad sounds like the dreadful "make me a viral". In-between is the sweet spot until we all get tired of it and move on to the next thing. Who's up for it?

Exhibit A: E4 Flashmob spoof (Sorry Richard & Sorry T-Mobile) that pushed MC Skibadee to popularity (not sure if it did anything for E4/T-Mobile on the way)

Ehibit B: Halifax Dubstep Remix (a new twist on the holy ghost drum and bass videos):

You know what they say - punk's not dead, they call it dubstep these days.

sometimes a worldwide mail group can be a bad idea

2011-02-20T02:23:00.001-08:00

via 37signals.com

This isn't exactly secret business as I'm pretty sure a lot of others do it but the other day someone in our London office asked the big "planners" mail group to send in their definitions of planning.

Sometimes good and sometimes bad to have, this mail group becomes very, very annoying when someone presses "reply to all" and therefore some hundreds of replies come pouring in. More often than not it's useful to create a pool of resources to make the work better but it's always the same people who use it, which makes me wonder their search skills altogether...but I digress.

So many definitions of planning came in, I started deleting emails without reading them after a while (past the 50th email I lost patience) but some were well over one sentence.

Mine's pretty simple and it may change later in life but planning is an educated guess. Mostly about choosing one outcome out of all the possible ones that could turn an insight into an idea. However I try to think of it, it always feels that way as there's always the "what if" moment when I think of what it could have been like if we had gone for the other option. An educated guess, but it may always be subject to change since I know that I don't know much at the moment.

Anyway, that's me.

everything sounds better in another language

2011-02-19T12:08:00.001-08:00

Good evening - it's Saturday and I'm watching a bunch of videos from a campaign for Education First. They capture the spirits of 4 big cities and I'm watching Paris & Barcelona wishing I was somewhere else at this point in time. But alas, when I watch the London one there's always tea. I really love them because they give you a sense that learning something new feels like a wonderful experience in itself even if it doesn't come with a nice person buying you dinner in a restaurant every day. But we'd all like to believe that, wouldn't we?

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

EF - Live The Language - Barcelona from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

I'm having enough fun with a new receptionist who has joined us recently and has spent about a year in France as an exchange student. Somehow it gets me giggling to know someone around me speaks something other than English and I think going out has never been more fun ever since.

life turns out weird

2011-02-16T14:30:00.001-08:00

"It's easy enough to plan jobs, to plan a lot of work. That's effective. But that's the weird thing about grief. You can't prepare for it. You think you're gonna cry and get it over with. You make those plans, but they never work. It hits you in the middle of the night—well, it hits me in the middle of the night. I'm out walking. I'm feeling quite content. And it's like suddenly, boom. It's like you've just done that in your chest."

via esquire.com

Grab a tissue box and read the whole article if you can. Just have some chocolate nearby in case.

dude, where's my job?

2011-02-16T02:26:00.001-08:00

Speaking of recent talk about unemployment, doom and gloom, I also bumped into this article about 'The Experience Economy' that I haven't yet fully digested but might as well save for later

Imagine a man we’ll call Sam, who was born in 1900 and died in 1974. Sam entered a world of iceboxes, horse-drawn buggies and, commonly, outhouses. He died in a world of air-conditioning, Chevy Camaros and Moon landings. His life was defined by dramatic material changes, and Sam worked feverishly hard to build a company that sold brake systems. Sam wasn’t the most refined person, but he understood that if he wanted to create a secure life for his family he had to create wealth. Sam’s grandson, Jared, was born in 1978. Jared wasn’t really drawn to the brake-systems business, which was withering in America. [...] Jared lives a much more intellectually diverse life than Sam. He loves Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and his iPhone apps. But many of these things are produced outside the conventional monetized economy. Most of the products are produced by people working for free. They cost nothing to consume.

They don’t even create many jobs. [...] The automobile industry produced millions of jobs, but Facebook employs about 2,000, Twitter 300 and eBay about 17,000. It takes only 14,000 employees to make and sell iPods, but that device also eliminates jobs for those people who make and distribute CDs, potentially leading to net job losses.

search is changing us and viceversa

2011-02-15T08:34:00.001-08:00

Mr. Arrington of TechCrunch fame wrot an article a few days ago about how "Search Still Sucks" and part of me dismissed thinking it's just the voice of someone who's been around the internet for too long and has become sort of immune to certain things. Here's what he said that I agreed with because I've had that nagging feeling for a while now but couldn't tell it to my friends who did SEO:

"Search is a really bad overall experience. Travel searches, for example, are a joke; [...] when I’m trying to figure out the best hotel for me when I travel I bail on Google entirely and head to Tripadvisor (shudder). Same for gadget product reviews. GDGT, Amazon and occasionally Consumer Reports seem to have the best collections of data, so I just go there directly and bypass Google. In fact, I use Google mostly for navigation, not discovery these days. Meaning I know the document I’m trying to find and figure out the best search query to locate it. But pure discovery? It’s a shit show of layer upon layer of SEO madness vying for my click."

In a way google would never, ever recognise that (I don't think) but their own Chrome comes with an extension that lets you block content from certain sites from appearing in your search. Isn't that just a way of saying 'we acknowledge that people are taking part in this shit show, but here's a temporary fix until we figure out how to really improve search?' The direction seems to be knowing as much as possible about someone in order to figure out what it is they want before they actually search for it. But seriously? Seriously?!

barbie was not a slut

2011-02-15T03:36:00.001-08:00

When I was growing up (not long ago), Barbie used to be just a plastic doll but nowadays she's got her own Facebook page and fan. In fact just yesterday she's finally changed her relationship status on there to "in a relationship". With whom, I hear you ask? With Ken, of course. They broke up in 2004 and Mattel decided they should get back together 7 years later.

I'm not sure to what extent children these days play with Barbie dolls (included here are all the Kens, Nikkis, Kendras etc.) but I'd like to think girls still have dolls generally speaking. Part of me would like to think that at a certain age, they still played as much as we used to because I know that how they play may not have changed as much as everyone thinks. Anyway, I'm one of those who thinks it's absolutely brilliant that Barbie has her own Facebook page and that's not because it brings up any kind of nostalgia, not at all. When boys used to play with their police cars and plastic soldiers or the likes they'd come up with crazy kidnapping scenarios, thieves, trains derailing, deliveries gone awry and all these epic plots. Cut to the opening scene in Toy Story 3. Us girls on the other hand used to come up with life-like scenarios of how Ken broke up with Barbie, got back together, had a baby, bought a house, went shopping with her friends, what her new haircut should look like and so on and so forth. I'd never be able to blame children for how they play with their toys because I know it's a result of a lot of external factors such as what goes on in their families, what they see on TV, what they experience at school and other places. I think Barbie will stay relevant so long as they respect the fact that diversity in their doll models is the most important thing ever. That and they should listen to children - their most important audience (as opposed to their parents).

Apart from Barbie's current measurements and the make-up she's wearing nowadays, I don't think parents should butt into this thing too much. A bit like the idea in "The Shallows" about how the internet and technology change the way we think. We always overthink the problems that arise with new stuff, like for instance now that broadband is so widespread, we must all be looking at porn. It's always a fight about how the internet allows you to reach some sort of mental intimacy in which you know what you like, what your boundaries are and how comfortable you are with things versus the internet as a place for paedophiles and abuse. It's true that these things happen, but probably a lot less often than someone going on to discover what really is normal and what's not. Or defining their own idea of normal. Who knows. Maybe in a few years from now we'll find out that actually our relationships are better because it's not so taboo to speak about certain discoveries that you make while browsing. Everyone seems to forget that the internet is a place that helps people establish emotional connections. No one ever joined Facebook because they just couldn't wait for a random website to take all their personal data, childhood photos, pets and family information to have it online - they did it because of friends or to share those things with friends, build their identity and so on and so forth.

I think even aged 6 you have a very good idea of what you want your doll to do, what clothes to wear, how many dresses she ought to have and everything. The answer is always to have a lot of money, pink dresses, cars and shoes. Children aren't model collectors and don't buy Barbies to keep them in a glass case. They're not politicians, feminists or anything yet, they just take clues from what's around them. Even Disney probably broke into a bit of a sweat when the world suddenly realised they have no black princess in their roster (but they have Mulan, Ariel, Cinderella, Jasmine and others). Children never had a clue that in the past Disney didn't even allow women illustrators to work in their company! When you're a child, all you want are more toys (provided you have a relatively good life, that is) and more toys always cost money. The answer your parents will give is 'we can't afford new dolls every day' so automatically Barbie should have an infinite amount. Because you wanted all that money to buy more dolls/toys/etc. Later, this dream will sort of crumble but nevermind.

It's a small thing to have Barbie on facebook but it's how she stays relevant in a world oversaturated with more interesting/expensive toys. We know that whenever logic conflicts with emotion, emotion wins. For children even more so - Barbie is an escape, a route out, an excuse to explore life through the eyes of a doll and not judge yourself (just yet). So what if I want Barbie to be rich? She can be whatever I want her to be right now. Later in life everyone will try to bombard me and say that the things I own won't make me happy, but at the moment they sure do. You can't hellp but smile that she's in a relationship now. There's a sense of nostalgia intertwined with the wish to go back to that age when it was really easy to say you wanted all the shoes and dresses without anyone judging you for it. And especially not your bank account...

That's why Barbie never gets old or dies - her fate is always reinvented with each generation. And that's the beauty of it; no one wants an old Barbie because we all grow out of it and the next generation comes along and decides her fate.

being social for a week

2011-02-11T02:06:00.001-08:00

First it was meeting up with Neil Perkin at an eConsultancy event to which he kindly invited Rob & I. It was very kind of him despite the early hour.

My expectation for that morning would be that I'd wake up at precisely 7 when the alarm went off, I'd get out of bed and put on my trousers and carefully-ironed shirt from the night before, put on make-up and get a taxi in to the event.

The reality was that when you have 'planner' in your job title you suddenly start failing at it in real life and I woke up with a headache from hell, didn't get out of bed till 7.40 when I just managed to jump into my clothes and didn't even bother with putting on any kind of make-up. Since the taxi company we usually have at work doesn't know where I live, just where i work, it was out of the question again so ended up walking through the tropical rainforest that was Manchester in the morning. I got splashed by a car on my way in and could feel my blood slowly boiling before food and ibuprofen. Somehow I stumbled into the first coffee shop on the way in which happened to be Starbucks; I ask for a cappuccino and a muffin but there are only skinny muffins. Skinny muffin will have to do, but then for mysterious reasons I also get a skinny cappuccino - the one day I feel like crap and Starbucks decides to put me on a diet of some sort. Anyway. At the venue, I realise I'm looking really casual compared to everyone else but then I shouldn't feel inappropriate since they have to wear suits to work, we don't in the office. Made a jump for the buffet and grabbed the only pastry that had enough icing sugar to make my trousers look like they had a new kind of pattern.

Neil was good though. I even tried to smile. DOn't laugh. I was tired, not angry.

And then there was Thursday with the D&AD President's lecture evening - had Shane Walters, founder of onedotzero come to talk to us about his project. It felt surreal and suddenly there was light in my head regarding lots of things that I had seen but never knew were part of their work: George Michael's stage during his 25 Live tour, the Rolling Stones 6-tier stage and LED installation, Massive Attack's visuals by UVA and a lot more stuff.

Things make a bit more sense after this week. It was good.

HP did, and so did nokia

2011-02-11T01:42:00.001-08:00

In the whirlwind that was this week, eventually two things happened: HP release the tablet, Pre 3 and Veer phones and all the money went to WebOS and no one else can have any of that cake.

Stephen Elop says Nokia's lost touch and after announcing that they were seeking to partner up to bring either Android or Windows OS to their phones - it happened. It chose Microsoft. Death of Symbian?

Oh, interesting times ahead.

quiet (dial-up) dog bites hard

2011-02-09T08:28:00.001-08:00

A lot of people have been unhappy about AOL buying The Huffington Post - and this is where I should mention that I have little interest in how it's run and politics behind American journalism. They ask 'How did AOL have money to buy it for app. $300m?'

The answer is simple - AOL still makes about $1bn a year from dial-up. DIAL-UP!

Something I always make a point out of is how slow we sometimes are in adopting new technologies: look at browser display statistics that show screen resolution. In January 2003, 67% of people had a resolution of either 1024x768 or 800x600. It took exactly 7 years for this to reverse: 85.1% now have a resolution higher than that (cue laptops, wide displays and such). It didn't happen in a year or two, it happened in 7 years. Whenever we're surprised about people still having dial-up and not having broadband as a legal right or 100% smartphone penetration, we should think of our displays at work and come back to reality.

all good things must end

2011-02-08T04:21:00.001-08:00

If you, like me and the rest of the world who has read The Observer last Sunday and silently or more vocally agreed with Steve Coogan's remarks about Top Gear, you are not wrong. It was essentially a good show that just wouldn't end and dragged on forever like a sick, sad puppy. I remember shows and articles dating a while back in which producers said it's been going on for too long and presenters' personalities are overpowering the show. Essentially, it was a bit like a cult of personality, rather than a cult of cars.

Coogan was right to say that car reviews are hardly innovative and you'd be pushed to find something exciting in terms of features - and that rich white men bashing the poor (in this case the Mexicans) is essentially wrong. I'm no petrol-head but I can tell when something good turns bad out of too much popularity and Top Gear has become a caricature of its former self. It should have been shelved ages ago in its 'glory days' because you can only climb so high. And on the way down...it'll be one heck of a fall. It narrowly escaped the sexist remarks that have been floating around after the Sky Sports drama (because they make a point of filling their front rows on shows with women..mostly). I doubt this will take it off the air, but it's been long overdue.

There's a problem with falling in love with ideas - and just as I was writing this entry I hear that W+K London is retiring Cravendale's cow, pirate and cyclist. It's a good decision because like with all good ideas, you can only milk it for so long before it stops giving. And what they're doing is superb, even though they're just fictional characters. In terms of going out in full glory, it's rumoured that in ancient Greece women with greying hairs would retire their vanity mirrors to Aphrodite, thanking her for having blessed them with good looks in their youth. This may well be a myth or a random story but there's some wisdom in it.

Top Gear didn't know when to end - and that's the problem with a lot of things. That's why most good ideas are battles (as Sagmeister put it). A battle to not fall in love with them and to not perpetuate them past their expiry date. It's tough but necessary.

this isn't happiness

2011-02-04T02:47:00.001-08:00

via gabrielaherman.com

Gabriela Herman has some excellent photos in her series called "bloggers". The dark room, the glow of the screen on your face as you refresh in hopes of a like, a retweet or a mention.

As they say, this isn't happiness.

reese's peanut butter cups

2011-02-03T13:01:00.001-08:00

Potentially the best sweet to ever come out of the United States (I am biased), the best thing about working with someone from across the ocean is that he has a weakness for these little things. Because three of them are always a bit decadent and too much to handle for someone on a diet, there's always one left for me. Just the thing to get me through the morning.

Step 1 - brush hair after it's been blown away by canalside winds

Step 2 - get coffee

Step 3 - enjoy peanut butter cup

And 4 - let out a loud 'aaahhhh'

it's the 21st century and we still think animals are just like humans

2011-02-02T08:08:00.001-08:00

According to PETA, the world's largest tea maker had been injecting pigs with E. coli bacteria and then feeding them tea to see if it helped block the infection.Unilever would also have rabbits fattened up and then fed tea to see if it would help clear the plaque build-up in their arteries. Rats were fed tea to see if it could mitigate the ill-effects of high-sugar diets they were given.

Those and other tests appeared aimed at demonstrating whether tea had various healing properties that could be used in marketing.

via france24.com

Finding a USP for your green tea should never be as cruel as this - and if we're trying to sell tea as a cure for a modern ailment (e.g. high sugar diet) then surely we can recruit people the same way they try to see if moisturisers work where 60 out of 73 women say their new cream reduced their appearance of wrinkles. On real people with real problems.

It saddens me because my mum used to work for Unilever (not on tea though) and we never really knew. I care about tea, therefore I feel cheated that Unilever thought what's good for piglets and rats is good for me.

some things that are interesting

2011-02-01T08:21:00.001-08:00

by 江郎蔡

...to me but probably nobody else;

There's an article over at SF Gate about how Steve Jobs has "out-Japanned Japan". It talks about how Steve Jobs has always been fascinated with Sony in his youth and devoted most of his time trying to emulate the same greatness he saw in the company as he grew up. In short, the vast majority of things at CES which is by far one of the largest (if not the largest) technology show on this planet had something to do with Apple and its mobile devices - either someone taking an iPhone out of their pocket or software boasting its iOS compatibility. I love the stuff but I don't bang on about it here all day for reasons I've already mentioned - I just think Apple stuff is less shit than anyone else's at the moment.

The article goes on to say that Sony lost out because it lost its "sense of ma" -- its "understanding of what it shouldn't do, even if it could". An elusive term, but because Apple are very focused and they choose not to do a lot of things, there are a lot of companies that try too hard to be Apple. It might be flattering but it's wrong and painful for them. Apple doesn't just sell a brand, it sells a platform and lately they've only been calling themselves a 'mobile device company'. Steve Jobs may well retire now if he wants - they won, although it'll always sound like a perpetual struggle.

Nokia finally got that and we all had a laugh when they became the underdog because they weren't Apple. Maybe they wanted to be for a while but at last there's some vague sense of purpose: The Ovi store and the fact that they're thinking of adopting Android or Windows 7! Which sort of means WebOS is out of the question and HP won't let them. Nokia finally grasped the fact that if you don't have a platform to sell, you might not fare well in 2011. What they've also (hopefully) grasped is that they should stick to phones for now as they recover - because any tablets past the Apple, Blackberry and Galaxy ones don't solve any particular problem.

Just like most story plot theories say: in order to have a narrative, you need to have a problem. No problem, no moneyz out of making something that people won't use (Sony's ma problem). The rest of the world has plenty of problems! And to these problems the solution comes as a phone that is standardized, network neutral and works with whatever service there is available - most people don't go into a shop and choose a phone based on what contract will get them an iPhone the cheapest. That's why the Nokia Xpress Music and C3 phones are so popular: they're 90% of your iPhone or Android but for only 10-20% of their price. And in pink! This idea of contracts also assumes a certain willingness to pay for data plans and I find it hard to believe that everyone on this planet (or even in this country) will want to add some extra £300 a year on their bills so they can get on twitter from the train. People are cheap. Or poor. Or both sometimes.Or don't see the point in it anyway, I think at some point even I'll reach saturation and be willing to pay someone to stay away from the internet.

Hopefully people will come back to their senses this year - competition's great, please bring it on, don't just disappear off the map like that.

death & dying

2011-02-01T06:15:00.001-08:00

via photoblog.msnbc.msn.com

These photos are from some Italian catacombs that have now become a tourist attraction - and it's something that we were talking about in the office the other day while working on a project.

In Paris, you visit quite a lot of tombs but apart from Pere Lachaise (where a whole host of famous people were buried) you never get the feeling that you're in a place that was the subject of a lot of mourning.

The Egyptian 'Book of the Dead' was about one's journey into the afterlife. The pyramids and highly ornate tombs, however, are not remembered as paraphernalia to assist people in their transition.

It struck me recently that tombs and statues are not about death and dying - they're just saying "please remember that I used to exist". Technically they shouldn't remind us of our own mortality (something we share with every other form of life on this planet) but in remembering other people and what they were like, they do.

Funny, huh?

first world problem

2011-02-01T05:41:00.001-08:00

I don't know when and where I noticed a hashtag called #firstworldproblem and then #whitegirlproblem to describe these sort of Western world dissatisfactions brought about by civilisation as we know it: food, comfort, shelter and everything. I'm aware of the irony of noticing it on twitter but it's been on my mind for a while - the people I follow and keep are filtered through one general principle: thou shalt not moan excessively about how awful your pretty-good-by-world-standards life is. We're all guilty and because we're British we love a good anonymous moan in the echo chamber that is twitter so it's not all that bad (occasionally) to say that for instance your gym is full and you have to wait on machines - or that the tube is full at Victoria and you can't get home in time for your deli antipasti and pasta with shaved parmesan on top. And a side of rocket. It might be why twitter is so successful and we're topping European levels (that and even though you can tweet by SMS, not all countries and mobile networks support it) or our facebook status messages are mostly about ourselves and our woes. That's for another time.

Anyway, no one can function if we're being constantly reminded that somewhere in the world someone is doing much worse than us or there are problems we are blatantly ignoring because frankly, we (most of us) just don't care. To some extent, that's what Afghanistanism is and does in journalism, broadly speaking:

the practice of concentrating on problems in distant parts of the world while ignoring controversial local issues.In other contexts, the term has referred to "hopelessly arcane and irrelevant scholarship," "fascination with exotic, faraway lands," or "Railing and shaking your fist at an unseen foe who is quite unaware of your existence, much less your fury.

I'm not saying we should all ignore the rest of the world at the expense of our own "meaningless" lives because on an individual level our lives are anything but meaningless. My problems may pale into insignificance when you change my context - but precisely because for most of us context hardly changes and life is mostly linear, my problems are the most important things happening to me right now, despite what the news tells me (OK, I know that's Fox News).

I won't go into historical context and other follies but it's inevitable that where there's money bad things happen but it also creates taste. And despite the shit that's shoveled on the world's head, it's also what keeps us going forward. We can't help that being human we're prone to the same mistakes and feelings as everyone else, as cliched as it sounds. Some of us more than others, but first world problems shouldn't always be the root of all evil. Unless you do nothing about the things you hate. Till then, I see nothing wrong in being annoyed every now and then with the fact that, say, bananas in the supermarket are brown. Or enjoying your new shoes, dress or car a bit too much. For some of us, this anger is good enough to drive more creative pursuits. I'm angry, you're angry, it gets us to do something about it. For those who aren't motivated by it, well, there's 4chan..

eating like a man

2011-01-28T06:27:00.001-08:00

There are two really important lessons I have learned from the men in my life - and that's men, not boys - about eating and eating out.

This one is about fast foods: you can tell a lot about a place based on what sauces they serve you. I'd rather skip the ketchup if it comes out of a dubious red tub. The second one - men should never cut burgers. I'm spared but I'd still rather not cut a burger or a pizza. If you get a wet wipe before your meal, you are definitely not meant to cut it. Eat with your hands.

That is all so far.

what's life like at 35?

2011-01-27T07:22:00.001-08:00

when I was 14 I used to wonder what life would look like at 20-ish and now that I'm here it really is all the things I expected it to be, but with an added layer of difficulty in maintaining all the things I imagined it to have.

however I read this little thought somewhere and began to wonder if it's true:

35 is the perfect age: you know who you are but it's not too late to do something about it

Anyone volunteer?

student state of mind

2011-01-27T04:03:00.001-08:00

I'm doing a bit of work at the moment that involves looking at the student's state of mind when he or she starts looking for a job. And boy, did I know how that feels!

Myself, I liked being able to escape university because it wasn't a safety net or blanket I could hold onto until the economy started looking a bit better. Would have felt a much too big disconnect from real life by delving deeper into the academic world. Which isn't to say I will stay away from it until I die, but it's not something I want to force onto myself.

So anyway, what I see a lot of companies do is a reflection of how much they've forgotten about being young. It's sad that very big names make it about meeting the people, the swanky headquarters and how much you'll love their boot camp or that sort of thing. It's almost perverse that they don't take the opportunity to talk about what your future might look like in their own company which is a notch up from stock photos of multiculturally diverse people enjoying team building exercises that (unfortunately due to current economic conditions) have been reduced to anyone willing to organise something being free to do so. Meaning nothing.

What's worse is that when you're already interested in a company and you've established it's something you can and want to do, it's all the small things that could excite you. Does it matter if they're not entirely true? No, but at least you can be funny about it:

by Laughing Squid

cold in the morning going to work

2011-01-24T04:23:00.001-08:00

via flickr.com

I don't commute by train to work but I used to wake up pretty early a while back to leave the house and go to the office. As much as I hate some train stations in the UK for looking very old, ugly and smelling accordingly, you just can't hate a nice foggy morning with the same people waiting on the platform biting on croissants, bagels, muesli bars, reading newspapers, checking facebook while waiting for a train that's always late, with sweaty windows and packed.

It's usually cold too - so cold that you get rosey cheeks and heaven becomes a tasty coffee, a fresh piece of pastry and the thought of going to an office full of people who are ready to get excited and make things with you.

Day in, day out - there are things that sound very sad but do it for you.

why you never really forget how to ride a bike

2011-01-24T04:19:00.001-08:00

I wondered the same thing for a while ever since I bought my new bike the other week, not having been on one in 16 years. Since I was 5. Crikey. Only had time to ride it at the weekend and felt dead scared that I'd either fall or run into the first tree in the way.

I didn't - it felt wobbly and very awkward the first few minutes, my hands on the handlebars making me go on a wave-like trajectory. I didn't fall of as I had expected, just struggle to maintain some sort of balance while looking ahead rather than down. Ahead, not down. Ahead, not left, right, down or up. Sometimes you need to remind yourself of that in every other circumstance, not just while riding a bike.

It was a good practice weekend.

adliterate in print

2011-01-21T04:27:00.001-08:00

This is Richard's newspaper made out of some of his best blog entries. He was very kind to send me a copy and I must say it's weird to read a blog on paper. But it's nice to the touch. Very nice!

the record clubs and music on shuffle

2011-01-19T09:27:00.001-08:00

I've read a few things on music lately that have made me really curious about my own musicality.

I don't think I can sing; at least not like my flat mate used to annoy the hell out of me singing badly to tracks and whistling all day or the way other town crazies sing out loud in shops and changing rooms. But I used to be part of a choir and all those other things you did in school and have had piano training for a few years till I broke a finger and decided that some things about music theory I just don't understand.

1. The BBC released this nationwide experiment on discovering your musicality. You should take it but it requires some 20 minutes of undivided attention so it's not a good one for work. My results were not surprising: I am a very bad human metronome and have poor social creativity; that's mostly to do with being involved in bands but it reflects something I'm shockingly bad at - figuring out how pieces of music come together to form a whole. It means I wouldn't be able to tell some instruments from others or recognise them playing in an orchestra. What I'm very good at though is recognising pitch changes in two almost identical samples and whether I've heard a particular pattern before. Oh, and recognising jazz beats.

It's not that I lack classical musical culture but somehow this is how my brain has been trained. The latter probably has to do with listening to a lot of electronic music (drum and bass and related genres in particular) but I'm not expert so I'll leave it at that.

2. Because of that, it's interesting to read about the idea of "record clubs":

It is a strike against "'download culture", the sense that music has just become an endless compilation of random songs used as background noise."Works [...] have a beginning, a middle and end, that have nuances, themes, that take you on a journey that's as great as any novel, any opera, any drama."

Not meaning to insult any Pink Floyd/record club fans, not even their music wasn't always produced for "conceptual albums" to listen to in one sitting. Dark Side of the Moon (referenced) was the first time it had occurred to any of them to have a theme running through the entire thing:

at some point, Roger [Waters] came in and said that instead of just one or two lyrics for individual songs that we had already been working on, he had got an idea that was going to run through the whole album. We had done that before, but mostly in one very long song: "Echoes," on the previous album, Meddle, was a whole side of a record, and was a piece put together from various little sections -- but there was one cohesive lyric. This one was a series of different lyrics that had a theme running through them.

Dark Side of the Moon at 30

It's good to sit and listen to anything uninterrupted but not all albums are reminiscent of operas where there's a clear beginning and ending and the order in which you play them is vital to the experience and understanding of the work.

3. Then Russell Davies went and wrote about "music for shuffle" ("pieces designed to appear randomly but still hang together. More than a bunch of songs. And long too, filling up a shuffle, hours worth of it") only to have his friend go and make some tracks for that purpose. It reminds me of the concept behind binaural beats - the tracks blend seamlessly into one another and their purpose is (simply put) therapy through waves. They're not music per se, but as far as music goes, Nine Inch Nails did a similar project a while ago with 'Ghosts I-IV' where they've created 36 tracks and put them together in an album. They don't blend in as nicely but you'd be hard pushed to tell which one is which and where some end and others begin.

Anyway - there's still room for a nice album and a sit-down but it doesn't automatically rubbish everything else. It'd be cool to see if other genres cater to "music for shuffle", not just electronic music though.

Just sayin'.

interlude - fundraising I've planned

2011-01-19T08:06:00.001-08:00

It wasn't a new year 2011 resolution to do anything charity-related but why sit on my bum when there are opportunities to do good just lying around?

photo by pinkjay

I've offered to volunteer for Marie Curie Cancer Care in March as part of their great Daffodil Appeal. Anyone who reads this blog or knows me will be familiar with the fact that over the last 3-4 years I lost some very important relatives to cancer. In 2007 my grandfather to multiple myeloma (cancer of plasma cells), in 2008 my mum, an otherwise healthy woman, to the elusive pancreatic cancer (you can look at Steve Jobs with different eyes - very few people survive it) and in 2010 my grandmother to lung cancer. 2009 wasn't eventless but at least no one died. I'm not sure if I find that funny but nevermind. I missed the run in 2010 but said to myself I'd do something this year, so this is one of them.

I'll update with a few more details later but if you are willing to support I might even do something crazy for the money. I haven't thought of anything yet though - am taking suggestions though. I like yellow though so if it means dressing as a banana for work then so be it.

drive the new mediocrity

2011-01-19T07:47:00.001-08:00

I created a new tag to talk about various things that I've learned in the (not so many) years that I've spent doing what I do now. It's meant for anyone interested to read but most of all as reference for me when I look back at what I've amassed here.

This a message from Subaru about the 2011 Mediocrity - a generic sedan so bland, you just couldn't make it any more middle of the road even if you tried. It's their manifesto against boring cars and while I don't own a Subaru and don't plan on owning one, I can't help associating it with a rally car.

So this is about something I've learned about car adverts - it won't go away, no matter how hard I try.

Do you get what they're trying to say when you take the music away?

Cars are sold mostly on imagery and how shiny they make their interiors or exteriors look, features and everything. There's an almost L'Oreal-esque danger to have a lot of different products that do very different things but make your adverts all look formulaic. I say L'Oreal-esque because that's what they've been sticking to for years and years.

Take Peugeot's "It chooses you, it owns you":

On some level, it reminds me of choosing a wedding dress - it chooses you after you've tried everything on - but this here hints at a sense of prejudice men might have about choosing flashy French cars. Is that a hangup? Possibly. However it's just like the dress that doesn't look like what you had in mind on the hanger - it might look amazing on you. It might work as a prop to make you behave in certain ways.

Then there's this Lincoln ad:

It doesn't need the music to send across the message that your car is your spaceship and you're the commander. Cue the obvious "computer has the evidence" as the onboard display shows. There's more to it but I don't know the world of luxury automotives that well, nor the mind of the luxury car buyer.

These aren't epic examples like 'Cog' or Skoda adverts ("Made of meaner stuff") but for this entry's sake I still feel strongly about this idea. I'd be ashamed to work on something that doesn't follow the principle really.

local goodness

2011-01-17T04:22:00.001-08:00

Just realised after making a point about the local butcher in Didsbury that one thing I'm really happy for is that supermarkets have started sourcing some products from local farms - I can think of my Sainsbury's doing eggs from a farm in Cheshire and other small bits and bobs but dairy and fresh produce always come to mind. We're a long way away because my dill still comes from Israel when it could well come from somewhere local but let's not go there now.

I recently went to a Spanish tapas restaurant called Evuna - and I love the idea behind tapas because I love and can identify with the idea of a siesta and then a sharing meal that everyone can dip into later at night, not just because it's middle class to say you eat tapas instead of shepherd's pie. I don't discriminate, I love food regardless. I've been learning a lot about food and habits for no real reason other than just stumbling across the information.

The restaurant was superb because they had a lot of wine that you could take home and the one you were served came in big, Riedel-like glasses (also for sale if you so wished) but my only complaint was that it's a bit of a travesty to call a meal 'tapas' when you close at 11; in Spain and other latin countries they start eating at that time. It's also a travesty to go abroad and call a full english a plate of eggs, imitation bacon (usually low fat ham), mushrooms from a tin and some fresh tomatoes but for the sake of this thing called experience, that is to the full English what my meal was in relationship to Spanish tapas. They served a nice platter of jamon, queso and chorizo and some lovely little chorizo pieces cooked in red wine. All in all, the food, the wine and the company were beautiful.

Overanalysing is bullshit usually and never produces anything good, but the moment you think a bit about what you just ate, you know at some point the food is sourced from the same places you'd have your weekly shop done but for the sake of the experience (when I talk about you and me) we ignore it because we're not Joanna Blythman and enjoy swearing at sous-chefs for a living. It's good and that's what matters. However, you go for the authentic experience in Spain and you realise that just a 30-minute drive away from where you had some nice tapas there's another place where it tastes unbelievably different because of where they source their food from and how it's prepared. That's the beauty of local produce - and I wish we could see more of it around supermarkets.

It brings me to what The Co-op and Nisa are trying to say - but that's just about buying your food from the local shop at the moment (Great food within easy reach).

It's very lovely stuff, especially from The Co-op - but I can't wait for it to be more about the actual food and not just geographical proximity. Soon.

killing time in manchester

2011-01-16T14:08:00.001-08:00

This week, a guest from down in Birmingham who had never seen Manchester before (or had not been acquainted with it anyway) made a comment about the interesting architectural choices around town, saying it looks far better than Birmingham. The awkward moment when someone says your town is interesting but you've not been in theirs to explore properly is really, very awkward.

But there are things that I've become more and more used to since I moved here.It's true that I see Manchester in a different light now that I've started working, a lot of my old associations and connotations with the place gone. I've cried, I've experienced really painful loss and I've not been able to go away when I would have liked to. It felt like a trap, and sometimes a very depressing one. A lot of time passed.

There's something very nice about being underneath a railway arch - and Harry Hall cycles is in a nearly perfect spot. Nothing compares to the rumble of trains around Whitworth St. West and around Harry Hall's shop and I can't think of anything more soothing and exciting at the same time. It doesn't get old because I wouldn't go do it every day, just like I don't feed swans every morning or do Christmas shopping every quarter.

Anyway, my second favourite thing to do (or place to go to) is Didsbury. East Didsbury is one of the most beautiful places by far in Autumn. Unfortunately because TBWA's planning cave was in a sort of basement of a converted church, you could only see the lovely colours outside via some unfriendly window grates. That was unfortunate, but nevermind - outside were Casa Tapas, The Cheese Hamlet and the local butcher. You can't be upset when that's just waiting for you to leave work - food fixes a variety of ills.

If it weren't so bloody far away from town, I'd go live there. I really would. At the moment I don't think anything would beat waking up on Sunday to have a nice coffee and breakfast with a paper in a quiet place. Not an iPad, but a real paper. Still.

This is how I would love to spend a day in Manchester - relaxing, cooking and exploring by foot or bike, who knows. I think I sound too old for my age but really, if the planets align and Manchester gives you weather good enough for 5-6 consecutive hours, then consider yourself lucky.

And yeah, I am getting a bike. This will be most interesting because I've not been on one for 16 years now so in a few days I'll be coming back with grazed knees, like I used to when I was five. Good times, no?

critique & progress

2011-01-13T07:56:00.001-08:00

Usually when I get busy with lots of work, I gather a whole list of things I'd like to talk about on here and it seems to never end. This is one of them, an interesting perspective on hard work and repetition. Amy Chua talks about Chinese mothers and her own daughters in a Wall Street Journal article with a bit of an offending title ("Why Chinese Mothers are Superior") if you take it personally and since it's journalism, you probably should - it should get you thinking and doing things at the end of the day.

This superiority mindset alone can be a very scary thing to think about. A while ago back in Romania it was a thing of pride to keep the rumour going that the 2nd (or 3rd) language spoken at Microsoft is Romanian. You can imagine the first ones being something among the lines of English, Hindi and who knows what else after - they showed where the company imported its brain power from. I'm not sure if that's true anymore but it's a nice idea to entertain for anyone who wants to brag about a certain scholarly/academic mindset that made it possible. It maintains that before things are easy, they are hard and unpleasant most of the time.Chua says herself that "nothing is fun until you're good at it. To get good at anything is to work", and that's how most of the world has worked so far, there's little proof to suggest otherwise. She sums it up in 3 points that pretty much say the parents are in charge of things and there's little room for rebellion or an opinion.

Which brings me to the subject of critique - if Eastern cultures are about expecting nothing but the best (or you're considered a failure), Western ones are more lax. I'm surprised over the amount of drama over a tumblr blog called 'Read the fucking HIG' (Human Interfaces Guideline) that loves criticising ugly human interfaces for apps on the newly-launched App Store for the desktop.It's divided people into two groups: those who agree that aesthetics should come first and subscribe to the idea that critique can only be good, even if it's harsh, and those who think it's not the nice way to go.

I've always hated being a nice, kind and understanding person 100% of the time- or at least thought that working in advertising you can't be Mother Theresa for all the ideas that you will ever get to see. On top of a gut feeling to explain why it is you like or don't you'd need some pretty good critique and people skills to get that point across. I subscribe to that view that says a creative should be an explorer, an artist, a judge and warrior in one. To be able to explore, create, be ruthless with his or her ideas and defend those he thinks are worthy. Some people are very good at this and I'm happy to work with them when we do. It's hard to know exactly what to say when you see something that you think is bad. Most of the time I know I will end up saying something hugely inappropriate or beyond it but for the people I work with, I've learnt that it should be common courtesy (as a planner) to ask where the thought came from. While I may hate some adverts other very smart people have made with a passion, I just can't knock something that I've not worked on. I don't know what got them there, don't know what constraints they were subjected to, what external forces shaped the end result.

Nor does the consumer, but there's always more to it. To paraphrase a designer and a sensible thought in theory, no one is trying to make shitty stuff. They're all doing the best they can with the constraints they're given and talent they have. You can still be harsh and passionate about what you don't like, but be as ready as ever to back up with a very good argument if you end up rosy-cheeked when someone hears/reads what you've said.

Will says it's sod's law - one day you will end up working with those people whose work you made fun of (also "be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them when you go down") but I've never been a fan of gloves either - the truth usually hurts more than screwing around with lies in business but it's what makes the world go round for longer. Not everyone should go home with a balloon in the end - and that's where Chua's Eastern approach to parenting can be a good thing: expect strength, not weakness from ideas & people. I know truth is stranger than fiction but there's no real reason not to try to work hard & be nice to people when you can.

Anyway, that's what I think.

light and fluffy

2011-01-13T02:39:00.001-08:00

I've had long debates over whether a croissant is sweet or savoury but I maintain my idea that so long as you put butter, flour, yeast and sugar it's a sweet dough that you are making. Not overly sweet but sweet enough for my taste buds to regard it as a sweet pastry.

This video of a baker making croissants is absolutely mesmerising to watch and it's something that to me is beautiful in more ways than one. Artisan bakers or chef patissiers (or whatever you want to call them) will always have my utmost respect because in the UK I don't think we've ever had the art to begin with to be able to say that we lost it. Most people love to hate croissants for their heritage and what they represent (some ambiguous image that might contain the words "French" and "posh" or "poncey") but to me anything that's made to taste amazing as a result of a certain mastery is a good thing.

That and I will always respect France for being able to do something that we are not very good at: treating food as part nourishment and part art, not just fuel.

5 things about 2010

2011-01-05T02:38:00.001-08:00

I was invited by two people to do this thing and as I've not been on here over the holidays I might as well do it now. To catch up.

1/ Best single thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010

I'd say it was about finishing university with first class honours, which sort of took me by surprise as I figured it'd be less after finals. That and I managed to get a job shortly after. I'm reminded of how lucky it was when I talk to friends who have long since finished but are still staying at home with mum and dad and no job. For that, 2010 was really rather good to me. A bit of both.

2/ Most shameful thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010

I went to a meeting down in Dunstable and bought a slab of Dairy Milk for breakfast. On the way back in the station, I dropped a bit and I still picked it up according to the 9 second rule. Either that or I chose not to be antisocial at the work Christmas party and danced. And it turned out wrong with someone nearly pulling my dress off. Think that would have been a bit shameful for everyone, not just me.

3/ Ad industry scandal or scoundrel of the year.

I can't help but say the stuff about Sam unfortunately. It came and hit everyone and a lot of shit was stirred up. It wasn't very nice.

4/ Your overall rating for 2010 out of 10.

I would give myself a 6.5/10 because looking back I always get some sort of feeling that I could have done more in terms of job and talking to people/being more open but I'm always working on that. Seeing as others have rated the industry as a whole, I think I'd also give it between a 5-6 for sort of average because despite some really good stuff, most of everything else is shockingly bad.

5/ What do you think will be the most overhyped advertising related subject of 2011?

I think some people will go crazy about the concept of games and game mechanics - not that they haven't been so far but perhaps even more so. It hasn't really taken off into the mass market/mainstream whatever you want to call it but the moment someone will realise that for humans a number automatically translates into a point, they will be all over it. All in all, people will have to be wary of companies trying to bribe them with their own money. And points.

...I think it's a bit late to tag anyone now, but should anyone want to do this, you're all more than welcome to.

Toast

2011-01-04T04:29:00.001-08:00

Hello. I've not written much over Christmas and New Year because I've been busy with seeing the usual friends and family in all sorts of places. I came back and I watched the lovely 'Toast', Nigel Slater's autobiography of a film on iPlayer. It was on for New Year's Eve I think at 9PM and the only newspaper I read (The Herald up in Glasgow) didn't seem to think much of some acting. But I don't care what they think, it's an interesting take on many things from the family unit, loss, food and keeping a stiff upper lip in front of adversity and being 'different'.

We're told that Nigel Slater's mum was a very lovely person but couldn't cook to save her life. The premise is that because everything came out of a tin, it inspired him to become the food explorer and food pornography writer that he currently is - yes, that's the truth. It's food porn. Written food porn. Anyway, when they didn't have anything good to eat due to a culinary disaster, they'd always eat toast.

"It's impossible not to love someone who makes you toast. once you've been through that crusty surface to the soft underneath and tasted the warm, salty butter, you are lost forever."

So here we are, with chips and toast being among the few 'sharing' things. Tea and toast feel sort of intimate though - and they remind me of another classic scenario. Home with no food and a broken boiler, a cold house, an empty fridge. Toast is good.

desks & borrowed spaces

2010-12-17T08:56:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

And speaking of imposing our identity on places that aren't ours - the most obvious example is the desk we use at work - that's another argument on why the old-fashioned desk will still be favoured over the idea of the nomadic worker.

The nomadic worker idea involves another concept I don't like which I've illustrated with a TED video earlier this month (I never post them without a bigger picture in mind because my thinking doesn't exist only in interconnected TED talks). Work doesn't happen at work because it's like stepping into a food processor; your day gets chopped up in tiny bits with 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there, an hour there and meetings can be counter-productive for a number of reasons.

When talking about people in the creative industry what I mean to say is that we need long periods of focus in one place. That need not be the desk because it can be a dangerous thing. But you need to put in long hours obsessing over things sometimes and (as someone once said), spanking the limits of the tiny human mind. I'd trust any creative who has done that and believe in demistifying the process generally speaking. If we're paying them for having booze and noodles at work and then booze and kebabs on a night out at 3 in the morning then I feel confident a stream of ideas, whether delirious or grounded in reality is marginally better than ideas concocted at a desk or in a generic meeting room (with or without blue chairs).

I also believe in doing whatever it is you like at work if it translates into better flow and better thinking. Take your shoes off, bring in your favourite blanket, keep a flask of whisky in the drawer. You name it. We should do that more.

flying and the holidays

2010-12-17T07:42:00.001-08:00

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Today is my last day in the office before the holidays and I'm headed back to even colder Eastern Europe to see some of my family. It's a weird Christmas for me because up until now I had to go to two places to see both sides of my family (my mum and my dad's) but there's no one left on my mother's side. It makes the atmosphere slightly more relaxed rather than stressing about how much time to spend with each but it's not any better.

Airports and I go a long way now, I've reached that point where I can at least apply the things that I've learned and read about to my work. I'll stop to make a point about Henry Mintzberg's 'Why I Hate Flying' which was recommended to me by Rob - it's a good one.

It's good to read, listen and look at people who absolutely hate flying. I've been in Heathrow for about 18 hours last year and that should have put me off it entirely, but I'm a masochist, you see. I have approached bizzare situations such as "a bus hit the plane's wing" with buddhist-like zen, thinking that there's no rush to leave my seat in the vast airport for a seat as a sardine on the plane.

Then it's just as important to look at reasons why people love flying. Some airlines have become so bad, you just wish you could be treated as cargo. Be taken from A to B with no damage along the way. But some of us like flying because we've reached that point where being on the ground you get treated such bad customer experience, flying seems like a marginally better experience. Or we are good at imagining happier arrivals. As Andrew pointed out, few airlines talk about arrivals enough.

Arrivals are tricky because unfortunately every other airport and hotel looks the same, regardless of what side of the globe you are on. See, I hate hotels more than people hate airlines & airports. What they share in common is that they're commonly dirty (really) but the goal of any hotel room is to make you feel like you're the first person to use it. This gives the illusion of personal space. Because our homes are the core of our emotional identity, foreign spaces and the surrender of personal space test our concept of necessity. What do we really need from a hotel room? The Independent ran an interesting article a week ago on the logic of the insanely rich: they would rather buy property, typically flats, than stay in hotel rooms because they can't leave things behind. This opaque logic seems to make little to no sense when you have the money to buy anew every time you fly but I think of it as a manifestation of imposing our own identity on borrowed spaces. As a book I read a while ago said (can’t remember which now), it’s our way of regaining power over borrowed spaces. This emotional ownership is really important – that’s why airplanes get premium and economy classes (despite all the “looping” Mintzberg talks about). We hate planes, but we might hate a redesign of planes more. Big design changes require a broader realignment of culture in the end – and how we perceive others.

Flying wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for two things: the other people flying with us and the fact that we always have to return to airports. So there’s more to be said about emotions surrounding airports once you’ve actually stepped out into the world out there. Either that or what a plane would look like if we didn’t know what a plane was meant to look like.

Now I can only hope I’ll be able to fly tomorrow.

next year in april

2010-12-14T07:10:00.001-08:00

via creativereview.co.uk

my thoughts on the royal wedding, as lovely as it may well be.

men and their backward relationships

2010-12-12T13:07:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

"Women’s friendships are face to face: They talk, cry together, share secrets. Men’s friendships are side by side: We play golf. We go to football games."

and that's what makes the world go round as they say.

pure mindless vandalism

2010-12-08T14:32:00.001-08:00

I started watching Misfits the other day even though it was sold to me as 'chavs with superpowers - but better than you think!'

There are some good things in there regarding gender, race and body image.

First off, they have more interracial couples than same-race ones which is good. Data is lacking and I've only done a superficial search, but if the 2001 census showed around 8% non-white population, it must have doubled by now. So out of 8-9 interracial couples we can deduce that almost half the characters aren't white and that's a rare thing in TV these days.

There are stereotypes, but the non-white characters develop as they would as human beings, not the way people expect them to because of their race.

The storyline isn't as corny as Skins or Hollyoaks. There's certainly banter and bullying but it's not presented as a crippling threat that prevents you from going on about your daily business.

They have real bodies and wear real clothes; one of the characters is certainly bigger than most females you see on television but that's never an issue; she gets bullied a bit but not because of her shapes and you don't see entire episodes about her and her body struggles. Self doubt stems from other aspects (she dumps her fiance after she becomes able to read his thoughts).

The humour is tasteless and childish at times - meaning right up my street.

That's kind of all I had to say about it so far.

a jolly christmas lunch

2010-12-08T13:15:00.001-08:00

Lovely folks from JWT London had their Christmas do in Manchester and they invited us along.

We immersed ourselves in popular culture, of course, with games such as 'Top Rear', 'East Pretenders' and 'Humiliation Street'. Then we ate, drank and became all merry. I had a cold so my food tasted of nothing unfortunately.

Then we herded a group of 40 people back on a train to London. It was good. My phone ran out of battery so all I have are these food pictures. I'm sorry.

online shoppers

2010-12-07T06:36:00.001-08:00

It was on the news last night (as you would expect around Christmas when everyone's dying to find out how much the 'average' person will spend on gifts) that online shopping will boom this year and that online consumers are feeling confident shops will deliver. However, those who shop on the high street agree on its advantages: touching and feeling and especially not feeling 'scammed'.

Now I do realise that 'scam' is mostly in their heads and potentially a signal for retailers: it's no longer about telling customers that filling in forms and putting card details is perfectly safe online, we know it is. A vast majority of us know. It's still a good point to make but more importantly, it's as though the law on customer returns isn't clear enough. Any item return is free for UK mainland so every shop is obliged to give you a return form free of charge.

(I don't trust the example they did, a store called kitbag that opened on Manchester's Market Street only to be replaced by the Manchester City Club store in the space of a few months)

Celebrities keep making a point about hating in-store shopping, Cheryl Cole famously saying that she never shops in stores because she dreads the lights. Now that's harsh, especially since a good deal of this country thinks she's skinny and attractive. If she's not confident to shop in stores, how should we all feel about our bodies? All of us hate the unflattering light and the cellulite on display but the hassle seems a lot smaller when you go in store. In an ideal world, you can try 2-3 sizes in the space of a few minutes, without having to buy them. Great. Online, you buy one and receive it in 2-3 days, realise it doesn't fit, return it and exchange it, cue 2-3 more days till you get to the one you want. All good when you have the time to spare. Not all of us do, and not all of us have the money to buy 3 pairs and exchange the 2 that don't fit.

Yesterday made me think about things that us women famously do.

When we need stuff, we will sometimes buy 2 (or even 3 sizes) so we don't have to change in store. I'd hate trying on clothes with 50 layers of clothing on in winter and the price isn't exactly a big deal. We then return the items that don't fit. Good example was the Lanvin x H&M collection: there were more dresses available 1-2 days after than on the actual day when you had to queue. Change of heart much?
The man view on it was that they'll rarely try different sizes - they just "know" what fits. They then forget to return it and end up with lots of clothes they never wear.

Funny people we are.

readiness

2010-12-07T03:03:00.001-08:00

For a bunch of so-called ready people, we look anything like ready sometimes:

More than half of companies today cannot immediately name a successor to their CEO should the need arise, according to new research conducted by Heidrick & Struggles and Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance. Not having a truly operational succession plan can have devastating consequences for companies – from tanking stock prices to serious regulatory and reputational impact. A full 39% of respondents to the Stanford/Heidrick & Struggles survey said that they had "zero" viable internal candidates.

It is humbling to contrast the slipshod amateurism of so much of the Western private sector with the disciplined professionalism of the North Korean Workers' Party. The Dear Leader, who is in failing health, is orchestrating an elaborate succession process. He has established a "collective leadership", including his sister, Kim Kyung Hui and her husband, Chang Sung Taek, both seasoned veterans of North Korean politics, in case he conks out on the job. He has identified a long-term successor, his youngest son, Kim Jong Un. And he has begun to arrange a cavalcade of huge military parades to introduce his successor to the North Korean people. The whole country is essentially a family business, with the Kim dynasty branching out into a succession of demanding enterprises.

Take that, Hewlett-Packard.

Succession Planning

So Gordon Brown may not be that wrong to some extent:

Gordon Brown has warned the next decade could be remembered as the "decline of the west" if it fails to grapple with the challenge of the rising Asian powers.

In an interview ahead of the publication of an exclusive extract from his forthcoming book in today's Guardian, Brown was critical of public spending cuts which he said could rob western governments of the firepower needed to win business in China and India.

Gordon Brown predicts a decade of decline for the west

hans rosling and data porn

2010-12-04T10:55:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

I can't not be excited about how happy Hans Rosling is when he looks at data of any kind and presents it to the people.

He makes it look really simple and he's explained Gapminder before; it's the software he uses all the time. His basic rules seem to be about making people feel on the same level as the researcher.

1. You explain the X & Y axis (above, life span and income and what the top right corner means - rich and healthy)
2. You explain what the bubbles are - size, colour etc.
3. User your finger or a pen/mouse to indicate bubbles you want to focus on as you explain
4. Tell people what to expect: how fast or slow and when you'll stop for more information;
5. Talk them through what's happening; even though it's obvious that the bubbles above are headed towards the rich and healthy corner.

There's a more scientific answer to how to make these bubble charts, of course and I'm pretty sure everyone will hover towards these in the next few months.

I also think it's no coincidence that Tim Berners-Lee says journalists of the future should know how to read data that is made publicly available (such as data released by city councils and other public institutions - yes, that stuff no one digs for on their websites):

Journalists need to be data-savvy. These are the people whose jobs are to interpret what government is doing to the people. So it used to be that you would get stories by chatting to people in bars, and it still might be that you'll do it that way some times. But now it's also going to be about poring over data and equipping yourself with the tools to analyse it and picking out what's interesting. And keeping it in perspective, helping people out by really seeing where it all fits together, and what's going on in the country.

Personally I'm a huge fan of data and data visualisation; not just for the sake of it like in that infographic about useless infographics, but when it really makes a difference to how you explain things to people. On my own things are slightly different as I'm happy to look at raw numbers and make sense of them but others can't or won't see the same thing I see.

That and I'd love to have his presentation skills.

and the other point about 'trends'

2010-12-03T06:32:00.001-08:00

Obviously, trends don't just 'emerge' on 1 January or end on 31 December. [...] All trends are constantly evolving, and all [most of them] are one way or another already happening. Major consumer trends are more like currents than one-time killer waves.We’re also not saying there are only 11 consumer trends to track in 2011; there are dozens of important consumer trends worth knowing about and applying at any given time of the year. A selection [is merely designed] to get you going. All of the above means that many trends we’ve highlighted over the last years will still be as important next year as the ones we discuss [this year]. Oh, and none of these trends apply to all consumers

via trendwatching.com

I dislike marketing speak which obviously becomes a problem since I work around the area but I am all for common sense explanations attached to reports.

Manchester is very cold these days

2010-12-03T05:48:00.001-08:00

The Beetham tower was covered in cold-induced mist. Rather pretty but on ground level we're not faring so good. Bring on the grit salt.

network releases 2011 trend report

2010-12-03T04:33:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

I can appreciate the way this video was put together and all the effort that the 50 network planners involved dedicated to it, but there are some things I am skeptical towards. That's not to say their work is crap, but that I see things from a different perspective at my age and in my position and all that. Here is what I think:

1. Gaming and game mechanics have been pretty much everywhere in the last year and they are the new "social media" - every client wants a game or some sort of game element because that's the done thing, just as they would want a 'community' on their website a couple of years back. Jesse Schell’s video at DICE was a good point on how not to make the world a game mechanics hell. JWT might be right about it being the mainstream in 2011 but again, you never know what's round the corner.

2. The point about urgency economy doesn't sound like news to me, but rather a simple matter of framing things. Back in the days when supply was limited to begin with, a sale was a sale - a real opportunity for a bargain. Now you see it, now it's gone. Nowadays you can't really say the same thing with the whole internet being a shop. The price on Amazon is a 'sale' compared to the price in John Lewis without it being a big deal. These days, some corner of the world will probably have whatever you’re after (in 80-90% of cases if it’s something tangible) so the deal has to be really worth it in order for people to really want it. Groupon feels like an interesting thing to watch (not just because of Google poking their nose into it) but because it looks like a really obvious offline behaviour applied to internet shopping - a bit of a 'let's see what happens'. Sometimes the approach works, sometimes it doesn't. It's certainly not the same as going shopping with other people and buying items more expensive than you normally would in order to make a statement about yourself (or them) but it links to a point further in about retail as third space. If everyone and their friends are moving online to do their shopping and bargain hunting, they must be spending less time in stores. Then what’s the benefit of going into a shop? Soon enough people will expect online to be cheaper than offline by default simply because the costs are different.

No. 3 about non-commitment culture doesn't surprise me - partly recession-driven; to quote an image on the internet: Recession survival tip - stop buying useless shit.

No. 4 on Eat, Pray, Tech is another obvious one but it makes us all sound like tech whores. We're not. This isn't new. Collectively though, we are more obsessed with new stuff but that's not always bad.

No. 5 on De-Teching is about those people at no. 4 who have been doing so for a few years now. The general consensus is that if you need a break from something or feel like you need to 'disconnect' to regain your life back, you’re obviously doing it wrong. "The Shallows" makes a good point about how technology and the internet is shaping our brains. It also links to no. 10 about outsourcing self-control.

No 6. about retail as third space seems to casually forget anything about customer service (unless it takes it for granted).

No. 7 and creative urban renewal links to no. 3 and non-commitment culture. If you design neighbourhoods that are self-sufficient, you reduce the distance you have to drive outside your commute. If it suddenly stops making sense to buy a car because all you need is nearby then it’s pretty obvious what people will do when they are £10-30k better off.

No. 8 'Worlds Colliding' I like but it's been around for a while and we've all been entertaining the thought in 2009 and 2010 if not earlier – especially the internet of things (up there with No. 1)

No. 9 is the very reason why facebook is pushing users to set it as their homepage and even launched Places and the message inbox. I wonder if iOS will ever have a dashboard in the style of Windows/Android phones (and potentially Blackberry after having bought The Astonishing Tribe - they made the clock and other design elements in current Android dashboard user interfaces) for the same reason although surely knowing Apple, it will be 'me too' but not as we know it.

No. 10 about outsourcing self-control…that’s hardly a trend to me, that's just the Western World realising they've been swiped off their feet by the downturn and acting like headless chicken who have been told that it's not ok for them to have everything they want. I'm sorry about this one, but if you take a few steps to the East, people are still more pragmatic partly because not everyone's been touched by the magic idea of money from the sky. A simple experiment asked people what they would do if they needed to buy an object worth $1,000 but didn't have the money. Would they a) pay $100 over 12 months or b) borrow $1,000 from a bank with a 20% interest rate and pay $1,200 back after a year?

In terms of measuring the average person's capacity to make a sensible financial decision, only 6.9% (of 1,000 respondents) gave the right answer. Out of those who earn more than $75,000 per year, 10.1% gave the right answer.

Would anyone really think of c) save the money and buy it when you can actually afford it?

No, they wouldn't.

That is my take. I've put it out there so I'm happy for any comments or criticism obviously.

woman shopping

2010-12-03T03:14:00.001-08:00

I knew there was a reason why I created a special category called 'being a woman is hard work'.

Niko asks, the woman can only give her opinion when it's not really needed.

Here's a wonderful post about his mum shopping for a new TV:

Given that Mum has painted her house and added some new furniture, she also wanted a new tv. So we went shopping for one. This is an account of her thought decision proces:

Factor #1: ” I like how it looks and makes me feel”.. Any tv and remote that felt intimidating, was discarded. Fair enough, this one was to be expected.

Factor #2: “how much dust will it gather and how easy can I clean it”? Did not see this one coming. Nor the impact it had on her final decision. In this case a design that had the least amount of holes in it and could be easily moved around during house cleaning, won the sale. Even if the TV was EUR 200,- more expensive.

"I wanna bleed like common people"

I am no stranger to this way of thinking as it was a big part of why I chose to buy an iMac when I graduated. The whole thing comes with one cable. One cable! No cable for my keyboard, no cable for my mouse, no need for anything else. It's one big surface with no dents in it, I didn't want Windows or Linux (that was the first criteria), I didn't want a laptop (2nd criteria) as I certainly didn't want to spend extra on a laptop, a dock and a big screen. I just wanted a big screen that was easy to clean. Plug and play sounds like a cliche, but it's that simple.

Now that brought some advantages with it - for about £100 I can have both TV and computer in one. Given I paid about twice the price for a TV on it, it's not really that bad. I would have spent more on both and frankly from 27" to 32" (the TV size I would have bought into) the difference hardly matters to me.

It's something I can appreciate about Apple, despite all the comments about Steve's reality distortion field and his devoted fanboys.

Apple is not great - they have flaws of course, but I have yet to be annoyed by anything so can't really speak. But their products are less crap than others. They appear to be one of the few companies that get the fact that design is an integral aspect of the end product and not just something you slap onto your finished product, like this:

This photo says it all — the device has a permanent slide-out tab that serves no functional purpose. It’s just a place to put a bunch of regulatory and licensing small-print crap.

Daring Fireball

That's why I have an iMac. If I decide I want to move tomorrow, I still have one screen, one cable and not too many holes to plug things in and out of. Never underestimate the power of no cords and a woman with a feather duster. There's something magical about not having things that seem to drag your whole room down and pin it to the ground with their sheer weight - like a fridge would. Looking at kitchens and how people use them, the more the kitchen feels like it would take ages to pull apart and make room for a new one, the less likely people are to buy a new one. The bigger the sofa and the harder it is to fit it through the door or take it up the stairs or put it through the window, the less likely you'll be to move out of a place. People hate moving because they keep themselves well grounded in place with all these seemingly immovable objects.

It would also explain why lego was so much fun (and still is). Life should be more like bloody Lego.

perfect stranger

2010-12-02T03:44:00.001-08:00

Magnetic Man (Benga, Skream and Artwork) have released an album together and it seems to be all over tha place, including Radio 1 and 1Xtra. Among the tracks they released was 'Perfect Stranger' and while I don't like them altogether as a group (they all have different styles that don't mix in a 'perfect' sound and some tracks sound very much alike), they have produced a piece of music that will likely get a fair few people into dubstep and possibly more artists altogether. And that's always a good thing.

What's puzzling to me though is that Benga remixed one of the tracks - and that always begs the question 'why remix a track to add in your own sound and feel?' Does that not mean you weren't happy with the first version?

this playlist has been banned

2010-12-01T09:27:00.001-08:00

via creativereview.co.uk

I like what Amnesty are doing in the online and offline world - this is a very subtle but effective execution right under your nose but my favourite one is probably the Spotify advert they run at the moment.

It's nothing that special, it's just a guy who says that your playlist has been declared illegal and your music will stop playing after the message. He eventually tells you that this is not the case with your current playlist, but that other people in some areas of the world don't have the same privilege.

You end up having to donate a sum of money to give radios to people in Burma (rigged elections and all that) so that they too can enjoy music. That's very good use of context right there.

The only tea you will ever need

2010-11-26T08:05:00.001-08:00

If you like green tea, that is. And also available in shops, leaf teas excluded.

Sent from my iPhone

Why work doesn't happen at work

2010-11-25T06:44:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

People need long stretches of time to be creative [...] You walk into work and it's like you walk into a Cuisinart: your day gets chopped up to bits: 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there [...] you have days when you leave work and think 'I didn't get anything done today!'

pizza and the recycling myth

2010-11-24T02:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we had free pizza in the office, courtesy of a stock photo company if I'm not mistaken. I was a bit too busy scoffing it all while it was still there, but nevertheless there's a random boring point to be made about the boxes.

They're all standard cardboard so surely they must be recyclable. But they're dirty. Whereas I heard it's not a problem if you recycle dirty glass because of the way the stuff is treated, it does matter if you put in dirty cardboard. However everything is more or less myth or rumour. It's very helpful that the council tells me what I can recycle and what I can't in terms of composition but seeing as everybody is too lazy to wash something before they recycle it, it'd be more useful to tell you that, wouldn't it?

The pizza doesn't sit on a protective sheet so all the grease and bits that fall off are going into a relatively clean recycling bin. What gives?

H&M + Lanvin

2010-11-19T09:29:00.001-08:00

My thoughts this week have been focused around a mixture of lack of sleep, hunger and physical exhaustion so nothing coherent can come out of this, but:

H&M is due to launch a collaboration with Lanvin in stores on the 23rd of November. Because of their campaign, every other person mildly interested in the subject of fashion that peruses the interwebs probably knows but if you're the sort of person to visit the high street you'd probably have no clue.H&M have not had any in-store comms about the thing and you'd only know if you spend time with a phone app, their new website and are subscribed to the newsletter, read fashion blogs or have friends who have mentioned it as a passing comment.

There's much to be said about designer collaborations, the niche Zara, Topshop and the likes want to reach with creating imitations of designer clothing that's in the spotlight (i.e. Zara and Chloe) and also lots to be said about advertising secret agendas & priority lists but really it all boils down to the way you present them. Magazines are either the bible or just pure escapism - and possibly for the more insecure of us the equivalent of spying on what our neighbours are doing so we don't come across as totally unable to dress.

The first collab I saw was Matthew Williamson and it hardly excited me seen in-store . Similar collections followed, including Sonia Rykiel and Jimmy Choo which was the only one that came and went without even seeing one piece in store, save for the ones that didn't excite anyone's interest. Rykiel was left to sales and even then I doubt anyone wanted some of the stuff.

Essentially, they all boil down to a 'what are the cheapest items worth the trouble' approach:

Of course I would ideally suggest you to buy this amazing $199 one-shoulder dress or this $199 coat, but not everyone wants to spend that kind of money on what’s essentially a hyped-up, slightly upgraded H&M item.

Slightly upgraded H&M item is exactly the word I am looking for. H&M gets some things right, but really fails on the whole glamour bit - which they outsource to designer collaborations it would seem. They do come out with the odd dress that no one would know it was H&M if it weren't for the fact that everyone else has it if you go out on the town. If you're in the least bothered about the way you look and can't even begin to fathom someone else with the same dress, your best bet is to buy it and wear it next season. Which defeats the point of buying on-trend from H&M.

Escapism, at the end of the day. Sheer escapism, if you have any sense of money.

cultural conclusions of no interest to anyone

2010-11-16T14:02:00.001-08:00

Last week someone who thought I was doing something interesting or good or just different enough from what a lot of other people in Romania are doing approached me about answering a few questions. They were mostly about why I don't like the place and what made me leave, although for me it had always been pretty obvious what with my mum and all and learning English as my "other" mother tongue. Whatever.

It's very hard to explain why I dislike Romania.

It's because I've always wanted to do something that didn't involve the country in any way. When others wanted to say I was a local girl done good, it was time to speak up and say I've never really been or felt like a local. Some hated me for that, because they wanted to prove that a fairly broken and disjointed place could produce someone capable of going out there to look for bigger things in life. To me that always sounded like bullshit because you can do that anywhere and you can be from any place on this planet. The solution for global warming could be developed in Sri Lanka or come from a group of people indigenous to Vietnam. I dunno. What I do is hardly 'good' in a bigger scheme of things. I try, but I'm no physicist.

So anyway, I wrote my answer. In my mind, it has to do with the way history was written versus how it actually played out. Instead of factual descriptions, you'd get something that looks more like fiction (think 'The Odyssey') and les belles letres. Questioning your own history was taboo and the way it goes, Romania is the good guy while other invading countries are the bad guys. You have to accept your destiny and there is nothing you can do to change it. Considering we're constantly re-writing human history and evolution, to me that sounds lazy and irresponsible. This article says more than I can:

In school, many of us learned the poem Invictus. It concludes with the line, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” This is a line that a Victorian gentleman might bequeath to an American businessman. It is not a line that resonates in Romania. Nothing in their history tells Romanians that they rule their fate or dominate their soul. Everything in their history is a lesson in how fate masters them or how their very soul is a captive of history. As a nation, Romanians have modest hopes and expectations tempered by their past.
Read more: Geopolitical Journey, Part 3: Romania | STRATFOR

Another thing that reminds me why I hate the place is an analogy with...wait...Korea! If you read this article and substituted Romania for Korea and replaced the regional dishes with the appropriate ones, they paint a pretty good picture:

By now, I’ve already fessed up to speaking Korean, because I’d never want to dupe this woman into freely talking smack in the refuge of my perceived ignorance. But that sets in motion the rapid-fire interrogation that, unlike Monty Python and the Spanish Inquisition, you expect every time. Round after round about my education, my apartment, my job, my man, my decision-making skills.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/going-korean/?src=tptw

It's like that everywhere and I can't get away from it. If I walk into a shop and say I want a black bra, the shop assistant will let me know if it's comfortable to wear every day. She'll also inquire if it's for something special. And if it's for something special, why don't I get a red one? Most men prefer red! And speaking of which, have I heard of vajazzle? No?

There is nothing that will persuade me to like or talk to people just because we have a language in common. Most people seem shocked, but really, it's more pleasant to have friends for solid reasons. Like being able to trust them, enjoying their company and feeling at ease with them. Can't always say the same with those who were born to pry into my life and mere existence for no reason.

state of deja vu

2010-11-09T03:25:00.001-08:00

They're all really nice executions in their own right but still...something doesn't feel quite right.

Barclays Premier League Intro 2010

2010-11-08T04:44:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

This is most nice but I have no idea who did it.

Back in the day

2010-11-08T01:50:00.001-08:00

via metkere.com

My grandfather's first car was a Volga. I can't possibly imagine him driving it but there you go. It was a rare thing to have anything other than a Dacia back in the day. Some people look at these posters and can't possibly imagine that these things ever roamed the streets, I can think back to a time when according to my grandfather they were the only things that were allowed on the streets.

Others got the Moskvitch. Those were the days.

(via pseudosite, circa 2001)

There's also a really interesting documentary on Channel 4 (sponsored by Honda) called 'My Beautiful Dacia' and how the car itself was the first kind of open source vehicle. Rather good.

coffee & an honest blog is a nicer blog

2010-11-06T12:52:00.001-07:00

I bumped into a blog kept by someone at work, not someone employed permanently but one of our contractors. While I don't go up to people after a few weeks and say that it's really a pleasure to work with them despite not interacting, it's one of those rare occasions when I can look at someone and think that they have done an excellent job of adapting to the culture in the office. When they leave and everyone gives the customary 'it's been great to work with you' speech and signs a card, words are not good at conveying the positive experience as a whole. Anyway, faultless he is not probably but his blog made me think that far too often we write for an audience rather than write for ourselves. Invisible audience is invisible. Blogs are nicer and more honest when you write them for yourself and it feels different to read a blog written like a narrative instead of something that looks as though it came out of a factory that sells cheap blog entries for cash. And blogs are also much nicer when there are no haters to tell you that we don't care about what you ate, what your child or animal did this morning or whatever. But we spend so much time with lolcats, it's pretty much irrational to think of life in that way.

My point about coffee today came after I had a cappuccino in Mr. Scruff's 'Teacup' on Thomas St., busy as always and complicated to get a seat before the rush hour and the queue outside. I thought people have to be brave, daft or both to queue for 20 mins to get in there famished with so many other food establishments around.

The cappuccino on the menu was advertised as having organic chocolate flakes on top (as opposed to the usual cocoa sprinkles you get in many places). I hate it when places are smug and say things for the sake of looking hip but I also love cappuccinos and it was my first coffee of the day. It was bloody lovely and the froth on the cappuccino is one of the simple pleasures in life, at least to me. You get a teaspoon with a cappuccino to add sugar or stir it but the way I see it, stirring cappuccino is a sacrilege! You can drink the coffee and then get to the delicious froth at the end and enjoy it in all its glory. On doit garder le meilleur pour la fin, as they say. That's how froth works for me.

There are many other things I've learnt about cappuccinos in time.

Ordering it is an adventure - this is a cappuccino in Spain. Thrilling!

Cappuccino is a breakfast drink. That's what most people will tell you, but in Italy I've been told it's a 'first drink of the day' kind of beverage. If your 'breakfast' is at 3 in the afternoon, you are still entitled to your cappuccino. It's not an after-meal drink (as a child, I never understood why adults had coffee after a big dinner but then I learnt how carbs work). Some like to go to Italy for the whole 'coffee culture' thing, like they would think that Italy is pizza, pasta and ice cream mecca. Italians didn't invent coffee, they just invented a way of serving it, presenting it and consuming it. Wonderfully easy to adapt - most shops will have the same espresso machines and chances are if you go to Italy for 'proper coffee' it's more or less placebo or it just so happens that the coffee beans are amazing in one way or the other.

To sum up,

Good coffee beans - yes. Thinking that the espresso machine makes a difference - no. Drinking espresso or macchiato during the day - yes. Cappuccino after breakfast - no.

social siberia but not quite

2010-11-05T13:48:00.001-07:00

"Social Siberia" wasn't a term I thought to use about my personal social life until I saw it written somewhere on a much more popular blog. I like meeting people, I like having them around but we have a complicated relationship once I lose my interest, and it's all too complicated to explain right now. Most of the things that have happened to me (the good ones and no bad ones as far as I can remember) have because of my blog. I keep on writing, sometimes not knowing why, maybe someone will find it (and implicitly me) interesting enough to talk to me. What I don't like is sharing something that is going to be twisted and perverted in ways I do not want to imagine. That used to happen with my friends in Romania and I'm well aware it could happen here, especially if I say I hate a client. Sod's law, they will somehow find out in the near or distant future and stuff will go bad.

I dragged myself to Northern Digitals partly to satisfy someone at work who insisted the department goes out more often. I'm a comms person with a mild obsession over design & typography, they are mostly front-end developers, coders and that sort of stuff. It's easy to sit and talk to the same people I work with all day but very hard to go up to someone and say something that doesn't sound blonde. I've seen your code, and my, it looks delicious. Wouldn't draw a parallel between real life dating people and finding things to talk to ("So...you like travel?") but the things I can pick on scare people. Visiting a hospital, my remarks were a) "Look how big it is!" and b) "That's Frutiger! That's not Frutiger! WHAT?! Crime!" so it says a lot about my social skills pre-alcohol. Figured no one would talk to me once they realised I'm not one of them, even got a few "of course you can't be a developer" looks, but turns out you can get unwanted attention and not know what to do with it. Anyway.

I'm pretty sure there's value in it, but not for me.

So instead this evening I made my way to the gym, did my thing and tried harder than last time. There's loads of fireworks outside so I'm headed out for a drink with some friends who have recently settled in Manchester to see how they're doing. This is a big step considering in my first year I was put off Manchester outings by going out with people from uni and ending up in a club where people's idea of intimacy was a blowjob in the toilet. Stay classy, Manchester. Somehow reading and doing geeky things on my own sounds like a better idea sometimes.

Northern Digitals I'm not so sure though...it's going to be a "maybe".

Don't you know how powerful the "maybe" is?

Blood Omen 2

2010-11-05T04:42:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Good times. Some damn memorable quotes.

"From the shards of tattered dreams, I rose - unwilling... Tossed upon tides of pain that flowed and ebbed and left me searingly awake. And more revoltingly - alive .. It was then I saw her, for the first time."

yakult

2010-11-04T03:42:00.001-07:00

It's been bugging me for a while (2 years) and I must let it out.

By benjaminsiegel

Shopping with the old flat mate, we were near the tills to pay for our stuff when she noticed a gentleman buying a load of sets of Yakult. Being the die-hard environmentalist that she was and probably not knowing exactly what Yakult was, she sneered at how much waste you can produce with a week's supply of Yakult tiny pots.

Yesterday we were doing office elevenses and we opened up a pack of Mr. Kipling French Fancies - we like experimenting with new biscuits and sweets and the policy is no sweet thing left behind. They come in tiny 2-slice trays with a plastic film on top, all in a soft cardboard box. Which is fine and dandy because you can recycle the box, but not the plastic trays (totalling 6 of them). As I'm not a huge Mr. Kipling stuff (I bake my own cakes and trays), Rob pointed out that it's all meant to encourage snacking and eating two in one go. Go figure, that way you eat them quicker and thus have to replace them faster, which isn't surprising.

But Yakult! I'm the sort of person who drinks Yakult at home. And the beauty is that they come in daily doses you gulp and go. But so many tiny plastic pots - what can you do to reduce the amount of waste and keep the daily portion idea going?

It struck me yesterday that it's already there, just not in things that you'd normally eat.

Detergents and measuring cups. Mouthwash and measuring caps.

By goenetix

It goes against what Yakult have been doing so far to encourage daily consumption but I had to let it out. I'd do that since it's something to do at home in the morning.

the lifestyle game is on

2010-11-03T05:28:00.001-07:00

Puma's After Hours Athletes comes to London (10th of November) and Manchester (30th of November). Deaf Institute.

Carhartt & Adidas love Aloe Blacc. Aloe is hot stuff at the moment. No one's ventured into Kanye territory with his 'Power' live on SNL but Pharrell seems to have taken a cue from it. Unfortunately the 'Hypnotize You' video isn't available in the UK.

"Carhartt's integrated marketing campaign was created to reposition the Carhartt brand in the national retail space,” said Lindy Mueller, corporate communications representative at Carhartt. “We wanted to develop a campaign that would re-focus our consumers on the brand, specifically targeting 18-to-34-year-old males."
-via DigitalMarketingNews

Nike goes Defiant Dozen & Athletics West 77 everywhere After Hours Athlete, Celebrating Originality, original workwear or More Than & AW77? Levi's working people hasn't come this side of the pond yet. Not strong enough at least.

europe and e-freedom

2010-11-01T15:30:00.001-07:00

The EU likes to think of itself as a continent-sized market of 500m consumers and 20m firms. In practice, it is often an agglomeration of national markets, each with its rules and oddities. Ask the French retailer, Carrefour, Europe’s biggest. It wants to buy its own-brand cheese from the Netherlands, but is prevented from doing so by France. Why? Because Dutch emmenthal is produced in 15kg (33lb) moulds, and France insists that it be made in 40kg ones. When Carrefour ships French-made chairs to its stores in Italy, the French safety certificates must be countersigned by an Italian laboratory. Absurdly, Carrefour says it has to confirm that the chairs will not be used for the purposes of torture.

Scan the European Commission’s consumer reports, and the distortions are visible. Pre-tax car prices may be fairly uniform across the EU, but the same is not true of vacuum cleaners. How to explain that food costs 28% more in Belgium than next door in the Netherlands, when the two countries are of broadly similar size and wealth? Paracetamol costs 14 times as much in France as it does in the Netherlands. Some variation may be explained by tax rates and the cost of real estate, wages and transport. Even so, the single market is clearly not living up to its name.

via economist.com

I will love the day I don't pay extra for my chocolate bars just because I'm on an island. One day.

i'm a child

2010-11-01T13:15:00.001-07:00

Everyone watches Mad Men. Or at least there wouldn't be so much fuss over Don Draper's carousel and easel and ways of pitching work to clients. There's a clincher scene during which you just know that the relationship between him & Betty won't work.

"Living with you is like living with a small child"

Me on the other hand, I bought tickets to see Harry Potter on the 19th of November and half of me is thinking this is very sad, the other half of me wants to get out the robe and wizard hat. I'm going to become one of those parents their children absolutely hate. The "mum, you're ruining my day" kind of person probably.

I cried when Toy Story 3 ended. I was a sad mess during Up. Sounds absolutely pathetic but as far as I'm concerned, I'm glad something other than some crappy moments in my life still make me cry. What's more interesting than me crying is a facebook page that came out around that time. "Move over kids, I've waited 10 years to see Toy Story 3" - and I thought that's a good thought right there, if I was selling Toy Story 3 or Harry Potter 7. Or anything since part 3 to be honest, we were all pretty grown up then. Harry Potter was the book I had when I was about 10-11. Now it's Twilight for teenage girls. Hate them as much as you want, but they are books that shape generations (unfortunately). Harry Potter fans I know can't stand all this Twilight rubbish. Before that there was Lord of the Rings. And before that...there was Titanic. And boy bands. Dark times.

But watching Harry Potter - I'm 21 now. Move over kids, I've waited 10 years too. Didn't they say that the moment you hear your favourite music in lifts and adverts you're getting old? Is that moment now?

f—k cancer

2010-11-01T04:02:00.001-07:00

A subject close to my heart.

I may want one of these t-shrits.

on TV and elsewhere as of lately

2010-10-31T13:17:00.001-07:00

There are things in life that I have learned about thanks to my TV. One of them is urinary incontinence, one of the pressing issues of a former tutorial back in uni. The other is feeling like a whale on a sunny beach and being bloated just when you want to suck your stomach in to fool people into believing you're slim. Or fitting into those jeans. There's a yoghurt for that. But meanwhile, there's this weird Tena ad that's been on repeat:

First I thought...this is very depressing. But then I realised as an outsider I don't really know what it's for. Tena don't do underwear for its own sake so it's not no-VPL underwear. It dawned on me it's actually quite good - unless you're the target audience, you'd be none the wiser. Just some women and bums on your TV screen. Things have to be addressed and while not everyone is Kotex, this will do.

And IKEA kitchens. Which is a bit giving since I work on a kitchen brand in the upper echelons. But ours are the sort of people who won't buy one of ours because it's not expensive enough. So I shouldn't have a word in it. But I like IKEA because it knows young people don't really care about the functionality, they care about the flashy. Do they have money? No, they don't. Do they care that it might fall apart in a couple of years? Possibly not - but the beauty of it is that when it does, they usually come to our client.

milkman's here

2010-10-30T14:57:00.001-07:00

There's this shop that opened downstairs in Selfridges Manchester a while back as they were redesigning their food & drink area. It's now considerably smaller than it used to be and they've made way for a Paperchase and Pedlars. Pedlars sells modern retro stuff - from phones and kitchen scales to clothing that is quintessentially 'British' in its heritage. Leather satchels, duffle coats, flat caps, decor to inspire and so on and so forth. Miscellanea, some of it nostalgic, some of it might seem like tat (rubik cube salt and pepper holders?).

Among them, the milk bottle. I like the milk bottle.

This is a photo taken in a museum in Leamington Spa:

It's a bit sad that milk bottles are now in museums and we get the ugly plastic stuff:

Sure you can get creative with this kind of stuff but milk bottles seemed like such a nicer idea.

I struggled to explain to my grandmother that the milk we get is fresh - Romania has a love affair with all things pure & fresh and of course everyone's been brainwashed into thinking UHT is good. I frown a bit at the thought of UHT. I frown at the thought of anything that doesn't go off after a few days, as it should. When milk bought today goes off next year in April...Anyway.Milk in Romania comes in either plastic bags or is UHT and comes in boxes.But there used to be glass bottles!

I wonder why we have places that deliver you groceries at your door but don't do milk glass bottle deliveries any longer. I'll take a glass bottle to empty and return anytime over plastic that I have to recycle. Is it really cheaper to make all those plastic ones over and over? That can't be right.

Till then, some more glass bottles from Pedlars:

That's £12.50 each for the privilege. Sod it, I might just get them for the decor. And meanwhile wait for a revival - although I'll regret having spent the money if they do bring them back.

What's China?

2010-10-29T07:48:00.001-07:00

I'm helping Rob, who's also helped me and whom I owe a huge deal- he's looking for contributions from people on the subject of China. It's simple, really. Andrew did it too.

Post an image that best embodies China from your point of view. And mention whether you've been to China or not.

I could think of many things that come to mind when talking about China but then again the same happens for France. I can think of patisseries, the Eiffel tower, red wine, champagne and creme Chantilly all at the same time. It's bound to be stereotypical, just like every other person that hears me talk about Romania starts going on about a combination of beautiful women, Dracula, plum brandy (palinca), gypsies and Ceausescu.

Not having been there myself, the only thing I have in mind is a combination of The Silk Road and the Dunhuang Caves (or Mogaoku Caves as they're also known).

Impermanence? (photo via National Geographic)

Most people will think 'China' and see all their household items and clothes, think that it's all cheap labour and recent Western exploitation but maybe because I was a history nerd, the Silk Road - and these caves - go to show that people, their trade and labour want to be free. The Silk Road was a good example that we're all nomads by nature, just like birds and other animals. We walk, we stop, we feed, we reproduce and then leave before our presence drains the resources available.

In the case of the Dunhuang caves, people would walk, stop, feed and show due respect to their shelter and surroundings. If I'm not mistaken, that's how Buddhism first migrated to China from India.

So that's it really.

That's the story behind my image. That's China to me.

That's a A 51-foot Buddha from the Middle Tang period (781-847).

internet magazines

2010-10-29T07:09:00.001-07:00

Netzines. Webzines? Never liked any of the terms despite being good ways of describing what in the world you were on about to other people.

It's interesting to look at how websites these days are doing the whole magazine-replicating business. Some badly, some rather well I'd say.

I've got 3 bones to pick:

Issuu is a platform so sadly they have to cater to any magazine format. The navigation and zooming in are particularly troublesome. I don't feel like I'm reading a magazine, I feel like I'm struggling to make a thing on the internet work with me, not against me. I wouldn't be able to read full articles with all the headache that zooming in is - sensitivity is frustrating.

Pandora's feature on ELLE has me sold. It's all about their new collection and it flows so smoothly, you don't even notice it's there. If I wanted a magazine on the internet, that would be the perfect representation; reading in real life I don't get to see what's 5-6 pages ahead (like with issuu), but just go from front to back or back to front, depending on what I feel like. But as far as telling a story about the new collection goes, you don't just dip in straight in the middle of it, you're delicately transported from one end to the other. The sound of pages turning is a nice addition. But my bone to pick here is that I can't share things. On the bright side, they've managed to integrate videos very nicely. It's simple and clean.

Net-a-Porter have taken it further to integrate the shopping experience in the magazine. The 'Wedding Magazine' is beautifully curated and lets you shop the items as you see them, never leaving the magazine itself. There's potential for being distracted but I'm pretty sure that it's a major selling point especially since it looks like taken out of a Vogue or Harper's Bazaar feature. That's good. I like it.

more gym experience

2010-10-28T14:19:00.001-07:00

When I joined the gym a few weeks ago I thought I'd hear a lot of jokes about being just another 'gym rat' and not running in the great outdoors and that sort of thing. Like they do over at I ran here today. Bloody beautiful. It's not that I wouldn't like it, but running and especially running outdoors is not my thing. My breathing is not right - and not because I lack training, but because my body decided running, smoking and other activities that are not lung-friendly would be a no-go zone for me.

It's almost November now and I can feel the cold damp weather in my bones. I feel it every time and it's like being stabbed from the inside out. The second I walk out, it's so overwhelming I just want to go back somewhere warmer.

Gym is getting better and better. I sometimes hate the way people who come in to somehow justify the fee with their mere presence stare at you. But focus only seems to come to me when I do my bicycle with my eyes closed. Zoning out shower-style, as cliched as it may sound. More calories burnt each time, more sweat, more euphoria afterwards. Why does everyone look at you in a funny way if you dance your way home?

I'm thinking of doing something constructive later next year. As three peaks has been taken off the list, I'm not sure what I could do that would be worth training for. A triathlon? Would I die during the run? Maybe I should find out.

some people still like taking their time

2010-10-28T08:11:00.001-07:00

via vimeo.com

You know I'm all about letters and type. So this lady is my hero - especially for the cereal boxes.

damn boxes.

2010-10-28T06:22:00.001-07:00

Many months after I bought my new computer, I still haven't organised my photos. Or any documents whatsoever. But the one thing that I notice are patterns in what I save and collect. Boxes! My inner hoarder is happy but my god, box & packaging porn is a horrible disease I tell you. And with what's inside them.

I really should have gone to work in JD. Or a sweatshop, I might hear you say. Boxes to please me all day.

Citroen Metropolis Concept -- Autoblog

2010-10-27T15:47:00.001-07:00

via autoblog.com

Oh, you pretty thing. Why Metropolis? Surely you can't be related to Fritz Lang and Art Deco movement.

Alex Bogusky

2010-10-27T08:35:00.001-07:00

Something new always feels risky somehow. I don’t really think it is, but I can’t deny that it has that feeling. You wonder what others will say and if you are a fool. And the truth is that others will say all sorts of stuff and, of course you are a fool. It’s easy to get afraid.

via psfk.com

Haters gonna hate?

out with the new

2010-10-25T04:16:00.001-07:00

But scratch beneath the metropolitan, London-centric focus, and you quickly discover that Britain remains a country deeply in love with the old and terrified of the new. Country hotels compete among themselves to tell us how ancient they are; holiday cottages vaunt that they were already in existence when Jane Austen was a girl. The draughty sash window shows no signs of retiring. Inheriting furniture and not bothering with plumbing continue to function as mysterious symbols of status.

via unplggd.com

In with the old.

that new ghd ad

2010-10-22T07:46:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

First and foremost - I had written another entry but sadly posterous is dumb and doesn't know how to save drafts. It disappeared.

I like this ad - I don't love it, but I like it and here's why (or why not):

(after all it was my dissertation..like it's my party and I'll cry if I want to)

1. I want to get into that party.
2. I like the analogy between Cinderella's spell wearing off at midnight and your looks wearing off after dancing and any other mildly strenous activity while out. However in case you didn't know nightclubs are now providing ghd's in ladies' toilets. For £1 you get to use the straightners available in the venue and refresh your look. Retouching (powdering your nose) has suddenly become a more complex task.
3. It feels like it really illustrates that you can do anything with your hair. So far, that hardly seemed interesting or relevant. 50% bleeding obvious, 50% untapped insight (or so it felt to me): as a woman, the moment you realise the power your hair has over other people, that's when you unlock the potential. If you've ever used your hair to hide from other people's glances, you will know.
4. The music is rather boring though - personal preference aside, what Rob mentioned was that you don't feel like you're following a storyline, but rather just watching another advert. And I agree. Gossip Girl put better tracks in their episodes and timed them better.
5. I noticed the woman with the short hair - an interesting play on the idea that women over 50 shouldn't have long hair. What one might call 'nana haircut' or 'married-woman-with-kids haircut' implies that for practical or society-driven reasons, having long hair over that age is like dressing up a mutton to look like a lamb.
6. I get the sense of empowerment from the fact that she, the alpha female, realises no guy surrounded by beautiful females and revelling in their attention is worthy of her. And only 2nd from the fact that she managed to pull a pit stop and redo her hair, avoiding ridicule.

Anway.

Making Ignorance Chic

2010-10-21T02:54:00.001-07:00

Casanova’s rule for seduction was to tell a beautiful woman she was intelligent and an intelligent woman she was beautiful.
The false choice between intellectualism and sexuality in women has persisted through the ages

via nytimes.com

Fact? Fiction? To some degree more fact than fiction. Despite what everyone wants to believe.

smell the rain

2010-10-21T01:39:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Interlude.

death & sadness

2010-10-20T02:19:00.001-07:00

It is human nature to want sad people to feel happier. But the concept of "closure" comes from a society that believes that all sadness can be medicated away, Oprah-talked or yoga-fied into Zen submission. To ask bereaved parents if they have found "closure" is the linguistic equivalent of giving them a copy of The Lovely Bones.

via guardian.co.uk

Hadley nails it when she talks about 'closure'. There is no closure. Or spoon.

the kitchen and the shops

2010-10-20T02:07:00.001-07:00

I posted this before. I changed my mind. I wanted to talk about failing to bake the perfect cheesecake despite trying, but now it's more about other things around the kitchen itself.

First it's about the stuff that we eat. I don't believe in cheap food and I've said it before. I'm aware of how fortunate I am to be able to choose what I eat, no questions asked. I look at my flat mate who is all "value" range and while my moral compass may go all crazy, I can understand the budget constraints. I noticed the above photo in Sainsbury's (most of my shopping happens there so this isn't a plug for them, just facts btw) and the meatballs on the left are the regular ones (not 'basics'), the ones on the right are Taste the Difference. I bought Taste the Difference - not just to buy into their new redesign and 'taste tested by customers' mantra, but because I think red meat should be red and not any other colour.

Which brings me to the wider area of what you eat when you don't have everything locally produced, carefully selected and what not. I bought a Bertolli to cook, although I was ready to buy the Lurpak with a loaf tin pack. Do I really need another loaf tin? I don't. I already have 2. Can I justify the £3? Well I could but there's no point.

And last but not least, I had a satisfying chocolate bar (cappuccino flavoured) in M&S - not sure if taste-tested, but it was far too sweet (although full of coffee flavour). They do them in 2 for £1, much like some of the other lunch things in store, like some small salads (2 for £3). Sometimes I can't tell whether it's for people who eat a lot or if it might encourage you to bring a friend along. I'm guessing the latter, but most people seem to be doing the former.

And this is the failed chocolate peanut butter cheesecake from earlier:

nearly there

2010-10-20T01:21:00.001-07:00

This isn't the first cheesecake I make, but the first one I make in my house (first was made for some friends). It's still a failure. I'm still learning. It's taking time to build up a collection of kitchen utensils but it might just be worth it after a while.

"Life will go on"

2010-10-19T09:23:00.001-07:00

If you do stuff online, people are tracking it and putting it into a database and trying to sell you stuff based on that. There’s not much you can do about it except not be online. And it’s not all that bad, really, to get ads for diapers when you’re having a baby, or ads for cars when you are looking to buy a car. Life will go on.

Michael Arrington via techcrunch.com

And that's what makes the world go round as they say. Day in, day out.

Cook Talk

2010-10-19T07:45:00.001-07:00

I really like the way waitrose talks about their cooking ingredients. The way a human being would when cooking - contextual stuff is always a nice touch even if it's just about "a bundle of cinnamon sticks", "easy on the chilli flakes" or the branded "very lazy" chopped garlic.

Niko asks, blog answers

2010-10-19T07:36:00.001-07:00

I've been having an interesting message conversation with Mr. Niko who is still alive and kicking having met Rob in Amsterdam for a chit-chat, beer and burger as I am told.

This isn't exactly new, in fact I think he's been cooking it up for a while but here are random thoughts this bizzaro conversation gave way to:

"Would a "thing" that focuses on [clothes fashionable] 2 or more seasons ago and how to combine that to be up to par work? Just a thought..."

Niko, not knowing the madness that goes on in women's heads asks. I try to answer:

1. Depends on who your audience is. The kind of people who would have clothes that were fashionable 2 seasons ago are also the ones who bother to follow trends, maybe some of them religiously so.

Rich & in the know - buying designer stuff before it comes out
Upper income & in the know - the "high" high street (e.g. Reiss, Jaeger)
Average income & in the know - buying designer knock-offs from cheaper chains (e.g. Zara, Forever 21) or designer collaborations (e.g. Lanvin for H&M)

Those who have money to buy new pieces every season tend not to worry as much as those who are stuck with clothes that are no longer fashionable. The latter are not the sort of people who invest in a few good (read versatile, timeless) pieces, but buy 10 for the price they could have bought 1 designer one. Jumping on the fashion bandwagon and filling up the wardrobe with things that take the way of charity shops in 2-3 seasons.

2. Anyone telling you how to combine trends from 2 seasons ago can only help you for one more season to come, unless you are the sort of person who feels comfortable walking down the street with whatever they pulled out of the closet. The self-conscious tend to buy into seasons and that doesn't go well with the confidence to carry whatever is available on hand.

3. Some items seem to carry on (drop-crotch trousers, military jackets, uggs) but do not have the same value for every woman. An ugg boot will probably become timeless, but only functional timeless, not stylish timeless. Despite anyone being able to feed many African countries with the same amount of money spent on a boot that looks like a wet hamster when it's wet outside.

4.The only rational way to get more out of your closet is to not give in to fashion fads and go for things that you can only wear one season. As simple as that. But fashion has never been about that - you're told all the time that beauty is pain and end up believing in suffering for beauty. Women aren't exactly known to be rational human beings either. The second way is to either make or upgrade your own clothes, which only a lucky few can do. The third is to not give a damn about what other people think and wear them anyway - but that doesn't go with the whole 'fashionable' issue.

If anyone feels like they want to weigh in, we might be onto something. Not as deep as the meaning of life, but certainly something. We are obsessive creatures, aren't we?

WASTE

2010-10-17T13:15:00.001-07:00

via businesspundit.com

My black list: Argos, Yellow Pages/Yell and Thomson Local.

Story of two boys and mountains

2010-10-15T09:18:00.001-07:00

He understood that people need cliché—that a cliché is really only cliché if it’s bullshit.
Although the yin-yang nature of their relationship proved ideal atop mountains—they virtually never bickered during expeditions—things could be different in the real world. Sometimes Gauntlett’s relentless drive wore on Hooper, whose tendency to doubt and despair could try Gauntlett’s patience.
Any seasoned climber, when contemplating the world’s most dangerous mountains, looks first to the Himalayas—to Annapurna, K2, Nanga Parbat. These monsters are as forbidding as they come, and therefore have the highest fatality rates. Four out of 10 climbers who ascend Annapurna die there.
The need is completely different for each individual.... It may take the form of a need to live heroically, or to rebel against restraint and limitation: an escape from the restricting circle of daily life, a protest against being submerged in universal drabness, an affirmation of the freedom of the spirit in dangerous and splendid adventure. Or it may well be the pleasure of physical fitness and moral energy, elegance of style and calculated daring; ordeals gaily faced with friends themselves as firm as rock, the hard life of the high huts, the happy relaxation on remote pastures as one smokes a pipe or sings mountain songs. It may be the search for an intense aesthetic experience, for exquisite sensations, or for man’s never satisfied desire for unknown country to explore, new paths to make. Best of all, it should be all these things together.

via vanityfair.com

Tragic but full of interesting bits.

majority vs minority

2010-10-15T01:26:00.001-07:00

Majorities normally don’t change things; creative minorities do, and the majority just goes along in the end. As anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Dieter Rams' Principles of Good Design

2010-10-14T04:35:00.001-07:00

via vimeo.com

Good video, timeless advice. Worth a post.

it's a mad world

2010-10-13T08:17:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

One of my favourites of all time

up in the air

2010-10-12T03:19:00.001-07:00

"All the things you probably hate about travelling -the recycled air, the artificial lighting, the digital juice dispensers, the cheap sushi- are warm reminders that I'm home"

gym & sleep

2010-10-11T07:39:00.001-07:00

Recently started going to the gym to keep myself fit as there's no diet that will help you lose weight by sitting on your bum. I wish there were.

I find myself eating more, being hungry more often, eating healthier (for the time being) and generally a happier person, albeit a bit achy every time.

I registered on Tuesday and had my induction the same evening with an Irish chap who said he had signed up 3 months ago but never attended. For £38 a month I'd say it's the kind of thing you either attend or spend or something else more worthwhile to your schedule like a night out. As a bit of an ice breaker while we waited, I said I look at all kind of data in my day job - and that the number one reason women quoted for not going to the gym are the mirrors. Mirrors everywhere. A bit like the lights in department stores or wherever makeup is sold. Lighting and mirrors to make you look fat and never achieving.

The rest of it (cheesy music, people staring, that sort of thing) are false worries - people who stare aren't doing their workout properly so that's their problem - and made up just so you don't put yourself through a bit of pain that'll eventually work in your favour. In the long term.

He (the Irish gentleman) said his main worry was being around really fit (quote "skinny") people. Funny he should say that because gym helps you build muscle & stamina by making you look healthy. Not eating makes you look skinny, which is a totally different beast altogether. I said to him I know the feeling of being made self-conscious by standing next to people who are better-looking, but that chances of people in this country being skinny in the gym are very slim. Far more go to the gym to lose the flab than they do to maintain themselves (which is a shame, but it works just like with diets). I don't really know if he's going or not and I don't want to say 'probably not'.

So far it's good and some machines let me plug my iPhone in and use the Nike app - I haven't yet tried the 'cheer on' thing despite having a few friends who use it but somehow I think it's part distraction, part encouragement.

However, last night I tried an app called Sleep Cycle to see what my sleeping pattern looks like (at least compared to other people if the data isn't all that accurate). My boyfriends' sleep looks erratic and restless, mine looks comatosed (in his own words). I fall asleep no problem. I stay that way unless noise or heat/cold wake me up - like last night:

Went to bed / woke up: 22:09 / 05:49
Total time: 7h 40m

Analysis made by Sleep Cycle.

I actually woke up later than that but my phone battery went in the meanwhile.

Facts & data are all very nice - but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep this measuring activity up. But it's good to know that once something changes, you can go to a specialist if you think something is wrong and say 'hey, I thought I'd come to you and show you this instead of googling my condition.'

And someone will thank you for that. Or you'll thank yourself maybe.

her majesty's secret stash

2010-10-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

There are things you see around in shops and know are endowed with royal warrants of appointment. Companies that have long been suppliers to HRM, Prince of Wales or other members of the royal family or have distinguished themselves one way or another in their trade.

However, what does that say to anyone? Does it guarantee quality? Does it guarantee satisfaction? Happiness?

As Mr. Northern Planner noted, Twinings are taking their business abroad. And with that a lot of their credibility. We could argue that Minky's is a more credible brand than Twinings but that's a different story.

I can think of others that have lost their credibility - and rightly so have been either replaced or named and shamed. The Queen's crown jewellers, for instance.

So why not get rid of Twinings then?

So deep...

2010-10-11T03:56:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

"It's like talking to the shrimp. What lives in the ocean? Squid. It's like talking to the squid."

a new twist on binge drinking campaigns

2010-10-07T13:20:00.001-07:00

via thefrisky.com

One that I like. "The other hangover" - the permanent shame. Great stuff.

do or do not. there is no try

2010-10-07T01:40:00.001-07:00

via etsy.com

Pretty good.

check your facts

2010-10-06T02:25:00.001-07:00

"Jokes don't work if they're lies."

(Jon Stewart on why The Daily Show checks facts)

17 years ago, there was orange

2010-10-06T01:47:00.001-07:00

via vimeo.com

I rather like this video (which I've only seen now) in which the brains behind orange the mobile phone carrier talk about its beginnings. Why orange? Why not blue? Will we really be wireless in the future when the only people with mobile phones were yuppies in restaurants?

I like it because it shows you have to be a bit mad sometimes to push something through.

walk in stupid

2010-10-05T02:52:00.001-07:00

What will be the next big breakthroughs/trends in creative innovation?

Difficult to answer. We will probably be surprised by another Twitter or Facebook innovation. Or Google for that matter. But, you never know. Maybe a student in Bhutan will discover the answer to sustainable energy or a close-loop manufacturing thought for a worldwide brand that can be shared for free. If the world is truly more local, then creative ideas will come from the most unsuspected places.

via creamglobal.com

It's good to see someone working at W+K strongly endorsing the 'walk in stupid' policy. I hate technology and media blogs precisely for this reason - they're only there to talk about what they think will be the next best thing and make predictions only to then revel in their right guess or shelve them if they weren't.

They focus too much on the how, rather than the why of things. How Facebook will make money. How Twitter will make money. How we will force behaviour onto people so we can make money on a platform that wasn't designed with money-making in mind.

In one word - ASS.

Just walk in stupid, OK?