Saturday, May 03, 2008

Ouch


Blogspam
Originally uploaded by ncomment
Woke up this morning with my neck and shoulders feeling as though they belonged to a post 'incident' Monica Seles. Just horribly painful. Plus they're creaking and groaning like Victor Meldrew playing the ghost of Christmas future.

And I woke up EARLY - which never helps on a weekend but seems to always be the way - especially when you have cats who are perma-hungry and an apartment with no doors or walls. Grrrrr.

Not masses here this weekend. Going down to a hotrod drive tomorrow and to watch a man eat roadkill live on stage tonight as hula hoopers strip behind him and his friend has 'contributions' stapled to his face by audience members. Yup, the FreakShow is happening all over again and I'm intrigues to find out why.

Anyway as I type I hear the less than delicate banging and crashing of my wife in the morning. Time to dash.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

So long virgin queen


Brooke White
Originally uploaded by destiny53
Brooke White went on this week's Idol.

The 'celebrity mentor' was Neil Diamond - the result... everyone sounding as though they were on between the salmon and the cutting of the cake at a ritzy wedding at which at decoration had substituted for beauty and extravagance for taste.

Brooke made the mistake of leaving the comfort of her piano. I liked her as a poor man's white bread Tori Amos.

Still we won't have to put up with her Cheez Whiz, Gee Whizzery anymore. So there is a silver lining - though I'm sure that any day now people are going to find out that silver linings are toxic.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I've started playing


white space
Originally uploaded by SideLong
I've started playing marketing bingo in meetings.

The three 'gimme's seem to be

"White Space"
"Cadence"
&
"Heavy Lifting"

In a bid to make the game a little harder I now shout each of these words right after anyone says them

"I think that what we're searching for here is 'white space'

"WHITE SPACE!"

"Excuse me?"

"WHITE SPACE, I just got a line on bullshit bingo"

This of course makes me a little unpopular but it also stems the tide of marketing terms for a while, making the game harder and my life a little more pleasant.

Now if I could just find out what "Cadence" means...

Monday, April 28, 2008

A lot to be proud of

A friend told me about Torch Lake today

By all accounts it's beautiful

And very proud of being "The world's 3rd most beautiful lake"

The ranking was supposed to have come from National Geographic Magazine, though National Geographic flatly denies ever publishing such a ranking"

Locals have been pushing this National Geo. story for years and I have to say - I'm intrigued enough to book me a place there

Mad Busy


P1040182.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
I'm crazy busy today.

Have all kinds of things due and as ever it's a race to get the data in enough time to actually analyse rather than merely copy it.

I'm looking at the way that the US car industry breaks down (not literally) and at the growth in segments and the expectations within those segments ---> then trying to predict desire 5 years out.

I love this kind of stuff ---> but pulling the 'how are people feeling outside of the 0.002% of the time they spend thinking about cars" is tough. We're data rich to the point of excluding the outside world.

I want to know what effects daycare has had on 16 year olds, what Viagra will do to aging boomers (again not literally), what the democratic design movement has meant, what sustainablity will mean for design (if we get a Green president will saving the planet by this generations 'going to the moon' and what will that do to car design?). I want to know what the overprotection and overscheduling of kids is going to mean in terms of transport and of course what expensive fuel will do to the commute.

And I can get all of that stuff. It just takes time. And co-ordination. And I'm getting itchy as I wait.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

This lovely car


P1040225.JPG
Originally uploaded by stevenjude
This lovely car had only one previous owner - a famous Arab collector who had the car delivered in the shiniest of conditions. Okay so it needed a service before it was taken out - but with only 9000 miles on the clock and with a sticker price of around $20k it wasn't bad value.

The cars were going cheap today - kinda wish I'd raised my numbered lollipop now

Ho - hum