Guide to pants off living
February 2006
Ooooh Charts!
Wednesday, 15 February 2006
I just stumbled across the The Long Tail - an excellent and interesting journal by Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine Editor in Chief.
His site has a huge amount of really interesting analysis of data as it relates to current business trends particularly with CD sales, blockbuster movie sales and a whole bunch of other neat, interesting and topical stuff.
From the site;
The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-target goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.
Posted by travo at 2:06:33 PM
Down time
Thursday, 09 February 2006
I'm not sure exactly what this says about me, but from time to time I seem to find myself in chronic downtime. It happens in a kind of cyclic way, every ten to tweleve months and is independant of employer activities, though since my employment cycle of the last few years has been 12 -14 months there could be a pattern emerging.
I really enjoy having a project based focus for my work. It anchors my thinking and sets some real concrete activites for me to centre upon. I also really appreciate endorsement and support from management. It helps to provide 'legitimacy' to my activities and also ensures that someone other than me is interested in what I'm doing.
While that might sound piss weak; like I need a fucking teacher to check my work - it is a key motivator for me. If it were up to me, and I could get paid equally well for it - I'd be doing 'other things'. It is reassuring to have someone - mentor, manager, peer - endorse your work.
Which is why, when I find myself with a few too many spare hours to fill, I find it hard to self-motivate and engage in positive activities which would probably be incredibly beneficial to me such as investigating the latest new technology or practicing new techniques.
Like the soft-headed buffoon that I am, I hope that management notices how quickly I'm able to complete my work - hence the downtime. It quite clearly doesn't have that effect...
Posted by travo at 3:10:17 PM
Any thoughts...
Tuesday, 07 February 2006
So the time has come for a shared domain. Forget shared bank accounts and all that shite, you know you're really in love and going to spend the rest of your life together when you get a domain and website together. So what should it be?
99union.org
travandmel.org
winters.org.au
yuan.org.au
boofheadandhotpants.com
Any ideas?
Posted by travo at 10:31:45 AM | Comments (1)
Yet more excitement in Brunswick.
Saturday, 04 February 2006
"Goin' to Brunswick Mate?", asks one bikie to another.
"Nah, just shootin' through".
BLAM, BLAM, BLAM.
Went out to dinner tonight, and as we drove away we noticed a few Harley's parked outside the Union Hotel. I remarked to Mel that it looked like there was going to be a big one tonight; the usual stuff, burnouts at 2.00am, shouting, a little fighting and piss-wrecks staggering home cussing one another out.
Something different happened tonight though, we returned home to flashing red and blue lights; half a dozen police units and a whole bunch of police tape around the pub.
By the time we got home at 10.00, a bikie had been shot three times and had already been dispatched by amblulance and the CIB were on the scene questioning witnesses. A few journo's were hovering around trying to gather a story from locals.
I noticed one of the journo's desperately trying to feed a story to a colleague back at the office over the telephone; I said, "Dude, I could lend you a notebook with a wireless connection if you have an extranet - I could have blogged tihs story already!" He laughed.
Anyhoo, as we approached Alexander Parade and got off the Eastern freeway on our way home fron dinner out, a bikie on a Harley sped by us at a rate of knots.
"Looks like there's a rumble on at the Union tonight", I joked to Mel.
How right I was.
Posted by travo at 10:37:34 PM
Sport : Competition or Fun
Wednesday, 01 February 2006
I never really made it at sport as a kid. Never really got into any team sport as an adult. Up until today, my mother (god bless her) and I were pretty much resolved to the fact that I just didn't have the gross motor skills - that I just liked playing lego and drawing. I was just too fucking uncordinated to play sport very well.
I have played football (under 10's and 12's). I have played basketball. I have done gymnastics. I have trampolined. I have played squash and I love riding my bicycle.
Most of those team sports, I hated. The two things I still enjoy, riding a bike and playing squash are individual endeavours.
Recently, I was invited to play squash again - and I jumped at it; I'm trying to be more active and get out and about more. As I get older I'm more aware of myself, and I realise that my lack of ability was probably not due to my lack of coordination or skill (which always come with determination and practice) but more due to my sense of fun and enjoyment.
If it was football, I loved kick-to-kick. It's a bunch of guys kickin' a footy around and talkin' - sometimes lairising, but mostly just seein' how hard and far they can kick a footy. Cool fun.
I realised the other night during squash, one of the core weaknesses of my squash game is that I simply don't play to win. I play for fun. I play to hit the ball off the back wall to my partner, so that they can hit it back, and then I can hit it again... and again... and again. I'm like a pooch with a tennis ball in my slobbery mouth beggin for you to throw it again so I can run and get it...
During the squash game, there were heaps of opportunities for me to win points, but I just simply popped the ball back onto the wall, dead centre, setting up an easy shot. My squash partner, just nailed me every time. They have the desire to win. I'm simply happy playing.
Thing is though, I hate loosing. Go figure.
Posted by travo at 10:33:00 PM