Random Thoughts

Having a Twitter account and other blogs (which I've also neglected) it's hard to find time to post on a personal blog. Every time I really felt the urge to go all "Doogie Howser" the subject I want to post about is better suited to a secret blog, one that isnt traced back to me as sharing more personal issues and problem would cause too many problems for me (in case the wife reads... hello Ervi) & Soap.

So I give you a grab bag assortment of thoughts in no particular order. Spelling errors and other grammatical mistakes are left in as Im too lazy to audit.

A New Car

After surviving quite well without a car for 12 years in Sydney we now have a new car. A brand new VW Golf. It's officially my wife's car as I was content to just use the fantastic GoGet service but as Ervi only just got her licence they won't let P's use the cars.

This new car resulted in the need to clean out our garage. Which was filled with empty computer boxes, filing cabinets, tyres, and junk from years of hording and collecting for Soap. Lots of visits to the bins, a truck pick up for Soap junk and a shit load of sweeping resulted in a usable lock up garage.

Having driven just 5 times in the last 12 years I feel like a learner again. When we filled out the insurance policy it asked "how many accidents have you had in the last 5 years" I put 0. It never asked a more appropriate question of "How many times have you driven in the last 5 years" which I also would have answered 0. Even Youii who's whole campaign is about asking the right questions didn't ask this. Silly fools!

The VW Golf is great but I still secretly long for the GTI or R. But I've always been one to live under my means and the nice little Golf suited Ervi's budget.

After driving to Ikea and Bunnings I have ticked off all the items I needed a car for. Now I sit around wondering where to drive to with no good ideas. I expect a trip to Palm Beach sometime just because that's what everyone recommended. But after living on the Gold Coast for 14 years a beach doesn't interest me.

Ignite Talk on Google Trends
After years of wanting to present this ( i posted about this back in 2007) I finally got to give my presentation (stand up routine) on Google Trends. See the slides and script here. It went down really well and now I don't really want to do a presentation again as I wont go as well.

Facebook Myths
It is so hard not to drink the Facebook coolaid. The dominance of the platform blind sides you to the fact that it is just part of the puzzle not the actual puzzle itself. Remember when blogs were cool? I do I was trying to sell blogs into clients back in 2003 (with no success). No one seems to talk about forums but they are still alive and strong. It just seems to be that if you tick Facebook and Twitter you're golden.

Remember when social media was new? I do, I remember Lara from Yahoo! asking me about in 2004! and I researched from there. If only I persisted... See the post about that here.

Classical Music
The two radio stations I listen to exclusively now are ABC Classical 92.9 and 102.5 (2MBS which I had to google I had no idea of the name)

Why? because if I hear the fucking Spaceship song again I'll go into a DJ rage. It'd hate it less if the filmclip was good but it's terrible.

This is how you do a Benny Bennasi filmclip (better song too)

Seriously though when your days are filled with meetings, proposals, code, questions, answers and business decisions the last thing you want to listen to is more noise. Classical music is great to just be alone in your thoguhts and relax. Just like a good session on the XBOX360 you can just focus on that for a few hrs to rest the brain.

Too Many Games
After winning Xbox Australia as a client I now get free games from 3 publishers Ubisoft, Activision and Microsoft). It's to the point where I look at a games catalogue and have played everything I wanted. Red Dead Redemption being the first game I bought in a while. I still have Transformers, Crackdown 2 and the last part of Alan Wake to go through. I do love spending my days talking about Halo Reach, Marvel characters and why Deadpool is awesome. Sad note is I don't have an unlimited XBOX points account so I still have to pay for games like LIMBO. Which was awesome BTW.

Movies
Inception is the first film in a long time I am super excited to see.
Still watched a heap of films with docos on popular culture always top of my list
Good Hair
Food Inc.
both deserve a watch

The Male/Female lead RomCom Action Genre
2010 is the year of the Male/Female lead RomCom/Action genre. 3 big films with 6 big stars all in a short time frame.

Date Night
Killers
Knight & Day

Date Night wasn't bad but it seems they all want another Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Foursquare: It sucks I want YELP!
After spending a week in NYC I came to the conclusion that YELP! is not only a much better service but it's used much more by consumers and businesses. I used a Foursquare deal at a Cafe and the 2 staff had no idea what it was. "Our boss does these things on the net and we don't know"... I still got 15% off by checking in.

I saw about 10 x "We're loved on Yelp!" stickers than I did anything related to Foursquare (even Facebook) at cafes, restaurants and small stores in NYC. So why does everyone talk about Foursquare? Echo chamber of BS

Any time I wanted to know where to eat I went to YELP! Foursquare showed me that someone had checked into a cab, a train station or multiple restaurants but I had to sift through all the tips (if there was any) just to see if it was good or not.

Please Google, bring Yelp to Australia we need it. UrbanSpoon on the iphone is terribly slow and not user friendly.

Mobile Food Vans
Why does LA have these amazing mobile food vans and Australia just get Mr Whippy? I enjoyed fresh spring rolls, burgers and other great food at these vans while in LA. I missed the Kogi van though.

Is there a law stopping this happening in Australia or are we just behind the times? Huge opportunity here

Thank god LOST is over
The show is finally gone from required viewing. The finale reminded me of Land of the Lost with the dodgy camera shake. The reason I watched Lost was because I thought it would lead somewhere. Damn them for wasting my time.

New Glasses or Laser Eye Surgery
After finding my fav pair of glasses I now need to get new ones. Knowing full well I wont find a pair that suit me as much. I could go Laser Eye Surgery but still too scared even though the 6 people I know who have have surgery had great results.