2003: Year In Review

While looking for an old document of junk I found this Year in Review document. I present it to you in unedited form. Note: If only I data vized my stats I would have had 3 years on Feltron.

I'm unsure why I didn't post this. It's quite funny to me now.

I did a year in review for 2005 and for last year.

2003 Year In review:

Soap went from 3 people to 2, then to 3, then 4 then 5.

The first full year of working for myself.

We launched a new website in December which we started in January.
Had a client get arrested and go to jail for importing $100M+ of Ecstacy. We never saw our money.

We bought a heater, 3 Emacs, 2 PC's and 2 printers. And numerous software. We also bought numerous chairs which will all be obsolete in January 2004

Did our first eyeblaster banners with Syrup.

Completed our first commercial CDROM job for Contiki and HOST.

Built our first flash desktop app for Big Brother 03.

First mentioned in B&T for Moboy and Big Brother

Got the Flash Forward award we won last year from Leo

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I retired my laptop to work on a Emac. The took my laptop out of retirement with OSX 10.3 to work occasionally at home.

Bought an IPOD. Converted all my CD's to MP4's. Realized Itunes was useful.

TOP Songs/Albums of 2003: According to Ipods Play Counts:
24 Doves: Lost Souls: Firesuite
22 Coldplay: A Rush of Blood: Clocks:
22 COldplay: Parachutes: Shiver
21 The Prodigy: The Fat of the Land: Climbatize
The Shins: Og Inverted World: Caring is Creepy:
AIR: Moon Safari: Sexy Boy
Cat Power: Moon Safari: Cross Bones Style
Eels: Novacaine for the Soul
Easy Me: Faith No More
Oh Yeah: Yellow

Faith No More is the only artist i own a CD off. The rest I burnt from friends. Weird they should make up the top 25 in my Top played songs:

Only Smashing Pumpkins with 1979 and the before-mentioned Faith No More are the lone artist's in my Top 40 of which I own CD's of. I guess my friends have good taste and I'm a stingy bastard.

Finally understood XML and it's worth

The first full year in sydney I have lived in the same apartment.

In December I finally bought a PS2 and tried to make up for lost time.

I raised $2,150 for Oxfam to travel to China only to have SARS and work interrupted plans.

I Visited Melbourne for the first time.
Visited QLD twice

>> Spoke at 2 conferences this year: Flashklt and Digit. Both ill-prepared but went down well. Also got asked to speak in Singapore (free flight) only to have a job due the same day. Then find out the job is delayed.

My little sister moved in to live with me for a while.

Still haven't got Private Health Cover, Insurance or Laser Eye Surgery.

We bought a new kettle.

Bought a DVD player to go with the DVD's i own.
http://www.theslipperytruffle.com/v4/archives/2003_06.html#000972

Finally started paying for dialup after my free UUNET account stopped working.

Realised i can make good smoothies. Made and consumed around 50

Bought my first ever suit for Robs wedding.

Finally got a electric toothbrush

Realised i like Felafel Kebabs from Ali Baba. Bought and consumed about 15

Sworn off soft drink about 10 times

Got a new mobile phone (Siemens S55) and have hated it ever since.

Number of times vomited: 4
Number of Migraines: 3
Number of fights: 0
Distance i drove a car: 0km
Number of Weddings Attended: 1
Pairs of Shoes bought: 1
Pairs of Shoes worn: 3
Number of times rent paid late: 18
Number of times sunburnt: 1
Allnighters at work: 3
Number of times went to bed before 12am: 50

won ticket to premier of Matrix 2. 1 ticket!!!! I sat behind Jimmy Barnes and next to 2 suited people. I saw the president from 24 on the Red Carpet

i made a google #1
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bored+stiffy+in+public+places&meta=

A Sad Case of Blog ADD

toothpastefordinner.com

I have a serious case of Blog ADD. Here's my train of thought for a typical lazy raining Sunday. Part of getting over this problem is sharing the problem so here goes.

I'll get a list of posts I need to do for Sleevage (including ones that I have promised bands and designers sorry guys) and start researching a post. I'll then end up with 25 tabs open and then see something about an underground dance party and start to flag that for the underground blog. By this time I've forgotten about Sleevage. Either that or my tabs crash and I lose all the links.

I'll then see a banner on one of these sites that reminds me to audit the submissions for Bannerblog. I'll look through those which is also littered with viral videos and campaigns. While checking out them I'll see something which triggers a thought for this site.

It's usually a pet peeve or something stupid yet insightful so I open up the admin here. But opening up this admin reminds me of all my other posts I promised myself I'd do. I search for an old list I did somewhere. Google Docs or Toodloo.

I can't find that list but see another list of the collaborative posts/articles I have on the go for Soap Creative and my real job! Oh yeah that Community Post with Matt! I totally forgot. Oh the white paper on Micro Transactions. This is why we got the 2010 Digital Predictions doc done in <5 days because it would have dragged on otherwise.

Thinking about this then reminds me that I should tend to HeroHQ while we're in hiatus awaiting the new game to be announced (soon guys!). I'll check there and someone will link to a crazy X-Men related costume which reminds me that no only did I sell WTFcostumes too soon but my other 3 blog ideas (secret ideas right now) haven't even got off the ground.

The one blog that did get off the ground is the neglected Cool Shit You Can Buy. On official hold due to a blog embargo by my wife.

I then check my email to see another request for a custom Mr Potatohead. I look to my left and see a box of Mr Potatohead parts and piles of clay that have been untouched for almost 2 years now. I resist the urge to make a Predator potatohead yet again.

Looking at my Mr Potatohead photos reminds me that I still have thousands of travel photos to process. It makes me reminisce when I had a proper photoblog back in 2000-2004. Ahh Happy Snaps I miss you. I also find it funny I used to post images 320x320 size. I was worried when I went above 40k for a photo. That was dial up in 2001 I guess.

It's about this time I realise I've done nothing, I'm still in my underpants and I haven't eaten anything. Oh and it's time for bed.

The only saving grace is that Bannerblog has a solid team of editors who keep the site rolling along and Ross, Alex and Matt continue to hold the torch for Soap on the blogs even when I don't.

I hope others out there share the same problem. Maybe I just need a personal assistant?

Disclaimer: Facts may be exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Man Week Post

I was away getting married when Man Week happened so I thought It's better to be late than never for the party of all things manly.

As usual I can't write a good story just lots of little tid bits so here they are. Anything man related I can think of.

1: My Dad's Name

It was at the signing ceremony during the wedding that I discovered what my dad's name was. Gerald Anthony. Not Brock Sampson as I was hoping :(

It was weird seeing his name as I have seen about 3 photos of him and never had any interest in catching up with him since becoming an adult.

The first thing that came to my head when I saw the name was "wonder what will come up if I Google him" but then realised it's a pretty generic name and thus nothing comes up if you try.

I guess my mum gave Ervi's family his name as when they asked me I said I didn't know and if not needed to get married then don't worry.

Update: I did have a father figure (my sisters dad) growing up (well say 50% of it) but this wasn't the best example. Ie he's a douche bag :)

2: Barber Shave

While in Indo (again for the wedding) I decided to get a shave at the Barber's. I've wanted to do this for ages and Indo is great as it's so cheap for this type of stuff. I went to the same place Ervi's dad has been going for 25 years. I'm not sure if it's just this place or what I had was the real deal but it fucking hurt. I was expecting a hot towel to start but the guy just cleaned me up then went into shaving balm/creme stuff. And then right into using the blade. My eyes watered it hurt so bad. The guy ended on a hot towel? Either way I'll be sticking to my Gillette Quatro with aloe vera blades from now.

Funny but this was the most painful experience next to having my blackheads cleaned while getting a facial. Which I also did in indo as again it's so cheap and Ervi was getting one too.

3: Dick and Balls

Being a man is being obsessed with dick and balls. No man can say he's never drawn a dick and balls on a photo of his friends. How detailed you draw the dick and balls is up to you but everone has a style which is similar to a hand writing style.

Here's the ones I've tagged with penis on my Flickr

I believe this might have been Rob's creation.
And here's Superbad talking about dicks

Update: Women don't seem to draw Vaginas so it's a MAN thing.

4: Hair

My most mainly features would be my ability to grow facial hair. Although now I hate shaving as it's a pain in the ass.

Here's me trying to think of more manly things

In addition to facial hair I now have Magnum PI chest hair in addition to other parts I wish didnt have hair. I remember when I just had hair around my nipples in primary school. Ahh those were the days.

This hair however did help me sneak into Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast and nudie bars when I was 16-17 as I looked older.

Additional 5: Man Stuff

In terms of checking off the items on "Being a Man in Australia" sadly I can't change a car tire, even a bike tire would confuse me. I don't own a tool set and only last year got a hammer to um... hammer stuff. Never owned a shed, was always bad at chucking a wheelie on my bike. I'm also shit at fighting and the last time I punched a punching bag I hurt my wrist. (I am a whiz on the speed ball though)

And that's about it for manly stuff and me. Here's a post from Mark P which covers everyone else's posts about man week. Which I haven't gone through in full as I'm lazy and skim read.

Also Mark P and Gavin are putting a book together for Man Week which you can contribute to. More info here.

Getting married soon

My wedding date is closing in June 26th and the thing I was most worried about was the conversion to Islam but that will all be sorted soon in Indonesia.

So now I just have to sit back and let is happen. As it's in Indonesia I didn't have to organize anything which was good. I just sent money over :)

The photo at the top is the pre-wedding photos which I'm told we needed for an indo wedding. These will be printed large and around the wedding reception.

The wedding will be a big one 500+ people but in Indonesia that's a normal size. Here's a 1,500 people wedding and it doesn't seem that big. Although I didn't take any crowd shots.

Funny, after being with Ervi for 10 years now the marriage part of things seems like a small part.

Wisdom Teeth all Removed

My left side wisdom teeth were removed today

The dirty one is the top one which I had no idea was so bad. Glad that's out.

I found there are quite a few photos of people's wisdom teeth on flickr. I only wish I took my camera with me and got a shot of the bloody tooth. These washed teeth have much less "character" I guess the dentist assistant wanted to make it all clean for me. Oh well.

It's funny how events like this are ones I want to capture. The dentist and the assistant seemed OK with me having the teeth but I got the feeling not everyone keeps the teeth they have extracted. Why not it's a great souvenir.

I wish I owned a camera when I sliced my finger open in highschool and when I was badly sun burt in primary school and had to go to hospital. Not having any record of these events annoys me now. Kids these days have camera phones and will be able to keep a record of pretty much everything that happens to them.

My Google Reader Trends

Here are my Google Reader trends which I'm disspointed in seeing that Google Reader only keeps the last 30 days. Very lame. I have made a huge effort lately to keep on top of my Google Reader as I used to let it just pile up and then "flag as read" but now I've made an effort to keep on top of a few of my sets of feeds.

Comparing this to my Google Search history it seems there are no trends between the two.

I dont seem to read anything on Wednesdays and Sunday is my day to catch up before the start of the new week. 8-9am is a big time too as I read when I get in early to work and 3-5 is either catchign up on a few during the day or that's the time I read most on the weekends. Then you have the 11pm and 1am last minute reading before bed.

I'd like to see other people's trends and see if they match mine.

Also I have been sharing and starring heaps as I've used this as bookmarking and a way to share items with friends. I see this as the way I blog now. Rather than just reporting stuff I'll just "share" it on my reader. Check my shared items here. So much good stuff these days it's hard to keep track.

20+ Things you did not want to know about me

My most nervous moment

This is the first time I've watched these videos after being filmed almost 5 years ago.

The reason being was that I was so nervous that I had one of those paper bag moments (sans paper bag) and in my head this interview went so badly I wiped it from my memory. It became a repressed memory until I saw someone posted this last week.

So I finally watched all 20 min! of this interview from 2004 on social media. I have to thank Lara Stella who came to me with the question "what do you think of social media and can you talk about it" I was like WTF is social media. This was 2004 way before any of this was mainstream chatter. I had been blogging since 2000 but I had no idea what social media was. I was pimping blogs to clients but never used the term social media.

So here's me talking about it from the past. 5 years in Internet time is HUGE so I can now sleep without nightmares knowing that what I said still rings true. It's not that insightful or amazing now but when I was researching this back in 2004 after Lara's email I was excited about it.

Last piece of info. I thought this was going to be a text interview. Not a live web cast. So i wore a normal T-shirt and rocked up. Lara's first comment was "oh why are you wearing a crappy T-shirt we are going on live in 5 minutes"

I kid you not I almost fell over dizzy. You can see me swollow hard and touch my face many times. My Adams apple looks like an WIP prop from an Aliens film as I struggled with my words.

Anyway here's the talk and it's kinda funny that Social Media is so popular now and I guess I can consider myself OG as 2004 predates many people's interest in it let alone dedicating their career. I just didn't have the charisma to really sell myself as an expert back then and still dont.

I love the stats which at the time I think were correct. Gawker reached 70,000 a day! WOW

I might be making an appearance on TV this year (not live but live audience) and part of me is excited and part of me is scared of recreating that feeling back in 2004. Watching this was therapy for that fear and reading all the book recently on NLP, Body Language and the like have helped too. Oh and knowing to dress up a little helps :)

I'm much more confident (with myself and my career) than I was 5 years ago. I used to hate having my photo taken (check all my feet photos) and while I don't think I'm egotistical I do have an ego now which I try and keep in check. What I do have more is an opinion and this I've been much more vocal about. Not scared that someone will disagree and not scared to disagree with other people (or the statue quo)

So if you watch the video all the way through (only 100 or so have) let me know what you think.

Life to Do Updates

It's been a hectic last few months. Make that a fucking hectic last few months. I'm the kind of guy that likes doing nothing on the weekends or just chilln playing video games. But I've been flying and being a jet setter lately and working I've had hardly any time to myself.

All this did lead me to tick off a bunch of things in my Life To Do list from 2003.

4: Write an article for an online mag (Smashing Magazine even though they massacred my selection by adding their own in.

5: Speak at a conference in a foreign country IG's Digital Day. Thanks to Marcello and Neogama BBH for making it easy for me

34: Go white water rafting (Was scarier than I thought!)

And I did go snorkelling in Indonesia but my list says Great Barrier Reef so I won't tick that one off yet.
9: Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef

So 3 things in 3 months. Not bad!

23: Become a Muslim: This is currently in progress. I gotta read my Muslim for dummies book first! I'm only at chapter 3

The one I really want to do is 15: Compete in a fun run so I better get the Nike+ strap and get fit.

Costume Blog

I forgot that Halloween was just next month and that my costume blog would start receiving a lot more traffic. Ive been using Google Insights to see what tyoe of costumes people are searching for and creating posts just for that. Stuff like Yoda Costume and Burger King costume seem to be indexing high.

Adsense for the site has been 200% better in the last few weeks (originally it was very low) so hopefully the next 2 months will be mch better.

10 Year Highschool Reunion

On Saturday I went to my highschool's 10 year reunion. I flew up to the Gold Coast for the event.

There was around 80 or so people which is a lot more than I expected. Initially it was all the guys which is weird I thought they would have been the least inclined to go.

I got to catch up with pretty much everyone. Even people I wouldn't donate blood for I had good chat to. My crew (the guys I ate lunch with everyday, talked about Simpsons with and played handball with) didn;t really turn up. Only one of them who was a newcomer to our click.

Peter, Daniel, Dale, Mark & the two Nathans (sounds like a Biblical role call) didn't turn up. The other guy who I can't remember his name (the amercian guy with glasses and always wore a hat) was one of the few who actually died. Hit in the head with a baseball. Which makes sense as he was a keen baseball player.

Even the girl I had a mad crush on was there alway the sparkle has worn off considerably. Nothing on her, she still looks cute as, I just have something better now.

That said many of the girls have aged well. Although we did have a pretty good line up of talent in our year to start with.

There were a few noticeable characters that didn't turn up (Robert Botkos, Kris Dolinko, Grant Hacket, Chad Walsh, Sam But, Azra, Sumi) which is a shame but there was enough there to make it a really interesting night. People seemed to recognize me more than I recognized them. There was a couple I would not have picked out in a police line that remembered me but I couldn't put a memory to the face or name.

There were three marriages that stemmed from highschool, two from relationships from highschool, which is pretty amazing. But I guess I've been with Ervi since 1998 so that's almost as long.

I'm not sure I'd be so interested in a 15 year reunion. 5 years just isn't long enough for much to change but we'll see. Thanks to facebook I'm able to contact a few more of my highschool friends. It's nice being able to throw a "hey" to people once in a while.

I Be Homeowner

I officially got my homeloan approved today and will be exchanging contracts on a unit this week!

This means no more paying rent for me! YAY! Just a mortage! BOO!

I'm buying the unit I've rented for the last year which means I don't even have to move out! I can finally nail shit into the walls and put fly screens up and paint some walls.

And once the mortage is paid off I can go back to buying stuff I don't need instead of saving every penny.

Other Ashley Ringrose's

It's wierd to think there are other people out there with your name. Esspecially for one like mine which isn't common.

I remember hearing about a guy who met every other person with the same name as him and had a photo taken with them. Maybe I need to get an arts grant to fund this most excellent idea?

The freakest one of all is Girl Gymnast of the Year Ashley Ringrose. Whoa. I can't even touch my toes!!!

Runiks Cube Solution Video

We've had a Rubiks Cube around the office for the last few months and I've gotten really good at solving them. I asked someone to mess it up in around 25 turns and I told them I could solve it in under a minute. It took me just under that.

Searching for Hotels

I've finally booked all my hotels for my Europe trip. Yay.

I found the best site to be Worldby.com as the information and maps are quite good. Other sites either give you a map that has no relevance or the photos are tiny.

The only thing missing from Worldby.com is user reviews which would be good to have but you can usually google the hotel name and find them that way.

Most of my hotel accomodation is 2 star but I'd rather spend more time exploring than sitting in my room. Although I found (form my Australian experience) that a 5 star hotel puts you ina 2 or 3 star room unless you pay an huge fee so star ratings on hotels is useless unless you're loaded.

And I get my own bathroom rather than a share one just in case I feel the need for a 30+ minute poo.

Mr Truffle Profiled

I deep and meaningful profile has been conducted on my by Kripy. Check it out here

Brown Pen

If you ever use a brown felt tip pen look out for if the ink spills onto your fingers, as it looks really dodgy.

Detox

I'm 5 days into my 10 day detox doing well. We didn't have a BBQ at work so that was good. Cause a salad instead of a burger would have been cruel punishment.

I don't smoke or drink or even drink coffee but the detox was to stop and cleanse my system from all the kebabbs, pizza, pides, chocolate I eat on a regular basis. Luckily I'm not a fat bastard!

I even bought a fresh juicer (a big ass one that destroys whole apples!) and it's great. You basically shuck anything in your fruit basket and it tastes good as a juice.

So 5 more days of tempe, tofu, vegies and corn crakers to go. Actually corn crakers, avacado and tomatoe is really nice. I was surprized. Normally I'd munch down a half pack a biscuits but these corn crackers are great.

2005 A Year In Review

2005 was one of the most exciting years for me. Not only did I turn 25 and can now easily hire a rental car but I moved out of Ashfield for an inner city apartment. I will not list in point form major events that happened to me during 2005 as I know I will forget what a great year this was. I'm a little hazy before August as my blog entries from OCt 04 - August 05 were deleted.

• Moved to Chippendale and finally out of Ashfield. I don't miss the trains.
  
• Attended Andy's wedding in Indonesia .
  
• Soap moved into our own office in Ultimo deciding to purchase rather than rent after securing the deposit and a good position to continue our empire :)
  
• Soap went from a staff of 6 to 11 with a few leaving or being asked to leave in between. Right now we have a very strong team with no "dead wood". Two more staff to join in January 2006
  
• Attended the 2005 ARIA awards and got within 10mtrs of The Hoff
  
• I was asked to be on the jury for D&AD 2006. Graciously accepted :)
  
• Moved to a PC laptop after 7 years of MAC worship. I miss expose and that's about it.
  
• Bought a PSP
  
• Did a talk at Wagga Wagga on the importance of personal work/experimentation and your career.
  
• Had my first viral photo with The Fly getting over 80,000 views in a month.
  
• Had my blog deleted by my host in the USA. After 5 years he decided to do a runner with everyone's money and delete my files. That's why there is a 10 fucking month gap in my archives!
  
• Started www.bannerblog.com.au which is just now reaching it's stride. The initial site was also deleted by the crazy web host in the USA.
  
• Moved over to wearing underpants full time after many years of wearing boxers.
• Soap won awards at Desktop Create Awards, AWARD, Internet Awards and was in the interactive annual for Communication Arts & D&AD.
  
• Cashed in my years of Subway Stamps
  
• Was nearly beaten up coming out of my favorite restaurant in Canterbury. Yay for the police.
  
• Got back from my long trip in Indonesia during which the Tsunami hit (the other side of Indo luckily)
  
• Visited Melbourne, Perth, Wagga Wagga, Singapore as well as Indonesia twice
  
• Almost converted to Muslim. That's top of my list for 2006
  
• Attended an Easter Royal show, Crusty Demons X, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Auto Salon and didn't hate them both. Although I don;t plan on ever going to one again.
  
• Got violently sick from some dodgy food court food. Vomited on the bathroom marble that actually left a permanent mark on the marble!
  
• Attended the launch of the new A-League (Australian soccer league)
  
• I paid for less than half of the movies I saw this year. By having Fox as a client and also a friend who is the security guard at George St cinemas I managed to save a heap on cinema tickets. A big thanks to Julian and Fred!
  
• Saw Into the Blue, Night Watch and In Her Shoes at the Fox Studios private screening room
  
• Missed the media premier of Star Wars as I directed the guys to the wrong cinema!!! Saw it at the premier 11 days later.
  
• Saw Mr & Mrs Smith and Fantastic Four at the media premier at George St. Margaret and David Stratton don't sit next to each other.
  
• Stayed at level 68 at World Tower in Sydney.
  
• 
  

Good Ol' Undies

After 15 or so years of wearing boxer shorts I have gone back to undies. After being the strong advocate for boxers for many years I have now found the joys of having my boys secure.