Category: What I Think

PASSION was number one for Bill | RICHARD ST. JOHN’S BLOG.

Rudd ‘slip-up’ creates a ‘shit storm’ | smh.com.au.

So after reading this story I’m confused; it’s OK to quote someone (PM or mere mortal) using an expletive in print/online. But on live TV that’s a no no?

For fuck’s sake! The world’s going to hell in a hand basket and ‘shit storm’ hits the fan! It’s probably the most honest thing a politician has ever said.

In the same edition of the SMH, channel 10 canned a pole dancing troupe from appearing on ‘Australia’s Got (Dubious) Talent’ even after long consultation with the troupe over costuming, performance and music. One can only wonder how many times the producers and rest of the male crew had the girls audition before they came to their ridiculous ultra conservative decision. And I bet not one of them handed over so much as a fiver for the privilege.

The skill and stamina involved in pole dancing rivals that of Olympic athletes. I’m glad the girls aren’t on AGT – they are far better than any of their B-grade, wanna be, street performing competitors. I think pole dancing should be in the Olympics as part of the gymnastics.

Archibald Prize 2009 | NEWS.com.au.
Well the Archibald had been run and won for another year. I’m pretty sure that at this year’s announcement Mr Capon would have said something like, ‘It was another stellar year and the decission of the judges was the hardest to make yet.’ But I think he would have been telling porkies. A look at this year’s finalists is not awe inspiring at all. Not one of them makes me want to run out and start painting. 

Of course Mr Capon is a man of great honour so he may well have been far more diplomatic than I, and perhaps talked about the struggle of the artist in the realm of portraiture through the worst financial crisis in living memory.

And perhaps the artists had the same thought as they were plying their craft. Perhaps paying the rent, buying more oils and canvas or food was at the forefront. I know it is for a lot of people.

Maybe the quality of art can be completely equated to the state of the stock market. Maybe creativity in the fine arts ebbs and flows at the whim of the Dow Jones or ASX. They’re both like tumours – all invasive to every aspect of our lives no matter if we’re investors, spectators or blissfully unconscious and unaware of them.

In FB land things need to change. Already they have had several major and public stuff ups – not that stuff ups are bad as they provide invaluable learning experience.

It’s just that my Blink feeling is that these actions are becoming more and more desperate. At worst, I think these could be the death knell for FB (probably just a slide into irrelevance) or what may be smarter is the exit of Mr Zuckerberg who is so far out of his league that the public business image of FB is now emabarrasing for all invloved.

I gave up FB a year ago, but got suckered back in as more people discovered it and friend count climbed. Then I suffered from ‘friend overload’ – just too much garbage information; I do not care that you’re picking your nose, or having a coffee.

I then started doing a very unFB thing and culled friends. Very carthatic and streamlined my information flow. However, as the reverse isn’t happening (ie my friends aren’t culling their friends) they are still getting far too much info for the average human and therefore reply to posts aren’t happening for me. There is little or no dialogue being created and so no community being built. I know no more about my friends than before FB existed. Now this is obviously a user centric experience but I believe that my friends aren’t the only ones who are in info overload.

Will the new features to FB save it? I think the ‘gunius’ (aka thief) kid Z’berg needs to go and be replaced by someone who knows what they’re doing.

Facebook Plans Changes to Friend Updates – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com.

I just finished a bottle of a new brand of bottled water called ‘deluge’. Horrible. Supposed to be ‘natural australian spring water’ (I know proper nouns are supposed to be capitalised but some too funky designer thought Nooooo, let’s make a statement – lucky they left the ‘y’ out!).
Tasted like, better be careful here, reflux. That’s right. If you’ve eaten a curry a bit too fast and it’s come back on you, with a beer, then that’s what this stuff tastes like. Stay away. Die of thirst. It’s that bad.

Recycling worker crushed into paper block | smh.com.au.

Gladwell's recent book 'Blink' is fascinating from many angles. From the job hunter's point of view he writes about how a prospective employer would be better off spending 10 minutes in a candidate's bedroom than meeting with them face-to-face for an hour at a time, once a week for a year. 52 hours v 10 minutes. However both are pretty much unlikely to occur.
The theory goes that we each have so much accumulated knowledge and general expertise in human nature that the signals that can be picked up from a prospective candidates bedroom are more telling than 52 hours of interviews. How I arrange my books, what books I read, what music is on my iPod, are the clothes all over the place or are they stacked neatly in colour order, what art work/posters adorn my walls.
Do you want a prospective employer wandering around your bedroom? I don't. So I think the answer is to turn our blogs into our bedrooms. Look at the stuff we put in our 'digital bedrooms' – you can see the ads I've created that I think are the best, my best work. You can see what book's I've read and want to read – how telling is that – plenty of Godin, no Proust. I've blogged about the movies I like and why and didn't like and why. You can see my passion, photography and what I think are my best pix. Catagorised. Filed. Sorted. Displayed. You can see my twitter updates and glean how open I am as a communicator. You may even be able to pick up on my sense of humour. Or lack thereof.
You can get to my LinkedIn profile and check out who I know professionally and where I've worked. And for whom.
As I look around my bedroom I can see every part of me; the good, the bad, the ugly.
So welcome to my bedroom. I'd be fascinated to know what you thought of me from what you see here.

Facebook get rich quick scam busted – web – Technology – smh.com.au.

TropFest 2009 Red Carpet – a set on Flickr.