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TG’s WEBlog (Known as a BLOG or Blogging) – November 2001

 

Thursday 29th Nov 20-30

Cannon N1220U Scanner

Never owned a scanner, but the friendsreunited contact yesterday made me finally just go and do it so I can put lots of photos on the web.  Believe me, if you knew how many photos I have of you all, you’d be amazed.  So watch this space.

 

A lot of people seem to recommend Cannon scanners, so not knowing a thing about scanners I went with the herd.  Most people seem to have a 600dpi (dots per inch) so of course I go for the 1200dpi scanner.  Typical Goodson.  Actually I’m really pleased I’ve made the decision because although on most photos you don’t need 1200dpi resolution, it’s great for picking part of a photo and creating a new web photo out of that.  So small photos and small figures can be enlarged.

 

Here’s a thumbnail of the school photos I’ve scanned and then I’ve rescanned on a very high resolution to get a picture of Anthony (ME!)  Not perfect yet but I’m working on it.  Also, I haven’t taken the scratches off yet.

 

   

 

If you’re really interested check it out at the full size photo at www.friendsreunited.co.uk under Handforth C of E School Photo and Greenbank School Photo

 

 

Thursday 29th Nov 8-37

www.friendsreunited.co.uk

One of the best websites is www.friendsreunited.co.uk  which is a register of schools and colleges that people in the UK can add their names to and contact “long lost friends”.  Let’s face it though, it’s about seeing if you’re doing better than the idiots you spent most of your informative years with, and checking what happened to the girls you fancied and failed to snog, or the ones who you did snog then mysteriously disappeared, or wanted to be “just good friends”, you hope their lives have been a disaster ever since.

 

Oh and of course you can slag off the teachers and libel them, but now you can’t because friendsreunited have temporarily suspended that part of the system.  Shame really, I’d like to stand up in court and swear that Mr Jones hit me across the face when I was 5 years old for “I wasn’t blowing on the rice pudding”

 

Just had Vanny contact me from those earliest years at primary school, the memories are flooding back.  A couple of other people have contacted me through the system.  I wonder what happened to Stephen Taylor?

 

Tuesday 27th Nov 20-43

Blog Away.  The Artist’s Way.

One of those days where I have nothing to write about, nothing immediately comes to mind.  What does come to mind is one of my favourite books “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron.  It’s about finding or recovering the Artist within.    Great book, both good advice and spiritual.  One of the key parts of the book are  the weekly chapters and exercises, in which you write a 3 page journal every morning on waking up.  Fill the 3 page no matter what, hand write it, even if it’s 3 pages of “I’ve nothing to say”  Writing this reminds me of my morning journal.

 

Must go back to doing a morning journal and get into a routine.

 

 

 

Monday 26th Nov 8-00

Football - Man Utd and Australia

Woke at 4-00 this morning to find Man Utd 1-0 up.  Watched the second half live against Arsenal.  Crap. Lost 3-1.  Tell me one Man Utd player who’s playing well?  Barthez is now a liability.  Ok, he makes great saves, but he’s lost us so many games with his footwork, and he’s our bloody goalkeeper.  More defensive errors.  I blame Fergie.  Firstly he shouldn’t have got rid of Stam and secondly he never plays a settled back four.  It’s also time for 2 forwards.  Enough of this Scholes thing.  With Giggs injured, and Fortune crap, I’ve had an idea!  Why not play Silvestre in left-side midfield, give him a bit more of a free reign, let him prove himself, let him go in his runs without having to get back so much, stiffen the midfield and stop us conceding so many goals.  If Silvestre thinks he’s so good, now’s the time to prove it.

 

Then watched Uruguay v Australia 3-0. Oh Dear.  I predicted it. But Australia had more chances than I thought they would.  The better team went through.  Uruguay are very skilful, know how to defend and have a lot of great forwards.  Don’t know all of their names but Nos 9, 10,18,19,20 really stood out for me over the two games.  Made Viduka look like a Donkey.

 

Sunday 25th Nov 16-06

Vaccines and Immunisation

This is a big one for babies and children.  It’s back to relative risk, which has the higher risk and what to you do for your own children.  One thing I’m realising as a new parent is that either way, it’s not the doctors who face the consequences of these decisions it’s us the parents.

 

Doctors really care if as a group they screw up.  They follow current medical practise as advised by the authorities or government and that’s that.  Great, let’s just have computers diagnosing and dishing out the medicine.  Where’s the common sense and gut feel?

 

The anti-vaccination groups are very vocal.  They may not represent the majority but they sure make a lot of noise.  Mercury is in a lot of the vaccinations, it has have been since the 1930’s.  Only recently has this been questioned because the mercury rates for a baby contained in a vaccine are nearly as high as the acceptable dose for a baby or adult which is deemed to be dangerous in other circumstances.  Some vaccines no longer contain mercury.

 

Then there’s the challenge of if vaccinations actually works!  Some claim that some diseases were dying out before mass vaccination was introduced.   The falling death rate for polio, whooping cough, diphtheria, and measles are claimed by some to be ahead of the introduction of the vaccination and immunisation programmes.  Proof of this is claimed from the fall of Scarlet Fever and Typhoid Fever with out the introduction of mass vaccination.

 

It’s all very confusing, and going along with the masses and what doctor says isn’t good enough.

 

It’s back to relative risk.  Which is more risky and who do you believe.

I don’t know on this one.

 

Saturday 24th Nov 18-19

If you don’t have a dream then you don’t have a dream come true

I was just thinking in the shower today about how many of my dreams have come true recently.

Firstly I now have a shower to have these thought in!  I’ve always wanted a big shower and now I have it.  As I’ve always said, be careful of what you ask for, because there’s no window in the main bathroom where the shower is.  Maybe the next 5 years a shower room with a window!

 

I just found my notes from 1995 wishing for things, to have children, be happily married, time with my kids, doing work I love to do.  And now it’s all happening in such a short time.  Married less then a year ago to Annie, Georgia just arrived, lots of time at home with Georgia, working from home.  It’s just fantastic.

 

So what are my dreams for the future, the next 5 years, beyond?  I’m just going for a walk to think about it.  Be back soon.

 

Yep, the walk worked, by the sea, spring in Australia.  One of my big dreams come true, I’ve always wanted to live by the sea.

 

Re-Thought about my purpose in life which I developed 6 years ago, it first came to me on a train going into London.  Had a think about my next 5 years goals, a couple of immediate actions, and my ideas for a presentation I’m giving in just over a weeks time.  Nice Walk!

 

Thursday 22nd Nov 21-17

Internet Tennis – Words or Pictures?

Nothing specific to rant and rage about today.  I was thinking about the Blog war that’s being arranged, have a look at blogmatch. I don’t think it works, unless they write the same number of words, and I think it’s all a bit up your arse and angels on a pinhead type thing.

 

Why do I say that, well have a look at wired  and the link Photoshop Tennis.  Two designers send a picture back and forth with their changes.

A picture paints a thousand words.  Maybe I just like pretty pictures and I’m still scared by small writing.

 

Wednesday 21st Nov 23-35

Cluetrain

The Cluetrain Manifesto has inspired my over the last few months.  Check it out www.cluetrain.com  The 95 point manifesto but in words that I’ve been thinking for awhile.  I’m currently reading Gonzo Marketing by Chris Locke, co-author of Cluetrain www.gonzomarketing.com I’ve just sent my first email (see below) to the Cluetrain discussion at www.topica.com I’ve watched the discussion develop over the last 2 months and I’ve been waiting to ask about who has implemented things along the Cluetrain lines. Silence.  Maybe it’s because it’s Thanksgiving in the States.

 

Cluetrain has inspired me to develop my Selling Manifesto on this website and to send it to many friends and colleagues I know, to comment upon “What is Selling?”  Cluetrain and Gonzomarketing bring this into question because they challenge the view of push advertising and push marketing.  So where does that leave selling which is seen by many as “push” as well.  It’s an important question because many companies spend a vast fortune on their Sales function.

 

Cluetrain has also inspired me to start the Web Log.  I’d intended to do this anyway without realising that such a thing as blogging existed.  Journaling.  Check out some of the Blogs and links of the Cluetrain authors and there’s many more links to suit your choice.

Chris Locke http://www.rageboy.com/blogger.html

David Weinberger http://www.hyperorg.com/

Doc Searls http://doc.weblogs.com/

 

All this talk is all well and good but is it just talk.  I don’t mind lots of Vision, and these guys are giving us lots of eloquent Vision and amusement, but is it really changing anything.  I don’t know.  I’m waiting for an answer back.  Let them get on with articulating the vision, but someone needs to put it into action.  If the only result is 1million Weblogs which no-one reads then I’ll be disappointed.

 

Email to Cluetrain below.

 

“I’ve silently watched the conversation over the last 2 months, 9/11, semantics, blogging, and now it’s time to join in.  I’ve read Cluetrain only recently, just reading Gonzo Marketing.  Love the stuff, very inspiring. Bricolage!

 

Now, let’s cut to the action.

 

I’ll ask the 46 question again.  Are there any corporations/companies/organisations who are using their Intranets for conversation, other than email.  More specifically, are there any organisations in Australia that are using their Intranet in this way.

 

I’ve recently moved from the UK to Melbourne and it sure would be easier to work with companies that are having this conversation internally, than try to turn these big SuperTankers that aren’t having conversations internally or God forbid they have conversations with actual clients/customers, people, humans.

 

I worked for ICL(Fujitsu) in the UK, in Sales and then Sales Training.  ICL have a large Intranet-CafeVik, but I wouldn’t say to my knowledge it was conversational.  Lots of emails.  People were free to set up “communities” on the Intranet but nobody was sure what that meant.  Nobody was prohibited form setting up anything they wanted to , but I’m not aware of there being conversations on the Intranet, an exchange of ideas.  CafeVik seemed to be a large storage device and not a conversational community.  The best example I can give of a community at work is www.ciao.com (consumer product reviews). It’s not an Intranet, and some people do it for the points but it does seem to have a sense of community about it. 

 

If no-one can come up with a few examples then I can only guess that you’re all being silent, shy or have better things to do, or no-one has implemented a conversational Intranet, or knows of a conversational Intranet.

Maybe it’s competitive advantage and you can’t/won’t talk about it.  That would be ironic!

 

If no-one has implemented a conversational Intranet then this begs a further question.

What happened to all the those signatories that signed up for the Cluetrain Manifesto, and their organisations?

Were they just individuals who loved the manifesto, loved the book, and now have a Web Log?  Or did something change?

 

I have a horrible feeling that there are only 100,000 people(it could be a few more) out there who are having this “intellectual” conversation, writing Weblogs, who understand what “All your base are belong to us” means, have seen the derivatives of the TouristGuy, and can have a conversation in a chat room beyond, “Hi!☺”

 

Shit, it might be me that has to go and get these companies to become conversational or let them die.  Or maybe this Cluetrain thing is intellectual floss.  I hope not.

 

Give me the names!

 

TG

 

Tuesday 20th Nov 2001 23-20

Football Australia v Uruguay World Cup Qualifier

Just back from Melbourne Cricket Ground.  85,000 Aussies.  Great event.  Australia won 1-0.  Muscat penalty down the middle.  Uruguay looked good, well organised, sharp, fast, good cover on man with the ball. I think they’ll stuff Australia 2-0 or 3-0 in Uruguay.  Aussies needed to win 2-0.  Aussies played for a 1-0 win, sat back after 1-0.  They looked a bit ordinary.  Well organised good defence, but Viduka was isolated and not as good as the Uruguayan forwards.  Kewell, world class, but he can’t do it on his own.  Aussies making best with what they’ve got.  They’ll be fortunate to go through.  Uruguay handled the away tie very well.  Great to be at the MCG for an event like that.

 

Tuesday 20th Nov 2001 9-00

Health Conspiracy

And to prove my point, here’s a doctor who’s doing his job, thinking for himself but being persecuted for it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1665000/1665146.stm

He’s offering an alternative to the MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) Vaccine which some people feel carries too much risk.  But of course if the government says the MMR Vaccine is safe then it must be safe.  By chance, Annie my wife was working with a barrister on the compensation claims for MMR vaccinations!  I don’t know the answer, it’s back to relative risk.  How dangerous is measles versus how dangerous is the vaccine?

 

Monday 19th Nov 2001 21-37

Health Conspiracy-Relative Risk

I’m wondering if there’s a Health Conspiracy going on.  I’m not one for conspiracies, they’re normally a combination of factors which lead to an accident, and we try to make meaning of it, beyond what there is.  Well that’s my thinking on conspiracies!

 

But this health thing.  It should be simple, to a simple Northern Chemist like myself.  Relative Risk.  How risky is this versus how risky is that.  If I take this tablet, what are the deaths per 10,000 from taking this tablet?  What are the deaths per 10,000 from not taking this tablet?  Simple.  Ok I understand that it’s often difficult to measure these things, but hell, if they’re dishing out the tablets and vaccinations I want to know what the relative risk is.

 

And this is where I’m beginning to get scared.  The average doctor and I mean most of them seem to be pretty average, seem to have their brains, common sense and instincts removed somewhere between high school and coming out of medical school.  Were they hypnotised there?  They all seem to talk the same crap and “received wisdom”.  “The risk is very small” “It’s better to have this than not” “The test is much safer than it used to be” Fine, these are great reassuring words to the mass public.  But I’m not the mass public.  We have the Internet now, and I want to know on what basis they quote these generalisations.

 

Let’s get specific.  I’ve written a separate piece on X-Rays.  If you ask a doctor to tell you the risk from X-Rays, they nearly all the say the same “Minimal” (did they all go to the same medical school?)  Now ask them to define minimal and they haven’t got a clue.  C’mon Doc, give me a death rate from X-Rays.  How many people die from any given X-Ray procedure?  They ummm and errrrrrrr C’mon Doc, on what basis, what research are you quoting from that X-Rays are “minimal”  They don’t know.  As long as they behave like sheep, at least the ones in the centre of herd will be protected.  In fact they’ll all be protected on this one.  I’ve realised that medical practise changes over time, but is anyone held accountable for the dangerous medical practise which is phased out over the years.  No.  So what if X-Rays are dangerous?  Will anyone be held accountable in the future?  No.  So they can carry on with business as usual because they’re never going to be held accountable.  And when they’re retired with their feet up, they’ll just say they were doing their best and look at all the lives they did save.  I don’t think this is good enough.  I think it’s the duty of every doctor to continue to educate themselves and to question what they are doing and why they are doing it, and who is telling them to do it.  Are they all going to plead “We were only acting under orders.”?

 

One doctor recently reassured us that modern X-Ray equipment is much safer than it used to be.  Well that’s brilliant isn’t it?  A few years ago it may have been a very dangerous and now it just dangerous.  That’s relating one to the other without declaring the actual risk.  And it’s not just the doctors’ fault, the media don’t seem to report on relative risk, they just scaremonger anything that will make a story.  If a new medication doubles your chances of cancer that sounds like a good headline, but if your chances of getting cancer before were 1 in a million and it doubles to 2 in a million then most of us would take the tablet.  Check this one out, someone has written a spoof that pedestrians should all be wearing crash helmets, if you apply the same rules to pressuring cyclists to wear helmets then by the same rules and higher death rates pedestrians should be wearing crash helmets. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/321/7276/1582

 

And there’s a few others to check up on which I’ll write more on at a later stage.  Mad Cow Disease (BSE) and CJD in humans.  Why does everyone again follow like sheep(Ha Ha) down some possible dead end cul-de-sac, when everyone should be looking at all sorts of causes.  Check out Mark Purdey’s work, it make more sense to me than people walking around with prions that explode into life 30 years later. http://www.purdeyenvironment.com/

 

And finally, just having had a baby, it seems like a good idea to read up on SIDS-Cot death.  “Sleep the child on it’s back”.  Good suggestion, why?  Midwives and Doctors then go into telling you how research has shown…..  Great, but why?  I know research has shown that SIDS is reduced by sleeping babies on their backs (not that most babies want to sleep on their backs).  But for Christ sake why?  Well one guy, TJ Sprott reckons he knows why, but the not many people will listen to him.  Why is that?  If someone has come up with a simple explanation for most (and he claims all) SIDS you think he’d be worth listening to.  Check it out. http://www.cotlife2000.com/default.htm

 

If you want to look at a website that has a lot on health subjects, check out www.mercola.com

 

What I want to say here is, I think there’s a conspiracy of ignorance, people, doctors, government, media, commercial organisations, burying there heads in the sand.  Everyone says our health is so important, but when I tell people that one line of research has shown that one medical factor if removed would reduce the majority of Cancer and Heart disease you’d think people would at least be interested in finding out.  To my surprise, they’re not.  Are you?

 

Relative Risk.  We should aim to have Relative Risk tables developed for everything we do.  From the air we breathe, the water we drink, the vaccinations and medication we’re given.  I don’t trust government and industry to have our best interests at heart.  Do You?  Getting re-elected and making lots of money seem much more important to them.  Oh no I’m sounding like some Lefty Conspiracist!

 

Thursday 15th Nov 2001 17-40

The Perfect Car

Just reading Chris Locke’s Gonzo Marketing www.gonzomarkets.com , not finished it yet, but I’m not sure I agree with him on branding.  I was in Melbourne city today, walking around the shopping streets.  People just can’t get enough of those brands.  They love em.  Functionality doesn’t come into it.  It doesn’t matter if Pepsi tastes better than Coca-Cola, they still want their Coca-Cola.  It’s a subjective thing why we stick to brands, not an objective one.  I’m not a big brand person myself, I hate the logos on my sports gear.  For me, my sport is functional.  The best gear, with the best functionality.  I detest having big ticks on me or 3 stripes.  I still get suckered for some supermarket brands.  I’ll say more on this at another time.  Love the book and Chris Locke’s writing style

 

This brings me to The Perfect Car.  One of my ideas.  I can’t be the only person to have thought of this but here goes.  Most people seem to love the look of the same cars.  You know the ones that stand out from 95% of dross on the roads that are all indistinguishable from one another.  And that’s just the outside design.  I bet most people couldn’t identify most makes of car if you remove the headlights, the grill, and logos/badge.  Try doing it in the car graveyard.  Doesn’t everyone want air-con, electric sun-roof, central locking, electric seats, heated seated, headlamp wash wipes, cruise control, and every damn extra you can think of.  So why not build the perfect car.  All the extras, nice design, acceleration like shit off a shovel (insert your own simile). $20,000 or under.  Ah you say, they couldn’t build a car with everything included.  Why not?

 

Do you think some cars cost more because they’re bigger and have more extras? In some cases you’re paying you’re paying $20,000 for extra metal that goes into a bigger chassis and bodywork.  Cars all fundamentally have the same design, chassis, engine, wheels, body panels.  If you build a single design, in one colour, to a single full specification, with no changes I bet you could. This is sounding a bit like Henry Ford and any colour as long as it’s black and goes against the Gonzo/Cluetrain idea of individual choice, but in the other hand, Gonzo does quote what others ask “How did we get to a consumer world of 40,000 products in a supermarket, hundreds of long distance and cellular calling plans, 52 versions of Crest toothpaste…?”  I don’t mind diversity either but sometimes it seems to be there to confuse and protect market share.  Bloody mobile phone plans!

 

So how do you build this perfect car and let people not all drive the same thing.  Again, am I the first to invent this one?  Nokia Phones.  Nokia and others realised that people wanted to personalise their grey handsets.  Removable covers and optional ringtones.  The Perfect Car has optional attachments.  Now that would be fun, fitting bits of colour and other things with a universal locking system.  Think how much fun car design would be.   I know there’s the problem of car safety and legislation to overcome and how do you safely secure the add-ons.  Shit, I’m the ideas man; someone can invent the locking system.  A whole industry of supplying and fitting the attachments could grow just as the additional accessories for mobile phones has grown.

 

So what will this perfect car look like?  Don’t know, I’m not a designer either but I know what designs I like, they’re not to everyone’s taste, but if my car looks good, is fully spaced, is fun, and I can change bits at low cost, who cares.  Of course some may claim to want a small car, a large car, an estate/wagon, a Sports Utility Vehicle.  So hey, let’s form the Perfect Car Company with 4 or 5 cars each with a single fully spaced design.

 

Who wants to be Chief Executive?

 

p.s Still can’t get www.blogger.com to work and no one from them has come back to me.  Consumer choice.  Slag them off and move on to something else.

 

 

Wed 14th Nov 2001 23-15

First Day

I just tried to set up my weblog today.  An on-line journal with my thoughts and advice to dish out in the hope that someone reads it and says “Genius”  I’ve delayed for a while because I was looking at what other people are using.  I opted for www.blogger.com, but so far I’ve had no luck in setting it up so that the Weblog I write at their website, then is transferred to my WebPages.  Jeez, I know it’s free but the instructions don’t make total sense and now I can’t access the website.  On top of that everyone’s been going on about how easy it is to use but since I don’t use HTML yet and write my WebPages in Word 2002 and convert to HTML, it doesn’t seem that easy.

 

Just to prove a point and as I’ve sent the link up on my homepage, I might as well write something.

 

Too tired and stressed from trying to set up blogger for the last few hours.

 

Maybe tomorrow The Perfect Car Company.