The Variety Hour

New film by Sofia Coppola.. If this is half as good as Lost in...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:53:44 +1000

New film by Sofia Coppola.. If this is half as good as Lost in Translation then she will have another winner on her hands.

I am usually not a fan of any of the recent Jordan brand mashups...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:44:24 +1000

I am usually not a fan of any of the recent Jordan brand mashups (I prefer the classics remain as they are).

All that I am going to say is that I looked at these and didn’t want to throw up a little.

So it is a start.

NYTimes.com: Inside the Knockoff-Tennis-Shoe Factory

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:02:15 +1000

NYTimes.com: Inside the Knockoff-Tennis-Shoe Factory:

Counterfeiters played a low-budget game of industrial espionage, bribing employees at the licensed factories to lift samples or copy blueprints. Shoes were even chucked over a factory wall, according to a worker at one of Nike’s Putian factories. It wasn’t unusual for counterfeit models to show up in stores before the real ones did.

Awesome Mondays

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:46:46 +1000

This morning I managed to..

Listen to the radio in bed for 30 minutes
Go through all my unread tweets + Facebook posts
Read a book
Surf the web
Go through some of my RSS feeds
Play some games and buy an app on my iPhone
Take a long shower
Listen to Shaggy on the drive to work (It wasn’t me)
Blog this

..All before 9am

Sometimes waking up super early does make sense as you can ease yourself into a new week rather than being thrown into it. You should try it.

Great video on motivators with some very entertaining animation....

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:54:06 +1000

Great video on motivators with some very entertaining animation. You can’t lose.

Based on a talk by Daniel Pink, you can get his book here.

Woah. Somebody stole someones floaties.

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:00:41 +1000

Woah.

Somebody stole someones floaties.

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/the-four-burners-theory/

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +1000

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/the-four-burners-theory/:

“One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.”

The gist is that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.

Interesting theory.

Very often we are told conflicting messages about ‘having it all’ and whether we can or can’t have it. Personally I do think that things need to be sacrificed to get to where you want to be.

In my time to be successful means you have to constantly balance and adjust the intensity of individual burners according to your own situation.

I can’t figure out what I like about this but I do. (that...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:31:00 +1000

I can’t figure out what I like about this but I do.

(that is Miranda Kerr by the way)

DNMs are the new black people.

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +1000

DNMs are the new black people.:

I must say that I quite enjoy them, it just isn’t easy finding a nice place to have one out and about.

Oh no - Kaley Cuoco I feel a bit bad for posting this because I...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:28:00 +1000

Oh no - Kaley Cuoco

I feel a bit bad for posting this because I am a fan of Kaley Cuoco but wow.. Shiny blue pants.

Will I rule the world?

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:22:00 +1000

Will I rule the world?:

Change the way you talk to yourself and change your outcomes. Good read with an unexpected conclusions.

Comic Sans = Serious Business

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:28:54 +1000

Comic Sans = Serious Business:

Dan Gilbert (majority owner of the Cavs) used Comic Sans in his open ~~letter~~ rant to Cavs fans after LeBron left the team.. Comic Sans?!

Controlled Enthusiasm

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +1000

In my world I often come across companies that go at a million miles an hour to promote a new concept product without really stopping to think about:

Whether the product is feasible to produce
Go to market plans
Contingencies

Sadly the result is a tonne of enthusiasm + great press at the start, followed by a quiet period from the manufacturer while they sort out the details and if you’re lucky a product pops out in the end. The product itself isn’t always exactly as the manufacturer described initially and the masses get disappointed.

The first device that comes to mind is the Crunchpad which started as a low cost, lightweight tablet computer for the masses to access the internet on the couch. Which sounded awesome (this was pre-iPad announcement). But then after a bit of internet intrigue, lawsuits and pictures of a birthday cake the ensuing device was launched by an entirely different company as the JooJoo a few months too late, a few dollars more expensive and had all its thunder stolen by some device called the iPad.

This got me thinking about how I go about executing my own ideas and concluded that I need to practice what I call ‘controlled enthusiasm’ to give them the greatest chance of success. Ideas are a funny thing, almost everybody has them, we all like to think that we have great ones (we probably do) but what isn’t so apparent is that a great idea is one that is executed and exists. And this execution is a massive labour of love that requires persistence and dedication to see through to the end.

From my perspective I try and use the enthusiasm I have for an idea to go all out in a flurry of directionless doing. The result is normally less than optimum. Why? Two reasons.

Lack of meticulous planning. As a person who wants to see the results of things now it kills me if I have to slowly draw something out.
Ignoring the fundamentals. When I am propelled by enthusiasm the fundamentals often get left behind. I tend get caught in the trap of thinking I need this and that before I get started.

So going forwards I am going to give this controlled enthusiasm thing a whirl. It will involve painful meticulous planning and completely go against how I like to work. In fact I am even going to try and apply these techniques to some past ideas that didn’t work out and try them again. This time I hope that by slowing things down there will be a sustained effort and I see my visions through till the end.

I even did it with this post, instead of pushing it out the door right away I will let it stew, re-read and edit before posting.

Beautiful.

Oh no - Jessica Alba. It is like someone stitched a regular top...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +1000

Oh no - Jessica Alba.

It is like someone stitched a regular top with part of a tent with a window.

Though I must say it is hard to stop looking because my interpretation of it changes every time I look at it.

Just like art.

Sadly this is what I think of when I hear Uruguay

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:51:49 +1000

Sadly this is what I think of when I hear Uruguay

Ode to the 92 Honda Civic Hatch

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:33:32 +1000

If you are ever unfortunate enough to ask me about what I consider to be the greatest cars ever you’ll find that amongst the Ferraris and other exotic marques there are a couple of pretty regular ones. I’ll go through some of them over the next few weeks, this car popped up last week over drinks with Mankit.

For a car lover the process of choosing one requires a balance between desirability and affordability (if you are in a serious phase of your life then practicality comes into it as well). If you are really pedantic about it all you will also look at economy (though some choose to roll that into affordability).

So given all these parameters, one car stands above the rest. The 92 Honda Civic.

Simply put it is everything that a Civic is supposed to be.

Relatively easy on the eyes. Unlike the tall boxy hatches of today like a Yaris. There were no unnecessary bits or millions of colour options like a Mini Cooper today.
Practical. Yes it was a compact car but you could fold the seats down to store more and the boot was hinged at the top and bottom so you could load it in confined spaces.
Unpretentious. If the top of the line VTi Civic hatch were to be released tomorrow it would probably have VTEC written in red in 10 locations, carbon fibre look trim on the outside and some fake air vents. But despite this..
You won’t look at someone driving one and think they gave up. Like a Tata Nano, Smart ForTwo or a PT Cruiser.

So there you have it, one of my most favourite cars of all time which is remarkable for being completely unremarkable. Sadly the only 92 Civics you see today are like Lindsay Lohan cheap, garish and with a few too many Ks on the clock (swish).

There is some hope with the new Honda CRZ but until that gets released here we will have to wait an see.