The Visual Semiotic of Western Print Advertising

Look at most Western print advertising, or just imagine some, and the chart above will make a lot of sense very quickly. It also works for some packaging (rectangular shaped), and probably a fair amount of other stuff as well.

TV star

Instead of writing AGAIN about how crap the trains are in the country - today it was a train that was meant to take me to Wakefield cancelled at the last minute, almost literally - it is about time I posted about my appearance on the final of the Junior Apprentice, broadcast a month or so ago. The final itself took place at the end of last year. I was a member of the audience of 'industry experts' and I must say, I am looking terribly expert-like in the above still taken from the broadcast (I didn't know it was on until the next day when I showed up at work and was told about it!).

The kids - they were around 15-16 - were brilliant, and though they had some (real) expert help they did a fantastic job in their presentations and dealing with the questions the audience asked. They were both given a bottled water to sell. One team (male) branded it a 'Bottle of Water' and targeted adults with a cheap and simple challenger to the market. The other (female) team targeted their brand, 'Drip Drop', at the teen audience, which, though brave, finally did for them as Sir Alan Sugar didn't think that was the right audience to target. It was a very close call. Personally I would have given it to the girls as they were just a little more creative and courageous in their approach. But I wasn't party to their dynamics, how they worked together and all the background 'stuff' which has a bearing on the decision.

The other interesting aspect of the evening was how the audience questionning got increasingly more 'competitive' as more questions were asked. Though extremely good, the competitors were only in their mid-teens and some of the questions that were asked were just too difficult for them. It didn't take very long for the questions to be about how smart the questioner was, in front of his or her peer group. Naughty.

Zero 7 - Give It Away

Lovely lilting track. Chilled and melodic. Dreamy. This track is the type that makes me want to dabble in music.

Running Workshops (1): Energy levels

I have been running a few workshops recently, and have been stuck by how the way most workshops are run the 'wrong way around'. What I mean is that most workshops start with some presentation. I don't mean just a 15 minute introductory thing, I mean a couple of hours worth of presenting. Often people don't get to be 'creative' or generative until after lunch, and by then their energy has declined, and the ideas are not as creative or as bountiful. I would have thought it would be better to have people start the by being creative.

I have some idea that people's bio-rhythms are also on the 'up' in the morning and down in the afternoon. Even more reason to try to capture people's creativity in the morning.

New Blackberry

I had had enough of the trackball failing and the damn thing wasn't synching with my diary. I took my trusty blackberry to IT and within a couple of hours I had a new one. Yippee. Now if I were a real tech head I would be up to my neck in iPhones, iPads and all sorts of other devices, but for me the company blackberry is functional and does what I need, plus a little more. It is exactly the same type as before, only it has a colour screen, the handset is a slate grey colouring and the keys/track ball make a satisfying 'click' when I depress them. I like that. The satisfaction of a good 'click' is a good thing. The other good thing is that I no longer have to make do with a rather fuzzy camera. This one seems to work much better, as evidenced by the clarity of the images on my second picture (the first was a little fuzzy due to hand shake!):

Pretty good eh? More to follow in due course.

The Cost Of A New Duffle Bag

Of course First Capital Connect haven't found my duffle bag, the one I lost here, inspite of me being able to pinpoint it pretty accurately in terms of exactly where I left it and having called within 5 minutes of me getting off the train.

In it was swimwear, goggles, swimming hat, washbag and contents of the washbag. Not too hard nor too costly to replace. But of course nothing is as simple as you think it is.

I bought some very natty swimming goggles:

Speedo, with a little carrying case (black) and some interchangeable bits (in the plastic bag). But they hurt my left eye which seems to stick out a little more than my right and when the glasses are tight, I blink 'against' the goggle, and it hurts. So I bought some more:

These are Zoggs 'Predator' goggles (strange name for swimming goggles) and they are fantastic. They 'suck' the skin without being too tight, and my left eye doesn't hurt when I blink. It is a shame I had two goes to get there but that is the problem when losing a duffle bag. 

When I bought my first pair of goggles (the Speedo ones), I also bought this:

A micro-towel: super-absorbent, packs down very small and seemed just right. But there is a big glitch; it doesn't stretch around my waist, so I can't wrap it around me. Crucial for a towel.

Here is the micro-towel with my foot. The towel may be super-absorbent, but it is just too small. I wouldn't have known that by looking at the packaging. Anyway, I bought a new towel. 

Much better, and bigger, though only the standard size of towel. Boy, that small one is small.

I got a washbag, which is the only thing I haven't had to replace, and I am gradually filling the washbag with the appropriate toiletries.

The moral of all this: "Don't lose your duffle bag"

A Good Reason To Like Facebook

In amongst the disquiet about the value of Facebook - there was another article in the supplement of The Guardian today, entitled 'Social Networking: Failure to Connect' - the response I got to my tweet/status update about being passed 'clear' for another year on the cancer front was really heartwarming. Thank you everyone who bothered.

No Cancer

This is a thyroid ultrasound image. It is not mine. But it is like mine. I had my thryoid ultrasounded today: well what is left of my thryoid. I had cancer in my left thyroid in 2000 and it was surgically removed. Though it is the best type of cancer to get supposedly, it is still a pretty significant operation, coming in at 4 hours and a neck held together with metal clips for 10 days thereafter. I don't want to go through it again, and I don't really want to take pills everyday if the right one has to go as well.

When I returned to the UK, I was told that best practice now is to remove the entire thyroid, and I was advised to have the operation. If there is no thyroid at all, it is easier to detect any abnormal levels of thyroxine as the pills taken provide a regular measurable reading. Detection is harder when half the thyroid remains as the bodies production of thyroxine is not as regular as the dosage in pills and therefore harder to know if the cancer has returned.  So it is chiefly a detection (of cancer returning) issue rather than a likelihood of it returning. That's what I have understood anyway.

I didn't want the operation, and after a few sometimes testy meetings with consultant doctors, it was agreed that I would continue to have regular ie annual ultrasounds to see if there was any abnormalities. Thankfully this time there are not. There are no flecks, odd dots or anything sinister. Phew.

Losing My Duffle Bag

I left my AT&T duffle bag on the train today. It seriously annoys me doing that. It only contained my swimming gear, a towel and a sponge bag (full) which is not too much hassle nor too expensive to replace. It is the fact that I left it.

Of course First Capital Connect are totally useless and there is no way that their lost property central office can call the station where the train terminates (even though I rang in to report the loss before the train would have terminated), so I doubt whether I will ever see my AT&T duffle bag again.

And that is a shame. Not only is that duffle bag very practical - it folds up better than a backpack, I don't carry the stress on my right shoulder as I can sling it over my neck to carry it and it is a good size for things like swimming stuff - but I am very attached to it. Patricia Woodward gave it to me early in my time in the US when I was working on the AT&T account.

And more than that. Duffle bags, as far as I define them in that classic cylindrical shape with a drawstring at the top and one strap way, are an endangered species. For me to lose it is a poor show, but for First Capital Connect not to manage to return it to me is even worse. I only wish I had a picture of it.

A Couple Of Interesting Things

Whilst having the tour of Shakespeare's birthday place last week, I learnt a couple of interesting tid-bits. Firstly, the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" comes from the days when the mattress for a bed was laid on top of a rope that was woven into the frame of the bed. The nearest analogy I can think of is how a tennis racquet is strung. When the rope got loose, it needed to be tightened using a neat little tightening tool. The expectation was that with a 'tighter' bed to put the mattress on, the better the occupant would sleep.

People also used to sleep sitting upright, or at least propped up, as they believed that the devil might come and take you if you slept lining horizontally. The only time humans laid out horizontally was when they were dead and if you slept in that position, it was thought that the devil may come and take you away. So if you see a much shorter bed dating back a few hundred years, it wasn't just that people were shorter, it was as much about concern about the devil.

Little boys were dressed up as little girls because the infant mortality rate amongst boys was higher than girls. People believed that by dressing little boys up in dresses and the like, the devil would not be able to spot them as boys and therefore not 'take them'.

Fascinating. Also shows the power of collective beliefs.