Someone has to do it

Every now and again I get a phone call from a nice person who enquires after my welfare and asks if I'm happy working where I am.
One should always be courteous to headhunters, you never know when you might need one. However these poor buggers often have to fill roles for some really dud companies, I'm talking utterly charmless products or gormless services with a real small user community. Words like niche, select and professional creep in to cover was is essentially the worlds smallest 'me too' market space.
So it got me thinking about products and services that someone has to sell. Products for whom complex SWOT analysis have been conducted - so as to 'crush' the competition...

Toilet Paper - Based on the number of brands out there and the advertising dollars committed this strikes me as a fairly cut throat environment. Makes me wonder what the IR&D budget is... On the other hand we all use the stuff, so the market is universal. So whats your pitch? what is your products differentiator?

Scissors - Its a one trick pony. How do you value add to the scissor experience? Can you brand people as company X hard supporter's? Would you buy a pair of scissors with a laser point for a straighter cut?

(this is harder than I thought... okay here's one that is too esoteric for us mundanes;)

Embalming Fluid - How would like to be the territory rep for embalming fluids? You know they spend millions on improving the product, there's probably a catalogue produced each year. Get three of these guys sitting around the bar swapping 'war stories' about the time the customer wanted the XJ-57n but insisted it was the YG-47m, like Hello! If he wasn't the customer... etc



I try and take a moment each day to thank God for how lucky I am to have my job.

Mind Worm

Y'know when you get a song stuck in your head... for some reason it just pops in there and is impossible to dislodge. Well it happened to me the other week, Boston's 'More than feeling' - a song about everything and nothing (mostly nothing) all at the same time.
Actually what got stuck in particular was the harmony part were the lead singer hits that rising note that melds with the wailing guitar (ie 'I hear that old song and it takes me away etc').
What I usually do in those circumstances is hit the old web for the guitar tabs. Then for the next couple of days I arse about getting the melody down at which point my interest begins to wane and I'm free of the darn mind worm.
However every now and again I find the right kind of harmonics and I'm off chasing a variation that can keep me happy for weeks!!
So its a good way to kill some Sunday afternoon time until things warm up enough to walk the dogs!!

As if I needed more proof its Winter...

Today it was snowing just outside Canberra.


I mean real actual snow, check out this poor wee kangaroo...



This spot is about 20km's odd from my front door.

Stay warm little fella!!

Why I will next buy a Mac

I'm sitting at home trying to enjoy the benefits of 'multimedia' on a Windows Machine.
Actually I'm doing this and trying to listen to the Human League via the good graces of YouTube.
And this gosh darn machine is running like a dog.
I know its trying to download some freakin updates from gosh darn MS. Why do those idiots keep trying to tie up my system resources with some shit useless patch I DON'T WANT?

But don't get me wrong I don't hate or dislike Bill Gates, in fact I admire the guy. He crushed all competion to his products - he won.
Its his products that give me the absolute shits.

You know its Winter when...

Boy Howdy Folks, I tell you whut...
Today was one freeze ass ice bound day. But I know what your thinking;
"Dude, Australia is one huge monkey loving desert. It ain't never cold there brother."

Well you're right there for the most part. I live in the one area of Australia that does get frost, that being the Snowy Mountains. And let me tell you - it gets cold.
Now having grown up in Lower Hutt and cold and damp valley in of itself, I believe I have a point of comparison. The main difference is the dryness, if that makes sense. Canberra is higher up than most of Australia, probably more like a pampas with very low humidity.
We actually get some fierce frosts during Winter, even snow occasionally.

So this morning I had to de-ice the truck and drive it into our mechanics to get (of all things) a heater installed. Here's what I learnt, after using water to melt the ice of your windscreen - dry the water or it remelts when your driving through fog at 80kms.

Thank goodness I remembered my gloves.

Funny Ass Trailer

I am a fool for a good movie trailer, I believe that a good trailer will sell a film.
The downside of course is a trailer will also show all the good bits and make you feel like a chump for spending $15 on 90mins of filler...
So with that in mind - Can't tell you what I think of the whole film, but this trailer is awesome...
LINK