So it's been a while. A LONG while.
For a while there I thought I was over it, but maybe I'm not... and I think I'm ready to jump back on this bandwagon - but in a new, more spontaneous, free manner. To that end, I am leaving on A NEW ADVENTURE of life, which will be lots of fun for all concerned. Join me!
www.starsoid.blogspot.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, August 25, 2008
Diaries on the net
The diaries of Samuel Pepys and George Orwell are being posted day-for-day. You can also read more historic diaries at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
At night home, much contented with this day’s work, and being at home alone looking over my papers, comes a neighbour of ours hard by to speak with me about business of the office, one Mr. Fuller, a great merchant, but not my acquaintance, but he come drunk, and would have had me gone and drunk with him at home, or have let him send for wine hither, but I would do neither, nor offered him any, but after some sorry discourse parted, and I up to [my] chamber and to bed.
Samuel Pepys
Sunday, August 24, 2008
I can't beleive this guy has a PhD!
As part of one of my (too many) jobs, I was reading through some articles about marketing. One of them was written by one Jonathan U. Elimimian (MBA, PhD; DBA., College of Business, Albany State University, USA). I don't know which is worse - that he has a PhD or that this was published in an edited journal...
“Sigmund Freud made a great contribution to Psychoanalysis with his concept of the super ego which was referenced as primitive and unconscious aggregate of values and psychoanalysis in form by contemporary authors.”
. . .
“Therefore, psychoanalysis also questions traditional ideas of irrationality. It shows that human tastes, preferences and other apparently irrational psychological consumers marketing decisions have a meaning and it is rational. Even though, most theorists argue that there is continuity between rationality and irrationality. This remained controversial among scholars.”
. . .
“Of course, this is another issue of major research topic in marketing. Even the most apparently abnormal and irrational buying behaviors are meaningful, because they occur for a reason, and in that sense, they are rational.”
. . .
“Even though Damasio’s application is strictly scientific, but the conceptual adoption to consumer behaviour (attitudes, values, and actions) is practical.”
. . .
“Before now, the influence of emotions on consumers decision-making (buying decision) is largely ignored.”
. . .
“Since the term ‘emotion’ tends to mean different things to the man and woman on the street (layman), the psychologist, the physiologist and the marketer, have used the term ‘Somatic’ to refer to the collection of mentally related responses that hallmark an emotion (Consumer behaviour). Even though ‘Somatic’ refers to the Greek word ‘Soma’, i.e. body.”
. . .
“Sigmund Freud’s treatment of people’s desires, wishes and human feelings is extensively discussed in literature (Freud, 1954). These too, must be understood as rational in terms of buying behavior. No matter of the racial identity, all consumers suffer from degree of anxiety provoked by the buying decisions and massive product assortments.”
“Sigmund Freud made a great contribution to Psychoanalysis with his concept of the super ego which was referenced as primitive and unconscious aggregate of values and psychoanalysis in form by contemporary authors.”
. . .
“Therefore, psychoanalysis also questions traditional ideas of irrationality. It shows that human tastes, preferences and other apparently irrational psychological consumers marketing decisions have a meaning and it is rational. Even though, most theorists argue that there is continuity between rationality and irrationality. This remained controversial among scholars.”
. . .
“Of course, this is another issue of major research topic in marketing. Even the most apparently abnormal and irrational buying behaviors are meaningful, because they occur for a reason, and in that sense, they are rational.”
. . .
“Even though Damasio’s application is strictly scientific, but the conceptual adoption to consumer behaviour (attitudes, values, and actions) is practical.”
. . .
“Before now, the influence of emotions on consumers decision-making (buying decision) is largely ignored.”
. . .
“Since the term ‘emotion’ tends to mean different things to the man and woman on the street (layman), the psychologist, the physiologist and the marketer, have used the term ‘Somatic’ to refer to the collection of mentally related responses that hallmark an emotion (Consumer behaviour). Even though ‘Somatic’ refers to the Greek word ‘Soma’, i.e. body.”
. . .
“Sigmund Freud’s treatment of people’s desires, wishes and human feelings is extensively discussed in literature (Freud, 1954). These too, must be understood as rational in terms of buying behavior. No matter of the racial identity, all consumers suffer from degree of anxiety provoked by the buying decisions and massive product assortments.”
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Perth episode two: WE WON!
I've only got a short amount of time on the computer at Perth airport (our flight back to Melbourne has been delayed - boring!) so this is a short post about the overwhelming events of last night.
We came to Perth to perform in the Putting on an Act festival at PICA, seeing it as a good opportunity to showcase our work. After our performance on Friday night, we were told that we had been selected for the "best-of" program on Saturday night. It was amazing for us to have so many people enjoy and believe in our work, and we were stoked to have the opportunity to perform again. The only problem was, we had no harpsichord! I had organised the hire of a harpsichord from WAAPA, but received a phone call from them a few days ago telling me that there had been a double-booking, and the opera company was promised the instrument for Saturday night. I wasn't worried about that originally, as I didn't think that we'd be performing on the final night...
So there were many, many phone calls made yesterday to assorted members of the small early music fraternity in Perth, to no avail. At our 2:30pm sound-check we developed what we called the "plugged" version of the piece, with an electronic keyboard wired into the sound system and lots of reverb - very different from our restrained baroque-minimalism of the night before.
We were a bit anxious before the performance, having to deal with a different sound and completely different touch on my part. I normally listen a lot to the acoustics of my instrument as I play, and respond to the sound-waves coming from the strings. Not having any sound at all near me, and having to rely on what came from the overhead speakers had me a bit nervous.
Once I walked out on to the stage, though, and played the first few notes, I knew that it was going to be fine. The theatre was full, and the audience warm and enthusiastic. As soon as the last note died away we were greeted by a wall of clapping and cheering. I was overwhelmed by the response, and really moved that people loved our work so much.
Afterwards, it took us about 20 minutes to get to the bar to get a drink, we were continually stopped and congratulated by people who loved the combination of harpsichord and voice. Finally, red wine in hand, I relaxed for a moment, only to have us announced as the winners of the inaugural City of Perth Award for Most Innovative Act! The rest of the night was a bit of a blur of thank-yous, congratulations and posing for photographs...
We came to Perth to perform in the Putting on an Act festival at PICA, seeing it as a good opportunity to showcase our work. After our performance on Friday night, we were told that we had been selected for the "best-of" program on Saturday night. It was amazing for us to have so many people enjoy and believe in our work, and we were stoked to have the opportunity to perform again. The only problem was, we had no harpsichord! I had organised the hire of a harpsichord from WAAPA, but received a phone call from them a few days ago telling me that there had been a double-booking, and the opera company was promised the instrument for Saturday night. I wasn't worried about that originally, as I didn't think that we'd be performing on the final night...
So there were many, many phone calls made yesterday to assorted members of the small early music fraternity in Perth, to no avail. At our 2:30pm sound-check we developed what we called the "plugged" version of the piece, with an electronic keyboard wired into the sound system and lots of reverb - very different from our restrained baroque-minimalism of the night before.
We were a bit anxious before the performance, having to deal with a different sound and completely different touch on my part. I normally listen a lot to the acoustics of my instrument as I play, and respond to the sound-waves coming from the strings. Not having any sound at all near me, and having to rely on what came from the overhead speakers had me a bit nervous.
Once I walked out on to the stage, though, and played the first few notes, I knew that it was going to be fine. The theatre was full, and the audience warm and enthusiastic. As soon as the last note died away we were greeted by a wall of clapping and cheering. I was overwhelmed by the response, and really moved that people loved our work so much.
Afterwards, it took us about 20 minutes to get to the bar to get a drink, we were continually stopped and congratulated by people who loved the combination of harpsichord and voice. Finally, red wine in hand, I relaxed for a moment, only to have us announced as the winners of the inaugural City of Perth Award for Most Innovative Act! The rest of the night was a bit of a blur of thank-yous, congratulations and posing for photographs...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Perth episode one: Icey Ice Snow Ice
Fernando and I (aka Beautiful Rubble) flew to Perth today to perform tomorrow at PICA. So far we haven't seen much of the city - we arrived at dusk and spent over an hour in a shuttle bus being shuttled around what seemed like every hotel in the city before finally arriving at our backpackers in Northbridge. After dumping our bags, we ran down the street in search of food. And it was during this hunger-filled dash that I made the discovery: The Icey Ice Snow Ice shop. I'm not exactly sure what snow ice is (well, I obviously know what snow ice is, but not what it means in this context). The description on the business card-sized take-away menu didn't enlighten me: " Snow Ice ... ice tastes like snow and melts in your mouth!" It may be a kind of frozen fairy floss. I decided not to experiment tonight, and settled for a grean teacino (itself a wondrous invention). Tomorrow will be the day to sample the snow ice. I'm particularly taken by the idea of Peanut Ice with chocolate sauce, although the Green Tea Ice (standard topping: wickedly taste good by itself) would be hard to pass up.
Monday, July 21, 2008
More Open House photos...
...another view of the tower.
The view from the Chairman's Office
Inside the boardroom. The table is covered in a single piece of glass, which had to be craned in through the windows.
I got a little excited about this building, as you can see!
Open House Melbourne
Yesterday I stood in a queue for 2 hours to get a look inside the top floors of the iconic Manchester Unity Building as part of Melbourne Open House. This is the first year they've run this in Melbourne and I think they were quite surprised by the number of people who turned up - hence the l o n g wait.
Luckily we had cupcakes to occupy us while we waited...
The view from the rooftop terrace was spectacular and just about worth the wait - the windows were mirrored and had interesting reflections.
The tower - it used to be a penthouse, how great would it be to live here?!
More reflections...
Friday, July 18, 2008
Friday round-up #6
This week I've loved The Coveted's simple yet not-so-obvious transformation of holey socks into stirrup legwarmer-type thingies; On an Overgrown Path writing about music in Moorish Spain and classical music and the credit crunch; some crazy two-wheeled action over at The Scooter Scoop; and Gala's tips on how to be more assertive. Enjoy your weekend!
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