christmas comes only once a year and how fortunate it fell on a thursday this year 
to celebrate, i did my very own queen’s speech… well it wouldn’t be the first time i’d been called a queen now would it?
i hope that you have a fantastic christmas and that 2009 brings you much peace and happiness. thankyou for making 2008 a great year for me.
Yours truly,
hrh randommel xox
when i sat down with the lovely guys and gals at aardman and they suggested making an animated me for the TH!NKS machine i was scepticle. now that they’ve gone and done it and i’ve seen it has sandals i’m even more scepticle. everyone knows i’m a choo girl!
the great thing is that david beckham is also an animated character, so it’s probably the closest i can get to canoodling with him! if you haven’t had a chance to play with TH!NKS yet, it’s a little animation tool that allows anyone to make an animation within a matter of minutes using the assets provided. great fun if you’ve got a couple of minutes on your hands. just be kind if you’re going to use my character please! kthxbai!
there are only seven sleeps to go until that plump chap with the beard squeezes his way down your chimney. whilst christmas is a happy occasion it can also bring with it it’s very own trials and tribulations, so to help you survive and make it to the new year in one piece, i created a survival checklist for you…
for those that aren’t yet feeling festive, i defy anyone to watch this video and not manage to smile… a classic!
geirarne: @MelKirk pencil and paper. sometimes sharpie.
iamdanw: @MelKirk Paper. Lots and lots of paper. And sometimes omnigraffle.
everyone’s had it happen to them at some point, whether it’s that homework that the school bully copied or the css being stolen from your site, we’ve all experienced having our hard graft stolen and other people taking the credit for it. infuriating doesn’t even begin to explain the emotions involved when you experience this for the first time, infact come to think of it, at any time.
however what happens when your ideas are stolen when you’re pitching for work? how much should you give away? before now, the focus has been on code that some cheeky blighters have copied and pasted but what about when you’re consulting for strategies and marketing?
you obviously want to go in there prepared, to show that you’ve given THAT specific company thought and attention and that your recommendations are tailored to their needs. but, what happens when you give away lots of your ideas (i.e. specifics that you’d implement and ideas for viral activity) and then they choose not to hire you but implement your ideas themselves?
go in to the pitch with high level ideas and no specifics and you risk looking “fluffy” and without giving any indication of what they’d actually be getting for their money, so where’s the happy balance?
the answer is that i’m still trying to establish this – i want to give good value for money, to show that i know my stuff and to prove that they’ll be getting the personal attention with me that they wouldn’t with a big agency. i guess you just have to accept that you might run in to some rotten apples along the way but it’s all a learning experience and they aren’t the type of people you’d want to be working with anyway.
in my eyes, the most effective projects are those where the company and the consultant are singing from the same hymn sheet… i know for sure that i wouldn’t just put my name to just anything, i work with ethics and i want to work with companies that have ethics too… it’s just such a shame when you give it your heart and soul.
i’d love to get your thoughts…
so as many of you may know if you follow my tweets, last night was the works christmas party. normally this isn’t something that i’d blog about, might involve some cocktails, shots if things were getting really messy and maybe a few embarrassing moves on the dance floor. last night was special though, so i thought that i’d make an exception.
the night started by dropping @jamfactory back to his house to drop some stuff off. whilst i sat waiting with @mcquinny a car pulled up next to us and we paid no attention. however this swiftly changed when we noticed the car had turned on it’s blue lights… yes, yes, a police car! my crime – waiting in the car which was mounted on the curb of a road with double yellows and kinda overhanging the pedestrian crossing. i hadn’t really thought it through.
having pulled away rather swiftly (we went back for @jamfactory later, don’t worry!) we made our way to the rummer where normality resumed. having gathered myself, we made our way to dynasty for some of the best chinese food EVER. yes, this is not that interesting you’re probably thinking, but you had to be there to experience this conversation… (it’s silenced for a reason!)
i would love to see your captions for this video!
the real fun began when we started the karaoke. i’d planned my song of choice - kids by kylie and robbie, oh yeah, i’d given it some thought! all hopes were dashed when we walked into the bar to find that the mics were already taken by experts…
i kid you not, they were rapping to billy jean! followed by a big scary butch woman screaming “i can’t rap” to a linkin park song. intimidated by the obvious competition, i stood to dancing like my mum by the side… quickly approached by an old drunken man who put his hands on my waist. when asked to remove them by @efergan he did so and put them on my boobs instead. can’t blame the guy for trying.
a top top night!
it’s getting to that time of year when you realise you still haven’t got your pressies and really should do something about it. i’ve pulled together a list of things for you guys that your gals will probably want this xmas. okay, maybe not your girls, maybe just me, but it might inspire!
thanks to andy for the fab tune! now back to polishing my halo to ensure santa brings me all that i wish for!
happy thursday lovely peeps x
i’m never happier than when i’m blogging. it’s where i get my fire, it’s what inspires me and it’s what connects me to you fine folk.
it’s been known to happen on more than one occassion that i’ve been on holiday or waiting for a friend in a bar (i try to ensure that doesn’t happen too often) and you’ll find me scrabbling around in my bag to jot down an idea that i’ve had for a blog post or video.
you can understand therefore my sadness when yesterday on the train to london, i settled down with the latest copy of wired ready to geek out only to be faced with the news that blogging is dead. i was sad primarily because not only do i not agree but the article was encouraging people to quit blogging.
if you read the article it refers to jason calacanis stopping his blog earlier this year as he had said that the blogosphere had become too big and impersonal. this can be demonstrated by taking a look at some of the most popular blogs out there at the moment – techcrunch, engadget, treehugger etc. this can mean that the personal blogs that previously had been high google rankers are now being relegated by these sites that can afford to pay professionals to blog mutliple times a day – something the average blogger with a full time job can’t afford the luxury of doing.
however, there’s the thing (and this is just my opinion), those bloggers that are out there maintaining their personal blogs are doing it for their love of writing, for the need to share, to connect with those with similar interests – not for the top google ranking on a topic or internet fame.
the personal blogs that have become popular will more often have not got there because of their passion in the topic and therefore their continued commitment to research and article writing. someone starting a blog in the hope of getting noticed (and for that reason only) will be in for a surprise because it takes a while to get a following and if you’re not really passionate about what you’re writing about, your readers will be able to tell.
the article argues that if you’re looking to express yourself, you can do so using less effort and time with tools such as flickr, twitter and facebook. this assumes however that you’re blogging for recognition or creative output. i would argue that it’s a completely different medium and serves a totally different purpose. whilst they say a picture can speak a thousand words, nothing can replace a well crafted piece of writing (and from a personal point of view – pressing publish when you’ve spent time writing).
on a different note, it’s worth considering company/development blogs too. still to this day when developing community strategies, blogs form a critical part of that strategy. the reason? it’s one of the simplest ways of communicating with your users, of getting feedback, giving a voice to your brand and creating an ongoing conversation (often meaning that you can address current issues immediately rather than the length of time it can often take to update the website etc).
so, mr paul boutin, you wired cynic, this gal may never be a famous blogger, she may never rank number one on google when you search “community“, but she’ll continue to write from the heart, she’ll always be passionate and will always have a genuine connection with her readers that a flickr picture of facebook status could never provide. so there.
it’s the day of the bristol media ball, we’re all a little excited, so we spent our lunch in a productive manner…
come on, do your best… we showed you ours, now you show us yours!
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