Absence

It's strange that for someone so immersed in the digital world, I have become so distant from my blog. There are myriad reasons for this, mainly due to disruption in my life. Having said that, I am now turning a corner, and hope to update this more regularly - as if it could be less irregular, well I suppose it could but I digress - as the year turns into 2010.
Life is meandering on, my startup that I was so excited about fell temporary victim to the recession, but I'm confident it will work out okay. Whether it recovers before we all go bust is another matter.
Over the last - what, ten? - months I've become more interested in how your life is reflected in your subliminal experiences. For example, over the last six months - since my little world was turned upside down - I have had recurring nightmares. Or rather one. Not to go into detail, I've now had it analysed and realised that it indicates my life is changing and the 'control freak' part is nervous but there's a part of me that's not. It may not be just career-oriented, I think I might be entering a phase in my life where my beliefs are challenged. Not my religious ones - which are non-existent - but my idealised views on where my life was going. I may now be thinking of settling down and laying some roots. Who knows.

Twitter

Twitter, the social media microblogging site, celebrates its third birthday this week and it seems passion for the site knows no bounds.
Although its growth is exponentionally faster than Facebook, the latter still dwarfs it in user numbers. More interestingly, has been the attention Twitter has been getting from unlikely areas. Stephen Fry has been on the site since its launch, but now 'celebs' like John Mayer and Ashton Kutcher are leaping on the bandwagon.
The impact on brands will be immense. ComCast has for quite some time used the tool as a way of talking to customers, and now it looks like the media is using it too. The Guardian updates followers regularly and now Chicago Tribune has takent the unprecedented step of flagging its contributors in its flannel panel as Twitterers. Will other newspapers follow suit?

February

February has been a strange month. The new project's going very well, but our Beta launch is taking longer than normal. I've developed a strange hatred for Easyjet. As I've been flying back and forth to Glasgow, I've had the misfortune of flying with them several times this month. While the service itself is fine [take off and landing on time, landing even early!] its obsession with baggage is infuriating. I'm charged £15 if I want to put a bag in the hold, and I'm only allowed one piece of hand luggage. This may sound enough, but when I'm carrying a laptop, I have to cram all my usual stuff from my handbag into my laptop. Compare this service to British Airways. I checked both a couple of weeks ago for a flight on the same day. Not only were BA cheaper to begin with, once you added in the saving of free baggage in the hold, TWO pieces of hand luggage [a laptop and another bag] and the complimentary breakfast, they beat Squeakyjet by about forty quid and it was a much nicer environment, rather than putting up with the mad rush for seats.
Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary's comments about charging people to use the airline's toilets, came as no surprise. This is a crap airline. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, it's completely legal as airplanes have no rules governing toilets. I suspect O'Leary made the comment in a flippant manner, but I'm pretty sure he now is wondering if all the negative publicity is worth it. I know I'd rather pay twice as much to fly with BA than give his company my money. I pretty much feel the same way about Easyjet.

Twitter - embrace or not - just be careful

I've been following the story about 'PR guru' James Andrews in the States who rather naively posted a comment about a city on Twitter, incurring the wrath of one of his companies top clients. For those of you that haven't seen it, Andrews was on his way to a meeting at Fed Ex's corporate headquarters in Memphis, when he Tweeted his hatred for the city. One alert Fed Ex employee stumbled on it and retorted with a rather sniffy response, cc'ing in a number of senior Fed Ex employees.
Andrews claims to be a social media expert, but I have to admit that he can't be that savvy if he didn't realise that - out of the near 1000 followers he has on Twitter - one of them might be from Fed Ex.
Yet another example of how companies and individuals need to watch what they say online.
Follow the rule - if you wouldn't say it to their face don't say it online.

Xmas purchases

Yet again, a while since I posted.
As you can expect Christmas purchases were a big news story, with online sales soaring. That Amazon was accepting orders till just a few days before Christmas, shows that the days of online deliveries not arriving are pretty much over.
However, not all online deals are good buys. A friend of mine was telling me about her great experience with www.buymobilephones.net and her combined purchase of a new phone and Sony Playstation.
In these critical economic times, she wisely saw an opportunity to buy a necessity [a new mobile phone package] and get a Sony Playstation thrown in. As her son’s birthday was a couple of months away, it made sense to do the deal, and keep the gift till said date.
Alas, buymobilephones.net didn’t not agree. When my friend’s son’s birthday came, the much-wanted gift was refusing to work. After a phone call to the company, she was told that they were only liable for 28 days and she should take it up with Sony.
The call – according to my friend – was in the tone of “sorry, you may still be paying for this, but not our problem, bye”.
I’m pleased to say Sony, which I have had many dealings with, showed their customary exemplary customer service. Expressing their disappointment that the gift was faulty and arranging a replacement immediately. My advice? Watch for the small print on the deals and remember www.buymobilephones.net when you’re next looking for a deal.

On a more positive note, I continue to be impressed with Argos. A good friend of mine wanted a Nike heart rate watch, and had seen the very one he wanted in the catalogue. A quick surf on the website and I was able to reserve one in my local store, turn up and have the transaction completed in around five minutes. Perfect. Only hitch was that the watch - come Christmas - wasn't performing all the techy wonders it was supposed to. Argos replaced it with no questions. Now that's customer service.

Tales of travel in terrible taverns

It’s been quite a while since I updated this and that’s due to the time I’ve been spending travelling. Virtually all of it in Scotland. When I was writing this, Celtic were just about to play Hibs. After Rangers’ amazing battering of Hamilton Academicals the previous day, there’s no danger of them making their ways past the mighty Hoops, but nevertheless, the Celtic match is an important match.
So – seeing as Glasgow is a city when football is in the blood of just about everyone here – you’d expect that the airport’s pubs/cafes would make this game available to customers rather than the English-centric Sky Sports. Alas, no. Wetherspoons – that often maligned cheap pub – chooses to pay Sky for dated Sky Sports news, rather than have the more local Setanta channel. Seeing as I counted around ten people asking at the bar whether the football was on, you’d think they’d take the hint. Unfortunately not.

Those Hoop fans that read this will be glad to know I intend to write to Wetherspoons’ esteemed CEO Tim Martin to ask that this be remedied, or at least explained.

My travelling has come about because I’m involved in a fairly exciting new venture. A digital startup, it’s got a feelgood factor and it’s nice to be doing something that’s not mercenary. When I can, I'll reveal more. Let's just say it'll be the biggest media startup in the UK for 2009.

One of the biggest news stories I’ve found while I’ve been back in my homeland is The Herald & Times Group’s astonishing decision to make all its 240 staff redundant.
While I understand the reasoning behind it, morally it’s wrong. D
onald Martin, the new editor-in-chief who’s got the job of doing this redundancy exercise, is a friend of mine and despite the negative press reports of him, he’s in charge of cutting costs and that’s not a pleasant task.
Scottish media needs to change. Not just Scottish media, but media in general. If you’re reading this, then you’re digitally savvy as most people are. While there’s a place for offline media, when the majority of your audience is getting its information offline, you need to adjust or die. Unfortunately – as The Herald said succinctly in its statement – there are a lot of people (journalists and sales staff alike) at The Herald who have yet to adjust to the digital times. I don’t think the mass redundancy route is the right one, but it enables Gannet – which owns the papers – to break the contracts of the senior staff, many of which will have been drafted in more reasonable times with more reasonable benefits.
Will those benefits be reinstated when the applicant is accepted for a new job? I doubt it.

Finally

Okay, things have been fairly manic over the last two months, but I'm determined to get more regular with my postings.
I've started working with a startup specialising in sport, and it's proving very interesting. More recently I've been spending a lot of time on Habbo, trying to understand how the kids talk.

Sailing

Well, I'm now bruised and battered after a day's sailing on Friday, with recruitment company Major Players, in Southampton. Great day, but was thrown all over the boat. Needless to say I got no action shots, so these will have to do.

romantic interest

It's been some time since I mentioned the romantic interest, so after lots of consultation with friends, I've decided to come clean on what happened. The Boy - J as he shall be known - is a bit confused. All was going well, we'd been spending lots of time together, going out, reading Sunday papers in the pub. All was well. Which is why I should have seen the truck looming over the horizon.
The problems started two weeks before my birthday in August. J had decided to take a week off 'to chill out'. Maybe I should've been more understanding but I guess I was a bit hurt that he'd decided he needed 'some time away from everything' and that included me. But still I tried not to panic. In retrospect, I maybe shouldn't have contacted him and let him chill, but I thought as we were a couple, talking would be okay. The weekend before his week off, which ran into my birthday weekend, we spent a glorious couple of days, and - to my surprise - he made a commitment declaration by giving me a set of keys to his flat. I was surprised, but touched. His week off came around and my assumption that talking was okay, was so wrong. He made it clear that he was planning to be a hermit for the week, and that included not seeing me. His reassurance that he was 'planning something' for my birthday made me think all was okay. Again, how wrong.
My birthday came around, I got a call from J to ask if I was in the office. I said yes, for the morning, then in the afternoon I was out with my team. It turned out he'd sent flowers to me, but to the registered address for the office, which is not where I was. So that was the start.
We - myself and my team - went to the Elbow Rooms to play pool and J called around five asking when I'd be done. I'd still heard nothing about his 'plans' so I'd arranged to go for a drink with a mate back in South London where I live. I told J this and he said, well can I come? Of course, he could, was my response. It had become clear there was no 'plan'. He turned up with a couple of books - a private joke - and a card. I've tried to find an image online, to no avail. I can't scan the card as I've binned it, but let's just say it's probably the most cruel and nasty card I've ever had from someone close to me. But I digress.
My team had got me some lovely presents and a delicious cake - a flan. J suggested we leave the Elbow Rooms and go back to mine, so we jumped in a cab. And that's when it started. I made the mistake of asking why he'd gone into hiding. He said he didn't want to talk about it, and I -stupidly - pushed the issue. We got to Victoria and it was apparent that the whole thing was over. The situation then descended into a Mike Leigh style comedy. We're standing in Victoria Station, he's telling me he can't cope with our relationship and that he needs space to get his head together. I, by now, am crying. I ask him if he's coming home with me and he says, quite honestly, no. So I say fine and turn around to walk off to my train. He's carrying the flan, so he calls after me about the cake and I tell him he can keep it. God knows what the other commuters thought.
I get on my train, sobbing, and go home. I cry on the sofa then ring my best friend who immediately takes me out and gets me drunk. So all was not lost.
Fast forward to Sat morning. Eight thirty am. I'm dying. I've got mascara all over my face and I feel like death. The buzzer goes. The flowers.
I open the door, unaware that I'm still in the Mike Leigh comedy. A middle aged man launches into a tirade. "You need to get proper labelling on your flats," he grumbles. "I've been all round the bloody grounds, and it took me ten minutes to park. I've got loads more deliveries to make and this is a bad start to the day."
I stand. Looking blankly at him. I open my mouth and I can't help myself. "You're having a bad day?", I say. "You? It was my birthday yesterday so the flowers are late. I was supposed to be going away with my lovely boyfriend, but instead he's dumped me and now I've got these shitty flowers to remind me."
He stood. Open mouthed. And then he said, "not much I can say to that love, Happy birthday!". He hands me the flowers and departs. I get showered and arrange to meet some friends for lunch. I call my mother on the way, and she's surprised to hear from me saying, "I thought J was taking you away". No, I say. What happened? she says. He dumped me yesterday. Oh god, she says. Are you all right? I can't talk about it, I say, choking back tears. Of course, she says. Anyway, how was your birthday? Clearly my mother also had a role in the comedy.
All was fine - or as fine as it could be. I fielded the questions about where J was from my friends, I exchanged an email with J where he explained he was in a difficult place and he needed space and time blah blah. Touchingly, after that space and time, he fully expects to be with me. So I'll just wait here, shall I?
It's amazing how when you think you're just almost getting over it when the digital space delivers a killer blow. I get a text from J. "I'm going to hurt you just a little bit more," he texts. "I'm going to delete our relationship from Facebook. I care about you but I just can't do this."
So a kick in the teeth virtually. I think I would have been happier if I'd been allowed that dignity of being the one to declare myself single.
It's now a month on, and frankly the world is easier. I've been quizzed by friends - who frankly would like to see him strung up by his balls for hurting me so badly - who want to know why I don't hate J.
What did he do? Yes, he said things that he clearly didn't mean but we all get carried away with the moment sometimes. He didn't love me and he didn't want to be with me. So he told me. What's bad about that? Yes, if I found out he'd cheated on me, my attitude would change, but he was just honest. And I'd rather that than a fake weekend away for my birthday. But yes, his timing was shit.

Free computers

Originally I was in favour of the news that Brown was to give kids access to computers at home [not at £700, but that's another blog]. While the Daily Mail readers can rant that the wee chavs should be in the library, what is bypassing the commentators that when these wee chavs grow up, they'll more than likely to be working in a company where they will not only be expected to know about computers, they'll be expected to be competent in their use. That's not fantasy, it's fact.
But I'm particularly annoyed that the deal doesn't extend to Scotland. Yet again, this Government has shafted Scotland. There are children in Scotland who will work in computing [BigMouthMedia, one of the most respected SEO companies is based in Edinburgh and run by Scots!] so have they to buy their own? I hope to God that the lunatic will be let off the top chair soon.

New Facebook

I can't understand why everyone is against the new Facebook style. It seems very usable and much cleaner.

China

Much as I have my reservations about China, I have to say the whole fuss over the 'fake' singer at the ceremony is a bit over the top. China has for years been horrific in its attempts to create perfect human beings. From binding feet, to mutilation of young women, it was never going to offer up a slightly gawky child to sing in its biggest exposure to the world. That said, I wonder how affected the rejected child will be. Imagine living your life being known as the 'child that was too ugly to sing at the Olympics'?
I'm wanting someone to explain the point of Yahoo's new Fire Eagle application. I am now Twittering, Facebooking, Powncing and blogging. When does it stop? And does anyone care?

social media mutterings

Well had a chilled weekend, mainly reading John Leslie's continued insistence that he's not a rapist, despite saying 'he didn't actually phsyically do anything wrong'. Hmmm.
Aside from that I played with this . How many do you remember?
I failed to do any of the chores I had planned to do, mainly due to getting domestic chores done, but I have an hour this evening to do it.
This week's going to be pretty busy, in the run up to my birthday on Friday. I'm wondering how many 'virtual' presents I'll be getting!
That said, as I'm out nearly every night with people I expect I'll have a good haul.

Interesting observations on social media here By looking at the data, it seems there are more women using social media than men, which could be true given we are more likely to chat. I'm not convinced by the age ranges. I am sceptical that there are so many 69 year olds on social media sites, more likely that when people sign up, they omit their age and it opts for the standard. That said, it shows the medium is growing up.

busy busy

God I sometimes hate Blogger. I've been manically busy starting work at a new agency, and also dating a lovely boy. No information will be given to identify either, but the former is going well although I think the latter might think I'm mad.
I'm not entirely sure how much I love the new Facebook homepage. While it seems to look a lot more streamlined, I can't see where their commercial opportunities have gone. Although, look at this it seems they have other plans.
My usage of Facebook has dipped recently. Partly due to work, but also due to lack of inspiration. What do you say in your status if nothing's happened?

confusion

I'm trying to work out the actions of people. I've spent a good deal of time today working with people on search marketing, the passion some people have compared to reality of ignorance of the common person. I then popped out with some friends for a drink and now wonder if I made the wrong decision to move back to London. I feel alone, I feel a wee bit lost, if I'm honest. I live in a far inferior apartment to my one in Glasgow, and I am further out from town (Soho) than I'd prefer. What to do?

Hmmmm

Boys are odd. I think I've managed to scare the romantic interest off already. I was only joking with a text (I'm sure mobiles are the route to all evil), but I think he is now viewing me as some sort of bunny boiler. I'm not. Seriously. I'm normal. I'm scared about relationships so I avoid them because I'm so much of a useless wreck at them. :(

Finally

Well after a week of no laptop, I'm now able to update my blog. I've finished working for Mobile Business, too much for too little money, so they've now found a new editor, which is great.
My business plans are coming along too, should be meeting people this week. Quite exciting and scary too.
Went to the NMA Awards on the 26th June. Interesting array of winners. Good to see that Argos is finally getting recognition for its digital work. Although, I do think they need to ensure that the dedication to digital filters down to the minions. Last time I spoke to a PR person at Argos, they told me digital wasn't a priority for them. Interesting when you think how the experience of ordering on the web, picking up in store and paying at a quick terminal is so much more palatable than standing with the chavs. If only they could understand how important they're going to be in the new trying 'credit crunch' days.

Have had a bit of a debauched weekend, not with the romantic interest mentioned last month, but with a new one. Considering I spent all weekend with him, and I didn't want to kill him, we could be in trouble. He does however keep demanding I visit him in the achingly trendy Shoreditch. Not entirely sure that'll be happening regularly. Even better though, he's a geek so at least when I start talking about SEO and social integration and web2.0, he won't doze off out of ignorance. Boredom, maybe, ignorance though, not.
Need to get my head together as I've two features to write on SEO. Better dust off my 'How to get to the top on Google' manual. Have also been reading Groundswell, about the importance of social media. Given that comments on Facebook are falling, should be quite interesting. Have been watching with interest the rise of things like Dopplr and Twitter. The exhaustingly digital Paul Walsh seems to spend 24 hours a day updating his feed, frankly my life's too dull for that. Pleased to be back online. Amazing how much you get done, though, when the constant chirping of incoming mail isn't there. I've reorganised my office, fed my fish and managed to make a jelly. I'm having a breakdown clearly.
I'm still surprised at the ruling against YouTube re; Viacom's case against them. Quite how YouTube is going to offer up all the users' details without someone mounting an action against them. I would have thought someone would pull the Human Rights card. Yet to be seen.

frustrated....

I've tried to update this several times, but it just crashes... aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhh.
Anyway. Tonight's been eventful. I had a drink with a mate who was deciding whether or not to go on a date with a girl because he couldn't get her drunk til 10. If that wasn't depressing enough, I then met some other friends who proceeded to tell me the reason I was single was because I was too confrontational and argumentative. Needless to say we had a row.
Aside from that I had an interesting conversation about ironing. You would find it hard to believe how ironing unites people. I confided my secret (!) of putting kitchen foil under your board cover and then we had a long debate about a friend of ours who puts his fitted sheet on the bed and *then* irons it!
I'm working on a really dull feature at the moment, but have some exciting stuff coming up.
I also need advice. Is it okay to put butter on a peanut butter and banana sandwich? As well as the peanut butter, of course.

Tired

Well, I had an interesting day yesterday. There was a power cut [all day] and I'd magnanimously offered to help a mate who's just taken over a (slightly) dodgy pub in South London and who had no staff. Needless to say, it was 26 degrees and the pub was full. It's unbelievable how rude some people can be when they want a drink! Must admit, I did take advantage of being able to wipe the smirk off many faces when I IDed them. Ah the power.

Star spotting

I've been a bit slack updating this, mainly because I've been quite busy working! Damn work - gets in the way of everything. I've been working mainly on a few Eastern projects and also one in the glamorous world of Tunbridge Wells. Mobile Business, the magazine I've started consulting for, has been bought by Miles Publishing, a successful publishing house. Miles Bossum, its founder and owner, is a pretty ambitious guy and we share a couple of mutual friends, which is always a good sign.
I also found time to catch up with Andy Oakes, publisher of respected digital title NMA. We were gossiping like old women with the guys from Freestyle in Soho Hotel [where I seem to hold most of my 'meetings] when who should we spot? Keira Knightley. Looking a bit like a bag lady, IMHO, but gorgeous nevertheless. The boys were of course like meerkats trying to see who she was with but, bless 'em, they are celeb whores.
Mr Oakes was kind enough - and sexually confident enough - to allow me to go through his 'manbag'. I wasn't looking for it, but stumbled across a magazine. Apparently it's his guilty secret. I wouldn't DREAM of telling you the subject matter......