I bet the committee that came up this name thought it was really catchy.

Seriously though, the letter that came with this envelope was to do with an opt-in marketing campaign, rather than opt-out. Which is still not good.

Edit: May have got my knickers in a twist & now having trouble remembering what opt-in & opt-out means. In this case, Eircom say that, even when I stop using their service, they will sell my personal data to other companies, unless I specifically tell them not to.

It’s Sunday evening and I’m wondering what programme will caress me gently into sleep mode before tomorrow’s return to work. Hmm, Channel 6 have a listing for “Law and Order” at 9.30pm. Now I like Law & Order, but there’s so many repeats on so many TV stations that I like to check in advance what episode I’ll be watching.

Channel 6′s website is weird and very non-functional. For example, their main page advertises ‘The Airfield Sessions’ (live music) but doesn’t tell me when it starts or when it’s on*. Crucially, I can’t find any info on what tonight’s episode of Law & Order is about.

Heck, they don’t even have listings for Sat or Sunday…but they do have pretty girls** who present the music videos. So that’s alright then!

* Update – There’s no link on the main page but there is this page but it’s effectively a dead link!
** Are there any male presenters (not voiceover) on Channel 6?

Maybe they should call the station Chanel 6?

The main advantage of squible was that the current information was ‘above the fold’ (to use a newspaper analogy) while the ‘back story’ (flickr, lastfm, facebook etc) was beneath ‘the fold’. Using ‘above’ and ‘below’ the fold, I’m talking about the user having to scroll down the page. A viewer would visit my blog and see the ‘current’ news (posts and comments) on the main page. ‘If’ they wanted more info, they could scroll down the page (beneath the fold) and find out more info about me. This approach made sense to me?

Now, I’ve discovered the talian theme by Steve Arun. On first view, it looks really promising but I’ll have to customise it a bit. For example, I prefer ‘weighted categories’ rather than a simple, straight list of categories because a simple list really ‘lengthens’ the page and it doesn’t allow the viewer to see what’s important to the blogger. One advantage of this talian theme (which it shares with squible) is that it shows the recent comments at the top of the front page. In other words, it’s easy for visitors to see what’s interesting and what’s not. I’m just going to add a gratuitous emoticon here to see what happens because squibble didn’t handle them properly….

P.S. Talian handles emoticons ok but it may not handle italics (italic test) ok. More testing required…

Three small negatives to get out of the way first:

– The graduands should be encouraged to work out of their comfort zone. Too much of it was self-centred or introspective, and there was little or no representation of people, say, over 30.
– The assistants were students – they’d probably be offended if I called them s’curity guards. Perhaps some of them were even the artists themselves. It is perhaps disrespectful to visitors, and their own work, to stand around gossiping and sniggering and generally being a distraction.
– The signposting was non-existant. I’m pretty sure I missed about 20% of the exhibitors. The exhibition was staged across 3 buildings (?) and I found the buildings. But once inside, it was a different story.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’d definitely go again next year because:

Roisin Morris was the star of the show for me. I think I even saw her in the corridor!! Her photographs were just stunning. Her theme, albeit introspective, was relevant and insightful. There were only 6 photographs but I think they transcended the limitations of ‘ink on paper‘ and she really got her message across. There was a real depth and a tactile feel to them and her ‘What Waited Inside Herself 4“* was rightly the centrepiece of her display. Oddly enough, the catalogue just called it No. 4 or something like that. This is her college website and her personal website (although it’s not working yet).

* This pic is a scan of one of many postcards given away on the day advertising the work of the Graduands. Please contact the college or the artist if you want to reproduce, buy, etc their work.

I also liked Valerie Curran’s Vanishing Points. It was a fresh approach that I haven’t seen before and, as a former scientist, the concept appealed to me. She majored in Fine Art and her piece was displayed in a 3m cubed space and it consisted of styrofoam balls and thread. Have a look here at a small pic.

I, and I’m sure all the other children, blew as hard as they could into the space to see the balls vibrate on their strings. Sadly, the college website doesn’t list a personal website (or a better pic). I hope some gallery takes it in and displays it but, strangely, the pricelist says it Not For Sale.

Final mention goes to Manus Goan in, I think, the Animation class. The catalogue lists him but I can’t find him on the IADT website. His name is unusual and a google search returns up bebo page. His animated video was called something like Dusk to Dawn. The animation, ‘flashing lights’, and music all tied in together smoothly although it was a tiny bit repetitive. Bebo’s Manus Goan is a ‘Hardcore Raver 4 Life‘ so that might explain it! Still, the rendering was realistic and it was a good ‘take’ on Dublin. I’m not being dismissive when I say it would make a good screensaver, or if adapted, a good music video.

‘So what?’, says you. Well…

RIAI‘s 3rd annual ‘Simon Open door’ Fundraising Initiative.

Participating RIAI architects throughout Ireland will open their offices on Saturday, 28 April and give members of the public an hour’s consultation with an architect in return for a donation to Simon of €60. Some Waterford RIAI Members will host a stand at the RIAI Irish Architecture Awards Exhibition in the Waterford Institute of Technology from 9am – 1pm on Saturday 28th as part of this year’s John Roberts Festival.

There will also be some Waterford county architects holding consultation in their own offices. Therefore if you need a consultation with an architect that’s where to find them!

It’s an opportunity for you to support the Simon Community and also have a nice day out as well. Have a look at the festival’s programme and I reckon you’ll find something interesting to do.

I knew there was no turning back when those words came out of my mouth.

‘That depends‘, she replied, ‘the more you spend, the higher up I can get you‘.

I have set up my own company and have been trying to get everything organised for next week’s grand opening, i.e., an ad on the back page of the Irish Times! Ads on the back page of the Irish Times are priced according to how many centimetres of space they take up. I was quite confused about this and wondered why they couldn’t charge it per word or per sentence?

Maybe it’s to avoid that old joke about the farmer who phones his local newspaper to place an ad announcing his wife’s death. He’s told it’s €100 for 10 words so he dictates, ‘Mary’s dead. Funeral Saturday. No Flowers‘. The ad lady says he’s got 4 words left so did he want to add anything extra? ‘Ok‘, he says,’Put in ‘nice car for sale‘.’

Anyway, it cost me €250 for one day for about 4 short sentences and I hope it works. I wish I could pretend to be posh like those medical doctors and lawyers announcing on the back page that they’ve relocated to new premises etc. To be honest, it’s simply that their readers are in the demographics I’m targeting.

Dealing with all the advertising types has been a bit draining. Ironically, the cheaper parts of the advertising have been the least painful.

Any of you who’ve dealt with the Golden Pages (Yellow Pages) will know what a pain they are to deal with. I met with their sales rep a couple of weeks ago and I brought a picture with me of what I wanted. A PICTURE. Looking at the picture, he didn’t forsee any problems and gave me his ‘best rate‘. Funny how they never show you the rate card, isn’t it! I didn’t want to pay him upfront because (a) I used to work there and knew that clients ‘occasionally’ accused the sales team of lying and misrepresenting them and (b) I wanted to see the proofs and evaluate what I was paying for. Cue a sharp intake of breath and a rueful look as he told me that I, as a new customer, had to pay upfront. Also, I wouldn’t get to see the proofs so there was no need to worry!

What could I do but pay him? Golden Pages have about 95% market share while their only competitor has the remaining 5%. Sigh.

A couple of days later, they did send me the proofs and they were wrong. A honest mistake, I thought to myself. So I faxed back the corrections with ‘THE PICTURE’ that I’d shown to the rep earlier the previous week. After another delay, the rep phoned me to tell me that I couldn’t have what I wanted. I had a short discussion with him where I ranted and he listened. Eventually, I ran out of breath and hung up on him. Considering how much it cost me, I better get some business out of it or I’ll be calling out the voodoo dolls on him.

Things got a bit surreal when, shortly after my initial deal with Golden Pages, I got a call from Eircom business listings on my mobile (cell phone). He explained (sorta) who he was. I was stuck in traffic so I played along even though I knew he would eventually try to sell me some advertising. He asked for the usual – name, address etc…

‘I gave all this to the Golden Pages guy; why don’t you get it from him?’.
‘That information is confidential, sir, I have no access to it’.
‘How did you get my mobile number then?’
‘Err, ahh, err, well even though I work for Eircom, I also work for Golden Pages. It’s very complicated’.
‘Hmmm, ok’.

Then he asked what sort of business was I?

‘Widgets’.
‘Yes, but what sort of widgets? Who’s your market – industrial, commercial, domestic, etc?’
‘Anyone who’ll give me money for them’.
‘Err, ok’.

THEN, he finally got around to selling me advertising. I said I wasn’t interested as I’d already booked an ad in the Golden Pages. He tried to argue that people looking for a Widget-Maker, for example, would look up ‘L’ in the phone book and find me, Liam, the Widget-maker, there?? Then, it was ‘How would people find me a second time‘?

Err, in each instance, they’d go to the Widget-maker section in the Golden Pages and find me there.

He was a game fellow, though, and his final argument was, ‘didn’t I want to be in the phone book?‘ I said, ‘I will be as I get a free listing anyway‘. He knew he’d lost, so he wished me luck and hung up. I hope he meant it!

The cheapest, easiest and most pleasant part of the advertising lark was the logo design and production of business cards. I used Reads of Nassau St. The shop itself is a bit chaotic and overrun as the ‘general public’ use it for photocopying etc. The main problem is there’s 3 or 4 entrances and no central reception. It’s one of those places where you grap a staff member as they pass and don’t let go of them until you’re sorted.

Eventually, Mark, a graphic designer, came to the rescue. It was a very pleasant hour as we swopped ideas and so on. I think Mark is going freelance soon so if you need any type of graphic artwork done, get there fast and tap into his brain. I was in and out with my business cards in about 90mins. That’s good going for two mildly hung-over guys on a Saturday morning.

From their website:

cat & dog heaven

muttugly was born out of love for all things cat & dog related. The first of its kind in Ireland – we are combining the best products, services & ideas for pet care we have seen in the US and UK with our experience and understanding of Irish pets and their owner’s needs.

muttugly is a little piece of heaven for cool cats, discerning dogs & their parents.

It just goes to show there’s a market for anything and everything.

Well, I was down there this week and it’s gone! Maritime House is still there (could be gone by now?) but the statue’s gone. I hope they’re keeping it somewhere safe and it’ll make a reappearance on the quay in the near future… How sad.

Ironically, I’ve some friends going to see Mamma Mia in the Point tonight. Must ask them tomorrow if they noticed?

And, co-incidence indeed, I’m listening to The Waterboys right now and they’re playing in the Point on March 18. Spooky!

And the Waterboy’s song is The whole of the moon. And we’ve just had a lunar eclipse a few days ago.

Oh deary me, I really should go and lie down in a dark room for a little while.