Ignite Sydney: A Look at Google Trends

My Ignite Sydney talk on Google Trends is now on Youtube. I bluffed a few screens by going off script but I did well with the audience laughing. If only my voice didn't sound so weird.

Ignite is one of the best nights for me as the speakers are always good. Below was my fav from the night and it's pretty much free (I donated $5 at the entrance)

I probably wont be able to do another Ignite talk as they are trying to mix up the speakers and this was my 2nd talk. But I'm trying to convince everyone I know to do one as it's a great experience and the 15 seconds and 20 slides rule makes it easy to stay focussed.

Random Thoughts

Having a Twitter account and other blogs (which I've also neglected) it's hard to find time to post on a personal blog. Every time I really felt the urge to go all "Doogie Howser" the subject I want to post about is better suited to a secret blog, one that isnt traced back to me as sharing more personal issues and problem would cause too many problems for me (in case the wife reads... hello Ervi) & Soap.

So I give you a grab bag assortment of thoughts in no particular order. Spelling errors and other grammatical mistakes are left in as Im too lazy to audit.

A New Car

After surviving quite well without a car for 12 years in Sydney we now have a new car. A brand new VW Golf. It's officially my wife's car as I was content to just use the fantastic GoGet service but as Ervi only just got her licence they won't let P's use the cars.

This new car resulted in the need to clean out our garage. Which was filled with empty computer boxes, filing cabinets, tyres, and junk from years of hording and collecting for Soap. Lots of visits to the bins, a truck pick up for Soap junk and a shit load of sweeping resulted in a usable lock up garage.

Having driven just 5 times in the last 12 years I feel like a learner again. When we filled out the insurance policy it asked "how many accidents have you had in the last 5 years" I put 0. It never asked a more appropriate question of "How many times have you driven in the last 5 years" which I also would have answered 0. Even Youii who's whole campaign is about asking the right questions didn't ask this. Silly fools!

The VW Golf is great but I still secretly long for the GTI or R. But I've always been one to live under my means and the nice little Golf suited Ervi's budget.

After driving to Ikea and Bunnings I have ticked off all the items I needed a car for. Now I sit around wondering where to drive to with no good ideas. I expect a trip to Palm Beach sometime just because that's what everyone recommended. But after living on the Gold Coast for 14 years a beach doesn't interest me.

Ignite Talk on Google Trends
After years of wanting to present this ( i posted about this back in 2007) I finally got to give my presentation (stand up routine) on Google Trends. See the slides and script here. It went down really well and now I don't really want to do a presentation again as I wont go as well.

Facebook Myths
It is so hard not to drink the Facebook coolaid. The dominance of the platform blind sides you to the fact that it is just part of the puzzle not the actual puzzle itself. Remember when blogs were cool? I do I was trying to sell blogs into clients back in 2003 (with no success). No one seems to talk about forums but they are still alive and strong. It just seems to be that if you tick Facebook and Twitter you're golden.

Remember when social media was new? I do, I remember Lara from Yahoo! asking me about in 2004! and I researched from there. If only I persisted... See the post about that here.

Classical Music
The two radio stations I listen to exclusively now are ABC Classical 92.9 and 102.5 (2MBS which I had to google I had no idea of the name)

Why? because if I hear the fucking Spaceship song again I'll go into a DJ rage. It'd hate it less if the filmclip was good but it's terrible.

This is how you do a Benny Bennasi filmclip (better song too)

Seriously though when your days are filled with meetings, proposals, code, questions, answers and business decisions the last thing you want to listen to is more noise. Classical music is great to just be alone in your thoguhts and relax. Just like a good session on the XBOX360 you can just focus on that for a few hrs to rest the brain.

Too Many Games
After winning Xbox Australia as a client I now get free games from 3 publishers Ubisoft, Activision and Microsoft). It's to the point where I look at a games catalogue and have played everything I wanted. Red Dead Redemption being the first game I bought in a while. I still have Transformers, Crackdown 2 and the last part of Alan Wake to go through. I do love spending my days talking about Halo Reach, Marvel characters and why Deadpool is awesome. Sad note is I don't have an unlimited XBOX points account so I still have to pay for games like LIMBO. Which was awesome BTW.

Movies
Inception is the first film in a long time I am super excited to see.
Still watched a heap of films with docos on popular culture always top of my list
Good Hair
Food Inc.
both deserve a watch

The Male/Female lead RomCom Action Genre
2010 is the year of the Male/Female lead RomCom/Action genre. 3 big films with 6 big stars all in a short time frame.

Date Night
Killers
Knight & Day

Date Night wasn't bad but it seems they all want another Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Foursquare: It sucks I want YELP!
After spending a week in NYC I came to the conclusion that YELP! is not only a much better service but it's used much more by consumers and businesses. I used a Foursquare deal at a Cafe and the 2 staff had no idea what it was. "Our boss does these things on the net and we don't know"... I still got 15% off by checking in.

I saw about 10 x "We're loved on Yelp!" stickers than I did anything related to Foursquare (even Facebook) at cafes, restaurants and small stores in NYC. So why does everyone talk about Foursquare? Echo chamber of BS

Any time I wanted to know where to eat I went to YELP! Foursquare showed me that someone had checked into a cab, a train station or multiple restaurants but I had to sift through all the tips (if there was any) just to see if it was good or not.

Please Google, bring Yelp to Australia we need it. UrbanSpoon on the iphone is terribly slow and not user friendly.

Mobile Food Vans
Why does LA have these amazing mobile food vans and Australia just get Mr Whippy? I enjoyed fresh spring rolls, burgers and other great food at these vans while in LA. I missed the Kogi van though.

Is there a law stopping this happening in Australia or are we just behind the times? Huge opportunity here

Thank god LOST is over
The show is finally gone from required viewing. The finale reminded me of Land of the Lost with the dodgy camera shake. The reason I watched Lost was because I thought it would lead somewhere. Damn them for wasting my time.

New Glasses or Laser Eye Surgery
After finding my fav pair of glasses I now need to get new ones. Knowing full well I wont find a pair that suit me as much. I could go Laser Eye Surgery but still too scared even though the 6 people I know who have have surgery had great results.

Lavaball Iphone Game

Soap's first iPhone game Lavaball is now in the App Store. It's free, its fun and it's easy to play. Waste 5 minutes playing Lava Ball. Part Monkeyball part Pocket God.

"You are Mr L'ava L'ava, volcano deity of the Pee Pee Islands. Once upon a time the Pee Pee feared and worshipped you, but times of peace have made them lazy and complacent.

Its time to remind them once again who is boss. Use your device to control Mr L'ava L'ava's fiery balls, smiting and scourging and smouldering all those who have forgotten you.

Eight tricky levels await, rock n roll time!"

I've seen images and a beta of our next game (a paid game) and it's looking awesome. And Mark's next iphone Unity3D game is looking even more fun. Again it involved killing lots of people.

We also have a useful app (we make those too) that's in the final stages. It's something I'd use daily.

Note: Our first app for the iPhone was Glass Busker but it's not really a game.

Damned If You Do

Today we launched the Digital Agency HOT+COLD list for Campaign Brief and Bannerblog.

The idea has been in flux for a while and after many emails between lots of different parties it's all complete.

Debate over how much awards should factor in (some wanted it 50-100% based on awards), should size be based off billings vs staff numbers (I pushed for staff numbers as a much easier figure to audit), should it be in Campaign Brief, let's get AIMIA or IAB involved, lets rate by technology, lets make it like the NMA list etc etc.

The NMA list in the UK bases all agencies on their digital billings. Agencies are ranked from 1-100 and NMA seem to have the respect of all the agencies and being on the list seems to be enjoyed by most. Even the ones lower down.

One thing I realised half way through the Hot+Cold process was that if I ever floated the idea of "a blog for banners what does everyone think?" the site would have never been made. It would have been just a series of emailed opinions about how it should work and how it wont work.

I also realised it's a major hassle to wrangle judges to do something. It's a real hassle chasing people for info, scores, comments. I should have charged for entries :) All the judges did their job though so I can't complain too much. It was also a good cross section. Some were very harsh while others were very lenient. The range of scores ended up at 21-79 so they all cancelled each other out into the middle.

So the list is up and come major agencies asked not to be part. They had their reasons but these are the same agencies that enter "agency of the year" comps but won't agree to be ranked with all other agencies. This seems like a double standard to me. Why enter B&T and AdNews with their secret juries and not Bannerblog and a known jury of peers? Anyway, I take stuff personally when I shouldn't.

The list would have been created with or without my involvement by Campaign Brief. I jumped at the chance to work on it for multiple reasons but mostly to ensure that it was judged by a proper digital jury and not just Michael Lynch's friends. No offence Lynchy :)

I could have just judged it all myself and done it as an opinion piece like this post by Visual Jazz's Stuart. My list would look a lot different from the one we ended up with and I also would not have asked for agencies permission and submissions. Much easier but meaningless. I would have also been influenced by 2008 work. Many agencies I thought were killing it a lot of the work I remember was form 2008. Other agencies I had never heard of had solid 2009 years.

I had best intentions when wanting to start the list in 2008 and still do. But with all the BS that comes your way (and my nature to take to everything to heart) it feels like it wasn't worth it. Hopefully after the next round of updates and more agencies are added people will start to see the worth of it.

It certainly has to have more worth than the recent Forester report of 6 agencies.

Next steps for me will be to talk to AIMIA and IAB and see if this is something they want to carry the torch for it and Bannerblog can just host it. This might convince the other agencies that it's something worth while being involved in. Before this there was comprehensive list of digital agencies in Australia and maybe I should have just started with that.

So damned if you do and damned if you dont. I've been in this boat many times and it always makes me feel uneasy.

Its much easier doing nothing that's for sure. I've had some tough decisions at work also with the same outcome. Either way I get a shit sandwich, only difference is you can choose which bread I'd like beforehand.

2003: Year In Review

While looking for an old document of junk I found this Year in Review document. I present it to you in unedited form. Note: If only I data vized my stats I would have had 3 years on Feltron.

I'm unsure why I didn't post this. It's quite funny to me now.

I did a year in review for 2005 and for last year.

2003 Year In review:

Soap went from 3 people to 2, then to 3, then 4 then 5.

The first full year of working for myself.

We launched a new website in December which we started in January.
Had a client get arrested and go to jail for importing $100M+ of Ecstacy. We never saw our money.

We bought a heater, 3 Emacs, 2 PC's and 2 printers. And numerous software. We also bought numerous chairs which will all be obsolete in January 2004

Did our first eyeblaster banners with Syrup.

Completed our first commercial CDROM job for Contiki and HOST.

Built our first flash desktop app for Big Brother 03.

First mentioned in B&T for Moboy and Big Brother

Got the Flash Forward award we won last year from Leo

----------
I retired my laptop to work on a Emac. The took my laptop out of retirement with OSX 10.3 to work occasionally at home.

Bought an IPOD. Converted all my CD's to MP4's. Realized Itunes was useful.

TOP Songs/Albums of 2003: According to Ipods Play Counts:
24 Doves: Lost Souls: Firesuite
22 Coldplay: A Rush of Blood: Clocks:
22 COldplay: Parachutes: Shiver
21 The Prodigy: The Fat of the Land: Climbatize
The Shins: Og Inverted World: Caring is Creepy:
AIR: Moon Safari: Sexy Boy
Cat Power: Moon Safari: Cross Bones Style
Eels: Novacaine for the Soul
Easy Me: Faith No More
Oh Yeah: Yellow

Faith No More is the only artist i own a CD off. The rest I burnt from friends. Weird they should make up the top 25 in my Top played songs:

Only Smashing Pumpkins with 1979 and the before-mentioned Faith No More are the lone artist's in my Top 40 of which I own CD's of. I guess my friends have good taste and I'm a stingy bastard.

Finally understood XML and it's worth

The first full year in sydney I have lived in the same apartment.

In December I finally bought a PS2 and tried to make up for lost time.

I raised $2,150 for Oxfam to travel to China only to have SARS and work interrupted plans.

I Visited Melbourne for the first time.
Visited QLD twice

>> Spoke at 2 conferences this year: Flashklt and Digit. Both ill-prepared but went down well. Also got asked to speak in Singapore (free flight) only to have a job due the same day. Then find out the job is delayed.

My little sister moved in to live with me for a while.

Still haven't got Private Health Cover, Insurance or Laser Eye Surgery.

We bought a new kettle.

Bought a DVD player to go with the DVD's i own.
http://www.theslipperytruffle.com/v4/archives/2003_06.html#000972

Finally started paying for dialup after my free UUNET account stopped working.

Realised i can make good smoothies. Made and consumed around 50

Bought my first ever suit for Robs wedding.

Finally got a electric toothbrush

Realised i like Felafel Kebabs from Ali Baba. Bought and consumed about 15

Sworn off soft drink about 10 times

Got a new mobile phone (Siemens S55) and have hated it ever since.

Number of times vomited: 4
Number of Migraines: 3
Number of fights: 0
Distance i drove a car: 0km
Number of Weddings Attended: 1
Pairs of Shoes bought: 1
Pairs of Shoes worn: 3
Number of times rent paid late: 18
Number of times sunburnt: 1
Allnighters at work: 3
Number of times went to bed before 12am: 50

won ticket to premier of Matrix 2. 1 ticket!!!! I sat behind Jimmy Barnes and next to 2 suited people. I saw the president from 24 on the Red Carpet

i made a google #1
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bored+stiffy+in+public+places&meta=

Photo Round Up

Here's a few photos I forgot to post until today.

Havainas Thong Challenge Bondi 2010
One of the best brand PR stunts/promos I've seen. Great vibe, well organised and a huge success.

Moldy Science Project Cheese
Found in the fridge today! WTF the dust that came off this was insane

NYE
The fireworks were as they have always been. The same. At least this guy was entertaining for 5 minutes.

Xmas Lunch
Kastengels (buttery and cheesy indo cookies) made with a secret family recipe. So secret when people ask for it they get a "different" one.

Sharemate Wanted
You had me at free toilet paper!

Min 2 weeks Max 3 weeks! Wow that's some tight restrictions.

Fail on the way the phone number is typed and pre-torn. I want to ring just to tell him he's an idiot.

My Lanyard Collection
Including my name badges from all my casual jobs. View on flickr for notes with most detailed. I hate when I visit a company and they make me give these back.

Coffee Cup with a Moe
How adding 5c of fabric and some glue can turn your coffee mug into an interesting selling point for your cafe. I don't drink coffee but I wanted to buy a cup

A Sad Case of Blog ADD

toothpastefordinner.com

I have a serious case of Blog ADD. Here's my train of thought for a typical lazy raining Sunday. Part of getting over this problem is sharing the problem so here goes.

I'll get a list of posts I need to do for Sleevage (including ones that I have promised bands and designers sorry guys) and start researching a post. I'll then end up with 25 tabs open and then see something about an underground dance party and start to flag that for the underground blog. By this time I've forgotten about Sleevage. Either that or my tabs crash and I lose all the links.

I'll then see a banner on one of these sites that reminds me to audit the submissions for Bannerblog. I'll look through those which is also littered with viral videos and campaigns. While checking out them I'll see something which triggers a thought for this site.

It's usually a pet peeve or something stupid yet insightful so I open up the admin here. But opening up this admin reminds me of all my other posts I promised myself I'd do. I search for an old list I did somewhere. Google Docs or Toodloo.

I can't find that list but see another list of the collaborative posts/articles I have on the go for Soap Creative and my real job! Oh yeah that Community Post with Matt! I totally forgot. Oh the white paper on Micro Transactions. This is why we got the 2010 Digital Predictions doc done in <5 days because it would have dragged on otherwise.

Thinking about this then reminds me that I should tend to HeroHQ while we're in hiatus awaiting the new game to be announced (soon guys!). I'll check there and someone will link to a crazy X-Men related costume which reminds me that no only did I sell WTFcostumes too soon but my other 3 blog ideas (secret ideas right now) haven't even got off the ground.

The one blog that did get off the ground is the neglected Cool Shit You Can Buy. On official hold due to a blog embargo by my wife.

I then check my email to see another request for a custom Mr Potatohead. I look to my left and see a box of Mr Potatohead parts and piles of clay that have been untouched for almost 2 years now. I resist the urge to make a Predator potatohead yet again.

Looking at my Mr Potatohead photos reminds me that I still have thousands of travel photos to process. It makes me reminisce when I had a proper photoblog back in 2000-2004. Ahh Happy Snaps I miss you. I also find it funny I used to post images 320x320 size. I was worried when I went above 40k for a photo. That was dial up in 2001 I guess.

It's about this time I realise I've done nothing, I'm still in my underpants and I haven't eaten anything. Oh and it's time for bed.

The only saving grace is that Bannerblog has a solid team of editors who keep the site rolling along and Ross, Alex and Matt continue to hold the torch for Soap on the blogs even when I don't.

I hope others out there share the same problem. Maybe I just need a personal assistant?

Disclaimer: Facts may be exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Fruit vs Junk Food A stalemate

The problem with fruit is that you can never guarantee it's going to taste nice. There's nothing I hate more than buying a shit load of apples or oranges (grand plans when grocery shopping) and then finding out I got a bad batch. I've never had a bad Oreo or potato chips but I'd say 20% of the oranges I've had lately were tossed in the bin.

Now I have no junk food and no fresh fruit!

It's the ultimate slap in the face by a piece of fruit. You're made to feel guilty about eating junk food so I buy none and then the fruit at home just gives you the middle finger.

If the fruit had feelings it'd be pretty bummed also. It's entire life was preparation for the ultimate honour of being eaten. Then when the big day comes it gets one bit and unceremoniously tossed in the bin. Poor bastard.

I can now feel the hard stare of the ice cream sandwich in my freezer! Must resist!

Human Flesh Meat Hook Tug of War

Ouch!, Ewww and fuck that!

Point and Shoot Camera

My wife's small point and shoot camera is always around and I'm more inclined to take photos of random things with it than my big DSLR. I also carry my Nikon around with me less. Tonight I raised the memory stick of her camera and found some really old shots I took and forgot about and I present them here for all the laughs.

What Not to Name Your Bluetooth Virus

Why You Should Put Sunscreen on Your Ankles

How I Roll in Indonesia or What the donation box at our wedding ended up looking like

Fatty Hands or What my hands look like after walking non stop for 14kms or It hurts to make a Fist

Elite Salads

I also realised after doing a backup I have travel photos from 2006 that I havent processed and have fallen behind on 2009 photos too.

Soda Milk

Free Internet & Rice!

Masturbate to the Moon

Serious About Junk Mail

At Soap I always encourage the guys to take photos at every event but the main complaints are

- Forgot
- Didn't have camera
- Soap camera too big
- iPhone doesn't have flash and it was too dark

So we recently bought the Olympus Tough camera to try and solve that problem. I'm looking fwd to taking that out on a Jetski and getting some videos. I know it's selfish or weird but a work event without photos to document it is a wasted event. Capturing the culture is really important and sharing the culture not only a great talking point at work but a great recruitment tool also. Taht's why we have so many photos on our agency Flickr.

Top 10 Flickr photos for Soap

While my Flickr stream has broken the 2 million views mark (thanks for Earth Wallpapers) Soap Creative's account is ticking along with 470,000 views total.

Here are the top 10 photos (well pieces of content) on the Flickr account that are not weapon designs. The reason for that is the weapon designs make up 80 of the top 100 viewed images. This is due to the popularity of our old site Build Your Own Weapon.

Not surprising the top photos are mainly light drawing ones

Look how chubby Rob looked!

A huge different to my personal Flickr account's top 5 photos but it makes sense as we don't have any boob photos at work.

Predictions for Digital in 2010

During the slow days between Xmas and New Years we at Soap Creative decided to put together a prediction list for what we think will impact on digital advertising in 2010. There is a mixed bag of stuff in here. Some we know (like new iPhone in June/july) but other we hope will happen. Some are focussed on the Australian market (the internet filter) while others international.

It was a lot of fun and I think we'll do one of these each year.

The Blu-Ray Experience

I rented and watched my irst Blu-Ray disc today and while the quality was amazing it was something else that had me shaking my head in disbelief.

Both discs, one from Sony and the other Paramount, had BD-Live which let me "chat with friends while watching my the film or my fav scenes"

W.T.F.

They seriously expect you to chat on your screen while watching the film. Chat with friends who are watching it at the same time? Does anyone use this feature? Did anyone request this? Or were the studios so desperate to look for a Blu-Ray only feature that they threw money at this?

The Paramount disc had a mini web browser where I could watch trailers and other crap but I do this much better with my computer.

Lucky I have a PS3 as it's connected to the net but I'm guessing most people who have just a standard Blu-Ray player wont have it connected. My guess is based on zero fact but why would would bother to connect your Blu-Ray player when the only extra is a chat feature. Why would a Blu-Ray player manufacturer waste the extra money on adding Wi-Fi or an Ethernet port.

I like features like the one seen below where I can get a PSP version of the movie I own from BD-Live but why not pack that smaller file onto the disc by default? Seems silly to make me download a 1GB file

Studios are advertising directors chatting through the dics in "screenings" like in this video here for Hellboy. Cumbersome indeed, sales ploy for sure.

Sad gimmicks that seem to have been created more to sell the discs than to make the experience better.

If you are one of thise people who have used the chat feature let me know what it's like.

More reading on BD-Live here and here.

Many Ways to Give

For some reason when I'm on Holidays (or vacation as they say in America) I always feel the urge to donate money. I'll struggle for a week on which TV to buy, looking at features, deals, discounts all in the effort to save a few hundred but then see an ad for Fred Hollows foundation and feel this insatiable urge to donate $1,000. I also had this funny notion that someone there would see my donation and call me personally to thank me for the donation. But alas I got a generic printed letter as if I donated $20 and a bunch of junk mail (a pet peeve).

After seeing this video from Mother where they donated $10,000 USD as cash in a briefcase it got me thinking. It's not the amount that matters it's the gesture. Sure donating $10,000 via an online transaction is nice, but dropping that wad in cash to an actual person, video taping it and putting that video online gives you much more bang for buck.

In fact a briefcase of cash is the best way to pay for anything. I realise now that putting the deposit on my unit would have been much more dramatic (read: awesome) had I filled a briefcase with $60,000 and marched into the bank. I also missed an great photo opportunity.

Seriously though I have a point, so back to my main point.

Donating money to a charity is easy to do if you associate the donation with something tangible. $500 seems like a lot of money but if you say "Well that's just one months Adsense revenue" it has more meaning.

Here's a few ways to easily donate some money to charity without really feeling the pinch.

Adsense Revenue:
Donate a months Adsense revenue. If you earn <$100 a month on this then pledge to donate 6 months worth.

In fact any revenue you make from your site you can donate. For Bannerblog I donate 25% of it. This ends up being a sizeable chunk of my yearly contributions.

eBay Stuff
The digital garage sale. Find some stuff you no longer use. eBay it and donate the money to charity.

Client Gift = Donation
Clients hate this. Well they never will say so but they get nothing, you get he charity donation tax write off and if the client complains they look like douche bags. So it's tough to do every year but slip it into the regime or make it a regular thing for all smaller (read: non important) clients.

No Friday Drinks
Cancel one of the Friday drinks in your office and donate the budget to charity. Or if that's too crazy cut the budget by half and have everyone drink soft drink!

% of ????
Donate a % of something to charity. Your salary, the amount you spend on clothes or the amount you spent on presents.

Karma Offsetting
Download a movie or copy some MP3's? Donate the money you would have paid for those goods instead.

No Coffee Wednesdays
Don't have a coffee on Wednesdays and put that money to a charity fund.

The Coin Jar
Keep a coin jar in your office of home. Dump your coins in there at the end of every day. My coin jars busted out at $187 when I finally got around to counting. So don't tip waiters keep the coins for people who really need it. (Note: this applies to Australia where waiters/bar staff are paid well. Not in the USA)

Provide Links to Charities
Pick a couple of the charities you support and give them prominent links on your site. Ask your workplace to do the same. Go one better by having a small page explaining why you support that charity. I've seen plenty of blogs doing this but not that many small company sites. Banks do it best. I'll have to do this myself :)

Two years ago we bought every major Soap client One Laptop Per Child . We bought $5,000 worth of them! It felt great. The next year we got clients Flip cameras! This year a random assortment of junk.

And remember don't donate in little pieces save it up so you can do one big grand gesture like the briefcase full of money.... no just kidding, give regularly. You'll feel much better.

The added benefit of all this giving is people will buy less shit they don't need thus subtlety saving the environment from making more shit. I just watched the video below so I'm in that anti-consumerism mode. Even though I work in advertising.

Life TODO Update for 2009

Going back to my TODO list from 2003 I'm now able to cross a few more off the list!

1: Travel to Japan
2: Feature on Boingboing.net
3: Write an article for a magazine
4: Write an article for an online mag (Smashing Mag)
5: Speak at a conference in a foreign country IG Digital Day Sao Paulo
6: Do the Bridge climb
7: Bungee Jump
8: Sky Dive
9: Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef (I snorkelled in Bunaken Indonesia but doesn't count)
10: Shoot a gun
11: Write an article in a newspaper
12: Have a photo of mine published in print (The lady with helmet backwards in Who doesn't count as it was uncredited)
13: Design a CD cover that's sold in stores
14: A credit in a Hollywood film
15: Compete in a fun run
16: Own a house/unit
17: Surf a wave on a surfboard
18: Visit Easter Island
19: Visit Antarctica
20: Go bobsledding in a foreign country (ice)
21: Ski in snow
22: See a sumo match in Japan
23: Become a Muslim (what we do for love hey)
24: Learn Indonesian fluently
25: Be an extra in a film (this would knock off #14 too)
26: Swim with a dolphin
27: Learn to juggle
28: Visit Great Wall of China
29: Visit the Pyramids
30: Do a high dive (10mtrs will do)
31: Attend a Comic Festival in costume
32: Attend a Superbowl
33: Buy something at a big auction. One that requires me to hold one of those big numbers
34: Go white water rafting
35: Have a book published
36: Produce a TV show
37: Go water skiing
38: Ride an elephant (came very close to this one)
39: Make a baby
40: Finish one of the GTA's. (Might remove this one)
41: See a UFC fight live
42: Attend a Wrestling Match live. WWF, WWC any will do
43: Get married. I better add that one in case Ervi is reading :)
44: Visit Chernobyl

So just #10: Shoot a Gun, #43: get married and #23: become a Muslim in 2009.

Next year I will tackle fun run. I came close this year. I'll miss #41: UFC fight asI'll be overseas when they are in Sydney :(

2009 Looking Back on a Big Year

In the grand scheme of things 2009 has been my biggest year ever.

I got married

Which reminds me I haven't uploaded all the photos from the wedding. Here's a few Ervi picked out.

I converted to Muslim
A few days before getting married I said the Shahadat, signed the papers, shook the hands and become a 100% Muslim

I bought an investment property
It's 2 doors down and the exact flip of my apartment

I bought a LCD TV
I held out long enough and can now watch stuff on a screen that doesn't make an annoying buzz sound.

Started Running
Running 3 times does count as starting :) Here's me on Nike+

Got the rest of my Wisdom teeth out

Photos here for those interested

I went on a Detox

Although I've slipped back into bad eating habits I am drinking much more water. As Rob noted "I've seen you pee at work now! WTF is up"

Auditioned and failed for Gruen Transfer
Need to up my cheeseburger talk. It did help Soap get the guest spot on the show though.

I sold my WTFcostumes blog
When it did 3 million visitors in October I kinda wish I had kept WTFcostumes but I had too many things to update as it is

Did a lot of Travel

Not as much as 2008 which was nuts but still pretty hefty
Married in Indonesia.
Judged at One Show in NY and went to a stopover in LA
Spoke at AGIdeas in Melbourne
Spoke at MADC in Melbourne (thanks to Bob at Host for pulling out to make room for me :)
Spoke at PADC in Perth

Shot a Real Gun

Tick that MOFO off my life todo list. I did this in LA and the Gold Coast.

Got my head scanned in 3D

While small I'd wanted to do this for ages! This was at the GDC in San Fran which was interesting seeing the gaming industry struggle and ask the same questions as the advertising industry.

Contributed to a book

Well I drew some cocks but hey that's the fine print no one will read. Tick that off the life todo also.

What about Soap!

And all of this is personal stuff. Soap itself had a huge year and even with the GFC (which did affect us) we had one of our best years ever creatively. There's still ups and downs, miscommunication, assumptions, egos, rivalries, enemies, friends, emotions, wins, losses and all the other stuff that comes from helping run an agency with 2 offices and 30+ people.

In some ways the quite month and half we had this year was good for us. We were able to put 4 developers onto iPhone R&D which has already begun to bear fruit.

We were named Highly Commended by B&T for Digital Agency of the Year coming runner up to Deepend. It was tough to not win again (this is our 4th finalist but no win title across B&T and Adnews) but you can't hate on Deepend they do nice stuff. We're still wondering what that magic formula is that wins you an "Agency of the Year" title.

The Meeting Game cards.

We finally finished them! They were in the works for over 2 years and it's finally done! Complete and better than I imagined. I wish I could find the original docs or trace back what date the initial idea came up in as it'd be an interesting look at the timeline.

2010 will be a big year for us at Soap. New staff, new clients and the US office at a place where it can stand on it's own.

Blogging for 2010
Looking back at my blogging on here for 2009 it has been pretty sparse. I used Twitter much more this year and also Flickr to dump my images. I didn't see the need to blog that much. Factor in updating Sleevage occasionally (Alex has been keeping it alive for me) and Bannerblog every few days it took all my blogging juice. Also having a game console at home didn't help either.

Next year will mark 10 years I've been blogging. O F'n G I know. Here's me talking about Social Media in 2004 if I need to lay down some more creds.

Not that getting into something earlier makes you any good at something.

I look forward to 2010. There's plenty of things/people/situations I wish I could change but overall I've netted out with a good deck of cards.

All My Santa Photos

All My Santa Photos


Originally uploaded by mrtruffle

Cahier Moleskines 1-8 | 18.3.2008 - 15.12.2009

Cahier Moleskines 1-8 | 18.3.2008 - 15.12.2009, View my Flickr stream here.

I've used these everyday since March 2008 after reading Getting Things Done. I carry them everywhere and they have allowed me to become much more organised. I still forget stuff but only when I don't have them with me. Also if I arrive to work and I forget my notepad I feel naked and useless.

I also remember seeing Russ from Tequila write stuff down when people told him URLs or books to read when at industry functions. I looked at him doing it thinking "you write shit down to remember" so simple. This was what inspired me to carry these suckers with me everywhere.
www.moleskineus.com/cahier-pocket-graph.html

Image Eating Sheep

Crips and Bloods

I love this photo from the Crips and Bloods: Made in the America doco. Even gansta's love to game

The only thing I wanted from the film was for it to be longer. I wanted more info and more details.

I Love Raptr

If only there was a service like this for my other media consumption. Tracking my usage on a console is an insight into the ROI of a game and a way to compare myself against friends.

If this existed when I used to play my Sega Mega Drive every night and weekend I'd having something to show for all those lost hours.