The Best Piece of Design Advice.

OKay, so I just found this site

http://www.questionablecharacters.com

which in turn linked me to this site

http://www.frankchimero.com

which in turn linked me to his ethos page

http://www.frankchimero.com/ethos

which in turn lead me to add it to my RSS feeds on mac mail.

Which in turn lead me to read the last ten most recent posts.

The last one said:

There are no secrets or shortcuts. Just work hard.

Which in turn made me feel motivated and empowered.

Seriously. I need to stop being a career failure and just get on with it. I might have to redesign my site first off :)

Well first off I need to do the work that I have waiting to be done.

And I need to get out of debt. I just attempted to apply for two credit cards with 15 months 0% on balance transfers. Sadly I got rejected for both. I think it's because i'm self-employed. B'tards.

Facebook is the new Coca-Cola.

The other day I was reading an article in a business magazine and they were trying to predict trends and wax financial about the future of the economy and what would replace the things we already have in society.

One of the questions was about someone trying to predict or create what comes after facebook.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I have come to realise that my prediction, in this whole affair, is that nothing is going to come after facebook. Well not nothing, there will be things invented and created i'm sure, but nothing is going to over take it.

Here is my reasoning, and we're going to mention MySpace and Bebo and frienster and Hi5 and every other failed networking site as well. MySpace used to be the best thing on the internet. But nothing changed, nothing was updated, nothing was new, there was no user to client contact and thus no improvements in the service (and still, there's no new beneficial improvement; all the new things we saw on facebook a year before).

I'm not the biggest fan of facebook, which you wouldn't guess considering the amount of hours I spend on it. The reason I'm not a fan is the amount of hours. It has me trapped, I want to know if someone has posted new pictures, I want to know if so and so is attending the event I'm thinking of going to, I want to know how my friends are doing and what they are up to all day.

I find myself refreshing the page, just in case, about a million times a day. It's now a habit. Those are my reasons for not liking it. I also fear that it will get too big, that there will be too much information and we will all explode from an information over-load. My other beef with social networking sites in general is that they mess with the general order and natural cycle of friends. I can now stay in touch with the people that bullied me in high school, or the people that I knew when i was 5 years old and I could still play out in the street and not get kidnapped.

But back to my theory. Myspace has never changed, it was replaced, and now, rather than realise that it is actually used for music more than networking, it continues to wriggle the knife further into its own heart. It's time it reinvented itself and came up with new ideas rathe than ideas pinched from facebook.

Facebook on the other hand updated their site, changed the layout, realised there was a problem with information display and did something about it. At first people could choose to change sites, eventually everyone had to. And they had the attitude of 'you will get used to it' when people moaned and complained. Now, I quite like it. people hate change, but once they know it for it a while they won't remember what was before. And that is what they knew and what they did.

The people behind facebook and who are working constantly on facebook are not stupid, they are smart, and they know how to stay alive. If they had just left things the way they were all myspace hell might have broken loose and they would be burried in the dust like friendster and hi5.

So my theory is that facebook is going to be like coca-cola, it's not going anywhere. It will have competetors, there will be cheaper versions, but it will always capture the main market, and it's not because the product has every changed. No, it has always tasted the same, just the marketing and the look changed. The logo progressed, the advertising was clever, and always different.

So as long as facebook keeps the product the same, ie. makes sure it's ALWAYS a social networking site that is easy to use and clutter free, but changes the look to keep up with technology then my bet is that it's not going anywhere, and that it will become a brand like Apple, McDonalds, Nike and Coca Cola.

How Do You Get Great Ideas?

Ideo are a design company that I hold in high regard. If Fabrica would ever reply to me I would be applying for jobs with them... or doing my masters in design writing in New Yoik.

Anyway.

I just downloaded a widget that asks a new question every day.

Today's question is: How do you get great ideas?

The grammar seems a little incorrect, but who am I to judge?

My thoughts are: that great ideas are not gotten. They do not just appear. They are not something that wakes you up in the middle of the night and by morning you are done masterminding your ideas.

A great idea is something that grew from an idea.

I'm going to use a quick and partially appropriate metaphor. It is like (or a simile if you're Ed Byrne) the Great Wall of China. It is great. It started with an idea, it started with a thought, it started with one brick, and one pair of hands, followed by many thousands of others. There was one person though that laid the first stone/brick.

And then as the chinese proverb says 'Many hand make right wolk.'

That's what an idea is. It's not something forced, and more importantly it comes from the want to fulfill and need (rather than the need to fulfill a want).

That is how great ideas come to be. From one thought, that is built on over time, and developed by other people to the point of it becoming great. More than likely your 'Great Idea' will far succeed your own meandering existence.

With a Rock in my hand.

It's so good to be back on the non-fiction. As much as I loved my break filled with vampire romance I am truely suited to reading non-fiction books, or fiction books that are non-fiction laced with a ficticious surrounding (like 1984, the catcher in the rye, on the road, Chuck Palanhuick's life works).


(can I just say, and this is off-topic, VLC plays ANYTHING, best media player ever for that.)

There were a couple of articles I read today in the most recent issue of Adbusters that really grabbed my attention.

Two of them are actually on the adbusters website and they can be found here:



This one is about hipsters.

I think Eilidh and I used to call them scene-sters back in the day, and now they have grown into hipsters.

I was quite alarmed when I read it because a lot of the things that they list off as 'ways to identify a hipster' are things that I have done in the past, or that I am currently doing. On futher inspection and with continued reading I realised that I am not a hipster, because I couldn't care less. The things that I buy and especially the clothes I wear are more-so because I don't give a rat's tail most of the time. Yes, there is a certain look I want, it's a Vikki Miller Queen of the World look, however, I just do, I don't really think about it any more. I used to go out of my way to try and stand out, but now I don't really care.

The other thing in that article spoke about trends of music and film and how things are popular among the hipsters until too many people like it. Now, this is something I am guilty of. I think I have a low tolerance level, or at least I used to, because I am certainly better and just getting on my with life and not worrying about what other people are doing or how they are perceiving me (not that I don't care completely, just that I am better than I was). I have been known to stop liking things when they get overly popular, this is moreso because I hate manipulation, market anything in the right way and it will sell, this has been proven on many occasions. For things to get overtly popular without the correct slow and painful method, means there has been some kind of subliminal marketing which tells people to buy something because it will verify their identity. Sounds harsh? Well it's the truth.

That's why I stop liking things, because I do not want to be associated with the fad, the movement, the genre that is being promoted and the meaning that gives to my identity. I want my own identity, not one manufactured by someone else. This is why popular songs from the 90s/80s and even a couple of months ago, I will now listen to again. Because the blood-sucking marketers have moved on to use something else to exploit the generation with.

I dislike, however, that art is getting mixed up with the hipster genre. Not all art school atendees are hipsters. There are plenty of genuine artists, and to use old film cameras or polaroid is not just to be cool, it's an attempt to bring reality back to a digital world. None of this is the hipsters fault and I hate the way the article segregates them and makes them sound like imposters or heathen's. They are recycling clothing like the environmentalists tell them to do, they are being creative in dress and with art. Granted, I hate that they are my competition, but that's just because they are better than me (at art, and angsty teen blogs - I no longer than the teen, just the angst).

Moving on though.

This article is about tupperware

After reading it I really want to go to a tuperware party, call me a molly mormon but I do. I want to go and bend plastic and oooo and aaaah over how strong and airtight plastic can be. I, however, do not want to go to a taser party. Well, not unless it was a self defence party, where we were actually taught something useful other than how to carry a weapon and still look good. I bet half of the women, if not all, that own those leopard print tasers (leopard print is pretty cool) won't even be able to get them out of their bags. They will be mugged regardless because no one told them they will be shocked, they will be scared but they have to be in the mindset and use their addrenaline rush to take action (if it's safe). I'm sure some of those women might end up injured because they resort to using their laser taser faser mcgaser instead of their own common sense.

It's a shame common sense isn't sold with leopard print patterns, the world might make a little more sense if it was.

Here comes the hard slaught for me. (how good a word is slaught?) The next two articles I am going to type-a type-a type-a (like lil vicky's school of dance, but not, because I have two k's I am borderline racist).

This is from an unknown page of Adbusters number 79.

the page number is unknown because they don't have page numbers.

9/11
When foreign fighters flew into the World Trade Centre, America's confidence was shaken to the core. But instead of reinventing itself once again, America has come undone.

Today, the US is bogged down in a war that is both unpopular and unwinnable. It's economy is on the verge of collapse. Washington is paralyzed with calcified politics and unable to create sustainable energy policy, break its addiction to debt or stop antagonizing foreign foes.

But for the first time, America cannot point the finger at an identifiable enemy. For the first time, America must come to terms with the fact that this is a self-inflicted crisis. The question now is whether America can survive this latest challenge and remain one of the world's most dominant powers, or whether its confidence has finally been broken for good.



There is no author for that. My comments on this are that what I've been saying for the past few weeks is correct. Granted, I say it as a proud joke, but I do believe that the United States are going to need help, and I suspect that the empire - that is the Great British Empire - will start to reform. The United Kingdom will need help as well, but we have picked ourselves up again and again, as a nation. Granted, i've not been alive for the past times and the quality of the majority of this nations citizens has somewhat deteriorated in the past few decades. So it will be interesting to see if we can stay afloat. I think our cynicism and our dour faced nature, our grip on reality, mixed with our inability to actually complain properly will see us through.

Okay, here's the next article:

begging for more by Kono Matsu

Two years ago, in his annual state of the union address, President Bush chastised America for its raginig addiction to foreign oil. In the stern language of disapproving patriarch, Bush let it be known that he intended to address the growing problem before his tenure was up.

Now, with only a few scant months of his presidency remaining, Bush has finally unveiled his energy plan. After begging and barely getting the Saudis to pump more oil, he is attempting to strong-arm Congress into lifting the ban on offshore drilling. Bush's plan, which would cause untold environmental damage, will only yeild enough oil to support our current level of consumption for two-and-a-half years. And were the drilling to start tomorrow, it wouldn't become available in the market for at least a decade.

Some plan.

So why didn't Bush start by suggesting that Americans drive less, drive slower, or stop driving altogether? Why didn't he urge funding for alternative fuel research or push for a carbon tax?

The reason is because, in addition to being the most inept leader this country has ever known, Bush is an oil man.

We never had a chance.

Seven years of Bush policy has left America crushed by debt, stuck in Iraq and isolated from the rest of the world. Bush will undoubtedly be remembered by history as the straw that broke the empire's back.

And yet, despite it all, the man himself seems to be faring well. Displaying the unflinching gusto for which he's famous, Bush's inner fortitude is nothing short of a phenomenon.

Despite his litany of flaws, I admire Bush for his unwavering sense of self-confidence. I am in awe of whatever force - be it will or ignorance - that shields him from the onslaught of public opinion. Still, sometimes before the sun sets on his presiidency, I'd like to see someone confront him for his crimes. I'd like to seee a reporter, a citizen or a disillusioned war veteran hold him accountable for the destruction his administration has wrought. I'd like someone to make him answer for the million people who have died on his watch or the eco-crisis he has left woefully unaddressed. But most of all, in front of the blazing lights of media cameras, I'd like to see someone wipe that smirk off his goddam face.



When I was in Utah in November there wasn't a lot of politics or debate. Since then the sub-prime mortgage nonsense, the 'credit crunch', the price of petrol, the fear of running out of oil has actually occured. It's been a busy year. So while I was in the republican Bush loving state of Utah in May I heard all about the oil in Alaska, and how people didn't care about the environment or the life of animals if it meant the sustainability of the American race. I kid you not.

There were many comments I heard, from all ages and wakes of life that suggested the solution was digging for oil in the United States.

Now, Oil in the states has been known about for a long time, but the US decided a long time ago to not use their own oil, they decided to buy North Sea Oil from Maggie the spazz Thatcher when she sold us down the river in the 70s, and they decided to buy up and use the Eastern oil in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc etc. Well, what the bloody hell have they done with it?

That was a lot of oil, where did it go?

It would be nice if we all had an unlimited supply and we could keep driving around until the cows come home, and live the life we think we all want. But the truth is, we just can't do it. We just can't keep living that way. We were given a pure blessing that we just stuck to. Rather than continuing technology and improving on our laurels we stayed there. We just sat back and enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair. We became lazy.

This had not happened before, think about how quickly other generations and other centuries have improved upon inventions and technology. We are no longer moving as rapidly as we once did because we no longer invent things for the sake of improving our life style, but we invent things to make money, to exploit people and to just shift all the numbers from one bank account to the other. Our forefathers discovered oil, invented cars, we've improved upon them but we just invent numbers. What do we have to show for decades of thinking? Hyperindividualism. Inventing things for the benefit of individual gain rather than the improvement of the lives of the members of our society.

When it comes to design this is the biggest question of them all. I think however, rather than the question being, how do we invent a new fuel or a new material to easily keep our current way of life? Perhaps the question should be, 'How do we change our way of life to be in accordance with the things nature has provided us with?'

We are not smarter than nature. That is man's biggest fall down and largest mistake. Thinking that we are smarter than nature and that we can live and survive without it.

We, technically, all should have that giant 'the spazz' name in between our first and surname's.

What a mess. Rather than digging oil, we should be digging our way out of this mess, out of this dependency for oil, out of this black hole we have drilled our way into.