Ooops

Fortunately, no damage done - just what must have been a peculiar message to the recipient… with a somewhat curt “what do you think?” response to a business proposition.

What’s your worst email faux pas?

___________________________

Still super busy here with work. I’m recruiting at the moment, which will hopefully relieve the work load a little.

Interesting to see some of the qualifications of the candidates, for what is advertised as a data entry position. THAT would make a blogpost in itself…

And speaking of jobs, dLook launched a job site recently.

___________________________

The kids are on school holidays, and we had 6 days of high temperatures last week with Miss 5. Turns out it was a sinus/pharyngitis type infection needing Penicillin for the first time in her life. Fortunately no allergy - after the way she ballooned up after her pre school immunisation, I was a little concerned… (I don’t think I ever posted that picture, but it was very alarming at the time).

Miss 6, not to be trumped, was diagnosed with the flu and viral conjunctivitis.

Now my 100 year old grandma has been hospitalised with early stage pneumonia, she’s doing well, however, and expected to return home soon.

____________________________

School reports are out, which were for the most part extremely positive. Though I was slightly miffed my 5 year old’s teacher didn’t find it warranted to send a note home, or speak to me, about the “personal items” she continually brings to school which are a “constant distraction” in class. I can see I’ll have to frisk her for contraband before she leaves…..

Miss 15 is doing very well - coming in the top 10-15% of her year for most subjects. Phrases like “outstanding ability”, “perceptive”, “talented”, “intuitive”, “analytical”, “conscientious”, “thoughtful”, “delightful”, “excellent work”, “enthusiastic”, “inventive”, “excelled”, “mature”, “respectful”, “personal integrity”, “exceptional ambassador” and “highly valued by her peers” prevail throughout her report.

There’s just one teacher who appears to have an issue. It’s odd that a student who has never had a bad comment, and topped the form last year in a particular subject, should suddenly be “just ok” and in the bottom half of the class. Parent/Teacher night should be interesting….

Meanwhile my eldest is fiercely studying seemingly ambivalent about his forthcoming HSC.

____________________________

Yay! ADSL success. Not quite ADSL2, but one can live in hope…. Sure beats a 3 year wait, anyhow….

____________________________

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Olive Riley, frequently touted as the “world’s oldest blogger”. I quote her close friend Mike:

It’s funny to say this, but doing the blog with her, doing all the typing, the photographs, the movies, has been a big part of my life this last year, something that many friends couldn’t quite understand.

“Why all this effort for an old lady? they’d ask, “Are you in a hurry to age yourself?” (Me being 70 this year)

Quite the contrary. Olive Riley’s been keeping me young.

Her example says; if a woman who left school in 1914, can embrace the internet in her 106th year, what is there you can’t do, friend?

Well said Mike, these are truly amazing times and we should never underestimate the older generation’s ability to embrace the internet.

My dad, who turned 80 in June, got his first email address a couple of weeks ago. While Mum’s been online for a few years, this is Dad’s first real foray - so good for him! He just needs to get past the formalities - i.e. “thanks for your email which I received at 10.30 p.m. on the 30th…”.

Love you Dad, and I know where some of my more pedantic tendencies originate

___________________________

Special shout out for Luke McCallum from Cyberdesign Works who I’ve known online since I started blogging and have recently had the opportunity to work with. They have been doing some work on a new site called Streem:

Streem has launched Australia’s first completely interactive, paid news network, giving Australians a place to add and earn from their own blogs, photos and video.

Streem is Australia’s only independent news service that utilises user-generated content, giving Australians real choice in news and a platform to earn from user-generated content.

They have an interesting headline - “Women need meat, men need carbs“. Must be late, because I read it as “….men need crabs”

Well worth a visit.

___________________________

Heh - gotta love that recent trackback from North x East “NxE’s Fifty Most Influential Women Bloggers“. Don’t get too excited - seems Karen Cheng’s position in my top 100 list was quoted Great to see a handful of Aussie women on the list.

___________________________

Given my distinct lack of time to post lately, I’m considering calling for guest posts - what do you think? Open it up, or leave it at fortnightly posts?

I laugh at the irony of seeing a certain commercial where the six occupants in a tri-level house enjoy the use of the internet at the same time. I’m sure it works in the majority of houses unless, of course, you happen to have a massive concrete slab and a few walls in the way.

Anyhoo, call me a broadband snob - but sharing a wi-fi connection is just not fast enough.

So I figure I’ll look at the ADSL option. Again. Who knows, maybe things have changed in a year. So I made an application to an ISP yesterday and thought I’d login and check the status. It is not looking good….

2011… I’m seriously hoping this is a system glitch

Debuting this month:

Photoshopstar
Mr. Gadget Australia
DigiFree - Digital Scrapbooking Freebie Search
Development on a Shoestring
OzBargain Blog

Thanks to those bloggers who let me know they might be eligible. It does make my job much easier. To do this, please leave a comment on the About the Index page, or email me via my contact page).

I’m still alive…barely. Just in case you were wondering….

dLook is going through a huge growth phase at the moment - it’s all good, but not allowing much time for play

Heh, it’s only money right?

Apart from a huge telemarketing campaign, we’ve also launched a job site. And more exciting stuff on the horizon.

So I’m breaking my self-imposed social media exile (well, it’s more a matter of necessity than me showing self-restraint) under the guise of being work related

This week BRW released (via the efforts of Ross Dawson and his Future Exploration Network) the annual list of Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 apps.

This year the applications were ranked, with factors such as revenue and viability, users, international success, business value, innovation and web 2.0 features all contributing towards the rank.

Given the extent to which many startup and emerging businesses like to keep these cards close to their chest, it couldn’t have been an easy job coming up with accurate rankings.

Anyway, it’s great to see the list blossom out to 100 this year (up from 60), and thrilled to see dLook make the top third of the list (#31).

Simon from Applebox has re-ranked the list according to Alexa rank, which puts and interesting spin on the list.

And since I’m doing the corporate news, co-incidentally today dLook was listed on KillerStartups, which is cool, even if it is 2+ years down the track.

Votes, of course, are always welcomed

I’m going to be updating my top 100 list this weekend, so don’t go getting overwhelmed at two posts in one month week

Being a perfectionist sucks:

• Little tasks take a LOT longer
• Compulsion to dot the”i’s” and cross the “t’s”
• The Pareto Principle (80/20) is impossible to apply
• You’re never happy with what you produce
• You are hypersensitive to criticism
• Hitting “publish” on a blog post causes anxiety and doubt
• Procrastination rules - ok?

Perfectionism does NOT mean that you are perfect, or THINK that you are perfect - far from it. You are acutely aware of your imperfections and it bugs you.

While you might apply tough standards in some areas, other areas go unnoticed. Weird huh?

For example, in some areas of your study or work you struggle to ensure it is “just so” - but your room, or house can be a complete mess. Or vice versa. Your house may be immaculate, but your accounts are a mess. I guess it depends on what’s important to you on the day.

Sticking your hand up and saying “I’m a perfectionist” is not easy to do. It’s like raising a red flag to a bull, in that some people will delight in showing exactly where you are NOT perfect. They needn’t bother to do this, because perfectionists are their own worst critic.

As a perfectionist, it’s hard having a daughter tainted with the same brush. Seeing her beat herself up when she stuffs up ever so slightly. Watching her get teary at the slightest criticism. Seeing her give 110% to something, and not necessarily have her efforts rewarded.

The cynical might say “That’s life. Better that she gets used to it early”. Perhaps. It’s just a tough lesson to teach when you still struggle with it yourself.

Sometimes, I kind of wish that I could just say “fuck it. It’s not important”…. and really mean it.

Don’t you hate that?

These days, even if I DO get a good idea, there’s no time…

I have been seriously busy. I mean 15-16 hours a day, 7 days a week busy. I miss blogging. I miss visiting you guys. I’d be in serious withdrawal, if not for the fact that I’m too busy to feel anything much.

Even hunger goes unnoticed, until 3 or 4 pm when I realise I haven’t had lunch (or breakfast, but I’ve NEVER been a breakfast person. Mum, please spare me the lecture - I never did faint at the train station).

Anyhow, a symptom of my busyness has been lots of shenanigans from my youngest. Broken glass (two lots - including a cut finger), paint and self inking stamps and PERMANENT marker on the carpet. Yes she gets bored, and lacks self control.

And Ted (the class bear) came to visit on the weekend. Ted’s been to some really exciting places this year (he keeps a scrap book journal that every mum kid fills in). So reading about Ted’s excellent adventures (sans Bill), we decided that Ted needed a quiet weekend of R & R. Or that was my excuse and I’m sticking to it…

We did manage a pretty cool Teddy bear’s picnic. And a bike ride. I ask you, could Ted be any more laid back (without falling off the bike)?

Anyway, after reading about Ted’s adventures we decided to do one better (to compensate for Ted’s boring weekend of R&R) and make a video courtesy of my really nifty Flip Video.

This gadget is so cool. Just a little bit bigger than mobile phones were a couple of years ago - with 1 GB of storage (about an hour of video) and they run on 2 AA batteries. Flip up the USB connector on the side, and within minutes your video can be shared via email or YouTube (or snuck into a business listing on dLook). I am in awe.

These gadgets retail for less than $132 US on Amazon (what’s that $AUD 50 137 plus postage) and are rumoured to have captured 15% of the video camera market in the US.

Where was I … oh yes, so if you can’t dazzle ‘em with excitement - impress the sox off ‘em with technology - or something like that.

**************

Miss 6 did manage to floor me over the weekend - twice. She was telling me how one of the boys in her class pushed over one of the girls, so she told me she went up to the boy and asked him why he did it. Her response:

“He hypothesised that he must have been running too quickly and accidentally bumped into her”.

Then, a day later, she mentioned “capillary action” - not to be confused with caterpillary action (complete with gestures). It seems her first class are studying plants…. Yeah, what was that in my day - year 8 science?

Wednesday brings parent/teacher interviews for my (year 12) son, who got his report today, and I have to say overall it’s very pleasing (1st in 3 subjects, 3rd and 4th in two others and we won’t mention maths…ok).

Also (yep, same night) subject selection for next year for my daughter who’s in year 10. She wants to do chemistry, biology and physics, as well as 3u English and 3u maths. It seems the school doesn’t want students to do more than 2 science subjects - and I don’t think it’s a scheduling thing. Sigh…

Well, that’s probably enough rambling for 2 a.m.

She is specifically looking to interview (via an email questionnaire) people who:

• read blogs, but do not blog themselves
• do not personally know the blogger offline
• are over 18 and
• are Australian Citizens

The questions revolve around the subject’s favourite blog.

I’m not sure that my blog would have many any readers that don’t blog and don’t know me offline - interesting blogs like Kelley’s or Karen Cheng’s might be a better bet…

Which reminds me - watch out for a channel 10 news story on blogging (coming early June, I believe) featuring interviews with Karen, Neerav and Darren.

Anyhow, if there should be any readers here that don’t blog, and are interested in helping Bo out with her research (she’d be really grateful), she can be contacted via email to s4029966@student.uq.edu.au.

Debuting this month:

Just Creative Design
The Motor Report
Aussie Cynic
Quit your Day Job
iTravelNet.com Travel Blog

There are some nice looking blogs there, so be sure to check them out.

Apologies to Jacob for the oversight of Just Creative Design - which should have been on the list ages ago, but somehow fell through the cracks. Be sure to check out his free logo design competition (open until June 3).

You will notice the absence of subscriber counts from this month’s update - my trusty widget is having some technical difficulties. I was flat out getting the update done this month, and simply did not have the time to manually collect the feed count.

While I did toss around some ideas for tweaking the formula used to calculate my index, I simply haven’t had any spare time to give it proper attention. Lee, it IS on the cards, and I will open it up for discussion in due course…

Lastly, many thanks to Plugger.com.au for their sponsorship which comes to an end this month.

Probably the forerunner of the iGadgets - this one has been around, in one form or another, for centuries. While it might not give you brain tumours, RSI or cause deafness, there have been many instances of nasty injury (burns are common), and it has been associated with obsessive use, particularly in older generations.

Designed to help us make a good impression, this gadget is probably most quoted as the bane of one’s existence.

Personally, I think this gadget is over-rated, and should only be used when absolutely necessary. Like photo day at school, or that all important job interview. DEFINITELY never to be applied to underwear - and believe me there are some people so obsessed with this gadget that they DO feel the need.

I’m talking about the original iGadget - the iRon.

Don’t be sucked in by peer pressure. If we form an action group against the use of the iRon, then maybe it will catch on. Whaddya think?

Thanks to Bettina for the inspiration.

So what did the constipated witch say? (more…)