Ch ch ch ch changes

I went to a conference once where 'Changes' was the theme and all through the event Bowie's Changes was played.  Essentially the conference was good but not that many changes in PR were clearly sketched at the time (late 90s).  When I reviewed the notes maybe 5 years ago when I was throwing stuff out it occured to me again that you don't always see the changes for what they are.  We talked about email and mentioned the web but the full extent of the revolution wasn't clear.

Anyway on a personal note I've been grappling with a few issues of career, family, passion and although what is changing is not obvious yet I have discovered my attitude towards writing is again altering. 

Starting again

Through a bizarre set of circumstances I am now full time looking after my 2 children and my career has been shot down in flames.

The city where I choose to live has too few jobs in my field and those that there are are closed shops AND eccentricity doesn't go so well in most organisations.

What I wanted to do all along was spend more time writing and find a more healthy lifestyle. Well following a very painful transition I seem to have both. So I've got where I wanted to go and I'm still pinching myself.

HA

Oh and ... I've given up coffee and I figured I don't need a cell phone anymore.
I've had about 27 cell phones since 1990 and I can't tell you how much coffee I've had and how many people I've rubbished who won't drink it.

Life is a a journey on an underfunded public bus service

I'm becoming immune to marketing

Recently, because it was on special, I bought some McCain oven fries. We sometimes have chips in the freezer and usually we have the cheapest ones.

Today I cooked them as part of dinner and my partner says 'they're really crunchy'. And they were nice.

I thought about it and realised that is the marketing line they have in their TV advertising. I hate the advertisements but I knew that was their line. And then I thought 'why haven't I bought these before in that case?"

Answer - I didn't believe the advert. In fact when i sat down and thought about it - I don't believe any adverts. The only thing I believe is price, and I have some feel for brand positioning, but if McCain has an ad saying it's chips are crunchier I assume they're just saying that. Same with most other ads I see.

Juxtapositions

One of my hobbies is spotting retail outlets which have two unrelated and odd product lines. I remember well the central Wellington retail outlet for native American artefacts which was also a computer ink cartridge shop. In New Brighton in Christchurch there is a TV repair and gardening outlet. I have seen others, a fish and chip shop that sold sewing supplies is the one that comes to mind.

I'm thinking about these juxtapositions as I am watching the second series of Blackadder, (potato - the episode where Blackadder hires Capt Redbeard Rum to take them on voyage to discover new lands with the hope of marrying QE1 if he makes it round the Cape of Good Hope) as I read the results of the US Democratic primary in South Carolina. Obama has trounced Hillary Clinton and the pundits are blaming Bill and his aggression and noting that Obama has carried 49 % of the youth vote in the Democrat turnout, 24 % of the white vote and a good proportion of white males as well.

Blackadder and the US election system are both farce.

• The US election goes for a year before the election and in the event the popular vote is an irrelevence in the contests to elect delegates to the electoral college who actually make the decision. As seems evident, Al Gore beat GW Bush last time, based on gerrymandering, democratic voters being thrown off the role by Jeb Bush in Florida, and voting machines which didn't work.


• Blackadder is a parody which makes interesting observations about history, actors, elections, kings......


• Barack Obama and Blackadder look very similar according to my small TV and little computer. BarackAddmada


• They're both entertaining to watch.