Incident 1: Return of the pest

It all started a couple of weeks ago when Mimi at home decided to constantly stare at the washing machine, and even sleep by it when she can. It happened once before when she was living at another flat at High Street Kensington. I wasn’t there, but story goes that she started to stare under the fridge, until suddenly one day she presented a nicely dead mouse to her royal owner.

How sweet.

And it turns out she was right again. My guess is that the cold winter drove the mouse¹ into hiding indoor—probably chewed its way through where the pipes go out of the walls. You can see a video of her chasing the little creature here.

Incident 2: Stop following me around!

I can’t quite remember what i was searching for on initially (as you do), but before I knew it, I found myself downloading a Java app that tracks the pointer of your mouse. So I let it run free for a day, and this is what I ended up with.

You can pretty much tell what’s happening here:

• I use the top and  bottom right corners a lot because that’s the hot corners for Show desktop and Exposé
• There’re a few horizontal ’scratches’ at the bottom, where I have a habit of hovering over the Dock before launching a particular app
• You can pretty much tell where the icons are on the dock, given a set of dots lining up nicely along the bottom, with the ones towards the left hand side being used more
• The lines at the left hand side are parallel and horizontal, because I have a second monitor on the left, which the app doesn’t capture
• There isn’t a particular area of the screen that I use more, except the general centre area

One thing I’m not too sure of, is what the size of the dots mean. I mean, there’s this large dot at the right hand side of the screen. I don’t exactly remember repetitively clicking a particular pixel on the screen, or holding it.

Well, you can find out more about the app here, and let me know if you find out anything interesting about how you use your mouse!

Every night before I go to sleep, I’d switch of my phone, and leave it in the living room, where I work. I’ve been doing that for quite a while now. But, I quite often forget to switch it on first thing in the morning, and people often end up not being able to find me.

But then it’s until today that I realised—that’s not a bad idea!

Come to think of it, because the phone has been off and no one (including clients) bas been able to reach me to either bug me about anything, I’ve been able to achieve so much more.

Of course, I do have to switch it on eventually, and now I make sure I switch it on after my lunch break.

Brand specialists and consultants talk mostly about brand loyalty and meeting expectations when they speak of brand images. The Boagworld podcast talked about an incident when a customer of innocent smoothies wrote the marketing team a genuine feedback email. It didn’t contain any particular positive nor negative comments, but simply a sharing of appreciation.

Well, after a week long of homemade lunches, I opted for a lazy bought lunch. But what a fantastic idea the veg pot is, as not only have I had a lazy lunch, but a healthy one!

The best part of this is that I can now happily have fish ‘n’ chips for tea. Well done! The added bonus to this is that our local fish ‘n’ chips shop is busy on a Friday that sometimes it’s necessary to wait, which of course, is best done at the local pub.

Yours truly,

Carolyn

Like Paul said, you don’t get people writing to IBM with that tone of voice. So here’s something to think about when planning brand strategies. How would you like your brand to be perceived by your customers? And more importantly, how would you like to perceive your customers? This is how innocent does it (within 1 working day):

Hello Carolyn,

Thanks for getting in touch. Without sounding too full of ourselves, we’re rather proud of our veg pots too. But the only opinion that really counts is that of people like yourselves, so it’s great to know that you’ve been enjoying them so much.

I’m going to forward your email onto the lovely ladies in our product team who make them. As I know, they’re really keen to hear what people think. You’re no doubt have put a big smile on their faces as well, so good on you!

In fact, hell with it. Take it back. Carolyn, you rule!

Stay funky monkey. And don’t park on the double yellows. The paint burns your tyres.
(This might not actually be true.)

“…what are the three prerequisites for an ideology to be considered a religion?”

“ABC,” one woman offered. “Assure, Believe, Convert.”

“Correct,” Langdon said. “Regions assure salvation; religions believe in a precise theology; and religions convert nonbelievers.”

Interestingly, the first image that popped into my mind was the various Apple retail stores.

I’m a Mac user myself. I admit loving the product and what Apple has achieved in integrating great software with beautifully performing hardware. However, I can’t help thinking how the brand has become a religion (or how the Apple Stores have become more of a Temple than of a retail store):

1. Apple assures softwares that just work;
2. Apple believes in making your life easier and seamless;
3. Apple converts PC users.

More precisely, according to Russell Belk, a consumer behaviourist at the University of Utah:

“This religion is based on an origin myth for Apple Computer, heroic and savior legends surrounding its co-founder and current CEO Steve Jobs, the devout faith of its follower congregation, their belief in the righteousness of the Macintosh, the existence of one or more Satanic opponents, Mac believers proselytizing and converting nonbelievers, and the hope among cult members that salvation can be achieved by transcending corporate capitalism.”

Religion, Belk said, is a belief structure that helps people make sense of the world. The “cult of Mac” is a set of beliefs about Apple and the Mac that make sense of the world of technology. It also imparts the community with a quasi-religious character.

Worshipping at the Altar of Mac, Wired

At which does a brand become a religion? Or more importantly, how can a brand successfully become, if it was ever a good thing to be, a religion?

I think it all comes down to consumer experience and expectations. When a brand reaches a point where promises are being delivered consistently, brand loyalty can easily become a cult-like mindset.

I think however, an altar or temple-like space such as a retail store or online community is also essential in this transformation. For a long time, mankind has been prone to forces of the community. Being able to see and feel the growth in the number of believers certainly strengthens the idea that one is walking the right path.

What do people think?

之前住的地方，沒什麼風格，不過在玄關旁的走廊倒是有三副威尼斯帶回來的面具，而房間裡也有一對空白面具。問我，我是不是對面具有什麼特別的喜好，其實也不是，只是剛好有很多，所以拿來裝飾。其餘，因為去年一直不想佈置房間，只想簡單地點綴裝飾，其實房間也是一團亂(羞)現在住的地方呢，更是簡陋 XD 所以呢，決定回味一下 AS-Level 時在 St Lawrence College 的房間。

倦自書卷生

一年三個學期，我記得第一學期時就被指定為其中一個 Dorm Captain：簡單地說，就是跟麻煩的六個 Year 9~10 的學弟睡同一間房然後照顧他們。想當年，我在 Year 9 的時候的第一個DC，是個會在熄燈後把我們叫起來作俯立挺身和仰臥起坐的傢伙，然後在週末的時候會從外面帶酒回來給大家喝。酒量，果然是要從小訓練。

當 DC 其實除了在學弟的寢室會給你一張床以外，在宿舍的頂樓會給你一間書房，讓你可以讀書用。與書房同層樓的其他房間，有些一樣是書房，有些則是寢室，都是給我們高年級用的。跟學弟的寢室比起來，大部分的時間，我還是都在書房度過。那時候給的房間不大，可是我很任性地將我所有的家當都塞進了那書房裡面。至少，書房有個鑰匙可以讓我鎖房間，覺得自己的東西都安全很多。另外，我們高年級也比較少跟低年級的有多少互動。

那時的「房間」實在是很小，畢竟要把一個小小的書房當作是一個「沒有床的寢室」來用，實在是有點擠。因為宿舍頂樓剛好在閣樓的關係，所以連屋樑跟窗台，都被我擺滿掛滿了衣物。當然，那個時候房間佈置最大的主題，就是柯南(心) 柯南的海報，從門外開始，就滿滿地貼到了房間裡的每一吋：這算是我的房間最特別的個性吧。

短暫的欣歡

第二個學期，舍監給了我一間自己的房間，也包括書桌與盥洗台。老實說，因為家父服務於建築業，本身該對空間有點概念，但是我卻說不出房間大概有多大。羞愧。

不過呢，房間那時真的是挺大的。除了一張單人床以外，一張書桌、一個書櫃、兩個滿滿的衣櫃，這樣大概只佔房間的一半左右吧。空間那麼大，是因為那時候我的書桌並沒有排張椅子。我把書桌直接對在床的尾部，這樣我可以直接坐在床上，坐在書桌前。讀累了書，就可以直接往後躺。沒話說，就是很好。

床旁邊放了一個矮矮的小沙發。這樣別人來我房間問功課或是聊天的時候，可以直接坐在那邊。我對客人還是很照顧的。當時房間的音響跟喇叭，已經不記得是怎麼佈置的了。有這麼舒服的讀書環境，那一整個學期可能沒有注意到音樂的部分。

那時的房間，算是至那時以來住過最豪華的房間，但歡樂的心中卻不知在第三個學期房間將被大大地降級(囧)

衣中有書　自有藏金屋

到了最後一個學期，大概是應消費者需求，我又跑回去當 DC。而這次老師給的書房，比第一學期的還要小。小到…我兩個衣櫃還要減為一個衣櫃，然後把剩下的衣服在房裡到處掛，因為我還是不喜歡把東西放在寢室內。衣服掛的滿滿的，通常走進我房間看不到我在哪裡。而衣服的掛法，基本上只要確定房間的燈跟我的書桌之間的光線沒有被擋到就是了。雖然小到整個有點寒酸，不過我還是挺喜歡待在那房間裡，或是找客人來閒聊，也有幾次晚上沒有回寢室就睡在書房裡。

雖然說 A-Level 時讀書並沒有很認真，但是待在這種簡陋又擁擠的房間，要讀書時還是挺麻煩的。考試期間，反而比較常到公用的書房或是電腦房來讀書，甚至借用教同學讀書的機會，來待在朋友房間讀書。結果，那年成績反而是最好的一年。這大概跟我大學二年級愛玩但是成績又好的邏輯差不多吧：該讀書的時候還是會努力的。

宅的地方，果然還是要有點個性。而書卷之地，也還是要跟睡覺的地方分開來。4月多可能會搬家，不知道新家會是什麼樣子…

Ever since the launch of co-creating the future, Tom has been doing quite a good job as an editor to keep it alive. Almost every time I walk past him he’d be drafting up something for the blog – or at least it catches my attention when I see the Wordpress interface on his screen. So I thought as a blog owner, I should be doing a better job at keeping StillLive.NET, well, alive. As busy as I do get at times, I should certainly regard ‘blog keeping’ as part of the house keeping.

So here we have it. Thursday is now: Blog Day! And because I only decided to do this less than 24 hours ago, I haven’t really thought a great deal about what to write. I guess I’ll start with Launch48!

Last Wednesday, I picked up Adil’s tweet on Launch48, and registered to attend. According to the Launch48 website…

The aim of Launch48 is to bring together participants from different backgrounds and levels of experience in the web industry to think/plan/develop and launch one or multiple web apps in one weekend. That’s right, in 48 hours! 

Compared to perhaps watching one or two films over the weekend, and perhaps writing a blog post or two, I decided this would be quite a good learning and networking exeprience. And I was right! Friday night started with a round of 21 pitches. Bravo to all the people who had a go at it. I would’ve had a go at it, except my main concern back then was: would I be doing design, developing, or marketing? When 21 pitches came down to LocalCoupon (now VouChaCha), Charity Pie (now MyCharityPie), i like u coz, and Decisions Decisions, we had to go our separate ways and decide on an area of expertise. At the end I decided to try out the design department. Why? I wanted to try taking a pure design role in a  project, and see what that’s like really. Then, I joined the Charity Pie team. (For more descriptive information on the projects, you can check out the blog posts on the Launch48 blog.)

The next day, Julian from Dennis Publishing kindly showed us to our individual ‘HQs’. The team introduced ourselves to each other, and work started to get delegated.  Not that taking on work for other departments would’ve been a wrong choice, but choosing to go into the design team was definitely the right move. I LOVED IT! The design team was absolutely awesome, and the nature of the ‘job’ itself brings me instantly to a state of flow. Thus, I’m temporarily not considering taking on hardcore developing work, but will still be interested in learning the development side of web design and applications. At the moment, MVC and AIR/Flex would be the top of my list. As for the design side of my to-learn list: Adobe Illustrator is, although quite complicated as a Photoshop user, interestingly fun. Definitely have to learn how to use it more professionally.

Despite being pushed to launch an app prototype by the end of Sunday, quite a few people did wander about to see what other teams are up to. Well, at least people from other groups did come up to our design hub quite a few times. As anticipated, the Launch48 event was short of designers. I can’t quite imagine graphic designers to be interested in this kind of event, unlike UI and UX designers. That’s why we were all grouped together as ‘designers’. So, having hogged 4 designers in our team (which is a large design team compared to i like u coz who didn’t have any designers), all the other teams ended up coming to us for one form or another of design work: logo, UI, graphic etc. Too bad we couldn’t help everyone to the end, but taking on multi-mini-projects at the same time was quite an experience in itself.

By the end of of Sunday, most teams finished their app in their own ways. VouChaCha had a working Java application developed and installed on a Nokia N95. i like u coz and Decisions Decisions both had a working platform. As for MyCharityPie – I guess our idea was bigger than what we wanted to achieve in 48 hours, which was bigger than our team – we had a working back end system, and a thought through UX and UI design, but didn’t manage to string them together.

Too bad.

Still, it was a lot of fun. The teams continue to carry on with their design, development and marketing campaigns, and the networking opportunity was priceless. Thanks again to Adil and Ian, and we’ll see everyone again on March 20th when all teams come together again to meet angels and VCs!

Oh, did I mention that the design team ROCKS!?

今天早上在弄早餐的時候，Chloe在上班路上傳了個簡訊說外面在下雪(然後她差點滑倒XD)。我興奮的咧!

起床把電腦、硬碟、桌燈和音響關掉，然後把咪咪丟出門外，我想好好地聽聽下雪的聲音。

沒有聲音。

果然是沒聲音，不過，外面實在是安靜得有點詭異。雪，似乎把一切的聲音都帶走了。沒有風聲，沒有車響，沒有鳥叫，更沒有人煙的迴聲：一種很真實的安靜。

我喜歡這種安靜。