That was a goal.

That was Lampard's goal, you ridiculous ref. Score should be 2-2, world.

Not cool.

Not cool, England. Plug the gaps up. COME ON.

Watching GER v ENG

It's been a lovely weekend. Drinks and snacks at the Fetchtv (http://www.iinet.net.au/fetchtv) launch party on Friday; ended with a sore arm from foosball rage.

Finished ALL my writing course on Saturday and cleaned the bathroom. My word, it's so good to have time to clean. iiNet quiz night in the evening: my table won!!

Slotted in a pub lunch today, then more cleaning - laundry room and kitchen - and now here I am, enjoying the football, 12:09. COME ON, ENGLAND.

Looking forward to having my evenings back. Got a week of leave coming up in mid-July too. Life is pretty good this evening. Fingers crossed it stays that way for the next 80mins. :)

Trying out the new establishment

Grossvenor Hotel, Perth, c. 2010.

Technical stuff

In the studio with Mat (http://soundcloud.com/djnu) and Jerry (http://www.jerichomusic.com.au).

They're talking audio nerd stuff and I'm learning new words like 'upward compression' and some other word I've already forgotten.

Good run tonight; timing passable and pitch reasonable. I still get nervy when singing anywhere but the shower or doing dishes alone. But wow, did start feeling confident tonight. Maybe nerves are on their way out. :)

Hometime soon, to dinner and the football. Come on, England!!

Fly Away Rabbit - cute iPhone game

Rabbit dreams of being among the clouds. Touch the helium blocks to
remove them from his way.



But be careful - don't let him fly too fast or he might get lost!



Get game - so cute! I played it to help me fall asleep last night. :)

Working with designers - tips from Module 8

Wow, vindication. Having been on both sides of the writer vs designer briefing process, I can vouch for all of these. Check 'em out - excerpts from Module 8 of my writing course, "Writing for Public Relations 2":

Designers are visual people.

Designers tend to see copy as a visual element. They usually will not read the copy itself.

Designers are not mind readers.

If you have examples of the graphic style and mood you want, bring it to the briefing session.

Designers are not readers.

To a designer, the overall 'look and feel' of a piece is the critical issue. They generally will not proofread a finished piece - this is YOUR responsibility and your client's.

Designers are expensive.

This means you need to ensure your brief is precise and your copy is correct. Lack of discipline in this area on your part (or your client's) can more than quadruple the quoted price of a job.

That last one applies more to time than price where I work. Non-designers often underestimate the effort that goes into producing a 'simple' piece. Maybe we've submitted a plain black square in the middle of an A4 sheet of paper, but it took a hundred "two steps forward, one step back" steps through red squares, blue squares, red and blue squares cos that's more on-brand, how about a triangle, on second thought let's try the square again but in rainbow colours, etc. to get to that one black square.

The same goes for writing. The final version may be a simple one liner, but it takes a lot of consideration to word that one liner just right, in such a way that the audience will just get it in those few words. It's all in the delivery, which is sometimes referred to as kairos, for anyone interested. :)

Back to work I go...