Personal – Page 50 – Stilgherrian

12 August 200712 August 2007

Stilgherrian Simpsonsized

Stilgherrian as a Simpsons character

’Pong and I have just let The Simpsons Movie and Burger King absorb an hour of our valuable attention in exchange for turning us into yellow-skinned characters. Simpsonize Me is a promotional tool for the film, but one which gives you a toy to play with — the ability to turn your photos into characters from The Simpsons — in exchange for a bit of brand reinforcement.

I reckon this is how “interactive advertising” has to work. A fair exchange of value. As opposed to Audi’s over-produced self-indulgent wank, where they get your psychometric profile and you get — well, nothing.

The question now, of course: How good a match for me is the character I’ve made? Comments?

11 August 200711 August 2007

Dreaming of Daniel Johns

Photograph of Daniel Johns

Weird. Last night I dreamed that I met Daniel Johns of Silverchair and The Dissociatives fame. It was immediately after he’d performed on stage, and he was energised but very sweaty — and was, um, “extremely friendly”.

This is an unlikely dream. I rarely remember my dreams. I haven’t ever thought Mr Johns was particularly “my type” — though I don’t think he’s ugly or anything. I’ve just not thought about him in that way. And besides, he’s married. And it’s not like he was in Supernaut… or even alive at the time.

What does it mean?

05 August 200726 August 2020

Saturday Night at The Duke

Close-up photograph of fabric pattern on flannelette shirt It’s 8am, a crisp winter morning. 11C outside. I drag a battered flannelette shirt over my t-shirt — a shirt that’s now 12 years old, I remember.

I bought it at Gowings when I first came to Sydney, and it’s still wearable, more or less. Where will I buy everyday clothes now that Gowings is gone?

The shirt smells of smoke. Why is that?

It’s not the acrid stench of cigarette smoke, but the dusty odour of burnt wood. Eucalyptus. A bushfire? Ah, no, I remember now. Sitting by the open fireplace at The Duke Hotel… red wine… the memories flood back as the coffee kicks in…

Continue reading “Saturday Night at The Duke”

04 August 200708 February 2012

Script Challenge: can you figure this out?

I’ve decided that each weekend I’ll dig out an object or two from my more distant past and write about it. To kick things off, here’s a challenge which was originally created by the same chap who coined my name.

The text you can see in the image below (at least if you happen to be sighted) is in an unknown script. Your task is obvious, I think.

The only clues you have are that it’s a quote from a book by Ursula LeGuin and it’s nothing whatsoever to do with Tolkein.

Image of text in an unknown alphabet

Now originally I solved this in under 2 days, without the aid of computers or amphetamines. I reckon that in The Age of the Internet you can do better. I’ll negotiate a suitable prize for the first person who posts the solution.

02 August 200702 August 2007

Wow, I actually networked!

Last night was weird. Not only did I see a new social networking site before it was launched, I met two very cool people who really know this stuff.

Laurel Papworth is one of Australia’s real bloggerati. She writes regularly about online communities and how they’re Changing The World. She presented at Webjam 3, and I actually booed her presentation at a previous Webjam — and I’m looking forward to discussing our disagreement another time. Way cool.

Lee Hopkins is a communicator from Adelaide who… well, check his website for more. He and I got along just fine once he asserted that if a PR company was paying for the wine, it was our moral duty to finish it.

Give that I hate “networking”, this is a good result. And to the others in the room, well, you were cool too but I just didn’t get to swapping cards etc. Next time.