Baked Beans, staple side-dish of the UK. So what's your favorite brand?
I've never liked Heinz myself - too sweet, always preferred Cross & Blackwell. Here Heinz is king, which makes me wonder just how many cans of beans are sold every day? A rather dull ponderance I admit, but what I'm trying to say is that undertravelled as I am, it's never struck me how huge the world is population wise, but how small it now seems related to consumer goods.
Shopping here has so far been a bit of a sod, supermarkets just ain't that super, selling the same limited range of canned goods - except for one which stocks Chicken Tonight - bless 'em. I guess the main problem is that convenience food hasn't quite made it here yet, the decline of the Traditional Nuclear Family and Stay At Home Mum in the West has truly left its mark. Sure, there's take-aways, McDonalds, KFC, Dairy Queen, Hardies and a whole list of other burger, pizza/kebab shops and stalls, but there's a severe lack of stuff like Dolmio, Uncle Bens, and Balchelors cooking sauces. I just like to come home, chop up a lump of dead animal flesh, fry it until golden brown, add sauce and simmer for 15 minutes, serve with rice and my preferred vegetable of choice.
The equivalent of finding something easy to make for tea out here is like hunting wildlife with a slingshot in the UK.
OK, slight exaggeration.
One night I went to do a bit of shopping. Collecting the coconut oil, herbs, spices and the other bits 'n' bobs needed to make a Korma presented little effort, I then went on a quest for chicken. Having found the butchery department I noticed some nice, plump, juicy looking chicken breasts.
Making a bee-line to the chill cabinet I thought to myself, hmmm, chicken breast shouldn't have lumps like that all over it… shouldn't have red veiny tracks running around those lumps either and now that I think of it, it most certainly shouldn't have long strands of what looks decidedly like spinal cord running from it whatsoever at all.
I settled for vegetables in my curry that night.
Sheep's Brain Korma was definitely not on the menu.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
House Guests
I've never understood the term "ignorance is bliss". How can a lack of awareness, to someone with any intelligence and sense of the world around them, be anything other than terrifying?!
And yet it seems every day I, in the business of web design, run into clients who are blissfully ignorant to the fact they have uninvited guests running around their stores, their homes, their business.
I am a homeowner - at least partially. My first action when parted with my deposit and exorbitant solicitors fees was take the keys, MY keys to MY home and keep them safe, secure and always within easy reach. I didn't approach the nearest stranger who's bearing suggested they knew which was the business end of a hammer, saw and chisel, hand them my keys, thinking they must know all about houses, their care, upkeep and billing requirements, then saunter off to enjoy my daily life without a care or worry about where my keys are, who can get into my home and what they may do there. After all, I've given my keys to some one who "looks like they know what they are doing".
That scenario - preposterous as it may seem, is one I encounter almost every time I meet a potential new client with an existing website. They have no idea where their keys are. That triumvirate of FTP, username and password supposed to guard their webspace; their business, went missing the very day they made the purchase. Once I eventually find my way into that business premises - with their permission of course, I've yet to fnd the previous occupants have made off with the combo TV/DVD, scrawled over the walls and left an unpleasant 'souvenir' on the fireside rug, but it's only a matter of time…
And yet it seems every day I, in the business of web design, run into clients who are blissfully ignorant to the fact they have uninvited guests running around their stores, their homes, their business.
I am a homeowner - at least partially. My first action when parted with my deposit and exorbitant solicitors fees was take the keys, MY keys to MY home and keep them safe, secure and always within easy reach. I didn't approach the nearest stranger who's bearing suggested they knew which was the business end of a hammer, saw and chisel, hand them my keys, thinking they must know all about houses, their care, upkeep and billing requirements, then saunter off to enjoy my daily life without a care or worry about where my keys are, who can get into my home and what they may do there. After all, I've given my keys to some one who "looks like they know what they are doing".
That scenario - preposterous as it may seem, is one I encounter almost every time I meet a potential new client with an existing website. They have no idea where their keys are. That triumvirate of FTP, username and password supposed to guard their webspace; their business, went missing the very day they made the purchase. Once I eventually find my way into that business premises - with their permission of course, I've yet to fnd the previous occupants have made off with the combo TV/DVD, scrawled over the walls and left an unpleasant 'souvenir' on the fireside rug, but it's only a matter of time…
Thursday, April 19, 2007
goto 10
In the halcyon days of home computing (idyllic despite a Commodore/Spectrum brand loyalty war raging amongst the nations teenagers), a ubiquitous sight was that of a lonely C64 on display in Comet or Dixons it's output dedicated to the sole task of repeating "Moz Woz Here" until someone felt charitable enought to put it out of its misery and press the RUN/STOP key.
People have forgotten what computers are REALLY for.
The traditional school punishment of "writing lines" is meaningless to a computer, a dull tedious grind to a human is the bread and butter of a computer. They're MEANT for dull repetitive tasks, but seem now to be making our lives more complicated. Word files are sent to me with indents spaced out immaculately with individual key presses instead of tabs or style sheets. Powerpoint presentations with page backgrounds placed individually rather than using master page designs. All the tedious, time consuming work that systems are in place to save you the effort, and people gladly plough on in expecting the task at hand to be complicated because computers seem complicated.
While always preferring to take the shortest possible route to finishing a task I recently looked into Applescript, a function of the Mac computers I've known used and loved for well over a decade. If you use a Mac, especially in design, look into it… it's gonna change your life.
People have forgotten what computers are REALLY for.
The traditional school punishment of "writing lines" is meaningless to a computer, a dull tedious grind to a human is the bread and butter of a computer. They're MEANT for dull repetitive tasks, but seem now to be making our lives more complicated. Word files are sent to me with indents spaced out immaculately with individual key presses instead of tabs or style sheets. Powerpoint presentations with page backgrounds placed individually rather than using master page designs. All the tedious, time consuming work that systems are in place to save you the effort, and people gladly plough on in expecting the task at hand to be complicated because computers seem complicated.
While always preferring to take the shortest possible route to finishing a task I recently looked into Applescript, a function of the Mac computers I've known used and loved for well over a decade. If you use a Mac, especially in design, look into it… it's gonna change your life.
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