Pat’s Point of View

This morning, whilst Jenn was at Yoga, I had a wander around Mort Bay, armed with my trusty camera phone. It was a great day for it and the scenery was ripe for some photos. I’m pretty happy with the results, which is not always the case with these phones.

The remnants of Balmain’s shipbuilding heritage are fascinating, and if nothing else it’s a pleasant spot to walk the dog or take baby for a stroll. I was pleased to find Ballast Point will be redeveloped to make more water-side parkland (as opposed to a Caltex grease facility). It’ll be a great place for New Year’s Eve and one less industrial blemish on our beautiful harbour.

At the moment, our favorite places are near the river/harbour and we’re looking forward to moving out of a flat and into a proper house somewhere like this, but I think we’ll be looking a little further down river :) Birchgrove and Balmain can be nice but way too expensive to get the space we want. But there are plenty of other great spots near the water.

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I have no doubt there seem to be two types of people. There are those who ask “why not?” and those who as “why?”. The former make an attempt to find a constraint, and if they don’t find any, go right ahead with whatever they’re considering doing. This tactic might be employed when deciding whether to buy a pair of shoes, whether to go on a holiday or whether to take the plunge off a Mexican cliff (admittedly this is a rather obscure reference).

The other people, of which I am definitely one, attempt to justify everything with a ‘good’ reason. This can be incredibly frustrating and it usually sends me into a downward spiral of continual consideration of available options. Pessimism seems to go hand in hand with asking “why”. Even when something is well deserved, it can be difficult to find a good enough reason.

I think it would be so liberating to be a “why not” person. It’s like the presumption of innocence on which our legal system is built (yes, apparently). You just need to make an attempt at finding a suitable reason not to buy that pair of shoes…nothing? ok then go right ahead. Compare this to trying to find a truly good reason to buy them.

It has occurred to me that my standards for a reason to be considered good enough are impossibly high, and that it’s not because I am a “why” person that I am terrible at making decisions. I suspect that even if I was a “why not” person I would find it impossibly easy to find constraints (errr, yep I definitely do do that). Quite the nutter.

Potentially tricky situations include “why buy new shoes when you can mend those seven year old shoes?”, “why have two things when one will almost do?” and “why paint those walls different colours when they could all be the same?”. On the other hand, hair-trigger reasons not to do something include “even though you have a few spares you should probably stick with all ten fingers”, “you know you will never hear the end of it” and “you’ll look really stupid if anybody is watching”.

If these sound familiar (ie you’ve heard these lines from those voices inside your head) then it may be easier to buy one of those magic 8 balls. Ignorance is bliss.

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On the weekend, I took part in an age-old Australian tradition, a garage sale (see also ‘yard sale’ or ‘car boot sale’). The ringmaster of this sales spectacular was my father in law, but we had a total of four vendors vying for shopper’s attention: my wife and myself, my sister in law and her two kids, my brother in law and his two kids and of course the ‘godfather of the garage’ himself :)

As I quickly found out, a Fenech garage sale is like no other garage sale. Weeks, nay months, of preparation preceded the event, including an ad in the local paper and the production of several attention-grabbing signs for placement along key local traffic routes. Not to mention the furious activity at the home of each vendor, as anything not bolted down was considered for sale. I myself offered up a number of items, but as time would tell, they weren’t exactly hot items.

The actual day of the garage sale was absolutely military in its precision and execution; 6:00AM was the advertised start time, this was serious business! Unfortunately this required an excruciating 5:00AM start for us, on a night where temperatures reached zero in many parts of Sydney. Absurd I hear you say, who would rock up to a pre-dawn garage sale?! Well bugger me, people were lined up waiting when we arrived! It was still dark. But as I learnt, this is when the real professional shoppers arrive, to get the best bargains. Some of these early birds commented that they were surprised we didn’t get more the night before. Evidently, this is a key strategy employed by the most cut-throat of bargain hunters, to secure the best buys before the sale even opens….we only had one such person the night before.

We had quite a variety of ‘goods’ for sale, including kids clothes and toys, CDs, videos, shoes, tools, small appliances, computers, stereos, lounge suites, washings machines and a commercial fridge (see photo). But, as a relative newcomer to the world of garage sales (it was seldom practised by my family), what really struck me was the number and variety of people who showed up. There were locals who were responding to the splattering of hand-made signs mounted all over the front of the house, then there were those ‘doing the rounds’—apparently they went from garage sale to garage sale as a hobby. Of course we had the pros who appeared in a flash, assessed our collection for potential collectors’ items (”unopened boxes” are the key) and then disappeared as quickly as they had popped up. There were ‘drive bys’, most of whom did a double-take as they drove past and ended up reversing back down the street. We had shoppers who seemed to shop this way out of necessity rather than choice, and then there were people you would never expect to go to a garage sale; European-luxury-car-driving people.

Some had definite shopping objectives (”you got any mobile phones?”), but most would simply browse and discover. Some people came and went several times during the day (we were open for business for an exhausting 11 hours). Some haggled like their lives depended on it (if you fail to realise the value of 50 cents these days, drop in to a garage sale or local market) and others would happily pay the sticker price. Some people left with one item, others seemed determined to fill their car with stuff.

It was a long day with several quiet periods, so I took to making signs. Leveraging any scrap of marketing and psychology theory I could infuse into my signs was an enjoyable way to pass the time. One of my goals was to help clear the big ticket items (the actual underlying reason for the garage sale–clearing stuff out of the garage) by bringing them to shoppers’ attention and highlighting the phenomenal bargains on offer ($20 a piece for lounge chairs, $50 for the matching sofa!). Another goal was to point out that prices were negotiable, for the benefit of those people who didn’t try to haggle us down in 10 cent increments. There was much use of the phrases “make us an offer” and “everything must go” :)

Despite the fairly high foot traffic, we didn’t sell as much as we had hoped, but each vendor made over $150 each. Not bad for one Saturday. Or should I say, not bad for a pile of junk, which may be the more appropriate conclusion—you would not believe some of the things people actually paid money for. In terms of clearing out the big stuff, we didn’t do so well. The “Oasis” commercial refrigerator didn’t sell, so if you’re in the market for one, let me know. It’s in good working order and as big as a bus, even if it has seen better days. Same goes for a lovely two-seat sofa bed, which other than having changed hands more times than a rented pair of gloves, is in fairly good nick and a bargain at only $50 o.n.o. Make us an offer!

The funniest thing about the day would have to be watching two young entrepreneurs in the making; my two 11 year old nephews transformed from mere children into omnipresent salesmen that any used-car salesman would be proud of. There is nothing they wouldn’t try and sell, and if that failed they could always act cute and sucker the old ladies out of at least $5. But none of this is a surprise considering the example their grandfather was setting, never giving a second thought to selling a lump of wood for a dollar or selling a can of paint to someone who came in looking for a painting.

Would I ever throw a garage sale again? Well maybe, but I’d probably go to a car boot sale or street market. There’s something oddly attractive about selling stuff that you would otherwise probably have to spend money to dispose of. Will I go bargain hunting myself? I may do, I think it could be pretty interesting, even if the intention is never to buy a single thing.

See what people are blogging about: garage sale, yard sale, car boot sale, flea market

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There seems to be a time-warp happening around Australian broadcasters, they don’t seem to know we know about the internet. And channel 10 would have to be the worst offender.

They’ve never had a particularly good reputation with fans of various ‘cult’ TV shows, constantly delaying airing shows from the US and axing shows for no apparent reason. But recently they’re taken their disregard for their audience to new levels. After claiming their new show Jericho would premiere simultaneously around the world, they mysteriously cut the first season in half. Anyone with a web browser can go to CBS and see that season one was meant to have 22 episodes not 11. Channel 10 basically decided to start their own season two at episode 12. I mean, seriously, how stupid is that?

However, I guess that’s better than them pulling it off air altogether, which is what seems to have happened now. I guess we’ll have to just download all the episodes from the web, instead of just the ones we miss. To add insult to injury, the Channel 10 website continues to list episodes as though they were being aired. Cruel!

I liked Jericho and was a bit peeved when channel 10 messed with it, and I’m not the only one. Just look at the forums on their own website for a glimpse of the disappointment their ‘magic bullet’ scheduling has caused. It reminds of trying to keep up with Star Trek episodes, which no Australian TV network ever gave much respect. From TNG, to Deep Space Nine, to Voyager, to Enterprise. They all got shunted from one late night timeslot to another, and usually taken off air with no warning or explanation.

If the networks want to try and win the war against PVRs, DVD burners, and P2P file sharing they’re going the wrong way about it.

See what people are blogging about: Australian TV, Channel 10, Bring back Jericho

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Yesterday I was in Melbourne for a taxonomy and metadata masterclass by Joseph Busch—which was time well spent for a sometimes IA. I stayed in the Crowne Plaza, which was where we held the event too. It might be a fair bit older than the Crowne Towers but it’s still pretty swish.

The other thing that struck me was how long it is from downtown Melbourne to the airport! Although to be honest it takes about the same time in Sydney if you hit some good ol’ Sydney traffic. Whilst speeding along in my chauffeured car (taxi? ha!) the long trip did give me time to notice how pretty Melbourne is, especially at night from the Bolte Bridge.

I also remembered one of my favorite sights in Melbourne. On the way to the airport you pass the Qantas flight training centre, and through the window of one of the hangers you can see a flight simulator. This is best seen at night, because when the simulator is in use the lights are on and you can see it working. The guy flying last night must have been practicing aerobatics since the pod was moving a lot :)

One last observation. I was kind of surprised by how big a 767 is compared to a 737 (let alone a Dash 8!). I’m so used to the smaller aircraft that it was odd to be in something so much bigger. I mean the 67 and 37 look similar, unlike a 747 which has the distinctive knob on top, but when you get up close there’s a massive size difference.

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I’ve recently been helping a client with needs analysis, including using interviews, focus groups and touching on a technique called ‘anecdote circles’ (for an excellent introduction see the Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles, published by a company called Anecdote funny enough). I read with interest the following with regard to the technique:

The facilitator [of an anecdote circle] takes a low profile. That can mean reducing eye contact with those sharing their stories, though remaining present and listening. Subtle twiddling with recording equipment knobs can be a good ‘low status’ behaviour. The use of silence is another ‘low-status’ technique. When there is silence, savour it, let it hang. This can help the group to develop its own sense of pace as well as reinforcing that you are here as a guide, not a leader.

That’s me! I think I perform that role with ease, as my natural tendency is to lurk, observe, be silent and generally be a wall-flower. And I’m an expert twiddler.

I’m also reading the Tao of Coaching by Max Landsberg, which among other things, shouts the virtues of listening and questioning as opposed to telling and leading. Again, being the quiet guy is a useful personality trait.

I always knew being an introvert would come in handy.

See what people are blogging about: anecdote circles, story listening, storytelling, focus groups

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I’m on-site at a client today, using one of their PCs, and I’ve discovered that I’m quite out of touch with the latest in desktop computing. I say that because I was taken by surprise by a new feature of this particular PC, an audible indicator for resource utilisation.

That’s right, when ever the processor utilisation went up, so did this whirring fan noise! It easily drowned out all other noise in the room. Who needs Task Manager when you can tell by the pitch (not to mention the futile desperation) of the sound your computer makes.

This came in very handy each time IE crashed. The browser would freeze up, and whoosh off the fan would go, struggling to deal with the burden. I kinda felt sorry for the poor little machine, it sounded so upset. You could hear its relief as I killed the offending process. (That’s a first for my blog…audio!)

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This is going to sound really wanky but I’ve found that listening to meditation music whilst working is very effective, particularly if you have a stressful client or are working to a deadline.

A couple of weeks ago, Jenn took me away for the weekend (for my birthday) and also threw in a full Swedish massage. Whilst laying there on the creaky table, getting the ol’ chop-suey from some buff guy, I started to realise the music they play works really well. We’re talking rain, rainforests, rivers, wind, waves, birds, more rain, pan flutes and celtic harps. And thunder is also quite common, which I kinda like, but I know some people wouldn’t find it relaxing at all (yes Jenn I mean you).

So I’ve acquired a selection of soundtracks. If you actually listen to it, it’s pretty boring, and you can really notice where they have played with it by adding sound effects etc. But if you just have it playing in the background while you work it’s quite nice. Very relaxing. Give it a try.

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Today is my birthday, but it’s been a less than happy day. This morning I attended the funeral for Clifford D’Souza, the father of my best friend.

I didn’t know Keith’s dad very well, I spoke to him only a few times over the years. But I know what kind of a man he was, because of the son he raised. Keith is an honest, generous, loyal and trustworthy friend, a real decent guy. I believe he got those qualities from his upbringing…he certainly didn’t get them from hanging around with people like me :)

Jenn and I, and some other close friends, went to the funeral to show support for our friend and his family. Our hearts go out to them in this difficult time and I hope they soon move beyond their grief and remember with loving reflection the good life their father and husband led.

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Yesterday I made what seemed like my millionth trip to Canberra. Nothing really deserved it’s own post, so here are a few tidbits:

• There a hell of a lot of roundabouts (’traffic circles’ if you prefer) in Canberra. They are the ultimate in user self-governance. How democratic of Walter, although I suspect the prolific use of roundabouts has more to do with lowering the cost of road infrastructure by not having any traffic lights.
• Whilst the situation with cabs in Canberra is stupendously bad (if you’ve ever tried getting a cab at Canberra airport you know what I mean) it’s worth pointing out that the taxi drivers are pretty good. They’re tidy, polite, topical, they speak English, and they know their way around. Unlike most Sydney taxi drivers who don’t tick any of these boxes (who hasn’t had to give their cabbie directions to a well-known destination?). Dare I say it, this is likely because Canberra’s cab drivers aren’t fresh off the boat.
• I met a lady named Gwenda. It’s like her parents couldn’t decide between Gwen and Glenda. It’s annoying but not as bad as the thing where people create a new name by spelling an existing name incorrectly (eg Jorja, Kortny). I think there are more than enough names in the world without resorting to this kind of ‘creativity’. Either way, I think it’s rather cruel of parents to give their children such stupid names.

See what people are blogging about: Canberra, Canberra cabs, roundabout, business travel, stupid baby name

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