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A (Non -Typical) Day in the Life of A Small Business Owner

02/28/2006

So yesterday, we were sitting down to another long day when my friend Claire called. Claire has one of those to-die-for jobs that involves her going out on a boat very day (or twice a day) to swim with dolphins and watch people lik eme go crazy with excitement. She still remarks after months that she feels like she's cheating the system, to actually get paid to be in heaven all day. Anyway, turns out, there were two seats free yesterday, so we dropped all ou timportant business plans and grabbed our snorkles.

If you are yet to give it a go, I must say it's different from what you'd expect. Despite being told that dolphins don't just cuddle up to you, I still expected them to cuddle up to me. But they delight in their ocean playground and leave you extremely aware that this is their home, not ours. They swim like nothing else and they are the most beautiful things you'll ever see. I think they like humans because we are marvelously unsophisticated when we leap into the water with bright yellow flippers and flap around like lunatics.

In unrelated news, when I was uploading the dolphin photos, I saw one we took of my dog the other day.... Seems like she has cottoned onto the feel of the wind between her teeth... We were motoring down the motorway (duh) and she had her head stuck defiantly out the entire way, regardless of how ridiculous she looked. 

17:44 Posted in consumerism | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Talking About Prejudice

02/27/2006

As someone who has felt like they've taken a substantial hit recently in the prejudice stakes, this blog entry was fascinating to read. Here's this guy, in his 20's? CEO of a really, hugely successful Web 2.0 service, who get's called a 'Nigger' by a stranger on the street, has to daily fight people's automatic image of a CEO as a 30 something white guy, and then, after writing a very polite rant, still has people say 'yes I was a little surprised by your age'.

On the other side, his success has lead to a bunch of people posting comments on his site that are blatant suckups, simply because of his status.

How confused can our stereotypes of success, race, age and gender get? 

11:16 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Business International

Status of the 'big brands' slipping amoung teens

02/26/2006

For those of us hanging out for the day the world realises Coke is just a softdrink, not hard to make, not particulary yum, terribly bad for you and reliant purely on it's branding for survival, this was nice to hear.

In a recent survey of global teens (I'm not sure how many but assume Global is a little farfetched), "Coca-Cola still topped the chart in terms of name recognition, followed by McDonald's. But Coke fell to eighth place when it came to likeability, and the burger chain dropped all the way to No. 32. Disney and America Online also nose-dived in appeal."

I am also happy about that, after discovering my health and fitness freak sister, who bikes about a hundred kilometers a day and still struggles to keep up with her boyfriend who is even more hard out, and who are both rumoured to exist on protien shakes, also consume vast quantities of Coke zero (or whatever it's called). To my shock and dismay, being largely outside the drug world, when I enquired about the other drug labelled on the back "caffeine and Ph something or rather", I found out that this drug is a large component of speed. Yes the illegal drug, the one doctors also force feed any children they diagnose with ADD or ADHD or 'inability to cope with boring situations'. So there you go. No wonder Coke zero is the drink of choice for all those health concious, dieters of this world. This drug supresses appetite and gives you a nice buzz.

I hope you die a horrible death coke :)

11:32 Posted in consumerism | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: coca cola, coke, drugs, dieting, brands, consumerism

Forgetting Who The Bad Guys Are

02/25/2006

This is a pet hate of mine. Propoganda against the groups of people who are actually trying to do something for this world. Maybe extreme animal rights activists are causing a little bit of harm... SO WHAT? They sometimes do bad things for a good cause, do people not see the blatant attempts to side the rest of the world against the good guys? 'Yes we test on animals because it improves our profit margins, but sometimes people trying to save the animals from unnecesary torture hurt us, so they are like 10 times as bad." Who follows that logic? It looks like a lot of people do. I just have to list my rebuttals to these comments, because reading an article that was pure fear mongering about animal rights activists without providing any solid, substantial facts about animal testing really bothers me. And it bothers me far more when people who, as a result of the science communities cencorship of animal testing information, voice their uneducated opinion in SUPPORT OF THE BAD GUYS.

1. I think animal testing of cosmetics is a red herring, nobody promotes it, and cosmetics companies know their brand is in trouble if they're caught doing it.

Ummm helloooo! Virtually every cosmetics company tests on animals. Procter and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, you knowm, the poeple who make Colgate toothpaste, V05 shampoo, and virtually every household product people buy at the supermarkets during their weekly shop. The reason they APPEAR to be animal friendly is because they refuse to label their products, which means consumers have to spend hours researching what they buy in order to make an ethical choice. THAT IS NOT WHAT GOOD CORPORATIONS DO.

2. No, we use them for experiments because most of us value human life more than animal life, and experiments on them may increase the quality of human life. I'm not advocating torturing fuzzy bunnies, I'm advocating responsible experimentation, as I stated originally.

Actually we don't value life at all. Or responsibility. Otherwise we would be looking at the causes of increased cancer rates and linking them back to our use of chemicals in all aspects of life. Don't expect to remain healthy for ever when everything you touch has been liberally dosed with harmful chemicals, and the food you eat has been pumped with hormones and forced to live in unsanitory conditions and the pollutants we emit are causing the ozone to break down.

3. Q. If testing on people is not acceptable, why should animal testing?

A. because we are speciesist. we are speciesist because we cannot otherwise survive.

Acutually, we do test on humans. We most like to test on Jews and did a lot on that in the 1940's, we also killed a lot of native americans and experimented steralisation on them, mentatl institutions also have a history of practises that turn humans into vegetables - is that any better? We claim we don't endorse it but go right ahead and validate those despicable tests by using the results in generally accepted science. Basically we are racist is anything. We really only like white people. We're not too concerned with killing each other, hesne we happily trot off to kill Iraquis in order to secure more oil, thn make and play video games that depict the american army and media trampling through Iraqui dwellings with voice overs that cry 'Kill the Serbs!'

4. PETA does give money to cover the court costs of ALF members. The two organizations aren't as distict as you claim. Also PETA's official policy is to be "pro-choice" when it comes to violence.

I hope this critical post did not come from a country that endorses the death penalty, or oil wars, owning guns or even the Bush administration, war games, the torture of prisoners of war... the list of violence goes on. I thought we all agreed violence is great!

5. There's a story that circulates around in academia, not sure if it's true, but basically some animal rights people went and released hundreds of animals from a research facility (rabbits I believe).The next day, the vast majority of the animals were found dead within 100 yds of the facility because they were domesticated animals, etc.

I cannot think of a better way to discredit the work of activists than calling them animal killers. I have no doubt this circulates acadameia, but does it represent the full picture of animal liberation or just some more propoganda?

I don't release animals from trials, I don't break in, but I can't stand it when people make judgements on those who do without thinking about the complete picture, I will reiterate my comment on this forum: I hope everyone who made a comment seriously checks every bottle of shampoo, moisturiser, lipstick, hairspray, sunscreen, foundation, toothpaste etc etc for the explicit 'NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS' statement. Otherwise, what right do you have?

14:00 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: animal testing, propoganda, animal rights, animal activism, PETA

America is One Scary Place

Following on from my current theme of female rights, I have to point out this absolute tragedy for women in America. Despite all the evidence pointing to the fact that making abortion illegal doesn't curb the abortion rate, only increases the number of unsafe and unhygenic surgeries, good old America (with the full backing of God I assume) has decided. No. We the old men who run the world will decide whether or not a female in one of the most frightening circumstances they have faced has any form of decent choice. Nice notch in the belt for the land of the free. What freedoms exactly are you trying to protect with all these wars, the freedom to decide for others how they run their lives? mmm hmmm.

Im not sure what credentials those two terribly old men on the right have to be involved in a choice like this (thankfully these two voted against the legislation), however their fellow old men collegues felt differently and now the poor American women who, it appears have lost yet another freedom to the land of the free will have to follow the 'moral' advice of the old men who decide their fate for them.

Can some old man please tell me what right they have to make this choice? One who is one hundred percent sure that they or no one they know and respect has ever ever left a woman with an unwanted pregnancy and carried on their merry way. For goodness sake, you'd find that most women who get abortions are well aware they are killing a baby. Do you people understand how hard that is for someone? That females do not need old men to prescribe our morals for us that we have our own thanks, which makes a decison like that one of the hardest things some women have to face. EVER. Maybe you should instead inprison men who have unprotected sex, you know, the ones who lead women to fall pregnant with unwanted babies? That would cut the killing, oh but right, it may infringe on the rights of a male to do as he pleases in this world.

I don't hate many people, but I hate you for doing this. It is so so so wrong.

UPDATE  - For anyone who may potentially need this in the future, Molly Saves the Day has posted The Abortion Manuel

12:10 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (24) | Email this | Tags: Politics, Abortion, US Politics, South Dakota, Female rights

Shut Down

02/24/2006

I had a conversation last night about the creation of 'evil' within organisations. Is evil-doing part of the organisation's foundations or does it develop as they grow? Can evil-done be reversed with change? Obviously the Olympics exclusion of women came up, and we both agreed that with organisations that have a history of unethical or inequal standards, the only way to rectify the situation completely is to dissolve and re establish fresh and new. Yes women will be able to ski jump soon, as they are now allowed to compete in other previously denied areas of the games, however this does not help us. It is humiliating to beg to be allowed to join something everyone else is allowed to join, and to be grateful when they 'let you'.

This brings me to another point for anyone following the emergence of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is meant to be the new generation of the web, while the exact definition is left undefined, the foundation of the movement is open standards, low barriers to entry, and equal playing field. However the market has just shut down.  

The web 2.0 movement has a few key players, they got in early and control the airspace. These people have blogs that have readerships upwards of 10,000 a day, they are very knowledgeable. However time has passed and there are more and more people in the space, however, what you notice soon enough is that the same names crop up. Even names that don't have much more to add than their reputation, these 'A-listers' appear to be colluding to keep others out. This small group, founded on the basis of web freedom are tending towards web domination. I think a lot of people are beginning to talk about this, I just thought I'd mention now, while we are in the early stages, that this is how it happens. Good intentions, followed by excitement about success, followed by ambition to remain successful at all costs, followed by abandonment of initial intentions.

It's sad to see it happening again. 

16:40 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: web 2.0, barriers to entry, olympics

Ski jumping is just too dangerous for women.

02/18/2006

""Ski jumping is just too dangerous for women. Don't forget, [the landing] it's like jumping down from, let's say, about two meters to the ground about a thousand times a year, which seems not to be appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view."

Sometimes it comes up in conversation when I do something like claim that something is 'female only' and my boyfriend takes issue with it being a type of reverse sexism, that girls having time alone will not fix anything or be an answer. What I always maintain, while knowing that is the case, is that you guys have NO IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A GIRL. I wish I could explain just how different my life is because I was born with certain chromosomes, so you would undertsand how it feels to live like this, the tiny little things you never even have to notice that boil my blood, the way that our world is still run by men, the way we can never escape their decisions and have to live by their rules every single day, except for those moments we can say 'ha! you like this? you want to do this? well tough, YOU'RE NOT INVITED'.

Petty maybe, but from what I have learned in this life, you never truely know how something feels until you've experienced it yourself. And the reaction I always get from men about the miniscule number of times they are excluded is like it is the most immense human rights violation they have ever experienced. That is when I realise, it is and that is why it's important to feel it so you have some slight notion of the endless frustration and tiny little irritants that we feel every single day.

This anger all stemmed from this article, I'll finish with a final quote:

"Tiresome is the word. Many American women over the age of 45 can remember when girls who wanted to play Little League baseball were told the same excuses. The women's marathon wasn't added to the Summer Olympics until 1984 because it was supposedly bad for their health."

14:25 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Politics, feminism, olympics

Digg - A psychological experiment

02/16/2006

I am enthralled by psychology at times, things like Digg.com, leave me (unsuccessfully) trying to crack the code of why people click on what, why some things get hyped and others go through life unnoticed. While I am still baffled, there is something that I have learned in my attempts to see how I can get the articles I Dugg on the front page. I like stuff noone else likes! I am the epitome of boring! I know this because when I find an article and think 'this stuff is life changing', no one else Diggs it at all.

I already knew this to a certain extent, so that really only flaws me temporarily. Back to the psychology of Digg. Theres now tonnes of research that if other people like stuff, you're more inclined to also like it. So if 10 people Dug something, you are more likely to also Digg it. (Aside from the one flaw I see, in that you generally click away at anything that looks interesting, then have to spend half an hour re-looking through pages of links to Digg the things you like - either that or I read stuff completely differently than everyone else as well).

Things I've learned 

•  Well known terms (Google, Apple, President Bush) in a title make people more likely to Digg it
• Sometimes people get this pefect combination of cuteness and wonder in an article (like the assasin spider) and everyone cant get enough of it.
• Other times using well known terms doesn't help you at all.

I think maybe Im on the wrong track and it's all about placement, so you have to be popular for people to like your articles. I never read the instructions on these things so may have the entire thing completely wrong.

But I'm absolutely fascinated. If you havent already, go have a look! http://www.digg.com

22:05 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: Digg, Psychology, News

Bottled water a natural resource turned bad.

02/14/2006

Just found this article about bottled water on Digg.com. It makes sense to me that countries like Mexico and India consume a fair amount - I have seen the tap water there. What I do find interesting is that:

"Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year," according to the study. "Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year." 

And a well known fact about Coca Cola, their blatant disregard for anything but profit has lead to some people being forced to buy bottled water - Coke stole all theirs from the ground.

The study warned that the rapid growth in the industry has also ironically led to water shortages in some areas, including India where bottling of Dasani water and other drinks by the Coca-Cola company has caused shortages in more than 50 villages.

I would have thought everyone knew this by now, but the sheer number of people who still think that buying water somehow makes it more... water like? Seems to make this statement still neccessary:

"In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water," the study says. "Often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefits. 

One interesting point. Who pays for all these countless 'studies' that all lead to the same results yet fail to actually curb the amount of bottled water we drink or its reputation as the healthy alternative to the good old tap? 

09:39 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

The art of good conversation

02/12/2006

years ago someone told me that the best conversationalists aren't talkers, they're listners. Most people tend to find themselves more interesting than they find others, so if you let them yabber on while you simply ask questions, they'll leave you thinking 'gee wizz what a fascinating person she was'. I tried it for a while, and they were right, people showered me with compliments and simply loved talking to me. All the theory adds up. Execpt here I was, bored out of my brains and attracting people who really did only like talking about themselves constantly, and had no time at all to learn from others. Ahh theres the flaw. The only reason I say this, is because in the often crafted world of 'networking' this seems to be common advice for people to come across as interesting and grow their circle of contacts. I think thats absolute rubbish, I certainly don't want to live a life where I am too busy schmoozing the arrogant idiots who thrive off listeners and of course the best way to come accross as interesting, is to simply BE INTERESTING. A good conversation will always be a balanced conversation. You share a bit, they share a bit, you both get heaps more.

10:51 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Ouch

02/08/2006

I have always loved dancing, and really struggled upon entering small town life with the idea I'd have to postpone for a while. Eventually I found a cool dancing studio and joined up the local 'adult' Hip Hop class. Good times. Our end of year show last year was held up with sneaky wine shots to get several members too drunk to realise they were going on stage and several more to not run for the nearest exit. However, they now have two adult hip hop classes so all in all it was a resounding success.

We tried a bit of ballroom/latin last year too, however, the teacher was obviously well past finding stumbling beginners amusing and the local school hall with its glaring lights just didn't provide enough atmosphere to get into it, so that one is on the shelf. 

Last night I got back into advanced jazz, and today I cant walk. Now I realise why I am called an adult, I am obviously getting old because my muscles have frozen up and no longer like to be contorted at all angles to maximum split.  Ouch!

08:34 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

An Undiscovered wilderness

02/07/2006

I heard about this article just before, a rare occurrance in this day and age, to find hundreds of undiscovered species. Imagine what the world would be like without our human footprint, this sounds like everything you could possibly fathom - graceful, wonderul, brilliant creatures from every walk of life, living happily high up in the mountains undisrupted by the terror we spread.

"This is a place with no roads or trails and never, so far as we know, visited by man ... This proves there are still places to be discovered that man has not touched." (I assume woman has also left the place unvisited)

The comment that got me:

"What was amazing was the lack of wariness of all the animals. In the wild, all species tend to be shy of humans, but that is learnt behaviour because they have encountered mankind. In Foja they did not appear to mind our presence at all.

What I would give to have been an observer, what I fear most is what will happen now. 

 

 

 

 

18:02 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

Why I can never Remember People's names

02/06/2006

Ha ha, I've been wondering why half of everything I see or hear goes in then straight back out :) Are Smarter People Better at Ignoring Things

16:42 Posted in Chatting | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this

The end of Gasoline began in 1979

02/04/2006

If your nervous about the imminent end of the world's oil supplies, read this... Turns out in Brazil, they've been running their cars purely on ethanol since 1979... And, unlike with hydrogen, converting our current petrol stations over is extremely simple... How to Beat the high cost of Gasoline... Forever

18:55 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

A herb garden

02/02/2006

We talk a lot about sustainable living these days, especially with the thought of getting our plot of land and building. The funny thing is how houses sell on 'gimmicks', we have friends who just sold their house for quite a hefty price and the real estate guy divulged that the owners fell in love with, not the stunning architecture, or cladding, location or layout, although all those things were nice, what they really loved was the vegetable garden. The vegetable garden? Who would part with over half a million dollars for a vege garden? Don't they know they cost less than $100 to make? Obviously they don't.

We have other friends, one of whom is a builder, the other of whom is bursting with ideas on starting a sustainable building company - still a relitively new concept, although embraced by the kitset home communty. We talk constantly about cool things houses can have, like those water tanks that are long and thin, so fit well in any old back yard, and ideas like having a hydroponic herb garden along one wall of your kitchen. All these things make our eyes sparkle with 'what ifs'... However, in the short term, we are renting, and had to settle with a container on our windowsill of a small selection of fresh herbs. I am still in love with the smell that wafts though our house, of mint and basil and that yummy fresh smell of things growing in dirt.

I reckon the way to move people slowly towards sustainable living is simple things that make a big difference, a vege garden, replacing your chemical cleaners with natural ones, composting. Simple things that get you back to nature a little. I don't consider myself a gardner, but give me a plant to look after and I treat it like my own child, and the joy you feel when watching the things you tend to grow and flourish? Who doesnt feel that? We are a long way from outing the idea of decentralised farming, but how nice is it to lessen our dependency on these things just a little?

18:40 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment