Tea Fueled Experience

Sunset on Skyline

2011-02-06T13:57:00.001-08:00

Sunset on Skyline, originally uploaded by Bladefrog.

Awesome... indeed

2011-02-02T14:18:00.001-08:00

Beany 1, originally uploaded by Bladefrog.If you have read my blog in the past you will know that I have been trying to build my own (or assemble is probably more accurate) electric guitar for a while. Well it's finished. Yay. It took about ten years and a couple of false starts and some incomplete projects, but it is finally done. And I am pretty pleased with the results.So hello to 'Beany 1'.

Against Me at Slims

2011-02-02T00:59:00.001-08:00

Against Me at Slims, originally uploaded by Bladefrog.Fun show at Slims on Monday. Check out the new album White Crosses, it's a raucous blast of punkiness.

Absence Resolves Much

2011-01-04T00:10:00.001-08:00

In have spent the last week camped in the old family home in England, wrapped in the warmth of family, food and a wood burning stove.Outside the snow was unusual. I don't remember snow at Christmas for about 30 years but it was a fun distraction. That same snow had kept me from getting to England for a week of my supposed 2 week vacation. Much to the chagrin of my mother and family. Snow in

Object Writing Exercise: Discount

2010-12-19T13:52:00.001-08:00

Why are we obsessed with premium and expensive? What's wrong with less expensive? Is that the same as cheap? Is there a thrill in finding a bargain? She certainly thought so. She wanted that new bag, but the sticker shock of the retail tag was a little too much to bear. That is nearly next month's rent payment. She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but that bag would look amazing and

Object Writing Exercise: Heartthrob

2010-12-18T17:15:00.001-08:00

He knew it. He could see it in their faces, the looks of desire, want.And he played to it, it hadn't hurt him so far. He could get anyone to help him, give him a favour, lend a hand or offer their hand.. And more.It was always that way. Thick rimmed glasses, a retainer and spots. There was a time that nobody paid a second glance. He drifted around the streets invisible to all, women, men. Then

Object Writing Exercise - Phosphorescence (10 Mins)

2010-12-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

We spent the time wrapped in each other, bodies tangled in the half light of curtained mornings Blue brown light filtering through the depths of the room Giving your silhouette an angelic glow I ran my hand over your hip and along your waist telling you one thing, thinking something very different All the time, you filled my nostrils, my mind the lingering of your perfume ever present. Even

Object Writing Exercise - Underbelly (10 Mins)

2010-12-08T17:41:00.000-08:00

Polished, bright, presentable. A veneer of faux elegance. An American Dream. But look closer at the shine, pick at the fraying corners, And tear away the new suit. This is what drive desires, wants, lust, greed. Running against everyone, needing every last seat, parking spot, table. Bigger, better, more than the Jones', Changs and Kumars. Beneath the flash, the lustre, is a masked acrid odour

Object Writing Exercise - Field Trip - 10 Mins

2010-12-02T00:39:00.000-08:00

Objectwriting.com is a site that provides a word for the day everyday. The idea is to wake up, look up the word, set your timer for 10 mins and just write. It's a great way to start the day.Write about the object or subject using your sense based faculties; Taste, Touch, Sight, Sound, Smell as well as your kinesthetic senses- movement and body sensations. ==== Field Trip Glass cabinets, red

Object Writing Exercise - Attire (10 Mins)

2010-12-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

Object Writing Exercise - Lager

2010-11-29T12:01:00.001-08:00

Object Writing Exercise - Road

2010-11-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Object Writing Exercise - Pirate

2010-11-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

Object Writing Exercise - Environment

2010-11-26T11:50:00.000-08:00

All coney

2010-10-29T22:54:00.001-07:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Customer Communities: Your Task Force for more than just Support

2010-09-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have been invited to the blog advisory panel of http://thesocialcustomer.com which is a site devoted to the discussion of social customer issues in the B2B space. Considering my background, my topics will all focus on community, social customer engagement etc. Here's my first blog around using communities in a broader context than just support. Something that has become abundantly clear to me

EA Tischler - New Horizons Golf Instructor Submission for the Golf Channel

2010-09-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I helped my golf coach edit his submission for the Golf Channel's Instructor Search where they are looking for new talented teachers to have their own shows. I have been with Ed since 2003, basically since I moved to the USA, and he has helped me find and understand my swing and my playing strategies too. Make sure you take a look at http://www.thegolfchannel.com/instructor-search

Ranchapalooza 2010 - Trikker is back!

2010-08-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

This time with the Lenny Kravitz track, 'Are you gonna go my way'. It was a fun evening!!

Trying out the 7D

2010-08-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

I picked up a new dslr a couple of weeks ago, trading in my old Canon 20D for a Canon 7D. I did like the 20D as a camera, it never let me down, took great pix and was very rugged. I think the thing that finally made me make the move, was that 1) the camera had a postage stamp sized lcd display, so you could never really see the results of the images you took and 2) it didn't take video. The 7D

Project Geetar - Part Trois

2010-06-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

Remaster, Redux, do over, call it what you will. It's time to resurrect the Gilly Builds a Guitar project again. This time I will be finishing it fairly soon. Okay - specs: This is going to be a Stratocaster-style axe, fairly traditional but with some modifications that I have been playing with on other guitars and really want to combine into one guitar. Fender body with a nitro cellulose

Couple of Minutes with Patrik Wijkstrom, Community Architect at Juniper Networks

2010-05-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

I sat down with Juniper Networks' community architect, Patrik Wijkstrom, to talk about the J-Net community. Was sort of fun being back in the old office talking with the team - but on the other side of the table now!

Five Minutes with Sean O'Driscoll - Ant Advocate at Ant's Eye View

2010-04-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

I got a couple of minutes with Sean when he was in town in April to chat about the Microsoft MVP program he used to run.

Couple of Minutes with Prem K

2010-02-19T20:29:00.000-08:00

I got a few minutes to talk with Prem Kumar Aparanji, the Social CRM evangelist at Cognizant, when he visited our offices in February.

Trikker (in HD)

2010-01-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

Fun little cover of Grand Funk Railroad's '(we're an) American Band' which we played at Mike's birthday bash at Ranchapalooza last August.

Censor Silliness

2009-09-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

I made a big career change about a month ago. But actually the pressing matter on my mind is the hysterical rant on my iPod from Stephen Fry on one of the season 1 podcasts. Compliance was the topic, but in the terms of censorship for tv. He was talking (actually screaming at more than one point) about the ludicrous situation of producing a tv show about spies - I think he was referring to

Measuring Community Health

2009-07-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

While we have been running metrics in our communities for 'measuring community success', we (like everyone else) have struggled with defining any form of notion of how we're doing as a company against other peers or even other companies in other areas.The main problem is what metrics do you compare on. We can't compare with someone the size of say, Dell using registrations, as they have a

SST - Becoming a Pure Believer!

2009-04-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today we're talking Puring... What's that and why should I care you say?Have you ever had a club that just seems to swing well? It always seems good in your hands? And conversely have you ever had one that just didn't feel great when you swung it? Think this was all in your head? Well there is a lot of evidence now that there is actually something behind this.In the world of building golf clubs,

New Site... time to breathe...

2009-03-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

Feb 24 this year saw Juniper Networks roll out a completely new web experience, which is the culmination of two years work by Juniper's web business team.This site, or at least the promise of it, was why I joined Juniper from Nortel over two years ago.This is the first time since I around the mid 1990's that I could actually sit down with a site and 'start again'. All the work that I have ever

Are you using Linkedin's new app platform?

2009-01-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

LinkedIn has launched it's new application development platform, neatly called 'Applications-BETA'. So what does this mean?Well for one, LinkedIn can now be thought of as a place for professionals to actually connect and collaborate, rather than just look leverage networks of contacts.With apps such as Slideshare and Google Presentations, you can present the dreaded PPTs to your networks, but

Natural Sorting - not this chestnut again

2009-01-07T17:49:00.000-08:00

Ah the joys of natural sorting lists... If you know what I am talking about then you'll roll your eyes instantly, but if not let me explain...!Think of a list of items, we'll take some fictitious products as an example:C200, C230, C2000, C55, and C5000If you were to order these by hand, you might do something like:C55C200C230C2000C5000This would be a numerically logical sorting... smallest

Playing with new gear

2009-01-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

Following a swing analysis at the Golf Lab with Leith Anderson, I have switched out my usual Dynamic Gold S300 shafts in my irons for the new KB Tour from KBS Shafts. I was fairly amazed at the performance of them in testing. Not only are the new shafts stiffer, (I am playing an X or 6.5 now) but the ball flight is higher and hence the travel distance is longer. With the help of a laser

What do I play?

2009-01-02T22:15:00.001-08:00

I don't know about you, but I am finding that I have no idea what to listen to in my mp3 library anymore...I know that sounds odd, but this huge investment I have in the music, currently somewhere over 3500 albums and 40k tracks, is seeming worthless because I can't work out what to listen to.Think of it like this. Trawling this library to put together playlists is becoming too time consuming. A

Finally cheaper inkjet cartridges?

2008-12-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

Well Kodak is finally touting something we've all been moaning about for a while.. inkjet printing without the $40+ price tag per new cartridge. http://is.gd/dWCn the promise is $9 to $15 cartridges, all which print with pigment inks for long lasting photo prints.Seems like someone is catching on that none of us like the 'razor blade' marketing techniques we've been subjected to for a while.I

Wear Testers

2008-12-23T22:58:00.000-08:00

I just got selected to join the new Timbuk2 Wear Testers beta program (timbuk2.com), which I am pretty excited about. I have at least 6 Timbuk2 bags, messengers or notebook sleeves and have always loved them. Plus they are a local company, up in the city.I do think there are a couple of things that could be improved so I'm delighted to join the program.Basically Wear Testers are a group of beta

Bequeathing digital assets

2008-11-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days I have been thinking about updating my will, now that my brother and I sold our house. But that led me to think about how do you start to bequeath specific digital assets to people?It's been about 6 years since I last looked at my will, but I know have an extensive Flickr library of digital photography, no longer am I creating prints from emulsion. So how do I leave that

Building the ultimate PC

2008-11-09T15:14:00.001-08:00

I have been boring my colleagues recently with talk of building a new PC. I think it's time, honestly, for me to get on with it and stop talking about it. I am going to be writing about the process over the next few weeks while I spec it all out. I'm thinking that it will be at least:Quad Core - probably AMD Phenom x44 GB RAMVideo will be SLI or Crossfire and running a twin configuration,

Dragonforce-powered workday

2008-11-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

It's interesting as I sit here with the rest of the crew late on a Friday (we're listening to Dragonforce btw, which is hysterical, and sums up our week), on how much attention social media tools are getting in our marketing mix.We're poised for another launch on Monday for the company, and progressively since January, the company is wanting to delve deeper into what we can do with each tool.

Social Media by Social Media

2008-11-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

Social media uptake, especially in Enterprises certainly seems to me to go in fits and starts. Half the time an organisation seems ambivalent and uninterested in even participating, and the other half they go bonkers over wanting to use as much as they possibly can, uncontrollably...For a couple of months now, the team and I have been working to build a library of educational courses, about

The power of persona

2008-10-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

For what seems the longest time, I have been running a project to push the basic tenants of user centered design at Juniper.This started as a drive to prep the team for web site development work, but really grew into a company wide activity to help target content development, campaign design as well as activity online.One of my team, Tawnee has written a great insightful article on her experience

Future of Social Media pt 2

2008-10-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

As I talked about in pt1, the Future of Social Media event that I attended, gave us all a lot to think about.Something that I am wrangling with right now is the notion of the On Demand SME (a great term that was coined at the event by Faith from Webex), this is the concept that with your social network you are connected virtually instantly to subject experts both inside your company and outside

The Future of Social Media pt1

2008-10-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

I am fairly priviledged in my role in that I get to interact with smart people virtually all the time. Last week was no exception, I was invited to attend the first ever Future of Social Media Roundtable hosted by Forrester Research's Jeremiah Owyang (and thanks to a very gracious SAP for hosting at their gorgeous building in Palo Alto).This was a meeting of the minds (brands, vendors, social

Traffic School pt2

2008-07-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yay, after about 8 hours of traffic school, we're finally there! Pass with 98%, which I didn't think was too bad. I did learn a couple of things too along the way. Now it's time to catch up on some golf!

Traffic School.. long but oddly interesting

2008-07-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

I am camped in front of the laptop, cup of tea close at hand, going through my DriversEd class from the speeding ticket I got in February.Yes it's sorta long, been on it for about 4hrs so far, but it is oddly interesting...I might change my mind if I don't pass, but I suspect I wouldn't have a problem with doing this for fun, if it wasn't so darn long.Back to it.. ohh driving in fog or smoke..

Power... huh guess we need it ...

2008-06-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning to find that I had no power... whoop de, there's a surprise in Cupertino. You sneeze and the lights go out.I think it was just the apartment complex here, but it was out till about 5pm and made me realise how much I am reliant on it... especially for internet access... oh well it was off to Mountain View with the laptop for free Google wifi and a coffee.That was after I had

Home looks smaller these days

2008-06-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

I had a brief (but enjoyable) trip back to the UK last week. Primarily to see Mother G for her birthday, but in just 7 days managed the following:17hr flight from SJC>ORD>LHR2 days painting a house with Bro1 trip to Cambridge to see Alex, Nik and PJ1 massive indian meal1 trip to Rainham to see Sheila & Gordon1 visit from the lovely Nikki S to say hi, have a cuppa and a catch up3 nights in

What social media is important to a business?

2008-04-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

Our team has been doing a lot of work on trying to structure a meaningful social media and overall web experience strategy for the company over the last few months, and it has led me to some conclusions and an equal number of questions.While we have been dabbling with community for a while and a single blog, we haven't really been taking advantage of any of these platforms.We have focused down on

This is the BBC...

2007-04-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

I am picturing scenes from the Eurovision song contest here, (ie Prague, this is London, can you give us your votes please)... the reason why? Well somehow I have been roped into hosting a couple of podcast shows next week at work. Could be interesting... could be a disaster... will have to see!Anyway. New TV or more correctly honking great screen is all rigged up in the lounge now, and holy cats

Raaaaay for care packages!

2007-04-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

So it has to be said that Marmite is either awesome or pure evil extract - I happen to fall on the side of awesome-ness! And I don't think it is all a brit thing..Anyway, Marmite is even better when someone sends you a care package (<-- thanks Abi!) from the motherland with a jar of special edition Guinness Marmite. Oh boy.. now we're talking!! If you want all the deets about this wonder of

Oh and another thing!

2007-04-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

24 is poop... I think it's official now and the rest of the nation is catching on, but 'Christ, Jack...?' (quoting the awesome James Earl Jones from 'The Hunt for Red October') what the hell is this season actually about.

Yes, yes, you're right...

2007-04-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Tis always a bummer when you are proved right by a someone who is always right... not that this is too much of a bad thing when it happens to be a friend and my golf coach; but man, the guy is always right.Of course we're talking of the Tisch here, my long suffering golf mentor, and the last couple of lessons he gave me over the past few of weeks. Keep turning left says Ed, and if you think you

So much music

2007-02-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

So how the hell do you deal with a big MP3 collection? This is the issue for the day for me. Sounds easy and straightforward, but I decided to finally finish ripping all my CDs into my machine... I got a lovely big 400GB drive dedicated to music and went about ripping...I have got through the F's so far and obviously still have a way to go. Problem is I have about 31000 tracks right now, and I

One week and counting

2007-02-13T12:18:00.000-08:00

He say "Do you remember?"He say "Do you recall?"I say yeah I remember, oh, I remember it allEvery time that cold wind blowsEvery time I hear that soundLate night trains shunting down by the riverI remember Windy Town I think what Chris Rea meant when he wrote that was the early years of your life shape who you are, and especially the places you were. He was talking about Newcastle and the good