Taking the plunge and dropping in.

Ok, previously I talked about the skateboard shaped itch that needed scratching. Well a few weeks ago I took the plunge...

I took myself along to the Bucks Boarding Centre and, despite my inner skateboard snob screaming at me bought myself a complete deck. The man with the awesome Mohawk was super helpful and made me feel as though the plan I wa hatching was one of genius not complete folly - he'll go far!!

That very afternoon I took myself along to the skatepark enroute home from work - Marston Mortaine. I was ready to 'tear that mother f@@ka up' as Ice Cube once said...

Thing is, when I got there around 6pm having fled from work in a whirlwind of excitement, the place was full. A tiny park fully occupied. 15-20 10-16 year olds tearing it up on skateboards, BMX's and contraptions they didn't have in my day - stunt scooters.

You know what I did? I stood there awkwardly for about 5 mins then got in my car and drove home. 

Epic fail.

Probably something deep in their about courage of convictions and good ideas only being good ideas when they are acted upon but that all sounds a bit like I'm working.So I'll just keep it real - I felt a bit like a knob.

Next time!!

Scratching the itch. Should I?

So, 17 years ago I was a skate dude.

I rode a plan b deck, spitfire wheels, gullwing trucks, carried a spanner and had pants that sagged embarrassingly low. There were a range of tragic clothing adventures but it was all done under the guise of thinking I was cool. I skate therefore I am... that kind of thing.

I was a bit crap, that's an undeniable fact but I used to love tearing it up (or trying at least) at places such as Harrow Skate Park, St Albans Pioneer Club and of course the Mecca of the UK skate scene London's South Bank. 

Here's the thing, I kind of just stopped because I turned into a bit of a dick and started doing other stuff. 

There have been a few prompts in the past 5-6 years that have made me want to get back on a deck. 

1) the mini ramp I walk passed when we go for a nice walk in the local country park.. It looks so lonely

2) a guy I played football with had one in his car, I rode it in the car park and could still olly... Sort of.

3) I went to NYC in 2011 and loved that it was just ok for people to roll

4) We went on our hols to San Diego and everyone seemed to be a roller - my kids loved it. Telling them I used to roll projected me to hero status.

5) last week #goskateboardingday was trending on both twitter and Instagram - it demonstrated to me that this interweb has made skateboarding a much more globally accepted past time.

I want in again.

So... Should I be scratching this itch or what?

Hat trick... Just

I thought i'd try and get a quick post in before the year is out and make It three for the year.

Whilst this clearly isn't a left foot, right foot then header 'perfect' hat trick it's still one in which I can continue the football theme for a bit longer...

At kick off I flew out the blocks banged in an early brace (Jan & Feb i think). Since those opening minutes I've been quiet. 'Hardly had a kick' they'd say on MOTD but, at the crucial time with the clock ticking down I'm stepping up to smash home an absolute screamer!

Well... Not really but there is at least a tiny bit of seasonally relevant mobile material I can muster up in these dying embers of 2012.

After their bath my kids wanted to watch a video on my phone... I went for my trusty steel only to find the silver bullet removed... YouTube was nowhere to be seen, i then remembered it had been removed a few weeks back for no apparent reason (tinkering)

Anyway... With YouTube installing i had a quick look at other apps published by google inc and realised Blogger was literally the only one not installed on my phone....

It is now an here we are and here is this post. .

It's like a Tarantino film is it not? Mind bending.

Laters...

With an app at the ready will I be more frequent in 2013?

Bloody Social Media... again

Having checked out my GA it appears the last post was by far the most well received ever. Therefore I thought strike while the iron is super hot (about 3 weeks I think) and quickly share some of the perils of this here social thing.

I work for a company, we sell pizzas, we are a franchise business. Well, earlier today one of those franchisees sent me a cool thing that Macy's are doing on Facebook and asked if it was something replicable in the UK - I'm looking into it.

In principle its pretty simple and neat. You see the offer they put in a status post, you click 'get offer' they email you the offer - boom! Great marketing, nice way of making that very sociable communication a direct one.

The thing is, I thought I'd have a play with it myself. So, I went to Macy's page saw the post in question and clicked on it...

Thing is, being all about the social and the sharing those pesky facebook people immediately share the fact I've interacted with the Macy's ad to my wall and I had some nice people make comments about the nice shoes I was never going to buy from Macy's (don't worry, I'm still cool because I styled it out by pretending I was a transsexual - what a winner eh?)

Point being?
1) It's a good reminder that people spend a lot of time on facebook in fact all the time (first response was in seconds)
2) Facebook has some seriously awesome marketing opportunities in its platform - imagine if I really was buying those shoes?
3) It's always worth considering what you're doing in the social space and who might see it!!

Bloody social eh?

Bloody social media

So, I've just seen this new flavors.me thing and because I'm cool and awesome and also awesomely cool I wanted to put all my social profiles in their so my Mum can keep track of how cool I am all in one place. 


Problem being, it appears my blog is exceptionally low in both quality and quantity so what better reason to update it than a post about quite literally nothing other than perhaps how this bloody social media has made us all a bunch of people who share stuff, some of it is superb, some of it is genuinely inspiring and some of it is quite literally dross. 


Point being, quite literally that. I've created a post of dross so, if someone were to find me on flavors.me they'd see the awesome range of social content I create and be inspired to share, create, converse and all that other social stuff. 


Love it. 

The CIO, the orange button or the TV - who's most influential?

Being so close to the cutting edge (there are scratches on my big toe - that's how close) I was watching BBC Click this morning (yes at 06:50 on BBC1 I'm afraid) and they ran a feature about apps on browsers and had a few examples of those available on chrome...

15 hours later I had myself a look and I thought the 'blog it' by blogger was pretty neat... I then thought to myself well will it actually make me blog any more frequently.The results of the test say yes but I'm guessing you say the same about anything tried once its the fact I know its not going to happen again for another few months that makes the voice in my head say 'NO it will not!'

Be that as it may, I did find the BBH Labs post on innovation in agencies both interesting and relevant so thought I'd use the new little button in my browser to share it...

The agency I currently work at has a CIO, he's name checked in the blog and is a thouroughly nice and amazingly intelligent chap. In addition to that I'd say my sample of one thinks having someone in that role brings a hell of a lot to the agency. From personal experience its been in points 3 and 5 but I'm sure those with a closer or more regular interactions would say he delivers on all counts so, for what its worth yes a good agency (or any agency that wants to be good) does really need a CIO.

Exploring The Edges: On Innovation In Agencies « BBH Labs

but its unlikely he or the nice orange button in the corner of my browser will make me blog more consistently.

So shall I tell you what hit me more than anything today?

TV is an awesome and influential communications channel. Ok it may be dross, and if you've stayed here this long you're probably my wife or brother but the only reason I've spent 30 minutes this evening mucking about on the chrome webstore and typing this is due to 30" of TV coverage at an ungodly hour this morning - 30 seconds of TV coverage for 30 minutes of real world interaction is a great ratio and that's why TV is still awesome!

Why google wins

Funny, I had completely neglected my wee blog, I'd go as far saying I forgot I ever started one, then today by pure coincidence I was chatting with a buddy about google and facebook... bit if a who would win Superman or King Kong type conversation and I was nicely reminded of the sheer scale of toys google gives me to play with on my own terms.

I thought I'd check them out and needless to say there are a good 6 or 7 tools above I use on a regular basis and a further 10 or so I could and should be using more.

Another good thing about the G-bomb? I'm writing a blog that nobody will read and its not going to end up in my newsfeed and have everyone thinking what is he talking about... because I'm not really talking about anything.

Probably why I don't update a blog very often eh?