Dragon Age 2 Review

I did a trade in yesterday and picked up Dragon Age 2. It was between this and Fight Night and I thought the guys in the office would rather play this in their spare time.

Here's a very quick review.

For context: I have played and really liked Mass Effect 2 but never played Dragon Age 1. I was a huge Final Fantasy Fan on the PS1 and I'm a fan of the Assassins Creed series. This is my gaming creds.

What I liked

- I bought it for $28 with the trade in

- It has Dragons in it (well I've killed one large one in the first 9 hrs)

- It hasn't crashed on me

- It's fun to totally smash big groups of people and the battle mechanics are enjoyable.

What I didn't like
- The graphics are ho hum. Made worse by the lack of detail in the environments. You play games like Uncharted 2 which poke you in the eye with awesome and then you get this which feels blocky, boring and generic.

- The voice acting is fucking terrible. In IGN's review they said it was "one of the hall marks of a Bio Ware game is that the voice acting is great". These are the same people who think the Transformers gave a moving performance. The voices either lack any emotion are cliché and ruin the experience. It's like everyone has aspergers syndrome. But that's being kind. They have "Keanu Reeves Syndrome"

If anyone disagrees then go play with your dog in your house and tell me that the simple acting task of "say something nice to your dog" is a complete fail for the main voice actor (male)

- To make the voices worse there is a lot of boring ass talking. I've started to skip all of it. Yay for B button. I realised I listened to all of Assassins Creeds story points but 5% of these.
Bu... Th.... Is.... wh..... That's all I hear now as there is just too much junk talk to pad this game out.

- The missions are boring! Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood had so many mission types you really felt like you were on an adventure. FPS break things up by letting you drive a tank of fly in a robot suit. Final Fantasy gave us little mini games but Dragon Age 2 gives you the same shit over and over. Just bigger enemies. I'm 9 hrs in (speedy 9 hrs as I skipped most of the dialogue) and all I've done is attack and collect. A band of kick ass delivery guys picking up shit from one area and giving it to some random NPC for 50 silver coins. We need a run fast button as 25% of the game is walking around to the next story point.

What's worse is all the levels look the same. IGN said this and I thought "that's because they are looking for it, it can't be that bad" but it is. It's a copy and paste job and get any level designer from Bio Ware drunk and they will tell you. "Oh yeah I dialled that fucker in for shizzle" (note Bio Ware people swear and use hip hop references when drunk)

The more I think about it the more I don't like the game. My hopes were too high and I think Mass Effect with it's sci-fi story had much more latitude to do interesting things with the story and the mission types.

Donations

I'm doing my tax for last year (yes I'm 7 months late as usual) and realised I have not updated my donation chart since 2009.

I dropped in the 08/09 year but came back in 09/10. I was actually way down until I found a random receipt for Fred Hollows foundation for a one off donation I did. If you don't keep track them them it's so easy to forget.

When I look at these donations as a % of my overall earnings it's pretty sad. Here's the chart for the 09/10 year

It's around 2% which is insignificant. I'd feel worse if I had spent more on drugs or alcohol but no, the guilt I feel which fuels my donations is my vice. Which I believe stems from when I did the MS Read-A-Thon as a kid and kept $40 of the money I raised and spent it at Time Zone. This has weighed on me for many years.

So I'm looking to boost my donations for the 10/11 year and I want charity suggestions. Nothing religious please but suggestions. Or should I put it all into the micro funding sites like Kiva?

I currently donate to the following on a regular basis
MSF

UNHCR

Oxfam

WWF

Amnesty

Fred Hollows

One thing I am annoyed about is the amount of emails and junk mail I receive from the charities I do donate to. Oxfam print a huge amount of stuff that I tossed into the bin every month. I've told all the charities that if I receive any junk mail they will stop receiving a donation. Only one has failed so far.

If you want to donate more to charity try looking at new ways to give. You'll be surprised how easy it can be.

Bananas Are Awesome

I've started a new blog network called AreAwesome.com. This is the second attempt after I sold my WTFcostumes site. This one will use subdomains to split all the different sites.

I've started with a pet project Bananas.areawsome.com which is a collection of funny bananas or bananas with drawings on them.

I also did the sexy women eating bananas gallery. Yep link bait but why not.

I doubt bananas will be a huge draw card like the costumes were but costumes.areawesome.com is coming.

2010: A Personal and Professional Wrap Up

I find these end of year wrap ups very therapeutic. These are more for me than anyone else so if you're expecting something insightful below don't read on. It's more of a diary entry with the facts laid out. No real reflections or insight.

Looking back on a year (like 2003) is strange and fun at the same time. Here's the previous years for those interested.

2003 2005 2009

2010 was probably the weirdest year I've had professionally. While 2009 was the biggest personally, as I got married, this year was definitely a year of professional.... upheaval. I spent a long time in meetings with lawyers and signing documents and generally frustrated at how the "system" works. My own laziness and gullibility cost me a lot of money because the "system" doesn't run on common sense but balogna.

But lets concentrate on the good stuff...

Personal Life

I Entered the Red Bull Flugtag
This is one of those "Oh wouldn't that be cool to do but I never will" things. Luckily this year I was the pilot of team Fail Whale in this year's Red Bull Flugtag, Sydney. A big thanks to Robbie, Mark and Aaron for building the craft. And Brad for being the Jelly fish on the day. We were the only entry without wings and we still came 15th! The only other agency that entered Visual Jazz Sydney came 38th!

That's my feet in the photo below. I highly recommend entering the comp if it's on in your area.

I didn't have a costume as I was in the whale.

A New Car

After surviving quite well without a car for 12 years in Sydney we now have a new car. A brand new VW Golf. It's officially my wife's car as I was content to just use the fantastic GoGet service but as Ervi only just got her licence they won't let P's use the cars.

This new car resulted in the need to clean out our garage. Which was filled with empty computer boxes, filing cabinets, tyres, and junk from years of hoarding and collecting for Soap. Lots of visits to the bins, a truck pick up for Soap junk and a shit load of sweeping resulted in a usable lock up garage.

Having driven just 5 times in the last 12 years I feel like a learner again. When we filled out the insurance policy it asked "how many accidents have you had in the last 5 years" I put 0. It never asked a more appropriate question of "How many times have you driven in the last 5 years" which I also would have answered 0. Even Youii who's whole campaign is about asking the right questions didn't ask this. Fools!

The VW Golf is great but I still secretly long for the GTI or R. But I've always been one to live under my means and the nice little Golf suited Ervi's budget.

This was the odometer after the Soap Boot Camp trip to hunter valley. It ended on this as I parked to drop people off at the office.

My Best Presentation Experience: Ignite Sydney

After posting a joke about Google Trends in 2007 I was able to convert this into a presentation for Ignite Sydney. Again I pandered to what I thought the audience would want to hear about with a crowd pleaser topic. This is as close as I'll get to doing stand up, which is another life dream.

The talk is now on Youtube. I bluffed a few screens by going off script but I did well with the audience laughing. If only my voice didn't sound so weird. Ignite is one of the best nights for me, and it's pretty much free (I donated $5 at the entrance).

Here are my slides for those interested.

Below was my fav talk from the night. Again movies and psychology. You can't go wrong.



I probably wont be able to do another Ignite talk as they are trying to mix up the speakers and this was my 2nd talk. But I'll try to convince someone from the Soap team to talk in Feb 2011. The 15 seconds per slide and 20 slide limit is liberating.

Travel: USA Trip #7 was awesome
This time with Ervi. Most of my other trips have been partner free. Which is great for work but boring otherwise. The trip was for the Ad Age Digital conference talk and I added a personal holiday to the end of it.

This trip we visited Las Vegas. I had no idea it was so close to the Grand Canyon as I would have ventured there also had I of known.

Saw the LOVE show by Circ De Soleil

and the Blue Man Group.

Braved the crowds to see the Tim Burton show in MOMA NYC,

ate at Shake Shack,

stumbled into two art shows Mr Brainwash in NYC (we saw Exit Through the Gift Store that same night and the penny dropped who this artist was)

David Choe in LA

did the Top of the Rock

ventured to Brooklyn for the first time.

visited the Getty Center

and the Disney Concert Hall in dirty downtown LA.

Travel: Visited New Orleans!
I was voted onto the ANDY jury for 2010 (an awesome achievement unto itself) and like always met some amazing people and saw some great work. And as always was annoyed at how easily great work can miss out in awards due to political agendas or ignorance.

I even got to say hi to Shepard Fairey who was on the jury. His manager sent us all a hand pulled print. This hangs in the LA office now.

And got to go to a Jay Z concert and sit in a VIP area (fuck yeah!) and got very close to Beyonce
Yes, I seem much cooler than I really am.

Travel: Went to Brisvegas

I judged the Brisbane Art Directions club digital work. Didn't get to see much of Brisbane but did get to go to the video game Mana Bar. And saw Zero Punctuation guy at the door.

Travel: Went to Melbourne for an indie Games Conference

Also realized that indie devs need to suck it up and sell out more sometimes.

Made a good friend with a card carrying Mormon

Josh came over for a 3 month internship from the USA and we had a great time. He'll be joining the Soap LA crew in 2011 which is great. I say card carrying Mormon as I thought that was a figure of speech but it's true, all Mormons are required to carry a card.

Met Nathan from Deeplocal
Probably one of the nicest and most interesting people I have met

 

Bought an Investment Property

I became a landlord after buying a property in the same block as I live. So far it's been very easy as the real estate agent does everything and I can't be assed joining the body corporate. Oh and my first job as landlord.... was to up the rent $20 a week [evil laugh]

Did Movember properly
The previous years I have kept a beard and shaved at the end. This year I spent November with a full moe. It was itchy but we raised $1500 for charity

New Glasses
I didn't realize my old glasses were three years old until the paint started to peel off them. My new specs (see above) go for the big nerd look. They are also 5x heavier than my previous titanium glasses. My nose is slowly getting used to this.

Old glasses below:

Got a Valid Medicare Card
The new glasses prompted me to get a valid Medicare card (needed to bulk bill that eye test). The previous one expired in 2007. This also reminds me that I haven't been to the doctor in three years?!

Got a Smart Phone & used it like a dumbass
We got a free Nexus One in the office (thanks to a Unity licence) and I snapped it up. This was after having a Nokia 6280 for 4 years. It still works but I got sick of not having a properly synced calendar and remote email access.

I then proceeded to be an idiot and rack up $700 in data charges in 2 months! My tears to the 3 operator got me a 50% discount.... luckily. I'm now still waiting for my iPhone 4 because as much as I like the Android platform I want access to all the apps and games the App store offers.

Discovered new music I liked
I didn't post that much to Sleevage this year but I was able to discover some new music (well new to me) over the last 12 months.

Moderat
I put these guys on high rotation late in 2010.

Nina Simone
I'm probably the last person on earth to discover the name of the singer of so many classic songs.

The Temper Trap
Ok this is borderline but the wife likes them so I'll play along. They are Aussie so that helps.

Wax Tailor
This has been played a lot in the office and I finally asked "who is this playing?"

Santogold
This would be my karaoke song if it wasn't so embarrassing.

Broken Bells
This really grew on me. Thanks to Rob for the tip.

Saw a Double Rainbow
Didn't think to make a video of the experience. I saw this while at the Cockatoo Island for the Biennale.

 

 

Professional Life
As someone who is obsessed with work I find it hard to separate professional and personal life. I also find it hard to relax and not think about work. It's a hobby and a career. Here's some of the big events of the year outside of actual projects.

Won Digital Agency of the Year

After many years of being runners up or finalists in these agency awards we finally won Adnews Digital Agency of the Year. A huge win for the team who worked their asses off.
We were runners up for B&T Awards also. I'm still confused how they judge these things and believe you really can't win by being honest. It's more about the grand story than reality. One agency will win B&T Awards but then not even be short listed for the Adnews awards. How that happens shows you the impact the jury has.

We followed that up with not even being short listed for the 2010 B&T Awards this year :( I nice dose of reality.

Speaking of award blue balls we were shortlisted for 10 AIMIA awards this year and walked away with none. Luckily we called their bluff and didn't send anyone to the actual event. We spent that money towards dinners for the team.

Won the Sydney Global Game Jam
Hendrik and I spent 48 hrs locked in the Powerhouse Museum for the Global Game Jam. Our team (Hendrik & myself and a UNSW student Sash) actually made our game in 38 hrs for the Global Game Jam as we went home for a good sleep on the last night. The game was featured on Good Game and some other shows but I don't have video of that :(

Here's a video of the game play and you can play Tentacle Assassin yourself here. I did the majority of the code (AS2!) and audio and Hendrik did the art while Sash did support code.

And yes we chose a theme that would play to the audience as who doesn't love lots of blood.

Funny story: it was 1 hr before the final presentation when we were told out game could not be shown due to the small kids in the audience. After lots of protest (read: whining) we were allowed to display it with a warning to the kiddies.

It was a great event and I met Dan Graf from Dr D studios and Sash from Bit Battalion who I still talk to regularly. It got a little tense around 20 hrs in but we made it through.

Working 38hrs straight, after already doing a full day of work at Soap takes the wind out of you. Especially when Glenn is yelling at his computer every 5 minutes for his game Gnilley.

Ate a Shit Sandwich (but I ordered it)
When I launched the Hot & Cold list early in the year I did not expect the large amount of poo thrown my way. Some of it my own fault for trying to make everyone happy but I don't think I deserved it all. I was also personally hurt by the lack of support from a few people. But lessons learned are valuable;

• You will never make everyone happy, so don't try.
• Be 100% clear about what is going to happen. Leave nothing for assumptions
• Explain the decision process behind what's happening
• Organizing anything by committee is a waste of time. Nothing will ever get done otherwise
• Hypocrites don't like being told they are one, so don't bother alerting them to the fact

Read about the Hot + Cold list here

Had two business partners leave in < 3 months
Good things always come to an end but you are never prepared for it. Having two of my three business partners leave around the same time hurts a lot. Business is well but like in all breakups the financial and emotional burden of the departures will be felt for a few years to come.

I've delayed my platinum grillz for few more years. I also felt embarrassed that this happened. It feels like a failure to have this happen when in reality it's just part of business.

Spoke at Ad Age Digital 2010
I was one of the last speakers of the Ad Age Digital event so the crowd thinned out a little. I was happy with my performance and it was one of the first times I have rehearsed with a complete script (which is the only way to do this). I was happier when the presentation got picked up and viewed more than 40,000 times on Slideshare and Soap's #1 presentation (so far)

Soap White Papers: 10 Facebook Myths Busted
We made a big effort at Soap to knowledge share and raise our profile within the industry. The 10 Facebook Myths Busted was the first effort and it was received well. Other planned papers have been delayed until 2011 but they are shaping up nicely. Putting the time into these presentations, without the burden of a deadline, is tough. As there are multiple people who work on it without a proper owner it will never get done.

Soap Creative - 10 Facebook Myths Busted

Soap R&D
After so many years of being busy to the point of it being silly we had a couple of months where the work calmed down enough for us to develop some of the R&D projects we have had lying around and catch up on a elements like Iphone development which we had fallen behind on.

The Meeting Game
It felt like years because it was but The Meeting Game was completed in 2010. Born out of a few too many long meetings we decided to create a card game that you could play at any meeting. Selection, copy and illustrations all done by committee guaranteed this took much longer than it needed. Humor is a tough won to do by committee as what makes someone else laugh or a pop culture reference doesn't always translate. However it turned out better than I had hoped for and if you want a set send me an email, we still have a few hundred packs left.

Spin Da Wheel: Iphone
We actually had this as part of a pitch back in 2008, we wont the pitch and then the client disappeared. It was a nice simple app to test out our iPhone skills on. It's Spin Da Wheel and not Spin The Wheel as the latter gets cropped on the iPhone to Spin The Whe..

Lava Ball: Iphone
Our first game for the iPhone and Mark's idea which I remembered from a random conversation the year before. The game has had over 220,000 downloads due to it being featured by Apple. We also had a lot of hate on it with people calling it "racist", only in the US app store. I will admit when Joms did the first version of the character with bright red lips I made him change it. But no offence was meant.

Mower Race: Iphone
This is the nicest looking iPhone game we have made. Only problem is the game was way too hard. The game was a re-skin of The Chicken Race which we made for Ubisoft previously. I love the art style for this and hope we can do more like this in the future.

The iPhone app store is a funny beast and we learned a lot in 2010.

Projects lined up for R&D in 2011 are much stronger and a few have some real revenue potential. We have 3 iPhone games mid way through production, each of them completely different, and each I think could be winners. It will be interesting when one game/app does hit gold and we generate a wad of cash. Client work might not get the priority it does now.

We opened and closed an office
We counted those chickens before they hatched. But that's because we had a contract from the chicken's procurement department.... Soap briefly opened a Melbourne office and then then shut it. We're lucky the impact was minimal but it was one of those times when being a business owner sucked. A few lessons learned there also.

I Now Know Why Most Media People Are Lazy
Having now dabbled in media on a small level I understand now why media people are lazy. It's hard work optimizing a media plan mid campaign and clients care more about getting regular, easy to read reports than the actual results.

I'm sorry I didn't get that report done I spent all my time optimizing the media for better results. Oh you don't care...

It's must easier to give the standard template buy, so the results can be input into the standard template for standard results. Sad really.

Moved Desks into the "Management Area"

After sitting and working right next to everyone in the office for 8 years I finally moved to a new area of the office. I even made us of the whiteboard which sat outside to give myself a pseudo office wall. This protects me from the incoming ping pong balls (the ping pong room is also my new office area) and also I don't get distracted as much. I'm attracted to shiny things.

Previously I sat right in the middle of the office and I'd always try to answer other people's questions (even when not asked to me directly), check out other people's screens and basically keep distracted. This always reduced the actual amount of "work" I did during business hours.

What stopped me from moving earlier was I was afraid it would create an "us and them" mentality. This feeling subsided when I met Michael at the Firstborn NYC office. He has his own secret office on another level to get his shit done! The account management and other management staff have their own private office too.

Another reason was to make room for the new staff as we're running out of seats.

However the biggest reason was because I saw this 37 Signals talk on TED, saw Jason talk in NYC & read the book "REWORK".

He reminds me of Justin Timerlake meets Screech from Saved by the Bell. This really made me rethink how I work and I immediately sent this to all staff at Soap.

Unfortunately not everyone shares this simple idea. But for me it's worked. I regularly relapse and will walk around annoying people for no other reason than I want to say hi but I'm getting better.



Sharing my role

I promoted Mark Fennel to share my role with me and moved him away from the general production work. This has had the biggest impact on my daily work life. Mark has taken a lot of daily management of the dev team off my hands, he's taken charge on a lot of internal initiatives that I had let stagnate and also freed me up to think on projects in a deeper way, rather than skim across them.

I've known Mark since 1999 when he was running Flashkit. He was the guy who invited me for my first ever speaking event at Flashkit 2001. Mark not only has the skills to manage people and do the work himself he shares my attitude when it comes to getting things done.

Make it work,

then make it sexy,

then make it better.

It was hard to take him off production as he just gets shit done, fast. But it was the right move

The idea to share my role didn't come to me (arrogance I think) until I I initially interviewed someone for a general developer role. The way he described his experience at UK agencies had me excited that he could handle all the things that I was not good at and we could share the burden of overseeing the technical side so many projects. I then described to him my perfect role and how we'd share it. It would be awesome.

He took another job at a rival agency sighting "I want to have 100% of the responsibility and 100% of the success or failure". I then realized I had sold to him my perfect role, not his. Mark then approached me about the role and we went from there. Perfect timing.

Soap Got Broken Into

There seems to be a serial agency theft gang as Droga 5 and Design Royale also got hit less than 1 month apart. They took three crappy Dell laptops which we only got replaced this week. They wont be back again as we don't leave the good stuff in the office. If only they stole my old Mac laptop!

This was the one time I had my phone off for the weekend. And as I'm first on the security call list by the time the call got to me and I ran over to the office it was too late. I live 5 min (or 3 min when I run like a mofo) so if my phone was on I might have been there in time to see something.

Hey ladies... get funky [cow bell SFX]
We're not sure how it happened but Soap now has seven women working in the Sydney office. From the low of 2009 with two we have defiently ramped up the dosage of estrogen. The LA office has the token female Bianca who only joined last month so they still have a long way to go.

This male dominance is not by choice it's just how we have evolved.

New Soap Site!

Hahaha kidding, it's still not ready yet! After starting in May 2009 and then me finally saying "Fuck it there's an LOL cat on the site now lets get the new site up by March 21, 2010 fast to get rid of that dumb cat". Now after having that stupid cat sit there for 9 months Soap now has a new "holding site" which took exactly 10 hrs to put together by the LA office.

The actual site will launch Jan 7 after we took a knife and removed half the unfinished sections. I'm not sure whether I'm angry or disappointed it didn't get done earlier but I am still confused why the project was avoided. But that is the nature of internal projects, they seem insignificant and there are better things to do... like ping pong.

So that's basically 2010 for me.

A big year as always with highs and lows. I'm looking forward to 2011 as the major distractions for 2010 are all dealt with. There are still more challenges ahead but all seem small compared to 2010's.

A sad love story.

It has been a long time since we have seen each other. Have you forgotten about me. I feel neglected, dirty and used. I used to be your favourite.

Remember when we first met? That video store in the shopping mall back in 95. It was love at first site. You picked me up and we spent the entire weekend together. It was weeks before your smell came off me.

After that it was 3 even 4 times a week we'd be together. Friends used to comment that we were together too much but you didn't care it felt right. It WAS right. I loved those days. But now they're gone. A distant memory that makes me cry even writing this.

Have you stopped loving me because I haven't cleaned myself up? Those were accidents and I tried to get clean but it was so hard you know that you tried but it only made it worse.

Or is it because I'm getting old and you found some younger model to replace me?

You bastard... You fucking bastard!

I can't remember the last time you took me out. You just want to sleep with me and keep me locked up.

I had you inside me!! and you won't even take me to the fucking movies now let alone a restaurant.

It's over isn't it? I knew deep down it was over but I didn't want to face reality. I was warned this day would come. I heard the whispers, the stories but I never suspected it would happen this fast.

Please don't throw me out, I'll stick around. Just out of respect.... don't use me as a rag.

Dedicated to my old Akira shirt 1995-2010 (pictured) which has now fallen apart and is unwearable :( You were my fav.

links for 2010-10-19

• Pac Man and the ghosts costumes
  (tags: pacman)

links for 2010-10-17

• The Official Resistance Series Timeline - News - GameInformer.com
  (tags: resistance)

links for 2010-10-14

• Amazon.com: Moleskine Limited Edition: Pac-Man Gift Set Volant Large (9788862935623): Moleskine: Books
  (tags: pacman)
• Amazon.com: Moleskine Limited Edition: Pac-Man Black Ruled Pocket (9788862935586): Moleskine: Books
  (tags: pacman)
• The Pac-Man Dossier
  (tags: pacman)
• Iwatani toont originele schetsen voor Pac-Man | Control | Vakblad voor de gamesindustrie
  (tags: pacman)

Facebook Ads for Online Dating

Facebook has this great feature that lets you create run of site ads and it estimates the reach based on the data users have entered. This is also a fascinating market research tool as most people enter the correct data in on their Facebook account. With 9.4M users in Australia registered (40% of the population) this is like a free survey tool. Note: when there are multiple terms it combines them all. These are not &'s but OR's. So I thought why spend money on dating sites when you can use Facebook ads to target the person of your dreams. I do have sad news for the guys though. We are out numbered when it comes to niche "likes". So don't be picky
Some interesting findings. Note: I took all of these from Australia. You should try in your country. There is no money in a goth dating site Guys: You are 343% more likely to get laid at a Star Wars convention than a Star Trek convention. Ladies: There are more male Justin Bieber fans out there than there is women to go around. This could be some very smart guys tagging their profiles for the impending searches. Guys: If you ever meet a female single Linux fan in person propose to her on the spot. Ladies: there are 431% more gamers out there with a proper education (and I assume a job) so you can afford to be picky. The best thing about Facebook is you can really target the type of person you would like to meet. Once you have your target you create ads and go from there. Just direct them to your profile's custom tab explaining how much of an eligible partner you are. Im not sure anyone has ever done this but I think it's worth a test Here is a sample target I made up. I was looking for the type of girl you find in a Revenge of the Nerds film. There are 460 in Australia!
The biggest surprise was that from 2.1M women aged 18-30 only 700k are interested in men :( Ouch! Also with the Facebook suggested topics not many people like "afternoon sex" as it didn't come up in the suggestions. Oh if you are wondering 50% more women prefer "cuddles" over sex so make sure to mention that :) Like when I spoke about Google Trends at Ignite, one you start looking at this stuff it's addictive.

Ignite Sydney: A Look at Google Trends

My Ignite Sydney talk on Google Trends is now on Youtube. I bluffed a few screens by going off script but I did well with the audience laughing. If only my voice didn't sound so weird.

Ignite is one of the best nights for me as the speakers are always good. Below was my fav from the night and it's pretty much free (I donated $5 at the entrance)

I probably wont be able to do another Ignite talk as they are trying to mix up the speakers and this was my 2nd talk. But I'm trying to convince everyone I know to do one as it's a great experience and the 15 seconds and 20 slides rule makes it easy to stay focussed.

Random Thoughts

Having a Twitter account and other blogs (which I've also neglected) it's hard to find time to post on a personal blog. Every time I really felt the urge to go all "Doogie Howser" the subject I want to post about is better suited to a secret blog, one that isnt traced back to me as sharing more personal issues and problem would cause too many problems for me (in case the wife reads... hello Ervi) & Soap.

So I give you a grab bag assortment of thoughts in no particular order. Spelling errors and other grammatical mistakes are left in as Im too lazy to audit.

A New Car

After surviving quite well without a car for 12 years in Sydney we now have a new car. A brand new VW Golf. It's officially my wife's car as I was content to just use the fantastic GoGet service but as Ervi only just got her licence they won't let P's use the cars.

This new car resulted in the need to clean out our garage. Which was filled with empty computer boxes, filing cabinets, tyres, and junk from years of hording and collecting for Soap. Lots of visits to the bins, a truck pick up for Soap junk and a shit load of sweeping resulted in a usable lock up garage.

Having driven just 5 times in the last 12 years I feel like a learner again. When we filled out the insurance policy it asked "how many accidents have you had in the last 5 years" I put 0. It never asked a more appropriate question of "How many times have you driven in the last 5 years" which I also would have answered 0. Even Youii who's whole campaign is about asking the right questions didn't ask this. Silly fools!

The VW Golf is great but I still secretly long for the GTI or R. But I've always been one to live under my means and the nice little Golf suited Ervi's budget.

After driving to Ikea and Bunnings I have ticked off all the items I needed a car for. Now I sit around wondering where to drive to with no good ideas. I expect a trip to Palm Beach sometime just because that's what everyone recommended. But after living on the Gold Coast for 14 years a beach doesn't interest me.

Ignite Talk on Google Trends
After years of wanting to present this ( i posted about this back in 2007) I finally got to give my presentation (stand up routine) on Google Trends. See the slides and script here. It went down really well and now I don't really want to do a presentation again as I wont go as well.

Facebook Myths
It is so hard not to drink the Facebook coolaid. The dominance of the platform blind sides you to the fact that it is just part of the puzzle not the actual puzzle itself. Remember when blogs were cool? I do I was trying to sell blogs into clients back in 2003 (with no success). No one seems to talk about forums but they are still alive and strong. It just seems to be that if you tick Facebook and Twitter you're golden.

Remember when social media was new? I do, I remember Lara from Yahoo! asking me about in 2004! and I researched from there. If only I persisted... See the post about that here.

Classical Music
The two radio stations I listen to exclusively now are ABC Classical 92.9 and 102.5 (2MBS which I had to google I had no idea of the name)

Why? because if I hear the fucking Spaceship song again I'll go into a DJ rage. It'd hate it less if the filmclip was good but it's terrible.

This is how you do a Benny Bennasi filmclip (better song too)

Seriously though when your days are filled with meetings, proposals, code, questions, answers and business decisions the last thing you want to listen to is more noise. Classical music is great to just be alone in your thoguhts and relax. Just like a good session on the XBOX360 you can just focus on that for a few hrs to rest the brain.

Too Many Games
After winning Xbox Australia as a client I now get free games from 3 publishers Ubisoft, Activision and Microsoft). It's to the point where I look at a games catalogue and have played everything I wanted. Red Dead Redemption being the first game I bought in a while. I still have Transformers, Crackdown 2 and the last part of Alan Wake to go through. I do love spending my days talking about Halo Reach, Marvel characters and why Deadpool is awesome. Sad note is I don't have an unlimited XBOX points account so I still have to pay for games like LIMBO. Which was awesome BTW.

Movies
Inception is the first film in a long time I am super excited to see.
Still watched a heap of films with docos on popular culture always top of my list
Good Hair
Food Inc.
both deserve a watch

The Male/Female lead RomCom Action Genre
2010 is the year of the Male/Female lead RomCom/Action genre. 3 big films with 6 big stars all in a short time frame.

Date Night
Killers
Knight & Day

Date Night wasn't bad but it seems they all want another Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Foursquare: It sucks I want YELP!
After spending a week in NYC I came to the conclusion that YELP! is not only a much better service but it's used much more by consumers and businesses. I used a Foursquare deal at a Cafe and the 2 staff had no idea what it was. "Our boss does these things on the net and we don't know"... I still got 15% off by checking in.

I saw about 10 x "We're loved on Yelp!" stickers than I did anything related to Foursquare (even Facebook) at cafes, restaurants and small stores in NYC. So why does everyone talk about Foursquare? Echo chamber of BS

Any time I wanted to know where to eat I went to YELP! Foursquare showed me that someone had checked into a cab, a train station or multiple restaurants but I had to sift through all the tips (if there was any) just to see if it was good or not.

Please Google, bring Yelp to Australia we need it. UrbanSpoon on the iphone is terribly slow and not user friendly.

Mobile Food Vans
Why does LA have these amazing mobile food vans and Australia just get Mr Whippy? I enjoyed fresh spring rolls, burgers and other great food at these vans while in LA. I missed the Kogi van though.

Is there a law stopping this happening in Australia or are we just behind the times? Huge opportunity here

Thank god LOST is over
The show is finally gone from required viewing. The finale reminded me of Land of the Lost with the dodgy camera shake. The reason I watched Lost was because I thought it would lead somewhere. Damn them for wasting my time.

New Glasses or Laser Eye Surgery
After finding my fav pair of glasses I now need to get new ones. Knowing full well I wont find a pair that suit me as much. I could go Laser Eye Surgery but still too scared even though the 6 people I know who have have surgery had great results.

Lavaball Iphone Game

Soap's first iPhone game Lavaball is now in the App Store. It's free, its fun and it's easy to play. Waste 5 minutes playing Lava Ball. Part Monkeyball part Pocket God.

"You are Mr L'ava L'ava, volcano deity of the Pee Pee Islands. Once upon a time the Pee Pee feared and worshipped you, but times of peace have made them lazy and complacent.

Its time to remind them once again who is boss. Use your device to control Mr L'ava L'ava's fiery balls, smiting and scourging and smouldering all those who have forgotten you.

Eight tricky levels await, rock n roll time!"

I've seen images and a beta of our next game (a paid game) and it's looking awesome. And Mark's next iphone Unity3D game is looking even more fun. Again it involved killing lots of people.

We also have a useful app (we make those too) that's in the final stages. It's something I'd use daily.

Note: Our first app for the iPhone was Glass Busker but it's not really a game.

Damned If You Do

Today we launched the Digital Agency HOT+COLD list for Campaign Brief and Bannerblog.

The idea has been in flux for a while and after many emails between lots of different parties it's all complete.

Debate over how much awards should factor in (some wanted it 50-100% based on awards), should size be based off billings vs staff numbers (I pushed for staff numbers as a much easier figure to audit), should it be in Campaign Brief, let's get AIMIA or IAB involved, lets rate by technology, lets make it like the NMA list etc etc.

The NMA list in the UK bases all agencies on their digital billings. Agencies are ranked from 1-100 and NMA seem to have the respect of all the agencies and being on the list seems to be enjoyed by most. Even the ones lower down.

One thing I realised half way through the Hot+Cold process was that if I ever floated the idea of "a blog for banners what does everyone think?" the site would have never been made. It would have been just a series of emailed opinions about how it should work and how it wont work.

I also realised it's a major hassle to wrangle judges to do something. It's a real hassle chasing people for info, scores, comments. I should have charged for entries :) All the judges did their job though so I can't complain too much. It was also a good cross section. Some were very harsh while others were very lenient. The range of scores ended up at 21-79 so they all cancelled each other out into the middle.

So the list is up and come major agencies asked not to be part. They had their reasons but these are the same agencies that enter "agency of the year" comps but won't agree to be ranked with all other agencies. This seems like a double standard to me. Why enter B&T and AdNews with their secret juries and not Bannerblog and a known jury of peers? Anyway, I take stuff personally when I shouldn't.

The list would have been created with or without my involvement by Campaign Brief. I jumped at the chance to work on it for multiple reasons but mostly to ensure that it was judged by a proper digital jury and not just Michael Lynch's friends. No offence Lynchy :)

I could have just judged it all myself and done it as an opinion piece like this post by Visual Jazz's Stuart. My list would look a lot different from the one we ended up with and I also would not have asked for agencies permission and submissions. Much easier but meaningless. I would have also been influenced by 2008 work. Many agencies I thought were killing it a lot of the work I remember was form 2008. Other agencies I had never heard of had solid 2009 years.

I had best intentions when wanting to start the list in 2008 and still do. But with all the BS that comes your way (and my nature to take to everything to heart) it feels like it wasn't worth it. Hopefully after the next round of updates and more agencies are added people will start to see the worth of it.

It certainly has to have more worth than the recent Forester report of 6 agencies.

Next steps for me will be to talk to AIMIA and IAB and see if this is something they want to carry the torch for it and Bannerblog can just host it. This might convince the other agencies that it's something worth while being involved in. Before this there was comprehensive list of digital agencies in Australia and maybe I should have just started with that.

So damned if you do and damned if you dont. I've been in this boat many times and it always makes me feel uneasy.

Its much easier doing nothing that's for sure. I've had some tough decisions at work also with the same outcome. Either way I get a shit sandwich, only difference is you can choose which bread you'd like beforehand.

2003: Year In Review

While looking for an old document of junk I found this Year in Review document. I present it to you in unedited form. Note: If only I data vized my stats I would have had 3 years on Feltron.

I'm unsure why I didn't post this. It's quite funny to me now.

I did a year in review for 2005 and for last year.

2003 Year In review:

Soap went from 3 people to 2, then to 3, then 4 then 5.

The first full year of working for myself.

We launched a new website in December which we started in January.
Had a client get arrested and go to jail for importing $100M+ of Ecstacy. We never saw our money.

We bought a heater, 3 Emacs, 2 PC's and 2 printers. And numerous software. We also bought numerous chairs which will all be obsolete in January 2004

Did our first eyeblaster banners with Syrup.

Completed our first commercial CDROM job for Contiki and HOST.

Built our first flash desktop app for Big Brother 03.

First mentioned in B&T for Moboy and Big Brother

Got the Flash Forward award we won last year from Leo

----------
I retired my laptop to work on a Emac. The took my laptop out of retirement with OSX 10.3 to work occasionally at home.

Bought an IPOD. Converted all my CD's to MP4's. Realized Itunes was useful.

TOP Songs/Albums of 2003: According to Ipods Play Counts:
24 Doves: Lost Souls: Firesuite
22 Coldplay: A Rush of Blood: Clocks:
22 COldplay: Parachutes: Shiver
21 The Prodigy: The Fat of the Land: Climbatize
The Shins: Og Inverted World: Caring is Creepy:
AIR: Moon Safari: Sexy Boy
Cat Power: Moon Safari: Cross Bones Style
Eels: Novacaine for the Soul
Easy Me: Faith No More
Oh Yeah: Yellow

Faith No More is the only artist i own a CD off. The rest I burnt from friends. Weird they should make up the top 25 in my Top played songs:

Only Smashing Pumpkins with 1979 and the before-mentioned Faith No More are the lone artist's in my Top 40 of which I own CD's of. I guess my friends have good taste and I'm a stingy bastard.

Finally understood XML and it's worth

The first full year in sydney I have lived in the same apartment.

In December I finally bought a PS2 and tried to make up for lost time.

I raised $2,150 for Oxfam to travel to China only to have SARS and work interrupted plans.

I Visited Melbourne for the first time.
Visited QLD twice

>> Spoke at 2 conferences this year: Flashklt and Digit. Both ill-prepared but went down well. Also got asked to speak in Singapore (free flight) only to have a job due the same day. Then find out the job is delayed.

My little sister moved in to live with me for a while.

Still haven't got Private Health Cover, Insurance or Laser Eye Surgery.

We bought a new kettle.

Bought a DVD player to go with the DVD's i own.
http://www.theslipperytruffle.com/v4/archives/2003_06.html#000972

Finally started paying for dialup after my free UUNET account stopped working.

Realised i can make good smoothies. Made and consumed around 50

Bought my first ever suit for Robs wedding.

Finally got a electric toothbrush

Realised i like Felafel Kebabs from Ali Baba. Bought and consumed about 15

Sworn off soft drink about 10 times

Got a new mobile phone (Siemens S55) and have hated it ever since.

Number of times vomited: 4
Number of Migraines: 3
Number of fights: 0
Distance i drove a car: 0km
Number of Weddings Attended: 1
Pairs of Shoes bought: 1
Pairs of Shoes worn: 3
Number of times rent paid late: 18
Number of times sunburnt: 1
Allnighters at work: 3
Number of times went to bed before 12am: 50

won ticket to premier of Matrix 2. 1 ticket!!!! I sat behind Jimmy Barnes and next to 2 suited people. I saw the president from 24 on the Red Carpet

i made a google #1
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=bored+stiffy+in+public+places&meta=

Photo Round Up

Here's a few photos I forgot to post until today.

Havainas Thong Challenge Bondi 2010
One of the best brand PR stunts/promos I've seen. Great vibe, well organised and a huge success.

Moldy Science Project Cheese
Found in the fridge today! WTF the dust that came off this was insane

NYE
The fireworks were as they have always been. The same. At least this guy was entertaining for 5 minutes.

Xmas Lunch
Kastengels (buttery and cheesy indo cookies) made with a secret family recipe. So secret when people ask for it they get a "different" one.

Sharemate Wanted
You had me at free toilet paper!

Min 2 weeks Max 3 weeks! Wow that's some tight restrictions.

Fail on the way the phone number is typed and pre-torn. I want to ring just to tell him he's an idiot.

My Lanyard Collection
Including my name badges from all my casual jobs. View on flickr for notes with most detailed. I hate when I visit a company and they make me give these back.

Coffee Cup with a Moe
How adding 5c of fabric and some glue can turn your coffee mug into an interesting selling point for your cafe. I don't drink coffee but I wanted to buy a cup

A Sad Case of Blog ADD

toothpastefordinner.com

I have a serious case of Blog ADD. Here's my train of thought for a typical lazy raining Sunday. Part of getting over this problem is sharing the problem so here goes.

I'll get a list of posts I need to do for Sleevage (including ones that I have promised bands and designers sorry guys) and start researching a post. I'll then end up with 25 tabs open and then see something about an underground dance party and start to flag that for the underground blog. By this time I've forgotten about Sleevage. Either that or my tabs crash and I lose all the links.

I'll then see a banner on one of these sites that reminds me to audit the submissions for Bannerblog. I'll look through those which is also littered with viral videos and campaigns. While checking out them I'll see something which triggers a thought for this site.

It's usually a pet peeve or something stupid yet insightful so I open up the admin here. But opening up this admin reminds me of all my other posts I promised myself I'd do. I search for an old list I did somewhere. Google Docs or Toodloo.

I can't find that list but see another list of the collaborative posts/articles I have on the go for Soap Creative and my real job! Oh yeah that Community Post with Matt! I totally forgot. Oh the white paper on Micro Transactions. This is why we got the 2010 Digital Predictions doc done in <5 days because it would have dragged on otherwise.

Thinking about this then reminds me that I should tend to HeroHQ while we're in hiatus awaiting the new game to be announced (soon guys!). I'll check there and someone will link to a crazy X-Men related costume which reminds me that no only did I sell WTFcostumes too soon but my other 3 blog ideas (secret ideas right now) haven't even got off the ground.

The one blog that did get off the ground is the neglected Cool Shit You Can Buy. On official hold due to a blog embargo by my wife.

I then check my email to see another request for a custom Mr Potatohead. I look to my left and see a box of Mr Potatohead parts and piles of clay that have been untouched for almost 2 years now. I resist the urge to make a Predator potatohead yet again.

Looking at my Mr Potatohead photos reminds me that I still have thousands of travel photos to process. It makes me reminisce when I had a proper photoblog back in 2000-2004. Ahh Happy Snaps I miss you. I also find it funny I used to post images 320x320 size. I was worried when I went above 40k for a photo. That was dial up in 2001 I guess.

It's about this time I realise I've done nothing, I'm still in my underpants and I haven't eaten anything. Oh and it's time for bed.

The only saving grace is that Bannerblog has a solid team of editors who keep the site rolling along and Ross, Alex and Matt continue to hold the torch for Soap on the blogs even when I don't.

I hope others out there share the same problem. Maybe I just need a personal assistant?

Disclaimer: Facts may be exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Fruit vs Junk Food A stalemate

The problem with fruit is that you can never guarantee it's going to taste nice. There's nothing I hate more than buying a shit load of apples or oranges (grand plans when grocery shopping) and then finding out I got a bad batch. I've never had a bad Oreo or potato chips but I'd say 20% of the oranges I've had lately were tossed in the bin.

Now I have no junk food and no fresh fruit!

It's the ultimate slap in the face by a piece of fruit. You're made to feel guilty about eating junk food so I buy none and then the fruit at home just gives you the middle finger.

If the fruit had feelings it'd be pretty bummed also. It's entire life was preparation for the ultimate honour of being eaten. Then when the big day comes it gets one bit and unceremoniously tossed in the bin. Poor bastard.

I can now feel the hard stare of the ice cream sandwich in my freezer! Must resist!

Human Flesh Meat Hook Tug of War

Ouch!, Ewww and fuck that!

Point and Shoot Camera

My wife's small point and shoot camera is always around and I'm more inclined to take photos of random things with it than my big DSLR. I also carry my Nikon around with me less. Tonight I raised the memory stick of her camera and found some really old shots I took and forgot about and I present them here for all the laughs.

What Not to Name Your Bluetooth Virus

Why You Should Put Sunscreen on Your Ankles

How I Roll in Indonesia or What the donation box at our wedding ended up looking like

Fatty Hands or What my hands look like after walking non stop for 14kms or It hurts to make a Fist

Elite Salads

I also realised after doing a backup I have travel photos from 2006 that I havent processed and have fallen behind on 2009 photos too.

Soda Milk

Free Internet & Rice!

Masturbate to the Moon

Serious About Junk Mail

At Soap I always encourage the guys to take photos at every event but the main complaints are

- Forgot
- Didn't have camera
- Soap camera too big
- iPhone doesn't have flash and it was too dark

So we recently bought the Olympus Tough camera to try and solve that problem. I'm looking fwd to taking that out on a Jetski and getting some videos. I know it's selfish or weird but a work event without photos to document it is a wasted event. Capturing the culture is really important and sharing the culture not only a great talking point at work but a great recruitment tool also. Taht's why we have so many photos on our agency Flickr.

Top 10 Flickr photos for Soap

While my Flickr stream has broken the 2 million views mark (thanks for Earth Wallpapers) Soap Creative's account is ticking along with 470,000 views total.

Here are the top 10 photos (well pieces of content) on the Flickr account that are not weapon designs. The reason for that is the weapon designs make up 80 of the top 100 viewed images. This is due to the popularity of our old site Build Your Own Weapon.

Not surprising the top photos are mainly light drawing ones

Look how chubby Rob looked!

A huge different to my personal Flickr account's top 5 photos but it makes sense as we don't have any boob photos at work.

Predictions for Digital in 2010

During the slow days between Xmas and New Years we at Soap Creative decided to put together a prediction list for what we think will impact on digital advertising in 2010. There is a mixed bag of stuff in here. Some we know (like new iPhone in June/july) but other we hope will happen. Some are focussed on the Australian market (the internet filter) while others international.

It was a lot of fun and I think we'll do one of these each year.