Stop shouting at me!

If you have children you probably know the feeling that sometimes they don't listen to you. This is not unique to those with children, of course.

I may be slow but it has just occurred to me that they don't listen because I am not addressing my message correctly. I need to repackage what I am trying to say in a way that is appealing to them. They may then listen to my pearls of wisdom.

The same is required in any 'conversation' whether it be when you're trying to get a client to sign that new contract, a prospective lover to come in for coffee or a friend to lend you their new car for the weekend.

Your message has to be wrapped in such a way that they understand precisely what you are saying. I tend to write in ideas, which means I know what I am trying to say but you may not get the full meaning and think I am just prattling away incoherently. This usually happens when the brain and the mouth are going at different speeds (99% of the time with me).

It also explains why I usually don't think of the clever thing to say at the right time. I'm a good listener but I don't usually carry that on to the next step which is thinking about what the other person has said instead of what I want to say next.

It's all going on now

The tension is rising all over the world.

We have our own domestic issues with Telecom, other ISPs and the government all trying to outspin each other.

Election promises are being cancelled as if they meant nothing. All of a sudden we aren't getting our roads built or repaired.

We had the "Bloody Mary" episode of South Park screened on C4 last night with protestors outside the TV studios.

Overseas there are buildings and mines collapsing, shrines getting bombed. Cartoons causing major racial, political and religious tensions.

At some stage (soon) it's going to come to a head and get very ugly - as if it isn't already. It seems that people are so stressed that fewer and fewer are able to say "It's OK".

There are more and more 're-actors' rather than 'actors'.

Can we get it under control before it reaches a critical mass and becomes too big for any of us? What happens if we can't?

Who really is in charge?

New version of Flock

Just upgraded to Flock 0.5.11 and had to tell you all (well, me) about it. Like it so far. The blog editor is nicer to use.

Works on my Mac too!

The siren blares

I started the Flock blog editor and the local siren (volunteer fire brigade) started too - very loud when I'm so close. It keeps going until enough volunteers have turned up at the station to man the engines. Incredible service they provide for a rural area and town of not-many thousands.Within minutes the fire engines are off to whatever awaits them - house fire, brush fire, motor accident, ... Keep up the good work lads.

Based on observation - part I

I'm trying a little experiment with my cheap Honda car. It's a 1990 Accord LX with a 2.0 petrol engine running on 91 unleaded. At the moment it costs around $68 to fill up and I get around 600km to a tank.

I'm trying a few basic measures to reduce my fuel consumption such as slower acceleration, travelling just below the speed limit instead of just above it and less use of the brakes.

So far this has resulted in a slight increase in travelling time but a far greater reduction in stress levels once I get where I'm going. Plus I have cut my fuel bill by at least 10%.

I wanted to start a website that talked about making 10% savings here and there and what they would mean on a personal, community and global scale. I looked into getting domains such as 10percent.com and quickly realised that I may need to take a different approach :-)

I will continue to make observations here in the meantime.

Initial

Are there any blogs out there that have a decent post first-up?

It's taken me so long to set this up and get it working (I'm using Flock BTW) that I am now totally drained of any witty or stimulating things to say. Bad luck - you'll just have to come back when I have re-fuelled.

And I've just realised these templates aren't the best - one day ...