“Can I please have 50 dirhams Etisalat (pre-paid phone credit to the value of 50 dirhams)?”
“Sorry sir, we’re all out. We have 25 dirhams though.”
“Can I have two of those?”
“Sure sir. 50 dirhams please.”
I never thought a poem would appeal to me as an information architect. I thought this unknown fuzzy discipline is buried too heavily in business data and technology to enjoy something designed for pleasure purposes alone. Never in my wildest dreams did I think the information domain would be so clearly understood by someone other than an information manager, let alone a children’s author.
Michael Rosen changed this though. Myles had to watch his performance of We’re Going On A Bear hunt as part of his home work. My curiosity took me to his web site where I found a fantastic bit of prose, called
Words Are Ours:
In the beginning was the word
and the word is ours:
the names of places,
the names of flowers,
the names of names,
words are ours.
Page-turners
for early-learners
How to boil an egg
or mend a leg
Words are ours
Wall-charts
Love hearts
Sports reports
Short retorts
Jam-jar labels
Timetables
Words are ours
Following the instructions
for furniture constructions
Ancient mythologies
Online anthologies
Who she wrote for
Who to vote for
Joke collections
Results of elections
Words are ours
The tale’s got you gripped
Have you learned your script?
The method of an Experiment
Ingredients for merriment
W8n 4ur txt
Re: whts nxt
Print media
Wikipedia
Words are ours
Sub-titles on TV
Details on your cv
Book of great speeches
Guide to the best beaches
Looking for chapters
on velociraptors
Words are ours
The mystery of history
The history of mystery
The views of news
The news of views
Words to explain
the words for pain.
doing geography
Autobiography
What to do in pay-phones
Goodbyes on gravestones
Words are ours.
Source: http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/poems_wordsareours.html, accessed 20 October 2010
Just over a year ago we bought Myles a fish tank. We feel Dubai is not a climate suitable for any other types of pet, and travelling and holidays become more difficult if we have a more dependent pet. But there were lessons Myles would learn from caring after a pet that are too valuable to miss.
Myles looked after the fish tank and his fish quite well, although he’d often need reminding to feed them. He even felt that a few times they needed a hug. He’d do this by crouching down and hugging the tank. I suppose it’s better than trying to hug the individual fish.
Up until a little while ago we had quite a lot of luck with the fish we bought at the same time we bought the tank. A couple died, but there were a core of 3-4 hardy souls who survived even a week or so of neglect between our house minders going on holiday, and us returning from ours. When we returned we tried to replenish the stock of fish with a tank full of new entrants. That’s when our luck dried up. We had to replace new dead fish more regularly and replace them with more soon to be dead fish.
It was during this period that Lewis – our 2 year old learnt – about the cycle of life. He would follow Elle over to the tank to pick out the dead fish, watch her take it over to the toilet, then watch her dispatch it to its final resting place.
Well, we thought Lewis was learning about the cycle of life. He may have learnt a more simple cycle. One morning after watching the fish disappear down the bowl, he went back furiously pointing at the fish tank and saying with some excitement, “More, more, more”.
Despite his request we didn’t needlessly flush any fish. There’d always be another one requiring flushing in a day or two.
I’m still learning about this very interesting airline industry, clearly.
Australasian Low Cost Carrier (LCC) Tiger Airlines is now seeking a subscription fee for its followers of special offers and campaigns (Tiger Rips Stripes off its customers, http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2010/10/18/tiger-rips-stripes-off-its-customers/, 18 October 2010).
I have heard about scrimping, but this is ridiculous. In the era of information sharing is power, I really don’t know why anyone would want to prevent prospective customers from getting on board – so to speak. Or is this their attempt to position the marketing material as a luxury good whereby the sheer fact that it has a monetary value raises its perceived value over other free communications. Even if this is the fact, it’s a strange pitch from an LCC.
Now that the temperatures are becoming more reasonable, it’s sparked me to reflect and share some thoughts on Dubai’s infamous Summer.
When you first arrive here everybody warns you about what Summer will bring. Some times when you meet someone it’s their opening sentence. I received so many warnings last year I was really quite concerned. Thankfully we had one of the mildest Summers on record. In fact, during the week I arrived it snowed in Ras Al Khaimah. Ordinarily it’s much hotter though.
During Dubai’s Summer months there is always a massive outflux of expats. Even many of the locals tend to holiday outside of the UAE during this time. Each year the summer period more or less lines up with Ramadan, so if people aren’t celebrating the holy month with Hajj, it’s safe to say they’re searching out more friendly climates than Dubai.
I should quantify this, the average minimum temperature during the hottest month of August is more than 30 degrees. All in all, it means that work is always terribly quiet. Although some people do strategically stay to get a lot of quiet work done through with fewer distractions around.
Despite the heat of the day reaching maybe 40-45 degrees, you still see people playing cricket on the weekends. Cricket must be an Indian’s most popular activity next to breathing. They generally don’t play during the hottest part of the day. However the timing doesn’t make much of a difference. Some nights the temperature does not fall below 38 degrees. I trained for the Berlin Marathon during our Summer period where I’d leave my run as late into the night as possible, but it was still tough.
The parks around the city are totally abandoned. In fact, I think it’s free entry during these months as there is no one to pay fees anyway. Water parks are popular places, but to be honest the Dubai summer is often too hot even for this – as you find yourself more often out of the water than in it. It’s certainly too hot to enjoy the beach – unless you’re like me and enjoy a really, really warm bath and don’t mind the salt. The doctors at our clinic warned us to avoid the beach in summer anyway. Apparently the bacteria love the warmer waters, and in the heat there’s nothing really to stop them. The place that is most busy from July through to September are the very air conditioned malls. We did go there a few times, however it’s one activity none of us really enjoy. Especially when there’s no real purpose except avoiding the heat.
We made the mistake of taking our kids to Modhesh World. It’s a temporary amusement park focused around Modhesh – a kid’s character who is based on the Sun whose names translates into amazing in Arabic. While my kids, and a friend of theirs, all had fun, it was terribly expensive considering it was just a few amusement rides, games and some pretty depressed farm animals. Much like any other exhibition I guess. In fact we likened the place to our own Ekka in Brisbane, except the all the “carnies” have Blackberrys! It’s a true sign of the wealth of the region. Another distinction with our Ekka is here is probably be 3-4 times more expensive. I was one of the people in Australia who’d complain about the rising costs of going to such places. Not any more.
I will always have a soft spot for Microsoft’s Notepad. It comes from my persistence with it to manually web site code for the web. In the mid 1990s I became totally obsessive/compulsive with web site design and especially updating HTML source code. At one stage I may have used Notepad more than I used my legs. It was around this time that I suffered a continual and uncontrollable right click whenver I surfed the web.
Sadly (or maybe fortunately), my web design days are behind me. I continued to use Notepad in the years since for note taking, task controls, and communication logs. That was until recently. Lately I’ve begun moving to more sophisticated and integrated tools like Microsoft’s OneNote, Evernote, and so on. I find these tools a lot better to manage these work tasks as they offer more comprehensive features (like global search) and the ability for numerous people to asynchronously read and update from other locations.
I often fall into my old habits and take initial meeting notes in Notepad before moving into proper document formats, but I think my usage of it for just about everything else has expired.
Before I forget how to do it, thought I’d record a tip I found quite helpful. Some times I found it useful in recording notes which were maintained along with a timestamp of the entry, as a chronological log. I found it invaluable to learn that Notepad can automatically add that timestamp for you. The way to do this is to type .LOG in the first line of the file, then add a line break and save the file. Then each time you open the file, Notepad will record a timestamp on a new line, where you can add your respective notes.
The middle east has been relatively stable since we arrived nearly 20 months ago. Just recently however, tensions have reached breaking point in Lebanon/Syria/Israel. I am sure that I’m partly responsible.
Less than a month ago I suggested as our family’s first overseas holiday that we “hit” Lebanon. Lebanese people are abundant in Dubai, including my workplace, and they all speak so fondly of the place, all the pictures look lovely, and as the icing on the cake, we get a chance to eat their food quite often. And after a little research it seemed like a lovely place to visit, we even had the offer of a friendly colleague to be our tour guide. But as soon as I put the idea in my head, war broke out!
I subscribed to the Australian Government’s travel warnings for Lebanon, and almost every day for the past week and a bit I’ve received an update with a more strongly worded warning. So our plan to fly to Beirut are now shelved for some time.
I’m sure we can find another interesting location in a similar proximity to the UAE. Sri Lanka looks the most promising at the moment. Their civil war finished last year, after 25 long years.
Interestingly with the Lebanese conflict, I heard some news which I thought would surely help sort things out. It seemed the US were sending in the Hof – which got me excited that things may still be possible. But it turns out it is not David “Hof” Hasselhof from Knight Rider fame. Instead, it was US Diplomat Fredric Hof.
What can he do that’s nearly as useful as a talking crime-fighting sports car?
As part of our staff meeting we had a member of our Learning & Development department come along and take us through a behavioural assessment. The behaviour test was based on Belbin Team inventory, and it shows insights into what your preferred roles and least preferred roles are.
I have always been a cynic of these tests. They ask a few general questions which you could easily answer any different way. And then they provide a result which somehow magically describes all parts of your being. I’m smarter than that. I cannot be pidgeon-holed into a category, these tests miss so many considerations.
But the problem is, each time I do these tests they come back with the same result. The same pretty accurate result. I always come out of them thinking they have captured me pretty well.
The Belbin test identifies 10 Team Roles, which you are classified to – according to the statements that you relate most to.
The test found that I had two Team Roles I favour. One was the Plant role. Its typical profile is creative, unorthodox, serious minded, individualistic. It has some positive contributions of Genius, imaginative, intellectual, knowledgeable. They’re good at solving problems and generating ideas. However, they’re inclined to ignore practical details or protocol. A preference to break the rules came through in another test I did at the time of my Emirates interview – which initially concerned the organisational psychologist, but then he believed it could actually be a positive contribution at times. Another “allowable weakness” is they may be too pre-occupied to communicate effectively.
My other preferred team role was the Specialist. They’re typically Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated to their own field. An alleged positive is they provide knowledge and skills in rare supply. But their issue is they may only contribute on a narrow front, and can dwell on technicalities.
The test also provides insight into what your least favoured role is. My least favoured – unfortunately – the Implementer. These are conservative, disciplined, reliable, efficient and predictable. It’s a concern if I look at the antonyms of these words, as describing myself. Positives of this role are organising ability, practical common sense, hard working, self-disciplined. They turn ideas into practical actions. I guess it shows a disconnect with having a profile allegedly capable of Planting ideas.
In other behavioural tests I’ve done, this result was there also. I do see it as a weakness at times, but feel I use some good tools to help manage this. So while I may answer in ways that show I think I have better ideas than being practical, I feel I am usually on top of the tasks I must implement. But perhaps I think other people are better positioned to do it. Or more of a concern, maybe I think it’s somebody else’s job. I have ideas, but can’t bring myself to do the actual work to get them in.
When I first saw this trait coming in these tests, I promised to fix it. But it’s still coming up again four years later. Maybe it’s the same as being an alcoholic. Before you can resolve the problem, you first must admit you have a problem.
I’ve heard people claiming that with the internet we’re growing dumb by having such a plethora of information at our finger tips. I never bought much into the argument, but maybe it does have some merit, particularly when the information that is closest to our finger tips is wrong.
I’m delivering a presentation today to the CPI software congress. Yesterday I showed a colleague the content, and mentioned the segways I had in mind – referring to the way I would try to transition the content through different slides. He looked at me puzzled, and asked what a two wheel device for getting around the airport had to do with anything. Despite being British, he was only slightly joking. He had not heard the word Segway used in its proper context, only from a product perspective – with particular highlights such as when George W. Bush fell off one.
I suggested he look up the proper meaning. We didn’t have a dictionary at hand, so Google had to do. I was gob-smacked with what came back.
Of a dozen or so references Google sent to his Blackberry; and particularly when you use the dictionary function of define: segway, there was no mention of it actually being a word. Nope. A segway according to the leading definitions on the web is a:
A large update: I’ve traced the etymology of the term, and embarassingly found using the word segway in the context above comes from the Trade Marked product name – Segway.
The internet is not making us dumb, I was dumb to start with. The internet can only help.
An even bigger, and more important update:
Thanks to Tim, I’ve learned the word in question is segue. Which is a real, non-trademarkable word.
The Internet may not change the fact we are dumb, but it does have the benefit of exchange with smarter people.
🙂
I have recently subscribed to Twitter – @rbrink77.
I believe I’ve embraced web 2.0 and social networking for a few years now, but Twitter has never appealed to me. But I should try before I refuse to buy.
I guess not having a Blackberry or sophisticated mobile phone puts me at a slight disadvantage. In fact, my mobile could not be less sophisticated. It has no Bluetooth, and I can’t even change the ring tone. Despite this it serves me extremely well, through surviving my 20 month old’s battering and attempts to eat it.
I have noticed some Twitter feeds use Captcha to ensure the subscription is coming from a human. One of the tweets I subscribed to took this to an interesting level, with its Captcha. I’ve uploaded the screen shot below. If you can’t make out the images, the two words are “bootee secretary”.
