Hello again.
Work on my updated web site is now ploughing onwards. Poor Norm Douglas, the computer guru who is doing all the customizing of the Joomla! template and VirtueMart shopping basket has been putting in some long hours. But then so have I.
Right now we're getting the products sorted out. This will be the bread-and-butter of the site, which, after all, is meant to earn me some money. There will be 5 broad product categories: DVDs, Books, CD Soundtracks; CD Roms; Artwork. Then there'll be two sub categories for DVDs - NTSC and PAL; and three sub cats for Artwork - Japanese art, Western art and Cartoons.
A large part of the recent work has been customizing the database for the new-look site. This has been tedious, since the existing site runs on several databases, and the new one will just have one for the products. Given that there are different field names for the different products, poor Norm has had to use a lot of query statements to get the right fields to display in the appropriate categories.
The good news is that we are now getting close, with mainly some styling and reformatting yet to be done. The old database had over 8,000 products, many of which were redundant (anyone interested in buying VHS anime anymore? I kinda doubt it!); the new one has about half that many, but they are all current and have relevant info.
All the images have been uploaded, which makes a huge difference. I will be very interested to get your feedback once the site is open for testing - you will be informed! I will also have a secure online payment system this time, something which is common on other sites, but which I've never had before. This will present some challenges to me, but I suspect that once the site settles down, it should work very nicely.
There are still a lot of things to be set up: I have written quite a few articles which are yet to be included; there will be links to anime clubs; histories of anime and films in general; cartooning organizations; and what I hope to call "Mike's Shed", a place where I will put in links to things which I like but which have nothing at all to do with anime or cartooning. I do want to have some fun with this site, after all. Then there's the forum to set up, and a mailing list. I want to produce a regular online letter, which will be sent out to registered users; I plan to do regular podcasts; I've done a practice video (which I will redo) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9OXwPTFW4 - I'll put a link to the final version on the front page of the site. Hopefully it doesn't prove to be too scary for new visitors.
All this activity has certainly kept me glued to my computer seat over the past few weeks. I'm beginning to think about what I will occupy myself with once this project has been completed and the new site is up and running. Of course, work on the site will never end, but it won't involve hours of work every day. I might have to go back to looking for gainful full-time employment again - urgh.
I saw a hilarious spoof on The Onion about outsourcing your own work - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYaZ57Bn4pQ - if this doesn't make you howl with laughter, I'd check for a pulse. What is almost as funny is some of the posts from viewers, thinking that this may not be a bad idea. One of the joys of watching the wonderful Onion clips is reading the comments. Quite a few people seem to take them seriously, which is a tribute to the skills of the film makers, and a rather sad commentary on the mental age of some YouTube viewers (who can't all be 10 years old).
I'm feeling more positive lately, about myself and what I'm doing with my time. This is a good thing. I have to keep myself motivated and engaged. A good laugh every now and again is also very good medicine for me.
Stay well until next time.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
The parable of the rubber ducky
Back at my part-time job today - sunny, windy and quiet - so what better to do than to update my blog!
It's been a while since I spoke about my revamped web site. Norm Douglas from Netreach in Victoria has been working away at it. I've spent about 100 hours in the past 2 weeks updating the products database for the site. Sheesh - I never want to do that again. This is a list of all the products which were currently entered, a list which came to over 8,000 products. I managed to get a copy from the company which currently hosts my site, and Norm then converted it into an Excel spreadsheet and sent it to me. It's the first time in the 12+ year history of my site that I'd seen it all on one spreadsheet.
So, I had a lot of work to do! Deleting about 2,500 videos was dead easy, but then came all the finicky work: adding an image here, a review there, the correct volume number etc etc etc. Seeing it all at once for the first time helped me realize how much of it was either out of date, or just missing. As an example, I've added about 2,000 images to the site. Now the database lists about 4,000 products, almost all of which have all the available info connected to them (correct title, format, volume and episode numbers, running times, image, languages etc). The payoff should be that it will be a pretty complete listing of anime in Australia, plus quite a bit from the US. The serious work is now being done by Norm, and I expect that in a few weeks I'll have something to show you people.
I'll get in touch with some of my old anime clients, explain what I'm doing, and ask them to test the site - give it a thrashing, and let me know what doesn't seem to work properly or make sense. Some of my followers will be invited ^_^ And, by the way, a very big hello to my 4th follower, whoever you may be!
Now, to the story of the duck...
You see some strange things by looking outside the office window, and one of the stranger things I see is a very cute-looking rubber duck, floating in a basin of water. I'm a big fan of rubber ducks, so it's nice to see one anywhere. What makes this one interesting is that the basin is positioned on the nature strip, where anyone walking past could reach down and grab it. But, in the 8 months or so that the ducky has been there, no-one has.
OK, so this is an industrial area where you don't get much foot traffic, but even so, it is amazing that not even one bastard has stolen it in all that time. Most of the regular clients who come into this place know about it, as do others who work in this area, yet there is something about a cute rubber duck which seems to bring out the nice part of people's nature. There are joggers going past, people walking their dogs, yet the duck lives.
Thinking of ducks reminds me of possibly my all-time favourite Tshirt: one from the Australian cartoonist, Michael Leunig. It was his trademark duck, with the words "innocent bystander" arranged around the image. I wore that shirt for a lot of years before it fell to pieces. Maybe I just have a weird thing for ducks? It's possible...
I'm struggling to think of anything else of value (OK, so the duck isn't worth much, but it has an intrinsic value) which could last for that long in a public area without being stolen or vandalized. Is there a message here, or do I just have a weird thing for ducks...
Is it possible that items which are cute and defenseless are somehow immune from the usual fate of found objects? I would suggest that a psychology graduate look into this as an interesting topic for a thesis.
As for me, it makes me smile everytime I look in that direction, and that's a very nice thing indeed. May the duck float for a thousand years and help everyone who sees it feel a bit better.
Stay well until next time.
It's been a while since I spoke about my revamped web site. Norm Douglas from Netreach in Victoria has been working away at it. I've spent about 100 hours in the past 2 weeks updating the products database for the site. Sheesh - I never want to do that again. This is a list of all the products which were currently entered, a list which came to over 8,000 products. I managed to get a copy from the company which currently hosts my site, and Norm then converted it into an Excel spreadsheet and sent it to me. It's the first time in the 12+ year history of my site that I'd seen it all on one spreadsheet.
So, I had a lot of work to do! Deleting about 2,500 videos was dead easy, but then came all the finicky work: adding an image here, a review there, the correct volume number etc etc etc. Seeing it all at once for the first time helped me realize how much of it was either out of date, or just missing. As an example, I've added about 2,000 images to the site. Now the database lists about 4,000 products, almost all of which have all the available info connected to them (correct title, format, volume and episode numbers, running times, image, languages etc). The payoff should be that it will be a pretty complete listing of anime in Australia, plus quite a bit from the US. The serious work is now being done by Norm, and I expect that in a few weeks I'll have something to show you people.
I'll get in touch with some of my old anime clients, explain what I'm doing, and ask them to test the site - give it a thrashing, and let me know what doesn't seem to work properly or make sense. Some of my followers will be invited ^_^ And, by the way, a very big hello to my 4th follower, whoever you may be!
Now, to the story of the duck...
You see some strange things by looking outside the office window, and one of the stranger things I see is a very cute-looking rubber duck, floating in a basin of water. I'm a big fan of rubber ducks, so it's nice to see one anywhere. What makes this one interesting is that the basin is positioned on the nature strip, where anyone walking past could reach down and grab it. But, in the 8 months or so that the ducky has been there, no-one has.
OK, so this is an industrial area where you don't get much foot traffic, but even so, it is amazing that not even one bastard has stolen it in all that time. Most of the regular clients who come into this place know about it, as do others who work in this area, yet there is something about a cute rubber duck which seems to bring out the nice part of people's nature. There are joggers going past, people walking their dogs, yet the duck lives.
Thinking of ducks reminds me of possibly my all-time favourite Tshirt: one from the Australian cartoonist, Michael Leunig. It was his trademark duck, with the words "innocent bystander" arranged around the image. I wore that shirt for a lot of years before it fell to pieces. Maybe I just have a weird thing for ducks? It's possible...
I'm struggling to think of anything else of value (OK, so the duck isn't worth much, but it has an intrinsic value) which could last for that long in a public area without being stolen or vandalized. Is there a message here, or do I just have a weird thing for ducks...
Is it possible that items which are cute and defenseless are somehow immune from the usual fate of found objects? I would suggest that a psychology graduate look into this as an interesting topic for a thesis.
As for me, it makes me smile everytime I look in that direction, and that's a very nice thing indeed. May the duck float for a thousand years and help everyone who sees it feel a bit better.
Stay well until next time.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Random acts of kindness
A rather overcast day, chance of showers, occasional sunny patches - thus endeth the weather report.
I was talking to one of the regulars who stores at the place where I work. If you met him in the street, you'd possibly think he was a homeless person. He has long hair and a beard. The clothes were new once, but that was a few decades ago. He is intelligent, perceptive and articulate. Age? My guess is early 60s, could be more or less - it's hard to say.
This guy is here every day. His unit is packed from floor to ceiling with stuff, with just enough room left for him to get in and out. I have seen units like this before at some of the other storage facilities I've worked at. The clients are serious hoarders, nothing can be thrown away. It might be useful one day ...
The first thing that struck me about this guy was the twinkle in his eye. I am getting to hear more of his story each time we meet, which is a nice way to find out about someone: slowly, a bit at a time. I now know that he was a serious surfie in the 1970s, spending a lot of time around Noosa. All day at the beach, then doing some dumb job like cleaning dishes from 6pm to midnight, then back at the surf the following morning. He would have been in his 20s/early 30s back then.
He told me a story yesterday which helps illustrate the qualities of the man. One of the trucks this company I work for uses had broken down, and the driver, unable to fix the problem, rang this guy and asked him to help. I found that quite amazing, keeping in mind that this man does not work for this company and is a customer here. But, that's what the driver did, because he knew that this bloke can fix things and would probably be available. It was on a weekend.
So, the guy gets the details and drives off in his truck to help. The spare is hard to get off, the truck has been forced to stop in a bad location (on a busy street, on a corner, sloping ground, and the flat is on the driver's side, so they have to work close to the traffic). This guy gets some timber from the nearby bush, levels out the jack, sprays the nuts (which have become frozen) with lubricant, and manages to get the job done.
The good news is that the driver bought this bloke a case of beer and the company, when they found out about it, gave him a month's free rent. A nice outcome all round.
This guy has a lot of stories, and I've heard some similar ones about him helping out some Chinese restaurant people with floor tiling, not asking for any payment, but then getting free meals whenever he's in the neighbourhood. I love these stories.
Random acts of kindness, done when a need is seen and then met, is one of the great things that anyone of us can do. Helping out someone in need, with no other thought than it's the right thing to do, is a fabulous quality that we humans have. Perhaps these acts stand out more to me because we live in a society of rugged individualists who spend most of their time looking out for themselves. It is a lovely thing to see people stepping out of their own minds to help someone else.
We have all heard the stories of people drowning while others looked on. Would I jump in to save them? I suspect I would. I can think of two instances where I might have saved someone's life - both of them those split-second reflex actions which you either make immediately, or stand there and think about it (by which time the person is probably dead). These were reactions, requiring no thought on my part. I just did it.
Hamlet would have understood perfectly: sometimes you can think about things too much ^_^
Stay well until next time, when I'll probably give an update on the progress with my new web site.
Oh crap, I almost forgot: happy birthday to my elder son, Jake, who is now 15, just about as tall as me, much better looking, and despite his father, doing very nicely thank you. Nice one, big guy!
I was talking to one of the regulars who stores at the place where I work. If you met him in the street, you'd possibly think he was a homeless person. He has long hair and a beard. The clothes were new once, but that was a few decades ago. He is intelligent, perceptive and articulate. Age? My guess is early 60s, could be more or less - it's hard to say.
This guy is here every day. His unit is packed from floor to ceiling with stuff, with just enough room left for him to get in and out. I have seen units like this before at some of the other storage facilities I've worked at. The clients are serious hoarders, nothing can be thrown away. It might be useful one day ...
The first thing that struck me about this guy was the twinkle in his eye. I am getting to hear more of his story each time we meet, which is a nice way to find out about someone: slowly, a bit at a time. I now know that he was a serious surfie in the 1970s, spending a lot of time around Noosa. All day at the beach, then doing some dumb job like cleaning dishes from 6pm to midnight, then back at the surf the following morning. He would have been in his 20s/early 30s back then.
He told me a story yesterday which helps illustrate the qualities of the man. One of the trucks this company I work for uses had broken down, and the driver, unable to fix the problem, rang this guy and asked him to help. I found that quite amazing, keeping in mind that this man does not work for this company and is a customer here. But, that's what the driver did, because he knew that this bloke can fix things and would probably be available. It was on a weekend.
So, the guy gets the details and drives off in his truck to help. The spare is hard to get off, the truck has been forced to stop in a bad location (on a busy street, on a corner, sloping ground, and the flat is on the driver's side, so they have to work close to the traffic). This guy gets some timber from the nearby bush, levels out the jack, sprays the nuts (which have become frozen) with lubricant, and manages to get the job done.
The good news is that the driver bought this bloke a case of beer and the company, when they found out about it, gave him a month's free rent. A nice outcome all round.
This guy has a lot of stories, and I've heard some similar ones about him helping out some Chinese restaurant people with floor tiling, not asking for any payment, but then getting free meals whenever he's in the neighbourhood. I love these stories.
Random acts of kindness, done when a need is seen and then met, is one of the great things that anyone of us can do. Helping out someone in need, with no other thought than it's the right thing to do, is a fabulous quality that we humans have. Perhaps these acts stand out more to me because we live in a society of rugged individualists who spend most of their time looking out for themselves. It is a lovely thing to see people stepping out of their own minds to help someone else.
We have all heard the stories of people drowning while others looked on. Would I jump in to save them? I suspect I would. I can think of two instances where I might have saved someone's life - both of them those split-second reflex actions which you either make immediately, or stand there and think about it (by which time the person is probably dead). These were reactions, requiring no thought on my part. I just did it.
Hamlet would have understood perfectly: sometimes you can think about things too much ^_^
Stay well until next time, when I'll probably give an update on the progress with my new web site.
Oh crap, I almost forgot: happy birthday to my elder son, Jake, who is now 15, just about as tall as me, much better looking, and despite his father, doing very nicely thank you. Nice one, big guy!
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