opinios

Nerds Who Can Draw

I said I would be quiet, but I just got back from a Web Standards Group Melbourne meeting, and have a whole stack of cool URLs to look up and faces to put to them, so thought I would share the linkage love.

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I came away very impressed. Cameron Adams, aka The Man In Blue, spoke very eloquently while giving us all a sneak preview of his redesigned portfolio which looks waaay cool and really breaks the two-column mould for sites designed in XHTML/CSS.

Also met a bunch of other cool people - designers, coders, even a real member of WaSP!

Geeky? Yes. Inspiring? Absolutely. Fun? You bet.

Now back to work.

Busy Busy Busy

Yes, posts have been a bit infrequent the past few weeks. I do have an excuse - I am redesigning a web site for a small wine delivery company. After I had won the guy's confidence and he asked me to submit a quote for the job, I had to frantically go away and research the best package to use and become an expert in it over the course of a weekend. And write up contracts, proposed deadlines, design a logo for my as-of-yet-nonexistent company....

Anyway I found the package. And I don't know if I could be classed as an expert yet, but I am hacking the bejeezus out of it to add the functionality that he needs. And even though it's looking like a can of worms and that the minimal amount I told him it would cost (and he signed off on) and the time frame I gave him are looking scarily unrealistic, I am powering away at it, pulling late night after late night to have the best shot I can at pulling it off.

It just might happen yet.

But in the mean time this blog might get a bit neglected. Don't worry, it won't be for more than a few weeks. And when I come back to it I will have plenty to say.

I promise.

Google Is My Memory Bank

With the development of my company's web page in Japan, and my other little recent web projects of late, I have had to get back into the programming a bit lately (there is some freelance web design work coming up that I might even get paid ok for!) And re-entering the geek world I have come to realize a few things about the process I go through when I work:

I am incredibly reliant on Google.

Having a full time connection to the internet is something that I took for granted in Tokyo (I am still struggling with dialup speeds until we get our ADSL connected to our new apartment). Now I am really missing it - the ability to look up anything at anytime makes programming for the web a breeze. It really is like you have a wealth of experts in the room with you! Any time I get stumped, an intelligent choice of search keywords in everybody's favourite search engine is guaranteed to find the answer. Somewhere, some time, some body has encountered the same problem, asked about it on a discussion forum, and had it answered. Or written about it on their personal site.

How the hell did IT professionals get any work done before the internet? Companies used to worry that providing an internet connection for their employees would serve as a distraction - and I acknowledge that in some instances perhaps it can.

But there's no denying it can make one more efficient as well. With Google I can accomplish things in technologies that I have never put my hands on, just because I have the resources at my fingertips for finding out how to do it.

Basically I feel a helluva lot smarter knowing that I have Google to back me up when my memory or inexperience isn't up to the challenge...

Service With A Frown

In a continuing theme, one thing that has been very obvious to me about being back in Melbourne is the different levels of service in shops, compared to Tokyo.

In Japan the service is basically the same everywhere. Whether you are in a pub, a department store, a curry takeaway restaurant or a convenience store, sales attendants greet you with that well-worn phrase, irrashaimase. Sure, it might not be from the heart every time, but it's still there. And more often than not it is bellowed out with an unnatural level of enthusiasm that still warms the cockles of your heart, even if you know it is a bit forced.

It is rare to get rude service in Japan. We did get it once, at a pub, from a waitress who was somewhat distracted. Once. In two and a half years.

In Melbourne it is really hit and miss. The day before yesterday was a bad day. The apathetic, pimply 15-year-old boy at the checkout in K-Mart barely said a word while he scanned my items. The girl who I stopped and asked where I could find a toilet paper roll holder replied with a pathetic "Err, sorry, I have noooo idea, I just started... hee hee... sorry" and dashed off before I got the chance to demand that she find someone who could help me.

Don't even let me get started again on Bunnings.

And then there was yesterday, which floored me with the entirely opposite experience.

I had been searching all last week for a wire bracket to put on our gas stove top that would make using our coffee perculator less of a precarious balancing act. Apparently they are hard to come by. Bunnings sent me to Ray's Tent City, who sent me to Harvey Norman, who suggested I try some place that I gave up trying to find after 10 minutes of driving around lost.

And then by pure chance I wandered into an appliance store appropriately entitled "The Good Guys". The bloke there was friendly, helpful, and when I explained what I was after he reached to the nearest display stove, took off the small bracket and handed it to me. For free.

At which point I told him what a champion he was and went off to the food court to buy some ground coffee to celebrate. When I got there the lovely girl who served me informed me that the Irish Cream beans I had requested were her last batch and that consequently I could have them for free.

And at this stage I had a grin from ear to ear and felt entirely good about Melbourne's level of service once again.

That is, at least, until the next time I get Bunnings'd.

I've Been Bunnings'd!

Whatever happened to Bunning's Warehouse?

You know, that one stop shop for all your handyman needs. The ubiquitous store that once used an annoyingly familiar smiling old granny to con you in to coming on down and having a crack at doing some house extensions, painting the back room, building an outdoor patio or experimenting with a touch of landscaping in the backyard.

I used to love the place! I would visit Bunning's to buy a replacement bolt for my towel rack, and come home with an outdoor umbrella, a new garden hose, a DIY storage rack for the pantry, three planks of wood, a bunch of nails and grand dreams for building an artist's easel.

And I would also come home with good advice on how to go about it.

In the good old days, the average Bunning's staff member was like your very own uncle MacGyver. Friendly, helpful, and the jack of all trades around the home. Handy with electrical wiring, a genius plumber, master cabinetmaker and a whizz on the metal lathe. You could describe to them a seemingly insurmountable home dilemna, and in return they would give you an expert analysis followed by a detailed step-by-step approach to take home and use with confidence. After visiting Bunning's you would return home and nail it.

Literally.

These days Bunnings seem to be recruiting their floor staff from McDonald's. My mate Chris coined the term "to be Bunnings'd". It is an abbreviation for "to assume that a Bunning's employee might have some element of handyman knowledge, trust their advice, and later discover that the dimwit had no idea what the hell they were talking about".

Once upon a time, a question like "Do you have any kind of toilet roll holders that use a suction cap or adhesive rather than screw into the wall?" at Bunning's would be answered with a detailed breakdown of the various models available, advantages and disadvantages across the price spectrum, a description of how the product is installed and a few handy tips to keep in mind when going about the task. They even might try to sell you a tool that would assist the installation of the product that you probably didn't need, but you felt so good about the attention to detail you were getting that you didn't care and bought it anyway.

Yesterday, the response to this question was: "Dunno, mate. Whatever's on the shelf. I'm working in tiles today."

And then the vacant pimply young upstart continued chatting to his mate about their plans for the evening. I mean, the young people of today, what is the world coming to??

Goodness me, am I getting old?

Culture Shock

My first week back in Melbourne still required a bit of cultural adjustment. We had been in Cairns for about three weeks, but Cairns sure ain't as big a place as Melbourne.

Kim went off to the Sarah McLauchlan concert so I caught up with some friends at a bar in the city. And immediately upon entering I was reminded of how much I missed quiet Japanese izakayas.

It's not like I had a bad time. But why do bars in Australia have to play such loud, thumping music? Yes, this sounds like a pathetic whinge but I just don't get it. I was having to shout to my friends to carry on a discussion with them. I think I lost about 5 kilos from the workout my throat muscles got. These after-work social hubs are all so crowded and smokey and sleazy, I don't understand why the atmosphere is replicated everywhere you go. I must confess I found it a bit intimidating - I thought adjusting to Japan when I first got there was tough.

But at least there was one moment when I felt like I was back home.

My fish-out-of-water anxiety was lifted when, in a city of 3 million, from across the room someone actually recognized me and yelled out "Hey Matty!"

Of course, it would have helped if I had remembered the bloke's name. But still, it was nice to be remembered after being out of town for so long. Nigel G, if you are reading this: thanks for lifting my ego by saying g'day. You haven't changed a bit (except that the last time I saw you, the bar was much sleazier).

And if you hadn't reminded me of your name I would have remembered it eventually. Honest!

The Quickest Rejection Letter Ever

It took me about an hour and a half to apply for a job today. I finely tuned my resume to suit the specific job description, I deliberated for half an hour on the precise wording of my cover letter, I filled out the stoopid application form and really made a go of it. I clicked the "Submit" button at 4:02pm today.

And immediately received the following in my inbox:

To: Matthew Magain
Cc:
Subject: Your Job Application
Sent: Fri 11/06/2004 4:02PM

We have received your job application for Web Designer and thank you for your interest in this opportunity.

(Company Name Removed)

Man, replying within the same minute. That is QUICK! That's the way to do it, I say. Don't string me along for days, or ever. Just shoot me down in flames on the spot so I can pick myself up, dust the soot off and move on.

Still, I did spend sooooo long on that cover letter. I wish that the computer that filtered my application to the "Rejected" pile with lightning-quick decision could have dictated it to its boss just once...

Gimmee A Job!

It has been about 3 years since I last had to apply for a job.

Back then, I had another job at the time and was only looking half-heartedly. Kim and I had decided we would move to Japan, and I was casually trawling the web late one night at work when I read some thread on the STA Travel forum about a company called Interac. From the moment I emailed them, to them calling me, Kim and I attending an interview and hearing confirmation that we had got the job, all took less than a week. It was painless.

Unlike this time around.

Of course there are advantages to being unemployed - you can spend time making your resume look pretty (hint: forward that link to anyone you think might want to give me a job!), look for apartments, move into apartments (signed the lease and got the keys today, yay!) and begin looking to buy a car. I can't imagine doing all that stuff with full time commitments. But that stuff is nearly over.

So somebody, help me out here! Yes, I could branch out on my own and do some freelance projects. But that would mean learning about tax and BAS statements and while it is an option maybe further down the track, right now I am looking for a bit of stability. We are looking to buy a house and a guaranteed regular income sure makes getting a loan a helluva lot easier.

So as I was saying, if you know of anyone who has work in the Melbourne area for an aspiring web designer/developer, point them to my resume and if anything comes of it I'll buy you a beer.

No really, I will. And none of that crap Victoria Bitter stuff, I'll even make it of the posh tasty Belgian variety. Whatever you like.