Oh, to be photogenic

Posted 22 May 2009

Daily Life, People, The Little Things | 4 Comments 

I am not a photogenic person. A quick review of our editors page makes that abundantly clear. And when the political flyer from the Tories came through the mail slot this week, it was clear to me that being photogenic has its benefits.

Just look at David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party … clearly the sharpest looking person in the bunch. I guess good looks and a comfort in front of the camera is a helpful career trait.

(As this is not a political blog, we won’t even get into a discussion of whether the Tory candidates are the best option in the upcoming elections.)

Time to Consider

Posted 21 May 2009

Language, Signs | 2 Comments 

Two weeks ago, I spent the day running between meetings in London. When I popped onto the platform at one station (was it Notting Hill Gate?), I was confronted by a very large tank gun pointed at me.

Whoa! I stopped in my tracks. ‘Deterrent or Provocation?’ The poster is about 8 feet tall and more than twice as wide. It was such a powerful photo that I spent the rest of my journey thinking about it. Hmmm … deterrent or provocation?

Then, as I headed home, I was confronted by another poster from the same campaign.

‘Birthright or Brutality?’ A less stunning visual impact, but still noteworthy.

Although it isn’t legible in the photos above, the web address connected with the poster campaign is http://timetoconsider.co.uk/.

After a bit of research, I stumbled across the a blog post that sheds more light on the posters. I was disappointed to read that it was just an advertising campaign. I think I was hoping for something more profound.

What does data integrity mean?

Posted 20 May 2009

Daily Life, Guest Post, People, The Little Things | 4 Comments 

As we all know, major corporation store huge amounts of data which they use for business. This data includes, among many other things, names and addresses of customers and potential customers. Sometimes though, these corporations come up with crazy names, approximations, and combinations of names based on the originals. I wonder who’s responsible for that?  Are there companies out there who make up names and then sell the lists to the corporations?  Do the corporations just inflate the databases by adding these mixed up names?

One Chicago reader named Lauren Blameless (last name has been modified for privacy purposes) recently received a letter addressed to “Lauri B Mann”.

Now, Lauren does live with her boyfriend, and his last name is Mann, but how did the corporation come up with this fictional character “Lauri B Mann”?  Clearly it is an approximate combination of her name and her boyfriend’s name, but who is out there deriving these strange name combos?

Thanks to a reader from Chicago for submitting the inspiration for this post.

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Posted 19 May 2009

Commuting, Signs | 4 Comments 

The bumper sticker reads “Don’t move firewood, it BUGS me!”

What?!

Not having a clue what this meant, I put Google to the test.  Turns out that this bumper sticker is reminding me not to move firewood to other parts of the State because I could be transporting Emerald Ash Borer bugs and therefore spreading the tree disease.

Does this mean I should be cutting down the trees around my house in order to have firewood? And how far away is considered ‘another part’ of the State?  What if the wood I’m moving isn’t for firewood?  Then is it ok?  How does the Emerald Ash Borer know what is and is not firewood?

Bumper sticker fail.

CMD in Thailand!

Posted 18 May 2009

Clothing, Places | 1 Comment 

Chickenmonkeydog’s man in the field visits the Democracy Monument in Bangkok while sporting one of our own t-shirts!

Dear Readers, if you are in South East Asia and want to catch up with the chickenmonkeydog creative editor, please drop us a note! 

You can follow Conall’s adventure in more detail at www.conalldempsey.com.