Fascinating Decay
My daughters were in our back garden over the weekend and returned indoors with the skeletons of tomatillos. I have been wanting to play with the Leica’s macro capabilities so this seemed like a great subject.
I could have shot photos of this all night, but here are nine that I feel turned out s’alright.
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Twitter Updates for 2008-03-30
- It’s satisfying to get some tunes blowing through the speakers and cleaning house on a sunny day. Bring spring. #
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A past post, still valid
NOTE: I originally wrote the following post on September 14, 2006 on a different blog. That blog is withering on the vine, but I still think this post is worth bringing back form the dead:
Hey all, I don’t believe in coincidences and there’s been a lot of converging in my life the past week. I keep hearing and reading stories of people and companies with which I’m familiar and their boiled down mantra is what I already know: Do what you love. Love what you do.
First, I returned to my alma mater over the weekend and presented to the design students. I recapped my life after ND and ended on some of my recent projects. On more than one occasion, I had an out-of-body experience looking back at me and thinking, “Is that all you got?” I wish I could have shown side projects like painting or photography or experiments or something that felt more like me and not an assignment as part of my job.
Empty. Not from a home life standpoint but “professionally” I guess.
On Sunday, I stopped by the old ‘hood in Chicago and ran into some neighbors who passed along an article on the guys who started Threadless. They’ve made a side project into their ONLY project. Well done, gents. I remember when you used to program PHP for my now defunct business.
Flew home that night and caught an interview with Ze Frank on the NPR show On The Media where he has taken a site that experiments with community and has been able to build a living around that (I think!).
Then I get back to the office and come across a fantastic speech by Milton Glaser talking about defining himself as a Designer/Citizen. It’s brilliant. Read it.
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Thoughts for Gary Vaynerchuk
I was inspired to actually lay’em on the table, so to speak and record my first-ever video response. Usually, I observe and occasionally comment on stories I find worthwhile. This time, Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest video stuck in my head somewhere between acceptance and rejection.
I’ve been riding this Utopian wave ever since SXSW and I really don’t know where it’s going to lead. I even sorted out setting up this blog as a means to babble. So far, it’s been a blast and I have to give props to Gary Vaynerchuk for being partly responsible. Dude, your passion and style are inspiring. Keep it up.
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HP.com problems are no mystery.
PC Magazine columnist, John C. Dvorak writes about a pretty miserable experience trying to fix his wife’s HP printer. First, the printer never displays the correct warning for low color ink cartridge. Then, when he tries to search online for updated print drivers,
I typed “2210″ (the model number of our printer) into the Search box. I was told that HP has used 2210 in the names of numerous lines of notebooks, a line of desktop machines, a pocket PC, and even a digital projector. And, yes, some printers.
How can you manage a beast the size of HP when its problems are as basic as redundant model numbering? I have a similar situation with my all-in-one at home. I’ve had it for over 6 years now so, yes, it’s out of date, but finding drivers on hp.com is an exercise in frustration and futility. Add to that the fact I’m on a Mac and the lack of support grows.
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Brian, my bagman
L1010711Originally uploaded by let5ch
So, what can I say? This was quite the customer experience. If you MOO cards to hand out in addition to my business cards. I wanted to have something with a bit of my social networking contacts to go beyond my mobile and my email.
Anyway, as I sat in my first session on Saturday morning, my phone vibrated (did I say I wanted different points of contact yet?) with a call from Brian Murphy, VP of operations at MOO. I met him after my session as well as MOO’s founder, Richard Moross and MOO’s VP of Sales and Mktg, Lisa Rodwell; extremely great people all around. We traded MOO cards, chatted a bit and then went on our ways only to meet up again at the People Powered Party of which MOO was a co-sponsor. At the party, I got a nifty MOO card holder as did Karen and Pete.
Talking with Brian at the party, we got into customer experience and he referenced Seth Godin quite a bit and how it’s helped shape their company philosophy. A key directive is to always make the customer feel smarter than they are. Not that the customer is dumb, but there’s a boost of empowerment you feel when using the MOO site.
All in all, a customer experience worth talking about. I think they’ve earned a customer for life.
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A word about MOO and customer service
Yeah, yeah, the customer is always right. The customer is king. But who really goes to lengths to walk that talk? Well, so far, MOO, that’s who.
I ordered a set of MOO cards to take with me down to the SXSWi festival. I’m thinking of them as my secondary “social” card to accompany the Hamilton Partners business card. It’s going to include my Pownce account, Twitter account as well as 2 IM accounts.
The order was placed on the 23rd of February and according to an email I received, it “dispatched” on the 26th. When I never received an email with a DHL tracking code, I contacted MOO to ask about my cards. After the requisite auto-email back to me, the next day I get a personal email from a customer service rep. He explained that unfortunately the cards were sent standard shipping but I could get another set expressed to me at no charge.
All well and good but the problem was I’d be in Austin by the time of arrival. No worries, they could instead send them to my hotel. BUT even better, MOO’s Operations Manager just so happens to be attending SXSW so I’ll be getting my cards personally delivered. Now that’s service. Assuming the quality is up to snuff, MOO has a lifelong advocate.
I’ll try to save some cards to show’em off when I return.
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