Clarke Ching's Rocks and Snowballs

Spelling

So over the weekend I confessed my inability to spell "sandwich"
without the aid of a spellchecker.

Having confessed I now notice I'm spelling it correctly.

It was the same with it's and its.

Maybe there is hope. One word at a time.

Why can't I spell?

I've busy writing away all day.  I have 84K words in Beta at the moment and I guess that I've written 2 or 3 million words since I started writing RRD all those years ago.

My writing has improved enormously since then.  

But my spelling hasn't.

Apart from the words "its" and "it's" which, these days, I mostly get right.  And, I always google "complentary vs. complimentary" before I use either of them.

But in the last 5 minutes I've spelt "sandwich" with two "h"s and earphones as "airphones".  I only know they are wrong because microsoft word puts a red squiggle under them when they're wrong.

I can't spell.

Don't ever ask me my mother's maiden name.  It's either Johnson or Johnston.  I can't remember which.

I few months ago I corrected my daughter's spelling homework.  And got 3 of the questions wrong. 

Not sure if it matters.  

I wonder if there is something wrong with me.

lost respect

Aisling, our 8 year old, sitting at our laptop, just told me, "Dad, search google for 'Clarke Ching' and you'll come up with a picture of yourself."

Daughters respect for her Dad up!

I said, "I know."

She said, "Oh. Do you google yourself"

"I, um, yes."

"Oh."  Respect gone. 

Police Rescue Dolphin

 

From http://www.police.govt.nz/news/updates/27452.html:

SOUTHERN MOTORWAY

17:20 13-03-2011

POLICE SAVE DOLPHIN.

Motorways Support Police rescue Dolphin.

A family day out ends happily after a four year old child accidentally threw her favourite stuffed dolphin out the window whilst travelling on the southern motorway yesterday. Believing they could replace the toy, family members spent part of the day, visiting stores to find another dolphin, only to have the child reject these vehemently. As a last resort, the distressed mother contacted police to help save the dolphin and her sanity when the child was inconsolable following the mishap. The dolphin was last seen up against the central medium barrier on the southern motorway between Orams and Hill Road.

Enter a Motorways Support Police officer, who happily made it his duty to save the dolphin. Using his years of training, Officer Hodgetts was able to scoop up the dolphin without incident, and return it to a very grateful mother. Police have been informed that four year old and dolphin are happily sleeping, following an eventful adventure.

Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.

District: National Alerts

Description of Incident: 

POLICE SAVE DOLPHIN

Issued by: 

INSPECTOR RUTENE

 

dirty tricks

I used to work for a credit card company.  One day we did a really good deal for our customers: we have them a "payment holiday" after christmas where they didn't have to pay their minimum in January and we didn't charge them a fee.

I worked on the software development side and, until I heard why we were doing it, I thought we were offering our customers a good service with the intention of improving loyalty.

Turned out: it was a cleverly designed deal which tricked customers into going into debt on their card so that we could start charging them interest.  It was all above board when you read the fine print.  It relied on most people not reading the fine print.

Kinda sucks. Me thinks.

Forgive me for venting in public like this but I really hate MBNA / Bank of America credit cards, right now.  And I'm disappointed that I got a credit card from them purely because it was offered via  Amazon.co.uk.

Somehow, despite setting up an automatic payment when I joined, I managed to miss a payment and they charge me fees.  I can't see what I did wrong.  I assume they've deliberately obfuscated a process so that this would happen.  I might be wrong.  I'll never use them again though.  And I'm sad that I feel bitter towards Amazon too for not picking their partners with more care.

promoter score: zero.

 

 

Gladwell on good management and bad timing

For me, one of the most interesting Gladwell New Yorker articles: http://gladwell.com/2010/2010_11_01_a_overdrive.html

He asks the question: who really rescued GM?

Myths of Innovatoin ...

Lately I've been reading Scott Burkun's book, The Myths of Innovation.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449389627/ref=cm_cr_thx_view

I found it hard, when I first tried reading this book, to warm to it.  The essay style didn't work for me.  Perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind.  Perhaps the thought of reading a whole bunch of essays didn't appeal.  Who knows?

It bothered me because the book reviews are excellent and I really enjoy Scott's blog.

Then one day last week  I opened the book at RANDOM  - as much as your can in a Kindle - and started reading.  Suddenly, I was enjoying the book.  I've read quite a bit of the book this way now - flipping randomly about the place - and it's working for me.  The book is full of brilliant observations and advice. The old photographs are fascinating too - especially the wooden mouse.