Fee. Fi. Fo. Fum.

David got it in my head that it looked like the woman in the picture was a giant peering out at the man on the cherry picker. The college was installing three large banners at the college as a teaser campaign for the new branding work that is being completed. The college is one of the organisations on the Innovation By Design programme; the programme I helped create and manage at the Centre. It was nice to catch the unveiling in action. I'd love to know the student's reaction to seeing this hanging in the main lobby when she came to class.

Another "brick" in the wall

So my goal was to learn to build a dry stone wall this year from the remains of the demolished cow shed on our property, and amazingly, this is what it looks like after four days of labour. The steps took about three of the four days, but what a pleasant view out the back of the kitchen window. I'd say we're only about 25% of the way along the back garden, but things should move more swiftly from here. I may even be able to stand upright in a few weeks.

I've attached a before photo which shows how silly I look in my hat. The weather here has been gorgeous ...

Cut Off

For the two of you that read the blog regularly, the communication gods have conspired to cut me off from both satellite and dial-up access. This, coupled with a spate of gorgeous weather and gardening necessity has made it nearly impossible, or highly undesirable to make posts.

Watch this space for pics of the emerging dry stone wall; furniture being moved into the studio; and an upcoming plague of frogs.

Everyone is a winner

Sligo captured the Connacht Cup with a 7-7 draw in Galway on Saturday. Even though we were willing to play into "sudden death" or a rematch, our opponents ended the day with a shared cup victory. We were pressuring late into the game and just couldn't punch the ball across for the decider.

Gabe's first year of rugby was memorable and considering the U-14s won the cup as well, the future looks bright for the Sligo side for years to come. Up Sligo!

Viral marketing

I had no idea tonsillitis was contagious, or that there were even multiple types. I had viral tonsillitis, which is the first time I ever experienced the "joy" of not being able to swallow or speak easily. My tonsils were swollen but looked nothing like some of these beauties.

You really should try to keep all your body parts and your tonsils form part of your immune system. The only reason to consider having them removed is if the condition becomes chronic. I was back in shape after two days of a strict regimen of gargling with warm salt water and taking a witch's brew of apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper and salt.

Clever Boy

So I was having this geek moment last night; editing my DNS through my iPod Touch. Well, Safari kept crashing at very inopportune times. I was going to leave a message on the blog saying "If you can't access the site, please let me know." Now that would have been real clever.

Reminds me of a great quote I found last week.

Just because no one complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect. - Benny Hill

Help. I need a blog post.

So, for the first time I am making a double post between the Design Innovation blog and Verticalbones. My assumption is that few of you actually use the sidebar links ->, so if I truly find some interesting things around design, I should probably post them here as well. It takes time to maintain three blogs so I believe I've earned the right to pilfer some thinking and finds.

Tell me if I am completely off-base or not. Also, I can probably say some things here that I can't or wouldn't on the work blog.


I was completely taken by the whole "packaging" of the Help Remedies brand. Smart. Irreverent. Sustainable. They even offer help for those of you who are just bored or horny. Love the t-shirts.

Ambient Intelligence Chapter

I suppose I'm a geek at heart, or at the very least, I acknowledge my inner geek. I was programming BASIC on my Atari home computer shortly after I owned my first bike. I have suffered gadget envy. I lived with MIT students when going to school at BU in Boston. I would have quit my job at Crayola if the MIT Media Lab had an available spot during our visits there.

So perhaps it makes sense that I did draft a chapter for an upcoming book on Ambient Intelligence. My chapter will stick out like a sore thumb among the other chapters drafted by research scientists at innovation centres throughout Ireland. Keep in mind, this is an academic publisher, and my approach was much more paper than essay. If any of this sounds interesting to you, have a read, and let me know what you think.

User-centred Design and Development of Future Smart Systems: Opportunities and Challenges (PDF, 218KB)

Push!

Sligo U13 rugby club pushed their way into the Connacht Cup final next week in Galway following a convincing 27-12 victory over the Athlone Buccaneers. The score was 15-0 at the half and 27-0 with not much time remaining when the substitutes gave up two quick scores.

Gabe had two assists and is pictured in the centre of the maul as the pack lumbered close to a score. The Sligo side was mighty and rose to the defensive occasion when they needed it. Our side looks to avenge a close, but high-scoring loss next week against Galwegians.

AOL now on gMail

I have been working on a service design workshop and have been looking for an exercise that a call centre might use for training. A real moment of truth in any service is when it goes wrong and you look for support. So I figured, why not find out who has one of the best call centres and ask them for an exercise. The AOL Broadband contact centre in Ireland won Best Overall Contact Centre in 2007, along with Best Manager, Best Centre and a slew of other awards. When I went to their contact page, I HAD to chuckle to find their HR team is using a gMail account for email. Priceless.