Things that make it past the thought police
Blackfriars Bridge
Originally uploaded by Jed.Baxter
A shot from the bar early on in the London Bloggers Summer Social event. Later in the event I won a seat on the Stella Artois airship for a ride over over London! Cool! Expect more photos after the ride.
Thanks to Guy Kawasaki.
“This is a cool idea. I would buy one in a second. No picture. You have to trust me and click here
.”
If the council would stop spraying weedkiller 
Just found a fabulous collection of photos by the Warrington Cycle Campaign.
http://www.warringtoncyclecampaign.co.uk/facility-of-the-month
Here is June 2008
2008-04-28 Watch out there’s Rain about
Originally uploaded by Jed.Baxter
It was one of those days when you set off on a cycle home from the office in sunshine – and then catch up with the rain that had just passed over! I didn’t mind – it was kind of nice getting wet.
I like it when I see a simple shop sign that makes you pause and then reread.
They tell it like it is and then leave the rest to your imagination. We know it’s going to make your eye’s water a little – let’s not pretend.
Good marketing hook.
The box promised “Dark chocolate, orange and almond torte”
We took it out of the box and it didn’t look like the picture on the cover. The nuts were barely toasted. That the first impression did not match the expectation that the marketing image set puts your mind in the wrong place before you even take a bite.
The taste was ‘OK’. But if it had looked like the cover would I have said ‘Great’? I’ll never know now.
Small things trip us up.
Maybe my mother was right – first impressions do matter.
Spent a few days in Dublin and saw 2 plays and a stand-up comedy night.
The most notable was a lunchtime show “The Art of Swimming” at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre by Lynda Radley – an excellent play based on the life of long-distance swimmer Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the Channel. A one woman show (plus a marvellous musical soundscape from Michael John McCarthy). Simply entrancing. Watch out for it. It won a 2007 Dublin Fringe award. As we were leaving the theatre, in the tiny lift, two older women also got in. And one said that Mercedes was her Aunt! We didn’t get a chance to talk much – but she was very approving of the show. It really was mesmerising – probably the best show we ever saw there.
A year has gone by. When it started, I made a vow to try and record 2007 by posting a photo every day to Flickr. Now, 395 photos later (I missed a day or two and then posted more than one on some days) I can look back and see what has the experience been like.
Well, it has been a challenge. But also a delight. Eye-opening. And definitely a learning experience.
A challenge to remember to keep a camera in my pocket and to keep up the daily routine. In fact my first camera got worn out.
A delight in finding photos that came out better than I expected. and then in finding strangers and friends commenting on them (thanks especially to top commenter starstruck232 for being so encouraging).
Eye-opening in the way that I learnt to start looking at the world in a new way. Often the shot I chose was not what I saw in front of me but what was behind me. You learn to look back a lot more. And down. And up.
So what have I learnt?
To take a moment to enjoy the world. Nearly all the shots are made inside 60 seconds, maybe 3 minutes if I was cycling at the time; and I often was on my daily commute; that’s not a lot of time out of the day – but many of those moments (like this , this and this) are still so vivid in my memory. and would be even if I had not taken a photo, because I saw something, stopped and snapped.
And what of next year?
I will still bring my new camera with me, often…maybe not every day. But I still want to stop, look, listen and absorb my environment every day.
Stay tuned for 2008’s challenge.
PS. This was the most viewed image!
Some resonant words from Seth Godin
Expectations: Word of mouth comes directly from expectations. Low expectations are a terrific shortcut, because when you exceed them, people are so amazed that they can’t help but talk about it.
But low expectations are dangerous, because if you fly too low, you’re invisible. Worse, when people expect little of you, they often don’t bother listening at all.
So most of the time, you’re challenged with this: high expectations that must be beat.
Broadway shows. Apple products. Expensive consulting services. Promise big and deliver bigger seems to be the only reliable strategy.
It’s time for a holiday from Networks and PCs for a week or two!
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