February 2009 Archives

I loved the giant neon rabbit in Parliament Street. And I'm really sorry it's gone. It was part of the Liverpool Biennial contemporary arts festival, just like the sky spider that strung its web across Exchange Flags.
I'm sorry that's gone too. I loved the way it sparkled in the night sky,
I hope both return.
Is it a microcosm of a 2009 v 2008 problem I wonder? The Capital of Culture Festival has packed up and left town. Will this year be a massive anti-climax?

Some cakes turned up in the office today. Often firms will dump stuff here as they try to promote new product ranges. Subway once brought some free sandwiches and a reporter described it as 'the best day of his career'. Which was sad, really.
Anyway, back to the cakes. Chocolatey they are, called 'Gu'. When they arrived, big boxes of them, staff descended like locusts.
It was like watching one of those aid trucks arriving in some beleaguered, famine-ridden war-ton African state.
They went in seconds.
The other day durex left a load of extra-large condoms. Which didn't go. At all.

So here we are. Day three in the new Liverpool multimedia hub. What's it all about? Well, it's very lilac. And we have some big tellies. (Found to our dismay that the Sky 2 bikini aerobics aren't available on our package).
All the MMJs (multimedia journalists) have swish new smarphones which can capture video, audio, still images (and possibly make calls).
All the MMJs and MMDs (multimedia desk editors) are now working into templates, thus writing straight onto pages and streamlining massively our production processes.
So it's cheaper? Yup. But if we aren't cheaper in this perfect stom that the industry is caught up in, then we're dead. For certain.
So it's about the website as well as the paper. Definitely. We have to offer more stuff and faster reaction to the online audience. Or once again we're dead.
So not much at stake then?
Just a bit. We are revolutionising the editorial process and with that comes the risk of missing deadlines, missing errors due to fewer checking procedures and both these 'missings' will be closely be followed by missing readers if we foul up.
See the picture of me at the top of the page?
You wouldn't think I was only 23, would you?
Now you're beginning to get it.

I haven't blogged for a while for various reasons. But for those of you who followed me a bit in the past then my wife's still battling MS. She isn't getting any better but we think we may be slowing the rate of decline. Judging by the tongue-lashing I got when I queried the cost of her most-recent hair-do, there's life in the old girl yet.
And answer me this: why does someone who uses a wheelchair need so many pairs of shoes?