Funny Friday - Walmart ® Rollback ®

This old Flickr posting deserves a funny-Friday mention.
The title is so ever perfect: "Mathematics Genius Lands Lucrative Retail Career"



Do you have a funny picture or two? Send them to theahmadism [at] gmail [dot] com

Happy Thursday - Work Life Balance

Today, unlike most Thursdays, I wanted to say a few things about work/life balance.

Like most other things in my life, balance is simplified to mean rights & obligations. You have obligations to fulfill, but you also have rights. Your work has a right to your best, your dedication, etc. It is, after all, what you're getting paid to do. It could easily be argued that payment is their obligation and your right for providing such work.

Similarly, your family (and your very self) have rights. Your children, for example, have a right from you as a parent. And you have an obligation back to them.

You see the pattern here, I'm sure; and I don't want to beat a dead horse.

Work-life balance, to me, is knowing when to tip one over the other and how often. There's no cookie-cutter everyday solution. Contrary to what some might believe, work/Life balance does not mean an equal balance. We all work very differently and have very different priorities.

You may have to work late one day, and that does not necessarily mean you leave early on another. It simply means that what you had at work warranted that. It also means that you may have to leave work early some days to take the kids to the movies or to do something family-oriented. Work/life balance means that you (or your boss) does not trivialize your family activities for their lack of "productivity" over work ones. It also means, in an environment where you don't get paid overtime but especially ones where you're often working late, you don't have to take vacation or unpaid time to leave those two or so hours early.

A workplace does not support work/life balance, for instance, if it expects that you stay late or come early as the common factor more than the exception, but has a problem with you leaving early when needed. Again, it's not a one-for-one relationship. Not every time you work extra, you leave early. It's about taking care of your obligations, and keeping your rights (and that of your loved ones') in mind. Vacation (paid time off) is an excellent way to reset things. Even if you only take one day. It helps recalibrate that relationship between the office and family.

A more detailed history of work/life balance can be found here.

Be true to your job, it's a part of who we are; but never as big a part as our family. Knowing how to balance the two should mean you're good at both jobs. That's the ultimate road to a peaceful mind and overall success.

I would love to hear your comments back on this.

Weird Wednesday - Horses with Hair-Extensions

Julian hit on the idea of experimenting with horses' hair during a chat with a fellow advertising pal.

The idea for these images came from a discussion with a friend who said, 'Hey wouldn't it be fun to shoot horses with big hair?'

says Sydney-born Julian, 36.

Stylist Acacio da Silva and photographer Julian Wolkenstein made Harmony the horse look like a tourist in the Caribbean

It is important to do personal projects just for fun, not to sell anything, but just to remind you why you make images, but mostly, and simply, to make you smile.

Acting on the discussion, Julian, who usually works to a specific client brief, decided to explore this personal project to its full potential, resulting in these striking and unforgettable images.

Putting the project into motion, Julian teamed up with prominent hair-stylist Acacio da Silva to whip the horses into shape.

Misty the horse actually appears to be giving the camera a flirtatious grin as she enjoys her new flowing curls

Each horse took around four hours to groom, with hair extensions being added by Acacio, and then when they were presented in front of the camera's and lights they would shake their heads, give a neigh and then ruffle up their hair,

said Julian - with a somewhat forced grin.

To get them just right, with their hair all set and standing to attention was a bit of a battle. But the horses loved the grooming. The lights and camera, well, they were less taken with that.

At first, Julian thought the shoot would be a quick affair.

We initially thought how hard can this be? A couple of hours on each one,

he said.

Well, we figured out pretty quickly on a test day that it was a major undertaking. Apart from casting horses and preparation work which took a few months, each horse took a full day to shoot.

Even for a seasoned pro, such as Julian, there were hitches to his horse hair project.

Florence the horse looks demure with her fringe and ginger mane

I tend to be drawn to projects where just in trying to describe and trying to explain the concept to all the crew and the people who supplied the horses was fascinating ,

says Julian.

The pictures were taken three years ago in England, but since Wolkenstein did them strictly for fun, it took time for them to hit the Web and longer still for people to discover them.

Tip Tuesday - Eco-Friendly Ways to Save Paper & Ink

For a lot of you "old-timers" you may have already seen a similar "post" when I used to do this via email. The topic, however, was worth re-mentioning on a more permanent & global manner.

Printers may be getting cheaper, but the ink now comes in smaller and smaller containers while the price is either the same or even heading in the wrong direction (going up). The below tip should help you save some paper, some ink, a small portion of the World and hopefully some green (no pun intended) for yourself or company. Yes, you can make this your suggestion, and become your company's fiscal hero.


Printing Web Pages
Most would agree that web page printouts end up in the can. You'll use it for a meeting, a day or two and then you're done. Granted, some have a longer shelf-life, but those are not the focus of this tip; although they can be.

If you're not already, you should always seek out the print link/button on a web page. Many of the web sites, especially the newspapers/periodicals, have them. The image to the side shows an LA Times article and you see the "print" link on the right.

This print function cleans much of the page for you, and even sets margins accordingly. This alone should save you on paper. Although many sites now don't do as good of a job cleaning up the page for printing as they could. That's where PrintWhatYouLike comes in.

PrintWhatYouLike is a free online editor that lets you format any web page for printing in seconds!

Basically, it's a simple point-and-click element removal tool to make printing sites and pages much easier, and without any software. That's right, there is nothing to download- everything runs in your browser, and it takes just a few clicks to remove the elements you don't want printed. Feel free to have a go at it as all changes are undoable. You can even combine multiple web pages together - edit and print them as one document!

Simply paste in the URL of a site, and you'll get a left-hand sidebar that lets you click and remove pictures, headlines, and other page elements. You can pull out the background image, isolate selected parts of the page, and even resize individual elements, all in the name of reducing ink usage and improving readability.

And while you can go to PrintWhatYouLike directly and past that URL, there's now PrintWhatYouWant Bookmarklet that simplifies that act. Simply drag the bookmarlet link to your toolbar, and now you can include the editor on any page with a single click. Need help with the bookmarklet? Click here.


Change Your Font
Folks this alone can save you up to 20% less ink. You can take this to your boss now! Ecofont is a project to optimize fonts for printing, without sacrificing readability.

Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink.

It's free to download, and free for personal use. For professional use, see this.
I personally use it. Its readability impact is minimal, and I still feel good about not wasting ink and playing a small role in helping the environment.

When I combine both ecofont and PrintWhatYouLike I know I'm making a difference to the environment and in personal savings.

Got other earth-saving and frugal digital/tech tips, please share them with everyone in the comments.

This Week's Career Advice - Stay in Touch

If you haven't touched base with your current or ex-colleagues, take this opportunity and reach out to them with a simple email. Services like LinkedIn make it easy to stay in touch with your professional contacts. By this, I don’t mean clients - I mean professional acquaintances in the same field as you (contacting clients should be a regular part of your workflow). Usually acquaintances with whom you've worked for an extended period of time.

An email asking them what they're up to, and in return telling them a thing or two about what you're doing, can go a long way. Staying in touch is the core of networking; and believe me, that works much better than any headhunter or agency could ever do for you.

Personally, I'm very selective about with whom I connect and ultimately add to my LinkedIn contact-list. I have to truly know them. They have to be close-enough colleagues that I feel comfy to reach out to them one day and ask for help, advice, etc.

Go ahead. Send an email or two or more, connect with your colleagues (especially past ones) and stay in touch. Going to lunch might not be a bad idea either. The value of networking in this economy cannot be underestimated. And don't forget to answer the call for advice, a recommendation, etc.

Do you use other services besides LinkedIn? How often do you stay in touch with your network? Let me know in the comments.

Inspirational Monday - Robotics: The A-Pod

I'm honestly in awe. I've never been into robots/robotics. This ant-inspired hexapod, however, operates with unbelievable motion and control. Its creator, Zenta Olbaid (from Norway), from what I understand is well on his way to revolutionizing how robots move and operate. I not only find this inspirational but down-right an awesome display of dedication and attention to detail that is worth mentioning in and of itself.

Take a 5-minute e-break and enjoy this YouTube clip; and when you're done, I'd love to "hear" your comments. Did you find this as inspirational as I did?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jyBiECoS3Q