Day: 7 August 2022

Weeknotes #14

Week commencing Monday, 1 August 2022

Bananarama on stage
Bananarama launch the Masquerade album

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 6/7; Exercise 5/7 and Move 6/7. (81%, let’s say, no change).

Life

  • Bananarama had a small gig to launch their new album, Masquerade, described as Bananarama’s best album since their 1987 hits-packed, career-high Wow!. I went on Thursday. Wonderful evening. More bouncing. A bit too much wine and an expensive Uber home.
  • Disappointingly, my blood donation appointment was cancelled again. This means I have still never given blood in spite of trying for a year. Undeterred, I rebooked.
  • Agreed to upgrade the motor on an electric awning in Spain. That’ll cost but, maybe, we’ll see the benefit at some point.
  • On Tuesday, I spoke to the volunteer team. I have been unable attend any of the uniform hand-out days so it will be left at the pod when I get to the location on Saturday.
  • On Friday, an email said the pod wouldn’t be there as it’s not ready. Ooops.
  • On Saturday, the pod was there but the uniform wasn’t. Still, a lovely day in the sunshine helping people around Westminster. There was a protest in the middle of Parliament Square but that didn’t disturb. Was asked a question about services at Westminster Abbey, the answer to which is that to attend a service you should go via the Great West Door.
  • Mum and Dad arrived Sunday evening, late, after a cancelled train. They’d bought Avanti First Class to celebrate Dad’s birthday but, although they got a seat they go no service. Mum was very disappointed.
  • It turns out, Miso aubergines are delicious.
  • My Amazon Prime Try Before You Buy items came through. I’m glad a did it. I ordered two pairs of shorts but the pair I was less likely to order fitted if I couldn’t try first, better. A little win.
  • Amazon announced it was going to buy iRobot, makers of the Roomba vacuum. The robots will take over the world.

Archive

To save the links getting lost in the future I checked the Internet Archive to see what they had saved for the posts linked here. If the original source above no longer works, these should.

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Archived at The Wayback Machine

Saturday News

A coule of interesting stories from this morning’s Guardian newspaper.

I think perhaps I am now behind the times. Apparently, this should be a video site:

Mr Bouwman is the vanguard of the latest internet trend: video logging or vlogging. One step up from the now familiar internet blogger, vloggers upload personal video clips of everything from the US Democratic convention to what they had for their tea, via rants about tax rises and conspiracy theories.

[The Guardian]

Luckily for you, I’m no good with movie cameras. However, if I were, perhaps I would head for Hull (you know that northern town famous for The Housemartins and the Deputy Prime Minister). Do I hear you ask, Why Hull? Well, apparently, some bright sparks want to make it the new gay capital as it, apparently, has the fastest growing gay scene in the whole of Europe’.

The city council has already consulted with its hoteliers to ensure that they will welcome all visitors, and next week it will host a weekend trip for journalists from the gay media.

[The Guardian]

Now I wanted to joke about it, but I can’t really think of any reason to do so.

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Originally posted at musak.org | Wayback – original | Wayback

Elsewhere: Where Are You Now, Miss Boo?

My review of the story of Boo – an interesting tale of a business with no financial controls.

I submitted another review to Amazon.co.uk today, and I was quite pleased with it. Having just finishedBoo Hoo(the story of online “active streetwear” retailer boo.com), I thought I would add another review to my small list. I was particularly fond of the last line:“Live hard, die young and leave a beautiful corpse” could almost have been written of Miss Boo.

I wait to see if it published as I wrote it.

My full review submitted to Amazon.co.uk earlier today:

What a fascinating book. Take two Swedes, a desire to be “cool”, and throw $135 million at them! Ernst Malmsten’s story of boo.com is a warning to all new enterprises everywhere: get some strong financial controls and make sure you stay in charge of your costs. Most of all, it tells us that there is no substitute for some experience when running a shop.

I was sceptical that Ernst et al. would hide behind others and not shoulder the blame. However, what comes through clearly is the founder’s vision, belief and desire to build a world-class product, as well as the management’s failings when developing that business. It is possible to read much by what is not said, as well as what story is directly told, and in that, an incredible tale unfolds before you.

The book is well written and highly addictive. As the inevitable end approaches, it becomes one of those books you pick up all the time, even just to read the next two paragraphs. As a story, it is thoroughly thought out, well-paced, and fascinating. As an insight into online business history, it may be one-sided and sometimes lacking, but it remains compulsive reading and a captivating look at a never-to-be-repeated economic boom (and bust) time.

Boo.com became synonymous with the “live the high life, party hard” culture that many cash-fuelled Internet start-ups went through (and spent). “Live hard, die young and leave a beautiful corpse” could almost have been written for Miss Boo.

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Originally posted at musak.org | Wayback – original | Wayback