RSS

It wasn't hard trying to find RSS feeds. Nearly all news sites have them. Of course, you can cheat and just google RSS feeds and the subject you're interested in but that would be lazy (and contrary to the exercise). I'm planning a big trip next year so I was happy to find a RSS feed that will update me on cheap flights. I tried a few large retailers, thinking this would be the perfect opportunity to keep in contact with their customers, but surprisingly, few provided the service....just a matter of time...

Hello, I'm back. I've been on Week 3 for about 8 weeks now - workload overload! In order to move on - to Week 4 - I need to talk about anything technology related. Let's touch briefly on the miracles of subscribing to anything online. In the mean old direct marketing days, organisations bought and sold mailing lists and then had a hard time continuing to communicate with its customers. Now, an online enquiry or subscription means a lifetime (that is, lifetime of an active email address)of push technology; online updates, offers and surveys. I had subscribed to Smilebox back in Week 3 (remember that was 8 weeks ago) and I have received an average of two online communications per week. The costs involved are probably minimal compared to the snail mail that used to be sent. And strangely enough, online subscriptions seem a lot safer than receiving unwarranted mail at your home address. We don't seem to mind that an organisation knows where we live in cyperspace!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Me in my normal authoritarian mode

Me in my normal authoritarian mode
Originally uploaded by angela.galeotti

This is how I normally dress although I have recently bought new spectacles

Me with someone else's husband?

Me with someone else's husband?
Originally uploaded by angela.galeotti

Not my normal skin colour, usually black looks better on me than this!

Me with film friends

Me with film friends
Originally uploaded by angela.galeotti

Not difficult to upstage these two acting upstarts!

After my Joan makeover

After my Joan makeover
Originally uploaded by angela.galeotti

It took two hours and plenty of Bobbi Brown makeup to complete this makeover (not my real nose)

The Joan identity

Continuing with my identity deception, please investigate my next blog (photos thankfully provided by Flickr). Twenty points for guessing my brother's first name.
Deduct twenty points if you thought he was my real brother.

De gustibus non est disputandum

There's no arguing about taste...just accept things...it's just the way things are.

This is my mantra of the moment.

I remember doing a major English VCE essay entitled 'Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely'. This paper didn't discuss the mismanagement of economies, the destructive forces of political meglamaniacs or the antics of gun-wielding police forces, but the individual's inability to make sound decisions within their own sphere of influence. The paper progressed rather tongue-in-check to spout everyday obvious examples of individuals' poor decision making; haircuts, choice of housepaint colour and the inappropriate naming of offspring. I got a great grade for this rather acerbic paper.

VCE was a world away...over 20 years ago...over 20 years history of of bad haircuts (mine and others) and I am less scathing of other's bad judgement calls. The French philosopher Jean Antheleme Brillat-Savarin in his revered work 'The Physiology of Taste' explains away these reckless examples of power corruption with the latin 'De gustibus non est disputandum'; there's no arguing about taste. Yes, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Bad taste is not considered bad taste nor a bad decision in the eye of the decision maker. It's just the way things are.