What’s in a name?

No doubt about it, the digital revolution is wonderful. We can access absolutely anything with a tap of the keys, click of a button and a 0.11 second Google search.

I spent some time linking up my digital life this evening (Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and Vimeo) meaning that every new piece of work I do is pushed out on as many channels as possible. After all, we are the generation of self-promotion.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this. It’s so fantastically easy to get published (albeit in your own news broadcasts) and build up your public profile for employers to scope out…

But are we giving away too much?

I’ve always shunned people’s fears about giving basic details out on the internet, saying ‘Oh you’ve got to trust it, as long as you’re not silly it’s fine.” And that’s true. You will be.

But even if you’re not physically or financially harmed, what damage can your own name do to your all important reputation?

So often now third party sites can rip names from webpages or databases and link them to content that has nothing to do with the person.

You might be thinking, ‘yeah, but it’s not me, so it doesn’t matter.” Well I guess that depends on who’s reading it.

Given the current economic climate, and the competition for jobs, your reputation is of increasing value.

New Scientist featured something along a similar line last week…how your friends can get you into trouble…there’s no hope!

Liking what you like

I sat next to Calum MacDougall in class the other day, as we were working on managing our blogs. I looked at his design template and it looked good: basic, clean lines and two colours. I asked if he minded me trying the same template and he very kindly said yes. Thought I was onto a winner.

But, mine still looked rubbish!

So, how do I choose what my blog will look like? As no expert on these matters, I’m going to start with the basics.

Step 1: Design

I’m a fan of clean lines, symmetry and balance. It seems this boils down to far more than just personal preference – it’s been around in nature and civilisation for donkey’s years.

Apparently symmetry represents health, stability and order, which in turn leads to predictability to security (everybody likes to feel safe). According to some thinking it also represents wealth. The Romans loved this stuff, with a symmetrical home putting you pretty high up the status ladder. This thought is still prevalent in modern architecture with balance being aesthetically essential, and in nature you can find it in the Golden Ratio.

So, now all I need to do it find a perfectly balanced template to use…or learn CSS.

Step 2: Colour

I don’t really have a favourite colour, which I think makes me a little odd. It makes choosing a colour for my blog difficult anyway! I needed some advice.

Apparently humans have colour preferences that are again based on what we perceive them to represent, and the mood and emotion they create within. I did a little Facebook survey to see if this was true – ‘What’s your favourite colour and why?’. Here are some of the answers…

Tash: ‘Purple, the colour of my bedroom growing up, girly but not too girly’.

Natalie: ‘Red, makes me think of Christmas, strawberries, warmth and love’.

Matt: ‘Red, because of the best football team in the world, Liverpool FC’ (please no sniggers!).

Tom: ‘Blue, it’s nice and relaxing’.

Phil: ‘Green, I always associate it with life and health’.

And finally…

Simon Wong: ‘Orange, because pictures of oranges in kids books always look so tasty. Usually it’s orange, but then also yellow because the lemon looks good alongside the orange’.

Simon Wong (as an after thought): ‘Black, because it reminds me of sleep when I close my eyelids’.

Whilst most peoples answers generally reflected personal meaning and emotion, Simon Wong is way out the ball park. Simon (or Wongers as he is fondly known) is a strange boy. You’ll get to know him better as this process continues, as I’m sure he will provide a wide array of talking points and far-flung ideas such as his prized ‘Time-Zone Theory’ (where Australians have the intelligence advantage as they’ve had more daylight hours than the us…ok Simon).

Ultimately, the reason we like what we like is far too complicated to answer in a single blog post, but it is ridiculously interesting. I’m still no closer to choosing what I want my blog to look like or, it seems, represent.  Hoping to make progress over the weekend. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m sure things were easier when everything was black and white…hmmm…now there’s a thought…

Why is it so hard to decide what my blog should look like?

Answer: I’m fussy.

Why is it that you like some colour combinations, or a certain way of laying things out? I’m finding it quite difficult to make a decision, particularly at present when I don’t have the header image I want to use in order to set everything up.

Watch this space. Answer to follow this evening.

Ummmm…Why are you reading this?

According to some of my closest friends and relatives, the most annoying thing about me is that I always need to know ‘WHY?’

I’m sure there must be worse things – in fact I’m pretty certain they’re being nice. The problem is there’s just so much that I don’t know…

The majority of my Why’s revolve around two things:

1) Life    2) Science

Which, when combined, cover everything in the universe. Nightmare.

The Why’s happen every day, without fail, and without warning. They just appear and there’s not much I can do to stop them.

Most of the time I share my Why’s, with audiences ranging from:

• Whoever is within a 5 metre radius at the time of conception.

To:

• A specially selected individual who I think holds a promising amount of brainpower to answer said Why, and enough patience to stand me asking further questions should I choose to interrogate them post explanation.

However, there are times when my Why’s are so random and ridiculous that it would be humiliating for them to be transferred into audible sound.

On such occasions I summon all my willpower to stop them bursting out of my mouth, and lock them into internal musings and the creation of my own theories and paradigms. Geek.

Now, after 22 years, I think it’s time to give my nearest and dearest a break. I’m ready to take full responsibility for my own Why’s.

This lovely little space will document my quest to find the answers to all my questions…an impossible task which I can guarantee will not have a 100% success rate.

Wish me luck!