Here Be Monsters|blog

the next big thing

There's a fantastic post over at C Enrique Ortiz Mobility Blog all about one of 2007 hot trends, the intersection of mobility and social software: mobile social software, virtual communities, messaging and user-generated content. Well worth checking out.

quality

I love this as an idea. So what if it works better on YouTube than in real life. It's just a lovely, lovely idea. And one I wish I'd done. Even more so since I've discovered I'm going to be spending a lot of time in '07 working on a major sports brand.

GENUINELY, A MERRY CHRISTMAS

I've only been blogging for 2 months now and I must say, I'm rather enjoying it, although to be totally honest I don't think I've quite got into my stride yet.

I still find it hard to be fully 2.0 Web open and share my thoughts as much as I should do and I still shy away of being as opinionated as I usually am. but I have no doubt both will come.

So, thank you, those of you who visit regularly, it's been very rewarding seeing the growth in readership over such a short time. I hope you come back in 2007.

And finally, I hope you all have the Christmas you want and that 2007 brings you all that you need.

THE DAILY CRACKER JOKE | 6

And so we come to the last of our Christmas cracker jokes for this year. (I'm thinking maybe I should do something bigger with these next year, a whole multi-site experience from YouTube to flickr. Then again, I might have come to my sense by then.) So, on to the joke. I'd love to say I've saved the best 'til last, but I can't. Let's be honest they're all as dire as each other. So I bring you a reworded version of a joke that should have retired ages ago.

Now, maybe that's what the number is in the corner, the age of the joke?

THE DAILY CRACKER JOKE | 5

Not so much a joke today as a cunning brain teaser of majestic proportions.  This obviously awoke my brain, as I was just thinking how surprising it would you be to open a cracker and find a joke that was actually funny?  Would that be a good thing, or would it just ruin the whole cracker thing? And that has just lead me to think why hasn't some proper comedian funny bloke done their own range of crackers? Surely the surrealism of Bill Bailey or Eddie Izzard should  work well, if only for the little plastic gifts. 

It would also give the no.6 in the bottom corner a new significance.

THE DAILY CRACKER JOKE | 4

Once again, another from the no nonsense school of design. What they lack in design they make up with double the content; a joke and a tongue twister. It really does make me wonder, who writes these jokes? Is it someones job? Or does the Marketing Manager just pop down to his local charity shop to buy an old copy of My Very First Joke Book and just pinch them.

The world of cracker manufacture is indeed a mystery to me.

peter callesen

Just been sent to Peter Callesen's site by my friend Mark. If you have the time, please visit. Enjoy.

THE DAILY CRACKER JOKE | 3

Another no expense-spared joke. This one really working the cracker theme to full effect as well as making full use of the classic seasonal colours of red, green and white.

Yet again they tease us with a number, this time in the top left hand corner. 'Hhmmm', you think. 'There are at least another 31 quality jokes to be found, I must pull more crackers'.

why don't creatives blog?

As anyone who has taken even the most casual of glances at the ad industry blogging community will know, planners blog.

Do they blog.

And perhaps that's not surprising, I've often found them to love discussing their theorie, thoughts and ideas. And in the most part have enjoy their company for that very reason. Sure, I also know one or two who are linguistic bullies who only want to show off their smarts, but they've been the exception.

What surprises me though is the lack of creatives blogging. They can be just as smart, original, opinionated and forceful with their views as any planner, after all. So why no blogging?

And if the future of the creative team is one where there is a much closer alliance between these two disciplines,  I thought I'd  try and start a debate on it and so have asked around a good few of my mates and peers and I've come up with the following reasons;

1. They don't have any interest in it. Their world is one of the televisual. Of film. Of Hollywood. And as such they are not interested in the Internet beyond buying stuff from it.
2. The creative department has been long been built on macho camaraderie and to expose oneself in a blog to the extent you would have to to make it interesting, would see you ripped to pieces by your mates.
3. Creativity is a job. That is to say there is very little interest outside of the work place to continue to express oneself in any way.
4. Fear of failing. Bizarrely, in a job that exposes you to rejection 98% of the time, creatives can be delicate flowers afraid to expose themselves and their 'creativity' unnecessarily.
5. You're use to keeping your ideas to yourself. You don't share, not your ideas, not your inspirations. No they are yours and yours alone, slotted into your memory bank or bottom drawer waiting for the moment for when you and you alone can use them.
6. Lack of a client. What can you do when you have no excuses to hide behind?  The answer is nothing.  Which is why every creative I know hates doing the agency Christmas card.

Well that's for starters anyone want to add to it? Or is everyone reading this too much of a creative?

tagged (again)

John Grant, has tagged me with this Five Fings thang that's doing the rounds. Normally I would ignore such tosh. But I felt different to this request. Okay, so there were no threats of looming disaster which was refreshingly honest, but then again nor will I be the recipient of good fortune in 48 hours. Damn.

No it's the blog-thing that makes it different. When I started this blog it was to take an active part in a community, and the more you put into a community the more you get back, right? So, if that means only one person is moderately interested in me, then so be it. I'm in.

1. I have already been tagged, actually it was my alter-ego on another site. It's not too difficult to work out who that alter-ego is, so I'll leave it to you to find out. Should you be in the least bit interested.
2. I have never watched any of the Star Wars films all the way through. The same goes for 2001 A Space Odyssey. And I sometimes wonder if I ever will.
3. Whenever I go abroad I take 300% more books than I could ever read in that time. And I've still haven't learnt my lesson. Although at least now they tend to be soft-backs.
4. Everything I have ever created has disappointed in the transition from the imagination to reality. I think this is one of my key motivations for working harder. One day I will be pleased
5. In the last year I have started to get stressed out by my stuff. I have too much of everything and am now scaling it down via eBay. I am now more drawn to experiences than ownership.

I'm now suppose to send this onto new five people. But I've already done that via my alter-ego. So, forgive me for not doing it again.