GeordieBarker.com

A quick break from the travel for a moment…

A while back, in fact in April of last year, I wrote about my frustration at my local council for a parking fine I recieved in error. See the original post HERE! I just received an email yesterday from my local members stating that the Parking Infringement Notice will be revoked and all monies paid will be reimbursed.

Here is what I did…

1. Wrote to my local member of council
2. Included all my previous appeal information
3. Begged him to have someone with half a brain look at it

So in the most professional way possible…

I WIN, I WIN, I WIN!!!!! DAMN MONEY MAKING PARKING INSPECTORS….

We now return you to your regulary scheduled program…

So I found this link http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/research/artists/facts_and_figures/artists_income

“don’t give up your day job”, could I now please direct you to the donate link on the right hand colomn.

>>>> >>>

So as some of you may know I have been working on the Melbourne International Arts Festival this year as a secondment student. It is a requirement of my 3rd year studies at the VCA. I have been periodically posting updates of my work on Brightkite and Facebook, but thought it would be appropriate to give a little wrap up of my time, here on my blog. (this is kind of a prologue to the 1000 word report I have to write for uni anyway, but more interesting!)

My work started about a month out from the festival, at the festival office on Flinders Street in the city. I was inducted into the office by Russ Snelling, the production coordinator for (more…)

January 27th 2009
Please let me know if you have had a similar experience, I am currently still fighting this battle, I have won one round, and now its onto round two. I may be able to assist you. Please use the comments box below!
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April 1st 2009
I received an email today, (see post) informing me that the notice will be withdrawn and that all costs associated with this notice will be refunded as soon as possible. What did I do? Contacted my local member and appealed for some sanity. Please feel free to contact me for advice in this matter. Public: 1 Parking Inspectors (Revenue Rasers): 0
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Now we are all trying to do our bit for the environment, and increasingly people are leaving their car at home and taking public transport to work/uni/school. I would like to class me as one of those people, who is committed to reducing the amount i use my car. If I am going into uni, i try not to drive anymore. I either walk to the station and catch the train in, or if I am very late, I drive to the station and then catch the train in. (more…)

Hey everyone,

I have just finished uploading a heap of new flickr photos, so please have a look @ www.flickr.com/geordieb

Cheers

In this developing world of technology, I am continually amazed by the things you can do with common consumer devices and the internet. I am also interested in the distribution of information, and the opportunity for development in the arts.

After discovering the amazing world of podcasts (see the Wiki), and using my whole download usage in just a few short nights, I stumbled across the equally wonderful, and perhaps more functional and useful world of ‘podtours’. Now for those not so technically minded i might explain what these strange words mean. (more…)

I love my macbook, i really do. It doesn’t give me a blue screen of death, it doesn’t get infected by virus’ and spyware and best of all, it helps me do really useful stuff.

Except…

I was sitting here today and my mouse stopped working. I have a bluetooth wireless mouse and it is very pretty, but it simply stopped. When i took control of the mouse pad i navigated up to the bluetooth menu and was greeted with a cross through the bluetooth symbol. When i clicked on it, it stated “Bluetooth unavailable”.

I searched a few forums and eventually gave up. I spent an hour or so using the normal mouse and then decided to try something. I restarted the computer.

And BANG! it was fixed…..

Greatest computer fixing advice ever… Restart you machine!

I have always stated that a company is only as good as the people it employs. You can own the nicest shop frontage in the city, but if your staff are disgruntled, unhappy and unmotivated, they will ultimately not be interested in their jobs and drive away the customers in droves.

Late this afternoon I stumbled upon an article by Adam Lusher in Melbourne’s The Age Newspaper (direct link) entitled “Google’s Free Beer and Big Ass Barbies”. Essentially Google founders Sergey Brim and Larry Page, employed chef Charlie Ayers to provide free food to all its employees. The idea was to encourage the workforce to come in early and stay back late, by filling their stomaches with freshly prepared, and more importantly, free food. This was in 1998 and Ayers distinctly remembers them saying ‘we are not going to charge for food here ever’. Ayers was faced with a challenging mission, he had a captive audience and something to build on. The greatest part of the story is that Ayers didn’t just provide canteen style food free of charge, he developed a menu that encouraged workers to get a kick start in the morning, kept them energized after lunch and gradually moved them from a diet of fast food to salads and weekly lobster. He has released a book entitled “Eat Yourself Smart”, and has since sold a portion of his estimated 28.8 million of Google Shares, to buy a home. He has also left the company, and when he did, they renamed the canteen, Charlie’s. (more…)

This post is rather symbolic really. I turn 21 in just over 6 hours time and this post is the first on my new blog. Is this a sign of a new adult era? Or am i just being crazy?

I receive many many phone calls each day, and most of the time i hate answering my phone, it brings bad news, or people wanting things. Today; today was different. I had been looking on Facebook at a comment made in the VCA Group; it was about the launch of a new arts venue, called the Hayloft. I contemplated emailing them and offering assistance, but I had work to do, so I didn’t. 30 minutes later, a phone call; from Eva, from the Hayloft.

I am now meeting with them, to co-ordinate the evening, the launch, the visual and audible aspects. I am so amazingly excited about the idea of working with such a virgin space, and with people at their peak, and to create a first impression on the people who enter the space. I have the opportunity to draw them into the space, to keep them coming back, to get them interested in the space, conversing with the space.

This is why I do this crazy unsustainable work, because it gets my blood pumping, my mind working and I get a rush. Who needs drugs, when you have art.