@leemunroe asked today:

Quick question for web designers: When someone asks you “What do you do?” what is your reply? e.g. web designer, ux designer, webmaster…

I see a lot of buzz online about this recently..

For some time the ‘online world building business’, as I call it, has been getting more complicated  and developing into more disctinct specialisms. But..

On one side there are clients and for most this is all quite too complicated. Most clients, not all of course, still end up with the inevitable ‘so you design websites, right?’

The other side – the industry, seems to be asking the question now too. Personally, i don’t think any of the online jobs can, and do, exist in a vacuum: they are all interlinked and to be an expert in one you need solid knowledge of the others. I usually describe what I do as ‘user experience design’. But that is sometimes down to the project I work on, depending on the size and extensity I act as the designer + information architect + project manager in one. If the project is more advanced you need to fill in all those roles separately, but they are intertwined and all of these experts will interact and influence each other. Moreover, having knowledge in all web production areas definitely helps in becoming better at your specialism. Great article about Homo Universalis here.

i am so annoyed it is unbelievable!
my flight ticket stated it’s £15.08 return, plus taxes.
the plus taxes brought me up to £59.65.
i have then been charged for:
2 x (Airport Check in) £9.50
2 x (Pax carrying 1 Checked in Bag) £19.00
Visa Handling Fee £9.50
bringing the total to £97.65.
this is not a cheap airline. this is a rip off. i have been charged for checking in!! like i had an option. like i could select not to. surely checking in at the airport is part of the service???? and charging me 10 quid for using a Visa card is just unreal. i buy so many things online, and never have i seen such an outrageous charge for a visa transaction.
just because i can’t fly with anyone else to this particular place. absolutely disgusting.

i have written before about status stories and how we slowly see them catching up in the jewellery world, how the desire is changing from having a brand product to having a custom product and now it seems the trend is going mainstream – Paragon Lake Raised $5.8 Million To Help You Make Custom Jewelry

“-my new intern is hopless, i think she’s just dumb…
-how so?
-today she asked who’s the newest client, and i said it’s HSBC, and she asked how’d you spell that…”

on saturday i got ambushed on picadilly circus, some kind of a game,
two kids asking me questions and looking expectantly at me while i
miserably failed to answer any of them.
so here the go:
1. the
cheapest student underground fare from zone 1 to 3? – I THINK it’s
£2.00 outside peak hours, as the student discount only applies to
season tickets, but feel free to correct.
2. how much does Big Ben weigh? – as far as i can find about 15 ton, how can you expect anyone to know that??
3. since when are the coronations carried out in Westminster Abbey? – i think since 1066, the coronations of King Harold and William the Conqueror.
(there were more questions but i gave up)

That’s it, i bet YOU wouldn’t have known that.

came across these today: Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz make snow globes with a little twist. the globes usually contain a fairy-tale like images, a bit bizarre, in a nice wintery setting. they’re lovely

have a look here

“Never play anything the same way twice.”

A great quote, you could almost live by it heh…

found this short story today and i thought i’d share:

Life is The Coffee

A
group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to
visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and in life. Offering his guests
coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot
of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass,
crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling
them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:

“If
you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving
behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want
only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and
stress.

“What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup,
but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other’s
cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee and the jobs, money
and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and
contain Life, and do not change the quality of Life. Sometimes, by
concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has
provided. So, don’t let the cups drive you … enjoy the coffee
instead.”

a very interesting test – here
Turns out I’m:
1 Japanese
2 French
3 Polish

Obviously,
living abroad, me and my friends raise this subject a lot. What makes
you Polish/British/Any? And how does it matter/change/keep when you’ve
lived abroad for a long time? Do you get more/less national? Do you
want to adopt the new nationality? Or you try just to fit in? Or do you
fit in regardless of what nationality you are? I seem to have an
immense interest in what goes on in Poland: noting the decline in
politics right now – and at the same time swearing that Poland’s the
greatest place EVER!!
Thoughts?

it’s been a long week, impossible deadlines and CRAZY clients
AND it’s friday the 13th..
‘ere everybody:

DRINKIES TIME!!