Prices Plus Integrity

I would like to thank David Fielding of Prices Plus for seeing my worth and granting myself an audience in an interview for the career position they have available. He renewed my faith in the value that the skills I have achieved still have to the industry that I am so passionate about ... Graphic Design and Marketing!

Even if Mr Fielding should choose another for the position, my experience is worth enough to be considered, and that is worth commenting about here.

With the company behind Go-Lo, Crazy Clarks and Sam's Warehouse going into receivership recently, I see this smaller, yet strong player in the market, being Prices Plus, with the opportunity to develop an ascendancy in this niche market.

Obviously, I would relish the chance to be a part of this growth potential, nevertheless, I wish David and his team all the best in the future, and once again thank David for granting me the opportunity to create a first impression.

Position available only if you ...

Position available only if you ....

If you are what I ask?

Since winding up iImagination in June of this year, I have been seeking to gain employment within the Graphic Design industry here in Brisbane where I now reside. After numerous applications outlining my wide range and exhaustive experience, eloquently presented, probed to be error free, with some of my best work attached as samples, you would think I would have offers being thrown at me.

You only have to look at my record. 5 years, yes 5 years in an advertising company from 1995 to 2000. The only reason I left was because the business was taken over. I've held positions of Graphic Designer all the way up to Art Director (2007), and yet my applications, one by one, are being knocked back.

I'm more than efficient with the Adobe Suite of software, Internet software, sound editing and film editing software, as well as the despised Microsoft Office software. I've had experience being the lowly indian, and the responsible chief. And yet, I still am unable to gain employment within my chosen field of expertise.

Is it because I'm now 51 years young? What, a 51 year old can't have fresh ideas? Bollocks!

Is it because my reproductive organs are on the outside and not the inside? Well I'm not about to change that! Why mess with perfection!

Honestly. You are not going to find a person capable of doing some jobs unless you look to someone with the experience, and lets face it, experience comes with a drawback, it takes years to earn it.

To be fair dinkum, What do they want? I am more than qualified to fill a position from graphic designer to art director. All I ask is to be paid according to the position I am filling, not as a reflection of my experience or age.

However I think most of these so called boutique art studios are looking for a breed of person that just doesn't exist.

Good luck with that. Meanwhile expect to see my application in your email box!

You have the Audacity?

You may be confused by the heading as to what this entry is about, suffice it to say I'm not discussing an emotion or attitude.

In fact this entry is about a great little FREE software called, wait for it, "AUDACITY".

If you are like me and have decided to convert all those Vinyl Records and worn out Tapes into MP3s rather than try and purchase CDs or visit the i-Tunes store, then you will find Audacity an invaluable tool to clean up those scratchy, old tracks.

I thought I might just mention a couple of pointers that work for me in the clean up though. Hence the purpose of this entry. Initially I record the tracks using a great little record and tape 'record to mp3' unit made by Fission and bought for under $50 at Aldi. When playing it sounds rather ordinary, but that is due mainly to the speakers, which appear to be El Cheapos! The recordings through the logitech speakers attached to my G5 is more than acceptable.

I then switch to Audacity! Open the software, select new file and drag and drop your mp3 recording. The first thing I do, with recordings off vinyl anyway, is run the Click and Pop removal effect through the whole track. It's amazing!

I then identify if there is any unwanted buzzing from the needle contact to the vinyl. If you check at the beginning before the song starts you may notice tiny little vertical lines. Select a portion of this, then in the effects drop menu, select 'Noise Removal' then select the button "GET NOISE PROFILE". After you've done that, select the whole track "Apple A", go back to the effects drop menu and Noise Removal effect and click the OK button. Magically the noise is gone!

The next step, with the whole track still selected I go back to the effects drop menu and select Normalize leaving the default setting at -1.0dB.

The next and last effect I run is BASS BOOST. Really only needed for vinyl records which seem to come across a little tinny.

And your done! Export as an mp3, I use the option of Insane at 320, but this makes for a bigger mp3 file. No real need to save the .aud (Audacity) file unless you want to play with it some more.

At i-Imagination, we can do all your conversions for you as well as many other things. Drop over to our Website and check us out.

Cheers

i-Imagination's Write Up

Out of the blue, Ashley Jones, the business editor at the Queensland Times, calls me up offering to run a feature story on the Better Business page with i-Imagination being the subject matter. Of course I leapt at the prospect and below is the end result.

If you can't read it here, visit our website at i-Imagination and click on the thumbnail image in the feature section.

Just for the record the first 'i' in our name stands for 'information' giving us the catch phrase 'Information with Imagination'.

Former Work Colleagues

Now at 50 years old, I look back at all the companies I worked at in my past only to recollect some fond memories of former colleagues. It occurred to me to try and locate some of these people on the internet, unfortunately, due to multiple names the same, this became quite a difficult task.

So I have resorted to my blog to see if by chance anyone else, or indeed they themselves, may do a search of their names, and this blog might just appear.

If you know, or you are:

Matt Bailey, former production manager of the now defunct Auburn Advertising in Leichhardt, Sydney, who grew up in Wagga Wagga (I think) feel free to contact me on 0421 669 877 or email phil@iimagination.com.au.

Greg Jones, former production manager of the now defunct Auburn Advertising in Leichhardt, Sydney, who grew up in Coffs Harbour, feel free to contact me on 0421 669 877 or email phil@iimagination.com.au.

Astro Cabrera, current owner of Adstream Media & Marketing, former Art Director of the now defunct Auburn Advertising in Leichhardt, Sydney, feel free to contact me on 0421 669 877
or email phil@iimagination.com.au

Auburn Advertising was one of the longest stints I had in one place during my working life, and feel that I formed not only a strong colleague relationship with these guys, but also a strong friendship. As I was also a mobile DJ, I recall DJ-ing Matt's Brother's wedding reception, as well as other functions that Astro, Matt and Greg attended.

Come on guys, give me a call and let's catch up.

Visit my website at www.iimagination.com.au and maybe give me some creative input (I can take criticism) .... that's an in joke!

Cheers
Phil

Internet chat abreviations

Ever sat in a chat room on yahoo or facebook or twitter or msn and someone types 'BRB' or 'ROFLMAO' and you've looked blankly at the screen? Well I have! Fortunately my wife is more versed with the anagrammical way in which messages are conveyed through chat rooms. I hope the following definitions help any readers to better understand what they are reading! (Included are some common anagrams that have been around for some time now, and not just on the internet):

A/S/L or ASL = age sex location
ASAP = as soon as possible
B4 = before
BBS = be back soon
BF = boyfriend
BFN = bye for now
BRB = be right back
BTW = by the way
CYA = see you
CRAFT = can't remember a f@#king thing
DH = dear husband
DW = dear wife
FB = facebook
FML = f#@k my life
FUBAR = f@#ked up beyond any repair/recognition
FYI = for your information
GF = girlfriend
HB = hurry back
HTH = hope this helps
LOL
   1 = lots of laughs
   2 = laughing out loud
   3 = lots of love
LMAO = laughing my ass off
NE1 = anyone
NFW = no f@#king way
NM = nothing much
NP = no problem
NW = no worries
OMG = oh my god
PITA = pain in the ass
PLZ = please
PPL = people
R = are
ROFL = rolling on the floor laughing
ROFLMAO = rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
ROFLMAOPIMP = rolling on the floor laughing & pissing in my pants

RU = are you

SNAFU = situation normal all f@#ked up

THX = thanks

TMI = too much information
TTFN = ta-ta for now
TY= thankyou
U = you
WB = welcome back
WBU = what about you
WTF = what the f#@k
WTG = way to go
WT? = what the ....?
YW = you're welcome

Hope this clarifies things a little or should I say:

HTH and BFN but BBS PLZ and THX for viewing.

Translation:
Hope this helps and bye for now but be back soon please and thanks for viewing.

Don't forget to visit i-Imagination for all your graphic design requirements.

Phil

Living In the 70s

In the 70s, I was a mere budding teenager whose only goal was to get his licence (a story for another entry) his own super leaded guzzling car, (Unleaded was a loose dog), so he could cruise around and be cool like the Fonz, yes I even had a motorbike or two. But this entry is to give a 70s spin on terms in common use today.

For instance, the mobile phone. Thirty to forty years ago a mobile phone had a range of about 4 feet from the wall or bench top. Unless you pulled the chord from the wall and tossed it across the room in disgust, acka Russell Crowe style. Mind you, if it didn't break from the impact, you wouldn't be able to talk to anyone until you plugged it back in again.

Then there is the PS. Kids today would know this to mean Play Station, but when I was young it was the bit you put at the end of letter because you forgot to say it before, and speaking of letters, they were handwritten or typed, hence the PS (saved you re-writing the whole letter), put in an envelope, a stamp stuck on the front, dropped in a mail box (not an e-mail box) and you waited 6 weeks for a reply! PSP is a jumbled up version of PPS, the second forgotten comment on a letter.

The only X-box I remember from the 70s was the black and white warning in the bottom corner of Playboy or Penthouse or the ilk.

When it comes to the Wii, we did that in the toilet, but we didn't spell Wii that way!

Microwave was a young long blonde haired wanna be surfer's nightmare!

A computer system, if you were lucky to have one, usually had its own building the size of a warehouse and stored a massive 4 kilobytes of information and needed ducted air conditioning to stop it from overheating.

The web was built and maintained by the spider outside your bedroom window, in the corner of your room, under the house, in the bush etc.

Colour TV was the new fad which we didn't get till the old HMV black and white finally gave up the ghost. Plasma was a term used in Star Trek TOS, LCD was an error of letters by someone who was on LSD and the TV took up a whole corner of the lounge room (not much has changed there).

We were pretty oblivious to events going on around the world and usually didn't find out about anything important until days, neigh weeks, after the event. These days we can find out what happened 60 seconds ago, just about anywhere else in the world.

A laptop, clearly is self explanatory. It obviously was the top of your lap, where the fur ball cat could be found, or the lap dog, depending on your fancy. A desktop amazingly was where you put your pens/pencils, assorted stationery, telephone and writing pad.

An iPod referred to your experience with a group of whales, of which there were more of because the Whalers couldn't or wouldn't travel this far away from their home ports. And an MP3 player was a boom box that took about 15 size C batteries to work without being plugged into a wall.

The DS was the initials of an obscenity that you bellied at someone you didn't like.

We didn't have remote controls, we actually had to get out of our lounge chair walk over to the TV and change the channel, turn up the volume, adjust the brightness and contrast (that's about all black & white tv's had). When remote controls made their first appearance in the 80s, they were still attached to the unit by a chord which meant the lounge chair could only be about 4 feet from the TV.

We have progressed from seeing the Movie of the Week on a Sunday at prime time, once a week or going to the cinema or one of the many drive-in theatres to get our special dose of a hollywood blockbuster TO video players and Video hire shops, TO DVDs and now Blue Ray movies that we can buy at will in many shops, watch at any time of the day on any day of the week on Pay TV, or if we are really brave, download off the internet. Don't even think about going to the drive-in, most of them are now car parks or places for markets to gather.

I could go on, but I'd be here all day, But then I am anyway, since I freelance from home. Next entry I might concentrate on internet jargon and the many initials we use to abbreviate what we want to say.

Don't forget to check out iImagination's website and feel free to employ my services.

Phil