by Mike Garner on 17/03/2010
I meet a lot of social media virgins. Some are slightly interested but not enough to get involved, some are very interested but don’t know how to get involved and others who are outwardly hostile and think it’s a load of old bunkum and a passing fad. A constant refrain though is “I don’t have time for social media”.
Well, I’ve got news for you guys. The business relationships are changing and whilst, unlike what many “gurus” might think, social media hasn’t yet taken over the world, it sure ain’t going away.
Social media is networking on a large scale
I do a lot of offline networking, mainly breakfasts but other events as well. It involves me (slowly) building relationships with people who sometimes become clients, sometimes they become friends and sometimes they’re just people to pass the time of day with. I build trust in people by being natural and letting my personality shine through. [click to continue…]
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by Mike Garner on 05/03/2010
There’s been much wringing of hands about the BBC recently. Under pressure from the media, the Opposition and particularly the Murdoch empire, it has felt compelled to publicly wield the axe on some sacrificial lambs, easy targets like the web site, 6music and the Asian Network.
For those that don’t know or live on the other side of the world, 6Music is a music station that supports new music, it doesn’t play the usual pap you here on normal commercial radio and it has no ads so it can afford to be daring.
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by Mike Garner on 04/03/2010
I put my iTunes on random this afternoon as I work on something that is neither interesting or relevant. It played a track from Now We Are Ten, an album celebrating the tenth anniversary of Trunk Records.
Trunk Records
Trunk Records is a one-mand band (excuse the pun) run by Jonny Truck. He rediscovers cult material mainly from the 70s such as the soundtracks to films like Kes, Deep Throat and the Wicker Man. He’s unearthed music from UK television series such as The Tomorrow People, UFO and Vernon Elliot’s wonderful scores to The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and the creepy Pogle’s Wood. He’s also eeked out a nice little sideline in records associated with 60s and 70s pornography such as Deep Throat and Mary Mary Millington Talks Dirty.
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by Mike Garner on 01/03/2010
Whatever you do, wherever you work, sometimes you just need some space to concentrate. It’s not always easy to create that space, mood or whatever you want to call it. This is what I do:
Ignore the door and take the phone off the hook
I know, phones don’t have hooks anymore, you get my meaning, put them on silent or whatever you do.
If you really can’t do without the phone
Your friends can wait a bit, then take all the others according to priority. Answer anyone offering you a big job straight away, the taxman’s place in the queue is way behind your friends.
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by Mike Garner on 28/02/2010
This is a completely subjective list. It features albums that, with one exception, were all made between the mid-seventies and mid-eighties. I’ve been listening to them for years and when I really need to concentrate, I shut the door and put this playlist on. I make no excuse for the fact that it’s exclusively Eno (et frère) and Budd, the two have shaped relax music single-handed in recent years. Most discerning people will already have them or at least know about them. If you don’t, enjoy.
Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno:
Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
The so-called (although not by himself), inventor of ambient music. This album was part of the soundtrack to For All Mankind, a film that documented the Apollo space mission to the moon. The film itself wasn’t released until many years after the album, by which time it had taken on a life of its own. A mixture of styles from the broody, atmospheric beginning to the country-tinged steel guitar of the later tracks, this was the first real ambient album I listened to. Like On Land, it evokes landscapes that are bleak and grey, not just lunar. As good a starting point to ambient music as you’ll get. Especially if you want to clear your head for any reason.
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by Mike Garner on 28/02/2010
I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about Richard Branson who’d been reading his autobiography Losing My Virginity.
We were talking about Branson and the debt he owes to Mike Oldfield. For those that don’t know or weren’t around in 1973, Tubular Bells is a two-part piece (made so by the LP, two-sided format) that takes its queue from a minimalist, repetitive style. Its inspiration however comes from the overlaying of a variety of weird and wonderful instruments from “two slightly, distorted guitars”, “mandolin!”, “Spanish guitar and introducing acoustic guitar” to the eponymous tubular bells all introduced with grandiloquence by the great Viv Stanshall.
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by Mike Garner on 17/02/2010
I get a childish excitement when I discover a new technology. It might have something to do with watching Tomorrow’s World and other new technology programmes when I was a kid. All the cool kids may just think communicating without wires is run of the mill, but I thought it it was pretty good.
When I started translating I didn’t even have a fax machine. I delivered the first few jobs I did to the one local client I had on my bike. It was a good distance away and up and down hills, so at least I got fit. I got a drink when I arrived and sometimes even lunch. It wasn’t however the best and most efficient way of running a business.
In 1998 I bought a modem
I’m not sure whether it was 1200 or 2400 bit/s, but even then, it was an antique. I was however able to send faxes. And receive them. Faxes had been around since the 1970s but these were the first time they had been sent directly to me – sad perhaps. [click to continue…]
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by Mike Garner on 09/02/2010
I gave up on the job I was doing last night at midnight and went to bed, shivering. I haven’t had that feeling for about 10 years and in fact, I don’t do ill. Then I started burning at the same time that I was shivering. Oh dear. The trouble is that your mind starts racing away with all kinds of ideas at that time of night. I had the flu jab in October for the first time in my life. But I didn’t have the swine flu jab! This morning it was worse. Headache, cold sweat, no energy. I had to finish the job (and a horrible one at that), but as soon as I had, I went back to bed with the idea of sleeping it off. A doorbell ringing and a couple of phone calls later, I was beginning to think that was a silly idea.
To be honest, I’ve felt terrible all day. Just in case you’re thinking, this isn’t a case of man ‘flu. I work through that – I can’t afford not to. Which leads me to a question. What do freelancers do when they get sick? Do they get sick any less than anyone else? Do they deserve any sympathy?
Post scriptum: It’s Sunday 14th now and I’m over the bug; the phone did ring a few times and I tried to be as professional as I could (if only they knew I was in bed!), I read a lot, watched a couple of films and reset my body. The world didn’t collapse but I’ve had to work all weekend to catch up.
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by Mike Garner on 04/02/2010
If Erik Satie had been able to use synthesisers, you can’t help thinking he’d have moved to California and been called Harold Budd.
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by Mike Garner on 01/02/2010
I did a silly thing the other day. I accepted a job from a regular client without asking what the subject was. It’s the kind of bread and butter job that translators rely on. 3500 words is not too short and not too long, the kind of stuff that keeps us going. All the PMs in the agency know what I like doing and what I don’t, but for once it was the big boss who called me. Perhaps I was so surprised it was him, I didn’t think to ask. More fool me. When I opened the file, I realised what the subject was. Refrigeration. Oh deep joy. I think I’d rather have my teeth pulled.
Let’s face it, life as a freelancer isn’t always perfect and we all get boring jobs to do from time to time. So how do you manage a day’s work without yawning? [click to continue…]
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I meet a lot of social media virgins. Some are slightly interested but not enough to get involved, some are very interested but don’t know how to get involved and others who are outwardly hostile and think it’s a load of old bunkum and a passing fad. A constant refrain though is “I don’t have time for social media”.
