NORTHERN PLANNER

Rob reckons I should post about being grumpy. That won’t be too difficult since I’m facing a 200 mile round trip on the M1 tomorrow (one of the UK’s most annoying motorways).

Speaking of motorways and driving, it’s not uncommon for people in the UK to moan about speed cameras. Actually  I think it’s OK to encourage us to drive more slower – but what gets me is that they’re a bit unnecessary.If the people that make the road laws really cared about making us drive slower, why don’t they just enforce speed limiters on every car? What am I missing?

Which brings me to another point – emmisions and the future oil shortages.

The faster you go, the more miles per gallon you do – which means more emmisions and using up our oil quicker than we need. Taxes on gas guzzlers and 4×4 cars are all well and good (they wind me up too by the way) but if they really cared about the environment, again, speed limiters might be a start.

Just saying. Tell me I’m being stupid.

It would seem that I have nothing much to post about. I find this troubling –  am I so dull I can’t find a single interesting to talk about? Hope not – I just can’t seem to get into writing about anything much. The come down from sausage action maybe?

Should I be bothered? I remember Helen talking about blog neurosis and worrying about not posting much – which  it made it even worse( and take a look at her thoughts on qual research if you have a minute). So I won’t worry. Which reminds me about the joys of admitting you can’t do everything….

It’s hard living up to false expectations – those others set, but yours too. When you leave it to others to be perfect,  life gets a lot less stressful. I gave up trying to be half decent at football a long time ago, now I just enjoy playing. Scoring a goal means more to me than Nick or Stu for example.

That doesn’t mean not trying, just  picking the right challenges. Right now, that means blogging about something remotely interesting. Here’s hoping.

The first cup of the day is always the best (and must be made in a warmed pot).

In my dark past as an account handler, being a bit shy didn’t make life easy. Agencies, and client teams for that matter, are full of people with lots to say, and the confidence to say them. Getting a word in was difficult, but it showed that a few well chosen words can work far better than a commanding presence, and people are more likely to listen if you let them speak first.

It’s certainly helped life as planner. No one is going to want you in the room if they think they’ll have to fight to get their point accross, and being patient enough to let everyone exhaust all their points and weighing in at the end with a few simple, well chosen words makes life far easier for people like me who don’t really set a room on fire.

Since the only formal training I have as planner is a few APG courses, it’s no wonder I’m a fan of learning by doing. But is this always a good thing?

I saw this big bloke the gymn the other day, trying to do sit ups completely the wrong way (and don’t get me started on the futility of sit-ups in the first place). The staff were busy doing nothing as usual, but I didn’t want to interfere.

Was I right to let him get on with it and learn the hard way? Would he have welcomed some quick tips to save a stiff neck and a sore back? Failing well is important, but is it always okay to sit back and not help?

I remember reading about Jonny Hornby’s secret of success – "Surround yourself with people cleverer than you" –  whichis why I try and work with JamesB as often as possible.  We met for coffee yesterday, officially for a debrief on some research but also to pick his brains.

He’s let me borrow Emergence, by Steven Johnson, which I’ve only just started, but it’s already absorbing. The basis of the book is how change can occur from the bottom up, collective intelligence with no one actually in charge. In the intro, there’s a story of bioligists unable to explain the behaviour of organic slime until they got help from someone able to do complex mathematics.

I like the way it shows how two apparently unrelated specialisms came together to solve the problem, how the solution to a biology problem was actually maths. Jonny Hornby’s got a point no?

I made a tragic mistake on Friday. The motorway wasn’t moving at all, so I took one of those ‘short cuts’ only to find the traffic even worse – making it even longer to get home than it would if I’d stuck with the original route.

Funny how we’ll take the most convoluted routes just to feel like we’re moving. It’s as pointless as those road hogs that sceam past, only to find you next to them at the traffic lights two minutes later.

No posting today. Not only is being a one man department taking it’s toll today, I’m sulking about the sausage fit-up. See you tomorrow.

46 million Americans do not have health insurance. Let’s hope for their sake they didn’t vote for US bacon…..

Seeing proper bacon lose to sausage was bad enough. Seeing sausage then lose to dreadful, streaky US bacon is just a little bit too much to bear.

We fought a great battle, but somehow it wasn’t enough. Mortimer suspects some foul play, is Jeb Bush the adjuticator by any chance? I’ve thought hard about what to do next. Am I going to ignore the calls for revenge? Am I going to grown up about it? Am I hell.