A Kiwi in NYC

rain,mad,train,ny,scarsdale,hartsdale,people,diamond,coal

Today was the first real rainy day since moving to Westchester County. We have had our ups and downs through the move, and now the weather is starting to cut in too. Normally, when a train arrives the small pond of people collected at the fixed points where the doors open, all begin to contract their personal space and sardine into as small an area as possible. You feel like the world is closing in on you. Then, without pretense, as the doors open, everyone becomes an arrogant New Yorker. Pushing, shoving, moving, groping their way to be next onto the train, to angle for their perfect seat. The glares if you take someones seat … oi! Once, people are in … silence descends and the first stanzal from Mad Mad World by Michael Andres and Gary Jules occurs to me …

All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for their daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up theior glasses, no expression, no expression

Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow, no tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad

The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had

I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take

When people run in cirlces its a … mad world … mad world

Now, on top of this, imagine everyone has an umbrella. Golf umbrellas, purse umbrellas, superior feeling w@nkers in North Face Rain coats AND umbrellas. The logistics of pissed off, wet New Yorkers crushing a train door are frightening. I believe that if I held a lump of coal on my way in, it might turn into a diamond through the pressure of bodies and egos during this kind of event!

Well, the good news is that the family and I are off to Cape Cod tomorrow. The pictures and plans remind me a lot of the southern New Zealand coastline, I can’t wait to get to a beach where we don’t have to pay, and a small motel that serves breakfast can be our hub for summer fun! I have a long day of meetings and documents to write, but once tonight rolls around, roll on summer long weekends!

P.S: So, after searching for a good video of Mad World, I cam across this version … maybe this is a little more apropos … enjoy …

nyc,people,relationships,choice,malaysia,indonesia,jakarta,kuala lumur

I am seriously considering getting Lasik. Now I am running and swimming and playing with the kids all the time, glasses are a real pain. I went to the top clinic in NYC last week (and as an aside mesmerized by the gorgeous Dominican opthamology consultant). The procedure is simple, quick, and heals quickly. Many of my friends have had it done, and swear by the freedom and new sense of place in the world (seriously) that they have when they wake up in the morning and can read the alarm clock without moving closer and squinting. The procedure is not cheap, but well within our means. But, this is irreversible, you only get one set of eyes … still I think I will do it … freedom from the tyranny of glasses … it’s like a dream come true.

One of the many things that i love and hate about New York city is the mass illusion of choice. The concentration of millions of people into huge vertical towers creates a density of people that I have never really thought about. Statistics tells us that you are much more likely to see the person you are most attracted to in a place like New York city as opposed to say, Dunedin, New Zealand. Of course attraction and love are two very different things. One of the things I love about NYC is that I fall into that state of attraction on an almost minutely basis (not really sure thats a word, but you get the idea). The sheer number of different kinds of people: shapes, colors, accents, smiles … it’s truly mesmerizing.

At the end of this week, I will be taking the family on our first foray into the North East of America. We’ll be spending a long weekend up on Cape Cod. To begin with this is just us getting a lay of the land, before we plan something more significant. I am excited, we are going to drop in to Boston to visit some of Sharine’s friends and maybe get a chance to drop by some of my friends too.

In other news, as part of a large piece of work we just won here in NY I will be traveling to Malaysia and Indonesia within the next 3 weeks. I will have 3 days in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia working with my business clients and then spend 2 days in Jakarta, Indonesia, closer to the business end of the business. I am kind of torn about this. The company strategy setting meeting is in Toronto at the same time. I want to participate, but our client wants me in KL and Jakarta. What should I do? Secure the future of technology at my company or satisfy the client, without which they probably can’t justify any significant technology investment at all. Life is never simple is it?

Here’s is a post from our corporate blog, Threeminds, about a neat new experience: NikeiD. I work for an interactive agency and the world is changing. In the early days advertizing was driven by the BIG idea. That idea was often a single creative gem, a line of copy, a visual, a piece of motion, a joke, or metaphor (just watch AMC’s Madmen for some great history on Advertizing). So Madison Avenue and the associated big advertizing agencies revolve around this concept. But with the shifting demographics, with the change in the design literacy of the target population these companies need to evolve. Kids nowdays coming out of university are completly computer literate, they appreciate good design, they think holistically, and they are hardly ever duped by a simple joke or marketing message. To them the overall experience and its manifestation across channels might tip them towards a product, but good design is the killer function. Interactive agencies like ours focus on the experience not the idea. While the idea and concept is important, how it manifests itself into the experience is the key. The NikeiD idea is fantastic, match the shoes to the look. It’s simple, effective, personal, cross-channel, and will become table stakes for retail companies in the next year or two. This is why I love my job!

jeans,shopping,nice jeans,fitness,shape,diet,exercise

Ah the Levi’s 501. The iconic jean. The one piece of clothing I have lusted after since high school. The one piece of clothing I could never fit into. Even after my crazy running binge prior to the High School Formal at Otago Boys. Even after running half-marathons I was unable to really fit into a pair of 501s. So imagine my surprise when this weekend, I tried a pair on for giggles and discovered … they fit. They fit well, they aren’t tight, but they make me look like a rock star (well, I might be exaggerating there, but I have received many compliments on them and me after wearing them ).

So to what do I attribute my new 501′d shape? Maybe Levi’s like all other clothing sizes are getting bigger to keep pace with the expanding waistlines of the first world? Maybe my change in diet/portion size and my run 3-4 days a week regime really is fundamentally chaning the way I am. I feel grumpy when I don’t run. I feel grumpy when I eat too much. Maybe things really are changing.

The big challenge is that I signed up for the Nike Human Race. A Global race where millions of runners from around the world will all run a 10k at the same time. Syncronized by starters in major cities, or doe independantly through your Nike+ enabled running shoes. A bunch of my NY friends will also be running the race (probably) so it’s going to be fun. I want to beat my last 10k time of just on an hour. I had more than 200 miles on my last pair of Asics Kayanos and I literally bought a pair of Nike Structure Triax 11’s just for the race. Its my first pair of non-Asics running shoes in a long time. They were a great deal and got a good runners world review. So far they’ve been great.

However, 2 weeks ago I rode my bike for the first time, scouting a 5 mile loop at breakneck speed. I don’t think I stretched properly, and ever since my left calf muscle has begun to ache. Right at the top of the muscle, it doesn’t hurt when I run, it hurts afterwards. So I took 9 days off running last week (with associated grumpiness). Yesterday, in Detroit I went for a 4 mile loop through Birmingham, MI. It was pretty, hot, beautiful houses, I stretched and ran like the wind. Then after the shower, bam, my calf is in pain again. I am really worried that this means a month off recuperating. That would mean that I will need to find another cardio way to stay in shape without hurting my calf. Grrrrrrrrr, making me even grumpier!

apple,mac,fanboy,pc,windows,transition

So at risk of sounding like the latest Apple fanboy (aren’t there enough of those already?) I wanted to talk about my transition to Mac and how that has been for me. The biggest thing for me (beyond learning some new hot keys and slightly different interfaces) has been the small touches in the hardware design and how it works with the OS and software. Here’s my hot list:

• An indicator light on the power plug that goes into the machine, not on the power brick. No need to lean down under a cafe table to see if its plugged in.
• The magnetic connector for the power cable, meaning that if Hunter runs over the cord, it won’t neccessarily pull the laptop onto the ground
• As I type this (like literally RIGHT NOW) I am coming into a tunnel, the keyboard on my new MacBookPro lights up, so I can see the keys in the dark. My windows phone does that too, if it’s OS isn’t too busy. WIth the Mac its a hardware sensor, tied to the OS softkeys. They always work. The screen also dims as it is easier to see under the tunnel.
• When I close the lid of the Mac it goes to sleep, quickly, quietly, and the as running don’t care. When I open it, ping it is back up in seconds not minutes. All the PC laptops (Vista and XP) I have had, ever, have taken MINUTES to perform this function. When the PC came back from sleep or hibernate or power down, the apps were typically not happy.
• The screen animates and slides around. Not in a way that is distracting (like Vista, which seems to use transparency for transarencies sake) but in a way that leaves subtle visual cues about how to manipulate the desktop, windows, icons and software.
• Keyboard shortcuts are pretty close between most programs (even the Adobe suit).
• There is one place for preferences not "maybe in the edit menu", "maybe in the file menu", "maybe in the tool menus" like it is on the PC.

But most of all, for most tasks it just works. I hate to sound cliche, but it has been an easy transition to make. On the flip side, my mac does mysteriously lock up occasionally (no blue screen, just stopped). Some of the compatability with things like Exchange is also troublesome. My VPN drops connections when my mail client sends some messages, but all in all it’s more stable, quicker to boot, restart, sleep, and come back, and a really nice experience.

I heart Steve & Mac

people,ny,class,places

Last night I broke our internet connection. Again. I literally spent 2 hours rebooting routers, setting IP addresses, debugging clashing DHCP ranges, and making sure I was not double firewalling or impeding traffic to machines in my home network. It was exhilarating, it’s been a while since I did any real networking, it works, and I have mega-squodgies of bandwidth to all devices in my home network (there are 4 devices, 2 of them routers) But consequently I was up late, eating badly (beer and crisps) and this morning was a drag. Felt like it used to feel in DC: long commute home with the rabble, kids to bed, dinner, a beer, 30 minute TV show with the wife, working, working late, sleeping late, dragging my arse outta bed, then rinse and repeat.

I noticed an interesting thing, that in DC didn’t bother me: the people who ride the subway are still the middle of the curve. When you are in New York City the curve is very different to the DC curve. i am working for client who have personal fortunes in the billions. Waaaaay different. The median is way higher, the ends of the curve are also significantly more sigma from the middle. And yet, amongst all the lawyers, doctors, consultants, and other pleebs at the Hartsdale train station, there we all are: middle of the curve. We can’t afford to live, really live, in the city. Many of them, I am sure, have settled for this suburban life. Am I really comfortable with my suburban life? Boy I love hanging out with my kids, living vicariously throgh them. I love meeting new people and learning a new area. I love the inevitable "sorting out" of all the crap you cart around with you (I think I’m a closet pack rat, thanks mum!). But why does this feel like DC already?

drunk,blogging,text,late,night,work,love,life

I am completely enshrouded in polished Metro-North naugahide. I m on the late train: 12.30pm from Grand Central to Hartsdale with stops in basically every place between here and there. It’s midnight, many of my NY friends are busy working out what to do next: Lower East Side, clubs, bars, dancing, drinks, some even have hotel rooms for the night. I am finding my way to the train. I have a 45 minute train ride to the burbs. Then a 20 minute walk home, at pace. Working off my calories. Tiring myself out. Hoping my kids sleep in a little tomorrow. I must remember I am not 27, I’m 37, and married with kids.

This weekend is a big weekend, if Hunter has been good all week he gets a new bike, with bigger wheels (16&quot and a lot more power and control. I’m excited, he’s excited, we all hope this works out.

Sunday is (apparently) fathers day. I have no idea what the family plans for the day, but I am looking forward to a day off. Work is getting nuts which is why I am unsure about the fathers day thing and we just won two big deals and I need to get the right people at the right time. Know anyone? Join us!

daniel pink,johnnie bunko,careers,mentoring,planning,guide

So I am sure that many of you who follow the blog-o-sphere have heard of the new Daniel Pink book and website entitled "Johnnie Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need". Given where I am in my career and the impending career development sessions at my company I thought it’d be a good thing to pick up and see what these crazy kids are reading about careers now. It has been an interesting read.

First of all the book is written manga style (it’s a cartoon), seriously, manga style and surprisingly it works. It’s both funny and entertaining and informative. The cartoonish style points to a not quite serious, but this really does happen kind of feel. The archetypes in the book are real enough, and while it’s not quite Scott Adams things certainly do look bleak at the beginning.

So, on to the content of the book. Daniel Pink’s advice can be summarized into 6 major points (all written on a white board in the story by the traditional manga elf-chick). For those with no patience or an inability to parse comics here they are:

1. There is no plan
2. Build on your strengths
3. It’s not about you
4. Make excellent mistakes
5. Persistence wins over talent
6. Leave an imprint

These see anathema to te traditional career planning but when taken together they actually look like they fit rather well into my long term career path. I’ll take a look at each one in turn just to see how they fit in with my career. Let’s start with There is no plan. Wow, this one hits home for me. When I left university in New Zealand, there certainly wasn’t a plan. Back then, there was no plan to not have a plan, and I recall talking with my poppa (grandfather) about it. He advised me to look for a good size company I could ride through my career in. My father on the other hand recommended starting your own thing. At the time both items appeared to be sage advice, so I did neither and embarked on a career in software engineering with a a small startup and then movies and television with the only "cool" employer in Dunedin.

The second point is build on your strengths which is interesting. A lot of people forcus on performance: get better at this, be better at that, set up goals to improve wossit. Why not just focus on the things you are good at. What is that for me? Not sure but I would say: technology, relationships, mentoring, big picture thinking, diagramming. What would you say?

The thirdpoint it’s not about you I learnt and re-learnt at several points in my career. I recall workign on a project for a big narsty telecommunications client. Killing a team, trying to satisfy client’s ever changing requirements, desperately trying to get the account lead to push back. After days of explaining how the team couldn’t possible stand any more change it finally dawned on me: I needed to describe the impact of change not on the team or myself but on the client.

Now on to make excellent mistakes, which is one I struggle with. But in retrospect, I have made plenty of excellent mistakes. Career path choices, technology choices, team member choices. I think the key to this one is to not forget the things you’ve learnt. Making excellent mistakes is a great way to accelerate learning, but re-making them is a way to long term failure!

Now persistence wins over talent points to the need to keep focused on your goal in spite of significant odds. I think the most important lesson from my career here came from the Federal Government. After the departure of my key client and CIO, somoen I was close to and had worked with for a long time the entire agency it seemed tried to go after me and my team. At this point, many folks advised me to give up, there was no way to survive this kind of account upset. My persistence and willingness to hang in through the tough times because I was leaving an imprint: chaning the way the fed gov delivered software applications. We continned with this client and grew it from a few million into a multi-million dollar account.

And finaly, leaving an imprint is the final step. As Mr. Pink ("I don’t wanna be Mr Pink&quot points out, this is not about solving world hunger or peace, but about leaving behind things you are proud of and things that others recognize. I feel like I have left a lasting imprint on those I have lived with, worked with, worked for, loved, and sometimes left. I feel like I am doing this every day.

So despite my initial reaction to the form factor and apparent cheesiness of the advice, it actually maps rather well to my career path and my goals. With my recent move out of the left-brained consulting world into the right-brain empathy driven design world, I think these kinds of goal posts are incredibly relevant. Buy it, read it, digest it, see where it takes you …

When I first came to the US, Best Buy, Comp USA, and Circuit City were like nerd heaven for me. Quickly, I settled on a favorite: Best Buy. It “felt” more approachable, the Circuit City and Comp USA sales people were just that sales people. Commission based and annoying. Over the last few years, I’ve grown to like the new look Circuit City, they seemed to have gotten rid of the annoying sales people, and they have had some great deals.

Sotoday was the most annoying online/offline sales experience I have ever had at Circuit City. So I go online, looking for a high gain wifi antenna to try to lessen the dead spots in our new house (before trying a powered range booster that is). Online I see a “pick up at the store in 24 minutes or you get a free $24 gift card” promotion. Being a good online/offline experience researcher (and never one to pass up a marketing deal *gack*) I decide to try it out. What could be simpler, my expectation was I would buy online, and pick up quickly in the store, soooo simple right? WRONG!

Once I compelted the checkout, I got no confirmation, just a bizrate thingy, which I closed. The online experience said: unable to display confirmation, check your email. Which I did. Gave it 5 minutes, no email so i just went to the store. When I got there, the dude looks at me like I’m a martian. Then asks to swipe my credit card. Here’s how it all went down:

• Me: “But wait, I already paid”
• Sales minion: “Yeah, but I have to validate that its you”
• me: “Oh it’s me, I have the email and confirmation number right here …”
• Sales doofus: “Yeah, thats not enough, I need to swipe it”
• Me: “So I’m not getting charged again right?”
• Sales knucklehead: “No, no you’ve already paid”
• Me: “So tell me again why I have to swipe”
• Sales wonk: “So I know its you”
• Me: “Ok, fine, swipe my card”
• Sales numb nuts: “Thanks you sir, now I’ll need to see a photo ID”
• Me: “But you’ve already got my money, and re-swiped my card, why do need a photo ID?”
• Sales nincompoop: “I need to make sure you are the owner of the credit card”
• Me: “Oh surely you jest, this is candid camera right/”
• Sales idiot: “What’s candid camera?”
• Me: “Ok, ok, I give in here’s my photo ID”
• Sales moron: “Thank you sir, please sign here”
• Me: “Wait, wait, wait WTF is this? Why am I signing? You already have my money (from 30 minutes ago online), you’ve swiped my card, and validated my photo ID, why do I have to sign?”
• Sales monkey: “To acknowledge receipt of the item”
• Me: “Wait, wait, wait, you’re not charging me TWICE for this are you?”
• Sales flunky: “No of course not sir.”
• Me: “So it would have been quicker for me to come to the store, find the item, and check out the regular way rather than this”
• Sales cone head: “Well sir, I did go and get the item for you, so I guess I saved you some time”
• Me: “Ok, I guess, I’d like a copy of the signed receipt please to make sure you don’t charge me twice”
• Sales f*ckwit: “Oh I can’t give you a copy of the signed thing, its in the computer
• Me, infuriated: “Give me the item, god bye, I won’t be buying anything from Circuit City again”
• Sales baboon: “Have a nice day”

At which point I went to leave, with my receipt and bagged item, only to be stopped by the guy at the door who wanted to check my receipt because “He didn’t see me come from a register”. Oh my god, this has to be the worst online/offline experience I have ever had. No benefit from the online ordering, more complicated than a regular checkout process, and a bunch of idiots manning the store.

donnie,darko,movie,music,epiphany

So one of the other amazing things that happened over my few months of living in NYC prior to my family joining me was a redicsovery of music and movies that I had competely missed out on. Once my kids were born, a focus on Dr Seuss and Blues Clues pervaded almost every waking moment with the kids. With work being what it was, any other time I had was focused on work. With some time to myself in NYC, I rediscovered (thanks to a few good friends) a whole swath of movies and music that I had missed out on.

I rediscovered my love of new and interesting music, only to discover that I used to get new music injections from *cough* radio (sure college alternative radio, but radio none the less). Now with the interwebs, how was I to find those I trusted to curate the creative influx of music? I tried Pandora and Last.FM but neither really satisfied my needs. I tried iLike, but didn’t have a critical mass of friends using any of these services. I have also been recently browsing muxtape, it’s great but its very random. That led me to iTunes itself and it’s "essentials" compilations . Some of those play lists are GREAT! I highly recommend the Indie Chillout essentials mixes. Finally, a "simple" way to get an injection of fresh music, moods, and ideas!

But what really knocked me for a loop was sitting up late one night watching Donnie Darko with a good friend. OMG. How could I have missed this movie? How could I not know the music. The tracks Mad mad world covered by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules and the use of "love will tear us apart" by Joy Division was so incredible brought me back to high school (the song was huge in NZ!) … the emotional landscape this movie evoked was beyond words. I highly recommend it to anyone, it’s building intensity, odd creepiness, feeling of impending something, and fantastically believable characters had me hooked from the get go.

I realized I had missed out on about 6 years of the kinds of movies that I loved. I have some catching up to do … what can you recommend in the same genre that I might have missed in the last few years? Let me know …