So long, 2006, you served us well. Yes, in just a few short hours, the time will come for us to start writing the year wrong, as 2007 girds its loins and prepares to pounce and savage. Cue lots of 'hilarity' when writing the dates on magazine job bags, viz "Did you really proof this page a year ago, Chris? My, aren't we working ahead of schedule..." et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. *Sigh*

What's your big hope for the fresh new year, then? Me, I want to get the work/life balance right, whatever that takes. And that's about more than just doing the appropriate number of hours; it's about clearing space in my mind to deal with the minutia of home life as well as being determined to enjoy the time I spend out of the office to the full. I guess that amounts to A Resolution, but since that all sounds a bit hardcore, let's shy away from that definition.

I suspect that 2007 will, too, be the year that my hairline will leap the last few inches back across my shiny pate, exposing a monk-like 'do that must be kept trimmed as short as possible if I'm not to end up looking like a mad physics professor. It'll be the half moon glasses next, and that's the end, really. I wonder if I should register recededhairline.co.uk too?

Lumme and heavens to Betsy all round, eh? Here's what my better half and I think we'll look like in the autumn of our years:

Note that although I'm squinting comically, my myopia and astigmatism appear to be cured. Maybe by the time we're approaching retirement, medical science will have provided me with brand new eyes with 20/20 vision. Maybe the missus is just wearing glasses to Make A Statement.

Happy Noo Year, chickens!

In the drawer of our hotel's bedside table, you find everything the weary traveller/ruthless entrepreneur needs when laying down his weary head: a spiritual and a capitalist bible. Hallelujah!

Otherwise known as 'going home for Christmas', the next fortnight will, I predict, be spent in a welter of free technical support for friends and family. Joy. Many of my tech journalist colleagues have been telling me that when they're prevailed upon to fix computers whenever they visit the Mother Country – or Mother County, as the case may be – they simply tell those involved that they don't know anything about computers, viz "Your PC only connects to the Internet for seven minutes? Wow, that must be annoying." *Silence*. *Turn back to what you were doing*. It takes some cojones (to be pronounced co-jones, like two people from the Jones family working together) to pull off, but it may become necessary.

In other news, we only just got round to putting up a Christmas tree on Friday, He's a pretty, slim thing, though. Witness my wife, stricken with the cold, wrapped up in a voluminous Aran jumper, decorating him.


And here she is again, sitting beside me on the train Oop North. Witness the two laptops sitting in front of us – married people don't talk to each other, dontcherknow; married geeks communicate on ICQ – and marvel at having t'Internet on t'rain. Admittedly it's slower than Connex South Eastern – hey, a gag! – but it's still a great way to while away the long, long train journey...


Merry Midwinter Festival to all, by the way. See you in 2007!

Much excitement at Dennis Towers yesterday, as a power cut left the building dark and eerily silent. Seriously, air conditioning is a spectacularly noisy thing, and when the power died, there was a few seconds of utter quiet as reams of journalists and associated folks stared dumbly at blank screens trying to comprehend the enormity of the event. But while we were all chucked out onto the pavement while the problem was investigated, I was delighted to notice that one of my esteemed colleagues didn't allow the relocation to stop him working. With a PDA glued to his ear and ThinkPad on his lap, the wonderful Timothy had a Duracell moment and just kept on going. Class.


Later in the evening, we decamped to Wax bar for the Dennis Christmas party. The theme was 'movie stars' – at which I pulled off my by now semi-traditional Dr Evil by painting on a scar using liquid latex – and there were predictably a very few good costumes. Some random chap did do a spectacular Child Catcher, but for my money, one of the best cozzies was created by the lovely chaps at PC Pro:


The only problem was that few people at the party had actually seen Being John Malkovich, and so they spent a remarkably large proportion of the evening explaining their costumes to other revellers. Their response – "Malkovich, malkovich, malkovich. Malkovich!" – did nothing to clarify the situation to the bemused party-goers.

The ol' company Christmas Lunch today, which is always fun. Mr Christopher Brennan commuted from Leeds for the event, and it was good to see him; I suspect he may have quickly tired of us asking him what life was like Ooop North ("Grim?"), and how his house was progressing, but he was gallant enough not to show it. Here's a luvverly pic of us troughing at the very lovely La Trouvaille, and there are a few more pics on Flickr.

I want to stay at this hotel. (Once it has been built, obviously.) Read more about it here.

A significant percentage of my job is taken up in attending product briefings, and over the years I've developed this system of techniques to help me get the best from them; I hope they'll help you too.

01 Research Obvious, I know, but you'd be amazed how many 'colleagues' turn up at briefings without knowing the most basic facts, and just embarrass themselves by asking needless, naive questions. Often, you'll have a pretty good idea of the subject of the briefing; you may even be given some information by whoever it was that set up it up with you. If it's on a yet-to-be announced product or service, poke around the Internet – try blogsearch.google.com to see what bloggers say – and find out what the rumours are; this will help keep your questions relevant. Even if you don't know specifically what's to be discussed, familiarise yourself with the company and any existing products in its portfolio.

02 Prepare two good questions It's almost certain that some questions will arise in your mind during the briefing, but it's a good idea to think of couple of relevant queries before it starts. Everyone's familiar with the awkward silence that greets a presenter's optimistic "So, any questions?" so in some senses, you're being polite by asking the first question; others may follow your lead. Just make sure the questions you come up with aren't things you could learn by just looking at the company's website – your initial research should help this stage.

03 The basics Sorry, but: know where you're going – maps.google.co.uk or your local alternative can help – turn up on time, and know who you're meeting.

04 Take notes Good and relevant notes are the obvious outcome from a briefing. Everyone takes notes in their own way; creative types often like mind-maps, some stick to outlines, and yet others like to record the whole thing for later transcription. Me, I like to use the notebook view in Word for Mac. It allows me to record the whole meeting while taking notes in outline view, and as new topics are added, chapter markers are inserted into the audio which means I can easily jump to what was being said as I was writing a particular note. In particular, note down any questions that occur to you; nothing is more frustrating than knowing there was something you were going to ask, but forgetting what it was by the time the Q&A session rolls round.

05 Press packs It's worth taking notes even if some kind of information pack is available, but always check to see if one is; you'll usually find neat summaries of information such as product matrices and pricing, and a press release with quotes from some suitably big cheese in the relevant company.

06 Make yourself known Briefings are often a valuable opportunity to network with senior personnel from the companies you deal with. As well as some of the tips below, one of the best ways of making yourself known is to engage with speakers as they're presenting. Many journalists stare at their pad or look around the room, or worse, chat amongst themselves. You should keep 'offering' to make eye contact with the speaker. Even more effective than this is nodding subtly as the speaker makes points; they'll often actually use questioning intonation (called HRT) or specifically ask for affimation. Your nodding after these 'questions' serves to calm the speaker's nerves, and you'll also find that he or she will increasingly begin speaking directly to you, without ever making a conscious decision so to do. This helps you remain memorable without being too obvious or obnoxious.

07 Follow up on the day Even if you have to dash off after the briefing proper, make the time to chat to the people there representing the company whose briefing it is. Never assume they know who you are; even if you're senior yourself within your organisation, it's only polite not to put the company representatives at a disadvantage; after all, you'll almost certainly have been introduced at least to the speakers. Introduce yourself briefly, and it doesn't hurt to be a little more relaxed at this point. You're reminding the company of your existence, of what you do, and of what you mean to it.

08 Business cards Always carry business cards with you, which should at least include your name, job title, company you yourself represent, and details of a couple of methods of contact. Offer one to each of the relevant people, but remember that this is an important chance to gather contact details yourself. Don't go so far as to withhold your details if the other party won't give you theirs – that would be cutting off your nose to spite your face, never mind rude – but as you're handing yours over, ask for one in return. If getting one particular person's details would be a sufficiently useful coup, and he or she tries to fob you off without parting with their details, a little gentle prompting – "You don't have any cards? Oh, just note your email address down on the back of one of mine." – may be appropriate, but don't make yourself offensive.

09 Take your product along If you're there representing a magazine or newspaper, ensure you have a recent copy of the publication in your bag. That way, not only can you remind people why you're there and who you represent, but you can remind them what values your publication stands for, and if necessary point out specific sections or examples to illustrate these. The same point broadly applies outside the media industry; you may get into a discussion with people and wish you could show them the product you represent, and if you don't have one with you, you're missing an opportunity. It should go without saying that you should never hijack someone else's briefing, but it pays to be prepared.

10 Follow up back at the office Once you're back at your desk, drop a note of thanks to whoever arranged the meeting, thanking them for the opportunity and asking that they invite you to subsequent briefings. Email those who gave the presentation too, thanking them for their time, and asking any questions you didn't get a chance to put to them during the briefing. Ensure this email contains your full contact details in the signature, and consider attaching an electronic address card such as a vCard.

Do you have your own tips for getting the best from product briefings? Take issue with anything I've said? Please let me know in the comments.

Add to: Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit |  Furl

I was rooting through the photos on my phone the other day and came across this one. The smoking of cigars is a pleasingly complex and time-consuming business, but I'm delighted to see that my other half has mastered the art. Note to other wannabe aficionados: this is the only accepted facial expression one should affect while puffing on a fine Montecristo*.

In other news, we've had a fun day, having lunch with Wife's boss-lady, an afternoon at the pictures, some picture-taking, and a very relaxing evening watching programmes recorded over the last couple of days, culminating in the 90s-fest that is the very excellent So I Married An Axe Murderer.

* If anyone ever wants to buy me A Nice Thing for fixing their computer or whatevah, one of these babies will suit the bill nicely, thank-you-very-much-for-asking.

It's the season of Christmas parties, and it's quite normal for there to be several on one night. Last night, though, was Canon. It's one I look forward to, and it's always a fun night. I'm obviously not alone, and we can see documentary evidence of this in the expression of some of my esteemed colleages. Exhibit 1, ladies and gennelmen:


“I've only had a glass!” (Tragically, quite true.)


Groucho Marx meets Captain Birdseye: A new way to 'smoke' fish.


Random lunacy; it's getting late...

An impromptu design lesson today, kidlets. Stop bullying the smelly kid. Listen up.

We're recording the excellent Simon Schama's Power of Art series for my better half to use in her teaching of secondary school art. I trimmed and burned a couple of episodes onto DVD today (the technology side of this deserves another post all its own, but I must focus...) but felt that a felt-tip scrawl on the case would do the content an injustice. So I knocked up a couple of quick covers for the CD-sized jewel cases, and I thought I'd take you through my thoughts so you can see the design process in action.

The key here was simplicity; I didn't want to spend hours on this – the design stage ended up taking less than a quarter of an hour – but I wanted the designs to look bold and strong. Obviously, I was lucky; I had powerful images to hand – the paintings of the artists concerned – but the same technique would work well with well-shot, simple photographs, perhaps with the saturation and contrast bumped up a litle. This meant a basic, typographic solution. The image is the most important thing – it's the most obvious change from DVD to DVD, and is therefore the thing people will 'see' the most clearly when reaching for a specific episode – so rather than box it out or frame it on a white background, I placed it full-frame on the square cover.



The typography should therefore be very bold as it has to sit on top of what could be a very busy graphic. I plumped for Rockwell Bold in this case as it has a nice mix of traditional – with those blocky slab serifs – and contemporary, but anything chunky such as Futura, or Myriad if you wanted something a little less masculine, would work well. Because it's so brawny, the text can be reversed out to white.

To create a visual hierarchy, I knocked the series title back to 60% transparency, and kept the artist's name at 100% opacity; again, it's the differentiator, so it's important it's easy to read. I tightened the leading – the space between the lines – to create a nice solid block of type. Finally, the decision on where to place the text. Bumping the text up to 36pt keeps it nice and legible, and means that the decision on placing the text is restricted to one axis, vertical. That's easy, then. Following the rule of thirds, we simply decide whether to place the text a third of the from the top or the bottom of the image. Ultimately, I just plumped for one option on gut instinct; it seemed to fit better with the images I'd be using. Here's the result:



It's not perfect – it could maybe use a little keyline round the text or a moderately sharp drop-shadow – but for less than 15 minutes' work, I'm happy with them. I hope this has helped you understand the design process behind this deceptively simple design, and that it could help you in your own projects.

If I had been designing for the portrait-format true DVD-style cases, here's how they'd have turned out:



Add to: Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit |  Furl

A moment, please, for the acting giant, Christopher Atkins. My wife and I have just finished watching The Blue Lagoon (billed as Passionate drama with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins as adolescents who must become self-sufficient on a desert island – and deal with their burgeoning sexuality, so we were intrigued), and it introduced us to this most entertaining of actors. He's an exponent of the 'wide waving arms = an accurate facsimile of emotion' school of acting. Here, for example, he's mid-strop, listing all the things that are annoying him about his cousin Emmeline:



A few scenes later, and we see him mocking her pubescent body. All together now: "I've got a luvverly bunch of coconuts, [Da-na-na-ner-na], There they are standing in a row..."



The director is also rather fond of showing the young Atkins and his co-star Brooke Shields in the buff. Like, yer actual buff, not just artfully placed fern fronds and loin cloths. It all seems to be amazingly innocent, and the actors are remarkably mature in their handling of the nudity and sex scenes. In the spirit of keeping this blog family-friendly, the furthest I'll go is this grab, but you get the, er, point.



At only one point does the film get a bit hackneyed, and it's at the point apparently when Emmeline's sexuality awakes. Now, I never passed through puberty as a teenage girl, so perhaps female readers could enlighten me; do highlights on water turn neon blue?



Of course, they're marooned on a desert island, two randy teenagers, so they're soon bonking away merrily. It's a most entertaining film; partly because of the calibre of the acting – though an early near-cameo from one of my heroes Leo McKern does up the average ability quite a whack – but also for the slightly spacey plot and increasingly surprising naïveté. Now I just need to track down the 1923 and 1949 originals, the 1991 sequel starring the rather lovely Milla Jovovich, and the 1908 novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole wot started it all, and my emotional education will be complete.