Too much of a good thing

I bet this rings a bell for many people: It’s a gazillion degrees in my house right now, but I can’t figure out the thermostat controls, so the heat’s still on and the air conditioning unreachable. My new Denon receiver/tuner sounds amazing–good thing I’m using it mostly with my iPod; I have no clue how […]

Flickr Pro gifts

I have two Flickr Pro accounts to give away. $24.95 value each. Deadline is 6pm CET tomorrow, 30 June. I’d be happy to give them to the first two people who email me with the correct answer to this question: Which bank has 120 internal blogs? The answer is here in this blog! Final decision […]

Safe and back in Amsterdam

A quick post – just arrived back in Amsterdam. I am amazed by the over 20 emails and more than a dozen voicemails I’m picking up now from family, friends and concerned readers asking if I’m ok. Thank you, everyone. Yes, I am! I’ve been in London over the past two days. Caught up in […]

Can you help a PR colleague in the USA?

This is a sad tale which I’m posting in the hope that a reader might know how to help. From O’Dwyer’s via Jeremy Pepper: Liver Transplant is Needed Shari Kurzrok, a 31-year-old VP at Ogilvy PR Worldwide, will die within days if she does not receive a liver transplant. She was admitted to New York […]

Shari Kurzrok still needs help

Some weeks ago, I posted an appeal for help regarding Shari Kurzrok, a PR professional in the US who urgently needs a liver transplant. PR bloggers throughout the global PR community posted similar appeals. What’s been happening in the ensuing three weeks? A post yesterday on the Help Shari Kurzrok blog says that her life-threatening […]

A bit out of balance

Little time this week for posting commentaries to this blog, sorry to say. Trying to balance business and home life is always tricky and especially so this week. Something had to give and my blog was it. A semblance of usual service will resume at the weekend, and fully back up to speed early next […]

An alternative to email catchup

Light posting ahead until the weekend as I’ll be travelling, meetings, etc. Then, a massive email and post-comments catchup. Do I really mean "catchup"? Comments to blog posts, definitely, but email? My email inbox looks truly horrendous. Boy, do I identify with this: […] My email inbox is totally out of control, with more than […]

No more email guilt

BBC News: Live8 organiser Bob Geldof has revealed his contempt for e-mails, blaming them for tying up people’s time and stopping genuine action. Mr Geldof told a conference in London that e-mails “give a feeling of action, which is a mistake”. Here’s the best bit: […] He told delegates that what workers achieve each day […]

Keep cool with egoSurf

Via Steve Rubel, news of egoSurf, a tool that searches Google and other engines against your name and blog or website, and calculates your ego ranking. Naturally, I gave it a go. it says my ego ranking is 11,845. Is that good? Can I exchange those points for a free flight to New York? That […]

Listen to your hard drive and weep

Weird noises from your hard drive and you’re not sure what they mean? Well, you know they mean something bad is undoubtedly about to happen, but how do you find out what, exactly? Go to this Hitachi page and check out the .wav recordings there of various noises you might hear that likely indicate a […]

If I were an architect

If I were an architect, I wonder what my critical eye might make of the design of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, through which I travelled yesterday. It’s one of the ugliest airports I’ve ever been to, a sprawling mass of bare concrete that evokes an absolute air of coldness. As you ride the […]

Under the weather

‘Knocked for six’ could be another idiomatic way of describing my state of being this past two days. Since returning from the Manchester conference midweek, I’ve been out of action with a malaise that kept me firmly in bed until today. Burning the candle at both ends is unquestionably the reason. So after two days […]