All the proper photographers I know are on Flickr. Me, I’ve got 1450 images and videos there. I get a free Pro account though my *cough* marvellous ISP – with this, I can upload all the photos I like at full resolution – making it my online backup for photos I want to keep safe forever more.

But – I’ve been messing with something I shouldn’t have been messing with. Instagram photos ran through my Twitter stream, with a 70s-hued-glow array of cats, sunsets and food (ref: @textinstagram). Without having actually used it, I’d always scorned Instagram’s hipster filters and iOS-only elitism. Bah. Humbug, etc.

Still, when the Android app was released, I signed up (ahem) out of curiosity. And saw what all the fuss was about – the mobile app is marvellous. A never ending stream of creativity from people you know, with basic but easy to use social features is a wonderful thing to have at your fingertips.

Photography-wise, I don’t like the filters – they seem a bit knowing, self-conscious or just plain hipster-ish to me. The ‘square frame’ limitation is a pain and explains why so many Instagram photos are close ups of whatever’s to hand. I’m getting my head around the fact Instagram is MOBILE ONLY – the web presence is spartan like an Australian’s capacity to understand jandal-situation-appropriateness, but everyone seems pretty comfortable with it.

Where I’m at now is this:

• Flickr is my home for photos (and videos) of the kids, photos taken on my ‘proper’ cameras and photos I generally want to keep and back up online in one place. That includes non-Instagram pictures taken on my phone, ‘nicer ones’ I guess
• Instagram is my home for everyday photos, ones I care less about (if you get me), but want to share on the internet. The mobile internet, anyway. It IS fun, for sure

I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into Flickr, am proud of my little collection and the story it tells about my little family (my kids’ photos are behind a security layer, sorry!). Where Instagram has turned my head is its tremendous mobile app and associated ease of sharing. When Flickr’s own mobile app, which is sadly lacking, catches up, it may be able to compete, if it can get all those hipsters to use the same photo service their Dad does.

Update – just found this today: How Yahoo killed Flickr

The crowd had that friendly / awkward vibe of people who talk all day on the internet meeting each other in real life, maybe even for the first time. That vibe is a wonderful vibe, team – online communities are stronger communities when everyone gets together for a beer and a yarn face to face every one in a while. Wellington does this really well. The SMC Hamilton committee deserve a lot of credit for making the event happen – it was well attended, and the venue really worked for them. It’s off to a great start.

I did my little spiel on Telecom and social media, looking at the who, where and why of it, the importance of *listening* and what we do when it all turns to custard. Luckily, no-one obviously fell asleep and there were some great questions. I thoroughly enjoyed telling our story, chatting to some new faces, meeting legendary fishermen and having me mum along to hear wot her eldest does over on the dark side (!).

If you are a Hamilton or Waikato resident, I highly recommend making the effort to get along – like I say, I’m sure future events will be a great success. As in the rugby, Hamilton has it all over Auckland at the moment, SMC wise. Ahem.

Doing my best Mr Burns impression at SMC Hamilton. Photo credit: Innes Fisher.

Do you have ROI goals or targets to meet, and if so how do you define them?

No formal ROI targets have been set yet. We feel our level of investment has paid off so far in reputation and issue management terms, everything else is a bonus. That’s not to say this won’t change in the future.

You can read the whole thing here. It’s kind of like having a coffee with me, but on the internet, and slower.

My first post reviews Paneton Bakery: “All rolls and baps are well sized with generous fillings and go for around $6-7, a price that makes non-Aucklanders spit out their roll-up and shout “HOW MUCH?”, but makes Aucklanders say “Mmmm, that’s pretty reasonable for a roll these days”.

Look for more coming up, over there. The site is ‘curating’ an Auckland Burger Power Rating chart, I am looking forward to rating some burgers powerfully.

The steak at Toto, a god among lunches

PS the Corporate Lunchbox has the best rate card in the business.

Only you and your sense of self worth can decide that of course, but I bet I wasn’t the only one dialling up the Herald stories on the bus to see if their undiscovered genius had been validated by the paper with the sharks on it.

Yes, some of the people on the lists deserved to be on a list, some didn’t, and some people who should have been there weren’t. No shit. And surely trying to put a rank or value on the community, comedy and creativity we Kiwis produce 140 characters at a time every single day misses the point of Twitter itself.

Anyway. Part of the fun of Twitter is figuring out how it works and who to follow. I can highly recommend the people I like to talk to on Twitter, both the ones that are on the Herald’s lists and the ones that aren’t. Me, I like my Twitter stupid, and in the interests of drawing a veil on the whole debate, while making your Twitter more stupid, here are my favourite comedy Twitter accounts. Your results may vary, etc.

@Humblebrag – celebs with no filter

@WOMANATBIGSAVE – Like the ads. I’m convinced I know who does this

@cat_ebooks and @horse_ebooks (Read about one man’s quest to track @horse_ebooks down) – Wisdom, every day

@clientsfh – What designers say when you put the phone down

@willielose – The big fella struggling manfully through a cruel, cruel world

@big_ben_clock – BONG

@timeskull – I’ve got no idea what’s happening here, but I love it

@watershitdown – Biting political insight

@WeirdHorse – What it says on the tin

@ruthbourdain – Weird food

@ShittingtonUK – Just follow

@fireland – Comedy stylings, etc

Pizza bread

Quick pizza.

Because our little family usually can’t eat a whole pizza dough on our own, leftovers usually go in the freezer – I’m going to keep doing it to see if this bubble trend continues (both of these were from the same lot of dough). While bubbles would probably make ‘proper’ pizza fans vomit yeast (much like the pineapple I imagine – hey, the kid likes it), they’re pretty tasty and fun to eat, in fairness.

PS I’ve updated the crap out of my Meals I Have Met Flickr set – go nuts.

Update – here’s even more.

Our office moved to Victoria Street, and I’m lucky enough to have this view – I spent a lot of time staring out the window at the bustle of the harbor. It’s beautiful. I’m lucky.

A beer in the sun at Tauranga’s Harbourside restaurant on my birthday.

This was Telecom’s ‘war room’ table on the 2nd or 3rd day after the 22 February Christchurch earthquake. Work wise, I love crisis communication. The downside, of course, that to experience and develop your crisis comms skills, there has to be a crisis.

I haven’t been to Christchurch for years, and like most people not there, can’t imagine what it’s like to live with aftershock after aftershock – I have the greatest admiration for a mate living there with his young family determined to be part of the rebuild. It’s hard enough having a young family up here in wussy stable-ground Auckland, let alone among seismic uncertainty. For what it’s worth, I hope for a better 2012 for Canterbury.

Double Zs while in Hawke’s Bay

AA Gill

Thomas The Tank Engine gave me a new channel to express anal retentivity.

My fav street photo I took this year.

I took quite a few photos of what I was eating this year – looking through, it seems to be bacon and bread that I was moved to photograph the most, so this is representative example.

2011 was an excellent year for Pizza.

There was a world cup on – that’s me on the right. Extensive coverage, of course, can be found over at sportreview.net.nz. It was a great year to be a sport blogger.

The wee fella – I don’t like to share much about my kids in public online. Just know I love the crap out of them and my partner. We are very blessed.

The finish line – I’ve never been so ready for a holiday / alcohol.

I wrote this review for Telecom’s late, lamented co. magazine, after using the handset over the course of a weekend. I subsequently acquired a Sensation to use as my permanent, day to day phone. Reading the review again, it pretty much holds up – I love using it. The camera and video capability are really, really good, and the screen is astonishing – and it hasn’t succumbed to ‘creeping slowdown’ like other Android handsets I’ve used. I *did* install Launcher Pro however, the HTC Sense stuff is to frilly pour moi, and got old, fast. Recommended.

The first thing I thought when I got my mitts on the Sensation was that this phone is big. Big in every way. Conceivably, you could mount it to your roof and put your neighbour’s Christmas light display to shame. It’s got dual core chipset (which means it goes really fast), an 8 MP camera (which means it’s probably as good as your camera) and shoots full 1080p HD video (so you can show off your cat videos on your flatscreen TV), among other impressive sounding features. Everyone tells us our smartphones these days are small computers that just so happen to have a phone on them – this Sensation feels more like a small tablet to me. That said, making a call on this phone doesn’t feel like you’re talking into your ironing board – it’s extremely thin, light and slips easily into your pocket.

The thing that’s stuck with me, though, about the Sensation is the screen. My goodness, the screen. It’s bright and sharp, to say the very least, and for the first time I could imagine sitting down and watching an entire film (with proper widescreen) on a phone without feeling like I was in some kind of dubious adult interest theatre for insects. And with all that screen real estate, tapping out a text, tweet or email was easier than any other touchscreen handset I’ve tried.

The Sensation runs on Gingerbread, the latest and greatest version of Android (version 2.3) – if you’re an Android user, you’ll already be used to how it all works, but you’ll be blown away by how FAST it goes – it’s as responsive as a hungry puppy. It also features HTC Sense, which makes the Sensation even more user friendly with nifty thumbnail screens, people widgets, a WiFI hoptspot and a really neat weather feature you have to see to believe. Google’s apps like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps all run brilliantly, and there’s plenty more to choose from in the Android marketplace. Angry Birds, the incomprehensibly popular catapult game, is GORGEOUS to use on this screen.

So, what did I actually do with it? Sat about on my couch and played with it, mostly, marvelling at its speed and the screen.  But I am a lazy, lazy man. Who’s going to want one? Early adopters, yes, but anyone interested in a highly spec-ed touchscreen phone that’s easy to use should have a look at the Sensation, it measures up to any phone out there, and beats them in places. I could imagine using one for work. I could imagine it coming in really handy for Googling and looking up directions when you’re out and about at the weekend. I can also imagine loading it up with Dora and throwing into the backseat for a happy family on a long car journey.

Luckily for us, the Sensation is one of two HTC handsets exclusively available on XT that come out in early July. The other one is the Wildfire S, a slightly smaller, slightly lower-spec-ed handset, which may interest those who balk at the Sensation’s size. It goes without saying that the Sensation goes FAST on XT – this is mobile internet at its finest, and before you know it, you’ll be using the fan on your desktop PC to dry laundry. Probably.

‘What did you say your name was?’ he asked, remembering.
It came out weakly: ‘Ellerslie Penrose’.
‘Penrose,’ he said. ‘We haven’t driven that far south since that ugly clay pigeon shooting spat at Hotel Du Vin. Much prefer taking a Corporate Cab to the airport and flying over it.’

Santa makes a slow, silent and ultimately doomed bid for freedom

Lunch

A tugboat doing a wee, for the easily amused

Sneaky bollard is sneaky

Oceanside