Clientcopia is, essentially, an archive of stupid things said by clients to designers. At first I found it amusing. Then I found it a bit arrogant. But I'm almost back to finding it funny again.
My personal favourite dumb client story is the client who asked if there were any "bloopers" that had come about during the production of a 3D commercial. "You know - like at the end of A Bug's Life." they said. The client was somewhat surprised to learn that these bloopers had actually been made, and had not just occurred by accident when the animated characters muffed their lines or fell over.
I must admit that the only blog I've read of the ones mentioned inthis article is Shauny's. I was interested to read about Biz Girl though - supposedly written by a female librarian but actually written by a bloke.
Also interesting to read about the cash for comment scandals. My sister asked a question on the weekend that touched on this issue. I've always thought it was only a matter of time before bloggers start doing product placement within their blogs. I'll have to do some further reading, I think.
I seem to find a lot of Alice Munro interviews on the internet. Here's another one. Munro has a new book out - Runaway which has been getting good reviews.
Throughout her twenties, she would dream of writing 'my great novel' but it never happened. 'It would always go flat on me.' At 28, she became depressed, convinced she'd never be a good enough writer. 'Nobody knew it,' she says. 'I mean, I kept house. I was a grade B housewife, maybe a B minus. But when I got time to write, I would be unable to finish a sentence. I had anxiety attacks. Partly, it was a way of personifying the situation because I couldn't breathe. I was surrounded by people and by duties. I was a housewife and the children's mother and I was judged on how I performed those roles.
The panel on blogging at the St Kilda Writers' Festival seemed to go pretty well. As is usually the case with these things, I was somewhat anxious in the morning, but felt perfectly relaxed once it started. In fact, it was actually quite enjoyable. I would've been happy to keep sitting up on the stage for the rest of the day, offering my opinions on any topic that came to hand. Unfortunately, they made me leave.
It was good, also to finally meet David Tiley and Miss Fits and to see Vlado again. And Simon did a very good job chairing. Good, non-scary questions.
Various members of my family had asked if they could come and I tried to scare them off by telling them that it was very early and that they'd have to pay to hear me talk and why would they do that, when they can hear me talk for free whenever they like? But they all turned up anyway, even Thieu, who I thought I had left at home, sound asleep. They all sat together in a row and paid attention and didn't wriggle and asked good questions at the end (even though I had forbidden it.) It was nice to have them there.
