Year: 2008

Categories
Work

“The Adventures of Johnny Bunko” — A Manga Career Guide

[This was also posted to Global Nerdy.]

Local tech evangelist David Crow points to The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. Unlike What Color is Your Parachute? or Who Moved My Cheese?, Johnny Bunko is in manga form — that’s right, it’s a Japanese-style comic book.

An unusual book needs an unusual promo, and Johnny Bunko is no exception — it’s got a trailer!

In a review at Amazon, Donald Mitchell provides a quick summary of the book:

Most career writers when they want to simplify a message use a fable, with a few illustrations that show the key perspectives. The fable is clearly secondary to the details.

In The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, the story is more interesting than the advice. Having read a lot of Mr. Pink’s writing, I thought I knew what he would probably advise. But I didn’t realize that he would make the story so interesting, and that the manga format would add so much power to the story telling. Nice work!

What’s the advice? Let me rephrase to make it clearer to you:

  1. Don’t be rigid about planning out each step well in advance . . . it’s not possible to do.
  2. Build on what you’re good at (Peter Drucker originated that one) and avoid relying on what you aren’t good at.
  3. Focus on what you can do for others (start with the boss) rather than what’s in it for you (you can read more about this in How to Be a Star at Work).
  4. Keep at it. Practice makes perfect.
  5. Take on big challenges and learn from them.
  6. Make a difference.

I think I’ll pick up this book — it’s pretty cheap, and I’d like to see how Daniel Pink uses the manga format to advantage.

More Advice from Daniel Pink

Here are some video clips featuring Daniel Pink some pretty interesting giving career advice…

Abundance, Asia and Automation

Pink says that the really useful skills are those that are hard to outsource, hard to automate and that serves a need that goes beyond functional. And those skills are the right-brain ones — the ones often derided as “soft skills”.

Help! My Resume Has Too Many Jobs!

Don’t worry if your resume looks like it has too many jobs on it — the world of work today doesn’t give out prizes for lifetime service. These days, it’s about whether you can solve their problems.

Exercise Creativity at Your Job

The old adage applies: “It’s often better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” And from my own experience, I can tell you that he’s right.

Choosing a Major

Follow your interests — don’t choose a major based on what kind of job you think you’ll get after you graduate. The job market is likely to change! Follow your passion instead. You should also work on your “high concept” and “high touch” skills.

Categories
Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Design Plagiarism at the TTC (or is it the MTA)? [Updated]

It’s not plagiarism; it’s just lameness. Be sure to read the “Updates” sections at the end for details.

Take a look at these suspiciously similar subway safety posters. The one on the left is from the Toronto Transit Commission, the one on the right is by New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority:

Comparison of two suspiciously similar saftey posters from the TTC and MTA
Click the photo to see a larger version.
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele and Vidiot.

My question is: who plagiarized whom? Given the New York envy that a lot of city planners, developers and assorted people running Accordion City seem to have, coupled with the unoriginality of the ad campaigns to promote the city, I’d bet that the TTC did it. I’d love to be proven wrong, but this has all the hallmarks of our local brand of half-assery written all over it.

Update 1:

“senior”, a commenter, points out that:

If you read the gray text on the bottom left of the Toronto poster, you’ll see that it says something along the lines of “posters produced in co-operation with the MTA.”

While it’s honest, it’s still lame. We both agree that it’s pretty sad that the TTC couldn’t come up with their own safety poster ideas.

Update 2:

A response from Brad Ross, Director of Corporate Communciations for the TTC, with the downright Chuck-Norris-ballsiest first sentence I’ve seen in a comment on this blog in a good long time:

You are wrong.

The Toronto Transit Commission requested, and received, permission from the MTA to use this creative concept. Transit properties across North America often share “creative” when communicating safety messages to their customers.

If you look closely, you’ll see a line that reads, “Concept and design R Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York.”

Constructive criticism of the TTC is welcome, but alleging plagiarism without first checking the facts is simply unfair.

Regards,

Brad Ross
Director – Corporate Communications
Toronto Transit Commission

Hello, Mr. Ross!

Firstly, please allow me to apologize for calling “Plagiarism!”. I couldn’t read the text at the bottom of the photo and assumed it was graphic design plagiarism, which happens quite often.

I updated my blog to correct that as soon as I find out. That’s the beauty of this medium: its ability to adapt as new information comes in or as dictated by circumstances. It’s an ability I hope the TTC will someday acquire.

I think that there are ways to get the share creative without being so stultifyingly, blandly, boringly, homogenous. The MTA’s poster reflects its unified design identity right down to its typeface. The only thing that’s uniquely “Toronto” about the TTC’s poster is the photo — the rest of the poster, right down to the layout comes off as being a lackluster copy of the original. What’s partly to blame is the lack of a unified graphic identity for the TTC, an organization whose communication skills are so poor that its best website and merchandise are fan-made, not official.

I’m certain that you could’ve gone with the general creative concept for the safety poster and done something a little original.

Categories
Uncategorized

Chop Suey Specs

I should let Angry Asian Man know about this one — a pair of joke glasses in the same racist spirit as “Commander Riker” in this poster:

“Chp Suey Specs” - joke glasses that make your eyes look “Asian”
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Look closely at the package: it says “Made in Hong Kong”. Yowch.

Categories
Music

“London Underground”

I should’ve posted this video during the recent (and blessedly short-lived) transit strike here in Accordion City, but I remembered it just now. It’s London Underground, a musical rant about Jollie Olde London’s subway system, performed by the team of Adam Kay and Suman Biswas, known as Amateur Transplants. Be advised, it’s pretty sweary:

Here are the lyrics:

Some people might like to get a train to work
Or drive in in a Beemer or a Merc,
Some guys like to travel in by bus,
But I can’t be bothered with the fuss today
I’m going to take my bike,
Coz once again the Tube’s on strike.
The greedy bastards want extra pay
for sitting on their arse all day
even though they earn 30K.
So I’m standing here in the pouring rain,
Where the fuck’s my fucking train?

London Underground
London Underground
They’re all lazy fucking useless cunts
London Underground
London Underground
They’re all greedy cunts I want to shoot them all with a rifle.

All they say is “Please mind the doors”,
and they learned that on the two day course,
This job could be done by a four year old.
They just leave us freezing in the cold.
What you smell is what you get
Burger King and piss and sweat
You roast to death in the boiling heat,
With tourists treading on your feet
and chewing gum on every seat,
so don’t tell me to “Mind the gap”
I want my fucking money back.

London Underground
London Underground
They’re all lazy fucking useless cunts
London Underground
London Underground
They’re all greedy cunts I want to shoot them all with a rifle
La la la la
La la la la

The floors are sticky and the seats are damp,
Every platform has a fucking tramp,
But the drivers get the day off when we’re all late for work again,

London Underground
London Underground
Wah-wah-wankers! They’re all wankers!
London Underground
London Underground

Take your Oyster Card, and shove it up your arsehole.

If the TTC go on strike again, I’ll write and record a Toronto version.

Here are Amateur Transplants performing London Underground live. I love how in this version they’ve replaced the line “chewing gum on every seat” with “nailbombs on every seat”:

If the Tune Sounds Familiar…

If London Underground gave you a certain feeling of musical deja vu, that’s because Adam and Suman borrowed the tune from Going Underground by legendary late-70’s/early-80’s Brit band The Jam. This tune as well as another hit by the Jam, A Town Called Malice, are part of the soundtrack of my youth.

Here’s the video for Going Underground:

Categories
Uncategorized

P.J. O’Rourke’s Commencement Advice (or: “Fairness, Idealism and Other Atrocities”)

P.J. O’Rourke
My favourite humourist on the rightward side of the political spectrum is P.J. O’Rourke, whose stuff I’ve been enjoying since high school. Along with Ben Stein (if we ignore his idiocy with his film Expelled for the time being), there’s enough sense and broad appeal in his writing for him to be able to contribute to Vanity Fair, 60 Minutes, Rolling Stone and National Review; perhaps the only progressive humourists who could make the same claim of broad appeal might be Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The Los Angeles Times recently published an essay of his, a hypothetical commencement speech for kids graduating from high school titled Fairness, Idealism and Other Atrocities. I give it two thumbs up for its “funny because it’s true” qualities.

Here are my favourite parts:

Go Out and Make a Bunch of Money!

Pizza in a box

There’s nothing the matter with honest moneymaking. Wealth is not a pizza, where if I have too many slices you have to eat the Domino’s box. In a free society, with the rule of law and property rights, no one loses when someone else gets rich.

Don’t Be an Idealist!

Julia Butterfly, hanging out in “Luna” a giant redwood.
Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived in a redwood tree for two years.

Don’t chain yourself to a redwood tree. Instead, be a corporate lawyer and make $500,000 a year. No matter how much you cheat the IRS, you’ll still end up paying $100,000 in property, sales and excise taxes. That’s $100,000 to schools, sewers, roads, firefighters and police. You’ll be doing good for society. Does chaining yourself to a redwood tree do society $100,000 worth of good?

Idealists are also bullies. The idealist says, “I care more about the redwood trees than you do. I care so much I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It broke up my marriage. And because I care more than you do, I’m a better person. And because I’m the better person, I have the right to boss you around.”

Forget About Fairness!

Scales

Life sends the message, “I’d better not be poor. I’d better get rich. I’d better make more money than other people.” Meanwhile, politics sends us the message, “Some people make more money than others. Some are rich while others are poor. We’d better close that ‘income disparity gap.’ It’s not fair!”

Well, I am here to advocate for unfairness. I’ve got a 10-year-old at home. She’s always saying, “That’s not fair.” When she says this, I say, “Honey, you’re cute. That’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That’s not fair. You were born in America. That’s not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.” What we need is more income, even if it means a bigger income disparity gap.

Be a Religious Extremist! (or: What’s up with the 10th Commandment?)

Envy

So, avoid politics if you can. But if you absolutely cannot resist, read the Bible for political advice — even if you’re a Buddhist, atheist or whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those people who believes that God is involved in politics. On the contrary. Observe politics in this country. Observe politics around the world. Observe politics through history. Does it look like God’s involved?

…

[Consider the Ten Commandments] Here are God’s basic rules about how we should live, a brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts. And, right at the end of it we read, “Don’t envy your buddy because he has an ox or a donkey.” Why did that make the top 10? Why would God, with just 10 things to tell Moses, include jealousy about livestock?

Well, think about how important this commandment is to a community, to a nation, to a democracy. If you want a mule, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don’t whine about what the people across the street have. Get rich and get your own.

Categories
Uncategorized

Face of Death: How Dudes Will Probably Die This Year

“Male death probabilities for 2008″ infographic, with data arranged to look like skull, small version

Here’s an infographic featuring counts of men in the United States who will die in 2008, broken down into various causes ranging from all types of cancer (about 308,000) to suicide (about 26,000) to HIV/AIDS (about 8,500).

“Male death probabilities for 2008″ infographic, with data arranged to look like skull
Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

The numbers are projections based on the CDC’s WONDER database. WONDER stands for “Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research”; it’s a collection of data that’s available to public health professionals and the public at large, boasting a wide array of public health information.

I had no idea that you were almost 3 times more likely to die from falling down stairs than from getting electrocuted. I should hang onto bannisters more often.

Categories
Uncategorized

My Kung Fu is Good

Earlier tonight at the movie theatre:

Joey deVilla posing in front of the “Kung Fu Panda” display