Allchorn Blog

I watched a movie the other day (Office Space) in which two guys were discussing what they wanted to do with their lives. The one said that if you want to know what you should be doing, think about what you’d do if you had enough money not to ever have to worry about it.

That thing, be it skiing, writing a book, climbing a mountain, designing the next Facebook or cooking & eating every exotic meat in the world, thats what you should be basing your life on. I must admit, it makes sense.

There was the counter argument that it’s an invalid concept as the world would suffer a shortage of janitors, street sweepers and whatever other job you couldn’t imagine anybody ever “wanting” to do. Valid point, but if you want to live the life you want to live, you should be able to get your foot in the right door if you’re passionate about something!

Living the dream

I am an absolute motorsport nut! I love screaming engines, and the thrill of the race. I’d wanted to swing my leg over a race bike and put my skills to the test against equally as tenacious competitors ever since I first went on the back of my father in law’s Yamaha FZR750.

The last 2 and a half years have given me that opportunity and through a channel most people might not have considered a viable route… I became a motorsport photographer. Did I mention I love photography too?

I won’t go into the whole wheeling and dealing I had to pull to get onto the track with my camera, and the great expense of the equipment, but suffice to say, I got there. Published in some top motoring magazines to boot.

After some marketing my name and using my website circuitchaser.com as a conduit for selling photos online, I soon had a medium in which I could offer advertising space. I cashed that in as money, or goods that went into racing. It effectively paid for my bike, suspension, leathers, helmet, boots, back protector and a lot of consumables like tyres, brake pads, race entry, fuel and oil.

Keeping things realistic

I have no delusions of grandeur. My name is Ross Allchorn, and although I race with the number 46, I am not Valentino Rossi, nor will I ever be. I’ve done the better part of a full season already, already won a race and claimed two second overall placings for the day. I hope things grow from here, but I’m a happy man.

I’m not making a living as a racer (far from it) as it’s a hellishly expensive sport, but it does provide some pocket money, and just taking pictures (as unprofitable as it is) has been great fun.

One day, in some way, I hope I can mix my passion for motorsport, photography and computers into one thing, or share them all equally with some form of synergy at least.

Having recently been forced to relocate 1000 miles from where I’ve called home for the last 12 years, I’ve had to make some rather speedy amendments to my daily work schedule. The most notable of which is making far more extensive use of my Nokia e61i smart phone.

With 3G capabilities, I’ve hooked it up via bluetooth to my Toshiba Satellite notebook as a modem, but what I’ve discovered is that on it’s own, I don’t really need to lug my compu daypack around with me everywhere I go.

I’m able to browse the web pretty unhindered, including using gmail which I’ve effectively set up as my primary mail client (using allchorn.com) and using Fring for Skype and MSN.

What I wonder though is… At least at this point in time is, am I truly embracing mobile or is this phone a little ahead of the average? I’m sure phones will all get here eventually, but with a full qwerty keyboard… With Opera mini, Fring and Need for Speed all running on my phone… is this the new norm?

We seem to be in a stage of evolution where communication is at the highest point it has ever been, and while some embrace the connectivity brought about through telephones, mobile phones, Skype, email, instant messaging and social networking sites and tools like blogs, twitter, facebook, myspace etc. there are some that aren’t. And I mean “really” arent.

Funnily enough, I respect the choice of those on both sides of the fence. I’m more on the side that makes use of the new technologies, unless they annoy me or are done better by something else. Twitter for instance. It’s something I’ve never really managed to understand the need for. Perhaps that will change, but I find the concept of micro blogging to be a bit odd and unnecessary.

Coming back to the sheer volume of protocols you can use these days, I keep my communication to the following:

• Email
  In order of preference, this is on top of the list as it is the most traceable and effectively indexed form of documenting one’s communication.
• Instant Messaging (Skype & MSN)
  Generally I have multiple IM conversations open to various clients, service providers and colleagues at all times. If you know how to manage these conversations and cut off the ones that are wasting time, this is a very effective means of communicating. I log all conversations, so backtracking to he said, she said is pretty simple. Being stern and honest when you’re busy with tyre kicking friends is a must, and if done politely doesn’t harm your relationship (as far as my experience tells). If someone tells me they’re busy, I leave them alone. Or email them to respond when convenient.
• Telephone
  Thanks to Alexander Graham Bell, this device is still the tried and tested standard for remote communication 132 years after it was invented! Alexander’s photograph above.
• Mobile Phone
  Can be the most annoying device in the world, but it also saves lives and offers a 24/7 means of connectivity. Looking past the obvious calling and messaging features, I also use my smart phone as a web browser and IM client.
• VOIP
  Voice over IP would be above telephone and mobile phone if I lived in a country where the connection were a bit more stable. There are some people I know I don’t have any problem chatting to, but sometimes it ends up being a “can you hear me?… I can’t hear you… can you hear me now?…” schlep in which case I pick up the phone and dial their landline number or mobile. A pity really, and a fact that will hopefully change for the better in time… sooner rather than later.
• Fax
  If you really have to. And sometimes you do. I rarely send faxes, and I receive them as an email. This saves paper, and the related storage space, and wastage.

Well, those are what I use.

A (very successful) colleague of mine’s signature features:

• Mobile
• GTalk
• Skype
• Twitter
• MSN
• AIM
• Yahoo!

and another (equally successful colleague) features only his 3 website address. On which you’ll only be able to contact him via email, or twitter. Sure he has a different business model and this works for him. It wouldn’t work for me, nor for Joey (above), but different strokes for different folks.

I had lunch with the exceptionally talented artist Christian Mugnai at Spiga d’Oro today and we had a rather interesting and amusing discussion about things. Chris and I have been mates since we first taught each other swear words when he moved here from Italy… in std 2 (approx. 5yrs old). In amongst all the jibber jabber and catching up we drew some parallels in our work, and trials and tribulations we face daily.

One of them was the inevitable discussion of the value of one’s work. I had the perfect story to let Chris understand how I feel about evaluating one’s work. Here it is, and if you’ve heard it before and I got details wrong, or know the original storyteller, please comment and let me know before crying foul. I will credit the originator once I know.

Pablo Picasso was walking through a park one day and he came across a woman who recognised him immediately. “You’re Pablo Picasso aren’t you?” she stated, and he replied that he was. “You’re my favourite artist!” she exclaimed. “Won’t you sketch my portrait?”.

Pablo agreed to do so and whipped out his sketch pad and pencil. He looked at her with intense concentration, tilted his head to the left, then the right, closed his eyes and thought for a second, opened them and laid 3 lines on the paper with great dexterity.

He passed the paper to the woman who looked at it for a moment, and she cried out “Absolutely incredible! In these 3 lines you have captured exactly who I am! I must pay you for this sketch Mr Picasso, what do I owe you for this?”.

Pablo thought for a second and said it would be £5,000 for the sketch. “What!?” she blurted. “It literally took you 20 seconds and 3 strokes of your pencil?!”.

“No my dear” he calmly replied, “it took me my entire life.”

And that’s the story. If you don’t understand the moral, or what it’s about, just comment and I’ll gladly explain. It’ll actually be interesting to see if anybody “doesn’t” understand.

• Web Design Consulting
• Interface Finishing
• HTML/CSS
• Wordpress CMS Integration
• Flash Design

We created this site for top design collective in Johannesburg South Africa. It was constructed in such a way for them to update their portfolio and content manage a majority of the website themselves.

• Information architecture
• Interface Design
• HTML/CSS

A redesign of their existing “template style” website. Recreated to represent their professional and proactive identity.

Well, we’ve finally completed the initial shell of the new theme. Together with Cobus over at Radiiate, we’re close to completing this site to a point where I can actually leave it alone (aesthetically) for a while…

Please bare with me as I work on populating the portfolio, doing some bug fixing and other monotonous tasks like that.

Since everything’s been a bit of a blur lately, I haven’t had the time to brag shamelessly about some recent work of which I am particularly proud.

The all new BMW X6

I received another photography commission for BMW SA to shoot the Cape Town launch of the brand spanking new X6. A hybrid SUV/Coupe, that has technological advancements in the industry that would make even Montoya proud to have been affiliated.

As is the nature of a BMW shoot, they treated everyone like true professionals and as usual, they supplied me with a showroom car to use for the duration. Not many people would argue with a BMW 530i for a day’s comfortable driving, shooting, driving…

Another great job for an awesome client, and I’m looking forward to seeing my pictures published all over the country.

Initial steps for a Durban Web seminar

I’ve decided to head up a bit of a web designer/developer/marketer meetup in Durban for all those in the area that wish to do a bit of networking and self promotion. It’s really early days, but as word spreads and I find out how many people we’re looking at accommodating, more details will be published here, and maybe on a little stand-alone website.

The idea is to facilitate professional freelancers and companies that do the following:

• Creatives (design, animation, 3D, writing, photography etc.)
• Developers (PHP, SQL, Javascript etc.)
• Online Marketers (SEO, SEM, link builders, writers etc.)

We can all sit and chat and pass cards, stories, clients, projects and tidbits of information back and forth. It works well in Cape Town, and no reason it can’t here in KZN.

Well, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. New offices lined up, huge amounts of effort on a house we were looking forward to spending a good while in and everything on the up and up… all changed in a phone call. That call came from my dad’s house, and it wasn’t my dad on the phone. It was his friend telling me that he’d had a stroke and was in the hospital 1600km (1000 miles) away.

I made it here one time!

Needless to say, priority number one was to get a plane ticket to Durban and tie up as many loose ends as can be tied in 2 days. Kudos to 1time for a reasonably priced ticket at such short notice. Aside from sitting on the floor in the departure lounge, it was a pretty painless trip.

Learning to speak, but the beer still flows

I’m now sitting in a room in Durban a week later. My old man is out of the hospital and we’re on what looks like is going to be a relatively lengthy recovery period. He needs to learn how to speak again, and his right hand side has lost most of it’s coordination and strength. Really though, it sounds worse than it is.

He’s fully alert (or at least as how he was) and understands all what is said to him. It’s a one way street though, as he’s struggling to say things, and writing is not much better. It’s often a guessing game and thankfully he sees the humour in it sometimes. At least some words (f***, sh** and beer) are easy for him… I think they’re ingrained in his psychi.

Internet connection?

Please sign here… in blood, and bring your first born with a DNA sample and proof of address.

Connectivity in Durban… thats a joke. I went down to the local postnet today to use their internet service. A screen, a keyboard and a mouse. Disabled start menu. No Skype, no MSN messenger, and thank f*** I migrated all my mail to the gmail interface or I’d have lost at least 3 possible projects by now.

All of my clients and prospects have been very understanding thus far and hopefully I will be back online shortly. For now, my best bet is sitting at the Musgrave Mugg & Bean and feeding off their wireless hotspot. Not ideal, but I do like their coffee. I’ll hunt down a second hand 3G modem on Gumtree or the like and buy a 1GB bundle to start with. If you’re reading this, I’ll either have done it already, or doing it as you read.

Better news to follow shortly… I hope.