opheliaswims

Image: ©Ophelia Chong / Paint Chips

I wrote this earlier on Jason Fall’s blog Socialmediaexplorer.com

This is in response to Jason Fall’s blog on the 1oth Anniversary of Cluetrain, and about Corporations and their relationship with the Consumer:

Before the “internets”, corporations lived in a vacuum. They relied on focus groups and ad agencies to tell them what “the people” wanted/liked/hated. Now they can venture out and type in any word in a search engine and see what the people think of them. Instant access to the mind of the consumer.

At my local DVD rental store, there were two clerks; one cranky film snob and the other a happy smiling film buff. Back in the day when there were VHS, they would ask you to Rewind. I would always Rewind for the happy one, the cranky one I would run in and drop off the unwound video in the INbox (I didn’t stay for his slow burn). Now, the lesson is, I love great salespeople and I would buy the item over a superior one because I know they will look after me.
Corporations should send out the ones who are social animals. They are the ones who can sell the company. Because they are ones that care.

Image: © Ophelia Chong / From the Chaos Theory Set

I am trying to understand what is in front of me.
I see Twitter, Evernotes, Brightkite, SocialMedian, Ping.fm, SocialThing, FireEagle, FB, Chatterous, Moodblast…

This is what it’s like. I am standing on a train platform, and every 5 seconds a crowded train stops and the doors open. I look in. Do I want to get on? Or do I wait for the next train? I take the train, I shove myself in. I nod to all my neighbors and we watch the train speed past bits of the world. The train stops at the next station. I squeeze myself out like toothpaste onto the platform. I repeat this process over and over. This is what Social Networking on the web feels like.

Image: ©Ophelia Chong / A Beautiful Web

“It’s not the blank stares that bother me, it’s the moist handshakes”

Image: © Ophelia Chong / Oscar Mayer Weinermobile on Griffth Park + Los Feliz Blvds.

“Ask, believe, receive” is The Secret’s mantra.

What ever happened to “if you want something, you have to work for it”? The Secret tells you that you are due whatever you desire. You deserve that “car”, You deserve that “house”, and so on. I believe I deserve something when I have worked for it. I have worked hard to get to where I am. I have worked through emotional baggage, bad habits, personality traits that drove people crazy and so on. I did not wake up one day and say “hey solve all this and give me what I want without any work.”

I have been told by a few people to buy/watch the Secret. Not because I look like a candidate for Bling Fulfillment but because the newly converted will tell anyone in listening distance to latch onto their latest flavor. I understand their zeal in letting everyone know about their obsessive enthusiasm, I do this when I find a new Dim Sum place; however I can tolerate a fan, not a fanatic.

The article below is about one participant suing Ms. Byrne for promised profit sharing for his contributions to The Secret. It all comes down to money. I have participated in projects where I have been promised future profits, I take it all with a huge grain of salt. More often it always ends with me walking away. I have realized that I need to invest in my own projects, not other people’s. So in a roundabout way this blog is about Investing in Myself. And that takes time and patience, not waking up and saying “Ask, believe, receive” .

The NY Times article, The Word Is Out on Legal Tussles Among Creators of ‘The Secret’

Excerpted from the article by By Allen Salkin : “The secret does not seem to have brought happiness to some of those involved in the creation of “The Secret.” But perhaps high-priced lawyers will help.

This popular straight-to-video movie, and the best-selling self-help book based on it, promise that adherents to its philosophy will receive “unlimited happiness, love, health and prosperity,” according to the official Web site, thesecret.tv. All they need do is follow “the law of attraction,” an ancient principle that holds that the universe will make your wishes come true if only you really, truly believe in them. Following that creed before the movie’s release in 2006, Rhonda Byrne, the project’s creator, held parties celebrating its success, envisioning worldwide acclaim.

Nasty legal squabbling is most likely not what Ms. Byrne wished for. But it has nevertheless come to her: the director of the movie and the developer of the “Secret” Web site are separately claiming she has reneged on promises of a cut of the project’s profits.”

Addendum: I support Altruistic forms of Self Help, not the ones that want to enrich themselves.

Altruism is selfless concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and central to many religious traditions. This idea was often described as the Golden rule of ethics. Some philosophies such as Objectivism argue that altruism is a moral vice. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness.

Image: © Ophelia Chong / The Black Orchid

“Love knows not distance; it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars . . .” – Gilbert Parker from Parables Of A Province.

Painting:
Wanderer Watching a Sea of Fog
Caspar David Friedrich
1817/18 • Hamburg

© Ophelia Chong 2008 / My Love Is Waiting

i need to make some artwork this weekend.

My art is not reproducible, it’s not done with filters, vectors, layers or any type of digital manipulation. There are millions of artists like me who are powered only by calories. What is lost in the world of pixel manipulation is the individual. For instance the images on magazines has no claim to reality after they have been photoshopped into smoothness and unreal perfection. I am in search of the real.

During the last decade of the 19th century the Arts And Crafts movement began in reaction to the Industrial Revolution. This movement was a search for the authentic, not the repetitive copies of “art” made by machines. This movement is again taking place in our Digital Age. We are searching for the meaningful and bespoke. I am creating what a computer cannot, and each piece is its own,” this was created by me not a machine.” I am not dependent on the computer, rather it is dependent on me to give it a voice. I use the computer/internet is a means to plant the seeds of art and thought.

“A typewriter is a means of transcribing thought, not expressing it”
Marshall McLuhan

From my Twitter friend Loudmouthman (Nik Butler/UK) I found Steve Spalding the writer of HowToSplitAnAtom.com, a very popular blog for anyone involved in the evolution of the Web.
I sent Steve a DM and he wrote back asking about my letterpress art. That started a short conversation that lead to today’s article on HowToSplitAnAtom.com

Right now all I want to do is JUMP UP AND DOWN AND SCREAM “YEAH!!!!”