This is not it

So Andy's found his place in the world. Meanwhile, I'm as lost as ever.

There's never been a place that clicked for me. Just the people. A place is just somewhere to be at some point in time. Work is just something to fill your time and make money. It's all pointless, really. I get more detached everyday from everything. To the point where writing isn't fun anymore. Or maybe it never was.

I never thought of home as a place. I don't think I've ever been really anywhere long enough to develop that. I feel comfortable in certain places, like HK, Gboro and CH. But even so, when the people I knew were gone, it's a completely different place.

And that's when I decided that home is the people. For me, anyway.

But now I think maybe it's really more a reason to belong. And people fulfills that for the most part.

A few days ago, I shot again. It was a boring panel discussion. Book signing, etc. But that was home to me. Behind the camera, where all that matters was aperture, shutter speed, exposure, framing, lens choice, depth of view, coverage, story, expression, gestures, lighting...

and then I passed out at a corner of the dark auditorium. It was very reminiscent of old days at the DTH and at N&R. All I had to worry about was to shoot.

Except I needed a reason. This was for APA, so that was alright. I have another boring gig on thursday. But I get to shoot again. Maybe it'll look cool.

Already getting sick of working on Web sites... but it's a job and the side gigs also pay decent.

And now... off to let life blur by me again...

Grow up, Google

Among the top five companies I trusted and respected was Google.

That is, until last week.

NatGeo (the magazine. the online part.) decided to launch an advertising campaign for a puzzle generator we have on the Web site for MyShot/YourShot.

And so I, being the Design/Development Assistant (aka office programming b*tch, apparently), was graced with the task of making banner and tower ads for the Web site. Originally they were designed for internal use, and I made them in AS3. A week into development (when they were done), I was told they were to be used through Google flash ads

That was ok. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Just add in a few lines of code and it would be done, right?

Little did I know...

these "few" lines of code would haunt me for 2 months.

For 2 months (possible hyperbole), I tried to fit those lines of code in. And it works. On our server. And possibly with every server in existence. Except Google.

Sure Google is one of the leading pioneers in internet innovations. Sure working for Google must be a dream come true for our generation.

But tell me, why would such a company say that they supported ads built in AS3 when the reality is otherwise. (I was specifically emailed that there was a problem from the "back-end" programmers. Yes, ambiguously named "tech" person. When you don't have an answer, push the responsibility to someone else.)

Why would you, a forward thinking (I hope) company, want me to go back and redo my work in an older language, using older technology? This is like asking me to convert my mp3 track of MIA's "Paper Planes" so that you can play it on your 8-track player thingie (what are they called, anyway?).

I mean, really? Google? You're killing me, smalls.

So yeah, Google just fell out of my top five. Maybe 6, right now.

Lessons learned:

1.) Never work with marketing folks again.
2.) Do not trust people over the phone who have ambiguously gendered names as well as voices.