Hblog

Conversation with car salesman

'Hello. I'd like to arrange a test drive of the Honda Jazz, please.'
'Hello! How are you today?'
'I'm fine thanks.'
'Fine thanks. What is your name?'
'My name is Heather.'
'Hezzer. Hello Hezzer, lovely to meet you!'
'No, that's Heather.'
'Hevver? Hevver?'
'No: Heather. H-E-A-T-H-E-R. Heather. Heather. Heather!'
'Ah! Heather! Yes. Great, Heather. Now, what kind of a car are you looking for?'
'I just want to arrange a test drive.'
'Ok, but what kind of a car are you looking for? How much do you want to pay?'
'Well, I'm just starting my search but I was thinking no more than R150,000.'
'Ok, well, you're in luck because I can give you the new Jazz for less than R150,000!'
'Thanks. But I can see on the website that the car goes for R146,000.'
'Yes, Heather. I can get you a very good deal on this car.'
'Great. But I just want to arrange a test drive.'
...

Tokyo

I've just returned from an incredible trip to Tokyo. My first time in Japan, I was pretty much wowed by this amazing culture that has creativity at its heart. My favourite: Harajuku fashions, late nights at karaoke bars, early morning sushi market, listening to Tantek talking about microformats (and understanding what he was talking about!), hearing John talk about how music licencing is where the money is - and hanging with Dominick, Yuko and Yonnie. The New Context Conference organised by Digital Garage and the ccJP salon gave me a glimpse of the incredible technology and tech communities being developed here - from willustrator.org, an online illustration tool, to loftwork.com, a showcase for local artists with a commissioning service.  At the ccJP event, Larry said that 'it's an insult to call this web 2.0 - this is more like web 3.0/web 4.0 because you're making technology that doesn't lock people into your service like UTube does'.