Your Story

I enjoyed producing this episode and I thought there were some very interesting and salient points made but sadly after I published Episode 21 the person involved decided that he didn’t wish to participate.

I’ve always said to the people that I chat with that I want them to feel free to change their minds if they feel concerned and this is one of those situations. I’m sure there will be a few more but that’s ok, we’ll be listening to a lot of interesting people in the mean time.

To the person involved I’d like to say thanks for giving it a go and it was a pleasure to hear his story and I respect that he doesn’t wish to have it available on this site. Good luck on your journey.

Back to the show…

As you know I’m about to go to Europe and I’ll be staying with some people, enjoying their company and hospitality. So I was thinking that I wanted to take a few gifts with me to say thanks but I want some better quality real Australian gifts rather than the Asian made Australian souvenirs that are out there. But What?

Then I remembered John and the Aboriginal Gallery, Indij-N-Arts, he has around the corner from me. You may remember he was with me on Episode 13 of Your Story.

So I trotted around there and got a few genuine Aboriginal souvenirs from a man that supports the people that make them and is making a go of getting the aboriginal culture out there. I have some gifts and we spread the culture a little further.

I’m looking forward to giving these and a few other things away.

I’ve been with Optus for my mobile Phone for 15 years but lately I’m afraid they are starting to let me down.

It started when I signed for a new contract on 18 March. Included was a 2 Gb data plan. When I got my first bill I was charged as if I didn’t have a data plan, i.e. free 5 Mb then excess fees for all data over the 5 Mb.

So I went to sort the problem before the next billing cycle ends and the overcharging gets out of hand. The phone call to Optus said I’ll need to got to the store that I went through. Bad luck for me that Optus World has closed so I had to go to another to sort it. After several weeks of my information being missed/lost or the system just not being able to deal with it because I was in a Que. another billing cycle ended. With data charges of… Are you ready, $20550.

I wasn’t fazed as I had started to fix the issues but come on guys get your act together.

Now I’m six days from leaving the country so I call them to sort it out. The soldier on the front line (who I never pick on, poor bastards) was very helpful and is doing all that he can but he is on notice to fix it by Thursday so it doesn’t go to the next billing cycle and the next two months that I’m away. Unfortunately due to the fees being so high now it has to go to management and they can’t promise when it will be resolved. And all I want to do is pay the bills that I owe, I want to give them my money.

So I wait…

But I also found that I’ve been charged for two handset insurance’s, one for my previous handset and one for my new handset. Can I cancel it, no, not over the phone.

I can sign up, make an audio contract over the phone but I can’t cancel over the phone.

Okay so I’ll have to write a letter to cancel, I’ll send the email to???

No! I can’t send and email, I have to send by fax or mail.

WHAT!

FAX OR SNAIL-MAIL in 2008!

What about CARRIER PIGEON?

The second largest telco in Australia and you can’t receive an email. Your promoting the use of the internet and this happens, you can’t give me the data plan I signed up for, then cock up fixing it and to add insult to injury, for me to end the second insurance contract I have to revert to technology between 30 and 500 years old.

Optus, cutting edge communication.

Well done!

Today 2/7/08 the issue was resolved with one person namely the wonderful individual at Optus who took it onto himself to give me the personal service required and determination to fix this issue. To him I say thankyou to the Optus itself… well it’s expected of large organisations isn’t it?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:48 — 21.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Welcome To Episode 20 of Your Story.

Today we talk with Petra Webstein who in recent years migrated from Switzerland to Australia with a young daughter and after a time living in Perth has spent time travelling and embracing the Australian landscape, culture and way of life travelling in a Toyota Landcruiser Troopcarrier campervan.

From her travels she is writing a book explaining her travels back and forth around Australia and the views that only someone from outside a culture can have.

His website is petrawebstein.com.au
email is info@petrawebstein.com.au

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here.
If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

Music is from iodaPROMONET

Nortec Collective
“Olvidela Compa” (mp3)
from “Raul Campos Presents Loter­a Beats Mixtape, Vol. 1”
(Nacional Records)

Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Amazon
More On This Album

I was thinking the other night that I still had so much to do to get ready for my trip to Europe over the next two months. As I contemplated what I needed to do I found that the anxiousness was starting to build.

Then I looked at it.

I have the flights, accommodation and finance organised. It’s the frustration of getting all the technology up to speed that I’m stressing about.

So it hit me, the technology is moving so fast that it doesn’t matter, I’ll never get on top of that! So I’ll prepare all that I can, what I don’t I’ll fix on the fly over the web while I travel and make it all work as I go.

The important stuff is done, the rest shall resolve itself.

Let the games begin.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:33 — 26.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Welcome To Episode 19 of Your Story.

In Episode 18 we saw a video that I posted and later spoke with Mel while she was cut for a scar by Timb Wilton.

So in order to flush out his story we get to understand a little better how it is to be a practitioner of body piercing, scaring and body modification.

Timb explains how he came into the field and developed the skills that have lead him to be now practicing as a professional.

If you want to see his handy work go to Episode 18 and watch him as he carefully cuts a scar for Mel.

His website is thirdeyetattoostudio.com
email is timbwilton@gmail.com

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

Subscribe freely in iTunes by Clicking here.
If you use another Podcast software Get the feed here.

The Slip

The music track used is The Four of Us are Dying from Nine Inch Nails

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:58 — 40.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Welcome To Episode 18 of Your Story.

Today we talk with Mel Poudroux who I meet while working on Fools Gold at the Warner Brothers Film Studio on the Gold Coast as a Prop Maker in 2007. The moment I meet Mel I couldn’t miss the fact that she is covered in tattoos and piercings not to mention a bit of a comfortable attitude to the way she wants to live her life.

So as I was in Melbourne I knew that Mel was one of those people that I had to contact to get her story. She was enthusiast to get her thoughts out and fortunately she was ready to have her first scar cut to add to the tattoos and piercings so she invited me to meet Timb Wilton and watch him cut this scar. Well I had to video this for you to see and give all a chance to understand a little of this culture.

I videoed this with my Still Camera not a video camera and frankly the Cannon G9 does a pretty good job but it’s not as good as a video camera so I’ll be getting one before the Europe trip next month. This is also my first attempt at editing in iMove and I’ll continue to learn as time goes by and get better but I think it gets the message across quite well.

“WARNING” The Video and Images Below are Intense.You have been WARNED!

[click to continue…]

Last week end I had a chance to make a presentation at BarCamp Brisbane. BarCamp is basically a geekfest, where pasty technophiles talk about stuff like code optimisation etc. Things that I know nothing of but since starting down this path of learning about the interwebs and how it works to produce content I’ve realised that I need to mix with those that know a lot more than me. For that reason I’ve taken a keen interest in twitter in particular as it is my conduit to all things informative and changing in this world that I’m learning.

Because of twitter friends and being involved in putting together a couple of twitter meetups I was invited to attend so I chose to speak.

My presentation was basically about what I’m doing here and how challenging the technology is and to thank all the geeks out there for producing the things that enable me to do this. Most of all I wanted to encourage them to continue to progress the tools to make it easier to produce what we’re really here for, Content!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve given any form of presentation and I enjoyed weaving a story of the struggles of this technology and how with perseverance it’s possible to overcome the issues but most of all it was good for me to tell what I’m doing and to sound out if there is an interest in Your Story

I would not be here doing this if it wasn’t for all those super bright geeks working late into the night living on pizza & coke getting off on what I’d be brain dead attempting. So I’d just like to say thank you to all of you for helping to give the rest of the world these amazing tools that enable us to generate things like Your Story.

You’ve given me more than you will ever appreciate.

Thanks