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Posted at 12:43PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

You're a what?

Posted at 12:47PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Heh - at least once a week I have to start a phone conversation with "it's 6am on Saturday morning, why are you calling me?" ....

Posted at 12:58PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

You're a what?

When I first started doing web content work, a lot of it was in gaming - it was when the last generation of consoles came out. I was frequently mistaken for a man. When this persisted after I put a photograph on my profile, I started to get a bit depressed.

Posted at 1:00PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Yes thank you, I have found Jesus. He was behind the couch. Now it's my turn to hide.

Love it. May try it on the next besuited door-knocker..

Posted at 1:01PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Also, sorry Matthew, I have now restored the last line of the column, which inexplicably vanished. Obviously some parts of my brain are still on holiday.

Posted at 1:09PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Yay. I guessed elf.

Posted at 1:22PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Hadn't expected the foo in your "will work for foo" title to be in the dictionary.

Computer jobs still tend to be considered as sorted by gender. Operations or support = female and programming especially gaming = male. Therefore if Emma works in code then despite all evidence to the contrary then Emma must be male.

Posted at 2:02PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

The title made me think you were planning to be on the organising committee for the next Foo Camp.

Posted at 2:16PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

The title made me think you were planning to be on the organising committee for the next Foo Camp.

I'm quite happy to sit back and be organised upon on that one. Nonetheless, my partner and I will be there thanks to the astonishing generosity of those around us. I still need to do a couple of jobs in the next month to pay for Foo-associated expenses.

But that whole other layer of foo puns is there too. I got my partner the 'kung foo' tshirt from thinkgeek a couple of years ago.

Posted at 2:27PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

I've just done a five day creative processes workshop with 60 people, culminating in a series of stage performances and short films. We were encouraged to work in media we weren't familiar with and in groups of four - six. Coming from a visual arts & writing background, I went for music/sound. Had 2 afternoons & 3 evenings to come up with a collaborative piece for 7 people based on water that had to be mythic, have a betrayal of trust, an amazing transformation and the line "My poor fool was hanged."

It was freaking hard. Seven strangers trapped in a room for hours on end trying to find connection and flow....
One person never shut up and talked over everyone else and commandeered it and everyone let her because they panicked about not getting it finished. Except me. Of course. Snapped and let her have it with both barrels. And still she wouldn't shut up - but half the group started tuning her out after that and essentially connected with each other to push it further. Wished I'd done it sooner.

That pressured group dynamic is quite fascinating. And for the first time in my life, I sang on-stage, some of it solo. Think Marianne Faithfull after a hard night.

Posted at 4:01PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

That's a very strange thing Kerry. In my mind group and creative are concepts that are mutually exclusive.

Posted at 4:04PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

In my mind group and creative are concepts that are mutually exclusive.

Never worked in the performing arts then?

Posted at 4:28PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Will work for bar.

Posted at 4:29PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Not just a Lulz, but genuinely laughed out loud, particularly at "He was behind the couch". Great line!

Posted at 4:30PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Sorry, that was more terse than I intended.

In my experience there's nothing as inspiring as other people and if you can all be inspired by each other that's phenomenal. However properly working as a group involves all the usual management problems and a few extra one like not knowing what your goal is until you've finished.

Clients on the other hand... (shudders)

Posted at 4:36PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

In my experience there's nothing as inspiring as other people and if you can all be inspired by each other that's phenomenal. However properly working as a group involves all the usual management problems and a few extra one like not knowing what your goal is until you've finished.

I was halfway through typing pretty much this, only with more waffle. It depends, I guess, whether you're more concerned with the experience or the end product, and what your basic personality type is. Collaborative fiction can be hugely energising and rewarding - or a massive PITA. Some kind of structure, base guidelines etc, and somebody who has the power to arbitrate when difficulties arise (see Kerry's story and add a moderator who keeps a light hand but can say 'okay, that's very interesting, now what does everyone else think?') tend to limit the sh*t.

See, more waffle.

Not just a Lulz, but genuinely laughed out loud, particularly at "He was behind the couch". Great line!

My friend Heather and I sort of came up with this between us in conversation after she was bailed up on the tube a couple of years ago. We laughed, forgot about it, and now other people are sticking it on tshirts. Convergent evolution, I guess.

Posted at 4:38PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Performing arts are one matter -a lot of other creative activities are definitely solo jobs. Like writing & drawing/painting (the main 2 artforms I engage in..) Though I happily accept that lots of people prefer to work in groups -

Posted at 4:49PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

I always found writing to be very collaborative: not necessarily in a sense of writing in a group, but in the sense that the interconnections between writer, reader, critic and wider culture are always very important.

Posted at 5:01PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

One wonders about those books with two writers - sometimes it seems like it's just a sort of executive-producer credit for whoever's scifi series it is.

OTOH Wikipedia has an account of the writing process for Good Omens.

Posted at 5:10PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Interesting comment Tom -while, as a writer, I am obviously part & product of the wider culture/s, I dont see interconnections between my story/poem/whatever and readers & critics. It's just me and the words.
Readers & critics come after everything is finished.

Posted at 5:34PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

I was ten minutes into a talk in the USA last year and beginning to notice an unusually shocked looking audience.

No, it's nothing personal. I'm from New Zealand, we all swear like that.

...were nearly my exact words, everyone relaxed after that, it was fun.

Posted at 5:53PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

The first time I went to Hawaii and addressed an audience of mainly Pakeha academics (there some Asians too) I began by giving some of my whakapapa. I then carefully explained about whakapapa. By the 5th reiteration of 'whakapapa' I noticed the audience was - frozen.

Posted at 7:24PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

No, it's nothing personal. I'm from New Zealand, we all swear like that.

Once I (kind of unwittingly) used 'twat' in a graduate history seminar in Houston. I could peripherally see my fellow students freeze around the table, and then feel/watch the group all force themselves to relax. 'Oh you crazy foreigner! No, we are down with your crazy irreverance! Really!'

Posted at 7:45PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

Readers & critics come after everything is finished.

Aah, but they also come beforehand, given that none of us create in a cultural vacuum. We're all "born into language" - from Lacan, I think.

Posted at 7:50PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

I've always had trouble defining work, because I'm aware that pretty much all the things I've put the most effort into I've done for free. Also I work in the same chair I play in.

I know! You're me!

Except I'm not that funny ...

Posted at 7:53PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

The title made me think you were planning to be on the organising committee for the next Foo Camp.

The organising committee's name is Jenine. You'd like her.

Posted at 7:57PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

And guess where I first used a computer - Vern's lab next to that same library and that same school field. The foo pix were rather nostalgic..

Posted at 8:07PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

When I was a freelance writer I would dream of the day a client would treat my work with the same respect as he or she would a plumber's.

Client: "Can you please apply a 25mm wrench to that fitting and turn it five times clockwise to remove it, then replace the washer with this black one I found in the garage, remembering to use plenty of thread tape when replacing the fitting."

Plumber: "Cabbage cabbage."

Posted at 8:11PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

I presented to a conference in Chicago (an advertising thing) where people stopped breathing whenever I spoke like a plumber (to return to a theme of my own making) but were more than happy to talk openly about God.

With an NZ advertising audience, the responses would have been exactly the opposite.

And that, chickens, is the difference between us an them.

Posted at 8:19PM on 12 Jan 09. Permalink.

The difference is that we know plumbers are god.. :)