Neodigital Art | Vehicles
If you read yesterday’s blog with it’s lovely picture of a Ferrari, you’ll know I took photos of historic vehicles at a show on Sunday. These shows provide a wealth of subjects for photographers. I want my photos landscape (wider than high) for my blogs. That means including a lot more on the photo than the bus in this picture. The other problem was people wandering around and into the shots! (more…)
Subliminal influence
Everything that we do in the presence of others has an influence on them. How can you have more of an influence? How can you talk to their inner self, their subconscious mind? Hypnotherapists do this by putting their clients in a trance, but it’s not really necessary to do that. Last week, I wrote about how to talk to your (inner) self to overcome problems and perhaps make yourself more confident. How can you talk to the inner self of others and have influence?
Shopper Insights
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A Guest blog by Fairy Dharawat
What is a shopper insight?
“Data-driven learning that leads to an actionable understanding of shopper behaviour and purchase influences.”
Why should you know about this?
This week at the coal face
I took this photo in the Walsall Arboretum extension in March, before the rain started. I am thinking of going back there tomorrow to the historic vehicle show. Come and say hello if you’re there. I’ll be the one with the camera! My blog yesterday was about, what you would do if you won the lottery. The jackpot on the Euro-millions rolled over yet again. I haven’t decided what to do with my winnings from last night yet. I think Paul McCartney was singing on BBC1 while I was watching the draw. I missed it. That was a lucky break in itself.
Euro-millions what would you do?
It is a Euro-millions draw tonight with the added bonus of a millionaires raffle that will make 100 people millionaires in the UK. What would you do if you won the lottery? I think I would hire a lot of DVD films to get me through the next few weeks of mind numbing boredom while the Olympics is on. I suppose bribing the organisers to bugger off somewhere else is out of the question? It is all about money though…
Free days out for kids
The school holidays have started in the UK for six weeks and a bit. They want days out, picnics and soft drinks, but that can be expensive. You can find places to take them and there are cheap and free things to do. I took this photo the other day. You might not have a local canal to take them to like me, but you probably have a local playing field; maybe not quite as big as this one. You can prepare for your day out by making up sandwiches and drinks for a little picnic, then plan your day and take a ball. Great fun for all, they can run around while you sit and watch!
How to write fiction | moods
Some of the articles and blogs that I read are by amateurs and some by professionals. The amateurs often write better than the professionals. I read a couple by the same writer that were truly awful this week. The quality of writing, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, does vary a lot; depending on the mood of the writer. The writer that I read this week was obviously under a lot of stress and struggling. When we write fiction, we must be totally committed to the story and not distracted by personal problems. (more…)
Neodigital Art | The Oak House
I went to the Oak House in West Bromwich on Sunday and took photographs. There is always somewhere to have an afternoon out taking photos. The sun was bright and so that presented new problems. It was dark at about 1 o’clock and then the sky cleared and I had bright sunlight. You can see the light reflected off light colours and shadows in this picture. Most people stand in front of the house and get a nice symmetrical picture. You lose all depth then. I have the tree for some depth and the angle makes the house look taller on the left of the picture and smaller as it goes away from us. We have a lot of perspective.
How to talk to your (inner) self
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I read a lot of stuff about the ‘inner self’ and most of it is garbage. Your inner self or sub-conscious mind tries to help you, but it doesn’t always get it right. It tries to protect you from harm and help you survive. Your survival is it’s primary aim, it’s prime directive. So how do you have a quiet word with your inner self when it’s getting it wrong and making you feel quite anxious? When it’s giving you butterflies in your stomach, making stomach acid, making you feel panicky about that interview. Making your pulse race at the very sight of a hypodermic or worse still blood!
The Female Shopper
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By Fairy Dharawat
There are many different types of shopper, but all that comes later. Let’s try to understand the primary shoppers, who are male and female shoppers. It is tough to gauge responses from shoppers when they show confusing patterns of purchases. So as a female shopper, I thought, why not write what female shopper really wants, one female at a time. (more…)
This week’s ideas
I took lots of photos last Sunday for my Neodigital Art blogs. What do you think of this one? I converted it to monochrome, but with a slight blue tint. It’s the enchanted woodland of Merrion’s Wood. Neodigital Art is about being creative with your digital camera, scanner and maybe a graphics tablet. In fact any digital device you can lay your hands on. It is fast becoming a school of art. If you search for Neodigital Art using Google, you will I have been promoting it for a few years now. Want to join in? (more…)
The Frugal diet | calorie free water
There are few calories in fibre and so high fibre foods are healthy and will help in a weight loss diet. Water has no calories and will help give you a feeling of being full. Fruit and vegetables have a lot of fibre and a high water content. I cooked the chicken and celery soup in the picture yesterday and it was both high fibre, packed full of vitamins and contained a lot of water. It also tasted yummy! (more…)
How to become an expert winemaker | port and sherry
Winemakers have always tried to make something that tastes a little like sherry or make their own champagne. I’ve tried most things and the sherry did taste like cheap sherry so it’s worth having a go. You can make something that tastes a lot like port too and so if you like your port and lemon, you can try that too. (more…)
Neodigital Art | Merrion’s Wood
Regular readers will know that the photograph that I had in the finals of a contest last year was taken in Merrion’s Wood. The light can be very difficult in woodland because it can be dark. You can see in this picture that the sunlight was bright, but he trees cast shadows. (more…)
How to get a great promotional idea
A Guest blog by Fairy Dharawat
If you have read my posts until now, you must have noticed that I insist on doing something novel and imaginative for business. It is only through new, trendy and interesting promotional activities, that we can connect to a shopper. For a shopper to really get involved, they need to be engaged and entertained. I also mentioned that the activity need not be expensive. Now could this be possible? I say, yes. (more…)
Another week of ideas
I took a few photographs this week, but it rained a lot of the time. In Moorcroft Wood, it was muddy and so I didn’t venture far into the woodland. I had a few ideas to blog about though. I hope to do better this week if I have some new photographs and it stops raining. Wimbledon is over and so it could brighten up now! I’ll do a roundup of this weeks ideas and you can choose the ones that you fancy reading through Sunday. (more…)
The Frugal Diet | Fruit and veg
Most fruit and vegetables are high in fibre and vitamins and relatively low in calories. There is about 50 Kcal in a large apple, but 100 kcal in a large banana of the same weight (about 100 grams). There is more fibre weight for weight in the apple and less sugar. The same weight of grapes (100 grams) would have around 60 Kcal. The grapes contain more fructose (fruit sugar). Vegetables to choose are leafy vegetables rather than root vegetables. A baked potato is around 110 Kcal compared to only 15 kcal for the same weight of cabbage (100g). Mashed potato comes in slightly less than baked potato. (more…)
How to become an expert winemaker | punch
Some spirits are made specially for making punch, but you can use wine. You can make red wine, that is suitable for making Sangria, either from red grape juice, blackberries or damsons, when there is a surplus. For a tropical punch, pineapple wine wine with added fruit and lemonade is nice on a summer’s day. It’s great for barbecues too. You can get cartons of pineapple juice in the supermarket. I just checked a well known British supermarket and they are doing 6 for £4.00. Make sure you buy the concentrated one.
You need 5 or 6 cartons of pineapple juice, 6 bags of sugar and a wine yeast that can ferment to high alcohol to make 25 litres of pineapple wine. Alternatively, if you are making just 5 litres, use one litre of juice and 1200 grams of sugar. (more…)
Writing fiction | Inspired
Fiction can be inspired by many things. It can be inspired by a photograph, a person, an outing, television or just a random thought. We have to keep our minds open to new ideas and new perspectives. I have just downloaded a new font, will it inspire me to write fiction? It could! (more…)
Neodigital Art | Retaking the shot
I took this photo of the lake in March of this year. Is it worth going back and retaking the shot? All today’s pictures were taken fairly close to my home. You don’t have to travel far, you can go back to places you’ve been before to explore further. The light changes with the weather and the seasons, so you keep on getting different shots. Even the time of day makes a difference, dawn is very different to dusk. (more…)
Psychology |motivation
If we compare humans to robots, we see that humans are motivated; robots just do as they’re told by us humans. Our motives can seem complicated, but our motivation for doing most things is quite primitive. We eat to avoid hunger, but in order to eat we would have had to hunt and forage at one time; now we go to the shops. We have a basic need to keep warm, it’s part of our survival instinct and so we shop for clothes. We have an instinct that seems to make us explore and ask questions because this ability makes it much easier for us to survive. (more…)
The new shopper
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A guest blog by Fairy Dharawat
To study what influences the shopper of today is difficult. This has a lot to do with the many different categories of shoppers. Some categories are not even identified, but they exist in our world of retail. The wanderer shopper is one who has no need to come to the store, but comes rather for the feel of a community. The impulsive shopper is one who visits and buys products on a whim. (more…)
This week’s ideas…
We are having a little rain in England, in fact, I think it’s breaking records. I did get out a couple of times to take photos this week, but it was a little dark. Strangely, the sun felt hot one day, but the light wasn’t very good for photography. I wrote a few blogs and I am continuing to add to a zillion ideas! This site is only 5 months old and we have readers in 50 countries, so it could be worse. I hear of a British website selling for millions every year; I could be rich one day! If you would like to have a go at blogging, why not write a blog and send it to me at a Zillion Ideas? The email address is in the side bar >>> (more…)
The Frugal Diet | Seafood.
Many people think a seafood diet is; see food, eat it! Most seafood is quite low in calories and so useful in a calorie controlled diet. Seafood can be expensive though. Those prawns were expensive and so I used a few and added some pink salmon. I have no idea why pink salmon is half the price of red salmon but it is. It all tastes the same to me! There is just under half a tin of salmon on my salad and that would be about 100 kcal. Add a few chips to the meal and it would be about 250 kcal. It would be fairly easy to keep to 1000 kcal a day, eating meals like that. (more…)
