Brodie McCulloch

How to do email signatures right

Brodie McCulloch — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:51:24 +0000

Smashing Magazine has a great post on how to do email signatures right. It can be really painful when people have loaded their email signatures with all sorts of information or to little.

Some of the golden guidelines that I noted include -

Make Sure to Include…

Your name,

Your company and position,

How to get in touch with you.

No need to include 10 different ways to get in touch with you. As in website design, less is more; and then they’ll know which way you prefer to be contacted. Go to two or three lines, with a maximum of 72 character per line (many email applications have a maximum width of 80 characters, so limit the length to avoid unsightly wrapping). An optional fourth line could be your company address, but use caution if you work from home.

So in the effort to have good (correct) information about people lets get email signatures right.

Media140 conference in Perth

Brodie McCulloch — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:46:54 +0000

Looks like media140 is having one of their conferences in Perth. Should be good networking opportunities as well as a chance to get up to date on the cutting edge of the real-time web.

from the media140 -

Media140 Perth will explore and share the impact and influence of the real-time web on brands, customer engagement, marketing and communication practices through keynotes, case studies and open forums. It is being held on the 25th February 2010 at the iconic Perth Town Hall, the event is expected to attract up to 360 participants from a range of industries and sectors.

You can follow the progress on twitter but if all goes will I will be there.

More information can be found at media140 website.

On the ms Noordam in the Caribbean

Brodie McCulloch — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:40:39 +0000

This Caribbean season was more work than play. There was some beach time but after Jayne left there were very few photos. Still was good fun but work was the priority. Many of the ports were new to me and I really enjoyed the Dutch ports of call, very different to the rest of the Caribbean (I thought anyway).

ms Noordam run in the Caribbean

In the Mediterranean on the ms Noordam

Brodie McCulloch — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:47:30 +0000

A lot happened in Europe during the 2.5 months in the Med, below are some of the photos and the two itineraries that we sailed. All the photos can be found on flickr.

It was a awesome few months and got to see many of the european ports while working which is always good.

ms Noordam run

Jayne took most of the photos which was good because it gave me a break. I think I will be back in Europe next year for the whole season so that should be good to.

Training on the ms Eurodam in the Baltic

Brodie McCulloch — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:25:50 +0000

I flew from Dubrovnik to Copenhagen, Denmark where I had an overnight ready to board the ms Eurodam the next day.

20 days in the Baltic

I really didn’t get a whole lot of time to explore the Baltic as I was doing a lot of training and getting ready to take over the ms Noordam 20 days later.

The view in Norway

What I did see of the Baltic was amazing, the weather was really good and the views were amazing. Work was good and I have a strong feeling that I will be back in the Baltic in the future.

One thing that was really annoying was the fact that I didn’t have a Russian visa or seaman’s book so i couldn’t get off the ship in Russia. next time.

Days out in Dubrovnik

Brodie McCulloch — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:07:11 +0000

We had about 6 or 7 days in Dubrovnik, Croatia before my flight to Copenhagen so we spent some more time chilling and checking out the old town which Dubrovnik is so well known for.

View from the walls of the old town

It is an amazing place, although we had got used to paying Eastern European prices for everything and now we were back onto the tourist rates.

Tower

We walked the wall of old town and had dinner inside. We stayed at a really cool hostel and the owners known as Croatian “ma” and “pa” for their homely appeal and shot of honey port (or something like that) on entry.

Ryan on the Wall

Ryan booked his ferry ticket to Italy as he was going to learn Italian and make some wine for a few months.

This was good bye for a while but with the interwebs it is easy to stay in contact. I left my bike at the hostel, I told them i would be back in 30 days, i don’t know if it translated but we will see.

Quiet time in Croatia

Brodie McCulloch — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:33:32 +0000

So after 6 nights not sleeping in a bed we caught the train to Belgrade and then onto Zagreb in Croatia.

We checked into a hotel for the night and all five of us slept. The next day everyone slept in but I needed to get my medical completed for the ship, this is harder than you might think as I was told there were only 3 or so doctors in Croatia who were licensed to do it. I was lucky to get some help from an emergency doctor who made some calls and found one of these doctors. The next day I had my medical done and off to Holland America Line.

View Larger Map

We then planned to continue traveling with our English friends to Split and spend some time there in an apartment. Here is another thing to remember, high speed trains everywhere don’t take bikes. So we missed another train from Zagreb to Split; they got it and Ryan and I cycled to the bus station and managed to get transport that way. easy.

We then spent an awesome five days in Split overlooking the water and a walk to the beach. It was a really good time and I think what was needed after EXIT.

It was time to say good bye to our English friends and get the bus to Dubrovnik where we would spend sometime before I flew to the Baltic for training on the ms Eurodam.

Four days of fun at EXIT

Brodie McCulloch — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 05:10:38 +0000

EXIT festival was big. It was held in a castle on the shore of the Danube and there were a lot of people there.

EXIT

It was far to hot to camp but thats what we had tickets for. We stayed with the English kids that we met on the train and then Dan and Jess from home were there so they stayed with us as well.

Camp site

EXIT was 4 nights; this is far to long for a festival but was really good fun. Below are some generic photos because mine did not come out to well.

In there somewhere

A painful train ride

Brodie McCulloch — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:46:07 +0000

We had many issues on the train from Bratislava to Hungary and then onto Novi Sad in Serbia.

We were refused entry to about 4 trains, then rode to the outskirts of Bratislava to buy a car….we were frustrated.

Bratislava has a rule that you need to have a local license to purchase a car so that was out. We then sprinted back to the train station and got the 11pm train (the first train we missed was at 8am). The 11pm train was coming from Germany and had a bike section so we were saved.

not looking good for the bikes

We got into Budapest, Hungary at some point (it is a but fuzzy) and then there were many backpackers all heading to Novi Sad, Serbia for the Exit Festival…..we were worried about the train and getting our bikes on.

So when the train finally arrived we ran past the guards and threw our bikes on. Then we chained them to the train so they could not be thrown off.

still smiling somehow...

The bikes stayed on and we were lucky to meet some English people who let us in their booth thing.

locked to the train

Ryan got hauled off by the Serbian Army at the boarder crossing as they took one look at him and instantly came to the conclusion he was running drugs…..forgivable mistake.

We finally made it to Novi Sad for a four day music festival in a castle on the Danube.

Onwards to Bratislava

Brodie McCulloch — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:46:31 +0000

I think Vienna may have been the city that I spent the most time in, I would have been there a total of about 7 days which was about 3 days longer than anywhere else. So I was ready to move on to the next place.

We headed off and managed to get out of the city more easily than we were expecting however this is where it got fun. The cycle way from Vienna to Bratislava was nothing like what we had been used to from Passau to Vienna along the Danube.

So we made a few wrong turns and ended up on an island in the middle of the Danube, then had to turn around, climb some steps to get onto a bridge and then continue to make our way up the river. There were also a few points where the cycle way disappeared, but appeared further down the road, it was not as well signed ether which made it more difficult. Either way we managed to make it to Bratislava which was quite different to Austria even though it was right on the boarder.

It was a bit longer ride than we thought it would be but this was ok as we left early in the morning and our hostel was in the center of town which was handy.