Crusty Nomad

Crusty Nomad is a blog about life….No, actually it’s a blog about ’stuff’.

Yeah, that sounds better. It’s a blog about my stuff, my views on fings plus other bits ‘n’ bobs that interest, puzzle and amuse me.

Whether you - the reader - will benefit is uncertain but the plan is to fill this site with useful nuggets which will hopefully enhance your life in some little way. Whether it does or not let me know.

FAQ (Singular)

‘What does Crusty Nomad actually mean?’

The term Crusty Nomad was a couplet of words that I picked designed to be memorable. As you don’t hear the two terms together it acts as a neuro-jolt which means it’s more likely to be remembered than some other bland expression used a thousand times before.

Crusty Nomad is in fact the type of term you would expect to see Googlewhacked. Googlewhacking is a game whereby you take two unrelated words and insert them (without speech marks and the like) into Google search to see if you can find just one search result.

Some old examples include: semiglossy proletariat, erotomaniacal pimpmobile, logocentric celebrityhood, megabladder tadpole and skimboarding housecats.

Remember that all these examples were ‘out there’ and actually yielded a single search result. However, the moment it gets added to the list it no longer becomes a Google whack as it has been mentioned twice.

Follow the link above to see what it’s all about. It’s fun to try but virtually impossible to achieve these days after the expansion of the web.

Anyway, having lived with the words Crusty Nomad for a while now I do think there is relevance to the name. I’m not one for shouting from the roof tops and have been described as ‘the quiet one’ on more than one occasion in the past. At 38 there will be some that call me a little Crusty for my age. I don’t have an unpleasant skin condition so that should rule that out as a reason for a nickname too.

Nomad, however, is an interesting one. I was a bit of a loner in the past though eight years of marriage and then three children make that a physical impossibility these days. It is a word though that works pretty well for the site as I will be wandering fairly aimlessly amongst a variety of topics and dealing with them in a very unstructured way.

I would like to spark debate so if you do read a piece note that I will be inserting ‘an edge’ here and there to get you talking. I certainly don’t want the site to be an alternative to chemical or holistic sleep remedies.

Below is some information that is a little more serious and will give a taster of what I’m about as a person. In all likeliness I will be expanding this over time to include more background about what makes me tick (and tock) so check back again soon.

PERSONAL & CAREER PROFILE

I am 38 years of age and have been married to Jo since 1999 and have three children - two girls and a boy - aged 8, 5 and 4 respectively.

I live in Peterborough in England which is about 80 miles North of London. Some call it East Midlands, others call it East Anglia - I call it home.

I’ve been working in graphic design, marketing and communications for nearly 20 years. Below are a few key tasks that I have worked on during that period.

• The writing and design of company magazines
• Design of all company print material and merchandising items
• Sourcing suppliers for print production and merchandising
• Writing copy for press releases
• Taking PR calls from journalists
• Updating the company website
• Co-organising quarterly member meetings and overseas trade shows
• Running the design studio facilty in the absense of management

I am proficient with both Mac and PC platforms and use InDesign, PhotoShop, ImageReady and Illustrator on a regular basis. I have also produced a five minute promotional DVD using iMovie for CeBIT in Germany

Courses attended: Developing a Web Site: Hands-on, Media skills training, Copywriting, Quark Xpress, PhotoShop, Freehand, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Dreamweaver, Time Management, Health & Safety, Fire Marshalling

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• 4 GCE ‘O’ Level passes in Mathematics, Physics, Art and Technical Drawing
• 4 CSE Grade 1 passes (equivalent to ‘O’ Level) in English Language, English Literature, Mathematics and History
• 1 EMFEC Certificate in Information Technology
• 2 GCE ‘A’ Levels in Graphic Design and Business Studies
• 1 City & Guilds Media Techniques (Print Journalism)

ACHIEVEMENTS & OTHER INFORMATION

• Personal Development – I recently gained a Certificate in Personal Development Coaching from the Coaching Academy and attended a Tony Robbins seminar where I walked across glowing hot coals
• Creative writing - In 2005 I made the final 200 out of 5000 entrants in the BBC’s ‘The Last Laugh’ national sitcom writing competition
• Sport – I have run four London Marathons raising nearly £2,000 for Arthritis Research and local community projects and am entered in the 2007 London Duathlon.
• Community - I have a role within the local Neighbourhood Council on the PR side and am similarly involved with the village Carnival organisation committee
• Socialising – I enjoy spending time at local eateries, bars and tourist attractions as well as attending concerts, theatre events, museums and art galleries