I wrote previously about a weird experience with the door, the dog, and the doorbell. And a strange bone.

Today while walking the dog, a guy a few doors down said that our dog was wandering around the street the other day, and came up to him, so he brought him back to our house, rang the doorbell, but the door was wide open so he put him inside and closed the door.

Mystery solved, I guess. Except how did the dog get out? Only explanation is that I must not have closed it tightly and it swung open (or the dog nosed it open). I’m having a hard time grasping that I was so lame, but it must have been.

Very nice of the neighbor, very logical explanation to a situation where I couldn’t figure out any likely possibility.

I will be doing a workshop at the EPIC2005 conference next month in Seattle.

The Sociality of Fieldwork (or Personal Experiences with Interpersonal Connections)
Workshop Facilitator: Steve Portigal, Portigal Consulting

In the activity of fieldwork, the ethnographer creates and facilitates a series of powerful interpersonal connections including (but not limited to):

* ethnographer and respondent
* ethnographer and fellow ethnographer/researcher/designer
* ethnographer and ‘client’
* ‘client’ and respondent

We leverage these connections to accomplish our most basic purposes: creating empathy and gathering data through establishing rapport. But perhaps there is more going on here. The goal of this workshop is to explore and consider these closely-felt connections and collectively begin to build a deeper understanding of the roots, power, impact and further potential for these interpersonal connections.

Through the workshop we will share our respective experiences, looking both for common themes that emerge, but also unique perspectives that the workshop participants may have, drawing those out and ideally building specific techniques that we can employ in the future, looking towards fieldwork that is more stimulating, impactful, and satisfying for each of the different stakeholders.

I was recently involved with a corporate retreat for marketers and was amused by the jargon I heard in the warmup session, including:

• boredom busting
• a light and airier eat
• laddering up
• slice and dice the consumer
• cut up the consumer
• the consumer
• need states
• more simplistic taste profiles

Once we had a chance to interact in a less formal setting I found them to be very personable, great storytellers, curious about people and the world, open-minded, funny, and everything great you’d want in someone that is honestly trying to satisfy needs. But why, then, does this horrifying lingo emerge so prominently when they are forced to strut for each other?

Was this a break-in attempt?
Late in the afternoon today I was thinking of taking a nap; I lay down for a few minutes. Then the doorbell rang. And of course the dog howls and barks. It’s either the UPS man, or neighborhood kids hawking something for school that we just aren’t interested in. For once, I didn’t bother to answer it.

But then the dog comes back into the bedroom and is really trying to get my attention. He even put his paws on the bed – he NEVER does that. I get up, because I’m now obviously not going to get a nap.

I go with himto the front hall where he wants me to go.

A huge bone is sitting inside the house on the mat…I left the front door unlocked when we came back from the walk.

OMIGOD – SOMEONE OPENED OUR FRONT DOOR AND PUT A BONE IN THE HOUSE.

Could it have been a neighbor? Why on earth would they do that? Why would you open someone’s door? And why would you give their dog a bone?

Or was it someone trying to pacify a dog so they could break in? Ring the doorbell, if there’s a dog, get the bone out and give it to the dog. If the dog chews it and will leave you alone, get to work.

For some reason, our dog didn’t have any interest in the bone, and seemed pretty worked up in fact.

I have no idea what happened – who it was or what they wanted – but I was just in the other end of the house while someone opened our front door, it’s pretty creepy.

I’d be curious if this is a known break in approach. Or a neighborhood prank? Or someone with strange good intentions?

The bone was big and ugly and weathered; not at all appealing to the dog.

[shudder]

Harvey’s, a Canadian hamburger chain, has a pretty interesting combo deal. Order the sandwhich of your choice, and choose a side and a drink. Sides include onion rings and fries, of course, but also chips, and a salad. Drinks include soda pop, but also orange juice, or water. So you can order a burger, a salad (with dressing on the side), and a bottled water for the same price as a burger with fries and a Coke.

If you’re going to order a burger, it’s nice not to compound that with the other stuff, but I honestly wonder about the economics of this. Doesn’t a pop cost cents, at most (isn’t it highly subsidized by the Pepsi or Coke people?), versus a bottled water or Minute Maid juice? And even a salad that is mostly lettuce still appears to be handmade at some production facility, presumably at significantly greater cost than fries?

I know the fast food chains are all dealing with the obesity issue, at least in terms of PR, but this seems like the most encouraging and intriguing food offering I’d seen to date.

Nicolas Cage has named his newborn son Kal-El,

which is also the birth name of the Man of Steel, Superman. Kal-el Coppola Cage was born on Monday, and both baby and mother, Cage’s wife, Alice Kim Cage, are said to be doing well.
Cage, a huge comic-book fan once sold his entire collection for $1.6 million, hence the chosen name for his child. Cage even adopted his name from the Marvel comic-book character Luke Cage (his realy name is Coppola, his Uncle being the famous helmer Francis Ford).
Cage will next be seen in the big-budget comic book adaptation of GHOST RIDER.

That $1.6 should just about cover the therapy bills for that poor kid.

Chickens Suit is a conceptual art piece cum product that is as confusing as it is provocative

In the future, The ChickensSuit will outfit the old, familiar house chicken, and future clothes will naturally be offered in different sizes and available in the color combinations red-white, in each case the piece being inspired by the flags of the two countries, Japan and Austria, including one warm corduroy outfit, as well as two disguise versions: in camouflage or as hair fur.

Also see previous entry about tattoos on pigs.

Fat Guy Shirts targets a specific consumer, with t-shirts up to 5X, sporting proud (or is it denial) slogans. I wonder if we’ll see Fat Chick Shirts anytime soon (and no, shirts that say “No Fat Chicks” don’t count).

Probably everyone knew this but me, but Fossil Watches offers an impressive (at least in terms of number, if not actual appeal) array of themed watches. Themes (or shall we call them brands) include Ohio State, Universities of Illinois, Alabama, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, as well as Starck, Gehry, Atari, and some other geeky options. Fossil is riding the same trends as everyone else – co-branding with entertainment properties, designers as brands, target = “_blank”Substance-of-Style-esque massive choice.

Shop Talk is a BBC radio show featuring a discussion of ethnographic research in business. Thanks to Michael Andrews and Louise Ferguson for this.

It was a bit challenging for me to listen to; Genevieve Bell was the only person who (in a very radio-unfriendly fashion) tried to move the sound-bites into a discussion, usually to be squelched by the host. There was just too much to cover in 28 minutes – too many people giving their spiel about what this is, why it’s necessary, who is qualified (or not) to engage in it, and in a couple of cases some examples of what was learned and what the implications were. Definitions of terms such as “ethnography” and “anthropology” were not common amongst the panelists and created what I would imagine was some confusion among non-industry (ie, the user research industry) listeners. Me, I was just annoyed by that discussion.

Anyway, there are some nice bits in there, and it’s pretty good to hear some different voices on the topic, and for me, to hear my profession discussed from a UK business perspective, that was quite refreshing.