Day 554 | Mildura: still lurking by the river after dark

rest day

As predicted it came over stinking hot so I perched once again with other refugees in the library. A haven for backpackers, there’s a few around, attempting to organise some one way car rental scam with an Irish accent, or displaying serious quantities of burned flesh and those not-so-trendy-anymore tats, going on unintelligibly in some obscure language.

Plenty to do digitally including sending out my Christmas cards, email variety, and some respondents, clearly with little else to do at this time of the year when they really should be seen to be working, are quick on the trigger to fire back a reply, all encouraging.

As the trip nears its end, finances dwindling, heading rapidly for low tide, I’m spending more time contemplating a future that goes beyond finding a secluded spot to throw up the tent each night.

Sure it’s been an indulgence to spent so much time in contemplation of in the middle of not a lot but one thing is I noticed I have a modest talent in writing suitably for the internet, coming up with some words that folks might actually want to read in this attention deficit beset new world order. Online requires a radically different style that I’m actually well suited to: get to the point, quickly, be concise, state things that people might say, oh, that’s a bit interesting, or amusing, have a few twists up your sleeve, realising that if there’s any waffle the likelihood is that lazy click in another direction, possibly never to return.

People get exasperated easily these day. Patience is a card game.

I’ve racked up over half a million hits over various websites I post to in the last three years so my style seems to work for some people.

And there’s hope I might be able to turn this into a career that pays real money, I mean, when was the last time what you Googled had much interesting to say? There’s lots of bland mumbo jumbo out there.

I guess the major problem is that just like anyone who carries a mobile phone thinks they are a magnificent photographer, anyone who can pick up a pen, do they do that anymore, thinks they are a communicator.

Err, sadly, not always.

The digital project I’ve been working on since Burra on and off is for a startup business, a niche not conceivable a few years ago: business digital management.

The idea is that businesses can majorly benefit from assistance in managing the whole digital realm that goes to more than just an online presence, someone who sees the Big Picture, the aspirations and new potentials of the business in a globalised world and can then coordinate all the various aspects: business plan, marketing strategies, advertising, responsive design, social media, search engine optimisation, reputation management, (and man is that one important), venture capital, etc.

Everyone delivering the same message.

So often the parts are just concentrating on their own narrow focus, for instance, web designers aren’t particularly interested in the written copy they are given, they’ll whack in whatever jargon laden gibberish the client spent days in whipping up. That compartmentalised system isn’t particularly effective in this new era. After all, if you operate in a mature market the only way to increase revenues is to snatch customers from your competitors or seriously innovate.

Somewhere there’s a little corner for my talents to contribute, well, that’s the theory.

After all this future buzz, I’m thrown out of the library at 7 and reality takes hold, it’s still hot but a massive wind is blowing, I bike back to the river, a new, slightly more secluded spot, more exposed to avoid the famed limb drop of the immense River Red Gums that hold the banks together, widow makers, but with that raging gale the tent is not proving ideal accommodation tonight, the packed clay unresponsive to my attempts to peg down, just have to throw my whole caboodle inside before it all ends up in the drink.

Finally the rain dumps down.

You can sense the limitations of this nomadic life are losing their appeal.

Adjustment to a more sedentary life ain’t going to be a problem.