Blog Entry: 11 Opinions Are Like Arseholes
Walking out of the registry office in Cochrane I can’t help but think this is a little exciting! OK, to be clear all we have done is put the company names on hold, but still this feels like progress! Way back in 2019 I had decided, while on my mission to learn to use all the systems adobe had to offer, that I should make a company logo. To do this, first I had to think of a company name. Now usually I’m a complicated guy but this was not hard, I had always said I would not have a stereotypical obvious name like ‘Dan’s Photography’, my intention is to create a brand. So I never felt the need to go North American and use a name that spoon fed what it sold. Like ‘horseback riding’. If it wasn’t obvious that you sat on the horses back, I’m not sure you should go horse riding. I like Apple. Apple never had to tell the world Apple meant computers, they became intrinsically synonymous with the IT world, to the point people will even say I own an Apple, no need to say more! I think the whole ethos is so much more classy. And that had me thinking, what am I synonymous with. I’m different in even the way my head works, I am constantly going against the grain and not even the smallest part is deliberate. I take the direction I feel is right, even if the rest of the world disagrees, but everything I do has a logic or a reason behind it and it just seems to differ from the wider communities’ views. Even down to this blog, I did it the way I have, hosting from my own website because no one can conform my context or structure. For instance, I can use the word cunt. It’s a word that many are uncomfortable using or even hearing, but if you have a complex intellect and believe that it’s not just the word but the context its utilised in, this can open up many words. Words feared and ignored by the world of the paranoid and PC and when you do, these words have the potential to vividly convey feelings in a visceral manner that you sometimes just can’t otherwise convey. So, the name DanF40 Group! It’s simple, I’m Dan. Call it narcissistic but I want it to be personal. From the logo design, the marketing, the execution, the website, the HTML email structure all the bits in between. And F40 again simple. The Ferrari F40 was, and is (in my mind) the epitome of one man’s ‘fuck your opinion’ when designing a car. It was uncompromising and unapologetic; just like Enzo himself! He had this vision of a road going race car, as out of place as caviar on chips. From the carbon Kevlar chassis, Alcantara dash, pullcord door handles, no ABS, no traction assist; to the plastic windows and centre exit un-muffled screamer pipe it was exactly that. This is me; I will never personally pursue wedding photography, I don’t like drunk people, bridezillas, and mass gatherings of uncontrolled small humans. I also don’t like overly staged or unrealistic false perfections, meaning I try to capture what’s real. A real smile is more powerful than a room full of fake happiness, in the same way true human emotion can’t be replicated on command. Authenticity is a lost art! Lost to fake lips, fake tits, fake profiles all promoting a distorted life filled with fake personalities. I love photography. Those times when you accurately freeze a moment in or a raw emotion in someone’s life, through your lens; you freeze it allowing anyone to look back on it for years to come.
Since moving to Canada, I have really come to despise the way everything is marketed. It starts with a rosy, unrealistic image of a product. This is no different to the rest of the world, but this is further exaggerated in the form of a ‘please all’ and ‘tell you what you want to hear’ advert that is usually as tasteful as Connor McGregor posing on his Lambo boat wearing his gold Rolex telling everyone he is still ‘the world’s greatest’. I strongly fear, although North America speaks English, I don’t know if the words ‘tact’ or ‘modesty’ were ever fully translated. This is usually topped off with the worlds tackiest photo and an ‘individual’ slogan. Something like “home of the 4 second fucking oil change’! It is my biggest gripe with the most industries in North America, people only care about cheaper faster and fake sells! …… Question; when did North American realtors become celebrities? I’m not fucking with you. Take a seat Kanye West, Margot Robbie and Adel! Honestly, they’re on flyers, billboards, in shop windows, even on fucking park benches! From sitting on their faces to seeing them on 20ft posters, all with the same self-centred, ego filled, ‘copy and paste’ individuality that has become the normality. They have the individuality of the paper thin designer shirt they are so desperate for you to see them wearing. Luckily our realtor we found, is the most down to earth lady you will ever find; it gives me hope that modesty and class still exists in this desert of tacky cheap Kardashian wannabe’s!
I loved the 90’s! Please never mistake this, but that’s where this shit-filled snowball started. Harmlessly at first, but the explosion of available credit to all. Allowing any persons to live so far from their means to impress and to give that image of successes, that they would need to rob Wladziu Valentino Liberace to clear their mounting debt, is, was, and has become a destructive catalyst. It’s amazing how hard it is to pay a $2000 bill, but how easy it is to justify paying $166.67 over a 12 month, 0% interest, buy now pay and later loan. And somehow it’s not seen as the same monetary figure? You then focus on the small number and not the total! Spending income you don’t have, and worse is not guaranteed in most cases. It’s the same way companies lean on specific sales techniques, “$9.99” instead of $10.00; it’s $0.01 difference?! How this has a sales impact makes me quite worried. Or buy 2 or more and save 0%. If you don’t need or want two, it’s an unnecessary purchase? And it’s compounding, an unnecessary need for “shopping stimulation” creates addiction, that false inflation of demand creates more outlets than is required or sustainable, leading to over saturation of a market demand that has be artificially inflated. This comes full loop, in times gone by the desire was to make a good product that would last “the test of time”, longevity was the key. Now as mentioned, ‘faster cheaper’ is the most requested customer desire. This, in most cases, leads to less longevity and reduced quality. We have pushed for higher turnover of products creating more waste. The relevance to my life and our company is strong, I see many photographers who repurpose photo shoots, taking client’s previous shoots and repeating carbon copies for new client’s. Now some consumers will request this but I think most times it’s a way to make the process ‘cheaper faster’. I will never fully escape this, but one of my biggest pushes is to keep this to a minimum and to keep as much individuality as possible.
Christmas came and went, one of the guys at the new job made me some real Stollen (German cake) and mulled wine and we got to celebrate our first Christmas in Canada. It was good! We didn’t have an abundance of funds to do lots or go out to restaurants or snowboarding, to be more specific I would do no snowboarding in the whole of the 2021/22 season, and this was very depressing. I instead spent money on the Honda, it was drinking oil through it’s valve seals, and this needed to be stopped.
I started the job on Boxing Day, and this would prove to have been a bad move. Temperatures were down; way down, on average -37 by 8:30/9pm in the evening, and 7 hours in (as I had also decided to do the cam belt and water pump) I was failing. The cold was getting to me and I was tired. Just as I was thinking of calling it a day and coming back to it the next morning, I made the error of removing the collet on CYL 3 without CYL 3 at top dead centre …………. Any techs reading this know exactly where this is going. A metallic slap was heard as the valve gracefully slipped out of its hole and landed on the piston. FUCK!! I did not want to remove the head, but the options were slim to none.
If asked what my most valuable mechanical asset was, I would say persistence. And the next day this would come to be needed! It was an early start and involved a visit to work to get my small magnets as I was going fishing for a valve. By lunch time, I had managed to retrieve the valve pulling it back into its guide using 3 magnets and more patience than my mother getting a 5-year-old me to leave a toy store, I completed the job but was quite ill for the next week from the cold of two days in -37. And ill is actually an understatement. I felt like shit, but my repair work was not done; I fixed the coffee machine and re-attached a garage door hinge. It was then back to work, well minus ½ a day when I truly failed. I must reduce my travel! It was still an hour and a half drive each day and the environment was a little toxic to say the least. I could see my time being limited as I have a solid rule. If I don’t like where I work, I leave. Life is short and you spend 75% of your time at work, so you need to be somewhat happy.
Next time Jan to March, we incorporate the company, I formulate a plan to not waste 7.5 hours in travel a week and we celebrate a good euro trash outing! Until next time my friends.
