Friday, July 15, 2022

.......using the wrong emoji

Emojis in emails have never been a good fit - email is a word media, with attachments that might be pictures. Emojis also seem a little inappropriate in emails - "she can't be bothered to say she is happy, she has to send me a smiling face." Or maybe - "he sent me a sad-faced emoji, but is he actually sad?"

Many people send an emoji as part of a WhatsApp message, which I am quite happy with. The problem I have, shared with some celebs in the news recently, is choosing the right one. I mainly use  😀 😊😕😑, but people send me really interesting emojis. Where do they find them? Back to the theme. Maybe you have just selected the wrong one by accident or carelessness. Maybe it is just a bad choice. The reader will always think the latter.  One hundred well-crafted words could be undermined by the wrong emoji. Is it worth the risk?

🙍

Sunday, July 10, 2022

......searching for something to listen to on the radio.


Yesterday I needed to take a short drive to collect an item from the supermarket. Five minutes out and everything stops. What is it? Roadworks, an accident, a diversion? No problem, I've got a reasonable sound system. Let's see what's on the radio!


Switch on, select FM, set the volume level - all from the comfort of my steering wheel.  I recognise that - Mahler's second. No, this is not a day for jumping off the bridge. I could wait and see what comes next - but for how long? Press search. Phil Collins - easy lover. This is great, it perks me up. I sing along. I am Phil Bailey. But then it finishes and there is some rap song coming out of four corners of the car. No thanks. Press search. A very serious and committed woman is telling me about teething problems with one-year-olds. She has a pleasant upper-middle-class style. Definitely a mid-thirties version of Joan Bakewell. Interesting, but this content will probably not be of any value to me - I had better move on. A discussion. What are they talking about? Brexit? No, but something about trading in Europe and Russia. Press. Sade, you have saved my life. I cannot see any diamond lights but I reckon I am a smooth operator.


The traffic moves on.