One of my current day-to-day projects is the running of my very own online business – wecancreate – which was launched in March 2009. We specialise in web design and graphic design services, and offer a high quality and affordable service for small businesses, organisations, and individuals.
What I love about this business is the fact that I get to run it the way I think it should be run – cutting through the corporate wank, and just being genuine with my clients and giving them the best service I can provide. It can also be very exhilarating helping my clients either launch their first website (often as part of their journey to escape the rat race themselves!), or re-launch an existing website that wasn’t fulfilling its potential.
So if you’re reading this, and are in the process of looking for someone to help you build a website, I encourage you to head on over to my business’ website at http://www.wecancreate.com and I’ll look after you like a friend!
During my time as a university teacher from 2007 – 2010, I had the opportunity to teach many different topics. One topic that I became interested in was that of “child soldiers”.
Having admittedly never heard much about this subject before, I went about researching it in as much depth as I could, so as to present two major lectures on this issue. What I discovered was truly shocking, and simply confirmed my beliefs about how lucky many of us are to never have been subjected to the day-to-day struggles of people and children in unstable, war-torn countries.
My research culminated in two major lectures at university in 2008, and are most likely the only lectures of this sort in Australia. To help spread this issue further, I made videos of my lectures available online. As far as I know, these are the only lecture videos of this sort on the entire web.
I encourage you to check out both lectures below, and I hope it brings continual awareness to the many problems encountered in some of the more difficult areas of our planet.
“Wozniak Live” was a television comedy pilot that I created, produced, wrote, and hosted back in 2005. Not only did I fund it myself, but I also put together an entire team of volunteers (approximately 20 – 30) to help make the pilot.
Just like FUSR, this project remains one of my pivotal experiences from the past. Not only did it build on the strengths I had developed from my time on community radio, but it also made me realise that if I could create something like this from nothing, then anything was possible.
“Wozniak Live” was originally conceived (immaculately of course …) in early 2003. After encountering a myriad of obstacles, and dying several times (the show, not me …), the project eventually took off in early 2005, and was taped in front of a live studio audience in April of that year. Not long after, I produced a 2-disc special edition DVD of the pilot, featuring the pilot episode, bloopers, and a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary.
Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of me and my team, “Wozniak Live” never went beyond the initial pilot episode, nor was it ever screened publicly. Every network in Australia ultimately rejected it. No doubt the pilot had flaws. After all, it was produced without any access to professional equipment, facilities, or experienced crew members!
But it still remains a proud achievement for me and, hopefully, for everyone who was involved in its creation. And you know what – it was a hell of a lot of fun!
If you want to see a few clips from the show, take a look below.
Flinders University Student Radio (FUSR) was, without a doubt, one of the most important and valuable experiences of my life.
FUSR was a timeslot every Wednesday night on Australia’s oldest community radio station, Radio Adelaide 101.5 FM (Radio Station of the Year in 2005). FUSR ran from 1997 – 2006, and I was lucky enough to not only be involved as a producer, writer, and host – but also ultimately as the Director of the station.
How often does one get the opportunity to broadcast on such a station and reach tens of thousands of people throughout the State? For me, it happened regularly for approximately half a decade. Sure, it was stressful at times, but looking back at it now I have nothing but fond memories.
Not only did I get the chance to create, produce, and host my own weekly comedy shows on there (“Purple Monkey Dishwasher” and “The Late Show with Adam & Garth” in 2003 and 2004 in particular), but eventually I took over as Director of FUSR, restructured the organisation and its standards of professionalism, improved the skills of its volunteers through providing additional training, and tried to open it up to as many new people as I could. It was important to give as many people a chance to gain the same sort of benefits I did from my time on community radio. As a result, we discovered some terrific talent – talent who you will probably hear from in the near future.
Unfortunately, all good things come to end. So did FUSR – thanks to Federal Government legislation that passed in 2006 (it cut funding to universities, who were then forced to cut back on “non-essential” services such as student radio). FUSR remains in the memories of the hundreds of volunteers who helped run the station for the 10 great years it was on-air.
As a tribute, the (now extremely dated) website is still online. So if you want to listen to some clips from the final year of FUSR, head on over to http://www.fusr.org while it’s still around!
Flinders University Student Radio (FUSR) was, without a doubt, one of the most important and valuable experiences of my life.