HI all from Ohio!

Since Barack Obama was elected president just last week, everyone has been kind of excited to see what kind of dog he gets for his two daughters.  In his acceptance speech he promised his kids a new puppy when they moved into the White House.  Now, we’re all talking about what kind puppy it’s going to be.  Not the most lively or pertinant topic of conversation I know, but it does pass the time.  Plus, puppies are cute!

One of the problems that the Obamas are having in the selection of their new pet is that one of the kids, Malia, is allergic. They need a hypo-allergenic pooch.  

I was a little surprised to learn that there are hypo-allergenic dogs out there, like the poodle. (Which I’d already known of, but didn’t realize was good for people with allergies!)  With these new fangled designer pets, the days when a family can’t own a pet because of allergies are long gone!  Below is just a funny picture of Obama and McCain when they were campaigning!

Wasssup! by adjustafresh on Flickr.com

5 weeks ago I moved into what I would soon find out to be, an Internet-free zone.  No connection in the apartment, not even wireless signals to mooch off of.  Finally, yesterday at 10 am, a cable guy arrived to install this glorious product of our information age and I must say, it’s better than it has ever been.  Although, the 5 weeks of no Internet (except for the university library) was rewarding, I am glad to once again have it in my reach.

Tell me, could you live though 5 Internetless weeks?

Last week we ran our 32nd Free Flowers Competition for a chance to win $60 of flowers delivered anywhere in the world courtesy of our partners Flora 2000, the International delivery experts.

To win you had to look at the picture below and come up with a short discussion they would have with each other if they were all stuck in the same room together.

And the winner is Kathleen with:

Well done Kathleen!

If you didn’t win or missed the chance to enter, you could always send flowers to someone right now, anywhere in the world . Simply click on the flowers banners and use promo code GSTF99 and you’ll be entitled to a bit of flower smelling discount!

What a global lot we are at GO! Smell the flowers. Here in the UK a trivial thought for you to consider:

When was the last time you were on a coach or bus trip and you had a collection for the driver? Do you do that in your part of the world or is it just taxi fares?

This question was prompted having just taxied teenagers around in our Ford Galaxy 7 seater all week. Interested to know your thoughts, thanks!

There’s always a tension between art and commerce. And when the art comes packaged in alternative clothes the relationship can falter, miss its step and the two can move apart. In trying to recapture past winning formulas commerce can repackage old material and endlessly recycle it under different guises until the art becomes dull, boring, lifeless - and we end up, without fresh expression through art, living in a world without real dialogue to ourselves.

Let’s have a look at the implications for writers …

Do we really want to head towards a George Orwell 1984 with books being produced and written by machines? For that is our future. Unless. Unless we have indie type labels - new publishers who buck the trend, or main stream publishers who decide to use their dollars to finance new streams of work - much in the same way that George Clooney uses films like Ocean’s 11 to finance his more arty films.

So it is we find such associations of authors banding together under the name of The Offbeat Generation: A loose association of like-minded authors united in their hostilty to mainstream publishing that is driven by marketing departments. The term was coined by Andrew Gallix of the 3:AM Magazine in 2006 and now has authors like Tom McCarthy and Tony O’Neill associated with it.

Here’s Tony’s book:

So let’s change the focus of discussion out there. We like asking questions. The key is in asking the right questions. At the moment we ask: Will printed books survive with technolgy taking the writing industry to e-book readers like the Kindle? Let’s ask instead if enough of our talented writers are finding a voice? We need marketing to get books into people’s hands and to make the industry profitable. But we also need fresh, inspiring, challenging work, we need a world with real dialogue.

Arvind here, getting back in the swing of things at Flowers.

A recurring topic I come across in my work is this theme of whether one can enjoy their true vocation and become rich at the same time.

For example, do artists always have to struggle or can they make it “big time”? Do they struggle because they are lazy and mediocre?

Looking at the wider picture, is it really possible for us to enjoy what we do and become wealthy through doing that?

With the current turmoil in the financial markets, should we all be revisiting how we gauge success and not just base it on our material things? What does success mean for you?

When you started out in your career or business, did YOU set out to enjoy what you do or did you want to make a lot of money? Or did you compromise your dreams along the way?

A lot of questions. Do share…

Time for another free flowers competition, our 32nd! And time for some talking! First cue the prize:

$60 of flowers delivered anywhere in the world courtesy of our partners Flora 2000, the International delivery experts. Don’t you just love them.

I know, I know you want it. You must win! So this is what you do:

Talk Talk Comp:

Look at the picture below and come up with a short discussion they would have with each other if they were all stuck in the same room together. And we’re sure you know their smiles, but just in case: From top left clockwise we have Mrs Beckham, Mr Simpson, Dr House and Mr Burns.

You could always send flowers to someone right now, anywhere in the world . Simply click on the flowers banners and use promo code GSTF99 and you’ll be entitled to a bit of flower smelling discount! Contest ends on Tuesday 30th September Midnight Dubai time. Good luck flower smellers!

Well shiver me timbers, if ain’t be a whole year since we last shared the grog.

Did you remember or should ye all be a’walking the plank? Aharrrr Jim lad!

The world works in mysterious ways! Minutes after Deep posted about how you can add your own Avatar here at GSTF rather than be faceless we’ve just been featured in this collection of well known blogger avatars currently working its way through the blogosphere and about to take off on youtube.

This clip is courtesy of James and the team at polybore as they put life into our logos and faces. Over 3 minutes of blogger avatars with GSTF featured pretty much at the end, best till last?

Good eh! So - take a few minutes to upload your Avatar here at GSTF as per the post below and you’ll be recognised here at the main blog and at forums.

You can use an image, a photo, cartoon, symbol or whatever you like and you can change them at a later date. Looking forward to seeing you soon and I ask you - what is behind your choice of avatar and why?

Still wondering how to get rid of those faceless avatar boxes on the comments section?

Well, it’s pretty simple.. our current version of comments page is fetching avatars from the site Gravatar. All you need to do is, register there using your present email ID (the one which you use for posting the comments) and upload the avatar.

Within 15 - 25 minutes, your new avatar should be up on our site too. And this same avatar will be displayed on all the websites (mainly wordpress based blogs) using Gravtar.

So.. let’s kick those faceless avatars…