Inspired by Peter Hill, writer of pithy, witty and altogether-too-clever headlines, who is too lazy to update his own blog, so I'm posting them corking headlines here.

Nope, it's not faked, it's actually snowing in Las Vegas (the one in the middle of desert) for the first time since 1979. Check out the photos at designyoutrust.com for the full majesty (Ok, that's a bit much, let's say effect) of the Vegas strip covered in snow.

Doesn't it look romantic. Get thee to an Elvis-themed chapel this instant.

One tip, if you're in Vegas and a red-faced portly gentleman starts shouting "Ho ho ho" at you, the surprise gift you'll pick up will probably clear up with the right ointment. Or so I'm told.

[Pic courtesy of Dmitry at designyoutrust.com]

"Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?"

If you're a child of a certain age (the show last aired in 1994) that'll mean something to you. If not, you missed a cult kids TV show that implored yoof to get outside during their Summer holidays. Back in those days video games weren't what they are now.

What brought this to mind was a series of photos taken by Wolfram Hahn that glared out at me whilst leafing through an old copy of Adbusters magazine. The collection, "A Disenchanted Playroom" is a study of children's faces as they watch TV.

Their faces look glazed, passive, devoid of any emotion almost like their 'off switch' was flicked, just before the photo was taken. Do we look like that when surfing the web? Or playing computer games?

Hope not. Perhaps it's time to get our more? Why don't you?

There's a detailed interview with Hahn on the C/O Berlin - International Forum For Visual Dialogues website.

[Pic courtesy of Grant Neufeld]

I spend all day glued to a laptop, much of it browser-based. Not many advertisers manage to cut through the clutter with an ad that grabs the eye, holds the attention and gets the message across. And how rare is that?

I store special hatred for those annoying rich media ads. You know the ones, an accidental scroll of the mouse across their annoying hot spots and they expand over the content you originally wanted to see. If they have an X to close the ad, it's near-impossible to see or is so small you the steady hand of brain surgeon to close the damn thing.

Well, for the first time in ages, I watched an online animated advert all the way through to the end, thanks to the Twitter friends who pointed this as for the new Wario Land game on the Nintendo Wii:

I've seen something similar before, but can't for the life of me remember which brand it was. If you can remember, leave a comment below, I'd love to know.

And if you like that sort of thing, I suspect the creatives that came up with this ad owe a not inconsiderable debt to Alan Becker, who created the now famous Animator vs Animation movies in 2006.

Animator vs. Animation

Animator vs Animation Part 2

I've noticed that since the introduction of a second DVR (why don't TiVo come back to the UK, sniff) into our household, the amount of TV advertising that I'm exposed to has dropped significantly. Fast forward button, you are my friend, I thank you.

However, when I do watch live TV, the adverts now drive me up the bleedin' wall. Many are terrible, but there some works of marketing art. So, why the annoyance? The VOLUME. They're so loud and apparently getting louder. Although regulatory body, Advertising Standards Authority have limits which they sometimes impose on how loud the ads can be, I find myself reaching for the volume control every ad break.

I hear from a well-informed source that the TV companies are asking for shows to be made quieter, so that the adverts still SHOUT at you during the break. And it's not just me and my delicate lug holes that don't like it.

One word: shhh.

And the regulators agree.

If I wanted to buy everything from people that shout at me, I'd shop exclusively from Evening Standard vendors.

[Pic: courtesy of hebedesign]

Whilst on a Friday afternoon diversion sent to me by a friend who knows I have the attention span of a....ooo, look a shiny piece of paper...

My gaze drifted towards this banner advert for Times Online's Good University Guide - and there's an expression that you don't hear often:

Remind you of anything? Ah yes...

Seriously? Are you kidding me?

Aside from the lame pastiche, have I missed the 'obvious' humour in this? Yes, I suppose there is the unintentional comedy in advising potential students on their future academic institution and a film about anti-establishment heroin addicts. Maybe they're trying to say something subversive and politically poignant about the weight of student debt and the difficulty in kicking hard drugs?

Or not.

Following on from a previous post about swearing, I couldn't help but add this to the blog after being sent it by friends who are avid watchers of American TV. As a reminder, this all started with US talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, started a long-running gag about Matt Damon at the end of his shows.

He'd regularly sign off with, "apologies to Matt Damon", we ran out of time. He even put together a spoof trailer for Damon's film, The Bourne Supremacy, featuring one of the Kimmel show's regular comedy characters. When Damon finally appeared on the show, they ended the show abruptly, once again needling Damon by telling him they were out of time, prompting a proper full-on rant from Damon - staged, but believable. He's a better actor than you'd think.

The culmination of this was a video recorded by Kimmel's girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman featuring the much maligned Matt Damon, "I'm fucking Matt Damon". It was intended as a piss-take to be played on Kimmel's birthday. And was very funny.

So, Kimmel takes his time putting his revenge together and it's a corker. Naturally, there's only one way to handle this. Out parody the parody, and what better way to do it than with Matt Damon's movie-twin, Ben Affleck. For your delectation, Jimmy Kimmel, Ben Affleck and a host of Hollywood celebs with the soon-to-be-hit, honest, "I'm fucking Ben Affleck"

 

and for good measure, the spoof trailer for The Bourne Supremacy is worth a watch...

and if you're having doubts over a) whether Matt Damon can act or b) how gullible some American audiences are, check out Damon doing his nut about being cut off again and check out the (2,000+) comments.

 

It's not terribly heartening is it? After months of doom and gloom for every news outlet you care to sample about the credit crunch and impending economic doom, you spot this sign as you shamble towards work one morning...

Yes, that's right, you're eye's aren't deceiving you. That really is a 442% APR Bonus Loan from the sparkly new Oakam shop. Seems like the bonus firmly belongs to Oakam, rather than the person actually taking out the loan.

The other snap - excuse the rather iffy phone camera work - shows the more reasonably priced, Payday Loan at a mere 76.85% APR.

This particular shop opened a month ago, but it's by no means the only money shop in the neighbourhood. It joins an independent outfit as well as The Money Shop chain. These only one reason these shops are opening and it's because there's enough demand form short-term finance at enormous rates.

I'm particularly concious of the costs of this type of loan as I'm volunteering at the local credit union, Hammersmith & Fulham Credit Union, HFCU to its friends, which has just been approved by the FSA. And the timing couldn't be better.

Credit Unions are social enterprises, operated and owned by the people involved in it. To form one, the people involved must have a common-bond. In HFCU's case, it's open to anyone who lives or works in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, but there's lots of them all over the UK.

The movement sprung out of the Co-operative and Friendly Society movement. The best bit about them is that they're regulated by the FSA, so you're money is protected plus by law, the maximum interest rate is 2% per month, although most charge less, typically around 1%.

If you live or work in Hammersmith & Fulham, you can find out more or get involved by filling in the form on the website. If you want to find your local credit union, there's a list on the ABCUL (credit union trade body) website.

Trying to find instruction manuals online is a pain. I blame Google. Or more specifically, the SEOers who are working the search engine algorithms for the online retailers.

It's happened to me a couple of times recently when I've been trying to find out how to use relatively ancient electrical items. Most recently, I was attempting the 'healthy option' of making pizza at home, rather than popping in to the local Domino's.

The bread machine (Panasonic Automatic Breadmaker SD-206, in case you're wondering) produces a rather splendid dough in about 45 mins, although go easy on the water. The recipes provided tend to make the dough a little too stick, using slightly less water does the trick, about 15ml, usually.

It's not that often that I get a chance to use the web in a way that say, my mum, would use it but this is a great example of when Google's just isn't helpful. Try searching for panasonic SD-206 bread maker manual. It actually works better with fewer keywords, try panasonic SD-206 manual instead. She'd definitely give up. Even the links that look like they might be helpful are pleas from other users for the manual, sites charging for downloads or non-English versions.

You'll be glad to hear (or perhaps by this stage, you couldn't care less) that I found the manual on Panasonic's website. I downloaded the nice shiny PDF to find some of the ropiest scans I've come across. Very funny. Still, at least I got my pizza dough.

Lessons learnt:

1. Google is a highly polluted beast if you're searching for something that's heavily SEO'ed
2. Panasonic are ripe for some SEO - get in there agencies
3. Home-made pizza really does knock the spots off most take-aways

And if someone is looking for the manual for a Panasonic SD-206 Automatic Breadmaker, I've stuck a copy here. Although the scans are fairly rubbish, it's readable when printed. Happy baking!

Admittedly, it's taken me an absolute age to sort out my personal blog. I've had one previously, but ran out of time to keep it updated. Fortunately, blogging, social media and community are at the heart of what Chinwag is trying to do, so I get to dabble and it's relevant to the day job sans guilt. Marvellous.

One thing that's surprised me is how hard some of the social networks and web-based applications have made life for me. I've been trying to find buttons or badges to add to my blog, partly so I don't have to replicate lots of information here and partly as an exercise in cross-linking. Roll on the day that there's a tool to manage all this stuff. My aged brain has plenty of trouble trying to keep up with all these accounts.

Considering word of mouth marketing is central to most of these organisations, it can be a bit of a hunt to find how to make these links. Perhaps, it's just the way I look at web pages, but judging by the instructions in this rather excellent post, I'm not the only one. In case you're wondering yourself, I've put some quick instructions below.

	Login to Facebook Navigation to your Profile page Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page Click on 'Create a Profile Badge' link
	Login to LinkedIn Click on the 'My Profile' tab Voila! There's a link to Promote your profile half-way down the page
	Login to your Upcoming profile Scroll down to the bottom of the page Click on the 'Upcoming Badges...' link
	Login to Twitter Scroll to the bottom of the page Click on the 'Care to Share...' link

Gold star to LinkedIn who have the easiest link to find and a good variety of badges.

And whilst I'm in minor-rant mode, why don't they have simpler badges, too? The badges and widgets that have interactivity up the wazzoo are all well and good, but what if I want a straightforward image? Wouldn't a selection of different sizes logos in badge format be a useful addition, not just for bloggers but also press people or anyone who wants to make a generic link to their sites. Definitely missing a marketing trick.

Still, I can't grab too much of the high ground. A quick scan of Chinwag's sites quickly reveals that we don't have badges, widgets, logos or anything else, but having been through this exercise, it'll be one thing that certainly gets bumped up the 'to do' list.

This screen grab is from The Huffington Post. I think it illustrates clearly why Content Management Systems (CMS) can sometimes be a dangerous thing.

The image appeared half-way down the page enticing readers to check out other content on the site. I'm not sure the way the system automatically chopped the headlines was terribly appropriate. I'll certainly be taking more care in future when Deirdre (Chinwag's editor) chides me for my over-lengthy headlines. Don't want no unfortunate choppage.

And for the record here are the full headlines from the Britney and Heath Ledger stories.