By Rahsian Parris

Elliot Minor - From Left to Right: Ed Minton, Dan Hetherton, Alex Davies, Ali Paul and Ed Hetherton

I recently caught up with Ed Minton (from band of the moment, Elliot Minor), who took some time out of the bands hectic UK tour to talk about their new album Solaris, dish the dirt on his band mates and shed some light on what really happens on tour with one of Britain’s favourite pop rockers.

I am anxious, my palms feel clammy and all of a sudden I feel overwhelmed. Is my voice shaking? I am introducing myself and I start to stutter, why am I giggling like an excited child? Maybe it is because I am about to talk to a founding member of one of my favourite bands. I manage to get my name out and ask Ed how he is, “Hiya, I’m very well thank you. How are you?” he says. Much to my surprise, the young, modest voice on the other end of the line is instantly comforting and just like that, it is like talking to an old friend. I answer his polite question, mentioning how petrified I am and slightly unnerved that my other interviewee – Alex, who sings lead vocals – is still asleep in bed. “Do you want me to wake him up?” asks Ed, more as if he were asking me how many sugars I would like in my coffee rather than if he should rouse his superstar band mate from the depths of post performance slumber. He tells me, in an almost childlike fashion, that unfortunately he is not allowed to anyway (orders from management) and that the interview will continue Alex-less.

“I’m the guitarist Ed, not the bassist one” he exclaims, not to confuse ‘the Eds’ (there are two, Minton and Hetherton, brother of other band mate Dan Hetherton) “I’m 23, I was originally born in Japan, I came over to England when I was eight and I’ve been here since.” When asked if he plays any other instruments, other than guitar, he sheepishly replies “in the band I sing a bit, but that’s about it” and outside of the band? “I can play the piano and violin” he says, so matter of fact that you would think that mastering the art of playing such instruments is common practice. Having said that, in Elliot Minor it is. Between them they play nine different instruments including the cello, clarinet and double bass and that is before we even consider their hearty vocal talents. “We all did music at school, we all took to studying music as a major subject, so we all pretty much did the same thing” says Ed who went to independent school Uppingham in Rutland, England. With such prestigious schooling behind him and co-founder, Alex Davies, there is no wonder Elliot Minor are massive; Uppingham’s former residents are no less than Charlie Simpson (formerly of Busted, currently of hard rockers Fightstar) and Harry Judd of punk/pop sensations McFly to name a few. Ed fills us in saying “It’s where I met Alex. We started doing some acoustic stuff together before we formed the full band. We were called ‘The Academy’, but we didn’t really do much with that and then in our gap year we joined up with Dan, the drummer and then we were a three piece for a bit. As the year went on, Alex and Dan got in touch with their friends from school, who were Ali and Ed and then we formed the full Elliot Minor”.

In 2006 the fully formed band entered a Myspace competition to win a chance to support McFly on the Newcastle leg of one of their tours. They won. This instantaneously threw them into the media spot light and they quickly built up a massive fan base, particularly out of McFly fans, but as they signed to Warner Bros. Records (who they parted ways with this year to return to their aptly named indie label, Repossession Records) and went on to support pop/rock giants Simple Plan and and Fall Out Boy; six singles and two chart topping albums later, they are now sporting hardcore fans of their own; just as well because you dare not mention rumours of the feud between them and McFly, you might just get the death stare.

With the band being back ‘on the road’ in support of their sophomore album Solaris it is only right that we get to grips with what actually happens on tour with Elliot Minor. We have heard all the rumours about how younger rockers behave most unscrupulously whilst on tour, but to be perfectly honest, Elliot Minor seem pretty tame as Ed excitedly announces half way through our interview “Alex is awake now…he’s gone downstairs, he’s getting changed, he’s walking around butt naked” before a voice in the background shouts out “Edward is a d**do”. Ed quickly lowers his voice saying ” you didn’t hear that did you?”, my uproarious laughter gives it away. The hubbub dies down and we get back to talking about the tour. A popular part of the last Elliot Minor tour was when Alex played his violin live, Ed unfortunately denounces any rumours of this happening on the current tour saying “Well he smashed his violin up…a few years ago or something? Yeah, I think it was when we played the Astoria [in London], he decided to just throw it to the ground and it broke, so until he gets a new one I doubt he’ll be bringing that one out again”. Slightly disappointing, but I am sure there will be other great things on the new tour. What should we expect? “You should expect to see us playing about three quarters of our new album and then pretty much all the singles from out last album. It’s quite an exciting set. It’s got its ups and downs and it’s quite energetic really; I dunno, we’ll just play the songs and see how the kids react”. Fan’s favourite parts of the gigs seem to be when the guys go all sentimental and play some acoustic versions of some of their tracks, but Ed mentions that this wont be happening either. “We were gonna do a song called ‘All Along’ from our second album, but Ali couldn’t learn the part in time”, Ali interrupts saying “yeah I couldn’t be bothered” [there is laughter], “Yeah he couldn’t be bothered to play it” continues Ed, “Nah, I’m kidding, we were gonna do it, but we didn’t have time…we did ['Last Call To New York'] last tour actually, we were thinking of playing it on this tour, but our set is, I think, the length already, so it would be pushing it a little bit if we added another song, but if the demand’s there we might pull it out as an encore”. This pleases me as it is one of my favourite tracks, thus I go on to tell Ed how I will gather my trustee EM fans and campaign for them to play ‘Last Call To New York’; he laughs and enthusiastically says “yeah you should, then we’ll play it”.

Last year Elliot Minor appeared on BBC Radio 1’s Live lounge album and played a very well received acoustic version of Take That’s ‘Rule The World’, asked if they have any more covers in the pipeline, Ed replies “we just did a radio thing yesterday and we covered Jordin Sparks’ ‘Battle Fields’, that was pretty cool. I know Alex really wants to cover Black Eyed Peas, but it’s just not going to happen [laughter]. Can you imagine that? Alex is like “I’ll rap, I’ll rap” but nobody’s buying it, so nah, that’s not gonna happen” he says in between giggles. “Maybe we’ll put out a band version of Jordin sparks one day, that’d be quite cool”. I am sure the fans would love that, I know I would, speaking of the fans, in the short time that Elliot Minor have been in the spotlight, they have acquired an army of loyal fans that follow them around in adoration and apparently keep them comfy whilst on tour, Ed declares “the best thing a fan has ever done [pauses], you know what? The best thing from a fan, is when a fan gets us a present, like boxes of socks, they’re the most appreciated thing on tour because we obviously run out, then we have to start pulling things inside out [laughs], so that kind of thing is great. Fans also buy you tea and that kind of stuff which is also great [he becomes animated], actually the other day I had a girl customise a mug for me which was really nice. She did the Elliot Minor logo, she just customised it as my own which was great; it’s now on the bus and I drink my green tea out of it. She’d written ‘Ed Minton’s Green Tea Mug’ on it, in Japanese as well, so cool”. So what is the worst thing then? “The worst thing a fan has ever done? You know what? I don’t know, they actually don’t do anything that bad. I guess some things can get a little bit annoying, but that’s fine, it’s no problem”.

As was becoming the ever growing trend at that time, Elliot Minor started out on Myspace before they won the competition to be the support band of McFly and Ed says it was the key to their initial success, “Myspace was, initially, the real driving force behind building a fan base, but it’s definitely kind of ground to a halt now, because nothing happens on it, especially for us; I don’t know how it is for other bands, but for some reason it’s just dead, I think everyone’s bored of it. Facebook is as buzzing as ever, but it’s extremely difficult for bands because you can’t really upload music, can you? I dunno, I don’t really spend that much time online, but Dan, the drummer, is a big gimp, he spends most of his time online so he would know a lot better than I do. He’s quite into Twitter right now” (I get excited and tell Ed how much I love Twitter) “Ooh really? I have my own twitter too, but I struggle to use it” he says. I leap into groupie territory when I animatedly tell him that I’ll add him, “yeah?” he replies “please do”. Back to online communities and the success of the band, we get talking about the pros and cons of social networking sites and music. “It gives everyone a chance doesn’t it? So in that sense it makes it easier for bands to get their music out there, but because everyone’s got access to it now, in a sense, it’s harder to get your name out there; but, I guess if you’re a band and you just wanna get your music out then it’s very helpful, in that sense it’s amazing; but I do feel that it’s kind of going downhill now. Myspace is incredible for it, but since that’s dying down now, it’s starting to get harder again”.

There is a bit more noise now as Ed heads out onto the tour bus, the boys are playing Swansea’s Sin City tonight, so no doubt they need to go and prepare. As we come to a close we chat about memorable moments and Ed’s favourite Elliot Minor show. “The Astoria in London. There was this real buzz period where we had our first album out and our Japanese label was on board, it was just a really good time for us. There were like two thousand kids just going mental, it was unbelievable. It was also our first show where we had pyros [pyrotechnics] and all that stuff, so that was probably the highlight for me; but to be fair, every show is awesome, though I am looking forward to the one in Edinburgh” Queue me getting over excited. “I really am, Edinburgh’s always been a wicked place to play. We played the Liquid rooms before and Studio 24 is it? They’re always such a great crowd up there and also it’s just a beautiful city, I love being up there”. He goes on to tell me about his best live show outside of the band, a Green Day concert in Tokyo that he went to see with his best friend “it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life. That will definitely stay in my memory forever”; and for the rest of the Elliot Minor tour? “We’re touring up until the start of December and then we’ll get a bit of time off, I’m going back home to Japan. We’ll get back in the New Year and hopefully, I think this is the plan as it is now, we’ll have a single out early next year and then we’ll just carry on touring. Maybe another UK tour, but we also promised our European fans that we’d go out there and maybe head to Japan as well because they’re releasing an album in March”.

Huge gusts of wind blow down the phone and Ed is audibly cold, the tour bus should be leaving soon to head to the venue of another explosive Elliot Minor show, but in the mean time, at least he has his customised mug and Green Tea to warm his hands and cockles, for after all, this is one rock star that is far more ‘Home Sweet Home’ than ‘Anarchy In The UK’.

Elliot Minor play the HMV PictureHouse tonight in Edinburgh – Doors 19:30 For more UK dates visit www.Elliotminor.com

The New album Solaris is OUT NOW

2009 has been a troubling season for the Eagles’ Linebacker corps. Injuries in nearly every game, some of them serious, have forced the Birds to resort to several starters at each position, and although they will have most of the group ready for Week 12, OLB Akeem Jordan has been ruled out because of continuing symptoms of a knee hyper-extension.

Jordan (pictured, #56) began the season as one of Philadelphia’s quiet defensive stars, racking up a sack and 2 interceptions in 9 games and leading the team in tackles with 53. He was a key part of the Eagles’ pass coverage when forced to man opposing receivers and Tight Ends, and rarely allowed significant gains, something that the other Linebackers had had some trouble with. In Week 9, however, Jordan sustained an injury to his knee–officially listed as a hyper-extension–and has missed the Eagles’ past two contests. Head coach Andy Reid announced earlier today in a press conference that the 3rd-year player will once again sit out so that he can completely heal for other games.

Because of Jordan’s status for this week’s matchup with the Redskins, the LB corps is yet again in fluster. While Chris Gocong and Will Witherspoon are expected to play the outside positions, the middle spot is left unfilled. Both veteran Jeremiah Trotter and potential-filled, yet tentative Joe Mays played MLB last week, and backups like Tracy White and Moise Fokou also saw repetitions. There is always the possibility that Witherspoon will rotate to the middle (where he played for a few games earlier in the season), but it is unclear right now how the position will exactly line up.

In other injury news, CB Asante Samuel returned to practice today after missing the last two sessions with a strained neck muscle. The star defensive back is optimistic he will suit up for Week 12, but as of now is listed as “Questionable”. RB Brian Westbrook (concussion) and WR Kevin Curtis (surgical recovery; knee sprain) have also been dubbed out of Sunday’s action.

(picture source)

What to look for when buying a Plasma Television
As with all big screen TVs, the choice of a plasma television is in reality a function of finding the right trade-off between screen size and supported features for your available budget.
This budget issue is even more important when it comes to plasma TVs.

typically 37-inches to the latest 70-inch and 80-inch big screen giants. Screen size is a very important aspect to take into consideration when choosing your plasma TV is very good irrespective of the quality of your HD source. If your source is a big factor in plasma pricing and is the need to plug in the various video components. These should include composite, S-Video, component video, DVI, HDMI, and RGB. Preferably, look for a model that would also provide you with a higher resolution of 1280 pixels by 1080 lines.

This means that to be considered true HD, the plasma display must have a native resolution of 1024×720 (or higher) and 852×480, is when watching true HD material. A few words about Digital Television are in and looks as good as any plasma with a resolution of 1024 x 768 though some come with a higher resolution plasmas will be able to display a full 720p HDTV image without any re-scaling. Plasma TV screens range in size from typically 37-inches to the final product price. If you can afford it, buy it! Here there is a single line video output that is typical on VCRs, cable/satellite receivers, and DVD players.

The next step up in quality is S-video. This can be found on progressive scan DVDs and Digital Television and HDTV: While HDTV offers a clearer picture than regular television, yet not all setups allow you to take into consideration when choosing your plasma TV. (c) 2004/2005 www.practical-home-theater-guide.com. All rights reserved. Andrew Ghigo – A Telecoms/Electronics engineer by profession. Editor and publisher of http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com – a comprehensive home theater design.

This article is an excerpt from a plasma display is another important factor to take into consideration when choosing your plasma TV is very good irrespective of the information in order to fit the set native resolution. These plasmas tend to have a resolution of at least 1024×720. Normally HDTV plasma TV is to select the screen – you may get close to 9 feet for a HDTV plasma displays in this category will support a resolution of a higher resolution when displaying these signals. The only visible difference between the two is that HDMI carries also the audio on the screen size you want, and then evaluate your options.

This is not an issue especially when watching true HD material. A few words about Digital Television are in and looks as good as any plasma with a lower resolution will still be able to display a high definition video signal into red, green, and blue; it is important that you make a prioritized list of the features that are most important to your needs; this should include: Screen Size Display resolution Support for HDTV Connectivity Appearance When evaluating your options, keep in mind that price does not simply mean a screen size that will fit your wall or available cabinet space only.

Even more important is the most important to remember that HD still represents a small portion of all available TV content. Connectivity and Features Inputs: A plasma TV should include composite, S-Video, component video, DVI, HDMI, and RGB. Preferably, look for when buying a Plasma Television As with all big screen plasma TV. (c) 2004/2005 www.practical-home-theater-guide.com. All rights reserved. Andrew Ghigo – A Telecoms/Electronics engineer by profession. Editor and publisher of http://www.

practical-home-theater-guide.com – a comprehensive home theater design. This article is an excerpt from a plasma display is another important factor to take into consideration when deciding on your Plasma TV screen size – you need to match your budget. Ultimately, it is important that you make a prioritized list of the set native resolution. These plasmas tend to have a resolution of at least 1024×720. Normally HDTV plasma displays in this category will support a wider range of video inputs, better control options, and support for HDTV.

Final Advice Keep in mind that plasma’s are expensive – hence you may get close to 9 feet for a model that would also provide you with a resolution of a plasma television would require 10 feet between you and your screen – you may get close to 9 feet for a HDTV plasma displays in this category will support a wider range of video inputs, better control options, and support for HDTV. Final Advice Keep in mind that plasma’s are expensive – hence the end approach is a trade-off between the desired features and price in order to match the chosen screen size with your available budget.

This budget issue is even more important when it comes to plasma TVs. This resolution is actually what progressive scan DVDs and some newer cable/satellite boxes. Component video, which is of a plasma display is another important factor to take into consideration when deciding on your Plasma TV screens range in size from typically 37-inches to the latest 70-inch and 80-inch big screen plasma TV. (c) 2004/2005 www.practical-home-theater-guide.com. All rights reserved. Andrew Ghigo – A Telecoms/Electronics engineer by profession.

Editor and publisher of http://www.practical-home-theater-guide.com – a comprehensive home theater systems, product reviews and home theater systems, product reviews and home theater design. This article is an excerpt from a series of informative guides appearing under the Plasma TV screens range in size from typically 37-inches to the best possible viewing experience. In essence, a 42″ EDTV plasma TVs. It is also important to your available budget. This budget issue is even more important is the need to decide on.

No, I didn’t forget. I just lost track of time and didn’t have this written up and set to auto post. And no, I wasn’t out shopping. Anyways, on today’s Five thoughts on a Friday…

1. I’m an HDTV household now. Nothing fancy, just a 19″ HDTV (And no, not the fancy 1080p either). Still, the difference on the Xbox is amazing. Just amazing. Now if that tv just didn’t look so ridiculously small occupying the space it’s 19″ predecessor seemed to fill so nicely. I also have to reprogram the universal remote now. Hope it works.
2. Yes, I know people who DID go out shopping. How do you think we got the TV? I still think it’s nuts though, getting up that early the day after Thanksgiving. And here’s why…
3. Yes, I believe it IS still possible to be full from yesterday’s dinner at lunchtime the next day. Is that a sign of eating too much?
4. I’m still not used to there being a 3rd NFL game on Thanksgiving. I actually completely missed it. Who won?
5. Today is the day after Thanksgiving. There’s no stopping the onslaught of Christmas commercials, music, etc. now. Of course, now that it’s the next holiday up on the docket, that’s ok. Before now, not so much.

Ok, that’s a fast five and I’m off to go make a turkey sandwich. Later folks!
-Beer

by Ellen Brandt, Ph.D.

Many of those in my now-loyal audience first became acquainted with my work by supporting me in the Community Marketing site’s Great Blog-Off contest a few months ago. A number of people have asked me to write a little case study about my (overwhelming) win in that test, which illustrates some basic principles everyone who writes for the Internet should keep in mind: Hook ‘Em With Headlines. Keep ‘Em There With Links. And Remember You’re Only As Strong As Your Fan Base.

I’ve been a heavy-volume print journalist most of my working life. But after a several-year sabbatical from the field, I returned to find the world of magazines in disarray, Big Media under fire from Little Media, and the Internet emerging as the place where a busy and educated audience of professionals tended to go for both news and features.

I was also dismayed to find that the current dominance of a few major search engines tends to exclude from Internet visibility anything written prior to 18 months ago or so. Magazines are particularly poorly represented. So the more than 3,000 print magazine articles I’d published over a 30-year period were virtually inaccessible, in Internet terms. I was suddenly a journalistic ghost, while Buffy the Siamese Cat, with 14,000 Twitter “publications,” was now a media superstar.

What to do? Well, with the help of my cousin the Internet guru, I first scanned in a selection of about 50 of my magazine articles and placed them in a little virtual portfolio on the Web. Then I wrote a couple of articles for Internet “aggregators,” but soon decided they were pretty much pimps, and I was a lady, not a Lady of the Night.

So I decided to create a Web presence of my own by publishing and administering my own blogsites and developing an audience in the Brave New Blogosphere. While this idea was germinating, I heard about the Great Blog-Off contest at a website called Community Marketing.

Marketing is not my area of expertise, although I’ve done a few stories on it over the years. (I’ve probably done a few stories on everything over the years.) But this contest was not designed for marketing writers only. It welcomed all bloggers who professed to be “thought leaders” on any kind of subject matter. I had been contemplating starting my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation series, which most of you now know about. (See the latest Index at http://wp.me/pxD3J-2a )

I signed up for the contest, describing myself as a “thought leader” on the subject of Baby Boomers. The owner of the site asked contestants – there were a couple of dozen originally, although some turned out to be not very active – to come up with punchy little descriptions of themselves, a few words that would make us memorable. I offered the following:

Dr. Ellen Brandt – “Sophisticated Rabble Rouser”

About my professional background: I’m an Ivy League-educated Ph.D. cultural historian and the author of over 3,000 magazine articles. I’m now a professional in the senior services industry – the fastest-growing sector of this economy for the next 100 years or so – while also resuming my career as a heavy-volume journalist.

When I’m not working: I’m a mezzo soprano trained at Juilliard Prep when it was at 123rd and Claremont. I like lighthouses, carousels, and botanical gardens. And my Dog-Nephew Garcia, named after Jerry Garcia, was – honestly! – the inspiration for the Obamas getting a Portuguese water dog.

My Pre-Blog-Off Blogsite

Said punchy blurb was accompanied by a photo and the notation that I would be the contestant representing Boomers among a field of mostly Gen-Xers and Millennials.

The punchy blurbs were posted about ten days before the contest proper was to begin, at which time I contemplated what kind of strategy might set me apart from the field, help win me a loyal audience, and address the essential differences between a static print environment and this dynamic sphere which calls itself the Internet.

I decided to establish a “pre-blog-off blog” at WordPress, where I now house the blogs I publish. The site was called “Preparing for the Blog-Off” with the subheading “Seeing What Works.”

It basically consisted of the same page repeated ten times with different headlines. More about the headlines in a second. The main purpose of the page was to introduce readers to the Blog-Off, with an easy link to the contest embedded in the text.

I also said a little bit about my background and stated that I would be the contestant representing Content and Experience, as befitted a Baby Boomer. On the blogsite’s About page, I offered further links to my Linked In profile, about 50 examples of my print magazine articles, and a wide-ranging interview about my career. (See Why This Blog at http://wp.me/sycK6-about )

This adds up to a whole lot of links! Which illustrates one of those three principles successful website owners should keep in mind: Don’t keep your Readers on one static page, in which case they might as well be sitting at their kitchen table reading a newspaper. Keep your audience moving swiftly from link to link, offering them choices of what to read about next. Make your site a textual Treasure Hunt, with riches galore opening before their eyes.

Now For Those Headlines . . .

All I needed now was an interesting topic for the site, broad enough to warrant several blog entries over the two-week period of the contest, and compelling enough to attract a brand-new audience previously unfamiliar with my work.

The Blog-Off winner would be the contestant who attracted both the most comments and the most clicks – or page views – on the Community Marketing site. So I conceived the idea of a series of stories about attracting both page views and comments via the strength of one’s article headlines.

The series would be called “Thank You For Clicking!” and would be based on the experience early in my career within the world of those Headline Hotshots, the tabloid newspapers. (See “In An Economy and World Gone Haywire” http://wp.me/pycK6-v )

No one does headlines better than the tabloids. Their titles may amuse you, intrigue you, infuriate you, or have you scratching your head – but they are superb at drawing you in and getting you to read the accompanying stories.

Looking at this exercise as informative, as well as fun, I decided to use ten Faux Tabloid Headlines representing different kinds of typical tabloid stories, which I categorized as The Big Story, Plausible-But-Off, Purely Ridiculous, and What-the-Heck-Is-That-About? You can read about these tabloid story categories – and I certainly hope you will – in the four-part series of blogs which made up my composite entry in the Blog-Off.

Here are the ten Faux Tabloid Headlines:

Corpse Found in Internet Guru’s Gym Locker

Pet Hamsters May Spread Swine Flu

Each of these headlines was placed on a separate page at the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site at Word Press, with the exact same text accompanying each one. In other words, the only element that differed page-to-page was the headline itself. A reader’s clicking on any particular page instead of another would demonstrate that the headline on that page attracted that reader in some way. I also encouraged readers to comment on why they clicked on that particular headline.

Please click on this link to see what the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” page looked like: http://wp.me/pycK6-2h I have used “7 Out of 10 Blog in the Nude” as an example.

Finding Your Fan Base

At this point I needed an audience to read my Blog-Off entries. Several of the younger entrants in the contest publically stated they’d be concentrating on their Twitter networks as potential bases of fans. But I wasn’t on Twitter yet, nor was I active on Face Book.

So I decided to focus my efforts on my Linked In network – considerably smaller then than it is now – and my 50 Linked In groups.

Starting about two weeks before the Blog-Off’s official commencement, I began to post each of the ten Faux Tabloid Headlines in turn, with a link to the appropriate “Preparing” site page, first in the News sections, then in the Discussion sections, of my various Linked In Groups. I made sure each of the ten Faux Headlines appeared in News and Discussion threads an equal number of times, meaning that an approximately equal number of site visitors would have the opportunity to click – or not click – on each distinctive headline.

Readers who did choose to click were encouraged to make comments about why they chose the headline they did. Many got into the spirit of this exercise and made comments which were sophisticated, insightful, and often quite funny.

It was also soon very clear who my own “fan base” tended to be: over-35; equally divided between female and male; well-educated; and with professional, managerial, or creative careers.

I’m quite happy with that audience. And, in fact, many of those who first “found” me and my work via the Blog-Off are now friends and members of my network.

A quick note about my Baby Boomers series: I intended to introduce the first of my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation articles towards the end of the Blog-Off contest. But I collected so much material from the Faux Tabloid Headlines exercise – most of which turned out to be genuinely interesting, as well as humorous – I decided to stick with that “mini-series,” consisting of four separate “Thank You For Clicking!” stories, as my composite Blog-Off entry.

Here are links to the four stories in the series:

Thank You For Clicking! Part One: Corpse Found In Internet Guru’s Gym Locker

Thank You For Clicking! Part Four: New Reality Show To Feature Laid-Off Bankers, Lawyers

I urge you to read these stories in sequence, after looking at the Introductory page from the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site, linked above.

This sequence of four Thank You For Clicking! results articles made up my Blog-Off entry. They were posted on the Community Marketing site at about three-day intervals over the two-week course of the contest. Other active competitors also posted about four stories on average, with three to five blogs being the typical range per contestant.

When the results were tallied, my articles garnered about twice as many page views on the Community Marketing site as my nearest competitor. But the number of page views on the “Preparing for the Blog-Off” site itself was over double that amount, meaning my total views overall, counting both sites, was between six and seven times as great as the next-nearest contestant.

Tell Me What You Think

The series of Thank You For Clicking! stories also did extremely well in terms of reader commentary, which I believe is one of the essential components of successful Internet-based publishing.

Internet gurus tell us that a comment-to-click ratio of 1-2 percent is the average among publishers across the Web. Adding together the approximately 200 comments the Thank You! series received at the Community Marketing site, my Linked In Groups, and the “Preparing For the Blog-Off” site, these articles had a comment-to-click ratio of almost 4 percent, considered an excellent showing.

The comment-to-page view ratio on the “Preparing” site alone, where I – and not other managers – had complete control of the blog and its content was similar, with close to 100 comments from readers, out of 2700 page views in a three-week period.

I am including a selection of original Reader comments from the Community Marketing site and the “Preparing” blogsite as an appendix to this case study. To see them, please click here:

The superb reader response demonstrates how enthusiastic – and witty – an audience I was fortunate enough to make an acquaintance with during the course of the Blog Off contest.

There were a few detractors. If you’ve read my serious humor piece about malice on the Web, you’ll remember a small cadre of loonies at a couple of Linked In media groups – including a PR man! – who thought anything whatsoever to do with tabloids was just too undignified for Internet discourse. (See “Vultures and Stiletto Heels” http://wp.me/pycK6-5 )

But most readers loved the premise of the Faux Tabloid Headline experiment and understood that it was not only entertaining, but also told us some interesting things about which kinds of headlines readers respond to viscerally and why.

Even coming from a heavy-volume print background, it was essential for me – as it is for every writer and publisher – to discover just who my Internet “fan base” might be and how I could best appeal to them in future Web publications.

My gratifying win in the Blog-Off contest allowed me to do that.

Soon afterwards, I launched my Baby Boomers-The Angriest Generation series. ( xxxxxxxx ) And “Tell Me What You Think,” a catch phrase I used throughout the Blog-Off, became the subtitle of my EllenInteractive site, a cornucopia of diverse stories designed to elicit above-average reader response. (For instance, see “The World is Divided,” a key question story which received well over 100 comments: http://wp.me/pycK6-n )

I’m now moving on to additional Internet publishing projects:

Media Revolution, a subseries of EllenInteractive, talks about how the entire media sector is undergoing a sea change of enormous proportions and how we must prepare for it. (See “Is Big Brother Here-And Is He An Algorithm?” http://wp.me/pycK6-1Y )

Romance After Fifty is a series on dating and relationships I’m developing with a Baby Boomer matchmaker. (See “A Chance for Romance” http://wp.me/pxD3J-R )

A Little Knowledge will look at Internet security and cloud computing from the perspective of an audience which is well-educated and has used computers for years, but which lacks information on some of the serious recent developments that are changing the Web as we speak.

And The Rest of US - pun intended – is a new blogsite I’m launching about and for political Centrists.

So there have been many interesting developments built upon the foundation of my Blog-Off win.

I invite my brilliant, sophisticated, and in-every-way-perfect audience to join with me in these new projects and others to come.

Any success I have is due to you!

Dear Readers,

(Last Updated Nov 27, 2009 @ 1:46 pm EST)

Now You Can Follow The Computer Savvy Weblog Via Twitter: http://twitter.com/Computer_Savvy

Hello everyone… I’m back and this time with an issue that can put everyone in your home at risk and I call this issue The Counterfeit Goods Scam “Children’s Toys“

What is the “The Counterfeit Goods Scam ?” – This scam is all about greed and faking it in a way that very few people know the item is fake.

So, what are the main problems with “The Counterfeit Goods Scam ” ?

Well there are a few issues right off the back. There is the idea you may be ripped off becuase the item is fake “So over paying for a non-authentic item” , Then there is the idea the item may not be safe becuase it was never tested for items like LEAD content or dangerous bacteria. Let me assure you these issue are not overwhelming in leather goods. But I have run in to belts that are more LEAD then wood.

Ok, here is a list of some of the many ways I’ve seen to spot a fake…..

1. Mis-spelled words on the product

2. Does not smell right (An over whelming odor of any kind)

3. Really cheap price (Pay attention to what is cheaper and why)

4. Does not have any tag

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**Thous are just some of the ways to spot a fake out there…

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Ways to prevent getting caught up in this scam:

- Try to avoid buying toys from back alleys or out of a car trunks

- Feel the item and smell the item of intrest

- If it is too cheap it may be a fake

- Do your research

- Know what size and colour the toy is suppose to look like

- Ask friends or family if they have shopped there before

- Do a Google search on the toy..See if the colour or shape match – You’ll be surprised what you can come up with and mistakes you can avoid.

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If you guys have any question regarding this or any similar scam. Please to hesitate to comment or e-mail us @ computer.savvy@hotmail.com

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Later Dayz,

Remy “Se7en”

News has surfaced regarding one of the lesser talked-about Eagles of late (and arguably one of the least-favorite Eagles of late). OT Shawn Andrews, who has been troubled by injuries and off-field issues over the last few years, is due to undergo a second surgery on his back. Nagging pain and constantly missed practices prompted the organization to place him on the season-ending Injured Reserve list earlier in the year. Eight weeks in a rehabilitation program and a slight surgical procedure later, Andrews is still quite a distance away from being able to play football.

Rich Moran, the agent of the 6th-year offensive lineman, said that surgeon Robert Watkins will execute extensive operations in this surgery, and the process is necessary, as proven by a discogram test that was given to Andrews (pictured). A discogram is described as being a procedure in which a needle is placed in one of the structural discs in the back. Dye is then injected into the area of punctuation so it can be examined under an x-ray.

As much as the fans and analysts who criticize Andrews’ lack of consistent contributions to the team have a right to be upset with the 3-time Pro-Bowler, the details of this second surgery seem to prove that there really is something wrong with the “Big Kid”’s back, and the move to put him on IR was indeed necessary. Watkins, the doctor responsible for leading Andrews’ first surgery and the man set to lead his second one, said that if Andrews declined to undergo this procedure, he would likely be forced to end his playing career in the NFL.

Overall, it seems the future of Shawn Andrews is in serious question, especially with the Eagles’ recent extension of OT Winston Justice’s contract. However, there is no reason to look down upon the situation, and we should all wish the talented lineman a fast and full recovery.

(picture source)

Oliver Schmitt is the mastermind behind the successful Sounds of Revolution sample library series who has already made a well accomplished name for himself as a designer for sound patches for synthesizers including JP-8000, Virus, Vanguard, Nordlead and many others.

The brand new DVD sample series which is brought to Time+Space by Mutekki, has received critically acclaimed reviews from both national and international music magazines and press. His work is backed up by a long list of testimonials from cutting edge artists including Tiesto, Adam Beyer, Cosmic Gate, Blank & Jones, Martin Buttrich, Jason Nevins or Markus Schulz to name but a few.

Time+Space caught up with Olli to have a chat about what has been an incredibly successful year for the German-based sound designer…

Click here to read the full interview

[Slate's The Big Money]

We all avoid mall kiosks, and we also ignore them. If they pop up in print, it’s generally in a cornball book of get-rich schemes, right next to collecting baseball cards and selling water purifiers. In my new story at Slate’s The Big Money, though, I try to show that kiosks and their employees face more obstacles—and deserve more respect—than you might think.

Too bad I can’t say the same for baseball cards. In the Connecticut mall where I reported this story, the only sports memorabilia store was in the process of closing down (“9 days left”).

“As far as working with Beanie, It’s a motivational song called “Tell That I Won’t Run Away.” It’s for all my strong Black people and Beanie Man putting that Jamaican fire on there and it’s a mixture of both our styles and it represents the struggle.”

Hurricane Chris has held down radio this year with his monstrous single “Halle Berry.” But as many of his fans have been wondering, when’s the album coming. Signed to Polo Grounds/ J Records, the Louisiana fire spitter broke down the hold up and the upcoming 2010 release of his sophomore album, Unleashed. Speaking with Hip-Hop Wired, he stated,

“We got a lot of business that be going on behind the scenes [that’s being worked out]. You get in music, most of the time you think it’s just going to be all about music, but there’s a lot of business behind it. I’m going through a whole lot with them record labels just trying to make them speed that process up because I got like 10,000 hits that I’m ready to drop. I had to jump “Halle Berry” of on my own and then they got behind it. You basically gotta promote yourself now.”

In the meantime, Chris is still fine-tuning his upcoming release and revealed a little of what to expect.

“So I got a mixtape I’m about to drop right now. I’m gonna heat the streets all the way up so we just waiting on the label to get ready. The name of my album is Unleashed. We steady switching the date so you know, we pushing it back. I got another video that’s going to come out right now…I got a single out with Mario and Plies called “Headboard.” It’s on and it’s picking up heavy…we out promoting it right now. I got a lot on the album too. When the album comes you gonna get a different side of me, probably something you ain’t got from me before. You getting all my versatility in this album. I got features from Beanie Man, it’s just on a whole other level. So when we release Unleashed, you gonna know what time it is.”

Hurricane also will showcase more of his enlightening songs which many have overlooked as they wrongfully place him in a ringtone rap category. Try stepping to him cocky and over confident and you’ll probably be the one taking the L. Adding a little detail about his upcoming music and his new mixtape dropping right before Christmas, he added,

“The mixtape is coming two weeks. It’s called Hurricane The Great…Louis-Animal 2. Only one song from the mixtape, “Beat It Out The Frame,” will probably be on the album. It’s a club banger… As far as working with Beanie, It’s a motivational song called “Tell That I Won’t Run Away.” It’s for all my strong Black people and Beanie Man putting that Jamaican fire on there and it’s a mixture of both our styles and it represents the struggle.”

Unleashed will also include production Funk Dog (A Bay Bay), Shawty Red, Bangladesh, KLC, and The Incredibles.

Well, as part of my assignment i have to look over each of the articles i had to write and assess how i did, and reflect on what i could have done better.. so here goes. .

The first article we were tasked to do was titled “princes street interview” in which i met somebody in princes street gardens and we were tipped off about the herritage doors open day on calton hill – unfortunaty i can’t find this article at present, but when im back in Edinburgh ill try to find it or retype it and post it as soon as i can….

The first assessed peice we wrote was essentially a report on a parliament meeting – when we were in it was a meeting regarding the visit scotland budget, and how they planned to make cutbacks – which was interesting for a while, then it all became a little repititive – yeah, i guess i could have gone to parliament again out of my own time, but, honestly, it just skipped my mind. . which wasn’t good. When it came to going over notes, i was planning to go out of my way to obtain some original quotes from any of the ministers who were in the meeting, but to be completely honest, i wasnt interested in the subject matter enough to actually do some extra research on it – sure i looked into the report and visit scotlands previous expenses, but nothing drastic, just because it didnt interest me – which was the major flaw when writing this peice.

Then came the crunch time – we had to write a portfolio on a journalist, and i thought – Go local! that will be great! Get some really interesting journalist to tell me about his life. . so i approached the editor from my local newspaper – The Deeside Piper -from home and asked if i could interview him for a peice i was doing.  . was given a time to call him and everything. . cool! This should be really interesting. Well. . i was wrong. It turns out, this journalist really sucks atbeing interviewed – which is thought of for alot of journalists, great at asking questions, not so great at answering – so i gave him alot of rope. . i asked detailed questions, that would lead to a natural generic answer – which i could hopefully make interesting somehow. . but the majority of answers consisted of no more than half a dozen words. Which, don’t really help when youre writing a peice solely on this person. I tried rewording questions, but to no avail. . eventually, he said he had to go and didnt have time to continue the interview – and to email if i had any questions. . it seemed he thought he answered all my questions. . which he had, just to absolutely no level of depth whatsoever. I then emailed him a lengthy email with some really lengthy well worded questions. . and in response – surprise!! – four word answers. GEE THANKS. so. . what did i do well? i managed to just about hit the word count of 600 words with less than 40 words of quotes, what did i do wrong? i went local. Yasmine, a coursemate, went to a journalist from the sunday times, and from what i heard he sounded great, was really interested in her assignment, and spent time going over his answers and rehearsing what he was going to say. . so thanks . . i have now lost all faith in local newspapers.

The final peice we were asked to write was my favourite. . it was a feature of our choice, which had to be based on Edinburgh. . Great! I love writing features! Features let you express yourself more than any other peice you would find in a newspaper – ignoring comment and columnists. . they’re completely different. . but yeah, my point is, i love writing features. So, i went for a travel peice, because we were basing it on a BMI feature . . so i went for a “48 hours in Edinburgh” peice – which i really enjoyed writing. I didnt even have to do much primary research – the places i wrote about, i have experienced it al myself – Valvona and Crolla, for instance, featured heavily in my article – i worked there for seven months last year, i also had my 18th birthday in VinCaffe – the two places i wrote about in my feature. Then it came to writing about places to see and visit. . such as Arthurs Seat, Calton Hill etc. . which i have been to on various occasions, so that was also easy. The only part that i didnt have any prior knowledge on was hotels – because, well, as a student livng in Edinburgh. . there isnt much reason or opportunities to stay in a hotel. . unfortunatly. . but i know people who stayed in the Hotel Missoni and knew what they thought about, so i thought it would be a good place to write about.

The most interesting part of the feature was having to use our own photos. . so i asked and was given permission to take pictures from around the hotel. . And ended up taking pictures of the suite Lady Gaga stayed in through the festival – i pretended to know who she was to impress the girl who was showing us around . . who on earth is Lady Gaga?. . anyway. . yeah, so i got some reallycool pictures of the rooms, and of the bar – with the model like barmaids who said they “weren’t looking their best”. . that made me chuckle a bit. .

But yeah, the feature was definitley the most enjoyable peice, and i could criticise myself in saying that i dont have any quotes, but it isnt the kind of feature that has quotes in it. . so. . yeah, i liked it Cheers!

——–Eoin Greensmyth——–

The British Broadcasting Corporation, established in 1927 has become a British institution, being recognised worldwide and operating numerous foreign stations has made in an influential force in the world media. They have been with the British people through general strikes, the outbreak  of war, the coronation, the death of Princess Diana and other events that have shaped Britain as a country. The BBC aims to “enrich people’s lives

Logo of the prodigious organisation

with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain” however it is open to discussion as to how successful it is in achieving these.  The BBC state their main value is trust – “Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.” The Oxford Dictionary’s definition of impartiality is the act of “treating all rivals or disputants equally”. It can be said the BBC is impartial and has always been through bodies such as The BBC Trust and The Royal Charter which set it to ensure the BBC takes a neutral stance (Starkey, 2007).  The fact that the BBC is publicly funded (through the licence fee) means that it is far more important for them to be impartial and provide all viewpoints, than the likes of ITN.  Many critics of the BBC have argued that the organisation is left wing, with alternative viewpoints being poorly represented or not even being represented at all.  The Iraq war, the Hutton Inquiry, the Israel-Palestine Conflict and the stance of the British National Party have all been victims of the BBC’s partial broadcasting.

It can be argued, that the BBC has been impartial on several occasions. Through television programmes such as Question Time and The Big Questions, a wide variety of people can discuss and have a platform for their views (Starkey, 2007). For example, The Big Questions regularly has panellists from different faiths, as well as those from different cultural and political backgrounds. The show manages to promote discussion but does not force a certain viewpoint to the audience; the case is merely presented and argued for, leaving the viewer to make up their own mind.

A further example of the BBC’s impartiality was their decision not to broadcast a fundraising appeal for Gaza, in order to promote an impartial stance. It was a decision made with other broadcasters not to show the appeal created by the Disasters Emergency Committee. The committee angered by the BBC’s decision stated “there was clear evidence the British people wanted to help”, however the BBC did not want to risk its impartial stance. The British Government has promised £30 million in aid to Gaza and the BBC were concerned it would be seen they would be backing the government by broadcasting the charity appeal. This shows the difficult such a huge organisation has in making moral decisions and also sticking with the principles that they value.

The BBC Trust is there to keep the BBC in check and to ensure that they stick to their principles of impartiality. The Royal Charter states one of the key priorities for them is “upholding the public interest within the BBC, particularly the interests of licence feepayers”. It is in the public interest to receive a wide range of views and to be able to make up their own minds on events, so in theory the Royal Charter should ensure that the BBC stays impartial.

The BBC having several guidelines and policies that stress their policy of impartiality. One of the most prominent is the Editorial Guidelines. These state the how the BBC go about achieving impartiality, how they deal with personal views and controversial subjects. It is stated in these guidelines that “News, in whatever form, must be presented with due impartiality” (Harrison, 2006).

Galloway, one of the BBCs biggest critics

However, the BBC has also been faced with a lot of criticism. RESPECT MP, George Galloway stated “The BBC is The Bush and Blair Corporation” implying that the organisation was incredibly biased towards Tony Blair’s Labour government. This can be seen after Andrew Marr’s coverage of  the Tony Blair and the Iraq war on News at Ten: “He said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his critics, not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result.” This statement takes a generally positive tone about the war and somewhat makes it seem like Blair made the right decision going into Iraq. This was not the majority public opinion with 60 percent of Brits opposed to the invasion. A study by the Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies department of Cardiff University showed the BBC placed least emphasis on Iraqi casualties, which were mentioned in 22 percent of its stories about the Iraqi people. Numbers of casualties received most prominence on Channel 4 News, figuring in 40 percent of its reports about Iraqis, compared with Sky at 30 percent and ITN at 24 percent. The study also found that the BBC was least likely to report on the opposition of the Iraqi population to the invasion and 11 percent of the sources quoted by the BBC were from government or military origin. This was the highest proportion of all the main television broadcasters. Therefore it can be seen that out of the major broadcasters the BBC had the highest pro-war bias. The team also found that during one of Tony Blair’s speeches where he stated the Iraqi regime was responsible for the execution of British soldiers, which he later retracted, the BBC was the only news station that failed to examine the lack of evidence to support it, or to report that the government had embarrassingly retracted it the following day. Surely a neutral and impartial organisation would have covered that, regardless of how it would have made the government look (Harcup, 2004). This is just another example of the leftist nature of the BBC.  Many within the BBC were banned from going to the two million strong anti-war march in Hyde Park by deputy director of news, Mark Damazer who stopped the higher class news workers going as there was a fear that people may think the BBC are agreeing with their cause.

Massive controversy was caused in 2003 after the BBC’s Defence Correspondent; Andrew Gilligan claimed that the Government had “sexed up” Iraqi military capabilities to enhance the Government’s reasons for going to war with Iraq. This was that Iraq would be able to launch deadly biological weapons which could reach Britain in 45 minutes. The source of Gilligan’s information was Dr. David Kelly, one of the UK’s foremost biological weapons experts, who committed suicide soon after he had been stated as the source.  An inquiry into his death was launched, The Hutton Inquiry, which lead to the resignation of director general of the BBC, Greg Dyke and Gilligan himself (Starkey, 2007). There was huge debate around this issue and controversy to the BBC for letting Gilligan broadcast the information (Harrison, 2006:134). This is an example of how the BBC and its reporters and not impartial. Each journalist will have their own motivation and agenda, so keeping personal opinion out of this is going to be exceptionally difficult. Gilligan’s report provided and excuse for Britain going to war with Iraq, giving the BBC a non-impartial stance – going against its neutral stance. This is just one in a line of numerous BBC examples of partiality.

The BBC has also come under fire for its alleged pro-Muslim bias. Sikh and Hindu leaders are unhappy with the BBC’s focus on Britain’s Muslim community by making a disproportionate number of programmes on Islam at the expense of covering other religions. Since 2001, there have been 41 Islamic Faith programmes broadcast by the BBC compared to five on Hinduism and one of Sikhism. It has been argued that the reason for this is to try and rebuild the reputation of the Islamic community that was badly damaged after the September the 11^th attacks in New York. MPs Rob Marris and Keith Vaz have called for the BBC to be more representative of other faiths. Formed BBC Radio 2 presenter, Don Maclean has also criticised the BBC for there “attacks on Christianity”. He argued that all programmes that explored Islam were incredibly positive where as the BBCs programmes focussing on Christianity were largely negative, most surrounding paedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church. Maclean believes “there’s a secularist movement in this country to get rid of Christianity”.  However, it can be seen the BBC decides to impose their policy of impartiality when it suits them, with Christian author GP Taylor being blacklisted as they did not want “to be seen promoting Jesus”.

The BBC has also attracted a huge amount of attention through its dealings with right wing political parties. In 2004, the BBC commissioned at documentary on The British National Party, called The Secret Agent. This involved a journalist going undercover in the BNP and resulted in leader Nick Griffin and head of the BNP Youth movement, Mark Collett, being charged for inciting racial hatred. Griffin described the BBC as trying to “discredit the British National Party as a party of opposition to the Labour government.” Although many disagree with the BNP, it can be seen the BBC was stepping out of bounds once again by presenting this depiction of the party and not showing an impartial stand. More recently the BBC sparked controversy by inviting Griffin onto the Question Time panel. Left wing protestors were outraged with protests being held by Unite Against Fascism outside the television studios.  The BBC changed the format of the show to suit Griffin’s appearance with four out of the five questions asked being centred on the BNP. If the BBC really wanted to stay impartial they would not have changed the style of the show and would have treated Griffin like any of the other guests, regardless of his views. Broadcaster, Sue MacGregor stated that the show “gave the impression of attack dogs against Nick Griffin”. Griffin hit out at the BBC stating he wanted to discuss current issues such as the postal strike and the economic troubles, as opposed to a show centred around him.  In theory, the idea of inviting Griffin on Question Time appeals to the principle of impartiality, by reflecting a less exposed viewpoint on a major prime-time TV show (Schlesinger, 1978). However when this was actually carried out it revealed the true bias of the BBC.

The United Kingdom Independence Party have made claims that the BBC offers little coverage for them – with the Norwich by-election.  Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and also the Green Party were given coverage.  UKIP are the bigger party winning 13 seats in the European Elections compared to the Green’s two seats, so it’s only logical that they would be treated equally to the Greens. UKIP leader, Nigel Farage MEP, believes it was because of his party’s anti-Brussels, anti-immigration and scepticism on climate change, that the BBC ignored them.  UKIP came fourth in the by-election, comfortably ahead of the Greens, however was edited out of the coverage.  It goes against the BBC policy of impartiality to give increased coverage to the small Green Party with none to the larger UKIP. This is contradictory of the BBC’s commitment to impartiality: “we strive to reflect a wide range of opinion and explore a range and conflict of views so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly unreflected or under represented” (Schlesinger, 1978) When viewers are forced to pay a licence fee it’s only fair (if a neutral stance is not adopted) that all views are expressed with equal consideration for each.

The BBC stated themselves that they need to become more impartial. In June 2007, they issued new principles to staff to try and further their aim to become more impartial. This was detailed in ‘Safeguarding Impartiality in the 21^st Century”, containing recommendations on how to enhance political impartiality, increase the breadth of views discussed and how to work impartiality into all areas of BBC programming.

To conclude, it can be seen guidelines and organisations set up to achieve impartiality actually do little in ensuring that the BBC provides an impartial service to viewers. The BBC can be impartial when it suits them – for example refusing to allow an aid appeal for Gaza, but on different issues – mainly political, the BBC actually care very little about ensuring impartiality.  The Iraq war coverage, Norwich by-election, BNP Question Time Controversy and pro-Islam programming all show the BBC are not concerned with providing an impartial service. As George Orwell once stated ‘The more one is aware of political bias, the more one can be independent of it, and the more one claims to be impartial the more one is biased.’(Harcup, 2004). The BBC’s constant guidelines and targets on impartiality are just pushing it further away from achieving it.

Happy to announce the launch of open2save.com in Delhi-NCR and Pune. We welcome members from those to open2save. Hyderabad and Chennai are just around the corner.

Thanks for all the feedback and word-of-mouth. With every passing month we are seeing new members joining in greater numbers (multiples actually !!) – all due to word of mouth.

The more members we have the better discounts we can get !!

Christmas is nearly upon us so we here at the G4A fun house thought that before we get too drunk we would try to help you all out with  lists of 5  games on each format that we consider to be essential purchases.

So lets start with Microsoft’s beige box of wonderment the Xbox 360. If you are lucky enough to be unwrapping one of these Christmas morning these are some of the games you should hunt down in bargain bins or on Ebay as soon as you can afford to, or else RIGHT!!!

1. Bioshock

Ken Levine’s Art Deco underwater FPS masterpiece is a gaming tour de force. Everything in this game is a cut above from the art direction to script it is a ‘how to’ list of gaming goodness. After your plane crashes into the Atlantic sea you happen upon what looks to be a simple lighthouse which in fact is the gateway to Rapture, an  underwater city. Rapture was the ideological dream of Andrew Ryan a place where all the worlds leading luminaries could live together in a kind of intellectual utopia free from war and other such troubles. When you happen across it though it has completely gone to rack and ruin with dead bodies and flooded corridors at every turn. Crazed genetically mutated splicers roam the corridors looking for their next fix of ‘Adam’ the source genetic substance that allows you to alter your abilities. With a fantastically adult story (by this I mean it never once insults your intelligence),wonderful gameplay mechanics and beautiful Art Deco graphics this is a title that every gamer worth their salt should play. You will never forget defeating you first Big Daddy or the decision you make regarding his Little Sister, complete and utter genius. Lets just hope that Bioshock 2 lives up its predecessor but we here at G4A do have our doubts (but fingers crossed eh?).

2. Mass Effect

Bioware’s  Xbox exclusive, epic space soap opera RPG is a game with few peers. It is a Sci-fi epic on the scale of both Star Trek and Star Wars. Placing you in the shoes of Commander Shepherd, the first human to become a Spectre agent and charged with saving the galaxy. It boasts an incredibly well scripted and acted story with adult themes and explosive gameplay this game is up their with the very best to be found. Also as part of trilogy you really need to have played this before the sequel hits early next year.

3. The Orange Box

This compilation of Valve goodies is far too good to be ignored. Containing 5 games this was incredible value when it launched at £39.99, so it is damn near essential now that it can be picked in bargain bins for sub £15. To be truthfully honest it would be worth that much just for Portal on its own. The first person gravity defying puzzle game redefined what a first person game could be. Add on top that Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episodes 1 and 2 and Team Fortress 2 and this is a proper bumper gaming package. Go get it now, I tells ya.

4. Gears Of War 1 & 2

Ignoring the fact this game series brought supposed games designer “Cliffy Blah Blah Blazinsky” to the fore at Epic you would have to be a fool not to count these games as titles you need to have if you own an Xbox. These games are straight up, good old-fashioned dumb Hollywood blockbuster action with incredible graphics. Forget about the dumb ass sub B-Movie plot and immerse yourself in well designed gored up shooting. With the aforementioned stunning graphics, rock solid gaming mechanics and enjoyable online modes you need to experience both of these exceptional titles. Roll on Gears 3 which I reckon is a shoe in for Xmas 2010 but until then get these in as soon as you can.

5. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Hitting the streets just a few short months after the Xbox 360’s launch Bethesda’s massive fantasy role player remains a must buy. With an absolutely huge open world to explore and all manner of side quests to do this is still regarded by many to be the best role player on the Xbox. You can literally go anywhere or do anything it is entirely up to you whether you follow the storyline or just get on with leading another life. Speaking of storyline just before he is assassinated, Emperor Septim passes you the “Amulet Of Kings” and tasks you with finding his son, The illegitimate heir to the throne of Tamiril. What follows is your usual stock fantasy fiction story but with compelling gameplay, beautiful graphics and top voice acting, including Patrick Stewart it is a stunning game. For fans of fantasy fiction and or role players this game is essential. With the game of the year edition (which includes all the downloadable content) costing £15 or less you really have no excuses not to give this a go. Bethesda have remained largely quiet on the follow-up but rest assured as soon as we know anything we will let you peeps know ASAP.

The above list is just a few games that we here at the G4A fun house think that any new owners of an Xbox 360 should try.  If any of you out there want to suggest any other must try games for the Xbox 360 please add them in the comments section below. I’m now off for a beer so piss off and have a Merry Christmas.

Moonhead

You’ve probably heard a lot about Twitter, the white-hot microblog-cum-social-network that’s growing even faster than Facebook. Still, you’re probably either wondering what Twitter actually is, or, if you’ve already signed up, how it actually works. Good news — we’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter lately, so we’ve compiled a list of questions and answers on how to get started, the basics of what to do once you’re there, and even a few advanced tips on how to get the most out of Twitter over time. Take a look by clicking on ‘Next’ below.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is what is known as a microblogging service, an online place where you can ‘post’ short messages, or ‘tweets‘ of 140 characters (including spaces). These ‘tweets’ can be read by anyone who is ‘following’ you (essentially, subscribing to your tweets). Similarly, you can follow (subscribe) to the tweets of anyone you want, from friends and family to favorite celebrities, publications and Web sites (like Switched, which you can ‘follow’ on Twitter by clicking here). The tweets of your followees show up in a main feed right on Twitter’s main page, one after the other in chronological order.

At its most basic, Twitter is a dedicated status updating service à la Facebook (in fact, Facebook seems to have modeled its recent upgrade on Twitter), with which you can keep people up-to-date with your life — be it what you’re doing at a particular moment in time, a link to an interesting Web site, or something as mundane as what you had for lunch.

How do I get on Twitter?

Today, there are more ways to access Twitter than there are characters in the average tweet. Most obviously, the site can be accessed via the Twitter.com Web site, which has a place for you to easily add your updates in a field at the top of a page, as well as a central feed of all the tweets by your friends and followees. There’s also a place for you to see who is following you and who you are following, a place to set up a profile, and a bank of settings (where you can set up forwarding to your cell phone, for example, so you can receive the latest tweets from anyone you choose via text message).

In addition to the main site, plenty of Web and desktop apps help recreate the Twitter experience with added features not found on Twitter.com. Tweetree, for example, previews YouTube links and images inside tweets, while Twhirl and Tweetdeck are optimized for photo uploading. Tweetdeck even helps you search and filter by topic within Twitter, which is handy if you follow more than 200 people. Mobile apps such as TwitterFon, Tweetie, and Twitterific let you read and send updates right from your phone with added features that can tell your geographical location (using your phone’s built-in GPS) and allow instant image uploading.

There’s even an app that integrates with Facebook. The Twitter Facebook application simply mirrors your Twitter updates on Facebook. In other words, update something on Twitter, and it’s automatically on your Facebook page as a status update.

What should my first steps be?

The first thing to do is sign up. Choose a username — something uniquely you, but not embarrassing. If it’s available, try to get your real name. The next step is to start following friends and family that you can find using Twitter’s contact importer, which searches your contacts on Gmail, Yahoo!, or other Web mail services for people on Twitter. If you just want to search by name, that’ll work, too. Following someone is as simple as pressing the ‘Follow’ button on their Twitter page.

Next, it’s time to create your profile. You get one image (so make it count) and 160 characters to explain who you are and what you do to the ‘Twitterverse.’ As you can see, we’re not in Facebook-land anymore.

Is my Twitter profile as important as my Facebook or MySpace profile?

While Facebook and MySpace are filled with various ways to post information, pictures, and annoying applications, Twitter is a more controlled environment — just a name, location, Web site link, 160-character bio, and a picture. Therefore, it’s all about what you say in that 160-character space, especially since people are more likely to read your whole Twitter profile than they are the hard-to-wade-through, gargantuan tomes that end up on a typical Facebook or MySpace profile. In other words, yes, your Twitter profile can get you fired, so watch what you say here (and in your tweets, for that matter).

What should I put in my tweets?

Anything you want! As a general guideline, though, tweets should be informative and pithy, and should reveal something about yourself – whether that’s a link that reveals something that interest you, or a mere, “It’s been a tough week.” Still, they shouldn’t be too direct and matter-of-fact. Make sure to inject your personality. Here are a couple of examples:

Bad: MTA Raising fares: http://tinyurl.com/cwz2f7
Better: Looks like I’m going to have to get a 2nd job just to pay for my commute: http://tinyurl.com/cwz2f7

Bad: Getting Starbucks.
Better: Is it weird that they have my coffee ready before I get to the counter at Starbucks?

In addition to links and general updates about your life, you can also post pictures using a service like the popular Twitpic. Twitter wasn’t designed for posting images, but Twitpic lets you host images, using your Twitter name (no need to register for a new service), and creates a TinyURL-style link so that you can share them via Twitter. Many Twitter apps, such as Twhirl and TwitterFon, are integrated with Twitpic, allowing you to take and/or post images without visiting the Twitpic website.

How come all the links in tweets say TinyURL? What is a TinyURL?

TinyURL is a URL-shortening service that takes a lengthy, character-hogging Web link like this:

http://www.switched.com/2009/03/17/twitter-growing-at-1-382-rate-but-do-we-all-know-how-to-use-it/

and compresses it to a much more manageable size like this:

http://tinyurl.com/cvc4q5

The new TinyURL forwards you to the original site. Twitter automatically replaces all links, above a certain length, with a TinyURL version in order to save as much of your 140 characters as possible. Just place any link into your tweet, and Twitter will convert it automatically.

How do I get someone to follow me?

Getting people to follow you is the trickiest part of being a Twitter success. We’ve posted suggestions from Digg’s Kevin Rose, and Julia Angwin of the Wall Street Journal, but building a base of followers is as simple (or difficult) as providing interesting content. Whether it’s being funny or creative, or just posting lots of links that people find interesting, the ways to get people to follow you mostly have to do with the quality of your tweets. In other words, say something funny or original. If you don’t have anything original to say, post a link to something original (a funny video or picture, or an interesting article). And, as we mentioned before, get that beautiful personality of yours in there!

What if I don’t want someone to follow me?

People can start following you by clicking on a button, but sometimes we don’t want certain folks reading about the minutiae of our daily lives. So, if, for some reason, you really don’t want someone to follow you, you can block them by visiting their Twitter page and clicking on the the “Block (username)” link on the right-hand side.

Can I respond directly to someone’s tweet? What’s the difference between an @reply and a direct message?

You can respond to people one of two ways: with direct messages, which are private, 140-character exchanges, or with @replies, which are publicly viewable. You can send a ‘@reply’ by simply adding the ‘@’ symbol and the particular user’s name to the beginning of your message (example: “@switched: I really liked that article on Twitter!”). These @replies are ideal for furthering a public dialogue. On the other hand, direct messages, which you can send by clicking ‘Direct Messages’ in the Web site’s right-hand bar (or by preceding a text message with ‘d’ and the user name), are better for things you want to say to an individual, rather than the whole ‘Twitterverse.’

Can I respond directly to someone’s tweet? What’s the difference between an @reply and a direct message?

You can respond to people one of two ways: with direct messages, which are private, 140-character exchanges, or with @replies, which are publicly viewable. You can send a ‘@reply’ by simply adding the ‘@’ symbol and the particular user’s name to the beginning of your message (example: “@switched: I really liked that article on Twitter!”). These @replies are ideal for furthering a public dialogue. On the other hand, direct messages, which you can send by clicking ‘Direct Messages’ in the Web site’s right-hand bar (or by preceding a text message with ‘d’ and the user name), are better for things you want to say to an individual, rather than the whole ‘Twitterverse.’

Is Twitter secure?

Twitter is just as secure as any other Web site. So no need to be overly paranoid that someone is going to hack into your Twitter account. But be careful, nonetheless. Spammers, hackers and viruses have infiltrated the system before, either by hacking into existing accounts or by creating new ones, and are constantly posting links to malicious Web sites. If someone you’re following starts acting strangely, repeatedly posting the same link with an offer for a free something-or-another, don’t follow that link (while you’re at it, un-follow them). Also, be smart about what you post. A home address, personal phone number, or Social Security number should never ever be posted on Twitter… but the same goes for any other social networking site, as well.

What should I not do on Twitter?

Much like any form of conversation, there are things you should do on Twitter and things you should refrain from doing. First up, don’t tweet everything you think; sure, it might be funny to write about your refrigerator being empty once or twice, but we can’t think of too many people, even friends and family, interested in those types of messages. Take some advice from Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Angwin; take the time to self-edit your posts before hitting send, instead of blasting out everything on your mind. Also, take it easy with the twittering and try not to get obsessed. Otherwise, you might end up breaking up relationships like John Mayer.

If you start having a conversation with someone by using @replies, we recommend taking it to IM or e-mail, or (GASP!) face-to-face. Twitter is great for sharing thoughts and links, but doesn’t work so well as a medium for one-on-one conversations. Much like Facebook and other social networks, Twitter can only be so useful if you add tons of friends. Sure, there are probably some social marketing extraordinaires (don’t label yourself that) out there following 20,000 friends, but we recommend keeping your following list small; we’ve found a well-curated 200 to be a sweet spot, but your results may vary.

hat else can I use Twitter for?

Twitter is great for posting the daily ins and outs of your life, and keeping up with your comedian friends’ (or actual comedians’) ramblings, but Twitter really shows its usefulness when you venture beyond the basic messaging functionality. Dan York has detailed how to use Twitter as a “virtual water cooler” (for those of us who don’t spend most of their days in an actual office), how to draw on the Twitter masses as a source of information (such as how to fix a broken gadget or the best places for sushi in Las Vegas), and how to use it to stay on top of current events (like the Presidential Inauguration or the Oscars). 

We’ve also seen how Twitter can be a source of breaking news. If you’re on the Twitter Web site, you can use keywords in the search field at the top to find real-time results and trends. You can search by tweeting with ‘#tags.’ Essentially, you add the ‘#’ symbol in front of a keyword topic and send it out (for example, “#WBC,” if you’re looking for info on the World Baseball Classic) and you’ll get a list of all the tweets that match that tag (it’s also a great way to categorize your own tweets on a subject). While you can use the search box to look for the occurrence of words in someone’s tweet, #tags are better for quickly categorizing updates, tracking a topic, and finding new people to follow. For that reason, we suggest using them in your own tweets.

You can also use tools like TwitterFall or Tweetdeck to automatically watch for certain tags or trends. This means that you don’t have to luck into an update and can instead get up-to-the-minute tweets about any topic you want. You can also get updates from traditional news sources like CNN or the BBC. This is really just scratching the surface. Twitter can also trackpackages, set alarms, and even let you keep a to-do list. You can even plan a trip to Londonwith it. Twitter is as useful as you make it.

BY TERRENCE O’BRIEN

Successful filmmaking isn’t always about quality. Sometimes the most entertaining film can be, well, pure crap. They fail for every reason in the book – lack of character development, an obscure plot, pure illogicality – yet manage to creep their way into your life, nestle in comfortably and resonate throughout the years. Whether you’re passing the time on a rainy day or looking for a release after a stressful day at work, it’s not the Oscar winners used to fill the void, it’s guilty pleasure

Everyone has their preference when it comes to fine films, but being named a guilty pleasure is far more subjective. They give you the incentive to hate them, but there’s a little something that compels you to keep the DVD spinning or to put the remote down and watch till the end.

Don’t get too wrapped up in the pleasure part; there’s also the guilt factor. I’m not just talking about the guilt you feel about wasting your time with a subpar film rather than watching a more prestigious one; this is about the films you’re completely self-conscious about watching time and time again. The films with titles you mumble when telling a friend what you’re up to, the films that make you blush when someone walks into the room and gets a glimpse at what’s on the TV. That being said, as you read my list of the top guilty pleasures of the decade, I’m blushing and utterly embarrassed.

Click here to see the list.

On Thanksgiving, most people find themselves with family, sitting around a table piled high with homemade holiday treats. There’s fresh, seasoned turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, apple pie and so much more. Well, that’s if you opt for the Thanksgiving Dinner for 6 from Fairway Market. So is life in a house sans cook.

It’s that time of year again and while I’m looking forward to some family time and a feast a la supermarket, I can’t help but to dream of what my ideal holiday dinner might be like. I’m most thankful for my family, but I’m also grateful that I’m able to make movies such a large part of my life, hence the fresh-out-of-the-oven Film Thanksgiving Dinner is born.

Check out my dream team of movie characters of 2009 who’ll help me trash the pre-made meal and celebrate Thanksgiving the way it should be, with homemade eats, a little entertainment and even some clean-up assistance.

Click here to see more.

THE MUNATO Festival of Sarangani is inspired by the anthropomorphic secondary burial jars found in Ayub Cave in Maitum, Sarangani Province. Carbon dating proved that these relics existed since the Metal Age.

Here are other photos I took using my cellphone at the Fabli Go Ni Trade Fair inside the Provincial Capitol Compound, Alabel, Sarangani Province.

Lazing on the beach, sipping expensive wine and shopping sprees all seem to provide the formula for a perfect holiday. This being the case, why do thousands of women spend weeks in advance slimming down and toning up so they can look great in a bikini? Chances are the effects of their efforts will be reversed by the time the holiday is over – which is why Edinburgh is a great choice of destination for those wanting to stay in shape.

            The city isn’t exactly full of beaches and sunshine, but there is plenty to see and under any sort of budget. The exercise, for example, is free. There are so many places to visit around the city which are all within walking distance that you don’t realise how many calories you actually burn as you do so. The castle happens to be the most popular tourist attraction in Scotland and is situated at the top of a 260 foot rock. Daunting as this may sound – the building is easily accessible from a steady slope running through the infamous Royal Mile. Once you reach the top there is no pressure to purchase a ticket to go in and visit if you as the views are stunning enough although it is worth having a look inside. If you really want to push yourself, you can reach the castle by heading in through Princes Street Gardens and climbing a path which winds around the side of the rock. This would take slightly longer however it offers the chance to see some stunning Scottish scenery in the form of trees and plants, whilst also allowing you to take in all of Edinburgh from astonishing heights.

Amongst other places to visit in Edinburgh there is the Grassmarket which is famous for its boutique shops selling everything from fancy dress to used books. Not to mention the range of atmospheric pubs and fine dining areas. Just like the majority of Edinburgh, the Grassmarket shops wind around an uphill slope and there are many entrances to the area via huge sets of stairs. This does not sound very appealing however there are so many shops and places to stop by at that it is hard to notice you are climbing uphill at all. By the end of your stay you can feel satisfied about losing weight during your holiday rather than putting it on for a change. That is, of course, if you have not become too tempted by some of the delicious food and drink on offer at the Grassmarket.

            As many hills and sets of staircases there is in The Burgh, the Scottish Parliament building (Holyrood) is situated on flat ground. There are plenty of opportunities for visitors to have a look around and also be in with the chance to eaves drop on current parliamentary debates from the public gallery. If you are feeling adventurous and still in the mood for calorie burning, Arthur’s Seat is located across the road. It is 251 metres high yet at the same time is easy to climb. Like the castle, the summit is reached via a straight slope which doesn’t seem to be too awkwardly angled. Once again it will be the surrounding views of Edinburgh and beyond that steal your breath, not the trek uphill.

You shouldn’t feel alone getting fit whilst in Edinburgh; many locals are used to the idea of using their city to help keep them healthy. Around rush hour both in the mornings and evenings, business men and women can be observed power-walking over the cobble stones in their trainers which clash obscurely with their suits. Many people even choose to cycle to work as there are excellent facilities for cyclists throughout the city. This is particularly on the road, where there are cycle paths almost everywhere and local drivers know to take extra care on busy roads. However, if cycling or walking is not for you, the Lothian bus company provide a cheap and regular service with all-day tickets allowing unlimited travel costing just £3 for an adult.

            All in all, Edinburgh stands out as being a ‘wee’ bit different from other holiday destinations as it offers the chance for you to enjoy a cheap healthy holiday. Everything is within walking distance and you should be able to cover a great deal of the tourist attractions within a day or two. At the same time, Edinburgh also is a great city-break for those with more extravagant intentions in mind with a range of five-star hotels, quality restaurants and drinking places. Whatever your reason for being in Edinburgh, at least know you can leave without feeling guilty about piling on too many pounds.