UK SBS Guy goes Crimbo

You know when you're driving around town and you see people that have gone crazy with the Christmas decorations? There's always a street near where you live where the neighbours get locked into furious competition. The result is stuffed Santas shinning up drainpipes, animatronic reindeers in perpetual motion and snow-covered gardens despite it being 7 degrees and drizzling.

I've always wondered who these people are. I want to meet them, and see if they're anything like Clark Griswold.

Well, I've just found one that I happen to have met - David Overton, Microsoft's big UK blogger and all-round small business tech-head. Check out his house!



Fine work, David. (And no, you're nothing like Clark Griswold.)

@StickItToTesco and the 48-hour rampage

A lot of my Twitter buddies and I have been approached, flattered, hounded and teased by a brave day-old Twitter user, @StickItToTesco.

Closer inspection revealed a particularly aggressive and inventive representative of charity Action Aid. Apparently, she/he has got 48 hours to change the world.

Not sure why - maybe Action Aid's agency is on a very short retainer?

Nice try @StickItToTesco. You're up to over 17,500 views of your YouTube video at the time of writing. Good luck with the campaign.

And, by the way, the reasons we're all putting up with you are twofold:

1. You're representing a charity and flaming you would mean we would end up in hell
2. We all believe in fairness, particularly when faced with unfairness towards the vulnerable from massive, wealthy corporations.

Get involved yourself if you feel the urge at http://www.actionaid.org.uk/5p/

Follow the Twitter chatter here.

clipped from www.actionaid.org.uk

George Bush + irate Iraqi journalist + shoes = obvious gaming potential

Aside from Kevin (see post comments here), feedback on our Bash a Bush game has been very generous. Thanks all. Now go play it for the rest of the afternoon - tell 'em I said it was OK.

Bunch of Whoppers

I love the Whopper Virgins campaign. It's cringeworthy stuff, but you can't help admire the creative team that sat around, blue-sky thinking, and came up with: "I know! Let's, like, take a Burger King Whopper and, like, give it to some Eskimos and shit. It'll be, like, awesome."

As I'm an extremely suggestible consumer, I enjoyed the viral video so much that I thought I go get myself a Whopper tonight. Please note, it was 10.30pm, I was drunk and I'd had no dinner. It seemed like a good idea.



Here's my reaction, having not had a Whopper since 1994 (and therefore my views are as valid as a Romanian farmer 'having a hamburger for the first time'):

The thing smelled like rotten lamb, but with the texture of dried dog food mixed with hamster faeces. The bread was hard and sweet, with slightly less taste than the insulating foam I just sprayed in the air gap around my new patio doors. The 'salad' was soggy, covered in mayonnaise that was off, and was worryingly brown.

I'm off to make myself sick. Don't believe the hype.

Firebox on fire

Love this piece of direct marketing from Firebox. D'you think it's really real?

Lights, Cameron, Action!

It may have been an attempt to show that Damian Green was 'guilty only of doing his job' on a 'dark day for democracy'... But the webcameron footage of police 'rifling through' the Shadow Immigration Minister's stuff is a coup for political blogging.



One can only imagine the decision-making process behind the idea to send in the webcameraman... Since it was published on the webcameron site today, there has been blanket coverage on the news.

The one constant? The snazzy purple logo in the top left of the screen. Wonder how the site traffic is doing?