Social media one-pager

On appreciating Skyrim

Well, less appreciation for Skyrim and more for Lemur Lady, who has so well encapsulated what it means to be widowed in reality by this world of total un-reality, that I’ve had to re-post it here.

For those (blessed) un-initiated few, Skyrim is the latest in immersive role play video gaming (think dragons, magic, castles, lots of aimless wandering through medieval landscapes etc. etc.). If your housemate/boyfriend/husband enters this realm, prepare to live alone. Oh and did I mention it NEVER ENDS?

At the time, I read Lemur Lady’s post and it thoroughly tickled me, to quite a disproportionate degree given that until that point I didn’t even know what Skyrim was, let alone had seen it in action.

Now that I have experienced it (well, second-hand as I watch my better half slowly plunge into its mysteriously addictive depths night after night), I find Lemur Lady’s words so pant-wettingly accurate, I have to re-post them here.

What not to say to someone who is playing Skyrim:

“Gosh. That is loud”

“How are you carrying all that stuff? That’s ridiculous.”

“Is that you on fire?”

“You’ve bought a house? I thought this was medieval warfare, not the Sims.”

“Awesome, a dragon! Wait…don’t…don’t hit it! LEAVE THE DRAGON ALONE!!! What’s it done to you? Have you any idea how endangered those things are?”

“She is so not appropriately dressed for that sort of weather”

“Haven’t you already done this bit? Twice? Oh. It was you on fire”

“Surely once you’ve wandered around one dungeon looking for an amulet, you’ve wandered round them all?”

“There’s an awful lot of walking in this, isn’t there?”

“Is something going to happen soon?”

“You’re going shopping now? This is like real life. Only with more walking.”

“Why does everyone have so many consonants in their names? It’s like they’ve been picked out of a Scrabble bag.”

“Can I unplug *this* one to plug my laptop in? What do you mean I’m in the way of the screen? Oh look, you’re on fire again.”

Source: Knitting My Own Yoghurt

I’m slowly working my way through the list.

Do check out the rest of Lady Lemur’s blog, and while you’re at it, browse her awesome collection of hand-made wares as well. Don’t mind the scary-looking lemur. I’m pretty sure he’s harmless.

Unlike Skyrim. Which will eat you alive.

 

*You can follow Lemur Lady’s antics on Twitter here. Be prepared to giggle.

* You can purchase Skyrim here. Be prepared to commit social suicide.

* Fellow Skyrim widows should also read this. Evidently, you are not alone.

 

Geek vs Nerd: The ultimate test

Everybody loves a good infographic – none more so than the geeks and nerds of the world.

So imagine the joy circulating around the interwebz this afternoon, when this bad boy surfaced:

Courtesy of (presumably) the geeks AND nerds behind the Masters in IT website for that Friday giggle. And a rather cute marketing ploy for their cause – I mean, who is a likely target audience…?

 

Making the most of spare time

Tom Hodgkinson in today’s Style magazine in the Sunday Times raises some interesting challenges to the way we spend our spare time in the modern world. Are we making the most of it? Or are we squandering what little time we do have to ourselves, falling into the trappings of convenience?

His opening lines below and, as they did for me, may ring scarily true:

“What do you do in your spare time? Maybe you indulge your precious moments of leisure with a £5 bottle of Chilean Sauvignon blanc and a DVD box set of Mad Men or The Wire. Or do you find yourself in front of a Champions League game, or the Brits, or the latest episode of Glee, with your phone locked to Twitter in one hand, the remote control in the other? Or are you on Facebook status-updating, or discussing house prices and schools over a “kitchen supper”, or getting competitive over YouTube — who has the funniest clips? (I always feel a bit disappointed when other people don’t seem to find the clips I like as funny as I do. But anyway.) Perhaps you might go for a little eBay surfing or browsing on Net-a-porter. Later, you’ll nod off with your new Stieg Larsson book.

Yes, well, it’s the modern world, and I suppose we have to live with it. But couldn’t we be doing something more satisfying in our spare time?”

Ringing any bells? Tom offers a plethora of more worthwhile, simple pursuits that might offer more fruitful development of the mind and body, without huge expense or dramatic lifestyle change – such as learning to sing or sew, getting into the garden, learning a language or how to play an instrument, or simply drinking good wine.

I’m also reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows at the moment – a fascinating and worthwhile read about how the universal expansion of the internet into every facet of our daily lives is essentially re-shaping the way our brains work. We have smaller attention spans; we find it harder to get lost in lengthy pieces of text; we jump from one communication to another and depend on a constant feed of information to keep us occupied.

Perhaps we could do with putting down the mobile, switching off the TV and shutting down the inbox every now and then. Sometimes it’s tiny changes that can dramatically change our quality of life. Food for thought.

In search of the greatest sports marketing moment

(c) NFL / Getty Images

It’s not often that I will post about work-related content here, but the latest debate raging over on Synergy’s blog is actually pretty thought-provoking (well, for those in the sports industry at least).

Any sports fans out there remember when Twenty20 was first ‘invented’? Or when Nike burst onto the scene helping Michael Jordan hit his jump shot? Or even, for the veteran fans amongst you, when NFL was first broadcast on our TV screens?

Well, whatever you think the biggest moment was, Synergy wants to hear about it. We’ve started a bit of a debate going by naming an initial top 12 (below), but we’re a friendly, modest bunch and open to suggestions of things we’ve missed. Have a look at the below, and let us know what you think by commenting on the original blog post here.

And eventually we’ll put up a poll and get to the official #1. But only with your help. So what’s it to be? Let us know…

1. 1960 – a promising American golfer called Arnold Palmer shook hands over a representation deal with his friend and Yale law grad, Mark McCormack. This handshake was the start of IMG and birth of modern sports marketing.
2. 1968 – After the NFL and AFL merged in 1966 the first two championship games between the two winners were called, snappily, the NFL-AFL World Championship. KC Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt then came up with the term Super Bowl for the game after seeing his grandson playing with a Super Ball, (a densely elasticated ball) and a global phenomenon was born.
3. 1976 – already prevalent abroad, Kettering Town became the first British football club to have a sponsor on its shirt – the deal may only have lasted four games but it changed the rules in the UK. The forward thinking brand? Kettering Tyres.
4. 1978 – Horst Dassler and Patrick Nally created a sponsorship model for world events starting with The FIFA World Cup that other rights holders have followed ever since.
5. 1978 – Bernie Ecclestone became chief executive of the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) which culminated in Ecclestone securing the right for FOCA to negotiate television contracts turning F1 into the global financial phenomenon it is today.
6. 1979 – Jack Nicklaus argues successfully for the inclusion of European (rather than just British) players in the Ryder Cup. This turned a struggling, one-sided tournament into what is today probably the most significant global event in golf.
7. 1981 – the first major PPV boxing match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns was screened by Viacom Cablevision, the event sold over 50% of its subscribers for the fight and a new form of sports viewing was born.
8. 1984 – Nike, a struggling sports shoe company, signed rookie Michael Jordan and created the first shoe named after a player – The Air Jordan.
9. 1985 – Michael Payne restructured the IOC Marketing Programme creating TOPs – the building block of the most lucrative sponsorship format in the world.
10. 1992 – The English First Division clubs resigned en-masse from the Football League and formed the Premier League which is now the most watched and most lucrative football league in the world with the format copied across the globe.
11. 1995 – The first ever Extreme Games (later changed to X Games) was held with the backing of ESPN – it catapulted fringe sports into the mainstream, bringing with it vast corporate investment.
12. 2003 – The ECB introduced the world to Twenty20 Cricket via the Twenty20 Cup between counties, the mould breaking game has gone on to be adopted across the globe with IPL changing the financial face of the sport.

The iPad – will it blend?

Squeals of excitement yesterday at an Engine Digital Training day provided by the eConsultancy, when trainer James Matthewson revealed his shiney new iPad – fresh out of the box from his trip to the States.

I have long been in love with all things Apple, and finally it seems I have the ultimate toy – a Kindle combined with an iPod Touch. It was just as pretty as expected, and very impressive video/picture quality. Above all it was fun to use. Sadly the app store wasn’t connecting in the UK so no books had been uploaded yet, and I’m still keen to see how well the books read on screen without inducing screen fatigue after long periods. But I’m optimistic.

But in all testable respects it seemed a smashing piece of kit. Web browsing was just as fluid as the iPhone but obviously with much greater visibility, although there remains the issue with a lack of Flash compatilbilty. Even the keyboard had good usability. Though I have read recommendations for the external keyboard when using it for prolonged blogging, I feel this just turns it into a regular Notebook, but with a rather unwieldy piece of extra kit attached. I’d be hoping to blog away using just the iPad interface – that’s the cool factor.

And look who else has jumped onto the iPad bandwagon? Our friend in the white coat at BlendTec. Posted just over a week ago on 5th April, the YouTube video has already received over 5,ooo,ooo views. Wowzers.

But will it blend?