Chorus

Romance is not dead but it can manage to be threatening.  (I must dig out Football Factory this evening).

Detroit

This is one for the communication and branding nerds - Chrysler's super bowl effort to promote their new car the 200.

Visually it is good (although some shots are the standard issue car ad) but the script is very good (I'd suggest just listening to the narration alone).  It is a fine example of how a brand in trouble tries to reinvent itself and following Chrysler's near collapse and massive government bail-out it was certainly in trouble.  It co-opts the narrative of the city of Detroit.  This is far from an untroubled place but it is used to provide a parallel story of decline and return - been through hell but came out stronger based on good values.  In broader terms of appeal it tries to link in with the strength of American identification with "city".  


As all advertising tries to connect at an emotional level, the claims that some viewers were in tears would indicate it has been successful in those terms (although whether they can afford a luxury car in the present climate is a different matter).

Vestments

As fashion disasters go these really are truly in a class all of their own.  Do check out the older posts they just keep getting worse. (Hat tip G)

Husky

Suffering/semi-recovering from a nasty bug/possible swine flu.  One of the effects of this was a very sore throat and near loss of my voice, it is slowly but surely starting to return but I am wandering about sounding like the aftershave commercial voiceover guy.

Perhaps I should see if the party wants a husky tone for the Assembly PEB and get it recorded before a full recovery?

List

Some feel good for a cold Monday morning courtesy of Susan Hill on the Coffee House blog.

Accident

The powerpoint for my contribution to the Blogging for Unionism session at the DUP Conference, entitled the Accidental Blogger.

An Accidental Blogger

Blog standard

Malachi O'D wants to get bloggers talking.  Details here.

Humbug

Ballymena Council will be switching on its Christmas lights tonight (with no doubt many more towns etc to follow suit).  This news has helped bring out my inner scrooge.  What is the point of spending money on Christmas lights?  Is there any evidence that they have an identifiable impact upon shopping behaviour?  I find it hard to believe there is.  The electric light bulb is a technology that we managed to crack many many decades ago, does seeing them in different colours and predictable designs really manage to differentiate one shopping town from another?

Recovering

I seem to be over the worst of it but backlog of work to clear so no blogging today.

Ill

Ill so no blogging today.

A New Young Consumer

An odd moment (for me anyway) in Waterstones yesterday. (Well two I actually had 4 books in my hand to purchase at one stage but somehow managed to put three of them down.)  While I was prowling about upstairs the youngest was being wheeled about downstairs who decided to pick a book off the shelf (it must have appealed as what had been the fav book until now had been cast aside and took a few minutes looking to locate again).

We progressed to the till and when we went to take the book off the wean to pay for it. This was refused.  The first assumption was a tug of war was about to ensue but no it was willingly handed over directly to the shop assistant and patience displayed until it was returned. At 19 months, and before the first proper words have been spoken, being a consumer had been sussed out.  I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with it working out in that order even if book buying has been successfully passed on.

Good Samaritan

Thanks to the kind individual who retrieved and returned my blackberry that I'd managed to drop in the middle of the street beside City Hall this afternoon.

Self Improvement

I've decided it's time I try and do something about my level of swearing. Hence anyone conversing with me should expect more ponderous moments as I try to fill the gaps.  Any suggestions of entertaining subsitute words are welcome.

Warning

The Ultonia wagon has been placed in the hands of a garage this morning to investigate odd noises coming from the rear brakes.  This may lead to higher than normal levels of grumpiness as the day progresses. UPDATE Grumble mumble kick bin moneyboxes on wheels etc etc

A good start...

I arrived at work to find a giant bar of chocolate sitting on my keyboard. Carlsberg don't do Monday mornings but if they did...

Passing it forward

After my retirement from sluggerotoole with 1000 blogposts under my belt (my final one is here) I wandered in the cyberspace wasteland and even real life for some months before re-emerging in my new home here.  When I did a few gave me a leg up by linking to early posts or adding me to their bloglist.  So its time to pass it forward and highlight a new blog on the Ulster scene by Paula Bradshaw - From the Front Line. 

In her most recent blog she's picked up the lack of female contributions to the Union 2021 series (something I know the News Letter is conscious of and seeking to remedy)  and offered her thoughts.

Paranoia

Tick off another far eastern country with a visitor from Singapore (I got my first german and french visitor too).  However, some of my American visitors are making me a little paranoid.  I've had a visit from the US Navy server at Norfolk Virginia and two visits from the Pentagon server.  Now I'm sure the guys and gals in those respective facilities get as bored as anyone else so many wander round cyberspace and end up in this little corner that is forever Ulster.  Or have I managed to trip some trigger word software somewhere?

Woohoo and Curses

Ultonia has managed to get on the list of Total Politics Top 20 Northern Ireland blogs - woohoo.  Not half bad after six months.  It managed to get in at number 11, just outside the top 10 - curses (it's discrimination against Ultonians I tell you.)

As previously stated I am somewhat dissatisfied (my natural state) with the blog at present so now my readership has upped noticeably in the last few weeks my request for suggestions remains open.

Special hello 2

My far eastern following has grown.  So a special konnichi wa to my two readers in Japan.

??!?!!??!"xxxx

Why is it when you are reading a help guide that the minute you see the words "easy and simple to do" when tinkering with computer code your heart sinks?  The task to change the background pic of this blog to personalise it.  The predictable result is stuck several hours later with the easy and simple task still undone, the little progress bar never getting past the same point no matter how many times you do it (except for that one time it told you the change had been done when it hadn't just to send you completely over the edge), the vocabulary of swear words (plus every possible combination) exhausted and making mental calculations of what would come off worse your laptop or the stud wall when you bounce one off the other repeatedly.

So you'll be looking at a fuzzy landscape for a bit longer.

UPDATE:  However, in the process of not uploading my picture it has managed to knock off my visitor analysis add-on.