Pic credit here. Usual yaddy yadda applies

After a wickedly frenetic start to 2008 (do the first four months of a year all count as a start?) I'm away for a bit. I figured that what with a new baby, and last Friday being the very first day in 2008 that I wasn't under any kind of pitch pressure, I probably needed it.

So I've retired to here for a while (well, until the end of the week - just before I march down to Elland Road and watch the mighty Leeds send Gillingham down to League 2 on Saturday).

... but exciting.

Baby Douglas at 12 and a bit weeks. A long way to go, but all appears OK so far.

When you're the new kid on the footy broadcasting block, ensure that your logo bears no resemblance whatsoever to a previous football broadcaster who almost brought the English game to its knees a few years back. Let's face it, football fans have long memories.

Oops.

Fig 1: The New Player, Setanta
Fig 2: Where's Monkey?

Via Twine

After a marathon twenty-nine hour labour, my wife Tasha gave birth to my new little baby boy, Rory Hector Douglas, yesterday.

As such, blogging operations will be temporarily suspended while I learn how to be a dad :0)

Carrying on the political theme...

Is this a spoof or did it actually run? Either way, I love it.

Spotted here

What a nice thing to stumble upon on a grey Thursday lunchtime.

Google trends analysis: 'Happiness'

I just hope all those that were searching for happiness found it.

Currently running in Belgium, the above Eurostar outdoor work is trying to flog England trips to the locals.

Says Eurostar:

"It's fun, it's supposed to show how cosmopolitan London is. Yes, I really think it says London is cosmopolitan ... you could walk down Camden market and you can see someone like that. It just captures your imagination, stops you, makes you think. People get it."

Awesome. Just awesome. Gotta get me one of these wifi detecting T-shirts...

As spotted (belatedly) over at Organic Frog

This is one of the 'better' user-gen (at least I assume that's what it is - if anyone knows otherwise please tell!) parodies of Fallon's now famous 'Drumming Gorilla' spot.

For some reason embedding is disabled on this one, so have a look here.

(And yes, I know it's aimed at the Nuts crowd, but there's always going to be a part in every man that stuff appeals to...)

click to enlarge

Hahaha. Hans Zoff.

As run today in a few UK daily newspapers

I've been away again (last pre-baby city break and all that), this time to Slovenia. Ljubljana and Bled are both wonderful places, and I wholeheartedly recommend a trip over there.

And they sure know how to sate a post-England semi-final pilsner induced hunger over there. Not sure it'll catch on over here, mind...

I must admit though that the sign is a bit misleading. You really think I ate red 'n' hot horse in a primal post pub hunt for food? Pah.

Me, wearing a psycho butcher-style apron, getting up close and personal with a dairy cow yesterday. All in the name of being a better planner. You know how it is.

The prize for best milker went to Matt Boffey, who demonstrated that he has clearly honed far more than just his planning skills at Wiedens....

It was messy and interesting - but above all, bloody scary.

Rice grains donated by day via freerice.com

I've just been looking at some stats on the rice donation levels on Free Rice (as blogged about a few days back).

How's this for on-brand?

Clownfish, a brand consultancy "committed to social and environmental responsibility", left this stamp in a colleague's notebook when he requested a business card. Apparently thousands of laminated cards aren't particularly eco-friendly.

What a great idea. (Shame the box that it came in was apparently the size of a 80's mobile, but hey).

If you're reading this, I find it hard to believe you won't have heard of Marcus Brown, or at least one of his alter egos.

If you haven't, suffice to say he's one of the cleverest, funniest and innovative English printers living in Munich who's blogging today. (In all seriousness, remove those last few descriptors and the initial set up still remains true).

Unlike a certain proportion of my fellow countrymen, I'm not in the slightest bit anti-American.

Nevertheless, Americanisms entering the language do irk me somewhat (although I do confess to being guilty of overusing the word 'cool'), and as such the below ad for VW, spotted in that bastion of Britishness, The 'London' Times, did annoy me slightly.

Not the message it's trying to convey. Nope, no problems there. In fact, yes, Mr. VW, I am a little worried about fuel prices and I do often contemplate what new and ingenious ways may be emerging to slash my petrol costs.

But I have never, ever, in my entire life, called anything clever 'neat'. Unless I am referring to the laying of a table, or, going back a few years, my efforts at 'colouring in' at school. At the very least I have certainly never described, an admittedly admirable feat of engineering, neat.

I love reading, and the concept of next-gen reading devices really does intrigue me. As such, it was with interest that I read Amazon (which I also love) launched their own effort today - the Kindle. But will it be the product to really kick off the e-reader revolution? I have my doubts...

So John's new book has launched, and to help promote it a little, being the clever devil that he is, he's engaged his fellow bloggers to help the push with the tried-and-tested freebie approach.

While we bloggers flock to celebrate all that is new, shiny and digital in the media world, spare a thought for the stuff we grew up with. And stuff that our parents - and possibly grandparents - grew up with. The dusty old stuff that used to be loved.

It was with heavy heart that I read today that The Dandy, the world's oldest comic (or media brand, as we might call it today) is to (all but) close.

As I make my daily emergence from the typhoon of nappies and sterilisers to take temporary refuge within the bowels of Parker Tower, I have once again begun to make - albeit brief - forays back into the plannersphere.

Good job too. Because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been aware of these two little shindigs that are bound to be of interest to the discerning reader. Amazing what you miss when you're out of the loop.

First up (in a couple of weeks in fact) we have Iris presenting 'Under the Influence', which as far as I can see is a booze-backed gaze into the future of the comms industry, held across five London pubs with all manner of interesting speakers sharing their view. Looks like a corker. All that - and it's free. What are you waiting for? Oh, the link, right, yes. Details are here.

Given I'm just a couple years out and, as many who know me would agree, still as prone to immature humor as ever, one of my favorite sites continues to be College Humor. While running through the RSS feeds today, caught this article on what a keyboard redesigned for the texters and IM junkies among us may look like. Silly as it might be, makes me wonder if this would actually be met with success...

Stick more ads in, that's how! Or maybe not... (rare media post coming up)

This is precisely what's being considered by OFCOM in the UK at the moment, who are looking into increasing the maximum amount of advertising terrestrial broadcasters are allowed to air. The average is predicted to shift from 7 to 9 minutes but with a maximum of 12 minutes in any given hour.

This is a wonderful initiative from efundraising guru John Breen for the UN / World Food Programme.

NFL Draft Dog is pleased to announce a brand new NFL Draft Forum. Do you have an opinion about the NFL Draft, NFL and College Football, Heisman Trophy, NFL Scouting Combine and any other football related stuff? Stop by and voice your opinion, Right now the hot topic is NFL Draft Dog's Top 20 College Football Rankings.

'The Goblin Spider'
Published by Takezirou Hasegawa in 1926.

Roby's week "en images," as they would say in the old country: