‘In Bruges’ is a great little movie starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. It is the story of two hit men hiding out in Belgium after a challenging hit-man job. The movie is quite quirky. It slowly reveals how the two men experience local customs in the very charming medieval canal town of Bruge.

Often mistaken for Colin Farrell, I too was ‘In Bruges’ and fell in love with its charms. Fan Foley

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to catch the Eurostar train from London’s gleaming new St Pancras station via the Eurotunnel under the English Channel to Brussels. The train trip was less than 1 hour 50 minutes at speeds up to 300 kilometres per hour. What a way to travel and you don’t feel a thing! Also, you only need to check in 30 minutes before departure time. Although this is really train geeky, I have to admit that it was very fast and very, very cool. Rolling Stock Foley

When Nigel gave me this topic I did what any self respecting media trollop does and Google imaged the hell out of it. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the filth rating of the results, I had high hopes.

Anyhow. I was fortunate to receive a traditional British education, with cold showers, dawn runs and lashing and lashings of hockey. The great public school education* is the gift that just keeps on giving, and many years later I am still quivering with the neuroses contracted on those freezing sports fields. There’s nothing like a baying hoard of teenage girls brandishing hockey sticks, bearing down on you to help you focus sharply on the liberal arts.

The phrase ‘jolly hockey sticks’ originated in gentle mockery of the hearty, games playing, nice but dim ‘gels’ that people private girls’ schools in the public imagination. The Cambridge Dictionaries online cuttingly define the phrase as describing “A woman or girl of a high social class, who is enthusiastic in a way that annoys most people.� I would be kinder and say that exuberant, energetic people, blessed with enormous amounts of self confidence and unhampered by excessive brains, have their own uncomplicated charm.

It must be a post earthquake thing, but I’ve found myself strangely drawn to the twee end of the lifestyle blog spectrum recently. There’s something enormously comforting about their pretty world of charming china, pot plants and home baking. As it happens, one of my latest discoveries of this ilk is called Jolly Hockey Sticks, and it’s a rosy glow of niceness in an imperfect world, perfect for a bit of escapist cheering up.

So Hockey, eh? I used to like the little pleated skirts we had to wear and the orange segments at half time. I also used to like playing it on winter afternoons, when all the breweries in Edinburgh were malting their hops at once, and you could practically pour a glass of the thick yeasty air. Now I’m going to hand the blogging baton over to our glorious leader Tatts, who used to play Hockey for the New Zealand Olympic squad, for a rather more informed description of the finer points of field hockey.

Heartily yours, Lizzie

* Cultural Note. Rather confusingly, in the UK, a public school is an expensive private school. Schools for the general public are called state schools.

Star Wars GPS by Tom Tom

For any Star Wars lovers out there, who wouldn’t want voices of Stars Wars giving you driving instructions! For $12 Darth Vader can tell you where to go!

You can listen here

Laser Tape Measure

The Leica Distoâ„¢ A5 doesn’t take much explaining. Just point and measure. I am sure it had great uses for industrial and engineering industries, but also for me to play with. How far away is my car? How long is this room I am sitting in? How far is it to walk to the bathroom? Easy and cool. I like it.

Toilet Paper Dispensing iPod Dock

Icarta iPod Dock with dispenser is a multi-tasker gadget for the time deprived. Now who wouldn’t want to listen to some great tunes or create some playlists while you have some ‘alone time’. May as well make the whole experience relaxing and enjoyable while relieving ones self! The hardest decision would be finding a song to match the mood of your bowel motion… what would your song be?

I can’t resist a really useless gadget such as the Hay Fever Hat

Don’t worry anymore about embarrassing hayfever sniffles or colds. You will never be without a tissue. No more snotty sleeves!
Gadget Blogger – Liz

I’ve never actually been to The D but here are a few of my favorite things about Hitsville, USA:

MOTORS:

The Motor City is home to ‘the big 3′ – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Of course the big 3 have seen bigger days, but once upon a time,  America’s Automotive Capital made most of the cars on earth. Probably the most well known vehicle to come out of Hockeytown is the Model T, but I’m going to put down the Mako Shark II Concept as my favorite Detroit motor because I feel that there just aren’t enough vehicles named after sharks (or any predator for that matter). It was only a concept and ultimately became the 1968 Chevrolet Corvette (known as the Stingray), which still looks nice, but I think the concept looked meaner and, although related to sharks and still a predator (albeit a bottom feeding one), I’m not overly impressed by the stingray as a species, sure they have that cool looking barb, but it’s only used for defense. Pathetic.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING:

Who doesn’t like cheap houses?… Well, homeowners. But if you’re looking to buy and your frustrated by the astonishing prices we pay for property in God’s Own,  maybe America’s Comeback City is the place for you.  If you’ve got a lazy Benjamin (for NZ readers that’s roughly a Queen less than a Lord Rutherford and a Sir Apirana) in your back pocket, any one of these fine properties could be yours…

That’s basically Monopoly board prices – pick up four of these, knock them down, build a hotel and you’ll be laughing all the way to Mayfair.

MUSIC:

Motown was the home of Motown Records, which bought us the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Rick James, The Temptations, The Commodores, The Jackson 5 and many more. During the ’60s they had over 100 top 10 hits. Even though I wasn’t to be born for another 20 years, I know most of the hits, but not enough to legitimately claim a favorite, so the best I can offer as a Favorite Motown thing is Dave Chappelle as Rick James, (Be warned: lots of offensive language) click the parental advisory sticker to view.

Rock City has also given us some of my favorite rappers, Obie Trice, Royce Da 5’9″ and most notably Eminem. So here’s my favourite hip-hop track about Detroit (There’s probably a cuss or three in here, so the above ‘Parental Advisory’ still applies, but it is probably his least offensive song)…

ROBOTS:

It would make sense for Detroit (I’ve run out of nicknames) to move into robot manufacturing, surely they could just re-purpose the car factories. I love Robots and while he’s not my favourite robot/cyborg, RoboCop is probably my favorite Michigan-based robot. So, here’s my favorite scene from RoboCop (RoboCop’s not actually in it)…

BASKETBALL:

Back in the day, Ben Wallace made the Detroit Pistons the best team to use on EA Sports NBA Street, he also helped them become NBA Champions in 2004, but more important to me was the ability of his playstation character to help me win. In NBA Street, there was no rule against goal tending and no 3 second rule, so with the best blocker in the game you could stand under the hoop all day just grabbing your opponents shots on the way down.

——

Because I’ve ended with the topic of Basketball and the NBA All-Star game is on right now, I’m going to pass the blogging tokotoko to Matt to tell us about the art of the Dunk.

I am a devotee of ‘Entercation’. This is the informing sub-semi-scholastic combo of entertainment + education. It is based around the notion that it is good to be curious and approach life like it is a multi-player game of Trivial Pursuit.

 

As such, this weekend I purchased ‘The Times Complete History of the World’. It is a reference book full of this and that about the last 9000 years of this and that. Just a quick point, it is clearly not the complete history of the world, if it did it would include things such as:

 

-        my school exam results (modest)

-        photos of Rich’s Bartmobile

-        the police report from when Nigel got all is gear nicked in Spain

-        a list of Hamish’s touch rugby awards

 

It does however have a double page spread on NZ history (since 1800), which in a rather nice bit of geographical-correctness is the same amount of space they give to Australia.

 

I thought the introduction to the NZ section was a rather good summary of the last hundred or so years of NZ, so in the spirit of entercation I present it for your consideration….

 

“European settlement of New Zealand from 1840’s led to two major wars with the Maoris over the next quarter century. Thereafter New Zealand became a rural ‘Britain of the South’, supplying the mother country with primary produce. An advanced social and political laboratory, it was among the first to extend votes to its indigenous population and to women. Recently it has introduced a native title tribunal and liberalized and internationalized its economy.�

Working closely with our All-Things-Beverage client ‘First Beverage Group’ we at TimeZoneOne have been learning all about the USA beverage scene. I came across this very interesting fact last week and thought I would share it with all the beverage lovers out there…
Three firms control 89% of US soft drink sales. This dominance is obscured from us by the appearance of numerous choices on retailer shelves. This has created an illusion of diversity which hides a lack of real choice.
To visualize the extent of this illusion some smart boffin (for some reason boffins have loads of time on their hands) designed the below cluster diagrams to represent the number of soft drink brands and varieties found in the refrigerator cases of 94 Michigan retailers, along with their ownership connections.

At TimeZoneOne we often talk about flying kiwis. Kiwis can’t actually fly, in fact, as birds go the kiwi probably isn’t the most impressive, they’re kind of odd really – they sound like this…

…they’re nocturnal, they have little stubby wings, stubby legs, a round body, a long awkward beak and they lay eggs that are 20% of their own body mass, which is like giving birth to a 4-year-old. But maybe it’s that kind of can-do attitude that has seen it become a national symbol.

The story goes that once upon a time the kiwi was an impressive, colorful bird, with large impressive wings who soared above the forests. One day the god of the forest gathered the birds together and told them that the bugs on the forest floor were killing the tree roots and that if someone didn’t go live down there and sort it out the forest would die and they would have no home – however, whoever went to live on the forest floor would need to adapt to that environment and they’d have to leave behind their beautiful feathers and they would never fly again. As you can imagine, there weren’t a lot of wings being raised or feathered heads nodding, but the kiwi volunteered and was transformed into the odd little creature he is today. The other birds got to keep their pretty feathers, but they all owe a debt to the humble kiwi who scurries around in the dark cleaning up the forest floor. Kiwi’s are modest creatures, we don’t need to show off with bright plumage, we just like to get the job done and focus on the bigger picture.

Here’s a wee game I whipped up that doesn’t illustrate any of the points of that story, but it does have flying kiwis (the bird) dodging flying kiwis (the fruit) for people who are into that sort of thing. I didn’t bother to set up a high score thing, but feel free to leave your score in the comments so that everyone can know how awesome you are, try to be honest or, if you’re going to lie, be epic and say you got over a trillion points.

(if your reading this through an RSS feed click here to join the fun)

David ‘kiwi as*’ McLeod

*As  (particle – intensifier)

1. too, indeed, really, so, very, quite – an intensive particle following immediately after the word it relates to. It may be used after all types of bases, but particularly with negatives, adjectives and verbs as described below.
Sweet as = That is quite satisfactory!
Na, sweet as, I’m full as = No, indeed, I have eaten too much!
2. very, extremely, so, most – when preceded by an adjective preceded by hard out it expresses the superlative.   This place is hard out beautiful as. = This place is extremely beautiful.
3. best , accomplished – when following wicked or mean.
MJ was wicked as at basketball = Michael Jordon was the best basketball player.
MJ was a mean as singer = Michael Jackson was a very accomplished singer

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME as, als, alse, also, OE alsw�, ealsw� all so, quite so, quite as, as; c. MD alse (D als), OHG als� (MHG áls�, álse, als, G also so, als as, as if, because) circa 1960; Nu Zild BRO  sweet as, bro.

Tom Peter’s has written a new book called The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. Below are the top 19 E’s of Excellence, which I think are fabulous reminders of why we are in the business called advertising. If we strive everyday to embrace at least two to three of these TimeZoneOne and ourselves will be better and happier as a team and individuals.

•Enthusiasm! Be an irresistible force of nature!

•Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)

•Exuberance! Vibrate – cause earthquakes!

•Execution! Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame no one! Expect nothing! Do something!�

•Empowerment! Respect and appreciation rule! Always ask, “What do you think?� Then listen! Then let go and liberate! Then celebrate!

•Edginess! Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.

•Enraged! Determined to challenge and change the status quo! Motto: “If it ain’t broke, break it!�

•Engaged! Addicted to MBWA / Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.

•Electronic! Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building of every sort.

•Encompassing! Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions – the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works�!

•Emotion! The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.

•Empathy! Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk in the other person’s shoes� – until the soles have holes!

•Experience! Life is theatre! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard: “Insanely Great� / Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling� / BMW.

•Eliminate! Keep it simple!

•Error-prone! Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos – all of it at the speed of light!

•Evenhanded! Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!

•Expectations! Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.� Amen!

•Eudaimonia! Pursue the highest of human moral purpose – the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.

•EXCELLENCE! Never an exception! If not Excellence, what?

Fearon the most excellent.

Urban Adventours run fantastic cycle tours around Boston. It is a great way to see the city. Back in July I was lucky enough to visit this great historic city. The bike tour was the best fun! It was a great day!

‘On Ya Bike Nigel’