Scottish Roundup

I thought the first week back would be a relatively quiet week for blogging with many people taking a break and recovering from the New Year festivities; however, there were plenty of posts worthy of comment this week.

Resolving

It’s always interesting to read the first blog posts of the year, often they mention new motivations or resolutions of some sort or other.

Caron notes how her daughter has forced upon her a sort of resolution, to encourage her to swear less and has created a list of financial penalties for particular swear words. The list drawn up, of course, contains no swear words but instead words which rhymes with them, some of the examples are:

Rhymes with rugger                                            20p
Rhymes with snitch                                             10p
Rhymes with white                                              25p

Kenny mentions that he intends to post a lot more frequently this year and starts off with an interesting article about the relationship between the length of an ad campaign and its success.“Through use of excellent concepts, great media which stretched from Tweets, Facebook, Youtube virals AND replies to user questions on youtube, they brought the meaning of consumer interaction right to the forefront of our mind. Is this what every advertising creative should aim for?”

A Wee Bit of Cooking reflects that the feeling of wanting to hibernate at this time year isn’t really a bad thing, I can agree with that perspective! I posted my own resolutions of the year, inspired by the word minimise.

Opinions and Setting the World to Rights

Perhaps it’s the start of the year but it seems there are a lot of people this week trying to put their opinions forward and get them heard by the right people.

Belinda, at Freedom to Choose (Scotland), posts on the subject of the proposed pylons between Beauly and Denny, having contacted the Minister for Enterprise with her opinions on the matter.

A burdzeyeview discussed his opinion of the recent Eastenders plotline: “Everyone is now talking about the plotline:  it will be a ratings winner, which was the purpose, and no doubt champagne corks will be popping.”

Ellen Arbison looks at the cuts in public libraries and the consequences of shutting more down: “For many people, especially those on low incomes, libraries are the only place to find a steady — and free — supply of nutrition for their brains. Surely as important as five-a-day for the body?”

Michael Traills gives an opinion on the recent hit and run incident involving an off duty police officer in Edinburgh, noting that: “The law applies to everyone regardless of age, sex, location or profession.  Every person should be treated equally and must be entitled to a fair ‘trial’.”

Other Interesting Points

Missy M’s recount of a recent trip to Pets at Home in Aberdeen has made me think twice about visiting the shop in case I run into any of the characters she has experienced.

Nine recounts the journey taken over the past year as she travels indefinitely throughout the world; this week Nine is also interviewed at a new blog Clear Minded Creative.

At The Words of the Lost Penguin, there’s an annual review of documentary films of 2010. Summarising this year’s finds: “If this year’s cinematic documentary offerings had a theme it was blurring the lines. There was a great deal of playing with – and down right manipulating in a few cases – audience perceptions, constructed realities and general blurring of the lines between fact and fiction.”

This week we also have a contribution from a YouTube video from Sandra Harrison showing Images around Scotland with music sung by Sandra Harrison.