I love a good news story, and I don’t think anyone can fail to be touched by the story of seven year old Charlie Simpson – a young London lad who wanted to raise £500 for Haiti by cycling five miles around his local park. His Unicef page on JustGiving has so far raised over £175,000 for the cause, after his message generated extensive media coverage across the UK. Even Gordon Brown has been Tweeting about it! If you want to donate to Charlie then you can at www.justgiving.com/CharlieSimpson-HAITI

Has anyone else been watching True Blood? Well, judging by the viewing figures, a lot of people think its fang-tastic (sorry)

The first episode of the vampire drama, which stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, pulled in 1.56m viewers (10.2%) between 10pm and 11.20pm and a further 145k (1.9%) tuned in on timeshift.

Not only am I little obsessed with the programme, I also love this innovative use of outdoor in New Zealand to promote the show – ready made stakes!

I went to see ‘Moon’ at the cinema last night (not great in my opinion) and on my way home I went via Trafalgar Square to have a look at Antony Gormleys ‘Fourth Plinth’.

For anyone unfamiliar with this project, the Fourth Plinth is the name given to the empty plinth in the north-west corner of Trafalgar Square in London. Built in 1841 there were not enough funds available at the time to create a statue and so the space remained empty. This summer, sculptor Antony Gormley has invited the people of the UK to occupy the plinth – a different person every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break.

When I went last night, the chap on the Plinth was dressed as Henry VIII, talking to the assembled crown about his life and times. As I type this, the current inhabitee is a girl whose objective on the plinth is to “invite people in the crowd to create statues or shapes with their bodies to translate abstract concepts into visual metaphors or mudras”. Hmm, not to everyones tastes then.

You can see this for yourself by visiting www.oneandother.co.uk and watching the live streaming. To date, the live online coverage has clocked up 2,900,000 page impressions, 658,000 visits and 407,000 unique users. The average time spent on the site is 10 minutes and 18 seconds.

To date, over 29,000 people have applied for one of just 2,400 place available – me included. If I get picked I’m taking bets/dares for what I should do. Any ideas?

Currently my first stop in the morning is Hotmail, usually followed by a quick perusal of Facebook, BBC News, Guardian Media, and finally Heatworld, particularly if I am feeling hungover.
I don’t usually deviate from this pattern unless an interesting news story requires additional investigation or if Hayley has once again lured me to the Office website to tempt me with their dazzling array of half price shoes (It’s a stiletto/wedge/sandal/boot/kitten heel wonderland)

However, I’ve recently become a bit of a fan of WE7.com. This site has had a lot of media coverage since its launch last year. The brainchild of Peter Gabriel, We7.com offers a free advertising-funded music streaming service which has music from four major record companies and hundreds of independent indie labels.
My favourite elemenent is the unsigned artists area, where anyone can upload their music for others to download and review, with the best artists actually recieving royalties for their work.
Since discovering We7.com the site has become a bit of a regular in my list, although I now seem to think I wield the god-like power of Simon Cowell over all these new artists.
Tim Jones once released a single (apparently particularly popular in Wales)….anyone vote that we upload this as a trial?

To start the BJKE festivities this year we were suprised by semi-clad Mr and Mrs Claus, fully equipped with tequila and sambuca shots and some quite impressive packages – the Secret Santa presents.
I think a Boob Radio and an E-B Gun went down particularly well. Thanks Santa!

After an alarming amount of early evening shots, we were transported to a secret venue in an old-school double decker London bus which happily contained much champagne and cheesy music (and its very own doorman lurking at the back in case we got a bit rowdy I presume)

Arriving at the Southwark Rooms, and with “Jingle-Bell” Jones as Quiz Master, we split into five teams (Aptly named Prancer, Dancer, Doner, Vixen and Comet) for a festive quiz – the prize being a box at the O2 to see Chris Brown (Not actually sure how many people knew who he was, but Angela and I were jumping about like school children at the prospect, particularly when we won!)

This was followed by an awards ceremony, where  winners included:

Most likely to get told off: Dan
Most likely to flirt: Louise M
Most likely to cry:  Nat and Kate
Most likely to be sick: Tim J
Most likely to say ‘I love you’: Alice

To be honest, the rest of the evening is all a bit of a lovely blur but an awesome time was had by all.
Massive thanks to Benny, Tim and Alice for arranging such a brilliant Christmas do!

Team Chrysler and Adam are feeling a little sore today after a massive session last night. We really went for it, and as a result are bruised black and blue and absolutely exhausted.

Of course, I am talking about our outing with Haymarket to the Go-Karting.
Being relative novices, both myself and Louise managed to get bumped and bashed about on the circuit as we embarked on a monstrous two hour endurance race. Amongst some fierce competition from rival agencies, Hayley and Adam managed to hold their own and our teams finished in fifth and eleventh – pretty respectable really!

I also learnt that when boys say “Oh don’t worry, it won’t be competitive, I’m rubbish really” what they actually mean is “I’ve been practising for the last 6 months, I’m going to annihilate you and intentionally bump you so you drive into walls”.

Liars.

When Sky One brought back Gladiators this summer my first thought was “Amazing! Hot men in lycra. What’s not to love?”
Unsuprisingly the updated version failed to live up to expectations. (Rubbish presenters, too modern, no sign of Rhino anywhere)
Why was I interested in the return of this programme?
Well, as a child I wasn’t allowed to watch Gladiators and had to resort to sneaking in episodes at friends houses (It was deemed too ‘common’, as were burgers, monster munch, pot noodles and shell suits, to my utter disappointment) which elevated the programme to unattainable levels of glamour and excitement.

Which is why the anticipated return of The Krypton Factor to ITV makes me nervous because I desperately don’t want to be let down again!
Date yet to be confirmed, ITV is to bring back The Krypton Factor in its biggest ad-funded programming deal. The series ended in 1995 after an 18 year run and was dubbed “television’s toughest quizshow”. ITV said “The Krypton Factor will be given a 21st century makeover that will see the stakes become bigger, the competition harder and the pressure higher”.

Auditions are open now if any one fancies the challenge……

http://www.itv.com/Games/Gameshows/TheKryptonFactor/ApplicationForm/default.html

A few of us headed over to Company Magazines 30th birthday party in Camden last night – where we experienced some serious z-list celeb spotting including Calum Best, Avid Merrion and enough Big Brother contestants to sink a (rather beautiful) ship.
A good time was had by all, with make-up artists and hairdressers on hand, some excellent goodie-bags (including what some might say was an excessive amount of Durex lube) and thankfully no broken ankles from dancing on the cobblestones.
We also got papped on our way out, until they obviously realised who we were (or weren’t!). I don’t think we have many celeb look-a-likes in our office, although Gemma says people often mistake her for Steven Tyler from Aerosmith…….
Any suggestions?

Since moving from sleepy Oxford to London two months ago, I have become quite a geek when it comes to observing developments in media on my commute into work each morning.
As well as trying to avoid eyecontact with various madmen and deciding what to have for breakfast, I have become accustomed to observing peoples media consumption and considering the influx of new formats that I encounter on my way to Holborn.

You can imagine my excitement this week when I realised that the XTP was installed in the station….
If you are a regular traveller through Piccadilly Circus, Bank, Liverpool Street, Euston or Bond Street you may have already seen the Cross-Track Projection which is currently being rolled-out across the London underground network. This is a high-definition digital moving image which gives advertisers massive standout and impact, and the ability to update their message in real time to a captive audience.
Although 10 years in the planning, now its here I like its premium nature and dominance of the platform – and the fact it keeps me occupied when the Victoria line is delayed again.

What keeps you occupied on the way to work?

As a committed Mozilla Firefox user, I was dubious about whether Google would be able to convert me to their beta-version of their open-source Browser, Chrome.

Launched on the 2nd September 2008, Google claims that Chrome “Gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go” with improved speed, security and responsiveness.
Personally, I’m also quite a Google fan (They keep Ben and Jerries in almost every room, a policy I thoroughly endorse) but there are a lot more people who are equally as interested.
According to Information Week, Chrome reached nearly 2 million downloads in the US in its first week alone.

However, are people likely to stick with Chrome or revert back to one of the other popular browsers such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which dominates with more than two-thirds market share?
The 50MB size of Chrome means on my laptop over 100MB is now taken up with browsers (And my prefered use of memory is for the ridiculous amount of music I have stored on my ITunes)

I’m sticking with Firefox for the moment, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be a convert soon…