Rockingham Track Day

Thanks to the good people at MTP, I managed to get along to the Ferrari Track day at Rockingham Raceway. Here's a selection of photos from the day. I'll hopefully be posting some videos on here soon; I'm making them on the subject of car detailing. Enjoy!

(P.S I promise to resume normal service soon, it's been a busy time at work/home)

A new dawn for the RC

So, it is the first post post-assessment. How does it feel; alright!

In typical fashion, here's a funny video from YouTube, to introduce the new season, featuring a cat you can follow on Twitter. @sockington is incredibly funny, and I recommend you follow him

Sleeping in Light (A thank you)...

The assessment period for From Our Rutland Correspondent is nearly over and, whilst the time draws near, I thought I would take this opportunity to make a couple of thank you messages. If you were one of the lucky few who got the Babylon 5 reference in the title, you will be able to tell how monumental this post is.

The Rutland Correspondent will continue to be the one-stop for Rutland's news, right-wing blogging and even a little humour. I hope you, the reader, will be there with me.

During these few months blogging, there have clearly been some character's shape postings and the blog overall.

In the beginning, I blogged about my friend @MsVFAB on Twitter and our reactions to the Stimulus Bill going through congress. Since then, I have been in touch with @MsVFAB and we shall continue our exchanges across Twitter.

As time progressed, I connected with many class mates who we're also beginning to blog at the time. To my MAC299 Social Media class, thank you, and I hope we have excellent times together in our final year.

Within the class, there are some notable characters I must personally thank. Simply Jack, for guiding me on what I can and can't get away with on the blogosphere. Our many conversations are like Wikipedia 0.1: verbal collaboration. Though we have often very differing views (Telegraph vs. The Grauniad to name one), we still manage to get along. Long may your rise into the PR Stratosphere continue.

Another thank you must go to Lady Foreman, as she has shown me that blogging needn't be too serious, and you can have fun while you do it. I will confess I have thought we share a great rivalry between our blogs. You are always a clear favourite amongst the class. I hope one day there will be a novelisation of Lady Foreman. Please continue to blog.

To the many contributors and commentators on the Rutland Correspondent's musings. Robert Burns, Jay Green, Sarah Frankland are to name but a few. To those who post Anon too. I'm always very grateful for your feedback, and I do hope we can continue our online conversations.

Outside of the class, I have to thank The Conservative Cloakroom; you are always a number 1 source of political news, views and widgets. You are also one of the few political bloggers to give me credit on your Blog List. For that, I thank you.

To the good people at YouTube; A picture tells a thousand words, and if there is 27 frames a second in video, then you do a much better job than me! Also a big thank you to the good people at Google Images; sometimes I just need that photo I can't quite get anywhere else.

If I have forgotten anyone; I apologise, and I hope you won't hold it against me if I stand for public office.

As always,

Oliver CD Burns, Our Rutland Correspondent.

There's only one, MHT

Long live the Torch Of Freedom: 4/5/79 - 4/5/09

I'll even let Boris tell the tale....

Easter Holidays

Spring Term has finished at Sunderland university, bringing with it a holiday of (hopefully) Morcott sunshine, many trips to Uppingham & Oakham market, and other Rutland curiosities.

I shall be uploading a few photos of things that happen around Rutland, and try to put 'a face to a name' to the towns of Oakham & Uppingham.

If there is anything in particular you would like to know about Rutland, leave me a comment and I shall do my best to answer your question/request.

We, the people....

...produce a video advertising the 'Tax day tea party', which has the right message, but delivers it in a wholly wrong way.



I like: The idea and the message: Boston tea party as a sense of revolution/protest. Some of the banners too. 'Repeal the pork or your bacon is cooked' and 'tcot report dot com' (of which The Rutland Correspondent is a member: SnudgeB). The child holding the 'I read as much of the Stimulus bill as my congress did' is also a classic.

I don't like: The music, it's a homage to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, but still, a tad inappropriate. The constant 'we the people' flying across the screen, 'Speak now or forever hold your peace' as a final slogan, and the slightly haunting picture it dubs. The Windows PowerPoint backgrounds at the start

Shooting, Conservatives, Palin and The Rock?

This month's The Field Magazine has a couple of interesting items I can thoroughly recommend reading. The opening story is of how the Olympic shooting team was snubbed by Cherie Blair when they received the opportunity to meet dignitaries at Number 10. The article goes further into how the Olympic Budget has seen shooting's slice slashed by 80%. A temporary shooting ground (quite indicative of the current administration) is to be erected at a cost of £25 million to the tax payer at Woolwich. This comes as Bisley still maintains it's world-renown status following the 2002 Commonwealth games.

The second item comes from the letter's page, where a lady wrote in to inform The Field of friend of the author hitting a right and left at a woodcock ( a very difficult manoeuvre to pull off in shooting). The end of the letter ends as such:

'...the more ladies we can encourage into shooting the more support we can expect from the public at large'

Being a typical PR student, I pondered this end statement. Normally a celebrity spokesperson may add weight to a cause, but more women in a oft-mistaken male-orientated sport? A most interesting idea....

Let's look stateside for some answers. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) of WWE fame, and a Correspondent recommended auto-bigoraphy, once spoke at the Republican National Convention (much like Conservative Conference Season). A known Republican, he could be seen as a brand champion: 

O. Burns Celebrity Endorsement Formula

'Keen & Clean' celebrity spokesman + product/belief + media channel(s) = air time

air time ÷ new/renewed interest in product/belief = % positively changed public opinion

Perhaps this idea might help our shooting cause. What if someone like The Rock could become a brand champion for one of Great Britain's most traditional of past times. Would that celebrity be willing to take the regular flak from the often left-wing (and possibly there biggest fan base) argument that it is the sport of the rich killing the defenseless for pleasure? I might conclude not. 

What if our brand champion wasn't quite as big as The Rock. What if that brand champion wasn't just one person? Perhaps the author does have the right idea of getting a group of people (in this case, UK women of 18+) to start taking up the sport and championing it's cause....

Then again, would we get a Palin effect? Great ideas, great image, great to start off with, but will it just wither out over time very rapidly? Would our brand champion/champions fit the 'Keen & Clean' part of our equation? Again, I may argue not.

We might find, therefore, that brand champions for shooting are a no-no. Perhaps having pictures of women holding guns is the way forward for the sport. Political Parties may be the stopping point for celebrities to publicly endorse without too much flak. 

One thing is for certain: for the great sport to survive the next ten years, it needs to get more supporters. How to do that without celebrity endorsement?: another blogpost for another day.

A Rutland minute on Blogging and Social Networking 2.25

Our PR class today was taken by another lecturer from the University, who was an experienced blogger and journalist.

As a class we brainstormed the things we had learnt from our blogs, and what we would do to improve/enrich audience and readers. The two words which proved most popular were varied and relevant.

If I was to create a mission statement on what I'd like to achieve with this blog, I might actually struggle. Not simply because I can't think of what to write, but because I might be struggling to put it into 150 words. Much like Twitter's 140 character limit, I think I might need to sort out and compartmentalise my goals.

"I try to be funny, though careful as to my style of humour. One great business lecturer once said that "No one buys from a clown". I try to interest my readers in politics. Particularly so from a conservative viewpoint, as it is often a subject many shy away from socially, but willing to discuss with great account otherwise. I also try to bring news from my home county Rutland, which would mostly go unnoticed in the busy world around it. I also find the blog somewhat personal, even though I were advised not to be overtly life-sharing."

98 Words. Hang on, I just thought I'd struggle to write that. Perhaps I can't quite touch the word count, but it is a very messy statement. 

Perhaps the answer is in the blog sub-title

"Multum In Parvo, Latin for Much In Little" (Rutland's motto)

I do have a lot to say and do, and not a lot to say it in. I do have much to talk about, though find it hard putting it down as a condensed posting. I also have much to say about Rutland, but in a too smaller channel for mainstream media to pick up. Truly, it is Much in Little. So it may not be the most auspicious mission statement, though my county is proud to carry it as it's motto. I too shall be proud to have it as this blog's mantra.

As an aside to today's class, we were also asked to think about Twitter, 5 weeks on from our original opinions. To use my regular lecturer's words from our internal class blog, 'the often dismissive and unflattering' comments we pass about twitter are still fairly prevalent. I would agree to an extent with them, though I am pleased to have found very like minded people on their. My 76 followers are mostly US-Born. Is this good or bad? Who knows. I'm pleased, though, that I have met them online and that Twitter does allow me to see all their happening without digging to deeply into their lives. Perhaps this is Social Networking 2.25? Personal, Online, Global and yet not too personal?!

Forget Foggy-Bottom and Pentagon City

The next train at, Platform 1, is for AOL...

Previously along Uppingham's High Street West

While Obama is losing the battle in DC, the Uppingham Raddlemen are triumphing over the town's great 'parking war'. 

Viva la Conservatives

From Clacton to Manhattan, on Social Media Airways' Business Class

Whilst sitting in my Social Media class at university, we came across the story of Kimberley Swann, a 16 year old Essex girl who was asked to leave her employer. Her dismissal was down to her posting as her Facebook status that she was 'Bored at Work'.

Whilst the saying goes 'all publicity is good publicity', the firm at the center of the row, Ivell Marketing & Logistics, has seen a huge rise in groups opposing her dismissal. Just searching for the company on Facebook displays an array of groups that seek to show their near hatred for the company.

As a class, we were asked to pick a firm we know to have a web presence, and do a communications audit on them. Simply put, this is a review of what they say, what we say, and whether its good or bad, on several different platforms. The stipulation: Our only source of information was the internet.

Two of my passions in life are food and the USA. Where better to review than one of my favourite restaurants, the Comfort Diner in Manhattan, NY. Famed for good quality food, and featured in the Rutland Correspondent Recommends listing, it seemed the perfect choice.

Like Spandau Ballet, 'To cut a long story short', I didn't quite lose my mind; I instead found some fairly interesting stuff. 

Having searched Youtube, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, Flickr and Review sites, one great feature was clear: It was nearly all very positive user-generated content. The good people at the Comfort Diner have a website, and very little else which they themselves control. A fanbase internet-wide has formed, without the Comfort Diner doing very much. On being asked 'What would you do if you were the Comms. Dept for Comfort Diner?', I had a typical Raddlemen's answer: Multum In Parvo.

By not publishing as much, and having user generated content, Comfort Diner should have a fantastic press. Much press from little input. Though there would be a lot to be said for not publishing very much either. How do I tell my diners about new menus? How do I tell them about the new Staten Island Diner? Without using some self-publicising, I wouldn't be able to tell them.

While it's good to have great reviews and a huge fanbase appreciating what you do, be it food or clothes, insurance or wealth management, you need to give back to them. Don't be afraid to publish yourself or your product, even if you have a strong and loyal fans.

Perhaps all publicity is good publicity. Like a good pancakes and syrup, pour some publicity over that large mountain of fans.

Free Breakdown Recovery for 1 mile

For those accustomed to travelling the UK highways and byways, you will often see roadworks advertising 'Free Recovery' if you breakdown within the set of works.

Obama's team have set up 'www.recovery.gov', a free website that shows where all the Stimulus Bill money is going. The website has a very handy diagram to show where this money is going, and in proportion to the total $787 Billion.



Do not adjust your sets, that really is $8billion on other.

The rest of the website is also quite interesting. There is no further breakdown of the figures on the website. This picture is the closest Joe Public will get to a balance sheet.

Also of interest is the map of jobs saved/created. Again, your eyes aren't deceiving you. That really was saved/created. I too ask myself the question, what is saved/created?

I think I might go save/create myself some breakfast.

NTARCbook, MyNTARC, NTARCster, NTARCtube?!

The US' National Terror Alert Response Center has launched it's own networking site, akin to Facebook, MySpace etc.

NTARC

It's interesting to see how it's 'Prepared Communities' policy is taking shape, and using the internet as it was designed for: information and communication.

I can also recommend viewing the videos hosted by the network. Particularly of interest is the 33 minutes video, posted here. Whilst I normally find these mini documentaries interesting, it can be said this is using a few scare tactics. Can anyone imagine a UK version of the video?

Porkulus Bill Passes Representatives

Courtesy of Twitter & Livestation, I was able to follow the US Stimulus bill heading into the House Of Representatives. This bill gives the US nearly $1 trillion to boost the economy

One of the top quotes from my news feed in Twitter was ''Way to go House Republicans! :)'', Posted by a fellow member of #tcot (topconservativesontwitter.org). It then began to flow through my feeder. US Republican activists were really pleased at party unity over voting no. They were also really pleased that 8 Democrats voted against the bill.

It still shows that the G.O.P (Grand Old Party, another name for Republicans) has a lot to do to stop legislation being piledrived through the Capitol.

Though two lessons to draw from this: Twitter is a fantastic source for news, if you log on at the right time. Also, if your Republican, avoid Friday 13th!

UPDATE: The bill has been made into law, with all but 3 of the Republicans voting no in the senate. Everyone is also complaining that the bill was only made available at 11 p.m (4 a.m GMT) Thursday night.

Welcome To Rutland

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