Aproporpos of Nothing...

...we were just flicking through the channels when we stumbled across Baby TV (Sky channel 623 if you're interested).

We genuinely had no idea pumpkins started off this small.




They're tiny!!! Next Halloween, shrunken-head lanterns will be the order of the day.


PS We're not sure what Rhydian from X Factor is doing with the pumpkins there, but he seems happy enough.

christmasnumberoneoftheday_141207

Malcolm Middleton - We're All Going To Die

Presenting Our Big-Budget Christmas Advertising Campaign

What better way to promote our fantastic range of ingenious Christmas gifts than by spending the year's advertising budget on an epic audio-visual extravaganza? Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present the RunForYourLives.co.uk Christmas commercial.

In retrospect, we should've stuck with our original idea and spent the money on some Wotsits.

Crikey, it's the Best Pre-Christmas Sale Ever!

Christmas is a few days away, and chances are you've still got a few presents left to buy. We certainly have. But the good people at I Want One of Those have decided that this is the perfect time to have a fantastic sale. Yes, the same I Want One of Those that will give you £5 off your order if you enter the discount code VOFF8.

Be quick, the sale is only on until Thursday at 6pm. So visit the site now and grab some genius last-minute gifts for your friends and loved ones (and, becuase they actually sell good things, maybe something for yourself?). For the geek in your life, there's the Binary clock and the USB Panic Button. For the ladies, there's the Mooshy and the Twilight Umbrella. For mum and dad, you could get them the amazing Laser Cosmos or adopt a vine for them. We suggest you do your Christmas shopping right here, making sure you use that discount code VOFF8 for £5 off the whole lot.

And for you?

The Pyramat Rocker. YOU'VE. EARNT. IT.

Brilliant Christmas Ideas

Christmas is trouser-endangeringly close now, and that means two things;

1) The nation's richest celebrities try to convince us that they spend their evenings pushing trolleys around supermarkets, doing their shopping with us plebs (we're still struggling to imagine Emma Bunton hanging around the 'Reduced' shelf, waiting for a discount Scotch Egg in a bag) (Kerry Katona, definitely. But not Bunton), and

2) You have 23 days left to buy your Christmas presents.

Whilst there's not much we can do about the first one, you'll be glad to hear we can help you with the second one. If the thought of dreaming up perfect presents for every friend and relative fills you with feelings of dread, read on. Because we've done the hard work for you...

Take a look at the RunForYourLives.co.uk Gift Guides. We've searched through our vast warehouse of amazing products and picked out the very best gift ideas for you this Christmas. Whether you need a gift for your girlfriend, a gift for your boyfriend, the perfect present for mum or even something for the Secret Santa at work, we've found some brilliant items for you.

What kind of brilliant items? Well, allow us to elaborate...

Girlfriend gifts - Presents for your missus, or indeed any girl who appreciates cool things and experiences. Check out the Miss Army Kit (right), a session in a recording studio, an electric guitar or even the classic Mr Frosty.



Boyfriend gifts - Fantastic gadgets that will impress and amaze any man, from the NAMCO Classics Plug-and-play game (right) to the genius Wifi Digital Photo Frame (which lets you send your pictures into the frame via EMAIL, for heaven's sake) to the very cool Italian Job poster (the original, not that remake nonsense).


Mum gifts - The perfect present for your ma, with everything from
flowers to days out. If you want to show her you appreciate all those hot dinners and clean socks, why not treat her to the amazing Sun Jar (right), some monkey-picked tea, a bottle of wine or even a day at a spa or a night at the theatre?

Secret Santa gifts - We used to be hopeless at picking these, so we decided to do some full-on research this year and share the results with you. So if you're lumbered with buying for a colleague, we've found some perfect ideas for any person in any price-range, from the funky USB Plasma Ball to the inspired Salvador Dali Clock to the barking Desktop Whack-a-mole.


We're adding to the guides all the time, so if you find yourself stuck for ideas then try the Gift Guides. Because Christmas Shopping doesn't have to be all about frantic hunts for parking spaces and getting cross with crowds.

And bags of presents splitting open on the High Street.

And people trying to give you flyers when you've obviously got your hands full.

And bad carol-singers blocking your way.

And empty shelves.

And long queues.

And hearing 'Last Christmas' eight times in one trip.

Maybe nine times.

Man alive, we hate that song.

Try the Gift Guides now!

Two Pirates... Tiling a Bathroom... In the Style of Miss Marple

Remember Whose Line Is It Anyway? Back in the 1990s, the highlight of Friday night would be a bunch of comedians making stuff up as they went along. There It was a great show, and so we were chuffed to find out that it's now being repeated on Dave.

One of the best games on the show was Stand Sit Bend. Very easy - Three players had to act out a scene, making sure that at all times one of them was standing, one was sitting and one was eating a coot (note to self - Check this before publishing). As luck would have it, we've found a clip. Apologies for the quality. And the clothes.


PS You can get DVDs of this show from the good people at Play.com. But only if you ask for them in the style of a Marx Brothers film.

PPS Alright, you can just ask normally.

tuneoftheday_121107

Los Campesinos! - International TweeXcore Underground



This is the new single. And by 'new single', we mean 'single which came out three weeks ago, but which we were too disorganised to put up on the blog because sometimes we'd struggle to arrange a drinking session in a factory which specialises in the making of alcoholic beverages'. Someone really should come up with a popular expression which sums that sort of thing up.

You can still buy the single from the Witchita website, provided they haven't sold out of MP3s in the three weeks it took us to post this. There's an album out next February too, and a tour to promote it...
11th Feb: Dublin - Village
13th Feb: Birmingham - Academy 2
14th Feb: Glasgow - King Tuts
16th Feb: Northumbria - Uni
17th Feb: Sheffield - Leadmill
18th Feb: Manchester - Club Academy
19th Feb: Brighton - Concorde 2
22nd Feb: Bedford - Esquires
23rd Feb: Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms

Then in May they're off to All Tomorrow's Parties at Camber Sands. But we'll remind you of that nearer to the date. Late July, probably.

Your Friday Doss

Barnyard Balloon

Man alive, this is addictive. Pick an animal to play (we were the sheep), then use the up/left/right keys to float around the barnyard, popping the balloons on the other animals before they pop yours. If you do run out, you can buy more at the bottom of the screen by pressing 'B'.

Oh, and you can play more ace games like this at freeworldgroup.

By the way, we've been freshening up www.runforyourlives.co.uk/ in time for Christmas, with a whole bunch of amazing gadgets, inspired gifts and other things which, with any luck, will save you from too many Saturday-afternoon present-buying shopping trips. More on that this weekend...

tuneoftheday_031107

The Go! Team - Wrath of Marcie



Third single to come from the storming new album Proof of Youth, and possibly the first ever Go! Team video not to consist of animated cut-outs and clips of double-dutch skipping.

It's a bit good.

Out Of (Fat) Control

What could be better than a compilation of Thomas the Tank Engine's best high-speed crashes? Why, a compilation of Thomas the Tank Engine's best high-speed crashes set to the music of Herb Alpert, of course.