Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1j

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1i

In this edition of Viewpoint, I look at the election chances of the Liberal Democrats and update you on the continuing developments in the UK MPs expenses scandal.

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1h

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1g

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1f

Keith Olbermann: Dick Cheney’s speech – false to fact and reason.

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1e

Worst Person In The World: May 20th 2009

Glenn Beck, aka “Harold Hill” won last night’s Worst Person in the World segment on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann.  I tried posting the video, but somehow the code MSNBC provided wasn’t working.  I’ll figure it out later.

Shakhtar Donetsk: UEFA Cup winners

Congratulations to FC Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine.  They have just become the winners of the UEFA Cup 2009.  This means that they are the last winners of the UEFA Cup in this form.

From next season, it becomes the UEFA Europa League, a kind of secondary division of European football, below the UEFA Champions League, but above the national leagues.

It means that the European competitions that I remember from my childhood, have either changed beyond recognition, or no longer exist.  The European Cup is now the UEFA Champions League, and has been since 1992.  The European Cup WInners Cup was merged with the UEFA Cup in 1999, and now, the UEFA Cup, gets merged with the UEFA Intertoto Cup and becomes the UEFA Europa League, when their new season begins officially in July 2009.

There will still be losers from the UEFA Champions League joining the competition at various stages, but once we hit the final 32, it’s back to a straight knockout competition. 

I wonder if this will be as successful as the Champions League has been.  I guess we will start finding out in July.

Viewpoint Extra – from City Media Productions - 1d

Viewpoint – from City Media Productions - 1d

 

A Viewpoint EXTRA follows shortly with more developments in this story, stay tuned.

Virgin 1 goes 24 hours on Freeview

Well, we’ve seen a number of changes to the Freeview platform over the past few weeks.  I’ll provide an up to date EPG list on my Ident City blog shortly, but here on Viewpoint, I’ll catch you up on the recent changes that have taken place.

You know about Quest’s “non-arrival” on channel 47.  I posted on that earlier this week.  Suffice to say that at this time, the slide is still airing, and we still do not know when the channel will properly launch.

ITV4 is now on channel 24, broadcasting 24 hours a day.

Dave ja vu (I hate that name!) is now on channel 25.

Home (the new name for UKTV Style) is now on channel 26.  Frankly, these channel names that UKTV have come up with are really bad, and they do nothing in that sense to identify the channel.

ITV2+1 is now on Channel 27.

E4 and it’s timeshift station, E4+1 are on 28 and 29 respectively.

Fiver is on 30 with sister station Five USA on 31.

Smile TV is on channel 32 broadcasting between 3am and 7am. (why?  Seems pointless to me!)

Smile TV 2 has re-appeared on channel 33, broadcasting Babestation programmes between Midnight and 5am.

Setanta Sports 1 hasn’t moved,l they’re still on channel 34.

And new today is Virgin 1+1, which broadcasts between 6pm and 6am, using the old Virgin 1 multiplex space.

Go over to Ident City, and you will find a complete EPG list for Freeview. 

Viewpoint 1c – from City Media Productions

Quest launches, kinda, sorta, not really…

Well, there was supposed to have been a big new channel launch on Freeview on Thursday May 14th, called Quest, and it was going to be on Channel 47.  Well, the day has come and gone, and the MHEG has been replaced by a video stream, but no programming, just a slide.  I never saw this happen, but there was a rolling promo.  It started at about 7am on the morning of the supposed launch, and ran for 3 hours, before switching back to the afforementioned slide.   Here’s the last moments…

So when will Quest properly launch?  Well not before Virgin 1 goes 24 hours on Freeview, which is set for Wednesday.  Discovery Networks Europe say it will launch in the near future, which probably means by the end of the year.  Whatever happens, we’ll keep you apprised.

Anthea Turner, a ‘recessionista’?

Ok, the word doesn’t really exist.  It’s just something that the News Of The World made up, out of recession and fashionista.  But their article about her is very fair to her, though like some of us, they do have their doubts about her claims to being ‘…low maintenance…’.

It is interesting though to note two things about the wardrobe she wears in the photo shoot.  The ‘wet look’ leather look dress is from Primark, I kid you not, and the wet look leggings she wears throughout the shoot are from New Look.  I even managed to find those online.  They’re £14.  Quite cheap really .

What Anthea Turner is though, is good at reinventing herself.  She has gone from children’s television presenter, through mega celebrity, property development, ‘perfect housewive’ to an advertisement for frugal living.

The thing is, I could teach you more about frugal living than she can.  I’ve had to live frugally for years.  I spent many years unemployed, living on very little money per week.  It’s only in the past few years that things have really taken off for me, but I sill live in a fairly frugal way, in everything I do.  Even the internet has to be unlimited, to keep costs down in the long run.

Maybe I should do an online show, about real frugal living.  How to live as if in a recession the whole time.  I’ve lived through two already and we’re in a third right now.  A big thing in my life is getting the best value for money that I can.  And that applies whether you’re buying food, clothes, entertainment or other household items.  I won’t spend lots of money on anything, if you can get  it cheaper, and get more value out of it.

Far too many people are drawn to those big name brands that they see advertised, and just believe that they are the best things money can buy, but often, value brands are much cheaper, and just as good a quality, if not sometimes even better.  There are exceptions but with buying value brands, you are not wasting a lot of money.

It’s similar in clothing terms.  At home, you wear what you want.  You can parade around in a bikini in the middle of winter if you want to, that’s up to you.  But I always like to try to make an effort to look reasonable when I go out.  Remember that story I covered on here some time ago about mothers in Northern Ireland, who were still wearing pyjamas while they were taking their kids to school?  To me, that is bad.  Make a little effort to look reasonable, even if it is only a t-shirt and leggings and trainers. 

When you go out, you’re presenting an image to other people of how you want them to think about you.  If you go out all the time looking scruffy, and unkempt, people are going to think of you that way.  If you at least look reasonably presentable, then people will have a better opinion of you.  As I said before, at home, it’s your own private domain.  You can wear anything you want to. 

Hmm, I gotta lot to say on this subject.  Maybe I should do that online show.  Maybe we’ll do a video episode of Viewpoint this week on this story.  Wait and see.