30-something? Full of regrets? Wish you could do it over but aren’t quite willing to upheave your life over it? Rather watch someone else upheave their life first? Meet Erica Strange, the star of an original new show from CBC Television.

Being Erica is a new series which revolves around the adventures of the show’s eponymous heroine (pictured at left) as she struggles with her underwhelming 30-something life.  When she meets a mysterious therapist who allows her to travel back to revisit and all of life’s little regrets, she opens a minefield of opportunity–and, of course, complications.

To get to know Erica Strange, and follow her video blog in the weeks leading up to the show, check out Erica’s Blog right here.  Find out more about the program at the official Being Erica site.

The new comedy/drama premieres Monday, January 5th on CBC Television, or “zero eight” as my father used to refer to it when telling me to switch the channel to Peter Mansbridge (here in Ottawa, at least).

While working with Byambajav Ulanbayar, the current and two-time world champion of Sumo wrestling, was an experience that would last a while, gold tends to last even longer.

That’s why we were thrilled to hear that the Sexy Subaru campaign that we had produced with Tribal DDB had grabbed the gold at the London International Awards, in the category of Digital Media.

If you haven’t yet experienced the fun of photographing a sumo wrestler draped over an SUV, then you haven’t really lived, have you?  Head over to sexysubaru.ca and try your hand at what we can now officially say is an experience worthy of acclaim.

I suppose it goes to show: the bigger the challenge (in this case, turning a sumo into a supermodel), the bigger the spoils.

To read more about the award and the people who made it happen, click here.

In the spring time we launched a job we did in partnership with Microsoft for Sheraton, and I finally got a chance to see it in a hotel.

Sheraton wanted to move their business centers from the back corners of some far of floor to the lobby to give their guests a place to relax and potentially meet other guests. They also wanted to extend their guests’ Sheraton experience beyond simply staying at the hotel, so we developed a Video Postcard application where guests can send a video message to family or friends.

We also designed and developed the new portal screens, which act as the default pages for when you log on to the internet. It was a really cool project to work on as it used many different technologies, Silverlight, WPF, C#, Flash, to make it all happen. Next time you are in a Sheraton be sure to send a video to a loved one and try it out for our self.

If you get a chance to use it to help you connect with friends an family, let us know how you like it.

Here at Fuel, we make a living by staying ahead of industry trends. As one of forerunners in the online branded entertainment sphere, we were one of the pioneers of rich in-browser 3D gaming, and were in the first batch of developers to provide games for the 3G iPhone. In keeping with this passion for forward movement, Fuel is partnering with Intel to help bring the world of interactive marketing to the mobile world through Atom, Intel’s new and smallest processor, which is powering the world’s most advanced smartphones and ultra mobile PCs.

“The Atom chip opens up an entirely new set of possibilities for OEMs,” said Warren Tomlin, Fuel’s President and Chief Creative Officer. “Being one of the first developers to build software for Atom-powered devices is a great opportunity, and the capabilities of the technology have really opened our minds as to what’s possible in mobile.”

At the Intel Developer’s Forum (IDF) on August 20th, Warren accompanied Anand Chandrasekher, Senior VP of Intel’s Ultra-Mobility Group, in providing a taste of the myriad possibilities for branded entertainment in the mobile space. “With smartphones and UMPCs in the hands of more and more consumers, and with the ever increasing multimedia solutions the Atom chip will provide, brands and advertisers have a virtual carte blanche for engaging consumers interactively” said Tomlin. “The question is no longer ‘where do we reach audiences?’, but ‘what can we do to make consumers want to bring our content with them?’

Using our successful branded entertainment initiative for McDonald’s Global as an example, re-built for mobile using Moblin, Intel’s Linux based mobile operating system, Fuel Games was thrilled to have been asked to help Intel introduce the future of portable consumer engagement to the world’s top OEMs.

“We thoroughly enjoyed presenting with Mr. Chandrasekher, and are honored to be considered one of the premiere online branded entertainment providers,” said Tomlin. “And now, with opportunities Atom will provide, we’re driven to help make mobile the next powerful force in entertainment.”

For a thorough summary (with pictures) of all the groundbreaking news at the event, click here.

To read the official Intel press release, click here.

Well, well, well. I leave for a week, and there is another article on the latest from Fuel.

Not going to brag - nope, not us. But if we were to brag, we would write something like this.

Warren