New Favourite (time-wasting) sites of the week 210809

Right, so I haven't done many favourite sites of the week recently, so I thought, for a Friday, I would share my favourite sites which, well, they're timewasters. Fun time-wasters, but time wasters nonetheless.

Perhaps you should come back and check these out this afternoon, whilst enjoying your first beer. There are some serious laughs to be had. Yes yes.

PeteinAkl (Peter's things worth a look on the interweb) This one is actually my favourite of all at the moment, if you have time, go back through all the entries. There are some amazing gems in this little baby, hours of fun I tell you. Hours!

Kittenwar.com (most certainly for the cat lovers out there, this one is a little addictive)

Cuteoverload (Don't want to blow out on the cute cats thing but... awww.)

Textsfromlastnight (drunk people's text messages. Awesome.)

Flicks (I'm a bit of a trailer junkie - must admit, don't actually see many of the movies, but the trailers are great. Plus sign up for their newsletter to get your hands on freebies.)

Failblog (Yeah, its a given, but sometimes people forget about it)

The Big Picture (Amazing photo journalism)

And following those, here are some specific blogs that I would recommend:

Einstein Music Journal - Music

AdLandSuit - Advertising Suit

Refinery 29 - Fashion

Exclamation Exclamation - creative kids

That's all I gots for the moment. Have a grand weekend.

New Favourite Site of the Week 070809

So, this has been floating around Twitter for about a week (maybe over??) but I think it is great. Bitch.Co allows one to tweet exactly what is on their mind, anonymously. Man-alive people loving this site. It is not beautifully designed but it serves its purpose.
I know I am incredibly aware of who is following me on Twitter and what things may or may not be appropriate to tweet (unless I’ve had a few drinks in which case all censorship seems to fly out the window) even though sometimes I would like to express my exact feelings. Enter Bitch.Co, an anonymous way to pull the fingers to whomever you want - and if you want to be really anonymously nasty, you can call out Twitter users:

(please note, I sent this to myself – no one sent this to me)

People are really embracing this site too. I was following Bitch.Co for a little while but had to unfollow as I was getting too many tweets from them and it was killing my limit on TweetDeck.

Happy weekend all. If you're in Wellington, and gots nothing to do tonight, go and see 1995 play with Tiddabades & the beautiful Diana Rozz at Mighty Mighty. Quality gig action.

No new favourite site... again however...

A Lama?!?

Apparently these pics were taken driving through the Civic in Canberra NSW one day. I love the "Alpaca on Board sticker"!!

New Favourite Site of the Week 240709

So, just to be a little different, this week my favourite site is actually You Tube.

Bit of a cop out, I know. But here are some of my favourite clips on You Tube...

Les 7 Doigts (I was lucky enough to see these guys at an arts festival - most magical stage show I have seen in my whole life):


Nevermind the Buzzocks (It upsets me that NZ cannot air this show. I have had lengthy conversations with the programmers at TVNZ and Mediaworks - they cannot obtain the music licences and therefore can not air the show on NZ TV):

This clip is just the best bits from when Amy Winehouse was on, for the full episode, check out this.

You and I both know that there is much more greatness to be found on You Tube, but I've taken up enough of your time. Happy weekend.

New Favourite Site of the Week 160709

New favourite site of the week this week is a sweet little site that takes your photos and makes them all dreamlike. You can check out the site here.

So for this little experiment I stole a photo off a very talented friend of mine - Sam Waldron, you can check out even more of his work here - as my best photos seem to be of Egypt, and that place doesn't really lend itself to dreamlike imagery.

Take one already very choice photo:
And turn it into an almost dream like image:Now, Sam's photo was just as beautiful all perfectly in focus as he shot it, however this lovely little site allows you to take a perfectly focussed photo and play.

In other news, The Dead Weather are amazing and have just released their debut album Horehound. Hot damn. With Jack White (White Stripes), Alison Mosshart (The Kills), Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) and Dean Fertita (Queen of the Stone Age) it is a band made in rock and roll heaven!

On 22 June they played their first live show. You can check them out here: From the Basement.

The Wall St Journal have this little interactive gem detailing just how amazing Mr. Jack White is, and how many pies he has his fingers in. Could Jack White be vying for Dave Grohl's title as the Hardest Working Man in Rock?

New Favourite Site of the Week 030709

Oh the BEAUTY! This site, without a doubt is the best of the bunch thus far. This little gem turned up via @designpimp and I just can't say enough how much I am in love with it. I would play all day long if I could. If you like the Cold War Kids already, you will love this beautiful interactive piece of amazingness. So it is for their new track 'I've Seen Enough' I would give you the link now, but I want to walk through the complexities of it before sending you to the actual site. Mean I know.

You can control so many different aspects of the Cold War Kids whilst they play their latest single.So they are playing their new single, which is great. But wait there's more! See how the guy on the bass is in the dark, that is because I paused him. So the rest of them are playing, but he's just chilling.

What's this? The guy who was on the piano and the singer have changed! Now ones on keyboards and the other has a guitar.

Wait, they've changed again!

And changed again! You can change their instruments by clicking the colours at the top.

So you click on each person to pause that instrument, and the song just continues.

So much fun. Click here to have a play. Seriously. Play. For the whole song. Its GOOD. So much interactive musical goodness I don't feel like I am doing it justice.

New Favourite Site of the Week 260609

New favourite site of the week this week comes courtesy of Simon (@audaciousgloop) from iJump. It is called 'Prototype Experience' and whilst I am no fan of game stations, this site is ace. This is where real, indepth integration with Facebook really pays off and involves the user on a personal level.

If you want to experience this for yourself, I recommend that you go there now and do not read on. If you would rather not and just find out why/how it works, then read on...

So, I am not much of a game player, but I'm pretty sure it is another one of those 'shoot em up' kind of games. However, that is not what we're talking about, I am talking about the site itself. Basically it delves into your personal details in Facebook and presents it back to you. Freaked me out when it started showing me photos I had recently uploaded and then personal details: Terribly fun, sad for my friend Nicki whose face has been killed by crazy twine/weed stuff. Sorry, honest I didn't have any way of controlling this! I would recommend a play, just to check out the integration between site and Facebook. They don't link anything back to your Facebook page or spam your friends (thus far) so is a relatively safe FB application to play with.

Totally serious about my last post though - sponsored definitions on Twitter - when did that happen?

Also, shameless self promotion - I got into a top 10 list, a positive one. Thanks @ideology! You can check out the details here, if you want.

(Kinda) New Favourite Site of the Week 190609

Total cop-out. I'm talking effort FAIL. On my behalf. Pointing to another blog.

Ok, so Gillette have put together quite an amusing area within their site basically about man-scaping HOWEVER the site is SO freaking SLOW to load! I'm sure if I had a whole lotta time I could wait for it to load but to be fair, the site is actually also a little hard to navigate as well. Instead, I suggest you head to 'if it's hip it's here' which is a great blog anyway and check out their coverage of videos that have been made which (unless you have some serious requirement of seeing a half naked guy walking around in a towel -ladies here is the link) are, I'm sure, the best part of the whole thing. They are very nicely put together, informative - I'm assuming - and quite funny. Nice.

Yes, I know, average. Sorry - will try harder next time I promise. In light of my average hunting effort - here is someone who puts some serious effort in and has some of the funniest shite the internet has to offer in one place. Check out PeteinAuck or follow him on twitter for constant updates. So funny.

New Favourite Site of the Week 120609

I think that every once in a while it is a good idea to step back, take stock and realise that what seems like the end of the world to me, might be much more ideal than situations some people around the world deal with. We are incredibly lucky in New Zealand - we have an amazing, peaceful, country which has relatively low poverty.

So, when a friend of mine @tristamsparks made me aware of this site, I decided that it was most worthy of my new favourite site of the week. Gotta love a good cause right? Gotta love one that has a beautifully built site even more!

This is an Amnesty International initiative and the idea is that Human Rights = Less Poverty. With the current global economic crisis, more and more people are driven to poverty placing them at increased risk of human rights violations. Demand Dignity asks "What does living with dignity mean to you?" Perhaps this is something we should all ask ourselves and remember how good we really have it.

Just some quotes from this site include:

• means making an impact of instilling value of life
• no eviction
• intelligence
• basic needs: food, cloth, shelter
• achieving what you've worked for all along and also gives you a sense of pride

Dignity means something different for everyone. I wonder what dignity means to you?

EDIT: For you lovely people who are not in advertising that read my blog - or if you have a sense of humour - this site has given me many many laughs this week. Absolute classic - as good as latfh.com - textsfromlastnight.com

No new favourite site... again

My head hurts. IAB drinks were great last night (thanks Metservice!) I won a ski pass, that's gotta kick arse. I promise not to whine and say that they're rigged ever again, as they obviously are not. Dinner at Dukes was also pretty damn delicious. Thanks MG?

At any rate, short week + super busy + sore head = no favourite site of the week. Not going to happen.

Going to take the easy option and say: go check out Donoogle.com - it's Google but with donations to charity, which you don't have to pay. Awesome. You can read more about Donoogle here or you can read about the diamond ring treasure hunt here.

Or check out Chach in Charge - he is the music editor for NO Magazine which I love - and see photos of Matt hanging out with the Kills for their latest cover. I am very jealous, Jamie Hince is pretty freaking amazing. Matt also plays in 1995 who were #1 on the 95bFM top 10 on Wednesday, also very choice.

Hoping to have a follow up next week with coverage, follow numbers and how it all went down.

That was more than anticipated. Brain must be almost working.

New Favourite Site of the Week 290509

I know that I go on about Duke Carvell's a lot - mostly on Twitter - but anyone who supplies me with amazing coffee should always be held up in a light that is brighter than the rest. If I had been on Twitter prior to my trip to the UK, there would have been MANY a mention of the amazing Matt from Fidels. I used to get a coffee off Matt every morning at about 7.30 on the way to work. Matt and his amazing long blacks were the perfect start to my mornings, and sometimes I would even get special messages on the top of my coffee cup:Right, large tangent. At any rate, Matt was to coffee what Google is to the Internet. They just worked together. However, things happen, Matt moved to Melbourne and Fidels just isn't the same.

So, since coming back from the UK, my new favourite place to get coffee is Duke Carvell's on Swan Lane. It is so nice and close to work, and I only had to explain how I like my long black once (for the record, it's a short-long black) and don't have to say anything now when I walk in. They just know. And that is how you get repeat business people - care about your customers, take the time to talk to them (asking their name is a great way to build rapport).  

At any rate, they have had a holding page site for quite some time, but they now have a beautiful new site up, which you can check out here. There are a few things I like about this site:

1. It is so in keeping with the look and feel of the actual place
2. It has their full menu for leisurely perusal all laid out with very nice flash transitions
3. It has been lovingly (I'm assuming) put together from VERY local designers Catch Design, so close they probably look straight into Duke's.

I think there should be more restaurants (especially in Wellington where there is so many choices when it comes to eating out) should do this sort of thing. People rely on the internet more and more these days for making all sorts of decisions, including where to eat out.

Going back to Fidel's just quickly, while this two places cannot be compared side by side - they have very different offerings, Fidels website is quite clunky and when you Google Fidels they are certainly the first site listed, however you are presented with this:"This site may harm your computer"?? Not the best way to get someone to visit your site. 

So, well done Dukes, on a beautiful, user-friendly website, which is also kudos to Catch Design. Keep the coffee coming! Additional kudos for the mention in Vouge Australia, full page pic, awesome.

No Favourite Site of the Week 220509

Way too busy for this, this week. Sorry. Plus I'm kinda sick, and I have Creative Commons things to do. This means that I will try to do one next week.

In the meantime, I am a little obsessed with this guy:And would quite like this coat:(Photos from Sartorialist and Facehunter respectively)

If that's not enough for you check out Song of the Day my friend Ryan told me about this site when we were walking down to Okkervil River (which was amazing) and I am liking a lot, just don't have the energy to explain. Other things to do don't you know.

Favourite Site of the Week 150509

Right, something a little different for this week’s site of the week.

Soot – such a small thing in the grand scheme of the universe, but this sucker is doing some serious damage to our world. Just ask our friend the polar bear. That’s right, this week site of the week is StopSoot.org.

The whole point of the site is to build support around reducing black carbon – the second leading cause of global warming after carbon dioxide.

I like that this site is trying to do right by the world, and are using nice rich media to express why we should be pushing their message.

Updated: I love it when brands keep an eye out for their brand online. Thanks for having a conversation with the people that are talking about your brand stopsoot! Got an email the same day I posted from the campaign director thanking me for choosing their site for my favourite site of the week. I love it.

Favourite Site of the Week 080509

Ok, so as promised, this is not a fashion/photography orientated favourite site of the week. It is however, very cool and amazingly well developed. Site this week is: Crew.net and it is just be bees knees!
So the basic idea behind it, is that it is a shopping site for 'interns' from around the world (there is even a kiwi listed - she is the chick that everyone is looking at below):I guess what gets me the most about this site is:

• It has been beautifully put together
• It is a lot of fun to play with, the visuals so far are simply from the home page, and as you mouse over all the people check out who you are checking out
• It's a nice idea, shopping for an intern, and you can sort these people by name, date, how many views they've had and what they specialise in
• Once you delve deeper into each 'inter' you can get more information about these people, such as below:

Granted, these are the details for Dough, who seems to be a 7 year old fish from Greece, but sometimes, beggars can't be choosers. Bet you don't have to pay him much.

I guess, more than anything, it is just a beautifully crafted site. So well done.

In the same sort of vein, @Designpimp put up a link to FOXTEL's I am Unique which seems like the same sort of idea, but I am not sure that it has been quite as well executed, there seem to be a number of glitches in this site, but it is still pretty cool, plus anyone can add their own profile. I'm in there... somewhere.

Favourite site of the week 010509

Right, can't help myself. Should be working, but really wanted to get one of these suckers out each week on a Friday, so, let's do it.

Fav site of the week this week is One Photo a Day found this one through a link from @Designpimp
Beautiful photos are the name of the game, in particular I do love 24 April 2009:

In other, photo related news...

How cute is this kid:
This little dude was snapped by the mighty Sartorialist in Sydney, and in the meantime, FaceHunter snapped this little gem in Soho, London:Is it just me, or could they totally be brothers?

Another week, another site... Next week may not be quite so image focused... maybe.

My new favourite site

This may become a regular thing, but we'll see.

New favourite site of the week: Look at this fucking hipster

Criteria for being my new favourite site:

• It's hilarious
• It has photos and captions such as:
  
  “There better be some torn leggings, bruised thighs, and tattered cowboy boots under that blanket, or we are out of here.”