Friends With Candy » Friday Diversions

Yay Friday Diversions!

Cathy — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:18:58 +0000

I want a pet dinosaur… Stuff finding cures to incurable diseases and saving lives and all, what geneticists SHOULD be doing trying to make pint sized dinosaurs for us. In the meantime, I’m happy to bide my time with a mechanical AI one: this little fellow is called Pleo and “is capable of expression. He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance. When Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy and go to sleepóeven dream. Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!”. There are some pics of a prototype at www.notcot.com, this is probably my favourite because you can get some sense of it actually having personality. AMAZING!

There’s a tattoo making kit for kids on the market, they are washable and I think it looks pretty fun, but it’s got a bit of a “Shock Horror” reaction from some as if it will encourage kids to real tatts. It was picked up by BoingBoing on the weekend and since then the Amazon link doesn’t work anymore, so I’m wondering if they pulled it. The Kmart link was still working at time of writing.

Open up your very own pretend play tattoo parlor. This easy-to-use tattoo maker kit includes an electronic tattoo pen and funky stencils. Using soft, safe pulsating action, the tattoo pen creates realistic, washable designs with dramatic effects. Requires two AA batteries not included.

In the attempt to make Zune appear cool by association, some talented artists have been commissioned to do some lovely pieces: https://www.zune-arts.net/. My favourite is a the tale of a little girl and a robot redeemed by music by Bent Image Lab (the background music is brilliant, “Dirty Laundry” by Bitter:Sweet. You can listen to it on their MySpace). Tokyo Plastic also do a very cute little video.

And finally, an animal video – this time a Japanese TV experiment on which cat can carry the heaviest fish:

Friday Diversions – Late

Cathy — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:08:56 +0000

Yes, this is Monday. I was diverted on Friday doing things other than blogging. I like this video (Did you say blogging?), I can relate! There are people who say that you should only spend 15 mins on your posts but whole afternoons and mornings can be eaten up… There should be a health warning on blogging software… “may take over your life”.

In other diversions, Dan Cameron has attempted to map out springfield. Don’t know how this is possible, because I swear the Simpson’s backyard changes size regularly, but maybe that’s just my poor eyesite. You can download it in many sizes from Flickr [via information aesthetics]

And of course, what would any (late) friday diversion be without a stupid animal video, here is another dog getting beaten up by a cat:

Friday Diversions – Games, More Games and Cat

Cathy — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 06:27:33 +0000

Paul Neave does heaps of cool flash stuff including this nice little flower grower, imagination and a whole heap of retro games including frogger and tic-tac-toe. He also has his own experimental tv channel.

Though nothing beats zefrank’s stuff: it is the birthplace one of the most popular snowflake makers and home to odes to serendipity like the flower and garden makers. And of course there are games, like this sweet little simple game. Definitely one for the bookmarks…

And here is the weekly cat video:

Friday Diversions – Annoying Internet Songs

Cathy — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:02:51 +0000

These are a little old, but my household has been singing them all week and I thought I’d share the madness.

The most annoying is the Schnappi song – the small schnappi crocodile that buries its catchi tunes deep into your neural pathways so even the smallest hint of a “snee” or a “schni” will set it off.

Then there is there is the leekspin girl which is more bearable in that it is not as memorable, but there is a timer to test your strength, I think I lasted about three minutes before I cracked. It’s based on a Finnish polka by a group called Loituma and was an internet sensation earlier this year.

Anything on rathergood.com (”Your One Stop Shop for Good and Evil Kittens”) but my all time favourite is We Like the Moon (brilliant AND annoying… even more brilliant!).

Not to forget the Weebl and Bob guy with gems like Magical Trevor or the most annoying song in the world. Though I love the Weebl and Bob toons best and their “Hats for Clowns” song which can be found here and here.

Finally, there’s the Bang Bang Bang song which is offensive in the extreme, but oh so catchy (”You want me to do things to you like the sun and the moon. Idiot! I don’t have time, I have too many women”). I once knew someone (still do, he’s a great guy) who asked me whether he should send it to someone he wanted to break up with. He didn’t (I think). If you can’t work out quite what they’re saying here are the lyrics. Also it inspired what has to be the crappiest machinima I’ve ever seen. Anyway the original song is done by Group X and they are also responsible for Schfifty Five.

Friday Diversions – Fighting Pets and Slugs

Cathy — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 01:47:02 +0000

Posting this video probably makes me a bad person, but this is one very stupid dog and one very fat angry cat. My Miffy is exactly the same, she keeps getting whacked on the nose every time she gets too close to my Burmese cat but harrassing her is still her favourite past time.

If that wasn’t enough for you, here is another dueling pets video, to quote a forum poster “when puppies battle kittens, EVERYONE wins”. On a less violent note, apparently this is from the next Aardman movie, Flushed Away featuring dancing slugs:

If you can’t get enough of slimy things, this Sling flash game is too addictive.