Miles Mendoza's Website of the Day ... and more!: February 2005

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Thursday, February 24, 2005

The Surreal Gourmet

Website of the Day: Thursday 24th February 2005

Surreal_gourmet >> The Surreal Gourmet
This is cookery for people who don’t much like cooking: “For those with a sense of culinary adventure The Surreal Gourmet serves up fresh attitude towards cooking and entertaining and shows you how dysfunctional kitchens, mismatched dinnerware and low budgets can be easily overcome by a little creativity and an armful of fresh ingredients!”
If you're wondering what the picture on the right of this text is all about, that would be the site's legendary recipe for Beer-Can chicken!

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Book Crossing

Website of the Day: Tuesday 22nd February 2005

Bookcrossing >> Book Crossing
I first mentioned this site nearly three years ago, and where Radio 2 leads, Australia’s leading soap follows; Book Crossing featured in a Neighbours storyline last week! Aimed at book lovers, the site invites you to “Set your books free and make the whole world a library” – The idea is that when you’re finished with a book, instead of letting it languish on a shelf, you pass it on by leaving it in a public place for a stranger to find and enjoy. Each book is allocated a unique ID number so you can track its progress and find reviews from other readers.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Senior Concessions

Website of the Day: Monday 21st February 2005

Senior_concessions >> Senior Concessions
This new site aims "to offer the senior citizen the opportunity to live a more rewarding life, and to make more of their income” by providing detailed information about the full range of discounts and concessions available to over 55s. The site covers state benefits, entertainment, health, fitness, travel financial services and many other areas.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Create your own children's story

Website of the Day: Friday 18th February

Createastory >> Kratts Creatures: Create Your Own Adventure
This online story generator is part of a site for an American kids TV show called Kratts Creatures. You have a choice of five different story titles; once you have picked a title, you’ll reach a page which asks you to enter in the names of the main characters and choose some other key words. The just click “Create your adventure” and the site will instantly compile a customised story featuring the names and words you have chosen.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Chip Cartoon Characters

Frylock Yesterday in the course of our conversation about National Chip Week Steve asked if a chip or French fry has ever ever had a starring role in a film or TV series. So a resounding hats off to listener Paul Callow who emailed to to tip us off about the existence a crime fighting box of chips named Frylock. Frylock is one of the stars of an overnight show on Cartoon Network in the US called Aqua Teen Huger Force. More info on the Cartoon Network site.

Audiobooks For Free

Website of the Day: Thursday February 17th 2005

Audiobooks >> Audiobooks For Free
From the “does what it says on the tin” school of sites, here’s a handy source for novels, poetry or non fiction to listen to in the gym, on the move, at home or at work. Around 500 titles are available as free mp3 downloads, mainly (but not exclusively) classics that are out-of-copyright. The audio is optimised for small file sizes and quick download … which means that at best it sounds like an old recording from a short-wave radio, but you can elect to pay a small charge to download a higher-quality recording.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Britain’s favourite fast food?

Website of the Day: Wednesday February 16th 2005

Chipweek_1 >> Love Chips
We’re currently in the middle of National Chip Week 2005, so it seems a good time to draw your attention to this site celebrating the nation’s favourite fast food. Features include the strangely addictive online games Chip Ahoy and Chippy-Uppy, Russell Grant’s chip astrology, and a fascinating guide to chip eating styles which explains how the way we choose and consume our chips reflects our personality types.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

How to contact your MP

Website of the Day: Tuesday February 15th 2005

Writetothem >> Write to Them
This is an enhanced version of a site that was originally launched as FaxYourMP. It was put together by a bunch of volunteers to address the fact that many people don't know the name of their MP, let alone how to contact them: The site was designed to make the whole process of finding and contacting your elected representative as easy as possible. The new site expands the service to include local councillors, MEPs and members of the National Assemblies for Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland. To use the site, simply type in your postcode to find details of all your representatives, choose who to write to, type your letter into an online form, and click send!

Monday, February 14, 2005

Eastenders Valentines

Website of the Day: Monday February 14th 2005

Walford_valentines_1 >> Eastenders Valentines
Although life can get pretty bleak in Walford, there’s certainly a lot of lurve in the Square… This special Valentine’s site includes a Walford personality love quiz, the chance to vote for your dream Albert Square valentine, video clips of classic Eastenders kisses and weddings, a range of Valentines E-cards and a romantic Alfie Moon wallpaper download!

Friday, February 11, 2005

Half Term films

Website of the Day: Friday 11th February 2005

Magic_roundabout_1>> The Magic Roundabout: Official Film site
>> SpongeBob Squarepants: The Movie
>> Son of the Mask: Official Film Site
>> BBC Film reviews this February's half-term films
Grown-ups looking for cinematic excitement this week may be disappointed, but there are three blockbusters vying for family attention over the half-term weekend.  Best (and funniest) of the three sites is the SpongeBob movie site, which takes the form of an animated virtual tour of SpongeBob's marine hometown - Bikini Bottom

Thursday, February 10, 2005

A prickle of porcupines…

Website of the Day: Thursday 10 February 2005

Porcupines_2 >> What Do You Call a Group of.....?
Thanks to Chris Boon for this email:

Miles, Ever wondered what the term for a group of jellyfish is? Check out this site: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/info/faqs/animals/names.htm
Chris
P.S. it's a "smack" of jellyfish!

So I decided to investigate Collective Nouns further and it turns out there are hundreds of different sites detailing the collective nouns for different groupings of people, animals and objects. One of the more comprehensive is Paul Vijay’s collection of collective nouns but you may also want to try the Collective Noun quiz at Triv.net

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Send A Little Love

Website of the Day: Tuesday 08 February 2005

Sendalittlelove >> Send A Little Love
This was conceived primarily as a feel-good personal tribute site, offering a cheap online equivalent to the Births, Deaths and Marriages and personal message classifieds in the daily papers. Anyone can view the site and search for tributes – If you want to post a tribute, a fee of £6 buys you twenty messages. In addition the site offers a useful (and completely free) Never Forget email reminder service. Register to add details of birthdays and anniversaries and the site will send you an email reminder a few days before the event.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Mousachio Fantastico 2005

Website of the Day: Monday 07 February 2005

Tache >> Mousachio Fantastico 2005
This is a month long competitive moustache-growing event to raise funds for Tsunami Relief. The site features up to the minute photographic evidence of the competitors' expanding facial caterpillars and will culminate in an online vote for the winning 'tache. In the meantime you can donate to the Tsunami appeal online in honour of your favourite competitor.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Online Simon

Website of the Day: Friday 04 February 2005

Simon >> Online Simon
When I was growing up, Simon was the original addictive electronic game. The only thing this online recreation lacks is the tactility. Highly enjoyable and pleasurably nostalgic!

If you want to try some of the other online games which have been recommended on Website of the Day since May 2004, check out the Games and Quizzes pages of this site
>> Website of the Day.info: Games and Quizzes

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Who is Jim Wilson?

Website of the Day: Thursday 03 February 2005

Jimwilson >> Jim Wilson.Com
Taking a leaf out of Dave Gorman’s book, this site is dedicated to “promoting the universe of all Jim Wilsons. At the time of writing, 51 Jim Wilson’s are listed and profiled, most of them American, but if your name is Jim Wilson and you’d like to join JW31 of Manchester, JW34 of Hayling Island and JW50 of Essex to improve the UK’s representation, simply submit your details to JW0001.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

BBC Voices

Website of the Day: Wednesday 02nd February

Bbcvoices >> BBC Voices
This site is part of a big pan-BBC project looking at local and regional accents and dialect. On air the main focus for this will be a week of programmes at the end of August, but the online component is up and running – and very interesting!
Start off by submitting details of your age, where you live and grew up, how you’d describe your own accent and whether you speak any other languages. Then try out the Interactive Word Map, in which you submit the words you use to describe your grandparents, a baby, feeling cold or tired, or being drunk, pregnant or rich.
Over time the site will build up a fascinating picture of how our age, location and background affect the language we use and our accents.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

How to declutter your life

Website of the Day: Tuesday 1st February

Flylady >> FlyLady
Thanks to Fiona Stow for her email encouraging me to revisit this site which I first mentioned a couple of years ago:

"I firmly believe that if the website address was displayed in doctors' waiting rooms and plastered across women's magazines, the anti-depressant statistics in this country would plunge!"

FlyLady is a de-cluttering bible for SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) or anyone who lives in CHAOS (that's Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). Some UK readers may find Fly Lady's constant email reminders & apple-pie tone overwhelming, but there is a lot of genuinely useful advice here for people who haven’t seen their carpets or work-surfaces in recent weeks!