Youtube has been a big part of our lives for many years now. Whatever the use for it, UGC, comedy, adult material, etc, we all have a selection of videos we can show friends or family that will make us happy, laugh or cry (and in some cases all three). So what are your three favourite YouTube videos / moments? In no particular order my three favourites are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_og14JAlBk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMS0O3kknvk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8t7iSGAKik

A lovely Friday afternoon got even better today when the exceptionally generous Nick Kelvin shouted us some summer refreshment in the form of ice lollies.  This was the first one of the season and much appreciated.  Ice creams and Ice Lollies really are one of those things that you absolutely love no matter if you’re 7 or 77.

From that I wanted to get a steer on what people’s Top 3 Ice Cream/Lollies were of all time.  For me, it has to be the following:

1. Orange Calippo
2. Feast (original of course)
3. Fab

For me that is one hell of a Top 3 but please feel free to post your Top 3 as well, as I’m sure a few of you will be annoyed by the exclusion of Mini Milks!

I’m a sociable kind of girl, I like my parties, I like my drinks and I love to have fun so it shocked me more than anyone when I found myself over this bank holiday with no plans from Saturday morning through to Monday night.

None.

Could I really go through one of the most popular long, work free weekends without drinking in the sun, dancing until 3am and waking up each day with a hangover?

Well, I did and it felt marvellous!!!

I cleaned, I sunbathed, I pampered, I slept, I woke early and made gourmet style breakfasts, it was bliss.

Most of all, I caught up on my favourite thing in the whole world – TV.

I watched hours and hours of the stuff;

Saturday Kitchen (someone swore on air and it added to the excitement of the omelette challenge)
House series 4 – ALL of it (the new series is starting next weekend)
The Wire – My language now contains so much profanity that I should come with an 18 cert
Home and Away omnibus – yes, people do still watch it.
Hollyoaks omnibus – so much tragedy for one small town
Britain’s Next Top Model – Is it wrong to want the recovering anorexic to win – Go Jade!
Behind Bars; The Story of women serial killers – Aileen Wournos; serial killer, or misunderstood hooker, I am yet to decide

I’m a changed women. I have realised that staying in is the new going out. “What about your friends?” you may scream at me, but I simply found new, better friends - 

Mr. Wide screen TV
Miss. Sky Plus
Sir. DVD player.

Who’s with me? Who’s going to say boo to boozy nights and yah to box sets, omnibuses and documentaries?

Has anyone had a look at WolframAlpha yet? I’ve just had a look at the intro video, and in a geeky way it looks like it should be amazing! The goal is to “make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone”.  It’s in very early stages on first look seems groundbreaking.

Despite its search style functionality, it’s not actually a search engine. It’s a “computational knowledge engine”, which uses its internal knowledge base rather than searching the web. The variety of information is vast; nutritional information, geographical facts and figures, comparisons, financial info. The list goes on. It’s easy to see what a difference this will make once this really gets going. Mundane and hard to find facts will be there at our fingertips. No more sieving through countless links on Google. AQA will be left to deal with the stupid questions like “is that barman single” or “what should I call my dog”.

Try typing in your birthday. You’ll then know exactly how many days and seconds you have been in existence. (Although it did say “no known major notable events” for my birth date, so it obviously has a long way to go).

Go and have a gander. Prizes for the most interesting random fact! (or not)

Google Street View has now covered over 100 cities world wide but has had lots of concern.  Lots of complaints have been made such as a couple from Pittsburgh who lost their court case claiming Google Street View was a reckless invasion of their privacy. 

Recently Google has agreed to re-shoot the cities in Japan with lower angled cameras after many privacy complaints. 

On Tuesday Greece’s data protection agency banned Google from expanding its service pending additional privacy guarantees on top of the blurred faces and number plates that Google already offers.  Britain has seen Google’s camera car get blocked in by residents of Milton Keynes in April as it was taking pictures of their houses, and heard such stories as a wife filing for divorce after finding a picture of her husband’s car parked outside another women’s house.  Britain’s Privacy Watchdog has rejected calls to shut Street View down but have said the Greeks’ decision would set a precedent for other nations.

I myself have enjoyed the embarrassing and sometimes weird pictures caught of alien phenomena ( ET phone home!), crime in process, and blokes just exiting their local adult store.  Some people were even ready to pose as the car drove past as you will find in Putney with the ‘Where’s Wally’ character (I won’t tell you where in Putney as it might ruin the fun for you)…. All rather amusing I think.  Yes, some images such as car accidents and indecency have been found to appear on it but can be removed once reported to Google.  I find the tool most useful, especially during my search for a house where I was able to scope out the local areas without leaving my front door.

I’m sure there’s a lot more to come on this topic though as a lot of people don’t share my view.

ET Phone Home!

 Break In?

 Where’s Wally!

Last week Grove and I were taken to the restaurant in the dark – Dans Le Noir?

It was certainly an experience and we had a great time.  I was obviously expecting it to be quite dark but nothing could have prepared me for the thick blackness we were to dine in.  I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face and this was only after one gin! 

The theory behind the restaurant is to ‘re evaluate your notion of taste’ and that it did.  Although instead of heightening my sense of taste it made me realise how much sight enhances taste.  I mean, what good would an amazing chocolate cake be if you couldn’t bear witness to the oozing chocolate icing melting into the cream that have been lovingly poured all over??? (goodness me I’m salivating) 

There was also the slight indignity of having a napkin tucked into my top and having to feel around my plate to check whether or not I’d found everything – oh well no one could see me after all.

The pitch black also seemed to affect how we broke the ice with complete strangers.  Everyone was far more open than they usually would have been. I for one think it’s rather romantic that somewhere in Switzerland there is a charming chap called Marcus that Grove and I will never lay eyes upon, but we will always have loving memories of all the farm yard animal impressions he can do.  His fond memories I’m sure will be of the game strike out.  It started out as peer pressure but soon enough he got the hang of it.