Best Tweets: May 2012

May brought us a high-water mark for low behaviour when a creepy carpet cleaner was seen tugging violently at the fabric of decency during Target. May also brought us the 2012 Budget, with all of its hope despair politics. Here are your Kiwi tweets of the month…

Grinding our gears
@beanbiz
That feeling when you get home and remember you’ve stashed a trashy food treat! Then realise it’s gone. Then you eat a baby’s rusk biscuit.
@ryansallan
For the first time in my life, I think I lost a dance off. Not even mad, that guy was awesome.
@not_friends Today I was almost in a moderate traffic accident while belting out ‘Only The Good Die Young’ and I feel like that’s why I’m still here.
@emsaddis Oven went on fire before. Was going to take a picture, but then decided I better put the flames out.
@BigNateNZ GOT all sorted. Cheers regan. To the dick in the waiting room, music only heals when you don’t suck. Can’t sing or play guitar
@BexieLady Just managed to hit myself with my car. Fucking ow.
@guywilliamsguy “Can you die while boxing?” “Why are you asking?” “No reason.”
@littlemisspie Where can one buy road spikes and a gun? Asking for a friend.
@pinkdeedle I did ballet when i was 5 & I sat on the loo & pulled my leotard to the side to pee & then let go & peed up my back. Never did ballet again.
@GrowFromHereNZ Are there hallucinagins in the new Friskies
@hdpaONENEWS Searched the house top to bottom for my jeans. Then, found them in the freezer. Now too cold to wear.
@lmfbs Just made a delicious salad for dinner. Went to the toilet, came back to a happy looking cat with lettuce sticking out of his mouth.
@catspyjamasnz Woman on carriage been talking loudly to BF on phone for 15 mins, explaining how she prefers car travel. We wish she’d taken the car too…
@CateOwen If I could choose a superpower, it’d be to know troll’s real names. So when they troll I can be “I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, CLEETUS JONES”.

 

Of life, love, and LOLs
@not_friends
I pretty much only have a boyfriend so that somebody favourites my tweets.
@Kittengloves
Looking forward to bed so I can surprise warm up my frozen nose on my husband’s back.
@MeghanMutrie
My neighbors are either shooting an ad for Viagara, or a pride of lions are taking down a zebra that just won’t die. Come on lions.
@manikpixi 16yo: Can we kidnap Gok Wan and keep him in our wardrobe? Me: But he came out if the closet years ago. 16yo: Ha! Good one mum!
@irihapeta Ha – Mr 16 still gets his birthday email from Buzz and Poppy. Maybe it’s time to unsubscribe.
@HungryAndFrozen
Stockings are so unfairly expensive. Manufacturers, you’re not making artisinal Spanish ham here, just socks and underwear joined together.
@VickyRF Surrounded by people gracefully eating scrambled eggs with chopsticks and I drop my giant spoon on the floor.
@snappy_nz Turns out I’ve had a fruit burst in my suit jacket pocket for six months. I think I’ve ruined my suit.
@nicmclay Graveyard today: Me: this is where people r buried when they die, like the bird u found at kindy. Son: All these people flew into a window?
@Maorigirl3 Today I bent down to pick up my laptop bag and lost my balance as the elevator came to a stop. Fell into a stranger’s crotch. ‪#NiceToMeetYou
@RugbyIML Saw the main Maori guy from GC at St Lukes, he was with one of his Aunties. Actual Aunty.
@TophHooperton You pop into a public toilet and a man is standing there stark bollock naked washing his balls in the sink. Is that ok?
@Psygnal Great day today. Went to work. William Shatner was there. Had a great chat before he left with Daniel Craig. Might be hallucinating. #unwell


Class Acts

@pkstowers On Sydney flight sat next to man who imports corrosive acids, industrial lubricants & oils. Made bad joke about greasing wheels of industry.
@davidfarrier just wanted to thank all of you who’ve been sending me various great new human centipede images. i’d RT them but my mum reads this account
@hamfritta I fully agree with the reddit proposal to follow Gerry Brownlee around with a tuba, ala Family Guy.
@HungryAndFrozen Good thing Les Miserables is easily accepted in its shortened form as Les Mis, it’s like whoever coined it knew we’d tweet about it one day.
@SpeelyFreaking There’s a special place in he’ll for people that don’t proof-read.
@leslup awkward moment: realising yve said another guys name in yr sleep nd partner hears it, saving grace, character from star trek.
@Sportzfreak Wonder how Shane Jones will pass the time when stood down
@AliIkram just to clear up a bit of confusion that seems to have been created I can’t really cook food with laser beams from my eyes.
@jonohutchison I’m off to Hong Kong tonight! Attention burglars: I’m not off to Hong Kong tonight
@WendyWings Paper beats rock? Let’s test this theory. Have someone hold up a sheet of paper in front of their face, then throw a rock at it. Who wins?
@AnnaGConnell Driving down Ponsonby Rd in my pjs blasting Sweet Child of Mine. Living my life like it’s golden
@JeremyReesnz @nzherald farewells two great characters and stalwarts. Wonderful celebration of journalism in the newsroom for Jim Eagles and Wayne Harman.
@patrickgowernz Wayne Harman has retired from Herald after 50 years in journalism. A legend. Wayne gave me my first job. And even a couple of pay rises!
@guywilliamsguy I won the Billy TK award! Thanks to everyone who helped. Finally, I’m still getting the recognition that I’ve always gotten!


Entertainment on a Budget

@kaupapa Spammers in bikinis standing out like dog’s bollocks #nzbudget
@williamleith Fran O’Sullivan’s top strobing on TV3.
@googleismygf Oh dear… I was about to write “Trevor Mallard” under “Lecturer Name” on my assignment. Too much politics today
@stevendpaul Result is neutral, forecasting surplus results in the near to medium future. Which rings true? #AllWhites or #nzbudget2012
@Shellface When Bill English says “our policy is…” he sounds exactly like the Pak’n’Save ad stick man.


Clean and Jerk
@allstarangel Clean the carpets? His pants are gonna need waterblasting
@VinLew Clean a stain, make a stain, clean a stain, make a stain
@_victoriajayne_ Is he watching videos of girls staining carpets?
@yvettevy When are we going to find out what score this guy gets out of 10??
@AaronM_NZ They didn’t even rate his carpet cleaning ability! Target blows loads.
@jzindel #target can I get #fapfapfap dudes number? Three times AND he cleaned the carpet? More stamina than most guys I know!
@hello_im_megan After all is said and done, I was impressed by a man multi-tasking

 

Old Mout CiderChoosing a winner is always a difficult exercise, so this month’s winner has been been determined by an advanced selection process which began and ended with me shutting my eyes and poking at all the names with my index finger. When my eyes opened, the digit was settled on @shellface! Be sure to follow @OldMoutCider so they can sort you out with your liquid reward.

Creative covers of Top 40 hits

Longtime readers (and followers of me on Twitter) know I can’t resist a good YouTube clip, or a good tune. And sometimes I find something that meets both of those drives.

First up:

cdza create what they call “musical video experiments”, and here’s one called Pianists in Paris – seven players, one piano. Enjoy!

Kindof reminds me of the Walk Off The Earth version of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know

And while you’re checking out unusual covers of modern songs, check out Aston – here they are covering Katy Perry’s ET.

If you’ve discovered some amazing covers, I’d love to take a look – link me up in the comments! x

Social Media Revolution 2012 (a parody)

With lines like “If Twitter raised the character limit from 140 to 200, it would finally allow 90 million German speakers to finish a sentence” and “The world’s 2nd most common lie after “I love you too” is “You have successfully been unsubscribed from our database””, this parody video is well worth a watch.
 

 

Top 40 hits that make me facepalm

It’s always amusing – and facepalmy – when a song with stupid lyrics makes it to the Top 40.

What’s worse is when the lyrics are in equal parts stupid and disrespectful. It’s as if the lyricists don’t have two braincells to rub together.

What if we swapped the genders – make the women the singers and the men featured in the lyrics – would we see them for what they really are? Here’s a sample of upended lyrics from some fine tunes that hit the top of the charts this year – that’s 2012, not 1962.

Whistle – by Flo Rida
I’m betting you love creep mode, and I’m betting you like boys that give love to boys, and stroke your little ego

The moral: Men like boys that give love to boys. It strokes their egos, hard.

Turn All The Lights On – by T Pain
This must be his song, dancing like ain’t nobody else in here, Sexy as he wanna be and he dancing so close to me. I said ‘please excuse you steppin’ on expensive shoes’. He is a perfect ten, this angelic body made you sin. I love the way you get it in, come over here and shake it for a lady – cause you want it

The moral: It turns out men actually really WANT to dance in front of leering women! And true ladies want men to “shake it”. Just mind my shoes, pet. They be pricey.

Sorry For Party Rocking – LMFAO
When I’m in the club, sippin bub, really drunk, and I see a guys ass, gotta have it. I’ma grab it.

The moral: If you’re drunk, just grab some random ass. No one minds.

International Love – Pitbull
I’ve been to countries and cities I can’t pronounce, and places on the globe I didn’t know existed. In Romania, he pulled me to the side and told me “Pit, you can have me, and my brother.”

The moral: Pitbull should have stayed in school, and these lyrics are actually fucking creepy… Even when the genders aren’t reversed.

The Motto – Drake
Some Spanish boys love me like I’m on Aventura… Clubbing hard, fucking men, ain’t much to do.

The moral: When bored, get busy. It makes you look cool.

Leave You Alone – Young Jeezy
[Dear boyfriend:] keep your stomach, inner thighs, and your legs right, while I’m out here focus getting this bread right.

The moral: Women won’t support a man with a beer gut. Get it sorted, guys.

I’m actually sick of this stuff. It’s awful. Why do we buy into it, and let it lace itself into our culture?!

To finish, I’ll paraphrase the worst of them all: Faded, by Tyga and Lil Wayne. These men are class and I hope their families are proud.

  • Women are dogs, so sexual partners get the nickname “Lassie”.
  • During sex, put your thumb in a woman’s anus, and then make her smell it, in the hopes that she vomits.
  • “Pregnant bitch titties” are bad because you can milk them.
  • Have sex with a woman while playing your own music, then break “a bitch heart” once you’re done.

Stay classy, gentlemen.

Things a Twitter addict learned while on holiday

This holiday, I went on a social media fast. No Twitter. No Facebook. I wasn’t allowing myself to see anything remotely work-related. I was having a Proper Break.

Sounded good in theory, but I didn’t realise just how much I used Twitter to keep up with news, and find alternative perspectives from the ones in my head, in the paper, or on the TV.

I Googled "Twitter Troll" and this came up. Pretty much exactly what I look like.

I’ll cheerfully admit, I’m sometimes a Twitter troll*. I’ll make a big, bold, topical statement, and then watch for fireworks. It’s interesting, the reactions you get: From the earnest to the angry, people on either side of the coin will either call you out or triumph their hurrahs!

Luckily, there’s truth mixed in there somewhere. The answer is never black-or-white, and opinion trolling – although must be used with caution – usually starts a fantastic discussion where we can all learn something, gain perspective, or feel grounded.

Another thing I didn’t do this week was share stuff I was reading or watching to Facebook or Twitter. It made me feel very disconnected – it turns out I’ve been using Twitter almost as a bookmark: A place where I can go back later, find the link, and share again. Not to mention the enjoyment my friends get from the good oil. I didn’t get to read their comments. I didn’t get to see what they were sharing.

No, this week, I haven’t been on Twitter. I haven’t seen the 140-character vox pops of people’s take on news and current affairs. I haven’t seen the trending topics. I had FOMO. It makes me feel out of touch, and I don’t like feeling out of touch.

The flip side is, I didn’t facepalm. Not once.

During my holiday, I never felt misunderstood (a misunderstood sometimes-troll? Who would have thought!). I didn’t get frustrated. I didn’t have to adopt the fetal position at all! I didn’t feel scrutinised – that at any moment something I tweet may get twisted and end up in the paper. No stress that a tweet – oopsie! – could come from an account it shouldn’t have. I did not see any of the mob-mentality, angry, angry tweets about something that doesn’t even matter in the scheme of things. I know, I know. Us “professionals” are supposed to wax lyrical about how we’re all amazingly thick skinned, and you shouldn’t be working near flames if you can’t handle heat etc. Wah, wah, wah. But let me tell you: This week, muting Twitter was bliss.

Well, it was very nearly bliss.

I missed seeing my friend’s streams of consciousness. I did miss taking advantage of “anyone free for a drink” tweets. I missed the warm humour and the pithy one liners.  I missed knowing the news when it happened. I missed BexieLady’s amusing pregnant oversharer tweets and TroyRFs ragey bus tweets.

 

It’s tweets like these that make Twitter what it is

 

It was also hard to not share my own random thoughts – having a really funny untweeted thought was almost like putting a note in a bottle and then never releasing it to the ocean to see what will happen.

Gawd, I did just write that.

Oh the things I could have tweeted! There was the half-hour phone call with my older brother, explaining why he couldn’t just use his first name as his Skype login, and then working out that he didn’t have an internet connection in first place. That would have been awesome to live tweet.  There was the time my flatmate a random person I was hanging out with,  upon seeing a happy child skipping along the street remarked, “bet that’s a weird little kid… I mean, ‘unique’ little kid. Whatever we’re supposed to call it these days.”

So Tweet-worthy.

But I digress.

The NZ Twitter crowd really is one big whanau. There’s the younger siblings, who bring us Bieber and Gaga and Shore Girls news. There’s the mums who make sure we’re all doing okay and eating our veges. There’s the angry uncles getting drunk and arguing the Demise Of Everything in the corner. There’s the older sisters who say “fuck it” and wear leopard print jeans with tie-died hoodies even though they look a bit mad. There’s the grandparents who are mostly graceful and amazing but turn out to be batshit crazy enough to hang out with the rest of us.

I missed you, tweeple.

 

*Trolling. Not to make people uncomfortable, or to show a company what a dick I am, but just to get people talking. And thinking, hopefully.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I think it’s awesome when people re-tell classic stories. I don’t even mind a modern twist or two.

How about when one combines two of my favourite things: Amusing YouTube clips and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Yes please! So you know I’m going to love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which is basically a modern take, with a gorgeous Lizze and her two sisters (the older, Jane, a doting sweetheart, the younger, Lydia, a loveable “whore”.)

Episode 1: My Name is Lizzie Bennet

Episode 2: My Sisters: Problematic to Practically Perfect

Episode 3: My Parents: Opposingly Supportive

Episode 4: Bing Lee and his 500 Teenage Prostitutes

Episode 5: After the Wedding: The Real Bing Lee

Episode 6: Snobby Mr. Douchey

Episode 7: The Most Awkward Dance Ever

Episode 8: Charlotte’s Back!

Episode 9: Single and Happyish

You can subscribe here. Get amongst!

Best Tweets: April 2012

Here are the best Kiwi Tweets for April!

Twitter was made for tweets like these

1. @AliIkram Elmo talks about himself in the 3rd person a fair bit- may be an arsehole
2. @WriteOnNZ Courier just dropped off a package from Vanuatu complete with Vanuatian pubic hair protruding out from under the label. My life is complete
3. @AdrienneRewi Out walking. New catchphrase on Christchurch real estate signs. ‘Solid & Tidy.’
4. @AceMcWicked Orgy doesn’t, in itself, mean sex. If someone invites you to an orgy, make sure they mean ‘sex orgy’ and not, say, ‘orgy of accounting’
5. @bobsyauncle “Have you seen comic sans on a medicines label?” Finally, the serious issues in pharmacy are being investigated
6. @NZGeekGirl Watching Ryan Reynolds in the Green Lantern, just quietly, I think my ovaries exploded.
7. @graememoo2 Lost my glasses at the beach yesterday. Hoping the wash up on an island so a castaway can make fire.
8. @Tweet_Ti Scammer called at 6am to offer a discounted tickets to Orlando. I went to ‘find my credit card’ leaving ph off hook while I had a shower.
9. @TimWilsonBarrio Dreamd I found a fresh full tube of… toothpaste. Come on, subconscious, is that all you got? Really?
10. @josiecampbell Funny. Kimbra is somebody that I used to know.
11. @Kiwi_Chatter That awkward moment when you go up to take a photo of an abandoned house and it’s not actually abandoned.

 

Technology Tweets

12. @jonohutchison Can’t believe Zuckerberg bought Instagram for $1 billion. Pretty sure I got that app for free
13. @Monty64 The awkward moment when you accidentally click connect with someone you’ve never heard of on linkedin. D’oh.
14. @Vegrandis Pinterest is like looking at a 35 year old’s single white middle class desperately lonely female’s scrapbook.
15. @splatdevil Home phone just rang. Silence. Then computer voice saying ‘goodbye’. Is it judgement day? Has skynet finally taken control?

 

Bus Tweets of the month

16. @TroyRF 3 reasons this bus driver never made it into Snow White’s 7 dwarfs: 1. Too tall. 2. No beard. 3. Homicidey wouldn’t gel with the others.
17. @EllaJoanneM I’m both offended and relieved when a stranger doesn’t pick to sit next to me on the bus.
18. @Andrew_Scott The South Africans on the bus behind us were kissing, feeling each other up and saying how they are the best ever COUSINS. EWWW

 

HERP DERP!

19. @RachelRayner Eye cream and industrial adhesive should come packaged in distinctly different tubes
20. @Matt_Gibb Drove to work yesterday. Wish I’d remembered that when I caught the bus home after work. Just realized
21. @TophHooperton Accidentally splashed water on my crutch just before leaving the house then immediately ran into someone I know. Didn’t piss myself. DIDN’T.
22. @_AnnyMa And that, people, is why you must know the difference between ‘colon’ and ‘cologne’.
23. @not_friends Talking about boyfriend in code so I don’t ruin his game with Twitter babes either makes me the best girlfriend ever or touched in the head.

 

Stay classy, New Zealand

24. @Nightwyrm It’s okay that I’m not wearing pants while repeatedly watching the new Dark Knight Rise trailer, right? No-one on this train seems to mind.
25. @chandalier Trying on shoes in a shoe shop and random old guy about 80 not out says “give me some wine and I’ll drink it from your shoe”. WTF
26. @lmfbs I thought my nipple was moldy, but it turned out it was just towel fluff. It was a stressful few minutes.
26. @JessEtheridge You could feed a small village with the amount of food my bra catches.
27. @Brian_NZ I just ordered a long black, and was asked what size I wanted. That’ll teach me for ordering coffee in a mall.
28. @pinkdeedle My friend clare is telling me all about her dying uncle and i really need to wee but cant
29. @kirsty_johnston concerned that the sanitary disposal units at work are actually robots. our one looks like R2D2, continually pops up unprompted. frightening
30. @DanielRutledge There’s a bunch of dudes on queen street in orange vests asking for donations but not saying what for. One has ‘West Side’ drawn on his top.
31. @AnnaGConnell Just yelled ‘Clevedon rocks’ out the window. In Clevedon.
32. @JonathanJCarson Is 11:30pm an unreasonable time to bust out the guitar and have a sing-song? My neighbour doesn’t seem to think so.
33. @Pete_Robson Pak’n’Sav moment… Kids eating chocs straight from bulk bins. Parent sees. Tells them off. Takes Lollies from kid and eats themselves

 

Because looking good matters

34. @wenuwish Went to change into my PJs and then realized that I never got out of them this morning.
35. @_AnnyMa I’ve got my trackpants tucked into my bed socks, my fluffy hoodie on, and my hair in a bun. I call this the “paknsave look”

 

Kids.

36. @rosiecd Mr 6: “ew boys don’t wear pink jackets! Although, if I was a good puncher I would wear one”
37. @mariamajsa Can’t help feeling Rhys Darby missed a perfectly good opportunity to call one of his sons Abu and the other one Roller.
38. @Becs Were you at the Wynyard Quarter today? A nude child, a unicycling girl & a pirate on a clown’s bike. Yes, they were my children.
39. @KATEHAWKESBY Words you never want to hear when a child wakes you at 2.30am: “I’ve vomited. It’s everywhere.”
40. @AliCopeman MissG(8) just asked me “is that exactly what Tom said or are you paraphrasing?” When I retold a story… WT…

 

Politics

41. @MrReasonable Hey @Kim_Dot_Com seriously. If ever there was a use for a panic room, it’d be John Banks coming round.
42. @mikokiko Thank you to whoever chalked “Tony 2012 – he must be stopped” in giant letters on the waterfront. Early morning Lols Ftw.
43. @BoganetteNZ I bet when John Key has sex he looks in the mirror and waves. Like Patrick Bateman but way less hot, and way more dangerous.

 

 

Old Mout Cider

 

Congrats to Boganette for collecting the most votes and Floppie for winning the random draw, and thanks to Old Mout Cider for the lovely prizes!

The Adele Butter Dance explained

Adele Butter Dance

There’s a video that’s in the beginning stages of viral – and it won’t be too long before it becomes a fully fledged “thing”.

The reason for the viral is partially because the video is very funny, partially because it’s very odd.

An Indonesian woman dances in heels and a short skirt, on butter, to Adele’s Someone Like You.

Just watch the video.

Confused?

Melati Suryodarmo is a performance artist. In the original piece, she dances for 20 minutes on 20 blocks of butter to Indonesian shamanistic drums. When a YouTuber got hold of the clip, he replaced the original music with Adele, and so a viral video was born.

Here she is, dancing to Skrillex. It’s not quite as poignant though.

And incase you were wondering, here’s the original butter dance, complete with all the, erm, natural sound effects.

How to get your Facebook page deleted without even trying

Recently popular burger company Velvet Burger had their Facebook page deleted without warning.

 

Facebook have quietly updated their page terms, and if you have a brand page, you’re bound by them. Here’s some of the more unexpected ones, or ones we know people have had pages, posts or images removed for:

  1. Your page name can’t be in capitals – except for acronyms.
  2. Your page name can’t include “superfluous descriptions”.
  3. Your cover can’t have price or purchase information, can’t have contact information like a website, can’t have calls to action like “tell your friends”
  4. You can’t encourage your fans to use your cover image on their personal timelines.
  5. Competitions can’t be done by commenting, sharing or uploading to your wall. (see Velvet Burger…), but MUST be done via an application tab.
  6. Pages must not contain content that is hateful, threatening, defamatory, pornographic, incites violence or contains nudity.

 

The best thing you can do is read the rules. Check to see if they’ve been updated at least once a month, and don’t try to be sneaky and cheat your way around them – all it takes is one complaint and your page could be goneburger.

 

 

5 awesome projection mapping ads

Video mapping has been around for a while, but never fails to impress me as a fun medium that makes an impression. Samsung have just released a new clip, projecting onto a model’s face and torso, so I figured I’d show you a couple of my favourite video mapping ads.

Here’s Samsung’s offering:

Interactive projection that responded to the audience’s noise:

Toyota also used the technology to market their Auris Hybrid:

Hyundai have also used it to show off their Accent in Kuala Lumpur:

And PlayStation3 got amongst – no SFX, no post production, no cuts:

Bonus:
PS3 Part 2

PS3 Part 3

Enjoy!