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Baggage

The thing about baggage is that it falls into one of two categories: You’re carrying it because you’re going somewhere, or because you’ve been somewhere.

If you’re like me, carrying baggage because you’re off somewhere is great. Your suitcase is tidy, full of clean clothes and extra space, ready for all those little nick-nacks and pressies you’re thinking of bringing back. You’re off into the unknown and it’s exciting and perhaps a little scary.

If you’re carrying it because you just got back, then those bags are going to be heavy, full of laundry and random crap, and you’ll be tired from the trip. So what do you do when you get home? You have a rest, then you unpack. Maybe a couple days later, but you will unpack.

At the very least you’ll put the suitcase down, right? So why don’t we do that, emotionally speaking?

You came from somewhere, having collected a heavy load of stuff – some helpful, some not. And years later you haven’t unpacked it all. It’s all still sitting in baggage that you’re dragging around your day-to-day life. Perhaps you figure it’s easier to ignore it, pretend it’s meant to be there, that it’s really a part of you now. Maybe you don’t know who you are without it.

I don’t know your story. But mine has caused many, many suitcases full of crap to gather around me. I’d sit on them, use them as a fort, use them as a reason to not do something.

But there comes a time in life where, to move on and be ready for the next adventure, you really need an empty suitcase and a spare hand to hold it with.

What suitcases from journeys long passed are you still refusing to put down?

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Best Tweets: September 2011

It’s that time again – time for the best Kiwi tweets of the month!

Party time in NZ! Drinking! Woop!
bobsyauncle I’m not as think as you drunk I am
pinkdeedle Success!!!! Woke up in my own bed.
cadetdory It tastes like there’s a party in my mouth and everyone is throwing up.
BRONNINATOR My god, all the french men with cocks on their shirts. Delicious.

RWC2011(Trademark IRB, no infringement intended. This blog is in no way affliated with the RWC, IRB, sponsors or partners)
Kiwi_Chatter Do we warn all the #RWC2011 tourists about Hamilton?
Andrew_Mulligan Oh look! Sonny Bill is on the front page of the Herald. I haven’t seen that since yesterday’s edition.
BabeAtSea It’s painful to watch the whipping we’re giving Japan. Maybe half the AB’s could go off, to make it more of a challenge?
ManStanMatt BREAKING: McCully has appointed himself as All Blacks trainer to prevent a repeat of this week’s series of injuries.
melhomer Just passed a huge tree near Eden Park with lots of flags in it. And a road cone. And a deck chair.
JonoHale Looks like every lamppost in Levin had a RWC flag! There must be at least 4 of them!!! #onlyjokingthereisabout50
VegasNZ I dont have Rugby World Cup fever yet but I imagine i have to get it from an official supplier.
annagconnell Just filtered ‘rugby’, ‘rwc’, #rwc, ‘rugby world cup’, ‘all blacks’ out of my feed. It went blank.

Kiwi Tweets: The X Factor edition
TophHooperton Whenever it cuts to a black and white freeze frame on X Factor I always say in a sombre voice ‘and then they aaaallll died’.
evilkud Hairy cleavage was the real winner of that audition
Twonetweet Is it normal to sob your way thru x factor? Just checking
MelenieNZ What is going on with these contestants? It’s like they were all recruited from a psychiatrist’s waiting room.
The_Vonk Oh jeezus they’re letting it through

Kiwi Tweets: The Coro edition
jv_nz Uh ohhh… Channel 1 is moving Coronation St to make way for Masterchef Australia. There’s gonna be a mutiny! A really slow, dusty mutiny.

Kiwi Tweets: The Vagisil edition
SpeelyFreaking The first rule of Vagisil club is: you don’t talk about Vagisil club. Probably obvious, but I thought I’d share it anyway.
Vegrandis Vagisil ad “when you feel fresh, you feel confident.” ohh so that’s why i’m too scared to ask boys out, cos my cunt isn’t fresh

Technology makes life better..?
BexieLady When will twitter stop suggesting I follow douchebags? Twitter, you have terrible taste in men sometimes.
Kiwiseabreeze Saw a “No more Tangles” ad on FB. totally thought it said “No more Triangles…” #downwithtriangles
HungryandFrozen “what band is this?” “it’s xyz, you like?” “no I just wanted to get the name right so I can complain about it on twitter”…
AdrianwithaW “Student Loan. Stuudent Looan. Student Loan. S.t.u.d.e.n.t.L.o.a.n. Stuudeenntt Llooaannn” – Colleague talking to automated IRD call service
allstarangel Downside of a 10 year old having a phone. They text you at 6am to tell you they are awake. Had to censor what I sent back.

Noms-related tweets
KimChisnall At Fonterra briefing for new CEO. Again no chocolate milk on offer! What gives!
kittengloves Success is: getting to the end of the party and still having an unopened bag of Twisties.
PaMelville @amiewee like cake through the hourglass, these are the cheesecakes of our lives

Bodies!
shazndolly went to the @trelisecooper sale today…the one thing that I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted was in a size 8. Great. No dinner for me. This year
VinLew I think I’m going through menopause…
robtreacher Jeebus, just caught a glimpse of my body in the mirror. That satellite isn’t the only thing being adversely affected by gravity
CNell_NZ Best part of Titanic? “Kate Winslet’s taking her robe off! OMG I’m about to see her boobs! Hooray boo– [camera change] GOD DAMMIT.”
beekay77 Poor misunderstood Steve Crow. He’s just concerned about my right to walk down the streets with my boobs out.

Oops!
NessOldfield Just emailed someone to tell them that the cat needs to be desired….it was meant to be desexed. When spell checking goes wrong.
chadirl @TyeTyeee whats a nun? is it a breed of dog?
RachelRayner Getting trapped in ones cami is significantly less embarrassing when it happens in the privacy of ones own bedroom.
normanstrange Don’t fucking come into my store and say the other guy knows more than me. I know more about your shit phone than you do.
benjamintelfer Soo, I just walked in on my flatmate getting a BJ in the bathroom.
feefeebofaye Omg dying here! M11 was telling me about cleaning up his school and how the teachers told them if they find any congdongs not to touch them

Smart-arses
guywilliamsguy Normally I wouldn’t steal a car or a handbag but now, based on my success with movies, I’m kind of thinking I should give it a crack.
RyanSproull I sometimes feel I’m waiting for the opportunity to say, “I’ll pay you a retainer,” and bounce an orthodontic device off someone’s chest.
MoataTamaira Just realised why the Arrow, generic pharmaceuticals ads are so hideously painful… They sell painkillers.
00k Here’s a quick test: what are the opposites of these six words? Always. Coming. From. Take. Me. Down.

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Glee’s Zach Woodlee on beautiful imperfection

zach-woodlee

Earlier in the year I had a chance to interview Glee choreographer Zach Woodlee. We ended up having a really interesting discussion about “imperfect perfection” – something Zach is really passionate about.

“It’s OK that your legs don’t go up to your ears and you can’t stay on your good leg when you’re turning. I just love watching people dance.”

He says that working on Glee and The Glee Project is a totally different beast to working with professionally trained dancers – he’s previously worked toured with Madonna, and on movies including 27 Dresses and Hairspray – because Glee helps him remember all the reasons he wanted to dance in the first place.

“It’s really opened me up to a whole other part of dancing. When you spend your life in a dance studio, in front of a mirror, working on perfection and improvement, that becomes what you do. My appreciation for trained dancers is, of course, outstanding, I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful art to get into. But then being put in this position, I think it’s really taught me about, or re-taught me about, why people dance. The joy in it.”

It seemed obvious that the beauty of imperfection was his new driving force. We talked for a while about how Glee was freeing teenagers from restricting ideas about who they should be. I was really touched by his attitude – I felt like he wasn’t just talking about teenagers, but a principle that could be applied to anyone: Accept and love yourself, and know you’re perfect, just as you are.

“I feel like you can watch your favourite character [on Glee] and be it that they’re disabled, or overweight, or maybe not the prettiest or anything, but they still have permission to perform and they have permission to be themselves, and they work within a group. As a younger adult, it would make me definitely think ‘ok, this is ok, and I know that there’s a group of people out there that can accept me for this and love me’.”

He went on to talk about how Cory Monteith, who plays lead Finn Hudson, may not be the best dancer, but that’s not a weakness.

“We know that Cory is not our best dancer, but there’s a difference because you don’t feel embarrassed for him, you actually endear to the character.”

And surely that’s something we can all afford to learn – your weaknesses are endearing, not embarrassing.

Zach seems like a great guy and I have a lot of respect for the team behind Glee. They don’t always get it right, but you know what? That’s probably kind of perfect.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

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Kiwis share September 11 experiences

Casually asking Twitter anything is a dangerous sport – none moreso than when discussing the September 11 terror attacks.

Without ado, or too much editing, here are the responses I recieved when I asked Twitter users where they were when they heard the news.

Some woke up directly to the news
LittleIchiban I’d fallen asleep with the TV on so I woke up at 5am to it being broadcast, thought I was having some crazy dream
Margie186 Woke up to messages from US friends and didn’t grasp the enormity and horror at first.
jinnee79 I woke up from a nightmare about a plane crash in Sydney. Turns out it was the news on my clock radio alarm
splatdevil My dad came in to my room, waking me up, telling me they had collapsed. We then watched the coverage and talked of nothing else.
amandimoo At home. Hubby was doing late shift, woke wondering why he hadn’t come to bed in time to see the 2nd plane hit. Glued to TV from then
nicki_nz Woke up to the news on the radio. Grabbed my kids and made them watch it, realising it was one of those life moments.
PaMelville Alarm clock went off with Kim & Corbett sober and quiet. TV went on. Boom. Spent day doing corporate massage to very tearful people.
rmccarten Woke up to news blaring on radio. Husband said in dazed state “woah, this is massive”. Watched tv coverage before and after work
alliekatnz woke up at the exact time the first tower collapsed and looked and the clock wondering why was I awake. I turned on the radio…

Many were disbelieving
ogamu I was chatting to a friend in NYC on MSN when the first plane hit. She ran to her window and was like OMG the WTC is on fire!
brenasmith I had just got my PC working with a tuner card, couldn’t believe what was on, ended up with TV and PC running just to be sure.
AliCopeman Got up early for breakfast out with colleagues. CC turned on TV One Breakfast and let out a stream of expletives
Al_2c 10 years ago I was working with two Americans whom I love dearly as we watched the horrors of 9-11 unfold!
duncn I watched it live on tv. Saw the second plane hit. Absolutely chilling. We didn’t know what was going to happen next. Very scary.
bookemdanno At work, following online and on TV. Numb, in shock, and dimly aware that we were watching the world change. Scared.
brentrobinsonz I was working at DSE, heard snippets on the train into work, sat in front of a computer watching a low quality stream of CNN
Guinea6 I just got back from a run up One Tree Hill. Sunk into the couch speechless ’til the flatties woke up 🙁 Seems like yesterday

Others were left with plans hanging
chrisjquin In Rotorua after our sales conference, was due to fly to San Fran on the 11th our time… Never left on that trip for 3 months

For one, it was a birthday they’d rather forget
NanaJ9 Waking up, it’s my birthday and I get a text “Happy Birthday, by the way New York is being bombed”

Some were expecting new life
WendyWings Asleep and nine months pregnant, my husband called and told me to turn on the TV
karenhurley Me too…
allstarangel I was 9 months pregnant too! Son turns 10 next Sunday. Mother in law woke me up at 6am and turned on tv. There is a photo of me in labour reading a paper with Osama on the front page
Kiwi_Chatter Lauren was pregnant too.
kittengloves I feared for our unborn child’s life. Thought the world was ending
MrReasonable Hospital waiting room with very pregnant MrsR. Office phoned me to get in as there was panic in the markets. I stayed with MrsR.

Some had wee children to explain it to
tellywriter The teens (then 3 & 5) came in to say there were no cartoons on TV, just news. I said they had the wrong channel. But they didn’t.
sarabeee I had to act normal and cheerily feed Timbee in his highchair, not quite 13 months.
TelcoKT A friend was at home with her newborn (8 days old), feeding her and wondering what world she’d brought a child into…

… And some were just young themselves
Edaemus I was eleven years old and in bed. I remember lying there watching it on my little TV, completely baffled. Surreal memories.
KrystleF I was in 5th form, had just woken up, heard it on the radio & ran to the TV, it was all we talked about at school that day
br0kenbutterfly Was home sick from Year 6 at school, thought it was WW3.  Then our schoolwork was based around it for ages.
akianz I was home, my parents woke us up and we watched the news in horror until we had to go to school.
tinopai I was 8 years old getting ready for school. The most memorable morning of my young life. Just shocking.
lilyandalma I ran and woke my parents up and we watched the whole night- after them telling me off for being up so late on a school night.
KirstiGrant Was at boarding school, had business studies 1st period. I remember the teacher attempting to incorporate it into the lesson.

Some were overseas
genebrarian I was in London. My (English) husband received confirmation of his New Zealand residency on the same day. *Sigh of relief*
TophHooperton I was watching Neighbours. The news interrupted it and I sat in that spot watching it go down all day. Seemed like a dream.
TelcoKT In the UK. Financing trucks. Watching it unfold at work. Freaky.
g33kytweet I was in Westlock Alberta Canada, just about to head off for a shopping road trip to Edmonton with a friend.
muffinmum Our stuff had been shipped to NZ the day before, a place we had never been. Was at one of last days of work at special needs school
ClaireLHuxley I was in Newcastle, UK. Working from home (waiting for our useless disappearing builder) the whole day watched in shock. We’d already decided to move here, that just cemented the decision.
kathadu At an internet cafe in Marrakech, reading an email from a London-based friend
Keri_little I was in a job interview at bank UK, came out of the room into open office of 300 peeps, everyone in groups in tears. I was So confused
NZ_judester It was my first ever week of teaching in Hexham, UK. Colleague came in, told us and we all rushed to library to watch the tv.

… Including in the USA
corinnespleen Living in the states… Spent the whole day watching the coverage – emotional day.
SoniaLee At work trying to locate my big brother who was in NY city that day for their first antenatal check up, he emailed me to say they were ok
kiwifrenzy Sitting on the end of the bed at Circus Circus, Las Vegas, getting ready to go to the Grand Canyon, and watched the 2nd plane crash on TV
honorarykiwi I grew up in Pennsylvania. People started getting called down to the office – being picked up. Announcement made around lunchtime. We were brought up believing we lived in an infallible, invincible country. One day, and entire world view shattered. Eye opening.
leahisaninja In LA, about to book a ticket to NY. Eep!

Some were freshly home
2covet I was back in my NZ bed after having been standing on top of the South Tower & visiting the Pentagon just a few weeks prior.
kennewell I had returned from the USA the night before. Heard on the way to work. We all sat and watched tv at work. 40 of us. In awe.

September 11 seems to be one of those moments – you know where you were at the time because it was history-defining. You knew you were experiencing a moment that would make it to the history books.

Maybe it affected New Zealanders so deeply because we felt connected to America in ways we didn’t with the ‘stan nations – countries where things like this happen with horrifying frequency. Maybe it was because many of us had been there, or seen it in the movies, or on a playon on Friends. Maybe it was because it was televised. Maybe it was because it was so relatable, had such an impact on the way we travelled, or the subsequent war we entered into.

Feel free to leave your memories as a comment on this blog.

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The 4 stages of a business Facebook page

Although no two Facebook pages are the same, there are some similarities that appear across multiple pages.

There are four main stages your page goes though, and once you identify the stage your page is in, you can use some standard tips and tricks to get it to the next level.

Sometimes pages will naturally progress from stage to stage, sometimes they’ll go backwards, and sometimes they won’t fit any stage at all! Don’t worry– just keep your eyes on where you want your page to be, and work towards that.

Stage 1: Getting your page off the ground.

When Facebook pages are new, the community is still finding the boundaries and tone of the page. It is at this stage you can easily convert brand advocates though quick wins, answering questions and being the good guy.

By turning your early fans into brand advocates, they will help you monitor and set the tone for your page when it enters stage 2. These fans are likely to be your friends, family and workmates, so be explicit about asking them to be active on your page. Honest – but active.

Tips for a page in stage 1

  • Think like the person you want to attract. What would they like to see on your page?
  • Post regular, interesting and infomative content – posting no more than four times a week and no less than once a week.
  • Keep your tone friendly. Facebook recommend you “push” in only 20% of status updates. The other 80% should be relationship-building.
  • Set your spam filter, and any keywords. Pick wisely as to not stifle the natural conversation, but to not allow any content that may disturb your audience.
  • Fully complete the “info” section of the Facebook page.
  • Set flexible strategies around dealing with negative feedback now. Where are your brand’s boundaries around negative posts? Should you allow them on your Facebook page? (I say yes, by the way, that’s a natural part of being in a public forum. Don’t delete it unless the language is filthy or threatening.)
  • Create a landing page that explicitly asks people to like your page.
  • Upload lots of photos and any videos you have to make the page interesting and useful.
  • Read Facebook’s brand page terms and conditions.
  • Get a username (facebook.com/username) once you have 25 fans. Make it short and to the point. This URL will help you in stage 2.

Stage 2: Building momentum with existing fans

Reach out to your existing fans by promoting your Facebook page to them using the custom URL. This may involve putting a social plug-in on your website, a mention in your e-letter, or a notice on your front counter or shop window. They already like what you have to offer, why not make it easy for them to find you on Facebook?

Tips for a page in stage 2

  • Keep an eye on your page’s insights to see who your fans are: Their locations, demographics, what they most respond to on your page, what they’re clicking on. If they don’t match your wider marketing plan, something’s a little off.
  • Be seen to be responding to feedback, good and bad alike. Seek feedback from your fans and act upon it. If they say they’d like to see x happen, and it’s reasonable, make x happen. If it’s not, be honest about that.
  • Keep an eye on what’s going into your spam filter and restore anything that’s been mistakenly tagged as spam.
  • Find pages similar to yours and see what works on their page. Try similar things on yours to see if they work with your audience.
  • Plug your website into Facebook insights to see the demographic that’s impressing against your social plug-ins. Who are you not converting to a Facebook fan?
  • Keep an eye on which posts get the most impressions – what time of day were they posted?

Stage 3: Time for a push

This is the stage where your page is doing ok, but could do with a boost. Consider some advertising. Facebook ads can cost as little as 60cents CPM. You may want to add your custom URL to any external advertising you have running as well.

This means you’ll be getting a lot of random likers – which can often mean trolling. Don’t be afraid to ban troublemakers – but be sure that’s what they are first! Often we can mistake grumpy customers as trolls and not treat them the way they deserve.

If you’ve done stages 1 and 2 well, your loyal fans will help weed out trolling, and be able to answer basic questions for users – Dell found this a useful tactic when coming out of their Dell Hell phase.

Tips for a page in stage 3

  • Lots of new people will be hitting your landing page – adjust it slightly so anyone can understand why they should like your page. “Like our page to hear about special offers” etc.
  • Create custom tabs – for example a FAQ section or latest news section might be a good start.
  • Logged in as your brand, like and write on the walls of any brands that compliment or partner with yours. Check with their page admins first if you can, and don’t be cheeky about it or they may ban your page.
  • Empower, support, and reward users who want to be brand advocates, and acknowledge them for their help.
  • Make sure your community mangers are equipped to deal with negative feedback – both professionally and personally.
  • Don’t run promotions where users leave a comment or upload a photo to enter. That’s against Facebook’s terms and conditions and you may come out with egg on your face.

Stage 4: Organic growth

At this stage your page should be pretty healthy and you should have strategies in place for processing trolling, negative feedback, suggestions, and answering questions you don’t always have answers for. There’s an interesting phenomenon that I noticed – and have had confirmed to me by other major account managers across multiple brand types and sizes – that you no longer need to run ads during this stage, and the page will grow exponentially.

Don’t be alarmed when the growth starts to level out. The size of your page when this happens depends on your reach, and the profile of your business. Your organic growth may slow to 1 – 2 % per week.

Tips for a page in stage 4

  • Don’t rest on your laurels. Set big engagement and impression goals. Continue to evolve your page, being lead by your fans and wider business objectives.
  • Keep an eye on hide rates and unlikes and moderate your postings
  • Crowd source. There’s likely to be some users with amazing ideas for your business, or some feedback trends going on.
  • Consider another ad spend.

 

This is by no means a fully comprehensive list of things to check off with a Facebook page, and may not be applicable to all brands. In fact, this is quite general, and somewhat oversimplified compared to reality and the curveballs that get thrown at you.

The main thing you need to keep in mind is to think like a page user. What do they want? Deliver that and you can’t go wrong.

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Best Tweets: August 2011

Animals and things

thisfog: How adorable is that little “Phew” sound cats make when you get your clothes back on after bathing?
AliIkram: Someone needs to feed the Cougars at the Viaduct before the RWC they might scare off the tourists

Children and things

kittengloves Back to school lunches. Against my advice 7yo has made himself a gherkin and jam roll.
DomHarvey Mum to kid on street in Vegas: “FUCK UP!” Black woman within earshot of the encounter: “daaaaamn” I love America
rosiecd It is horrible to look at your child and KNOW you will have to bail them out of jail one day
lilyandalma Went out with a mcdonalds toy pinned to my head. Forgot it was there until I looked in a shop window. #mummyfail

Snow tweets!

Tarquin_Death New theory about the ongoing extreme cold snaps: Happy Feet is a penguin wizard making NZ more like his icy home
jackelder Snowing hard in Miramar at the moment. A number of world-class VFX artists are running around the carpark going “woooooo” and waving arms.
leahisaninja Dear New Zealand, Hello. Love, Antarctica. PS, whoosh.
stephenfry NZ has, bless it, gone officially mad. First snow in Auckland since the 30s. Children running along with open mouths to taste the flakes 🙂
JenLongshaw Twin lambs born just a couple of hours ago in paddock next door. Poor little sods- they have no idea what they’re in for. #Storms #Stews

Politics

farmgeek Forget young beneficiaries, what about all the retirees wasting their dosh on small dogs, finance companies and NZ First donations?

The Big Pink Fist of Abstinence

LachlanForsyth This abstinence stuff is going to ruin the fine reputation that generations of kiwi backpackers have worked so hard to create.
watershitdown i wonder if the pink fist will end up on trademe on $1 reserve

Overheard

tanya OH: “Yeah Pak ‘n’ Save Mt Wellington, you don’t wanna pick up chicks there…”

From the ‘are you serious?’ files

bookemdanno Seriously – limited edition rugby world cup nappies? Jesus H rollerblading Christ.
annagconnell 9 times out of 10, ‘Wakey Wakey hands off snakey’ is the first thing that pops into my head in the morning. Thank you Grandad.
jinnee79 Glad I managed to miss Dad and his friends at erotica. Coulda been awkward, they came Friday night.

From the ‘everything went better than expected’ files

brenasmith LOLs at our teenage neighbours planning the big noisy party last night. About 9pm they were looking munted and never heard a peep.
juhasaarinen Always feel surprised that I cheated death and injury after each Auckland commute.
SpeelyFreaking @cadetdory but you tweet really well for a retarded person. Good going 🙂
RobSuisted “Come around & we’ll take it out on a 12 year old” set me back a moment until I realised it was about scotch

First world tweets

vaughndavis My colleague in Switzerland has just confirmed she can make our meeting in Rome. I’m James fucking Bond, me.
sachalnf: Whoa. My brother just called me (on my cellphone) from upstairs to tell me to turn the tv off downstairs. LAZY.
mitchyyyyy There’s no honey for my toast. Brb crying.
richirvine I CHALLENGE ANY FECKER TO HAVE MORE CAT HAIR ON THEIR CLOTHING THAN I! I DO NOT THINK IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE!
robkidd that awkward moment when you realise someone actually read one of your tweets.

Herp Derp

kiwieric Ah crap. My brain just Rick Rolled itself.
NanaJ9 It has become very obvious that my personality doesn’t actually start to formulate until that first cup of coffee in the morning.

NZGeekGirl‘s Very Bad Day

Oh no, just been called, we’be been burgled. Holiday may be over.
Aiming to drive back tonight, police to fingerprint. I wish this was a joke. Think my wedding rings are probably gone.
Hey everyone, yes thankfully we have insurance. My wedding rings and meds are also safe. On our way home now.
Dear car in front, When the cop overtakes you then it’s a safe bet you’re going too slow.
Hmmm. We’re suddenly not spending a whole lot on accommodation. Perhaps a post burglary cheer me up pressie? Yarn? Maine Coon? Both?
If they stole the laptop, how long do you think until the discover the keyboard don’t work from a rat peeing on it?
Oh boy, another devastating thought….what if they found our “naughty” draw? 
OMG they did find the naughty draw.
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Kiwi Nyan Cat

Nyan Cat isn’t a new meme, but it has just recieved a delightfully Kiwi twist.

For those of you who don’t often visit the meme-world, Nyan cat is pretty much just a cat, made of pop tarts, racing across the sky, leaving rainbow trails. That’s it. Seriously, that’s it. And it’s annoying, and it’s addictive.

Here it is:

I WARNED YOU.

Anyway, it’s had several incantations…

Nyan Cat metal version:

Nyan Cat meets Lady Gaga:

Nyan Cat killing Peter Griffin:

The Rebecca Black version:

And now, a New Zealand version! Featuring a version of Dave Dobbyn’s Slice of Heaven, here is Kiwi Nyan Cat!

If you’ve got a favourite Nyan Cat, please pop the link in the comments – I’d love to see them 🙂

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5 reasons to love Kimbra

Kimbra is a 21-year-old Kiwi artist who has recently found mainstream fame after online gossip king Perez Hilton labeled her as one-to-watch.

She’s been signed to Warner Brothers, and her debut album Vows is due for release in New Zealand on August 29.

Meanwhile, here’s five clips showing just why you should be paying attention to this young Hamiltonian.

Kimbra’s second single Simply on My Lips gave her her first taste of success – you may recognise it:

Kimbra covers Crowded House’s Fall At Your Feet:

The first single off Vows – Settle Down:

Miami Horror – I Look To You, feat Kimbra:

Finally, my personal favourite: Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know, feat Kimbra:

I hope you enjoy her as much as I do! x

UPDATE: After being harassed by Chris Philpott, I’m including a bonus track – Cameo Lover.

BOOM.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Then there’s this.

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Cat Gone

I love memes. Here’s one I’m really enjoying right now. There’s no words to explain how awesome it is: It’s a cat and it’s freaked out. It only got uploaded a couple days ago and already has over a million views! Check it out:

And the Thriller remix!

I look forward to seeing heaps more videos and remixes of this kitty in the coming days!

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Best Tweets: July 2011

July’s been a big month for Kiwis online. NZ gained another global meme, thanks to Cameron Leslie. Top Model continued to take over the Twitterverse. @BexieLady gained Klout in “sausages” – wait, what?

Cos being online is awesome
BexieLady Klout still says I am influential about sausages. Wonderful.
MoataTamaira Everyone in office now looking up their unicorn names. My work here is done.
iamkateharley I got banned from trademe because I took more than 3-5 working days for me to send a 60 yr old man his marykate & ashley dvd.
tarasutherland search terms to find my blog: getting high off codral, auckland fucking city, why is masturbation called masturbation, the letter p. :-/
Nightwyrm If anyone hears uncontrollable sobbing, it’s just me opening my work emails.

Some old school media
nzmovieguy Taxi driver is telling me about his letter to the editor. He’s pulled out the newspaper to look for it. Yes, the car is in motion.
danslevin Just bought my first newspaper in weeks. The fire needed lighting.
iChild Lots of crying on #NZNTM tonight. Anyone else think the girls have synchronized their cycles?

New Zealand, owl!
DavidSlack What you must always do is blow on your pie, finish your set and cook the man some eggs. #NZRulesToLiveBy

Oh, life
nzmovieguy A man just walked by me and said to the lady with him “some by birth, some by choice”. Not entirely sure what he meant by that.
andrealessi That awkward moment when you can no longer tell the difference between artfully styled hipsters and unwashed engineering students.
Nightwyrm People who book 12.30 meetings deserve their own special place in hell.
Vegrandis If you have 10E/10F boobies there are some good $3 bras (marked down from like $80) at BNT at Dressmart lolol, also, congrats on the body.
kittenypentland This year I have taken to wearing a scarf so it needs to be stated for the record: if I’m found strangled it was clumsiness not auto-erotica
TheNoemi Getting legs waxed. #ouch why do I do this again? That’s right, I don’t want to scare the children when we go to thermal pools.
vaughndavis Just texted my wife: “Fucking nanny!” do I need to follow up and explain this was a grumble and not a status update?
elpie Who knew that SkyTV boxes could catch fire if cats sleep on them? I didn’t, but do now.

Parenting
fleurtee Got a little worried when reading Mr6’s story “Spiderman you cunt….” pretty sure he meant can’t, should probably correct him on that one!
SpeelyFreaking Currently stuffing cold mashed potato into an envelope addressed to Africa. Why? Because stubborn parenting is how I roll.
SheldonNesdale My 2yo son has taken to yelling across the house using my wife’s first name. Who the heck did he learn that from?
MrsKateLincoln I think we’ve turned the smallchild into a JAFA. Only 20 months old & has requested to go out for coffee.

Some people are a worry!
PebblesHooper is cocaine a carb?
AdageBusiness oops neighbours just asked me to turn music down … told them I will when the move their bedhead away from the wall got a blank look
ryansallan Royal Oak roundabout is dangerous as fuck. Especially when trying to tweet.
tauhenare Do not lick the knife that you used in the hot hot fudge until it has cooled down. #recipes #fudge #hotknife