v. 3

raptorsafari.com
Have you ever really wanted to just get into an SUV, drive around the wilderness and look for velociraptors to run over? Yeah, I tend to get those inclinations a lot too, but luckily for me, the good folks over at Flashbang Studios have created a game called Off-Road Velociraptor Safari. This is a web-based flash game that was made in just eight weeks. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible in five minutes by driving your SUV over cliffs, doing barrel rolls, collecting pods, and exporting raptors all within an explorable environment. Now, it’s actually possible to play this game passively and score a ton of points without actually killing any of those feathery dinos; however, I must say, it’s a hell of a lot more fun knocking them off cliffs and sandwiching them between rocks. The scoring system works brilliantly as you can build up multipliers as you long as your the multiplier meter stays on the screen. On top of all that, the game keeps a record of your scores and there are over 20 achievements that range from simple to ridiculously tricky. The controls are simply to learn, all you need to work with are the arrow keys. ‘B’ controls your SUV’s nitro and spacebar controls your spiked capture ball, which can be used nab raptors and also to fling captured raptors across the map. Sure, the game is violent, but there’s no blood, and it’s not realistic at all because we all know dinosaurs aren’t real. www




sleeveface.com
Have you ever looked at a record sleeve and wondered if the sleeve was bigger, what else the image would contain? Well, now you no longer have to imagine. This blog features individuals continuing a record sleeve headshot with a full–body depiction of how they think the rest of the image might look. The blog features hundreds of photographs that in some instances are astounding, especially when you consider some the detail that had be put into each shot. Some favourite photo projects I’ve seen on the site are The Cure’s Standing on A Beach, The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You and the image posted below, of The Soup Dragons’ LP. Sleeveface may not save the music industry, but it certainly can increase the interest in the vinyl format. Kudos! www

v.2

fartparty.org

Not to be confused with the less funny and only slightly less drunk fratparty.org, this web comic is created by Brooklynite Julia Wertz. Her comic is centered around her life of waitressing, drawing comics, drinking, falling down while drinking and drinking while creating comics (which attributes to some of her strips being drawn rougher than others). Wertz’s art and drawings aren’t exactly breathtaking, but that’s not really the point of Fart Party. Fart Party is all about not taking anything to seriously except for swearing, drinking and the ability to make fun of yourself while drawing silly conclusions. To quote Wertz, her site is updated “roughly thrice a week” and I often myself checking back often to get my almost–every–other–day installment. Fart Party is full of charm, cutesy (but not annoying) observations, and is 100% less smelly than an actual fart party. Wertz has released a book of her comics which is avaliable to purchase from her site as well as on Amazon.com. www

youtube,cin
0rf.at
Have you ever mistyped a website’s URL and arrived somewhere else by mistake? Luckily for most of us, gogole.com was purchased by the good folks at Google and easily redirects us to everyone’s favourite homepage. A couple of days ago, I was coerced into typing youtube,cin into my browser window and feared some kind of weird or disturbing image. However, Youtube redirects the typo–ridden URL to their site and entertains users with “cin cin” a short, entertaining musical video that's received just over 40,000 hits. Which is surprisingly low, considering the video has been up since October 2006.
A number of websites actually rely on web users to misspell frequently accessed websites to gain an increasing amount of hits. While there’s no harm in having Google and Youtube actually bring users back their site, it can be potentially harmful and has been coined with the phrase “typosquatting.” Some of these sites quickly distribute spyware and other kinds of viruses onto to the unsuspecting users. Other sites use typosquatting to innondate users with political messages or simply share their art. That’s exactly what a group of European web–artists have done. They play off the Austrian news channel orf.at and replace the “o” with a zero. The site features a number of animations, videos, links to other artsy new media sites as well and undecipherable German–coded phrases. It’s possible to see an increase in the amount of sites that use typosquatting, especially with the internet becoming accessible practically everywhere and the keys on phones and other devices becoming smaller and closer to one another. www

zombo.com
I’m sorry, but the only words that can accurately describe zombo.com are the following: “This is zombo com.” I may have already said to much, as this is the kind of site that need not be explained. Be sure to turn your speakers up. www

v. 1.2

One of the only reasons to go to Montgomery, AL: The Montgomery Flea Market (It's Just Like a Mini-Mall!)

disclaimer: I am by no means responsible if you find yourself singing this song for the rest of the day.

v. 1.1

kongregate.com
This flash-based video game site not only boasts some of the best online games for free, but also allows users to upload games they've created on their own and let other gamers play them. kongregate.com has a wide variety of games including popular strategy and tactical defense games, as well as multiplayer, action, sports, adventure, RPG and puzzle games. A lot of the trickier games have detailed instructions, and many other online gamers offer help if you ask for need to ask for it. Some of my favourite games are Castle Wars, a multiplayer, turn-based card game that may seem limited, however, the ability to tweak your own deck will keep bringing you back to this game. A new favourite game of mine, Gamma Bros, combines retro gameplay and 8-bit styled graphics into an increasingly fun space-action-shooter. The game takes elements of Galaga, Centipede and Space Invaders and adds powerups and different weapons which allows them to perfect the action – adventure game. www


scenemusicfestival.com
Two weeks ago, the relevance of the Scene Music Festival website wasn’t so obvious to me. Of course, the site would get an increasing amount of hits, as the date of festival drew closer. However, now that the site has had a complete overhaul, it’s content becomes both important and interesting despite the proximity to the festival. This year, the Festival will take place on June 29 in downtown St. Catharines, and is still is the only Niagara–based festival that can lay claim to having over 150 bands play at 15 venues, all on one magical Sunday. Prior to the changeover, the site was useful to see the overwhelming amount of bands performing, as well, the site hosted Niagara’s only active message board and forum. The board is still active and susceptible to irritating internet trolls, but that all comes with the beauty of “free speech.” and internet forums. Some new additions to the site include over a dozen videos from SCENE 2007 as well as interviews and performances with bands such as Shad, The Constantines, Cancerbats and many others. Since the re–launch (by gameplanpros.com) the site looks sharper, it’s easier to navigate and is a good reminder that the festival happens again in just over three months. www


garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com


As a kid, I would absolutely love Saturday mornings for two reasons: Saturday morning television cartoons and Saturday’s massive comic section in the Toronto Star. Two of my favourite comics were Garfield and Family Circus. Looking back, both comics were aimed at children and forged my early understanding and love for unfunny comics and Catholicism. Years later, not much has changed with Family Circus or Garfield, but a brilliant blogger and active photoshopper has done the unthinkable; made Garfield comic strips funny, by removing the loveable lasagna–eating cat. “Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and the empty desperation of modern life?” quips the site’s introduction. Not only is the blog updated daily, but in some cases, you can expect to find 3 Garfield–less strips in one day. Sure, Jon Arbuckle talked to his cat, but, nobody could have guessed he had this many problems that he channelled through his cat. www

v. 1

My brain fart has exploded into a smelly gas of actuality.
think of the late '90s, when you had to be told of websites to visit.
AltaVista, Yahoo, Rocketmail, ICQ, etc...

These blogs/articles will serve to review websites both global, national, and local and give them a review out of three w's.

Www: interesting content, but no real reason to visit more than once in a while.
WWw: bookmark it! a good to great website that should be visited on a weekly/monthly basis.
WWW: if this was your homepage, you'd be home by now.