http://www.budugllydesign.com
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You've been there haven't you? Logged onto a website and everything you hate to view is unveiled. Unnecessary distractions, huge graphics, useless information, misspellings, links that don't work, and if they do there's nothing on the page, intrusive audio, flashing bells and whistles, floating cursors, moving images, a total lack of clear navigation? Annoying isn't it? You can't wait to get out! Bud Uglly Design is a spoof, humour website who explain:

"A power house of design ineptness, Bud Uglly Design first went on-line July 1996. It garnered much attention, and became popular with the web design crowd. Bud Uglly Design was the "site to see" if you wanted to view every mistake you could possibly make in web design. The site was updated weekly and new features were constantly added until it became so bloated it finally had to be shot."

Bad Uglly are still updating, and have history links back to 1996, include games like 'The Scooter Ride Through Hell' that drive you mad, and demonstrate a wicked sense of humour. They make me feel good about my own Homepage!

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
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Web Pages That Suck follows on perfectly from Bad Uglly, as here's where you can learn good Web design by looking at bad Web design. Updated regularly with The Daily Sucker giving current bad web design examples, Vincent Flanders, creator of the website, gives 'real life' and web seminars using bad live Web site samples for his audiences to enjoy and learn how not to do it.

Flanders recently launched FixingYourWebSite.com. "It's the logical next step," he says. "People write me all the time, 'Vincent, I know my site sucks. What can I do to fix it?'" FixingYourWebSite will be to good design what WebPagesThatSuck is to bad design.

There are links to many of his articles and splendid advice as to how to avoid all these mistakes and create a website to be proud of. Flanders is a very funny man and makes a good web read!

http://www.efuse.com
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Everyone has a dream to have a webpage in cyberspace, but may not have the basic skills. After the humour of the last two sites, if you really want to publish a site so that your cousins in Australia can log on and see the latest family photos, get the latest news, then this is the site visit. This is the place to start if you're new to web building or need a refresher course.

The words, Start, Plan, Build, Create and Publish feature on the Homepage, and the site is, as it should be, perfectly laid out, easy on the eye and a dream to navigate. I defy anyone who has been too nervous to begin their own page, to go here and have a go. These lovely people will hold your hand through the whole enjoyable experience. There are many free downloads and the language used is for the people, and not mysterious and intimidating. I can't recommend this enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/
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I'm sitting in front of my computer. I have a Word document open and I'm writing a letter to my bank, attempting to wriggle out of my latest financial dilemma. I am online, wearing my headset and listening to Radio 4 from the Radio 4 website. I missed 'Dead Ringers' last week and Humphrey Lyttleton chairing 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.' On the BBC Radio 4 Homepage there is a link to 'Missed a programme? Go Listen Again Page' So while I'm composing a begging letter to a pompous person who is questioning my solvency, I'm exercising my chuckle muscles right now as I listen to 'Just a Minute' and enjoy the astounding variety of audio talent that Radio 4 has to offer the listener.

The Homepage is pleasantly and basically laid out which makes it easy to find your way around. It tells you what's on air now and a 'Listen Now' icon, which when clicked opens Real Player and the recording I hear is a few seconds behind the radio broadcast I can hear coming from downstairs. There's BBC News and Radio news, quizzes, interaction, message boards, programmes A-Z, subscribed newsletter, presenter biographies and feedback, and a breakdown of current and future transmissions. For Radio 4 devotees everywhere, a must to visit.

http://www.deliaonline.com/
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Sadly, the hours spent in my attic using my computer for so many varied and interesting tasks, has led to me becoming being a confirmed 'Kitchen Slobess' I counteract this downhill slide by paying a daily visit to Delia's haven of perfection in all things domestic. Credit must indeed go to the Webmaster for managing to design an easily navigated and informative site that incorporates every aspect of Delia's skills and of course, promotions. I read avidly, with a growing desire to attain such flawlessness and expertise. Oh to learn how to dry-roast spices and become skilled at sixty other cooking techniques.

Oh to join the nationwide stampede for prunes and bake the perfect Sticky Prune and Date Cake. But for ideal results I must weigh the ingredients correctly, so to ensure this I must buy Delia's kitchen scales online! And look! One click on the link to Magic Gardens and I am being soothingly told how to achieve this by Alan Titchmarsh. A soporific half an hour with Delia online and I am ready to be stimulated into action. Not in the kitchen, but tapping on my keyboard and checking my Outlook Express as I eagerly await my regular inspirational newsletter via email from Delia.

http://www.thisismoney.com/index.asp
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My interest in money is caused by the never ending quest to hang on to some. I have acquired the technique of enjoying reading onscreen and have discovered I absorb more from online reading than I do from newspaper articles. This Is Money claims they are the site 'Where Money Talks Your Language'. Updated daily and with excellent news and market coverage and message boards, I would challenge anybody to not find information that wouldn't be useful to them. Everything from best credit card deals, mortgage calculator (Which is first class) share dealing, legal matters, tourist rates, taxes, insurance, find an advisor and much more. Again, my daily half an hour in here and I know I can relax in my attic with my computer as I'm still solvent, or should I be out getting a job scrubbing a few floors?

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/index.htm
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As you may have gathered, with all this time spent working, studying, browsing, amused myself or deciding whether to make a Luxury Smoked Fish Pie a la Delia for dinner, leaves me no time for shopping! That anguished moment, when the penny drops and the realisation that it's someone's birthday in three days time! There's no petrol in the car and a round trip of forty miles for a shop that sells slightly unusual things is called for! Once bought, you'll have to wrap it and post it! I Want One of Those claim they sell 'Stuff you don't need…but you really, really want' The site is funny, fast and cool and although they frankly maintain nobody needs the goods, surely the L39 Fighter Jet would be a welcome gift for someone as is the Join the Erotic Dots Book with saucy adult images for £6.99!

Ideal for gifts, gadgets and gizmos with delivery from three to five days. Prices are well defined from under a tenner to no limits. You can send an online gift voucher too. I should know, 'cos 'I Had One of Those' It arrived in my Outlook Express mailbox and I went straight to I Want One Of Those, ordered online spending my voucher, and my gift of Stainless Steel Naked Male and Female Salt and Pepper Pots arrived within three days!

http://www.open.ac.uk/
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I'm halfway through my third Open University Course, and I still have to pinch myself as I can't believe I've got this far as a mature student. To get back to reality I visit the Open University Homepage to read all the courses choices open to me in the future, and which will lead me into gaining my Degree. The site is, as you would expect from such a worthy institution, well designed and gives a full rundown of courses, qualifications, fact sheets, faculties and expert guidance, plus news items. As a registered OU student I have access to the libraries and research resources. This website was the first one I ever visited when I went online in 1999. I was so inspired, I impulsively registered while online. It could be said that a computer and the Open University completely altered my life for the better.

Remember, when you join the OU, you're never alone: more students register every year with the OU than with any other UK university: 75,000 OU students are now on-line, allowing a constant exchange of ideas and views, plus on-going communication between students, other students and their tutors.

http://www.redhatsociety.com/
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Perhaps many of you know this poem?

'Warning' by Jenny Joseph:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens . . .

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

The Red Hat Society could only have begun in America! The 'Statement of Purpose' on this well designed and interesting website tells us:

"The Red Hat Society began as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humour, and élan. We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life, and, since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next."

Sibling groups are sprouting up all over the USA and the latest gossip is that one has begun in Kingsbridge, UK! The site has a chat room, women's stories in the form of chapters and of course merchandise. This mainly appears to be in the form of tea trays and mouse mats, always in red and purple with their trademark Red Hat Society logo well positioned. They seem to meet up for tea wearing purple dresses and red hats, the criteria being that all members have to be fifty and over. Many of my friends of a certain age meet up alright, but always for a boozy extended lunches and always dressed in black to behave outrageously! This society may be a little tame for them.

The way the electronic information highway spreads the word, how long do you give it before The Red Hat Society has a firm grip in Middle England?

http://www.karenvoight.com/index.html
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Until an innovative designer markets a computer chair with inbuilt massage functions to streamline the forever spreading 'Computer Botty' due to the many hours spent sitting in front of the monitor, then I need to exercise. No time to travel to and from the gym, so home exercise is the solution, and motivation is needed.

Karen Voight is an American fitness guru and a daily visit to her website makes me feel guilty enough to get off my computer chair, arm myself with the five pound weights, a chair back and throw myself around the room, wielding a broom handle, in time to her energetic video fitness routines.

The website will motivate the most reluctant of you with mini-workouts, move of the month, chat room, what's new, videos, articles, all to inspire you to get lean and defined. to stretch and sculpt. After half on hour on here, I really don't have the time to exercise, but, what the hell!

I would like to think that at least one of my selections will of interest to someone.

© Mornev 2002