Check out some new websites        

Problem with the internet is that its really big and these days its so corporate that its easy to get caught up just looking at your email and checking out the BBC/facebook and your other handful of regular websites (Yorkshire Windbag, Californian bikini girls and Anoraks reunited - in my case).

So I've decided to point you in the direction of a few friend's websites. Take a look and see what you think. I'm not getting paid for this and none of them contain dodgy material (although the third one has been banned in the US I believe).

Lets start off with 'I Prefer Their Old Stuff'. This is a music blog written by Rich Pollard. Rich is a serious music fan. His tastes are wide and very varied. However a warning! Rich likes a lot of what you might call 'Difficult music'. He's very comfortable discussing Post Rock, Math Rock*, Kraut Motorik beats and all sorts of stuff of that nature.

*I once asked someone what Math Rock was. Turns out there's a lot of counting involved. Surely it should be called 'Basic Numeracy Rock' in that case? I think you'll find there is more to Maths than counting!!!

Still even if Rich's core tastes aren't to your liking you'll probably find plenty of interesting stuff that will float your boat. Links to songs and videos are often posted and I believe there is a lot of Spotify stuff on there (I've not really got round to taking an interest in Spotify yet - which is a pretty shocking confession from a so called music fan).

You can find Rich's site here: http://biomech68.wordpress.com/

Next for something completely different. I discovered 'The Rockdragon's lair' whilst self-googling. A bit sad but I was curious to find out if the Yorkshire Windbag had made it onto Google. Turns out that if you put in "Yorkshire Windbag" (note the use of inverted commas) I get top entry. Anyway I also came across a website that was name checking me.

Turns out it was Louise who is an old school friend of my wife. I can't claim to know Louise that well (we've met only a handful of times and on two of those occasions we were each getting married - not to each other obviously). The blog though, to my mind, captures a lot of the Louise I know. Its opinionated, slightly geeky and liable to  make you chuckle. Check out the short short story 'The Exam' for example. The page layout is also pretty cool.

Its not been updated since December but I believe that Louise has been out of the country over christmas (she has another blog all about her travels!).

The Rockdragon's Lair is here: http://bluerockdragon.com/ 

Finally the nepotism really kicks in here as I plug my uncle's website. Richard Bell is a naturalist, artist and all round West Yorkshire Renaissance man. I've known him since the early eighties when he first started courting my aunt. At the time it was a bit gobsmacking for myself and my brothers and sisters because he was a local celebrity. He was publishing books; displaying paintings in art galleries; appearing on Look North and turning up in our front room!

Richard's main subject is the natural world and its worth checking out the site just for his illustrations. But as is the way with these things his personality comes through with little anecdotes and useful/useless information. He's got a lively enquiring mind and is much more au fait with technology than myself. He still produces books but these days he publishes himself and sells via the net and local bookshops.

His main web page is here: http://www.wildyorkshire.co.uk/naturediary/index.html

It looks like he's now also got a seperate blog which you can reach from a link on his page.