That's showbiz...

Oscar here, the tictoc office dog.

A penpal from my holiday kennels forwarded me on this fantastic ad for Pedigree dogs biscuits.  He had auditioned but was pipped to the post by the smiling bulldog, that's showbiz!
Click here - Pedigree: Catch

Enjoy...Oscar out

By Oscar the Dog
Published: 4 March 2010
2 Comments

Sunrise over London

Woke up this morning and was stunned by the gorgeous sunrise so thought I'd take a quick snap with my phone and share it with you all! Below is the view taken last night - how many tourist attractions can you spot or can you guess where the pic was taken?? Answers on a postcard please (or via the comments facility below!!)

By David McGilvray
Published: 2 March 2010
4 Comments

I just haven't met you yet

Who's your secret crush...

Well one tictocer's isn't so secret, twilight's Edward Cullen, who we were lucky enough to have a 'visit' from this week much to the delight of Lucy!

To get the ball rolling, a certain tictocer in New Biz has a secret crush on Martin O'Neil and mine, well that would be telling!

Who's your secret crush, we promise not to tell anyone.

By Fiona Dorman
Published: 19 February 2010
7 Comments

Is it a bird...Is it a plane...

...No it's me with my new Superhero tote bag! 

With great power comes great responsibility...and never a truer word has been said as the modern day superheroine must shop responsibly.

On that note, I'm buying a lair next! - www.superherosupplies.com

By Fiona Dorman
Published: 9 February 2010
1 Comment

Scary seagull flocks to the Buz Dev window!

So here we are, myself, Kate and Sarah, on a Monday morning getting stuck into the new business week when a huge (and they do seem very large when flying straight at your window!) seagull decided to drop in to say hello!!

Quite a surreal moment up here in the 3rd floor office with a pretty teeny ledge!

By Melanie Russell
Published: 1 February 2010
1 Comment

tictocing our way up the charts

So, in case you hadn't noticed (you hadn't noticed?? I mean, don't you listen to the charts on a Sunday afternoon?!) tictoc has been making quite an appearance in the music charts lately.

First (and yes, this was last year) Busy Signal climbed the dancehall charts with the single Tic Toc from the album Loaded.

Then Emilio Rojas also had a hip hop hit (I might be using the term loosely) with his single Tic Toc.

And Ke$ha got to number 4 in the UK charts with the single TiK ToK from her debut album Animal.

I am telling you, we are down with the kids!

Anyone else know of songs with tictoc in the title or lyrics??

By Kate Wooding
Published: 21 January 2010
9 Comments

Stroke of genius or mad man gone too far?

Came across this delightful (?!) piece of craftsmanship on the internet a while ago and I'm still undecided whether this is genius or insane. So I thought I would post and let y'all decide. If you use 1 of the links below you can find out how to make your own or see what else the maniacs at the Steampunk workshop have been getting up to.

How to make your own Victorian PC

Steampunk Workshop

By Paul Daly
Published: 18 January 2010
1 Comment

Up on the roof

You may already have heard that our brand new London office boasts fantastic meeting rooms, and some great green credentials like a wormery, herb garden, and recycling scheme. We're also pretty excited about the roof top garden, complete with outdoor sofas.

Sure, it looks a bit grey, and wintery now, but we're looking forward to lots of meetings outside come summer. Who's up for a barbie?

By Jo Kerr
Published: 18 January 2010
0 Comments

Foldable snowflake

Always on the lookout for new inspiring ideas I came across this work by 'Sanchtv'. It's a foldable fractal structure made from a single piece of material using a computer controlled laser cutting process. I imagine it would be pretty fiddly to assemble, but what a fantastic Christmas decoration it would make!

By Tom Beddard
Published: 18 December 2009
0 Comments

tictoc Family Fun Day??

Kate sent me a link to this place recently which I'm very excited about (for my one year old obviously!!) - Diggerland. We could take all the tictoc children (most of whom are boys!) on an excursion to learn about all aspects of the construction trade, drive tractors and the adults could take part in some JCB racing! Coool!

By Melanie Russell
Published: 15 December 2009
4 Comments

Get behind this thing

Very few of you will remember (since it didn't work) when I tried to single handedly over throw the unstoppable force of pure evil that is Simon Cowell and his chart monkey of the moment. Via the power of this blog I tried to get as many people as possible to buy alternative versions of Hallelujah which was at the time due to be murdered by Alexander Burke or whatever her name was. The campaign had limited success although I like to pretend that Jeff Buckleys version reaching number 2 was partly down to me.

It seems my idea has been copied this year although it's been done a lot better with national press and radio coverage of the campaign. We all need to get behind this (even if you already or don't really want to own Killing in the Name of by Rage Against The Machine). Personally I think it will make a great Christmas song, we'll be singing it round the tree at my place.

See here for more details
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=nf&gid=2228594104 

By Paul Mowat
Published: 9 December 2009
3 Comments

ssssSSSHHHHH

What's the general consensus on the office secret santa?

Is it naff?  Does it cause unnecessary stress?
Or is it just a bit of festive fun?

By Fiona Dorman
Published: 3 December 2009
2 Comments

Twitter wit

Ever wondered what Harry Potter would say if he had Tweetdeck? Ponder no longer - we've found the answer. Twitterature is a new book that digests famous works of fiction from Chaucer to Dan Brown into a series of highbrow tweets. 140 characters or less of course.

Less literary criticism than a sly dig at an author's inelegant denouements, or the characters you love to hate, Twitterature can be hilarious. It might even make you ROFL.

In a typical tweet, Hamlet (@Oedipus Gothplex) asks, "WTF IS POLONIUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN?"

Harry (@NotoriousHP) is more reflective. Commenting on his time at Hogwarts he says: "OMG Hogwarts OMG I have two friends OMG magic OMG the Slytherins are Nazis OMG there is an EVIL WIZARD out to get me."

The book was penned by two University of Chicago students, and you can follow further forays into Twitterature on the authors'  Twitter account. We can't link to it here as there are some rather unsavoury tweets about Twilight, and we wouldn't want to upset a certain Robert Patterson loving tictocer.

Alternatively, it might make the ideal Secret Santa gift. Hint hint!

By Jo Kerr
Published: 3 December 2009
1 Comment

Happy Turkey Day

If Christmas is just too far away, get your turkey fix tonight by celebrating Thanksgiving. Remember to give thanks for all the good stuff, and wear elasticated trousers. Have fun y'all!

Here are our top four Thanksgiving facts (several of which may be reused come December!):

1. Twenty percent of all cranberries eaten in the U.S are eaten on Thanksgiving.
2. Benjamin Franklin thought the wild turkey was so American it should have been chosen as the US national symbol, rather than the eagle.
3. Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets
4. Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in colour, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. Turkeys have a poor sense of smell, but an excellent sense of taste.

By Jo Kerr
Published: 26 November 2009
2 Comments

Whisky, Whisky and more Whisky

I was recently in the envious position of being invited to Whyte and Mackay’s head office in Glasgow to sample some of their range of whiskies, including the award winning 30 year old, and to meet “the nose” himself, master blender Richard Paterson.

The evening started with a general milling around in the lobby of Whyte and Mackay’s offices. Introducing myself to the other bloggers, twitterers and whisky drinkers who had been invited along to celebrate the 30 year old’s win as the best blended whisky.

We were then all ushered into the lift and enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Glasgow as we were take to the top floor and shown into the bar where a dram of the 4 year old was awaiting us.

As we sampled the youngest of the range of whiskies we were moved through to the hallow ground. The tasting room! As seen on TV

This room is beautiful, filled with rare bottles and lit to show the whisky to its best. And it is here that we met the master blender himself. Richard takes us on a tour of the room and of the history of blending and Whyte and Mackay starting with Andrew Usher and moving through the years to the present range of whisky.

By now we are all onto our second dram of the 4 year old but this time Richard tells us what we can expect from this blend, and to help bring the flavours out we all have a bite of rich tea biscuits! Yes rich tea biscuits, and the results were amazing. The flavours of the whisky are intensify by the biscuits own flavours.

From the 4 year old we move onto the 13 year old and hobhobs. Again the combination is not the traditional whisky and oatcakes but it works better. As we move through the whiskies each one brings new flavours and each becomes richer. One of my favourites at this point is the 22 year old which balanced the richness and heaviness well to make a very drinkable whisky :)

And so we were presented with the 30 year old award winner, and thanks to Craig McGill it was one of the largest drams of whisky I have ever had the pleasure of drinking! This was a deep and mellow whisky that stayed in my mouth long after I had finished it.

To finish this amazing evening we were treated to something I doubt I would ever buy myself, the Whyte and Mackay 40 year old at about £500 a bottle. I could try and describe this whisky but all I’ll say is that the next day I could still taste the beautiful flavours, heaven!

By Alan Masterson
Published: 13 November 2009
3 Comments

Tonight Matthew I’m going to be...

...Paul, your new Front-end Developer (Cue the smoke and Stars in Your Eyes theme music - dah, dah, dah, dah ,dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, daaaahhh). Now that I’m into my second week here at tictoc and have already met everyone in the office I thought I should introduce myself to the rest of the world via the blog. Hello world!

Me in brief:

My name is Paul, I like the web, design, designing, development, developing, drawing, music, ice hockey, football, playing music, making music, playing ice hockey, playing football, macs, my iphone (currently addicted to actually), food, eating food, drinking (to stay hydrated obviously), tv (particularly Curb your Enthusiasm, Lost, The Simpsons and South Park), movies, most other things to be honest.

Let me know about you!

Paul

By Paul Daly
Published: 3 November 2009
3 Comments

Hen Party

Doing some head tracking research I found out that some birds (hens in particular) use this sophisticated head stabilisation technique, which allows them to keep their heads still, regardless of the body position. I was a bit skeptical and I thought it was some kind of a tricky joke – how such feature would have possibly evolved?

Luckily, I had a chance to visit North Berwick last weekend and had a chance to try it out myself. It works indeed – click the video below to play.

hen party

By Tomek
Published: 26 October 2009
0 Comments

The girls are catching up on the boys!

Sarah Dixon has just joined us today in the role of Business Development Assistant. Working with myself & Kate, Sarah will be responsible for getting the pair of us in order (and rationalising the scribbled notes on the walls!) and generally bolstering all aspects of new business!

She also helps make up the girlie numbers here in the tictoc family so welcome Sarah!

By Melanie Russell
Published: 20 October 2009
0 Comments