=== One Across

 

Word puzzles have always been something I’ve loved. I think it was a trait I inherited from my mother. She still pours over the crossword puzzle in the newspaper and you can find a plethora of word puzzle books on her bookshelves. It’s really annoying when I do a crossword and only miss a few of the answers, not to mention frustrating.

 

Here at One Across, you can search not only the pattern answer, but the clue as well. Isn’t that nifty? Talk about helping to narrow down the possibilities! I recommend checking out the Hints for Searching link at the bottom of the page. Why? Well, because it actually has very useful tips for getting the most out of your search and it’s written plainly, so you don’t have to guess at what they mean.

 

And of course, there is more help waiting for you here than just help with crossword puzzles. You can check out the Cryptograms, Anagrams and Reference sections for more help too.

 

Cryptograms – Here you just paste in the encrypted text and click Go to get help with decoding the puzzle. You can also click the links Easy, Medium and Hard to get a random cryptogram if you were setting up a puzzle for others to solve.

 

Anagrams – Here you can search anagrams and use the search tips below the search field for the best searching results. They haven’t gotten the search hints up for this section yet, so it’s a little more complicated of a search, but it works.

 

Reference – Did you get the answer, but have nary a clue as to what it means? Well, at the reference section, you can put in the word and search the database for a definition.

 

Forum – Need extra help? Well, you can always browse the forum where you can get extra puzzle help, make suggestions and check out the announcements.

 

Whether you are solving puzzles or making them up for your friends to solve, this is an excellent site to check out!

 

 

=== The Longevity Game!

 

This age tabulator calculates your age off of your responses to questions about your general health, family background, and experiences. How long will you live based on your answers?

 

I filled out the questions and answered honestly. According to the age tabulator, if I continue living the way I do now I could live until I'm 87 years old.

 

The neat thing is you can go back through and answer as if you were living the healthiest way possible and compare the difference. If I lived healthier I could live up to 100 years old.

 

You can also get to the other extreme and choose all the worst answers and see what happens. With that set of answers I could live only until I was 41 years old. Nice incentive to keep up my current health regimen.

 

It's only twelve quick questions and only takes about two minutes to fill out—what age will you tabulate out to?

 

 

=== CurioCity

 

CurioCity is an interesting Science site that explores science itself, engineering, and technology, but best of all it is interactive!

 

Do you have questions about how something works? Or have you wondered why about something? Well, then you should head over to the Ask Us section, and ask your question. Just fill out the form on the right side of the page with your question, first name, and e-mail address, grade level (if you’re in high school), City, and your Province or State; then click the send your question button. Oh and make sure to check the box that you’re over 13. The other great thing about the Ask Us section is that you can browse through all the questions that have been asked and see how they were answered.

 

I love The Lab section where you can find experiments that you can try. There are a lot of interesting and easy to do experiments. For example check out the Sudsy or Slimy experiment. It is easy and something that you can do at your home with minimal investment in materials (I had everything but the distilled water and that was cheap to pick up). I love experiments like this that take an everyday product like soap and show me how it is scientific.

 

Everyday Science is a neat section all about the science of everyday things. The most recent article is about the Science of 3D, which I’ve noticed has become a popular option again for movies these days.

 

No matter where you browse on this site you are certain to learn something in a fun and engaging way. Pass this one onto your budding scientists, your kids!

 

 

=== Lost Vocals

 

I am a huge fan of old movies, so you can bet your bottom dollar that I was excited when I discovered this site! The site takes clips from old movies and restores the actor’s real singing voice to the scene. You’ll also find they’ve also included alternate tracks of scenes, or restored deleted lines. It’s really cool!

 

I stumbled across this site while trying to find a clip from the Singing in the Rain, with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. The movie is an all time favorite of my sister and I, and I wanted to cheer her up with a clip. Then I discovered that they didn’t let her sing all of her own parts!

 

So after that I decide to check out some of the other videos, and when I stumbled onto Ava Gardner’s “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine” I knew I had to share this with you. I grew up on the soundtrack of the Show Boat, so I was shocked when I saw the movie and it wasn’t her singing, but now thanks to the miracle of technology I can!

 

On the Main Page you’ll find a set of featured videos, but if you truck on over to the Videos section you’ll find even more! This site is a real gem, not only do you get hear the real voices of the performers but most of the videos have information about what you’re seeing, sometimes from the actor themselves.

 

Check it out!

 

 

=== 1-800-Volunteer

 

Are you looking for a place to do some volunteer work? Well, if you are, this Web site makes it super easy for you to find the organizations that match your goals and ideals. How does it work? Just search for opportunities that interest you, create a free account so you can sign up and then you can start volunteering.

 

It is really easy to start searching. It’s right at the top part of the page. You can search by keyword or just by your city, state or zip code. There are even advanced search options that really help you narrow it down and zoom right in on what you’re looking for.

 

Creating your account is very easy too. Just click the Create Account link at the very top of the page. Here you are presented with some options. You can sign up as an individual or as a group. Or, are you a member of an organization that needs volunteers? If that's the case, you can post your events and even recruit volunteers here. Just create an account for your organization.

 

Organizations that need your help for worthy causes are just a click away. This is a great way to be active in your community too. You can get local results, so you’re giving back where you can see the difference. It doesn't get any better than that!

 

 

=== Access my Library

 

Access my Library provides free access to libraries all over the United States and Canada, as well as, free access to over 30 million articles from premium sources.

 

On the front page you’ll see all the categories of information that you can browse. They are: Arts & Humanities, Business, Consumer News & Advice, Culture & Society, Education, Government & Law & Politics, Lifestyle & Personal Interests, Medicine & Health, News & Current Events, Science and Technology.

 

As you can see they have just about everything you might need right here. All you need is a valid e-mail address, and a zip code. You don’t need a library card of or anything. If you have more questions about that – check out the FAQ you’ll find a link to it at the bottom of the page.

 

This is a great free resource, check it out today!

 

 

=== Old Car and Truck Pictures

 

I love old cars and trucks, so I’m pleased as punch to be bringing you a site that is devoted to them! To get to the images you need to scroll down the page until you see “And now the old car and truck pictures”, beneath that you will find a gallery of old cars and trucks.

 

You can click the image or the link below it to enter into the gallery of your choosing. Once you’ve clicked into one of the galleries you will find a lot of information on that particular car or truck, as well as, more images of that car or truck! There are even a few motorcycles tucked in among the cars and trucks!

 

I really love the Divco Truck, and the Crosley. Be sure to check out the Odds and Sods section too – you’ll see some really interesting cars and trucks in there like the Ricottis Alfa Torpedo!

 

This was a fun site to check out; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

 

 

=== RIOT

 

Radical Image Optimization Tool (RIOT) is a free program that lets you compress images in your computer losing little to no quality. Here is how you can download and use this free program.

 

Step 1- Download the software

 

The first thing you have to do is download the software. To download the software, go to the following website: http://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/
Next, click on the download link, and download the software to your computer. The download process should take the no more than a minute, because the file size is only about 1 MB.

 

Step 2- Set up the RIOT

 

Once the download process is completed, extract or unzip the downloaded file. This can be done with winrar or 7zip. Next, click on the setup file and start the installation process.

 

Step 3- Start compressing images

 

Once the installation process is complete, you are now ready to start compressing your images. To compress your images, open the program and drag an image file into the window. Compressing images in this program is very easy and effective.

 

After you drag an image, RIOT will then display two screens: a screen of the original image on the left, and a screen of the compressed image on the right. RIOT will then give the option to compress the image. It is recommended to select a quality of 75 percent, because you will barely notice any change picture quality.

 

Do you how the file size nearly decreased by half when the quality is decreased to 75 percent? The file size decreases a lot of decrease the quality further.
The picture that was shown has a resolution of 3072 by 2038 pixels--which is a lot. Notice how you not could barely make a difference in quality between the optimized and initial image. This program was tested further by decreasing the quality by 30 percent. The file size decreased to only 200 kilobytes, and the picture still looked crystal clear.

 

This is a great tool, it is strongly recommended to download it.

 

 

=== Soungle

 

This is a neat site that lets you search free sounds like sound effects, musical instruments, and such. I was looking for a gong noise to make play when I started my computer up. I know I’m a dork, right? But anyways, when I found Soungle I got really excited and typed in gong. They had 27 different gong sounds!

 

Then later in the week, I had someone ask me what a clarinet sounded like, so I got onto Soungle and looked it up for them. There were 12 different samples of clarinet, and they varied from a single tone to multiple notes being played.

 

Once you find the sound you want, click download on that sample. A window will pop up, you want to choose Save As, or Save File (depending on your browser) and just like that you have that sample on your computer!

 

I also thought it was fun to play multiple samples from the same instrument. For example I looked up flute and then pressed play on a couple of the samples in a row and they all played, it sounded like an orchestral warm up.

 

This is a great sound site, check it out today.

 

 

=== Andrew Zuckerman: Bird

 

I cannot begin to tell you how awesome this site is. I think it quantifies beyond words. But I can tell you how to navigate it, and see for yourself how amazing it is!

 

Start by clicking the OK button at the bottom of the page, this will take you into the site proper. The navigation menu consists of the following categories:

 

Photographs – here you will find a listing of each individual bird that was photographed for the book Bird. Not only can you see them individually, you can hear them too! If there is a little speaker next to the numbers for the individual photos click it to hear what that bird sounds like. You can also click the words Bird Information and learn about that bird specifically.

 

Films – I watched all the films here, and I would recommend that you start with the film entitled Aviary, and then watch the rest of the videos. I would start with Aviary because it explains how the photo shoot came together, and how they achieved such glorious images.

 

Book – here you can look at the actual book, cover to cover. Use the numbers to along the top to navigate through the book’s pages.

 

Info – here you can find all sorts of information, including how to get to Andrew Zuckerman’s site where you can see more of his work.

 

So what happens when Andrew Zuckerman visits the National Aviary? Pure magic! Check out these amazing images today!

 

 

=== Media Cope

 

Being a computer user, a time comes for everyone when one needs a player other than Windows Media Player. The time came for me too, so I downloaded a 3rd party player and was happy.

 

Then came the time when I needed to cut a portion from my video clips, so I downloaded a cutter for each video format. If I remember correctly, I downloaded four of those cutters. Same was the case when time came for audio cutters.

 

Now came the time when I needed to put my audio/video files in my mobile device. In this instance I really don't remember how many converters I downloaded. Same was the case with photo cutters/converters, slide show viewers.

 

I was using all these utilities until I found Media Cope. It can be downloaded for free from http://www.mediacope.com

 

This software provided me everything that I was using for my multimedia needs under one simple and clean interface.

 

Media Cope includes:
- Audio/Video Player
- Audio/Video Cutter
- Audio/Video Converter
- Photo Cutter/Converter/Resizer (Photo Cutter is wonderful and a dream come true as its design lets you cut 100s of pictures in minutes manually. Yes, try it for yourself to believe)
- Movie Like Real Time Slide Show Viewer (I always use it to view my pics with music and movie effects)

 

As a bonus, there are also a couple of innovative internet tools included:

 

- Web Image Full Screen Viewer (Can zoom any image on a web page to full screen. I love it)
- Speak Text (Can speak any text on a web page)

 

Media Cope supports almost every audio/video format including mp3, wav, aac, wma, flac, m4a, ac3, rmvb, mp4, 3gp, wmv, mov, avi, divx, mpg, flv, mkv and vob. Also, it supports almost every image format including jpg, bmp, gif, tiff, png, emf and wmf.

 

Media Cope is so easy to use that one can almost instantly start using it like an expert after installation. If in any case you get a problem there is a very well written help file that comes with it. Once you run Media Cope, you can see this help file by simply clicking on the help button as shown:

 

Once help button is clicked, a new window with all the help topics will open as shown
Everything is explained so well that you will say to yourself “Finally a help file that is truly helpful”.

 

 

=== Nation Master

 

This is an interesting site where you can check out and compare nations based on the information in their database. This is your one-stop site to find your country’s statistic on everything from soda consumption to crime rates. Not only can you find different nation’s statistics, you can also find sections on Flags, Maps, and even read articles from the Encyclopedia section!

 

The main page that you start out on has an interesting article that explains how everything works. You can also check out the FAQ if you have any more questions. On the left side panel of the main page, as you scroll down, you’ll find links to recent statistics, the most popular statistics, recent articles, and more!

 

This site provides an interesting look at the world we know! Check it out today!

 

 

=== Serious Eats

 

This is one of my favorite blogs! It's called Serious Eats. You all know how much I love food, and this blog just raises my food love to the tenth power!

 

This site is worth visiting just for the mouthwatering images that they share of tasty treats and savory dishes! Sometimes I visit and just scroll down the page and eat with my eyes! But you’ll be glad to know that most of those mouth watering images come with lovely articles about food.

 

At the top of the page you’ll find a link to whatever food is in the food lab (when I was there, it was all about chili) and you may even find a link to a quiz, but you’ll definitely find links to hot recipes. I swear recipes are collectable as postage stamps or coins! I adore lovingly adding a new recipe to my recipe book. You’re sure to find some recipes here that will definitely make the cut.

 

Oh about that chili article I was telling you about, you can check it out here in case it has moved when you get there. I absolutely adore the way the recipe is broken down for the reader, and the experiments that they tried with salt and beans.

 

I also recommend that you visit this site with a snack in hand, because you are sure to get hungry! Check it out today!

 

 

=== Design Sponge

 

This is the other blog I’ve been dying to share with you. I just find it so inspiring! And there are so many things that you can walk away from here with that you can put use in your own life and space.

 

Obviously, the site is set up blog style, but you’ll find a very hand side menu that will help you find the DIY projects and Guides!

 

This is another blog that has pictures that are just a feast for the eyes. I could scroll down and just feel inspired by the different colors and textures that are being highlighted, but that there are DIY projects and guides to help me along in the practical aspect of designing my space – that’s just fantastic.

 

Check out this amazing Take Out Binder project, that you can do with just a little time and creativity. I can’t wait to make one of these, because we’re always searching for where we last put the phone number for our favorite takeout places!

 

And I was absolutely floored to get to explore this creative proposal idea that combined a lot of love with illustration and craftiness in order to pop the question!

 

There is a section of recipes and videos too! I am currently exploring through those – I’ve added a slew of these recipes to try out. I’ve been into making truffles lately, and I’m happy to confess that they’re getting prettier!

 

I hope that this site will inspire you to make your own space prettier, I know that‘s what it does for me!

 

 

=== K9 Web Protection

 

K9 Web Protection is free software that filters fraudulent, illicit, adult, and pornographic content. It is a great alternative to software that charges you for such service.  To download K9 Web Protection go to:

 

 

=== Google Privacy Concerns

 

Ever since the Google Street View program was released in May 2007, many people have been complaining about the privacy issues associated with it. Apart from seeing their houses on Google's Web site, people have reported seeing themselves on the Internet as well. Now, I'd say that's taking it a bit too far. If you agree, here’s how you can keep your home and yourself a little more private!

 

1.) If you don’t want your house to show up in the Google Street View program because of privacy issues, all you have to do is click on the Report a Concern button.

 

2.) Next, choose Privacy Concerns for the reason why you don’t want the image shown in Street View.

 

3.) Now, describe why you don’t want the image in Street View and then enter in your e-mail address.

 

4.) Next, move the Street View image until the red rectangle is centered over your property.

 

That's it! Google will then review your concerns and delete the image if they agree with you. Yes!

 

 

 

 

=== Learning Games for Kids

 

I love online games, but I really adore them when they combine learning and fun. These are elementary level games, designed specifically to help kids learn.

 

On the main page you’ll see the featured games, as well as, a side menu for navigation. The games are split up into categories. They are:

 

Educational Songs and Videos – here you’ll find songs and different kinds of videos that will help teach your child things like slow motion science, or experiments.

 

Health Games – here children learn about allergies, body parts, dental science, and staying fit.

 

Art and Music Games – here kids can explore Art at the Getty, musical matching, music scales, and much more!

 

Math Games – what an excellent way to practice math. Here your child will discover fun math games that will let them hone their math skills.

 

Preschool Games – these games are designed to entertain and educate a preschool level child.

 

Keyboarding Games – here you’ll find games that will help improve your children’s typing skills. I love these games; I’m such a sucker for a typing game.

 

I played all of these games, they were super fun!

 

Geography Games – here kids can practice geography skills. There are challenges for all the different locations in the world.

 

Science Games – these games are divided up between Animal/Nature games, and Space games.

 

Miscellaneous Games – any game that doesn’t fit into the other categories is found here.

 

This is a great way to reinforce the information your kids are learning in class in a way that is fun for them.

 

 

=== ePetitions

 

Do you ever get an email petition asking you to add your name at the bottom and pass it along to all your friends?  Regardless of the cause or how well meant the intention of the originator was, such petitions are worthless.  Why?  Because all the signatures you pass along are duplicated as each person signs their name.  And no government office or public agency would pay the slightest bit of attention to a petition with so much duplication.
 
Well,someone finally recognized the need to provide a viable alternative.
It's a website called ePetitions.net.
 
Here's a sample petition so you can see an example.
http://treast.epetitions.net/
 
If you care enough about a cause and would like to circulate a petition, now you have a very handy tool.  Take a look.  Oh, yes.  And it's a free service. 
 
Kudos to you, ePetitions.net.
Here's a link to their website.
http://epetitions.net/

 

~Yale Schwartz

 

=== Macaroni and Cheese Recipes

 

One of my friends got married last summer, and has been trying to teach herself to cook. The other day she called me up and asked me if I had a good recipe for making macaroni and cheese. While I do have a good recipe, the instructions are a pinch of this, and a dash of that – not a problem for me since I grew up making it with my mom; but not great for a beginner.

 

So I went hunting for a good recipe for her, and told her I’d e-mail the link to her.

 

I found a site that is dedicated to just macaroni and cheese and the many ways you can make it.

 

You’ll find recipes here for: microwave, stovetop, oven, and crock pot preparations. You’ll even find a recipe for fried macaroni and cheese balls!

 

You’ll also find a link to give your macaroni and cheese a makeover that talks about mixing up the cheeses you use or finding healthy pasta to use instead, or even what you can add that will give it a zing!

 

Below the makeover link, you’ll find a link to macaroni and cheese’s history! There you will learn where about the history and what made Kraft decide to mass market it. At the top of this section you can find a link to Cheeses. The Cheeses section describes many different kinds of cheese.

 

Of the recipes on here I can’t wait to try the gourmet version, and the fried version. Which recipe will you try out?

 

 

 

 

=== Rules of Thumb

 

There are rules of thumb for virtually everything in your life; from advertising to crafting, from dancing to exercising, from the miscellaneous to marriage. This site captures all those rules of thumb in one place, so that you can find them easily!

 

On the main page you’ll find the Featured Rule of Thumb, a search engine, The Main Rules Collection (a category search engine), they also offer a desktop search engine for free download, and a featured column.

 

Under the Main Rules Collection, if you scroll down the page you’ll see that they’ve given an example for some of the categories so you have a good idea of what you’ll find there. I really like that.

 

If you’d like to be a contributor you can sign up free. Just click the Sign Up Free link. You’ll need to provide your name, a working e-mail address, and create a password. Optional information you can provide is your occupation, city, state, and country. When you have that all filled out then you can type in the security code, and check the box that you agree to the terms and conditions, then you can click the Register button.

 

Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Dog Tipper

 

This site is loaded with dog tips from dog lovers, as well as, cute pictures of dogs, dog news, and dog contests. You’ll find navigation along the top of the page, divided up into categories. The categories are:

 

Site Features – here you’ll find the dog tip of the day, pet pro profiles, and dogtipper contests! What I love about the dog tip of the day area is that it is setup blog style so after you read the tip for today, you can scroll down and read the tips that came previously to it!

 

News and Reviews – here you will find the latest news, and more importantly you’ll find pet product reviews that can help you decide whether or not you want to buy a product for your dog!

 

Celebrity Dogs – this is a fun section where you can check out which celebrities have canine companions and what movies have dogs in them! There is even a Celebrity Canines Blog!

 

Dog Pictures – here you can get your daily dose of doggy goodness with the Dog of the Day section! You’ll also find pictures of celebrity dogs, and have access to the dog photo gallery.

 

Getting a New Dog – practical tips can be found here for anyone who is considering getting a new dog. You’ll find info on saving shelter dogs, choosing between a dog and puppy, what breed is best for you and your lifestyle, budget tips and even tips on bringing your new pal home! Be sure to check out the budget section – the free .PDF has great dog biscuit recipes and great budget tips that can help anyone with a dog!

 

Caring for Your Dog – do you already have a dog? Well then you can get extra tips here for caring for your friend. You’ll find tips on grooming and caring for your pet, feeding and supplies, training and behavior, travel, and the one I really want you to check out Health & Safety. Be sure to check out that section because it mentions all sorts of safety information that I had never given any real thought to. For example: preparing for cold weather, pool safety, dealing with wild animals, moving your dog, traveling safely with your dog, and more!

 

This is an excellent site for any dog lover to check out – if only for the doggie biscuit recipe! I love to make dogs homemade treats. It’s cheaper and I know what is in them!

 

 

 

 

=== Encyclopedia of Life

 

This is not your average encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia of Life is dedicated to collecting information about the known 1.8 million species, as well as, collecting data about any new species found.

 

My favorite way to get started is to just click one of the images on the scrolling explore bar. It is awesome to just dive in and explore a new species, or a species I’m curious about.

 

But if you want more direction on how to navigation you can take the Video Tour! Mouse over Using the Site on the green navigation bar at the top of the screen and a drop down menu appears. Click Video Tour and you’ll be whisked away to the tour page. There are two videos. One is for navigation, and one is for the species pages.

 

Once you’ve selected a species to check out, you’ll notice that each page has an image of the species you’re viewing, then a general overview, and the scientific category that the species belongs in.

 

This site provides an interesting way to learn about the species all around us, as well as, those we never have the chance to come into contact with. Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Old Photo Lab

 

Do you like the charm of old photographs? Well now you can take any picture from today and give it that old photo charm. Not only that it is easy and free to create old photos from your computer.

 

To begin click the English button at the top of the page (unless you can read Japanese) – this will translate the important parts of the page into English for you.

 

I checked out the images below the menu options before I dug into the site. If you mouse over the images beneath the browse field you can see the images that they’ve converted as examples on the site. The ones of the buildings and statuary are very cool!

 

You have two ways to upload a photo you can chose the File tab or the URL tab. The File option allows you to click the browse button to find an image stored on your computer’s hard drive. Once you’ve selected an image click the Convert button. Now the site will process your image – when it is finished it will load below the form you used to upload it and there will be a Save button. If you like the way your photo looks click the Save button, choose where you want to save it and you’re good to go.

 

The URL options works in a similar fashion to the File option, except here you will put in the URL of the image you want to make look old. Then click the Convert button and when it uploads the Save button just like in the File section.

 

Now you can convert any of your new images to images with a retro feel – for free! Check it out today!

 

 

=== Find Law

 

Welcome to Find Law for the public. This means that you can find answers to your pressing law concerns before contacting a lawyer. Find information on just about any legal topic you'd ever want

 

The first thing the site asks you for is your zip code. Why do they need it? Well laws vary from State to State. Entering your zip code will help the site make the information you are searching for more pertinent to you.

 

The side menu is comprised of the search engine. Now you have a lot of search options with this engine. You can search topics, the message boards, and even find a lawyer near you.

 

I came to this site seeking specific information. My mom fell at work and broke her knee, now her doctor has forbidden her from going to work, so I wanted to make sure she was entitled to her pay still or at least could avoid termination. I also wanted to see if she needed to fill out worker's comp forms or other paperwork. I wasn't sure they even had worker's comp where she works.

 

Turns out Slip & Fall accidents are very hard to take to court, I wasn't looking to sue anyone really so I headed out of the Accident Section and into the Employee Rights section. It seems it's all up to her employer and whether or not they have worker's comp. But I did learn a lot about my rights as an employee.

 

Use the tabs at the top of the page to navigate through the different sections. When you are in the section notice that the colored bar under the highlighted tab also has more links for you to investigate.

 

There is nothing like being able to be forewarned and forearmed when it comes to being on top of legal information that you have to deal with. So browse around and find the answers to your questions today.

 

 

 

 

=== Kid’s Audio Books

 

When I was growing up audio books were a real treat to me. I can remember checking them out of our local library, and being sad when I’d gone through all the ones available at our branch. With the arrival of MP3’s on the scene, audio books became even easier to obtain and listen too. Here at Kid’s Audio Books you’ll find over 300 titles to download and enjoy with the whole family!

 

To get started you can either click the MP3 Downloads button, or click the Complete Listing link on the main page. I like the MP3 Download link better myself, it takes you to the A-Z index. The letters are shaped with blocks and it’s just so fun looking! It would be more fun for a child to explore, at least in my opinion. The Complete Listing link takes you to exactly that - a listing of all the titles in alphabetical order!

 

Once you’ve found the title you’d like to download, click its link and if it is a series you’ll then be able to choose which book you want to download. If it is a single title, you’ll be taken to its page where you can click the download link. Each story has a time next to it letting you know how long the reading is.

 

This site is going to be super fun to explore with your kids, or grandkids at that! Because not only does this site offer audio books but you can also check out the Coloring Books and Reading Books.

 

 

=== 50 Clever Tutorials and Techniques for Traditional Drawing

 

Okay, I’ve always wanted to draw. But I have to admit my talent runs into the stick figure variety. Yet, I’m still drawn to learning how to draw and while these tutorials show a lot of how to draw one thing. I think if you’re clever you can apply the techniques you learn drawing those things into the rest of your work.

 

I particularly like the Gordon Ramsey tutorial – because it fills you on how to pick a high quality photo to work from for best results. Better yet what you need to look for to pick a photo that will really benefit you to work from.

 

I also really love all the hand and feet tutorials because having talked to a lot of artists around school they can be one of the most difficult parts of a drawing.

 

No matter what your level of drawing is you can find something to try your hand at. I think this is a great collection of tutorials that you can walk away with some interesting information from.

 

 

=== Portable Applications for Flash Drives

 

I have something really cool for those of you who use flash drives!

 

Usually, I write about one or two free programs I have found, but today, I'm going to write about an entire Web site full of free programs. The site is called portableapps.com and it has tons of absolutely free applications that are designed specifically to be installed on a flash drive. All of the applications can be installed on a flash drive and instantly used on any computer you plug it into.

 

The Web site offers a bundle of programs called a suite, which includes a word processor, an e-mail program, a password utility, a calendar and even a Sudoku game. I installed the suite on my flash drive and I just love it! I can take my flash drive to any computer, plug it in and instantly have my documents and e-mails, just like it's my own computer.

 

If you don't want all of the programs, you can install them individually. There are dozens of portable applications to choose from.

 

Here's a quick note about installing the applications: make sure you have your flash drive plugged in when you download the apps. After you start the installer, it will ask you where you want to install them. To do it correctly, choose the drive letter of your flash drive and then continue on with the installation. That should be all you need. Enjoy!

 

You can check out all of the portable applications right here.

 

 

 

 

=== Best Crosswords

 

Here you can find daily crossword puzzles from both sides of the pond. You’ll find two daily American puzzles and two daily British puzzles. Be warned this site is highly addictive. I found myself not only lost in it for hours solving crossword puzzles but also coming back to it day after day.

 

To begin, you can select one of the daily crossword puzzles or you can click the green Puzzles tab at the top of the page. There are four different options on the puzzle page: Guest Constructor, Casual Interactive, Casual Printable, and Competitive

 

For some of the puzzles you’ll need to register for an account (for example: the competitive puzzles). Registration is easy, just click the Sign Up link, then create a username and password, provide a working e-mail address and you’re good to go.

 

If you run into any problems I highly recommend the Help section. It has separated the help question into those dealing with java and those that have become part of their FAQ.

 

This is an awesome crossword puzzle site, bookmark it today!

 

 

=== Pixadus

 

I love this site. It gives me a real pick me up feeling whenever I’m down!

 

Basically it is a photo site devoted to Nature Photography, but it is set up blog style instead of gallery style. You just scroll down the page and view the images, and when you reach the bottom of the page you can either select the Next Page option or you can choose the page number you’d like to view.

 

I like to start on the last page and work my way backwards but with 9000+ pages of photos that’s quite a task. There are other ways to view the photos, and you’ll find most of those options near the top of the page. They are: Recent Popular, Newly Added, Most Popular Today, Recently Up-Voted, Recently Commented, Most Popular Ever, Random Best, and Tags Cloud. On the main page beneath the advertisement on the right side of the page you’ll find a listing of Tags that you can view by as well.

 

Another cool thing about this site is you can vote the photos up or down. Up if you like it, and Down if you don’t.

 

Do you have a fantastic Nature photo you’d like to share? Then click Post a Pic up by the viewing options at the top of the page to be whisked away to the Upload form.

 

This is an awesome picture site that you can easily loose hours in checking out all the neat images posted there. Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Lotsa Helping Hands

 

Welcome to a site that is devoted to helping you create Community. Whether you’re taking care of an ill loved one, or just trying to keep in touch with someone whose spouse is deployed, or maybe you just want a place where your whole family can stay in touch – this is the place for you to create your community for free.

 

On the main page you’ll see many examples for what the site can be used for – after you’ve decided what type of community you want to build, I’d recommend checking out the How it Works tab. After you’ve read through their handy information on you can begin creating your community right from that page just by clicking the orange Get Started button.

 

Now fill out the form with the name of your community, what type of organization it is, your name, a working e-mail address, zip code, and then click the Create button.

 

You’re ready to begin creating your community! Won’t it be nice to be able to get together from anywhere just by checking the community and staying in touch? I wish we had found something like this for staying on top of what was happening in my grandfather’s health.

 

 

=== Paperless Post

 

Do you need to send out invitations? Why not save trees and send out paperless invitations with this site Paperless Post. Designing is free, and you get 25 stamps to use free too! (After your free 25 – the stamps do cost money, just so you know! You can earn 5 stamps per friend referral though!)

 

Registration is easy, just click the Create an Account button, and you’ll be whisked away to the sign up page. There you will fill out the form with your name, e-mail address, and then create a password. Check the box to agree to their terms, and then click the Submit button. Now go check your e-mail for the confirmation letter, click the envelope to confirm your account and you’ll be whisked back to the site to get started!

 

Creation is easy with their creator application – it takes you through step by step and will even offer you wording assistance. You’ll start by selecting a style of card, and then a motif for it, and then you’ll design the wording, and envelope!

 

You can make custom invitations that are gorgeous and send them out via e-mail for just about any occasion. You can even monitor them with the tracking section.

 

This is an awesome way to send out amazing and professional invitations and save trees at the same time!

 

http ://www.paperlesspost.com/session/new

 

=== Origami Diagrams

 

I love origami! It seems like every time summer starts, I get into making paper crafts. There is just something so fun and at the same time calming about folding paper into amazing designs. You can look back on it when you’re done and realize that it was just a square of paper when you started, and now, it’s a crane, or frog, or box.

 

The box is by far and away one of my favorites, because you can put stuff in it! I like to make them for presents when I’m giving away jewelry or trinkets, or heck, anything small enough to fit in the box! People really seem to enjoy getting them too.

 

Origami is also a great way to keep the kids entertained for an afternoon. Just print off some design and give them some paper and ta-da! You’ll have busy children!

 

This is an amazing database of origami designs! They range from simple projects to complex ones. And you can use the search engine to sort the projects by difficulty. You can also search for models by name or the date they were added.

 

Oh! And be sure to check out the Origami Gallery, you’ll find the button for it at the top of the page. You’ll be able to see finish products and get a link to a larger and more recently updated gallery as well. I adore the roses at the bottom of the page.

 

Check this one out today!

 

 

=== Speechable

 

I found another great site that lets you add speech bubbles to your favorite photos! It is very easy to use and when you are done you can share your photo via e-mail or your favorite social networking site.

 

To begin just click the button for the way you want to upload. Your choices are directly from your pc or from a URL. After the image has uploaded you will be on the creation page where you have three options of how to customize it. You can Bubble, Ab Text, or Doodle.

 

Bubble – clicking this will open up the bubble tool where you can select the shape of your bubble, as well as, the border and font style. You can also drag the bubble around the image to place it where you want it. To add text to the bubble, you’ll need to click on the Type Here text. It will give you a cursor and you can type in your text.

 

Ab Text – this will give you a text window to just add text to your photo. You can change the font and color in the handy text tool that opens. You can resize the text box by clicking and dragging the green circles on the text box. And you can move the text box to where you want it by dragging it there.

 

Doodle – the doodle option basically gives you a paintbrush that you can doodle on the photo with. You can change the size and color of your paintbrush with the doodle tool box that opens.

 

When you’ve finished your photo you can click the Save button. This will take you to a page where you’ll be provided with a link to share your image and the option to share it over several different social networking sites. (Click the Share This button to get the options to come up.)

 

If you don’t like what you’ve done, or have made a mistake and need to start over at any time before saving, just click the Undo button. You’ll find it next to the Save button.

 

This is an awesome site for adding speech bubbles and text to your images. Check it out today!

 

 

=== Iconspedia

 

Are you looking for a good icon, would you like it to be free? Well then, you’ve come to the right place. Iconspedia offers you quality icons for free in many fun categories!

 

On the main page you’ll find three highlighted sections – Featured Icons, Latest Icon Packs, and Random Icons. Next to those on the side menu you’ll find a plethora of categories: animal, brands, business, cartoon, computer, food & drink, games, holidays, internet, media, movies & TV, nature, objects, phones, sport, and vehicles.

 

Do you make icons? Well you can submit your icons to the site by clicking the Submit Icon tab, filling out the form, clicking the browse button and selecting them. When you’ve got everything filled out and ready, click Submit Pack.

 

To download an icon, find one you like (or a pack) and click the download link – your option are .png files or .ico files. You can even select the size you want on most of the downloads!

 

This is an excellent database of free icons! Start downloading!

 

 

 

 

=== Paper Modelz

 

I find the art of papercraft amazing. So when I found this site I couldn’t wait to share it with all of you. Here you can check out marvelous papercraft, but more importantly you can download the patterns for free to try making them yourself.

 

Navigation of the site is blog style. Just scroll down the page and see the wonders in paper to explore. When you get to the bottom click either the >> button or the next page number, or you can browse them by categories by using the menu on the right side of the page.

 

The categories are: Animal, Building, Cartoon, Cute, Electronic, Fantasy, Food, Games, Japan, Military, Miscellaneous, Natural, Origami, Paper Boxes, Uncategorized, and Vehicle. That just goes to show the incredible diversity of projects on this site!

 

If you’ve found one you want to try out yourself, you’ll be looking for the link following the description of the project. It will be something like Get it Here, or Download Here, or even just Source.

 

If you don’t want to try your hand at these papercrafts, you’ll still be wowed by the gigantic range of things people have made out of paper and how realistic they are. My favorite papercraft from this site was of the Le Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral in Spain. It was exquisitely captured in paper and you can see it here on the site!

 

 

 

 

=== Foodista

 

I know I’ve brought you a lot of interesting encyclopedias over the years, well I’ve found another great one to add to your bookmarks! That’s right Foodista is an amazing cooking encyclopedia!

 

Here you can search recipes, foods, techniques, and even tools – just by using their handy dandy search engine! For example type in braise. Then choose braising from list (it brings up everything that has braise as a keyword which makes for a lot of interesting, mouthwatering browsing if you get distracted) and you’ll be taken to the page about the technique braising. It is by far and away one of my favorite ways to cook food.

 

On the braising entry you’ll find a definition of the term, images of what braised food can look like, recipes that involve braising, and even the Wikipedia definition.

 

Back on the main page you’ll find a listing of most recently edited topics, as well as, recent blog topics, and if you scroll down the page you’ll find different ways to explore the site.

 

The categories for exploration are: Explore Foods, Explore Tools, Explore Techniques, and Explore Recipes – much like what you can search for with the search engine. Under each category there is a listing of items that fall into its heading that you can check out, and if you click the More link for any of them you’ll get a full alphabetical listing!

 

If you love cooking, trying new recipes, or just exploring foods you are going to love this site!

 

 

 

 

=== Know Your States

 

How well do you know the United States?  Here's a chance to find out.

 

 

 

 

=== Next Stop

 

What are your favorite things to do in town? What is really worth seeing where you live? Not only are these questions I can answer readily but with Next Stop I can share my recommendations with the whole world, and guess what, you can too! If you were coming to Toledo I’d recommend you check out the Toledo Zoo, and the Art Museum. Both are well worth exploring on a visit to Toledo.

 

Next Stop provides you with recommendations from local people to the location you selected. They also allow you to write recommendations for your town as well. Their focus is on short and positive recommendations.

 

To get started recommending place you’ll need to get registered. To do so is easy; just click Join Next Stop at the top of the page. Fill out the form with a username, e-mail address, and then create a password and click the Create Account button. Once you’re registered, you’ll be automatically logged in and on your profile page. Here you can edit your information and get started with your recommendations and guides. I don’t have time to write a guide at the moment but I did make two quick recommendations. Check them out here. The way the profile page is setup, you have a guide for what to do every step of the way because they explain everything so beautifully.

 

Be sure to check out the challenges section, you can write guides that will help out charities and more. For example, I’m going to go back and write a guide about places to eat in Toledo, so that they’ll donate 5lbs. of food to America’s Second Harvest Food Bank.

 

Don’t want to register because you don’t have anything to recommend, that’s fine there is still plenty for you to do at this site. You can type in a location into the search engine, and find out all sorts of things to do there on your vacation – or it could help you decide to make the trip there!

 

On the home page you can see all sorts of popular recommendations, as well as, a listing of popular destinations – make sure to check these out if you’re headed in that direction! Or just type in the place you want to find recommendations for in the search engine and see what the locals have had to say.

 

 

 

 

=== The Color

 

School is out for summer, and you might just need a way to entertain your kids. Welcome to The Color, an amazing online coloring book!

 

If you want to save the images they color, you’ll need to get registered for an account! It’s free and easy to do. Click the Sign Up Today link at the top of the page. This will allow you to save any pictures they color to the My Gallery section. You also have the option of e-mailing the images to your family and friends. Or printing it out – to hang on the refrigerator, you could also print them out blank for offline coloring!

 

To start coloring select a category to pick out the coloring page from, and then all you have to do is select a color, click where on the image you want that color – and poof – there’s color! I love that you aren’t limited to just a few colors, to get more colors to color with click the More Colors link at the bottom of the color chart. At the top of the color chart you’ll be able to see what color you have selected currently.

 

This is a great way to teach color recognition, eye-hand-coordination, and even the names of all 192 colors offered on the site. Plus, it’s just plain fun!

 

 

 

 

=== CamStudio

 

The program we used for creating the on screen recording is called CamStudio and it is completely free! CamStudio is simple to use and it will let you make a recording of anything on your computer screen so you can watch it later or share it with someone else. All you need to do is download CamStudio from this website, install it and then press the record button. Here is what it looks like.

 

As you can see, it's a pretty simple interface. Here are a couple tips. First, the program is set up by default to record the entire computer screen. If you want this to change, go to the "region" menu. This will allow you to only record a certain portion of your screen. Second, if you want to record audio too, make sure to go to the options menu and make the necessary changes to the settings. Lastly, just hit the red record button and you will start. After you are done recording, press the blue stop button.

 

If you would like to see CamStudio in action, you can check out our video demo for File Name Editor by clicking here.

 

NOTE: The downlaod link is about 1/4 way down the page. Click the link that reads "CamStudio20.exe".

 

In case you missed it above, here is the link to download CamStudio:
http://camstudio.org/

 

 

 

=== Free Conference Call

 

Do you need to make conference calls to brainstorm, hold meetings, or even just get in touch with multiple people at once? Then you should definitely check out this site where you can make conference calls for free and even record them!

 

In order to get started click the Get Free Service button, then fill out the form to create your account. You will need to provide your name and a working e-mail address, check the box that you’ve read the terms and conditions then click the submit button. You will be logged in as soon as you sign up, but you still need to check your e-mail for the confirmation letter. You’ll find your login information on this page – as well as, instructions. You should definitely read, or print this to refer back to it.

 

The navigation strip is blue and above the instruction area. You’ll find the following categories on it:

 

Account Info – here you’ll find your account information and a quick reference sheet on how to get started.

 

Recordings – here you’ll find recording instructions, as well as, any recordings you have made of your conference calls.

 

Podcast/RSS – this provides you with the links you need to listen to your recording on iTunes, or an RSS Client.

 

Invitations – this is where you will be able to invite people via e-mail to a conference call.

 

FAQ – do you have a question? Well check out the Frequently Asked Questions section to look for the answer.

 

About Us – here you will find out what the company running this site is all about, and what they aim to provide their users.

 

This is an excellent service that provides you with a way to make free conference calls, check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Cross Tips

 

I have definitely inherited my family’s love of crossword puzzles. My grandfather does them, my mother does them, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a new crossword puzzle. But sometimes I just get stuck on a word, and while I try to solve around it still can’t puzzle it out. Well if that happens to you too then you are going to love this site.

 

Welcome to Cross Tips, where you can find all the crossword puzzle help you need! It is really easy to use too.

 

Just input the number of letters the word has, and then fill in the blank slots with any letters you know. It will then generate a list of words that could possibly fit the criteria you’ve provided.

 

And if you don’t like that way of searching you can switch to the simple interface, where you’ll type in the letters you know with spaces for what you don’t know. I like the other interface better myself, because I’m a very visual person, and can easily mess up counting spaces.

 

I just love this site! It gets me out of a pickle every time.

 

 

 

 

=== Wayfaring

 

Wayfaring is the neatest thing to hit maps in a long time. I admit that I’m a map geek. So when I found this site I went gaga and spent way too many hours playing with it instead of writing about it.

 

Now that I’ve gotten the 'playing with it' out of my system, I'm delighted to share it with you. You’re probably asking yourself, "What’s so neat about this map site?". Well it allows you to create your own personalized map and to check out maps others have personalized.

 

The first thing you need to do is click the Create Map link on the top black bar. This will allow you to Register – don’t worry it’s FREE! You just need an e-mail address. Once you’ve confirmed your registration you’re ready to begin.

 

This is an excellent tool for giving directions, let me state that right away.

 

To Create a Map, you need to login, and click Create Map. Then you need to name your map. Once you’ve named your map, click the Next button. Now you can edit your map, and put your place markers down on it. You put notes, routes, and even other people’s wayfaring markers for the same area on it with the advanced options. When you’re done click the orange check mark labeled Finished.

 

This will take you to the Tag station – where you will add key words to your map to make it searchable. The better your tags are at describing your map the more people who will be able to find your map. Next is description – you’ll find this under text. You have an empty text block to start filling with a description of your map. Last but not least is Settings – this is where you can set your map to be public or private, and decide who can edit your map. Then all you need to do is save it.

 

Now you have other options to explore this site. You can Search or Explore.

 

Search – this option lets you use a search engine to find waypoint or maps in either your area or an area of your choosing. It is very easy to use.

 

Explore – this option let’s you explore the most recent maps added, as well as the best of wayfaring.

 

So get out there and EXPLORE!

 

 

 

 

=== Perfect Portions

 

I’ve gone from cooking for five people to cooking for two, and let me tell you, it is hard to adjust the amount you’re cooking to get the right portion size. It took me month to figure out that instead of a whole box of pasta I only needed about a third of it for two of us. Mind you, I didn’t keep cooking a whole box; I went down gradually till I got the right amount.

 

I would have loved to have this site to take the guess work, the trial and error, and agony out of that process.

 

You start by picking what you’re cooking from the categories they’ve provided, select from the list, unless you’re actually cooking one of their popular ingredients. Next, you’ll select how many people you’re cooking for. It will then calculate how much you need to cook and display the answer with the best way to measure it.

 

Once you’ve set the amount of people you are serving, you can just change food items from the list at the bottom to plan your whole meal. So you could start by having it measure how much pasta you’ll need, and then you can choose from the list and see how many strawberries you need for desert. This will make meal planning much easier – especially if you’re cooking for a dinner party where you will serve more people than you’re used serving.

 

This is a great site that will help you cook the perfect portion every time. This site is great for meal planning, dieting, and your everyday cooking.

 

 

 

 

=== Optical Illusions

 

I adore a good optical illusion, so I was very happy when Steve directed my attention to this site. The site is set up blog style, so all you have to do to navigate it is scroll down the page!

 

The first image is stellar. A man sitting on a ledge, looking over a road that seems to be going straight downwards, it is certainly one of my favorite images here.

 

As you are viewing the images, make sure you click them so you can see them full size. You can use the back button on your browser to navigate back to the main page. I think it’s certainly important to viewing the ones that move.

 

Next you move onto animations that are really moving, the question here is, which way are they actually moving? Clockwise? Counter-clockwise? You decide.

 

The stereo images move, but in a unique way. They have the feel of the way waves of heat will make what you’re looking at move. So it gives the impression that the swimmer really has just dived into the water, the fire is blazing away, and I’m guessing you should feel like you’re walking through the forest.

 

Point of view illusions are next! And the site has dedicated quite a few pictures to the cause. These are absolutely amazing, be sure to check them out! The site focuses on buildings at first but after you look at some 3D Transformations, you’ll come right back to point of view illusions. I love the picture of the man holding up the island.

 

After you’ve made your way through all the optical illusions on this page, I encourage you to click the Read Part 1 link – where you will find even more optical illusions and some amazing sidewalk chalk art, as well as, amazing feats of advertising!

 

Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Find Sounds

 

Welcome to a sound search engine! All you have to do is type in the sound you want to hear and you'll get it.

 

For example, meow, bell, ring, bark, etc.

 

Find Sounds starts searching the Web for your sound right away. Then you can either click on the link of the search result or you can click the speaker next to it to hear the sound. You can even see what the wave looks like underneath the results.

 

You can also choose what kind of sound your results show, such as AIFF, AU, WAV, Stereo and Mono. Included with those are different resolutions, rates and even file sizes as well.

 

Need examples of what you can listen to? Then click the Need Examples link underneath the search field where you can check out nature, animals, musical instruments, holidays, household and much more. There's way too many to list them all here!

 

Need help? Then just click the Help link next to search field. It will explain the different types of files, resolutions and file sizes. It also explains what kind of sound player you need to listen to the sounds and even how to set it up so the sounds will play on different functions of your computer.

 

I loved playing the meow sounds! I ended up with all three of my cats trying to climb on my desk to find the cat hidden in the speakers, which was both too funny and too cute. Have fun!

 

 

 

 

=== What It Costs

 

Do you ever find that you’re curious as to what things cost? For example: How much would it end up costing you if you filed your taxes late? Or how much does a personal trainer really cost? How much would it cost you to have a professional stager come in to style your house for sale? How much does doggie daycare cost?

 

These are all questions that you can find the answers to here at What It Costs. On the main page you will find featured articles, as well as, six of the most recent articles and a few Top Ten articles.

 

On the side menu you’ll find access to other articles that have been divided up into the categories you find there. If you scroll down the main page you’ll even find Historical Articles where you’ll find out how much certain things cost in the past. For example: How much did cost to build Fenway Park in 1912? Or even what gas cost in 1960.

 

No matter what category you chose to delve into, you are sure to find interesting and helpful information as to the cost of things. If you really like what you see, be sure you sign up for the free newsletter, so you can get What It Costs in your inbox. Or you can submit ideas of things you’d like to know the cost of by clicking the Send button under the Suggestions heading.

 

 

 

 

=== Xtranormal

 

Welcome to Xtranormal, a site that allows you to make movies. All you have to be able to do is type! You don’t even have to sign up to get started; you only have to sign up if you want to save your video.

 

This site is a lot of fun, but I’m going to warn you right away that it will suck you in and you’ll lose track of time. I spent an hour just setting up my movie and then another fine tuning it! I didn’t have any clue so much time had passed.

 

To get started, click the Try Now button. This will take you to a screen where you’ll be able to select your actors. Right now there are four styles to chose from (3 of which are free during beta) – pick your actors and you’ll be whisked away to the studio! I picked the cute little animals for my actors.

 

Now you’re in your movie studio and you’re ready to get started. I’d start by scrolling down the page to the Design the Scene area. This is where you’ll pick your set, what your actors look and sound like, and add the soundtrack. Click apply, and you’ll head back out to the main part of studio.

 

Now you’ll want to start adding dialogue. You can just type it in. Then click the + at the bottom of the dialogue block to add another. You can drag and drop animations, and expressions from the left onto the dialogue blocks to make your characters emote.

 

If you get stuck click the Quick Tips button and it will walk you through some helpful tips that can get you back on track. When you’re finished click action so that the characters can rehearse the scene, then when it’s loaded you can click play to watch it. If it’s perfect you can click the It’s a Wrap button to save it.

 

If you haven’t signed up for an account, it will ask you to do so now. It’s the only way you can save your work. But don’t worry you can sign up for a Basic account for free!

 

It is just that easy to make a movie! Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Second Picture

 

Welcome to one of the best Digital Art, Photography, and Design tutorial sites I’ve come across.

 

One of my pet peeves is going to a tutorial site on design or photographs that just looks ugly, you may have good information but if you’re not putting your own tips into practice who is going to put any faith in what you have to say.

 

So I’m giving this site very high marks for creating a site that is both instructional and beautiful to look at. (If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you’ll see a lovely white fluffy cloud that echoes their sky theme at the top of the page.) Love! Love! Love the site design!

 

Now that I’ve gushed over the site’s design, let’s dive right into the meat of it, the tutorials! You have several options for tutorials to choose from on the navigation strip.

 

They are:

 

3D Tutorials – these tutorials are things that I dream about being able to make someday. Here you’ll learn all about how to make 3D models, shading, photo montages and more.

 

Photoshop Tutorials – are always a blessing. Photoshop is one of those programs that I always mean to learn better. There is so much that you can accomplish with it, yet I find myself often sticking to making buttons, and just adding effects to photos. Here you’ll learn to do that but you’ll also learn how to add radical effects, make realistic water reflections, and more.

 

Photography Tutorials – here you will find tons of tutorials that teach you how to get the shot you’re after. They focus more on the technical side of capturing a photo than the artistic side of composition. You can learn about HDR cameras, how to take better family photos, and of course the most basic, how to take a good photo. There are a lot of tutorials to investigate here but its well worth it to enhance your skills.

 

Photography Composition – this is what I came here for! I’m learning to use my digital camera to take photographs of the outside world, as well as, my sculptures. There are days where I just have to get my hands into some clay in order to be happy. But in order to share my work, I need to be able to take crisp photos of it. I have to think about lighting and backgrounds in order to highlight it at its best. This section has nine excellent tutorials on photographic composition. So whether you want to take better vacation photographs, pictures of still life, or want to further your skill as a photog – you are sure to find a tutorial here to help you along the way.

 

Web Design Tutorials – I can still remember hand coding websites back in the 90’s. As soon as I learned about CSS (cascading style sheets) I knew they were going to be a blessing. The tutorial they have here will teach you how to make a navigation bar like the one they have on their site. It does require you to have some HTML and CSS knowledge. If you don’t, you can still learn it – because they’ve provided a link to where you can get the background knowledge you need to continue forward. Just follow the directions, and before you know it you’ll have your very own horizontal navigation bar.

 

Are you ready to create amazing images, I know I am! With these tutorials we can all learn how to do it!

 

 

 

 

=== Roadside America

 

Welcome to Roadside America, an online guide to find unusual tourist attractions. Right off the bat, before we get started exploring this site, I want to draw your attention to Light Bulb Methuselah’s. This is under the Features section on the side menu. Click on the image or the link to enter the section. Once inside, you will learn all about the longest lasting light bulb, which is a light bulb that has worked for 100 years. Isn’t that amazing?!

 

This is one of those sites where it’s fun to just click around to explore and I suggest that you be brave and give it a try. Navigation is actually all over the place! Here are a few great ways to start exploring.

 

Check out the What’s New section. Here you can find the most recently added strange tourist attractions. Or you can scroll down the page and start at the Contagious Sightings where you will find everything from a shoe tree to big bovines to two-story outhouses!

 

You can also use the Map-a-City section. Click on the Map-a-City link and when the page loads, you will have a couple of options. You can enter in the town and state you want to map and then click Show Map. There's also a Popular City list you can use if you have a special place in mind that you want to check out. This will load up a map that has several bulleted areas on it. Click on one of the bullets and you’ll get a little bubble that comes up and has the address information. It will also have a link you can use that will let you explore that attraction in more detail. I liked doing this for places I’ve lived or visited.

 

There is so much to discover here at this site and I don't think I could cover it all even if I tried. I got lost in a lot of the attractions and have learned about many new things to see and do when I travel. Check out these offbeat tourist attractions today!

 

 

 

 

=== Gazelle

 

Do you have electronics just sitting around collecting dust? Have you recently upgraded a game console, laptop, or heck even your cell phone? Well, why are you hanging on to that stuff when you could be getting money for it?

 

Welcome to Gazelle, a site that is dedicated to helping you get your old electronics out of your house where they are collecting dust to either resell them or recycle them. This is a great way to start going green, as well as, to put some cash back in your pocket.

 

I know you’re probably curious as to how it all works, so click the How it Works tab and watch the short online demo video. The video walks you through the whole process of selling your old electronics. They’ll even send you a postage paid box to send the item out to them in the mail. So it doesn’t cost you a penny to get rid of those dust collecting electronics.

 

For example, I have an old Xbox that we don’t use anymore. It is literally collecting dust on my TV stand. So, I select game console, choose the Xbox model I have, and find out I can get seven dollars for it! That’s more than the used video game store would give me. I don’t have to pay anything to ship it away either!

 

Another great resource this site offers is found by clicking the grey tab at the top of the page with the recycle sign on it. This takes you to a listing by State of where you can recycle old printers, fax machines, and CRT monitors. Just put in your zip code and click the submit button to get a listing of recycling locations near you!

 

I think that this is a stellar idea that might actually get people to recycle their old electronics instead of just throwing them away. Especially with the way people change cell phones these days, now you can get some money out of that old phone.

 

Are you ready to recycle your old electronics and put some cash in your pocket? Well then, check out Gazelle today!

 

 

 

 

=== POSTBOX

 

Today I have found an awesome new email client that just might replace Outlook Express. The program is called PostBox and it combines all of the features you see in most mail clients with some awesome, new and innovative features.

 

PostBox was easy to download and install. This is a must for me. I downloaded it and opened the file. From there, PostBox handled the rest. It even imported all of my email and settings from Outlook Express so I didn't have to do anything but click "OK".

 

Like I mentioned before, it has all the regular stuff like most clients. It retrieves and organizes you email, it keeps contacts and allows for easy use of folders. Where it stands apart is in some of the additional features it offers. One of my favorites is the search option. PostBox will index all of your email data so it is easily and quickly searchable. It creates searches for links, contacts, images and attachments. This saves me a ton of time.

 

Another feature is the todo list. You can mark any email as a ToDo item. This will mark it and put it in a list for easy organization.

 

And wait till you see the Compose sidebar. This allows for you to quickly compose new, rich emails with content from other messages and search results. This makes writing email fun!

 

If you are interested in download PostBox or learning more, check out their website here:
http://postbox-inc.com/

 

 

 

=== Clerkdogs

 

I love to watch a good movie to relax. There is something about sitting in front of the television with some freshly popped popcorn and putting in a movie that just lets me unwind for a little bit.

 

If you’re a movie lover bookmark this site! Clerkdogs is an amazing site where you type in the name of a movie you like and you’ll get movie recommendations hand picked by video clerks.

 

No matter how you get your movies to watch: online, the video store, the grocery store, etc; you’ll love getting these recommendations to help you find more movies like the ones you like. I do a little bit of all three of those to watch videos and now that I can get recommendations to find more movies similar to the ones I like that means more options for my relaxation time.

 

One of my favorite movies of all time is Much Ado About Nothing with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, so I started my search with that movie. After searching the database it came up with ten picks from the clerks. The main one was A Midsummer’s Dream with Kevin Kline, and Michelle Pheiffer. I thought that was definitely a good match.

 

But what about the other nine you ask? This is what I really love about this site! The other nine were listed with explanation of how they were different. For example: The Taming of the Shrew was listed as Similarly Witty. Kiss Me Kate (another favorite of mine) as listed as More Music. This way if you want a similar movie but say you’re feeling like a drama, you could pick the More Drama option.

 

Another really neat attribute of this site is Compare Movies feature. Here you can type in the names of two movies and compare them side by side! Or you could try the Mash It feature, where you put in the name of a movie you like, and change the sliders to match your mood to get a movie recommendation.

 

To register click the Sign Up button and fill out the form with the following information: an e-mail address, create a username and password, type in the word verification, provide your first and last name, gender, and birth date. You’ll also get to list your five favorite genres, and your five favorite movies of all time. The really nice thing is if you decide you’re not going to use the account here, you can deactivate it.

 

 

 

 

=== Study Stack

 

Welcome to Study Stack! This is my favorite study Web site, because it integrates studying not only by traditional means (think flashcards), but it includes studying by playing games. I love to recommend this site to my friends in class who are getting ready to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination).

 

Start by selecting the subject matter you’d like to study from the list provided. You’ll then be taken to a much larger list that has study stacks for the specific topic you chose. Choose a study stack from the list and you'll be taken to its page. There you can choose the method you'd like to study. Your options are: Notes, Flashcards, Study Stack, Study Table, Matching, Hangman, Crossword, Word Search, Unscramble, Type In, Bug Match, Export, Print, Edit, E-mail and Hmm.

 

Three options I really want to point out to you are Export, E-mail and Print. Export allows you to download the date to your cell phone, PDA, computer or even your iPod. The E-mail option allows you to send the address of the study stack to your friends via e-mail. Print allows you to print out flashcards in several different styles to use offline.

 

You can also add your own study materials if you can’t find what you need to study. To add your own, scroll down to the bottom of the list for the subject you want to study and then click on the Create Your Own link.

 

You’ll need to register to add your own material. It's really easy if you have a Facebook account, because you can use that to log in. If you don’t, that's okay too! Just register for Study Stack. To do so, fill out the registration form with a username, e-mail address, password and agree to the terms and conditions. It’s that simple!

 

Once you’re logged in, you can also create a study stack by clicking on the Create a New Stack link under your Stacks tab. You’ll need to name your stack, type in a description for it and decide whether you want to let other users edit it or whether you want it to auto-generate for the games.

 

Now, click on the Data tab. That's where you'll be able to insert the data you want to study. Type in the questions, then the answers and make sure you click on the Save Changes button when you’re done updating the data information.

 

Before you know it, you’ll have your study stack completed and you'll be ready to start using it. Pretty neat!

 

 

 

 

=== Google Earth 5

 

It seems like not that long ago, I was telling you about the release of Google Earth 4. Well, lucky for you, Google has been on top of their game and they just released the next version, Google Earth 5. The new Beta version has some really cool new features you just have to check out!

 

If you've used Google Earth before, you probably already know about many of the features, such as being able to look up anywhere on the planet and see awesome aerial satellite photos. Well, version 5 even introduces something you've never seen before! With Google Earth 5, you can go below the ocean and explore the sea floor. How cool is that?!

 

Other than looking into the ocean, you can also look into the past. With the new version of Google Earth, you can click on the clock icon and see how places looked in the past and how they have changed over time. That feature is awesome for looking at progress while something was being built, such as a stadium or sky scraper.

 

If you think you might like all of the new features, you can check out Google Earth 5 for yourself right here. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

=== VerbaLearn (build your vocabulary)

 

Welcome to VerbaLearn, a Web site devoted to helping you learn vocabulary! I would start by watching the VerbaLearn demo. To do so, just click on the image of the video or hit the Play button.

 

I love the demo video, because it walks you through every step of the process for using the site. You’ll learn how to create study lists, how to download them to your computer, how to turn them into podcasts and so much more!

 

This site could be so helpful to students preparing for the SAT, ACT, a college entrance exam or any other standardized test.

 

To sign up, just click on the Start Now button. You can select which test you’d like to study. The options are: SAT, ACT, GRE and General Vocabulary. Once you’ve made your selection, click Continue. Now, you can start building your first word list. While you're doing that, it will suggest that you should save your progress and you can do so by clicking Continue. That will lead you to the registration form. Fill out all the fields and then head on over to the e-mail address you provided to click on the confirmation link.

 

The confirmation link will bring you back to the Web site, where you'll then set up other features. You’re going to select why you’re using the site and you’ll then have to select how large of a study list you’d like and how long of a pause you’d like between words for the audio study list you can download.

 

The next step is to finish building your word list. You’ll do that by continuing the one you left before. It will also review words you’ve already gone over as if you're doing flashcards. I love that!

 

I hope that if you can’t personally use this site, you pass it on to someone who can. The more people, students in particular, who have access to this study tool, the better. Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Live Mocha (learn a second language)

 

Have you ever wanted to learn a second language? Are you learning a language on your own or maybe taking formal language classes? If so, this Web site can help you out! It provides self-study lessons and it then sends you off to practice in a global community.

 

It's really easy to get started! Just select your native language and the language you want to learn. Then click on the Get Started button. You’ll find yourself on the registration page. Fill out the form with a username, e-mail address, password, select where you're from, choose the skill level for the languages and then click on the Register button.

 

You’ll need to go to the e-mail address you provided to confirm your account. Click on the link in the e-mail and you’re taken directly to your profile page.

 

I highly recommend you set up your profile now, as it will lead you through everything you need to do to get started. You’ll set up your introduction, choose why you’re learning the language and it will help you select your native language partners. Lastly, it will help you determine which free language course you should enroll in.

 

I am enrolling in French 101. I have more advanced French training than that, but it's been so long that I want to really relearn the basics.

 

Next, you’ll be directed to your homepage where a mini-tutorial will start. Click on the Let’s Get Started button to begin. It will tell you how to check your messages and how to add friends.

 

You’ll find the course you signed up for under the Learn tab. I like the way they approach teaching the languages. You not only see the word or sentence they’re teaching, but you can hear it too. The courses also combine interesting assignments where you have to choose the right answer, the right picture or even form the right sentence.

 

You can even take crash courses if you’re going to be traveling to a foreign country and need just enough to get around while you're there. You’ll find that option under the Courses section on the Learning tab.

 

Check it all out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Renovators

 

This site offers "Old-House Community and Know-How, Restoration Advice, and Home Improvement," so if you own an old house, or are thinking of buying and renovating one, this site could be a very handy resource.

 

I live in a house built originally at the end of the 1800's or the beginning of the 1900's. Let me tell you it's a mess. Someone thought that it would be a great idea to add rooms on in odd areas and to change a lot of the architecture of the house itself. Then someone had the bright idea to make it into a duplex. I didn't know much about old houses myself, but I grew up with my daddy doing repairs on wherever we lived at the time. So I can do some repair work myself, but this house is a challenge. It makes you want to throw your hands in the air and scream sometimes. So I went looking on the web for help and found this site. Let me tell you it has come in so handy that it is book marked on both of the computers in the house for easy access.

 

I find the Do-It-Yourself Knowledge Database to be a priceless tool to have. You can search the database by topic or you can go to the top of the page and use the search engine to find the information you are looking for.

 

On the main page you'll notice that there is a list of top 10 most searched for items. Which all seem to be common problems people run across in older houses. If you don't find what you are looking for there, use the search engine and find it that way.

 

There are excellent forums for help on this site. Just click on the Old-House Friends Forums. You can go into general discussion or you can choose a forum based on the age of your house. Pre 1900's, or Post 1900's, or you can choose the Where Can I Find forum, which will help you find the information you need and are looking for.

 

This site is a renovator's dream helper.

 

 

 

 

=== Cheap Eats

 

I must be on a food kick lately! I found another great Web site that helps you find restaurants to eat at. This one specializes in restaurants you can eat at for under $10. Want to know how it works? Of course you do!

 

All you do is type in your city, state or the zip code of where you want to eat. Then click on the Search button. It will search the database and generate a listing of restaurants where you can eat a meal for under $10!

 

You may notice a Join option on the site as well. Click on Join Now and then fill out the form with a username, e-mail address, password, your name, zip code, fill in the code and then click on the Create Account button.

 

What does joining get you, you ask? Well, you can keep a list of your favorite restaurants, read reviews and receive coupons!

 

Was a specific restaurant you were looking for not listed? If so, click on Add a Restaurant at the top of the page. Fill out the form with all the necessary information and then click on the Submit button.

 

This Web site is a handy tool whether you’re a local looking for a cheap meal or a tourist visiting a new city. Give it a try today!

 

 

 

 

=== Cookstr

 

I found a great new way to discover recipes! You have to check out this Web site if you love to cook and want to try new things. On the main page, you’re greeted with the Chef of the Day and the Recipe of the Day!

 

Chef of the Day – Here you'll learn all about the person they’ve selected as the Chef of the Day. You’ll find out if they own a restaurant, if they have cookbooks and even if they're ever on TV! This is a great way to see the faces behind some of the top notch restaurants around the country and the world.

 

Recipe of the Day – Here you'll find the recipe they’ve assigned for today. If you click on it, you'll go directly to the recipe page where you can click on View This Recipe to get the full recipe. While that’s a great way to discover new recipes, you’ve also been led to the area where you can search all the recipes on the entire site!

 

If you scroll down past the Recipe of the Day, you’ll find different ways to browse the recipes on the Web site. You can browse by: Main Ingredient, Cuisine, Holiday/Occasion, Meal/Course, Chef/Author and even by Method.

 

There's also a search engine at the top of the page. There you can put in the name of a chef, ingredient or recipe and click Search to be given access to hundreds of wonderful recipes. Just try typing in cheese and see what comes up! Or, you can be adventurous and click on the Surprise Me button. Was I adventurous, you ask? Of course I was! That was the first button I clicked on after checking out the Recipe of the Day.

 

Go on now, find a recipe and get in the kitchen!

 

 

 

 

=== Capzles

 

Do you want to remember some historic event in your life? Perhaps the birth of your first child or your trip to Europe or maybe even a concert series you attended. Either way, now you can with Capzles. It's a Web site that allows users to create time capsules using photos, videos and even their own blogs, all for free!

 

Before you decide to register, I suggest doing two things. The first is to take a moment and watch the video of the guided tour. That will explain how the site works and what all you can do here.

 

The second thing is to click on the Take a Flying Leap link at the top of the page. That will take you to a random Capzles that you can explore and really experience what a user-made time capsule looks like.

 

Registration is easy! To get started, click on the Join Now button at the top of the page. Create a username and password and then click on the Go to Final Step button. Now, enter in your name, location, gender, birth date, e-mail address and fill in the code you see. When you're finished, click on the I’m Done, Let Me In button. You can then get started right away!

 

To start making your time capsule, click on Create. That will take you to the creation interface where you can not only upload your content, but design the capsule itself.

 

I put one together in roughly 15 minutes and you can see it here if you'd like.

 

I think this is a great way to store memories of events, places and things you’ve done in your life. So, tell me, what will you put in your time capsule?!

 

 

 

 

=== Confusing Words

 

There are a lot of confusing words out there! For example, affect, effect, affluent, effluent, their, they’re and there.

 

I often have trouble using affect and effect correctly. So much trouble that I often double or triple check to make sure I have the right one. But now, I have a really easy resource I can use to check them out!

 

On the Confusing Words Web site, you can check out tons of different words. Just type in the word you're unsure about and click Find.

 

As an example, I looked up affect. Not only does it give the definition for affect, but it gives the definition for effect as well. It also shows examples of how each are used, making it easier for you to see the difference. Also, in the Notes section, it gives you a way of remembering the difference between them. How cool is that?!

 

I think this is an amazing resource and I hope you enjoy it too!

 

 

 

 

=== Braingle

 

Are you ready to test your wits with some brain teasers, puzzles and riddles? Then let’s get started!

 

I highly recommend you click on the Site Tour link on the left hand side of the page. That will take you through each section of the Web site and describe the benefits you’ll receive as a member for that section. When you’ve learned all you want to know about a section, click on the Continue the Tour link to move on to the next one.

 

Becoming a member is easy and free! Just click on the Become a Member link at some point during your tour or click on Create a Free Account at the top of the page. Either of those links will take you to the registration page. You’ll be asked to provide a username and e-mail address, as well as, to create a password. When you’re registering, you have the option of checking two boxes to receive a daily teaser and a daily trivia quiz via e-mail. You’ll also need to verify your account to unlock all the features, so make sure you provide a working e-mail address when you sign up. I got my verification e-mail right away, so I didn’t even have to wait to start enjoying the benefits of a membership.

 

The site is divided into five different sections: Brain Teasers, Trivia, Mentalrobics, Games and Community.

 

Brain Teasers – Here you'll find brain teasers, optical illusions, puzzle hunts, codes and ciphers and mechanical puzzles.

 

Trivia – Another favorite of mine is the trivia section. Here you'll find quizzes, the fact box, photograph identification quizzes, famous art quizzes and even celebrity quizzes. I loved the famous art quiz. It was challenging and fun!

 

Mentalrobics – In this section, you'll find activities to exercise your brain. Your options are Articles, Memory Tests, Flash Cards, Vocab Builder and IQ Tests.

 

Games – Here you'll find three navigation options: Braingle Games, The Game Directory and Card Games. I loved the word searches in the Braingle section. They’re awesome!

 

Community – Under this tab, you can access your private messages, the forums, live chat and the talk boxes.

 

You’re sure to have a little fun on this Web site, so check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Spreeder

 

Would you like to learn how to speed read? I sure would! I mean, it would make getting through my college text books a lot easier. Well, with this Web site, we all can!

 

What Spreeder does is train you to read quickly. Type or paste some text into the text box and then click on the Spreed! button. That will take the text you’ve inserted and format it into the Spreed player.

 

Once the player has loaded, click on the Play button to get your training started. It will play your text across the screen at 300 wpm (words per minute) and all you have to do is read it!

 

You can change the Spreeder settings by clicking on Settings. You can alter the speed it reads at, the font size, the size of the window and even the font color and positioning.

 

You can start a new Spreeder session by clicking on New. That will take you back to the text box where you can input new text.

 

I recommend reading the tutorial at: http://www.spreeder.com/tutorial.php
It offers great tips on how to train yourself with Spreeder to speed read. It also offers you links to more specific information about the settings.

 

Spreeder is a lot of fun to try out and I can see myself using it to teach myself to read faster with better comprehension as well. I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

 

 

=== Which Book

 

Don’t know what you want to read? Are you looking for a new series after finishing an old one? Do you want to read something funny or something a little crazy? Either way, Which Book can help you decide what to read next!

 

It's really easy to use too! If you want, you can watch the demo videos. They'll walk you through the Web site step by step. I just dove in and started moving the sliders around. You can use up to four of the sliders at one time to generate a suggestion. When you have them all in place, simply click on the Go button.

 

For example, you could select Happy, Funny and Unusual. When you click Go, you'll get a very interesting assortment of books recommended for you.

 

You can also search by Character, Plot or Setting. I love the Setting option, because it gives you a map to click on to choose the location of the story. It then gives you a listing of books from that location when you click Go.

 

You’re sure to find something new and interesting to read with Which Book, so give it a try today!

 

 

 

 

=== 123 People

 

123 People is the ultimate people search! This Web site helped me locate a friend I haven’t been able to get in touch with for the last seven years or so. You can also use it to check up on your favorite celebrities.

 

How does it work? Well, you simply type the first and last name of the person you're looking for into the search field and then click on the gold arrow button. That will start your search. It will then search the Web and compile all the results it found for that name.

 

The results include: images, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, Web links, news, documents, blogs, biographies, tag clouds and social networking sites.

 

On the main page, you’ll also find three movie stars of the week and three music stars of the week. You can click on their links to visit the results for them.

 

You can also use the search feature to search for people by location using a city or zip code.

 

This is a great search engine, so be sure to check it out as soon as possible!

 

 

 

 

=== Paint.NET

 

From time to time, I have found myself needing a program for making graphics and pictures. I used to try and use the Paint program that comes with Windows, but I almost always find it to be lacking in features. Because of that, I have been looking for a paint program that has a lot more options and features. After looking for awhile, I came across a free program called Paint.NET. And let me tell you, this program has everything I could ever want! It's easy to use, it's easy to install and did I mention it's free? Let's check it out!

 

Paint.NET has support for layers, unlimited undos, special effects and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials and plug-ins as well. You just can't beat it! From their site:

 

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.

 

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool. It has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor, and The GIMP.

 

You can download Paint.NET for yourself right here. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

=== Indeed

 

So, you want to find a new job or you need to find one and you don’t know where to begin your search. Well, now you do! Start your search here at Indeed, where you get to search job sites, newspapers, associations, career pages and much more, all in one place.

 

How does it work? It's easy! You can search by your location and get all the listings for your area. Or, you can search with a keyword and your location to narrow down the results a little more.

 

If that isn’t specific enough, you can click the Advanced Search link found under the Find Jobs button and tailor your search even more. You can also check out the Preferences link under the Find Jobs button and change how your results are displayed.

 

To learn more about the site and how it got started, as well as, what its purpose is, check out the About section. The Blog section feels more like a news section to me, as the blog was about what was happening recently with Indeed. You can check out the Forum sections for job related topics and a chat room as well.

 

I used to work as a cashier and I know the turnover rate is high, so I decided to use "cashier" as my example search. There were a lot of results, especially now that everyone and their brother are hiring for seasonal help. What I really liked though is that the newest additions to their database were marked as new, so there was no doubt as to whether or not the ads were recent.

 

So, if you’re looking for work or a career change, this is a great place to get started!

 

 

 

 

=== PocketMod

 

Don’t have a fancy Pocket PC or organizer? Well, with PocketMod, you don’t need one! I discovered PocketMod just a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t stopped using mine since. Let's check it out!

 

So, what is a PocketMod? Believe it or not, but it’s not another electronic gadget. It’s actually just a piece of paper you can use as a personal organizer. And best of all, it's completely customizable!

 

http://www.pocketmod.com and click on the Start icon.

 

 

 

=== All Experts

 

Do you need an expert opinion? You can definitely find one at All Experts. Choose the category you have a question about and choose the area of the topic your question is in. Then choose someone in the forum to answer your question. Put in the question and e-mail address, and they will get back to you. I've quoted below their info on response time. I asked a question and had it answered within the hour. Be patient and polite, and the best part is, the advice is free. Enjoy this one.

 

"Our studies have shown that nearly 50% of responses arrive the same day or within 24 hours. Another 30% arrive by next day and about 20% arrive the day after that. Sometimes you can get a response in minutes! If, however, you find, for whatever reason, that you don't get a response after 3 days, write us and we'll investigate. We'll always get back to you!"

 

 

 

 

=== Inventor’s Handbook

 

I was reading the news about this kid who invented a toilet prop that automatically raises and lowers the toilet seat with a foot lever. In the article, they talked about whether or not they would patent the invention. That got me thinking about what you need to know as an inventor to get a patent, licensing and such. And what I found was this great Web site!

 

This handbook is divided into 11 sections, with an extra section devoted to Resources. Here’s some of what you’ll learn:

 

What is Intellectual Property? – Here you will learn the four classes of intellectual property. They are patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret. What’s the difference? Well, check out this section and you'll find out!

 

What Can Be Patented? – There are three different patents that can be granted: Utility Patents, Design Patents and Plant Patents. Since a patent is a product of the legal system, there are some very specific guidelines for those three types of patents. Find out more here!

 

Is My Invention Worth Patenting? – How do you know if your invention is worth patenting? This section will tell you the questions you need to ask yourself before you start the patenting process and spend any money.

 

How Do I License My Invention? – Here you will learn how to license your inventions, as well as, how to watch out for scam artists who want to steal your ideas!

 

The other sections cover raising capital, making a business plan, conducting patent searches and even how to prove the idea is yours. So, if you’ve invented some useful, nifty little gadget or if you're thinking about making something, you’ll find a lot of great information on how to go about the patenting process right here. Check it out!

 

 

 

 

=== Wordia

 

Welcome to Wordia, a dictionary Web site like no other dictionary site you’ve ever seen! Here you'll find words defined as they are in a dictionary, but with a twist. There are video definitions recorded by everyday people who not only define the word, but tell you what it means to them!

 

Since the site is still in the beta stage, not every word has been defined. So, if you search for a word and there's no definition for it, you might want to think about defining it and submitting your own video definition.

 

My favorite part of the Web site is the "word a day" calendar you can receive via an RSS feed. Or, you can check it out on the main page of the site as well. I find myself looking forward to a new word everyday!

 

I also recommend you check out my favorite definition so far and look up the word "because." Not only does the gentleman define the word, but he does it in a humorous way and I just can’t get it out of my head.

 

If you’d like to submit a video or rate one, you’ll need to register. Just click on the Sign Up button on the left hand side of the page. Fill out the form and then click on the Sign Up button again. Have fun!

 

 

 

 

=== Face Memory Test

 

Did you know your memory is one of the first things to go when you're tired? I didn’t! Well, you can take this test to see how well you remember what you’ve seen. I was really tired when I took the test, so my results were very interesting. Give it a try!

 

The test takes place in three phases:

 

Phase 1 – In this phase, you'll be shown 12 photos of people. After you’ve looked at them, you should take a five minute break before moving on to phase 2.

 

Phase 2 – In this phase, you'll be shown 12 photos of people. After you’ve looked at them, you should take a five minute break before moving on to phase 3.

 

Phase 3 – In this phase, you'll be shown 48 different photos, 24 of which you have already seen in phase 1 and 2. For each photo, you must decide which phase you saw it in or if you've never seen it.

 

After that, your score will be compiled into two categories. One category is just for recognizing the faces you saw in phase 1 and 2. The second category is for correctly recognizing which phase they were from.

 

I scored 95 percent for the overall recognition and 68 percent for remembering which phase they were from.

 

I took the test again after a good night’s sleep and my score went up to 100 percent for overall recognition and 85 percent for remembering which phase the face was in. I think that definitely shows how tiredness can affect your brain.

 

I also recommend taking this quiz to check out your daily rhythm and how fast your reaction time is with Sheep Dash. Have fun!

 

 

 

 

=== Civil Answers

 

Welcome to Civil Answers, a Web site where you can ask legal questions and get answers from experts for free!

 

I want to start by telling you that I adore this site! I wish I had found it years ago. There are so many legal questions I could have had answered and saved myself a lot of time and money.

 

It's so easy to use too! Just type in your question, select the best legal field for your question, enter in your e-mail address and then click on Get Answer. That’s it!

 

If you’d like to see some examples of questions answered, click on the link that says "Click Here for Recent Answers." That will give you an idea of what kinds of questions they're receiving and answering.

 

Right next to that, you’ll see the Recent Articles link you can click to see more articles. It will also take you to the site's Civil Tree. Civil Tree is another excellent resource to have at your fingertips!

 

If you have a legal question you need answered, this is the place to ask. It's free and it could save you a lot of time and money in the future. Check it out!

 

 

 

 

=== Wonder How To

 

Have you ever wondered how to do something? I know I do all the time! Well, I’d like to welcome you to Wonder How To, a Web site devoted to teaching you how to do things through video tutorials. Now, I wouldn't recommend letting your kids run wild on this site, because there are a few videos about alcohol and pranks.

 

However, if you weed those out, there are a lot of really great videos! I’ve already used this site to find out how to do some algebra, how to do my makeup for Halloween, how to draw clouds and how to cook several different dishes I was leery of trying due to complexity.

 

You can navigate the site with the search engine, the navigation tabs or my favorite method is to just start with one video that catches your eye and then go through the related videos for that topic.

 

This site covers everything from replacing light switches to painting a room. You can even find how to videos for software you might own. I also ran across several very helpful Photoshop videos. Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Cozi

 

Welcome to Cozi, a free online organizer for families! Here you can keep a schedule of what’s going on from day to day, keep a family diary, keep in touch with your family members with the message system, keep shopping lists and even get reminders. To get started, you’ll want to sign up. Or, if you're still not sure Cozi is for you, you can take a tour of the Web site here.

 

Signing up is easy! Just click on the Sign Up tab and fill out the form with your name, e-mail address and password. The next step is to start customizing your account. You’ll set up a household name, add your spouse, children and agree to the terms and conditions. Next, you’ll log in to your account with the e-mail address you provided and the password you created.

 

That’s it. You're ready to dive in! You’ll see a few things you can do under the Get Started heading. The actions you can take are: type an appointment in the calendar, add items to your shopping list and jot down an entry in your family journal.

 

I love the calendar feature! Not only is it easy to use, but it's easy to edit and you can set up appointments/events for one family member, two family members or the whole family. You can include where the appointment/event is located, the time and even a description.

 

Now, you may be wondering how a site this awesome can be free! Well, they pay for their costs with advertisements that pertain to family needs. I was thrilled to find that it also includes recipes! I was writing out a grocery list when a picture of these delicious cookies came up. I clicked on it and it was a link to the recipe of the day. You can check out the recipe they sent me right here.

 

If at any time, you want to navigate to a specific section, you can use the orange navigation strip at the bottom of the page. To get back to the homepage, you can always click on Home in the upper left hand corner.

 

With families becoming more and more technological these days, this Web site provides a great way to keep your family organized. Give it a try!

 

 

 

 

=== Autism Assistance Resources and Information

 

Today, I’m bringing you a blog that was brought to my attention by a reader. I try to limit the amount of blogs we include in the newsletter, because we can never guarantee what information they contain. However, this blog is different. It's bringing resources and information together in one place for people who have autism or people who are taking care of a loved one with autism.

 

You'll find information about college grants for those with autism, different organizations that are dedicated to families coping with autism, the latest toys to help children with autism develop to the best of their ability and much more.

 

If you scroll down the page, you'll find articles about autism in the news, links to the archive, resources and even information about the people who write the blog. Michelle and James are parents to children with autism, so this blog isn’t coming to you secondhand from someone who hasn’t experienced what you and your family might be going through. It’s coming from people who have been there and understand.

 

More importantly, they understand how expensive it is to try and help your children grow up with autism and making sure they get the help they need. You'll learn about funding strategies, where and how you can get financial assistance and which grants exist for your kids to apply for when they enter college.

 

Autism is a cause near and dear to my heart, so I hope all of you know you're not alone. There are resources like this Web site that are ready and waiting to help. Check it out!

 

 

 

 

=== Printable Paper

 

I ran out of college ruled paper this afternoon and I decided to search the Web to see if I could find some to print out. And let me tell you, I hit the motherload! There are over 100 different kinds of paper you can print out on this Web site. Let's check it out!

 

On the main page, you’ll find the most popular 15 styles featured. I was happy to find my college ruled paper among them. Along with college ruled, you'll find graph paper, Cornell Note paper, dot paper, penmanship paper, wide ruled, law paper and even bowling score paper.

 

On the left side of the page, you'll find the navigation menu. It's broken down by categories. There are six different graph paper categories, a score sheet category, music paper, calendars and that’s only a few of them!

 

For all the different kinds of paper you need in your life, get it right here!

 

 

 

 

=== Amusing Facts

 

Welcome to Amusing Facts, the place where you can find fun and interesting facts on many different subjects. And if that weren’t enough, they even have a free newsletter, so you can get these facts directly in your Inbox!

 

Navigation is pretty simple. You can use the Content Channels menu on the side of the page or you can use the thumbnails in the middle of the page. I recommend both, because then you have all your bases covered.

 

You’ll also notice in the middle section of the page that there is a search engine. It’s pretty easy to use. Just type in what you’d like to look up. For example, maybe you want find some amusing facts about bunnies. So, type in “rabbit” and click the Search button. The page will then load all of the rabbit listings they have. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Try the Advanced Search Options. The link is under the Search button.

 

You can also find the links of New Fact and Add Fact directly under the search engine. There, you will see the most recently added facts or you can choose to add your own if you can’t find what you were looking for.

 

So, what are some of the categories of facts? Well, here’s a few: People, Animals and Creatures, Weird Town Names, Entertainment and Sports.

 

I hope you’ll enjoy these amusing and interesting facts. I know I did!

 

 

 

 

=== Left Over Wizard

 

I have a hard time eating left over food. It's usually just a matter of not knowing how to reinvent it into another meal. But with this Web site, I don’t have to rack my brain trying to think of something. I can just put my ingredients into this wizard and let it do its thing!

 

It's really easy to use! All you have to do is select the ingredients and click on the What Can I Make? button. You can search with one to three ingredients. If your search comes up with no results, try to broaden it by dropping an ingredient.

 

I put in spaghetti sauce and cheddar cheese and the wizard came up with 42 recipes. From that search, I found a crock pot pizza recipe I’m dying to try. It looks and sounds delicious!

 

Two great sections on the site are Flavor Combinations and What’s Fresh Now!

 

Flavor Combinations gives you a list of the hottest flavor combos you can try searching for. Some of my favorites are listed, such as garlic, lemon and chicken. A few more favorites are soy sauce, orange juice and ginger. This section gives you great inspiration.

 

What’s Fresh Now gives you a listing of what's in season right now. It allows you to plan your meals around those fresh ingredients. You can even change the month and pre-plan your meals. For example, switch the month to November and you'll see what will be fresh for Thanksgiving.

 

Now that I have some ideas for my left over chicken, I think I’ll go get started on dinner. Go try something new and exciting with your leftovers today!

 

 

 

 

=== LetterFu

 

I think it's a terrible shame that letter writing has gone out of style. I personally love to receive mail and I like to send it out too. So, to get back into the habit of letter writing, I went looking for a way to make it interesting and fun again. And that's when I found LetterFu!

 

LetterFu will teach you how to send a letter without an envelope, glue or cutting. All you need is a way to print and a stamp.

 

Based on origami folding, you write the letter on one side and have the envelope design on the other, with all the folds marked. Then you just fold it up, put a stamp on it and mail it out!

 

The really cool part is the plentiful amount of designs you can choose from. The sushi design is just adorable and I can’t wait to use the Christmas one as well!

 

You’ll find instructions under the Instructions category, which walks you through all five steps of making a letter. I also recommend reading the About section, because you’ll learn about the inspiration behind the Web site and how LetterFu came to be.

 

This could be a great activity to share with your kids or grandkids. It's also a fun way to keep in touch with your family. Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Armor Games

 

After a very stressful week, I really needed some downtime to do something a little mindless and fun! So, I went searching for games to play and I ran across this Web site. After playing Armor Games, I couldn’t help but share it with all of you!

 

Armor Games is a site full of games you can play in your Web browser. With plenty of different categories, there's definitely something for everyone! The categories are: Action, Adventure, Arcade, Shooting, Puzzle and Skill, Strategy, Sports and Misc.

 

I almost always start with the Puzzle and Skill category. I played Button Hunt 3 for about an hour without realizing I had been playing that long. It challenges you to find the button in any scenario. You have to think and problem solve as you go through the images and of course, they get progressively harder. It's a lot of fun!

 

For each game, you can see how many times it's been played under the title. Click on the name of a game to go to that game’s page. If you scroll down past the game, you'll find some information about it and the controls. Most games have a tutorial to help you get started.

 

If you run into any problems or need help, feel free to visit the Help section. There you'll find FAQs that will answer any questions that may arise. You can also register to be a member of Armor Games. It's completely free and being a member allows you to rate games, save them to your favorites and keep a buddy list.

 

Check this one out today. You’re sure to have some fun!

 

 

 

 

=== Karaoke Party

 

I’m going to start by warning you that this Web site is very addictive! Once you start playing, it's hard to stop. I could barely stop playing long enough to write this article, because it's just so much fun!

 

This site offers an interesting take on karaoke. Instead of singing and recording yourself, it’s a game. You sing and you're scored on your song. You can play without registering, but if you do register, it will keep track of your scores for you.

 

Plug your microphone in and get ready to sing! You get points for every right note you hit as you sing. That's shown with the red and green bar. Red means you’re far from hitting it right and green means you're right on the money! After your song finishes, you'll get your score.

 

There are two settings you can play with. Easy has the vocal to help you out and Hard is just the music. The first time you play, you’ll need to adjust your microphone. Just click on the Auto Configuration button in Step 2 and you'll be good to go. Then just press the Start button and sing your heart out!

 

If you registered, your score will be saved and you can view it on your My Page. You can edit that page to describe yourself and your musical tastes as well. You can even add friends to your My Page!

 

So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to this Web site and start singing!

 

 

 

 

=== Photoshop Lady

 

Photoshop can be tricky to learn at first. There's just so much you can do with it. So, of course, the Internet is swarming with tutorials. But now, you can look in one place for everything you need. The aim of Photoshop Lady is to collect all of the best free tutorials on the Web and store them in one place for easy access!

 

In order to save your favorite tutorials, you’re going to need to register. Never fear! Registration is easy. Just type in a username, provide a working e-mail address and a password will be mailed to you. (You can change the password by clicking on the Change Password button and typing in what you'd like it to be).

 

On the left side of the page, you’ll find the site menu. The categories you have to select tutorials from are: Most Viewed, Highest Rated, 3D Effect, Abstract Effect, Drawing Effect, Photo Effect, Text Effect, Textures and Patterns and User Interface Design. That covers just about everything you can do with Photoshop!

 

With new tutorials added everyday, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed. You can do that by clicking on the word "bubble" by the little postman at the top of the page.

 

Below that, you'll find the featured tutorials of the day. At the bottom of the page, you can use the numbers to navigate back through past tutorials.

 

This is an excellent Photoshop resource! If you use Photoshop, I suggest bookmarking this page so that it's never more than one click away. Check it out today!

 

 

 

 

=== Bradicon!
 
Have you ever wanted to make your own icons? Want a way to do it that's fast and easy? Well, you've come to the right place! You can make icons on this Web site in just three easy steps.
 
1.) First, create an image or choose one from your computer. To do that, just click on the Browse button and select it. Then click Open.
 
2.) Now, just watch the progress bar as your image uploads.
 
3.) Next, download your icon and enjoy!
 
It really is that simple! Plus, you can make as many icons as you want. To make more than one at a time, just skip step 3 and go back to step 1. Choose another image, let it upload and then download both of the images or go back and make yet another one.
 
You can download them by clicking on the Download link beneath them or you can right click the image and select Save Target As. Both methods work!
 
I hope you have as much fun as I did making new icons. Enjoy!
 
http://ico.bradleygill.com/advanced.php
 
 
 
=== Test Freaks
 
Do you love gadgets and video games? I know I do! But I have a really hard time coughing up the cash for something I’m not sure I’m going to like or if it will do what I need it to do. I rely heavily on customer reviews for products I’m going to buy, especially if it costs over $40.
 
Here at Test Freaks, you can not only get the latest reviews on gadgets and video games, but you can also review them yourself and let other people know what you thought.
 
If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, you’ll find a link to the FAQ section, which answers some basic questions. It also gives you a search field to use to find information.
 
Now, not only can you get customer reviews of products you’re thinking of buying, but you can also get expert reviews, manufacturer specs and more. Simply click on one of the products on the main page. For example, try the Nikon D300. (If it’s no longer there when you visit, just pick something else!)
 
On the page, you’ll find detailed images of the product, its Freak Score, price ranges, reviews, videos and you’ll even find forum posts for that product. That's a ton of information! This Web site does a very thorough job of reviewing the products.
 
Based on the reviews of the Nikon D300, if I had enough money, I would certainly run out and buy it! But since it's out of my price range, I went back up to the top of the page and clicked on the Digital Camera link. That took me to the Digital Camera page where I was able to see the best cameras by their Freak Score and price, which made it very easy to find something in my price range and of the quality I want.
 
I think this is one site you should bookmark for all your big gadget purchases. It will help you do your research so that you know you’re getting the most for your money!
 
http://www.testfreaks.com/
 
 
 
=== Tiny Song
 
I am in love with this Web site! Have you ever heard a song and desperately wanted to share it with your friends or family? I know I have! My roommate and I like to find songs that we both will like and now, we can share them with each other easily.
 
So, how does it work? Well, quite simply! All you have to do is type in the name of a song or the name of an artist into the search field. Then just hit the Enter button. The site will search their database and bring up a listing for you to choose from.
 
Choose the song you were looking for and the application will generate a tiny URL you can use to share it with your friends and family. Just copy the URL and paste it into an e-mail or instant message to quickly share the song with someone else!
 
Don’t be afraid to try different things if your song doesn’t come up at first. For example, I wanted to find Stevie Nick’s Beauty and the Beast. So, I typed in "Beauty and the Beast," hit Enter and got the cartoon’s soundtrack in my results. Undaunted, I changed tactics and just typed in "Stevie Nicks." Success! I selected it and it generated a URL for me.
 
Here it is:
 
http://tinysong.com/hPv
 
It also comes up if I search for "Stevie Nicks: Beauty and the Beast," so if you don’t get a hit the first time, try a different or more specific search.
 
I know this site is going in my Favorites list so that I can share songs with my friends anytime I find a great one. Check it out today!
 
http://www.tinysong.com/
 
 
 
=== A.nnotate
 
Welcome to A.nnotate, a Web site where you can upload a document or Web page you need feedback for, without the hassle of having to e-mail it back and forth for changes and commentary. And best of all, you can do it all for free!
 
On the main page, there's a demo video that describes everything you can do with A.nnotate, as well as, some tips on how to use it. You can try it out without registering, but you’ll need to register to save or share your work.
 
Registration is very easy as well! Just type in your e-mail address, click on the Log in/Register button and then go check your e-mail to get your password. Also, make sure you click on the confirmation link in the e-mail. Once you do that, you should be automatically logged in and you can begin!
 
To get started, you need to either upload a document or type in a Web address that the application can convert to .PDF. To upload a document, click on the Choose button and select it from your computer. For a Web page, type in the URL of the site and then click on the Take a Snapshot button.
 
If you’re already registered, you’ll be able to use the Upload a New Document and New Webshot buttons near the top of the page to do the very same thing. Once your document or Webshot has loaded, you can begin.
 
I decided to take a Webshot for an example and I used WorldStart's Web page. Once it loaded, there was a gray navigation bar with these options: Snapshot, Notes, New Note and Send E-mail.
 
Snapshot is the default page you’ll be on and it shows you the Web page you took a snapshot of.
 
Notes will show you any comments anyone has made on the Web page.
 
New Note allows you to add a comment or note to the document.
 
Send E-mail allows you to send the document to the person you need or want to look over it.
 
There are tons of uses for this site, so I urge you to go and find them. Have fun!
 
http://a.nnotate.com/
 
 
 
=== Good Tutorials
 
Whether you're building a Web site, taking photographs or trying to get the most out of Photoshop, a good tutorial is always welcome. And that's where this Web site comes into play! Plus, if you register for an account, you can even keep track of the tutorials you’ve looked at and the ones you still need to see. It’s very easy to register too. Just click on the Create Account tab, fill in the required fields and then click on the Submit button.
 
The tutorials are broken down into 13 categories: CSS, Flash, HTML, Illustrator, Java, JavaScript, Maya, Photography, Photoshop, PHP, Ruby, Ruby on Rails and 3ds Max.
 
On the main page, you’ll also find the 15 Newest Tutorials. When I visited, there was an excellent tutorial on learning the interface for Photoshop, which can be quite overwhelming if you've never used it before.
 
You’ll also notice some links beneath the articles. They are: Rating, Clicks, Comments, Save, Share and Report. If you want to save an article, click on the Save link and it will display another link you can use to save the article.
 
If you’ve registered, you’ll find the articles you save under the Account Name tab. The menu for that section includes the following areas: Profile, Submitted, Saved, Comments and Tutorial Comments. So, if you click on Saved, you can see how many articles you've kept. If you click on Comments, it will show you how many comments you have left. And so on.
 
This is a very helpful tutorial Web site and I hope you’ll add it to your Favorites. I know I did!
 
http://www.good-tutorials.com/
 
 
 
=== Water Effect
 
Have you ever wanted to add a water effect to one of your images? Well, now you can and it's so easy!
 
Once you get to the Web site, all you have to do is click on the Browse button, select the image you want to add the water effect to and then click on the Upload Now button.
 
When the next page loads, you’ll see your image with the water effect enhancement instantly!
 
You can then share your new image on more than 24 different social networks with just the touch of a button. Or, you can copy the code they give you and paste it wherever you want!
 
It’s so simple to do and it can add such an amazing effect to your pictures. Give it a try today!
 
http://www.watereffect.net/
 
 
 
=== Free Shipping
 
I tend to do a lot of online shopping and one thing I’m always pleased to find is free shipping, so I was elated when I found this Web site! What's it do? Well, it gathers up all of the free shipping offers from online stores and it puts them in one database where you can easily find them!
 
I often buy heavy items (computers, cameras, etc.) and since heavy means more shipping charges, I now go here and search to see which places have free shipping that I can use to my advantage.
 
On the main page, if you scroll down past the introduction, you’ll find the Editor’s Free Shipping Picks. It's an alphabetical listing of the offers the editor liked the best. You’ll find companies like Avon, Best Buy, Dell, K-mart, Macy’s, Pet Smart, Sears and more.
 
Navigation can be done in several ways. You can choose a company from the listing above the introductions, you can use the alphabetical store search on the left side of the page or you can use the category listing beneath the alphabetical listing to browse by what you’re purchasing. You’ll also find those options on the gray navigation strip along the top of the page, with two more options: Soon to Expire and Most Recent.
 
Soon to Expire – This section contains the listing of free shipping offers that are going to expire soon. So, if you want to take advantage of them, you need to do so soon.
 
Most Recent – This section has a listing of the most recently discovered free shipping offers.
 
Want to get notifications about free shipping offers? If so, just type your e-mail address in the Enter Your E-mail field near the top of the page and click Submit. You'll then be added to the Deal Alert list.
 
I hope this site helps you save money on your online purchases. It's already saved me a bundle!
 
http://www.freeshipping.org/
 
 
 
=== Hulu
 
With this Web site, you can watch TV and movies online for free! It's only available to users in the U.S. (most likely due to copyright laws) and you must be over the age of 13 to have an account. I thought I would get all of that out of the way before we dive in. This site is too good not to share!
 
Did you miss an episode of your favorite TV show? Have a favorite movie you’d like to watch right now, but don’t feel like running to the video store? Well, now you can watch them from the comfort of your computer chair whenever you want!
 
To watch, you first need to register. Just click on the Sign Up button in the top right corner, fill out the form and type in the code you see. Then click Join. Once you’re logged in, you can begin viewing at your leisure!
 
You can browse through the TV shows by: Popular Episodes, Popular Clips, Popular Shows, Alphabetical and Network. That gives you plenty of options to find something entertaining to watch.
 
You can browse through the movies by: Popular Movies, Popular Movie Clips, Alphabetical and Studio.
 
Each clip or film is rated, so you'll know ahead of time what kind of content you’ll be watching. Plus, there are only a few commercial interruptions and they’re well placed, so they’re not much of a bother.
 
Around the video screen, you have options as well! You can change the resolution, dim the lights (fade the white areas to gray), share, e-mail, embed, pop the video out in a pop up window or even watch in full screen mode.
 
This is a great site to catch up on missed episodes of your favorite shows or to catch a movie and relax. Enjoy!
 
http://www.hulu.com/
 
 
 
=== AVG 8
 
When it comes to free antivirus software that is also powerful, there's really only one option. It's called AVG Free Edition and it works great for basic antivirus protection on a home PC. I know there are several of you out there who use AVG, so I decided to give you a heads up on some big changes you should be aware of. For quite some time now, the newest version of AVG has been version 7.5. I know I have used it on my home PC for almost a year now and it has worked out great. Well, just the other day, I received a notice that said I need to upgrade to version 8. At first, I thought they were just trying to sell me the pay version, but that wasn't so!
 
It seems AVG has completely revamped their free and pay versions of the software. AVG 8 is now available, so if you're still using v7.5, you should upgrade immediately. After doing some further research, I found out that AVG 7.5 will no longer be supported after the end of this month. So, if you don't upgrade to version 8 soon, you will no longer be protected from viruses or any other bugs that may be lurking around.
 
Now, I know upgrading software can be a hassle, so I went and upgraded my AVG 7.5 to AVG 8.0 just so I could tell you all about it! It turned out to be a pretty painless and simple process. Here's how you do it:
 
First, go to AVG's Web site and download the newest version of AVG Free Edition. Here's the link to their Web site: http://free.grisoft.com.
 
Make sure you choose the Free Edition (if that's the one you currently use) and then just follow the steps to download it to your computer. In the final step, you will be asked if you want to save or run the file. Choose Save and just put it on your desktop so that you can easily find it later.
 
After the file finishes downloading, find your current AVG icon in your system tray down by your clock (it looks like a square with four different colors on it). Right click on that icon and choose "Quit AVG free control center.” That will prompt a warning, asking if you're sure. Choose Yes. After you do that, shut down any other programs running on your system.
 
Third, find the AVG installation file you downloaded earlier and double click on it. That will start the AVG free installation. The nice thing about this installation is it will remove the old version automatically. Just go through the steps by clicking on the Next button. After the installation is complete, it will tell you it wants to check for updates, but the update check will fail. Don't worry, we will get to that on the next step. After clicking Next through all of the screens, you will be asked to restart your computer. Click Yes to do that.
 
The final step is doing the update that failed earlier. After your computer restarts, your AVG icon will have a red X on it. Double click on the icon and choose the option to update the software. The update will complete and the red X will disappear.
 
You're done! You now have the newest version of AVG. Until next week, stay safe out there, my friends!
 
 
 
=== Bodocus
 
Bodocus sounds weird, right? Well, it stands for Best Online Documentaries and what you get is a comprehensive list of the best documentaries you can watch for free. That’s right, for free!
 
You’ll find navigation on the side menu to the left. It’s a listing of the categories and when you mouse over them, another menu pops out with even more categories and videos to choose from.
 
For example, if you mouse over Biographies, another menu pops up that has two sections: A-M and N-Z. Then if you mouse over either of those, you’ll see the documentaries in that section!
 
The different categories are: Anthropology, Biographies, Business, Environment, Foreign, (Geo)Politics, Health, History, Lifestyle/Society, Mystery, Religion, Science and Technology/Future.
 
Once you’ve selected the documentary you want to watch, it’ll take you directly to the video. Press the Play button on the video and you’re good to go! If you find a video link that doesn’t work, you can report it as well.
 
To report a broken link, click the “Help me find broken links” link beneath the logo. That will open your computer's default e-mail client with the e-mail address you can send the message to.
 
If you don’t use that e-mail client, you can just copy and paste the e-mail address into a new e-mail in the program you use. Make sure you also put the right subject in the subject line, which is "Broken Links."
 
This is a fantastic Web site for documentaries and I hope you enjoy it!
 
http://www.bodocus.com/
 
 
 
=== Websites for Seniors
 
Q:
Are there any Web sites out there today that are aimed directly toward senior citizens? I sometimes get bored with some of the other sites I use and I would like to try something new.
 
A:
That's a very interesting question and while it's not something we've really touched on before, I think it's worth going over. I know a lot of WorldStart's readers spend a lot of time on their computers and it's always good to have new and exciting Web sites to look at throughout the day. Whether it's while you work or in your leisure time, there are several Web sites designed just for senior citizens.
 
Okay, before I list some sites for you, I want you to know that these are all good for networking with other seniors, making new friends, learning more about computers, obtaining information about retirement, etc. If that sounds interesting to you, come along with me as we visit some of them!
 
1.) Senior Citizens Resources - This Web site is run by FirstGov and it provides several tips for senior citizens. It gives information on consumer protection, places senior citizens can volunteer, seniors and adult education, advice on estate planning and federal and state agencies for seniors. This site also has links to the government sites that may be beneficial to senior citizens, such as the Administration on Aging, the Social Security Administration and the Veteran's Health Administration. Check it all out here.
 
2.) SeniorNet - This Web site's mission is to provide access to computer technology for older adults. As a result, senior citizens will be able to gain more knowledge and wisdom and eventually share it with others. This site is basically set up as a discussion board. Everyone is welcome to participate in the SeniorNet RoundTable discussion groups. You just have to sign up for the boards and then you will be able to learn and teach others about computers and using the Internet. If you feel like you could share your wisdom with others or if you want to learn more, this site is perfect for you! Check out SeniorNet right here.
 
3.) Web Pointers for Seniors - If you're looking for even more sites to try out, this is the place you'll want to go. It is managed by a retired couple from Oregon and they have set up a whole Web site full of links they feel would be of special interest to senior citizens. There are links to such topics as senior issues, grandkids, senior guides, caregiving, health, nutrition, legal issues, financial planning, travel and others. Do keep in mind that this site hasn't been updated in awhile and some of the links no longer work, but it's still worth taking a look at. There are still working links to a lot of helpful information that's useful for seniors. Check it out here.
 
4.) SeniorLink - This site is mainly helpful for senior citizens in maintaining independence in their own homes. The developers of this site want seniors to be able to do this safely and with dignity. This site even offers some help for children who have aging parents. It gives advice on making the difficult choices that come with the elderly care of their parents. This site does have some parts that require a paid subscription, but you can access free information in the Caregiver FAQ and Top Elder Risks sections. Take a look at it here.
 
5.) Write a Senior Citizen - Here is one more site I thought some of you might be interested in. This is more on the fun side of things! This Web site was actually created by two teenagers who wanted to bring senior citizens together. You can use it to write other seniors by e-mail or even by snail mail as a pen pal. If you're wanting to get connected with other seniors, this is the best place for it. Check it out here.
 
Now, I know this isn't something we usually share at WorldStart, but I thought some of you might get a kick out of it. Start fresh with all of these new Web sites and bring new life to your Internet experience!
 
~ Erin
 
Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm
 
 
 
=== ReachBy
 
With the world becoming more and more technological everyday, it seems like you need to have a place online where you can keep your contact information. Whether it's just your e-mail address or more, ReachBy can help you do just that!
 
To sign up, you need to fill out the registration form. You need to create a username, which will be displayed on your contact page. You also need to create a password for your account. Then just provide your e-mail address, fill in the page headline, edit the page content (what your page will say), set up your security question and type in the verification code to prove you are human.
 
The next step is to check your e-mail for a confirmation. Mine came almost instantly. Click on the link in the e-mail and you’re ready to go! The link should direct you to your contact page so that you have an idea of what it looks like. If you’re happy with it, you can leave it as is and start handing out your contact link to other people.
 
If you’re unhappy with the way it looks, you can edit it. To get back to your main account page, click on the ReachBy logo in the top left corner of the page. You’ll find navigation on the left with these options:
 
Account Home – This takes you back to the main page of your account.
 
Edit Content – This is where you can edit what your contact page says and looks like. To find more customization ideas, click on the Formatting Styles link. That shows you the codes you can use to give your profile a more personalized feel.
 
To use the formatting styles, simply copy what's shown. For example, we’ll use fine print.
 
They have [-fine print-] and you would put [-Hello!-]
 
That's pretty easy, right?! For more examples, check out the demo page I made here.
 
Picture – You can also add a photo to your profile via the Picture section. Click on the Choose button to pick a photo from your computer and then click Upload. Next, select a position: right, middle or left. You can also put a border around the picture with the "Draw a thin line around the photo" option. Just check that box if you’d like to add a thin line border. Now, all you have to do is click the Save Changes button and you’ve got a picture on your contact page!
 
Change E-mail – This is where you can change the e-mail address you want your contact notices to go to!
 
Set Password – Here you can reset your password. Note: You’ll need to answer your security question to do so.
 
Identity Info – This is where you can reset your security question.
 
Protect Form – If you chose not to allow anonymous contacts, this is the section where you can make yourself even more secure from spammers by setting up a question the person has to answer. Or, you can change your settings if you chose to allow anonymous contacts and you no longer want to. And vice versa.
 
Deactivate – If you no longer need your contact page, you can deactivate it here.
 
Button Link – Here you can find a selection of buttons you can use on a Web page or social profile like MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, etc. That way, people can click on the button and go straight to your contact page. Just copy the code next to the button you want and paste it on the page where you want it displayed.
 
Logout – This button logs you out of your account.
 
That's it. I hope you have fun using ReachBy!
 
http://reachby.com/
 
 
 
=== Time Machiner
 
Welcome to Time Machiner, a Web application that allows you to send yourself, or your friends and family, e-mails at a later date. It's easy to use and can serve many purposes!
 
How does it work? Well, it’s very simple! Choose a date, input the e-mail address of who you're sending it to, fill in the subject line and then write your message. Then just click the Send This E-mail to the Future button and off your message goes to be delivered at a later time.
 
I’ve been using this to remind me of things I need to do. I set one up for Monday to remind me to take my puppy to the vet. I also set one up for Friday to remind me to tape a television program for my roommate. As you can see, the possibilities are endless!
 
This is a really neat application and I’m already using it everyday. I hope you do the same!
 
http://www.timemachiner.com/
 
 
 
=== Comiqs
 
Have you ever wanted to make your own comics? Well, now you can! And all you need are a few photographs and a little creativity. Here at Comiqs, you will find an easy to use application for making really neat comics out of your very own photographs!
 
Registration is easy. All you need is an e-mail address, username, password and to pick what country you're from. Then just type in the words you see (with a space between them) and click Register.
 
Not sure you want to take the plunge and register just yet? Well, you can check out the Learn More section instead! There you can watch a video that shows you exactly how easy it is to make comics from your photographs.
 
Or, you can head over to the Explore section and check out the comics other people have already made. That will give you a really good idea of everything you can do on this Web site. I really enjoyed a lot of the instructional comics, as well as, the funny animal ones!
 
So, you’ve registered and you've clicked on your activation link. Are you ready to get started? Great! Just click on the Start button and you’ll be whisked away to the Comiqs application.
 
Once you’re there, you’ll start with a blank canvas and the site’s photo library will load. To use your own pictures, you’ll need to click the Add button. Then click on Browse to select them from your computer.
 
The really nice thing is you can upload more than one at a time. To do that, just continue to select Browse until you have all the photos you want. When you have all of them, simply click Upload.
 
Once they’re uploaded, you’ll be taken back to the My Photos area, where you can select the images you want and start putting your comic together! If you head over to the Graphic tab, you can select different fonts and layouts. Also, the Text tab will let you add funny text to your images.
 
When you're finished, you can save it as a draft by hitting the Save button. That's a great option if you think you still want to fiddle around with your comic or if you want to add more pages later on. Or, you can go directly to Publish, which will save it completely and publish it to the site so that you can share it with your friends and family!
 
Take a look at what I whipped up here. This is a very fun site, so go on and enjoy it!
 
http://comiqs.com/
 
 
 
=== Tonebee
 
So, you have a great mobile phone, but you can’t find a ringtone you like. Well, fret no more, because now you can make your very own ringtones! In order for this to work, your phone just has to be able to play MP3s. Plus, it’s absolutely free! To get started, you just need to register.
 
Registration is really easy! All you need to do is fill out the form with your nickname, e-mail address and password and then click on the Sign Up button. Once you get your confirmation e-mail (mine came almost instantly), simply click on the link to confirm your registration. Once you’ve confirmed and logged in, you’re ready to get started!
 
Go to the Make Your Ringtone tab, let the application load and then follow the directions. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3! Just load your song, choose the 25 seconds you want and then save it.
 
If you run into any snags, the Help link at the top of the page is where you need to go. It has step by step instructions with pictures, so it's really easy to follow along and create your first ringtone. Then you just download it to your phone and set it up as your new ringtone! Note: Not every phone will support this application, so just keep that in mind if it doesn't work out for you.
 
Have fun!
 
http://www.tonebee.com/
 
 
 
=== Photo Soup
 
A long time ago, I wrote an article on the photo Web site of Flickr and now, I’m bringing you Photo Soup, which uses the pictures you have on Flickr to make word puzzles! You don’t have to have a Flickr account to play, but if you do, you can use your gallery to generate your own puzzle.
 
How does it work? Well, I found the best way to get a puzzle is to use the tag option. To do that, just type in a tag name. I used their example of "Zoo," as well as, "Portrait." Each of those tags generated great puzzles, so they are definitely a good starting point.
 
From the tag, it generates a word puzzle and the puzzle is surrounded by up to 17 images. Those images are your clues. You can also turn on hints, which will show you the photo tag you're looking for.
 
For example, the Zoo puzzle had Lion, Monkey, White, Canon and Water.
 
Now, that's not really what you might expect from the Zoo tag, so if I get stuck, turning on the hints is really helpful.
 
Each puzzle is timed as well. For every word you find, you get 10 seconds added back to your clock. I’ve gotten addicted to trying to finish one, but so far, my best score is 14 out of 17.
 
If you want to share this site with your friends, just go to the Embed option. Then type in the tag or username you want to use to generate the puzzle and it will then make the code you need to embed it. Now, all you have to do is copy and paste it on your Web page, blog, journal, etc. Have fun!
 
http://next.yahoo.net/photosoup/
 
 
 
=== Name Card Designer
 
Welcome to Deyey (pronounced D-eye-y), the Web site where you can make name cards for free!
 
To get started, I recommend checking out the demo, which you can do by clicking the View Demo button located along the orange navigation strip. The demo walks you through the whole process, starting with designing your background, logo and adding your information.
 
To dive into your designing, start by registering. To do that, just scroll down the page until you see an orange tab that reads Sign Up/Sign In. You just need a username, password, e-mail address, to choose an industry, state whether you are a company or an individual, match the picture and agree to their terms of service.
 
Then just click Sign Up! The nice thing about this process is the Sign Up sheet confirms your information as you fill it out. As soon as you click the Sign Up button, it registers you and you can get started!
 
Next, click Create a Name Card to start your project. Then go through each step as described in the demo, starting with one and ending with four. Check out the example I made here. It's really fairly easy!
 
With pre-loaded graphics and the ability to upload your own images, the options for name cards are unlimited. You can use them as a way to give out your name, address, e-mail address and cell phone number at your next get together or you can design really nifty business cards. Give it a try today!
 
http://www.deyey.com/web/eng/index.php?open_tab=1
 
 
 
=== MailFreezr
 
Are you terrible at remembering important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries? Do you want to make sure your loved ones get a message from you on their special day, no matter what? Well, now you can through MailFreezr: a revolutionary Web site that freezes your messages until the date you choose to send them. When the day you’ve chosen rolls around, MailFreezr then sends your messages out.
 
How does it work? Well, it's very easy to use! Just fill in the recipient's e-mail address, your e-mail address, your name and a subject. Then you just simply write your message. For example, I chose to send my sister a birthday message. I labeled it "Happy Birthday" and wrote her a birthday message in the message box. It's so cool!
 
Next, you choose how many years you want it to be frozen. I chose one year, so now I’m covered for her birthday next year! If there's a situation where you can’t choose the specific date, you can plan accordingly and fill out the e-mail on that day. Let's say you just got married and you want to send your spouse a message for your five or even 10 year anniversary. To do so, just fill it out on your anniversary and set the freeze date for five or 10 years!
 
After you’ve filled out all the address fields, the message field and you've selected how many years you want it to be frozen, you’ll need to type in the code above the box that reads "Code" (you can just type it over the word). Then simply hit the Freeze button and you're all set!
 
At the top of the page, you have the navigation options of Freeze, Check and About. About will tell you all about the service and Freeze will take you back to the main form. Check, however, is a lot more interesting! It allows you to put in your e-mail address and see if anyone has frozen a message for you. Check it out today!
 
http://www.mailfreezr.com/
 
 
 
=== Just Say Hi Quizzes
 
The quiz I'm bringing you today from Just Say Hi is called "How Many Colors Can You Name in Five Minutes?" It's so much fun!
 
This quiz is truly a test of your recall abilities. To play, just start typing names of colors in the text box and hit Enter. There are 238 colors in total. When your time is up, a pop up box will appear that says, “Times up! Let’s see how you did!” On my first try, I got 37 out of 238. : )
 
The nice thing is, they list all of the colors that are in their database after your time is up so that you can see what you missed.
 
If you scroll down beneath your results, you will find some other quizzes you can take. The quizzes (and my results) are: "How Many Countries Can You Name in Five Minutes?" (I managed to name 31), "How Geek Are You?" (I’m 80 percent) and some sillier quizzes like: "What Are Your Chances of Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse?" (41 percent) and "Synesthesia, Is Your Brain Wired for Creativity?" (73 percent!)
 
After each quiz, you’ll find the code you need to post your results on your blog, journal or Web site. Just highlight the complete code and then copy and paste it wherever you want to put it.
 
I had a lot of fun taking these quizzes and I hope you do too!
 
http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/view2/colors
 
 
 
=== Meemix
 
Are you ready to listen to the soundtrack of your life? I have to say, I am a real sucker for these kinds of Web sites that allow you to create custom music stations based on your music preferences and mood!
 
Here at Meemix, all you need to get started is the name of a song or an artist you like. The site will then give you a list to choose from and if what you're looking for is there, great! Go ahead and choose it and it will start playing for you. If it didn’t find what you wanted, simply try a new search. Once you’ve found something you like (I did have to search several times, but then again, I like a lot of music that isn’t mainstream), it will ask you to register so that you can save your preferences.
 
Registration is very easy! All you have to do is click Register (it doesn’t even interrupt the song your station is playing), type in a username, click the button next to that to check its availability and then enter in a password. Next, it needs an e-mail address and for you to type in your confirmation image. That’s it! You are now logged in and Meemix is recording your preferences.
 
Now, you will notice on the left side of the screen that you have a station listing and beneath that, you have some slider bars for your Mood Control. The first one is surprise, the second is pulse and the third is volume. The first one (surprise) controls the variety of the station, playing tunes that are more of a variant than what you originally selected. This is a great way to discover music. The second one (pulse) controls the tone of the music. The left is more relaxed and the right is more upbeat and aggressive. The third controls the volume of the music.
 
Now, if you hear something you don't like, you don’t have to keep listening to it. Just use the slider bar under the middle section of the page. Slide it all the way under and the station will move on. You may have to do this quite a bit at first, but it is very worthwhile, as your choices customize your station. Of course, if there is something you really like, make sure you rate it as "hot" so that you keep getting more music just like it!
 
Game Mode – This is a fun way to spend your time on Meemix! What you have to do is identify music you hear in the first 30 seconds. It is based off the music you listen to on your station, so you have a good chance of answering correctly. I got really addicted to it and made apprentice in no time at all! Each question is worth 12 points originally and it goes down as you use the hints. Of course, you get zero points if you answer incorrectly. If you click the X in the top right corner, you can go back to your station, where you can continue to listen to your music.
 
If you run into any problems, you can always check out the Quick Help section. You’ll find that button right above the station in the right hand side corner. There you will find some quick tips that will really help you out.
 
So, what are you waiting for? Go make your stations and enjoy!
 
http://www.meemix.com/intro/
 
 
 
=== Spoken Text
 
Alright, I’m not really sure why anyone would need to do this, but it is really cool, so I had to share it with you all! This Web site transfers text to speech and you can then download it as an MP3 or iPod file. Cool, huh?!
 
To get started, you will need to register. Don’t worry, it’s free and it only takes a few seconds to do. Once you’re registered, you can log right in and get started.
 
When you’ve logged in, you will notice near the middle of the page, there is a Quick Start guide for you to listen to. That will really help you in getting started and understanding how everything works, so I highly recommend starting there.
 
To start making a recording, click the Create a Recording button or go to the New Recording category on the side menu. Now, choose the person you want to read your text from the drop down box. Next, click the Choose button to have the document transferred from text to speech. Once you’ve found it, choose whether you want to be notified by e-mal when your recording is done, as well as, whether or not you want the recording to be public. Then just click the Record button. All you have to do now is wait for it to be done!
 
I have thought of several great uses for this as I was visiting the site. This would be a great site to use to translate things from text to speech for those individuals who are blind. You could translate e-mails, books and more for them to listen to. This would also be very handy for people who want to record some robotic text for a podcast. I’ve heard that done before and it is hilarious. There's one voice on here that is very robotic and it works perfectly for it!
 
I recommend you do not leave the words per minute at 160. That makes them talk so fast and you can’t really make out what they're saying.
 
If you have any trouble with the site, you may want to check out the FAQ section or the Help Tutorials. They may be able to help you troubleshoot your problem. The Help Tutorials are set up in a blog style and they have an archive, so you’ll probably want to search through them with the search engine in the top right corner of the page.
 
I think this is a very interesting site and it will be neat to see how many uses people have for it as it evolves over time. Enjoy!
 
http://www.spokentext.net/
 
 
 
=== ZIPskinny
 
So, what’s the skinny on your zip code?
 
Welcome to ZIPskinny, a Web site where you can get Census information by your zip code and compare it to neighboring zip codes around you. It’s really easy to use too! All you have to do is type in your zip code or the zip code you want to know about (I did my mom’s, as well as, my own) and then click on the Get the Skinny button.
 
The page that loads will have all the Census data for your zip code first and it will then compare it to the neighboring zip codes in your area. The data compared includes: unemployment, marital status, education, income and even poverty.
 
Beneath that, you’ll find specific statistics for schools in your area, demographics and a map of the area. Underneath that, you will find an even cooler feature! It will have the zip code you typed in and a bunch of blank boxes. Fill in the blank boxes with specific zip codes you’d like to compare to the original query and then click Submit. You can compare up to 20 zip codes at a time!
 
Once you’ve gotten the skinny on your zip code, you can even put it on your own Web page. To do so, just click the Available Now link above the video at the bottom the page and you’ll be whisked away to the "Create Your ZIPskinny Widget Here" page. You’ll see a bunch of sample charts and a video that shows you how to do it.
 
I thought this was a really neat site and I just couldn’t wait to share it with all of you. Enjoy!
 
http://zipskinny.com/
 
 
 
=== Buzzword
 
Welcome to Buzzword! It is a Web based word processor that I’ve quickly come to adore. In order to use it or even take a gander at it, you need to click the Sign Up link in the top right corner of the page. Just provide a name, e-mail address, a password, agree to their terms and you’re ready to go! It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
 
To be honest, I’ve stopped writing up my cool sites in Microsoft Word and have started writing them on this site instead. Once you’ve registered, the processor will load and you will see a document already there. Whatever could it be? It is titled "Welcome to Buzzword Preview."
 
This document welcomes you to the program and explains how it works, what features it currently has and how you can get help with it. I personally believe this is a must read for anyone who wants to use this processor efficiently. It only takes a few minutes to read through and it is so helpful! You should at least read enough so that you know what the menu symbols are for. That is a definite "need to know" before you get started.
 
I fully expected there to be a good deal of delay between what I typed and what appeared on my screen and I was shocked to find it was as responsive as using a word processing program installed on the computer.
 
It has several fonts for you to choose from, which are all nice, crisp and easy to read. You’ll notice it can handle lists, word wraps around pictures and make tables.
 
Buzzword is in beta right now, so all your comments are very useful. To submit a comment, just click the teal chat bubble button and choose Add a Comment. Or, you can read what others have to say just by clicking Show Comments.
 
You’ll also notice a menu at the very top of the page. The categories in it are: Document, Edit, Insert and Help. I want to discuss the Edit and Insert tabs with you a little bit. Under the Edit tab, you will find Check Spelling. I was thrilled to find that there! Then under the Insert tab, you will find the insert menu for images, links, special characters and more.
 
I hope you all fall in as much love with Buzzword as I have. Go check it out. I don’t think you’ll regret it!
 
http://www.buzzword.com/
 
 
 
=== Make Use Of
 
Are you looking for amazing Web applications that are easy to use and are free? Well, if so, you’ve come to the right place! This blog is dedicated to finding the best free Web applications you can find online and reviewing them so that you’ll know how useful and amazing they are. Here’s a direct quote from their About page that states it better than I ever could:
 
“On Make Use Of, we don’t write about any new Web applications that come around, but only about ones that are cool, free and useful!"
 
The page you load in on is the blog, which is where you’ll find the most recent entries at the top. Just scroll down the page to go back through the entries. Beneath the black navigation menu, you’ll find the options for viewing the blog entries. They are: Latest Articles, Top 20, Recommended Lists, By Category and Full Archive.
 
Directory 2.0 is a great listing of the applications for both the Web and mobile options. It is broken down into categories for easy searching. Each category has a number by it, denoting how many applications will be found in that particular category.
 
Among the blog topics, you’ll not only find applications that will make your life easier (for example, check out the entry on Handy Recovery), but you will also find great tips and software reviews.
 
You can also subscribe to this blog either via e-mail or an RSS feed reader. I signed up via e-mail and it was really easy. Just type in your e-mail address under the one you’d like to sign up for and click Subscribe. Then type in the security code you see and click Complete Subscription Request. Next, check your e-mail for the confirmation letter and you'll be all set.
 
Now, before I run off to get some of these applications for myself, let me mention the Geeky Fun section. Here you will find some computer geek funnies that range from comics to videos. I didn’t have a chance to watch the videos, but I really enjoyed the mailbox picture tremendously. Check it out today!
 
http://www.makeuseof.com/
 
 
 
=== Science Hack
 
Do you enjoy science? Do you like learning about scientific topics? Do you like watching videos? Well, now you can combine your love of videos and science here at Science Hack!
 
The video categories are: Latest Videos, Physics, Chemistry, Space, Psychology, Robotics, Biology, How It Is Made, Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Green Energy and Nature.
 
Lots of topics, huh?! I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the options as well, so I’d recommend going to the topic you’re the most passionate about first. Or, maybe you have something you want to know about, like clouds. If so, just type that into the search engine and see what comes up.
 
Something even more interesting about this site is that every video you watch has been viewed by a scientist to make sure it's accurate information. How cool is that?!
 
I’m a huge nature lover, so I thought I’d duck into that topic and see what was there. I found the most incredible video about icebergs floating off the coast of New Zealand. They even sent reporters out to the iceberg and they stood on it and reported what it was like. There were also a lot of animal videos, plant and water videos. I even learned what a Pororoca (tidal bore/wave) and a Kinkajou (very nifty animal) are!
 
I must have spent two or three hours here watching different videos, so be warned! It is very addicting, but quite enjoyable and not to mention, educational. I think this is an awesome science resource for all ages. Have fun!
 
http://sciencehack.com/
 
 
 
=== Online Medical Advice
1.) WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/
2.) MayoClinic
http://www.mayoclinic.com/
3.) eMedicineHealth.com
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/hp.asp
4.) HealthAtoZ.com
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/clients/haz/general/custom/default.jsp
5.) RX List
http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/hp.asp
 
 
 
=== Musicovery
 
Are you ready to make a musical discovery? Or, how about letting your mood guide what music is played? Well, if you are or if you're just curious now, why don’t you check out Musicovery?!
 
How does it work? Well, let’s get started by choosing the language we want to listen in. I chose English, but to change it, just click on the flag corresponding to the language you want to listen to. Your options are English, French, Spanish and I believe, Portuguese.
 
Once you’ve chosen the language you want, you can choose whether you want to listen to hits, non-hits or discovery. You also have the option of choosing them all, which is what I did. Next, you can choose the era the music came from. I choose All for mine.
 
Now, you’ve made it to the Mood tab. Here you can set the player to play music that suits your mood. The four quadrants are Dark, Energetic, Positive and Calm. I chose to move my preference into the positive and calm sector, but do whatever you're feeling!
 
You can now choose the genres you want to listen to. You have the option of selecting them all, but I’d really like to listen to some classical music, so I'm going to pick just Classical. If you reset the genre from All, you’ll have to set your mood again.
 
If you’ve ever spider webbed a thought or idea, you’ll notice that’s the method they use for the musicovery engine. They start with a selection and from there, it will web out to different pieces of music. I didn’t like the first piece of music, so I moved on to a very tranquil piano piece. The player will skip around the web by itself, so you can just let it play from there.
 
Did you enjoy what you heard? If so, you can register for a free account by clicking the Register link. On the main page, that is obscured by the player, so you’ll want to make a selection on the player first so that it moves to the left side of the screen where you can see the link. But, if you’ve already started listening, it should be right in the top center of the page.
 
Just provide the required information of Name, Age, Gender, Birth Year, Country, Language, Password, Secret Question and check whether or not you want to receive the newsletter. The free membership allows you to mark your favorites, as well as, ban songs you dislike.
 
Well, I hope you are ready to embark on your musical journey. I know I can’t wait to get back to mine. Enjoy!
 
http://www.musicovery.com/
 
 
 
=== Wikisky
 
I don’t even know how to preface this Web site, other than to tell you it is incredibly neat! When the page loads, you’ll be looking at a sky full of stars, with blue and green lines drawn on it.
 
I fully recommend that you start your journey here with Getting Started. This section will walk you through the site’s features, as well as, explain it more thoroughly than I could ever hope to. I’m still sitting at my desk thinking, “look how pretty that is!”
 
If I’m reading this correctly, the green lines connect constellations. Yes, they do and you can toggle them on and off with the menu button that has a constellation on it. You can also search for specific things in the sky. For example, Orion, by using the search field and clicking the magnifying glass next to it.
 
If you mouse over anything in the sky, a pop up box of information about it will come up for you. Clicking that will take you to another page that will have even more detailed information about what you clicked!
 
Another very neat feature is the Find Stars Above You Now. This button is on the left side of the search field. It has what appears to be an infinity sign on it. If you click it and put in your zip code or location, it will find which stars are currently above you. How cool is that?!
 
Talk about being able to know the skies above you! You can click on any of them to learn more. Or, just mouse over the sky and see what’s there. I think it's all very cool!
 
Well, I'm really itching to explore the skies above me, so I’m going to run off and do that. Enjoy!
 
http://www.wikisky.org/
 
 
 
=== Wink
 
Welcome to Wink, the Web site "where people find people!” That’s their slogan and let me tell you, it rings true after browsing through the site. When you think of how many different social networking sites there are online today, such as MySpace, Facebook and Live Journal, just to name a few, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do one simple search to find your friends?
 
What’s even better is you can search by name, location, interests, school and even work! You’ll find the search engine near the top of the page in the light blue box. Just fill in the information you’d like to search by and click the green Search button to get started.
 
While you're here, why not claim your profile too? That way, it's easier for your friends and family to find you. I know I have profiles on several different sites, so it would be nice for someone to be able to find me at any of them from just one place.
 
To claim your profile, click the Sign Up link at the top of the page. You’ll need to provide your name and e-mail address, as well as, set up a username and password for yourself. Next, check the box to agree to their terms and that you are over 13 years of age. Then just make sure you check your e-mail to confirm your account. You can now start setting up your profile with information about yourself, with as little or as much as you’d like!
 
That was pretty easy, right?! Now, people can find you on any of your many social sites, from one easy point of search. And you can do the same. Enjoy!
 
http://wink.com/
 
 
 
=== The Common Cold
 
Well, it's already gotten me this year. Yep, that nasty little thing we call the common cold. I have the sniffles, a sore throat, fatigue and the doctor says it’s just a cold. So, since I’m sick, I figured I’d look into what exactly the common cold is and share it with all of you!
 
At any point, you can use the links in the Article Sections to jump ahead to different parts, rather than going through it page by page.
 
Introduction – Here you will learn what the common cold is, how often you’re likely to get it, as well as, how long it will be before you're feeling better.
 
Signs and Symptoms – Here you will learn what the symptoms of the common cold are.
 
Causes – Are you curious as to how you caught your cold? If so, this section explains how you can catch a cold.
 
Risk Factors – This is where you will learn about some of the risk factors that allow you to catch the common cold, as well as, which seasons you will be more susceptible to catching it in.
 
When to Seek Medical Advice – This is an important section. It tells you when you should seek medical advice. For example, you should when you have a high fever, a fever with the sweats or chills, etc. There is also a special listing of when you should seek medical care for your child if they have a cold.
 
Complications – This section lists some of the complications that can occur with the common cold, such as ear infections, sinusitis, wheezing or secondary infections.
 
Treatment – Since there is no cure for the common cold and antibiotics are useless to fight it, you may want to know how you best can treat your cold. Your options are pain relievers, decongestants and cough syrup. For more detailed information, check this section out.
 
Prevention – One of the best ways you can take care of yourself is to take precautions that will help prevent you from catching a cold. You can learn all about them here and if you guessed that hand washing is on the list of things you can do, you’d be right. In fact, it is number one on the prevention list!
 
Self-Care – Here you will learn other things you can do to take care of yourself when you are ill with a common cold. I personally adore those shower soother things you can put in your shower and they make a vapor from the steam. They're awesome!
 
Well, I hope this will keep you all from getting a cold this time of year. I know I’m definitely going to remember these things for the future. Take care!
 
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/common-cold/DS00056
 
 
 
=== Reporting Spam E-mail
 
We here at WorldStart often tell you about new e-mail scams that are going around on the Internet, but we've never really told you what you can do to report all the spam you receive in your Inbox. Lately, I've been asked that question a lot, so I figured it was about time we addressed it. I do apologize for taking so long to do so. Reporting spam e-mail is very easy to do and if everyone does their part, who knows, maybe the bad side of e-mail will finally disappear for good. Let's check it out, shall we?!
 
First of all, I want to make sure everyone is clear on what I'm referring to when I say spam e-mail. Spam can come in a variety of ways, including messages from business marketers trying to sell their products, forwards, bogus money offers and just any messages you may get from people you don't know. I'm sure you all have gotten your fair share of those, because no matter what you do, it seems impossible to protect your e-mail address from getting into the wrong hands. And I don't know about you, but junk e-mails really get on my nerves and they waste my time!
 
So, the next time you see a spam e-mail in your Inbox that you think is deceptive, do us all a favor and forward it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at this address: spam@uce.gov. You can do that just by hitting the Forward button in your e-mail and typing that address on the To: line. The FTC then uses the e-mails they get at that address to pursue law enforcement actions against the people who send them. They have even put together a new law against spammers, called the CAN-SPAM law, which is designed to hold spammers responsible for their actions. It's nice to know there is something we all can do to help combat the dreadful problem of spam. Do your part today and let's all start to make a difference!
 
 
 

 

=== Joost
 
What’s Joost? Well, I was certainly wondering that myself when I first came across this Web site. Basically, it is over 15,000 shows you can watch from your computer for free. Whether you want to watch CSI, your favorite sitcom or cartoon, you’re sure to find something to watch here!
 
How does it work? Well, you just need to download Joost to your computer. To do so, click the Download tab from the black navigation strip along the top of the page. Next, choose your platform of either Windows or Mac and then download it. You’ll find excellent installation instructions provided right on the page.
 
Once it is installed, you need to choose a Joost name. You can do that right from within Joost, without having to tab out and without any hassle! You just need a username, a password, your name and your zip code. They also provide their Privacy Policy, so you know exactly why they need that information from you.
 
Now that you have a Joost name, you can start watching your favorite shows. It should load up in a full-screen mode the first time you use it, but keep in mind that you can also watch it in a windowed mode.
 
Want to see if there's even a program you’d like to watch? Well, feel free to browse the What’s On section. That is where you can see the listings of different channels and you can even browse by different categories. Once you pick a channel to watch, you will find a listing of different shows that appear on it. For example, if you choose music, pick IMTV and you will get a listing of what artists are playing on the Irish Music TV channel. Cool, huh?!
 
I have to admit, I’m already addicted to the CSI channel, as well as, exploring the many music channels Joost offers. Check it out today!
 
http://www.joost.com/
 
 
 
=== Free Rice
 
This Web site brings you a very addictive way in which you can help end world hunger! How does it work? Well, you play a vocabulary game and for every correct answer you get, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations.
 
Now, for all the technical details about how this program works, you should head on over to the FAQ section. The FAQs cover how the rice is donated, how the vocabulary program works and how playing helps you develop your vocabulary skills as well!
 
The game itself has 50 levels of difficulty and the more you answer, the harder the questions get. So, you can definitely challenge yourself. I know I have! I love it though, because you get to learn new words, what they mean and you're also helping give food to needy people.
 
So, how does the game work? Well, you just start by clicking the correct meaning for the current word on your page. Then you continue choosing the correct word and for each one you get right, you move on. If you get it wrong, it shows you the correct answer and then you can still move on.
 
You’ll notice your vocabulary level underneath the definitions. That way, you can keep an eye on where you are within in the range of levels. My best so far has been 38, but I’m totally addicted, so I’m sure that will go up over time!
 
I think this site has a wonderful concept and I can’t wait to head back for more. Check it out today!
 
http://www.freerice.com/index.php
 
 
 
=== WOWIO
 
Welcome to WOWIO! This Web site is dedicated to bringing you free books you can download to your own PC and read at your own leisure. The best part is that it’s the only place on the Web where you can download such high quality copyrighted books legally!
 
To get started, you need to register. To do so, click the Account button at the top of the page and choose "I am a new user." This will take you to the Registration page. This site requires authentication of your identity and you can do this in three ways:
 
One way is to provide an e-mail address that is not anonymous, which means no Hotmail, Yahoo! or Google addresses will be accepted. The good news though is that if you have Internet service, you most likely have access to an e-mail address that’s not anonymous. For example, YourNameHere@YourInternetProvider.com. The second way is to provide a credit card, which will not be charged and it is only used to authenticate you. Or, the third way is to provide a scan of your ID, which will be deleted as soon as you are authenticated and are transmitted securely.
 
I used my e-mail address to be authorized. It seemed to be the least invasive. Now, I know that’s going to put some of you off. I mean, why do you have to be authenticated at all? Well, here’s what the site had to say about it:
 
“Signing up for a WOWIO account requires that you agree to the terms of a licensing agreement. Since an agreement is only meaningful when it is between two real parties, we require that people offer some proof that they are who they say they are. This licensing arrangement is what enables WOWIO to protect the content of our publishing partners and provide you with free e-books.”
 
Now, it's your call, but I think this service is truly worth the authentication. You’re getting free books that you can download to your computer to be yours forever! You can get the classics, college textbooks, comics and more.
 
Once you are authorized, you just need to confirm the information you authorized with and then fill out an optional survey. Then you are ready to start downloading books, with only a limit of three per day! Even being the voracious reader I am, I seldom read more than two books a day, so that seems very fair to me.
 
Navigation is pretty easy too. There are featured titles on the main page and you can search by Title, Author, ISBN or Keyword. Or, you can use the drop down menu and use the categories to find a book to enjoy.
 
I like the category browser when I’m not looking for something specific. I was happy to find familiar reads like Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Kurt Vonnegut, as well as, helpful books on Business, Life, Computers and Textbooks. It really is like a bookstore where you can go browse and select the books that interest only you!
 
I would not let children browse around this site by themselves, just as I wouldn’t let a child run loose in a bookstore. They might find books you wouldn’t want them to know about. I think you should browse the children’s section together, just like you would at the kid’s corner of your local bookstore.
 
I know I’m going to use this site quite a bit. I hope you will too. Enjoy it!
 
http://www.wowio.com/index.asp
 
 
 
=== Games for the Brain
 
Welcome to a highly addicting game Web site that challenges you to think. Here you will find puzzles, word games, memory games and more!
 
I have already spent a good hour exploring this site and I became very addicted to the game What Was There? In that game, you have to look at images, memorize them and then answer questions about what you did or did not see. Each right answer scores you 10 IQ points!
 
Dragger was also a lot of fun. You have to drag the pieces into the puzzle frame in the right order. It’s a nice twist on a jigsaw puzzle.
 
Counterfeit was another one I spent a lot of time playing. You have to look at two paintings and figure out in what ways they are different. Some of them were very hard to spot and were quite a challenge to solve.
 
Rotate is a puzzle game where you have to rotate the squares into the right positions to make the correct image. Everything has to match up perfectly, so be careful before you click Continue that you have the solution you want.
 
For all you Sudoku lovers out there, you’ll find your favorite number puzzle on this site as well! These puzzles have the highest IQ points I have seen on the site, as they are worth 100 points each.
 
If you click the link for word games, you will see even more options for games on this page. I found LetterMaze hard to complete in the time limit and it was pretty challenging, because you have to mouse over the letters very precisely. But, once you get the hang of it, it is a lot of fun!
 
Other word games you’ll find here are: Anagramania, Guess the Word, Spellice and The WordHunt Game. That’s just naming a few that I tore myself away from the other games to play!
 
Spellice was a very fun game where you have to type the sentence you see correctly. The version you are looking at has spelling errors in it. I thought it was rather nifty, because all the phrases came from Alice in Wonderland.
 
The WordHunt Game has moving letters that rotate around the square and you have to figure out what they spell. I was hoping for an actual word hunt where you have to find words in a jumble of letters. You know, like those word search magazines you can get at the grocery store. But, this was still very fun!
 
I hope you’re ready to test your brain with these challenging puzzles. I know I can’t wait to get back to them. Enjoy!
 
http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/
 
 
 
=== 20 Questions
 
Welcome to the 20 Questions Web site! This is where you can play the popular game online for free. And trust me, it's loads of fun! When the page loads up, you’ll see four tabs along the top: Play, Blog, Game FAQ and Other Games.
 
Play – Here you will be able to choose to play 20 Questions in any of 21 languages, all for free. Once you’ve selected the language you want to think in, you can fill out the optional survey as to your age, gender and location. Then scroll down and click the version of the game you’d like to play.
 
Now, you’re ready to start the game. First, you need to decide if you are a person, place, thing or unknown. Having decided that, 20 Questions will start asking you questions to decipher what or who you are. Once the game feels it has garnered enough information, it will make an educated guess as to what or who you are. Sometimes it takes the full 20 questions, but sometimes it does not. The game guessed I was Alf after only 16 questions!
 
Next, it will list the contradictions it found in what you answered (that is, if there are any). It will also explain how other people answered it in a different way. There is a nifty link at the end of the game to "How 20Q" learns. It explains the way 20Q gathers information from people playing the game. I found that to be pretty neat!
 
Blog – Here you will find a blog that reads as if it were written by 20Q. I thought it was a very cute and funny read.
 
Game FAQ – Here is where you should head if you have any questions about the game. Just choose Online Game, which is where you will not only find questions and answers, but a link to a quick tour of the game.
 
Other Games – Here you will find links to play 20 Questions Junior, Memory and Hangman. What a great way to have even more fun after you’ve played your round of 20 Questions!
 
Well, I’m quite addicted to this game at the moment, so I’m off to play another round of TV 20 Questions. Enjoy!
 
http://www.20q.net/
 
 
 
=== Global Restaurant Guide
 
So, you’re in a new place and you’re hungry. What do you do? Well, you find somewhere to eat, of course! And this restaurant guide can make it easier for you to find a great place. This is an excellent tool for vacation planning, business trips and even to check out what’s good in your own town!
 
The main page is broken down into sections and those are: United States, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, Asia and Europe. You’ll also find a search engine sandwiched between the United States and Canada. At the bottom of the page, there is an international guide and world map as well.
 
Since I’m not going on vacation, I thought I’d check out a restaurant near me. I typed in my zip code and it found nothing right next to me (the search only goes 15 miles away), but it did give me a neighborhood search, so I chose Toledo. There I saw a list of some of my favorite restaurants, as well as, some I’ve been curious about, but not brave enough to try!
 
You can not only see ratings, but comments from people who have eaten there as well. You can even write a review with very minimal fuss. You just fill in your e-mail address, name, choose whether you want your name to be displayed and then confirm your review when you get the e-mail in your Inbox.
 
This site is easy to use and it is filled with helpful reviews so you can get the most out of your dining, in any town. Bon Appétit!
 
http://www.restaurants.com/default.html
 
 
 
=== TimeLeft
 
I have been so busy around the office lately, it's ridiculous! I feel like the poster child for multi-tasking. Sometimes it's so hard to keep up with all my appointments and deadlines that I'm either late or seriously late. Throughout the day, week and even throughout the year, there are dates and events that you don't want sneaking up on you. You know, things like, did you remember to back up the database or when's the next three-day weekend?! I find myself creating endless post-it notes or making mental time hacks, which is a method plagued with shortcomings and disorganization. So, to avoid all of that, I use TimeLeft.
 
TimeLeft is a small program with tons of flexibility and great options to keep you right on schedule. Here's what the TimeLeft countdown timer has to offer: Reminder, Countdown, Stopwatch, Clock, Time Synchronization, Message Window and it can open Web sites and folders as a reminder option.
 
On top of all these choices, you can completely change the way the title acts and looks with a staggering amount of configurable settings, all for a free time program. Nestedoft's site has an FAQ section and there is an accommodating Help file along with it. There is even a tutorial in the program. As a matter of fact, I just set it up to open an audio file when my lunch is over. I also set one to open up the WorldStart homepage for me. It works perfectly every time!
 
If you need a little something to keep you on track, you will find TimeLeft to be a real lifesaver. Check it out for yourself today!
 
http://www.nestersoft.com/timeleft/
 
 
 
=== Mouse Print
 
Welcome to the Web site that is devoted to reading through all the fine print in the world in order to find the hidden catches that could sneak up on an unsuspecting consumer at any given time. The site is in a blog style, with the most recent entry at the top.
 
On the left side of the page, you will find the side menu, which is divided into the following categories: About, Ad Categories, Price Checker, Resources, Archives and Search.
 
About - Here you will find information about the site's background, as well as, find the page for company rebuttals. You will also find information about fine print articles, which include a saucy comment about print size. You can even click the Submissions link to send in your own examples of misleading fine print. Plus, under the Use of Asterisks section, you can learn what their legal use is and much more!
 
Ad Categories – This section allows you to surf the site by types of ads. It is divided up into the following categories: Auto, Business, Computers, Finance, Food/Groceries, Health, Internet, Retail, Sweepstakes, Telephone, Travel and Uncategorized. Choosing one will show you the entries for that category in the same blog style that is on the main page.
 
Price Checker – This section takes you to a different site where you can compare the prices of digital cameras, computers and software, televisions, etc. I didn’t look too closely at this one, but I wanted to warn you that it does go to a whole different Web site.
 
Resources – Here you will find links to the resources this site uses. These are also outside links, but I did have time to check them out. They all looked pretty safe to use and they had a lot of useful information on them.
 
Archives – Here you can browse through the previous entries by month. The archive spans from March 2006 to September 2007.
 
Also, at any time, should you wish to return to the main page, just click the Return to the Homepage link at the top of the side menu.
 
I was grateful for the article on laundry detergent. I will definitely be more careful when looking at those bargains from now on! I also thought it was funny that a car company has nothing to hide, but makes it difficult to get ahold of their lifetime warranty.
 
So, go on and check it out today. Who knows, it might save you time and money with some of the things you purchase too!
 
http://www.mouseprint.org/
 
 
 
=== Metaphorical
 
I don’t want to give too much away about this Web site, because exploring it is what makes it a lot of fun. So, I’m going to briefly describe the ways you can navigate it.
 
This site’s navigation is so fun when you choose the Interactive mode. When the page loads, it will give you directions on how to use this section. To sum it up, basically, you click around the page to explore! When you are ready, click the Click to Enter link and the first thing you’ll notice when it loads is you have a cursor on the page that moves when your mouse does, as it slowly reveals words to you. Click the word to explore its topic.
 
You may find pictures, poems, thoughts, games, videos, definitions and even some concluding thoughts for the topic. It is a lot of fun to scroll around, click and discover.
 
You also have the option of a more linear navigation. To use it, choose the Index mode, which is labeled by the author as boring. It may be boring, but it is more straightforward. It has a typical table of contents that allows you to choose from the following categories: Form, Nature, Boredom, Labyrinth, Code and Information. Notice they aren’t exactly straightforward categories and as such, I still found it a delight to explore this way as well!
 
I hope you have as much fun exploring this site as I did. Are you ready? I know I can’t wait to get back to it. Enjoy!
 
http://www.metaphorical.net/index2.html
 
 
 
=== Kongregate Beta
 
Welcome to Kongregate Beta, the Web site where you can play over 1,000 games for free! What makes this site so different from all those other free game sites, you ask? Well, here you can register and become part of a community of gamers and developers who work together to make the most amazing game site online today. Another difference is that if you are a game developer, you can upload your games here for people to play as well!
 
I’ve started you out on the About page, so you can find out what the goals of the site are for the community. Navigation is fairly simple. I’d recommend heading to the Home page from here, simply by clicking Home.
 
Notice on the Home page there is a section underneath the main navigation strip (Home, Games, Upload, etc.) that reads “Hello, are you new to Kongregate?” You’ll find a link there that will lead you to some recommended games. These seem to all be five star games that have gotten good ratings from the community as well!
 
Now, you can play the games without registering. However, you need an account to chat, upload games and such. The games are Flash games also, so you’ll need a Flash player to play them. You can download one right here.
 
Once you select a game, you’ll notice that the instructions, ratings, comments and such are on a navigation strip above it. On the side of the game, you will find the chat window and if you scroll down the page, you’ll find the details of the developer who made the game.
 
At the top of the page, you’ll find links to log in, get help and more. Right now, I’m madly addicted to playing this game called Warbears. Also, make sure you report any bugs you find on the site so that they can continue to fine tune everything.
 
I hope you’ll enjoy playing these games as much as I already have!
 
http://http://www.kongregate.com/pages/about
 
 
 
=== AskPhilosophers
 
Welcome to AskPhilosohpers, a Web site where you can ask a philosophical question and get an answer from a philosopher! This site is fairly easy to navigate. First, I am going to direct your attention to the side menu where you will find:
 
About the Site – This section very clearly explains what the site is about and how exactly you can use it. It is a great place to start your journey.
 
Ask a Question – Here you will find the form to ask your question for the philosophers. Type in your question, label which word it starts with and provide your e-mail address if you’d like a message sent to you if your question is answered. Check out the guidelines to learn how to best write your question so that it will get answered.
 
Recent Responses – This link takes you to the most recently answered questions. You will just see the response to see the question they were answering. Click the Show link in the right hand corner of the response to view it.
 
Concept Cloud – Here you can choose a word randomly from the page to see what questions were asked for that subject. If you don’t like the subjects on the page, click Randomize near the title to have more random questions chosen for you to look at.
 
Categories - You will find this on the side menu as well. You can choose All or you can go by the category you want to explore from A to Z.
 
Back on the main page in the center, you will find:
 
Question of the Day – Here you will find a new question. It changes every day and it appears to be completely random.
 
On the left side menu, you will find the listing of panelists. Next to their name is a number that shows you how many questions they have responded to. If you click their name, a short biography will pop up. Underneath their biography, you will see the Concept Cloud with some of the topics they’ve answered randomly. If you would rather see all their answers, click All Responses at the bottom of the pop up box.
 
So, are you ready to ask a philosophical question? Or, maybe you’re just ready to browse and see what others have asked. Either way, you are sure to get your mind thinking when you read the questions and answers on this site. Enjoy!
 
http://www.askphilosophers.org/
 
 
 
=== Wise Geek
 
Welcome to Wise Geek, a Web site that is dedicated to giving you clear, cut answers to specific questions. You will find examples of questions on either side of the page. They are linked to articles with the answers, so if you see one you’d like to know the answer to, don’t hesitate to click the link and find out what the answer is!
 
The best way to search for an answer to a specific question you have is to use the search engine. The search engine is found in the center of the page for easy access. Type in your question and click the Search Wise Geek button. This will find the articles that are most commonly related to your question. Sometimes you’ll get an exact match, while other times, you’ll get things that match by category.
 
If you don’t have a specific question, that's fine too. You can always scroll down the page to the categories. Here you can select from different categories and read the articles each of them contain.
 
If you scroll even further down the page, you will find the blog section, which, to me, is like an updates section. Here you will find what’s new as far as articles go, as well as, with the site news. There was a very interesting article down here about getting the most out of eating at an "all you can eat" buffet. I’d definitely check that out if you tend to enjoy buffets! My roommate and I often eat at this Chinese Buffet with a Mongolian Grill, so it had some interesting and useful tips for me.
 
Of course, if you have any questions about the site, you can scroll back up to the top of the page and click the FAQ link. There you will find the most frequently asked questions about the site and how to use everything on it.
 
I can’t wait to start checking out all the different questions. I often have questions about odd things and this site looks like it was meant to help me discover the answers. Enjoy!
 
http://www.wisegeek.com/
 
 
 
=== Share Your Bargains
 
Do you know someone who is always finding incredible bargains? Or, maybe you're the one who always finds them. I am an avid bargain hunter when I’m making decent sized purchases. Well, here you can share the bargains you find with other people, as well as, see what they have shared!
 
This Web site is set up in a forum style. The FAQ section is only really useful for questions about the forum and how to use it, but not what they are about.
 
The really fun and main part of this site is abandoning tips. To find out more about this, I highly recommend that you browse through the Instructions on How to Post Your Abandoned Tips. The idea is to write down your tip and leave it in a public place, making sure to include a link back to this site. Then you post to the appropriate state’s listing here and say where abouts you left the tip. So, it’s almost like geocaching for money saving tips!
 
There are also forums devoted to Online Deals, Off Topic Talk, Product Reviews and Recipes and Gift Ideas.
 
In order to post, you may need to register, which is very simple. Just click the Register link, agree to their rules and then fill out your information. Then you're good to go!
 
I think this site has a very fun idea behind it and it’s always nice to be pointed in the way of a good deal online. I also like to share my opinions on products that I’ve used, so this is perfect. Check it out!
 
http://www.shareyourbargains.com/
 
 
 
=== A Europe of Tales
 
So, the Snow White Web site we looked at last week really got me thinking about other fairy tales and I was able to find this awesome site that just so happens to come in eight different languages, while it explores tales from all over Europe! It does require a Flash Player, which you can get here for free!
 
Once the site loads, you will see that the navigation is done by country. Choose to learn about tales from Iceland, Scotland, Finland, Brittany or Italy. If you scroll over each country’s strip, the animated character will pop up and give you a brief introduction to that section. Click the name of the country you want to explore to enter that section.
 
The section will pop up in its own window and load. You will then be able to choose which tale you’d like to hear. When you choose a story, I’d like to point out the links at the bottom the page: Info, Photo Gallery, Map and Tasks.
 
Info – Here you will learn background information about the country you are reading tales from.
 
Photo Gallery - Here you will see real images that relate to the story you are reading. I found this to be really helpful, because if you're reading about a specific place or item, you can see it too!
 
Map – This map shows you where all the stories are from. Just click on the country to see it larger.
 
Tasks – This section gives some ideas for teachers that will help increase their students' understanding of the stories.
 
I hope you enjoy these tales as much as I did. I think I’ve read them all at least twice now. I particularly enjoyed the tales from Scotland. Have fun!
 
http://www.europeoftales.net/site/index2.html
 
 
 
=== Symptom Checker
 
Have you ever gotten a sore throat or an ear ache and wondered why? Or even more, what it could be a symptom of? I most certainly have. So, I like to go and look at a symptom checker like this one every once in awhile to see what could be going on.
 
When the page loads, you’ll notice that there is one side for Adults and one for Children. Choose the appropriate side for the person you are checking the symptoms for and then look at the list of symptoms to choose the one that matches.
 
This will take you to a page for that symptom where you will fill in the checkboxes for everything that applies. It is normally divided up into sections. The most common being: Symptom is, Triggered By, Accompanied by, Relieved by and Pattern. Go through each section for your symptom and be honest in your answers. Then click Submit.
 
It will then load a page of diseases and conditions that your symptoms match, as well as, information on the disease, what symptoms matched each disease and when you should seek urgent medical care.
 
Now remember, this is only a guide and it shouldn’t serve as a diagnosis for a condition. It’s sort of just to point you in the right direction and let you know when to seek professional health care!
 
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sy...checker/DS00671
 
 
 
=== Language Dictionaries
 
After spending quite a bit of time pouring through the 100 most commonly misspelled words, I explored the rest of the site and I stumbled upon these dictionaries. They are such an awesome resource that I couldn’t wait to share them with all of you!
 
Did you know that there are over 6,000 spoken languages in the world today? Or that about 2,000 of them have written languages to go with their verbal ones? This Web site brings you around 300 language dictionaries to browse through.
 
The dictionaries are in alphabetical order and they go across the page to the right, making it easy to find the language you are looking for. Navigation is simple. Just click the name of the language of which dictionary you'd like to browse through. It will take you to a page full of links to dictionaries of that dialect, as well as, some you can open in your word processing programs.
 
I think this is a handy tool to have around for many different projects. Whether you want to help your kids with their language class, you want to look up a certain word you’ve seen or you use it to find a word to use for a project, you’ll find so many different dictionaries here that you’d be hard pressed to ask for anything more.
 
Check it out!
http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages.html
 
 
 
=== Instructables
 
I have fallen in deep DIY love with this site. Here at Instructables, you will learn how to make a ton of amazing stuff. To get the most out of the site, I recommend signing up first. You can add your own instructables then, as well as, post comments and save your favorite projects for easy viewing access.
 
The categories are Art, Craft, Food, Home, Life, Not Liable, Ride and Tech. If you’re logged in, you will find them under Explore on the orange navigation strip near the top of the page.
 
Art – Here you will find instructions in many different forms of art. The art ranges from Origami to Theatrical Effects to 3D Effects, etc. I loved the instructions on how to make your own buttons, using seashells!
 
Craft – Here you will find even more general forms of crafts. Learn how to make a light saber, Tetris ice cubes, sharpen knives, resurface CDs and more.
 
Food – I’m always looking for how to options for cooking, so I dove right into this section. I found a great how to for mashed potatoes that I could have used a couple of years ago before much trial and error. But mostly, these are food related instructables. I also found a great instructable on making Thai-Iced Tea, which is my absolute favorite summertime drink.
 
Home – Here you will find all the home projects you could ever desire. From making your own hammock, bookshelves, furniture, lamps, fold t-shirts, stripes for your lawn and more!
 
Life – This section is a bunch of miscellaneous things revolving around the topic of life. You’ll find great tips on how to close your chip bags, how to search for four leaf clovers and even how to get rid of a sunburn!
 
Not Liable – I don’t recommend this section. I didn’t see anything useful here and I almost wish it wasn't included on the site.
 
Ride – Here you really get into an inventor’s section. See instructables on bikes, hovercrafts, go-karts and more.
 
Tech – Here you will find the really technical stuff, like making an ice light bulb (very cool), battery chargers and even flashlights.
 
This site will keep you occupied with all its "how tos," that's a promise. There's a lot I can’t wait to try for myself. Check it out!
 
http://www.instructables.com/
 
 
 
=== FixYa
 
What do you do when you are frustrated by the lack of technical support from the manufacturer of a product you bought? Well, maybe you decided to create your own Web site and offer free tech support for consumer products to everyone. Maybe that's not you, but that’s what the authors of this site have done. Here you will find free tech support for your cell phone, printer, scanner, computer and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
 
There are a couple of ways to get help on this site. You can search by product or by problem and if you scroll down the page further, you can use the alphabetical listing to browse by manufacturer. If you browse by manufacturer, I want to warn you that there are Buy Me buttons. Just ignore them and either click Get Support Now or the link for the product. This will take you to the support section for them.
 
On the main page, you will also be able to view the Top Experts, Recent Solutions, Recent Problems and there is even a Repair section where you can put in your zip code to find a repair shop near you.
 
To get the most out of this site, I recommend registering. It’s free and it allows you to keep track of your questions and your answers, as well as, your ratings.
 
If you are a technical expert, you can register as one and help people troubleshoot their gadgets. You don’t have to be an expert to help someone out though. You just have to be registered.
 
This site is definitely worth bookmarking for all your future technical needs. I know I’ve saved it for mine. Check it out today!
 
http://www.fixya.com/
 
 
 
=== Vcarious
 
This Web site puts a unique spin on travel guides. I recommend registering first, because then you can participate in the community, keep track of your travels, as well as, where you’d like to go.
 
All you need to do to register is provide your name, e-mail address, a username and a password. Both your name and your e-mail will be kept private. An activation e-mail will come to the address you provided (mine came immediately). Once you receive that, all you have to do is click the activation link and you’ll be good to go.
 
Main – Once you’re logged in, under the Main tab, you will find the links for Home and My Profile. Here you will be able to customize your profile with a picture of yourself and with as much or as little detail about yourself as you’d like to share. You can also see your contributions (photos, journals, etc.) and even detail where you’ve been or where you’d like to go.
 
Explore – This tab is broken down into three categories: visuals, journals and guides.
 
Visuals will give you travel photos to choose from. There was a beautiful image of an arched doorway from Florence here. When I moused over it, it told me who contributed it and there was a plus sign on the picture. I clicked that and it took me to that picture's page where I had the option to see the original and get a guide for Florence. I chose to see the original and boy, was I surprised! Not only does it enlarge the picture, but you can zoom in to see all of the details. That has to be the most beautifully carved doorway I’ve ever seen in my life.
 
Journals is a delightful section, because you can learn about people’s experiences from the places they’ve seen and stayed at. Use the map on the left hand side to choose where you’d like to see journals from. You can sort the content with a drop down on the green bar near the top of the page. Your options are: Writing Quality, Travel Experience, Humor and Latest Updated.
 
Guides is where you can find the travel guides. Again, you can use the map to navigate through the places you want a travel guide for. I’m not sure if there is another way to do this or not. There is a search engine, but since I adore the map navigation so much, I actually didn’t try it out. Travel guides really seem like a one stop area. You’ll find information about the location, you might see videos or pictures, there are maps and there is even a news section.
 
My Travels is a section all about where you’ve been. You can write journal entries describing your travels and upload photos from your trip. I think it is very cool that they are providing people an opportunity to share their experiences in different places like this!
 
Community is a section where you will find Members, Messages and Discussions as the links. The Members link will take you to the database of users who are members. You can scroll down through them and learn all about them. Messages is where you will find messages other users have left you. And finally, Discussions is pretty much a forum. You’ll find discussions on travel, places to stay and other topics of the sort. You can also start a discussion of your own to get your own answers or you can present your own topic.
 
This is a great site that really captures the spirit of traveling around the world. Plus, it lets you share it with others or even just experience it second hand. Enjoy!
 
http://www.vcarious.com/
 
 
 
=== Brain Bashers
 
Welcome to a Web site filled with games, puzzles, illusions and logic games that will truly make your brain work. Navigation is super simple. You’ll find it on the side menu or you can use the buttons located in the middle of the page.
 
Puzzles – Here you can view all the different (and many) puzzles on this site. They are divided into different categories to make navigation easier. You can even see which puzzles are the most played in the Top 10 section.
 
Games – Here you can find everything from puzzle games to arcade games to strategy to even word games! There are tons to choose from. You’re not likely to get bored in this section.
 
Illusions – In this section, you get three types of illusions: optical illusions, fractal images and stereograms. Select the section you want to start with. Each section defines what it is. The stereograms were my favorite. A stereogram is where there is a 3D object hidden in a 2D picture.
 
Today – Here you will find all the daily content. You can find fresh Sudoku, fill ins, jigsaw puzzles and so much more!
 
Sudoku – This is a puzzle that has taken the world by storm. Everyone I know is doing it, but thankfully for me, there is a Help section. You can do the daily Sudoku or you can choose to do a random one.
 
Fun Stuff – Here you will find a miscellaneous group of fun things to try. You can pick your favorite color and see if it ranks in the top 10 most voted for or you can see if you can guess exactly when 10 seconds are up, which by the way, is harder than you might think. The closest I got was 9.6879. There’s a maze to escape from and my absolute favorite of Can You Follow Instructions?!
 
So, are you ready to challenge your brain to these brain bashers? Have a blast!
 
http://www.brainbashers.com/
 
 
 
=== Geni
 
I am so happy to bring you this site! For all of you avid family tree makers, it just got a whole lot easier. Here at Geni, you can easily make an online version of your own family tree.
 
To get started, on the My Tree tab (if it didn’t take you directly to the start page, please click that you are a new user), just add your information and from there, you can expand it. Click the yellow arrows around you and you will get the option to add a brother, sister or spouse. Once they are added, you can edit their information and add lots of other useful information about them. You can add where they were born, how old they are, where they live, their occupation, maiden name, photo and much more.
 
You’ll notice there are some navigation tools as well. There is a slider bar, which makes the page zoom in and out for you and there is a house surrounded by arrows, which will let you scroll the page either right, left, up or down.
 
Once you have all the people you’d like to add at the moment, you can click the My Profile tab and start filling out your profile. You’ll need to confirm your account by checking your e-mail address and setting a permanent password for yourself.
 
To share your tree with your other family members, all you need is their e-mail address. And in this day and age, not many people are without an e-mail address. Even my grandparents have one! Geni will even keep track of who you have invited, so you won’t repeat yourself.
 
If you get lost or confused at any point while creating your tree, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Help link. Geni's Help section is really very helpful. It’s well thought out and it answered all my questions. You can even search Geni Help with the search engine at the top of the page.
 
So, are you ready to create and share your own family tree? I can’t wait to share mine. Check it out!
 
http://www.geni.com/tree/start
 
 
 
=== Mom Ready
 
Today's cool site is an awesome online parenting magazine! While I’m not a parent (unless you count my pets that are too smart for their own good), there were great tips here for me too. I found some on organizing and getting things done, as well as, some nifty crafts!
 
There are two places to navigate from. There is the green navigation strip near the top of the page under the logo and there's the side menu. The green navigation strip has links to the current article "Today’s Momready" and the Archives, as well as, the About section.
 
The side menu has all the rest of the good stuff under Departments, including Organize, Tips, Book and Film Talk, Art Projects, Boredom Busters, Food & Health, Birthday Club, Rant, Message Board and Blog.
 
Organize – I can’t begin to tell you how many helpful tips I picked up from this section. Here you can find a great column called Ask Peter where folks write in and ask Peter Walsh for tips on organizing. Another nifty feature of this section is Charge It, which is where you learn to make a nifty box to hide the power strip and plugs to all the devices you need to charge up.
 
Tips – This is where you will get to the heart of the parenting advice. It is divided into three columns: Tips, Proceed with Caution and Tech Talk. Each one has many articles devoted to their topic. I love the tip section, because it brings to light not only issues that you have with your children, but things we do in our everyday lives as well.
 
For example, the article "No Complaining" not only discusses how to teach your children not to whine and complain, but to reflect on how much you do it as well, so that you can lead by example.
 
Book and Film Talk – Here you can find suggestions on books and films for your kids to see and read. Each month, there are books recommended for kids zero to 12 in the Book Talk articles. Check them out. They're pretty neat!
 
Boredom Busters – This is another great section! Why? Well, it is filled with great ideas on how to ease your child's boredom. This deals not only with summer boredom, but also those times when your kids are sick and have absolutely nothing to do. You will also find a review on games that your kids can play and even some you can play with them. Pretty cool, huh?!
 
You can also view this site in Spanish. If you like what you find here, you can also sign up to get their free daily newsletter in your e-mail Inbox. You can’t miss the bright orange Sign Up Now button, so go ahead and do that if you'd like.
 
Well, I think you are starting to get the idea of what this site is all about, so I’ll let you finish exploring this practical site that is going to help you and your family out so much. I just know it!
 
http://www.momready.com/
 
 
 
=== Read Print
 
Welcome to a Web site that any avid reader will love! Here at Read Print, you can read online books, poems and even short stories. Not only did I find some of my favorite authors here, I also found some that I had never read before.
 
For me, this site is an online library where I can go and read, without leaving the comfort of my home. You will find mostly classics here, which makes it a great resource for both students and teachers.
 
It is extremely easy to navigate through as well. There is a navigation strip at the top of the page that gives you access to the Author Index, Shakespeare and Articles sections. Or, you can scroll down the page and choose your favorite author to read.
 
Some authors you will find here are: Jane Austen, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Homer, Niccolo Machiavelli, Tolstoy and Voltaire.
 
If you scroll down, you’ll also notice that there is a Recently Added Books section where you can see what the new additions to the site are. I love the straightforward design of this site. It makes everything so easy to find.
 
In the Articles section, you will find a section brimming full with helpful information. This is a great section for teachers and students as well, because you can find information on Blank Verse, Sonnets, Writing Magazine Articles and much more.
 
So, you’ve found the author you want to read. Just click their name and you’ll be whisked away to their page. There you will not only get a listing of works that you can choose to read, but you'll find a biography of that author as well. How nifty is that?!
 
I think you’re ready to choose an author. Go ahead and select a book or poem and start reading. I can only hope you’ll get as much enjoyment from this cool site as I did!
 
http://www.readprint.com/
 
 
 
=== Q: What can you tell me about social bookmarking?
 
A: Well, a lot actually! I know most of you have probably heard of bookmarking and some of you probably know what I'm talking about when I say social networking, but what about social bookmarking? Do those three things even have anything to do with each other? The answer to that is yes and no. Allow me to explain.
 
When you bookmark a Web site, you're pretty much adding it to your Favorites list (in your Web browser) so you'll be able to find it easier and faster the next time you want to visit it. That way, you don't have to take up so much time finding it again in the wide world of the Web. Now, I'm willing to guess that most of you bookmark a lot of Web sites on a regular basis. Am I right? So, once you have all those sites compiled, what are you going to do with them? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to share them with other people who may have the same interests as you?
 
Well, that's where social bookmarking comes into play. It allows you to share your bookmarks with other Internet users in a collaborative sort of way. Usually, social bookmarking takes place on sites where the users can create an account to add their bookmarks to. It's also helpful to do it on sites that allow you to insert keywords for the types of bookmarks you add. That way, they all can be organized and set into categories that other users can easily search through.
 
Social bookmarking gives you the chance to see all of the Web sites you may have missed thus far. By seeing what other users submit in certain categories, you can view the ones that fit your interests the best. You won't have to waste your time looking at other sites that don't interest you either. Also, by being able to see all the sites that other people add, you can start to accumulate a whole slew of new resources. It's all so helpful and you certainly can't complain about any of that!
 
Once you become a part of a social bookmarking site, you become a member of that community. You and all the other users are there for the same thing and you can help each other out in finding sites that will benefit all of you. It also makes searching the Web so much easier and quicker. Another great thing is that once you're part of a site, you can access it from any computer and any browser. That way, you're never limited in seeing the social bookmarks you've been waiting for.
 
Now, you're probably wondering how you can get started. There are a few social bookmarking sites online today, with one of the most popular being del.icio.us. You can create your own account there and once you're all set up, you can search by keywords to find other bookmarks that may interest you. This site also has lists for the "Popular" and "Recent" categories, so you can dive right into your searching. You can find bookmarks for all types of things on here too. From software to design to photography to shopping, it's all here.
 
Another great social bookmarking site is digg.com. We've told you about this one before in our newsletter and you can read here for some basic information about it. Digg is mostly geared toward technology and science, but if you're into that, it will be perfect for you. You can leave comments (diggs) on this site as well, which makes it all a little more interesting. One more popular social bookmarking site is reddit.com. It is a great source for up and coming online content. Reddit also has a very unique and easy voting system. Other social bookmarking sites that may be worth a look are Furl, StumbleUpon and Slashdot.
 
Now, of course, there are always pros and cons to everything and social bookmarking is no exception. If social bookmarking is going to work properly, it takes a lot of organization to make sure all of the information is divided up correctly and is relevant. Sometimes, the sites fall short of that and it can make your research a lot more difficult. On the other hand, these sites allow users to gain a bigger knowledge base, all while helping others do the same thing. Social bookmarking is a feel good type of thing and if done right, it can benefit a lot of people.
 
 
 

 

=== Grand Illusions
 
I couldn’t wait to share this site with you. This is my current brainteaser. I’ve been challenging myself to solve this Russian Puzzle and now I want to share it with you.
 
It’s very easy to get started. Just click the piece of the puzzle you want to use first. If you want to rotate the puzzle piece, you need to press the Shift key down while clicking.
 
When you get all the pieces in the right order, a message reading “Congratulations” will pop up on your screen and that’s how you will know that you solved it. For more information on this puzzle and its creator, you may want to check out the information below the puzzle as well.
 
I still haven’t solved this puzzle, but I will be working on it diligently until I do. If you liked this puzzle, you may want to surf around the rest of the site too. You’ll find articles on toys, puzzles and even real life mysteries.
 
I liked the article on the ancient Greek Antikythera. It’s a device that plotted the movement of the heavens. Very neat!
 
Alright, I have to get back to trying to solve this puzzle before it drives me batty. Enjoy!
 
http://www.grand-illusions.com/articles/russian_puzzle/
 
 
 
=== Live Science
 
I love to bring you sites that I regularly visit and this is one of them. There are a lot of ways to navigate this site. I’ll be honest, I’m usually so fascinated by the topics presented on the front page in the Top Stories, More Headlines, Cool Stuff and the Featured Article (you’ll find it on the left hand side of the page, because it isn’t really labeled), I don’t use the other options to navigate. But, just for you all, I looked into it.
 
The navigation strip you’ll find along the top is divided into the following sections: Animal Domain, Health SciTech, Forces of Nature, Environment, Technology, Science of Fiction, History and Strange News.
 
Animal Domain – Here you can learn all about animals and check out what animals have been in the news recently. For example, when I was there, I got to read about the beaver who has moved back into New York and about the giant squid that was caught off the coast of New Zealand. You can also check out the Featured Animal of the Week. When I was there, it was the red-tailed hawk.
 
Health SciTech – Here you can learn interesting things that relate to human health. One of the interesting stories I read here was about how the color of orange juice changes how we perceive the taste. Isn’t that interesting?!
 
Forces of Nature – This section is all about the weather and how the forces of nature affect the world in which we live. From headlines about volcanoes to the world’s weirdest weather, there is a lot to check out here.
 
Environment – There was a very interesting feature article here about strange new creatures found in Antarctica. There are even pictures of the critters for you to check out as well.
 
Technology - Here you can learn about the latest in technology. From exoskeletons that will help people walk to windmills that can generate power in places where there isn’t as much sun to all kinds of other interesting findings, there's something for everyone here.
 
Now that you have an idea of what you’ll find, I think you’ll understand why I’m so hooked on this site. Are you ready to dive right in? I know I’m ready to get back to checking it out too!
 
http://www.livescience.com/
 
 
 
=== Acronym Finder
 
Welcome to Acronym Finder. This is the place where you can look up just about any acronym, abbreviation or initialism to find out what they mean.
 
It’s really easy to use too! Just type in the acronym you want to find. I used ZOMG. Then just click the Find button. You can also fill in the bullet for whether it’s an acronym you’re looking up or a word in meaning.
 
My results came back like this:
 
ZOMG – Zoh! My God! (gaming, World of Warcraft)
ZOMG – Zombies! Oh My God!
ZOMG - Zeus, Oh My God!
 
I was trying to find the first one. I thought it would be harder to find, since it is mostly used in a game. The results came back fast and accurate though. I was impressed!
 
Other things I really loved about this site were the examples provided in the upper right corner. The examples display how the search engine works. So, if you click coffee, the example they’ve provided for Word in Meaning, it will show you all the abbreviations and acronyms that are related to the word coffee.
 
On the left side at the top, you will find a link that allows you to view the search on the side. This gives you a search box and a drop down box of many ways to search by.
 
You will also find a link called The Acronym Blog. This is where you will find the latest information and news about the site, as well as, some related sites.
 
This site is a great tool to have. I know I bookmarked it for later use and I hope you will too. Check it out today!
 
http://www.acronymfinder.com/
 
 
 
=== Paperback Swap
 
Welcome to Paperback Swap, a site recommended by one of my readers after they saw my write up on BookMooch. This site is completely dedicated to paperbacks though. I have to say that I love this site's layout. Everything is so easy to find and there was nothing I had to search for too long.
 
I started my visit by clicking the “How Does it Work”? link on the side menu, which took me to a page that has a video of news coverage about this site. It also had a six step concise description of how it works. If you still have questions after that, there is a link that takes you to the Help Center where you can get more information. Beneath all of that, there is some text that explains the mission statement of the site as well.
 
Of course, to use the site, you will have to register. To do so, click the Register link on the side menu. Fill out the forms, agree to the terms of service after reading them and then you’ll be all set. Right now, the membership is free and you’ll be signed up as a charter member.
 
There are also some really fun parts to this site that have nothing to do with the swap. You’ll find them under Additional Services, Book Discussions and Misc. You can keep a Book Journal or take part in The Eclectic Pen, where writers post stories and can interact with each other through a forum style area. Now, that’s just a tiny taste of what you can do here!
 
If you’ve got paperbacks lying around your house (I know I do), this is a great way to get rid of them and clear out some of your clutter!
 
http://www.paperbackswap.com/
 
 
 
=== Classic TV Outtakes
 
I adore outtakes from my favorite movies, so you can bet I was pleased when I found this site. I was so excited to know that I was going to be able to watch outtakes from some of my favorite television shows.
 
You will notice there is a profanity warning on this site, so you may not want your youngsters to check it out at all, or at least, without you pre-screening the content they will see. The reason for this is that these are unedited outtakes and are shown as they were when filmed.
 
What shows can you see outtakes from? Well, just to list a few: Star Trek, General Hospital, Laugh In, The George Lopez Show and even M*A*S*H!
 
You’ll need a media player to watch these files. If you don’t have one, you can download QuickTime, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to view them with. (Just remember to choose the free or basic versions).
 
To get to an outtake film, you'll want to click the red links in the text of the page, not the movie covers scattered around the page on the top, bottom and sides. Those links lead you to Amazon to purchase the DVDs of that show.
 
For me, it was worth ignoring the ads on this page to get the content. I mean, how often do you get to see outtakes from shows that you grew up watching and loving? Even in today’s age, it isn’t that often. Have fun!
 
http://www.tvparty.com/embloutake.html
 
 
 
=== StartCooking
 
I want to start by telling you all that I adore this site. Not only is it great for the beginning cook, but there are some handy tips that you can pick up as a more experienced one as well. Even if all you get out of this site is the recipes, you will still come out a winner.
 
There are three tabs at the top of the page: Recipes, Tips & Techniques and Food & Living. Along the bottom, there is a row of thumbnails. The ones marked with a "V" have a video attached to them. Each one leads to a tip, a recipe or a video. To watch the videos, you will need the QuickTime player, which you can get here for free. (I would select the option without iTunes. You can opt out of the newsletters as well).
 
Recipes – If you mouse over this tab, you will see a listing of recipes. Click the one you want to check out and you’ll be taken to it. Some of these have videos with them. I watched someone make English Muffin Pizzas and I’m starving now! Why, oh why did I follow it up with the Roasted Chicken video?!
 
Tips & Techniques – Again, mouse over this tab to get the listing for this section. Here you can learn all the tips and techniques you need for cooking. From how to separate eggs to cooking in a microwave to how to chop parsley, you will really find a lot of useful information here.
 
This section is also divided into categories to help you find what you need faster. Those are: around the kitchen, equipment, herbs and spices, fruits and vegetables, eggs, pasta, rice and breads, other and meat. I found that this section had lots of useful things for me. For example, if I wanted to check to make sure I pick out good eggs when I go to the grocery store, I could reference this site and know what I should be looking for.
 
Food & Living – This is where you will find interesting bits about both food and life. From how the author of the site met her husband to the food you might enjoy in London, you’ll read a delightful set of articles.
 
So, I’m ready to start cooking. How about you?!
 
http://startcooking.com/blog/
 
 
 
=== Book Mooch
 
Welcome to Book Mooch, a site where you can give books away and get books you want to read in return. It’s absolutely free to join and browse. The only cost is to ship your books to others. All in all, it is a really sweet deal.
 
I recommend joining right off the bat. To do so, click the Join tab and fill out the fields that are required. On the Join page, you will also find some links that will help better explain how things work. Look next to the Info area. There are three links: overview, points explained and interview.
 
Once you’ve joined and logged in, you’ll have more tabs across the top. They are: Browse, Add, Inventory, Wishlist, Pending and Member Home.
 
The Browse tab allows you to search for books that you would like to receive. You can do this by username, book title, by Amazon and there are even more options below the main search area.
 
Add – This is where you can add books for other people to mooch from you. There are several ways to add them. I would start with by hand.
 
Inventory – This shows the books that you’ve added for people to mooch off you.
 
Wishlist – This is where you can keep a listing of books that you want to mooch.
 
I highly recommend that everyone check out the FAQ section, as it helps clarify some of the questions you may have about points and shipping. You do have to earn points before you get free books, but really, the price of shipping isn’t that bad of a cost to get rid of books that may be cluttering up your house.
 
I can’t wait to start whittling down my extensive stacks of books by giving them to people who are actually going to treasure them. Get started today!
 
http://bookmooch.com/
 
 
 
=== Seventeen Moments in Soviet History
 
I like this style of history. You know, the kind where you can learn a little bit about a whole lot. I like to call it history at a glance. So, why don’t we check out these seventeen moments?! One of the interesting facts about the Soviet history is, unlike most modern history, it has an end. It lasted from 1917 to 1991.
 
I highly recommend reading the well written introduction to this site. Navigation is fairly simple. Click a year at the top of the screen and learn all about what was going on during that year.
 
Each year will have a main event highlighted, but to see more of what happened that year, you can use the drop down menu near the top of the page. You’ll also notice that there is a side menu once you get into the section that contains more texts, contexts, video, images and Web sites. So, if you find a section that really intrigues you, you can really learn all about that year.
 
Other navigation options on the Home page include About Us, Glossary and Biography. Biography opens a list of names that you can get biographical information on. About Us talks about who created the site and who they were funded by. The Glossary opens like the Biography section and allows you to pick terms off a list and have them defined for you.
 
So, how much or how little you learn is really up to you. If there’s something you want to skip over, you most certainly can. Or, if you want to get further into a subject, you definitely have that option too!
 
http://www.soviethistory.org/
 
 
 
=== Setting the Timeline
 
Ever need to create a timeline for a work or school project?
 
Do you find yourself wasting a whole lot of time trying to create drawing objects and moving text to get everything just as you want it?
 
Wish you had a template ready to go? You know, something that would have the set up ready and all you'd need to do is fill in the details?
 
If this sounds like a good idea to you, I have some excellent news for you.
 
Many of us never think to look, but Microsoft has a wonderful variety of templates available for download if you visit their site. Give this address a try:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx
 
In the search at the bottom of the page, I entered "timeline."
 
If you have a particular program you need to work with, select it. (If you make no program selection, you'll get a complete list, which will allow for a lot of flexibility if you know how to work in many different programs).
 
When you click Go, you'll find that they have several to offer.
 
Now, it's a matter of downloading your choice.
 
Once downloaded, the file will open and you're ready to get right to the business of entering your data, without all the initial set up hassles!
 
 
 
=== Musopen
 
If you love music or even better, free music, I have a wonderful link for you today. As we know, in recent years, a lot of controversy has been created due to music sharing. Most of the artists are against this and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has created quite a ruckus by prosecuting people who are downloading music illegally from the Internet and sharing it with others. In such times, it seems impossible to think that someone could be sharing free music online in a legal way, right? Well, today it is possible. Musopen is one Web site to thank for that. The goal of the Web site is to share the music that is available to the public, free of cost.
 
So, how are these people able to share music for free? It's quite simple really. They share music that has no copyrights or music that is freely available in the public domain. Now, don’t expect to find your favorite Garth Brooks song there, because the kind of music they have uploaded on Musopen is mainly in the classical genre. Think more Beethoven than Britney Spears. Since the music is so old and no one holds the copyrights anymore, it's yours for the taking.
 
The interface is rather simple. You can either browse the entire collection to see if your favorite pieces of music are there or if you are new to classical music, you can click on "Random music" to do some browsing. The music is categorized according to composer, style, period, instrument and performer.
 
Another favorite thing of mine on this site is the Musopen radio. It’s just perfect if you don’t want to download the music, but just want to listen to it. The speed of the buffering is rather fast and the quality is pleasant. If you are new to classical music, I suggest you go through the learning pages first, which will tell you a lot about classical music and its glorious past.
 
There are virtually no limitations to what you can do with the music you find here, but for ethical purposes, they request that you do not sell the music. If you do use it commercially, you should at least mention Musopen.com in the credits.
You can also contribute back to the project by providing them with any copyright free recordings that you might have in your possession. If you have any songs of your own, you can offer them as well, but do remember, once you provide Musopen with your songs, they do become public property.
 
This should be exciting for many people, especially those of you who just love classical music. The quality of the music is satisfactory and there’s no guilt involved in downloading this free music. So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to www.musopen.com and browse their music collection today. Enjoy!
 
http://www.musopen.com
 
 
 
=== AdSense
 
After mentioning this term in one of the tips last week, I received several e-mails from all of you wondering what exactly it is. I'm sure most of you can figure out that it has something to do with advertisements, but what else does it entail? Where does the term come from, etc., etc.? Those are all good questions and I'm here to answer them for you right now!
 
Basically, AdSense is an advertisement serving program that was created and is maintained by Google. (There's nothing those folks over at Google don't do, is there?!) If you are a Web site owner, you are able to take part in AdSense in order to put text, image and even video ads on some of Google's sites. All of the ads are taken care of by Google, while they make their profit on a per-click type of basis. So, every time someone visits a Web site that contains your ads, Google generates some of the revenue, but you also get to enjoy the benefits of advertising for yourself.
 
Google works to place your ads on other sites that are similar in content as well. They use your geographical location and other factors to make this happen. AdSense is also very popular, because their ads are more personable than most Web site banners are and as I said earlier, they go along with the content of each particular site. If you are a Web site owner and would like to get involved with AdSense to get your name out in the online world, you can sign up right here. Everything else that you need to know about the service is explained there as well.
 
http://adwords.google.com/select/Login
 

 

=== Cooking by Numbers
 
Are you at a loss as to what to make for dinner tonight? Or do you have a limited amount of ingredients and need to make the most of them? Well, now you can! At Cooking by the Numbers, putting together meals has never been easier.
 
There is a list of ingredients on the site. Just check the boxes next to everything you have, for both the fridge and the cupboard. Once you're done with that, click the Find Recipes button.
 
This will give you a listing of recipes that you can make with what you have. It also tells you the percentage of your ingredients that matched the recipe. To see more recipes, click the More link or the down arrow.
 
If you click the I Feel Lucky box on the list, you'll get only one recipe and it tells you the percentage of ingredients that you have and what you are missing.
 
Say you want to make a chicken dish. You could just check chicken, as well as, a few other ingredients and get a listing for only chicken recipes. For example, if you want to make some sort of chicken pasta, check chicken, tomatoes, cooking oil, pasta and noodles. The results will be mostly different types of chicken pasta dishes, with some tomato dishes thrown in, like Tomato Salad.
 
Another great section here at this site is Skills by the Numbers. This is where you can learn all sorts of different cooking skills. For example, How to Joint a Chicken, How to Slice a Potato, How to Fold, How to Make Carmel and that’s just the tip of the culinary iceberg.
 
You can also check out the Tomato Attack section to play a game where you save good tomatoes while avoiding bad jumping tomatoes. My highest score was 100 and that was only my first try. I got worse at it the more I played.
 
This is quite an interesting cooking site. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I hope you find something tasty to try!
 
http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html
 
 
 
=== Photonhead
 
Welcome to Photonhead. This is a site stuffed full of digital camera tips and tricks and it has an awesome Beginners Guide to Photography! It seems like everyone I know has a digital camera on their Christmas list this year or they're going to give one to someone else. So, it got me thinking that there were going to be a lot of photography beginners out there and I figured they might just want to check out a site like this.
 
The Beginners Guide to Photography – Whether you are familiar with photography, just brushing up on your theory or are brand new to it, you may find something interesting here. For a beginner to the camera, this section offers very helpful information.
 
In The Camera section, you get a brief history on how the camera came to be, as well as, how digital cameras compare to regular cameras.
 
Camera Modes teaches you about the common modes that you will find on a camera and the icons that may represent them.
 
I found The Half Press theory interesting and now that I know how it works, I will most definitely be trying it out. It’s a method of half pressing your button so that you get a better response time and can take faster pictures. It also gives you more control over the focus.
 
This isn’t even half of the information you will find in the Beginner’s Guide area, but as there is much more to tell you about, I can’t focus solely on that. You'll just have to check it out for yourself!
 
The Digital Camera Buying Guide might be quite useful for you if you are actually buying a camera this holiday or if you can’t decide between a few you've picked out. You may find a review of a camera here that helps you pick the one you want with more ease. I actually found the “What Kind of Camera”? section here most useful, as it tells you the difference between different types of cameras that take digital pictures.
 
Okay, so you already know the basics and have a digital camera. If so, this section may be for you. It is called Photography Tips. Here you can refine your camera technique and really get the most out of your camera by following the tips that are offered. Learn how to avoid the camera shake, how to take better landscapes and much more.
 
You have taken the pictures, but now you want to edit them and you aren’t quite sure how or where to start. Well, check out the Photo Editing section where you can learn not only how to edit them, but what software you might want to use to help you make the most of your pictures.
 
The SimCam is a favorite section of mine on this site. It is a camera simulator that you can use right online from the comfort of your computer chair. It is designed to teach you basic photographic principles. Read the explanation and follow the directions so that you can see the theory applied and then you can change the variables as much as you want as you experiment with the theories presented.
 
Whether you are a new camera user or an old hand at photography, I think this site offers a little bit of something for everyone. Check it out!
 
http://www.photonhead.com/
 
 
 
=== Comics
 
So, you love reading the comics in the newspaper everyday (or at least, every Sunday), but you’ve missed a couple episodes. Or maybe you just want to read more of the funnies to have a laugh. Well, either way, this cool site can help you!
 
Just come to Comics.com and you can read all your favorite comics any time you want. Just be careful not to get wrapped up in reading them like I did. I was there for an hour before I started my write up of the site!
 
On the side menu, you will find links to the Newest Comics, as well as, comics about Family, A Slice of Life and even Web Exclusives.
 
If you click the Comics tab on the navigation strip going across the top of the page under the sign in button, you will get a full index of comic strips to browse through. They are also divided up by category.
 
The categories are: Offbeat, Men, Women, Family, Serials, Ages 18-30, Ages 30-50, Pets, Business, Slice of Life, Web Exclusives and Editorials. That’s a lot to choose from and believe me, plenty of comic relief is provided.
 
You will also find that Editorials is next on the tabs after Comics, so if you want to read just editorials, you may want to head directly there. You can check out the featured artists or choose from the entire listing. To check out the entire list, just scroll down the page.
 
E-cards – Here you can send free comic e-cards to the people you love. You can choose by occasion or by a certain comic strip. Either way, these cards are sure to be a hit with your friends and family. Talk about a great way to send a smile.
 
Now, I am ready to get back to browsing. I have some Wizard of Id to catch up on. Enjoy!
 
http://comics.com/
 
 
 
=== Color & I
 
(You may need a Flash Player to use this. You can get one here).
 
This is a fun application that allows you to select options to various paint colors to paint the shown object. The color you choose will help determine your color profile.
 
To begin click Start. You will then click the paint roller. After that, you need to click the color you want to paint the object. Now, touch your paint roller to the object shown and then click Next. You’ll do the same thing for each object until you get to the end and then you will click Results to get your color profile.
 
Each object stands for a certain personality trait and the color you choose represents what your personality in that area is like.
 
Don’t like your results? Or maybe you’d like to see what the other colors mean? Well, you most certainly can find out. Just click the Restart button near the top and take the quiz again.
 
I took this several times, just because there were times where I couldn’t really choose the color I wanted to paint it, because I liked a couple of my options. Either way, it was a fun diversion on this snowy morning!
 
http://vn247.net/flash/Color-and-Me.swf
 
 
 
=== City Data
 
This site is really neat. Not only can you find out information about the city you live in, as well as, possibly see some neat pictures of it., but if you are moving, you can check out your new hometown too!
 
There are a couple of ways to navigate. You can check out the links: Top 100 Lists (where you can find lists of the top 100 cities and pertinent information like the highest income, the least crime, the newest houses, the most females, the shortest commute, the best educated residents, etc.) and Random City Pictures.
 
Now, you can also just use the search engine to look up your city, which is what I did. I typed in Toledo and clicked the Find City button. This loaded up a page where I chose the correct Toledo (Toledo, Ohio). Boy, I was surprised when it loaded not only pictures of Toledo, but also a map and tons of city information as well.
 
You can also search by your state. Choose your state from the list under the Find City button. I chose Ohio again and decided I would check out my hometown of Lorain. The first thing that greeted me was an image of the lighthouse I grew up looking at. That made me smile. I was even more surprised by all the data they had on it.
 
So, go ahead and check out your city or your future city, for that matter. Do it today at City Data!
 
http://www.city-data.com/
 
 
 
=== Like Better
 
This is a really fun photo game and all it requires from you is to choose the photo you like better. You get the option to choose between two photos and when you have chosen enough, the brain near the bottom will flash pink. This means that the brain has some insight into your personality or life from the photos you’ve chosen.
 
Is your brain flashing pink? If it is, click the brain and you’ll see what revelations it has discovered for you. Sometimes it is right on the money, while other times, it's not so much. You can tell the brain if it’s correct or if it’s wrong, which will help the brain to get to know you better.
 
You can create a profile if you want to save your votes by clicking the Sign Up link, either on the top silver title bar or by voting and then getting the brain to flash. There’s an option after you tell the brain whether it’s right or wrong to sign up as well. Signing up is very easy. You just need a nickname, a password and an e-mail address.
 
What good is having a profile, you might ask? Well, not only can you save your results, but you can upload and share your photos as well. Pretty neat, huh?
 
So tell me, which one do you like better?!
 
http://www.likebetter.com/
 
 
 
=== Zillow.com
 
What is Zillow.com?
Zillow.com is an online real estate service dedicated to helping you get an edge in real estate by providing you with valuable tools and information.
 
http://www.zillow.com/
 
 
 
=== Digital Photography Class
 
Welcome to the Digital Photography Class. This site is going to help you learn how to make the most out of using your digital camera.
 
I originally stumbled across this site when I was trying to find out what to look for when I went to buy a digital camera for my mom. You don't only get tips on what to look for in a camera to shoot for your needs and budget, you can get Judy’s recommendations on some cameras that are on the market right now.
 
You will also find links to the best digital camera review sites and the best digital photography sites. Not to mention, information on avoiding losing photos on your memory card, transferring photos to your computer, Photoshop and understanding files and folders.
 
Below those sections are some book recommendations. Just scroll past them and you’ll find even more information on how to use your camera. One of the more interesting sections is about digital scrapbooking, how to do it and where to get some great scrapbook flair.
 
You’ll also find Photography Tips, Techniques and Tutorials a fairly handy section. Especially the "When to Break the Rules" link where you will learn all about composition and when it’s okay to not follow the rules. You can even learn how to best shoot in sunlight in this section.
 
Need somewhere to share your photos? Well, you can find a list of the best free and premium sites to do it at. Or maybe you need some image viewing software. Or even printing software. Well, you can find more information on those here at this site as well.
 
Whether you need resources or you are just starting to learn to use your digital camera, there is information for every skill level. Check it out!
 
http://digitalphotographyclass.net/
 
 
 
=== Fun Advice
 
Do you need some helpful advice? Or, do you know a lot about a bunch of different things and would like to give some advice? Well, then Fun Advice is the place for you!
 
To get the most out of the site, you’ll want to register, but don’t worry, it’s free! Just click the Join Fun Advice link.
 
Joining is really easy. You just need a username, an e-mail address and a password. Once you have all that, fill in something in the About Me field. Then click Join. Once you've done that, you can log in and start posting answers and asking questions.
 
I would not recommend this site for kids! There is a “Love, Sex, Relationships” category that should only be viewed by adults! But seeing as we are adults, I don’t think this category should be held against the site. You can choose not to view it if it’s offensive. There are a lot of really helpful answers and interesting questions here to ignore the site completely, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time, so it didn’t take you by surprise.
 
Asking a question or a piece of advice is really simple. Just type your question in the blank text box under the Ask for Advice heading and click the Ask for Advice button when you’re done to submit it. You’ll then be able to give your question a title, choose a category and even add a photo if you’d like. There are even some great tips on the side of the page on how to make your question clearer. Once you have some answers, Fun Advice will notify you via e-mail.
 
Answering a question is pretty easy too. If you see a question you'd like to answer and you are logged in, just scroll down the page past any other answers to the blank text field under the heading of Answer This Question. You can upload a photo here too and even check the box that will let you know via e-mail when this topic gets updated.
 
All of that’s pretty easy, right? Well, if you agree, go get your questions answered and why not give some advice while you're at it?!
 
http://www.funadvice.com/
 
 
 
=== Car Buying Tips
 
Buying a car can be a difficult, frustrating task if you don’t know what you’re doing or looking for. This site tries to help you get rid of the guess work with its tips. When you think about it, a car is usually the first investment anyone makes and since they depreciate in value over time, you want to get your money’s worth for sure.
 
Choosing a Car – This section discusses some of the things you want to think about as you choose a car to purchase. Will it suit your lifestyle needs? What do you value in a car? Find out the questions you should ask yourself before buying.
 
Buying a New Car – Here you will find tips on the kind of research you should do if you have your heart set on a brand new car, as well as, things you should keep in mind when you are on the lot. There are also some negotiating tips.
 
Buying a Used Car – Buying a used car can be just as tricky as negotiating your price point on a new car, but it does have some advantages. This section discusses the advantages and disadvantages of buying a used car, as well as, the differences between buying it from a car dealer or a private seller. If you’re on a budget and willing to do your homework, this is a great way to get a car in your price range.
 
Selling a Used Car – So, you’ve worn out your car and want to sell it. Well, then check out this section and find out what you need to know to get that car to sell fast.
 
Auto Warranties – Here you can learn about what warranties come with cars, from the Lemon Laws most places have, to dealership warranties. This is always helpful information to review. Also, make sure you find out about the Lemon Laws in your area before buying.
 
Auto Financing – This section covers the different ways you can finance your new car, whether through the dealership or a bank. Make sure you look for hidden fees as well. You’ll learn about the pros and cons of each way of financing, as well as, options for financing for people who don’t have perfect credit.
 
So, now you have a taste of the tips offered here. You can also get tips on leasing a car, auto insurance, car repairs and even car auctions. So, when you go to purchase your next vehicle, you will be prepared and you'll have confidence in your choices!
 
http://carbuying.tipcentral.net/
 
 
 
=== SketchSwap
 
Welcome to this highly addictive sketching game. How does it work? Well, you use your mouse to draw an image. When you are done, click Submit a Drawing and you will get to see a drawing that someone else created. Then you can click Draw Again to draw another picture.
 
I found that both the drawing and the receiving of an image were fairly addicting and a lot of fun. I draw pretty pitifully, but I got some very well drawn sketches back for my poor efforts.
 
I wish there were more colors to draw in and a way to erase, but other than that, it was pretty fantastic. If you decide to use text, they ask that you write in English, so it can be approved.
 
To learn more about this site, go to their About section where you will learn that every single sketch is approved by the site administration. You can also see some great examples of the sketches that some people have made and some testimonials.
 
Go forth and sketch, then swap and sketch again! Have fun!
 
http://www.sketchswap.com/
 
 
 
=== Best Apples
 
It’s apple season! That means it’s time to go to the orchard or the local grocery store and pick some apples for pies and such. Well, now you can learn all about the different apple varieties before you go and buy them!
 
The varieties that they describe here are: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Jonagold, Cripps Pink and Cameo.
 
You can mouse over each apple to get a brief description of the apples or you can click them for a full description and a listing of what they can be used for. For example, salads, pies, sauce, baking and freezing, as well as, what seasons they will be available in.
 
There are also recipes on this site and you can either view them at the main Recipes link near the bottom of the page or on each apple’s page, you can get the recipes that are good for that variety.
 
You can also check out the usage chart, which will let you compare the apple uses to one another. You get to see all their ratings at once on a very nice chart, which makes it easy to see their findings.
 
I know we have some other apples that are gown locally that I adore, so you should definitely try apples from the local orchards and growers near you. I’m off to the store to buy some apples and then I'm making pies. Yum!
 
http://www.bestapples.com/varieties/index.html
 
 
 
=== Explore the Pyramids
 
Welcome to Nova Online’s Pyramid. I’ve decided to bring you to the site from the table of contents, simply because it makes it easier to explore everything.
 
The table is broken down by pyramid and sphinx, as well as, excavation and the usual credit links.
 
The pyramids are Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure and you get the bonus of the Sphinx.
 
Khufu – Here you can view what it’s like to stand at the top of this pyramid and look out over the surrounding area with View from the Top. Thanks to QuickTime, you get a 360 degree view of the area. You’ll find the directions for looking around the image just above it. Want more detail and you have a cable or DSL connection? Scroll down to the bottom of the page and see the same view in high resolution. Don’t have QuickTime to see the VR photo? Well, just click the link About QuickTime VR and you’ll be whisked away to where you can learn about it and get it for free!
 
The Cross-Section link takes you to a diagram of the pyramid’s layout. From here, you can click the link to the Inside Story. The Inside Story not only gives you the history of the pyramid, but also allows you to step inside. You have several options of how you can travel inside. You can choose the High Resolution or Low Resolution Routes that use QuickTime VR or you can choose the Photographic Route which uses still images. Or you can choose to download the Whole Experience (2.7 MB) and browse through the whole pyramid without having to wait for the rooms to load and such.
 
I took the high resolution tour and boy was it breathtaking! It’s like you are actually walking and exploring inside the Khufu pyramid. In the pyramids section on the table of contents, you will also find links to learn about the history of Giza, learn about hieroglyphs and much, much more.
 
The Excavation section is a lot of information for you to read and learn about Giza, the pyramids and the Sphinx. Some of it is done in an interview style, some is just information presented to you. It’s a very interesting section. Especially reading over the newsflashes, I don’t know quite how to describe them to you. They are like newsflashes on TV, short blurbs that cover discoveries and regular things like the dig season coming to an end.
 
So, are you ready to go visit the Sphinx or look down over the land from the top of Khufu? Enjoy!
 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/textindex.html
 
 
 

 

=== Storytelling Power
 
Storytelling is an important part of our culture and has been for a very long time. In essence, my articles are storytelling. They tell you about the site you’ve yet to explore. So, I was more than a little curious about this site.
 
What will you find here? Well, tips and tricks to be a better storyteller, a free newsletter and some useful links.
 
There are articles listed on the front page if you scroll down to them. If you want to look at more than what’s highlighted, look at the side menu and click the button Free Articles. This whisks you away to the Free Articles section where you can hone your craft as a story teller.
 
With great articles like “The Virtues of Storytelling with Simplicity, "Remember KISS," "Keep It Simple, Silly,” “A Treasure Trunk of Teller’s Tips” and a whole lot more, there is a ton of great advice.
 
Some articles I really enjoyed were “Apply the Purple Cow to Storytelling,” “A Beginner’s Guide to Story Telling – Not Only For Beginners,” and “A Tapestry of Storytellers’ Tips and Tricks.”
 
Portfolio Potpourri is the Free Newsletter you can receive in your e-mail. If you sign up, you also get 10 free tips to "Enhance your Personal and Professional Style."
 
With this great site, you’ll not only improve your storytelling, you’ll make it more enjoyable for you and your listeners. Tell memorable stories that really stick with your friends and families or write memorable tales to delight everyone!
 
http://www.creativekeys.net/Storyte...wer/sphome.html
 
 
 
=== Backpack
 
Welcome! On this site, you can sign up for free to help you stay organized. You can plan events and trips, make to-do lists and much, much more. The first thing you have to do is sign up. They don’t ask for too much information; just your name, e-mail address and they ask that you create a user ID with a password. Pretty simple.
 
I know a lot of people hate giving out their personal information, so I recommend checking out all the examples and demos. You can find these by clicking Tour on the main page. Here you will see an example of someone looking for houses, then you can tour the very functional calendar and view demos of it. Or you can click Examples at the top of the page to further explore other things you can do here at the Backpack Web site. I think this site is well worth it for the Calendar alone.
 
Once you’ve registered and logged in, you are taken to your Backpack. There are four tabs across the top of the page: Pages, Calendars, Reminders and Writeboards.
 
On the first tab, Pages, you can make to-do lists, leave yourself notes, make writeboards and share all of this with the people you want to see it. All of this also comes with a primer to help you through it your first time! View mine here.
 
Calendars – This is what I use the most. I love this customizable calendar. I highly recommend that you watch the calendar demos to really learn how to use it to your best advantage.
 
Reminders – Here you can set up reminders for yourself. They are always sent right to your e-mail address. Just type in what you need to be reminded to do, select a time to get the reminder from the drop down box and click the Set Reminder button.
 
Writeboards – I know you’ve probably been wondering what writeboards are. Well, they are Web based text documents that you can edit to your heart's content and share with others. You can take a tour of writeboards too! This will really let you get an idea of what they can do, why you’d want to share them and much, much more.
 
This is an awesome organizational tool and boy, do I need it! How about you?
 
http://www.backpackit.com/
 
 
 
=== Parking Perfection
 
There are people in this world who are parking perfectionists and I must admit that I am one of them. I have to get my car parked just so or I’m unhappy while I run my errands or shop. So, when I found this game, you can probably guess that I was hooked from the get go.
 
This is the most addicting game I’ve found in a great while. You have to park the car in the parking spot without crashing into any of the other cars. You use your arrow keys on the keyboard to drive the car. All instructions are on the site.
 
It seems like it would be the easiest thing to do, but I’ve crashed my car into the other vehicles too many times. I’ve been trying to complete level one for an hour. I always get just about perfectly aligned and then clumsily hit the wrong key.
 
This site is really popular too, so it may be down when you try to visit. Just come back later and play then.
 
Can you park your car to perfection? I hope you have better luck with it than I did. And don't forget, this is highly addictive. You have been warned! : )
 
http://www.107.peugeot.co.uk/peugeot.swf
 
 
 
=== The World Fact Book 2006
 
Welcome to the newly updated World Fact Book. As you may know, the fact book is updated every year to add new information or to update old information so that it is always current. What will you find inside it? Well, you'll see maps, flags and country information.
 
Navigation is really simple. It's right in front of you on the main page. There’s no fancy side menu or top menu. I’ll highlight some sections for you.
 
History of the World Fact Book – Here you can learn how the book got started and why. This is a pretty interesting read. You learn all about the Intelligence Cycle, World War II and much more.
 
Reference Maps – Here you will find awesome reference maps of the world. You can find them by region, time zone and there’s even a political map of the world.
 
Flags of the World – Here you can find the flags for all the countries in the world, all in alphabetical order, so they’re easy to navigate. Click the flag to see it larger. That is pretty easy, huh?!
 
Gallery of Covers – I actually enjoyed this section the most. It’s just a gallery of all the different covers that have been on the fact book, but I think it shows an interesting progression of history in itself. My favorite covers are for 1998/1999 and 2006. But just comparing the ones I like, you notice the current graphic trend has changed so much from back then.
 
I bet you are wondering what the drop down box is for? Well, if you click on it, you will see that it is a listing of countries. This is how you get to the country information. Just choose the country you want to explore. You get the map of the country, as well as, information about it.
 
This is a great site to bookmark for those going to school, because you might need the maps someday or the information for a report. Go on and take a small arm chair journey to a different country every once in a while!
 
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publication...book/index.html
 
 
 
=== Internet Public Library
 
Welcome to the Internet Public Library, brought to you by a class from the University of Michigan’s School of Information. This Web site is also now being used in many other schools. To learn more about how it got started, check out the section under the Inside heading, specifically the link “How the IPL Consortium Came To Be.” Or, you can check out the About the IPL section on the side menu.
 
There are two things here that I absolutely adore! One of them is the Spotlight. Here you can see different places spotlighted for your education or enjoyment. When I was there, the spotlight was Teenspace Poetry Wiki, which is a place where teens can post and read poetry. You can even check out the previous spotlights by clicking the link “See all of the IPL’s Spotlight Features.”
 
The second thing I adore is their search engine and the ability to GROK your results. What does GROK do for your search results, you may ask? Well, it takes about 10 seconds to load the first time, but what it does is map your results. It will take what you type in (for example, presidents) and map the possible categories that you might be looking for inside the circle. You can then click on the different topics to narrow it down. While searching for presidents, I got these as categories: General, Ladies, United States, American Presidents and History. With those, I was able to narrow down my search from there and choose Ladies if I wanted information on the First Ladies. Pretty cool, huh? I’m always looking for interesting new ways to search out information and this is perfect!
 
Now, as to the side menu, if you feel like just browsing through the different sections to find what you are looking for or to just stumble across something new to learn, you’ll find all the sections on the side menu to be helpful. This Web site is just like a real library in your hometown! There’s Subject Collections, Ready Reference, the Reading Room, Kidspace, Teenspace, Special Collections and Searching Tools as well.
 
What will you learn at the IPL today?!
 
http://www.ipl.org/
 
 
 
=== Homework Center
 
Welcome to Fact Monster’s Homework Center. This is a fabulous Web site to bookmark for your kids or grandkids who are probably heading back to school very soon. Here they kind find help on specific subjects, along with an added bonus of a huge reference section to search in. In the middle section of the page, you’ll find the Search Engine, which will search almanac, atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia and even biographies for the information you are looking for. What a great homework tool!
 
In the middle of the page, you will also find links to the following subjects: Geography, Mathematics, History, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. Also, I must mention the Skills section where you can learn more Writing/Research Skills, Speaking and Listening, as well as, Studying skills. I love the skills section, because those are harder to master than subjects you can learn out of a book. I still get butterflies in my stomach when speaking in front of people. I don’t know why and I was even a theater major in school! Also, learning to study and do it well is a tip that will help your child throughout life.
 
Further down the middle of the page, you can find Tools for School. There's calculators, chemistry help, the periodic table, sun, moon and stars. If you look just below that, there’s a great Math Flashcard section as well.
 
On the side menu, you’ve got great sections like World & News, U.S., People, Word Wise, Science, Math & Money, Sports, Cool Stuff, Games & Quizzes and if you scroll down just a bit, Fact Monster Favorites.
 
With all this at your disposal, your kids can rule the school! Well, at least the homework their teachers give them. Check it out!
 
http://www.factmonster.com/homework/index.html
 
 
 
=== The Swing Years
 
Today's cool site is short and sweet. I really enjoyed it and I thought that it could stand on its own without a lot of frilly writing!
 
Swing took this country by storm in the 1930s, but had already started formulating in the late 20s. Now you can relive or discover swing with this Web site! You will need Real Audio which you can get here for free. (Choose the Get RealPlayer Free link to start your download).
 
This site gives you the option to stream the music or to download it. " S " means stream and " DL " means download. You’ll find those codes next to each song. So, if you want to listen to it now, click S or if you want to listen to it later, you can click DL.
 
There are four archives here of great music. From the music style of Glen Miller to Benny Goodman to Duke Ellington, you’ll find tons of it to listen to here. You will even find songs that aren’t just instrumental; you can listen to Bing Crosby, The Andrew Sisters and many more!
 
Let’s get swingin!'
 
http://www.hhbrandy.addr.com/swing.html
 
 
 

 

=== Food 411
 
Welcome to the ultimate online food resource. This site is a well crafted food resource that takes you from the best recipes to the best places to shop online for food or food services. To learn more about Food 411 and its history, check out the About Us section.
 
The sections of this site are: Let Others Cook, Ingredients, Baked Goods, Drink & Be Merry, Tools of the Trade, Healthwise, Gift Ideas and Food Reads. You can also get to the archives by clicking the archive banner at the top of the page.
 
Let Others Cook - This section is a collection of links for sites where you can find different services from full meals to dessert. It's all covered here. It's a fabulous resource for a dinner party or a special occasion when you don’t have time to cook. Come to Food 411, browse in this section and you are sure to find something that you like.
 
Ingredients – This section is a collection of links that will help you find and research those hard to find or not frequently used ingredients. There are some links included here that can even help you find local places to buy food (for example, produce) that you may not have known about. I was thrilled to find this section. I’ve been searching all over town for blood oranges and haven’t found any, but now I have reliable links to buy them whenever I want.
 
Baked Goods – Here you will find a section devoted to finding that perfect baked good for your next party or family get together.
 
Drink & Be Merry – Here you will find a section just for finding the perfect drink for your special occasion or maybe you'll find another kind of wine to add to your collection. You will find, not only links to buy your favorite wines, coffees and teas, but also links to great information on the topics. For example, the Wine Lover’s Page where you can get straight talk about wine. And there’s no snobbery allowed!
 
Tools of the Trade – Here you can find places to get the kitchen tools you need, as well as, great product reviews.
 
Healthwise – Do you have a special diet, do you want to control your weight or do you just want to get the skinny on organic foods? Well, if you want to do any of those things, this is the section to browse.
 
Food Reads – This section is my favorite part of the site and the entire reason I wanted to bring the site to you. Here you will find the most amazing resources, from recipes to food blogs to magazines and cookbooks. There are so many interesting food recipe sites that I jumped for joy and got ready to dash to the kitchen to start trying things out. I loved Crash Test Kitchen.
 
Food 411 is an excellent, all around resource site. Whether you want to cook or order in, you’ll find what you are looking for here. Check it out!
 
http://www.food411.com/
 
 
 
=== Rijksmuseum
 
This has to be the most amazing online museum that I’ve ever seen. And even better, it was a bit of a click and discover journey as I tried to figure out how it all worked. Each click led to a new bit of understanding of the site’s layout and I was able to learn a little bit more about art as I went. So, if you're up for it, explore by clicking everywhere and you will discover the museum just like I did. It was a lot of fun for me, but I also know that it would be very frustrating for some people. Well, don't worry, I’m here to eliminate some of that frustration!
 
When you get to the site and it loads up, you’ll notice that it has layers. The first layer is Nightwatching. Click the word Nightwatching to enter the section. Here you can explore Nightwatching by Peter Greenaway. You can even click the Nightwatching Special to see a slideshow for this area. Nightwatching is a project by Peter Greenaway that brings Rembrandt's’ The Night Watch to life. It's pretty interesting, so make sure you check it out!
 
The second layer is The Rijkswidget. Click the text to enter the section. Here you learn all about the widget and how to download it. You can even read users' comments on it! It’s a neat little program.
 
The third layer is The Masterpieces. Again, click the text to enter. You completely want the Open de button here. Let the window open and click the link that says Take a Look at the Masterpieces. This lets you get a look at all of the art work. There are also links along the bottom that let you look at other things of note, such as a dollhouse that costs the price of a real house and was one woman’s hobby. (Perhaps, obsession is a better term!)
 
The fourth and last layer is Really Rembrandt? This section discusses whether some paintings were really Rembrandt’s handy work or not. I find it very interesting that so many of the paintings that people claim were painted by famous artists are under such debate.
 
Get ready to explore a very interesting online museum. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
 
http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/index.jsp?lang=en
 
 
 
=== Leonardo3 - The Official Web Site
 
Welcome to the official Web site for Leonardo da Vinci. I thought with the large splash of success that Dan Brown’s “The da Vinci Code” has made in the media lately, it would be interesting to explore da Vinci himself.
 
On the main page that you load in on, there are a lot of interesting featured information and articles, so take your time exploring them. You’ll find navigation on the gray bar across the page. The sections are Leonardo da Vinci, Exhibitions, L3 Studies, Machines and Paintings.
 
Leonardo da Vinci – This page is divided up into sections. Learn all about da Vinci here with a fantastic timeline and manuscripts. The time line spans from 1452 to 1519 and each date has information associated with it.
 
Exhibitions – Here you can see where da Vinci’s works are being exhibited. You can also check out a streaming video in either low or high resolution. This video allows you to check out highlights of the exhibitions from all over the world. If you click on the picture from each exhibit, you are taken to that exhibit's page where you can see more photo highlights.
 
L3 Studies – This section is well worth exploring. The L3 team has been working on studying some of the machines that are not as well known from the manuscripts, as well as, more well known machines. You get to learn all about the projects and see some great photos of the progress they’ve made. This is by far my favorite section.
 
Machines – Well, if you guessed you would learn all about da Vinci’s machines in this section, you are right! You can either scroll right down the page or you can use the jump links at the top of the page. There are a lot of machines to check out, from flying machines to musical machines. There are also machines of the same type designed by other engineers of that time period. Very neat!
 
Paintings – Here you can learn all about the paintings that Leonardo da Vinci painted or had a hand in painting. There are also some that are just thought to be his work. Each painting has two scales directly under the painting and under the text describing the painting. The scale under the painting depicts how sure they are that the artwork is da Vinci’s and the scale under the text states when it was painted on the timeline. From famous works of art like the Mona Lisa to less famous pieces, you can really experience his artwork in this section.
 
Now, I leave you to explore. There’s a lot on this site to discover, so make sure you take your time!
 
http://leonardo3.net/leonardo/home_eng.htm
 
 
 
=== Traffic Reports and Alerts
 
Okay, so we’ve covered gas prices until we were blue in the face, so let’s move on to traffic. The only problem I have with this site is that it is highly metropolitan based. Go ahead and register (it's free!) with as much or as little information as you want, and confirm. Then you can start to set up your custom drives, a personalized map with markers where roads are closed, customized reports and even an RSS feed. This site rocks for those of you who live in any of the cities listed on the site.
 
If you don’t want to register, you can still make good use of this site. Just click the Metropolitan Areas tab. Then from the map that loads, choose the city whose traffic you want to check out. Then just wait for that city's page to load and you can see where the traffic jams are and what their Jam Factor is.
 
The Jam Factor is like a Richter scale for traffic jams. If you want to know how it works in-depth, head to the “What is the Jam Factor” link at the top of the white section of the page.
 
A little lost? Need some help? Well, check out the Help tab where you can get your questions answered! This is a detailed FAQ area that covers a lot of ground and it answers some really good questions.
 
The good news is that even if they aren’t in your area now, they might be soon. They are planning on expanding over time. I imagine it takes a lot of work to put this kind of information together. I know I’ll be bookmarking this site for later use, because maybe my city will be added soon.
 
Check it out!
 
http://www.traffic.com/index.html
 
 
 
=== Math Cats
 
This is a fun site that combines math and math trivia questions with cute photos of cats! Navigation is super simple. Just click any one of the pictures to explore. The sections are: Math Cats Explore, Math Cats Love MicroWorlds, Math Crafts, Math Cats’ Art Gallery, Math Cats’ Attic, Math Cats’ Love Mail and my favorite, Math Cats’ Photo of the Week.
 
Math Cats Explore – This is the place to really get the lead out and explore. You will find tons of math related problems, trivia and other activities here. For example, the ancient Egyptian Math Cats Fractions, where you can learn all about fractions with Math Cats. You’ll also find links to story problems, games and fun applications. For instance, the “Exactly How Old Are You”? application. This one breaks down exactly how old you are from the information you put in. It even tells you when your next birthday celebration is! My favorite here was the New Math Loving Animals in the News section. You can learn all about the beavers who built a dam out of money there!
 
Math Cats Love MicroWorlds – For this section, you need to download the MicroWorlds Player, but trust me, it's well worth it and it's free. (There are instructions at the top of the page on the yellow band of color on how to do so and where you can get it). This section is full of interactive applications that will help you learn and make math fun!
 
Math Crafts – Here you will find a bunch of craft projects that are math related, but fun for your kids to make. This is a great way to start teaching geometry to little kids, because it makes it fun.
 
Math Cats’ Art Gallery – Here you can find artwork that was designed for a logo challenge. You can also find some fun drawings made by children that were sent into the site. A fun, frisky section.
 
Math Cats’ Attic – This is an archive of past questions and answers from the magic chalkboard. What’s the magic chalkboard? Well, you are right to ask. You may have noticed the black boxes of scrambled text all over the site. Well, if you mouse over them, they reveal not only the correct answer to the question, but usually the method to get there.
 
Math Cats’ Love Mail – Here you can send in feedback and read the feedback that others have left on the site before you. The site author even posts as to why there are more open ended math explorations than games, which I thought rocked. See, once you got the right answer in a game, you could just memorize it, but that doesn’t encourage you to think! Makes sense to me!
 
Math Cats’ Photo of the Week – I love this section! You’ll find the link to get here by looking just under the yellow bar before you get to the mouse hole shaped pictures of the other sections. Here you get great cat facts mixed with trivia and math questions. You can even check out the past photos of the week!
 
This is a great site to use to help get kids interested in math. Go ahead and make it fun at the same time!
 
http://www.mathcats.com/contents.html
 
 
 
=== Sky.fm
 
Okay this is an awesome radio site, but to start with, you need to learn how you can tune in. Go to the Help tab and choose How to Listen from the drop down menu. This will explain in detail what you need to listen to it and how to set it up. Once you’ve gotten that sorted out, go to the Listen Now tab.
 
Listen Now – This is where you can pick the kind of music you want to listen to from the drop down list. The categories are: Mostly Classical, New Age, Classical Guitar, Smooth Jazz and Top Hits, Best of the 80s, Roots Reggae, Top 70s, Country, Modern Jazz, Salsa and DI.fm channels. DI.fm Channels has a whole other listing of radio stations that you can choose from.
 
The other way you can pick a radio station is to just scroll down the main page past the premium login area and you’ll find a complete listing of channels.
 
Whether you’re looking for music to serve as a backdrop or just to enjoy, you can definitely find what you’re looking for here. I’ll admit, I’m quite enamored of the new age station. I listen to it while I work. It’s serene and peaceful, but not so distracting that I have to stop what I’m doing.
 
Enjoy!
 
http://www.sky.fm/
 
 
 
=== Database of Oldies Records
 
I was cleaning house and ran across my roommate's stash of old records, which got me thinking that it would make an interesting subject for my cool sites. Welcome to the 45RPM Records Database of Oldies Records. This database has records from the 1950s all the way to the 1980s.
 
Warning: this site does have sound and animation when it loads (it has to load all the way first). To turn the music off, click the button on your Internet browser. If you’d rather check it out with the sound and you are at work, you may want to wait until you get home to view it (unless you have headphones!)
 
To start checking out the database, you have two options. You can click the black “View 45 RPMS” button or scroll even further down the page and click a letter from A to Z to begin the journey into the database. Once you are in the database, you can use the arrow buttons at the top of the page to navigate through. Or you can click the middle Home button to go back to the main page at any time.
 
If you are a record collector, you may want to check out the Collector’s Corner, where you can be added to the collector’s list for free. You can also check out everyone else who is on the list.
 
You can also search the Record Database by a certain category. Just click the black “45s by Category” button or you can check out instrumental records by clicking the “Instrumental” button by the juke box.
 
That’s this site in a nutshell. Enjoy!
 
http://mysite.verizon.net/jhurray/
 
 
 
=== Pandora
 
When I saw the name of this link, I was really curious. My mind instantly went to the thought of the Pandora’s box myth. Of course, I had to click on the link to see what it was all about. I waited and the page loaded and boy was I surprised! I found a Pandora’s box alright! The only difference is that this one is dedicated to music.
 
This site was created by the Music Genome Project and they are opening the Pandora’s box of music to help you and others find more of the music that you want and like, based on your preferences. Isn’t that neat? You do need to have Flash Player to use this site. Most computers already have this, but if you don’t, you can get it here.
 
To get started, type the title of a song you like or an artist's name into the text box and click create. I happen to like the artist Frou Frou, so I typed her name in hoping it would find other similar music.
 
First, the Pandora player played a Frou Frou song to make sure I had typed in the right artist. Then it started playing other music in the same genre as Frou Frou, which I could then rate and decide if I liked by clicking the Guide Us button.
 
When you click the Guide Us button, it gives you several options for each song. You can choose whether you like it or dislike it, for the song not to play for a month, find out why it’s playing and find out how to add more types of music to this station. This is so awesome. If you don’t like something, they never play it again!
 
But, this is a great way to expand your musical tastes in a genre and find more music that you like as well. If you have more questions that aren't answered on the site, you can click the Help button and choose the FAQ section where there are tons of questions answered.
 
Now, if you decide you really like Pandora and want to use it a lot, you are going to want to go to the Account button on the player and choose Create. This walks you through the registration process. You want to choose the free version, so make sure when they ask if you want to subscribe, you choose "no thanks."
 
Now, you are all set to start exploring!
 
http://www.pandora.com/
 
 
 
=== Fact Monster – Origins of Easter
 
You can learn all the facts
 
http://www.factmonster.com/spot/easterintro1.html
 
 
 
=== Poker Chip Tricks
 
I confess I've watched the World Poker Tournament and even the one with the
celebrities playing poker together. I also really love to play Texas Hold
'em poker with my friends. So, I started wondering if there was any way I
could learn to do some of the really cool things that they do with their
poker chips. Lucky for me, I found this site.
 
You start out by default on the Home tab of this site. Go ahead and click
the tab for the Tricks section now instead of hanging out on the home page.
As you scroll down the Tricks page, you will see lots and lots of different
tricks you can do with your poker chips.
 
What are some of the tricks you can learn? Well there's a bunch. I'll list
some for you here.
 
Tricks - Mexican Jumping Chip, Bounce Back, Top Spin, Around the Clock,
Finger Roll, Switch, Butterfly and that's just some of them!
 
Since finding this site, I've learned that you have to practice to get these
down. I'm terrible at them. But it's a lot of fun to learn them and the
Butterfly is definitely my favorite, even though it is down right hard!
 
I hope you learn them faster than I have. Each one is explained with photos
and step by step instructions, so go and check it out!
 
http://pokerchiptricks.com/
 
 
 
=== Photo Camel
 
Well I found this great photography forum site, where you can learn all about photography from the lens to the picture. The first thing you are going to want to do when you get here is to register an account, so that you can post on the forum and download pictures that people have uploaded.
 
To register, click the register button (the one with the red check near the top of the page on the silver bar) and fill out the information. Make sure you read the terms and then click the register button. Now, go to your e-mail and click the activation link. You should be good to login now.
 
Now for my confession. I spent two hours looking at the pet pictures here, so be warned that it is very easy to waste time here and not even notice. I was just thinking I’d surf around, so I could tell you all about it, but then I stumbled upon the pet section, and when I looked at the clock again, two hours had gone by. Yikes! But, it is so lovely to see other people’s photographs.
 
The forum is divided into sections, making it very easy to navigate. The sections are: Camera and Lenses, The Photographer: Galleries and Discussions, Camera Equipment and Accessories, Commerce and PhotoCamel Miscellany.
 
Camera and Lenses – here is where you will find the topics about specific types of cameras and lenses. You can even check out the Camera Review topic, where you can find awesome camera equipment reviews.
 
The Photographer: Galleries and Discussion – here is where you can find images in many, many different categories (pets being one of them!) contests and instructional videos. How cool is that?
 
Camera Equipment and Accessories – this section is more dedicated to techniques than equipment. At least it seemed that way to me. But, oh, there is a great area on different kinds of software you can use.
 
Commerce – here you can find forums dedicated to items people are selling or buying. So if you have an old camera or tripod you want to get rid of, you might want to post it here and see if anyone is looking for one. Or maybe you are looking for a specific piece of hardware. Maybe you’ll find it here. You can also check out the forum on how to sell your photos and to show off the ones you have sold. This has got to be a very helpful section to photographers who are trying to break into the business, I would think.
 
PhotoCamel Miscellany – This is where you can introduce yourself to the forums, make suggestions and even get the latest updates from the moderators.
 
Well, I’ve got the photo bug, so I guess I’ll have to go take pictures of my darlings, my pets!
 
http://www.photocamel.com/
 
 
 
=== Lyrics Freak
 
I’m always looking for good lyrics sites, and I really like this one. It has a nice layout and is friendly to the eye. It also has links to live chat, guitar tabs and forums. So not only can you find lyrics and get tabs to play it on the guitar, you can chat about your favorite songs.
 
There are several ways to find lyrics. You can use the # to Z listing at the top. Choose one and get all the songs under that letter of the alphabet or that number.
 
Or, you can check out the songs on the Charts link, where you can see what songs are the most popular.
 
If that wasn’t enough, you can even check out the Links section where you can find even more sites that provide lyrics to the songs you love.
 
There are also blog style news articles on the main page that can keep you in touch with some of what’s going on in the music industry.
 
This is a handy site when you want to find those lyrics that you can’t quite keep straight, or heard some one murder. Check it out!
 
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/
 
 
 
=== Post Crossing
 
I love the concept of this site. Post Crossing is a site that allows you to receive postcards from all over the world. So, how does it work? Well, you have to register and then you send a postcard. You wait to get one yourself and then you can log when you received it. To learn more about the nitty gritty details, click Learn More on the main page.
 
Navigation is simple. You’ll find the links you need to explore across the top of the page. The sections are Home, News, About, Stats, Forum, Gallery Contact and Links.
 
Home – this takes you back to the main page at any time.
 
News – find out what’s new at the site.
 
About – this section tells you all about the site. This is where the Learn More link takes you.
 
Stats – here you will find stats that are updated hourly. You’ll learn how many users there are, how many cards have been sent, how long it took, the average time a postcard takes and so much more. Very neat!
 
Forum – here’s where you can get together with other Post Crossers and chat up a storm.
 
Gallery – here you can check out images of the postcards that have been sent, received and registered. It’s really cool to see all the postcards that they have in the gallery.
 
So are you ready to start Post Crossing? I know I am.
 
http://www.postcrossing.com/
 
 
 
=== The Song Tapper
 
I’m always getting songs stuck in my head. Mostly just one phrase or a line of a song and then I’m stuck. What comes next? Who sang this? Will it EVER go away?! :-) Since this happens a lot, I’m always looking for Web sites that identify songs for me. C’mon, you know I’ve written them up in the past! But this one is different. There’s no singing into the site, there's no trying to figure out the right notes. All you have to do here is tap!
 
In order to use this site, you have to have Macromedia Flash 6 or whatever the current version is. You can get it here. I think it is well worth having it anyway, because so many cool things are in Flash.
 
The sections of the site are About, Song List and See Example Video.
 
About – this area tells you all about the Song Tapper, including who’s brain child it was, the system requirements and it gives you a link to Search.
 
Song List – this section tells you how many songs are in the database and gives you a link to search by tapping.
 
See Example Video – here you will get a demonstration video of how to use the Song Tapper. They are tapping in the song Jingle Bells.
 
So how does it work? Well, click any of the many Search or Try Tapping links scattered throughout the site. Once you get there, you start tapping your song to begin (I've found that it does help to sing along as you are tapping out the lyrics), and when you are done tapping, click the link. Then the Song Tapper finds all the songs that could match what you tapped. Pretty neat, huh?
 
http://www.songtapper.com/s/tappingmain.bin
 
 
 
=== Frvade
 
This site is weird. It is a Web riddle. It’s hard. So I thought I’d share it with you and see if any of you can solve it. I can only get to level two. My brain is just not firing on all cylinders to solve this.
 
I suggest starting at the Information link. This is where you will learn how to play and why the author thought of this.
 
Next, you can check out the forum for some tips. You need to register, but it is free! This will be very useful to help you solve all these tough levels.
 
Alright, take a deep breath and steel yourself. Then click on the "Begin the Journey" link.
 
Here are some tips I can offer you:
 
You may want to use the View Source option on your browser, which you can find under the View menu. (Go to View and then down to Source for IE. For Firefox, go to View, then Page Source).
 
Click around the image, you may find a clickable area.
 
Walk away when you get frustrated and come back to it fresh.
 
Now, I’m off to continue trying to solve the riddle.
 
Let me know if you manage to solve this baby!
 
http://www.frvade.com/
 
 
 
=== Stickam
 
Welcome to Stickam, a site that I am really excited to bring you. Whether you want to share your favorite MP3s, video or photos, this site makes it so easy that you are good to go.
 
I fell in love with this site and have been there everyday since it went live on February 15th. If you’re looking for me, my user name is Maeve. So, what you need to do is register and set up your profile. Don't worry, it’s free! Once you do that, you can upload music, photos and video to your profile and share it with the world.
 
What is really wild is that if you have a Webcam, you get on the video chat, or you can use Stickam to get the code to stick your Web cam on your Web page. This is uber cool.
 
What’s even cooler is that they are having a referral contest, so refer your friends and if they join, you could win prizes! You can even win just for signing up. They draw five random names a day. I never win anything, so it won’t be me! :)
 
Okay, so you’ve registered and made your profile. Now you can explore through these tabs: Who’s Live, Gallery, Chatroom, Shuffle, What’s New and Help. Also, just below there, you have white tabs that read: Edit My Audio, Photo, Video, Profile and Go Live.
 
The Edit sections are where you would upload your content, whether it be music, photos or video. That’s where you need to go to share your stuff. If you go to my profile, you’ll see that I have two songs uploaded and one photo. I don’t have a Webcam, so I can’t play with that option yet. But soon! All of these sections thoroughly explain how to upload content, so I’m not going to get into it.
 
Go Live – this opens up the Stickam player so to speak. Here you will be able to chat, be on your Webcam and see your photos and music. Pretty cool, huh? (Oh, and I forgot, if you have a microphone, you should be able to voice chat too).
 
Who’s Live – this section shows you everyone who is live at the moment, which means they’ve clicked their Go Live button and are in their Stickam player.
 
Gallery – here you will find the latest photos and videos that have been uploaded to the site!
 
Chatroom – pretty self explanatory, don’t you think? Maybe I’ll see you in there sometime!
 
Shuffle – this section is coming soon, and I can’t wait for it to be live.
 
What’s New – this is where you’ll find updates and news about Stickam.
 
This is a great way to keep in touch with your family, share photos and music. It’s also a great way to meet other folks online who share your common interests and chat. I’m going to try and get my mom to sign up so that I can chat with her via Webcam as soon as I get one.
 
I hope you fall in love with this site, I know I did.
 
http://www.stickam.com/
 
 
 
=== Name My Tune
 
I can’t stand to have a song stuck in my head! Especially if all I have is just the tune and not the lyrics, or if I can only remember a few of the words to a song. That makes it really hard to do a lyric search to find it, but I need not fear that ever again because I’ve found Name My Tune, and I can get other people to help me out.
 
Sing – this is the section where you can put your song out there to get named. What do you need? Well you need a microphone, that’s it. Choose your microphone from the drop down list, then click next. Record your tune and click next again. Now you need to choose the genre, era, enter your e-mail address and then click submit. Then people can start identifying your tune.
 
Listen – this is the section that lets you listen to tunes and identify them. This is the flip side to the sing section, of course! To start, select a genre and an era and click Search. You can search through the "any" category to get a complete random selection. To listen, click playback and if you know the name of the tune, click the Name This Tune button underneath the player. If you don’t know it, you can move ahead to the next tune by clicking the next tune button.
 
Help – if you’ve had trouble in any of these sections, you can head over to the help section, which will walk you through it step by step, and probably answer what ever questions arise.
 
Are you ready to name those tunes? Well, get out there and start listening! Only you can put someone else’s mind at rest by naming their tune. Have fun!
 

 

http://www.namemytune.com/
 
 
 
=== Foodie View
 
When you’re cooking, do you ever feel like you’ve slipped into a rut? I know I sure do. It seems like I make meatloaf, taco bake, chicken pesto and pasta, chicken and corn and potato casserole every week. I’m really dying to get out of my cooking rut, so I went hunting for a good recipe search engine. I found Food View and it met all my needs.
 
I can search by ingredient, dishes, chefs, cuisine and so much more with the handy search engine on the very front page. Or if I really want to give it some more thought, I can use the links on the side menu. On the side menu you’ll find:
 
Browse by Category – I found this section helpful when I just wanted to browse around with nothing particular in mind or when I had too many ideas to narrow it down.
 
Recipe Box - with a free registration, you can have your very own recipe box on this site. This means that if you really like a recipe, you can add it to your recipe box and then you don’t have to go through the hassle of searching the site for it at a later date. At the top of the recipes you search, you should see an Add to Recipe Box button. Just click it and you can find it in your recipe box.
 
Product Reviews – I admit that I am very leery of buying cookbooks. I'm not even sure about the ones my mother owns, that I know are tried and true recipes I like and with the Internet, there is such easy access to all the recipes my heart desires, so I just can’t see plopping money down for one. But, if you do like to own cookbooks, or like me, are slightly curious about them, you can hit this section and get great reviews on cookbooks from people who have bought them.
 
Restaurants – this is an experimental section that is only really good for those of you living in the San Diego area. It uses the Google Map to highlight the best restaurants around town.
 
FoodieView Blog - this section includes great articles like how to eat chocolate! I just couldn’t get enough of this blog.
 
This is a site to bookmark especially if you are really going to use the recipe box. You can keep coming back for recipes as often as you like to add a little zest to your cooking routine.
 

 

http://www.foodieview.com/index.jsp
 
 
 
=== Fly Lady
 
Do you have a lot of clutter in your house? Did your home just sort of get away from you? Well I know mine has. There is almost no useable storage. The closets are all tiny and there is nowhere to really put anything.
 
By joining Fly Lady – which is free – you’ll start on a step by step journey to reclaim your house from the clutter within it, as well as, keep a really shiny sink! To join, head over to the Flying Lessons link were you will see "Join FlyLady."
 
This site is all about teaching you baby steps to get your life organized. It teaches us to stop listening to the perfectionist side of ourselves that wants everything done now and done right. It didn’t take just one day for your house to get away from you, even though it may feel like it happened overnight.
 
Some of my favorite sections are Kelly’s Mission, which you will find in the FLY zones section. This is where you can find, what I would describe as, a weekly mission. When I was there, it was to work on the bedroom. The Table of Contents is also a great section. It really helped me navigate around this site and stay on track.
 
Food for Thought is an awesome section filled with ideas on menu planning and it even has recipes for you to try. It also has some for your slow cooker.
 
The FLY FAQ – this is a good section to take a look at. I love checking out the frequently asked questions, because this is where you can access information about what people are generally confused about. Who knows, they might be confused about the same things you are, so it's an easy way to get info quick!
 
Now, I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you think Fly Lady’s method to declutter your life will work for you or not. But, you know, even if this way is too much for you, you can definitely pick up little tips. A shiny sink really does make you feel proud!
 
http://www.flylady.net
 
 
 
=== Fun Trivia
 
Sometimes you just need to take some time and have some fun. Well this site has plenty of it. This is a site full of quizzes, crossword puzzles, and trivia. Why don’t you put what you know to the test?
 
There are several ways to navigate the site. You can use the side menu and find trivia and quizzes by category. For example: Animals, Celebrities, Hobbies, Literature, and a whole heck of a lot more. You can also navigate by using the center of the page where the categories are also listed. The categories are: Quizzes, Encyclopedia Trivia, The Global Trivia Challenge, Public Tournaments, Need Trivia Questions, Crosswords, Prize Games, and Build a Tournament.
 
Quizzes – here you can access all the latest quizzes (just select the new button), or maybe you’d like to check out the Editor’s Choice.
 
Encyclopedia Trivia – here you will find a vast encyclopedia of trivia. From literature to video games and many subjects in between, with over 1.3 million entries, you are sure to find something interesting here.
 
The Global Trivia Challenge – here you can put your knowledge of trivia against others from all over the world. Just register (it’s FREE) and get started in the newbie’s division and work your way to the Immortals division. Compete against friends and co-workers if you like. You can even see how you ranked. My user name is Mairwynne if you want to compare our scores!
 
Public Tournaments – here you will find public tournaments in several categories from Easy to Challenge, or check out what’s new. More competition awaits you here.
 
Need Trivia Questions – here you can create quizzes to challenge your friends and family.
 
Crosswords – well this one is self-explanatory, isn’t it? If you love crossword puzzles, then this is the section for you. Why don’t you check it out?
 
Well that’s a quick look into this site, are you ready to explore and have some fun with trivia? I know I am!
 
http://www.funtrivia.com/
 
 
 
=== No Slang
 
What is No Slang? No Slang is an Internet Slang Translator and Dictionary site! Are you ready to explore it with me?
 
With the zillions of acronyms and slang out there related to the Internet, you may just need a translator or a dictionary. Now you’ve found one. I found this site while looking for what a blog was so I could accurately describe it to my mom. I knew what it was, I just wasn’t sure I was explaining it the best I could. I popped blog in the translator and it told me it was slang for Web blog. Now, with a solid definition, I wrote my mom a detailed message with all the facts I knew. I do blog regularly, so it wasn’t a stretch to explain it. What threw me for a loop was when I was on a game I play online and someone typed in 1337, or l337, in the chat box. I’m thinking to myself, what the heck is that? So, I typed it on the translator and found out that it means elite.
 
The site is easy to navigate. Just use the tabs along the top of the page under the No Slang banner. You’ll find Slang Translator, Slang Dictionary, Netspeak Guide, Add Slang, FAQ, Blog and Search.
 
Slang Translator – this should be the starting page that you have in front of you. Type in the acronym or word you want translated, enable the adult language filter or translate by 133t Speak by putting a checkmark in the blank box. The translator is on the adult language filter by default. Then click translate. Your translation will appear above the blank text box where you put in your word to be translated.
 
Slang Dictionary – here you can search for words or browse by letter. Be warned though, there is no adult filter for this section, so if you are browsing through, you may see adult language and acronyms defined.
 
Now before anyone gets offended – normally I would avoid a site with adult language like the plague, but I got to thinking that if my mom didn’t know what the word blog meant, she wouldn’t know a lot of the other slang used on the Internet either.
 
This is a good site to check out to learn what acronyms mean in case your children are using them. The Internet is filled with chat places and parents need to monitor their children’s chat practices. They may not even know what they are saying. I have a younger sister and I wouldn’t want her to be chatting with someone and not knowing what she was saying and in turn, giving the wrong impression of her age and personality. This is how predators can really take advantage of kids. So if you want to avoid adult language because it offends you, please just use the translator and not the dictionary section.
 
My warning and words of caution bring us to our next section, the Netspeak Guide – here you will find articles on Internet safety, commonly misused words, etiquette and even how to Geekspeak!
 
Add Slang – have they missed a commonly used slang that you and your friends use? Well, if so, you need to check out this section and add it to the dictionary. Type in the slang word or acronym and then put in the definition and the explanation. Then click on the Add New Slang Button.
 
FAQ – here you can learn why the site exists, get submission questions answered and you can even find a link to a translator that makes what you type sound like 12-year-old AOLer wrote it.
 
This is a great site to translate Internet slang, and it can even help you keep your kids safe with great guides and translations.
 
http://www.noslang.com/index.php
 
 
 
=== Fun Copter
 
First of all, a word of warning! This site is very addictive. Click to start navigating your helicopter through the course. There are obstacles to be avoided by flying either higher or lower, but you also have to be careful to avoid crashing into the ceiling or the floor.
 
What have I learned? You can spend two hours here and not even realize the time has gone by. That I can’t get above 1,200 as a distance, but I can fall greatly short of that over and over. And that no one would want me to fly them out of a cave like structure in a helicopter.
 
Navigating is easy. Just click to start the application and then use your mouse to drive the helicopter. You click and hold the left mouse button down to go up and let go of it to go down. It takes some fine tuning but you’ll soon get the hang of it.
 
The site keeps track of your best score, which I didn’t notice until about the eighth try in. And looking back on it, I can’t believe I made it to 1,200 for my best score. I must have really been in the zone then.
 
Well no matter what, I sure had a lot of fun driving that helicopter. It was a nice break from my routine. I hope you have as much fun as I did, and beat my score!
 
http://www.hurtwood.demon.co.uk/Fun/copter.swf
 
 
 
=== Monticello Explorer
 
Welcome to the Monticello Explorer, where you can virtually tour the plantation that served as, not only a home, but as a functional plantation to Thomas Jefferson. I suggest starting at the top of the page with the Help tab. This will bring up another window that really details how to functionally explore this site. It is well worth the effort of understanding how everything works so you can really get the most out of the site.
 
There are two ways to navigate the site. One is with the sections on the main page and the second is the Plantation and House tabs. I chose the sections on the main page, which are divided between Explore and Tour.
 
Explore – this is where you can really explore Monticello. See how the plantation changed throughout Jefferson’s lifetime. A 5,000 acre plantation requires a lot of upkeep and it went through many changes over the years.
 
You can also explore the house itself. With this area, you can go through a 3D recreation of the house and learn all about the people who lived there as well. I found the tour through the house to be amazing. You can change the angle of what you are looking at by holding down the left mouse button and dragging. Or you can click on the little orange camera icons to see actual photos of the rooms.
 
Tour – this is also a pretty fun section. Go on tour of Monticello with curator Susan R. Stein and learn all about the house and about Jefferson. Or, you can learn all about what life was like at Monticello for everyone from family, servants/slaves and friends. This is the nitty-gritty section where you can see what happened day in and day out at Monticello. Also, who could not want to tour the grounds and gardens there? Visit these exquisite areas with Director of Gardens and Grounds Peter Hatch. The gardens are lush and well laid out. You learn all about Jefferson’s approach to gardening of mixing nature with cultivation, of failing at growing one type of plant only to be successful with another and you really get to see a lot of the insight and beauty of these gardens. (I really could talk for hours about their loveliness, but you should just go see it on your own)!
 
This site is truly a well put together look into the past that captures the beauty and charm of Monticello while bringing it into your own house via your computer.
 
http://explorer.monticello.org
 
 
 
=== Artcyclopedia
 
Welcome to an excellent guide to art on the Internet! This site really puts art at your fingertips. One really stellar option on this site is the MasterScans section where you can see top artworks from all over the world. It also puts the work at a higher resolution, which brings all the details and life of the painting right to your monitor.
 
Navigation is simple. You can use the side menu or the four sections on the main page. I found that surfing from the main four sections was easiest and a lot of fun. The sections are:
 
Art Conversation – a forum where you can chat about art in all its many splendors.
 
Search Artcyclopedia – where you can find, not only one, but three search engines, allowing you to search by artist, title and museum.
 
MasterScans – already mentioned above as my favorite section. Here you can see the very best art images online.
 
Browse by – this allows you to browse artists by name, nationality, medium, subject and more. This section allows you to really explore the artists. You can’t possibly know the name of every artist that you might like, so this option allows you to really get your feelers out and learn new styles of art.
 
And as an extra, there's a hidden (okay, it’s just below the Master Scans) art news section.
 
Now get out there and explore! The art is just waiting for you!
 
http://www.artcyclopedia.com
 
 
 
=== Ask Dr. Universe
 
Welcome to Ask Dr. Universe, a site devoted to answering science related questions for kids of all ages! There are two ways to navigate around the site. You can use the side menu or the picture menu in the middle of page. Both take you to the same sections.
 
Those sections are:
 
Who is Dr. Universe – just who is this Dr. Universe and why are they answering all these questions? Want to discover the answer? Then check out this section!
 
Today’s Questions – here you will find a selection of questions for today and the answers Dr. Universe has for them.
 
The Big Questions - in this section you find a listing of categories of questions, along with much more in depth answers.
 
Find A Question – this section is the handy dandy search engine that you can use to search the site for the answers you really want.
 
Recent Questions – here you’ll find a listing of recent questions that have been answered by Dr. Universe. I think my favorite one that was answered was the one about why we wear our wedding rings on our left hand opposed to our right hands.
 
How Do I Submit Questions? – this section allows you to ask Dr. Universe a question. It also gives you a good idea of places where you might be able to find some answers on your own.
 
Favorite Links – this section has a great listing of links that you can surf to. You’ll find links to both sites for adults and for kids! Great places to explore science and much, much more.
 
Well it’s time for me to get back to searching this site for some answers to some of the questions I’ve thought up while I was here.
 
http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/Contents.html
 
 
 
=== The Helpful Gardener
 
You’re thinking it is winter, why a gardening site? Well if you love gardens you’ll know that there is always something going on in every season. You can start planning your garden now.
 
You can find navigation along the top yellow bar or the side menu and lots of articles featured right on the front page.
 
Did you get a poinsettia this Christmas? Well don’t toss it out! Instead, learn how to cultivate it and keep it growing. My mom has some that are several years old and they still bloom every winter for her.
 
Here you find a lot of tips from specific flowers (roses, lilacs, etc.) to garden types (Japanese, year round, etc.) that will help you be a better gardener.
 
For those of you who love to have a community to talk to and share ideas with, check out the Garden Forum where you can talk to like minded individuals, ask questions and so much more.
 
Vegetable – here you will get information specific to growing in a vegetable garden. From planning your garden to growing your favorite herbs, and even some great tomato tips. If you love to grow vegetables, this is the place for you.
 
Rose Gardening – here you will learn what you need to know to grow pretty roses. Although the rose can be a picky flower and can be complicated to cultivate, they are very rewarding. Here you can learn to pick what roses to buy for your garden with the handy article "Choosing your Rose." You’ll also find a great tips on how to plant your rose, and how to care for it.
 
Flower Gardening – here you can find out what to plant for early blooms, how to garden with bulbs and how to plan a fragrant garden.
 
Container Gardening – for those of you who don’t have a sprawling estate or even a little plot of land to call our own, we can still have a garden. A container garden can make any amount of space lovely! I think this is the kind of garden I’m going to make this year, as I want to do some major renovation to my yard and flower beds.
 
Japanese Gardening – if I did have a great space, I’d love to try my hand at this. My roommate is a big fan of all things oriental. Here you can learn the principles of Japanese gardening. You will also find awesome information on caring for the bonsai tree and for making a rock garden.
 
With so much to offer, this site is full of tips, tricks, and ideas to make you a very happy gardener.
 
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/
 
 
 
=== GIGAPXL Project
 
I want to bring you my favorite section of this site. The Balboa Reflecting Pool in San Diego, CA. There are a lot of great pictures here at the GIGAPXL Project, but these were by far my favorites. Navigation is easy – just scroll down. If you want to check out the rest of the site, just use the Site Menu on the side menu.
 
This project is about photography with Gigapxl cameras. To learn more about the project, I recommend checking out the Project Overview link. It will explain all about the project in great detail and really educates you on photography as a whole.
 
These pictures are amazing. The clarity alone makes you feel as though you are standing right there at the reflecting pool or looking out over the Grand Canyon. But when you see how incredible the clarity is where they zoomed in with the camera, you’ll just be simply astounded.
 
So, I hope that you enjoy this jaunt into photography. Some of the sights that you will see are just amazing. I highly recommend you view the Square Tower Ruin, Angel’s Window (Grand Canyon), Half Dome Yosemite and the Palace of Fine Arts.
 
To take a glance view of the images, click the Image Gallery link where you can see all of the images at once and pick and choose which ones you really want to see further in depth.
 
I also think their FAQ page is great and answers a lot of cool questions. To check it out, click the FAQ button on the silver bar at the top of the page.
 
This site makes me want to join their project and just travel the world taking pictures.
 
http://www.gigapxl.org/gallery-BalboaPond.htm
 
 
 
=== The Poetry Archive
 
I’m really excited! This is a fantastic poetry site. Not only can you search for poems to read. you can also listen to them. (Note: You need to have RealPlayer installed on your computer to listen to the poets).
 
I’ve been browsing here for several hours now, lost in poem after poem. When you listen to a poem, they suggest another and I just keep clicking and listening. I love hearing the different accents and dialects that each poet offers.
 
There are several ways to enjoy this site. You can take a guided tour, search for poets or poems, or listen to the featured poets on the front page and surf like I did from poem to poem.
 
Guided Tour – these really show the range of poetry on the site. You can see the poems listed and then click your back button to listen to the next one on the list. I enjoyed both tours that were available and am looking forward to more.
 
Search – looking for poets or poems is an easy way to check out this site. You can either type in a poem or poet in the search engine and click ‘Go,’ or you can use the alphabet to search by a poet’s last name, or poem title.
 
For Teachers – this is a great section for teachers who use poetry in their classrooms to teach. There are lesson plans, tips for listening and even classroom activity ideas.
 
For Students – have an English class that requires you to study poetry? Or are you taking a poetry class at college? Well, this site has a special section just for students. Here you will find instructions on how to get the most out of the resources that are provided.
 
The Children’s Archive – this was a great find. I love this section. This is where you can let your kids surf to learn, listen, and read poetry in a child friendly format.
 
Interviews – you’ll find these spread around the site. I couldn’t find an interview page where they were all listed, but there are some great interviews out there.
 
After having spent way too much time here I found a few favorites – I really enjoyed Valerie Bloom.
 
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do
 
 
 
=== National Geographic Photography
 
It is winter now, and I was looking for a new desktop picture to suit the season. I ran across the National Geographic site and saw that they had a whole section devoted to Winter Wildlife.
 
There are 10 Winter Wildlife photos that you can use as wallpaper for your desktop. I chose the beautiful wolf sitting in the snow. Underneath the photo you’ll see two options: Enlarge and Wallpaper. Enlarge makes the picture bigger, and Wallpaper gives you the options of which size you’d like for your wallpaper. You will also find some handy download directions for both the PC and the MAC, making it easy to get the wallpaper to decorate your desktop.
 
Not wanting to look at Winter Wildlife on your desktop – well hey, that’s not a problem just scroll down the page to the gray boxes where you will see Desktop Wallpapers and Photo of the Day. Each has a drop down box that shows you photos or categories you can choose from.
 
The Photo of the Day section is pretty neat too. You can access it from the area we’ve already talked about or the side menu. If you’re choosing from the gray box area – you’ll find the link Today’s Photo – that will get you the photo of the day. When I was there the photo was of some Highland Cattle – very neat and wicked looking. I wouldn’t want one of them to chase me, that’s for sure.
 
There are also some really excellent photo galleries I’d like to mention. For instance 100 Best Photos, which just had some very beautiful images. I expect great quality from National Geographic and they’ve yet to let me down.
 
So whether you are hunting for some new desktop wallpaper or want to go on a photographic journey to Modern Day Mongolia (another interesting photo gallery) you’ll find some to enjoy here.
 
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/
 

 

=== TIME: The Best Photos of the Year 2005
 
Click enter begin a journey through some of the best photographs of 2005. I was unprepared for what I was about to see. These are some of the most haunting photographs that I’ve seen a while. I forgot that they were from TIME, and would be the year in review.
 
From New Orleans being decimated to the Tsunami to the Burial of Pope John Paul II, you get 24 of the year’s best photos. My favorite is picture 3 – Fire and Water. It’s an image of the Garden District of New Orleans on fire. While I don’t like the destruction – the elements of fire and water in the picture make it hauntingly lovely, and saddening.
 
You’ll find navigation just above the photos. You can scroll through the images, show/hide the caption, or vote. If you scroll all the way through the pictures you’ll be given a page to vote on anyway. Vote for the image you find to be the best photograph of the year.
 
This type of photography isn’t for everyone. I don’t think I’d show this to kids, but for adults, I think it makes a real statement of the year in review. Another highlight for me was image 16 – Color Purple, which shows a woman in Baghdad whose index finger is stained with purple ink, which means that she placed her vote for the Transitional National Assembly.
 
http://www.time.com/time/yip/2005/
 

 

=== Add Remove Pro
 
Have you ever had a bad experience uninstalling a program? You know the kind - no matter what you do you can’t seem to uninstall the whole program. I’m talking about those annoying “system ghosts” that linger long after the program has been removed, little bits left behind poping up and appearing here and there in your system. You find them in your Startup Menu in the Programs lists, and occasionally you even get error messages from some program that you thought was removed long ago.
 
Well if you have dealt with any of this I’ll bet you never want to do it again. Dealing with corrupt and seemingly unremovable programs is one of my least favorite computer activities. Even if you feel comfortable searching through your PC and removing fragmented entries that your uninstaller neglected to find, it can still be an incredible hassle.
 
Of course, there are the registry cleaners that will help you find orphaned entries in the system’s registry - a process I have seen blow up in many-O-people’s faces. This is not something to be taken lightly and most of the Registry Cleaners I have seen work in pretty much the same way. They like to present a list of unusual entries detected in the Registry. This list is to be looked over by the user who indicates if they would like to remove or keep the entry. The problem with this method is that the entries in the list are cryptic and confusing at best. And this is where the trouble begins. A lot of the times users will select the entire list of entries indicating that they would like them to be removed from the system. This can have all kinds of ill effects on your computer and can possibly render it useless.
 
Well, hopefully with today’s Download of the Week all that will be in the past because with Add/Remove Pro all the work of uninstalling a program is done for you.
 
 
 
Add Remove Pro is a third party program uninstaller. Plainly put, Add Remove Pro will uninstall programs for you removing any file, folder or registry entry - leaving behind no “system ghosts”. Add Remove Pro also puts the question of how should you uninstall a program to rest. Should you use the Windows Add/Remove service or the programs own imbedded uninstaller? With Add Remove Pro you will always uninstall programs the same way through the easy to use Add Remove pro.
 
If you have corrupt and seemingly unremovable programs in the system, Add Remove Pro will check all the system entries, make sure their valid, and if not they are removed. This validation finds all the “pieces” of a program even - hidden registry entries that would have been easily overlooked otherwise.
 
Add Remove Pro is a program that most of you will find a great deal of use for. It's a great substitute for conventionally uninstalling programs. It's time to rid your computer of “system ghosts” once and for all!
 
~Chad Stelnicki
 
Note - You'll have to click the "Freeware" link on the left to get to the correct page.
http://www.superwin.com/index.htm
 
 
 

 

=== Steve's Pages (Born/Died Today)
 
I always hated History in school; Mrs. Entwhistle in the fifth grade was a good example of the kind of stodgy old bat who chose to drill this information into the soft pliable minds of 10-year-olds. My reasoning was that, unlike subjects like Math, English, and Science, I would never need this information in later life. What good could it possibly do me to know in which year Columbus sailed the ocean blue?
 
Then, one day about four years ago, I bought a book of quotes at lunchtime: The 637 Best Things Ever Said, compiled by Robert Byrne. Around the same time, I was supporting Web Products for SBT, and I built the first version of my Web site. I enjoyed the quotes so much, I felt compelled to share them on my Web site. I also started typing them into a FoxPro database for my own reference.
 
Occasionally, I would find a particular saying attributed to two different people, and I would do a bit of research to determine who said it first. Many quotes are made more relevant by the knowledge of the times in which they were made. Also, often, a person would say something about another person from the same time period, and it helped to know who coexisted with whom.
 
So, in my database, I started adding information about birth and , the occupation of the "attributee," and sometimes the subject of the quote (Gandhi saying "I think it would be a good idea" doesn’t mean much unless you know he was asked what he thought of Western Civilization).
 
I’ve gained a new respect for Mrs. Entwhistle - it’s fascinating to read the words of artists, businessmen, politicians, and cultural icons of all times, and to be able to put history in perspective by way of the people who lived in it.
 
The database now contains over 6500 quotes, with at least one for almost every day of the year (2/29? Gioacchino Rossinni [and Dinah Shore -s2000]).
 
Since rejoining SBT, I rebuilt the web site, and added a set of daily quotes pages, and also added more information about the people quoted. It’s a work in progress, so right now the only active dates are those between the end of August and today, but I encourage you to check it out!
 
http://www.born-today.com/steve.htm
 
 
 
=== Snow Days
 
There is nothing I love more than to watch the snow fall at night. It has a way of making the world soft and quiet, not to mention beautiful. Some of you who have been subscribed to this newsletter for a while may remember this site as I have featured it before. I LOVE IT! Snow days is a site that provides me with endless hours of fun when I should be off crocheting Christmas presents or putting up my tree, or playing with my animals or getting my house cleaned.
 
I have already spent way too much time creating snowflakes here today. To find my flakes go to Find a Flake. Where it says name type in AMANDA @ WORLDSTART, and then click the orange search button. I’ve learned how to make more interesting flakes since last year. It should tell you how many flakes I’ve made and tell you to watch for them to fall. They will fall with green arrows by them, and then you just have to click on the flake to enlarge it.
 
If you’d like to make some snowflakes yourself, click Create Your Own Snow Flake. Click and Drag with your mouse to cut out your snowflake shape and click done when you’re finished. Then you will be asked to fill out your name, location (if you want) and a message. Put your e-mail address in (if you don’t want to be contacted by others on this site then uncheck the box beneath that asks if you want notified if someone replies to your flake) then click add. This is where you can send it to your friends. Or, if you don’t want to do that then just click no thanks and your flake will be added to those that are falling.
 
You can even see how many flakes are made per minute and how many Snow Flake Makers are on line as well as the total number of Snowflakes on the site. When I was there the Flake Count was: 1,649,018. I’m sure by the time I leave the number will be a lot higher then that as I’m making about 5 flakes every 10 minutes. I can’t help it – it’s very addictive.
 
In fact I did check before I left and the flake count was already at 1, 649, 220. So I know that I’m not the only one getting a kick out of this site! This has become a holiday favorite for me!
 
http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/
 
 
 
=== Wisdom Quotes
 
This is a quote site dedicated to the category of Ideals. With the holidays just around the corner and Thanksgiving just behind us, a lot of us start thinking about our ideals and how they apply to our lives.
 
As we get ready to make our New Year’s resolutions we may seek wisdom and inspiration to help us decide what purge from our lives and what to keep.
 
Even if your resolution this year is the same as mine, to lose some weight and be healthier, then you can find inspiration here.
 
The quote that gets me thinking positively is –
 
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus.
 
Or
 
“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
While losing weight is more of a goal instead of an ideal, I can still use these thoughts to inspire me to meet that goal.
 
If you’re facing tough decisions or just need uplifting thoughts, I’m betting you can find a quote here that will help you make that decision and uplift your spirit.
 
Or maybe you're just having a down day and need to think more positively about your own ideals and goals. Inspiration is just around the corner!
 
I should also mention that if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you'd find even more categories of quotes to explore. I just now noticed them myself. I'm off to explore them.
 
I really loved this site, and I’m glad I could share it with you.
 
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_ideals.html
 
 
 
=== The Longest List
 
Have you ever wondered what the longest car, beard, train, whale or apple peel was? Well if you have then you can find your answer here, as well as find out what many other “longest” things are.
 
Welcome to the “Longest List of the Longest Stuff with the Longest Domain Name at Long Last!”
 
It’s very easy to surf too. You can either use the alphabet, or just scroll down and find the category you want to view.
 
Did you know the Chile is the World’s Longest Country? Or that Alan McKay of New Zealand created a bubble 105 ft. long? The World’s Longest Apple Peel is 172 feet, 4 inches long - to me that’s mind-boggling.
 
Those are just a few of the interest facts on the list that you can check out.
 
You can also find a listing of the Most Expensive items from Barbie dolls to Yo-yo's.
 
Some most expensive examples:
 
The most expensive baseball card is Horus Wagner, check this one out there is a very interesting story to go along with it. It sold for over 1 million dollars on Ebay.
 
The most expensive hamburger is a whopping $99. Isn’t that nuts? I don’t like to pay more than $6 for a hamburger so I can’t imagine paying $99.
 
You can even check out Old Wives Tales, Interesting Trivia, Famous Firsts, or even the World’s Smallest!
 
There is a lot of very interesting information here from many different aspects of our modern life. This is a fun one to check out.
 
http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/
 
 
 
=== wikiHow
 
When I first hit the internet in search of How-to sites I fell in love with E-how. Now I found wikiHow – a collaborative writing project to make the world’s biggest how-to manual. And as their slogan says “The How-To Manual that Anyone Can Write or Edit.” It’s how-to guide that you can participate in.
 
The first thing you’ll probably notice – is the Search field near the top of the page. Type in what you’re looking for a guide for and click the Search wikiHow button. Having had some difficulty bathing my dogs recently I looked up “dog bathing” which was a very general search term – but came up with good results.
 
There were 4 main search results, and then on the side there were more – I found the ones on the side to be more pertinent to my search. I don’t know if that is the case every time or not. When you read the tips from users on wikiHow you can rate them by clicking the checkmarks underneath the tip.
 
Below the Search field is the welcome paragraph, and then the Categories. Here you can choose from different Categories to search for what you are looking for. Beneath that is the Getting Started Section where you will find all the information you need on writing a tip. From what topics they are looking to have covered as well as some writing tips to make it easier for you to write your How-to guide up. Here you will also find a link to Practice editing tips as well.
 
On the Side of the Front Page you’ll find two things a drop down Toolbox, and the Featured Articles section. When I was there, there was an article in the Featured Articles that taught you how to eat an artichoke. (I have to admit that was a mystery to me before hand.)
 
Now isn’t that cool? Not only can you find help – but you can give help. I wish my dad would write a bunch of these articles on how to fix stuff!
 
http://wiki.ehow.com/Main-Page
 
 
 
=== Answerbag
 
Welcome to Answerbag.com, a site where you can get your questions answered.
 
I really like this site a lot. What really got my attention was the Selected Questions section on the front page – which has questions that were recently asked by members.
 
The question that caught my eye was:
 
“How can you tell if an egg is rotten without cracking it open?”
 
The answer:
 
“The way to know a good egg, is to put the egg into a pan of cold water; the fresher the egg, the sooner is will fall to the bottom; if rotten, it will swim at the top.
 
There is a small air pocket in the large end of the egg. When the egg is fresh, the pocket is only about 1/8th of an inch deep and as large around as a dime. As the egg ages, however, it loses both moisture and carbon dioxide — shrinking — so that the size of the air space increases. And the size of the air space determines the buoyancy of the egg. So if you submerge a very fresh egg in water, it will lie on the bottom. An egg that is a week or so old will lie on the bottom but bob slightly. An egg that is three weeks or so old will balance on its small end, with the large end reaching for the sky. And a bad egg will float.”
 
Isn't that an interesting reason? My next thought was I need to try that. None of my eggs were rotten, sadly so I didn't get any floaters. I decided to celebrate by baking cookies.
 
Under the Selected Question area, if you scroll down you'll find lots of categories. The categories are: Arts, Automobiles, Business, Computers, Electronics, Entertainment, Finance, Food & Dining, Games, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Home, Kids, Legal, Life & Society, Real Estate, Recreation & Sports, Science, Social Science, and Travel.
 
Back the top of the page you'll notice they have a Random Question, with the Top Categories listed beneath it. The search engine is located in two places at the top corner and just above the selected questions to find an answer just type in your question, or subject and click Go. If it hasn't been answered, submit it and get it answered.
 
What you're getting is real questions asked by real people answered by real people. I found a lot of really useful information from dealing with my pets to home repairs to rotten eggs.
 

 

http://www.answerbag.com/
 

 

=== SegPlay
 
Did you ever do a paint-by-numbers painting in your lifetime? I know I've done my share, some really horrible ones and some decent ones. Well if you enjoyed them – you can enjoy them again on your computer! I'm very excited about this site. It's a lot of fun. Yes, I've really spent way too much time at it playing, err, researching for this article.
 
You'll need to have Java to play. To play, click SegPlay Online at the top of the page. And be warned it takes a little bit for the categories to load the images you can choose from. The images are ranked from Simple to Complex.
 
There are a lot of categories to choose from. From famous artists to simple photos taken by everyday people. From animals to skies to fruit. You'll have tons of options to choose from. This a very entertaining way to spend the afternoon.
 
Choose the picture you want to color. After the java loads you'll see what you saw on the front page example, an image that has a lot of lines and numbers just waiting for you to color it in. Beneath that image you will see a palate of numbered colors. And MOST importantly the Zoom in, and Zoom Out tools. They look like magnifying glasses. I suggest that you zoom in to make coloring super easy. As soon as you start coloring the timer starts. It shows you the fastest time it has been completed, I believe.
 
Next to the timer you'll see the pause, play, rewind, and help button. If you want to see it colored in click the play button and watch. It goes and fills it in color by color. It's really neat to watch.
 
The other thing that is really cool, is if you fill in the colors while you have it zoomed in, and then zoom out to check your progress, it's neat to see the image come together, and it gives your eyes a small break!
 
This is a great way to experience great photography in a new light. This could be a great way to keep kids entertained for a while. Oh, and most of all have fun with it.
 
http://www.segmation.com/SegPlayOverview.html
 

 

=== Painting Flowers
 
This is a sister site to the site we ran earlier in the year called Painting the Weather. Navigation is pretty easy. You can browse with the side menu by Title, Artist, Flower Type, Theme, or Locations. At the bottom of the page, you can check out the Quiz on Flower Painting.
 
Once you choose a gallery, you'll see options within the gallery. Under flower type, you can choose roses, lilies, sunflowers, or tulips. Choose a flower to view and you'll see thumbnails as well as a little information on the art you are viewing. Choose a thumbnail. To enlarge the image, click on the magnifying glass. To see the picture in detail, click on the circle with little lines coming off of it.
 
To use the detail feature, click on picture detail, then click on the artwork you are viewing. This will zoom in on that portion of the artwork. Now you can change the area you are looking at by using the navigational arrows around the picture. There are even more detailed instructions for using the picture detail mode on the page.
 
Can you find some of my favorite paintings here?
 
Love in Idleness
Still life with Flowers
Sunflowers
The Annunciation
 
And those are just a few of my favorites! Check out this interesting art site where you can find the beauty of flowers reflected elegantly on canvas.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/paintingflowers/
 
 
 
=== Everyday Science
 
"The National Synchrotron Light Source is a scientific facility that is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Each year, more than 2500 scientists from all over the world come to perform experiments at the NSLS. This website describes some of the everyday science that goes on at the NSLS and how it may impact your everyday life."
 
Doesn't it sound exciting, all those scientist converging in one place to perform experiments? You'll find navigation on the side menu under the red bar that reads Navigation. You can also click the links to sections that are found in the middle of page with pictures above them
 
The categories to check out are Synchrotrons, Corrosion, Breast Cancer, Osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's disease, Catalytic Converters, Hard Drives, Space Travel, Crystals, HIV and AIDS, and Environmental Clean Up. That is a very diverse set of categories, all very interesting and important in their own way. Just click a category for an explanation.
 
Then it goes onto explain how it works in understandable terms (not incomprehensible high-tech terms) and how it is used. There are pictures, fast facts, and the occasional schematic.
 
Here are some example fast facts that I found especially interesting:
 
"Hundreds of pounds of aluminum foil are used to help bake off impurities from the inner walls of the beam lines."
 
"A common way to slow corrosion is to add a layer of paint to block contact with the atmosphere."
 
"Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the United States and worldwide (excluding skin cancer)."
 
"About one-fifth of all elements are magnetic, and there are thousands of magnetic alloys and compounds."
 
The Synchrotron is the common thread through the sections, and it was really interesting to see all the ways it was being used in their experiments. Whether it was studying the corrosion or breast cancer, it was fascinating.
 
http://www.nsls.bnl.gov/about/everyday/Default.htm
 
 
 
=== Ask Oxford
 
As a writer I adore word sites. There is something just so appealing about quotes, stories, and new ways to use words or just the opportunity to learn new words and integrate them into my vocabulary and writing. I really like this site because of its witty quotes and interesting layout.
 
The main sections are in the middle of the page: Word of the Day, A Quote From, A Word From, Quote of the Week, and Ask the Experts. You can also navigate around the site by using the links near the top of the page in green: Ask the Experts, Better Writing, World of Words, Games, Global English, and Foreign Languages.
 
You can view this page in one of two ways. You'll find the option underneath the top corner search engine. You can view either the UK version or the US version and get a different word of the day from each version. You may notice other slight differences. We'll be in the US view.
 
This is a dictionary site as well. You can search the dictionary either using the search engine at top or the option below where you changed the view. Just put in the word you want to look up, click search, and off you go to dictionary heaven.
 
Below the search engine in the US version, you can do a Quick Quiz or a Crossword puzzle. I adore both and spent plenty of time there. And if you can't get them all, you can always solve the puzzle by clicking solution. In the crossword section, there are other games you can play like the Oxford Word Challenge and Scrabble.
 
The Ask the Experts section has things like the FAQ, Jargon Buster, and Collective Terms for Animals. I love that there is an area devoted to the Collective Terms for Animals. I mean what do you call a bunch of hogs, for instance? Well, you call them a drove of hogs. Check this section out. It's pretty neat and informative.
 
I fell in love with the Better Writing section. Even people with an excellent grasp on the English language can sometimes misuse a word. If in doubt about word usage, you can check out the section Spelling and Grammar Tricks. It's set up in a search engine style.
 
World of Words has some history of words. My favorite part of this section is the Word a Year section, where you find out what words were chosen to represent a year. From 1904 to 2004 you'll find a word. Makes you wonder what the word for 2005 will be!
 
The Global English section talks about the effect of having over 300 million people speaking the English language. From pronunciation to the effect that a person's culture has on their language, you'll discover the nuances here. Global English is standardized English that is spread by the internet and media. Pretty interesting stuff!
 
Foreign Languages has the French, German, Italian, and Spanish dictionary information. There is also a foreign quote of the week and a featured book!
 
I find this site to be a definite keeper for my Favorites folder. If it were a paperback dictionary, some of the pages would be dog-eared and worn out by how much I've already used it.
 
http://www.askoxford.com/?view=get
 
 
 
=== Geological Time: The Story of a Changing Earth
 
I have to admit, I really love well-put-together sites, and this one is simply beautiful. This site is an excellent source of information on the different time periods of the earth.
 
The time line at the top of the page has the controls Zoom In, Zoom Out, and a drag bar that can move the time line. At first, only the earliest stages will be readable and the ones near the end will just be slivers of color. If you Zoom In several times, you'll make the time periods at the end larger. The colored boxes with the names of the time periods are clickable and take you to that section. You could navigate that way, but it is far, far easier to use the drop down box at the top of the page.
 
The Earth's time periods are (deep breath): Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene.
 
Whew! Some of them sound more like something you'd cough up than a time period. I don't want to take away from your joy of discovery, so I'm only going to really pick apart the first one, the Hadean period.
 
The overview of the time period has links on a side menu called Contents that you can explore. In the overview area, you find out some specific characteristics of this period and an explanation for its name. If you scroll down the bottom of the overview you'll find more links: Eon Overview (a link back to this page), Formation of the Earth, The Earth's Atmosphere, and Earth's Surface. You'll also notice that those are the same links as under the Contents menu so it's up to you which you use to navigate.
 
The Earth's Surface section discusses what the Earth was made of at this time period, and let me tell you, it's interesting to find out all about granite.
 
The Evidence section was my favorite part. Here you can check out a chunk of Meteorite that hit Arizona more than 50,000 years ago and some moon rocks!
 
Below all of this you'll find a section in orange called Foundational Concepts. This is where you can learn about methods of dating the evidence displayed on the site as well as the time periods. You'll learn all about the Earth's Processes, from plates shifting to climates changing.
 
When you're done with Hadean, you can move onto all the other time periods and watch as the Earth changes. Highlights would obviously be the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
 
Take your time with this one, it's a real gem!
 
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/geotime/main/index.html
 
 
 
=== Kids Newsroom
 
"Kidsnewsroom.org provides children with a safe, kid-friendly Internet site loaded with stories, pictures, contests and opportunities for learning. Each week, a new issue is added to the site with the latest news in sports, music & entertainment, health, history, local events and happenings around the world, all designed with kids in mind!"
 
This site is great for kids, especially for in-classroom use. At the top of the page near the title Kids Newsroom there is a button with a goofy looking cartoon guy that reads How to Use this Site. This area explains the many great applications of this site, from using it in the classroom to kids using it on their own. It is an excellent How-To section.
 
The circle buttons provide access to the following sections: Weekly News, Info Central, Games & More, Our Writers, Election 2004, and About Us.
 
The Weekly News sections include: This Week in History area, World and Local news, Government, Science & Technology, Sports Zone, Comics & Poems, and Music & Entertainment. The setup reminds me of a real newspaper. And you can even access past issues with the drop down box at the bottom of the page.
 
Info Central has special news articles directed at kids in a variety of categories. The categories are: Special Topics, Science, History, Language Arts, Math, Geography, and Art. Some are written by Kids Newsroom Staff and are denoted with a KNR in front of them. Others are students' projects and are denoted with an S in front of them. I liked the Special Topics area where kids can learn to write websites in HTML and write stories among other things.
 
Games & More has a variety of games that help challenge your child's mind while they are having fun. You'll find games like quizzes on information, Simon Says, Battleship, Math Flash cards, and Pegs, just to name a few.
 
The Our Writers section introduces the staff of KNR. Find out who's writing these articles! This lists the writers, their featured column, and when they started writing. If you scroll down the page, you can even find out about past writers at KNR.
 
The Election 2004 section has articles about the presidential election of 2004. You can also find a listing of the presidential nominees for the election. While this is old information now, it can still be useful for school projects!
 
The About Us section has the mission statement of KNR. Find out how they got started and why they do what they do!
 
This is a great site for kids and an excellent resource for teachers. I can't wait to send this one to my Mom to use at her school!
 
http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/
 
 
 
=== Remember the Milk
 
Remember The Milk is the easiest and best way to manage your to-do lists online.
 
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
 
 
 
=== HELP: Impartial Information for Older Adults
 
“Helping People Meet Aging-Related Legal and Care Challenges.” This site can answer your and your love ones' questions regarding Financial, Legal, Care, End-of-Life, Consumer, Medi-Cal, and General.
 
From planning your retirement to dealing with your property taxes, the financial section has all the information you need to make smart decisions.
 
The H.E.L.P. legal pages have information and advice on issues relating to power of attorney, legal referral services, and private consultations.
 
The Care section discusses health issues that affect older adults. From Eye care to Medicare issues to Making the Most of Your Doctor visits, it covers what things you need to tell your doctors, answers to questions about certain conditions, and the effects of aging on the body.
 
The End-of-Life section covers living wills, power of attorney for medical care, and even includes a check list to do when you lose someone you loved.
 
The Consumer section discusses making sure that consumers are not taking advantage of you. From Identity theft to scam artists trying to get your money, you can find a lot of great information here in this section on how to deal with these things.
 
The Medi-Cal section teaches residents of California about their state's version of the Federal Medicaid program. Learn about its eligibility requirements, the limitations of supplemental coverage, and other common misunderstandings of the Medi-Cal rules.
 
The General section discusses things that didn’t really fit into other categories, like Driving, Important Planning Tips, and even an Aging Preparedness Kit.
 
http://www.help4srs.org/home.htm
 
 
 
=== Useless Information
 
Have you ever wondered how Q-Tips got their name? Want to find out how Band-Aids come from Listerine? What would you do if you were President for a day? Well, you can do that at this site.
 
I have to admit that I fell in love with this site and spent a good two hours of my day just reading the articles. The slogan of this site is "Stuff You Never Needed To Know, But Your Life Would Be Incomplete Without."
 
On the main page you'll find lots of articles, like the Bath School Disaster, U.S. Camel Brigade, and a nifty article called Fast Facts where you can get a bunch of neat facts all at once.
 
Just click the link to read any of these articles. I really liked the Antarctica's Red Light District article about the mating habits of penguins. A few other favorites were the article on David Rice Atchison who was President of the United States for a day, or how S.O.S pads came to be.
 
After you've had your fill of the front page, scroll to the bottom and click the image with the three arrows that reads "Click here for more stories." This takes you to a page where the stories are in categories: Forgotten Genius, Hmm.., Incredible Stories of Survival, Inventive Genius, Presidents and Rulers, Unbelievable!, Why? Why? Why?, You've Got to Be Kidding!, and other site files.
 
The other site files area includes information about the author, the site, some photos, and even some links.
 
http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/index.html
 
 
 
=== Turning the Pages
 
Check out 14 great books in this gallery presented by the British Library. What will you find here? Leonardo's Notebook, Jane Austen's Early Work, The Original Alice, and those are just the featured sections. I clicked into Leonardo's Notebook first and waited for it to load.
 
Let me say it right up front: this site is one of the more technology-demanding sites I've brought to you guys. I'm not sure how friendly it will be to slower connections. It may take up to a minute and you need the latest version of shockwave to see this site's Turning the Pages format. If you don't have the shockwave, it should ask you to install it. If you don't want to install shockwave, you can still view three of the books and they'll be adding more later on.
 
It's worth the load time, believe me, because it isn't every day that you get to see Leonardo da Vinci's Notebook where you can turn the pages and magnify to see it up close. Navigation is at the bottom of the page. Use the arrows at the bottom of the page to turn the pages. You can also read and hear the text, and the magnify button gives you a large square magnifying glass to move over the area you want to enlarge.
 
Jane Austen's The History of England is a very interesting read that pokes fun at the historical books of her time. I chose to listen to it rather than read it. Hearing it in a woman's voice made me feel as though Jane was reading it.
 
I adored the Original Alice, a manuscript that was written for Alice by Charles Dodgson who later edited it and published Alice in Wonderland under the name Lewis Carroll. This is the original story with Dodgson's own illustrations. The audio was superb. Listening to the audio content of the cover page and last page tell you how the manuscript made its way into the hand of the British Library and more about the photo at the end of the book.
 
You will also find excellent illustrations in the other sections. Classic of Botanical Illustration, Masterpiece of the Renaissance, Pinnacle of Anglo-Saxon Art are definitely worth checking out. I couldn't find a section that I didn't like here at this site. This site truly is a treasure to view.
 
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
 
 
 
=== Howdy Doody Online Show
 
"It's Howdy Doody Time!" My memories of the show Howdy Doody come from my mom's stories, but I was thrilled when I found this part of the history of children's television. Some of you can revisit it, and for those of you like me who have never seen it, you can discover it now online.
 
Howdy's History: This page includes an audio track and sections about the Howdy Doody Show, Remember When, Flashback, Trivia, and Howdy Doody Collectibles. The history section the Howdy Doody Show is lovingly written from the point of view of Howdy, and tells how the show started and ran with charm and humor. Did you know they aired almost 3,000 episodes of the Howdy Doody Show?
 
Doodyville contains Biographies, Buffalo Bob's Corner, Games, Flapdoodle, and Story Time. Buffalo Bob's Corner is the biography of Robert Schmidt who played Buffalo Bob. Like the history of Howdy Doody, it's written with flair and a lot of fun facts. Information on the rest of the cast is in the Biographies section. In the Flapdoodle area, you'll learn all about the gadgets used on the show.
 
Peanut Gallery! Did you sit in the peanut gallery as a child? You may want to check out the Great Peanut Search and share your experience. You can also read about people's experience as part of the audience. Classic Moments shares some of the great bloopers of the show. Some of these were really hilarious. In the Legendary Peanut Gallery, you can find out which famous people sat in the audience as kids.
 
Howdy Doody and the Gang includes sections on The Cast, Puppeteering, Do's and Don'ts, and Life According to Howdy Doody. In The Cast, you can meet the puppets of the show, which I admit I was highly curious about. In Puppeteering, you can learn about the people who puppeteered the show and how they did it. Do's and Don'ts is dedicated to the part of the show where Howdy and the gang would teach children what was polite and nice and what wasn't.
 
That's just the beginning of the fun you can find on this site. All in all, this site is wonderfully put together with sound and pictures that make it a great deal of fun to surf.
 
http://www.howdydoodytime.com/
 
 
 
=== The Science of Gardening
 
This site is amazing. Not just because of the videos, but because you really do learn the science of gardening.
 
Feed — This section has two videos: one about how carnivorous plants work and one about a garden in California and compost tea. They are both really interesting; you won’t be disappointed. This section also contains the interactive area called Garden Variety about the history of food and an article called The Dirt on Dirt.
 
Control — This section also has two videos: one on subzero gardening and one on competitive growing. Both were pretty interesting, especially the Subzero Gardening video about hydroponics and get to see a garden in Antarctica. There are also two photo essays: Garden Lore talks about strange remedies and A Truckload of Pumpkins is full of pictures from Half Moon Festival and information on how they grew those giant pumpkins. This section also tells you all about saving seeds and how to make hybrid plants.
 
Bloom — This section has my favorite video, a Little Patch of Dirt. A community in San Francisco decided to turn a median into a garden. The government is now providing this great community project with free water. There are also two interactive sections. The Secret Lives of Flowers teaches you all about flowers from their parts to what kinds of animals they attract. Hello Dahlia is a great section that tells you all about this very versatile flower.
 
Exploring all of this great site's goodies took up most of my morning. I can’t believe that I learned so much more about gardening.
 
http://www.exploratorium.edu/gardening/index.html
 
 
 
=== Common Place
 
"Common-place is a common place for exploring and exchanging ideas about early American history and culture. A bit friendlier than a scholarly journal, a bit more scholarly than a popular magazine, Common-place speaks--and listens--to scholars, museum curators, teachers, hobbyists, and just about anyone interested in American history before 1900. Common-place is a common place for all sorts of people to read about all sorts of things relating to early American life--from architecture to literature, from politics to parlor manners. And it's a place to find insightful analysis of early American history as it is discussed not only in scholarly literature but also on the evening news; in museums, big and small; in documentary and dramatic films; and in popular culture."
 
This site updates monthly with new articles about history. This month, in the Featured Section, the article compares Thomas Paine's invention of iron bridges to the introduction of home computers to our lives. It's amazing how much the iron bridge changed the world and how Paine thought about inventing.
 
In Ask the Author, there's an interview with Alfred F. Young, author of "Masquerade". This book about a female soldier in the continental army sounds really interesting, both for military history buffs and women's history enthusiasts.
 
Common Place also has find other great sections like Tales From the Vault (how do biographies get written about people who didn't leave journals or many written records behind?), The Common School (the use of music in teaching history), Common Reading (a book review about a historian's solution to a mystery from 250 years ago), and Web Library (more sites related to historical interests).
 
This site provides an interesting way to look back at history and learn. I think I’d have loved to have found this while I was in school working on projects. Check it out!
 
http://www.common-place.org/
 
 
 
=== Painting the Weather
 
This site is a fun jaunt into art based on weather conditions, and it's very easy to navigate. From the home page, just click on the type of weather you want to see in the Choose a Symbol box and view all the art for that type of weather.
 
Once you have chosen a symbol, the site displays a listing of art with thumbnails. Choose the one you want to view. This gives you information on the art, such as where it is being displayed, who made it and why, and much, much more. You can also click on the image to will enlarge it so that you can see it in better detail.
 
Can you find some of my Favorites?
 
The Sheepfold, Morning in Autumn
Spring Time
Belle-Isle Windemere in a Storm
Sponsa de Libano
MacBeth
 
Those are just a few of the ones that really caught my eye while browsing the site. You can send these as E-cards too, if you find one you want to share with those you love. This site is a delicacy to be explored. Enjoy!
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/paintingtheweather/
 
 
 
=== Doll Attic
 
This is the place to learn the history of the Barbie doll. "The idea of Barbie doll all started in 1959 when Ruth Handler, Barbie's creator, noticed her daughter Barbara playing with paper dolls and imagining them in grown up roles such as college students, cheerleaders, and adults with careers."
 
If you take a walk in the History section, you will learn all about Barbie's creation and growth until 1968. To read more about it, you'll need to continue in the 1970's section. In 1968, the first talking Barbie was created. The 70's has its own section and covers all the way to the present because that is when Barbie picked up momentum. I found out some very interesting things about the doll in this section.
 
Then there is the facts section. Here are the two facts I found most intriguing: "Right now about 120 new dresses and clothes are designed every year and more than 105 million yards of fabric has been used to create them." Also: "After stamp collecting, Barbie collecting is the most popular hobby in America."
 
http://www.dollattic.net/
 
 
 
=== United States Newspapers
 
Do you have relatives in another state? Are you thinking of moving? Do you want to see what's happening in your out-of-state college student's city? Wonder how a national news event was covered by the home front? Have you moved recently and want to stay in touch with events in your old town?
 
Well, this is place to do that. If you are moving, this is a great way to find a new job. Check out their local paper. This is also a great way to check out local weather forecasts if you are traveling.
 
You start by clicking on the state. This takes you to a listing of newspapers organized alphabetically, with their city in parenthesis next to the link. I chose the Rocky Mountain News, a Denver newspaper. You all know how I'm simply gaga for their airport! While surfing around, I found this really great article on their hometown soldiers cleaning up a cemetery to honor their fallen comrades past and present. This cemetery dates back almost 200 years. I was touched by the sentiment. It reminded me of the old pioneer cemetery in my hometown of Lorain, Ohio.
 
If you're curious, you could find out what's happening in Toledo, where this newsletter hails from. Just click Ohio as the state, and then choose the Blade from the newspaper list. It will take you to the Toledo Blade site where you will probably see coverage of the local race for mayor.
 
For me it was also really interesting to see all the different names of papers from the Ely Echo (Ely, Minnesota) to the Salina Sun (Salina, Utah) and many more. I also use this site to stay on top of what's happening where my parents lived and to check the obituaries and birth announcements back home. It's a great way to keep in touch with your roots.
 
It's a lot of fun to find out what's going on outside your own town. What's happening near you, I wonder?
 
http://www.50states.com/news/
 
 
 
=== AbbreviationZ
 
This is a terrifically handy site to have: an A to Z of Acronyms & Abbreviations on the net.
 
There are a couple of ways to use this site too. You can use the search engine near the top of the page, the linked alphabet, or the categories.
 
The Search Engine is fairly simple to use. Type in what you want to search for, like "LYLAS" and hit "search", then bang, you get results. LYLAS = Love you Like a Sister, or Love Ya Like a Sis. It gives you all known variations for the term you searched for.
 
The Linked Alphabet is pretty self explanatory. Click a letter of the alphabet to get a listing for that letter.
 
Categories — Here you can choose from categories of acronyms and abbreviations. The categories are Computing, Business, Internet, Governmental, Academic & Science, Community, Miscellaneous, Regional, Medical, and International.
 
And on the side of the main page are little interesting things like Most Popular Queries, and Did You Know That.
 
All in all this site is going on my favorites list due to usefulness.
 
http://www.stands4.com/index.asp
 
 
 
=== Your Amazing Brain
 
This site is broken into sections, and the sections: Brain and Body, Super Senses, Inside Your Brain, Love and Sex, Your Memory, and Test Yourself.
 
Let's get the shocking one out of the way and start with "Love and Sex". This section seems to be really about how you feel about Fertility Treatments and Contraceptives. Nothing very shocking was really to be found here. But you will probably enjoy the Men vs. Women study.
 
Let's move on to "Brain and Body". This section has a lot of stuff that you can do. A couple of quizzes and experiments that will explain things like: Are you right or left eyed? How sensitive are you?
 
"Super Senses" has an Optical Illusion section and An Upside Down Face section. You'll find fun activities and interesting facts in this section of the site. The Upside Down Face part is a section that tests you to see if you can tell what the facial expression is on an upside down face.
 
At "Inside Your Brain" you can learn what your brain looks like, what your dreams might be about in comparison to other people, and what your brain waves mean.
 
Go to "Your Memory" and test your memory with games and quizzes that will let you know where you stand as far as memory capacity goes. Learn what memory chunking is and how it affects you.
 
If you want to skip all the information and just play games, take quizzes then go to "Test Yourself".
 
http://www.youramazingbrain.org/
 
 
 
=== Scrapbooker Online
 
Do you love scrapbooking? Well kick it up a notch with this site. I've got to admit, I love to scrapbook, but I just can never seem to find the time and leave it to occasions like birthdays, wedding, and holidays to justify making time to do it.
 
The first thing I want to talk about is my favorite part of the site. It's the Idea Gallery where you can view people's projects in different categories. The images really inspired me. I really can't wait to make some spiffy bookmarks. And there are so many galleries from certain projects like name cards and tags to holiday projects.
 
There is a Members section though but the good news is that IT'S FREE!!! So all it takes is a moment of your time to sign up and then you have access to the member's gallery. It's definitely worth signing up for.
 
You can also sign up to receive the SBO (Scrapbooker's Online) newsletter, and get new scrapbooking ideas and tips delivered right your inbox.
 
There are great articles on many different topics from tips and hints, to projects, to photo work, and much, much more you'll find interesting articles to read. There is also a great forum where you can exchange ideas with other scrapbookers like yourself.
 
Let me tell you this site, is definitely getting added to my favorites list, I have the feeling I'll be back often.
 
http://www.scrapbookeronline.com/
 
 
 
=== Idiomsite
 
"Find out why you say what you say!" With a slogan like that it's easy to be lured
into this site. "What's an idiom?" you ask? Well, an idiom is "a manner of
speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language."
 
What's this site about? Well, you get a listing of commonly used idioms, click on
the idiom you want to know more about and you get the history of it.
 
Example: Absence makes the Heart Grow fonder. Definition: The lack of
something increases the desire for it. That's what the phrase means. Its origin
comes from Francis Davidson's Poetical Rhapsody, 1602. Also in Thomas Haynes
Bayly's (1797-1839) Isle of Beauty: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Isle
of Beauty, Fare thee well!"
 
http://www.idiomsite.com/
 
 
 
=== Tourism Offices Worldwide
 
"The Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory is your guide to official tourist information sources: government tourism offices, convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, and similar organizations that provide free, accurate, and unbiased travel information to the public."
 
That sums up what you'll find here, but it does leave you wondering… How does it all work? Well that's pretty simple too—there are two search engines: one for outside the USA, and on for inside the USA.
 
To use the search engine click in the drop-down box and choose the country (if looking outside of the USA) or the state (if looking inside the USA) and click "Go". This will then search and generate a list of tourism offices and their webpage if they have one.
 
For instance, if I chose to search inside the USA, and chose Colorado, then clicked go it would generate the list for Colorado which is 6 entries long, 5 of which had websites I could visit. There was one for the whole state, and then five for different popular cities.
 
The next search I tried was outside of the USA—Scotland. And got a wonderful list of results including one for the Highlands of Scotland that had a website, and let me tell you, a lot of these travel sites are beautifully crafted and definitely make you want to hop a plane with your passport and go.
 
http://www.towd.com/
 
 
 
=== Wilderness Survival
 
Well, first of all, how well would you do in a survival situation? Take the
quiz and find out. I passed at 75%, missing questions that, if I were in a
survival situation, wouldn't matter as much like crossing the river safely.
If I want to spend the time building a bridge to get across, let me.
 
What else will you find here? Well, tons of survival information. Do you
know what to do if a plane crashes and you survive? Do you know what to not
eat because it's poisonous? Could you make a fire in the middle of nowhere
with just the stuff in the area?
 
If you can't, you can find out how on this site. You can find out about
dangerous fish, insects, and animals. Learn about survival gear, and how to
make a shelter that will keep you out of the storm.
 
To navigate through the sections, use the menu on the sidebar. They are
divided into three categories: Wilderness Survival, Survival Reference, and
Marketplace (which we won't be discussing here).
 
I really liked the information provided in the Survival Reference section.
Lots of pictures of what the things you need to watch out for look like. The
fish were exceptionally interesting, because a lot of people assume you can
just eat whatever you catch, not even realizing that they would die from
toxins, or get stung from fin spines.
 
Don't get lost in the woods-be prepared.
 
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/
 

 

=== Planet Tea
 
My roommate is a tea aficionado, and through her love of tea, I've grown to understand and love the stuff myself. Although my earlier efforts were to drown it in sugar and cream, now I understand what a good cup of Jasmine with just a little bit of sugar is all about. Now I have many favorite teas, and I'd like to share my love of it with you by sharing this site.
 
Here you will be able to browse the following sections: Resources, What is Tea, Tea's Origin, World of Tea, Preparation, Health Benefits, Article Archives, and Links.
 
What is Tea? Well if you check out the "What is Tea" section, they can answer that question promptly. There you will learn all about tea from its technical definition to its simple definition. From the four kinds: Black, Green, White, and Oolong. Oolong happens to be my favorite. (I love Orchid Oolong.)
 
World of Tea — This section gives you a map where you can explore the different kinds of tea from different places all over the world. If you click on the location you can see in detail what kind of tea that location produces.
 
Preparation — Do you know how to make a proper cup of tea? Well it's not heating water in the microwave and stuffing a tea bag in, that's for sure. Learn all about how one makes a cup of tea, and how long you should let it steep.
 
Health Benefits — well we all sorta know that drinking tea has health benefits, but what exactly does it do for our bodies? Find out in this section.
 
I also want to recommend the "Article Archive" where you will find some great articles on tea. They were very interesting and diverse.
 
Hey anyone want a cuppa tea?
 
http://www.planet-tea.com/index.htm
 
 
 
=== Net State
 
Welcome to Net State—I know it looks like some other sites I've brought you on states and their capitals.
 
And if you just use you mouse to rollover the states, that's all you will get—the state and it's capital. But, if you are adventurous and click on the state THEN you get to what is great about this site.
 
Go on...click a state!
 
See, you get wonderful historical information pertaining to that state. I, of course, chose Ohio where I have lived all of my life. Here's an example of the introduction to Ohio that you get:
 
"Welcome to Ohio, birthplace of seven U.S. presidents, birthplace of the first professional baseball team, and birthplace of that all-American favorite, the hot dog!"
 
"Ohio grew into a highly industrialized state in large part due to its geography. (Location, location, location...) With ports along Lake Erie, major rivers, and rolling plains, Ohio was perfectly situated to grow as America grew, and to provide what America (and the world) needed. Ohio's industrial might has encompassed steel, automobiles, rubber products, chemicals, machine tools, and building materials. The state is also the eastern end of the corn and meat belts, with agriculture contributing to Ohio's economic strength."
 
Boy that makes Ohio sound darned interesting. I'll have to remember that when I am bored, with nothing to do around here. On the side menu you have access to more great information like Almanacs, Symbols, Geography, Maps, People, Forum, News, Quiz, and Schools just to name a few.
 
So check out your state, and then every other state that catches your eye—I sure did my share of trotting around America on this site. I started in Ohio and spent at least an hour checking out other states!
 
http://www.netstate.com/states/study/map.htm
 
 
 
=== Dead or Alive?
 
Have you ever wanted to know if someone famous was dead or alive? Well now you can find out! With this site you'll find out who's among the living and who is deceased.
 
I mean, it's tragic when the people who have entertained us pass on. Just recently one of my favorite actors died—James Doohan, who played Montgomery Scott (Scotty) from Star Trek. When I found out I cried out "Oh no!" I was sad that he had passed on because of all the joy he brought to my life through his portrayal of Scotty.
 
For the How To information on using this site, click "Instructions". I just clicked around the site and randomly checked things out by using the Alphabet on the side menu. A – Z , just click the letter of your choice and see the alphabetized listings for that letter.
 
Underneath the alphabet you'll notice that you can check out Birthdays for Today, Deaths for Today, and then Deaths for the last 6 months. Not to forget who died before age 30, People Alive Over 85, People who lived to 100, and many more categories of note.
 
There are also Quizzes, Tests, and you can even view by Cause of Death, Statistics and much, much more.
 
Is your favorite writer, actor, musician, politician still living? Find out here!
 
http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/
 
 
 
=== Legends
 
Growing up some of my favorite stories where those of Robin Hood, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, not to mention pirates, fairy tales, and such. Now at Legends you can explore these stories that have not only lasted through time but have inspired people enough that we still enjoy them.
 
Explore Robin Hood, King Arthur, Beowulf, Pirates and Privateers, Ballads and Broadsides, Swashbucklers and Fops, Fairy Tales, Shakespeare’s Stories, Sagas & Sea Kings, Paladins and Princes, Poets and Painters, and Erin and Alba.
 
I was so happy I found more stories that I could explore than I already knew. Like Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, old ballads, and poetry even.
 
Then you can also check out Legendary Resources, Search Legends, What’s New, and Notes on the Illustrations.
 
"Search Legends" is a Google based search engine that will search both the site, and the World Wide Web if you want it to. It’s a very nice search engine.
 
I found the Notes on the Illustrations section to be interesting and informative.
 
I hope you enjoy these adventures as much as I did.
 
http://www.legends.dm.net/
 
 
 
=== The Abacus
 
Welcome to The Abacus a site dedicated to the Art of Counting with Beads. This site is full of information that I didn't know—for instance, there is a specific way to use the abacus and only certain fingers should be used to count.
 
In the Introduction, which I found to be worth the read, you learn about the Basics of using an Abacus and how they are constructed. There is a java applet where you can see how an Abacus works, and you can learn how the Abacus is still used today.
 
The History section is exactly what it says—it's the history of the Abacus from it's earliest recorded origins to present day. There is a great timeline too!
 
The Interactive Abacus Tour requires you to have Java, and teaches you how to add and subtract on and Abacus. I thought this was really neat. It comes with a built in tutor, and you can chose the style of Abacus you want to learn on.
 
The Calculations Section gives you the option of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication/Division, Square Roots, and Cube Roots.
 
The Lee Abacus section lets you browse the manual for the Abacus in two ways. Check it out.
 
The Abacus as Art — this section is dedicated to the art of Michael Mode who builds exotic abaci (abacus plural) some of these are really cool. My favorite is the Abracadabracus model.
 
Now that's just enough for you to get your feet wet in this site—there is a lot more for you to discover like the "Abacus: the Mystery of the Bead", and all the interesting articles on the Abacus.
 
Count on having a good time.
 
http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/abacus/
 
 
 
=== Chess for Kids
 
"Chess for Kids is a resource for chess players of all skill levels, from beginners to advanced tournament players. We provide tutorials to improve your strength, as well as chess puzzles to practice on and learn from."
 
This is an excellent site for learning how to play chess. If you have never played before, or need a refresher course like I did, then start off in How to Play.
 
How to Play — This section goes through everything from the board to the chess pieces, including special moves and alternate game endings.
 
Basic Strategies — Here you will learn piece values, and basic strategies like the pin, the fork, the skewer, discovered attack, discovered check, and double check. Put some strategy into your game by reviewing this section.
 
Advanced Tactics — Here you can go step by step through the game from opening to middle to endgame, as well as learn about weak squares, pawn structure and piece activity. Make your game tighter by learning the techniques mentioned here.
 
Opening Book — this section goes over the options that you have in Opening Game moves. I know that when I play I tend to start with the Sicilian.
 
Chess Puzzles — Test your knowledge and strategy with these chess puzzles. Answer correctly for ten points and move one, or learn a better strategy than yours with the correct answer. I did really well on the more advance puzzles but the simple ones I just seemed to choose the wrong piece!
 
Tournament Play — this is where you can learn the rules for tourney play. Check this out if you want to compete!
 
A great refresher for me, I even learned new moves.
 
http://library.thinkquest.org/6290/
 
 
 
=== Montage-a-Google
 
This site is so neat that I played with it for an hour before realizing that I had to write up a review on it. It was so easy to get lost in gathering new searches and seeing what it came up with. What exactly is Montage-a-Google you ask?
 
In its creator's terms, "Montage-a-google is a simple web-based app that uses Google's image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user."
 
So scroll down to the black button that says "Launch Program". This opens the program and after it loads you just type in a word that you want it to search for—like puppies, and then when it finds 20 images you can click "Create Montage" and see what your results came up with.
 
And with each image you can click on it and see its original source. So you can go get more of the same pictures or check out what else they have to offer of what you are searching for.
 
This is a really neat program—you could do so much with it.
 
Now if you liked using the image search you'll probably want to follow the link to the Guess-a-Google—the game where you see if you can guess the term used to search for the images I got seven out of ten. It's a lot of fun. And some of them are so puzzling!
 
All in all this is a great site! I hope you get as lost in it as I did.
 
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage-a-google/
 
 
 
=== Idaho Potato Commission
 
Are you sick of just eating baked potatoes, scalloped potatoes, or mashed potatoes? Well here at the Idaho Potato Commission you can find tons of recipes to jazz up your potatoes.
 
In the Recipes section you have the option of their excellent search engine to find a recipe from their database. Or you can browse section by section. They have potato recipes in the following categories:
 
Appetizers/Small Plates, Baked, Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Casseroles, Desserts, Dipping Sauces, French Fries, Hash Brown, Instant/Dehydrated, Main Dish, Mashed, Microwave, New, Pancakes, Pressure Cooker, Salads, Scalloped/Au Gratin, Side Dishes, Skins/Twice Backed, and last but not least Soups and Stews.
 
That's a lot of potato recipes and quite a few of them are delicious. Especially the Pesto Potato Squares in the Mashed section. Yum! Make sure you check out the contest winners for recipes that are exceptionally healthy.
 
In the Consumer section you can check out the Potato FAQ, Nutrition Information, Photo Album and Potato Videos. In the video section you can watch Tater Vision and see information on how potatoes are harvested, their nutritional value, French Fries, and their current commercial.
 
This site is spud-licious.
 
http://www.idahopotato.com/
 
 
 
=== Radio Memories
 
Welcome to Radio Memories where you can listen to old radio programs. From Westerns to Science Fiction to Detective Stories you'll find a lot of great programs to listen to.
 
The current two week's radio programs are shown on the front page. Listed from most recent to the oldest, and each day seems to be a different kind of program. For instance, Friday's programs are Science Fiction, Tuesday's are Westerns, and so forth.
 
If you want to catch up on a program there are always the archives to explore. You'll find the archives located on the side of the page. You can either choose the links for the archives or click the date on the calendar.
 
Now the really nifty thing is that after listening you can post comments on the radio programs you listened to! Instant feedback for the programs! I loved the Science Fiction ones, and music serenades.
 
This site was really cool, with a simple design that makes for easy use,
 
http://radiomemories.libsyn.com/
 
 
 
=== Tiny Houses
 
I had the privilege to stay in a house much like some of these shown on the
site for Thanksgiving of 2003 and it was quite an adventure. It also made me
realize that my tastes run to spacious, well laid out homes where everything
flows well. I personally am not made for one room living, but I find these
tiny houses charming anyways.
 
Pictures - this link takes you directly to a page full of pictures.
Underneath the photo is a title for the image-if you click the image you can
see more of that house and learn about what goes on there. They all has such
varying stories that it was hard to pick the one I liked the best, but a
girl has to do what a girl has to do, and I chose Vlada's House as my
favorite. Why? I loved the hand made stained glass windows and the vibrant
house paint.
 
Artwork - see tiny houses in artwork, and learn all about the artist Grant
Wood. This section has some great paintings of tiny houses. Choosing my
favorite painting was a lot easier than choosing a favorite tiny house. My
favorite painting is the middle painting in the top row. I just love those
rounded trees and sweeping hills, I'll be honest, at first I didn't even
notice the tiny house in that painting.
 
Definitions - this section has the definitions of terms used frequently on
the house so that you can get an accurate definition of what a "tiny" house
is.
 
The last section I want to talk to you about is the "Town Sign" section. I'm
not sure how it ties into the tiny houses, but I loved this section. My
favorite sign is for Northport, Michigan. It's so lovely. It's a painted
wooden sign with a lovely ship on it. When you click the pictures you get
information about the town as well.
 
http://www.tinyhouses.net/
 
 
 
 
 
=== Erase Your Hard Drive
 
People give their old PCs away to family members, charities, and some end up at the local PC repair shop without ever being properly wiped clean. Everything stored on your PC is on the Hard drive. There was a two-year experiment done by MIT graduates Simon Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat where they collected 156 Hard rives from various places (the web, ebay, PC shops, and businesses). Out of the 158 drives tested 129 drives worked and hardly any of them were properly wiped clean. There were thousands of credit card numbers, pornography, love letters, you name it, that was completely recoverable on these drives.
 
Most people believe that deleting data and then cleaning out the recycle bin does a sufficient job. This is NOT the case however when you delete something in windows—it just marks it to be over written. There is also a misconception that formatting a Hard drive permanently erases stored data. This is also not true—a format just reconstructs the allocation table and checks the blocks on the disk but it does nothing actively to remove the data, it simply leaves it "unprotected". With both of these scenaria, if you have the right software you can recover data thought to be unrecoverable.
 
So, how do we erase this data on my hard drive for good? You can physically destroy the drive—but that's not as easy as you think and you would be amazed at what people can recover data from. There are cases where people have drilled holes in the platters and it could still be recovered. You can take it to a PC repair store that has a Degausser that removes all the magnetism from the drive leaving it useless for good, but this can be way too expensive to justify the price for the common end user. You can write Zero's to the drive with the utilities at the Hard drive manufacturer site and that will stop most people, but experienced users can still recover it.
 
If you don't want to destroy the drive, and are concerned about keeping your privacy here are two free programs that will totally erase data from your hard drive.
 
First is Darik's Boot and Nuke which is an application that you can install on a bootable floppy or CD Rom. Boot and Nuke uses several methods to wipe the data on your drive to an unrecoverable state.
http://dban.sourceforge.net
 
The second title is Eraser 5.7 Though this software is free as well, a $15.00 donation is encouraged. This software does a great job of sanitizing your hard drive by removing all magnetic and solid state memory. It does this by using several different techniques including "pseudorandom data overwrite" and techniques defined by the Department of Defense.
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php
 
Once one of these procedures is performed the drive is ready to be given away or thrown out without fear of privacy invasion, fraud, or worse. Would you just throw away an old wallet with everything still in it? Of course not. So why would you give or give your PC away with making sure it wasn't safe? I've seen this many times repairing someone's PC that they were giving to their folks or have gotten from friends and these people made vary little effort to protect themselves and with little effort I probably could have taken them to the cleaners if I wasn't a law biding morally strong person :-)
 
 
 
=== Ireland's Eye
 
This is a very interesting site with lots to cover, so hang on tight, for this whirlwind ride. In the middle of the page there are articles of interest. Then on the side menu there is a ton of interesting subjects.
 
Features contains: Irish Fairies, Titanic, The Blarney Stone, and Ghost Watch.
 
Irish Fairies tells you all about fairy myths from the emerald isle. The different kinds of fairies, and so on.
 
Titanic discusses the building of the doomed ship in Belfast, the launching of the ship, and much more.
 
The Blarney Stone section teaches you all about the history behind the origination of the “kiss the blarney stone” phrase and why it's still in our speech today. I loved this section the most.
 
Ghost Watch talks about the more famous hauntings around Ireland. A very interesting section if you like this sort of stuff.
 
Culture is a great section too, it contains: Music, Talk, Names, and Recipes.
 
Music — learn about traditional Irish music, read some lyrics, or take a gander down at the dance section. The Irish love to dance as you can tell from this section.
 
Talk — This is where you will learn the myths of Ireland. Stories that have been passed down and lasted as the times changed. I adore this section.
 
Names — here you will learn family names, first names, and place names from around Ireland.
 
History — in the history section you can choose from people, places, and events. It is chocked full to the brim with information.
 
And last but not least — do you want to visit bonny ole Ireland? Well, in the Travel section you can learn how to make the appropriate accommodations, find tours and attractions, and so much more.
 
After leaving this site you'll feel as though you've been to Ireland already.
 
http://www.irelandseye.com/
 
 
 
=== World Music
 
Welcome to World Music, where you can hear types of music from all over the world. I fell in love with this site, but when it comes to music I have pretty eclectic taste anyway.
 
The site is divided into four sections: News, Catalogue, Listen, and Network.
 
News — Here you can read interviews, take quizzes, and learn all about what's happening in World Music.
 
Catalogue — Here you could buy something if you wanted to.
 
Listen — the heart and soul of this page. Here you can listen to and watch music from around the world. You will need Real Player, Media Player, or QuickTime to use this section, and let me tell you it is well worth it.
 
Network — Here you will find links, and more information about the World Music Network.
 
A musical journey around the world that is well worth the trip.
 
http://www.worldmusic.net/index_flash.html
 
 
 
 
 

 

=== The Red Hot Jazz Archive
 
"The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What differentiated Jazz from these earlier styles was the widespread use of improvisation, often by more than one player at a time."
 
At The Red Hot Jazz Archive you can learn about Jazz before the 1930's. When artists improvised the notes and made music with the starting point of a common song. The sections of this site are broken down to: Information, Bands, Films, Essays, Musicians, and Search.
 
Information – Here you will find some great suggested reading. You may want to see if your local library carries any of these titles so you can get swept away with Jazz.
 
Bands – I have to confess this is my favorite section. Here you can learn all about the bands that made Jazz exceptional from 1895 to 1929. You'll find it is an alphabetized list of the bands. You can click on the band's name to get more information. And you may even find a sample of one of their songs.
 
Films – here you can find jazz bands that managed to get a spot on film. A huge accomplishment for the time they lived in. Of course you'll find Louis Armstrong here!
 
Essays – Here you can read essays on these groundbreaking performers from Billie Holiday to Duke Ellington to The Origins of Jazz. A lot of these are interesting reads. I spent some time here browsing and found myself better for it.
 
Musicians – This is where you will find what we would now consider the solo artists of their generation. Again you see when they played, get more information on them, and if you're lucky a sound clip.
 
Search – This is the search engine for the site, and it even comes with some great tips to use it efficiently.
 
This is a terrific site dedicated to those with more than just a little talent!
 
http://www.redhotjazz.com/
 
 
 
=== Nostalgia Central
 
Ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy a little nostalgia? Now, while I can only reminisce about the 80's, I still really enjoyed going through the rest of the site. What's it all about? Well it's about the 60's, 70's, and 80's and what happened during those years in America, Australia, Canada, Europe and the UK.
 
The easiest way to surf is to just choose the year you want to check out and then click on the appropriate image. Or you could just check out the Special Features section, or you could use the multitude of tab options at the top of the page (Home, News, Pop Culture, Music, Television, Movies, Year by Year, and Audio) or you could read their interesting copyright issue at the bottom of the page.
 
The 60's — this section gives you a rundown of what happened during the 60's and the option to go through it year by year or to chose Pop Culture, Television, Music, and Movies. Some stunning examples of the 60's nostalgia are Barbarella, the Jungle Book, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis, Star Trek, Lost in Space, just to name a few.
 
The 70's — this section gives you a kaleidoscope of the 70's with the same exploration options as the 60's. Here you will find pet rocks, glam rock, mood rings, Star Wars, Happy Days and many more.
 
The 80's — again you have the same exploration options as before. What's nostalgic for me from the 80's you ask? Well let's see there's Pac Man, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Fraggle Rock, The Smurfs, She-Ra, Night Court, Charles in Charge, Cheers, the deliciously funny Black Adder, and I remember all the bright colors. Hot Pink, Neon Green, Electric Blue, and Out of this World Bright Purple!
 
What's nostalgic to you?
 
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/
 
 
 
=== Eternal Egypt
 
This is by far one of the most thorough sites on Ancient Egypt. You can use the plain text version of the site, you can use the ultra-spiffy multimedia version of the site, or you can use the guided tour option.
 
The guided tour was very neat and an efficient walk through of the site. I highly recommend it. But I am also a big fan of surfing around a site on my own and just discovering.
 
While you are discovering it for yourself let me point out a few of the really great things. The biggest thing for me was the Highlights area underneath the Welcome area. Here you will find four pictures of different objects. My favorite of the four is the necklace or pectoral with cross. Click the image to learn more about these objects. I chose the pectoral with small cross, and will use it as my example. Here you will learn the definitions of certain words like pectoral, and Coptic, and you will learn about the materials the object is made of and why it was made of those materials. If you click the image to zoom you will need Shockwave, but you can zoom in and out on the image then and really get some great details.
 
Now on the other side of the Welcome area is a side menu that is chocked full of things for you to do and explore. You will find the sections Connections, Timeline, Map, Multimedia, Library, Topics, Type, Sites and Museums, Search, and Digital Guide.
 
The Connections section was utterly fascinating. It shows how just about everything was interconnected. Their introduction for the section definitely sums it up much better than I can so I will just share it with you.
 
"The artifacts, characters, and places that define Egypt are connected to each other in complex and fascinating ways. Connections allows you to explore Eternal Egypt—discovering how an artifact is related to a character, how that character is related to a place, and so on. Follow paths by clicking images or titles to learn more. As you click, your stops along the way are remembered so that you can revisit items of interest. You can use the controls to adjust what is displayed."
 
I must have spent 3 hours in this section just exploring the different ways things could go and having a terrific time just learning. Which brings me to my next thought; wouldn't this be a great site for you to share with the kids?
 
http://www.eternalegypt.org/
 
 
 
=== The Lawn Institute
 
I don't know if you remember me complaining about having to grow new lawn about a dozen garden sites ago, but I'm still fighting that battle here in Ohio. I'm still trying to get my lawn to grow. I just put seed down and am watering it religiously in the sudden heat wave we've had. And so I went surfing on the net for something to point me in the right direction.
 
I found the Lawn Institute and their lawn tips section. The tips are broken down into parts: "How to Select the Best Grass for a Northern Lawn" and "How to Select the Best Grass for a Southern Lawn". Choose your location and then it goes over the different seed types for your area and then what needs they are best at meeting.
 
How the Environment Benefits from a Well Maintained Lawn — this goes into the environmental issues of maintaining your lawn. Did you know that grass conserves water and cleans the air you breathe? Did you know that healthy lawns help produce healthier soil? Did you know that green grass was one of the things most missed by our troops during Desert Storm?
 
How to Read a Seed Label to Determine Quality — this section teaches you how to read a bag of grass seed's label so that you are truly getting the best mix for your conditions. I'll be honest, I bought two bags of grass seed locally for relatively little money because I wasn't certain it would take and anything would be better than the huge bare spot in my yard. But now I know how to read a label and I found out that for the high traffic of my lawn I didn't do too bad at all.
 
Other sections on this site will teach you about fertilizing your lawn, watering your lawn, and even renovating and over seeding your lawn. This is a great resource on getting your grass to grow beautifully and how to maintain it.
 
http://www.turfgrasssod.org/lawninstitute/
 
 
 
=== Email Security Scan
 
Well troops, surprise inspection! Let's see how secure your defenses are against mail-born threats. Think you're up to the test? Then read on.
 
The problem with all the security holes that arise from day to day is that it's hard to keep up. "Am I protected?" you wonder, "I update constantly, I scrutinize all my email messages, especially attachments, and read all of Chad's awesome security articles, but how do I know for sure?"
 
Well, since such a large number of security holes center around email I'm glad to announce today a service that can check your system for potential exploits. The service is a web based email scanner that you can tailor to send out over 20 different emails, each attempting to defile your system with dummy exploits. It's like hiring a security agent to go over your system and tell you what aspects of your security is in good shape, and what areas could use some improvement. When set in motion, the scanner fires off the dummy viruses and exploits to the specified email address. Don't be surprised if your virus software starts popping up with security messages, as a matter of fact, this is exactly what you want to happen, it means your system is seeing the threats coming in.
 
The emails themselves have message bodies describing what their particular test was for and how to make sure you're protected from this sort of attack. Some of the emails have attachments and some attempt to create text documents on your desktop, the emails tell you exactly what to do to ensure the tests ran correctly, thus providing an accurate assessment of your system's defenses.
 
In addition to the testing your system for security holes this is also a good way to educate yourself on some email-born security issues by getting a chance to see them in action without putting yourself in any danger.
 
Click here if you would like to have your email security tested...
http://www.windowsecurity.com/emailsecuritytest/
 
 
 
=== SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages
 
I've always had a warm place in my heart for fairy tales. Designed originally to teach children morals they are a great way to pass the time. With this site you can get a little more in-depth with them, or even read tales that you've never heard of.
 
You may find yourself overwhelmed with your options on this site, so let me break it down for you. If you have a favorite fairy tale that you are looking for I recommend using the search engine on the side of the page. Type in the title and click "Go" to begin your search. Underneath the search box you will find the news section where you will find out what has been added to the site.
 
Now the rest of the site navigation is all in the center of the page, it's broken down into sections for easier viewing. There's the Introduction and About section at the top which tells you why the site exists and what they are trying to accomplish. Then next to that you'll see the section for the Annotated Tales which has a long list of stories underneath it. I loved "East from the Sun and West from the Moon" and, of course, "The Nightingale".
 
Underneath the Intro area you'll find the sections for the Discussion Board, Full Text Books, Fairytales and their Authors, and under the Annotated section you'll find the Illustrations and Books Store.
 
So why don't we begin your journey with "Once Upon a Time…"
 
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/
 
 
 
=== Kiddie Records Weekly
 
Welcome to Kiddie Records Weekly, Classics from the Golden Age. Their purpose is to share those classic stories with you and your children, or your grandchildren. Come here to listen to these classics with them.
 
All the past weeks are archived so you can spend quite some time here surfing through this collection. From Roy Rogers to Woody the Woodpecker there are some famous voices to grace your ears with.
 
I remember going to the library and listening to these kinds of records on their record player, and for a little while we had a record player at home. I used to check the records out of the library with awe. I know that I'd want for my children and their children to be able to share the experience, even if it is through an mp3 file on the internet.
 
They are doing us a great service in preserving what was on these records for future generations to come visit. To surf this site you can use the side menu or your can click on the record album covers to visit different sections of the archive.
 
My favorites are The Unsuccessful Elf, Puss in Boots, and Saludos Amigos. And I can't wait for Madeline. You'll notice that the albums are scheduled ahead too by date. So you have a good idea of when you want to come back for a certain album.
 
This site is a treasure, don't you think it is time to go treasure hunting?
 
http://www.kiddierecords.com/
 

 

=== American Garden Museum
 
Finally! A site that is dedicated to the hard work of American Gardeners and their gardens! Why don't you explore the museum with me today?
 
Showcase — this section seemed to be the highlighted garden of the site at the current moment.
 
Gardens — click on the map and choose a state to see the gardens highlighted for that state. Explore gardens across the United States, and believe me, you can spend hours just looking at these lovely places.
 
Exhibition — the scrapbook of Lois Travis Thornton. See beautiful photos from the 1920's to 1940's of gardens all around America. My favorite is of the pond with the water lilies—it's such a beautiful view.
 
Inspiration — This is a great section too. Here you can find breath stealing inspiration for your own gardens. From paths, gates, and fountains to the very different kinds of plants you can grow in a garden here you will find definite inspiration.
 
Botanical — "You can view almost 100 popular and historical garden species through this growing archive. Just click the links below to search by Common or Latin name or click 'Next' to browse through all the plants."
 
From my garden to yours, I hope you find inspiration to grow something new from this site. Enjoy!
 
http://www.americangardenmuseum.com/
 
 
 
=== Handcuffs
 
Welcome to a collector’s guide of vintage handcuffs. Before visiting this site I knew that handcuffs were a collectable item—I’ve been to some of the local gun and knife shows and you can find everything from guns and knives, to stamps, jewelry, army memorabilia and much more and I’ve seen some great cuff collections. But they were quite small after looking through the gallery here, especially when you throw in the other sections of the galleries: leg chains, nippers, and thumb cuffs. This made me really want to know the history behind them.
 
To start learning about he history of handcuffs just scroll down the page to the section labeled "Handcuff Companies & their Wares". Under this heading you will learn some of the history of handcuffs as well as how profitable they were for some companies.
 
A really neat section of this site is the "Escape Artists and their Craft". Here you can learn about escape artists from the famous to the relatively unknown and you may even learn something about escapology yourself.
 
Other great section include the forum, the archived forum, and interviews.
 
After checking this out can you answer the site owner’s question? If you want to know what the puzzle is, go to the section "A Puzzle for Experts". I got five of them right. How will you do?
 
Once you get into this site it's hard to escape.
 
http://www.handcuffs.org/
 
 
 
=== Bembo's Zoo
 
Here at Bembo's Zoo the first choice you have to make is whether you want to
 
view the site in Flash or go download the flash so you can view the site. I
find Flash to usually be worth it because it is fluid, fun, and frisky.
 
Pick a letter, and let your journey begin.
 
Each letter has an animal associated with it that begins with the letter you
 
chose. For Example: The letter D gets you the word dragon, and then you
watch as the letters themselves make a drawing of a dragon. It's very neat!
The Dragon is my absolute favorite of this site.
 
Each letter of the alphabet has an animal so it's a lot of fun to go through
 
the alphabet and watch the remarkable art as the letters turn into animals
before your very eyes.
 
This is a great site that shows you just how remarkable Flash can be, and
how much imagination you can employ with a some effort.
 
I hope that you all like this site as much as I did. It's a great site to
share with your kids and grandkids especially when they're learning the
alphabet.
 
http://www.bemboszoo.com/
 
 
 
=== The Museum of Online Museums
 
This is like the archive of all archives and the museum of all museums. Here you will find great links to new and exciting exhibits online in the Museum Campus section. The links in this section take you directly to the museum or exhibit in the title link.
 
Below this are the Permanent Collections. This section has some really unique and interesting galleries like the Grocery List Collection, or Fading Billboards. These are linked directly to their permanent location—so if a link is bad you may want to let the museum know so they can remove it. What's really cool is that after you've viewed a collection and click back over to the Museum of Online Museums, it will be checked off the list. You won't have to guess which sites you've been to—isn't that great?
 
Below this are the Galleries, Exhibits, and Shows. Again with the great check mark system and some really interesting galleries. Like the Museum of Seventies Matchbox Cars, or the Burnt Food Museum . Or one of my favorites, the Gallery of Museum of Monster Toys, or the Catalogue of Lesser-Known Superheroes, make sure to check those out they are really neat.
 
All in all, my favorite Online Museum site! There are way too many cool links on here to spend all day chatting about them, so you'll just have to explore them all at your own pace. Enjoy!
 
http://www.coudal.com/moom.php
 
 
 
=== Legal Online Music?
 
Online music currently sails in turbulent water, but the ship has not sunk. In fact, the very cause of the storm can also be a safe harbor.
 
Huh?
 
Sorry, it's an old poetry slam injury that flares up now and then. If you go to record company websites you can usually find free music—either as "streams" (you can hear it but not save it), samples (under one minute), but occasionally as downloads. Granted, you won't find that song they played all last summer, but you can get some new stuff, often before you start hearing it on the radio twenty times a day. Many even offer streaming video in QuickTime, RealAudio, or Windows Media. Check your CD liner notes to find the record label website of your favorite performers.
 
Another place to find free music is at the artist's official web site or fan club. You might find a live track, an unreleased song, or the latest single. Again, check the CD liner notes for websites. Try running some of your favorites through a search engine and you may be surprised what you find.
 
The Internet Underground Music Archive is a place where independent artists can offer their songs for download. You probably won't find super-stars, but you will find great music by unsigned artists, independent bands, and local talent that you might not hear otherwise. Every music style can be found here too, including Pop/Rock, Classical, Jazz, Country. You can listen to a "stream" of the song before you download.
 
Beau-dacious Oldies But Goodies offers over 4000 full length songs in Real Audio format available for streaming or download. This is a great place to find classic doo-wap, swing, and oldies.
 
For fans of Folk, Bluegrass, Celtic and old-timey music, be sure to stop by eFolkMusic.org . Some songs can be downloaded for free by registered users, while others will cost you just under a buck. Since radio stations still ignore this kind of music (despite the popularity of the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou"), this is a valuable website indeed.
 
Paste Music also features downloads and reviews of folk, Americana, blues, Alternative Country and more.
 
Amazon.com has a free music download site too. You'll find a few major stars along with thousands of independent artists. It's not as easy to navigate as the previously mentioned sites, but it is worth a visit if you have not filled up your hard drive with music files yet.
 
Sure, the days of file sharing mp3s a'la Napster are over. Illegal music downloads can bring the recording industry lawyers to your door like wolves to fresh meat, but that doesn't mean online music is dead. Record companies and artists are aware of the benefits of online music—they mainly just want their cut of the action.
 
If you're willing to pay you have a few options:
Napster http://www.napster.com/
Music Now http://musicnow.fullaudio.com/
Wal-Mart http://downloads.walmart.com/music_downloads/introToServices.do
 
In a few years the storm will calm down. Of course, by then, every music lover will probably think nothing of forking out $1 per song or paying a monthly subscription fee to download music. While the storm rages on, you can sail into some of the safe harbors mentioned here today.
 
 
 
=== Memoir Café
 
This is an interesting site full of writing from people who may turn out to be just like you. As always I checked the FAQ section and I was bitterly disappointed when I found that you had to be a member and that it cost money in order to post. I was almost ready to toss this into the do not write up pile, but then I started reading the stories and it changed my mind.
 
In spite of the money they want you to pay to write, you can read for free. So what can you read about that would have me moved enough to tell you about? Well to be honest, for me it was "Stephanie's Drawer" where I read about 17 years of her life filtered through experiencing her cat. Stephanie is the founder and tutor of Memoir Café.
 
But you can read about: the natural world, the civilized world, family and private life, working life, the world of things, culture and tradition, life with women, life with men, food, the spiritual life, harsh times, and more.
 
Each section of writing has tons of stories for you to read. They come from all walks of life, in all styles of writing. There is enough reading to keep you busy here for days, and I found myself moved by these stories. There were some that were so vivid it was as though I had lived them.
 
All in all a really, really cool read.
 
http://www.memoircafe.com/
 

 

=== Wired For Books
 
In order to use this site you need to have Real Player which is a free download, you will find the link to download Real Player near the top of the page.
 
Why would you want to have Real Player for this site? Well because you get to listen to famous, and not so famous, people read works of literature.
 
In the "Kid's Corner" you can listen to the tale of Peter Rabbit, and right next door you could listen to Alice 's Adventure's in Wonderland. Not to forget great literary works like Macbeth, The Illiad or the The Aeneid.
 
There is also poetry from “classic English poems, including poetry by Blake, Burns, Byron, Donne, Herbert, Hunt, Keats, and Shakespeare,” to the “Den of Lions” poems, and the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
 
Not to mention all the wonderful non-fiction and fiction that you can listen to! This site gets an A++ in my opinion for being so diverse, and for bringing so many wonderful poems, and stories together in one place for people to listen to.
 
Enjoy!
 
http://wiredforbooks.org/
 
 
 
=== Online Etymology Dictionary
 
“Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.”
 
As a writer I fell in love with this site. But I think just about everyone can get use out of it. You can either search for a word directly via the search engine at the top of the page or you can use the alphabet located beneath it.
 
If you choose a letter you get all the entries for that letter, there were 27 pages for the letter A. You'll be surprised by how much you learn for example:
 
Abduct — "to kidnap," 1834, altered from abduce "to draw away" by persuasion (1537), from L. abducere "lead away," from ab- "away" + ducere "to lead". Abduction is first recorded 1626 in lit. sense of "a leading away;" the illegal activity so called from 1768.
 
Not only do you find out what the word means, you also find out how it originated, and how it was originally used. You will probably want to check out the section "Introduction & Abbreviations". As you get a list of the abbreviations used on the site and why the author of this site felt it was necessary to make this page. I thought that the author has a great idea.
 
This site is all about a love of language, and will teach you how it all began for each word. Check it out!
 
http://www.etymonline.com/
 
 
 
=== Guide to Shooting Rubber Bands
 
I remember in high school the boys would have rubber band fights and I would end up getting flicked with a rubber band and in an attempt at firing back snap my finger and ended up the walking wounded. Now I've learned how to properly shoot rubber bands. And all from this site!
 
After learning the "Pistol" method of firing a rubber band I will never injure my thumb shooting a rubber band. I shot off a couple for my cats to chase-just be sure you don't hit them and that they don't eat the rubber band. My cat actually plays fetch with them. I'll shoot one off, he'll give chase hunt it down, and then bring it back and drop it at my feet. He plays fetch with soft foam balls too, it's great!
 
Now this guide goes through the history of rubber band shooting, the refinement of the art of shooting a rubber band, and the rules to the game. Some how I think bored college students got together and decided to have rubber band wars. They even have a penalty system. It's a very tongue-in-cheek site full of witty humor and practical techniques.
 
This site even discusses the physics behind shooting rubber bands, and in the individual styles of shooting (Pistol, Rifle, Spear, etc.) it discusses the accuracy of the shot, the probability for misfire.
 
This site is really neat even if you don't engage in rubber band warfare.
 
http://hometown.aol.com/morganbolt/index.html?f=fs
 

 

=== The Official Web Site of the Sultan of Swat
 
Welcome to the Official Babe Ruth site. Here you can learn all about the "Sultan of Swat's" life. Just check out the section "About Babe Ruth".
 
Here you will find News, his Biography, Stats, and Pictures. On the side menu you'll find Achievements, Quotes, Awards, and Fast Facts. The biography is a quick 3 page read that is very informational.
 
I loved the Quote section best of all. This is where you can see what the man himself said. From famous quotes to obscure ones, you'll find it all here. I'd recommend this section to everyone.
 
I also enjoyed the "Fast Facts" section where I learned an overview of Babe Ruth's life. From who he married to how he threw.
 
There is a lot of information to digest at this site so take your time, and explore the many facets of Babe Ruth.
 
You can also find links to Tribute sites, the Babe Ruth Museum and much, much more. Enjoy!
 
http://www.baberuth.com/
 
 
 

 

=== Blurry Photos Gallery
 
Welcome to the Blurry Photos Gallery. It's exactly what it says it is: gallery devoted to blurry photos taken with a camera phone. Why am I bringing you this site? Well because a lot of the photos are interesting and not even all that blurry.
 
Here's how the site works. You'll see nine little squares that are thumbnails, and a big white arrow. If you scroll over the photos then you will get a description of the shot and if you click it will make the image larger.
 
On the larger image you can click near the edge of the photo and the photo will be framed with a white arrow allowing you to move forward through the pictures if you don't want to use the thumbnails.
 
After you have viewed the first nine you can click the arrow by the thumbnails and the gallery will scroll forward and you will have nine new images to check out. There are seven pages of images and all but the last page is a complete set of nine. So there are some very interesting pictures here for your viewing pleasure.
 
Of course if you use the arrow on the large image you can just click through the whole gallery without using the thumbnails or the arrow located next to them. In the long run this site made me want to get a camera phone so I could take pictures of my own that were this neat.
 
http://www.houze.net/photos/blurrygallery/index.html
 
 
 
=== Pirate Soul
 
Welcome to a museum like very few you've had the opportunity to hear of. Pirate Soul is a museum dedicated to the history of Pirates!
 
We'll start our journey in the History section which includes Origins, Notable Pirates, Pirate Life, Plunder, Map, and Resources.
 
The Map is a great way to learn information about the places that pirates lived in, sailed to, and plundered. Click a topic above the map and the location will be highlighted in red and an information bubble will pop up. You can get a snippet of information, and if you want to know more, just click on the "Click here to learn more" link.
 
Origins — Here you learn the history of Piracy from it's Origins to the Golden Age of Piracy. The Golden Age of Piracy is when pirates were the most active in one area and occurred from 1690 to 1730.
 
Notable Pirates — This is where you can learn about the individual pirates who stood out, made names for themselves, and went down in history for their acts of piracy. From Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Sir Henry Morgan to Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Sir Francis Drake each has a vivid history that is definitely worth reading. I, in particular, enjoyed the story of Anne Bonny, a female pirate—which was practically unheard of in those times seeing as women were unlucky to have on board a ship.
 
Pirate Life — Here we learn about what life as a pirate consisted of. From Medicine, Food, The Pirate Code, Jolly Roger, En Route to Plunder: Pirate Navigation, and Death. Each section was an in-depth read of information that you probably didn't know about pirates. Especially the Jolly Roger section where you learn that not all pirates flew a flag of skull and crossbones. Some had their own flag with its own meaning of surrender without a fight or die.
 
Plunder — Learn about the battles that pirates had for plunder. What kinds of weapons did they use? What were they trying to plunder? Here you will learn about the weapons from the infamous blunderbuss to cannons. Here you will learn about raids for sugar, rum, fabric, medicine, food, and Spanish treasure.
 
Museum — In this section you can learn what kinds of things the museum Pirate Soul displays. From weapons to treasure — you get a brief description and bit more history thrown in for good measure. An interesting section that makes me want to go to the museum myself.
 
So lift anchor and sail over, mateys. Argggh!
 
http://www.piratesoul.com/
 
 
 
=== Time-Warp Archive of Technology Through the Decades
 
This site is remarkably easy to use—just set the decade you want to visit from 1900 to 2000 with the up and down arrows, and click Go. You will then Time-Warp to the decade you choose. Use your mouse to scroll over the pictures of the technology like phones, radios, record players, type writers and you'll get the option to check them out more in-depth. When you scroll over them you get options to check out. Pick what you want to learn about and get whisked to information about the object you selected. You can even learn about toys—what did kids play with during that decade that fit in as technology?
 
I had a lot of fun starting in the 1900's and working my way through each decade till I reached 2000. It is a great way to discover how things have changed and what leaps and bounds technology has made in just 100 years.
 
For a good description of what all you might find on this site you may want to check out the "Time-Warp Project" button at the top of the page. The "Research" button yields some great information too. Just scroll down and check out the timeline.
 
http://www.time-warp.org/
 
 
 
=== Google Fight
 
This site is really cool! Put in any two keywords and have them duke it out. How do they win? Well, this site searches to see how many listings there are for the words and then the one with the most wins the fight.
 
I put in tea vs. coffee and coffee won with a grand total of 53,500,000 results to tea's measly 37,200,000.
 
You can also check out the last 20 fights by clicking the option for it on the side menu. This will show you what other words are fighting it out. Or you can choose the Classics. The Classics consists of the following:
 
God vs. Satan
Pen vs. Sword
Tony Parker vs. Michael Jordan
 
Those are just a few. Check out the rest by visiting the Classics. My favorite section though is Funny Fights. Here "Me" fights "Myself" and Me wins by a landslide (probably thanks to the Windows OS), or Alpha vs. Beta and Beta wins by a slimmer margin.
 
You should check "Fight of the Month" too, where Pro vs. Con, The vs. One, while the Beatles and The Rolling Stones duke it out. To find out who comes out on top you'll have to visit the section and watch them battle it out.
 
Pit your favorite words or people against each other, or even your favorite animals. I was surprised at the slim margin that Lion won over Penguin. This is just a lot of fun and you can keep it as versatile as you want by changing up what you use to fight it out. You should put names in quotes to get more exact results.
 
From people, places, things, words—you name it—if it is on the web you can have it fight right before your eyes.
 
http://www.googlefight.com/
 
 
 
=== Google Maps
 
I know we've brought you map sites before, but now I've found one that is so useful you'll have to bookmark it. I've already used it about a dozen times to find places I need to go to or just places I want to check out.
 
Not only is it useful, but it is easy to use too. I highly recommend that you take the tour located at the bottom of the page. You'll find the "Take a Tour link" under the Get Directions area on the side.
 
These maps have great zoom capability, are draggable (just click the map with your mouse and move in the direction you desire, the map moves with your mouse), and make getting to and from places as easy as if you were looking at a street map.
 
To get directions somewhere type in (under the Get Directions title) the search box where you want to go and where you are leaving from such as, Directions to Cleveland from Toledo, Ohio. Type In: "Toledo to Cleveland" and then click "Search".
 
This then brings up the route on the map as well as giving you driving directions on the side of the map. You will notice it gives you how long the drive is, as well as the option to get reverse directions so you can get home. Clicking the linked numbers in the directions gives you bullets on the map. These bullets are zoomed in to street level so you can tell before you drive it how the road is going to go. With tricky roads that is a real bonus!
 
This site is a real keeper! Bookmark it today!
 
http://maps.google.com
 
 
 
=== American Field Guide
 
I suggest everyone reads the "About AFG" section because it really tells you what all went into making this site possible. They've collected data from over 30 stations across the country to bring you this site.
 
Animals — in this section you can choose from, you guessed it, what animals you would like to learn about. They are broken down into subtopic categories like mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, and amphibians. You can also check out the Featured Video Clips.
 
Ecosystems — in this section you can choose from Canyons, Desert, Forest, Lakes and Ponds, Mountains, Oceans and Beaches, Prairie\Grasslands, Rivers and Streams, and Wetlands. Learn all about how unique these ecosystems are from one another. This section also has Featured Video Clips for you to check out.
 
Human History — Here you will find categories on Archeology, Economic Use of Nature, Exploration & Settlement, Folklore\Legends, and Native Peoples. See how the human race has grown and explored and settled down in America.
 
Livelihoods — "Not everyone spends their day behind a desk. Meet some of the people who make their living working in or get their inspiration from the American Outdoors." Here you can learn about the different jobs that people do in the great outdoors.
 
Earth and Space — the categories of this section are Fossils, Geological Events, Glaciers, Rocks and Minerals, Weather, and Volcanic Activity. The clips on Volcanic Activity were really neat and I highly recommend that you browse some of them.
 
Plants — Here's the section for those of us with a green thumb, I love learning all about plants. Here you can learn about Flowers, Grasses, Non-Native Species, Shrubs, and Trees. The clips from this section were very informative.
 
This site also has a wonderful search engine, two topics we didn't cover, TV schedules, Programs A to Z, Teacher Resources and plenty more to make you visit here turn into return visits too. I loved this site and hope that you'll enjoy it as much as I do.
 
http://www.pbs.org/americanfieldguide/
 
 
 
=== Today's Front Pages
 
What does this site have to offer? "372 front pages from 39 countries presented alphabetically." The nice thing is that it is also very easy to use. The pages are listed alphabetically and you just scroll over them with your mouse to see it larger on the side, and if you click it you can get it full size. For more you simply click "View More Pages".
 
But better yet, there are different ways to view it too. You can view it by Region or through the Map View option. Each lets you select a different way of seeing what is going on in the world.
 
I loved the map view because the map was dragable like the Google maps we brought to you. For those of you with pop-up blockers you may have to enable pop-ups from this site seeing as quite a few things open in new windows—but let me tell you it is worth it. From the Map View style you just choose the country you want, let it load and then scroll over the bullets on the map and presto you have the paper from that area.
 
Then there is the archive. Here is what Newseum has to say about it: "The Newseum keeps an archive of national and international front pages that chronicle events of historical significance."
 
From the Tsunami to the Election to the Columbia Shuttle Explosion you can find quite a bit of big historical importance.
 
So now you can enjoy your morning paper as well as papers from around the world.
 
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
 
 
 
=== Pencilmation
 
Welcome to Pencilmation where you can watch fun pencil animations. You have your choice of the original pencil drawings, or the colorized animations. There are three original pencilmations, which are the Original, Infinity Snail, and Infinity Snail 2. They load in another window and you can rate them on a scale of one to five.
 
There are five colorized animations which are: Boogalah, Best Friends Forever, Friend Part 1, The Headache Part 2, and Night Part 3. Again they load in another window and you can rate them on a scale of one to five.
 
My favorite is the original—I think it is quite witty. It's a play on animation itself, and in the end the little pencil drawing gets the tip of his creator's pencil and can animate his own world.
 
Quite a little site that will help you find some diversion in a boring day.
 
http://www.pencilmation.com/
 
 
 
=== Motorcycle Online: Virtual Museum
 
This site is divided into four sections: Vintage Iron, Racing, Restoration, and History.
 
Vintage Iron - This is where you can see things that are in museums. From the Indian's Model 841 that never really did come into fruition to the Ural. I highly recommend the "Ural? What the heck is a Ural?" section-it is quite interesting. The Art of the Motorcycle exhibit has great pictures of antique motorcycles dating back to 1901. I particularly like the Bohmerland from 1925.
 
Racing - Read all about vintage motorcycle racing, and Project TZ50. A great read with incredible pictures for all you racing fans.
 
Restoration - Here you can see some classic rebuilds, some restorations of vintage motorcycles and an interview with Walt Riddle, Master Restorer. Great reads, and full of helpful tips if you are of a mind to restore vintage motorcycles. My favorite is "The Long, Hard Process of Restoring a 1948 Indian Chief." I happen to love Indian bikes, there is just something about them, and that would be the motorcycle I would own.
 
History - this section makes the site shine. From "The First Motorcycle?" to the "A Brief History of Indian Motorcycles" you find the gems that really brought motorcycles into fruition. Learn about the first attempts to make a motorcycle and how it was refined over the years. Make sure you read about the Indian Motorcycles who were once the number one race winners, and manufacturers of motorcycles in America.
 
http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmuseum/
 

 

=== The Global Network of Dreams
 
Have you read everything by your favorite author? Have you run out of music to listen to? Sick of trying to figure out which movies you will actually enjoy? Well now you've met a site that can help you out.
 
When you load up this site you will notice that there are four sections: Gnod Music, Gnod Books, Gnod Movies, and Flork. We're going to start in the Gnod Books section.
 
Gnod Books - You have four options when you get to this section: Gnod Suggestions, Map of Literature, Literature Forum, and Literature Locator.
 
The "Gnod Suggestions" is great when you've run out of books by your favorite authors to read. You just type in three names of authors you enjoy and click "Continue" and it brings up the name of an author that its artificial intelligence thinks you may enjoy based on the authors you've listed. I've found so many new books to read thanks to this tool.
 
The "Map of Literature" gives you a lot of options too. Put in the name of one author you enjoy and then click "find this writer" this takes you to a blue page that has a lot of authors names floating on it in white, the closer the names are to the name you put in the more likely you are to like that author's work. When you click on the name it will take you to another map with more authors on it, and so on and so forth, providing you with endless possibilities.
 
Gnod Music - This section works a lot like the Gnod Suggestions section from Books. You type in three artists you like and click continue and it finds you an artist you might enjoy based on what you've put in. You can click on the artist's name and be taken to the Discussion page (you have to be a member of Flork to join the discussion.) You can also click "related bands" and see a music map for that artist if there is one. You can also tell them if you like or dislike the artist, and this will help it find artists that are customized to your tastes.
 
Gnod Movies - This works the same way as the other two sections books, and music.
 
Flork - seems to be invitation only to join which makes using the discussion groups hard. If any of you figure out how to get invited please let me know.
 
http://www.gnod.net/
 

 

=== Look at Book
 
You will need the latest version of Flash for this site, if you don’t have it you can get it here...
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/
 
Now when you enter the site a new window will pop up.
 
What are you looking at? Well this is an art project that traveled over 60,000 miles before reaching its completion.
 
About Book — this gives you the rich history of how this project was started and what it was about.
 
View Book — take a gander at all the art in the book. Click on the individual pages to see them up close and personal.
 
View Exhibition — take a virtual tour of the exhibit, or view the timeline. If you choose the tour pick rooms that you want to look at and have fun checking everything out.
 
Artists — This is where you can find out about the artists who put this book together. Two artists in Brooklyn, NY, and two in Belfast, Ireland. Read their bio’s and learn all about them.
 
A really neat project worth exploring, enjoy!
 
http://www.lookatbook.com/
 
 
 
=== The Aviation History Online Museum
 
You'll notice that navigation is to the side and that it starts with Aircrafts. If you click the description link you are taken to photo of that airplane along with some information. You will notice on the airplane page you are viewing that you can click the link Full Text to learn more about that aircraft.
 
The list of planes in the "Aircraft" section is in alphabetical order, and shows who manufactured it and whether the photo is in color. Some of the aircrafts come with the text already on the same page as the photo of the plane. My favorite aircraft off of the list was Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
 
In the "Photo Gallery" you will find another great selection of airplanes. Just click the description link and you will be taken to the photo of that model of airplane. Here you get less information, just how many were made, when the photo was taken, and the location. My favorite from in the Photo Gallery was the Aeronca C-3 (Razorback).
 
The "Airman" section is a listing of airmen, with the subject they are talking about listed, and the country and whether or not there is a photo. Each one tells a very thorough story. I particularly enjoyed the story of Alcock and Brown who flew across the Atlantic "in 16 hours, and 12 minutes sometimes upside down through dense, icy fog." I'll be honest though, I ended up reading them all because they were all so interesting.
 
In "Engines" you can take a look at 12 airplane engines, complete with photos and text. If you check out DB 605 you even get a sectional view of the engine which lets you get a good look inside it.
 
"Early Years" is a very historical section—go back all the way to 1849 and start learning about the history of flight with George Cayley and end up with information from 1908 with Glenn H. Curtis. And who can neglect to mention the Wright Brothers in 1903. Very interesting section that is worth reading, you will get a real feel for how flight progressed.
 
"Theory" covers the scientific theory behind flight.
 
I think this is an interesting site that pays homage to something that most travelers take for granted: it wasn't always so easy to go catch a flight to wherever you wanted to go in the world.
 
http://www.aviation-history.com/
 
 
 
=== Radio Locator
 
This site is an excellent tool that anyone who listens to the radio should book mark. With multiple ways to search it is easy to use. The easiest way to search is to put in your city or zip code along with the state you live in and click go. This starts the search for what's in your area. Then it lists all the local stations in your area and both am and fm radio. Once you find the station you are looking for click on the call letters for that station and you'll be taken to their homepage. This is a great way to find out about the station you listen to, as well as some of the stations list what was playing at a certain time so you can find out the artist and song title if they didn't say it on the radio. It is also a great way to find out what's going in your community.
 
Or you can search for your station by call letters, or you can use the more advanced search if you still didn't find what you were looking for. You can also search Canadian and International stations too.
 
Now say you want to find something to listen to online—well now you can! Just go down to the find internet streaming radio, choose a format from the drop down list, and click GO. I chose Adult Contemporary and hit GO and was listening to music in under three minutes. What's more is that this option has tons of genres of music so you can probably find what will please your ears easily. Get this—they even have a section called Grade School (K-12) that you could play so your kids have music to listen to.
 
If you want to find something International, I highly recommend that you use the World Radio search option; it has a drop down list of countries for you to choose from. Just select the country you want and click go and you'll be whisked away to that listing.
 
http://www.radio-locator.com/
 

 

=== Stanley Steamers
 
It's hard to know where to begin with this site. Here you can find excellent pictures of Steam Cars. If you click the photo you either get an enlarged picture, or a page full of information about the car and what was taking place in the picture. Like the third photo from 2004 talks all about Thomas Edison. What incredible pictures! At the top of the page there are three buttons, Vintage Photos, Mystery Photos and "Chuff, Chuff, Chuff".
 
Vintage Photos — takes you to a page full of photos that are from when these cars were actually made and the main way of transportation.
 
Mystery Photos — an interesting lot of photos that ask a lot of questions. Quite a few diagrams, and perhaps design drawings.
 
Chuff, chuff, chuff — is a media file that you can download, to hear what the engine sounded like. It does make a chuff, chuff, chuff sound.
 
If you scroll down past the photos, you can browse other parts of the site like the Alma Engine page filled with pictures of the engine. And if you scroll further down the page you can find the “What is a Stanley Steamer?” link. Which takes you to another site, but has a lot of great definitions of what makes a Stanley Steamer, and what makes them so nifty. It even has pictures too!
 
Back to the original site of today's cool site, it is filled with gems and it just takes surfing around to find them, this is an excellent site devoted to the Stanley Steam Motor Carriages. I'd love to own one of these, and just drive it around some I think it would be fascinating! I'll be adding it to the list of cars and motorcycles I'd love to restore.
 
http://www.stanleysteamers.com/
 
 
 
=== National Puzzler’s League
 
If you love puzzles, and solving them, you are going to love this site. This site has got everything that people who love puzzles can appreciate from Solving Tools to Guides, to a Newsletter all about puzzles.
 
Guide — The Guide is where you find information on everything pertaining to this league from membership to puzzle types to reference books you can use