So much to see, so hard to find

I decided to try this little exercise, too, and I discovered that it’s actually really hard! Like so many of you, I tend to use the same sites – MyBama, Facebook, YouTube, Blogspot, Shutterfly, and a few others – over and over and over again and don’t spend a whole lot of time exploring all there is out there on the web, even though I know there’s tons of cool stuff out there just waiting to be found. So I’m really pleased with all the stuff you guys found and I have to say that I struggled with this “assignment.” So kudos to you guys!

With that said, here are some sites I particularly like.

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com

Since I’ve brought this site up in class a number of times, I’m sure it’s no surprise that it tops my list. I love this site’s general tone – intelligent, smart-ass, literate. It’s a very text-heavy site, so it would be easy for the design to be really poor, but I think they’ve done a good job in making it easy to read and use. While the recaps can be long, I like the fact that they are broken up into fairly small textual segments (makes me think hypertext) because reading on a computer can be hard for most people, myself included. The forum design is clean and easy to navigate. I especially like the design changes that have taken place over the last couple of months as the site has been incorporated into the Bravo channel’s family. I like the pictures that are now up and I like that they didn’t totally throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, and have kept a number of the distinctive pre-Bravo design elements.

http://www.okaydave.com

This site makes me feel so bad about my own website. I’ve been looking at this site a lot as inspiration and trying to emulate some of what I see here, but it’s not working the way I’d like. I love this site and really love looking at Dave Werner’s work. This is what an online portfolio should be – a very intimate, very up-close look at his work. Very polished and professional. I’m so jealous I could spit every time I look at this site! But, in truth, it actually motivates me to do better in terms of my own web design.

http://www.levitated.net/daily/levTremaFieldWhite.html

I learned how to use Flash (though I would still consider myself a novice) in 2004. It’s very cool and it’s really not that hard to use once you get the hang of it. However, it’s very time-consuming to make even a short, simple piece. So it’s kind of nice to look at some of the little pieces here and realize that you don’t have to make something really big. Some of the littlest Flash pieces pack a big punch.

http://www.whedonesque.com

While this site is not much in terms of design, it does what it is designed to do and I like that it is a collaborative site that members add information to. The goal is to provide a central hub for news and information on the Whedonverses (the “universes” created by the television writer Joss Whedon, creator of the legendary Buffy the Vampire Slayer). The coolest thing about this site is that Whedon himself posts periodically and he’s very passionate and eloquent when posting about his work and his core concerns, particularly women’s rights issues. I love a man who’s such an unapologetic feminist!

http://www.vh1.com/
I decided to check out Vh1’s website because I haven’t been there recently and I wanted to see what it was looking like these days. I love a lot of stuff on Vh1 – lots of trashtastic pleasures like Rock of Love and Best Week Ever and I Love the…(whichever decade, part whatever)! Plus, my best friend is an executive at Vh1 and we talk a good deal about her work and she’s always sending me the latest update about new shows and specials to check out. I was pleased with a lot of things I saw on this website in terms of design. While there’s a lot on this page, surprisingly, it doesn’t feel overly cluttered and I think that is because it’s got a coherent and cohesive look in terms of colors and design motifs/themes.

5 interesting web pages that aren't the usual social networking fare? I'll try not to be unfair and use slashdot or bash.org, since I've already used both in this class as examples.

1. xkcd This is by far the best webcomic online. I'm not even going to justify it. Read it, fear the velociraptors, and pay attention to the xkcd warning.
"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

2. STEAL THIS FILM I just think the site design is cool. Enough said, next.

3. Pandora: the Music Genome Project Pandora is internet radio, but better. Their experts judge music by thousands of criteria. All you do is tell them what music you like. They provide similar music, which you've probably never heard of. It is good. Enjoy.

4 Google Ok. I didn't want to do this. But I'm afraid I have to. I'm including Google because I feel it's been left out of our discussion. Everyone's favorite search engine is the most powerful force in "Web 2.0." By the way, Web 2.0 doesn't exist. It's just AJAX, or, more specifically, one line of code that allows the user to change content on the page they're loading without refreshing the page. It isn't a big deal. But Google IS a big deal. While my high school economics teacher and Steve Ballmer(watch for flying chairs!) may claim that Google is just a bunch of fluff, that's bull and we all know it. Google really is defining the way we think about the internet. They have the best search engine ever. Their corporate philosophy is "Do no evil." They provided us with goodies like Google Earth. They bought YouTube. Their corporate headquarters offer free gourmet meals, along with 10% of your time being devoted to your own projects. Google is by far the coolest company on earth, and they're doing what it takes to stay on top. I mean, look at Google Labs sometime. It's pretty incredible, no?

Some may accuse them of being evil, or of knowing more about the average Joe than the CIA, FBI, and Joe's wife combined, but Google hasn't brainwashed us all yet. Or have they?

5. StumbleUpon A word to the wise: if you start Stumbling, you will never do homework or go to class again. What is StumbleUpon? I'm cheating, as it's not really a webpage. StumbleUpon is a toolbar that you can install into your Firefox or, god forbid, Internet Explorer browser. You click the Stumble icon, and StumbleUpon takes you to a random page. Except it isn't really random, it's based on your interests and previous ratings of sites. Bored with facebook, myspace, and all that? Just Stumble, and you could be reading a life-changing article, or maybe witnessing an amazing flash animation. I found the end of the internet while stumbling, along with instructions on writing, and an explanation on imagining the tenth dimension. But I'm also posting this about 37 hours late. I blame StumbleUpon.

5 Interesting Sites

Postsecret.com is a great website for anyone that is bored or finds humor in little things. Postsecret.com is a community where people send in secrets they have anonymously to a website, and then those secrets are posted online accompanied by some sort of image which really makes the secrets come to life. Most of the secrets are for comedy, but some are serious. It’s very interesting so check it out!
ABC.com is a site I go to at least once a week. All of my favorite shows are on ABC so I always check out the web to see what happened in Desperate Housewives or Brothers & Sisters if I missed an episode. I can watch entire episodes without commercials on this site and that is a plus in my book. Also, the layout is not too symmetrical and not too crazy either. It is pleasing to navigate around.
Addictinggames.com always finds me somehow whenever I am bored to death or want to practice my online beach volleyball skills. This site has hundreds of games and will keep you busy for hours. The layout of the site is not too exciting as it simply lists games and provides a thumbnail graphic for each game, but the site isn’t supposed to grab your attention. It is supposed to hook you up to never-ending Internet games.
Bored.com is a great source for interesting sites. This place will hook you up to instant fascination if you end up being bored enough to go to Bored.com
Yahooligans.com is a blast and will make you an instant comedian. You will be the hit of every party, and your friends will think of you in a whole new light. An example of the quality of this site is this joke- “Why should you never take a shower with pokemon? Because he might pikachu!” If this isn’t pure comedic genius I don’t know what is. So what are you waiting for? Go to Yahooligans.com now!

Top Five

1. deviantART - This website is one I've mentioned before. The main page displays recent contributions ('deviations' as they are called on the site), the most popular deviations, and prints for sale (options for prints include: canvas prints, photo prints, mouse pads, coffee mugs, coasters, postcards, refrigerator magnets, jigsaw puzzles, and calendars). I encourage you to take a look at it when you have a spare minute or when you're just trying to avoid doing homework.

2. IMDB - This is a great place to look up information about box office hits, upcoming movies (through the year 2010), classic films, your favorite actors and characters, and films-in-progress. You can also watch trailers and clips. However, this site is not exclusive to the film industry; you can also find pages dedicated to your favorite tv shows and actors, and even some philosophers, authors, poets, et cetera.

3. Brainy Quotes - This site is an endless source of insight in the form of thousands of quotes from authors, poets, comedians, actors, artists, philosophers, religious figures, scientists, athletes, professionals, and musicians. You can browse through the plethora of quotations by the first letter of the author's surname, the subject of the quote, or the author's occupation or livelihood. At the bottom of the main page there is a list of the most visited authors among whom are: Aristotle, C. S. Lewis, Nietzsche, JFK, Emerson, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, Einstein, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Shakespeare, Martin Luther King Jr., Lord Byron, Virgil, and Mohandas Gandhi. One can also find the quote of the day on the home page. Today's is "Faith is spiritualized imagination." - Henry Ward Beecher. The site is not very aesthetically exciting, but it is easy to navigate through and it is a good source of information and entertainment.

4. Reference.com - Exactly what it sounds like. Users can browse through entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses. Most of the entries come from the Random House Dictionary or The American Heritage Dictionary. Great for when you're doing a research paper and you're looking for a synonym for a certain word. Very easy to use.

5. TIME - A good news website that is easy to navigate and provides information about the latest news in politics, religion, health, science, business, technology, and entertainment. The site also provides an opinions page that displays the opinions ordinarily seen in the magazine. It also features a page dedicated to blogs authored by TIME magazine employees, and multiple pages for TIME's famous lists (e.g. People of the Year, Pictures of the Year, Best Websites, Cartoons of the Week, Crimes of the Century, etc.)

Alright, so this assignment didn't really sound all that exciting, but I had fun hunting down this cool looking websites. Most of them I log onto regularly anyway, but I had to do a little bit of searching. Anywho, here they are....(in no partiuclar order)

1. http://www.inrainbows.com/ Aside from being set up by the single best, modern, British rock-band, the website is pretty ballin. The color scheme is the first thing that someone would probably notice, as it is pretty far out. When you think about it, the rainbow design is pretty much a nescessity beacuse of the album name (In Rainbows). Anyway, the website is very minimal; very little text and very few links. I love it.
(P.S. Buy the ablum)

2. http://www.fordvehicles.com/ Yeah, its a motor company website. But its so cool! The site utilizes a lot of flash and java stuff. The colors are pretty normal, but they way that they're put together gives off a pretty welcoming vibe. I like how the focus of the webpage is aligned to the left side, while the right side is blank. (P.S. Fords are better than Chevys)

3. http://www.bungie.net/ Bungie is a video game company and their website focuses mainly on their greatest accomplishment....the Halo game series. The site is pretty interesting with the blue grid background. The main column of links and stuff is centered in the middle, which is not as cool as if it were aligned left or right, but it makes everything pretty symetrical. But the site really gets cool when you get into account profiles. Check out mine: http://www.bungie.net/Account/Profile.aspx I really like all the pictures. (P.S. Halo pwns)

4. http://www.apple.com/ Okay so Apple computers are complete macs (hahaha). Apple is always find new and creative looks for their products and their website is no different. The colors are pretty subtle and stick to the company's theme or whatever. The site is cluttered with links and info and text; the main page mainly contains advertisements and a few links. The bar across the top offers easy navigation and looks cool. (P.S. Windows Vista blows)

5. http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/ I think someone probably already linked this website, but its no wonder why; the site pretty much rules. The main page always has an awesome picture from its gallery on the main page, which contains a short introduction. The black background combined with the white text makes everything pretty easy to read. (P.S. Download some awesome wallpapers)

Five Cool Sites

I am on the internet a lot, but it is usually one of three sites: Facebook, MySpace, or MyBama. There are a few other sites, however, I sometimes like to visit.

• First, there is www.google.com. I use google to help find just about everything. Just yesterday I "googled" articles for a research project I am doing, and later, places to eat. The design is simple. It is pretty much just a white background with some colorful letters spelling out "Google". It is very easy to use: just type in whatever you are looking for, and in seconds, you have pages of results.

• Another site I really like is www.addictinggames.com. I visit this site a lot when I am bored, or, as with most of my time spent online, if I am procrastinating. All of the games are free, and as the name implies, very addicting. There are multiple categories to choose from, my favorite being the strategy games.

• Since our last blog assignment, I have been going to www.bash.org. It is a very entertaining site. Once again, I mainly visit this site when I am putting off working on a project or homework assignment.

• Another fun site is www.blogthings.com. As I wrote in my last post, it is an online quizz site. For the most part, it is just a fun way to waste time. My favorite ones are the silly "What kind..." quizes. For example, "What kind of breakfast food are you?"

• My last one is www.bored.com. Another procrastination site, this page has links to all sorts of games, quizzes, jokes, pranks, and music. I recently checked out the "Dumb" category and found some pretty funny dumb laws. For example, in Alabama it is illegal to have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time. Hhmm... who knew?

Websites

Five websites I use besides MySpace, YouTube, and Wikipedia:

Yahoo! - I use yahoo for my personal, non-school related email. I also use it as my primary search engine, to check out new movies, check the weather, and look up driving directions. Yahoo has just about everything I need.

Clipaday- clipaday.com is another video website I like to use besides YouTube. It mostly offers humorous or extreme videos. It doesn’t have near the amount of videos that YouTube does, but it has some good ones that YouTube doesn’t.

eBay- I am a bargain shopper, so I love to look for things on eBay. I have saved so much money by buying things off of eBay.

DCI- dci.org is the homepage of Drum Corps International. I am a huge drum corps fan, so I use this website frequently to try and stay up to date with my favorite corps. The website is very well-designed and useful. It has links to direct you to all the Corps homepages, as well as videos, pictures, and news updates.

911Tabs- 911tabs.com is like the Yahoo of guitar tabs. I just type in a particular band or song and it will search for all the existing tabs for that band or song. It even gives you the ratings that the tabs received to help you choose which one you would like to try. It is very user-friendly and well-designed.