Virtually there - September 09 |
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The question I am most frequently asked is this: how do you find something to write about every month? Sometimes I have a theme, sometimes I am just browsing at random, but the funny thing is, the “finding” is simple. The hard part is to stop surfing long enough to choose a selection and actually write something down.
There is no denying that the internet is the greatest time-waster known to humankind. Be honest – how much productivity have you squandered checking online auctions, updating social networking pages and reading joke emails and forwarding them on? Let’s draw a veil over that unpleasant thought and, with no further ado, here is this month’s crop of time-sucking sites to try in your tea break. Some are useful, some are amusing, some are interesting. I hope you enjoy them.
Do you ever find that someone has sent you a file (video, music, document) and you can’t open it because it’s in the wrong format? Just upload the file to Zamzar and it will convert it to the format of your choice for free.
Do you hanker to speak Spanish? Mi Vida Loca is a 22-episode interactive drama from the BBC that is one of the most imaginative educational applications I have seen on the internet.
Do you need to send a ransom note? The perfect ransom note writer right here. (Disclaimer: mention of this site is in no way an endorsement of kidnapping, blackmail or demanding money with menaces.)
Have you heard of BookCrossing.com? It is an international book-sharing movement that my daughter stumbled upon when she found a book at a bus stop. The idea is that members register books and then release them into the wild. When one is caught, the captor inputs the code number on the site, reads the book and then re-releases it. There is a list of currently released books and where to find them, so you can go hunting too. The feel is “book-group-meets-random-acts-of-kindness”. I love this idea, but clearly some towns need more releases to hit critical mass. Grab a book you think someone will love and join up.
If you are short of something to read right now, however, let me recommend ReadPrint.com. ReadPrint is a free online library of thousands of what might be termed classic reads: Jane Austen, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde – you get the idea. And it’s not only pointy-headed tomes either: Agatha Christie, PG Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle are all here. There are plenty of period children’s favourites too, such as Anne of Green Gables, The Wizard of Oz, The Secret Garden and Alice in Wonderland. And, if you’re short of time as well as reading matter, dip into onesentence.org where people post their true stories, told in one sentence: “The first thing I noticed after my dog died was how much food was accumulating on the kitchen floor.” “I made it all the way to Iroquois County before I finally burst into tears.” Poignant.
As a final flurry of time-wasting and if genealogy is your thing but you really can’t be bothered to find out who’s who, MyHeritage.com is a great collaborative solution. It lets all the members of your extended family work on the same family tree online, with each person putting in what they know.
I also really enjoy Ikea’s ingenious interactive advertisements for storage solutions, especially the bit that turns your keyboard into a drum machine.
If you can’t think of what to cook for dinner, Tastespotting.com is a repository of beautifully photographed recipes and stilltasty.com (the ultimate shelf-life guide) will tell you how long you can keep the leftovers.
Last, there are 1000 Awesome Things to consider at 1000AwesomeThings.com. My personal favourite is #738: when you go out for lunch and come back to a way better parking spot. A metaphor for life really.
Story: Kim Rutter
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