Delicious

I wouldn’t consider myself to be an expert online, but I do tend to keep up pretty well with the constant state of flux that is the Internet. One website I hear name dropped quite frequently is Delicious.com so I finally decided to check it out and was thoroughly confused, angry, and disappointed.

I know the above picture is cropped a bit, but if you right-click and “view image” you can see the rest of it. These are the results when I clicked on the “Music” tag on the site. I got four results. From every website on the Internet? Four results? It’s not like a searched for “Modern Techniques To Alter The Subconsciousness Of Your Household Pet.” It’s music.

Bash.org

I found out about Bash.org while getting very deep into Encyclopedia Dramatica articles recently. Basically, Bash is a collection of quotes from IRC chat rooms, most of which are actually pretty funny. It wasn’t too long however before it became obvious that most of the quotes were probably not real, and many had kind of a “Grandpa Joke” kind of feel to them. Nonetheless, I think it’s still worth recommending for a quick laugh or two.

Just Hear It

Just Hear It is a site that strips down YouTube to it’s most basic functions so you can listen to the content a little easier. I really like sleekness of the site and the general color scheme they use. You can also drag songs from the list to add to a custom playlist.

Although Just Hear It is an interesting and useful site, there are some strange things about it. One of the things I find a bit odd about it is that it still plays the video for the songs you choose. My initial thought was that part of what made Just Hear It unique is the fact that you just…hear…it. There also seems to be some issues with site load-up on occasion.

Just Hear It is also still in a private beta form, but most of the basic functionality is still there. Once again, the link to the site is here.

43 Folders

43 Folders is a great blog about creative productivity by Merlin Mann. The site offers videos and podcasts of his talks, thoughts from others on the creative process, and various other tips on how to make the most out of your time. Although the site seems to be centered around creative writing, Mann’s advice can easily be applied to other areas of creativity.

The first time I visited the site I didn’t really get it because it’s pretty bare bones in terms of layout. As a regular reader of many blogs with tons of eye candy, the no frills style kind of threw me for a loop. However, after returning to the site a month or so later, I discovered there is a wealth of content on the site. I’ve noticed that sometimes there is a lot of time between posts, but I can only assume that it’s a result of Mann wanting to post only worthwhile content to the site instead of fluff.

One of the main things I noticed about the site is that each post is actually full of advice, useful content, and helpful links. This may sound run of the mill at first, but take a second to think about the blogs that you frequent. How many posts have you just skipped past or been disappointed in? For me it’s quite a few. The blog I visit the most, WoW.com, is full of these kind of posts, yet I never realized it until I visited 43 Folders.

Nothing can really explain Mann’s feelings about these kind of blogs like one of his recent Twitter posts which reads as follows: After the jump: enough horseshit to hit word count, 30 self-links, plus 200 comments from lonely men who barely skimmed the lede. MORE »

As a first time visitor to 43 Folders, you should go to the section called “How Do I Use 43 Folders” and it will give you a good idea as to what the site is like. Whether you’re in the mood to read some in depth articles or just need some quick advice to boost your creativity, 43 Folders is just the site you need.

Tone Matrix

Tone Matrix is a 16-step sequencer that generates a tone for each white block on the grid. It’s essentially one repeating measure of a 4/4 beat divided into 16 parts. In plain English, it’s an awesome and easy to use site that will have you entertained for quite some time. The tones sound very soothing so it takes awhile for them to get old, even when the measure repeats quickly.

When I first visited the site, I spent a couple minutes to organize the tones into a cool sequence and it worked great. The second time I just rolled the mouse over the blocks clicking randomly and it was equally as awesome. My only criticism is that it needs a reset button. However, you can solve this by hitting refresh on your browser. It would also be nice to be able to export the sequences into .wav or .mp3 files or make longer sequences. But even taking that into consideration, I still think this is a phenomenal site.

Ball Droppings

Ball Droppings is a Chrome Experiment website where you manipulate small balls as they fall from a hole by drawing straight lines to alter their path. Each time the ball hits a line it creates a tone. Although it’s not really musical, you can get some pretty cool sounds of it. You can also reset the screen and adjust for gravity and drop rate.

All told, you can probably get about 7 minutes of solid entertainment out of this site.

This Is Why You’re Fat

This Is Why You’re Fat is a photo blog which features various pictures of disgustingly unhealthy food from all over America. What makes this site great is it’s simplicity. It’s pretty much just pictures of food so horrible that it’ll have you running to eat a piece of fruit no matter how many fatties you have to tackle along the way.

My only criticism of this site is that, in my version of Firefox at least, all of the pictures are on the far left of the site. The abundance of left over space on the right makes navigating the site a bit awkward, but it’s no reason not to check out the site. The site appears to have been around since February of this year so there’s a ton of content to see. I’ll leave you with one more picture of the Monster Fries from In-N-Out.

NJ Guido.com

NJGuido is a brilliantly poorly crafted site run by Anthony Moussa, or “Moo,” a self-proclaimed guido who as you could guess is from New Jersey. Through photos, faux-poetry (faux-etry?), and blog posts he details the many endless debaucheries of his nights spent in nightclubs and beaches around the Jersey shore. Judging by the ads, merchandise, and apparent 11,000 daily hits, the site must have struck a chord with a lot of people, but for myself and perhaps 10,999 others it’s just as much fun to laugh at them than party with them.

While the pictures tend the tell the story behind “Moo” fairly well, there is also a fantastic article about him from The Washington Post available on the NJGuido site which takes the reader through a day in the life involving booze, bimbos, and a substantial amount of hair product. Also be sure to take time to check out Moo’s forays into writing. Despite excessive spacing errors, over capitalization, and only a fundamental grasp on the English language, they can at times be captivating and possibly even inspiring.

Shaq’s Twitter

I recently came across Shaq’s twitter account after hearing about it on The Best Show On WFMU and it’s pure madness.

Here are some actual posts made by Shaq:

• Even the aliens no me, da ones real far, i speak to em like ibadablaa, Jigamagla, bockeraaa
• Just saw punisher, great bloody movie, aggggggh, dats what i , nevamind lol, aggggggh (growl) (snarl) spit

You can keep up with Shaq at http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ

NoObz!

NoObz! is an online comic strip that centers primarily around The World of Warcraft and occasionally mentions other notable RPGs such as Conan and Lord of the Rings. I’ve seen several other online comic strips that deal with the same subject matter, but NoObz! exceeds by far in terms of both quality of humor and general tone. The comic’s biggest strength however is it’s simplicity. I’m by no means a comic connoisseur but I realized almost immediately that NoObz! has made sure that only the most essential dialog is written allowing for a quick and entertaining read that gets straight to the punchline without too much fuss.

Being a huge World of Warcraft fan myself, it’s a bit difficult for me to say whether or not NoObz! will be funny to those outside of the RPG scene. On the other side of the coin however, the jokes get to the heart of what it means to love WOW and the trials and tribulations that come along with it.

NoObz! can be found here.